Ginny sighed. She had told herself over and over again that it was stupid to obsess over Harry Potter, and it was even stupider now that he had a girlfriend. But it wasn't as if she could help it. Every time she saw him, she felt like her heart had skipped a beat...
"Hullo Weasley. Mooning over Potter again?"
She gritted her teeth. Why did Malfoy always have to show up when he wasn't wanted? "Go away Malfoy, there must be someone else you can make fun of."
"Ah, yes, but no one else is quite so pathetic. Only you spend every spare minute of your time staring at The Boy With A Great Big Scar On His Forehead."
"Very funny, but I would think that one would stay away from those one hates. You always seem to be talking to the people you claim to dislike. Why is that?"
"Well, my favorite thing to do is to make fun of people, and I'd rather not do that to those that I like."
"I wasn't aware that you liked anyone."
"It sounds like you have made a thorough study of my character, Weasley. I didn't know that you did that to anyone but Potter. Should I be honored?"
She could hear the amusement in his voice. "I thought I told you to leave, Malfoy. Why aren't you gone?" At least his interupption had wrenched her attention away from Harry for a moment. Malfoy's laughter followed her almost all the way to the Great Hall.
"Can't we leave the Library yet?" Ron's voice was pleading.
"Don't be silly, Ron, you aren't even done with your homework. when were you planning to finish your Herbology assignment?"
"Erm...On the way to class?" He quickly changed the subject. "Where's Harry, anyway?"
"Probably with Cho. He's hardly left her side for more than an hour at a time since they started going out. I sort of miss Harry. By the way, I haven't forgotten about your Herbology assignment. Here, you can look at my notes."
"Wow, you must really want me to stay here. You never share your notes."
Fortunately for Ron, their conversation was brought to a close by the entrance of Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. Other than that, though, their appearance was anything but a blessing.
Parvati, who, if possible was ditzier than Lavander, sat down next to Hermione and giggled.
"So Hermione, do you know who you're going to the Hallowe'en dance with yet? A really cute seventh year from Hufflepuff asked me."
"I don't know, nobody's asked me yet. Who are you going with Lavander?"
"Seamus Finnegan. He hasn't asked me yet, but I know he will. Has Ron asked anyone yet?"
"Bloody Hell! Why do you care?" Ron stood up.
"He's not in a really good mood today." commented Hermione as Ron stormed out of the Library.
Dumbledore's visitor was careful not to bump into anyone as he made his way through the Great Hall. He was invisible at the moment, but one of the students would be sure to notice if they bumped into something that didn't seem to be there. The visitor smiled. It wasn't such long time since he had been a student at Hogwarts himself, and now he was the youngest fourth level Auror in history. There were only five levels of Aurors, and there were only twelve fifth level Aurors living. Some older wizards were jealous, but it wasn't his fault that he had been adopted by the Auror Institute of Reason(AIR) when he was fourteen. Anyway, he was glad to be back. Hogwarts had always been more of a home to him than his family home, and even though AIR was his home now, he still missed his old school.
Dumbledore wasn't the only person he was looking forward to seeing. Of course, there were some students Dumbledore wanted him to work with, but he was looking forward to seeing Draco Malfoy. The last time the visitor had seen him, Draco was a cheerful 10 month-old baby who liked to play with peoples fingers. The visitor both looked forward to and dreaded his meeting with Draco.
It was about 11 o' clock, and the Gryffindor common room was empty, except for Ginny Weasley. She took out her schoolbooks and waited for a familiar step on the stairs. Soon it came, and Seamus Finnegan swung his bookbag over onto the couch. Then he walked around and sat down next to the bag. "What'll it be first?" he asked, "Transfiguration?"
"You're just hoping that when we get to Potions, I'll be so tired I won't notice that I'm actually doing all your work for you."
Seamus grinned. "I wouldn't do that, but I have to admit that you're the only person who actually understands Potions. Even Hermione can't find subsitutes for missing ingredients. She's not any good at extrapolating."
Ginny and Seamus had started working together on their homework at the beginning of Ginny's fouth year. Now she was in fifth, and they still worked together every night. With Ginny's talent for Potions and Charms, and Seamus' abilities in Transfiguration and History of Magic, they had most of the main subjects covered. They both managed reasonably well in their other subjects, but their grades had gone up since they started working together. They had also become good friends, and it was nice for each of them to have someone not in their own year to talk to. They worked together for about an hour and a half, and then Seamus went to his dormitory. Ginny still had an assignment for Ancient Runes to finish, so she stayed in the common room.
Suddenly, Ginny noticed a small gray mouse scurrying towards her. I better call the House Elves, thought Ginny. Someone must have left some food nearby. This was not uncommon, because the Gryffindors often had wild parties. She was pulled from this train of thought when the mouse disappeared and was replaced by a tall young man with blond hair. What is Malfoy doing in here she wondered. Then she realized that it couldn't possibly be Malfoy, unless he had taken a few drops of aging potion, grown a neat little moustache, and learned the Gryffindor password. The first two, of course, were entirely possible. It was the password that bothered her, since it had been changed four hours ago, and Neville Longbottom hadn't been outside since then.
Again, the man interrupted her train of thought. "Ginny Weasley, I presume?"