Chapter Two: Night Shift

            Three hours and forty clean cauldrons later, Ginny, Drew, Colin and Vicky trudged up the stairs, back to Gryffindor common room. Ginny traipsed up to her room to change out of her almost-but-not-quite ruined, yet certainly stained, robes and into clean clothes. She took her Potions books from her bag and went into the common room to find Hermione. She was sitting at a desk with a roll of parchment and an open book.

            "I'll be ready in two seconds Ginny," she said, not looking up. "I'm almost done." A few minutes later she looked up. "Alright, so what have you covered so far?" An hour later, Ginny was confident she knew nothing and Hermione's encouragement only served to frustrate her even more.

            "I still don't understand," said Ginny, frustrated almost to tears. "Why don't they just use a simple spell? It would be so much easier and I wouldn't be here worrying about it!"

            "Gin, my only advice is just accept it and move on," said Hermione. "There's no use asking why, it'll only confuse you. Look, I know you know this. Questioning yourself will only unlearn what we've done." Ginny burst into tears.

            "Hermione, we haven't done anything!" she sobbed. "I don't know any of this. I'm going to fail and I can't fail this otherwise it'll bring me too close to a grade that'll tip my grades to the unacceptable range." Hermione picked up the glass of water next to her and threw it in Ginny's face.

            "Snap out of it," said Hermione sternly. "You'll be fine. You're a very bright girl. Let's just go back to the basics: what do all of these potions have in common?"

            "They all include something from the same plant," said Ginny frowning.

            "Yes, but which plant?" asked Hermione. "Think."

            "Is it sweet grass?" asked Ginny. Hermione smiled and nodded vigorously.

            "Why do they need sweet grass?" asked Hermione.

            "Because when it's the right season, sweet grass can flush toxins out of the body," said Ginny.

             "And?" asked Hermione.

            "And it has properties that, when mixed with other ingredients, can boost energy and help to restore a healthy balance in the body?" asked Ginny, positive that she just bullshit the answer completely.

            "Yes!" said Hermione enthusiastically. "I told you that you know this stuff. Alright, moving to recipes: what are the three most common recipes of Restorative Potions?" After another hour Ginny thought she might actually know the material well enough to get a decent grade on the test. Hermione headed up to bed while Ginny pulled out some parchment to work on her Charms homework.

            "Burning the midnight oil?" asked Harry as he sat down next to her.

            "You have no idea," said Ginny.

            "I'm making a kitchen run," he said. "Would you like to join me?"

            "Thanks Harry, but I have too much work to do," she said.

            "Want me to bring you something?" he asked.

            "No thanks," said Ginny. Harry stood up and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

            "Look on the bright side," said Harry. "At least today is over in five minutes." He then put on his invisibility cloak and left the tower. Ginny looked around and realized she was the only person left in the room. She sighed and finished her Charms homework. Looking at her watch, it was quarter past. She ran her fingers through her hair and took a deep breath. She'd proof read her Transfiguration essay, which she had thankfully started the night they had been given the assignment, and then she would go to bed. Her Muggle Studies teacher had given the class a night off and Hagrid would understand if she came to Care of Magical Creatures slightly unprepared. However, looking at her essay the lines started to blur together. The next thing she knew, Ginny was being shaken awake by Harry.

            "Gin, it's one thirty," he said. "What are you still doing here?"

            "What?" she asked, groggily. Harry just laughed a little under his breath.

            "Just get to bed," he said. "That's an order." He helped her up from her chair and headed towards his room.

            "Night Harry," she said.

            "Night Gin," he replied. "If I don't see you down here before we go to breakfast, I'll send Hermione up to check on you." Ginny smiled sleepily.

            "Thanks."

"It's three am and I wanna go bed" – OAR

THANKS TO:

Booteroo– my very first review! Yay!

A/N: So very sorry – to those who even read this – that this took so long. I got massive writer's block and so I decided to work on college stuff and I got all wrapped up in that and we had family visiting and I promise the next one will be up very soon…I hope you'll review…HINT, HINT.