Breakfast, as usual wasn't so bad an affair.
Especially now that Ginny could sit with Helen, Sylvia and Susan.
She was beginning to even look forward to meal times, and while it had only been days, she had already forgotten about the letter she sent to the twins pleading to know where the kitchens were when several owls bombarded her with mail, one carrying her twin brother's reply.
Smiling enthusiastically, Ginny tore the envelope open.
Dear Gin-gin,
She smiled ruefully.
We received your letter, well obviously otherwise we the successful business men/inventors/male models wouldn't be writing now, would we?
She snorted.
Hoping to avoid the other snakes are we? You really should give it a chance.
She had already realized they were right, but still it surprised her they would say so.
I dated a Slytherin girl my sixth year of school, she was nice. I really liked her.
George's handwriting.
And let's face it, now you can become a spy for the Gryffindor quidditch team.
Fred's handwriting.
Still, if you really want to know...
She was still very interested in finding out.
You'll just have to discover for yourself.
She sighed, disappointed.
But...
She perked up.
We have something that might help.
She looked at the blank, and rather old looking, piece of parchment they had sent her and raised her eyebrows.
Appearances are not always what they seem...whatever you do don't throw it away! Owe our school careers to that parchment we do.
Let your scales show,
Fred and George.
Setting the letter aside she picked up the parchment and stared at it curiously before safely tucking it away in her robes. She wondered if it was just a prank, send her an ordinary piece of parchment and try to make her work out a puzzle that wasn't there. That would be their style.
Still, for now it wouldn't hurt to keep it.
She moved on to the next letter, from her parents.
Ginny-love,
We are so proud...
All of her brothers expressed the same sentiment or at least one of acceptance.
She smiled the rest of breakfast.
History of magic was boring as usual, and it was the first class that morning. Determined not to fall asleep but seeing that nothing was to be gained by paying attention to the lecture, Ginny decided to write in the book she had found in her room the previous night.
She had always wanted a diary, and her first year was something she wanted to remember. According to her mother, every year at Hogwarts was a milestone, and so, she decided, she wanted to remember every thing, something to look back upon someday.
She opened the book pretending to take notes; dipped her quill in the ink bottle, hesitated for a moment before placing it on the page as she wrote…
My name is Ginny Weasley, or Ginevra actually but I hate my full name.
My entire family has been in Gryffindor, all six brothers and my parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. I am in Slytherin though.
When I was sorted into the Slytherin house, I thought my family would hate me. All Ron ever did was come hope and tell me how evil and horrible they all were. My first thoughts were of how afraid I was that everyone would hate me. Well not exactly, I asked to be in Slytherin. I wanted to be there, I wanted to show my parents I wasn't some dumb little girl who would just always go along with everything. They always hid everything from me, they always felt I was too delicate, too small, so I actually wanted them to be mad at me. But as I was walking down to the Slytherin table I began to wonder what I really wanted.
Did I really want this house that seemed to hate me already? Or for my family to hate me?
This morning though I got everyone's letters, they're not even mad.
Mum and Dad even said they were proud of me for being sorted into a house that prides itself for cleverness and 'big dreams' which is probably their nice way of saying 'ambition'. The word ambition has always seemed a little cold, a little cut throat. But I suppose that is the house I'm in.
It's actually alright, I've met three girls who I think, given time I could be good friends with.
She stopped to think about what she wanted to write, twirling her quill in her fingers absent minded as she looked in front of her, staring at nothing, her mind was elsewhere.
When she looked back down at the page, she received quite a shock. Her writing shone momentarily before vanishing without a trace. As she continued to stare at the little book however ink began oozing out of the page, in the very ink she had just inscribed her own words, came words she had never written.
What are your friend's names? I'm a Slytherin myself, my name is Tom Riddle.
Ginny abruptly slammed the book shut, earning several suspicious glances from around her and glares from the Ravenclaws who were actually listening to the lesson. Binns as usual, remained oblivious.
Her mother had once told her never to trust anything that thinks for itself, if she couldn't see where it kept it's brain. She had only been five and scared into insomnia by a crystal ball that supposedly told one's fortune, it had told her that she would be eaten at night by boggarts. Of course, it turned out that it was just a prank by the twins, intended for Ron and to say embarrassing innuendoes, but instead it gave their youngest sibling nightmares.
She had always remembered that. Her mother had told her not to place any value and on an object's words if she didn't know where they were coming from, she had also told her that while the ball had been harmless, things of that nature could be dangerous sometimes.
Dangerous...the idea of her own private friend to confide in sounded enticing, but even the cover of the book was black. A dark color, an evil color.
Then again Ginny chided herself, there was probably nothing wrong with the book. She wondered if she was just being paranoid, still she decided to show it to Harry that night.
Putting it away for the time being, she instead pulled out her potion's essay.
She had double defense against the Dark Arts next, a class she and all the first years were looking forward to. She especially since it was taught by Harry and Sirius.
As always, History of magic passed slowly.
"Move!"
The Hogwarts hallways were not a friendly place, and moody fifth years who were discovering O.W.L's always made them worse.
However with minimal jostling Ginny was able to fight her way through the crowd towards the Defense classroom with Helen, Sylvia and Susan joining her to make a human chain. They were sharing class with the Gryffindors today, and Ginny couldn't help but remember those girls from the boat ride on her first night at Hogwarts, especially the ones who were sorted into the red and gold house.
Thinking about them left a sour taste and brought up a frustrating sense of unidentifiable anger.
She arrived at Defense flushed, and irritable, glaring at an unsuspecting Susan who looked away from the gaze, before Ginny realized what she was doing and softened.
They found their seats.
"Welcome to Defensive magic," Sirius announced, the name had been changed when he took up the post. Defense Against the Dark Arts was a cursed course that could not hold a teacher for more than a year, whereas Defensive magic had no such problems and this was Sirius's third consecutive year.
It was Hermione who came up with the ingenious solution; the headmaster had even claimed to be embarrassed for not having thought of it himself.
Most people however still referred to it as Defense Against the Dark Arts unofficially out of habit.
There was a certain silence that followed Sirius's arrival.
Ginny supposed they didn't know him like she did, having seen him with butterflies painted on both cheeks and painted eye make-up befitting of a girl, at her insistence at a muggle carnival, she found him hard to be intimidating. She supposed others didn't have that luxury.
"I am Professor Black, I served in the Auror department for six years, and I fought in the war against Voldemort." There were a lot of gasps at his name dropping.
"I am here to teach you to defend yourselves. I know that right now things are peaceful in Britain, but that may not be the case always and you never know, your very life might depend on what you learn in this class room." Sirius said gravely.
"Assisting me is Harry Potter, you will refer to him as Mr. Potter," he continued in a lighter tone.
Those ridiculous Gryffindor girls started giggling and Ginny briefly debated turning in her seat to glare at them, she was feeling particularly possessive as Harry stood and gave an awkward wave to the class. He stepped back into the shadowy corner he had been standing in. Twenty one and still uncomfortable with crowds.
Sirius kept speaking, "This year we will be hoping for all of you to master, in terms of spells that is, The Disarming hex, the Jelly Legs Jinx, the Body Bind Curse, and a minor variation of a Stinging hex. These will be the offensive spells I want all of you to make your goal to master by the end of the year."
Some students looked around nervously; clearly some of them considered it to be a tall order, Ginny however knew it was only the beginning.
"That is what we will be learning in terms of offensive spells." He smiled at some of the shocked looks and as one of Ginny's own house-mate's muttered, "There's more?"
"Unfortunately most defensive spells are more advanced and require a magical core and familiarity with magic that you won't be able to develop in your first year. We will try to start working on shield charms by the end of the year, however I don't expect you to conjure perfect shields, if anyone of you even manages to conjure a weak one and hold it for a second, I'll be exuberant. You will however be expected to perform the counter curses to the offensive spells you are learning by the end of the year, that is, removing a body bind, counter spell for jelly legs and a numbing spell for the stinging." He said.
"We would also be focusing on learning primary first aid, for starters a few minor healing spells that can basically heal paper cuts. I know, it's not helpful at all in a real battle, but your magic won't be able to handle anything more advanced. Learning these simple spells won't help you if you ever find yourself the center player in the epic battle between good and evil—" He laughed and the class joined him, all listening intently.
"—What they will do is prepare you for casting advanced healing spells as your magic grows, spells that can actually help you in real battles. By learning these simple spells, the more advanced ones will come much more easily in the future than if you just tried learning them alone.
You will learn two different healing spells for small cuts, one more powerful than the other and a basic numbing spell, should you ever find yourself needing to overcome a minor pain—or to take away a minor stinging hex like I mentioned earlier.
First year defense is all about establishing a good base so that when you have the control when your older, you're ready to really learn to fight."
A lot people were taking notes of his lecture, having realized that it was the class syllabus and not just an introduction.
Ginny didn't bother figuring that she would remember it anyway.
"The very first spell that we will be learning in this class is how to project sparks, sparks can serve as a call for help, it's something that comes in handy when you are injured or need to be located. However before we start the spell work, and I do sincerely apologize for this but it is necessary—we will be spending a month learning the law."
There was discontented muttering at this.
"You need to know, beyond a doubt when you are allowed to defend yourself and to what extent. Some of you—" Here he stole a glance at the Slytherins.
"—Are very aware of the ancient ways, a lot of you are not. So aside from learning the modern laws we will also learn the ancient customs of the old families, which if invoked are very powerful even today and not something that you want to be ignorant of." Sirius said solemnly.
"After our month spent learning about the laws and conditions of dueling and pure self defense in case of an attack, we will then spend two weeks discussing famous duels, watching memories of some and talking about tactics.
Should you ever find yourself in a duel, which you will in this class, you will find that much of it depends on strategy. We will learn and discuss it before we start training on evasive maneuvers. As you are only first years and are not able to produce strong shields, it is imperative to learn how to dodge."
The room was still hanging on to his every word.
"Also, should you ever, and I hope none of you do, encounter an unforgivable curse, which as you already might know, cannot be deflected, There's only one defense, MOVE!"
His shout made several people jump, except for Ginny who had been expecting something like that.
"We will be working on footwork and dueling maneuvering, that almost rhymed! Well sort of, anyways after that we will then progress towards spell work. I know what many of you are thinking, two months without spell work? That ridiculous, that's almost the whole term, I know.
But one of the difficulties of Defense is that it doesn't have the basic spells as simple as say Charms does. The first spell you learn in Charms, the levitating spell, takes less power and less control than it takes for the disarming hex. I don't mean to undermine charms, it is a very difficult and amazing branch of magic, but it has a simpler base than that of Defense.
Which is why I am giving you two months to familiarize yourself with your wand in your other classes and learn how to control your core while exercising it a bit, instead of me frustrating you for two months trying to make you learn the disarming charm when you aren't quite ready when we can wait a couple of months and have you learn it tremendously easier while we learn other things instead of wasting our time."
He looked around the room for any dissent.
"And now," he said with a grin, "for the lesson."
"Can anyone tell me what the unforgivable curses are? I saw a couple of confused faces when I mentioned them earlier. Ah yes, Mr. Walker."
The lesson went by smoothly. Sirius briefly explained each unforgivable curse, its effects and the punishment faced for using it in Britain and neighboring countries.
He then went on to the many methods of magical investigation, how criminals were caught and tried.
For homework they had to read the first chapter of their text book which was about the basic methods used to find the culprit of a crime and the due process and methods of interrogation, they then had to write an essay about each tactic they read and their opinion of it.
It was a long homework assignment, but it wasn't due until the following Monday and Sirius promised that they wouldn't be assigned any more home work for the rest of the week.
She liked Defense so far.
That afternoon after classes, she saw none other than Gregory Field walking out to the Quidditch pitch with two of his friends.
"My future wife!" He yelled out jokingly in greeting, apparently he hadn't forgotten their last conversation about how Ravenclaw Fields always marry Slytherin girls.
She blushed, embarrassed and hoped his two friends wouldn't spread that around. She knew he was just joking but after that wild rumor involving Snape she had become paranoid.
Gregory Field was just simply a more rowdy version of Helen, both overfilled with friendliness.
She gave him a small smile, and he in return gave her his signature, exuberantly beaming grin that stretched across his face. She found him a bit alarmingly happy for a simple evening at Hogwarts.
Maybe his family had come into sudden wealth and he had just read the letter, that explained the windfall.
"Ginevra!" She cringed, she hated her given name. It sounded more appropriate for a hunched over old woman, knitting garishly pink scarves with a cat named Mr. Tubbles. She wasn't exactly sure why, but that was the imagery it had always given her.
"Field." She greeted nicely albeit more subdued than him.
"None of that now! It's Greg—and these tossers here are William Mason and Nathaniel White, but you can just call them Will and Nathan—or dumbarse and dumber, whichever you prefer really." He smiled.
She cracked a grin at his humor and tried to smile at his two friends, Will looked friendly enough but Nathaniel had a frown on his face.
Apparently he had not taken as well to Greg's last remark. Nathaniel was average looking with an auburn head of hair and brown eyes, he was neither ugly nor dashing.
Will on the other hand Ginny noted, was what many girls would faun over. He had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes, a pleasantly tanned complexion, high cheek bones, a straight nose, the beginning of what would be a strong jaw line when he matured.
However while noting all of this, she didn't miss the fact that she just had just noted it, absolutely indifferently. Was it the effect of the Soul bond, she wondered.
"Wonderful to meet you, heard a lot about you...and a certain Potio—" Nathaniel started with the same wise-cracking grin that was smeared across Greg's face.
"Now come one—we all know that was just a story made up to laugh at, not even worthy of being called a rumor it was so outlandish!" Greg interrupted him.
Greg always seemed to speak in such an exuberant manner, as if you were in the middle of a festival, he was quite dramatic.
"He's right, that was...really it was just disturbing, whoever started saying that better hope I never find them." Ginny stated, her voice growing stronger as she got angrier over the mystery gossiper.
"Well I feel sorry for them if you ever find out," Will laughed, she blushed slightly realizing she had been unconsciously glaring and fingering her wand.
"So what year are you two in?" Ginny asked.
"Second year and first year," Will answered, gesturing first to himself and then to Nathan.
"I wouldn't be seen with them usually but they're old family friends so my Mum said I had to spend some time with these ickle little firsties." He went on.
Rolling her eyes, her twin brothers had invented the phrase 'ickle little.'
"You do realize I'm a first year too?" She asked.
"Well girls are different." He said simply.
She rolled her eyes but didn't comment. "Hey we were going to go play some Quidditch? You could take some turns on my broom if you want! I heard your whole family played for the Lions, so you can't be that bad...I suppose." Greg said.
She smiled and agreed to join them, she had missed flying with Harry, yet another thing she had only done with Harry which she would be doing without him. Her life was changing.
They had a wonderful time flying, between Greg's ridiculous behavior, Nathan's over-competitiveness and Will's easy going nature it was a great dynamic to witness. She wistfully thought to herself that had she been born closer in age to her brothers, maybe they could've played together like this. As it was even now when they came home for the holidays they never let her play with them, claiming she was just too little, they didn't want to hurt her.
Soon she was cleaning up for dinner before walking into the Great Hall where she sat with Sylvia, Susan and Helen.
"Where were you?" Helen asked.
"Out playing Quidditch with Greg, and Will and Nathan..." She said nonchalantly.
"Oh—so they're Greg and Will now are they?" Helen asked teasingly.
Ginny blushed, why did everyone always assume such ridiculous things, if only they really knew...
"No! They—They remind me of some of my brothers a little bit if anything...nothing like that...Merlin—We—we're only eleven! What is it with all you already starting to want to wear make up and be all...I don't know...boy crazy!"
Helen looked at her for a moment before laughing, "Well Ginny tell us how you really feel? I was just joking...relax, deep breaths."
"Hmph." Was the only response she got which only served to make her laugh harder.
"If you two are done with your giggle gathering," Sylvia interrupted a bit snidely, Helen rolled her eyes. "Really giggle gathering? That's not even a saying..."
Ignoring her Sylvia plowed on, "The Prophet, if any of you paid attention, didn't come this morning because apparently there is an evening story release they wanted to make in this issue...something bug must have discovered."
Helen turned to Ginny, "She may act all serious and studious but really Helen just loves dramatic, celebrity—"
She was interrupted, "That is not true! I would never concern myself with such trivial matters as whether Gwenog Jones' highlights look good, which by the way are hideous, but this might concern one of the old families in which case it is important to know!" Sylvia said passionately.
"What are the old families?" Ginny asked.
At this Sylvia gave her a disbelieving look while Helen began explaining, "There is a ranking order based on age and wealth of a family...there are the ancient families, powerful families, then the older but moderately wealthy, then the older middle class, and the new money."
"What are they?"
"Well we can't just teach all of it to you in one minute, there is so much to learn!" Sylvia snapped.
"The oldest and most ancient are the Malfoys, the Blacks, the Lestranges, the Flints—sadly, the Greengrasses, McKinnons, although they died off, Longbottoms and of course the richest, Potters. There's more but those are the most notable." Helen named off.
Ginny felt a bit shocked at that, she had always known they were well off, but richer than Malfoy? She didn't like it, she wished he was normal, it felt like just another thing in which she was inferior...
"Then there are the middle families, the Notts, the Goyles, my family, ect."
"My family used to be a middle family," Sylvia sighed sadly.
"What happened?" Ginny asked.
"Dad married a muggle, otherwise known as my Mother. Then she left him anyways, ruined our family for nothing." Sylvia said bitterly while staring off into the distance.
Ginny didn't know how to reply to that so she didn't.
"In age your family is a middle family, the Weasleys, and the Prewetts were one of the ancients, even though the name is lost..." Helen said trying to change the topic from Sylvia's comment.
"How'd you know I had Prewett in me?" Ginny asked.
"We're Slytherin, we study bloodlines." Sylvia said dryly. In reflection Ginny did admit it was pretty obvious.
The owls chose that moment to come streaming in with the prophet,
"Ready to read about Celestina Warbeck's affair?" Helan asked Syvlia who just glared at her.
Sylvia immediately reached for hers and gasped at the front cover.
Ginny raised an eyebrow wondering what could be so shocking, similar reactions were happening all over the hall.
Looking—concerned? Ginny wasn't sure, but Sylvia patted her hand and handed her the newspaper, which in itself was strange enough action as Sylvia always devoured the news before she let anyone else touch it.
Surely she hadn't read the story in half a second.
Looking down at the front page however, Ginny understood why.
POTTER PERVERTED?
Boy Hero revealed to have scandalous
relations with eleven year old!
Dear readers, keep this article away from innocent eyes as the details are truly shocking...Greedily sold their daughter to advance themselves...Albus Dumbledore permitting this...Calls for Potter's suspension as well as Black and Headmaster...removal of Ms. Potter from mastery program...Not as innocent as she looks, eleven year old Ginevra...sharing a room...moans coming from the bed room...child molestation or seduction by a twisted girl for her parent's money...a possibility of child prostitution...dresses provocatively...hurting innocent fellow students Worchester and Goodmen...clearly unafraid to spread...a very disturbing girl
The article went on, but Ginny couldn't read anymore, the sentences she had picked out floated around her disoriented mind.
She stood up shakily, noting that Harry was speaking furiously to Sirius, Dumbledore, and Heather at the head of the hall and they were quickly exiting a side door.
She would not run, she told herself. She would not give her onlookers the satisfaction of seeing her flee the hall.
She walked swiftly to the entrance and the moment, she rounded the corner, and she broke into a desperate sprint to reach the head girl's room.
She made it there gasping for breath, tears covering her face and sat down on her bed, blessedly glad that Katherine wasn't present. She sobbed hard, harsh cries that racked her whole body.
She didn't know what she would do...how would she ever face anyone again...she felt so stupid! So humiliated! And it was lies! All lies, the only true part being that they shared a room, and that was it! And now all of magical Britain thought—thought she was—this—this...thing!
And Harry, Sirius, Heather and Dumbledore! Would they really loose their positions over this, Heather had already put two years into her mastery, and Harry had just started and they just...they just couldn't get rid of the headmaster. He was Albus Dumbledore, the greatest headmaster Hogwart's ever had, as her father often told her.
And if he was forced to go, if any of them were, it would be all her fault for being to stupid as to run wildly to his room the first night! Of course someone saw! How could anyone miss her screaming like a banshee running down the corridor?
She cried even harder.
She didn't really want to talk to Harry right now, she wasn't sure she could face him. She wanted someone entirely private, who she could tell everything, she couldn't exactly tell Harry about the awkwardness she had begun to feel about him and how this would make it so much harder.
She couldn't tell him about how humiliated she felt, he wouldn't understand.
But maybe Tom could.
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Thank you to MelGinnylover for beta reading!