Chapter 14 - Slughorn and Potions

*****Ginny*****

"I don't know why you won't let me go see Draco more often. He's at a safe house. It's safe, it's right in the name," Ginny argued yet again.

The house was stuffy, and boring, and depressing, and still not very clean. And she and Draco knew that every note they sent through Tonks would be read, so they didn't really bother saying much. And it was worse with the twins being in on everything instead of in the dark with them.

"Because we're you're family, and we should be together," Her mother went down that path for the dozenth time. They were all family except Percy.

"Draco's going to be my family. And yours too. Will you put up with him then?" Ginny asked. He'd be the father of some of her mother's grandchildren. "We should just go get married now and be done with it," Ginny rashly added. Not where this conversation usually went.

And then her mother cried. Which was Ginny losing the conversation. Mum rarely cried.

Ginny would go in the evening on her birthday, and no one would stop her then, because the Tonkses had invited her personally and were having desserts.

And she never really did anything on her birthday, and it would just be a worse reminder for her parents that their little girl was marrying against her will. Except Ginny was coping better than they were now. Sure, they'd fight, but who didn't? At least no one commented when school letters arrived, and she joined the twins as the non-prefects of the family. Maybe no one noticed.

As predicted, Ginny's birthday was awkward. It was better when they just didn't acknowledge it at all. Harry was there, and had been moping the whole day, like he had been since he arrived, so it was nothing new. Ginny knew the muggles were awful, but Harry really shouldn't have to be in Sirius's house either.

They had cake, and gifts, nothing unusual. No angry owls from the ministry this year.

"Mum, Dad, I'm going to see Draco now," Ginny said calmly when she'd finished the large piece of cake that she hadn't really wanted to eat. They knew she'd been officially invited (in addition to the 'come over any time that we are home' policy that Ginny had never gotten to accept). She had never actually been told she could go, but it was her birthday, and she was leaving.

No one stopped her. At least there weren't tears.

*****Draco*****

Ginny was more beautiful than when he'd last seen her. Maybe fifteen seemed like a better age than fourteen.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Hey yourself," she said back.

Draco probably looked stupid staring at her.

The last time they were together they had snogged really heavily in Draco's favourite chair. Or, it was his favourite chair after that.

Uncle Ted brought out a variety of muggle sweats, which Ginny tried nearly all of, even after saying she was 'stuffed.' She was endearing.

Aunt Andromeda gave ginny bright blue dress robes, saying how lovely they would look with her hair. And they would. They were a bit like the blue dress Ginny had worn in the first of the pictures she'd given him. She would have looked best in Slytherin green, Draco thought. But anything other than Gryffindor red. Or 'scarlet' as some insisted.

The Hollyhead Harpies shirt that Draco gave Ginny was dark green. Ginny was so excited that she ran to the loo to change. There was something to be said for muggle influence on clothing. Much more… figure flattering than robes. And her shorts didn't even cover half her thighs. Draco hadn't even had a word for the article of clothing before Ginny. Students didn't have to wear their uniform robes after dinner, in the common room, or on weekends, but most Slytherins didn't own much of anything but robes. There were charms to make wind and cold not a problem, and first years from those families came to Hogwarts already knowing them.

"Having a good birthday?" Draco asked her when the 'adults' left to 'tend to the kitchen,' which meant that they wanted to give Draco and Ginny some privacy, but not too much privacy.

They moved to the sitting room.

"Better now," Ginny said. She sat in his lap in their chair. He thought of it like that, especially now. "A little tense at home, but not bad. My birthday's always weird."

"Better than last year?" he joked.

"Hmmmm" Ginny pretended to consider. "Much less eventful. No mean Ministry owl, screaming, crying, no being in my room, unresponsive to the world in denial," she shrugged. "I'm happy now."

"And why were your birthdays always weird?" Draco asked. His birthdays were his favourite time as a child. Getting everything he wanted, and his parents' undivided attention. Better than Christmas.

"Not always just- since I was eleven. Promise you're not going to be grumpy when you're jealous?" Ginny checked with him.

So it had something to do with Potter.

"Hard to be jealous at the moment," he said, squeezing his arms around her. It was true enough.

"So, as long as I can remember as a kid, I had a crush on- this idea I had of the Boy-Who-Lived, yeah? And then he was real- this boy I saw for a few minutes at King's Cross, even though I didn't know who he was, and he became my brother's best friend. And he was there, in my house over the next summer, and I couldn't make a real sentence around him without making a fool of myself. So I asked for no birthday celebration. And he was also at our house before my second and third year too. By the time it was last year, I really didn't care. Really," she said with emphasis. "But I also didn't want to ask them to change, because that would just be more uncomfortable."

"Yeah," Draco replied.

It was harder to be jealous of Potter when he knew the only reason the boy was at the Weasley house was because Potter's muggle family didn't want him. No one told him, but the signs were all there. Potter didn't know things about the Wizarding world that he should have. His muggle clothes were atrocious. He always stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas. But sometimes Draco did too. He wouldn't go to the manor again, not while Tom lived. Draco was hiding somewhere his parents weren't even supposed to know where he was. But even his murderer father loved him. It just wasn't enough.

The Weasley children were… fortunate in some ways that Draco hadn't understood as a child. And Potter was lucky to have them. But Draco had Ginny. And his aunt and uncle. His muggleborn uncle by marriage who didn't say much seriously and joked often, and seemed to really love his life, and welcomed Draco into it. Draco thought that Andromeda had probably been a lot like him when she was young. But maybe not, because she hadn't needed a marriage contract to leave her family. Not that Draco had left his family, really.

"Where would you like to live?" Draco asked, because he wanted a different conversation. "Between quidditch trips with whichever team is lucky enough to have you," he added, because it couldn't hurt to lay the compliments on thickly on her birthday. And he believed in her potential. She needed more time to practice, and on a proper broom. And he said it because no one would hear, except perhaps his aunt and uncle, and they would think it to be endearing.

*****Ginny*****

"Want to grab a compartment?" Ginny offered. Harry looked a little lost as Hermione and Ron headed off to the prefect meeting- which Draco would be at too.

"Sure, yeah," Harry shrugged, walking onto the train.

They were on good terms, almost had to be after something like the Ministry, but Harry was dealing with a lot of stuff. And he maybe had a crush or something like it on Ginny, so Ginny mostly gave him space.

"I'm going to look for Luna and Neville," Ginny said. "You find a place and we'll find you?" she darted off. Maybe she could catch Draco before his meeting- who she was really after.

"Ginny!" a boy called as if they were friends. The most annoying member of the DA. Ginny was actually surprised that Zacharias Smith hadn't been the one who sold them out. Maybe he had a shred of Hufflepuff loyalty, but Ginny didn't think it was much. 'Taking the rest' was a nice, noble Hufflepuff sentiment, as the sorting hat had said the year before. But it landed them with a few... unlikable characters like Smith. Not many though.

"Hey," Ginny responded, because she didn't want to be rude. "Have you seen Luna?" she asked, so she'd have something to say.

"You're looking for Lovegood and Longbottom then?" he asked. "The Ministry Six some people are calling you. The Gryffindor Trio and the other three of you. Though I suppose five of you are Gryffindor really. What really happened there, really? I'm surprised those of us in the DA didn't hear the real story," the irritating boy pressed. Calling her an 'other' while pumping her for information. If she heard 'really' one more time.

"We went there, ran into some trouble, got some help, and then the whole world saw," Ginny said. "It was scary and not glamorous, so you shouldn't be jealous," she shot back. As if Zacharias Smith wanted to be in a duel, much less a... battle.

"But why did you go there? How did you know to go there, and why were the Death Eaters there?" the boy pressed. "What made any of you want to break into a top secret department of the Ministry? What's being hidden down there, any did Potter want it and the Death Eaters caught him?" For being so secret, it really hadn't been difficult to invade, not that she was going to tell Smith that.

Harry had a fake vision that Tom gave him to lure Harry there to save his godfather- who ended up dying anyway. She really wasn't going to say that.

"If we'd wanted to say everything, we would have put it in the paper," Ginny snapped.

"How'd you- and especially Lovegood go, and not the rest of the DA?" he asked.

Was he serious?

"You? Want to face down Death Eaters trying to kill you? You ready to face Him?" Because calling him 'Tom' felt too... something here, and she wouldn't call him anything else.

"No, but you aren't either," Zacharias protested. "We're the same year. You don't know any more spells than I do."

Ginny was almost silent with her bat bogey hex now. It was her signature move.

Zacharias Smith gasped, rolling on the floor, then he started screaming. It wasn't as satisfying as Ginny had expected, and now she was scared of getting caught.

The spell was cancelled without Ginny lifting it- which she should have already done.

This had to be the new Defence teacher. He took up most of the hallway and looked grandfatherly.

"Well that was an impressive display of a spell not many your age would know. Perhaps, young man, you shouldn't harass such a fiery young witch," the man announced.

Fiery hair, fiery temper, it was an annoying thing people said that was true enough in most of her family, but it still wasn't a great descriptor. But, if this man didn't want to get her in trouble, then the new teacher could say just about whatever he wanted.

"Run along, child," the strange professor instructed to the gaping Zacharias Smith. Worth it.

"Young lady, I have a lunch I would like to invite you to," the Defence professor said, pulling out an envelope. "I am gathering a group of promising young people to dine with, you see, and I think you would be a promising addition. Forgive my introduction, I am Horace Slughorn, your newest professor, and I quite look forward to having you in my class," he said, beaming.

"Ginny Weasley," Ginny introduced herself.

"Oh!" Slughorn said. "Yes, I had heard there was a Weasley girl at last. Well, woman now, I suppose. Interesting situation you find yourself in, isn't it, your betrothal?" the old wizard said, more curious over her than ever.

It was easy to have the measure of him. He was the type who wouldn't be interested in her family because they were poor, and wouldn't be interested in Draco's family because his father was in prison. But Ginny was an 'interesting' mix of both, a spotless reputation, association with Harry Potter, and a future with money in it. She liked the man just a bit, because he had been interested in her in her own merit before he heard her name. And, he wasn't going to give her detention. But, he wasn't someone she wanted to spend a lot of time with. And no Defence teacher lasted long anyway. She hoped he was competent enough to help her year with their O.W.L. preparations.

"Yes, my life is quite interesting," Ginny answered, running her fingers over the smooth envelope. "Have a good morning, professor," she said in leaving.

She'd have missed Draco for sure by now, so she might as well find Luna, Neville, and Harry.

*****Draco*****

Riding the train again was… going to be even worse than last year. He went to the stupid prefect meeting- mostly because being a prefect was the thing that let him walk around after seeing Ginny after curfew without repercussions.

Pansy didn't look at Draco anymore, which was just fine with him. She was hanging on Theo's arm at the station, Draco noticed, so that was possibly at thing, though Theo shoved her off quickly, so maybe Pansy just wanted it to be that way, or to look that way.

Weasley- Ron Weasley- was trying to ignore Draco too. They hadn't talked much in the last year. If they didn't bother Draco, Draco wouldn't bother th- except for the song he invented to distract Weasley. And Weasley had talked at him in the hospital wing when Weasley seemed drunk off some injury.

Granger was almost smiling at him- at Draco.

The meeting was even more useless than the last year's, since he already knew everything prefects did. Draco slipped out as quickly as he could.

He hadn't even seen Ginny before the meeting. And maybe he didn't care what the other Slytherins... that was overly suspicious thinking. It was perfectly expected for him to spend some time with his betrothed. And he wanted to see Ginny.

Draco almost groaned aloud when he saw the other occupants of the compartment, Longbottom, Lovegood, and Potter. Lovegood was bearable. Longbottom was glaring at him. They'd never been on good terms. Draco always got the impression that Longbottom hated him for his family, even though Draco hadn't known the reason why back then. And Draco... gave the first year boy real reasons to dislike him, the remembrall incident only the first. And Potter... Draco had offered friendship back then. His father had encouraged the alliance until it was clear that Potter was just Dumbledore's pawn. The biggest pawns were Death Eaters, and then their children for listening to them.

"Draco!" Ginny bounced up happily and hugged him. Draco enjoyed Potter's head turning away in disgust, until Draco focused properly on Ginny. Ginny deserved his attention.

"Hey," he said.

"Wanna get out of here?" she offered.

He didn't want to spend hours in a compartment with Potter and Longbottom, and the other Weasley and Granger would complete the set shortly.

"Yeah," he said, even though he didn't know where they would go. He didn't want to see his Slytherin year mates sooner than he had to either.

"I don't think you'll find an empty compartment this late," Luna observed. "I've never even spent the whole ride alone," she shrugged.

"Draco can scare out some second years," Ginny said dismissively.

"Ginny!" Neville yelped. Potter coughed.

"It was a joke," Ginny laughed. But it didn't sound like a bad idea.

Ginny walked with him down the hallway anyway.

First years, more first years. Younger Slytherins, younger- probably Gryffindors.

The next one was perfect.

"If you're quick, I won't tell your heads of house," Draco announced in introduction.

Wide-eyed children sprung apart from their snogging. They must have been third years, maybe some in fouth year. None of them Slytherin. Slytherin was an inclusive- or rather reclusive- house.

"Any from your house?" Draco asked when the children were gone.

"A few. Didn't they seem so young? Do we look like that- to adults?" Ginny asked.

Draco shrugged, "Probably, but it's our lives, not theirs."

Draco put up enough privacy wards that an older student might think- that they were doing more than snogging and talking.

"I missed you," Draco admitted when they came up from their first, very long kiss.

"Me too," Ginny answered. "So, I got an invitation to a lunch with the new Defence professor. He- seemed impressed when I hexed Zacharias Smith for being annoying. You probably don't know who Smith is, but he's in my year and was- in the DA, but he's also probably my least favourite person in the castle."

"Your least favourite person isn't a Slytherin?" Draco questioned, not ready to respond regarding the lunch.

"Hufflepuff, yeah, I'm surprised too," she stuck her tongue out. "So, I'm going to this lunch with the weird professor. Seems like we wants to... collect people. Harry got an invitation too, and he'd met the professor before. But it seems rude not to go? I could ask if you can come too?" she offered.

Draco realized that he didn't need to go, didn't even want to go. It all sounded too much like Ministry politics.

"It's fine," Draco brushed off. "I find myself- wishing to distance myself from those only interested in my family name, and no more eager than to associate with those who would judge me because of it," he said. It was practically a prepared speech from tumbling around in his mind. The man had to be a Slytherin.

"That's great, really. I guess I'll just go see Slughorn and see what it's about. With the name Slughorn, it's actually too easy to make names for him, you know?" Ginny shrugged.

"Slughorn?" Draco asked. "Horace Slughorn?" he clarified.

"Yeah, he's the new Defence teacher," Ginny told him.

"Unlikely," Draco frowned, following the thought to its logical conclusion, which meant that Severus... "He was the Head of Slytherin house when both of my parents were in school. He is somewhat famous, not for his own accomplishments, but for his connections. He wouldn't be a bad person for you to associate with," Draco said. "But he was- their Potions professor. I don't imagine he is a man qualified to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, which would lead me to believe-"

"That Snape got the job," Ginny completed. "Or the sack," she added.

If Severus - If Snape- was the Defence teacher… no teacher had made it through a year in decades. Which was a strange thing for Dumbledore to do with his spy. But, Dumbledore was the same man who had hired Lockheart, a werewolf, a disguised Death Eater...

"How was the rest of your summer?" Draco asked instead, allowing his other thoughts to simmer.

*****Ginny*****

Ginny almost wished she hadn't come to the lunch. Except the food was good and free, and Neville and Harry were there.

Slughorn didn't talk to her as much as some, but she wasn't shunned like Marcus Belby after the boy said he didn't know his uncle who invented Wolfsbane Potion very well.

Ginny had vaguely known of Cormac McLaggen before, a seventh year Gryffindor. He was sort of cute, and well connected, as Slughorn clearly knew. He'd dated an older Gryffindor girl last year, and then a girl in Ginny's year. And he'd probably dated girls from other houses too. The Gryffindor girls in his own year probably knew him too well to want to date him, Ginny would guess.

And Zabini kept looking at her, appraisingly. His mother had a reputation for marrying men and them dying of 'ordinary circumstances,' adding to her personal wealth. Draco talked less about Blaize Zabini than the other boys in his year.

Ginny didn't like when Slughorn started in on Harry- not entirely dissimilarly to what Smith had gotten her hex for. She and Harry were still friends, and had been through a lot together by now.

"We never heard a prophesy!" Neville piped up. Slughorn hadn't really talked to Neville much either.

"That's right, we were at the Ministry too. You can't trust anything the Prophet says. In fact, the Quibbler was the one with the true story first. My friend Luna Lovegood, the daughter of the owner and operator of the Quibbler, says they intend to put more articles like that too. Luna was with us, and my brother Ron, and Hermione Granger," Ginny listed out all of them who had gotten less recognition.

Zabini scoffed, but Slughorn seemed interested.

"Having a link to the press is a wise decision, Harry, even in less... traditional ways," Slughorn said. And then he was talking about another of his lofty contacts, but Ginny cared more this time, because it was Gwenog Jones, who had been Ginny's hero since childhood.

*****Draco*****

Potter.

They had hardly started classes, and Draco already wanted to strangle Potter- nothing new there.

How the hell had Potter managed a potion better than Draco's own and Granger's? The idiot couldn't follow a list of directions if his life depended on it. And he didn't have the feel for it, or the best stirring techniques. He must have… diverted from the instructions in some way- the way Snape had said masters do- except it would have been an accident on Potter's part.

And as tense as being in Snape's presence was at times, Draco didn't like having someone else as a potions instructor. Slughorn didn't seem as attentive, or talented.

And if the man had only used Felix Felicis twice in his life, it was so fortunate that the man just happened to have a potion that took six months to brew on hand when he agreed to return to teaching potions. And from the rumours Draco had heard, the man had been staying hidden since well before Tom's return was well known to the public. So, either the potion was a fake that he threw together to look impressive, or the man was brewing it whenever he could, and living on that luck himself, or selling it.

*****Ginny*****

"I hear you won some luck," Ginny said, to a rather grumpy looking Harry. So, maybe she was curious after hearing Draco's take on the story. Hermione wasn't there, and Ginny wondered for a moment if the other witch was jealous and sulking as Draco was. Probably not, unless Harry had done something wrong, cheated somehow. Perhaps Harry always had had a great talent in potions and had just been held back by his animosity with Snape. "What are you going to use it on, try to win back Cho?" Ginny suggested.

Harry made a face that the Ravenclaw girl probably didn't deserve.

"No," Harry answered.

Ginny pressed on cheerfully, if only just to spite him. "Yeah, it was never really the right time for the two of you. It's not either of your faults, really. But hmmm…" she pretended to ponder more deeply than she was. "George and Angelina still write all the time, so I consider myself a proven match maker. I could see you with…" Ginny considered. None of the Gryffindors in Harry's year, and yet Harry seemed like the sort who might need another Gryffindor, at least at this point in his life. And the girls in Ginny's year felt so young. "Katie," Ginny declared with some confidence. It didn't sound like a bad match, really.

"Katie Bell?" Harry asked, as if Katie Bell wasn't the only Katie he knew.

"Yes, Katie Bell. She's mature, and you've known her for years, and you have quidditch in common. She joined the DA and never thought you were crazy or a murderer… seems like good traits to me," Ginny concluded.

"You also just described Angelina, and Alicia, and Cho, and you," Harry pointed out.

That was… weird to hear. But it didn't make her heart race like it would have even a year ago- maybe even four months ago. It was just awkward.

"Yeah, well, Angelina and I are seeing people, and like I said, I don't know that Cho was a bad match, just bad circumstances. And write to Alicia if you want," Ginny shrugged. "But it would be easier to get to know Katie better, since she's here. And there's nothing wrong with convenience being a factor. You're not really likely to marry whoever you date when you're sixteen. And, Katie's two best friends left Hogwarts, so she's probably lonely," Ginny said. It was something she'd considered already herself, since she spent quite a lot of time with people in the year above her, including Draco.

"Just think about it," Ginny suggested. "So, how'd you do it?"

"Do what?" Harry responded.

"Win the liquid luck. Your history in potions class is not exactly stellar. Or did you figure out it was all Snape's fault?" she offered.

"I-" Harry looked around. "I followed instructions like everyone else. My book just happened to have better advice," he shrugged.

Ginny frowned, "Who wrote in your book?" she asked.

"I'll try to find out. I sure it was a boy. He called himself the Half-blood Prince," Harry said casually.

This made Ginny immediately angry. "You're following directions scribbled into a book, and you don't even know who wrote them?" Ginny seethed. More angry than she expected. "How different is this really from the diary?" Ginny dared ask. It was the most casually she'd ever talked about the thing.

"No, no," Harry said quickly. "This is nothing magical, just written by a person," Harry fumbled stupidly.

"Tom's a person. What if some change in the potions instructions made you blow up the whole class, hmm?" Ginny asked. Was that even crazy? Ginny didn't know how dangerous something brewed in a NEWTs potions class might be. They weren't first years anymore.

"It was just little things," Harry defended himself. "Like a better way to get the juice out of a sopo- out of a bean better." Harry said, showing how little he'd learned in Potions if he couldn't remember an ingredient an hour later. "Nothing that was going to hurt anyone." And how would he know that if he didn't even know what kind of bean it was?

"Fine," Ginny falsely conceded. If he wanted to do something stupid, Ginny wasn't going to be the one to convince him not to. It was partially her own sensitivities- about another half-blood who altered a book a few decades ago. Except Tom would never brag about being a half-blood.

And if she stayed in the messy-haired boy's presence any longer, the next months and years would be even more uncomfortably tense, because she would do something rash.

She needed more activity in her life, to punch or hex something.