Disclaimer: not mine.
Hopefully you won't find this chapter totally dull… mostly I explain what the club looks like so I don't have to do it later on… I also named each room, which took FOREVER. By the way, I'll be using Pablo Neruda's love poetry a lot in this fic, cause I'm hooked on it right now, so there'll be Spanish popping up here and there.
The end is exciting though, so stick with the chapter! I actually go on to develop a few characters at the end!!
If you wanna see what my idea of Blaise is go online and look for Ingo Franz, the model, on google. Also you can google Kiia Waden if you wanna see my idea of Ginny (the ones where she has curly hair and her freckles are showing- it makes me think of what ginny will look like a few years into this fic). I'll put up links in my profile or something, too.
Chapter Four- Despierto (Wide-Awake)
Lunchtime- First full day back to school
Ginny was standing in a little-used hallway with Luna. The two had just been released from Potions, which was now a Newt-level class attended by several students from each house. They had made the decision to forgo lunch in favor of getting a head-start on Ginny's plans. Deirdre was eating lunch as usual at the Gryffindor table with some of her friends from last year, but had agreed to meet them during the free-period afterward.
"I'm so excited!" Luna said, breathless from starry-eyed excitement, "I'll bet there are millions of dust bunnies scurrying around down here."
Ginny raised her eyebrows, looking at her friend, whose eyes were nearly glowing. "You know that's only a muggle expression, right? And besides, I spoke to Dobby and Winky in the kitchens after breakfast, during my free period. They said they kept it clean, so no dust, just what was there last year. Hey, you wanna handle Cadogen this time?" Ginny waved at the crazy knight blathering on non-stop, not caring whether the girls were listening.
Luna smiled slightly, still looking a little wistful over the dust bunnies, and turned to the painting.
"Sir Knight, regarding the topic of love not yet realized and come to terms with, I say to you the true words that A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet. This phrase of course pertaining to the fact that the Gryffindor/Slytherin hatred in this school must be breached, to prevent all of the Romeo and Juliets to come, and to unite the ones that refuse to entertain even the idea of love for each other. And so, do please open for us two fair maidens. Many thanks and blessings upon your painting, sir." With that the knight, weeping and praising Luna's "wise words of divine truth", swung open.
Ginny followed Luna in, laughing at Luna's unnecessary speech. Nudging the shorter girl, Ginny added "You know, thank goodness that Dumbledore's most unreliable painting is actually great once you give him a line of Shakespeare or sappy poetry. Who knew? Once he starts crying he's absolutely obedient. Far from being a difficult and insane man who doesn't know what he's saying, you just recite a bit of poetry and he cracks like an egg. Honestly, the headmaster thought he was getting the most unreliable painting to guard the corridor he doesn't want all the Astronomy Tower couples to know about when really this guy's the perfect one for the job, because he won't even talk to other paintings. He won't give us up to Dumbledore, because he's faithful to 'young love and honor first and foremost'…" She trailed off, and the girls realized they could still hear the man weeping through the door. "Ugh, unfortunately, he's still annoying. Can't be helped, I suppose." Making her way over to the trapdoor, Ginny knelt down.
"Speak for yourself, Ginny, but personally I think Cadogan is wonderful. Do you know, he swears there's a wood nymph hiding in one of the hills in his painting. I told him it may just be a buzzleberry, and he said there's a good chance I'm right." Luna said fondly.
Ginny rolled her eyes and brushed a fond hand over the trapdoor, then kissed it lightly. It swung right open, as Winky had enchanted it to do.
"Oh my, it's a good thing we know Winky's absolutely neurotic about cleanliness, or you could be risking getting a million different diseases with that opening spell." Luna commented mildly. Ginny looked up at her and grinned and then leapt down into the darkness.
She fell, fell, fell, much farther than she remembered from last year and then… She landed softly on a massive beanbag. One that took up the majority of the room in which the Golden Trio faced the Devil's Snare plant. It was charmed for extra comfort and stuck to the floor and walls. The charms gave it a sort of water-bed effect, making it feel more as though the substance inside was shifting like a hill made of miniature squishy bubbles as you struck it.
The only light in the room came from glowing words written in calligraphy all over the walls and ceiling in colors like red, orange, magenta, and yellow. Ginny and Luna had written them up themselves with their wands, a calligraphy spell tied to a long-lasting version of the lumos charm. On the ceiling was written, "Welcome to Despierto. We ask only that you stay awake. Espero: Llugas. Never close your eyes."
Around the room were quotes or segments of famous literature or prophecies chosen by Ginny and Luna, or random advice such as, "Do not pass through this room unless you are ready to treat the world with disrespect in order to uphold what you believe is the truth." Or Nietzsche's "All truth is simple… is that not doubly a lie?". There were many passages from Pablo Neruda's 'The Captain's Verses', Ginny's favorite book of love poems. There were also words around the top of each wall, written in glowing electric blue in an unending ring, "Awake, aware, eyes open, sleep not, disrespect, disillusioned, without cares, desperate, disregard, no man left to sleep or die, left behind, the last become the first, the lost ones, the new generation, we stay…" And then the reader was back to where they began. Awake.
Ginny slid off of the bean-platform and stepped over the stones speckled with glowing silver dots like stars. The room continued on as a stone tunnel, decorated in the same fashion as the room, sloping downward a bit and continuing until you reached a door. The door was very simple, and together the girls had engraved in dark red ink that glittered, "Indiferencia: Despedir". Again, Spanish, which translated as,
'Disregard: to dismiss', because at this point, the students going in 'Despierto', or 'Wide-Awake', would have to be willing to at least disregard the rules of Hogwarts. Ginny hoped that eventually they would learn to forget the world outside as soon as they fell into her first little room.
As Ginny moved through the doorway, she heard a soft 'swiiisshhhh, whump!' as Luna landed safely behind her. This second room with a high ceiling was the one in which Harry, Ron, and Hermione had flown to find a flying key. The room was still well-lit, by something Luna recognized as a charm which copied the effect of sunlight streaming through windows, despite the fact that they were underground and there wasn't so much as a single pane of glass. It was shaped like a long hall with a vaulted cieling. Ginny had designed this room to be more of a social room, a bar/common room. If one looked up, in glowing spring-green was written "Pre". Luna had suggested the prefix because the room was the step which must come before anything else in Ginny's plans could come true.
The room was done primarily in greens, with cream, gold, and brown supporting colors. The girls had known better than to ask the two elves where they had procured the nice, but comfortable and casual furniture from. The girls sometimes thought wistfully that it was Dumbledore's blessing, although they didn't know how he would have learned what they were planning.
The bar was Winky and Dobby's surprise for Ginny and Luna, completed as they were away over the summer. Ginny gasped happily when she saw it, and made her way over. Dobby had told her earlier that it was a gift, created from wood Hagrid had given him, chopped down in the Forbidden Forest. The bar was handsome and dark. The material gave the stretch of wall the bar was on a different look than the rest of the room, as though the charm didn't affect it as much as it did the rest of the hall. The bar area looked like it was deep into a forest, as opposed to the rest of the room, which made one think of a tasteful and cheery wood. According to Dobby it was an exact replica of Madame Rosmerta's, thanks to Dobby's summer job, which was simply an arrangement to clean up her bar for a small wage each night. It had given him the opportunity to inspect it thoroughly and magically to the point where he was able to recreate it.
The furniture around the spacious room was a mix of couches, loveseats, coffee tables done in varying shades of wood, and cushy stools with a hunter-green top. The stools were at the bar, and the rest of the furniture was arranged in bunches around the room giving it a very casual feel, and leaving plenty of room to walk through the room to the next one.
As Ginny ran her hands over the bar and stepped behind it, she heard Luna open the door. She looked up to see the silver-eyed girl wincing at the change in light.
"Oh my, Dobby and Winky have truly outdone themselves." She said. Her eyes looked extra wide, making her face look as odd as it had back in fourth and third year before her face had become long enough to accommodate her silver orbs. Ginny knew the startled expression meant she was surprised and pleased.
Luna smiled and clapped her hands as she approached. "And I thought nothing could make me love them more than the fact Winky knew all the right sound system spells to cast for the Chessroom. Oh the snublubs would love it here. Maybe this is my real chance to catch some, although they usually appear in open air and not underground…" Luna trailed off as she plotted her next attempt at catching creatures Ginny had never heard of.
Ginny rolled her eyes, a common occurrence where Luna was concerned, and walked around the bar to plop onto a stool, facing Luna, who was now inspecting the area behind the bar as she mumbled to herself.
"Ok, so basically I was thinking that I'd run the bar till one, and you'd run the bar after one. Dobby and Winky will help, but the actual drink mixing will be up to us. I planned on getting Dennis to help out, even though neither of us knows him very well." Ginny eyed Luna to be sure the girl was hearing her through the blond's own soft one-sided conversation. Satisfied, she continued, "I'd heard that he works as a barista every time he goes back to the muggle world. He'll know we can only pay if the first night goes well, though, so I don't know if he'd agree. Hopefully he needs the money. We can only hope for the best and pray that most people only order the bottled drinks or something I've already taught you, once I'm off-shift. I'm sure most of them don't know much about anything beyond firewhiskey and butterbeer anyway." Ginny looked at Luna, who was leaned up against the bar now, having stopped talking, smiling and nodding as she listened.
"Ok then, shall we move onto the next one?" Luna asked, standing up to leave.
"Oh, definitely! Hopefully I'll still like it. You know, it could turn out the way my essays do and I could want to change it completely, even though I just snuck in to redecorate it a month ago. I must be the only student to ever sneak in to her school during the summer… Although I admit, I couldn't have done it without Harry's cloak and our two little helpers! Oh, you'll love this Luna!" Ginny said excitedly as they made their way to the final room open to the public. The final door led to the room where her brother once battled against McGonagall's giant chess set. Upon the door was the name of the actual club, in Spanish, 'Asi te veo' written in dark grey and blue over an engraving of the sun and the moon.
"Asi te veo?" Luna murmured.
"Thus I see you." Ginny replied, touching the painted engraving with her fingertips. Luna's quiet inquiry made it difficult for Ginny to simply explain away her feelings brashly the way she had with Deirdre the first morning back. This moment reminded Ginny strongly of the fact that Luna never needed explanations, but instead tended to heighten Ginny's sentimental emotions. Few people understood how long it took Ginny to name something, and when she did the names often meant things that others couldn't understand. But Luna always grasped Ginny's meaning, and often understood more about her choices than Ginny herself. Unfortunately, the redhead often felt as though Luna was pulling the emotions from Ginny into herself in situations like these. It was disconcerting, but the pale girl's calm understanding made it worth it.
"Ah. Ginny and Sir Cadogan both have a thing for themes and poetry, don't they?" Luna remarked innocently to the air, or perhaps to herself, as she slid past Ginny to open the door. Ginny snorted at the girl's oddness, and followed her in.
Luna paused upon entering and grabbed Ginny's hand as the girls waited for their eyesight to adjust. Luna's first impression was that she had been plunged into the night sky, with moons, stars, planets, and neon blue and purple comets below her where a floor would be. Ginny smiled as her eyesight became more attuned to the dark lighting and looked at what two days without sleep had yielded. Luckily it hadn't taken more time, since Ginny had drawn up plans before sneaking in to the school.
The floor of the room had never been transfigured back… the majority was left as a truly massive chessboard. The checkered square provided the perfect dance floor because it had all been previously smoothed out by McGonagall so that the giant pieces could slide effortlessly around the board. But the animation of the figurines had worn off long ago. By the time Ginny and Luna had gotten bored enough to try exploring the corridor Ginny had heard all about from Ron, what remained of the vicious things were large piles of rubble and motionless statues. The elves had made short work of those, simply allowing the girls to charm them weightless and 'Pop'-ing them out to a clearing somewhere in the Forbidden Forest.
The ceiling, not as high as the last one but still higher than that of a normal room, was speckled with miniature glowing silver spheres. The dots had been spelled to imitate several major constellations present in the night sky during autumn. The room had originally been a cave and the ceiling had been left in its natural state. It had a slight curve upward so that it roughly resembled a shallow dome, although not at all like the manmade vaulted ceiling in the previous room.
Ginny had gone over the entire floor, spelling the black chess spaces a dark blue and leaving the white ones. At various points on the ceiling were the planets Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, not necessarily placed in accurate locations in the fake sky.
These were centered above various squares on the chessboard and on these squares were raised pedestals with a single steel pole. The closer the planet was to the sun, the higher the pedestal. Ginny had placed them so that they created a makeshift spiral from roughly the center of the board to the outside. They looked pleasantly random from any angle but the doorway, which had stone steps leading down to the dance floor. At the ceiling, where the pole met the stone 'sky' was an illustration of each planet and the name written around it in glowing cursive script, a different color for each planet. Neptune and Uranus were placed diagonally next to each other in a corner of the board. All four blocks in that corner were raised, two blue and two white. There were only two poles, so two people could dance together on the lowest platform.
"The sister planets." Luna whispered softly to herself, quieting as she continued her inspection.
Aside from the sister planets, each planet and its pole was placed on a blue square. The corners of the raised block were lined in glowing neon lights, indigo, turquoise, silver, and dark purple.
"The blue squares which symbolize the planets all have spells in the illustration of the planet to cast a spotlight on the platform when activated. The white squares are capable of lighting up, as a sort of reverse spotlight. It'll make whoever is on the lit square look really cool…" Ginny commented softly, scanning the room with her friend.
"Oh, wow! Gin you completely outdid yourself!" Luna gasped breathily. Ginny looked at her and smiled when she saw the proud look on her friend's face and tears in her eyes.
Luna and Ginny had done the bare minimum together last year before leaving. Winky, previously the house-elf of a rambunctious boy who hid his rebellious tendencies from a strict father had been extremely helpful. Turns out she knew some amazing sound spells, very complicated ones that could hijack the signal of any wizarding wireless frequency on the British Isles or play any tracks provided. The little elf was also not afraid of keeping secrets from Dumbledore, especially not after Ginny begged, pleaded, cried, and explained in depth just why breaking the rules was actually for a good cause this time.
Luna and Ginny had transfigured a counter out of the wall last year, before setting up the stereo system with Winky. It was for serving water, firewhiskey, or butterbeer only (basically the drinks that could be bottled, and therefore sold quickly) and lined the wall to the left of the doorway. There was open space all around the chessboard, which would allow the students to walk through the room without requiring them to dance, but made it inconvenient so as to coerce them into dancing.
The walls were another touch of Ginny's. They were merely a continuation of the sky, with enticing words written here and there in glittering blue, or bold black letters with white sparks dancing through them. Words such as, "Ectasy, Bold, Sexy, Touch me, Lips, Tongue, Sweat, Tears, Body, Need, Want."
The room was lit only by the neon lights, the glittering words, and glowing moons spelled into the top of the counter which waxed and waned from one side to the other. There were also moons on the shelves behind the counter, to give the server enough light to see what they were selling.
"Look" Ginny said quietly as she pulled out her wand and said, "El Cielo", pointing it to the ceiling. "It's my keyword for the main lighting spell". A thin spiral of light wound its way through the ceiling and walls until it lit everything very dimly, just enough to see people, but not their exact features. It cast shadows on everything, the perfect lighting for a club.
Stars began to glow with more intensity and then dim as first one constellation, and then another began to shed more light. Various squares and planets lit up, only one or two at a time. It was all random, but the changes proceeded slowly, so as not to make the people dancing feel overly dizzy. Luna also saw the words written on the wall light up, only one word at a time, once every ten seconds or so.
"Oh it's perfect!" Luna exclaimed after watching quietly for a few minutes. "I'm nearly in awe." Ginny grinned and hugged her friend tightly, satisfied both with the beauty and sexy feeling of the room and her friends reaction.
"Wait, there's one more…" She said, pulling back. Pointing her wand once again, she said, "Caiga". As she spoke the new password words began to write themselves in the air near the ceiling in silver, white, and pale yellows and oranges like the colors of the moon and the harvest moon. They fell from the ceiling as if they were thin strips of paper, scrolling or fluttering down from the ceiling to the floor all across the room. They were all sorts of different words, "Mirame, Espero, Caes, fall, deep, emotions, touch, kiss, awake, scream, release, passion, sex, love, holdingon, entwined, enchanted, entranced, give, take, noir, noche, ciel, etoiles, hikari, sora, aishiteru…" They went on and on in all sorts of languages, falling from the 'sky'.
Luna smiled softly and stepped down to walk among them, only to gasp when they landed on her skin and trickled down her body, still perfectly readable. She turned to Ginny, smiling, and said gleefully, "We are going to be rich… and I think your plan is going to be a complete success! Do you know they almost tingle, like the smallest rain droplets?"
Ginny just leaned back against the wall and smiled, surveying her work.
Next Morning on their way outside:
"Ok, so I don't understand… How did you come up with something like the falling words on your own?" Deirdre asked curiously. While the girl hadn't yet seen the club, Luna had described it to her last night when the girls got together to work in the Library.
"Oh, I didn't. I mean, the idea was mine, but Fred and George put it all together. They're the official backers of this little business. A cut of the earnings will be going to them. They helped me design the lighting and between the three of us I got the word spell to be exactly how I imagined it. They owe me anyway, because lots of their fireworks ideas came from me. I helped them out this winter with designing different things for the new set of products being released this year." Ginny said proudly as she and Deirdre made their way down staircases.
"They took very little convincing, actually. Their friend Lee Jordan went into the family business after he left school, and conveniently that means that he can be our drink supplier. The drinks will be shipped to Hog's Head, because the owner doesn't really give a crap as long as he gets paid a minimal amount for acting as the middle man. That gave Lee a place to deliver to and Luna and myself a place for storage… Oh, and Fred and George helped me set up a system to ensure no one can tell about the club and to keep out people who'd out us from the very start. I would've been totally lost without them." Ginny smiled happily, thinking of the way her brothers had taken her ideas seriously and been actively supportive.
Deirdre whistled, impressed. "Damn. You people really thought of everything. I'm totally impressed. Especially with your brothers, I always thought they were the kind to not really commit. Well, except when it came to their own business…"
"Well, they've always been staunch supporters of Harry, even more than my parents have been for Dumbledore. So when I told them what I hoped my long-term effect would be they were all for it. And they wouldn't have joined the effort had I not been as prepared as I could be." Ginny sighed as she squeezed through the heavy doors of the main entrance. "Aaand, here we go again. Fuck if I don't despise running."
Deirdre laughed out loud at her friend as they took off towards the other end of the lake.
xxxxxxx Ginny (the older one, the mind watching her memories) knew she should stop here and skip ahead, but she couldn't help but continue watching the morning unfold. It was the first morning she met Macha Emain. Who wouldn't want to experience that twice. xxxxxxxx
… As Ginny and Deirdre approached the spot where the four students had met yesterday, they saw that there were already three people waiting for them. The two guys from yesterday, and a girl named Macha Emain, a sixth-year Slytherin Ginny knew nearly nothing about. The girl was known for stringing along rich boys, and that was about it aside from the other usual Slytherin stereotypes. Meaning she was wealthy, pureblood, and unlikely to converse with members of other houses.
Macha Emain up close and dressed minimally for exercising was a tall and muscled girl with red-brown hair that looked more red than brown in the early sunlight. She was built willowy, but her muscles were defined, and she moved around dynamically and dramatically as she spoke.
"JESUS Boleyn you brought a fucking Gryffindor with you? And a Weasley? Ugh, if she stays Malfoy will NEVER work out again as long as he lives. He'd never get up at dawn to fly laps, no one on the team can make him work hard enough to break a bloody sweat, and this won't even be an option anymore! And then that lovely waistline of his will outgrow all of his favorite dragonhide trousers. I'll never get to watch his ass wander down the hallway again without wincing!! I'll be stuck watching Zabini! And, no offense love, you're fucking hot and all, but really some variety is necessary in life." Her fluid motions and cultured Irish tones were belied by her coarse and angry words, but no one could say that the girl wasn't attractive. Ginny could see why men hung onto her even if she did seem high-maintenance. The girl's face was built for fury and passion, and her name suited her perfectly.
"If you're done being a drama queen-" Ginny began, but was cut off when the girl directed her intense gaze directly at the redhead.
"No, I'm really not. And you may think I'm kidding, but I'm dead serious. Why the fuck should I have to put up with you every single bloody morning! It's a complication no one needs, because to me you sure as hell aren't worth it." The girl growled as she stepped towards the youngest Weasley.
Deirdre was frowning, but standing back to see how things progressed. Macha would never accept Ginny at the morning practices unless Ginny, or someone Macha had to respect, gave her a reason. Deirdre herself was only tolerated, not necessarily liked, by the seventh-year Slytherins who appeared occasionally in the mornings. Thomas, who at this point simply looked amused, was staying out of it, which both Deirdre and Ginny took as a sign that he wanted Ginny to stick around. In Ginny's experience, when a Slytherin wanted to bitch about something, they just let loose and complained outright.
Meanwhile, Macha continued advancing on the shorter girl, raising one arm threateningly, as though to grab Ginny and pull her closer. Blaise, who until now had looked as if he wasn't paying attention and in fact was, to all outside appearances, asleep on his feet, reached out and grabbed Ginny by the waist before she had a chance to react to the possible assault.
Ginny gasped as she was suddenly snatched and held close to a very wet, but warm and nicely muscled bare chest. The skin felt pleasant against her naked lower back, exposed by her simple outfit of a sports bra and men's shorts. Blaise's arms were wrapped all the way around her waist, and his fingers trailed back and forth a short distance on her bare sides. His arms were unbelievably strong against her body, and she quickly relaxed into him as he began to speak.
"For the love of Merlin, shut up already. Ginny and I are getting tired waiting around like this. We'll both fall asleep soon if you don't give us something to do. She gets sleepy if she stops moving this early in the day, you know." Ginny's body, chilled by the cool air despite the already strong sunlight of the morning, rapidly heated up as she felt Blaise's voice roll through his chest, into her back, and then out of her as she exhaled. He rested his chin on her shoulder and as his body slackened and the constant motion of his fingers slowed she almost laughed, realizing that he was nodding off once again.
"Not to mention the fact that I really don't need to stand here and listen to some preppy dancer come down on me for not being considered acceptable company for a Malfoy when really all you want to do is avoid complicating your own life. If it's really a problem, I'll just… disappear with Blaise whenever he comes by." Ginny added, at first a little snappy, but ending with an innocent tone. She felt Blaise's arms tighten for a second, as if in agreement, before slackening again.
"Mmm." Was the only response she heard from the sleepy guy wrapped around her.
Macha's jaw dropped when she saw a small smile appear on Blaise's face in response to Ginny's words. All the anger drained from her face so quickly that the change was almost laughable. The new look was one that looked almost out of place, until her eyes crinkled with a small smile and Ginny realized she was thinking something along the lines of, "Oh, how cute…". Before she could coo, Macha caught herself and cleared her throat meaningfully.
Blaise exhaled, moaning slightly in protest as he straightened, no longer slouched on the Gryffindor, who had begun to lean back on him, if only to keep the boy upright as he slept. Sliding his arms up slowly to hug her around the shoulders, he leaned forward and brushed his lips lightly on her right cheek before backing away, almost as if to say, "bye for now".
Ginny looked at Macha, who sighed in amused exasperation and looked in turn at Thomas, as if to say, "Well, what can I do but give in?".
"Well? Shall we, finally, get started?" The younger Nott inquired dryly.
"Or should Thom and I find some way to occupy our time as Macha continues to indulge in her long windedness while Ginny gets felt up by Blaise as he falls asleep?" Deirdre added, raising her eyebrows. Ginny tilted her head, and was still trying to think through this long list of things when Macha replied.
"Nope, I've just thought of the perfect thing. Oh, and Ginny, Thomas told me all about your Fran from yesterday. We should hang out and trade ideas for other mornings sometime in Hogsmeade… we could chat, pick up a guy or something, it'll be fun." Macha said, smiling wickedly as she turned and headed out away from the lake and the field, where the ground was flatter with less rocks.
"We? A guy?" Ginny said to herself as she followed with the others, realizing that it hadn't been a personal vendetta after all. Hmm, I suppose she was just being sure to protect herself from the older Slytherins. I wonder exactly how rocky the politics are in that house? She thought to herself.
"Guess I'm not the only Slytherin who knows your reputation." Blaise said, winking at Ginny.
"Hey now, I'm not that bad!" Ginny said with semi-fake indignation.
Deirdre snorted and Thomas added mildly, "I'm pretty sure it's the exact opposite."
"I heard you're actually very, very good." Macha said from the front of the group. "I wouldn't have asked you if I didn't think you could keep up…"
"Oh, she does more than keep up. Or she will when Blaise is done with her…" Thomas added, grinning.
"How do you know it won't be the other way around? She may be done with him in under a month. I thought you said you knew her record?" Deirdre added, laughing.
"Honestly, that's what they all say. Just give the boy time to go to work. I don't think anyone could ever wear through that boy…" Macha said. "Although if anyone could, aside from me, anyway, I'd go to you first, Ginny." The girl's head turned to smirk at the youngest Weasley.
Ginny just groaned at it all, way past having given up protecting her meager amount of dignity. Sensing the beginnings of a pattern, Deirdre nudged her and added quietly with a wide grin, "I can see this is the beginning of a hopefully long and prosperous bunch of friendships." Ginny just gave her a weary look in response as they followed Macha Emain into the large clearing before the castle.
End Chapter Four