![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rarepairs_mod posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
rarepair_shortsAuthor: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nereycamille
Recipient:darkhairedgirl
Title: Impossible Love
Pairing: Ginny Weasley/Astoria Greengrass
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,903
Summary: After the Yule Ball, Ginny decides to get some dating experience. Astoria is more than willing to help.
Author's Notes: First of all, my most heartfelt thanks to my brilliant beta Bell_Witch, it’s always a pleasure to have a fic betaed by you.
Deardarkhairedgirl, I hope you like what I’ve done with your prompts. This starts a couple of weeks after the Yule Ball in Ginny’s third year. Astoria’s house isn’t known, so I’ve made her a Gryffindor for the purposes of the story. Astoria is brave and able to speak her mind, as I expect someone with her later record would be, and Ginny is just starting to overcome her shyness. To the best of my belief, this fic is entirely compatible with canon. As for the title… well, you’ll see why. Don’t worry, it’s not a dark story. Nor is it fluff. It’s just life, you might say.
Warnings: implied adolescent making out and possibly sex (Ginny is 13, Astoria 12).
She loves him, but some days she hates herself for it. The idiot is mooning after Cho Chang, as if he had any chance to ever date her. She’s going out with Cedric-the-dream-of-every-girl-Diggory, and she’s obviously walking upon soft clouds. Besides, anyone can see she’s a cow. Sure, she’s pretty and she’s probably smart (being a Ravenclaw) and she is a Seeker, but beyond that, what does he see in her? They’ve never talked for more than two minutes.
Not that she has done much talking to Harry Potter either, says a little voice in her head. Ginny revolts against it. Cho may outclass her in almost every way, but only because she’s older. Give her time, and Ginny can become a better Quidditch player, a smarter student, and as for beauty, well – we shall see, she tells herself fiercely. She hasn’t fully developed yet, and she knows it.
Still. Her stupid beloved is still stupidly in love with stupid Cho, and she’s tired of waiting for him to notice her. So tonight she’s dating someone else – someone different, someone younger, someone willing. Tonight, Ginny is after some experience. She wants to be ready for the day Harry Potter opens his eyes. Her first attempts with Neville after the Yule Ball proved disappointing, and since most other Gryffindor boys don’t seem to notice her at all, she has set her sights on another target – a girl. Specifically, a lovely girl who has been throwing shy glances and smiles at her for the past two weeks.
At first Ginny hadn’t reacted, but curiosity and a need for desperate measures regarding – how to say it? – her lack of dating experience, had soon got the best of her. So one morning, surprised at her own pluckiness, she had caught the girl by the arm as they were both leaving the Great Hall.
“Hey, I’ve noticed you’ve been looking at me rather often lately. You were doing it again at breakfast just now. You sat as close to me as you could. I was wondering what you wanted.” True, the end of her little speech was a bit lame, but she had been rather proud of the rest.
The girl had paled and stammered.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’m Astoria Greengrass, I’m one year below you. I… sorry.”
“I don’t bite, you know,” Ginny had said gently, amazed at the confidence in her own voice. “Why don’t you just tell me? Did you want something specific, or just to make friends?”
The girl had looked terrified by the question, but words had escaped her mouth nonetheless.
“No, not friends. I mean, not only. I like you. As more than a friend.”
Ginny’s brain had taken a few moments to understand this information, then a few more to decide how to react to it.
“Well that should be easy. Why don’t we meet one of these days and get to know each other better? Then we can decide.”
Astoria had quickly agreed, and so it was arranged. So a few days later when Ginny walks through the great oak doors out into the grounds, drawing her Gryffindor scarf closer around her neck, Astoria Greengrass is already waiting for her. She is wearing a scarf identical to Ginny’s wrapped over her shoulders and a sunny smile that is all over her face.
The two girls start walking around the lake under a quickly fading sun; it’s January and the days are still too short to be much out of doors. Still, neither girl fears the cold nearly as much as the prying glances of fellow students, so they quickly agree to stay out until dinner time.
They start chatting amicably, and it quickly becomes apparent that a big part of Astoria’s life is dealing with the unpleasant fact of having been sorted into Gryffindor when her whole family are Slytherins.
“Ugh, that’s got to be nasty,” says Ginny sympathetically. “I mean, mine are all Gryffindors and I can’t even start to imagine what they
would do to me if I was in Slytherin. Especially my twin brothers, Fred and George.”
Astoria shrugs.
“It could be worse. My sister’s nice enough. She supports me a little and she leaves me alone the rest of the time. She isn’t the sort to make people’s lives difficult. My parents are, though. But I don’t see them very often.” She pauses, considering. “I guess the worst part is that people question my belonging to Gryffindor all the time. I don’t feel like my house is really mine. I suppose if I had outstanding courage or something it would be easier. But I don’t, so…”
“At least that hasn’t only to do with family,” says Ginny consolingly. “You know Hermione Granger, right? Smartest student in Hogwarts. She’s told me more than once that she often feels out of place with us Gryffindors, because we don’t value knowledge that much. She’d probably be more at home in Ravenclaw, even if she’s proud to be one of us. There’s also Neville Longbottom. Know Neville? He’s always felt he doesn’t belong, and yet he got awarded ten points by Dumbledore himself for courage in his first year.”
Astoria smiles gratefully, and Ginny feels a sudden impulse to reach out and replace a strand of dark hair blown out of place by the wind.
“Besides,” she adds, “you do have outstanding courage. Saying you liked me like that… wow. Why is it you like me, anyway? Do you like girls in general?”
“I started to touch myself some months ago,” says Astoria matter-of-factly, “and now I feel this need to explore with other people.” She shrugs again. “I could fancy boys, but girls seem less intimidating, less dangerous.”
“So that’s why you chose me?” says Ginny, repressing a laugh. “Because I’m the least threatening of the lot?”
“Well, there is that,” admits Astoria. “But you’re also very pretty. I know you don’t think it, because it’s not a stunning-everyone-stupid sort of beauty, but you are. Your face is not striking, but it is so fine it’s breathtaking. And you don’t have a lot of curves yet, but you’re so well-proportioned. Your hair is lovely. Oh, you’re going to be amazing in a few years. And you’re also nice. People talk about how you help whenever you can and you’re not full of yourself. All that.”
Ginny nods, and feels a pleasing tension starting to build up between them.
“So what did you have in mind when you said ‘more than friends’?” she asks, her breath a bit short.
To her surprise, Astoria’s answer is quick and decisive.
“There’s a nice bathroom very few people know about,” she says, dropping her voice to a whisper. “With tubs and scented salts and massage couches. We could meet there when everybody’s asleep.”
“No, that’s too dangerous. Better to grab a bite at lunch or dinner then head there. We’ll have less time, but no one can tell us off if they see us in the corridors.”
“That’s smart,” says Astoria admiringly, and Ginny feels the sweet tension building up again. The trepidation is overwhelming, but she knows that one of them will have to take the step. She’ll be damned if she lets her shyness ruin this chance, she thinks. She reaches out, takes Astoria’s face between her hands, and kisses her.
Later that night, Ginny meets Astoria at the secret bathroom. The dark-haired girl smiles and removes her robes, revealing a maddening red ensemble of under-garments, and Ginny is suddenly reminded of something she once overheard Fred telling Percy:
“When a woman comes to you in black lingerie, you unwrap her!”
She stifles a laugh as she remembers her brother’s indignant and incredulous tone, and moves to unwrap Astoria.
Bliss follows for several months. The secret bathroom is indeed welcoming, and they put it to creative uses. And then they drift apart. Ginny is a bit bored with the relationship, and she suspects Astoria is developing feelings for someone else. So they wish each other good luck and move on.
***
She loves him, but some days she hates herself for it. The idiot is obviously miserable, yet he soldiers on, refusing to question a choice of path that’s alienating him from both sides. He’s a walking target now, and she’s expected to hate him and hex him the first occasion she gets – except she can’t.
So she goes to Ginny for help. The redhead is one of the leaders of the resistance against Snape and the Carrows, and Astoria dearly hopes she’ll be able – and willing – to help.
“WHAT? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, and I had Umbridge as a teacher,” says Ginny incredulously. “You want me to protect Draco Malfoy?”
“Please,” nods Astoria. “He’s not evil. He’s not a threat. He’s just afraid of them. He’d help us if he could.”
“Are you insane? He’s a full Death Eater, with the mark and everything. He used the Cruciatus curse on Harry. He was the one who let the Death Eaters into the castle the night Dumbledore was killed. Killed, Astoria! And you say he’s no threat?”
“He was trying to protect his family.”
“Even before that, he’s been the school’s biggest prat always! Arrogant, insulting, cheating –”
“He is,” agrees Astoria, “but that doesn’t make him truly evil. Please, Ginny. I’m begging you.”
“Why do you want me to protect him, anyway? Oh,” realization dawns on Ginny’s face. “You love him. You’ve loved him for years, haven’t you? I can’t believe I lost you to that absolute prick Draco Malfoy.”
“Sorry to disappoint. I’m sure it’s cooler to be in love with Harry Potter, but we don’t choose who we love, Ginny.”
This gives Ginny pause. Astoria is right. We don’t choose who we love. How many times did she hate herself for fancying Harry before he returned her interest? And even now… Life can never be simple, can it?
She turns to face Astoria. The dark-haired girl is looking at her imploringly, her eyes brimming with tears. It occurs to Ginny it’s the first time she’s seen her cry. The redhead shakes her head helplessly.
“Even if I wanted to,” she whispers, “how am I supposed to protect him? We’re in the middle of a war, Astoria. We’re failing to protect ourselves every day. Draco’s partly to blame for all this. How can I even ask anyone in the DA to help him?”
“I know he can’t be protected from jinxes, torture, that sort of thing. Just try to keep him alive,” says Astoria. “You just need to tell them he might be an ally if he is given the chance.”
“Would he? I wonder,” says Ginny. But for all that, she promises to pass the word around and keep an eye personally on the Slytherin twit. Astoria throws herself into her arms and gives her a bear hug and a very wet kiss on the cheek. Then she leaves quietly.
And Ginny remains standing there, thinking this is really what she needed, in case she was bored or her life was too easy. Try and protect Harry Potter’s arch-enemy of all people, from Death Eaters and the DA, no less. And she reflects that following a tortuous path to get what one wants (namely, dating other people in the hope to get Harry Potter interested) sometimes does have unforeseen drawbacks.
nereycamilleRecipient:
darkhairedgirlTitle: Impossible Love
Pairing: Ginny Weasley/Astoria Greengrass
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,903
Summary: After the Yule Ball, Ginny decides to get some dating experience. Astoria is more than willing to help.
Author's Notes: First of all, my most heartfelt thanks to my brilliant beta Bell_Witch, it’s always a pleasure to have a fic betaed by you.
Dear
darkhairedgirl, I hope you like what I’ve done with your prompts. This starts a couple of weeks after the Yule Ball in Ginny’s third year. Astoria’s house isn’t known, so I’ve made her a Gryffindor for the purposes of the story. Astoria is brave and able to speak her mind, as I expect someone with her later record would be, and Ginny is just starting to overcome her shyness. To the best of my belief, this fic is entirely compatible with canon. As for the title… well, you’ll see why. Don’t worry, it’s not a dark story. Nor is it fluff. It’s just life, you might say.Warnings: implied adolescent making out and possibly sex (Ginny is 13, Astoria 12).
She loves him, but some days she hates herself for it. The idiot is mooning after Cho Chang, as if he had any chance to ever date her. She’s going out with Cedric-the-dream-of-every-girl-Diggory, and she’s obviously walking upon soft clouds. Besides, anyone can see she’s a cow. Sure, she’s pretty and she’s probably smart (being a Ravenclaw) and she is a Seeker, but beyond that, what does he see in her? They’ve never talked for more than two minutes.
Not that she has done much talking to Harry Potter either, says a little voice in her head. Ginny revolts against it. Cho may outclass her in almost every way, but only because she’s older. Give her time, and Ginny can become a better Quidditch player, a smarter student, and as for beauty, well – we shall see, she tells herself fiercely. She hasn’t fully developed yet, and she knows it.
Still. Her stupid beloved is still stupidly in love with stupid Cho, and she’s tired of waiting for him to notice her. So tonight she’s dating someone else – someone different, someone younger, someone willing. Tonight, Ginny is after some experience. She wants to be ready for the day Harry Potter opens his eyes. Her first attempts with Neville after the Yule Ball proved disappointing, and since most other Gryffindor boys don’t seem to notice her at all, she has set her sights on another target – a girl. Specifically, a lovely girl who has been throwing shy glances and smiles at her for the past two weeks.
At first Ginny hadn’t reacted, but curiosity and a need for desperate measures regarding – how to say it? – her lack of dating experience, had soon got the best of her. So one morning, surprised at her own pluckiness, she had caught the girl by the arm as they were both leaving the Great Hall.
“Hey, I’ve noticed you’ve been looking at me rather often lately. You were doing it again at breakfast just now. You sat as close to me as you could. I was wondering what you wanted.” True, the end of her little speech was a bit lame, but she had been rather proud of the rest.
The girl had paled and stammered.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’m Astoria Greengrass, I’m one year below you. I… sorry.”
“I don’t bite, you know,” Ginny had said gently, amazed at the confidence in her own voice. “Why don’t you just tell me? Did you want something specific, or just to make friends?”
The girl had looked terrified by the question, but words had escaped her mouth nonetheless.
“No, not friends. I mean, not only. I like you. As more than a friend.”
Ginny’s brain had taken a few moments to understand this information, then a few more to decide how to react to it.
“Well that should be easy. Why don’t we meet one of these days and get to know each other better? Then we can decide.”
Astoria had quickly agreed, and so it was arranged. So a few days later when Ginny walks through the great oak doors out into the grounds, drawing her Gryffindor scarf closer around her neck, Astoria Greengrass is already waiting for her. She is wearing a scarf identical to Ginny’s wrapped over her shoulders and a sunny smile that is all over her face.
The two girls start walking around the lake under a quickly fading sun; it’s January and the days are still too short to be much out of doors. Still, neither girl fears the cold nearly as much as the prying glances of fellow students, so they quickly agree to stay out until dinner time.
They start chatting amicably, and it quickly becomes apparent that a big part of Astoria’s life is dealing with the unpleasant fact of having been sorted into Gryffindor when her whole family are Slytherins.
“Ugh, that’s got to be nasty,” says Ginny sympathetically. “I mean, mine are all Gryffindors and I can’t even start to imagine what they
would do to me if I was in Slytherin. Especially my twin brothers, Fred and George.”
Astoria shrugs.
“It could be worse. My sister’s nice enough. She supports me a little and she leaves me alone the rest of the time. She isn’t the sort to make people’s lives difficult. My parents are, though. But I don’t see them very often.” She pauses, considering. “I guess the worst part is that people question my belonging to Gryffindor all the time. I don’t feel like my house is really mine. I suppose if I had outstanding courage or something it would be easier. But I don’t, so…”
“At least that hasn’t only to do with family,” says Ginny consolingly. “You know Hermione Granger, right? Smartest student in Hogwarts. She’s told me more than once that she often feels out of place with us Gryffindors, because we don’t value knowledge that much. She’d probably be more at home in Ravenclaw, even if she’s proud to be one of us. There’s also Neville Longbottom. Know Neville? He’s always felt he doesn’t belong, and yet he got awarded ten points by Dumbledore himself for courage in his first year.”
Astoria smiles gratefully, and Ginny feels a sudden impulse to reach out and replace a strand of dark hair blown out of place by the wind.
“Besides,” she adds, “you do have outstanding courage. Saying you liked me like that… wow. Why is it you like me, anyway? Do you like girls in general?”
“I started to touch myself some months ago,” says Astoria matter-of-factly, “and now I feel this need to explore with other people.” She shrugs again. “I could fancy boys, but girls seem less intimidating, less dangerous.”
“So that’s why you chose me?” says Ginny, repressing a laugh. “Because I’m the least threatening of the lot?”
“Well, there is that,” admits Astoria. “But you’re also very pretty. I know you don’t think it, because it’s not a stunning-everyone-stupid sort of beauty, but you are. Your face is not striking, but it is so fine it’s breathtaking. And you don’t have a lot of curves yet, but you’re so well-proportioned. Your hair is lovely. Oh, you’re going to be amazing in a few years. And you’re also nice. People talk about how you help whenever you can and you’re not full of yourself. All that.”
Ginny nods, and feels a pleasing tension starting to build up between them.
“So what did you have in mind when you said ‘more than friends’?” she asks, her breath a bit short.
To her surprise, Astoria’s answer is quick and decisive.
“There’s a nice bathroom very few people know about,” she says, dropping her voice to a whisper. “With tubs and scented salts and massage couches. We could meet there when everybody’s asleep.”
“No, that’s too dangerous. Better to grab a bite at lunch or dinner then head there. We’ll have less time, but no one can tell us off if they see us in the corridors.”
“That’s smart,” says Astoria admiringly, and Ginny feels the sweet tension building up again. The trepidation is overwhelming, but she knows that one of them will have to take the step. She’ll be damned if she lets her shyness ruin this chance, she thinks. She reaches out, takes Astoria’s face between her hands, and kisses her.
Later that night, Ginny meets Astoria at the secret bathroom. The dark-haired girl smiles and removes her robes, revealing a maddening red ensemble of under-garments, and Ginny is suddenly reminded of something she once overheard Fred telling Percy:
“When a woman comes to you in black lingerie, you unwrap her!”
She stifles a laugh as she remembers her brother’s indignant and incredulous tone, and moves to unwrap Astoria.
Bliss follows for several months. The secret bathroom is indeed welcoming, and they put it to creative uses. And then they drift apart. Ginny is a bit bored with the relationship, and she suspects Astoria is developing feelings for someone else. So they wish each other good luck and move on.
***
She loves him, but some days she hates herself for it. The idiot is obviously miserable, yet he soldiers on, refusing to question a choice of path that’s alienating him from both sides. He’s a walking target now, and she’s expected to hate him and hex him the first occasion she gets – except she can’t.
So she goes to Ginny for help. The redhead is one of the leaders of the resistance against Snape and the Carrows, and Astoria dearly hopes she’ll be able – and willing – to help.
“WHAT? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, and I had Umbridge as a teacher,” says Ginny incredulously. “You want me to protect Draco Malfoy?”
“Please,” nods Astoria. “He’s not evil. He’s not a threat. He’s just afraid of them. He’d help us if he could.”
“Are you insane? He’s a full Death Eater, with the mark and everything. He used the Cruciatus curse on Harry. He was the one who let the Death Eaters into the castle the night Dumbledore was killed. Killed, Astoria! And you say he’s no threat?”
“He was trying to protect his family.”
“Even before that, he’s been the school’s biggest prat always! Arrogant, insulting, cheating –”
“He is,” agrees Astoria, “but that doesn’t make him truly evil. Please, Ginny. I’m begging you.”
“Why do you want me to protect him, anyway? Oh,” realization dawns on Ginny’s face. “You love him. You’ve loved him for years, haven’t you? I can’t believe I lost you to that absolute prick Draco Malfoy.”
“Sorry to disappoint. I’m sure it’s cooler to be in love with Harry Potter, but we don’t choose who we love, Ginny.”
This gives Ginny pause. Astoria is right. We don’t choose who we love. How many times did she hate herself for fancying Harry before he returned her interest? And even now… Life can never be simple, can it?
She turns to face Astoria. The dark-haired girl is looking at her imploringly, her eyes brimming with tears. It occurs to Ginny it’s the first time she’s seen her cry. The redhead shakes her head helplessly.
“Even if I wanted to,” she whispers, “how am I supposed to protect him? We’re in the middle of a war, Astoria. We’re failing to protect ourselves every day. Draco’s partly to blame for all this. How can I even ask anyone in the DA to help him?”
“I know he can’t be protected from jinxes, torture, that sort of thing. Just try to keep him alive,” says Astoria. “You just need to tell them he might be an ally if he is given the chance.”
“Would he? I wonder,” says Ginny. But for all that, she promises to pass the word around and keep an eye personally on the Slytherin twit. Astoria throws herself into her arms and gives her a bear hug and a very wet kiss on the cheek. Then she leaves quietly.
And Ginny remains standing there, thinking this is really what she needed, in case she was bored or her life was too easy. Try and protect Harry Potter’s arch-enemy of all people, from Death Eaters and the DA, no less. And she reflects that following a tortuous path to get what one wants (namely, dating other people in the hope to get Harry Potter interested) sometimes does have unforeseen drawbacks.
