Chapter Two

Match

After summer break

As the Hogwarts Express slowly pulled into Hogsmeade station, chaos erupted onboard.

Students were running up and down the corridor, darting in and out of compartments and everybody was scrabbling for their luggage.

"Has anyone seen my toad? Has anyone seen Trevor?" Neville Longbottom sounded panicky.

Some things just never change.

Ginny smiled to herself. She pulled up her comparatively small trunk, stuffing the remnants of her lunch bag into it.

She had purposefully picked a compartment with a mixed bag of Gryffindor and Ravenclaws in it, determined to make new friends.

Actually just friends would be a start. It's not that I had any to begin with.

And to her utter surprise it seemed to have worked.

A bit earlier

"This seat taken?"

Ginny looked into three surprised faces when she opened the door.

"Ahmm,…" stalled Solange Bradley, a tall, blond Gryffindor student. Ginny knew that she was about to be brushed off.

"Swell! Could you help me with my trunk, it seems to be stuck somehow."

Ginny kept pulling at the obstinate piece of baggage. After a moments hesitation she was aided by Divinity Sinclair, a short, feisty black girl from Ravenclaw. Their combined efforts finally dislodged the trunk and they could stow it away with much shoving, grunting and a well aimed kick.

Ginny threw herself onto the empty seat huffing.

"Seems like it gets bigger every year."

"Yeah, it seems like that to me too." Solange volunteered after a while.

Silence descended once more.

Here goes.

"Has anyone heard the rumour that Pansy Parkinson once tried to hide her house elf beautician in her trunk? I can just imagine the reaction when they finally got him out of there."

Ginny put her hand to her robe front, held the other in front of her limply, pinkie stretched, and said in a terrible french accent:

"Oh, quelle tragedy! Me wrinkled all of Miss Pansys robes! This beautiful elf is a bad elf! Punish the elf, toss it out without a nail file."

Ginny ended with a dramatic flick of her limp wrist.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence to Ginny Solange and Divinity both started chuckling and even the third girl, whose name she couldn't remember, just that she was from Ravenclaw, broke out into a huge grin.

"I was actually privileged to witness the event." Divinity said animatedly. "Pansy turned different kinds of red under her make-up. That clashed wickedly with her robes."

Ginny smiled as she thought how this had started off a discussion about Pansy in particular and Slytherins in general. And she had actually been a part of that. Solange, Divinity and Barbara, although the darkhaired Ravenclaw insisted on being called Tops, "Heck! Everything is better than Barbara!", had after the initial moment of awkwardness talked and laughed with her, like nobody from Hogwarts had done in a long time.

"He Ginny! Wanna ride with us?" stepping down onto the platform, Ginny heard Tops calling over the usual ordered chaos that was arrival day at Hogsmeade.

Ginny grinned and waved wildly. Unfortunately someone was just passing in front of her, so that she knocked his heavy bag out of his hand.

Vincent Goyles sweets spilled every which way, a package of Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans split open and upended its multicoloured contents onto the platform.

"Bloody Hell! I'm sorry!" Ginnys hand flew to her mouth, then she bent down to help retrieve some of the stuff. Vincent Goyle glared down at her.

"My, my, this kind of dumpy backside can only belong a Weasley!" drawled a well known voice behind her.

Goody! Where there is a Goyle, a Crabbe and a Malfoy can't be far.

Ginny slowed straightened, running her hands down her robe front pulling them taunt.

"Why Malfoy, I never knew you cared." She said in a suggestive tone.

Ginny had the satisfaction of seeing Malfoy splutter. She grabbed his hand and dumped the rescued beans into it.

Reaching behind her she deliberately dragged her trunk over Malfoys foot as she passed him on her way to the waiting carriages.

The first weeks of the new term passed quickly for Ginny.

Divinity, Solange and Tops became her first real friends since she came to Hogwarts. Apart from Harry and Hermione of course. Ron didn't count, he was her brother after all. Where would the world be coming to if one would count a brother among ones friends.

One day the foursome was sitting in the Great Hall, labouring at their star charts for Professor Trelawneys divination class and eating left over chocolate pudding when:

"Watch it! Incoming!"

The four girls ducked as a small cloud of grey zoomed over their heads.

Seamus Finnegan, who sat right next to the four, wasn't fast enough and got conked in the side of the head by a terrified bat, scattering parchment everywhere.

"PEEVES!" Everybody who had already started straightening up, ducked again at the volume.

Filchs hunched frame was visible in the doorway.

"This time I will make sure Dumbledore gets your hide."

Peeves, the poltergeist cackled and made a very rude gesture.

After circling a few more times around the ceiling, in and out of the cloud of still shrieking bats, Peeves apparently got bored and zoomed out of the room again. Not without yelling into Filchs ear while passing though.

Professor McGonagall had joined Filch in the door frame, eying the cloud of bats cautiously.

"Would all students please leave the room and proceed with whatever they were doing…elsewhere. These are Bloodsucking Fiends and I do mean that literally. No need to panic, Mr. Creevey." She said to Colin in particular, who had risen in alarm. " I will take care of the situation as soon as you all have left. Just beware of the bats attaching themselves to any exposed part of your body."

Ginny couldn't help but notice Divinity closing her robe over her hitherto quite exposed chest.

"Still trying to get Seamus to bite?" Ginny grinned and wraggled her eye brows suggestively.

"Shut up! He might hear you!" Worried Divinity glanced to her right.

But Seamus seemed much more concerned about getting all his stuff together and leave the Great Hall to Professor McGonagall and the Bloodsucking Fiends than to pay attention to the whispering going on.

Seeing as he had scattered his parchments pretty good Ginny jumped to help him.

Grabbing papers left and right, Divinity seeing her chance to be noticed by Seamus helping now as well, the three of them managed to get everything while Tops took all of the girls own homework.

"Wouldn't want to do this tripe again, because some flying mice crapped on it." They heard her muttering.

They were the last to leave the hall.

Outside students stood in clumps, unwilling to leave the site of such excitement.

Divinity had indeed succeeded in chatting Seamus up, so Tops, Solange and Ginny discreetly moved over to the side. While straightening Seamus' parchments in her arm Ginny couldn't help - okay she looked! - but notice Divinitys name on one of the parchments.

Of course she had to look more closely.

It seemed to be a whole list of names among them...

F

M

Odds

Divinity Sinclair

Seamus Finnegan

2:1

Hermione Granger

Ron Weasley

n/a

official couple

Lavender Brown

Harry Potter

2:1

Suspicious behaviour

The list went on.

Furrowing her brows Ginny elbowed Solange in the ribs.

"Ugh! What did you do that for?" hissed the tall blonde, rubbing her side.

"Would you look at that?" Ginny thrust the parchment with the cryptic list at her.

Solange looked as puzzled as she felt.

"Look, your name is on it as well!" Solange pointed.

Virginia Weasley

Harry Potter

4:1

Potter is blind!!

Ginny grabbed the parchment again. A completely preposterous idea occurred to her.

"Holy flunking…, it's the odds of any of… well us, dating!"

Solanges expression slowly changed from blankness to wide eyed astonishment, then she grabbed the parchment again.

"Am I mentioned anywhere?"

A/N: I got reviews!! imagine authoress doing flic-flacs here

I count on everybody to tell me if this sucked so I can slink off to lurkdom again.

Dannie7 and Bellus-qui, I put in pudding for you. Everybody else is welcome to it as well.  ;o)

More after I come back from Vienna next weekend.