Finding Heather

Year 6 Chapter 17

"If it's that bad, why don't you just end it with him?" Heather asked.

"Because I still like him, or I think I do anyways." Ginny said, dropping her head into her hands.

"Well, if you aren't happy then you'd be better off to leave it sooner rather than later" added Hermione, who was cutting up a fresh batch of potion ingredients.

"I just guess I'd rather be with someone than be alone" Ginny replied, looking up at her.

"Better to be alone than to be with the wrong person" said Hermione, sagely.

"Oh, what do you know" retorted Ginny, anger flashing across her features. "Besides, seeing as how you're pining after my brother but won't say so, I don't think you've got much room to talk, Hermione."

 Heather was smart enough to stay out of this. She hadn't risked bringing up Hermione's evident crush on Ron since before the Christmas holidays, and internally applauded Ginny's daring, even if her delivery might not have been the best. Hermione paled then blushed.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She said crisply.

"Uh huh, right. Well, whenever you finally get around to getting him away from that girl he's with now, I'll remember to tell you 'I told you so" It was clear that Ginny would have preferred to use a word other than 'girl' to describe Lavender, but had restrained herself.

 Abruptly, Hermione changed topics, dragging Heather back into the conversation. Ginny met Heather's gaze at this, rolled her eyes, then suddenly blushed and looked away again. Heather watched her for a moment before the words Hermione asked her filtered through her brain.

"What?" she asked

"I asked, how are your breasts doing?"

"T-they're...growing." Heather stammered, caught completely off guard.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that." Said Hermione passing over Heather's embarrassment. "It means that the potion is working. Those are going to be the most notable change until you start taking them full time."

"You'll have to be careful about getting your shirt wet" joked Ginny, before blushing again for reasons Heather still wasn't sure about.

 It was her turn now to switch subjects. As happy as she was about the changes she was going through, it still felt odd talking about them, even with two of her best friends. "Are you and Dean going to Hogsmeade together in a few weeks?" she asked Ginny.

"Probably" Ginny shrugged. "How about you Hermione? Planning on asking out Cormac again?"

Hermione scowled. "If either of you bring that up again-" she threatened, wagging her silver knife at each of them in turn. Ever since Slughorn's Christmas party and her disastrous date with Cormac McLaggen, Ginny had been giving her no end of grief about it. The fact that the only reason she had gone with him was to annoy Ron hadn't helped Hermione's situation either.

 The next afternoon the news came down from the teachers that the upcoming Hogsmeade trip had been cancelled. Many Gryffindor's were disappointed, but no one was very surprised. With Katie Bell still at St. Mungo's and the culprit of her attack still at large, it had been assumed that Hogsmeade trips weren't going to happen. Ron was perhaps the most unhappy at the news, the trip was supposed to be on his birthday. He grumped for about a week, which wasn't helped by him having a row about something with Lavender that he wouldn't talk to anyone about.

 The morning of the first day of March, Heather woke to the noise of Ron tearing into his birthday presents. As was her normal morning routine these days, she got out of bed and dug through her trunk to find the Marauder's Map, looking for Malfoy. In her haste to find the map, she mindlessly chucked several of the trunk's contents out onto the floor, including the box of chocolate cauldrons that Romilda had given her months ago. Behind her she heard their roommates getting dressed and leaving for breakfast.