A/N: This is sort of a missing scene from
Carpe
Diem by Imogen. I’ve learnt that I have a sock fettish, and this
was to help quell it. Also, I have to apologize to Imogen for not getting
this out sooner, but I was struck dumb by my muse who put me into overdrive.
<muse cracks whip and Firebolt909 types diligently>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our story takes place sometime after the Yule Ball
in Carpe Diem in Chapter 13…
Ginny peered cautiously into the room, checking to see
if the coast was clear. It was. Everyone was either at Quidditch practice
or in the Great Hall for dinner. Creeping into the scarlet draped room,
she headed straight towards the trunk. Biting her lip, she could barely
contain her giggles as the lid opened without a creak. This was so easy,
not to mention fun. A smile twitched at the corners of her mouth as
she thought back to the second time she had done this. She was so nervous,
not to mention scared at the prospect of getting caught at any moment,
while the memories of the very first time in here had played through
her mind; the time during her first year when she was searching for
her diary. The diary that Harry had found. The diary that had ended
up nearly killing both of them at the end of that year. Suppressing
a shiver, Ginny began to carefully go through the trunk, laying the
articles out on the bed, memorizing their location in the trunk so that
she could place them back undetected.
But a diary, or any other sort of book, was not what Ginny
was searching for. Ginny was after socks. And not just any socks, but
Harry’s socks. Her slight sock fetish had started years ago, when she
realized that the socks worn by her brothers were nice and warm, and
very woolly. She didn’t have any socks like that at all; hers were thin
and all had lace around the edges or some such nonsense that her mother
thought was cute. Therefore, Ginny had taken to stealing her brothers’
socks. It was great fun; there was always the fear of getting caught
on the sock hunt, and then there was the pleasure of knowing that no
one could figure out how exactly she had taken them. Furthermore, stealing
socks was Ginny’s way of telling someone "I love you."
About halfway through the contents of the trunk, Ginny
began to notice the types of articles had changed from the items she
had seen before. She giggled over a pair of white fluffy bunny slippers
with pink noses. No wonder Harry kept those in the trunk. Ron
would have a field day with them. Placing them on the bed, she next
pulled out something long, and black. Gasping, she realized that she
was holding a pair of stockings! Black stockings with little bows all
over them! Her eyes widened in surprise. Checking to see if she had
the right trunk, (since the stockings sounded more like something Seamus
would have), Ginny looked around the room. Nope this was Harry’s bed.
Ginny tried to suppress a giggle, thinking of the last time she’d come
across some "interesting" articles whilst on a sock hunt.
She had been scavenging through Fred and George’s trunks when she came
across a stack of magazines, wrapped in blank white paper. Naturally,
she was curious to see what was in them, having never seen either twin
read anything that didn’t have to do with Quidditch, and so she opened
them. What was contained in between the pages of those magazines made
Ginny’s cheeks turn a shade of red so deep, so bright, and so startling,
that she had to stay in her room for hours before it went away. Ginny’s
brow furrowed. She had better not find anything like that in Harry’s
trunk!
Ginny sat back on her heels and surveyed the surrounding
area. There were stacks of Which Broomstick, the leading Quidditch
magazine; heaps of clothing that Ginny recognized as what Harry was
forced to wear by those awful Muggles he lived with; bags of "Bertie
Botts Every Flavour Beans;" piles of wizard cards found inside
Chocolate Frogs (Ginny noticed Harry had Agrippa and knew he must have
kept it from Ron, who had been unable to find one for years); strange
items like the bunny slippers, stockings, and something that looked
like a kitchen sink. She nearly jumped out of her skin when her hand
closed about something small, cold, and slimy, which turned out to be
Neville’s toad, Trevor. There weren’t, however, any socks to be found.
This was very strange indeed, because last time, Harry’s socks had been
neatly rolled and placed at the top, and all Ginny had to do was to
search for the ones Dobby had given him for Christmas last year. Sighing
deeply, Ginny dived back into the trunk, not ready to give up just yet.
*
Harry could barely contain his laughter as he peeked around
the corner of the dormitory door and watched the small form adjust the
wand sticking through her bright red curls and lean over further into
the trunk. Caught in the act! While he was amused that Ginny had taken
to wearing his socks, it mystified him as to how she had actually taken
them. He’d at first figured that there was a bribery of Dobby the house-elf,
but realized that couldn’t be possible because Dobby wouldn’t go through
his things like that. He’d then thought that perhaps she’d been using
a summoning charm, but someone would have noticed socks flying about
the common room, heading from one dormitory to the other. Finally, he
had decided that she was actually, physically, taking them. He just
wanted to see her do so.
And so his plan was hatched. He was going to provide the
perfect sock-stealing atmosphere and see if Ginny would take the bait.
He’d left practice early just for that reason. Borrowing a few items
just to spice things up was the easy part, although Seamus had no idea
that a pair of stockings were missing. Hermione had found the perfect
spell to enlarge the inside the trunk, so that everything would fit.
There were just a few more items left in the trunk. Harry held his breath
as Ginny took one out.
It was still wrapped up in Uncle Vernon’s old socks, already
hissing slightly. The removal of the socks, which had worked as a silencer,
made the Sneakoscope whistle and spin crazily in Ginny’s palm, lights
flashing. The expression on her face was worth all the gold in Harry’s
vault in Gringotts. She literally jumped, turned, and screamed all at
the same time. Glancing about madly, Ginny tried to stuff the Sneakoscope
back into the socks, but a quick wave of Harry’s wand shrunk them so
small they wouldn’t have fit a fairy. Another wave of his wand turned
the fluffy bunny slippers into fluffy bunny rabbits, and the pair bounded
off the bed while Ginny shrieked for them to come back, still trying
to silence the Sneakoscope.
Harry clutched his sides, desperately fighting back the
laughter that was threatening to throw his cover. His eyes watered,
his lungs seized up, and his legs gave out. Harry slid down the wall
and propped his head on his knees to calm himself.
THUMP!
Harry crept around the corner to see what that was. The
Sneakoscope was still going strong, but had rolled across the floor
and under Dean’s bed. Ginny had somehow slipped, and landed smack in
the middle of the trunk, her arms and legs flailing about as she tried
to catch hold and raise herself up. Her wand had fallen from her hair,
and the red strands now covered her face completely. It was all Harry
could do not to burst into fits of hysterical laughter.
"Something wrong, Ginny?" he asked very casually,
as if finding her in such a position in his room was not uncommon.
"Harry?" Ginny wailed, blowing her hair from
her face. "Get me out of here!"
Harry pulled her from the trunk and helped her to her
feet. Both stood there for a moment, Harry trying not to smile, while
Ginny frowned up at him. Her eyes suddenly narrowed. Harry picked up
the Sneakoscope and stuffed it under Ron’s mattress.
"I don’t suppose you had anything to do with this?"
she asked, her voice going dangerously soft.
Harry grinned sheepishly and tried to give her a peck
on the cheek. "I just wanted to know how you were doing it,"
he said, running his fingers through her hair in efforts to tame it.
"You could have just asked me," she said peevishly,
frowning up at him. Harry’s heart lurched. Maybe the trick had gone
too far.
"Did you hurt yourself?" he asked, checking
for any bruises and kissing the palm of her hand.
"I’m fine," said Ginny, biting her lip in a
very cute sort of way. "I still didn’t find any socks."
Harry smiled at the tone in her voice. "You haven’t
looked thoroughly enough for them. You’ve missed a spot."
Ginny’s brown eyes glinted. "I did? Where?"
"I think I might have a few pairs on me," he
teased. "Care to look for them?"
Ginny giggled and picked up her wand, smiling mischievously.
She pulled Harry closer to her, and Harry felt his cheeks heat up. "Uh,
Ginny…I was only teas—"
"Accio socks!"
The socks zoomed from Harry’s robes and straight into
Ginny’s outstretched hand. "Thank you," she said, counting
the pairs. "I’ve got enough to last me all week!" She put
the socks in her pockets and walked over to the trunk. "Now, about
these stockings…." her voice trailed off as she held up the pair
of black stockings covered in miniature bows.
"Those are Seamus’," Harry explained quickly,
his face flaming. "He got them from Lavender."
"A likely story. And the bunny slippers?"
"Those are from McGongall’s class. I borrowed them."
"Hmmmm…." Ginny nodded slowly, backing up, making
sure not to step on Neville’s toad. "Well, thanks for the socks
Harry, and I’ll see you when you’ve cleaned up this mess, ok?"
And Ginny ran out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her, her
hair trailing behind her.
Harry looked around at the piles of clothing, books, sweets,
and picked up the kitchen sink, throwing it back into the trunk and
sighed. He thought about the words Dumbledore had once told him, "One
can never have too many socks." Dumbledore must have known someone
like Ginny Weasley.
