5th December 1997
Astoria Greengrass walked out of the library, head in the book she was currently reading. It was a fascinating book on mind and body healing. She muttered an apology on bumping into someone and stepped aside to let the person pass without even bothering to look up from the book. The person did not move, so she looked up from the page she was on and found herself face to face with Gregory Goyle, who was grinning lecherously at her.
"Did you need something, Goyle?" She asked, marking the page she was reading before shutting the book.
"You."
"Excuse me?"
"I heard you rejected Crabbe. I thought I could take a chance with you now."
"And what makes you think I will accept your offer?"
"Well, you have to marry someone and there are only so many purebloods left." He said taking a step towards her, Astoria took a step back.
"I can always pick another pureblood, Goyle. There are plenty out there."
"Like, who?" He asked incredulously, "Nott is engaged to your sister, you rejected Crabbe, nobody knows if the Malfoys would survive the next six months, and Blaise treats you like his sister. What other purebloods are there, Greengrass?"
"There still are plenty of them out there, they are not here in England for now, but I am pretty sure Flint is single, I might choose him or no one at all." Astoria answered carefully.
Goyle stared at her dumbfounded. "You can' do that! It is the duty of every pureblood woman to take a husband and give him an offspring which would take his name forward by serving the dark lord."
Astoria bit back the angry retort on her lips and schooled her expression against the distaste she felt towards an ideology which only saw women as ornaments and baby producing machines that too to serve a dark lord.
"Well, Goyle. Some pureblood women choose to have a career before they get married, I am sure my parents would understand that."
"But you won't be protected for long, Greengrass. Someday the neutral families would be forced to pick the right side, and then the Dark Lord's true followers would have the privilege to mate with as many pureblood women as they wanted to, to create an army of faithful followers." He said with a small smile, "Who will protect you then, Greengrass?"
"Hey Greengrass!" Ginny Weasley called, striding out angrily from the library's door. "You have something I need." She said rudely, picking up the book from Astoria's arms.
"Hey!" Astoria complained, "I was reading that book. Give it back."
"Why would you need it, little Greengrass?" Ginny asked scathingly, her eyes narrow with disgust. "As far as I remember you have never served detention or faced torture. I happen to need the book, to help quite a lot of people heal."
"I don't care why you need it Weasley." Astoria retorted angrily, "Just. Give. It. Back."
"Or what? Your pretty sister is not here to fight for you, remember?"
"Well, I am." Goyle said, stepping forward. "If you know what is good for you, you will just give the damn book back."
"Really, Goyle? You want to fight me? Do you even know how to duel?" Ginny said with a sneer.
A small crowd had started forming around the three students. Everyone watched in fear as Ginny and Goyle argued, they knew that if the Carrows caught them, Goyle would be asked to torture Ginny. Goyle himself believed that he would be torturing Ginny Weasley tonight.
"What in the name of Merlin is happening here?" Professor Snape asked and the crowd parted to make way for the Headmaster.
"Nothing Professor." Crabbe said politely, "It seems that Weasley here has forgotten what her social stature is."
"Is that so Miss. Weasley?" Snape asked sardonically.
"I was born a rebel." Ginny replied acidly. "Professor." She added after a moment's pause.
"Then let me remind you Miss. Weasley, that I am not your old headmaster. I do not tolerate indiscipline."
"That is quite obvious, Sir. You only tolerate Professors torturing students in the name of detention." Ginny said angrily, there was a collective gasp. "You only support students that sexually assault those students, who have already faced the Cruciatus curse at least 5 times that night." Ginny continued angrily, "But you do not tolerate indiscipline."
"Miss. Weasley, I do not appreciate your tone or your manner of speech." Snape snapped.
"Oh, I am sorry, Professor. I wasn't aiming at being polite or pleasant." Ginny replied back, rolling her eyes.
Snape stared at the Weasley girl with disdain, this stupid girl would get herself killed. Dumbledore had asked him to take care of his students and Merlin knew, Severus was trying but it looked like Weasley had a death wish.
"50 points from Gryffindor Weasley and-"
"Headmaster." Professor McGonagall said, materialising out of nowhere with Professor Flitwick by her side.
"Minerva. Filius." Snape said nodding once towards each. "What brings you here?"
"We were informed by a concerned student that a situation of gross misunderstanding has arisen between Miss. Weasley and Miss. Greengrass." Professor McGonagall said smoothly.
"We are here to resolve the issue, amicably." Professor Flitwick supplied.
"With your due permission, we would like to talk to our wards to resolve the issue at hand." McGonagall said.
"That would be fine by me. But I need to inform you that Miss. Weasley misbehaved with me, I have deducted points from your house. I-"
"I would ensure that she is punished appropriately. Detention with Madam Pompfrey Miss. Weasley." McGonagall said with a tight smile and a glare towards Snape.
Snape nodded and left and the crowd dispersed slowly. McGonagall stood there as she watched the crowd disperse before turning to the three students.
"Mr. Goyle, I believe your presence here is not required at the moment." She said, "You may go."
"Miss. Weasley, Miss. Greengrass, please follow us." Professor Flitwick instructed as McGonagall started walking next to him.
The two professors and their wards split after a while. Ginny followed Professor McGonagall to her office.
"What were you thinking, Miss Weasley?" McGonagall burst out as soon as she shut the door of her office.
"I am sorry, Professor." Ginny said hanging her head in shame. "I saw her having a nice chat with Goyle, and it made me so angry! Her housemates are being tortured by this boy, how could she have a civil conversation with such a monster?" Ginny said angrily, pacing in front of McGonagall's desk.
"Luna shares a dorm with Greengrass. Terry and Michael were her friends. Stacy Grey is supposed to be her best friend. And all of them have been tortured by Carrow and Carrow Inc. How could she be civil with him and then face Luna, or Terry or Michael, even Grey? Where is her honour?" Ginny asked at the end of her rant. Praying to God, that McGonagall bought her act, the nosy little Death- Eater spawns in each house needed to believe that Astoria and Ginny hated each other's guts.
"Sit down Miss. Weasley." McGonagall said calmly, "Now, would you like some tea or coffee or pumpkin juice?" Ginny stared at McGonagall and shook her head. "How about hot chocolate then? With marshmallows and a hint of cinnamon? I think, I will ask for that." She said and called for a house elf. After asking the house elf to get the said beverage and pineapple cake, McGonagall turned to survey Ginny.
"That was quite an act, Miss. Weasley." She said, fighting a smirk. "You would have given James Potter and Co. a run for their money. Even I was fooled for a moment. Excellent."
Ginny stared at McGonagall, her mouth hanging open. "How- how did you know?" Ginny stammered in the end.
McGonagall threw her head back and laughed but before she could answer the elf returned with the beverages and the cake. She pushed the plate of cake slices towards Ginny, along with a glass of hot chocolate. "Drink that up and do try the cake. It is a safe flavour, but it is excellent." She added, flashing Ginny a genuine smile.
"You know, your professors are not foolish, Miss. Weasley."
"We never assumed that Professor. We wouldn't have put in so much of an effort in putting up the act otherwise."
"We know that the Greengrass sisters, Mister Nott and Mister Zabini are helping your band of rebels." McGonagall said, "From what we hear, Mr. Nott has the makings of an excellent healer, Mr. Zabini could become a Potions Master and Miss. Greengrass is going to make Filius proud with her expertise at healing charms. Am I correct?"
Ginny nodded, taking a large sip of from her cup. "Very well. You are free to go Miss. Weasley and you are free to take your drink and some cake slices with you. Report to the hospital wing at 7 p.m. tonight and try not to insult Severus for the sake of an act. I hate to think of what could have happened had we been late."
"Professor?" Ginny asked from the door. "Madam Pompfrey told you about our arrangement, didn't she?"
"You have your sources of information, Miss. Weasley. We have ours. Let's not discuss such delicate matters with the door of my office half open, the walls of Hogwarts have eyes and ears and these days a very malicious brain."
"Of course, Professor. Thank you for the hot chocolate, the pineapple cake indeed is excellent."
McGonagall nodded, going back to her paperwork and Ginny walked back to the room of requirement for the meeting.
Astoria crept into the hospital wing after curfew. The students would start trickling in by midnight. She spotted Ginny next to the medicine cabinet and made her way towards it.
Over the months that these renegade purebloods had spent helping the rebels, it was important to keep their identities secret. Blaise and Theo would knock each of their patients out and then feed them dreamless sleep potion before healing them. To this day, the tortured students believed that the DA protected them and helped them out. Only a select few members of the DA themselves knew about the involvement of the four high profile purebloods.
Astoria tiptoed towards the cabinet as she neared it.
"Greengrass, forget it. I know it's you." Ginny said without even looking up from the record book.
"Dang it. How did you know?" Astoria whined.
"When you patrol with an invisible Blaise Zabini, you learn stuff." Ginny said with a shrug.
"Did someone just say my name?" Blaise asked, followed by Theo and Daphne, who let go off each other's hands in the presence of company.
"Ginny dear, did I hear you take my name?" Blaise asked, settling on the desk that Ginny was working on.
"As a matter of fact, I was just talking about you." Ginny said, giving Blaise an amused smile.
"Did you finally realize that you have fallen for my charms?"
"Here we go, again." Theo muttered sarcastically, busying himself with filling empty vials with dreamless sleep potion.
"Shh.." Daphne said, "This is getting good now. Blaise is about to get burned."
Ginny meanwhile rolled her eyes and snorted. "Yes, Blaise. I just realized that if I had to choose between you and the Giant squid, I would- no, I would choose the squid." Ginny said cheerfully.
The other three snorted. Blaise narrowed his eyes, "You will pay for that, Weasley."
"I am not in the mood to pay you for anything, right now. Maybe later." Ginny said charmingly, before flipping her hair back and going back to the record book.
Blaise watched her for a while before realising with a jolt that he no longer pined for Weasley. He shrugged, maybe it was a phase that passed. As everyone busied themselves with preparing for the night Astoria came and sat next to Ginny.
"Hey, did you get my book? There were some excellent charms on mind and body healing; I want to see if they would work on someone today."
Ginny nooded, diving to retrieve the book from her bag which was resting near her feet. "Sorry, I forgot that I had kept it with me." She said with a smile. "I am also sorry for what I said." Ginny added hesitantly, "You know I didn't mean any of that."
"Relax, Ginny. I can call you Ginny, right?" Astoria asked with a bright smile. Ginny nodded. "It was just an act. I know you meant nothing by it. By the way Goyle should be thanking you."
"No!" Ginny said in mock horror. "I saved him from being hexed by you."
Astoria laughed. "I was really going to hex his balls off. He was going on and on about how it was the duty of every pureblood woman to get married and make babies who would serve you-know-who faithfully."
Ginny snorted. "What century do these death eaters live in? What about women wanting to live their own lives?"
"I know, right! Here I am, working so hard to become a healer. Why would I marry some man who sees me as nothing but a show piece and a baby making machine all rolled into one."
"That's so disrespectful! I don't know how women buy such bull crap. Why would any talented witch believe that she is less skilled than her husband, or worse yet, hide her skills from him? Why would an intelligent, self respecting witch, dumb herself down?"
"Why are men so insecure?" Astoria asked frustrated. "Not just insecure, why do they believe that every woman they smile at automatically becomes their property?"
"Tell me about it." Ginny said, "And it's not just other men. I have 6 elder brothers and I am not saying they don't love me but they have such double standards! Oh! They are free to date and kiss and shag whoever they fancy, but if I do it, all hell breaks loose and their standard excuse is 'we don't want you get hurt'." Ginny said, putting the excuse in quotation marks and mimicking one of the twins.
"It is so frustrating! Why can't people accept that I have a mind of my own!"
Ginny threw her hands in the air. "I don't know! But you know when all this gets over. I will build a career of my own. I will be someone, before thinking of marriage, no matter how much Harry and I love each other."
"Yeah me too. I would become a healer come what may. And you really are hopeful that we will survive all of this?" Astoria asked, gesturing outside towards the inky sky.
"I can't think any other way. All we have is hope. Don't we?" Ginny said looking at Astoria wistfully.
Astoria nodded. "Yes, hope is all we have and the will and patience to fight."
Ginny smiled. "Hey." Astoria said hesitantly, "Look, I can't replace your best friends. But I heard that Hermione Granger was your closest friend, apart from Luna. And well, let's face it, I love Luna but at times you can't have a clear heart to heart conversation with her." Ginny nodded, looking at Astoria quizzically. "All I am trying to say is that if you feel like you need to talk to someone, I am there. Okay?"
Ginny nodded. "Okay, Thank you Astoria. That was very kind of you." she said with a smile. There was a loud knock on the door, Neville stepped in with two stretchers in tow.
"First years. Amycus just freed them. Damn, they are torturing Slytherin students now."
The room was filled the noise of scraping chairs and hurried footsteps. Ginny and Astoria exchanged a glance and a nod before hurrying over. The victims of the night had started trickling in.
AN: Soooooooooooo, another chapter done. I like this one. I just do. You don't have to like it. But if you do, please leave a review.
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Anyway, Happy Reading.
Much love,
The fishes.