All That You Require
A/N: A huge thanks to Ima Quiddich Fan who read through this twice since the first version was sooo bad. She is also entering this contest, so I hope everyone will read and review her too! I had a terrible time with this story, for some reason. It isn't for lack of effort, believe me, I put the time in. It must be writing Karma or snow blindness or something. LOL
"Harry!" Ginny called, catching him before he started up the stairs to his dormitory.
The warm sound of her voice cut through the Saturday morning din of the Gryffindor common room and traveled all through him - the sensation as tangible as if she had run a finger along his spine. He turned slowly, knowing his Occulumency exercises were going to be no help.
Sure enough, with one glance, his mind was filled with her glowing brown eyes, her pink lips and her fluffy blue jumper, the color of a summer sky.
"What did you want?" she asked.
What did he want? He repeated silently, trying to not to measure the distance between them or to calculate how far he would have to stoop to touch her mouth with his . . .
"Harry?" She was blushing a little.
"Oh, um . . . Katie wanted me to remind you that Quidditch practice is at three."
"Okay." She smiled. "And Hermione wanted me to remind you that we're meeting in the Room of Requirement today at one o'clock to recreate Hogsmeade for Valentine's weekend."
"Oh, right," he said with a sinking heart.
"I'll see you there then," Ginny said with one last smile.
He watched her go, wishing that this Hogsmeade recreation could take place somewhere other than the place he had first kissed Cho - or rather, the place Cho had kissed him. Squirming inwardly at the memory, he headed up the stairs to his dormitory. As much as he was attracted to Ginny, he didn't think he could inflict that sort of moment on her - especially if she didn't want to kiss him as much as he wanted to kiss her.
He smirked at the irony of it all. Somehow he didn't think the Room of Requirement was going to provide him a way to discover Ginny's feelings.
*
It was a subdued group of Gryffindor boys that walked to the Room of Requirement that afternoon.
"Has Seamus heard from his parents yet?" Neville asked in an undertone.
"I don't think so," Harry answered, glancing back at Seamus and Dean.
"How long has it been since the Finnegans went into hiding?"
"Two weeks."
"And Seamus hasn't heard a word since they were threatened?"
"No." Harry sighed
"I heard she snogged Dumbledore once," Dean said, referring to a winking portrait of a blonde lady in a red dress.
"Right," Seamus said, not cracking a smile.
Harry thought Seamus must be really depressed if he couldn't laugh at the idea of Dumbledore snogging.
"Will you please stop that thing from singing?" Seamus growled, grabbing a box from Dean's hand.
"It's the Witching Hour with Glenda Chittock," Dean protested in a hurt voice. "I thought hearing your favorite fantasy woman would cheer you up."
"I don't want to be cheered up, okay?" Seamaus stalked on ahead of Dean.
Neville lowered his voice. "Do you think the Room of Requirement is powerful?"
Harry thought back to the DA meetings last year and how he just had to think of needing a whistle for that whistle to appear. "Yeah, I think there's some powerful magic there."
"Do you - " Neville slowed his steps. "Do you think the room could find Seamus's parents or Trevor? "
"Trevor's gone missing?"
"Two days." Neville looked miserable.
Harry didn't see how the Room of Requirement could work that way, but he hated to see Neville so downcast. "It seems to me that for the room to work you have to ask and concentrate really hard."
Neville looked up, hope dawning in his eyes.
"But," Harry continued, wishing he knew what he was talking about. "I think it only provides what you need, not necessarily what you want." He shrugged. "I don't know - maybe we should ask McGonagall or Dumbledore or somebody."
Neville looked nervous at that. "Oh, no. I wouldn't . . . I mean, it was just a thought."
Harry nodded and walked on in silence, knowing that wanting something badly didn't mean you would receive it.
*
The door of the Room of Requirement was already open when they arrived. Although stepping from the castle into a sunny winter day in Hogsmeade was quite disorienting, Harry found his spirits lifting. The Room in no way resembled the place where he had kissed Cho or taught Defense Against The Dark Arts.
Most of Gryffindor had already arrived. Ginny was with a group of fifth years waiting in front of the Three Broomsticks.
"This just appeared when we opened the door from the corridor," Ginny explained, pointing to the street scene. "But when I looked through the windows, I saw that the pub wasn't complete."
"That's what we need to do," Hermione said. "Go through every shop and remember what it's like in detail." Then she pulled out a list and started reading. "Seamus, you and Dean take the Three Broomsticks. Neville, you and Lavender take the pet shop and Dervish and Banges."
While Hermione continued to hand out assignments, Harry surreptitiously watched Ginny. She was standing in the sun chatting with her friends, her hair the brightest thing in the snowless street.
Watching her was as mesmerizing as looking into the Mirror of Erised. And just as silly, he reminded himself. He should be worried about important, necessary things - like defeating Voldemort.
Unfortunately, while he could avoid the Mirror, he couldn't avoid Ginny. They were friends - good friends. He had told her things no one else knew - about Sirius - about the prophecy - about his own hopes and fears. Yet his first response whenever he saw her was so visceral - so of the body -
"Now you can kiss me, Harry." Startled, Harry swung around.
Dean had caused a huge sprig of mistletoe to appear over their heads. "And you too Neville."
"You are seriously in need of help," Ron said, vanishing the mistletoe before Harry or Neville could retaliate. Dean sighed when Seamus didn't laugh.
Hermione tut-tutted and reminded them that all the shops had to pass inspection by Professor McGonagall.
"Ron, maybe you and I should take the Three Broom Sticks," Hermione said, glaring at Dean. "It's one of the most popular places and we want it to be accurate."
Ron smiled, ignoring Dean's snickers.
"So, Seamus, you and Dean take the post office and book shop." Hermione waved them off. "Harry, could you go with the fifth years and do that side street?" Hermione asked. "I've already assigned all the buildings on High Street."
Harry nodded, pleased that Ginny hung back from the group and walked with him. Even though he didn't think he could ever act on his feelings, he was grateful to spend any amount of time with her.
"That shop is so small, I don't think we'll all fit," Ginny said, as the bright blue door of the candle shop opened and then closed behind the group of girls.
"We can wait out here," Harry said, trying not to notice they were on an incline, so the top of her head came to his nose instead of his chin . . .
"Did Seamus hear from his parents?" Ginny asked.
This brought Harry out of his pleasant reverie. "No."
"I thought so. He's really upset isn't he?"
Trust Ginny to be so perceptive.
"Yeah. I just wish there was something I could do."
"You didn't hex Dean when he offered to kiss you," Ginny pointed out.
"He was just trying to cheer Seamus up," he said with a shrug.
Ginny sighed and shook her head in sympathy. "Should we fill in some of these other shops with our memories?" Ginny suggested.
Harry looked down the street at the pastel and gilt signs advertising cosmetics, robes and jewelry. "I haven't been in any of them except for . . ." His stomach clenched at seeing Madam Puddifoot's teashop.
"Except for?" Ginny looked at him with interest.
"Teashop," he mumbled.
She raised her eyebrows. "Was it a dare?"
He laughed, surprised that he could finally laugh about that singularly embarrassing and confusing incident with Cho. "It felt like one." Then he added dryly, "that I lost."
"Come on then," Ginny said grabbing his arm. "You can be good for something and fill in the details since I've never been there."
"You haven't?" For some reason this cheered him considerably.
"Am I missing something?" she asked with a grin.
"You'll find out," he answered, knowing Ginny would hate it.
Madam Puddifoot's was just as Harry had remembered in his nightmares - with the circular tables, the flying cherubs with confetti, and the lace everywhere. Even the cloying, overheated scent of perfume and coffee in the small room was the same.
"Well," Ginny said. "This is - er - cozy. Is the food good?"
"I have no idea," Harry answered.
She studied him, her lips twitching. "There's a story here isn't there?"
He laughed, surprising himself that he really didn't care if Ginny knew what a disastrous date he had with Cho. She knew so much about him anyway. "I'll tell you all about it outside - where the air is fresh."
"And the landscape is lace free." Ginny giggled.
Harry went to open the door and found that the white china knob wouldn't turn. "It's stuck." He jiggled it. He pulled hard. Looking out the lace-covered window he could see the fifth years pass by and enter the perfume shop.
"Stand back," Ginny said, taking out her wand. "Alohamora."
The door stayed firmly shut.
"Now what?"
"Break the window?" Harry suggested, looking around for something heavy. There seemed to be nothing substantial in the airy-fairy world of Madam Puddifoot's.
Brick, he thought, hoping the Room of Requirement would think a speedy exit from Madam Puddifoots was a necessity and not a whim.
When nothing appeared, he picked up one of the flimsy chairs.
"Be careful that you don't cut yourself from flying glass," Ginny warned.
It was like stabbing a stone wall with a quill, since the only consequence was the bent leg of the chair.
"Well," he said, leaning the tottering chair against a table. "I don't know what this means."
"I do." She swallowed. "The Room of Requirement thinks we need to be locked in here together."
*
Harry stared into her anxious eyes. What Ginny was saying made some sort of sense. Obviously there was magic going on that they couldn't get around. "But Ginny," he began slowly, wondering what she was going to say to this, "the Room of Requirement doesn't initiate anything - it has to come from - " He didn't know how to go on.
Ginny had a bit more courage, however. "It has to come from us. That's what you're saying." She sat in one of the tufted chairs with a thump.
He thought he heard her mutter, "Gave up on him." But he couldn't be sure.
Feeling too agitated to sit; he went to the window and looked out at the empty, sunny street. He couldn't remember asking the Room for anything to do with Ginny, but he had certainly been thinking about her nonstop.
He turned away from the window.
Instead of brooding, Ginny was playing with two of the paper cupids. When she tapped them with her wand, they started to chase each other around the table. At one point, the gold cupid hit the red one with an arrow right in its chubby bottom.
Ginny was so engrossed with this scene that she didn't spare him a glance when she inquired, "Did you ask the Room for something?"
"No," he answered.
She looked up. "You must require something - and it's connected to this place."
She was being perceptive again and he didn't like it. "Cup of tea?"
She rolled her eyes.
"Why is this my fault anyway?" he asked, suddenly annoyed that she was so close to discovering his feelings. "Maybe we're locked in here because of you."
"I've never been here before," she said in a heated voice. "Maybe you need to find your old girlfriend and work it out."
"Her name is Cho and she was never my girlfriend. Okay?" He started to pace. "I still don't think it's fair to blame this on me. Maybe you've always wanted to come here with that Corner bloke."
"Why would any right-minded person want to come here?" Ginny retorted, the color rising in her face. Now the gold cupid was trying to get its arrow back but the red cupid kept darting away.
"I don't know." He ran his hand through his hair. "Maybe it's not this place. This is the first building we've been inside. I mean we could have been locked in Quality Quidditch Supplies just as easily."
"Would have smelled better," Ginny muttered darkly to the cupids.
"You're not helping."
"What do you want me to say, Harry? That I asked the Room of Requirement to lock me in a room with you?" She stopped both cupids in their tracks with an irritated flick of her wrist.
"I don't want you say anything." Harry dropped into a chair across from Ginny. "I'm just trying to figure this out. If we know what the Room is trying to give us, then we can work out how to get out of here."
Ginny's shoulders dropped. "You're right," she said in subdued voice. She started to nervously poke her wand through the holes in the lace trim on the tablecloth.
Harry watched her weave her wand in and out of the lace until she had a large portion of the tablecloth gathered on her wand. Why was she doing that?
He took his wand out and revived the cupids. They flew into the air, the sound of their wings beating breaking the uneasy silence.
"What is the Room giving us?" he asked, trying to get back to problem-solving mode.
"A twee place to sit and talk?" Ginny answered, pulling her wand out of the lace.
He laughed. "Okay - so what do we do with this twee place? What do we talk about?"
Ginny put her wand down flat on the table and crossed her arms in front of herself. She stared at him a moment as if gathering her thoughts. "We talk about us." Her mouth was set in a firm line and there were patches of red on her cheeks.
A wave of panic washed over him. What did she mean by "talk about us?" The memory of Cho trying to bait him into revealing his feelings and how he misunderstood her came flooding back. Cho had left him sitting alone at a table for everyone in the teashop to see.
His face grew hot, remembering that horrible feeling. Would Ginny leave him too?
He glanced nervously at her. She hadn't moved or made a sound. She was waiting for him to do something. And if he said the wrong thing, she might walk out.
The cupids flew over their table. The gold one had retrieved its arrow and was drawing it back in its bow. Harry and Ginny both watched as the two cupids faced off in mid-air, their weapons aimed at each other.
They had come to a stalemate.
But Ginny can't leave, Harry realized. Maybe she wants . . . He closed his eyes, hardly daring to hope. Maybe she wants . . . me.
He opened his eyes and looked straight into hers.
"They have to shoot at the same time, don't they?" she asked.
His glance moved from Ginny's pale, serious face to the cupids with their taunt bows and rapidly beating wings.
They were both too afraid to shoot an arrow or to be hit by one.
His heart hammering, he picked up his wand and said, "Shall we help them?"
"Okay." She clutched her wand with a trembling hand.
"One, two, three . . ." Harry counted. "Now." With identical flicks, their wands sent the arrows flying home - straight to the paper hearts.
The door of Madam Puddifoot's teashop opened with a click.
Ginny's jaw dropped as she stared over Harry's shoulder at the open door. Then she looked at him.
Incredibly, what was in her eyes mirrored what he felt for her. And it was the desire in her eyes - sweet and hot - that pierced him to the core. He was what she required.
Perhaps she had been measuring the distance between them as well, because when they met toe-to-toe in the middle of the twee teashop, they found each other with ease.
This is what is feels like when you both want a kiss, he thought before his overloaded mind could only register that her blue jumper was soft and her lips were softer still . . .
*
"You have confetti in your hair," Ginny observed.
Dabs of gold sparkled all through her tousled hair. "So do you," he said brushing some of them away with a gentle hand.
"You two can come out from hiding now!" Seamus, Dean and Neville peered through the latticed windows, all of them looking much happier than they had earlier in the afternoon.
"We're not hiding," Harry said, taking Ginny's hand and trying not to be too annoyed at the interruption.
The boys entered the frilly teashop, filling up the small space with their noisy comments and boisterous laughter.
"Harry, you have something on your lips," Seamus said with mock concern.
"I think it was Ginny," Dean reassured him.
"Oh, right."
"The Room of Requirement worked, Harry!" Neville said, ignoring the confetti raining down on him. "Seamus found a letter from his parents at the post office. It must have been misdirected to Hogsmeade."
"Right after he found the fake Howler I sent him from his fantasy woman, Glenda Chittock," Dean said, flopping into one of the chintz-covered chairs. He imitated Glenda Chittock husky voice, "Seamus, are those my knickers you're hiding?"
"You're brilliant, Dean," Seamus retorted, his eyes sparkling, "Glenda Chittock doesn't wear knickers."
Dean snorted. "How do you know?"
Seamus shrugged. "My fantasy woman, my fantasy." Then he asked in a casual voice, "Are you sitting on what I think you're sitting on?"
Dean leaped out of the chair. "What?"
"Your brain."
After the laughter died down, Neville added, "And Lavender helped me find Trevor. He was in the pet shop."
"That's great," Harry said.
"Looks like everyone got what they wanted," Dean said, looking pointedly at Harry.
"Yeah," Harry answered, too happy to be embarrassed.
"I thought you said the Room would only give what was required," Neville said with a frown. Trevor was trying to leap out his hands and chase a cherub.
"It did," Ginny answered. She was talking to Neville but looking at Harry. "All each of us required was a place to find what we already had."
"That's true," Seamus said, heading for the door, "my letter was in Hogsmeade all along."
"And Trevor was in the castle," Neville added, following Dean out into the street.
Harry waited until they were out of view. "I suppose we should be going?"
"You still haven't eaten the food at Madam Puddifoots," Ginny said.
"Apparently that's not what I require," he said with a grin.
She raised her eyebrows. "What do you require? Tea?"
"Nope."
"Glitter?" She asked, as they shut the door behind them.
"Lace?"
"Nope."
"Little round table?" They were back in the castle now.
"Nope."
She stopped and turned to him. "What?"
"I require a date to Hogsmeade."
She giggled. "That's funny, so do I."
"I reckon we have all that we require then." Then he faltered. "We do, don't we?" he blurted before he could stop himself. It wasn't only the bewitching power of the Room of Requirement that had brought them together, was it?
"Yes, Harry," she said smiling and taking his hand, "we do have all that we require."
***
These are the challenge lines. Notice there isn't one about fondue! Maybe that was my problem with this story. :)
1) I heard she snogged Dumbledore once.
2) Are those my knickers you’re trying to hide?
3) Will you please stop that thing from singing!
4) You have something on your lips.
5) You two can come out from hiding now.
6) Are you sitting on what I think you’re sitting on?
7) Now you can kiss me, Harry/Ginny.