Knickers

Chapter 2: Date Night



"This just won't do," Ginny thought as she stood in front of her full-length mirror, taking in the black cocktail dress she was currently wearing. She had a date with Colin, her boyfriend of two years in less than ten minutes and she wasn't ready. Ginny gulped. From the hints Colin had been dropping recently, she was pretty sure that he was going to propose tonight. But what did one wear to such an occasion?



This was the least of her problems. Quidditch season started in a month and that meant that her vacation time was already a thing of the past. Indeed, she had spent the day at practice with her new team, the Holyhead Harpies. It also meant that the time she had left to spend with Harry, the man she loved but could not have, would literally evaporate as he started to travel with the Cannons and as she did the same with the Harpies. This of course, led to more uncomfortable situations to think about, like the first time she would have to face him and the Cannons in an actual game situation and, dare she jinx herself and the team, perhaps at the National Cup.



She sighed as she took a green silk dress out of the closet and laid it gently on the bed, staring at it as she tried to picture herself in it and Colin, down on one knee proposing to her. Really, if he proposed, she should accept. After all, he did love her and she did love him- just not as much as she did Harry.



Her mind drifted back to the moment that she had given up on Harry completely. She had just turned twenty and had decided that she would finally come clean to Harry about her feelings. This was not to say that the Boy-Who-Lived was unaware of their existence; Harry was aware...but she was fairly certain he thought they had disappeared with her teenage years. She had gone to the Cannon's practice that day intending to purge her of the secret that everyone knew but that she had never once voiced and had left that day heartbroken.



When Ginny had arrived at the stadium, she had gone in the staff entrance that she usually used and entered the player's locker room. She knew that Harry was generally the last to leave and would very likely be alone. She had been right about his habits, but wrong about his company; Susan Bones, his current girlfriend, was with him. This alone hadn't been the match that had lit the proverbial cask. No, it had been the gentle caress of Susan's cheek by Harry's hand and the whispered words of love that she had overheard from Harry to her as she had given him what appeared to be a belated birthday gift.



And that had been that.



From that moment on, she had decided to get over Harry. He had apparently moved on, and so would she. She had backed quietly out of the locker rooms and vowed to herself that she would accept the next proposition she was offered and had gone out with Hermione to some Wizarding nightclubs. Colin, the friend she hadn't seen since Hogwarts had been there, asked her to dance and by the end of the evening, he had asked her out.



Shaking her head at the painful memories, she took off the black dress she was wearing, picked the one on the bed up and put it on. There, she thought, looking at the image she made in the mirror. Perfect. Suddenly her brother's voice cut into her perusal of herself, calling for his best friend as he walked down the hallway towards the bedroom that Harry used when he was at the Burrow. "Harry, are you still going out with Katie tonight?"



Ginny grimaced as a wave of jealousy passed over her body. Harry had been 'seeing' Katie Bell for a little over a year now and, while not serious, it was still a major part of his life and definitely one that Ginny was envious of Katie for. What she wouldn't give to be with him.



Ginevra Weasley was anything but pathetic though, and she wasn't about to break up a long-standing relationship just because she happened to have feelings for one of the people involved. For that matter, it wasn't as if she wasn't in a relationship herself. Colin was good to her, so good in fact, that if he proposed tonight she was 95% certain that she would accept.



She looked at herself in the mirror again and adjusted the dress, smoothing out the rough spots where the fabric bunched around her panty line. That was the problem with wearing underwear under silk; it always made the dress crinkle in awkward places. With another sigh, Ginny resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn't be wearing underwear tonight if she wanted to wear this dress. And she DID want to wear this dress. It was perfect for getting proposed to in. Gritting her teeth at the brazenness of her action, she lifted her dress and removed her knickers.



The mirror whistled at her. "Thinking of getting lucky tonight, dearie?"



"No," Ginny protested, jumping a bit as the mirror startled her. "I'm just….making the dress look better."



The mirror laughed as if she had said something hilariously funny. "And I'm made of aluminium foil honey. Next you'll be telling me that you didn't shave your legs before you got dressed."



Ginny gaped at the mirror, appalled that the mirror seemed to know so much of her routine simply from its position in the corner of her room. "I can break you, you know…" she growled threateningly, shaking her finger warningly.



"But you won't, will you?" The mirror drawled, "Seven years bad luck and all that rot. Besides, you look good enough to eat and I'm sure without those knickers, someone will. Good idea by the way."



Ginny blushed deeply, her patience and modesty finally reaching its limits at this last crude comment by the inanimate object. Tomorrow, she would get a mirror that didn't talk, and then maybe she could dress in peace. With a sigh of humiliation, she tossed the controversial knickers into the laundry hamper before picking up her handbag from her dresser. If the mirrors comments were any indication, it was going to be an interesting night.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



It had been a long week, Harry thought as he hauled his dirty Quidditch robes off of his body and threw them onto the floor. He decided that he didn't have the energy to pick them up, he was so sick at heart. It was Friday night of what had been perhaps the worst week of his life. On Monday, he had started Quidditch practice with the Cannons for the year, risking his life due to the hundreds of women who swarmed the exit of the stadium as he tried to leave. On Tuesday, he had been knocked off his broom by a rogue Bludger and had been rushed to St. Mungo's after being subjected to the resulting 50-foot drop. On Wednesday he had been released from the hospital and on Thursday, he had been asked by Colin Creevey-who was now a photojournalist for the Daily Prophet and therefore one of Harry's only links to good news stories about himself-to help him pick out an engagement ring for Ginny. Harry, being the nice guy that he was (masochistic more like, Hermione had always said), had agreed. And now, on Friday, he knew that he would be losing all possibilities of being anything more than a friend to Ginny. Having got a ring, Colin was proposing tonight and, knowing that Ginny cared deeply for her boyfriend of two years and would accept, Harry had given up all hope. That was why, he thought as he walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, he was going to see Katie.



He and Katie Bell were both on the Chudley Cannons and had been seeing each other for a year now. It wasn't because they had any deep affection for each other. No, it was really more for the mutual satisfying of needs and a shoulder on which to cry on when they needed it. Sometimes they would talk, other times they would have sex; it mostly depended on what had been happening in each of their lives. Katie had had a thing for Oliver Wood, their coach, for years now but he was currently dating Fleur Delacour. Harry knew Fleur would never be faithful to Wood; he'd seen her have affairs with both Bill and Charlie Weasley in the last 3 months alone.



Harry pondered their relationship as he applied shampoo to his dirty hair. Tonight, there would definitely be talk with Katie, maybe sex but probably just talk. He was too depressed to do more than that. She would probably ply him with alcohol, as either always did when the other had suffered a set back in any progress towards his or hers hopes and dreams. With another sigh, Harry continued to scrub his hair before rinsing and reaching for the soap. Katie too had suffered a setback with Oliver recently.



Wood had confided in her as his best friend that he was thinking of asking Fleur to move in with him. Katie reckoned that the next step after that was marriage. For Katie, that night had been one that she had decided to accost Harry as soon as he had arrived at her flat. They had had rough sex on her kitchen table before she had finally broken down into the tears she had been holding in since she'd found out earlier that day. Harry had simply held her and taken her to bed, continuing to hold her as she fell asleep.



Harry finished his shower, stepped out and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around his waist and walking into his room. He almost dropped the towel when he noticed his best friend sitting on his bed, waiting for him.



"Merlin Ron," Harry gasped, going to his closet and selecting a dark green polo shirt and a pair of tan khakis before turning back to his friend. "You scared me half to death."



Ron was silent for a moment before he launched directly into the reason he was visiting so close to the time Harry was set to leave for Katie's flat. "It doesn’t have to be this way, mate."



Harry sighed, taking a pair of boxers and socks out of the top drawer of the armoire that stood next to the closet. "You know it has to be."



"No, I don't," Ron said wearily. "She has feelings for you."



"Ones that she got over years ago," Harry said firmly in reply. "Now would you mind, mate? I have a date to get ready for…"



Ron snorted. "The great Harry Potter's afraid to change in front of the best friend he shared a dorm and a locker room with for seven years? 'Sexiest Man Alive' or not, it's not like I haven't seen it before." He ducked his head, examining an invisible freckle on his hand before looking up with a twinkle in his eye. "Besides, I'm not finished yet."



"Finished with what?" Harry murmured, deciding that if Ron wasn't going to leave that he would just change anyway. With a furrowed brow, he turned and dropped the towel, putting his boxers on quickly before reaching for his khakis and pulling then on.



"What I came in to tell you."



"And just what did you come in to tell me, Ron?" Harry demanded, quickly losing patience with his best friend especially on this night, one which he knew was going to be depressing enough without Ron trying to fabricate lies about the feelings Ginny apparently still had for him.



"She's in love with you, Harry," he said, a smirk on his face which would rival Malfoy's.



"No, she's not," Harry shook his head, picking up the polo from the bed where he had dropped it to slip it over his head.



"Yes, she is; she told me today," Ron said more firmly.



Harry froze. Ginny had told him she was in love with him?! This could change everything…



"She told you?" Harry said slowly, not being able to believe his ears.



"Um-hm," Ron continued, stretching out on Harry's bed. "Came right into my office at work and told me. She also asked me to give you this." He reached into his pocket and got out a slip of paper, handing it to Harry whom had sat down on the bed to put on his socks.



Harry slowly examined the piece of paper. It had a Muggle telephone number on it…his brow furrowed in confusion before softening in understanding. Ginny didn't have a Muggle phone to need a number for. Ron must be talking about someone else. "Whom are we talking about again?"



"Parvati Patil, Harry," Ron sat up. "Who'd you think I was talking about?"



"No one," Harry muttered, his cheeks turning a soft shade of pink.



Ron was apparently in the right mood to accept this answer because he shook his head, not willing to pick information from an unwilling brain tonight -not when he didn't have to.



"Alright, mate, but remember," Ron said, as he stood up and shook the wrinkles that had formed in his trousers from sitting on the bed. "You and Katie aren't even exclusive, you just…"



"Fuck?" Harry finished bluntly for his best friend.



Ron nodded. "It's not healthy, mate. You haven't had a real relationship in years, not since your brief stint with Susan Bones." Ron paused, a sneaking suspicion coming into his head that he had just missed something. "It's almost as if…"



"As if what?" Harry sighed, desperately wanting Ron to leave so that he could fix his hair in peace.



"As if you were waiting for someone else," Ron finished, in shock. That was it; he could feel it. It had to be, because that would explain so much. From the look on Harry's face though, it didn't look like he'd be finding out who it was anytime soon. Indeed, Harry didn't talk to anyone about his love life. Ron had only found out about Katie when he had found them one night making out at the Leaky Cauldron. Even this had struck Ron as suspicious; Harry had never been known for any public displays of any kind unless he was feeling extremely emotional. Ron doubted that horny counted as emotional in this case. Whatever had prompted Harry to take up with Katie Bell had to be big to prompt such outward displays from such an introverted man. "Who is she, Harry?"



Harry was silent for a moment before answering wearily, "No one, Ron." He looked at his watch pointedly. It was 5 minutes after 8 and Ginny had left on her date already. As it was, he was now 5 minutes late for his rendezvous with Katie. "Look, I need to get going; Katie's waiting for me…"



"Sure, Harry," Ron said, sensing that what he believed about Harry waiting for someone in particular had probably been right. He needed to talk to Hermione about this before he went any farther with the interrogation. With a sigh, he began to walk out the door, stopping for one last word with his best friend. "Whoever she is, mate, she's not worth the pain she's putting you through." And with that, he left, never hearing Harry's last words as Harry snorted lightly, laughing bitterly and quietly.



"Would you still be saying that if you knew she was your sister?"