The next morning Harry woke up unprepared for another day at school. He dragged himself away from the warmth of his bed sheets and changed before forcing himself down to the common room. There was barely anyone in the room, Harry had no idea about the time it was but there was a dim sunlight creeping slightly across the ceiling showing that the sun was still low outside. Harry continued across the room towards the portrait hole.
'Harry! Where'd you go last night?' someone said from a chair to the left of him, he turned to face the girl with flame red hair sitting in the chair
'Oh, sorry Ginny, I got tired and decided to just go to bed. I forgot I told you I'd be back.' he told her
'No problem' she dismissed him, 'are you going to breakfast?' Harry nodded
'Can I join you? I was going to wait for Hermione to wake up but I'm getting hungry' Harry nodded again and she followed him out of the portrait hole.
'So Hermione's not up yet?' Harry asked 'she's usually first up and wide awake while Ron's still falling asleep in his breakfast' Ginny giggled
'Yeah well she had a late night.' Ginny told him 'I watched her work for hours on end Ron stopped quite soon after you left, which wasn't a surprise but Hermione was still working after I went to bed and that was at 1 am'
'What was she working on?' Harry asked
'No idea' Ginny told him thoughtfully, 'I never thought to ask'
'And you just sat there for hours watching her work?'
'We talked, just not about the work' Ginny corrected him
'Oh ok'
Soon they were in the great hall and Harry had woken himself up surprisingly by the time they had finished eating Hermione and Ron were still nowhere to be seen.
'Do you think we should go wake them?' Ginny asked concerned
'No' Harry told her 'Ron would be happier to be asleep and Hermione doesn't take long to get her stuff, they'll both be woken by the bell if they're not up before then'
'Okay' she shrugged 'so what do you want to do now? Or do you want me to disappear?'
'No, you're alright' Harry said 'want to go to see Hedwig?'
'Sure' Ginny Agreed 'Do you have a letter to send or something?'
'No, actually I don't. Maybe that was a bad idea then' Harry said slowly 'unless you wanted to write to someone? You were going to tell your dad that Ron wasn't doing muggle studies, weren't you?' Harry laughed.
'I have actually got a letter to send but I was going to wait for Errol to come back from wherever the twins sent him'
'Well you can use Hedwig, who knows where the twins have sent Errol' Harry suggested
'Ok' Ginny agreed 'thanks, I'll run up and get the letter' they got up from the table and walked to the bottom of the main staircase.
'I'll wait here' Harry told Ginny with a smile, she nodded and ran up the stairs. A minute or two later Hermione and Ron came down the stairs; Hermione was almost supporting Ron as he stumbled in tiredness.
'I thought I better wake him up' Hermione said to Harry as she passed with a grimace as Ron fell down the last step.
'He'll wake up after he's eaten something.' Harry told her 'why's he so tired?'
'No idea' Hermione said 'I don't think he slept well last night, but I don't know why'
Then she continued through to the great hall following Ron. Next to follow them down the stairs was the new girl, who didn't look remotely tired but pretended not to see Harry as she passed.
'Hi' Harry grabbed her attention. She reluctantly looked at him,
'Hi'
'How are you?' he asked
'I'm fine thanks' she said, she looked ready to walk away again
'Then why do you look like you want to run away from me?' Harry asked hanging onto conversation as some more people walked past.
'I don't want to run away from you' she told him sternly 'I want to walk away to find my breakfast' Harry laughed 'anyway, why do you want to talk to me so bad every time I pass?'
'I don't, I just thought I'd be nice' Harry said dismissively
'Well don't be, I'll talk to you when I feel like talking'
'yeah but that will be once in a term when we're put together for the fun of Snape while Harry-baiting in potions' She looked at him confused 'believe me you'll notice the hate between us soon'
'Ok, well I'll see you later' she said slowly and wondered towards the great hall. Harry looked up at the staircase again to see if Ginny had come back yet, she was standing at the top of the first flight of stairs and as he spotted her she came down to meet him.
'I thought I'd give you two some space' she said 'but I don't see why you try so hard with her still'
'Give me a break Gin, okay?' he said exasperated, she gave him an amused smile 'I just want to know something about her.'
'Yeah but why?' she asked, Harry shrugged and Ginny laughed
'Got the letter?' he asked
'Yeah' she replied, 'are you sure I can borrow Hedwig?'
'Sure' he said 'I never have anyone to write to, it's good for Hedwig to get some exercise' he winked at her and she laughed again, this time sounding slightly more girly. Together they began walking towards the owlery, Harry found Ginny a lot easier to talk to than no-name
'Flying really is the best lesson here though' Ginny said, almost at the owlery by this point. Harry of course agreed. 'I don't know whether to be bored of Hogwarts as a whole or amazed though' she told him.
'What? How can you find Hogwarts boring?' Harry asked shocked and slightly amused as if she was telling a joke
'It's all the same as home, the magic is just magic to me, and I've grown up around it. The only difference is when you begin to get bored of Hogwarts it throws a quick, sharp surprise at you when you turn the next corner. The burrow doesn't do that, you just see Ron stuffing his face' Harry laughed
'Well that's not too different than Hogwarts, but I see your point. If I had to say one thing about Hogwarts though is that there is always more to find out about.'
'Yeah?' Ginny questioned
'Yeah. Like did you know about 20 feet under the school there are a link of rooms which the only entrance to that I know of is a trapdoor guarded by a huge three-headed dog called-'
'Fluffy, which Hagrid owns right?' Ginny interrupted
'Yeah, Ron told you about that, huh?' Harry asked slightly disappointed
'Told me about it? He hasn't stopped going on about it all summer' Ginny looked exasperatedly at Harry who smiled. They entered the owlery and ducked as a few owls swooped over their heads into perches. Harry and Ginny looked around at the perches and spotted Hedwig on one of the highest rows. They climbed the stairs together and Harry woke Hedwig.
'Hey girl' Harry spoke to her 'feel up to a delivery?' Hedwig hooted, behind Harry Ginny held back a laugh, but let herself grin at Harry's back, she made it disappear into an approving smile as Harry turned around for the letter, she passed it to him and broke back into a grin as he turned back to face Hedwig on the table in the middle of the room. Harry tied the letter to Hedwig's leg
'This is to Mr and Mrs Weasley, okay? You've been there before' he threw Hedwig out of the window and turned back to Ginny.
'What time is it now?' he asked as if he had done the most ordinary thing in talking to the owl.
'Uhh…' Ginny let her second hand robe sleeve fall back over her arm to reveal a small pink watch '5 to 9, we better get back to the castle.'
They began walking and this time turned their attention to quidditch, after a while they began talking about Harry's dodge from the previous night.
