Chapter 2:
Harry sat down across from Albus Dumbledore in his cosy London flat late one night after receiving a letter from Fawkes. He considered it urgent since Dumbledore hardly ever wrote to him, and so he showed up immediately. He was growing older by the day, but still just as lively as ever.
"Retirement looks good on you." Harry commented, which resulted in a throaty laugh. Beside Dumbledore rested two well used knitting needles, some patterns, and a basket filled with materials. "You don't look a day over…er, how old are you again?" Truthfully he had forgotten. Or maybe Dumbledore simply never told him how old he was. Regardless, it didn't matter. That wasn't why Harry was here, and he knew that. There was an odd sense of urgency in the air, but Dumbledore's calm demeanour conflicted with this.
"How are you, Harry?"
Harry lied. "Perfectly fine, thanks."
It was as if Dumbledore knew that he was lying, and that was probably true. A wise old man, this one was. I should have known better. "Are you?" Dumbledore questioned, "That's wonderful news. I would have assumed you to still be quite shaken over previous events, despite the amount of time that has passed…"
"Yeah, well, you know." He stumbled over his words and struggled to find some more underneath Dumbledore's intense gaze. Harry had only found him to be intense a handful of times during their time together, but he never doubted his ability to scare the wits out of Harry whenever he wanted to. He was old, but he was powerful. "I've had lots of time to think it over." He fumbled nervously with his hands the entire time. He hated feeling like somebody was trying to get in his mind even though that wasn't happening right now.
Dumbledore nodded his head. "Thinking can be good." He said, "But it can also be dangerous. Sometimes when you think too much, you start to get lost in your own mind, and that can be a dangerous place. Trust me, I'm an old man with plenty of time on my hands to dwell."
Harry only glanced up at this. Right now was one of those times where he got lost in his own head. It was much easier said than done to do so, but he knew Dumbledore was right. "It's hard not to think about the past." Harry muttered mostly to himself.
"It won't change anything."
"I know." Harry softly replied.
There was a pause, but then Dumbledore simply stated, "The reason I asked you to come here was not for small talk, Harry, but to ask you a favour." Harry raised his head up at Dumbledore again, and his eyes squinted. "I know I do not deserve favours from you, but I fear that darkness looms over Hogwarts once again. I've had my suspicions for a while, but they have only just been confirmed by the Ministry."
"What's been confirmed exactly?" Harry asked.
After taking a sip of his tea, Dumbledore let out a regretful sigh.
"Lucius Malfoy is the new headmaster at Hogwarts."
There was a rumour going around the school already that a new student had transferred to Hogwarts. Ginny didn't know his name nor had she seen him yet, but her housemates claimed he was attractive. She sat with them at the Gryffindor table during dinner later that evening and listened to them talk about him, though nobody knew his name yet. Is he even real? Her interest was piqued, but not enough to daydream about him like the others.
Arnold the Pygmy Puff sat upon her shoulders during dinner that evening, providing company when Ginny ultimately felt alone. It was weird being at Hogwarts without any of her brothers, Harry, or even Hermione. The plan originally was for Hermione to come back and join Ginny's year to complete her school work, but then she received an offer she couldn't refuse by working as an apprentice for Kingsley Shacklebolt. He was the new Minister of Magic, and Hermione was simply too ambitious to say no.
Whilst she tended to her pet, the teachers gathered at the table in the front of the room to overlook the Great Hall. Ginny recognized all of them except maybe one or two new teachers, but then she swore her eyes were simply deceiving her when they landed on a lanky, evil man sitting right in the middle of them. Blonde hair, cold eyes, sick smile…Lucius Malfoy.
It seemed like no one else was alarmed by this. Not even the teachers, or they were just doing an excellent job at pretending. Yes, that must be it. But Ginny couldn't. She found it extremely difficult to focus, chew her food, and swallow correctly. Not only that, but her housemates started to giggle profusely out of nowhere, causing Ginny to tear her attention away from Lucius to see the reason why. A boy sat across the table, and a few seats down from them, and Ginny didn't recognize him either. Something told her this must have been the new student everyone was talking about. He was in Gryffindor house, so she was certain they would find a chance to meet sooner or later.
They shared an interesting glance, but Ginny thought nothing of it since her head was still trying to wrap itself around the fact that Lucius was here. Last she saw him, he was running away from Hogwarts with his wife and son, Draco. Nobody saw them for an entire yet, but now here he was in the same room as her. He gave her the creeps, too, and they shared a glance as well. It was very cold and harsh, but then he forced a smile that felt even more so. It wasn't meant to be friendly whatsoever.
Ginny held her breath until it was over, and she stormed out of the hall unexpectedly. Arnold was tucked safely away into her robes now, and she could hear him lightly snoring as he went off into dreamland. He was always so oblivious to stressful situations, but Ginny thought that was a good thing. Once she found a secluded spot, Ginny started conjuring a Patronus to send to Ron so that she could alert him. She would send one to Harry, but she had no idea where he was.
She was in a deep focus when someone appeared behind her, tapping her on the shoulder to let her know. She gasped a little bit from being taken by surprise, and slightly angry, she jerked her head to see who it was.
"Er, hi." The new student awkwardly greeted her. "Sorry to bother you but, erm, where's the common room?"
He had brown hair and blue eyes, and his skin was pale. He was normal sized, and didn't have any special features. It was sort of hard for Ginny to imagine why her housemates seemed so taken with him already, but he was mysterious in a way.
She tucked her wand away into her robes, and he swore that he saw a glimpse of her knickers. "This way." She said before taking the lead. They walked in silence at first before one of them finally spoke. "So you transferred here?" She asked him.
"Yeah."
"Where from?"
"From… erm, a boarding school in Scotland." He replied uneasily. Ginny eyed him somewhat suspiciously, but she didn't want to cause an argument. "My grandfather ,erm, he was able to get me into Hogwarts. As a favour."
Hearing that on top of knowing that Lucius was the new headmaster, well, that didn't sit right with Ginny. She remained quiet for the rest of their walk back to their common room. When they approached the stairs, she decided to inform him of the stairs. Since he was new and didn't seem to know where the common room even was, she thought it would be at least nice for him to be aware of this. "They like to change." She told him, and they started ascending the stairs.
He looked down into the deep, winding stairwell in amazement. Hogwarts truly was a school for magic. He didn't realise how long he was standing there until, next thing he knew, Ginny was standing closely to him, and the smell of her hair wafted into his nostrils. The smell was so familiar to him, and so lovely. "Are you coming?" She asked.
"Yeah, sorry 'bout that." He followed her swiftly up the altering stairs so as not to lose her, and eventually they approached a fat lady inside of a portrait.
"Password!" She demanded without even asking.
"Blue avis." Ginny answered, and the Fat Lady let out an exasperated sigh before opening up. Ginny led them into the common room, and the portrait closed once more. The two of them were alone, but it wasn't ideal.
He turned towards her after dropping his bag onto the couch, and he asked her, "What did that mean?"
"Blue bird." She replied simply. "What's your name anyway?"
"Er, Fen…Twig."
She raised her eyebrows at him somewhat suspiciously and repeated, "Fen Twig?" He nodded his head. It almost seemed as if she were trying not to laugh at him or something, and she was. "I've…never heard of any people by the name of Twig before."
"Yeah, well, it's just me…and grandpa, of course." Fen seemed nervous. He was nervous as a matter-of-fact.
"What's his name?"
"Nathaniel." He blurted out. It was much more normal sounding than Fen, but it didn't matter. Ginny just wanted to know him on a first name basis since they were going to see each other more often. Gryffindor's tended to chum around with other Gryffindor's more so than the other houses, but the exception for Ginny was Luna Lovegood. She was a Ravenclaw in the same year as Ginny, and they grew significantly closer in the past few years.
Ginny let out a "hmph" sound, and then she started towards her specific room. "Wait!" Fen called out to her. "Where are you going?"
Why do you care? "To bed. Shouldn't you do the same?"
"I…er, I suppose. Goodnight." Ginny gave him a strange look before turning in for the night officially. She hurried to bed before her mates came back, and when they did she simply pretended to be asleep so that she wouldn't have to talk to them. She liked their company, but they didn't have anything else in common besides their housing situation. Sometimes Ginny wished that she simply never came back to Hogwarts, and just took up residence with Fred and George in Diagon Alley instead. They offered after the war, but Ginny decided it would be best to carry on like everything was normal.
They spoke mindlessly about Fen, though they still didn't know his name. Ginny couldn't help but feel a sense of pride seeing as how she did, but it wasn't a competition. Though to Ginny almost everything was a competition in one way or another because she had a naturally competitive spirit, but to boys and relationships it never was supposed to be like that. Things were supposed to happen more naturally, more freely.
Still, she felt rather smug with herself as they gossiped about Fen's appearance. Even Ginny had to admit that he was good looking, but not enough to cause her to fawn over him like a schoolgirl. She pretended to be asleep for over an hour until they finally went to bed, and then she flipped onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. Her mind was racing because of Lucius Malfoy, and she hated that he was being so intrusive in her thoughts probably without even realising it. Or maybe he did, she didn't know. All she knew was that he was evil, and a traitor. How could he become the headmaster after someone so pure and wise, like Dumbledore?
Something didn't seem right here, and Ginny was determined to find out exactly what was going on.
