Before anyone knew it, it was Friday, and the weekend was almost upon them. And everyone in Hogwarts had reason to rejoice.
"No homework!" a group of 6th year Hufflepuffs cried excitedly as they headed for the great hall for breakfast.
"Do you think that Mr. and Mrs. Potter will like me?" Lily asked nervously, and for what Ginny guessed as the 15th time since they woke up.
Alice and Ginny ignored her as they walked though the hall, Ginny wished that her only worry for the upcoming Easter was something as simple as meeting her boyfriend's parents for the first time.
"You met them Ginevra, what are they like?" Lily asked turning to Ginny.
"Honestly Lily, they're going to love you, they probably already do with how much James talks about you," Ginny replied.
"What if I'm not what they're expecting?" Lily asked.
"That's what I was worried about with Frank," Alice replied.
Ginny turned and gave Alice a death glare, she was only adding to Lily's worry, and leaving Ginny to listen to her all day.
"But then I remembered I'm great, and I'm in love with Frank, and even if his mother doesn't like me, it's not going to change anything," Alice chimed, suddenly optimistic.
"See, that's the spirit," Ginny giggled.
The three girls sat down and loaded their plate with sausage and pancakes as soon as they sat down.
"Something seems different," Alice commented, starring at the large plate of sausages on the middle of the table.
"If by different you mean there's actually enough sausage for us to have seconds this morning, then I agree," Lily grinned stabbing a sausage with her fork.
"Where are the boys?" Ginny asked, realizing that her two friends were right and for once they didn't have to fight to have some breakfast.
"No idea, but they're going to be sorry they missed out," Lily giggled, loading her plate with syrup.
"Mail!" Alice cried excitedly as she watched the owls swoop in.
"Are you expecting something?" Ginny asked through a mouthful of pancake.
"Yes, my mum always sends an Easter parcel," Alice grinned.
Lily and Ginny looked up with Alice at all the owls swooping around when she spotted a familiar looking gray owl heading her way.
Errol stopped right in front of Ginny and immediately hobbled over to her goblet and took a sip as he stuck out his leg for her to remove the package, just as a beautiful brown owl landed in front of Alice carrying a much larger parcel.
"Hey Errol," Ginny smiled, excited to see her family's owl, as she stroked his beak the way her liked it. Errol turn and nipped her hand affectionately, and Ginny untied his package he turned around and regarded her with his big eyes before he took off, knocking over her goblet as he went.
"Who's that from?" Lily asked.
"The Weasley's," Ginny answered an ache in her chest as she took in her mothers familiar hand writing. Ginny opened up her package to find an assortment of sweets and a handmade card from her brother.
Tears swelled up in her eyes, as she read his messy hand writing and took in his stick figure drawings of the two of them on an Easter hunt.
"That's cute,' Lily commented leaning over to look at the card. "You must have really made an impression while you were there," she added.
"They're a really nice family," Ginny responded, gently closing the card and tucking it into her robes.
'You'd think that since we're not getting homework they'd at least cancel class," Alice replied once they three of them got up to head to class.
"Alice, I'm shocked are you dreading heading to Herbology?" Lily asked in mock horror.
"Not at all, it's the only class I'm looking forward to," Alice answered, waving as she headed down the hall off to Herbology.
"See you next period!" Lily called, as she slug her bag over her should as she headed to Care of Magical Creatures.
Ginny walked alone to ancient runes, hoping that like all her other professor's promised they would have an easy class.
Ginny sat in her usual seat, and as she expected Remus wasn't there, but she smile at Narcissa as she walked in and she filled Remus's empty spot.
"Excited for the ball yet?" Narcissa asked as she sat down.
"A little nervous," Ginny answered honestly.
"Well now you'll have more than Regulus and Severus to talk to, so maybe it'll be a bit more enjoyable, I barely saw you at the last one, you seemed to have disappeared halfway through," Nacrissa smiled.
"It will be nice to have another friend there, I met so many people it was a bit intimidating," Ginny replied honestly.
"Ah, you must be talking about Tom Riddle," Narcissa smiled, lowering her voice.
Ginny felt her cheeks go warm with the mention of Tom Riddle so casually.
"He's rather good looking," Narcissa giggled.
'He is," Ginny agreed honestly.
"I saw you dancing wit him last time, my sister Bella was completely jealous, even though she's spoken for" Narcissa whispered lowering her voice.
"Will your sister be home?" Ginny asked, remembering the story of Bellatrix Lestrange locked up for torturing Alice and Frank Longbottom.
"Oh no, she's getting married at the end of the summer to Rodolphus Lestrange, so she's been spending her time at his manor," Narcissa smiled sadly.
"And you miss her?" Ginny asked.
"I miss her, and who she used to be I suppose, she's different now since she's been spending all her time with the Lestrange's," Narcissa answered.
"It'll just be us, we're going to floo over tomorrow, while everyone's having breakfast," Narcissa smiled excitedly. "My mother wrote this morning to say she had 5 different stores send over gowns, so we'll have so many to choose from," Nacrissa grinned happily.
"I can't wait," Ginny smiled.
And she found that although she was nervous, she was also excited. There was something about dressing up in an elegant ball gown and eating delicious finger food and pretending to be someone you're not that almost ever little girl dreamed of when she wished she was a princess. It felt nice to be a in a room full of people that didn't ask questions about all her brothers, or if Harry Potter had come to visit recently. Although she spent the last ball with her stomach in knots about slipping up on her story or about Tom Riddle she found that a part of her was excited to get dressed up with her friend, and have Tom wrapped around her finger.