She blushed prettily at the unexpected comment. "Oh, well, I don't know that I'd call them a fan club or anything. I mean, really they just wanted to talk about the match. You know how that goes."
"Uh huh. And it just happened to be a coincidence that you were surrounded by a large group of guys. Plenty of girls are interested in Quidditch too, you know," Harry teased mercilessly.
"They weren't all guys," she retorted defensively.
"You're right. I counted two girls, and you were one of them," Harry countered.
"And why are you paying so much attention? Jealous?" she said in an attempt to turn the tables.
"Only curious," he responded dryly. "Just wondering if you were enjoying the attention. You had every one of those guys eating out of the palm of your hand." Harry found that he really was curious, despite the fact that he was only teasing her. She could probably have her pick of that group of guys, and for the first time Harry wondered if maybe she would rather be going to the ball with one of them instead of him. He wondered if she was interested in anybody.
"Well considering I broke away from them to come talk to you, I would think that would be enough to answer your question."
"Fair enough," Harry replied, deciding to drop the subject before he made her angry. "And I'm glad you did."
"Good."
"So what did you come to talk to me about?" he asked her curiously as he leaned against the back of a chair.
"I wanted to say thank you. I don't remember doing so back on the pitch," she told him, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently. "You're really starting to rack up life debts that I owe you. At this rate I'll be repaying them for the rest of my life." As she said it, Harry noticed she started to blush
"I'm just glad you're okay," Harry told her seriously, though he couldn't figure out what had embarrassed her. "You gave me quite a fright out there. I don't think I could handle losing you right now."
She slipped her arm around his waist and gave him a one armed hug. "Well as long as I have you looking out for me, I'm sure I won't be going anywhere any time soon. You do have a knack for saving my life."
Harry snuck an arm around her side and gave her a slight squeeze in return. "All in a day's work," he joked. "After all, I am the savior of the Wizarding World, right?"
"I don't know about the rest of the Wizarding World, but you have certainly made a habit of being my personal savior. And I can't ever thank you enough," she responded only half jokingly.
"You do more for me than you think, Gin. I don't know how I would've survived these past two weeks if not for you," he told her seriously, looking down into her eyes. Their arms were still loosely wrapped around each other, though neither seemed to be entirely aware of this. Or if they were, they weren't in any hurry to change the situation.
"What are friends for, Harry?" she said with a small smile. They remained silent for a moment before she spoke again in a much more serious tone. "I have something I need to tell you, Harry." Her voice sounded small and timid, completely unlike how she normally sounded to him.
"You can tell me anything," Harry encouraged her with a slight squeeze.
"Well it's about your Firebolt…" she started hesitantly.
Harry waved away her concern. "I told you before, I don't care about the Firebolt. The important thing is that you're okay."
She couldn't help but smile at him, though it was done a little sadly. "Well I just figured you might want to know what happened to it. Nate grabbed it from off the ground where it fell. It's not shattered or anything, but it does have a pretty big crack running down the shaft." Her voice became softer and more tentative as she explained the fate of his beloved broom.
"Don't worry about it, Ginny. It wasn't your fault that it cracked," he said as he rubbed a small circle on her lower back. "To be honest, I was thinking about buying a new broom anyway and just hanging the Firebolt up on the wall or something. For now I think I'll hang it in my office, or maybe in one of my trunk's rooms. Like you said, it's just got a crack in it, so it'll still be able to serve that purpose."
It was entirely misleading but not untruthful. He had in fact thought about replacing his Firebolt, but he had decided against it, at least for now. It didn't make much sense to do it now when the Firebolt was still the best broom on the market. But he had resolved to do so just that as soon as the next model came out.
But Harry wasn't about to tell Ginny that. The point was that if he had to choose between her and his broom he would pick her every day of the week and twice on Sunday, so he wasn't all that bothered by the fate of his broom. He was sure that once he got over his relief that Ginny was unhurt and okay that it would bug him a bit. But he would never blame her for what happened. And he really didn't want her worrying about it.
"Well I am sorry, and if you ever want to use my broom, it's yours. I know it's nowhere near as good as a Firebolt, but it's all I have," Ginny told him sincerely.
"Thank you, but really, don't worry about it…"
"Hey Ginny," a male voice interrupted. "Come on, we need to help you settle a bet. Oh, hey Harry." Harry only nodded in reply. "I hope you don't mind if we steal Ginny away for a few minutes."
Harry's eyebrows rose to his hairline. "I believe we should let Ginny decide what she'd like to do," he said diplomatically.
Ginny sent him a grateful smile as the boy, Brian he thought his name was, began backpedaling. "O-Of course. I didn't mean it like that. Of course Ginny will decide for herself, I just…"
"Oh, shut it Brian before your foot gets stuffed too far down your throat," Ginny forcefully suggested. "I better go see what these guys want," she said to Harry. "I'll see you in a bit?"
"Yeah," Harry replied. "I think I'll make the rounds and congratulate the team."
"Right, see ya Harry," Ginny called out, dragging Brian by the arm to several other fifth and fourth year boys.
Harry watched her progress for a moment, eyes traveling from her hair, down her back, and to her…. Harry tore his eyes away, not wanting to stare. He scanned the crowd for his former teammates. He spotted Katie first and made his way over to the seventh year girl. As he drew near, he noticed Stephanie passing nearby. "Katie, Stephanie," he called.
Both girls looked his way. "Hey Harry." "Hi Harry." They chorused.
"I just wanted to congratulate you two; you played well out there today," Harry told them sincerely.
Both girls shook their heads. Katie spoke up first. "Nah, we couldn't keep up with them at all."
"Yeah," Stephanie agreed. "We're just lucky Ginny caught the snitch when she did; otherwise, Slytherin would have pulled too far ahead, and we'd have had no hope of catching up."
"Don't sell yourselves short," Harry told them. "Slytherin is always hard to play against. They wear you down quickly with their dirty tactics and cheap shots. You both did great to keep the score as close as it was. And at the start you were brilliant. Had Ginny been with you two, I don't think you would've had any problems keeping up with them. Nate's not bad, but he didn't get nearly enough practice time with you, and if your timing's even a little off, it ruins the entire play."
Harry continued, "He was unprepared to play. His nervousness and the Slytherins' taunting and cheap shots got into his head and affected his game. Ron should have called a time out to talk to him and calm him down. Nate effectively took himself out of the game, and you can't expect to keep up with them with only two chasers. You should be proud of yourselves for all that you managed to do. And that second goal was brilliant. You had me faked out. I had no idea where the quaffle was until it was already through the hoop."
"Thanks Harry," Katie told him sincerely.
"Yeah, thanks," Stephanie added with a wide smile.