Author's Note: Written for…
Famous Witches and Wizards Card Challenge. Prompts: romance genre, archive, mysterious
School of Prompts Challenge. Prompts: steam, kindred, hold
Raise a Witch or Wizard Challenge. Prompt: Ginny/Colin
Hidden Ink
Years and years ago, when Ginny was but a small girl watching her big brothers going off to school, she would often lay awake at night and stare at the ceiling, picturing herself wearing a tie of scarlet and gold. She saw herself attending classes and playing Quidditch, and she counted down the days until she could be there.
Little did she know that much of her school experience would be spent in the same way. At night she would stare at the roof of her canopy bed, scarlet drapes closed around her, and wonder what things were like at home. She counted down the days until summer holidays, when she would be free of a maniacal professor trying to overtake the school.
As her fourth year wore on, and as Umbridge gained more power, Ginny found herself daydreaming more and more. She would sit by the windows in the common room and look out at the sky until it grew dark, or watch the steam rise off of her tea until it grew too cold to drink. The boredom was too much to bear.
When a mystery finally presented itself to her, Ginny couldn't help but turn away.
She'd been lying on the couch in the common room for hours, too tired to do her homework but not tired enough to sleep. She couldn't guess at the time, but she knew it was late from the lack of light. After midnight all the torches went out and the fireplace was the only remaining light in the common room.
She heard a noise from one of the staircases but didn't bother to move. Sleepless nights were at an all-time high this year. She expected the person to come sit by the fire, to join her in the darkness so they could bond over their mutual sleeplessness, or something. A kindred, tired friend.
But instead the footsteps moved passed the couch and toward the portrait hole. Ginny curiously peeked over the back of the couch to see who would be dumb enough to go sneaking out. Her brothers, probably, or Harry.
"Colin?"
The boy whirled around at the sound of his name, eyes wildly searching the room until they found Ginny slowly rising from the couch.
"You scared me half to death!" he whispered angrily as he threw the backpack he carried over his shoulder.
"Sorry, you just surprised me. You don't strike me as the sneaking type." Since spending a great deal of their first year in the infirmary, Colin had been a lot less adventurous. Ginny was pleasantly surprised he'd even signed up for the DA.
Colin shuffled awkwardly and kept looking over Ginny's shoulder, at the staircases.
"Can you keep a secret?"
She resisted the strong urge to roll her eyes, and instead she slipped closer to him, lowering her voice. "Of course."
He was still for a long moment, seeming to be deciding something as his eyes stared into hers intensely. Then, with his mind made up, he grabbed Ginny's hand and pulled her through the portrait hole.
"Where are we going?" she asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet as the portrait swung closed and the Fat Lady eyed them disapprovingly.
"This way," Colin whispered cryptically, sneaking along the corridor.
He led her down two floors and through a series of twisting hallways, always weary of Filch and Mrs. Norris. He refused to light his wand for fear of being caught and felt his way along.
When they passed the prefects' bathroom, Ginny became suspicious of where he was taking her. No one went beyond the bathroom. The rooms there had been empty since long before her parents had been at school, or so they'd told her. She'd always found the hallway to be a bit mysterious, but Fred and George had assured her they'd already found all the interesting places at school.
There was a small plaque beside the door that Colin had them stop at, but it was old and faded and Ginny had a hard time reading it in the dim light of a torch down the hall.
"I found this at the start of term," Colin told her quietly, hand hovering above the doorknob. "Only me and Dennis know about it."
"If you want, I can leave."
"No, no. I want to show someone. And I think you'll like this."
He opened the door slowly, beckoning Ginny in with his other hand. Only once the door was closed did he light his wand, and then the chandelier.
The room was much too small to be a classroom, or even an office. Aside from the door and the single, drape-covered window across from it, every inch of the walls were covered in floor to ceiling bookshelves. In the center of the room sat a long wooden table with six chairs seated around it.
"What is this place?" she wondered. Colin stood beside her, nervously fiddling with the strap of his bag as he watched her reaction.
"It's the Archive."
"Archive of what?"
Ginny examined one of the shelves, intending to find out what sort of books were kept there, but discovered instead that they held only newspapers, magicked to stand straight on the shelves.
She slid one out and looked at the headline.
'SLYTHERIN WINS CUP AFTER GRYFFINDOR PLUMMET'
"This is from 1953," she read, running a thumb across the perfectly preserved parchment.
"It's one of the last editions. They stopped publishing the next year."
It was only then that she bothered to look at the title.
"What's 'Weekly Whispers'?"
Colin smiled, swinging his backpack onto the table and taking a seat. "The best we've been able to figure out, it was the school newspaper from 1845 to 1956. And this room is what's left of them."
Ginny's eyes lit up and she slid the newspaper back into its slot on the shelf.
"How come I've never heard of it?"
Colin shrugged. "No clue. Don't know why it's not around anymore either. But Dennis and I counted and there are a hundred and eleven years' worth of issues stored here, so we started calling it the Archive."
Ginny took the seat across from him at the table and swung her legs excitedly. "This is amazing, Colin! There's so much here, there's probably something in here about my grandparents, or great-grandparents. How come you've been keeping this place a secret?"
"We meant to, originally, but it's become a nice place to study and…" Colin stopped himself and sighed. He reached for his bag and slowly unpacked it, pulling out a couple of textbooks, followed by his camera. Lastly he pulled out a stack of photographs, holding them out to her.
They were recent, she could tell. There were shots from the exploding snap tournament in the common room a few weeks ago, from the Gryffindor Quidditch try-outs, and of the announcements at the start of term feast.
"What's all this?"
"My poor attempt at being a reporter," he replied, repacking the bag. "Den and I thought it would be fun to try and bring back the newspaper. He's writing articles and I took these photos."
He reached across the table and tapped a photo of the quaffle being the thrown between the would-be chasers. "Den and I don't know much about Quidditch. We could use someone who knows sports."
Ginny's eyes lit up as she handed the photos back. "Really? You want me to join the newspaper?"
Colin looked away, blushing. "I think you'd be a great addition to the team, Ginny."