She found herself strewn naked upon the ground amidst a circle of stones within a decaying countryside. Snakes slithered across her flesh, forked tongues flickering and caressing her bare flesh, hissing their dirty promises of power and wish granting into her ears.
Ever so slowly, a humanoid figure arose from the throng of serpents blanketing her world. it stared down upon her naked form, its red eyes so glowing with power and contempt. A serpentine tongue emerged from the figure's maw. "Obey me." The silver tongued devil demanded. Its sulphurous breath descended upon her, the foul cloud eroding the slithering cowl of snakes so embracing her. The being's head swayed so rhythmically and she watched entranced.
Without thought promises of servitude flowed readily off her tongue now so dispossessed of any sanity or reason. The God's maw expanded endlessly into a toothy grin and snapped forth, engulfing her. In but a moment she knew only darkness.
-=S-S=-
Ginny awoke in a cold sweat to the pitch black of her new quarters, images of serpents and half recalled clandestine whispers flittering at the edges of her barely coherent mind. Bile rose in her chest and she rushed into the bathroom heaving dryly over the rim of the toilet. Rising, she splashed her face with cold water to dispel the sleepiness still clinging to her and headed back into the main room.
She was greeted by a rather worried looking Harry dressed in elegant looking emerald pyjamas. She idly noted that they matched his eyes, feeling somewhat foolish for it.
"What's wrong?" She was mildly surprised to find his face and tone full of genuine concern.
"Nothing, really, just a nightmare." She shuddered slightly and in barely a whisper added "Snakes."
Harry nodded sympathetically at the girl. The Slytherin dorms certainly had a certain air to them, one that could play with your head at the best of times, never mind after a day like she had yesterday. He was quite concerned by the fact that her nightmare however seemed a lot more potent than any he could recall having, if her utter lack of colour, trembling and sweat drenched night dress were anything to go by. He turned and walked over to a desk pulling a small shimmering crimson potion from within one of the compartments. "This is a Calming Draught." He explained handing her the bottle.
Without missing a beat she pulled the cork out, smiled up at him thankfully and downed the contents of the bottle. She allowed herself to savour the feeling of the potion beginning to take effect before getting a quizzical look on her face. "Where'd you get this?"
"I brewed it over the summer," he gestured at the still open cupboard in the desk he had retrieved the draught from, one which was still packed with various potions. "I needed something to do at home, I couldn't exactly practice spell work in a Muggle area."
She wandered over to his collection of potions and idly picked up a few glancing at their labels. "I'm impressed!" She knew all too well how tedious it could be to brew number of 'simple' potions from her Mother's own attempts at them going horribly wrong from the slightest of errors.
He smiled at her, happy in both the praise and at the fact the Calming Draught seemed to be having an immediate effect. "Hopefully Snape won't be as much of a git to me now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing." He paused brushing his messier than usual hair out of his face. "I had a lot of problems getting started in potions." He said idly, "Snape's booklist is pretty advanced compared to the other magical schools. I've been working a lot from Durmstrang's booklist. They start out with simpler material than Hogwarts in a few areas, potions and defence being the most notable." He walked over to the bookshelf nearest his bed and picked out a couple of text books tossing them over to her.
She read the covers and raised a quizzical eyebrow at him, "Potions for the Simple-minded?"
"What can I say?" He grinned at her, "I guess all potion masters have a little bit of Snape in them."
She snorted and began flipping through the next few books, narrating their titles as she went, "Magical Defensive Techniques for Beginners, Transfiguration Tips and Tricks," she paused frowning at the last book she had in her hands and looked up at him rather expectantly "An Introductory Guide to the Dark Arts?"
He eyed her warily, assessing her reaction to the book, he'd mainly gave her it to gauge her reaction but she wasn't giving anything obvious away with her body language. "Quite the mouthful of a title, don't you agree?" Still glimpsing nothing from her he supposed he'd have to give up on the indirect route. "What's your opinion on the Dark Arts"?
"They're evil." The reply was automatic and came without thought. Ginny looked up at him and frowned upon noticing the rather dirty look he was throwing her. Thinking about it, she was reasonably certain he'd used dark magic last night. She hadn't really thought anything of it at the time, the snake summoning had certainly stopped a few angry looking Slytherin girls making a move on her when she'd entered her dorms with it coiled around her neck.
She'd always been told the Dark Arts were the stuff of childhood nightmares, spells that exclusively robbed you of your mind, body and soul. The spell he'd cast to summon the snake had certainly not stolen her soul as far as she could tell. She couldn't help but wonder if there were other Dark spells that were different from those focused around torture and killing that her childhood tales had warned her of.
She furtively glanced back at Harry, feeling a bit foolish, "They can be evil. But they don't have to be?" The words came out as a hesitant question but upon seeing harry nodding at her reply and she felt herself relaxing slightly.
"True enough." he crossed the room and sat himself down next to her. After shifting slightly to get comfortable, he began to speak to her in a lecturing tone "What you need to keep in mind is that a large number of dark spells are not actually dark but simply dangerous."
He paused, pulling out his wand in a repeat of last night called forth a long black snake with a flick of his wand and a muttered incantation.
"Take 'Serpensortia' for example, it simply conjures a snake. That snake is given an order based on the casters intention." He paused, idly hissing at the snake which then began to spiral up around his body before settling around his as it had the previous day with Ginny. "The problem is, if you're not a Parselmouth, you can't tell it to stop."
He lowered his arm allowing the serpent to spiral down it and across onto Ginny's lap, who began petting it almost automatically.
"If you're angry when you use the spell, you may order the snake to kill without really intending to. And if you can't tell the snake to stop or manage to dispel it in time, you've just murdered someone." He paused to briefly watch the serpent in Ginny's lap. He was quite amused to find it completely enamoured with her and hissing happily at her every touch. He was pleasantly surprised at her taking to snakes so easily, it would make helping her that much easier. "It's hardly a 'Dark' spell. It was pretty commonly used for pest control before it started to be branded as dark magic"
She smiled at him weakly before looking back at the small stack of books she had been thrown. She reached across and took out the 'An Introductory Guide to the Dark Arts' book and began flipping lazily through the pages, skim reading as she went.
The book was full of every type of spell imaginable. There were reams and reams of spells listed along with what they were for and notes on when and why they had been branded 'Dark' in various countries. A large portion of the spells were quite violent, to the extent she could see few redeeming features for them, but a few spells branded as 'Dark' in Europe were things she had been taught were minor hexes or inconveniences. She was surprised to find that Harry had marked off a couple of the spells marked as illegal outside of formal duelling in France were taught in Defence in Hogwarts itself in later years.
She eventually came across a number of later dedicated to what the tome had labelled as 'True Dark Arts'. These chapters mainly focused on spells of purely malevolent nature, she felt mildly disgusted as she thumbed through some of these chapters. The pages focused almost entirely on spells designed purely to aid in the act of killing or inflicting fatal injuries on others as well as those that heavily affected people's mental and bodily states. Several of the pages depicted elaborate rituals designed to enslave or ensnare others to do the bidding of the users.
She tossed the book aside, not entirely sure what to make of it at this point. "So, why'd you give this to me?" she turned and gazed at him expectantly.
He simply gave her a wry smiled in response. "The Dark Slytherin stereotype is truer than you might expect."
He paused and glanced at her to ensure he had her attention before he continued "I doubt you noticed, but not a single muggle-born ended up as a Slytherin." He frowned slightly at his own words "It's hardly surprising, given the general animosity within the house towards them. The chances are that would literally have to endure seven years of borderline torture."
He leant forward steepling his hands in front of his face and staring distantly in front of him "Almost all of the pureblood Slytherins know a few pretty damaging curses upon their arrival at Hogwarts. If they don't, they either find themselves a 'mentor' in the older years to teach them or simply find the materials to teach themselves some. I know Malfoy bragged about his father having him learn 'Serpensortia' on the day he got his Hogwarts Letter, he thought it was a delightful present, and I know for a fact several of the others in my year knew a variety of basic curses." He paused momentarily, eyes glazing over. "Really enjoyed their cutting curses…"
He trailed off into silence, leaving Ginny somewhat confused as to how to continue. She left him to his own thoughts for a few minutes before she hesitantly reached out and placed her hand upon his shoulder. She was awarded with a violent flinch and Harry spinning around to face her, looking absolutely terrified. Desperately attempting to calm himself he slumped backwards limply, resting the back of one of his hands across his eyes. "Sorry about that…"
She looked at the boy feeling rather fearful of her own housemates, if this was the reaction remembering the curses of his housemates had evoked in Harry, what could they do to her? She was nowhere near as powerful as Harry afterall. She briefly squeezed his shoulder again and was rather surprised to feel his hand take hers in his and cling to it somewhat desperately.
It took several minutes for him to fully regain his composure, feeling somewhat more relaxed he gently shook his head at his loss of control, before resuming speaking. "Right, the Slytherins." He ran a hand idly through his hair collecting his thoughts. "You shouldn't have as much trouble as I did in my first few months, it took me until Christmas to realise I could even get in here. It turned out the library isn't a very good place to hide from people who want to curse you. And there isn't anywhere to hide in a shared dorm." He chuckled bitterly at his own words.
"It's pretty much a given the Slytherins will attempt to harm you." He grinned rather ferally at her, "They aren't going to do it within the common room because of obvious reasons. They won't go for an outright attack but you're likely to get hit by the odd spell in the corridors between classes. How damaging the spells will depend on who decides to try and mess with you." He stopped looking at her meaningfully, "I want you to keep one of my summons with you until you get better at defence."
She nodded automatically, seeing no real reason to deny his request.
He smiled at her acceptance and continued with his lecturing. "The majority of the other houses' members aren't going to be out to do real harm to you. The 'puffs are the least likely to actually attack you but a few of the more disgruntled ones might try and take their frustrations out on you if you look like an easy target. You shouldn't have any trouble with them really." She nodded prompting him to continue. "The Gryffindors mostly go for humiliation over real damage. Stuff like the Jelly-Legs and tripping Jinxes."
"The Ravenclaws are a mixed batch. Mostly they leave the other houses alone but a lot of 'claws have been bullied by the Slytherins in the past. There are more than enough members of the house who'd happily take their petty revenge on you for being a slytherin." Suddenly remembering his summon he glanced across Ginny's form and was pleased to see it was happily coiled around her neck, quite asleep.
"It's pretty stereotypical but from my experience the 'claws are fond of learning obscure or difficult curses. Most of them are easily fixable, but several of the older claws I've seen to dabble in the dark arts. They're quite willing to use almost anything on you if they think it's justified and that they can get away with it." He chuckled to himself humourlessly. "Luckily, the large majority simply don't care about anything going on outside their own house." He paused, adding "Except Quidditch" as an afterthought.
Giggle laughed, grinning at him "I can understand that."
A sudden thought occurred to her and she looked at Harry frowning. "Who am I supposed to support? I don't think the Gryfinndors will appreciate me cheering for my brothers."
Harry laughed at her words, "I don't really support any of the teams, I tend to hide during the games"
Ginny looked at him quizzically "Hide?" she smirked "Where on earth can the Boy-Who-Lived hide at a Quiddich match?"
He grinned at her shrewdly before finally releasing her hand, something she found herself mildly disappointed about, and crossing the room to his trunk and pulling out a rather flowing silvery-grey cloak. He returned to his seat next to her and looked at her with a serious expression on his face. "You can't tell anyone about what I'm about going to show you."
Sensing the severity in his tone she nodded and with a determine expression told him, "I won't tell a soul."
He looked into her eyes briefly before nodding, seemingly accepting her words at face value. Without a word he draped the cloak over her legs and told her to "Look down." in an expectant tone.
She did as instructed and was shocked to find her lower half had completely vanished from view. Rising she headed to the closest mirror and began experimenting with covering various parts of herself looking on at her reflection in awe. "A real Invisibility Cloak…" She looked across at Harry and saw him smiling across at her.
"It is rather nice," He leant back in his chair closing his eyes wearily, the early hour beginning to get to him. "As long as you don't mind spending the matches under that with me, you needn't worry about people reacting badly to you."
She smiled at his words and returned to her seat next to him, pulling off the invisibility cloak and depositing it on his lap. "That'd be nice." A mischievous smile grew on her face "Do you think we could sneak in to watch the Gryffindor practices?"
Harry let out a brief snort at her idea "No problem. But the twins tell me their captain Wood is insane, I don't really want him attempting to gut me alive for stealing his plays."
Ginny giggled at the words, she'd heard plenty of stories from the Twins during the summer of being woken up at the earliest hours of the morning to practice. "Maybe just matches will be fine."
Harry rose and dispelling the snake he had summoned spoke to her "Get back to bed. You're going to need all the rest you can get before tomorrow morning."
She nodded silently and returned to the sofa she had picked out the previous night and lay in wait of sleep overtaking her.
-=S-S=-
Before Ginny knew it she was up, dressed and in the main hall waiting for her breakfast. Harry had awoke her much earlier than she was used to but sitting here as the hall filled with people pointing and whispering at her he appreciated the few minutes of blessed silence arriving early had offered her. The constant flow of smaller reactions was certainly preferable to having the entire hall gape at her if she had come in later. Apparently the Weasley family was much more well-known than she had believed, that or her brothers had made a bigger name for themselves than she had heard, and the fact that the youngest and only female Weasley was the one who had turned out to be dark was quite a novelty.
The fact Harry had seemingly 'claimed' her was also fast becoming common knowledge, she had lost count of the number of people who had pointed at her as they passed whispering something in hushed voices. In fact it was only Harry's presence and support that was stopping her from exploding in rage at someone. Seeing him so calm made her feel less obliged to snipe back at those whispering about her. It also helped that he seemed to have developed an instinctive knowledge of when she was close to losing control; he had calmed her several times with but a word or touch.
Time passed excruciatingly slow for Ginny and it felt like decades had passed by the time one of the Slytherin prefects came around to hand out the class timetables. It turned out she had 'Defence Against the Dark Arts' with Lockhart first thing followed immediately by Charms and Double Potions with the Gryffindors after lunch.
She noticed Harry peering over her shoulder at her timetable and rose a quizzical eyebrow when she saw he was grinning at her "What are you grinning at?" her tone was extremely defensive.
Raising his hands to her as a sign of peace he began "You get to experience Lockhart first." He grinned wickedly at her. "I hope you'll tell me about the experience later."
She was somewhat confused about his reaction, from what she'd heard Lockhart was an amazing man with a lot of experience, granted it was almost entirely from her mother who fancied the pants off him. "What do you mean? Lockhart's a great man!"
Harry simply shook his head in amusement as a response. "I just have a feeling he's not going to live up to his books." He glanced across to the teachers' table meaningfully where Lockhart had his arm draped around Flitwick's shoulder and was animatedly telling him a story, the sour expression on the professor's face spoke volumes about his opinion of the man. Harry chuckled at the sight, "Not going to live up to them at all."
-=S-S=-
Ginny arrived at her first class without incident after following a few brief directions from Harry. Breakfast had been a gruelling affair, the whispered did not die off as she had hoped but seemed to be fuelled with every interaction with Harry. She had spied her brothers sending stern looks or underhanded spells at several of the Gryffindors who had been loudly bad mouthing her for succumbing to Slytherin. Harry had assured her that within a few weeks they would be mostly used to her.
She had taken a seat in the back corner of her DADA class where she felt least likely to be noticed. She almost wished she had Harry's invisibility cloak. She was exceptionally glad that Harry had insisted upon her taking a summoned snake with her to her classes until she learnt more defence, several of the older students had gave her some quite venomous looks only to back down fearfully upon catching sight of the snake coiled around her neck. She dumped her rather haggard copies of Lockhart's books on the desk and waited for the Professor to arrive attempting to ignore the snickers of the other students at the quality of her books. She was feeling rather at the end of her leash and at this point hoped harry would teach her a good hex or two to use on all the idiots who were constantly gaping or laughing at her.
She was interrupted from her internal musings by one Gilderoy Lockhart striding into the room head held high. He perched himself lazily on the front of his desk and cleared his throat loudly for the class. After several moments silence fell across the room and giving the class a winning smile he reached for one of his books stacked on everyone's desks and held it up to the class showing off the portrait of him on the cover that was posing dramatically next to an image of what seemed to be a vampire.
"Me." He pointed at the cover and winked at the class as a whole. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and…" A huge smile overtook his face almost comically, "five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile award." He paused dramatically and Ginny wondered just how many times he'd been through this routine before. "But I don't talk about that. My smile didn't earn me my Order of Merlin afterall!" He looked around the class beaming. If he was fazed by the fact no one was returning his cheer he didn't let it show.
Not one to be put off by the attitude of some bratty Slytherin's Lockhart instantly resumed his 'teaching'. "You, of all Hogwarts students, are the highest honoured amongst the students here," his tone had turned from cheerful to quite dramatic and Ginny noticed that a few of the student's interests were piqued momentarily. "You are the first students in the entire history of magic to be taught by, myself, Gilderoy Lockhart!" There were several audible groans at the proclamation which Lockhart deftly ignored.
Smiling genially around the room he returned the book he had grabbed from a desk in the front row and headed to the chair behind his desk. "Now then! Open your copies of 'Voyages with Vampires' and turn to the first page!" He flipped open his own copy smile widening, "You, my dear students, have the rare opportunity of an hour of narration with myself!" He smiled around the room, looking as if he had just exposed a great secret of the universe to them. "Be sure to keep up!" Groaning herself, Ginny grabbed a quill and prepared to start scribbling down the man's words, feeling somewhat distantly annoyed at Harry for being so very right about the man.
-=S-S=-
Both of Ginny's first two classes passed without much incident DADA turned out to literally be an hour of Lockhart reading out from his book while they scribbled down extra notes when prompted. Charms class however was mildly interesting; they hadn't started any true practical work but had begun to practice various common wand movements, it was certainly a lot better than listening to Lockhart talk about how wonderful he was.
The brief break between lunch and her charms lesson found Ginny in a corridor with a group of fourth year Slytherins, as soon as she took a step past them she felt an immense pain erupt in her back She found herself wracked in agony and had crashed hard onto to the floor in an instant. The snake Harry had left with her was instantly towering high above her fallen form, letting out an endless string of hisses, ready to strike down anyone who approached. The group of fourth years next to her at the time had instantly fled upon her being struck by the spell and thus there was no one around who had witnessed the act when Snape descended upon her.
"Miss Weasley I do hope there is a good reason as to why you are lying on the floor wrapped in what appears to be a highly venomous snake." His tone was as snide as she had come to expect from stories shared within her family.
She rose from the floor slowly and painfully, the snake around her neck relaxing slightly, she rubbed her back still feeling extremely sore. "Yes, Sir." She panted for breath after forcing out her words and upon regaining her breath continued. "I was hit by a spell from behind, Sir." She paused wondering if she should bother telling the man the snake was Harry's, as it turned out she didn't have to.
"Am I to assume the snake belongs to one Mr Potter?" She was rather shocked to find the man sounding almost amused upon asking the question.
"Yes Professor, it's his." He gave her a curt nod and drawing his wand cast a wordless blue spell upon her. She instantly felt the pain recede in her back and gasped out a brief "Oh!"
Smirking Snape spoke once again "'Oh!' indeed." He flicked his hand and his wand vanished instantly from her sight. "Do you have any idea who may have cast the spell?" His tone was strict and expectant.
"No professor." She paused seeing a piercing look in his eyes "They attacked from behind, Sir. There were some of your fourth years nearby who may have seen whoever cast the spell but they fled as soon as I was hit."
Professor Snape's face twisted into a rather ugly scowl and muttered mostly to himself "Fleeing from their own, pathetic." He gave her another sharp look and continued "Well then Miss Weasley, I advise you to head to the Nurse's office, she should be able to provide a salve to more properly treat the pain."
She nodded at the man gratefully, recognising his 'advise' as the disguised command it actually was. "Thank you, Sir." He nodded at her curtly acknowledging her before turning to leave, his cloak billowing behind him. She watched him leave, briefly wondering to herself if he really just wore such a flowing cloak for dramatic effect, before heading in the direction of nurse's office as she was advised.
-=S-S=-
When Ginny finally arrived in the last fifteen minutes of lunch she was rather surprised to find that the hall was extremely subdued. As she approached closer to the Slytherin table she was startled to find that the usual 'rift' across the table double the size of that morning's leaving Harry much more isolated than they had been previous nights and the breakfast this morning.
It did not take long for her to realise why, she could practically feel the rage rolling off Harry as she approached him. Feeling somewhat unsure of herself she simply placed a hand on his shoulder momentarily and sat down next to him. His head snapped up to face her muttered a meek "Hi."
Relief washed over Harry's face upon seeing her "You're alright!"
"Yea, I'm fine. Why were you so worried?" She paused tilting her head quizzically at the table around them "You seem to have terrified that lot" She gestured behind her with a brief wave.
"Snape told me, and I quote, 'The Weasley girl has been attacked by an unknown party and is currently at the hospital wing.' He didn't clarify, the Bastard." A low growl escaped his throat with the word. "What actually happened? Snape made me think someone managed to hospitalise you on your first bloody day."
She frowned at his words wondering why Snape would word it like that when he clearly knew she was not that badly injured. "Someone hit me with a pain curse, 'Doloriactum' I think Madam Pomfrey said, Snape found me and cast a relief spell on me and sent me to the nurse."
Harry swore under his breath and a look of realisation rose on his face "Snape was messing with me." He looked across to the staff table and was met by the sight of Snape smirking at him mockingly. "Is this Snape's idea of a joke? I guess anything's possible." He shook his head at the ridiculousness of the situation. "We're going to Diagon on Saturday. Snape's going to find a prefect to escort us."
"Can we trust the prefects?" Ginny asked in a rather worried tone.
"Snape will be using monitoring charms. It'd be pointless to do anything if it would instantly be detected." He paused and grinned at her. "We'll be taking a snake along anyway."
She nodded before asking "Does the 'snake' have a name?"
Harry shook his head at her question "I've not named it." He paused "Feel free to suggest one if you can think of a good name for it."
Ginny smiled at the snake draped over her and gently stroked it before immersing herself in a conversation with Harry about his experiences with Snape and the other Slytherins.
-=S-S=-
Ginny's first potions class rolled around and was a quiet affair. Snape begun by taking attendance, his eyes flickered briefly over to her as he read her name but otherwise he made no move to recognise that he knew who she was over any other Slytherin. Snape moved around the class assigning partners and upon reaching Ginny assigned her to a boy named 'William Harper' who completely ignored her outside of grunting yes or no.
For their first potion Snape assigned them a simple boil cure potion and upon scribbling the instructions on the blackboard looked across the room and barked out a harsh. "Begin!" The potion itself was rather easy, the Harper boy basically followed her every order seemingly terrified of the snake that lurked just out of sight within the arms of her clothing. In the end Ginny and Harper's potion was one of the few to be completed, luckily there were no disasters like the one Harry had told him of Neville Longbottom melting his cauldron and causing horrific boils to completely cover him.
The hour passed mostly in a tense silence, Snape awarded four of the Slytherin pairs points for making a usable potion and only managed to find fault with the potion of a boy named 'Colin Creevey' and a girl named 'Natalie McDonald' which had somehow ended up a horrific neon green colour after their brewing efforts. Snape drew the class to the close and gestured for Ginny to remain behind as the other students began filtering out for dinner in the great hall.
"Yes Sir?" She attempted to sound as polite as she could, feeling somewhat sickly both from being detained and having spent so much time lingering around fumes within the dungeons.
"I've arranged your trip on Saturday with one Percy Weasley, he volunteered after hearing about the trip through McGonagall somehow." His smirk gave her the impression it was more due to his own manipulations that she had ended up with her brother than any stroke of luck on her behalf. She felt mildly worried about the upcoming event; she still wasn't entirely sure how Percy was really reacting to the news of her being in Slytherin.
She nodded politely at the potions master "Thank you Sir, I really appreciate you arranging this."
"I could hardly let one of my Slytherins run around with a half working wand could I?" He let out a soft snort of derision "I do not wish you to bring shame upon this house as your brothers do Gryffindor" She felt anger flash through her as he turned and stalked off towards his office door "Be at my office at six fifty Saturday morning, you will be flooing to Diagon Alley at exactly seven." Opening his office he gave her a brief glance of contempt and let out a snide "Don't be late." before closing the door behind him.
-=S-S=-
The trip to the Main Hall proved uneventful but Ginny found herself constantly glancing over her shoulder. She came to the tables before Harry had managed to arrive and was somewhat entertained when she found that the Slytherin table had still made an automatic parting around where he usually sat. She sat and started her meal without ceremony, the silence around her feeling oppressive. She felt stupid and weak for it but she was feeling rather desperate for Harry's company and couldn't imagine how he had managed to tolerate all this for a year without any help.
It was ten minutes into the feast when a rather tired looking Harry appeared beside her with a weary "Hey."
She looked at him with a concerned look on her face "What happened to you?"
"Herbology, apparently there's a rather large Devil's snare in one of the closed greenhouses. Attacked me when I snuck in to grab a pair of pruning shears as there were somehow none left in the main greenhouse." His tone left no doubt as to what he thought had really happened.
She smiled at him sympathetically and simply continued eating. After a couple of minutes of comfortable silence she decided to tell him of Snape's words. "Snape said that my brother Percy's going to take us to Diagon on Saturday, we have to be at his office at six fifty in the morning to meet him and then we'll floo across."
"Great. You need anything other than a wand?" He stifled a sudden yawn and looked at her expectantly.
She shook her head in response "No, not really."
"'Not really'?" His tone was surprisingly harsh.
Her eyes widened slightly at hearing the tone and she hastily asked "Will I need anything else for training?"
He let his vision travel across her before answering "Do you have any durable clothing?"
She felt herself blush feeling his eyes on her "Uh, I," She stumbled on her words somewhat flustered. "No, I don't think so." It was true enough; most of her clothing was either homemade or second hand, hardly stuff designed to hold up to stress.
He nodded at her seemingly satisfied "We'll pick you up some properly reinforced robes and clothing then." He paused, eyes flickering to her "Should help stop any more of that happening." He finished while gesturing meaningfully at her back. She felt somewhat humiliated at his casual mention of her injury.
Before she had a chance to say anything she felt his hand on her shoulder and looked up at him, her eyes wide. "Never feel embarrassed about what others will do to you."
His eyes and voice were full of passion and she found herself automatically nodding determinedly. "Thank you" The words escaped as but a whisper.
He smiled at her encouragingly "We'll start your training after we eat." He chuckled as her head whipped around in his direction to stare in rapt attention. "I was hoping no one would bother you for a while, but you've already been hit by a pretty complex curse."
She grinned at him sheepishly. "Sorry."
He rolled his eyes at her apology "It was hardly your fault Ginny, people are dicks." She let out a snort and he continued "You ready to go?"
She nodded silently and together they headed to their quarters.
-=S-S=-
Four hours later Ginny found herself sweating profusely in what used to be a simple pair of muggle jeans and a relatively thick t-shirt. Harry had wasted no time in ramping up her training, apparently she had managed to learn 'Protego' faster than he had and 'Expelliarmus' almost as fast, while having the added disadvantage of a mismatched wand. Apparently Harry had seen this as a cue to go absolutely bloody mental. She had spent the last hour and a half frantically blocking and avoiding everything that he could think of to throw at her, she'd been hit by flames, constricted by snakes, sliced by cutting spells and had been hit by a variety of minor hexes that would have made the twins jealous.
Rising from the wall against which she had found herself slumped she sent a glare in Harry's direction "You're a bloody nutter you know."
He grinned mischievously at her and simply said. "I do try." She couldn't help herself and found herself grinning back at him. "Let's stop for the night." His words caused her to sigh in relief.
"About fucking time, I'm about to collapse." She growled out in a manner totally unfitting her size and age.
He smirked at her "You've been becoming increasingly foul mouthed as time's gone on, you know?" She growled at him levelling her wand at him threateningly. "Easy there Gin," He raised his hands placatingly, "I'd hate to see what the twins would do to you if you killed their dark lord."
She simply tilted her head at him in response placing a finger thoughtfully against her lips "You know, I don't think your 'protection' is going to help me much." He raised an eyebrow at her in response to the comment and waited for her to continue. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up murdering you before the year is out."
He chuckled at her, opening the door to the training room for him and gesturing for her to pass. "You can use the bath first then. It's the least I can do to ease your bloodlust."
She shook her head at him smiling slightly and headed straight to the bathroom, shouting behind her "I guess you can live, for now."
He let out a brief laugh and shouted after the departing girl "What you think of your training so far?"
He heard a brief snort come from the bathroom followed by a cheeky shout of "Training? More like bloody torture!"
He grinned to himself. Ginny had pleasantly surprised him, she'd managed to mostly match his pace despite having no real prior experience with duelling or combat spells. He supposed having to deal with tormenting older brothers had uniquely prepared her for the experience of having spells endlessly flung at her, that or she was simply a natural.
Dispelling his thoughts he shouted back at her "You did well, really well!"
In the bathroom Ginny found a huge smile fixating itself on her face at the compliment. She honestly had no idea what level he was expecting her to live up to but was glad to have met it. She was rather proud of how well she had managed to perform.
Harry had told her that both 'Expelliarmus' and 'Protego' were generally second or third year spells, with protego occasionally slipping into fourth depending on the professors.
Throughout their training she had found herself continually impressed with his knowledge of spells. He had almost mastered most of the spells covered within Hogwarts up until the second year, defensive or otherwise, as well as a wide variety out of text books issued for both Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. She had at one point asked him why he seemed so obsessed with learning magic and she had simply received a silent glare that wouldn't have looked out of place on Snape in response.
She frowned thoughtfully while checking on the water level in her running bath. She had her suspicions that something awful had happened to Harry last year, his obsession with her own learning of defensive magic and his brief breakdown while mentioning cutting curses seemed to support this. She decided to simply wait it out, the reaction she received when she had attempted to pressure him about his desire to learn had been enough to make it clear she couldn't force anything out of the boy.
Stopping the flow to the now full bath she peeled off her ruined clothing and soaked herself in the hot water, letting the heat work out the lingering pains. A sudden unprovoked thought entered her mind and made her shudder fearfully, if he was working her this hard with what he himself called a 'faulty' wand, how hard would he work her when she had her own?
-=S-S=-
Friday arrived with only minor incidents, Ginny didn't find herself under spell fire again but Harry was the victim of a Conjunctivitis Curse which had caused him to miss his first session with Lockhart, something Ginny had been quite vocal about being envious of. Ginny had however had an exceptionally amusing flying lesson on Friday.
The Slytherin first years had been paired off with the Ravenclaws resulting in her reunion with Luna Lovegood. Luna, as it turned out, was not much of a flier and upon managing to get airborne had promptly began colliding with the other students in mid-air sending several into nosedives. Ginny being one amongst an incredibly small number who had managed to avoid being hit got the duty of keeping Luna grounded while Madam Hooch had escorted the majority of the class to the hospital wing.
The rest of the lesson had been spent in idle conversation with Luna about a wide variety of subjects ranging from her opinions on the teachers, her housemates, to her opinion on the broom she had attempted to use. During the course of the lessons she found out that Luna believed Professor Flitwick to be a cross between a Goblin, a Pixie and a Troll. She was thankfully not forthcoming with any theories on how such an unholy union would take place. She was also incredibly disappointed that no one within her house seemed to have any new information on Wrackspurts and she was almost completely sure that the reason she had so much trouble with the broom was due to a nargle infestation.
She had to admit to finding Luna a breath of fresh air amongst the students, most of the other Ravenclaws had eyed her with a mixture of contempt and fear and the Slytherins simply outright ignored her. At the very least Luna was sociable, even if she mostly talked about her insane theories on things.
Luna had also pestered her with questions about Harry, convinced that she would have some 'behind the scenes' information on the 'next Dark Lord'. She ended up rather disappointed when all Ginny would say was that he was indeed a Parselmouth and that he seemed to use the ability benevolently. She had shown Luna the summoned snake that she carried with her that day to illustrate her point and was pleased to see that Luna was rather taken with the creature, fussing over it and petting it for the rest of the lesson's duration.
She had left Luna with promises of meeting her with Harry in tow to potentially give her some tips on any spells she might be struggling with, she wasn't really sure how to react when Luna had stated in a rather giddy fashion that it would be 'just like being friends!'.
-=S-S=-
Saturday morning rolled around much sooner than Ginny would have liked and she found herself being awoken by Harry. Today was the day she'd be receiving her new wand, something Harry enjoyed stressing the importance of, as well as getting some proper clothing for training. She glanced at the pile of clothing that she had been wearing during training for the last few days, both the pants and t-shirt she had been wearing were ruined, numerous holes and the tell-tale blemishes of spell damage lined the articles. She almost regretted using the pair of jeans she had chosen as disposable, they might have been haggard but they were comfortable, and now neither they nor the shirt would ever be suitable for anything but use as rags again.
Yawning she pulled herself off the sofa she'd been utilising as a bed and grabbed herself some clothes out of her trunk. Glancing across the room to ensure Harry hadn't left, she sleuthed across the room into the bathroom claiming it before he had a chance.
She was rewarded with a rather loud and crass "Hoi!" from the main room and started giggling uncontrollably.
"Ladies first, Harry!" She managed amidst before being overtaken by a fresh fit of giggles.
A cry of "Witch!" was his only response.
She busied herself with the task of cleaning herself and found herself humming tunelessly. She felt much freer than she had the rest of the week, she wouldn't have to watch for petty students firing spells at her in Diagon and she'd be able to see one of her brothers.
Out of all the Gryffindor Weasleys she had only actually seen the twins in person since the sorting, the twins were on a break at the time and naturally they had made a joke of escorting her to her charms class all while wailing mournfully about their Dark Lord spending his time with her over them.
It had been immediately obvious to her that this was the twins' way of showing that they didn't begrudge her ending up in Slytherin and that they still saw her as their sister. It also made it clear that, despite their endless mockery of Harry as a Dark Lord, they held a great respect for him. She supposed that was why they hadn't bothered checking up on her more than once, they trusted harry with her, they certainly wouldn't have approached him after the sorting otherwise.
They had also mentioned in passing that she shouldn't expect to see much of them during normal term time; they knew she was already gaining infamy for associating with Harry Potter and didn't really want their reputation acting against her.
Thinking about the twins' attitudes towards her and Harry made her come to the attitudes of Ron and Percy. She honestly had no idea what they were both feeling towards her. According to the twins Percy had been making an effort to stifle any rumours about her that arose within Gryffindor, this gave her some amount of hope for the day out, but it was still painful that he had yet to try and speak to her directly.
He could be using this weekend as a means to contact her, she supposed, he wouldn't even have to feel like a traitor to his house. She shook her head slightly dismissing the rapidly bittering thoughts swimming around her head, he was going to be spending today with her, she would see where she stood with him soon enough.
Ron's stance was somewhat clearer than Percy's. She had heard off Harry about them briefly becoming friends on the train and his subsequent abandonment of him upon being sorted into Slytherin. In one of the rare insights into Harry's first year he had told her that Ron had been quite involved in the campaign against him last year, he'd been hexed by him several times at the very least. She honestly doubted she would ever be as close to Ron as she had been in the years before he had left for Hogwarts again. As it stood she was rather dependant on Harry for her safety within her house and the simple fact of the matter was Harry would not be forgiving Ron any time soon for his previous actions. It did not bode well for re-establishing a close familial relationship.
She finished up in the bathroom, and pulled on her clothing, heading out to the main room. Harry was waiting on the other side. He gently pushed his way past her shooting a dirty look in her direction as he went, instantly retriggering her into her earlier fit of giggles.
-=S-S=-
Harry and Ginny arrived promptly at Snape's office at exactly six fifty and were rather unsurprised to find Percy already there. They had been informed they were allowed to wear any clothing they desired for the trip and yet Percy had opted to wear his standard school robes as well as his prefect badge despite the fact they were leaving school grounds. Upon seeing him Ginny had let out a snort and muttered "Typical Percy." to a smirking Harry.
As they approached Percy straightened and upon their arrival held out a hand to Harry introducing himself. "Percy Weasley."
Harry had simply shot him an amused look and returned the gesture by shaking his hand firmly "Harry Potter."
Nodding respectfully Percy turned his attention to Ginny and in a formal voice stated "Ginevra."
Ginny had simply rolled her eyes and with a large smile grabbed him in a hug. "Don't call me that, you git!"
A great deal of tension seemed to leave Percy upon Ginny's hug. Clearly he had been expecting the typical icy Slytherin persona to have overtaken her. He stared at her intently for a few moments, as if ensuring she was still the same sister he had before she had been sorted. "How have you been, Ginny?" a small smile had appeared on his face, apparently he had decided she was indeed still his sister.
"I've been well. Harry's made sure of that." Her words were innocent enough but the challenging glare she had fixed on him made the real meaning clear enough.
Percy turned to face Harry, their eyes met and he seemed to search within his eyes for several long moments before inclining his head slightly and speaking. "Thank you for looking after my Sister."
Harry let out a brief snort at his words "No problem." He paused, looking at Ginny and grinning wickedly "I wouldn't be too worried about her. She's a pretty formidable girl you know."
Ginny felt herself blushing at Harry's words and Percy let out a low chuckle. "That she is."
Percy checked his watch and, seeing that is was rapidly approaching seven, readapted into his usual prefect persona in preparation for meeting Snape.
He didn't have to wait long. Snape emerged from his office the very second it struck seven, cloak billowing behind him as he moved. Without a word he ushered them inside and to his waiting fireplace.
"You have until twelve to return, there will be a ten minute period before this time during which the fireplace in this office will be accessible from Diagon Alley. Should you miss the gap you cease to be my issue and you will have to find some other means to return." His tone was tinged with venom, whether his anger was directed at the hour or the fact he was catering specifically to them was not certain. Moving aside he handed each of them a small sachet of foo powder. "Remember, no later than Twelve."
Nodding silently at the potion master's words Percy took point and headed into the fireplace with a call of "Diagon Alley!" followed promptly by Ginny and finally Harry.
-=S-S=-
Harry's arrival in Diagon was far from smooth, having left in a haste to avoid spending any excess time in the presence of Snape he had arrived almost immediately after Ginny, this resulted in him instantly tumbling down into Ginny when he lost his balance. Ginny simply burst into giggles helping him to his feet while Percy looked on disapprovingly.
"Who knew that Floo would be the greatest weakness of Harry Potter!" She joked.
Harry answered with a scowl "I was brought up by Muggles, like I know how to use the bloody floo properly!" This only served to cause her to laugh harder at him. "Yea, yea, laugh it up."
Percy loudly cleared his throat and Ginny forced her laughter under control and asked innocently "Ollivanders first?"
Harry nodded and looked at Percy for confirmation who returned it briefly.
"Gringotts, Ollivanders, Madam Malkin's." Percy listed off their destinations monotonously "Then anywhere you want to go to kill time until we need to head back for Lunch."
Both Harry and Ginny nodded and followed him in the direction of Gringotts.
As it was Harry who was funding the shopping trip, the two present Weasleys waited at the entrance to Gringotts for Harry to go and retrieve some galleons, Percy took it as an opportunity to have a private chat with Ginny.
"So, Ginny…" He grimaced at his clearly worry stricken tone "What's it like being a Slytherin?"
"It's bad." Her bluntness made him cringe slightly. "None of the actual Slytherins talk to me and most of the other houses resent me for being a Slytherin." She gave him a meaningful look "I've been attacked once, and so far the only person I have regular conversation with is Harry."
A pained look crossed Percy's face and he mouthed silently as he searched for words that could help, coming up with nothing he settled for staring at her with a sorrowful expression on his face.
Ginny felt anger growing within her chest briefly but quickly smothered it, "Don't worry about it Percy, I'll be alright, Harry will see to that."
She watched as a conflicted look rose on his face, she half expected him to warn her of the dangers of Harry Potter, and was relieved when he settled for a stiff nod. They stood in silence for several agonising minutes in wait of Harry, Percy passing the time by stealing glances at her in a vain attempt to try and come up with something to say. Eventually as Harry emerged he gave her one last look and told her "If there's ever anything I can help you with, just ask."
She gave him a sympathetic look, realising that his words were mostly to satisfy his desire to feel important to her life. She smiled gently at him and said "I'll ask." with a firm nod.
Harry arrived to find both Ginny and Percy looking rather pleased with themselves, he assumed that they had talked out the house issue but decided not to press. Walking towards Ginny he waved to grab her attention and tossed a small bag of galleons at her.
"That should be enough for the trip."
Ginny pensively eyed the contents of the bag, and let out a muted gasp. The bag contained what looked to be around a hundred galleons, far from a princely sum, but far more money than she had ever had access to at once before.
Noticing her expression Harry ushered her and Percy away from the Bank, and in the general direction of Ollivanders, hoping to avoid the expected adverse reaction to the sum he had provided. They had almost reached the store when Ginny snapped out of her stupor.
"Potter!" His surname was snapped out in an impressively Malfoy-esque fashion as she rounded on him.
He couldn't help but cringe at the expression on her face. "Yes?" The word came out much weaker than he would have liked.
"What the hell are you doing?" She spat, one hand taking his robes the other taking hold of a wand seemingly materialised from nowhere and jabbing it at him threateningly "Loaning me this much money? Just how long do you intend to eke out my debt?"
"Calm down!" The words came out panicked, hearing Ginny simply growl at his request Harry realised he felt genuinely fearful of the small girl confronting him, raising his hands in a pacifying gesture. "Listen a second!"
Still growling she loosened her grip on his robes somewhat, Harry stared at her for a long moment before letting out a defeated sigh. "I can't win here." His words triggered her redoubling her grip on him. "You won't take the money if it's charity. If I lend you it, you'll see it as me trying to further entrap you." He sighed again, meeting the glare fixated on him "I thought we'd sorted this out already, Gin."
Fury remained etched across Ginny's features and Harry felt his own anger rising to match it "Do you really think I need to entrap you Ginevra?" His voice had taken on a cold tone "You've seen the Slytherin quarters; it would be trivial to bully an untrained first year into doing whatever took my fancy" Ginny's furious expression became slightly fear tinted. "I want to help you Ginny. As I said, you're in much the same situation as I was last year; I wouldn't let you go through that alone." His tone had shifted from the previous coldness and had taken on an almost pleading edge which served to drastically subdue her anger.
Ginny met Harry's eyes and spent a long moment mulling over his words in her mind. Letting out a sigh she lowered her wand and avoided looking at him directly "I'm sorry." She looked back at him a half-smile on her face "Going off on one about money matters is bred into us Weasleys"
He let out a low chuckled and suddenly found a pair of arms wrapped around him and heard a subdued voice whispering desperately into his chest "Please, don't abandon me." Looking down at the head of the girl clinging to him, he gingerly wrapped a single arm around her, her sudden wave of doubt and vulnerability forcefully reminded him of his own moments of despair past. Squeezing her, he whispered back "Never." After a few seconds Ginny ended their embrace, blushing slightly at her own weakness.
They spent several moments simply staring at each other before their moment was ended by Percy, loudly reminding them of his presence by clearing his throat. The pair grinned back at him somewhat bashfully.
"Now that you have your money, we need to get to Ollivanders."His voice was the same no-nonsense tone he used when carrying out his prefect duties and Harry and Ginny followed closely him as he started striding towards the wand maker's store.
The tinkling of an unseen bell heralded their entry into the wand maker's store and Ginny was shocked to find that Ollivanders as a whole was rather decrepit, endless tiny boxes coated with dust were stacked everywhere the eye could see, so immersed was she in looking around the dishevelled store that she did not notice the figure of Ollivander gliding out to wait in front of her until he spoke.
"Good morning." His voice was exceptionally soft but still caused the distracted girl to sharply jump.
"Good morning." Ginny replied, her heart pounding in fright.
He stared at the girl intently, his aged silvery eyes boring into hers "Yes, yes, the sole female Weasley. I had not thought I would be seeing you this soon." He leaned down closer to her, "Your youngest brother has yet to visit me, and your older siblings did not until later in their magical careers." His gaze flitted over to Percy for but a second. Peering even closer at Ginny he suddenly leant back before stepping around the counter towards Ginny, "May I see the wand you are currently using?" He held out an expectant hand and without thinking, she withdrew her wand and handed it over.
Mr Ollivander instantly busied himself examining it closing, turning and twisting it about in his hands and muttering to himself. "Cedar, Eight Inches, Griffin tail-feather." Seemingly satisfied he handed the wand back to Ginny who took it gratefully.
"Well then, Miss Weasley, let us begin." The aged man pulled out a long tape measure and looked at her pointedly "Which is your wand arm?"
"My Right" Her reply came out quite elegantly without but a second of thought. Her composure briefly prompted Harry to feel somewhat ashamed of his own clumsy reaction more than a year ago.
Ollivander nodded and gestured for her to hold out her arm and withdrew a tape measure from his pocket which automatically began taking measurements which he monitored silently for several seconds. As soon as the device was done taking measurements of Ginny's arm Ollivander began darting around the shelves, tentatively picking up and replacing various boxes, deciding on three he placed them before Ginny on the shop counter. He briefly glanced at the tape measure "That's enough." Instantly the tape measure dropped to the floor.
Taking the first box he withdrew a long length of wood "Try this, ash and phoenix feather, eight and a half inches long." Ginny had barely picked the wand up before it was snatched back out her hand "No, not at all!"
He handed her the next wand busied himself with re-boxing the previous wand. "Try that, Mahogany and Phoenix Ash, nine and a quarter inches" She gave the wand a brief swish and jumped badly when a stack of boxes suddenly sped towards her. Stopping them with a flick of his wand Ollivander stopped the boxes before they impacted her and moved to hand her the next wand from his collection. Ginny sighed fully expecting the process to take some time.
It took a dozen or so wands before Ginny found the right one. "Quite tricky you are, yes, not unlike Mr Potter over there." Ginny stole a glance in Harry's direction and was surprised to see him watching her quite intently. He nodded at her and she smiled back briefly before Ollivander thrust another wand into her hands. "Try this – Hazel, powdered dragon talon, ten inches, quite flexible."
Picking up the wand she immediately felt a difference from all the others she had previously handled, warmth consumed her very being and her hand tingled where it gripped the wand. She idly flicked the wand and was pleased when an explosion of green and gold sparks showered across the room.
Seeing the sparks Ollivander cried out, "Bravo! I do expect to hear good things of you Miss Weasley, yes, indeed." Ginny nodded dumbly at the man's mutterings, grinning widely at finally finding her wand. "Yes, that will be seven galleons," he paused suddenly hearing Harry clear his throat meaningfully.
"You need not worry Mr Potter. Her wand does not have a brother." Harry blinked at the old man who simply smiled at him.
"I… I see." His eyes were wide and his words hesitant. Collecting himself he asked what he had originally intended to. "Could we get her a holster too?" His words caused Percy to look at him with an unreadable expression while Ollivander simply nodded in understanding.
"Yes, yes, of course." Ollivander turned to stare at Ginny once more, his pale eyes seemingly looking right through her. "That will be eight galleons." He paused "That is to say, if you are happy with the basic holster?"
"That'll be fine." She confirmed, fishing out the required coins from the pouch Harry had provided and handing them across to the man. Taking the purchased items she took a moment to properly don her new holster and placed her new wand in it before leaving, Mr Ollivander bowing to the group as they left his store.
Ginny sidled up to Harry and whispered in his ear "What did he mean by 'brother wand'?"
"I'll tell you later." Harry whispered back, somewhat hesitantly.
Ginny simply sent him a harsh look clearly saying that she would be forcing it out of him if she had to. He didn't doubt it for a second.
-=S-S=-
The rest of their time on Diagon Alley was spent simply hunting clothing for Ginny and idly visiting a variety of stores, ranging from Flourish and Blotts to Florean Fortescues Ice Cream Parlor. In the end she purchased a pair of relatively light dragon scale undershirts for standard wear as well as a set of thick dragon-hide robes for her protection during training. The soreness resulting from Harry's abuse disguised as training had yet to leave her, she was exceptionally glad for the physical protection that she now had access to.
-=S-S=-
They arrived promptly back at Hogwarts at around eleven fifty-five, they had flooed into Snape's office from Florean's store. They were thankful to find that his office was quite empty and left rather swiftly for the main hall.
On the way there Percy kept glancing at Harry as if wanting to pull him aside and ask him something but was pointedly ignored, Harry suspected that he wanted to question him about his intentions with his sister, something he was not at all eager to go into after already having a confrontation with Ginny herself earlier that day.
They arrived without incident at the Hall and separated from Percy, Ginny pulling him into a brief hug and asking him to stay in touch, and proceeded to their usual spots at the Slytherin tables and helped themselves to some food that had already materialised before they arrived.
It didn't take long for the energy that had been building up in Ginny since buying her wand to become too much for her to handle. Almost violently she pushed away her half eaten meal and turned expectantly to Harry, "Can you teach me something new after this?"
Harry chuckled at the girl's giddiness "Sure, as soon as you prove you can still cast everything we've already been over."
Ginny pouted at him "But, I could do them with my old wand! I'll definitely be able to do them with my new one!" she was practically vibrating in her seat with each word.
He grinned in response, "Then it'll be no problem showing me, right?"
She huffed, not liking the smug expression that had overtaken his face in the slightest "No problem at all!"
Copying her earlier actions Harry pushed his plate away and stood up gesturing her to follow him "Well let's go see if you can stand up to your boasts, shall we?"
She was on her feet in an instant and practically running back to their chambers, Harry followed at a much more leisurely pace and found himself face-to-face with a blonde girl upon rounding the first corner of the journey.
He nodded respectfully at the girl, "Greengrass." He was somewhat surprised to find her meeting him in public.
"Potter, we need to talk." Her tone was serious and caused Harry to grimace.
He raised an eyebrow at her quizzically "What's up?"
"Not here, somewhere private." Her eyes flickered back and forth along the corridors as if expecting to be attacked at any moment.
"Right, follow me then." He led her down the corridor and into a secret passage the twins had told him of the previous year, hoping Ginny would understand him being late. He allowed her a couple of moments to compose herself and then pressed "What's happening?"
Daphne's face was overtaken by a scowl "Malfoy's getting another article published, about you and the Weasley girl, it would seem."
Harry frowned deep in thought. The articles about him had dried up after a month or two last year when no one had managed to unearth any proof of him practicing dark arts. This year things were somewhat different, he had been extensively abusing at least one spell that was considered a Dark Art and had been practically flaunting his ability to speak parseltongue within the confines of the house dorms to keep the other Slytherins in check.
"When's it going out?" Harry asked.
"Tomorrow morning." She said gravely.
Harry swore under his breath, "Do you know what it says about Ginny?"
Daphne shook her head grimly. "I'm not even sure what it says about you Potter," She paused flashing him a superior grin, "You may want to go prepare your charge for tomorrow, I'm sure you'll have enjoyed receiving many a howler by this time tomorrow."
Harry chuckled despite himself "I don't doubt it, thanks for the warning, Daphne. Look after yourself, yea?"
She smirked at him "Always, I'm not quite as accident prone as you Potter, not yet at least."
He grinned back at her and headed back out the secret passage, sparing her a parting nod "Greengrass."
She returned it easily, a slight smirk remaining on her face "Potter."
-=S-S=-
By the time Harry made it back to his rooms he found that Ginny had worked herself up quite badly, he was instantly assailed with curses of both the magical and vocal variety upon entering and had to dive behind a sofa and hastily erect a shield around him to avoid injury.
"Calm down!" His words were met with a brief respite from the spell fire and he was startled to see quite the crazed look in her eyes before she slumped down slightly. Rushing towards her he put an arm around her shoulders and helped her to a nearby seat, assuming she had exhausted herself with the volume of spells cast.
"Sorry Harry, I don't know what came over me…" The words were but a whisper and her eyes were somewhat glazed over. He found himself inordinately worried for the girl.
"Just relax for a minute." His words were commanding and she simply nodded in understanding eyes slipping closed.
Shaking his head Harry began to pace the room assessing the damages, there were a few spell burns on the sofa but most of the spell fire had either been absorbed by his shield of the actual walls of the chamber. Heading to where Ginny was previously sitting he noticed there was what looked to be a diary flipped open with what looked to be the words 'Hurt him.' written upon the page, picking it up he examined the book and was confused to find the words fading and that the rest of the pages were empty.
Flipping the book to the front he took note of the name 'T. M. Riddle' scrawled upon the first page. Pulling out a quill he flipped to a random page mid-way through and wrote the word 'test' and was almost pleased to see when it faded into the book. He idly thumbed at the corner of the page supposing it must be Ginny's diary presumably charmed to hide its contents from others, the thought didn't sit well with him upon remembering the words 'Hurt him'.
Glancing back down he noticed that just below the place he had wrote his own words a simple question had appeared, dispelling his thoughts of privacy charms.
'Hello? Who's there?'
-=S-S=-
Author's Note:
Sorry for the wait, I would have liked to have got this out earlier but reality was not cooperative. The chapter is a lot longer than I had planned on it being, I could probably strip a decent amount out if I did a second pass but would rather update than do so for the time being.
The timetable in use is vaguely based off the calendar for 1993 as found on The Harry Potter Lexicon. In scanning through the actual books later I found that it did not match the books 100% but feel this is mostly a minor issue all things considered.
I fully realise the only canon cores (in regards to wands actually made by Mr Ollivander, at the very least.) are unicorn hairs, phoenix feathers and dragon heartstrings. Truth be told I am not particularly bothered, I do not intend to make a major plot point out of Ginny's wand.
Again this has not been proofed and so is likely swimming in errors.
As always reviews, alerts and favourites are greatly appreciated. Please don't hesitate to leave comments about things I need to fix or overlooked.
