InsaneJournal

It made no sense to be nervous, but Ginny’s hands were trembling as she approached the door to Harry’s quarters. She hadn’t seen him since he had arrived, deciding that the conversation they’d had in her room was more than enough trauma for him and, you know, the fact that she didn’t know what exactly to say to make it better.

And then his mum had arrived, making an already complex situation inevitably moreso. The last thing Harry needed was to be caught up in her issues and forced to relive them, so she’d just taken to --- well, hiding. If she were honest with herself, she’d been hiding from Harry, his parents, and all the questions that might come with it.

But it was his birthday, and no matter what had happened between them, Ginny just couldn’t let it pass by without some sort of recognition. And that was why she had a cupcake - butterbeer flavored, no less - in one hand, with one tiny candle stuck into the center with its tip already lit thanks to the wave of her wand.

Pressing her finger to the call button, Ginny took a deep breath and plastered on a smile. She wasn’t going to sing him Happy Birthday - no one wanted to hear her sing - but she was going to wish him well because he was Harry, and there were few people as important to her as he was.

Honestly, Harry hadn't exactly connected it to the fact that today was his birthday. That was because it was nowhere near his birthday when he'd been back home and also because he hadn't bothered yet, really, to learn how these stardates worked. So the last thing he was expecting was Ginny at his door with a cupcake. And yet that was exactly what he found when he opened the door and blinked down at her.

"Uh, hullo, Ginny," he greeted her, scratching the back of his neck and wondering if he ought to let her in or if he should just continue to stand there awkwardly in the doorway.

She had never considered that it wasn’t close to Harry’s birthday in his time, even though he had told her as much when they had talked. She had been in this time and on this ship for long enough that she had simply adapted to it. It didn’t matter that she had been six weeks from her birthday and arrived in March - technically making her 21 - Ginny was operating on the fact her own birthday was coming up soon and, in the same vein, that today marked Harry’s.

“I know you hate people making a fuss,” she said quickly, figuring that she should probably explain herself before Harry got sick of her. “But today is your birthday and I just wanted…..” Ginny stopped herself short there, realizing a bit too late that she wasn’t really sure what she wanted, except to try and do something nice on an important date in Harry’s life. “I just wanted to bring you this, to tell you happy birthday.”

And then she shrugged at him, extending her arm to bring the cupcake closer to his face. “It’s butterbeer flavored.”

He smiled at her and reached out to take the cupcake from her. "Butterbeer," he repeated. "Cool, thanks. Does it really taste like butterbeer?" he asked a moment later. He had posited the same question to Max, the cupcake maker, before, but hadn't had a chance himself to check it out. He looked down at the candle, which was flickering at him, and then blew it out quickly.

"I know we were talking about Neville's birthday yesterday but I didn't even really think that today was my birthday. It - wasn't July - before."

Ginny could only shrug in answer. She hadn’t tried the butterbeer flavor yet, just popped into the mess hall to pick one up and conjure a candle to stick into it. “It smells like butterbeer at any rate, but since butterbeer doesn’t have frosting, it might not be that close at all.”

It hadn’t been even close to his birthday, had it? Harry’s explanation was enough to tug at her memories, more specifically their first face-to-face conversation after his arrival on the Enterprise. The difference in time was the problem between them and, yet again, it was popping up and making things awkward. “Well…..” she began quietly, torn between doing what she wanted to do and what Harry would probably prefer her to do.

He wouldn’t want anyone to make a fuss, but Ginny didn’t usually listen. To her, Harry had spent nine years of his life without anyone doing much to acknowledge his birthday and it was the job of everyone who cared about him to fill that gap. “It might not have been close your birthday at home, but that’s no reason not to celebrate it here,” she said, stopping herself short of mentioning that this was a chance to spend the day with his parents and Sirius. If Harry hadn’t thought about it on his own yet, he surely would given a little time.

He considered asking her in. There was no reason he shouldn't, though he also didn't really know what they would do if he did. Back home, there wouldn't be a question about what to do and how to celebrate, but ever since he showed up here, things had just been awkward. More awkward, even, than they were when they were broken up from her time in the first place. "What did you have in mind?" he asked.

His fingers tightened a little bit around the bottom of the cupcake. He thought he could eat it or split it with her or something, so he gestured for her to come in as the door slid closed behind them both. "Want half?" Harry asked.

She hadn’t really planned on going in his quarters, but Ginny didn’t really know what else she could do but follow Harry inside when he gestured for her to step inside. It would be rude to ignore it, and potentially more awkward to tell him no, so she just went with it. “Nothing specific,” she said in answer to his question, “I know that Alicia and Katie had the joint party since Neville is here now, but I didn’t really…….” With a sigh, as much from frustration as exasperation, Ginny gave him a shrug. “I didn’t plan anything because I didn’t think you’d want me to.”

To her surprise, the admission didn’t sound harsh coming out of her mouth, just matter of fact and tinged with that sadness that she couldn’t seem to get around no matter what.

“No, you go ahead,” she told him, gesturing vaguely at the cupcake. “There are plenty more where that one came from. I can always go get my own later.”

Harry managed a smile at her, a real one, and bit into the cupcake. "Maybe if it wasn't just days after I showed up, maybe then I'd be all right with something but - it doesn't really even feel like my birthday." Though that meant, he reminded himself, that hers wasn't too far off. He was going to have to make sure to keep track so he didn't forget.

Not that he had any reason to be over the top about her birthday, not here and now, like this, but he certainly didn't want to miss it. He nodded to the cupcake. "Thanks for this. It's pretty good. Almost as good as a real glass of butterbeer."

“No, I understand,” Ginny said, giving a nod of her head that was perhaps a little too much for the situation. “Of all the mental things that you go through when you get here, adjusting to the idea that it’s a different month than it used to be is harder than remembering it’s a different century.” It was hard to forget that part given their surroundings. “Being in space distorts things, there’s not a climate or a sun or anything to help keep track.”

Sure, they had different settings on the ship to simulate those things, but even on the holodeck it just wasn’t quite the same as the real thing.

“You’re welcome,” she replied with a small grin, tapping her fingers against the outside of her thigh while she considered a thought that had just popped into her head. She wasn’t sure if Harry had seen the holodeck, but even if he had, it wasn’t as if he would turn down a chance to go flying.

And so Ginny opened her mouth to ask the question, putting it out there before doubts had a chance to creep in and talk her out of it. “Harry, do you want to go flying?”

He was mid-bite on the cupcake again when she asked if he wanted to go flying, and he looked over at her, surprised. Surprised that she was asking about something that would put them into spending more time together, for one, and for two, that she had already determined there was a place for them to go flying. Well, that second part didn't surprise him that much. Of course Ginny would have figured that out already.

"Right now?" he asked, the cupcake frosting smathered around his mouth. He reached up to wipe it (and the dumbfounded look) off of his face.


“Well, I’d have to go back to my room to get my broom and then we’d have to go down to the Holodeck but yeah, right now,” she replied with a grin, doing her best not to laugh at the surprise and confusion that Harry was glancing at her with.

She had been sure that someone else would have told him about the holodeck and the quidditch pitch, but it seemed that Ginny had been wrong. It was clear that Harry had no idea and that just made the whole situation all the better. It was almost like a proper birthday present, which suited her because she hadn’t had the opportunity to buy him anything. Bringing him a cupcake didn’t count as they were free in the mess hall.

A grin crossed his face and he found himself eager to spend time with her, to fly maybe even, as though things weren't awkward and off for them. "That sounds really great, yeah," he said. "Let's go."