Chapter 2: Potions Notes
By the next morning, Neville seemed to have recovered and taken Hermione's advice to heart. When Draco muttered "Who are you?" to him at breakfast, he kept walking. He had a rather closed expression, but once he was sitting down and eating, he became his normal cheery self again.
After breakfast, Ginny headed off to Muggle Studies as the others went to Defense Against the Dark Arts. Ginny sighed. Although she was glad to have them as friends, she was constantly reminded she was a year younger, and couldn't take the same classes with them. So instead of listening to the lesson, she spent most of it sketching a willow tree on the back of her latest story, which she had stuffed inside one of her textbooks.
After History, she met up with them at lunch again. Ron, to everyone's surprise, was scarfing down his avocado. Apparently he had found a vegetable he liked... though the rest of the school seemed thoroughly disgusted. All but one Ravenclaw girl. She had traveled all the way over to the Gryffindor table to ask if they had extra.
Ginny didn't see her at first, but saw her face reflect in Harry's glasses as he stared at someone just over her shoulder. Ginny turned to see Cho Chang smiling at Ron.
"Oh good, someone else is enjoying the food... they all think I'm crazy for liking this stuff, you know."
Was it Ginny's imagination, or had Harry just started shoveling avocado into his mouth?
Cho took a plate from the Hufflepuff table instead. After lunch they cleared out, and were separating as they headed off to their different classes. Harry waved to Neville and Ginny as he went off to his class.
"Yeah, bye Harry," Ginny said. She and Neville (who was speaking animatedly about his Herbology lesson) continued their walk. Ginny didn't listen to Neville, but rested her chin on the spine of her book and thought of Harry. He was so perfect, he was. And he didn't know it, or brag about it even. She frowned as she thought of that 6th year, Cho. She didn't deserve him, she didn't appreciate him-
Just then they rounded a corner, and Ginny was so concentrated on her thoughts that she didn't see Crabbe as they hit head on.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, and her books went flying. She looked up to see Crabbe looking confused, and Draco scowling at her.
"Why don't you watch where you're going, Weasley?" he said. Goyle glared down at her as she reached for the books, cheeks burning. Draco continued, "Or are you too cheap to pay attention?"
Neville was standing off to the side, fists balled up but silent. He wore the same closed expression Ginny had seen earlier.
Draco had apparently noticed too - he stepped on Ginny's fallen books on his way to Neville.
"Decided to give up on trying to think of witty comebacks? Why Longbottom, that's the smartest thing you've done this year. Ah well, I'd love to stay, but we'd be late for Divination." He looked to Crabbe and Goyle - the former just now realizing he had collided with another student - and motioned for them to follow.
But as Ginny was gathering her books, a sheet of parchment fell from "Hogwarts, a History." Before she had time to grab it, Malfoy had snatched it up.
"Give that back!" she snapped automatically. But then she saw the back, saw the willow sketch, and the color drained from her face. "Give. That. Back." she said again, with new force.
"Something interesting, then?" Draco said, quirking an eyebrow and holding the parchment out in front of him.
Just then they heard the slower tread of one of the professors, and Ginny could see the end of a billowy black cape around the corner. She froze. If it was McGonagall, she would make Malfoy return the paper. But if it was Snape...
"Please don't let it be Snape, please..." she muttered as they all watched.
It was Snape.
He stopped, looking very irritated at the gathering in the hall.
"What's the hold up?" he said shortly.
"Please Professor, he took my-" Ginny began.
"Oh come now Gin - you know you just want my notes from potions so you can cheat on that exam," Draco half-yawned.
Snape glared down at Ginny, who was speechless. She had seen Draco bully Harry around, but Harry had always been braced for it, had always faced it bravely. But how could she- when they outright lied... it wasn't fair!
"Miss Weasley, I'll have you know cheating is taken very seriously at this school. 30 points from Gryffindor, and-"
"It's not true!" She blurted out. Snape's lip curled a bit, as he wasn't used to being interrupted. But to her surprise, he looked up at the three Slytherins.
"Malfoy, are those really your potions notes?" he said.
Draco nodded innocently. "Yes Professor."
"Well then," he said icily, turning back to Ginny. "Unless you have anyone to back up your story, I see no reason not to trust mister Malfoy here."
Ginny stood, gaping at the injustice of it all. She felt her stomach turn as she went through Harry's reaction to the story, as Draco would certainly show it to him. And not just Harry... she had matched up Dumbledore with Professor Trelawny, and Hagrid with Fleur, and - she felt her stomach give another twist - McGonagall with Snape. He was still staring down at her, waiting for a reply. Now trembling slightly, she looked down at the floor. But then a beam of hope struck her mind - Neville!
He was still standing quietly to the side, oddly removed from the scene.
"N-neville tell him that's my parchment," she stammered.
But Neville looked at the ceiling, as though he hadn't heard. Snape allowed him time to reply, but he just scuffed his shoe and swallowed.
"Neville?" Ginny pleaded.
"Take another 10 points from Gryffindor," Snape said, "for lying."
"But-" Ginny began, feeling panic set in.
"And if you interrupt me again," Snape raised his voice slightly, "I will take another 10 points." His eyes darted from Ginny to Draco. "Good day to you." It was not a friendly farewell.
Once Snape had left earshot, the three Slytherins broke into insane giggles.
"Come on guys," Draco said as he started off toward Divination. "I can't wait to get back to the dorm, so we can study our potions notes..." and with another hoot of laughter, they were gone.
"I'm sor-" Neville began, but he never finished his sentence, because just then Ginny's hand hit him across the face very hard. She stormed off, clutching her books, her sobs echoing through the halls.
* * *
"What's up with her?" George said later that evening at dinner, pointing to Ginny.
Ron took a moment to finish forcing some broccoli down, before asking "why?"
"Well look at her!" Fred motioned with his goblet. "She almost looks sick, and hasn't touched her food yet!" He pushed his green beans to the far side of his plate and added, "Though I can't say I blame her."
Hermione was looking at Ginny thoughtfully. "You know it's funny, I haven't seen Neville since Defense Against the Dark Arts this morning," she mused before sliding some beans into her mouth.
Ron grimaced. "You don't think he and Gin like each other again, do you?"
They all turned to him.
"What?" he looked around. "They went to the Yule Ball together last year, didn't they?"
Hermione snorted. "You went with Padma, and you don't like her, now do you?"
"Maybe we should take her to Madam Pomfrey?" Harry spoke up for the first time. He received shrugs from the three other boys, and a concerned nod from Hermione.
Neville showed up later, just as people were beginning to clear away. He didn't speak to anyone, but looked nervously at Ginny from time to time. When Harry finally spoke to him, he jumped so high that his knee banged the table and his pumpkin juice spilled.
"All right, Neville?"
"Yeah, fine!" he said, a little too brightly.
Hermione eyed him suspiciously. "You're not letting Malfoy get to you, are you Neville?" she said. "You know what I said..."
"Yeah," he said, his forced smile disappearing from his face. "I took your advice."
Ginny stood up suddenly, and practically ran off to the dorm. As she passed the Slytherin table, Harry noticed, Draco and his gang laughed and made a loud remark about studying potion notes.
"Oh, I'd better get started on my potions notes, too," Hermione muttered. "Exams in two months."
* * *
In the dormitory, Ginny sat hugging her knees. How could she have been so stupid? If she hadn't written those stories, Draco never would've gotten a hold of them. She should've left them in her head where they belonged. Oh, and she just had to put her name on them. "By Ginny Weasley," in bold pink letters. She cringed as the image of Harry's shocked and upset face flashed across her vision again, followed by the other characters she had so cleverly brought together in her Hogwarts love story.
"Ginny?" she heard a familiar voice. Hermione pushed the door open and Ginny could hear her walk across the stone floor. "Hermione with Ron," she thought with a sickening feeling.
"Ginny, what's wrong?" Hermione sat down next to her. Ginny looked up. Hermione was her friend now... but once the story got out...
"You don't have to tell me, but you don't look well and you haven't eaten. Here-" she opened a napkin containing a cherry danish. Ginny's eyes widened, and she glanced nervously at the door. If anyone caught wind that they had actual good food, dessert even...
"It's alright," Hermione smiled. "I made sure nobody saw it. Besides, if anyone saw ME carrying around junk food, I'd never hear the end of it."
Ginny took the danish, smiling a little. She began to pick at it, at first only peeling off crust and letting it melt in her mouth, but before long she was eating ravenously and it was gone.
Feeling she ought to say something to Hermione, who had gone to all that trouble to get her the danish, she cleared her throat. "I hit Neville."
It wasn't what she had expected to say, but the words were out before she could stop them. Hermione just kept looking at her, waiting for the rest.
"Draco took something from me. Something I don't want anyone to read - and Snape, oh Snape let him keep it!" she felt her cheeks turning red again. She waited for Hermione to ask what Draco had taken, but she didn't. "And... and he took 40 points from Gryffindor, because Draco told him the paper was HIS, that it was his notes, and I was trying to steal it so I could cheat on the exams!"
"That's terrible," Hermione hissed, trying to sound soothing. She held back her loathing of Snape, allowing Ginny to continue.
"Professor Snape said unless someone would back up my story, he'd give it to Draco, and Neville just... he just stood there!" Ginny shrieked, unable to contain her hysteria anymore. She expected to feel tears upon her face, but instead she felt only that sharp jab of panic again, and a burning anger toward Neville. She sat on the bed, shaking.
Hermione was silent. When Ginny looked over she could see she was biting her lip, not like she did when she was trying to solve an Arithmancy problem, but the way she did when she was troubled. She often wore it just before going off with Ron and Harry, in a split second hesitation, a reluctance to getting in trouble-
That gave Ginny an idea.
"Hermione..." she began, but stopped. She needed to speak to Harry alone if this was going to work. As much as she liked Hermione, she couldn't be there when she and Harry spoke.
So instead she smiled faintly and thanked her for listening, and bringing the danish (Hermione burned the incriminating napkin).
* * *
"Checkmate!" George said quickly, his eyes widening. "Checkmate checkmate CHECKMATE!"
Harry tried not to laugh as his friend stared, dumbstruck at the chessboard. Ron was the undisputed Hogwarts chess champion, and he had a feeling George wouldn't let anybody hear the end of this.
"But your... your knight was going to... and then my pawn would..." Ron leaned back in his chair, and knocked his king over, still in disbelief. The king, which had been looking as shocked as Ron, grunted as he hit the board. The other pieces rushed over to help him, looking scandalized.
George, on the other hand, was receiving heartfelt applause from Fred and Jordan, while Seamus clapped him on the back. Hermione walked through the door to the common room, and George ran over to her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and half shouted at her "The Master IS mortal!" and collapsed triumphantly in a chair by the fire.
"I just can't believe it..." Ron continued, but Harry was looking up at Hermione.
"I think she's OK," Hermione said when she had safely crossed the room. "Have you talked to Neville yet?"
Harry felt a twinge of guilt. Neville had also retired early, and Harry had meant to go speak to him, but the chess game had been intense.
"Not yet," he said. "But I'm just going up now."
Harry left Ron to his babbling stupor ("I was sure his knight was going to go for that bishop..."), and headed up the stairs to the shared room. He could see Neville sitting by the window.
Harry smiled amicably. "All right Neville?"
"Yeah," he sighed. "Your owl brought you a letter." He pointed to the bed.
Hedwig looked expectantly at Harry, who left Neville for the moment to read his mail. As he untied to parchment from Hedwig's foot, she nipped at the letter.
"No Hedwig, the string, not the letter," Harry said angrily, as she took a piece out of the parchment.
Hedwig stared at the letter a moment, seemingly anxious, but then flew to her stand and began to preen. Harry watched her go, but opened the letter quickly.
Harry,
Meet me in the common room tonight at midnight.
Don't tell Ron or Hermione, this is important.
Sirius
P.S. Bring your cloak.
Harry adjusted his glasses, making sure he'd read right. Sirius had never asked to speak to him alone, without his friends there. And there had been no warning of anything serious - if Sirius was risking a break in to a fireplace, or worse, into Hogwarts, it must be bad. And why did he want the cloak?
All but forgetting Neville, Harry sat down on the bed with the note. So far, nothing unusual had happened at Hogwarts that year, save the "thinning down" of its population from eating Hermione's vegetables.
Neville stood from his spot by the window, and got into his own bed. Harry put the note down.
"Hey Neville?"
"Yeah Harry?"
"You OK?" Harry asked.
In the candle light, Harry could see Neville's round face nod. "I'm fine," he said, and left it at that.
Harry took a trip to the common room to reassure Hermione, and escort Ron back up to their room. It was easy sneaking back down to the common room, between Neville's snores and Ron's fitful chess dream.
As he walked down the stairs, he couldn't help but wonder if something was wrong with that letter. After all, Hedwig hadn't liked it, and it didn't seem like Sirius to leave Ron and Hermione out of things. Harry decided to keep his cloak on and let Sirius come to him.
He tiptoed into the common room and waited by the fire. He waited a long time, and grew so tired he could no longer stifle his yawns.
"Harry?" a soft voice called out from the couch, after a particularly audible yawn.
Harry stood absolutely still. That was definitely not Sirius's voice. In fact, it sounded like...
"Harry, it's Ginny. It's OK."
Harry waited, motionless. He could hear the footsteps come nearer, Ginny would soon bump into him-
"Harry, I know about the cloak. You can take it off."
Harry turned, and took off the cloak. Ginny started. She had been looking a little to the left, but not far off from where he had been.
"How do you know?" he demanded, wondering if Sirius was there, waiting for Ginny to leave all that time.
"I..." she seemed a bit taken aback at his severe tone. "I've seen you and Ron and Hermione sneak out before. I sent you that note, not Sirius."
Harry's eyes widened under his glasses. "You haven't told anyone about him, have you?" he said, traces of panic in his voice.
"No!" she said, not happy at where this was going. "I overheard my mum and dad talking about him, and how he's your godfather and all. They made me swear never to tell anyone."
Harry relaxed a bit, but he still frowned at her. "You scared me to death, Ginny. If you wanted to speak to me, you could've just said so."
Ginny looked down at her feet. Harry thought he could see her blushing.
"You would've told Ron and Hermione, even if I'd told you not to. And you can't. What I have to do needs to be a secret." She looked up, trying to gauge Harry's expression.
"What are you planning on doing?" he asked, shifting the cloak to his other arm.
"I..." she considered telling him a moment, confessing the whole story, about her fiction and how she truly loved him-
"I can't tell you," she said firmly. "But I need to borrow the invisibility cloak."
Harry looked down suddenly at the cloak. It had been his father's, and so useful for the past four years... he had lent the Marauder's Map to Moody once - Crouch, he corrected himself - but that had been different.
Seeing his expression and her chances at the cloak slipping away, Ginny continued shakily. "If I can't do what I need to, I've decided... I'm going to run away."
"What? Surely you're not-"
"I'm serious," she gulped. "I decided while I was sitting here waiting for you. I can't stay at Hogwarts if this doesn't go right, and please don't ask me what it's about!"
Harry looked down at her. He did for what seemed like an eternity. Normally she would've been ecstatic at his eyes upon hers for so long, but now, under his judgmental gaze, she felt very small.
"It's pretty bad, huh?" he said at last.
Ginny nodded.
"You're sure you can't tell me what it is you're doing?" he asked, fingering the cloak's silvery material.
"No. And you can't tell Ron or Hermione or anyone that I borrowed it."
"Well... alright then," he said, handing her the cloak reluctantly. Dumbledore had written, "Use it well," on the note when he'd received it years ago... he wondered if Ginny's quest was worthy. But, he realized, if it would keep Ginny from running away, he would gladly destroy the cloak himself. Well, maybe not gladly... but he would do it.
"Oh thank you!" she said, and Harry thought he could see the firelight reflecting in tears in her eyes. But she donned the cloak so quickly that he'd never know.
"Just be careful..." he warned. "People can still hear you, and feel you. It's an easy thing to forget when you're invisible."
"Thank you Harry," he heard her whisper from the door. He couldn't help smiling as he walked back to his room. She sounded like she truly meant it.
