Knickers

Chapter 7: The Games We Play

Harry Potter hadn’t been this nervous since his first Quidditch game at Hogwarts. Today’s game wasn’t a huge deal; it wasn’t as if it were a semi-final or anything equally important to the standing of the team. No, the game was important because of the players in it. Harry had to face it; he had never before played a game with the woman to whom he was engaged, against the woman to whom he wanted to be engaged.

And so, Harry sat in the locker room with his fellow players, Katie sitting close to him and Oliver giving them their normal pep talk, and breathed a deep sigh of apprehension. Here goes nothing.

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“Are you as scared as I am?” Ron asked his wife as they sat in the stands at the Cannons' field, waiting for the game to start.

Hermione nodded. “More. This is going to rip the Burrow apart.”

Ron nodded his head in agreement, deciding to change the subject before they started speculating yet again on how exactly the Burrow was going to suffer, no matter who won the game. Judging by the near argument in the kitchen the other day, this game had a lot weighing on it – more than either he or Hermione could fathom, as they would soon find out. He was broken from these thoughts as the players were announced and they flew onto the field: "Let the game begin."

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Katie hadn’t played such a competitive game in quite awhile; the Harpies gave the Cannons a run for their money from the very first moment the referee had released the balls. The score was tied, 240-240, leaving it to the Seekers to finish the game. Even this seemed to be a problem, as the Snitch seemed to be moving faster today, choosing to show itself for only brief periods – just long enough to attract the attention of the Seekers – only to disappear again. They had been playing for close to five hours, so far, and no end seemed to be in sight.

So Katie continued to play the game she loved most in the world, catching the Quaffle from her fellow Chasers and making for the Harpies' goal. Ginny, it appeared, had other ideas, constantly following her and blocking her from going to the goalpost. This wouldn’t have been a problem, ordinarily; after all, Ginny was on the opposing team, and it was her job to do this. The problem lay in the Bludger that was coming straight for Ginny.

“Ginny, look out!” Katie yelled, her voice lost in the cheers from the crowd as she neared the goalpost. Despite the fact that she was on the other team, she didn’t want to see anyone seriously injured, least of all Ginny, who, if Katie had her way, would one day be her fiancée’s wife.

Ginny looked over her shoulder and, instead of moving upward to successfully avoid the Bludger and put both Katie and herself out of danger, she flew forward, only succeeding in jolting Katie as she moved out of the way of the Bludger. Katie lost her balance at this point, turning an accusatory look on Ginny. She regretted having warned her, considering how high they were in the air, as she fell off her broom and began the 50-foot descent to the ground.

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Harry watched in horror from the other side of the field as his fiancée fell off her broom, knowing, even with his new state of the art Thunderbolt, that there was no way he could make it in time. The only way he could help Katie and his team now would be to end the game quickly. With newfound determination, he scanned the field for the Snitch as the crowd screamed at Katie’s quick descent to the ground. Harry cringed as he heard the thump of Katie’s body hitting the sand around the goalpost and, from the corner of his eye, finally spotted the Snitch.

It was strange how quickly he could catch the Snitch when something bigger was at stake. Almost anticlimactically, he zoomed forward on his broom and caught the Snitch in mid-dive. With a grim look on his face at the scene he knew he was going to find, he continued to fly to the other end of the field, where he came to rest next to the still body of his fiancée. She was surrounded by mediwitches and mediwizards , who were allowed onto the field but were unable to force play to stop when someone got injured. They looked up at Harry as he landed, the referee shouting from above them that Harry wasn’t allowed off the field until the Snitch had been caught.

“Here,” he spat out anxiously, showing the referee the still fluttering Snitch in his hand. Without further adieu, the ref blew his whistle and the game ended.

“Katie,” he said softly. He worried as he knelt on the ground next to the woman he had been sharing a bed with off and on for the past year and took her hand.

A soft moan escaped Katie, “Harry?”

“I’m here,” he replied, squeezing her hand a little bit. He was, if he were to admit it to himself, more than a little bit worried. She was conscious, but that didn’t mean that she hadn’t acquired internal bleeding from the fall or something equally as bad. He had been injured enough times himself to be aware of the injuries that could result from a 50-foot drop.

“Good,” she groaned, trying to get up and wincing in pain as her body protested most adamantly. “What happened?”

“Shh, don’t try to get up,” Harry murmured, touching her torso gently to get her to lie back down. “You fell off your broom.”

She chuckled softly, crying out as her laughter jostled her body the wrong way. and pain shot through her ribcage. “Well, I’ve never done that before. You have, though, Harry; is it supposed to hurt this much?”

Harry nodded, letting a laugh of his own escape. “Be thankful; it means you’re alive, and yeah, it’s supposed to.”

“Especially when you break a leg, two ribs, and an arm,” the mediwitch working on Katie said crisply, reaching for Katie’s good arm and shoving the sleeve of her Quidditch robe up. “And you have a concussion.” She swiftly (and unexpectedly, judging from the cry of shock from Katie) injected Katie with the needle that the mediwizard hovering nearby had given her, before turning her attention to Harry. “Make sure she doesn’t fall asleep now, won’t you, dear?”

Harry nodded in acknowledgement, shooting Katie a grin as she looked down at the offending arm that had just received the surprise injection. “Now, how shall I do that? Any input, Katie?”

Katie laughed out loud this time; the tranquilizer that the mediwitch had given her was already kicking in and causing the pain to recede a bit. “Nothing that can happen with all these people here.”

The mediwitch working on her smiled. “So, it’s true then, what I read in the Daily Prophet? You two are getting married?”

“Yeah,” Katie chose to answer, chuckling even more at the lie she was about to perpetuate further, unaware that Oliver had just come over and was standing behind the mediwitch. “I’m taking on the Boy-Who-Lived… for better or for worse.”

Oliver smiled sadly, catching Harry’s eye, having heard this last comment and feeling his heart break a little bit.

Harry winced slightly, catching the look that Oliver clearly wore. It was good; their plan was working. It was painful for Harry to watch, when he knew that he routinely had the same look on his face whenever Ginny and Colin were around him. “Oliver,” he said in greeting, breaking into the conversation between Katie and the mediwitch .

“Harry… Katie,” he said, forcing a smile as he watched the mediwitch fuss over his best friend, whom he suddenly was regarding in a different light. It was funny what a pair of black lace knickers and an engagement to another man could do to a friendship. “What’s this I hear about an accident and my star player?”

“I think I’m insulted Oliver,” Harry joined in the fun, in an attempt to get them through the next few minutes guilt-free. After all, just because he had concocted this plan didn’t mean that he couldn’t feel bad about its implementation. “Didn’t I just catch the Snitch for you?”

“Why, yes, Harry; yes, you did,” Oliver grinned, shoving his jealousy deep into the crevices of his heart to examine at a later time. “Good on you, by the way. We won.”

“I gathered.” Harry furrowed his brow, remembering how scared he had been for Katie when he had caught the Snitch that was still fluttering vainly in his hand. “I was a little pre-occupied at the time.”

“Understandably,” Oliver said, stealing a look at Katie who, from the looks of it, was going to be fine. Indeed, from the loopy look on her face, it appeared that the tranquilizer had just kicked in. “You going to be okay there, Katie?”

“Um-Hmm,” she murmured dreamily, her eyes closing. “I’m so tired, Harry. Can you tell me a story while I fall asleep?”

Harry smirked. Katie apparently approved of the drugs that had been given to her to ease the pain. “Darling, you’re not allowed to fall asleep. You have a concussion.”

“I do?” she murmured. “Good for me.” She looked up, the world spinning slightly. “Well, hello, there Ronald Weasley. How are you today?”

Ron, who had just forced his way onto the field to see how his best friend and fiancée were doing, raised an amused eyebrow. Apparently there wasn’t anything to worry about. “Doing all right there, you two?”

Harry nodded with a smirk on his face. “Not as good as Katie, apparently.”

“No one’s as good as me,” Katie went on. The mediwitch who had been working on her pronounced her fit for travel to St. Mungo’s and levitated her onto the stretcher. “Harry’s told me. I’m absolutely the best at everything, aren’t I, Harry?”

“Yes, you are, sweetheart,” he murmured, leaning down and placing a kiss gently on her lips, brushing a hand accidentally over Katie’s breast as he did so.

“And I’m REALLY good at that,” she continued, noticing the light touch of Harry’s hand and inadvertently coaxing a snicker from Ron and a blush from Harry as he straightened. “Ask Harry; he’ll tell you.”

“Yes, Harry,” Ron smirked, following the congregation near the stretcher to the ambulance that St. Mungo’s sent to every Quidditch match, this being no exception. “Tell us.”

Harry scowled, making a rude gesture at Ron before realizing, for the first time since the accident, that someone was missing from the field; the Harpies had all gone into the locker rooms along with the Cannons, once they saw that Katie was going to be fine. Ginny, the other person involved in the accident that had caused Katie’s fall in the first place, was nowhere to be found. “Where’s Ginny, Ron? And Hermione?”

Ron shook his head at the memory. “Ginny was pretty upset about the accident and the loss of the game. It’s their first loss this season,” he paused, having been confused as to why his sister had pretty much bolted off the field, changed, said good-bye to her team-mates, and went home.

“Well she shouldn’t be,” Harry said, reassuringly, unconcerned now. Ginny’s reaction was understandable; he could remember the first time he had missed the Snitch and therefore had lost the game. “It was just an accident; it could have happened to anyone. As for the loss, it’s only the middle of the season. Plenty of time left.”

Ron shrugged, knowing that this wouldn't completely explain his sister's reaction, but he didn't have the first clue why she would react this way. He broke from his thoughts though, as they reached the apparition point. “You should go, Mate. Katie might need you.”

Harry nodded, smiling at Ron gratefully. “Thanks, Ron. I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

“You’re not coming home tonight?” Ron furrowed his brow, confused.

Harry shook his head, unsure about the entire situation. Generally, when he went to St. Mungo’s, he was the patient. This was new territory for him… “Quite frankly, I don’t know. If Katie needs to stay in the hospital, then I’ll be there when she wakes up. If she is allowed to go home, she’ll need someone in the apartment with her.”

Ron nodded in understanding. If he had been in Harry’s place, he probably would have done the same thing, too. “See you tomorrow, then?”

Harry nodded, climbing into the Apparition zone with Katie, who was still babbling randomly, and was gone.

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Hermione found Ginny in the living room at the Burrow, having followed her home from the stadium when she left abruptly, tears streaming from her eyes and sobs racking her body. “Ginny, are you all right?”

“What have I done?” she sobbed, leaning into her sister-in-law as she sat down on the couch with her.

“Ginny, it was an accident. Katie is going to be fine. She only has a concussion and a broken leg; the Healers can fix that,” Hermione said awkwardly, unsure why Ginny was so upset.

“It’s not that,” Ginny sniffed. “I did it… on purpose.”

Hermione was confused now. “Ginny, that Bludger was going to hit you; you had to dodge out of the way.”

“But I didn’t have to go in that direction; I knew that if I went that way, I would knock Katie off her broom… and I wanted to.” She reached for a tissue.

“But why would you want to…” Hermione asked, but she was cut off by Ginny’s next words, which, unbeknownst to Hermione, would shatter all her beliefs about her relationship with Colin and ultimately, with Harry.

Great sobs wracked Ginny’s body before she was able to continue, “Because she has something I don’t.” Ginny looked with tearful eyes into Hermione’s face, willing her sister-in-law to guess what she was about to say, so that Ginny wouldn’t have to say it. Unfortunately, Hermione, ever the quick one, knew exactly what the red-head meant, her eyes widening in shock and a gasp emerging from her mouth.

“Oh, Ginny, no,” Hermione said sadly, hoping that she was wrong. “Don’t tell me that….”

“I’m in love with Harry.” The weight of having her secret off her chest was so great that more tears sprang from her eyes. “I have been for years.”

Hermione sat back, staring at Ginny in disbelief. “Are you serious? We thought you had got over him,” she paused, realizing exactly how large Ginny’s problem was.

“I thought I had,” Ginny sobbed. “But then yesterday, when I found out that he was…engaged…I just…realised that the feelings I thought had died years ago, hadn’t.” Ginny hadn't been completely honest. There was no way she was going to tell Hermione that not only had she never given up on these feelings, but she had accepted Colin's proposal knowing she was still in love with Harry.

Hermione was silent for a moment. Fortunately, she wasn't able to read Ginny’s thoughts. “This is a huge mess; you know that?” Hermione mused, unsure of what advice to give to her friend, who was engaged to a man who loved her more than life - but who was also in love with another man – who, coincidentally, was engaged himself.

“Yeah, I kind of figured that,” Ginny laughed bitterly through her tears. It WAS a mess, one that Ginny Weasley reckoned that she was now too late to fix. Harry Potter was getting married and there was nothing she could do about that beyond moving on with her life and getting married herself.

“Well what are you going to do?” Hermione asked quietly.

Ginny shrugged, her face turning toward the ceiling. She knew that Hermione was going to hate what she had to say next: “Marry Colin.”

Hermione was shocked and surprised that Ginny, ordinarily such a kind person, would choose to do something so cruel to such a nice person as Colin. “Ginny, you’re in love with another man; do you really think that’s fair to Colin?”

“Does it matter? I love Colin, just not as much as I love Harry. And besides that, Harry is engaged to Katie. It’s not as if he’s been in love with me for years the same way I have with him, and I can’t expect him to suddenly become un-engaged to Katie in order to be with me.” Ginny sighed, taking another tissue from the box on the coffee table and wiping her eyes, suddenly bereft of tears as she tightly reigned in her emotions. Enough damage had been done already tonight by Ginny admitting her feelings for Harry to Hermione. If this got out to others …Ginny could kiss her engagement with Colin good-bye.

Hermione didn’t know how to answer Ginny's matter-of-fact revelations. Her sister-in-law was right; she couldn’t just expect Harry to drop Katie in order to be with her, especially considering Harry wasn’t in love with Ginny and, as far as Hermione was aware, was more than prepared to spend the rest of his life with Katie, judging by his reaction to her fall; Hermione had never seen him catch a Snitch so quickly. Ginny was facing a complicated situation.

“Ginny, I can’t let you do this. There has to be another way…” Hermione tried yet again, unwilling to believe that this was the end of the discussion.

“But there isn’t, now, is there?” Ginny shot back, all her tears suddenly dried up. She was angry now that Hermione had forced her think about this, especially when she was feeling so bad already. “Look, Hermione, Harry and I can’t be together; it’s that simple. I may love him but he loves someone else. I just have to face that and move on. With Colin…” she paused, her voice cracking slightly. “You have to promise me that you’ll tell no one about this. Especially Harry. He can’t know nor can anyone else. Understand?”

Hermione hesitated, not wanting to make promises to Ginny when she knew that this news might very well mean something to someone, especially Colin, who Hermione already felt sorry for. No one would want to be known as a consolation prize, and for Ginny, that was exactly what he was: a poor man’s Harry Potter.

“Promise me!” Ginny said more insistently. “Don’t make me have to Obliviate you, Hermione!”

“I promise,” Hermione said, one hand behind her back, fingers crossed. Surely it would be all right to tell Ron, now, wouldn't it?

“Okay, good,” Ginny said, a little unsure of herself, as she stood up. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

“Where are you going?” Hermione looked confused.

Ginny shrugged, gathered her jacket, and made for the door, not bothering to say good-bye to her sister-in-law as she explained, “Colin’s; we have a date.”

And with that, she was gone, leaving Hermione to ponder exactly what this new piece of information could mean to the future of her family and, more importantly, the emotional well being of her sister-in-law.