DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter and his friends, Hogwarts and other places belong to Ms. JKRowling. Other Characters and Places not mentioned in the books belong to me.
Coolone007: Thanks for the review. J
IMPORTANT: This chapter happens during Harry, Angela and Ron was sent by Dumbledore to SEA.
Chapter 9: Mayhem at Hogwarts
Ginny just received an owl from Hermione saying that she's in France with her parents and about the end of her and Ron's relationship. She held her letter as she gazed in the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room. She felt sad for what happened between Ron and Hermione. Since she came to Hogwarts, she treated Hermione like a sister. She thought that maybe through Ron, they could really be sisters. But thanks to her stubborn brother, Hermione will just be a friend.
"Hey, Ginny, aren't you coming up yet?" It was Mandela Ferguson. Her classmate and dorm mate as well.
"I'll come right up." She said. She was exhausted with the whole day. Being a seventh year and Head Girl is taking its toll. Aside from her academics, she has other responsibilities to attend to.
She reached for a quill and wrote to Hermione saying comforting words and offering a shoulder to cry on. Then she told her about Hogwarts and her classes.
"Ginny?" She heard Colin from behind her. "You're still awake. It's almost midnight."
Ginny finalized her letter and folded it. "I'm not yet sleepy, Colin. Just tired."
"Is that for Harry?" he asked, eyeing the letter she was putting in an envelope.
Ginny shook her head. "No. It's for Hermione." She answered and then she looked at him again. "What makes you think I'm writing to Harry?"
Colin shrugged. "Hey, it's Hogsmeade weekend tomorrow. Want to come for some butterbeer with me in Three Broomsticks tomorrow?"
"O-okay." She smiled.
Colin nodded happily. "I better get upstairs. I'll see you tomorrow? Good night."
She bid him good night and she watched the fire again. She thought about Harry and the Christmas they spent together. Hogwarts was never the same without the three, Harry, Ron and Hermione. And just this year, Dumbledore finally accepted the Minister of Magic post and Professor McGonagall took over. Sirius Black, Harry's godfather joined the faculty, too, as the new Transfiguration teacher.
As the fire in the fireplace mellowed down, she felt sleepiness crawling into her head. She hastily went to the girl's dormitories to get some rest.
"So I might go into the Ministry after Hogwarts. I mean, what better place to put all the things we learned in Hogwarts but the Ministry?" Colin said as they were walking their way to Hogsmeade. "I really want to work in your Dad's department, being Muggle-born and all."
Ginny nodded as he talked away. Her mind is flying away right now. Just that morning, she received an owl from Ron saying that Harry went with Angela to SEA to fix some business there. In as much as she kept telling herself that Harry is just a friend, she can't help but feel that twinge of jealousy in her stomach. Why would it have to be Harry? Why can't it be that George Peterson or any other wizard in the Department?
"So?" Colin was looking at her expectantly.
Her mind came propelling back to where she was now. "I'm sorry Colin?"
"I was asking you what you want to do after leaving Hogwarts." Colin was still smiling despite the fact that she wasn't paying much attention.
"Oh, after Hogwarts?" Ginny smiled back. "I really don't know yet but I'll probably go into business or teach or something. Or maybe just stay at home, like my Mum."
Colin smiled more wildly and nodded. The two just walked past the Shrieking Shack. Ginny glanced at it and turned away immediately.
They walked in Three Broomsticks quietly and got a seat near the fireplace. Other Hogwarts students were scattered around, drinking, eating or just talking.
"What can I get you two?" Madam Rosmerta asked.
"We'll have two butterbeers please." Colin said. Madam Rosmerta smiled and they smiled back before she turned around to get their beers. "Is it hard being Head Girl?" Colin asked her.
"Oh, that." Ginny gave a wan smile. "Hard, but fun. Yesterday, I caught a group of Ravenclaw first years wandering around near the Forbidden Forest. I had to chase them away." She was chuckling and shaking her head. "I don't know if I could do it as well as Hermione did but I sure am trying."
Colin reached for her hand, the one wearing the charm bracelet he gave her. "You'll do fine."
She blushed but didn't withdraw her hand. They sat there that way until Madam Rosmerta came with their butterbeers. Both of them were blushing furiously when she gave them a knowing look and silently walked away.
"How are Harry and Ron?" Colin said as he brought the butterbeer up his lips.
"Harry's in SEA, working on something with the Ministry there." She said trying hard not to sound bitter. "Ron's in the Ministry as well. Just got in last week, same as Harry's department."
"Good for him." Colin said.
The two fell silent, as if drinking butterbeer needed as much concentration. Then it was Colin who broke the silence. "I have something to give you." He pulled out a blue box from his pocket.
Ginny took the box from him and opened it. It was a pair of beautiful dolphin earrings. "Oh, Colin…"
"Will you be my girl, Ginny?"
Ginny looked at Colin helplessly. She liked Colin as a friend but she doesn't know if she could love him as much as she loves Harry. She closed the box and handed it back to him. "I don't know, Colin…"
Colin smiled and put the box back into her hands. "It's okay, Ginny. You don't have to decide now. I understand. But please keep it. If you wear it, then that means yes. If not, well, I can take it."
Ginny smiled gratefully ant him, took the box and put it in her robe pocket.
"That will be all for today. Go ahead and enjoy the sunshine." Sirius concluded his Advanced Transfiguration class the next day. Ginny hurriedly collected her spellbooks and headed straight to the Gryffindor tower.
"Hey, Ginny, wait up!" Colin called as he jogged behind her. "Where's the fire?" He asked jokingly.
"Oh, hi, Colin." She greeted him and started to walk slowly.
"I was wondering if you want to take a walk with me around Hogsmeade today." Colin invited her.
"But it's not Hogsmeade day!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah, but we're seventh years!" Colin reminded her. "We don't need a Hogsmeade weekend!"
Ginny broke into a smile. She forgot about that, after all the work needed to be done and her responsibility as Head Girl; she knew she needed a break. "Okay. But I'll have to tell Billy that I'll be out tonight." She said, pertaining to the Head Boy from Ravenclaw.
"Okay. I'll meet you at Gryffindor common room around three thirty?" He asked. "Here let me bring your books to the tower."
Ginny gave her books to him and he ran off to the Gryffindor tower. She turned to one corridor to go to Billy's Advance Defense Against the Dark Arts class. She waited outside for a couple of minutes before the Ravenclaw seventh years started pouring out of the room.
"Oh, hi Ginny. What are you doing here?" Billy asked as he walked out the room.
"I… I have to go out until early evening. I just want you to know just so you would know." Ginny said. "I might come in after dinner so…"
Billy smiled at her. "It's okay Ginny. Don't worry about it. Have fun okay?"
Ginny smiled at him and she started off to the tower. The common room was packed with students coming in from their classes. She went up to her dormitory to freshen up before her walk with Colin.
After fussing over her robes and all, she glanced at her bedside table and saw Colin's blue box. She opened it and the dolphin earrings shone when the beam of the sun hit it. She looked outside the tower, touching the pendant Harry gave her.
Her gaze fell on the clock on the wall. It's almost three thirty! She better go down, Colin is probably waiting for her downstairs.
The common room is still packed with students. But she saw Colin's familiar figure sitting on one of the lounge chairs closest to the fire.
"Hey." She attracted his attention when she got behind his chair.
"Hey, Ginny." He stood up, holding a spray of tulips in his hands. "Here, this is for you."
"Oh, Colin, you shouldn't have." She took the flowers. "I'll just bring this upstairs."
She came back in less than five minutes and they went out of the portrait whole. They talked about everything from Quidditch to what they would do after Hogwarts and beyond that till they reached Hogsmeade.
They got a bottle each of butterbeer from Three Broomsticks then headed off to Percy's place.
"Hey Percy!" Ginny shouted as she knocked on his door.
It was Penny who opened the door, carrying little Amy. "Oh, Ginny. Come in. And is this Colin Creevey?"
Colin smiled at her. "Penelope Clearwater, right? Hogwarts Ravenclaw."
"It's Weasley. Yeah." Penny smiled.
Penny walked the two in the living room and settled Amy down on a high chair. "Percy's not home. He's still in the Ministry. Anything I can get you two?"
Ginny shook her head. "No, thanks, we just had butterbeer from Three Broomsticks a while ago. We thought maybe we could see and visit Amy."
Ginny picked Amy from her high chair and played with her.
"I heard Harry was sent to SEA to help a the Ministry there. How are Ron and Hermione?" Penny asked as Colin stood beside Ginny and played with Amy as well.
"Oh, you haven't heard of Ron and Hermione?" Ginny kissed Amy on the cheek before handing her to Colin. "They broke up."
"They did not." Penny was shocked.
Ginny shook her head to confirm her news.
"But I know how Ron loved Hermione so much!" Penny said, taking Amy from Colin as the baby started to cry.
"Well, sometimes too much love is bad." Ginny said quietly.
Penny nodded as she cooed Amy to stop crying. At that moment, Percy came in the room straight from work.
"Hey, Ginny, Colin. What brings you two here?" He asked as he kissed his wife and daughter.
"Just walking around Hogsmeade. What's up in the Ministry?" Ginny sat back down the couch. Colin followed her suit.
Percy took his hat off. "Just so you'll know, Gin, Ron was sent to SEA this afternoon, too, to help Harry. Apparently, that Dark Sorceress there got hold of an innocent Muggle." Percy told them.
"So Harry's not alone." Ginny said thoughtfully. "That's good news."
Colin shifted uncomfortably beside her.
"Hey, Percy, Penn, we better head back to Hogwarts. It's getting dark." Ginny stood up and led the way outside the cottage.
Just as they were saying goodbyes at the porch, they saw a very familiar mark up in the sky. A mark they just encountered last year. It was the Dark Mark.
"Oh no…" Percy cried.
Penny quickly went inside to keep Amy from seeing the mark.
"You two better go ahead while it's still light. I have to contact Dumbledore. He has to know about this." Percy hugged Ginny and shook Colin's hand. Then they almost ran along the familiar pathway back to Hogwarts.
"Do you suppose we should tell McGonagall?" Colin asked as they entered the castle. "Hogsmeade is not very far away, you know."
Ginny looked at him worriedly. She thought about telling McGonagall, too.
"Ginny! Ginny!" She heard Billy's voice from one of the corridors. He ran towards them. "McGonagall wants to meet all the prefects tonight. That includes you and me. Let's go."
"I'll see you in the common room, Colin." She said and followed Billy to McGonagall's office.
All the other prefects were already there.
"Why, Billy? What's this all about?" She asked as she sat down beside him.
"I don't know Ginny. But the teachers are having a meeting now. McGonagall said she wants all of us here as soon as the meeting ended." Billy looked quite worried, too.
Moments later, McGonagall came into the room, looking quite stern but her eyes looked very, very worried. "Prefects, I'm afraid I have some bad news." She started. "The Dark Mark once again was seen in Hogsmeade this afternoon. I have sent an owl to the Ministry but until we find out who made that mark this time, I'm afraid we have to tighten up the security and I'm counting on all of you to do that. Especially the Head Boy and Girl." McGonagall eyed her and Billy. They both nodded.
"Good. All of you now go back to your common rooms. Your Head of Houses are there to inform your classmates now." She said goodbye and they one by one scattered to their own common rooms.
Colin hurried to her when she came through the portrait hole. "Black just left. He told us about the Dark Mark we saw in Hogsmeade."
Ginny nodded. "McGonagall's worried. She wants tighter security."
Colin sighed. Tired from their walk in Hogsmeade but he was smiling. "I really had fun in Hogsmeade. Even if we had to cut it short."
Ginny smiled back. For the first time since Harry left Hogwarts, she didn't think about him, well, until Penny brought him up. "You know what, Colin? I had fun, too."
Hogwarts was in a very nervous mood the following day. The first years keep on blocking the corridors in the need to be as close together as possible. Rumors started flying here and there. Rumors about a certain Chamber of Secrets being open again or a murderer on the loose or Voldemort disguising himself as a suit or armor. If Ginny hadn't known the things that happened in Hogwarts the past seven years, she would have been as scared as those first years.
Even the ghosts are quite nervous about what's going on. Even Moaning Myrtle's moans were never heard that day. The teachers take each class to the next room they have to go into. Nobody dared to walk about the corridors alone. Nobody but Ginny.
Her classes ended around three that afternoon. After putting all her books in the Gryffindor tower, she decided to take a walk around the grounds to think. She specifically avoided Colin after their classes to give her time to sort out her thoughts about them.
She walked out of the castle to the Quidditch grounds. She saw Hagrid from afar. He was walking Fang around the grounds.
"Hey Hagrid!" She shouted.
"Ginny!" He waved. "You 'avent been visitin'. I figured yeh've been quite busy."
"Yeah. And with that thing about the Dark Mark, it's driving the whole school in a frenzy." She said, shaking her head.
"Yeah. Tha' reminds me. What are yeh doin' walkin' 'round the grounds alone?" He asked.
"Just wanna think about some stuff. Be back in the castle in a while." She said quickly. She doesn't want to be sent up the castle.
"Yeh better." He nodded at her and proceeded on walking Fang around.
She entered the Quidditch field and sat down on the bleachers. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the sudden gush of wind that made her hair flow with it. When she opened her eyes, she remembered every game Harry played in it. How he got the Golden Snitch most of the times. She remembered it all so clearly. Tears started falling down from her eyes uncontrollably. She knew she still love Harry but it's about time she moved on.
Before going to bed that night, she took Harry's pendant off her neck and kept it in its original box. She took Colin's blue box from her bedside table and opened it. The dolphins glittered in the moonlight. She smiled. She has to move on.
The next day, she caught up with Colin before going to her classes. She said she wanted to meet him after class near the lake. Before she went back down after her classes, she grabbed Colin's blue box and put the dolphins on. She gave herself a quick glance in her mirror and walked out of the dormitory.
She saw a boy standing near the lake the when she got there.
"Hi Colin!" She greeted. But it wasn't Colin. Colin was slouched on the grass near the shore. It was Draco Malfoy.
This one's quite short. Sorry… Please R/R!