Chapter 3: Fruitless

"Going out again?" the Fat Lady said as Ginny closed the portrait that was the door to the Gryffindor common room. The painting sighed. "Well, just be sure to close me when you get back, too. Last time you left me hanging wide open..."
Ginny didn't say a word. She didn't know if Harry had ever spoken to the woman in the picture while invisible, but she wanted to keep a low profile.
The castle was quite dark at night - only the torches lit the hallways, casting eerie flickering shadows against the walls. Ginny crept down to the first floor, and headed for the Slytherin area... but she noticed the door to the Great Hall seemed to be glowing, as though there was some faint light just behind the opening. Cautiously, she pushed the door open and poked her head through.
Inside, it seemed brighter than the rest of the castle. Two torches stood at the ends of the staff table, glowing blue. Ginny took a few steps in, and took off Harry's invisibility cloak. She walked down the space between tables, and had to restrain her wand hand from casting a good Sticking Charm on Malfoy's usual seat.
The strange but beautiful lighting of the room put her at ease. She took one last glance around, and froze. As she stared at the ceiling, she felt as though she might fall off the edge of the world. She had never seen the stars so bright. She felt her legs to make sure she was still there, and hadn't been swallowed up by the engulfing view.
Slowly, she let her gaze fall back down to the hall, which steadied her a bit. She had only seen the Great Hall at night once before, during her first year. The basilisk had been roaming the school - though SHE hadn't been in any real danger of it - and they had all been sent to the large room to spend the night in safety.
Ginny shuddered as she remembered the creature. Tom Riddle - a younger version of Voldemort, trapped in a diary - had entered her mind and controlled her actions, setting the beast on the school. But, she realized, she only knew the way to the Slytherin section because part of Tom's memory stayed with her. At least something good had come of that whole disaster.
Ginny was about to open the door again, when she heard humming from a ways behind her. She turned to see Peeves glide through the wall, and swoop down to inspect the glowing torches.
Without thinking, she donned the cloak and ran out the door. There was no other way out of the hall, and she didn't want to be trapped.
Alone again, she quickly made her way to Slytherin. It took some time for her eyes to adjust to the black maze of the dungeons, and longer to finally reach the door. It came as no surprise that it was locked.
Ginny held out her wand, and whispered the words Tom Riddle had forced her to whisper years ago, when he wanted to visit his Slytherin dorm once more. Hearing the old and powerful password, the door complied.
The dismal common room came into view, and Ginny went straight for the boys rooms. But to her surprise, she could hear whispers behind one door.
She tip toed up and peeked through a crack in the door.
"Fleur and Hagrid drew closer, their lips touching as they- oh gross!" she could hear Malfoy say, and start sniggering. Two other hushed giggles came from the sides of the room, and Ginny assumed they were Crabbe and Goyle.
Draco read on, and Ginny felt an urge to run in the room and kick him.
After one bout of laughter died down, she heard a low voice - Goyle she assumed - speak cautiously.
"Hey uh, Draco?" he asked from the left side of the room.
"What is it?" Draco giggled, apparently re-reading Fleur and Hagrid.
"Did she match me with anyone?" he asked.
Draco looked up, a rather sour expression on his face.
But I did, Ginny thought, wincing. I matched him and-
"Honestly Goyle, who would want to go out with you?" Draco muttered as his eyes swept over where Ginny had matched Goyle with Crabbe. He later "accidentally" spilled his bottle of ink on the paper, right on that place in the story, Ginny guessed. For once in her life she thanked Draco. Nobody ever needed to read about that.
But her thanks quickly died away, as the boys stayed up later and later. Where were their prefects? Surely they would hear the whispers and come to shut them up. But the minutes went on, and Ginny felt her eyelids droop.
She snapped awake. No, she had to stay and get that story from them, even if it took all night. But... she could rest her head on the door, that was OK. And she could just let her eyes close, just to rest them a moment-

Ginny awoke to a light breeze on her face, and opened her eyes, yawning. But the yawn caught in her throat as she saw black boots just in front of her. Her eyes widened as she looked up and saw their owner.
"Time to get up," Snape growled, but not at Ginny. He was glaring at the door just behind her. "Malfoy, I allow you to sit up late under the condition you will wake up on time and fulfill your duties to this school."
Ginny could hear rustling behind her, and slow footsteps approach the door. Inches from death either way, she quietly slid away from the door and Snape's boots. Snape looked down, and she froze. But just then the door opened and she silently dove out of Draco's way.
"I-" Draco yawned loudly. "I'm sorry Professor. Won't happen again, I'm sure."
Ginny stood slowly, and walked softly to the common room, holding the cloak tight against her. She waited for Draco and his gang to leave before slipping into the boys' room.
There was the story, lying on the center bed. Draco had obviously chosen the best bunk, which looked like it had just a tad more fluff in the mattress than the other two. That's the way it was with Draco, he always had to be best, she thought. She walked forward, and reached for the parchment, relief flooding through her body.
POP! She whirled around to see what had caused the sudden noise. A small human - no, a house elf - had suddenly appeared in the room. Ginny stood in place. How had he gotten in here? But then she saw a hand emerge from the wall behind him, and push itself against the wall. There was another POP, and a second house elf squeezed out of the wall.
Without a word, they began making the two beds on the sides. Ginny saw a third hand appear through the wall, and she reached for the parchment. The hand was reaching through the wall, pushing...
"EAAAAGH!" one of the elves screamed, as the third POPed into the room. They were now all staring at her - no, through her - at her hand. She had the parchment, but it was taken from her grasp in a flash as one of the house elves snatched it.
"Ooooh Peeves," the new, female elf warned. "You leave now. We don't you trouble, no siree..."
The three elves stood, waiting for Ginny's exposed hand to leave. She watched the parchment desperately as the elf put it on Draco's night stand and watched her. She had no choice but to go.
Empty hearted, she dragged herself back to the Gryffindor tower. Once inside, she took off the cloak and walked carelessly to Harry's room. All the students were in classes, so she was in no danger of getting caught.
She was so careless that she didn't hear the portrait door open, and a very hurried Neville bolt up the stairs behind her.
"AAAH!" he screamed as he tripped over her, taking the cloak with him. "Now I'm going to be even later for potions. Why did I have to forget my cauldron again-"
"Neville!" Ginny gasped.
Neville looked at the cloak, then to her.
"So THAT's where you were!" he said at last. "You had us worried, you did, not coming back. Harry seemed to know something but wouldn't say-"
He stopped, seeing the cold frown on Ginny's face.
"If you had said something in the hall yesterday, I wouldn't have needed to sneak out of bed."
"Ginny-" he hesitated. "Ginny, I'm sorry. Hermione said I should-"
"What, not stick up for your friends?" Ginny yelled. Neville was suddenly quiet. "You could've said something, anything, and I would've gotten that paper back!"
"I'm sorry," was all he could say.
"Sorry doesn't cut it!" she bellowed, snatching the cloak from his arm. "Do you know what was ON that? I wrote about Harry! I wrote that we were in love! I wrote about Fleur and Hagrid and Nearly Headless Nick with the Fat Lady... oh, and my name is on it! If you had just said SOMETHING!" Ginny could feel tears streaking down her face.
Neville sat speechless on the stairs. Ginny rushed past him, and threw the cloak on Harry's bed.
"Ginny," he said as he came through the door.
"Don't talk to me!" she shrieked.
"You need to go to Charms," he said. "You've missed Transfiguration already, right? You need to get to Char-"
"Damn Charms!" she shouted, and stalked past him. But as she headed for her room, she realized he was right. She couldn't afford to miss that many classes. So she dried the tears from her eyes, and rushed off to Professor Flitwick's room, absolutely miserable.