Chapter 2




"Let me first start off by saying, welcome to Hogwarts!"

This time the enchanted ceiling was filling with dark, overhanging clouds, a large storm was
headed in for the night. The hanging candles had to be doubled in number and brightness in order to
afford proper lighting in the Dining Hall. An American boy that had been sent into Hufflepuff by the
Sorting Hat, had quite embarrassed himself earlier in the evening. He had entered the hall and
screamed because he thought the enchanted candles would fall on him. It took nearly ten minutes to
calm the boy down and when he was his face matched the red in the Gryffindor banner.

"This year, there have been a few changes to the rules due to certain circumstances. For
all students, the Forbidden Forest is off limits at all times of the year, as well you know. However,
due to an incident last year, the lake will be off limits to all years during the winter season. Anyone
found near the lake will be punished severely. Secondly, the Western Tower is closed this year, any
classes taking part there will be moved to another room," Dumbledore stated calmly.

A huge uproar occurred with these two final announcements. It was well known among the
elder students, that the Western Tower had been used for things other than Astrology. Mainly
snogging couples after midnight, and those were the students with the loudest objections.

"Silence!" Dumbledore yelled and immediately the uproar ceased, all eyes trained on the
elderly Headmaster.

"I understand that these new rules may be a trifle hard to understand and that many of
you are inconvenienced, but those are the rules and they must be abided by. Now, without further
interruptions, may the feasting…begin!"

With a wave of his hand, the tables were suddenly filled with delicious roasts, chicken,
vegetables, drinks and many other delights.

Ginny sat sandwiched between Seamus Finnegan and her brother. Seamus wasn't such a
bad table partner, his Irish accent was pleasant and his looks certainly weren't shabby. Her brother
was an entirely different story, Ron tended to be all elbows when he ate, and every now and then
she'd feel a sharp jab in her side followed by a mumbled apology.

'I wonder why they've closed the Western Tower,' she thought with some intrigue.
Hogwarts never usually sectioned off a part of the castle unless there was something amiss. Then,
thoughts of why the lake was closed off for the winter almost made her laugh aloud.

Neville Longbottom had fallen through a patch of thin ice last year and had to spend two
weeks in the Hospital Wing. His story was that he hadn't noticed that he'd gone out so far past the
designated pathways. Of course, the entire student body knew it was because of Crabbe and Goyle,
the gruesome twosome, had been chasing him. Neville was apparently more fond of freezing and
spending two weeks with Madame Pomfrey rather than suffer a beating from Crabbe and Goyle.

***

The new password for the Gryffindor Tower was, "Pumpernickle on Rye," a favorite
sandwich of Professor McGonagall's. Inside the Common Room were only four of the many Gryffindor
residents. It had fallen late and past curfew, so many young and old Gryffindors had gone to bed. The
only four in the room were Ginny, Harry, Ron and Hermione. They sat around the large blazing fire, in
bright red pillow chairs.

Ginny's thoughts of earlier had apparently been near to the exact same thought patterns
that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had had.

"What do you suppose they've got up there that's so important?"

"Dunno, Ron."

"Really, Harry, we don't have to investigate everything that goes on in Hogwarts!"

Ginny smiled at Hermione's negative response. The glint of intrigue and adventure that had
lit both Ron and Harry's eyes. Hermione, and everyone else for that matter, knew that neither boys
could be diverted from their intentions.

"Aw, come on Hermione! You have just as much fun as we do investigating things!"

"Oh yeah! Next time, Ron, you try being stuck up in the library researching and I'll go
scamper off with Harry, to see where the information those books provide leads too!" Hermione
retorted angrily.

"I could do the research," Ginny piped up suddenly. The other three turned, seeming
surprised to realize that Ginny was still present.

Ron coughed and Harry turned to Hermione. Hermione sighed with irritation.

"We really appreciate the offer Ginny, but at the moment we're not even sure there is
anything to research. So there isn't anything to worry about," she explained with a smile plastered
on her features.

Ginny nodded curtly and before she did anything stupid in front of Harry, she jumped off
her chair and flew towards her dormitory.

***

Ron watched his sister run off and sighed in regret. When he turned he saw Hermione
staring pointedly at him. He actually had the decency to squirm under her stare.

"Well, I just don't want her to get hurt. You remeber what happened last time, and she's
my sister so I get to decide if she helps or not," Ron said in his own defense before getting out of his
own chair in a huff and going to his own dormitory.

***

Ginny lay on her bed with the covers pulled up to her chin. The beds at Hogwarts were
even more comfortable than the ones she had at home. They had canopies and as many blankets as
you needed, none of which had patched up holes because you couldn't afford new ones. At the
moment Ginny's canopies were closed, she didn't want to see anything or anyone else at the
moment.

Her mind had wandered over the last conversation she had just had with, 'The Gryffindor
Trio'. All three apparently still thought of her as a child and didn't see fit to allow her to join their
exclusive club of night adventures. Ginny would just have to see that they were found out and then
she'd be free to explore the tower on her own!

There was just one problem, getting to the tower would mean she'd have to go past the
stairwell that led to the Slytherin common room, and if anyone inside decided to go for their own tour
she'd have a tough time explaining what she was doing out at night, let alone near the Slytherin
common room!

Thoughts of the Slytherins automatically drew her attention to Draco Malfoy. Malfoys and
Weasleys were known for their generations long feud. For some reason, Ginny had trouble hating
that particular Malfoy. Lucius and Narcissa were no problem, but Draco? Something about him drew
Ginny and that scared her more than Draco himself.

***

Draco Malfoy meanwhile, lay in his own bed thinking of a certain redheaded spitfire. In his
mind he thought himself deranged, perhaps suffering from some sort of mental illness. He hated all
Weasleys, and the youngest should've been no exception, but Virginia was an amalgam to Draco.
She was one puzzle he intended to solve at any cost.

***

Down in the Slytherin common room, on high backed, green velvet chairs sat another trio;
Pearl Poundsworth, Fayth Zephyr, and Kyra Vaughn.

Fayth was almost entirely different in her choice of clothing. While on weekends with no
classes, Pearl preferred to wear skimpy form-fitting dresses, Fayth approved highly of the muggle
'catholic school girl' wear. Pleated skirts, blouses, knee high socks and thick heeled shoes. Fayth had
a cynical disposition, and an even crueler sense of humor.

Never giving up the chance to humiliate someone. At one point in her carrer at Hogwarts,
she'd played pranks on all the teachers, with the exception of Professor Snape. Dumbledore had
woken one morning to discover his extensive beard had been braided and threaded with pink ribbons
and bows. He'd been forced to go about all day with the horrendous beard-do because Madame
Pomfrey had been away visiting her friend in London.

Filch had been humiliated to find the word "Squib" tattooed to his forehead after waking
from an afternoon nap and had refused to leave his quarters to perform his duties until the offensive
tatto was removed. Of course he had refused to allow anyone but Dumbledore himself to enter his
quarters which he'd bolted shut.

Dumbledore of course, had been stuck in his office with a mountain of paperwork and
hadn't gotten around to Filch until the next morning.

Many other teachers had suffered much the same embarassing situations, all done in their
sleep and the criminal undetected. Fayth was an expert of stealth and cunning, priding herself in it.

Kyra, unlike both Pearl and Fayth, didn't approve of practical jokes. She much preferred
sticking her nose in a book and staying there. Though under Pearl's threats, her extensive knowledge
of cunning plans, spells, potions, charms and curses were forced into the open, making her the
know-it-all of Slytherin house.

Many of the Slytherin gags and plans had been concocted by Kyra. When in need of an
idea, see Kyra. The less than adequate students of Slytherin, had often bullied Kyra into writing a
term paper just good enough to allow them to pass. Her most frequent customers being Crabbe and
Goyle. Of course, she wasn't stupid, she'd demanded money for her services and she had set up
quite a flawless business. She'd been doing other people's homework for most of the time she'd
been at Hogwarts and was very pleased with her genius.

On weekends, she preferred to go around wearing rolled up jeans, sneakers with ankle
socks, a button up sweater with a collared shirt underneath. Her hair usually tied back in a neat bun
at the nape of her neck. While Pearl was a redhead and Fayth a brunette, Kyra had blonde hair that
could rival Draco's own colouring.

In this particular 'meeting of minds,' Pearl had been demanding retribution against Ginny,
who had apparently humiliated her in front of Draco Malfoy.

"It's your own fault Pearl," Fayth said with a shrug as she flung her legs over the arm of her
chair and sat sideways in it.

"You should always expect retaliation at some point from anyone. Even Ginny had to learn
to give as good as she got at one point or another."

"Oh, shut up Fayth!" Pearl said angrily before rounding on Kyra who was immersed in a
book entitled, 'The Witch Chronicles'.

"Kyra, I want you to tell me what we can do to get back at Ginny and then Fayth can tell us
how to do it without being blamed for it."

Kyra sighed in irritation, "We could humiliate her at the Halloween party in front of the
entire school. That'll give us enough time to think of something that will satisfy your thirst for
vengeance."

Pearl's eyes lit with excitement and she clapped her hands together.

"Perfect! We'll discuss the details later, right now I'm off to bed!" she replied with a cruel
smile and then walked off towards the dormitories.

***

Fayth burst out in laughter as soon as she was sure Pearl couldn't hear her.

"You realize that any plan we ever come up with becomes something she takes credit for?
I think it's perfectly delicious because than she'll take the blame if we're ever caught!"

"Well, she'd deserve it if we were ever caught. Though I highly doubt we will, if your the
one coming up with the sneaky ways in which we can see my plans through," Kyra replied with a grin
before marking her page and then making her own way back to the dormitories.

***

Three weeks later during a double lesson of Potions, Snape decided to place the class in
random pairs so they could concoct a Wit-Sharpening Potion. According to Snape, several people in
his class may need to learn it if they expected to pass the year. Ginny knew he was referring
specifically to all Gryffndors.

"Now listen as I call out each set of partners," Snape ordered before pointing to random
pairs.

Ginny listened half-heartedly, watching as each of the people she knew were being given
partners. It was only when her own name was called that she perked up in anticipation of who her
partner would be.

Snape smiled wickedly as he stared at Ginny, "Ah, yes Miss Weasley, I think you could
work well with," he scanned the rows of Slytherin and spotted Ginny's partner. "Ah yes, Miss
Poundsworth. Miss Poundsworth, if you'll bring yourself to sit beside Miss Weasley, Snape demanded
before moving on to annouce the rest of the groups.

Eyes wide in near terror, Ginny watched as Pearl sauntered over to her work area and
plopped herself down on the stool next to her. Pearl's eyes flashed with malice before she spoke.

"Oh, I think this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, don't you?"

***

A half hour later, while Ginny was angrily grounding the scarab beetles they would need for
the potion, Pearl was slicing up the ginger root. When Snape turned his back to deal with another
group, Pearl shoved her elbow forcefully enough to knock Ginny's arm over just as she was bringing
the mallet down to grind up another beetle. Instead of smacking against the beetle, the mallet flew
out of Ginny's hand and smashed into the pewter cauldron, causing it to tip over the counter and spill
the part of the potion they'd already started.

An enraged Snape whirled around and glared at Ginny. "Miss Weasley, that's twenty points
from Gryffindor for your imbecilic behavior and a weeks worth of detention to be decided by me after
class! Now clean up that mess immediately!" Snape snapped.

"Miss Poundsworth you can join another group, because thanks to Miss Weasley, there
won't be enough time for you to start another potion. When you are finished cleaning the mess Miss
Weasley, you'll wait in the corridor. Is that understood?"

Ginny glared at Snape. He hadn't even bothered to think what had caused the cauldron to
fall, he'd assumed and now because of his rash assumption and Pearl's cruelty, Ginny had been given
a total of seven detentions! Pulling out her wand and muttering a quick cleaning spell, Ginny picked
up her things and marched off to wait in the hall.

***

The dungeon area had always been quite cold and dank. Though Ginny was used to moving
quickly through its corridors, and now sitting against one of its stony walls she felt freezing and every
so often she would shiver. The eerie feeling of being watched made Ginny shiver again as she looked
carefully around the darkened corridor.

When she saw him, she nearly choked in surprise,"What the hell are you doing here?"