Chapter 2

The Quickest Charms Class Ever

Ginny had raced out of the Great Hall and right to Gryffindor tower. She decided a quick bath might stop her spinning head. That always helped her calm down.

What was wrong with her anyway? She was just tired, she supposed. Wait… No she wasn't! She was wide awake? But hadn't she been tired before? Yes! She was up for most of the night studying!

And then there was this image of her and Draco Malfoy madly making out, that she just couldn't seem to get out of her head…

* * *

After spending about an hour more time in the shower than she had expected to, Ginny raced down the corridor- late for charms class- how perfect could one day be?

In her rush she crashed right into some one… actually two people. These two people happened to be Pansy Parkinson (a rather mean Slytherin) and a Hufflepuff… Justin Something-or-other. What they were doing rather resembled the image of herself and Draco that she had.

Never pulling his lips away from Pansy's, Justin said to her, "Watch where you're going. Can't you see we're busy?"

"Well, I…" Ginny began. She stopped herself since Justin obviously wasn't interested in a reply. She left them and grumbled down the hall. "So the hallways are suddenly a public snogging center?" She wondered alloud.

The thought that it might be odd for a Hufflepuff and a Slytherin to have such passionate feelings for eachother never crossed her mind.

She ran into the classroom and quickly took her seat, as all other students were already there.

"Late again Miss Weasley?" Professor Flitwick asked. His nose barely came above the desk, as the librarian insisted on mending the books he usually sat on.

It happened that Ginny was usually a bit late for each class. She knew she had them… it's just that she got sidetracted a lot. She usually had a pretty good excuse too. She dropped her books and had to pick them up, the previous teacher had kept her after in class. But right now the only excuse she had was that she had been daydreaming about Draco Malfoy. And so, she blushed and nodded her head.

"Well, you're just in time for the quiz." He jumped down from his chair, and began to pass out small boxes to each student.

Ginny examined hers. It was a pale yellow and about as long as her arm from her elbow to her wrist. What did this have to do with anything? Were they charming the boxes? She hadn't studied anything like that!

"Now. If you will open the boxes I have just given you…" Professor Flitwick said. A few students gasped. Some "Ooooohed!" and one shrieked. Inside the box was a rather slow turtle.

"In these boxes you will find a turtle, which has not in anyway ever been touched by magic. Therefore, your assignment is to get the turtle in your box to move faster, as you can see, they are quite slow. You may begin."

The students took out their wands. Jennifer was the first one to complete the quiz. She tried not to show how pleased she was with herself at getting the turtle to zip around happily in it's box, as she liked to keep up her reputation for being serious though not a little sarcastic, but she smiled a bit and sat back.

Ginny, however, was in a panic. She knew they were going to have to do Speedemup charms!! Now what was she supposed to do with her wand? It was something different than usual… A circle or a U? Yes! A U! She had to trace a U shape in the air… and then straight across… and then she had to quickly point at the whatever she wanted to speed up! Yes! That was it… but what was the incantation? Accelerato? That sounded right!

She did the wand motion and whispered,"Accelerato." A small red spark lept from the tip of her wand and hit the turtle smack on the head. The turtle certainly reacted! It now took several seconds just to pick up one foot and several more seconds to put it back down. Very slowly the turtle looked up at her. It seemed to be startled, but she couldn't tell for sure since it's motions were so slow.

Oh no! She had cast the wrong spell! They hadn't even learned how to slow things down yet! She quickly racked her brain for the incantation, since she was pretty sure the wand motion was perfect.

Then, it came to her. Accelerata! That was it! She had just gotten the last letter wrong. Oh well, she could fix it. She began the wand motion and was just about to say the incantation when she heard some one enter the room, and ask a question. She didn't hear what they said. Just the voice. And the voice alone made her arm jerk and the volume of her voice to raise in just a certain way as to…

Speed up the entire Charms class!

The entire room was full of students quickly waving their wands or tapping their fingers on a desk so fast they could win a medal for it. Several turtles who had already been charmed had become green blurs in the boxes. The only thing that wasn't effected by the gone-astray-charm was Ginny, herself. And, oh wait. Her turtle.

Since everything in the room was moving fast, no one seemed to notice.

This is ok! Ginny screamed to herself in her mind. I'll just use the slow charm thing I did! This is definitely ok. But then her eyes met with the owner of the voice that had caught it all. Draco Malfoy. He was looking directly at her and wasn't moving except for the fact that his eyes blinked every few seconds. If only she could know that Draco was having images similar in his own mind.

She gasped and dropped her wand. This caused several students to stare at her. After all, she was moving abnormally slow. Proffessor Flitwick spoke up, his voice sounding like some one on a cassette tape that was being fast-fowarded.

"What has happened to Miss Weasly? Some one must have cast a Slowemdown charm on her! We haven't even learned that yet! Well, whoever has done so can expect full punishment… if it was intentional…."

She couldn't take a voice like that any longer. She picked up her wand. Waved it as she had before only adding a jerk towards the end and screamed, "ACCELERATO!"

Just as suddenly as it had began, everything returned to normal.

Everyone seemed a bit confused to what had happened.

"What happened???" Professor Flitwick asked angrily.

Ginny slowly stood up. "I… I… I accidently cast a Speedemup charm on the class?" She said as though this were a question.

"I'm sorry I have to do this… but I'm afraid I'm going to take 5 points from Gryffindor…"

"Well…" Draco cut in suddenly. "She did fix it, after all…"

Ginny felt as though she had suddenly become full of helium and was rising to the ceiling. Draco Malfoy? Defending her? When he had the chance to have Gryffindor lose some points!

"I suppose you're right…" Proffesor Flictwick said thoughtfully, "5 points for Gryffindor for righting the classroom, and another 5 for knowing a charm no one else knew yet" Several Gryffindors cheered. "Mr. Malfoy, you will please tell Professor Snape that we will discuss in the staff room during lunch."

"Yes, Professor." Draco said. He looked… no gazed at Ginny a moment, before backing out the door.

"Although, I'm afraid Miss Weasley that you have failed this exam…" He gestured towards her turtle which was still moving extremely slow. Ginny sighed. What a day this was turning out to be.

The furry creature lightly dislodged himself from Draco's back and watched him walk away. Draco was fuming over the fact that he had helped Gryffindor somehow.

The creature chuckled quietly. It had been so sweet of Draco to stick up for Ginny. He sighed happily and mumbled, "What would these kids do without me?"

END OF CHAPTER TWO