The Frog Princess
(Ginny's Story)

by Frog-Princess
(ginny@darkcastle.com)



Disclaimer: I own nothing from Harry Potter, and everything belongs to J. K. Rowling, this being just a fanfic of course.

A/N: Okay, so up until this point, the chapters have been a little disappointing and sad. I realize this. But things will work themselves out. Have no fear, good reviewers, and don't despair. =)



Chapter Five



"Where's Ginny?" asked Ron, looking up from the chessboard. His younger sister was nowhere to be seen.

"I bet she's upstairs," said Hermione with a yawn. She got up from her place at the table, closed the textbook she'd been reading, and stretched. Though she hated to admit it, she'd been studying for quite a while, and it was about time to take a break. "I thought I saw her head up there earlier. I'll go up and see if I can find her."

Hermione had guessed correctly, as she discovered upon entering the girls' dormitory. The door to the fourth years' room was wide open, and Hermione peered inside only to spot Ginny fast asleep, sprawled facedown with her diary lying close to her face. The diary wasn't in good condition; some of the papers were falling out at the spine. A special quill she'd bought in Hogsmeade the previous year, one which was enchanted to require no messy ink, was still clutched in her right hand.

Hermine gave a thin smile. She hated Divination, that was never going to change - but she was fascinated with the way peoples' minds worked. She was especially interested in dreams, and sometimes wondered what other people dreamed about. She'd rarely told anyone about this. After all, who was there to tell? Imagine explaining such a thing to a couple of boys!

She took the quill out of Ginny's hand, closed the diary without looking down at what was written on the page, and set them both at the foot of the bed. In a very sisterly way, she covered Ginny up with the soft scarlet blankets and left the room.

Ginny, meanwhile, had slipped far into the realm of sleep. She stirred, smiled a little, and slept on.

Her mind was filled with thoughts of Muggle fairy tales from the book her father had given her. And not only that, but thoughts of her parents back home, and thoughts of Ron, who had recently taken it upon himself to look out for Ginny. Thoughts of Fred and George being transformed from frogs to people.

There were thoughts of advanced classes and the occasional insecurity of not being able to keep up with the fifth year students... and then there were thoughts of Harry. Life as a witch wasn't all bad, but if only it were more like a fairy tale - more like a dream...

In reality, Harry had lost another chess match to Ron. There was still a lot of time before dinner, so he now distracted himself with sitting before the fireplace and polishing the Firebolt. The new captain of the Quidditch team, Angelina Johnson, wanted to start practicing right away (within the next few days, in fact) and Harry couldn't wait. He wondered if Ginny liked flying. Wait a minute, where did that come from? He shook his head. It had been a rather eventful day, he supposed, and random thoughts kept entering his mind.

He chuckled in spite of himself. A rather eventful day indeed.

First, in Transfiguration, after a brief review (the history of transfiguration versus transfiguration in modern times), Professor McGonagall had demonstrated for the class a "three-part transfiguration of an inanimate object." She changed an ordinary teapot first into a hedgehog, then proceeded to transform it into a rather large, smelly hog before returning it to its original form.

It had been primarily for review (three-part transfigurations weren't all that challenging), but they had had a rather difficult time catching the animal, which took off running laps around the small classroom. Finally, after it trampled over McGonagall's foot, she shouted "Consisto!" and the pig stopped almost immediately. It gave a loud, startling squeal as she tapped it with her wand, and then it was a plain teapot again. By the time class ended, nearly every person's stomach ached from laughing so hard. Everyone but McGonagall.

And if Transfiguration had been exciting, it was nothing compared to Care of Magical Creatures class. Hagrid needed help feeding a particularly disagreeable group of "shrinking serpents." The problem was that whenever one of them was caught, it would shrink down to the size of a worm and slide away from its captor. Lavender Brown was the first to discover this, and began to shriek as the creature wriggled free of her grasp. "I swear it tried to bite me!" she gasped. "Are you sure those things aren't poisonous, Professor Hagrid?"

Hagrid laughed warmly. "Nah, there's no reason ter be worryin' about them little buggers," he said to Lavender. "Blimey, they don' even have teeth. That's why I wanted yer help feedin' 'em, but I guess I'll just have ter figure it out on me own time." Harry chuckled, catching Hagrid's eye.

The day had gone by quickly, and with everything that had happened, Ginny had good reason to be exhausted. Harry carried his broomstick with him as he climbed the stairs to the boys' dorm. After the Firebolt, which was gleaming at the handle and had every twig in place, was carefully put away, Harry exited the room. But before he could start back down the stairs, something caught his eye. It was nothing more than a piece of paper which looked like it had fallen out of a book, but his name was written on it. He picked it up curiously and read, continuing down the stairs.

"I know Harry's probably disgusted. I worry he'll start avoiding me. I'm nothing more than a little kid to him, and the way I feel is just an annoyance. I know he'll never think of me the same way."

Reaching the bottom step, Harry nearly dropped the paper in shock as he realized... it had been a complete accident... but he'd just read an entry from Ginny's diary.

He started as he saw that Ginny had just come down the other staircase. She yawned. "Hello, everyone," she said, still groggy. "Everyone" was only Ron and Hermione, who were caught up in a game of chess. Then Ginny saw the look on Harry's face. She fought to remain calm as she looked at him, but unbelievably, miraculously - she managed. "Oh, hello, Harry," she said nonchalantly (or so she hoped). Harry automatically tightened his grip on the paper and shoved it into the pocket of his robes, hoping no one had noticed. "Hi, Ginny," he started to say, but Ginny saw the paper.

"What's that?" she asked quietly.

Harry, seeing no way out, slowly emptied his pocket. Ginny's face went scarlet as she realized what he held in his hand. She inhaled deeply, glancing around the room to make sure no one was paying attention. She looked into Harry's eyes. "You read it then?" she said softly.

Harry was feeling very uncomfortable. "Let's head to the library and talk about it there," he said.

Both were silent as they passed through the hallways, but as soon as they entered the library, Harry led Ginny to a table in the corner, just out of Madam Pince's view, and began to speak. "I didn't mean to, it was an accident," Harry said in a rush, not waiting for a prompt. "It was just lying on the floor, and I picked it up because it had my name on it, only it wasn't til after I read a few sentences that I realized what it was, and by then it was too late--"

He suddenly became aware that he was only digging himself deeper. "Er... d'you want it back?" He extended his hand, and she cast her eyes upon the paper nervously, recognizing the entry she'd been writing on the Hogwarts Express. At length, she shook her head. "No, it's alright... go ahead and throw it away. It's trash." She bit her lip and looked down.

Harry ignored this and handed it back to her. "Take it," he insisted, pressing it into her hands. "I'll forget this if you will." Ginny looked confused, but eventually agreed. There was a rather awkward silence.

"I have to ask you," said Harry. "Did you really mean what you wrote?"

Ginny shrugged. "I suppose so... that's why people keep journals and diaries, isn't it? To write down their thoughts?"

Another silence, but it was brief. Harry and Ginny both began to speak at the same time, but stopped. Harry laughed and Ginny blushed slightly. "You first," she said politely.

"I don't feel that way, Ginny, you know that."

Ginny couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You don't?"

"No, of course not. We're friends, aren't we?"

Ginny's heart sank. "Oh... yes... er, friends."

Harry nodded awkwardly. "You don't need to feel... er, you know - ashamed of anything." Ginny seemed to understand this, so he didn't add anything else. But she looked a little disappointed. Just as both of them were about to get up and leave, Harry turned and placed a hand on Ginny's arm.

"I've just had an idea," he said, brightening. "Would you like to come and watch practice sometime?"

Ginny looked around, as if making sure he was really talking to her. "Me?" she asked. "Come and watch Quidditch practice?" Harry nodded. "You don't have to, if you don't want," he said quickly. "I just thought that maybe, you know, as a friend--"

"I'd love to." Ginny gave him that tiny, innocent smile. She still had a shyness about her when she was around Harry, and didn't feel entirely comfortable. Still, staring into his eyes, she knew she could trust him. She felt safe. Not dependent on him, just... nice.

Harry paused. "Alright, then," he said, smiling back. Realizing his hand was still on Ginny's arm, it was Harry's turn to go red as he pulled away, slightly embarrassed.

"By the way, what was it you were going to tell me this morning in the Great Hall?" he asked, looking at her quizzically as they walked through numerous winding passages and corridors.

"Oh," replied Ginny, still smiling faintly, "it doesn't matter. So, when's your first practice again?"