Chapter Text
“No, Lissy, I am not dating your brother,” Ginny says patiently, swinging her legs as she and her brother’s best mate’s little sister munch on the chocolate chip cookies James Potter had baked and Lily Potter had forbidden them from eating on the grounds that it would be the last thing they ever did.
Amaryllis pouts, eyes widening to form the whiney face that gets her anything she wants. She shares her brother’s bright green emerald eyes. For obvious reasons, this does not make resisting her easier. “But why not?” Comes the protest.
A couple years ago, a question like this would’ve been enough to completely wreck her.
Ginny shudders at the memory of how debilitatingly awkward her crush on Harry used to be.
“Because it doesn’t work like that, kiddo,” she says patiently. “Harry and I don’t somehow like each other and get into a relationship because you say so.”
“Well, you should,” Amaryllis sulks with the typical ten-year-old mentality that she ought to get everything she wants.
Ginny wishes. She really, really does.
Amaryllis might be the one person that wants Ginny dating Harry more than Ginny herself does. It is amusing, when she isn’t drowning in the angsty throes of unrequited love.
“Are you actually eating the cookies?” An amused voice that is instantly recognizable comes through the door and she really hates the way she stiffens at it. She’s friends with him now, and yet. . . .
“Our sisters have a death wish, mate,” Ron calls from behind him, rushing towards the door. “Come on, forget it! Fred and George have the backyard set up!”
“If I had a death wish, I’d antagonize Mum and Hermione the way you do,” Ginny scoffs and hears her brother swear at her.
Harry laughs. “You are doing something we were warned off on pain of death,” he says. “I’d say his assessment of the two of you is spot-on.”
“Good thing I don’t particularly care about your judgement,” Ginny says dryly.
He clicks his tongue. “Not a very good thing to say to your newly minted quidditch captain if you’re hoping to make first-string this year.”
“I’m not hoping,” Ginny says lazily. “I know perfectly well I’m going to get in.”
Harry smirks, leaning closer, and damn if that doesn’t set her fool heart off. “And why is that?”
She leans in too in a mockery of intimacy. “’Cause I’m the best you got, Potter.”
“Arrogant, are we?”
“Exactly what insecure people say about those with confidence.” Their faces are so close she can count his eyelashes, probably trace the worry lines on his forehead and his laugh lines if she lifts her hand.
“What would I be insecure about?” Harry asks, tilting his head.
Nothing. You’re perfect the way you are. A reckless repressed idiot, but perfect.
“Asking for the opinion of little old me?” Ginny presses a hand to her heart, batting her eyelashes up at him and she can see him falter slightly.
“Well, when Ginny Weasley herself offers—”
“YES! Kiss! Kiss!” Comes a sudden exclamation and the two of them startle, breaking apart instantly to see Amaryllis looking between them eagerly.
“What are you talking about?” Harry asks, rolling his eyes at his sister.
“You were standing so close!” Amaryllis insists, dancing around them. “And you were talking the way Mummy and Daddy always do before you and Uncle Sirius make yucky noises and they do kissing stuff.”
“No we weren’t,” he says, looking befuddled.
Ginny would be flustered at the implication that she and Harry were flirting – except this is Amaryllis, who sees signs where there are none.
“For the last time, your brother and I aren’t dating,” she sighs, and then winces when Harry looks between them inquiringly.
“You think Ginny and I—” he starts and she is really dreading this conversation.
Like her crush on Harry hasn’t been obvious since she was eight bloody years old. It’s only in the past two years she’s been able to talk normally with and befriend him, so she does not particularly want to expand on how his younger sister thinks they ought to be together.
Thank Merlin, she’s literally saved by the bell. The doorbell rings alongside a loud shout of ‘Happy Birthday’, and Harry’s whole face lights up in a way that makes her insides gooey. “SIRIUS!”
He thunders outside to meet his godfather, leaving Ginny and Amaryllis in the kitchen, alone again.
“You’re sure you don’t like Harry?” The little girl presses. “My brother is the worst, but he can be pretty cool sometimes.”
Try all the freaking time, especially if it’s inconvenient to me, Ginny thinks. “It doesn’t matter,” she says quietly.
She’s seen the kind of girls Harry likes. Cho Chang and Megan Jones are intellectual raven-haired beauties, and Ginny is as different from that as can be. It doesn’t matter – she’s happy with who she is, but it can still be a little disheartening.
“It isn’t going to happen, Lissy.” She continues. Then she sighs. Amaryllis looks as stubborn as ever. “Let’s get out of here before your mum comes and sees us.”