Chapter 5~The First Breakfast

With a long stretch of her arms, Ginny felt some of her sleepiness flee her body,
though she couldn't open her eyes yet. Luckily, it seemed like today would be downcast,
judging by the fact no light was catching her face. She rolled over anyway, and went back
to sleep.

Minutes later, she felt herself being shaken. Her eyes fluttered open, and she
groggily looked to see why her mum was shaking her so early. When her eyes adjusted,
they met a girl with blonde hair, and big round eyes staring back at her, not at all the deep
red hair of her mom, or hawklike eyes. The girl continued to shake her vigorously.

"Wake up, breakfast's almost started!" the girl said, as the manner of greeting.
Ginny barely heard the words, but when they registered, she leapt out of bed and
immediately tripped on her blankets, landing on her face. Of course, with this girl she'd
have to make a fool of herself. Wasn't it inevitable that she had a knack for making every
one think she was a klutz?

"Why aren't you eating?" Ginny asked as she dressed quickly, not caring about
modesty when she was going to be missing her first breakfast at Hogwarts. She hurriedly
ran a comb through her mop of hair. As she glanced in the mirror, she wished for not the
first time, that she could braid and get the whole mass out of her face. She also noticed a
bit of a bruise on her cheek starting to appear, from where she'd hit the floor. Great. What
a great start to a day.

"Everyone else has already left, but I couldn't leave you here," the girl replied,
watching Ginny curiously. It made Ginny squirm and she quickly ran out of the room,
followed by this girl.

When they arrived in the hall, most students were already seated, chatting and
eating, so the two students rushed to grab a seat and some food. Ginny had a small
portion of porridge and a piece of toast while her companion munched on kippers and
eggs.

"Thank you for waking me up," Ginny finally said, after swallowing a large
spoonful of the porridge that was, luckily and probably magically, still hot.

"No problem." The girl took a huge bite of her own food. Ginny realized they
didn't even know each other's names and quickly introduced herself.

"I'm Shannon Abbott. I know who you are because of your older brother. My
sister, Hannah, is a second year too, but she's in Hufflepuff. She likes Ron," the girl
whispered, to which Ginny knew she wasn't supposed to be told. Ginny didn't see what
was so great about Ron; he was just as mean and annoying as a garden gnome.

"Ron's nothing great," was all of Ginny's reply and she took a bite of her toast.
Shannon shook her head. "You'd think he was Harry Potter the way she goes on
about him..." Ginny dropped her goblet at the mention of Harry's name. Orange colored
juice spilled on the table cloth. By the way her face steamed up as she reached for a
napkin, Ginny knew she had to be as red as her hair.

"Oops," she said, hoping Shannon would think this was a one time incident, even
though she'd done two things in front of her that made her look stupid.
Shannon looked like she was about to say something more, but the swooshing of
owls came overhead prevented her. Ginny thought she'd never loved owls more.
Until she saw Errol, her family's sweep over to Ron, carrying a huge, red
envolope. The poor bird collasped under the strain, but Ron and Neville, the two with
identical faces of horror, ignored him and stared at the envelope in the owl's outstreched
claw. The four in their group, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Harry, were obviously
discussing it, Ron and Neville terrified, and Hermione and Harry wondering what the fuss
was about.

Ginny knew.

Apparently, so did Shannon. Her eyes widened and she leaned over to Ginny, "Isn't
that a-"

"-Howler," Ginny finished and just in time as Ron opened the envelope and the
familar voice of their mum filled the room, booming larger than before. Ginny winced as
she heard her brother being reprimanded loud enough for all of Hogwarts to hear.
It was obviously going to be a very good day. Ha.