PART 4: LAUNDRY SERVICE
Ginny quickly stuffed the parchment in her
school robes. Seeing the ashen look on Ginny's face, Tanya looked at her and
asked with concern, "You OK, Gin?"
"Yes. Yes, fine thanks." Ginny knew she didn't
look remotely convincing, and Tanya knew better to ask. Ginny Weasley had never
confided her secrets to anyone, especially not her dorm mates, though she
supposed they could guess some of it. Tanya just shrugged. Cissy though, smiled
with a knowing look on her face, and said,
"Must be about a boy. I saw a letter in your
hand you know."
Tanya suddenly looked interested. "Ooh, is it a
love letter?" she asked with wide eyes.
"No, it is not a love letter, and it's not
about Harry." Ginny suddenly realized she had said aloud the name of the person
who had been at the forefront of her mind all day. She mentally gave herself a
kick, and pretended at once to be straightening her bed, which of course didn't
need any more straightening. Tanya and Cissy giggled in an annoyingly singsong
fashion, changed into their pajamas and got into bed. Before Tanya shut her bed
hangings though, she turned to Ginny and said in a sickeningly sweet voice,
"Sweet dreams, Ginny!" and let out another giggle. It was lucky the hangings on
Tanya's bed were so thick, otherwise she would have seen Ginny stick a rude
finger up at her.
Ginny
changed into her own pajamas and got into bed, planning on burning the letter
later on, when the girls were asleep, or else she'd be teased silly again. She
laid her school robes on top of her trunk, shut one side of her hangings (just
in case Tanya and Cissy peered out from theirs and saw her) and got out the
article with a picture of Harry she'd kept from last year – the one written by
Rita Skeeter. He looked particularly handsome in this one, Ginny mused to
herself.
She
had been so absorbed in thinking of ways of talking to Harry (without making a
fool of herself) that she didn't notice a Hogwarts elf pad softly into their
dorm to collect the dirty robes. Ginny, thinking it was Tanya or Cissy going to
torture her again about Harry, peered from around the bed ready to defend
herself, and saw instead an elf walking towards the door. She noticed that it
was holding a pile of clothes. Laundry service, thought Ginny, and she
shrugged, and was about to resume looking at Harry's picture when her eyes
traveled to her trunk. Her school robes had gone. The letter was in it. Horror
struck, Ginny leapt out of bed and, forgetting about the Harry newspaper
clipping, chased after the elf. She ran out the door, ran down the stairs
leading to the common room, and had just reached the common room when she saw
the back of the portrait of the Fat Lady swing shut. The elf had gone. Wildly, she ran across the common room, her
panic completely overtaking her, and went after the elf.
As
soon as she was out the common room, the Fat Lady's portrait swung shut, and
Ginny found that she couldn't find the elf anywhere. Oh no. Oh shit
no. Ginny stood in front of the Fat Lady, not knowing what to do. Where
do they do the laundry? she thought frantically. Where the hell do they
take the dirty robes? Ginny paced up and down in front of the portrait,
unable to think straight. She knew where the kitchens were and how to get into
them, Hermione had shown her before, but how do you get to the laundry? Ginny's
breath came in and out violently, and she continued to pace, wringing her hands
and biting her nails. Damn it! She thought.
"Whatever is the matter?" asked the Fat Lady.
That's it! Maybe the fat lady knows! She turned to the Fat Lady, desperation in
her eyes, and asked, "Do you know where the laundry is?"
"Well, actually, I do dear – "
"Where is it?" Ginny cut in.
"Even if I tell you, you won't be able to get
in – "
"Tell me how to get in!" Ginny said urgently,
her voice rising.
"Calm down. It's behind the suit of armor on
the second floor, on the way to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, but dear – "
Ginny had turned around and bolted away, but
she heard the Fat Lady say behind her,
"You need a password to get in!"
Cursing, she hurried back to the Fat Lady and
demanded, "what's the password?"
"I don't know dear."
"No…no…no…" Ginny moaned. She had sunk down to
her knees and buried her face in her hands.
"It can't be that bad dear," the Fat Lady said
soothingly.
"No, you don't understand!" Ginny wailed. The
Fat Lady didn't know how to respond to this. Finally, Ginny got up and
muttered, "Scangy cur!" and the portrait swung open. Ginny climbed in, feeling
utterly miserable. Now what am I gonna do? She thought, brushing tears
from her eyes. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Why did I have to write that letter?
What if someone sees it? Ginny made her way to one of the couches and sat
down, thinking whether she should get Hermione to help her find the letter. The
sound of footsteps nearby alerted her, and she impulsively started biting her
nails again. Must be a prefect, probably to tell me to go to bed. But
she couldn't go to bed yet; she had to get the letter back! The frustration of
the situation brought more tears behind Ginny's eyes, and she struggled hard to
hold her sobs in. Whoever it was coming into the room, she didn't want them to
see her blubbering like a baby.
"Ginny!" The sound of her name made her jump.
She also recognized whose voice it was, and she cringed.
"What's wrong?" Slowly she looked up into
Harry's brilliant green eyes; eyes full of concern, for her.
"I…er…lost something. Something really
important," Ginny babbled. Harry's presence and the look he was giving her made
her even more nervous, and she had a mad desire to disappear on the spot.
"What is it?" Harry asked more urgently. He
made a move towards her, and Ginny quickly replied, "Er…it's nothing."
Trying
to be evasive and pretending everything was fine clearly didn't work, as Harry
went to sit beside her. That familiar bolt of electricity lingered between
them, and it made the hair on the back of Ginny's neck prick up. So much for
Hermione's claim of electricity not working in Hogwarts, she thought dryly.
The sensation made her strangely excited, and very, very nervous.
"It's alright, you don't have to tell me. How
can I help though?" Harry had sensed that there was something going on.
Ginny
looked at him and felt her face flush. Did she hear right, was Harry offering
her his help? The Harry Potter? Somehow, Ginny thought, Harry
won't be able to help me with this one. She chuckled inwardly, trying to
imagine what she would say to Harry: "Uh…Harry…I wrote you an embarrassing
love letter and now it's gone missing. Do you think you can help me find it?" That would have to be the worst pick-up line
in history.
She
looked over at Harry, seeing the concern in his eyes. If the situation hadn't
been so serious she would have been thrilled to be looked at like that. Harry
had never, in all the times she'd known him, looked at her as if he cared.
Well, except the time when they were both down in the Chamber of Secrets of
course, but that had been different. She was in mortal peril at the time, and
Ginny was sure that if it had been Colin Creevey down in the chamber, Harry
would have looked at him with concern too. This time though, he looked at her
as though he genuinely wanted to help. She hastily got up and stammered; "Er…I
think I can handle this on my own. Thanks anyway. Sorry I woke you." She ran towards the girls' dormitories
before he could answer.
Once
she got to the top of the stairs and outside her dorm door, she stopped and
hesitated. Before she knew what she was doing, she had climbed another set of
stairs and had stopped outside Hermione's dorm. She turned the handle quietly,
padded softly towards Hermione's bed, and shook her awake. Hermione squinted
her eyes up at her and said groggily, "S'matter Gin?"
"Hermione, help me!" Ginny cried.
"What…what is it?" Hermione was fully awake
now, and she stared at Ginny through the wild tangle of brown curls around her
face.
"I need to know how to get into the laundry,"
Ginny whispered. Hermione looked confused. Ginny quickly told Hermione about
the letter in whispers, in case Parvati or Lavender happened to still be awake.
"Calm down, Gin," Hermione said, after Ginny
paused to get breath.
"I don't know where the laundry is – but don't
worry," she added quickly. "I don't think anyone will see the letter. Only
elves go down there – "
But Ginny interrupted her in a desperate voice.
"Only elves? Ha! I know for a fact that Fred
and George occasionally sneak down there to steal girls' knickers and enchant
them!"
Hermione snorted, but seeing Ginny's face,
stopped.
"What if the letter falls out of the pocket and
an elf sees it, or worse, Fred and George…" Ginny trailed off, not wanting to
imagine what Fred and George would do with information like that.
"Don't worry Gin," Hermione whispered, touching
Ginny's hand reassuringly. "I'm sure it'll still be in the pocket when you get
it back."
Ginny
didn't look convinced, and Hermione added, "think about it, if the robes get
washed, the letter will be soaked, and if it does fall out of the pocket,
who'll be able to read it?"
Ginny
stared at Hermione, biting her lip thoughtfully. Hermione was right. There's
very little chance that anyone would see the letter if it was in the pocket of
her robe. And her robe will just get washed anyway, which means that it will be
impossible for anyone to read it, since the ink will be washed off. She
sighed.
"Yeah, you're right Hermione. Sorry I woke
you."
She
seemed to be waking a lot of people for nothing tonight, and Ginny thought that
maybe she had better get back to bed, pronto, before she makes a fool of
herself anymore. Just as she was about to get up, Hermione said to her in a
reassuring tone, "If you like, we can go down to the laundry first thing
tomorrow, before breakfast. I'm an early riser." Ginny looked at her. She knew
Hermione was just trying to make up for her lack of assistance in the matter,
and even if there was pretty much nothing they could do about the letter now,
she appreciated it all the same. She bid Hermione goodnight and made her way
back to her dorm.
What
a day it has been, Ginny thought. But as she swung the door to her dorm open, a
grisly sight met her eyes. Tanya and Cissy, who obviously had not slept at all,
were standing next to her bed looking at the newspaper clipping of Harry that
Ginny had forgotten about when she chased after the elf. They looked up when
they heard the door open, and Ginny could tell from the redness of their faces
that they had been laughing. As soon as they spotted Ginny, Tanya and Cissy
smothered a laugh and went wordlessly back to bed. Ginny swept past them and
went to her own bed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw both their shoulders
shaking uncontrollably. Exasperated, Ginny snapped, "Glad I could amuse you
girls tonight!" and she violently pulled her bed hangings shut.
