Danger Lurks… in a Broom Closet?

1 By vedette

Chapter 4

2 Are Mittens Romantic?

This came out later than I intended because my computer crashed or something strange happened and I lost a lot of my work (Or so the excuse goes).

***

Ginny smiled as she looked at the Great Hall the next morning. It turned out Hagrid was a little off when he said that the pixies wouldn't do much mischief. Many students had already lost theirs or were trying to catch them, for there were many little lights dancing across the ceiling, giving little chimes of giggles. (Fred and George weren't sure whether to be overjoyed or upset over the new prankster competition.) As for Ginny's, it seemed to stick with her, as if a reward for choosing it. Luckily for everyone, there weren't that many fifth-years, so there were only about sixty or so people who had gotten a pixie (I just estimated here). As she sat down at the table, Ron pulled up a chair next to her.

"Ginny, where your jar?" Ron asked. Ginny motioned towards her shoulder, where her pixie sat. "Oh," Ron said, sounding slightly depressed. "If I let mine out of my jar…" Ron shuddered and pulled out his jar. True enough, the pixie was pounding itself against the glass, seeming to want freedom.

"Accio!" Harry chanted, quickly pulling his pixie towards him. Hermione, who had just come up behind him was horrified.

"Harry! You can't just go and do magic like that in the corridors! You could get in trouble from a teacher!" Hermione reprimanded. Harry glanced around. No teachers had seen him for a very good reason. They were all busy with the pranksters, (that includes Fred and George who seized the opportunity to play some tricks, then blame them on the pixies). Ginny looked at the chaos and wondered if it would be this bad throughout the day…

***

As Ginny sped from one class to the next, gaining more homework than she thought she could handle, saw that the troublemakers moved with the crowd, looking for innocent victims. The only class that wasn't chaotic was Transfiguration (one look from Professor McGonagall and they all left as fast as they could go) and Potions. Ginny was in Potions at the moment. Her pixie was hiding in her hair, camouflaged the same color. Ginny wanted to leave it in her room; she had no clue what Snape would do if he found it (remember, she's a fourth year), but the little pixie sulked and wouldn't let her. Ginny watched Professor Snape as he showed how to make an Aging Potion. Snape, she thought, what a despicable, despising excuse for a teacher. The pixie agreed. You can read my mind? Ginny thought. I guess there's more to pixies than I thought. The pixie gave a smug feeling, and then flew off, careful not to be seen by the teacher. Ginny watched in horror as the little creature pushed on a bookend off his desk, into the cauldron, containing a fully done Aging Potion. It splashed all over Snape. The tiny pixie giggled, and then hid back in Ginny's hair, before Snape saw. When all the yellow-green smoke cleared, everyone got a good glimpse of Snape… as an ancient wrinkled wizard! The Gryffindors howled with laughter, and Colin Creevey got a great photo. Snape waved his wand to turn back into normal, took a deep breath and started to yell, when the bell rang for the next class. She scurried as fast as she could out of the classroom, before Snape could take 50 points of Gryffindor and give them all detentions. Outside, all the Gryffindors started crowding around Colin, trying to buy a copy of the picture he took. Colin looked like he was going to dash for it (there was quite a mob) when Fred and George came through, and started giving advice.

"Colin, Colin," Fred shook his head at the innocent boy, "If you want to make big bucks off of this you have to advertise properly. Allow us."

"Anyone who wants a picture of Snape as a senior citizen, write your name on this list. We'll get your copy of your picture and a bill of 1 Sickle straight to you!" George yelled over the chatter of the crowd. There was a sudden mad rush to the list. Ginny escaped while she could and headed to Care of Magical Creatures.

***

"Did 'ya hear about Snape?" Ron asked Hermione, right before their class started. Hermione smiled

"Of course I heard. That's what everyone except the Slytherins are talking about. Still, I didn't catch who it was that caused the Aging Potion to splash all over Snape."

"Ginny'll know, won't she? She has was in that class," Harry said. Ginny rushed up behind them, but before they could ask her any questions, the class started, and Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny paid full attention. The class was about elves, but Ginny didn't recognize any of their writing, nor did she feel any extraordinary powers with them. At the end of class, Hagrid asked to see their jars of pixies. About two-thirds of the class brought them out, and the rest stood their mumbling excuses, trying to hide so that Hagrid wouldn't notice them missing their's. Hargrid looked around, with a crest-fallen expression, and cast his eyes on Ginny. Ginny hastily pulled out her pixie from her hair.

"Well, I see that went well. Er, maybe we ought t' learn how t' keep 'em around better." Hagrid demonstrated ways of keeping the pixies subdued a bit. It didn't really help…

***

Two months later, and not much had changed as far as pixies went, except that they seemed to be losing interest in Hogwarts, and wandering more and more into the Forbidden Forest. This relieved everyone except for Hagrid; he offered bonus marks to people who caught the "little blighters" as one student put it. Ginny was in business.

"Say Ginny, you never told us about who pulled that great prank on Snape," Ron remembered. She blushed then looked around the Gryffindor common room to make sure no one was watching. The four of them, Harry, Hermione, Ron and herself had just come down from their rooms in the early morning.

"Er, well, it was…" Ginny then pointed to the culprit.

"It was you?!" Ron's voice cracked with incredibility. Harry frowned. Ginny hadn't pointed at herself, more like her hair. The pixie flew out, then bowed, as if to say, "Yours truly." Hermione stared.

"You still have yours? But I thought Hagrid asked for them to be turned in!" Hermione questioned. Ginny blushed.

"Well, I got rather fond of mine, so Hagrid said that I could keep it since he was going to release them somewhere away from here soon," explained Ginny. Then she looked at the time, "Oh no! I'm going to be late for class for sure, and Professor Flitwick was about to teach us a very important charm yesterday." Ron raised an eyebrow in amusement as he watched his little sister panic. He shook his head.

"Ginny, you don't know what day it is, do you?" Ron asked. Ginny looked up at him in mid-panic, not realizing what Ron was getting at.

Ron sighed, "Today's Saturday! No school, plus today's the first day we get to go to Hogsmeade since school started. Mind you, there's going to be teachers everywhere, Fred and George might be upset over that, but Ginny, relax!" Ginny thought carefully. Ron was right, and Ginny sure could use a break. She sighed blissfully. A whole day with no homework. Wait a second. She frowned.

"I can't go though. I'm only in my fourth year."

Harry jumped in (if you haven't noticed, Ginny and Ron are kind of taking up most of the dialogue here) "Ginny, don't you remember? You can go if you're with us, we're fifth years." Ginny had already thought about this, but she felt it would be rude to invite herself, after all, she only ate with them, not hung around with them all the time. She sighed again; even better, she was going to Hogsmeade with her friends.

***

Ginny ran up and down the shops, peering into each window. Frost was beginning to form, showing the first signs of winter. They had all gone to the sweetshop together and bought some various candies, then hiked to Zonko's joke shop. Ginny couldn't remember the last time she had so much fun. In Zonko's, Ron asked if Harry was looking for anything in particular throughout all of Hogsmeade.

"Erm, no I don't think so," replied Harry. Was it just him, or did Ron look a little disappointed at that? He stared at Ron's ears, as a slight pink flush ran up them. They left the shop, not buying as much as usual, perhaps getting most tricks from the twins. The wind was really beginning to pick up, making a desolate howling sound. There was a slight snowfall happening, and the tops of people's heads were getting dusted with snowflakes. Hermione said something, but the wind was picking up so Ginny didn't quite catch it, the wind was whisking away everyone's words. She motioned to a small pawnshop where they could get away from the wind and talk properly. As they stumbled in, Ginny looked at all their hair. Hermione had her bushy hair all over her face, and Ron's hair was tousled pretty badly. However, at least Harry looked the same.

"Ahem," Hermione cleared her throat. "I was saying that there was a used bookshop that I wanted to check out. However if you don't want to go…" Ron quickly agreed.

"Oh, I didn't know they had a used bookshop! That sounds neat." Harry said thoughtfully, wondering why he had never heard of one. Hermione shot a look at Ginny. All of a sudden, Ginny understood what they were up to…

"Actually Harry, I'd appreciate it if you came with me to the Gladrags Wizardwear shop. Ron, Hermione, meet us back at Three Broomsticks around three o'clock," Ginny said and before Harry had a chance to answer, Ginny pulled him right out of the shop. As she left, Hermione and Ron flashed her signs of thanks and relief

***

"Okay, what was that about?" Harry asked, a trifle annoyed. Ginny flushed.

"Um, well, Harry, I think Ron and Hermione wanted to be alone." Harry stared at Ginny. Ginny squirmed as they walked down the street; she really wished he wouldn't do that. Harry however was too busy thinking about what Ginny had just said.

"Y'mean they just wanted to ditch me and leave me all alone?" he said indignantly, outraged at his friends.

"First of all, you are not alone. Or don't I count anymore?" Ginny asked. Harry choked on whatever he was about to say and thought for a moment, before making another irritated comment. Ginny managed to calm down Harry by the time they got to the shop. She blew on her freezing hands, hoping to warm them up.

Don't you have any gloves, Ginny?" a worried Harry asked. Ginny looked down avoiding his gaze.

"Not exactly. Most of our money went towards buying new textbooks for me; Ron's were in pieces," Ginny mumbled. Money problems were not one of her high topic choices. Harry nodded thoughtfully and headed into the shop, Ginny following. Almost immediately a salesclerk came up to them and asked if they wanted any assistance.

"I'm looking for a Christmas present for an older brother of mine. I was thinking of a scarf," Ginny explained. The delighted salesclerk led Ginny to all sorts of marvelous scarves. Harry went to a different section…

***

Feeling very pleased with herself, Ginny walked out of the clothing shop, now in possession of a Chudley Cannons scarf. It was on sale at a great price, and had little people on broomsticks zooming back and forth on it. She supposed it was supposed to be the players, but they were too small to identify. The wind had started to die down, but the snow was fiercer. She rubbed her hands together, wishing she at least had pockets. Harry put his hands over hers.

"There, is that better?" he asked. Ginny stared into his eyes and blushed as she realized he was holding her hands. They stood there for a couple seconds when Harry adverted his eyes, and pulled his hands away. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of fluffy mittens.

"Here, you can have these. I don't use them anyways," Harry muttered under his breath. Ginny put them on. They were so warm. Perhaps that was because her hands were icy cold in comparison, or maybe Harry warmed them up when they were in his pocket. She blushed terribly and was glad that Harry had all of a sudden decided to speed up so that he couldn't see her face. She hurried up as they went to another shop.

***

"There you are!" Ginny spotted her brother and Hermione. She was in Three Broomsticks with Harry and was waiting for her other friends to arrive. They were only five minutes late, but Hermione being late at all was very rare indeed. Ginny made sure that her present to Ron was safely hidden, and motioned to the extra two chairs. It occurred to her that she was going to have to buy more presents than usual, having two new friends.

"So, what did you buy?" Harry asked curiously. He had noticed that they had next to nothing as far as bags or parcels. Ron's ears turned bright red.

"Er, well we didn't find much to buy. Um… Hermione bought something," Ron said shifting in his seat. Hermione showed them a new book she had picked up, "Creative Curses and Counter-Curses for the Advanced Learner." Advanced learner, Harry thought, yep, that would describe Hermione, I'll have to remember that one for later. Ginny looked at the prices of the drinks. Oh no! She looked closely. She didn't bring enough money. After buying Ron's present, and a few things for herself, she hadn't enough for a Butterbeer! She was sure Harry must have been reading her mind, when to her great relief, he told them all that he was going to pay for drinks all round. They all got Butterbeers and chatted about anything in particular. By the time they had finished, the teachers had started rounding everyone up and heading them back to Hogwarts. Ginny peeked into her bag with her present, just to get a good feeling on the great buy, when she noticed there was something wrong with the scarf. One of the flyers had stopped moving back and forth and just sort of wobbled up and down. Bargain bins, she thought with disgust, who can trust them?

"You guys head back. I've got something I have to do," Ginny said and rushed to Gladrags Wizardwear. A salesclerk showed up just like last time.

"Oh hello. Is there something wrong with your gloves? The young man was very worried about the size, but I reassured him that one size fits all." Ginny stared at the lady, not understanding what she was talking about. Her mittens were just purchased? Harry went to all that trouble? She shook her head to clear her mind and got to what she was here for. The woman was very upset when she learned about the problem with the scarf.

"Oh dear. The charm must have worn off." The lady pulled out her wand, waved it while saying an incantation, and the scarf was all fixed up. "Here, to make up for the bother, have these earmuffs for free." Ginny grinned, wondering whether the earmuffs could hide when her brother's ears went pink.

"Thanks."

***

Ginny lay in bed thinking about the unusual day she had had. Actually when she thought about it, the whole school year had so far been pretty weird. In a good way of course. She wondered why Harry had bought her mittens. She had one last thought before drifting off into dreamland.

"Are mittens romantic?"