Ginny quietly peeked out of the drapes around her bed. Night had fallen in England. Unable to sleep, and wanting to write in her journal, Ginny had spent the better half of the night debating on whether or not she should get up.
Cautiously, Ginny made her way through the mess of homework, clothes, and textbooks. Her diary was locked in her drawer of the dorm vanity.
"Wonder boy," she whispered with a slight blush. After all, it wasn't a very subtle password. Still a faint red, Ginny hastily grabbed the worn brown book and dashed back to her bed. Making sure the curtains were securely shut, Ginny cast a tiny light spell, a tiny flame appearing on the tip of her wand. Carefully jamming the wand into the crevice between her pillows, Ginny fished a pen out from under her mattress. Opening the book, Ginny flipped past her prior entries until she reached the first blank one.
'Dear Diary-
I hate Draco Malfoy! He's such a git! Picture this, I'm going to my new dorm and on my trunk is this scummy piece of parchment. Do you have any clue what he wrote? 'In case you need some money, I'd like to suggest selling that monster of a mother. She must be eating you out of house and home by herself!' How could he write something like that? Naturally, I was mortified, I managed to crumple up the paper before any of the other girls saw it. From the indignant cursing I could hear from the boy's dorm, I think Ron got one too. I wonder if his said the same thing as mine. That would have been funny. No, no, scratch that. Malfoy is nasty, he's not funny!
Anyway, a very unusual thing is happening to the Slytherins. For one thing, most of them are gone! You look to the table, and just a few fifth, sixth and seventh years are left! It seems as though they randomly decided 'Hey, let's go to another school!' Good riddance is all I have to say about that! On the other hand, the remaining second, third and fourth years have taken to wearing what 'Rissa has deemed 'goth people' clothes. She says they're bad people, but I don't believe it. I told her earlier on the train that Dra Malfoy isn't evil enough for that, but what if he was? I'm actually scared of the boy now! It's like, that weird dog who'd bark at you if you came to close started viciously attacking elderly women for no reason. A muggleborn was sorted into Slytherin! Can you believe it? The poor thing looked terrified out of his mind. I hope he's doing all right. I suppose I could pull him aside tomorrow and let him know he's got at least one friend.
Perhaps my writing is reflecting my fatigue. I think it's about one-thirty and I really should be getting some sleep, -I mean I'm dead tired!- but I'm at that 'about to fall over and yet wide awake' stage. Even my grammar is horrible! I think I should return to staring blankly at the top of my canopy and writing that 'You are a git' letter to Malfoy. Yes, that's what I'll do.
Goodnight,
-Ginny>
After numerous re-reads, Ginny finally snapped the book shut, re-locked it into the drawer, and returned to her bed. Grabbing a loose sheet of paper and a heavy textbook from her bedside table, Ginny set to work on the first draft of her letter.
'Go suck a bludger!'
'Bloody git!'
'Slime ball!'
But none of these were good enough. For one thing, they lacked a certain oomph. Finally, Ginny settled on a well written, yet not to long letter. After all, she wasn't going to cramp her wrist on Malfoy's account.
'You must have an incredibly tiny mind to go after my mother! So many things could be said about yours that I won't even attempt to list them all. What ever prompted you to go through all the trouble of sticking a degrading, grotesque piece of parchment to my trunk is beyond me. Leave me alone, you bloody bastard. Bouncing ferrets should be nicer to those who have more class, you tart.'
Nodding, Ginny smiled at her handiwork. I'm mailing this tonight! I only wish I could be there when Ferret-boy gets it!Ginny slid off her bed, tip-toeing between the dropped articles of clothing, grabbing her cloak as she went. After all, she wasn't going to freeze on Malfoy's behalf either.
Ginny took the stairs from her dorm two at a time. If she hurried, the note would get there by breakfast. At least, if Fred wasn't lying about how long it took him to mail Ron's broken Krum figure to him at school,she thought with a smile. Ron sure had taken Viktor and Hermione's relationship the wrong way. As Ginny slipped out of the Common Room and into the hallway, she smirked, thinking of how great her plan was.
Draco would saunter into the dining hall like the pompous prat he is, smirking at all the other people. He would sit down, when a Hogwarts owl dropped a scrap of paper in his lap. He'd raise an eyebrow and crack the seal with a self-satisfied smirk, thinking Dumbledore was begging for him to return. His eyes would bulge as he read the letter, and a bigger boy would take the note and read it aloud and everyone would laugh and people would toast to her and throw parties in her name and...
Ginny shook her head. She just had a few steps left and day-dreaming wasn't helping. Throwing open the door to the Owlery, half the owls glared at her for disturbing their rest. Ginny ignored their looks and head for a fast looking owl in the corner. She held the letter up to him. The bird cocked his head to the side, extending a claw.
"Thanks, my dear. Take this to Draco Malfoy as soon as possible. And if you can, leave a couple droppings on his head." The bird bobbed his head, jumping out the window and quickly flying away.
"I knew it!" Ginny spun around, terrified that someone had actually followed her. Clarissa stood their with her lit wand in one hand, the other holding her heavy cloak together.
"What are you doing here?" Ginny whispered frantically.
"I followed you of course," Clarissa responded logically. "And now will you admit I'm right?"
"Right about what?" Ginny asked, nervously glancing about.
"That you're over Harry of course! And by the looks of it, moved onto Draco," she said with a pointed look.
"What? Malfoy? Are you mad? The evil git left a nasty note on my trunk and I was simply returning the favor!" Ginny exclaimed in a whisper.
"But you are over Harry, right?"
"Of course not!" Ginny yelled. The words were no sooner out of her mouth when she realized that yes, it was one in the morning and yes, she wasn't supposed to be out of her bed. Oh no…
Clarissa spun around, yanking the door to the tower open. Ginny sped up, slamming the door shut before Clarissa could fully open it.
"What are you doing?" she said in a whisper, quickly spinning around to face the red-head.
"You git! This is a tower, one way up and down! They'd catch us on the stairwell!" Ginny replied, a note of anger in her voice.
"Well what are we supposed to do? Jump out of the window?" Clarissa hissed An idea struck Ginny.
"That's exactly what we'll do!" she said, running towards the window. Ginny pulled herself up into the sill. The wind pushed at her, attempting to pop her tiny body from the opening.
"Ginny don't jump! It's just a detention! I'll say it was all my fault!" Clarissa said, holding out her arms incase Ginny fell backwards.
"Don't be dense, Ris!" Ginny said, pulling her wand from her cloak. "As soon as I jump I'll start the levitation spell! Don't you get it? By the time I finish I'll be about ten feet from the ground and then I'll start to rise slowly, and I'll just end the spell!"
"That's a horrible, horrible idea! What if you don't finish in time, you twit? It's a simple detention, Gin, not the end of the world," Rissa said, crossing her arms.
"Well, let's hope that doesn't happen, shall we?" Ginny jumped from the window. Clarissa shriek as loud as she could, dashing to the window and futilely attempting to grab Ginny's robes.
"Windardium Leviosa!" Ginny cried, waving her wand about. The spell gripped her about the waist, holding her still. Bending in the center, Ginny's legs and arms dangled painfully in the air. Her neck snapped downwards, causing her too much pain. She slowly began to float upwards again. "Finte Incantem!" she whispered. Suddenly, the spell released her and she fell the last twelve feet to the ground.
Ginny yelped in pain as her ankle twisted underneath her weight. Falling sideways to the ground, collapsing upon her right ankle and hip, Ginny breathed heavily, unable to believe she had just jumped out of a window to escape a detention. Rissa's screaming, which had been going on the whole time, abruptly stopped. Ginny quickly heaved herself off the ground, making for the courtyard. She may have jumped out the tower, but she wasn't out of the fire yet.
Running around the corner, Ginny found herself at the edge of the courtyard. The courtyard at Hogwarts was a lovely mass of mazes and gardens. Unfortunately, one could and would get lost quite easily once inside. And since Professor Sprout had refused to kill the plants from the last task of the Tri-wizard tournament, the maze had been transplanted to the courtyard. Ginny felt her heart sink. Out of the pan and into the fire, she thought hopelessly.
Just as she was about to enter, Ginny remembered something. Wait a minute… the lake! The Chamber of Secrets opens to the lake! If I could get into the chamber, I should be able to get out! I still remember how to open it from the inside! Ginny quickly ran along the outside of the maze, trying to swallow the nervousness bubbling up in her stomach. She hadn't thought about the Chamber for three years, let alone thought of using it as a way to enter the school.
The maze was much larger on the outside than she had thought. She had been running for a few minutes and had yet to reach to lake. The green plants and bushes littered most of the grassy plain between the courtyard and the Forbidden Forest. Did I miss it? she thought desperately. Oh don't be stupid! How could you miss something as huge as a lake? the rational part of her mind reprimanded. Ginny felt her ankle throbbing to a painful beat, as though it would snap off given the chance. As she turned the corner of plants, the lake appeared.
The moon, a slit of its usual self, hung low over the lake; peeking out from behind the mist and fog. Ginny felt her ankle sigh as she quit her running. Cautiously, she approached the edge of the lake. A slim tentacle caressed the surface of the calm lake, as if assuring her with its simple motions. Taking a deep breath, Ginny stepped into the water, forcing herself to take one step after another into the murky depths.
***
Thank you, reviewy people!
Tessie -I usually hate to embarass my characters! Well, unfortunatly, Ginny just sort of asks for it with the Harry Obsession.
Princess of Mordor -Mordor! Lord of the Rings fan, eh? I'm only halfway through them but I love 'em! As for Ginny dying her hair... it's always a possiblity...
pyrobunny -I know! I love Harry to bits, but sometimes I want to smack him for ignoring Ginny!
FireSprite -Draco is gone for good for a while, and Harry... well, I think he's known about Ginny for a long time now. Or has he?
