Chapter 3: First days At School
If I had been worried about the boys before I left in the train it was nothing to how I felt when I realised I was left all alone in that train with no-one to sit with. I didn't count Percy for 2 reasons. First, he was obsessed with his prefect duties and so was prowling around the train almost the whole time, and second he was insufferable and the idea of sitting with him all the way to Hogwarts was … well, let's just say I'd rather eat dung than put myself through all those hours of concentrated Percy-ness. Fred and George would have been a bit more fun to hang out with but they were all caught up with Lee Jordan and the other girls on the quidditch team so I just slunk off by myself.
I soon found a carriage which had only one other occupant and I quickly sat down with her. She looked a little weird with her dirty yellow hair and vague expression, but she also seemed very sweet under it all. I smiled at her and asked her name
'Oh, I'm Luna. But you can call me Looney. Everyone else does.'
'But that's horrible!' I gasped.
'Horrible? Why?' queried Luna. 'I think you may have been attacked by wrackspurts. They are only being friendly; it's just a fun nickname.'
'If you say so' I said, wondering what a wrackspurt was.
Despite her odd ideas I really liked Luna; she was never afraid to say what she thought even if others thought she was odd. We had a great time on that train trip to Hogwarts and made firm friends. I hoped we would be in the same house, as then at least I'd know one nice person in my year in my house. While I was nervous about my sorting, Luna seemed impervious to it. With her as an example I soon put aside my worries (but I still desperately hoped to be in Gryffindor like my family, like Harry).
Crossing the lake to the castle was a beautiful experience. The lights of the castle twinkling on the water were breathtaking and seeing it made me feel so proud and so happy to be finally going to school with all the others. Luna beside me was serene and at ease and she made me feel so at peace with myself. That peace was lost as soon as we passed under the eaves of the dock and scrambled out of the boats. Professor McGonagal, who I'd heard so much about, was waiting for us looking stern and uncompromising. Her eyes swept the groups and she said 'Follow me first years. The sorting will begin in the Great Hall momentarily.'
I took a deep breath and followed behind her. We walked into the Great Hall and looked around. All those faces staring at us, it was unnerving. My eyes drifted to the Gryffindor table and I felt a wrench in my gut. Harry and Ron weren't there. I checked twice to be sure, but they were definitely not seated amongst the chattering students at the table. Something terrible had gone wrong at the station. I finally started to panic and if I hadn't been surrounded by so many people I would have turned tail and run. It was an almost physical need to find out what was wrong. Luna looked at me in mild surprise and said 'Ginny, what's wrong? It's just a sorting Billygid you know. It feels your aura and tells you what house you should be in. There's nothing to worry about.' I grimaced, but didn't say anything. My feelings about Harry and my terror over Ron I would only share with my very best friend. Tom Riddle.
I was moderately interested in the sorting even though my every nerve was thrumming with the worry over Harry … and Ron of course. I desperately wanted to be with Luna, but when she was called she was placed straight into Ravenclaw. I was sad to see it, but I knew that if it was a choice between Ravenclaw with Luna and Gryffindor with Harry … and my brothers … well, let's just say I told myself I preferred red and gold as colours. I was called up to the stool and sat down, terrified of what would happen if I wasn't sorted into Gryffindor.
'Please let me be with Harry, please let me be with Harry' I chanted in my head.
'Well, we have a little crush I see. Sad to say that we don't place based on crushes.'
'Oh please, oh please ….' I begged silently
'But fortunately for you, you have all the hallmarks of a Gryffindor: courage to speak your mind, strong athletic skills, very strong will. Yes I think it better be GRYFFINDOR!'
Heaving the hugest sigh of relief I jumped off the stool and ran to the red and gold table. Now that the sorting was over and I was where I was meant to be, with the boy of my dreams and all, I was able to turn my worried attention to where he could possibly have gotten to. I leant over to Fred and whispered
'Fred! Do you know what happened to Harry and Ron?'
'Ooh, Harry first in your mind wee sister?'
'Shut up!' I hissed, blushing a furious scarlet and glaring at him with my patented Ginny death glare. 'What do you think happened to them?'
At that moment professor McGonagall hurried up to us and said in a low voice 'I thought you lot would like to know. Your brother has been spotted flying a car into Hogwarts grounds. He and Mr Potter are fine but they are in a great deal of trouble.'
Fred and George whooped, and I let out the breath I didn't even know I was holding. He was safe. They were safe. My whole body lost a degree of tension and I was able to relax for the first time since we got through that barrier to the station. At that moment a diversion came in the form of the prefects calling to us to follow them to the common room. I waved at Luna across the hall and dutifully followed my classmates up to the Gryffindor common room.
Percy, pompous as usual, led us up the stairs and finally directed us to our dormitories but not before he made a show of coming over to me in all his prefectly glory, puffing out his chest and stating so the entire world could hear 'Oh well done Ginny. Held up the family honour after all' and making me just about sink into the floor in humiliation. Honestly! Can you see a little why I didn't sit with him on the train? What a prize prat!
Just then the portrait hole swung open and Ron and Harry were pulled into the room. Amongst the whole crowd I don't think they spotted me, but I was grinning like a loon just like everyone else. Though I don't think I was grinning for the same reasons as everyone else; they were all impressed by the idea of the flying car. I was impressed by Harry himself. Miss Dramatic had a field day with my first sight of him. After not seeing him for so many hours, seeing Harry again was just … beautiful. His hair was even more messy than usual and his eyes seemed a deeper green as he was being congratulated. He looked tired, guilty and yet under it all was an enthusiasm for what they'd done. His face was trying unsuccessfully to hide a sheepish grin, and as he and Ron caught sight of Percy over the crowd they made a quick exit to the boys' dormitories. I felt a surge of disappointment. Not that I blame them at all. Who'd want to put up with that moralising, pompous oaf yelling at them, especially when it was pretty sure that Mum would be in bright and early with her version of the Weasley lecture. But I did want to, you know, maybe try and talk to Harry again. Perhaps a 'congratulations on the entrance' … if I managed to make Miss Dramatic stop with the big sighs and longing looks and get up the courage to actually talk to him; after all I was Gryffindor now. I needed to be brave.
At least they were safe and at Hogwarts. Now my time at school could really begin. For the first time I really looked around me and saw how cool the Gryffindor common room was. The red and gold highlights on everything were beautiful and it had a cosy, lived in feel to it almost like home. The reality finally sank in: I was in! I'd done it! Harry and I were fellow Gryffindors, and of course my family would be so proud. I hastened upstairs and pulled out my diary to say all my first impressions of school life and of course tell Tom a little more about Harry. Tom was so understanding of me, he'd told me he knew what it was like to be in love with someone who didn't want you and he was so sympathetic. Honestly, I'd never met anyone nicer than he was. He really was my very best friend and no-one could take that away from me.
By mid week, my heart had stopped doing backflips every time I came into the common room just because I thought Harry might be there. It only did that now if I really truly did see Harry. I'm sure he was quickly sick of the goofy, fangirly simper I used to wear whenever he was around, but thankfully for me there was a far worse, far more annoying fanboy hanging around him. I must have seemed like a model of restrained admiration when he compared me to Colin Creevey. I was jealous, oh yes. Colin got away with memorising Harry's timetable and getting to hear that gorgeous voice snap out 'Hi Colin' between every class. But Colin wasn't in love, you see, and I told myself that true love like mine was unable to follow the object of affection around. I had to content myself with sighing from a distance and metaphorically clasping that dramatic hand to my forehead anytime we did happen to be in the same place at the same time. It wasn't that I was scared to be around him. No no. It was that I had a pure affection for him. Yes, you can roll your eyes now. I really had a bad case of little girl love and I don't see how he ever stood it with the dignity that he did.
At least he was still unfailingly kind to me. And if there was that hint of exasperation in his voice when he spoke to Colin it was never there with me. See, I kept telling myself, see, he really does love me too. But of course in the depths of the night when I was talking to my best friend Tom I always remembered the way he turned from me and hung around with Ron and Hermione. I cursed my luck that I was a year too young to be in his class. A year too young to be one of his best friends. A year too young to make him even notice me more than as Ron's kid sister. In vain did I kick myself and say at least I knew him, knew the hero of the wizarding world. But I never could accept that he was so near and yet so very far away from being my friend. So I poured my heart and soul out about my sadness to Tom, and he grew ever more patient and comforting.
Classes were interesting, as were our teachers. I tended to sit with Colin Creevey because, well, he was always willing to talk about Harry and listen to my enumerations of his perfections happily and of course Luna joined us when we had classes with the Ravenclaws. Her serene presence always made me feel better. Even if I'd done something hideously ridiculous in front of Harry (like, oh Merlin, this one time I ate my cereal so fast I made dreadful slurping noises not realising he was there and another time I tripped over and sprawled on my face, robes over my head and he was there and asked if I was OK … oh, the mortification!) Luna was able to calm me down and make me feel at peace and at ease with myself. She was often called 'Looney' by the other kids, but I couldn't understand how they could not appreciate the value in her. Maybe they didn't have anything they needed to relax about and so didn't need Luna's wonderful sense of sweet calm.
The teachers were … well, yes 'interesting' is a good word. Snape was everything Ron had said. He chose Luna to pick on, probably because she was so 'different,' but it always sailed over her head so he seemed to get more angry that he couldn't make her react. I adored McGonagal; she was strict but such a good teacher. I always seemed to grow into myself in her class and she seemed to have a soft spot for me too. I don't know why, but she made me feel much more clam in her classes than anywhere else in the school. By far the worst, however, even worse than Binns and his snooze-inducing lectures, was Lockhart. Mr 'I'm so in love with myself I think I'll pass out' was not a good teacher. Not at all. He often just rambled on about his own achievements and was never able to answer any actual question about the dark arts unless it dealt with him. I was so bored in his classes I used to doodle little hearts over my parchment with 'HP 4 GW' all over them. In fact I may just have one of those left. I wonder if I should go hunt it out. Harry might appreciate the laugh now. I sure as heck know he didn't appreciate it back then when Fred stole one and humiliated me by showing the whole common room. Now that I think back on it that year was filled with numerous tiny moments of humiliation. I'm amazed my little crush survived all the teasing, but it did.
So basically, those first few weeks were interesting. I nurtured both my crush and my brain throughout all my classes and outside activities and life looked set to carry on as normal as possibly for a magical school girl. Unfortunately, things were just about to get far worse for me.
