-1Chapter Three
Visual Violation
Ginny awoke that morning feeling as though someone had slipped a sleeping potion in her pumpkin juice the night before. She turned over and dug her head deeper into the plush pillows. What was to come of this year? She knew that it was not going to be easy. The teachers, she thought are not going to be letting them off likely and they will, undoubtedly pile the workload upon them. They were after all nearing their final year.
"Come on Gin, Get a move on!" Shouted one of the other girls in Ginny's, year kicking the side of her bed. "You don't want to be late for your first day back do you?"
The girl waltzed passed Ginny's bed and headed straight towards the bathroom. Ginny groaned in acknowledgement and sat up. For the first couple of seconds her vision was slightly obscured. She rubbed her eyes wearily and looked around the room, noticing that all of her other dorm mates had already set off for breakfast.
"Gin, I'm not waiting all day for you to get your clothes on. Well, new clothes. It seems you never actually bothered to get changed."
The girl impatiently started to tap her foot against the stone floor, her arms folded under her chest. Groaning again, Ginny admitted to defeat and swung her legs around the side of the bed and got out. Walking over to her trunk she pulled on a new set of robes, dragged a brush through her hair and pronounced herself happy without a word, so they could make their way down to the hall.
Her friend, Kate was practically skipping down the enchanted staircases, obviously excited about the start of the new year. Ginny on the other hand trailed her feet to where ever they happened to take her, all the while mumbling under her breath. She had no idea why Kate was this happy, it wasn't like they were about to get any good news. Snape is head, they will be getting a load of work and to top it of, she had Prefect duties to do, which in all honesty she had completely forgotten about as she had other things on her mind for the duration of the summer.
Once they reached the great hall Ginny plonked herself at the Gryffindor table, folded her arms and rested her head upon them. The clattering sound of forks and goblets could be heard echoing through the hall. Ginny could hear Kate scrapping her butter knife across a piece of toast whilst she charmed her spoon to stir her tea.
Completely distracted by her own thoughts she become totally oblivious to the goings on around her and after what seemed about five minutes, an irritated voice announced itself in Ginny's ear.
"Ahem." She heard a clearing of a woman's throat.
"What is it?"
"Excuse me Miss. Weasley…" Ginny recognised the sharp, crisp voice and she raised her head immediately.
"As sorry as I am to interrupt your snooze, I need a word with you."
"Oh. Of course…" Replied Ginny, her cheeks flushing slightly.
"As I'm sure it has come to your attention, quite a few of the students from Hogwarts have not returned to the school. You probably noticed yesterday at the feast that students were missing."
Ginny thought for a second. No, she hadn't actually realised. She had been far too preoccupied at the thought of Snape being appointed the new head teacher not to mention anything else.
Lying to cover-up her lack of acknowledgment she answered, "Erm... Yes Professor."
"Well, as you are a Prefect I am to tell you first. Because of the fact that there are missing students we have decided to join some of the years together. Meaning your year will be in classes with the 7th year and the other years will do the same."
Ginny just looked at her blankly. Join classes with the 7th year? Great. Oh, fantastic. I will now have to endure every lesson with people like Pansy and Blaise. Malfoy.
"Is there a problem Miss Weasley?" Professor McGonagall asked, judging the look on Ginny's face.
"What? Oh, no, no problem Professor," she lied in a reassuring voice.
"Very well. Please inform Mr Creevey of this situation. Make sure that you tell all of the Gryffindor students to assemble in the common room where a notice will be put up and I can then hand out new time tables." She just glanced at Ginny and as she turned to walk away she added "Chop chop Miss Weasley."
Rolling her eyes and grabbing a slice of toast Ginny hurried out of the great hall and with her instinct set on finding Collin she was not really watching where she was going.
"Oh sorry," she apologized as she walked straight into someone. It may have sounded like an apology to her, but to the person she just trod on it may have seemed more like a mumble as she had just stuffed a whole load of toast in to her mouth.
"You know it's bad manners to speak with your mouth full." Ginny looked up. She saw Blaise Zabini looking down at her with a side smirk curling the corner of his mouth. He picked up a book he had obviously dropped. "Watch where you are going as well won't you Weaselbeat?"
And with that he stalked past her with a slight spring in his stride.
Ginny eyed him suspiciously as he gracefully made his way through the double oak doors of the hall -however, once he disappeared she brushed herself off and cleared her head of anything that was filling it. It's too early, she thought looking around her trying to remember what she was supposed to be doing.
Pulling her self together her mind wandered as she skulked around the corridors. This is where the marauders map would come in handy she mused, making a mental note to herself, a small growling noise issued from her mouth and she heavily thumped up the stairs in search of Collin.
"Miss Weasley…" Echoed a voice from her right. For Gods sake. Was everyone set to annoy her today?
Trying not to be rude Ginny looked around. Nearly headless Nick was floating in the middle of a door frame, his head lolling precariously to one side.
"If you are looking for one, Mr Creevey, you will find him on the third floor rounding up some second years. I heard Professor McGonagal give you the task of finding him," he explained smiling at her.
"Yes. Thank you. I was about to go to the common room to look for him. So yes, thanks." She returned a smile to him and he drifted of through one of the stone walls.
Making her way up to the third floor she could hear Collin's voice.
"Come on people. Please go to the common room." Spotting Ginny after a few seconds of her arrival he yelled at the top of his lungs "Oh, hey Gin!" And he came bounding over to her. Evidently he was a morning sorta' guy.
"Hey Collin. You already know then?" She assumed judging by the fact he told the second years to go to the common room.
"Yeah. Thanks. Nick told me. Thought he'd save you the job I guess." He smiled at her. "You go on up, I've pretty much got most of the stragglers. I won't be long."
Taking his offer Ginny moved on up the stairs to the portrait of the fat lady. The common room was crowded. People were sat on the desks, shelves, chairs and even the floor, all trying to huddle into one little area. Ginny placed herself next to Kate and Seamus but didn't have much time to talk as Professor McGonagal walked through the portrait a few seconds later.
"Now then…" She started, making herself heard hinting for them to quieten down. "As I'm sure you have all heard there has been a change in the way things will be functioned at Hogwarts."
"Yeah!" A 7th year shouted. "Snape's running the school." Professor McGonagal looked at the boy that spoke - however she did not look angry. Instead she gave him a sort of heart felt nod.
"Sorry Professor," he apologized.
"That's quite alright Mr Finnegan." She continued. 'As I was saying, there has been a change in how things are going to run. Because there are numerous students that have not returned to Hogwarts, due to what happened last year with 'You-Know-Who', we, meaning the staff and also ministry have decided it will be more affective to teach years when combined. This is because, if continued as normal the classes will be very small, therefore it will be more affective for you when there is a normal sized class. Also, it is more beneficial. Is there any further questions?" No one raised their hand. "Very well then. Come and take your time tables."
Ginny glanced down at hers and sighed. Divination first lesson.
Folding up the piece of parchment she placed it into her pocket and Heading straight North she walked out of the common room and to the right. As she started to descend the stairs to the Divination room Ginny heard yet another voice calling from behind her.
"Ginny, hey Ginny!" Neville Longbottom ran up behind panting, as usual. "Do you have Divination too Gin?"
"Hey Neville, yeah I do. Unfortunately. Don't know why I took it. Oh well…"
They both made their way down to their destination and upon entering the room they noticed it was decorated in the same manner as it was the previous year, with trees that grew at odd angles spreading their branches against the moss grown walls and little logs that where placed in different sections of the room. Ginny sat down on a stump near the back of the class.
"Hey Gin," Dean greeted cheerily "How are you doing on this wonderful day?"
Ginny rolled her eyes. "I'm very good actually how about you?" She returned the question. Only polite.
"Yeah well, I'm Okay thanks." Ginny glanced at Seamus who seemed to blush slightly and looked the other way. Ginny looked back at Dean and he gave an 'I'll tell you later look', so Ginny dropped her pending question and turned her attention to the front of the class, where Firenze, the apparently 'gorgeous' Rowan Centaur had just emerged from the shadows.
"Welcome, my young ones…" He began. "I hope you all had restful holidays-"
"Yes, sir. We did!" Cut in Lavender Brown, an annoyingly eager 7th year who shared an obvious crush on the Centaur with her best friend Parvati Patil. "Did you, sir?" Turning to her, Firenze gave her soft smile.
"Yes, thank you, Miss Brown. As I was saying, you have had holidays, a time for rest and relaxation, but that time is over and it is now time to work." An audible groan raised from the class. The Centaur seemed unfazed. "We will start off with simple topics, astrology and star patterns, then move on to smoke reading and plant formations and purpose. But for now, we will remain on a topic you older students will be familiar with, and the younger ones amongst you may or may not know. We will look at how stars may be used for the interpretation of dreams, so please arrange yourselves into pairs and-"
But at that moment, the Centaur was interrupted by the flying open of the classroom door and the rather dramatic entrance of none other than Draco Malfoy, his pale face wrapped into its traditional confident smirk.
"Sorry I'm late Sir," he announced as he strode through the lichen and deposited himself on a mossy rock next to Blaise, followed by the resentful gaze of Lavender and Parvati, for daring to interrupt their 'learning'.
"Ah, Mr Malfoy. Are we to be graced with an explanation of your lateness?" Firenze enquired, to be answered with a lazy shake of Malfoy's white blond head.
The Professor simply sighed knowingly, and continued to deliver his instructions to the class telling them to pair up and interpret the previous nights dreams.
Ginny looked around for Neville and found him sat morosely on a stump two feet away from the gruesome twosome, who seemed to be completely disinterested in the lesson and were chatting lazily about some unknown subject.
She picked up her bag and carried herself over to the little mound opposite the stump Neville was occupying. No sooner had she sat down when she could hear the boring drawls of Malfoy. Groaning to herself and rolling her eyes, Ginny pulled out her notes and looked up at Neville who had just done the same, or at least he had intended to.
"What's up Neville?" She asked him. His face twisted slightly as he pulled apart several pieces of parchment.
He stared blankly at her "I've forgot my notes. My book is upstairs too…"
"Ah, well that's fine," she concluded, "here you can use mine."
Smiling sheepishly he moved a little closer to her so he could see the map of stars that was laid out in Ginny's book. Scratching his nose slightly he opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. Ginny too did the same. She had no idea what to make of the star map, it just looked like a load of silvery dots.
Giving up, she handed the book to Neville as she leant back against the mossy wall and looked around the classroom.
Right in front of her was Malfoy and Blaise. To her surprise, her lazy looking, silver haired class mate was reading something - however, Ginny had a slight suspicion it had nothing to do with Divination as he was pulling a rather sour face and to his right sat Blaise looking, oh so casually coiffed with his hands placed behind his head. He was looking straight at her.
For a slight second she could feel a slight tingle pass down her back as he looked at her. It was as though he could see straight through her deep brown eyes. The lighting of the room made him look a little darker than usual as his face was cast more into shadow and for a slight second Ginny could have sworn his eyes flickered a slightly different colour. Then she realised his gaze began to wander over her body. She squirmed a little where she sat and without realising, she self subconsciously tugged on the hem of her skirt to make sure nothing could be seen and crossed her feet together just to be sure.
Blaise smirked and made a snorting noise as he turned away to look at his friend and Ginny was left feeling, rather…Visually raped?
