Title: The New Ginny Weasley
Author: Jaylana88
Pairing: Ginny/Draco, mostly. Will be some Ron/Lavender, and Harry/Hermione sprinkled in.
Rating: R, for language and some explicit content that would probably traumatize young ones
A/N: The usual author's noteà I do not intend to copy, infringe upon, or abuse the characters I have borrowed from J.K. Rowling, but if someone thinks I am, try not to sue. I have no money.
Another Author's Blerb: This is NOT the Original version of Chapter 3. The original version was uploaded very late last night, and I neglected to check for typos (in the title itself), grammatical errors, and particularly necessary details I neglected to mention, the lack of which have come to my attention due to a wonderful reviewer by the name of fang-gurlie (thank you thank you, dearest!). I hope this newly-improved chapter makes a bit more sense to everyone (though most of it is, admittedly, the same) and I am so sorry about the earlier edition! But now, enough of my blithering- on to the story!
The New Ginny Weasley
Chapter 3: Diagon Alley, aka "Enter Draco Malfoy"
Weaving through the crowded streets of Diagon Alley, Ginny sighed softly, brushing fine wisps of dark red hair out of her face before pausing in front of a shop door uncertainly. She toyed with the few Galleons she had tucked away in the pocket of her robe, swaying uncertainly in front of Ollivanders. Back in Sweden, her friends had taken one look at her old, tarnished wand, and had demanded she purchase a new one the minute she got back. 'One of the drawbacks of finding out all THREE of your roommates/best friends are witches is that they are NOSY when you don't WANT them to be…" Ginny reflected, 'Muggle friends would have been much better,' she thought sarcastically. 'But they really were right,' Ginny amended, 'because I DO need a new wand'; a hand-me-down was difficult, at best, to work magic with when it wasn't suited to you, at worst, it was fatal. Finally, she made up her mind, rushing into the wand store quickly before she could have second thoughts about it, lest she change her mind. It was dusty and a little gloomy inside, and goosebumps immediately broke out on her arms. She looked around and called out a soft, "Hello?" Seeing and hearing no one, she waited a few moments more before turning around slowly and walking back towards the door.
"And just where do you think you're going, Miss Weasley?" a soft voice called out to her. Jumping slightly, she turned back towards the voice and met the wizened eyes of Mr. Ollivander with as much strength as she could muster.
"Hello, Mr. Ollivander.." she said, unable to keep the slight tremor out of her voice.
"I've been waiting for you, Miss Weasley. Something told me that you would be by soon.." Mr. Ollivander said, piercing Ginny with a knowing gaze. "Yes…I knew you would make your way to me eventually, especially after your return from Sweden. Can't use your brother's old wand forever now, can you?" he said idly, before turning to the rows of boxes and beginning to shuffle through them.
"No, we can't have someone like you walking about, without a wand especially suited to your….capabilities and talents."
"Uhm…alright…" said Ginny, noticeably confused by the wand maker now at the back of the shop. 'What did he just say?' she thought, dazedly. 'And how did he know I just got back from-'
"Here you are, Miss Weasley. Try this," said Mr. Ollivander, making Ginny flinch in surprise.
"Mr. Ollivander," Ginny said nervously while reaching for the wand held in his outstretched hand, "How did you know that I went to Sweden?"
"Never mind that, my dear girl, just try this. It's been in storage for ages. Waiting for the right person to find it, I daresay…" he trailed off, as Ginny grasped the wand.
The moment Ginny touched the wand in question, the room darkened, and wind swept through her hair, plucking at her robe. The wand began to glow, first gold, then with hints of sparkling green and midnight blue; the glow soon spread to her hand, then traveled up the length of her arm and up to her shoulder, then spreading across the rest of her body until she glowed. Ginny watched, fascinated, not knowing that her eyes were beginning to flash with silver, only aware of the wand she grasped. Suddenly, a noise, the sound of someone clearing their throat, caused her to tear her eyes away from the wand quickly; when she met the astonished and somewhat smug gaze of Mr. Ollivander, the store became almost stiflingly quiet once more.
"Well then, Miss Weasley, I see we've found it. Not too much looking around the shop for that one, I must say." Said Mr. Ollivander quietly. "We'll just put it in a box, and you can be on your way," he said, before carefully taking Ginny's newly acquired wand and turning to find the box and a strip of paper to wrap it in.
"Ah, thank you," said Ginny, a bit awkwardly. She reached into her pocket to pull out her remaining five Galleons, and set them down. "Excuse me sir, but is this enough? I've never bought a wand of my own, so I don't know how much they are…" Ginny trailed off, looking down and off to the side, embarrassed and more than a little ashamed.
"This particular wand is no more than five Galleons, my dear. It has been here for quite some time, and with that experimental core…" Mr. Ollivander said, pausing for a moment to glance at the small pile of Galleons quickly.
"Experimental core?" said Ginny nervously.
"Yes, Miss Weasley. An experimental core, composed of three magical substances, instead of the usual one. Made from the heartstring of an Antipodean Opaleye, a feather from an Occamy, and a hair from a Granian, twined together to form quite a powerful wand. It is interesting that this particular wand should choose you, Miss Weasley. Very interesting, indeed." And with that said, he scooped up the five Galleons, handed over the box containing the peculiar wand, and bowed her out of his shop with a polite goodbye and a final "Interesting, indeed."
Still a little overcome by the events that had just transpired, Ginny made her way towards Flourish and Blotts. Not watching where she was going, she clipped someone's arm with her shoulder in her hurry to reach the book store's door. "Oh sorry about that," she said distractedly, pausing momentarily to apologize before turning back towards the store.
"Weasley?" a slightly surprised voice drawled after her. Startled, she turned back towards the person she had run into, and her eyebrows shot up.
"Hello, Malfoy. Sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." She said quietly, immediately wary of the person she was speaking to. The only run-ins she had ever had with him throughout her entire four years at Hogwarts had been few and far between, and had always involved her brother, Harry and Hermione. Those incidents had left her with a distinctly unpleasant impression of Draco Malfoy, but since he had never directly insulted her, she figured it would be alright to at least be polite to the boy. 'Besides', she thought, 'this boy is hot stuff…'
"Well Virginia, it looks like you had a particularly…invigorating…summer," Said Malfoy with only a slight hint of the usual malice, leering at her once before glancing down appreciatively to the slit in her robe that revealed a flash of leg every time she shifted. 'What happened to that little Weasley I used to scare the shit out of whenever I passed her in the hall?' Draco thought. "Wow, she's hot- wait, what the hell am I saying!? This is Ginny Weasley we're talking about here, shy, mousey, red hair…legs for days, gorgeous body- STOP IT DRACO!'
Looking at him squarely, she said in a light tone, "First name basis already, are we Draco?" Ginny flashed him a quick smile, before turning away and walking back toward Flourish and Blotts. "I'll see you at Hogwarts, then. Hope you had as good a summer as I did; you look it." And with that, she opened the door and strode inside, leaving Draco Malfoy, for once in his entire life, completely speechless.
"Whoa," muttered Draco, shaking his head and glancing once more towards Flourish and Blotts before making his way down towards where his father awaited him at the entrance to Knockturn Alley.
"Yes! Score one for the home team!" Ginny snickered, borrowing a phrase she had picked up from Kay, laughing to herself quietly as she moved through the crowd to the shelf that housed the materials she would need for 6th year. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the list of materials she had gotten this morning after breakfast. Picking up copies of the books she needed, she then made her way to the 7th year bookshelves, grabbing the Transfiguration and Potions books she would need for the advanced classes she would be taking this year. She smiled while she toyed with the books in her hands, thinking back to the last week of camp, when she had gotten word that she would be able to take the advanced placement courses she had asked and tested for at the end of 5th year….[flashback]
After going for a swim with a group of boys down by the edge of the campsite, Lex, Kay, Lorey and Ginny made their way back up to their cabin to change and get ready for dinner. Opening the door, Ginny glanced back to comment on something that Lorey had said, took a step and tripped on a pile of clothes sitting just to the side of the doorway. "Oh for fuck's sake!" she cried, exasperated, kicking her dirty pile of clothes out of the way and flopping down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow.
"Ugh, what a fucken' day…" said Ginny, though due to the fact that a pillow was in her face, it came out sounding more like, "Ah, watafakana…"
"Pobre* Ginny, what's up sweetie?" said Kay, sitting down on the bed.
"This day has royally sucked!" Ginny said, raising her head from her pillow. "I got breakfast stuffed down my shirt in the middle of a perfectly civilized food fight," she said, glaring pointedly at Lorey and Lex, who simultaneously denied their own blame with head shakings and vigorous finger pointing at the other, "after waking up at some ungodly hour because my roommates," she said, her glare now encompassing all three of her roommates, who grimaced together, "decided that it would be funny to put a large cow bell next to my ear and ring it, repeatedly, just for kicks." Ginny crossed her arms, made a face at Kay, who struggled to contain her laughter, before continuing:
"Not only did my MORNING suck, my afternoon basically decided to kill me while it had the chance! Kevin threw me into the water with ALL MY CLOTHES ON, I accidentally flashed Dan when I was changing because I forgot to lock the door, I was almost impaled on a large wooden stick when I was thrown into the ruddy water by Kevin AGAIN, and I managed to open up a cut on my knee for the THIRD BLOODY TIME THIS WEEK when I tripped on those bloody clothes!!!" By this time, Ginny had gotten off her bed and paced around the room twice, her face flushed, waving her arms wildly at her roommates who were struggling not to erupt into laughter.
"Okay, I'm done. Just needed to get that out of my system." Ginny said, sighing softly, sitting back down on her bed, "Breathe in," she said to herself, taking in a load of air, "breathe out," exhaling quickly. A squeak from Lorey prompted her to look at her roommates, who were still struggling not to laugh. Snorting at the girls, she couldn't help but give in to the grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. Seeing that Ginny wasn't as angry as she had been before, all three girls exploded into a fit of laughter, holding their stomachs, tears streaming down their faces.
"Oh man, that's too fucken funny, babe! You-I mean-that-oh shit!" gasped Kay, gripping her stomach tightly. "Argh! It hurts, it hurts!" Still laughing, but getting herself under control within moments, she managed to say, "Ginny! You went all-out English on us there! That was fucken wild!"
"Well I didn't mean to. I mean, it just kinda…came out, I guess." Ginny shrugged sheepishly, before remembering that her roommates were the cause of much of her previous anguish, and tried to glare at them. Then, realizing not for the first time that it was impossible to stay mad at these three, she gave up and laughed along with them. They were still giggling when a large tawny owl suddenly swooped in through the open door and landed gracefully on Ginny's bed post. Hooting softly, it dropped a letter onto the bed spread and, ruffling its feathers in a distinguished manner, launched off the bed and flew out the door once more.
Startled, the girls stopped laughing and waited for Ginny to open the letter. She opened it cautiously, noting the Hogwarts insignia on the envelope as she opened it….
Dear Miss Weasley,
Congratulations! Due to your consistent performance last year, along with your personal request and outstanding results from both the 6th year Transfigurations exam and the 6th year Potions exam that you took at the end of your 5th year, it has been established that you are to begin 7th year Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall,as well as 7th year Potions with Professor Snape this year. As these are Advanced classes, your list of materials needed will be more extensive than your regular 6th year classes. These items,along with the materials necessary for your regular 6th year classes will be owled to your permanent area of residency. Once again, we offer our congratulations on your outstanding achievements thus far at Hogwarts, and we look forward to your continued presence this coming year.
Sincerely,
Professor Albus Dumbledore
Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
"Oh my gosh…" Ginny said faintly. "I passed….I passed? I passed…" she muttered.
"Gin! What the hell happened? Is that from your school?!" said Lorey eagerly, snatching the letter out of Ginny's loose grip. Scanning it quickly, Lorey finished it, and, with a broad grin on her face, launched herself at Ginny, hugging her excitedly.
"Congrats, chica! This is bomb!" screeched Kay, jumping up and down before doing a little victory dance for Ginny's benefit.
"Oh wicked, Gin! This is sick! You must be massive smart to get into 6th year classes!" squealed Lex, then dive-bombed Ginny's bed, bouncing both Ginny and Lorey up and down.
"I passed….I did it. I did it I did it I did it…I DID IT! YES YES YES!!!" exclaimed Ginny, clapping her hands together before falling back onto the bed in a daze.
"Congrats, babe! Looks like your day wasn't as shitty as you thought…"
[end flashback]
Ginny glanced down at the books in her arms, checking to make sure that she had gotten all the ones she needed, and made her way towards the heart of the store, looking around for any sign of her family. "Ginny!" a voice called out from behind her. She whipped around and spotted her family, along with Harry and Hermione, all carrying cauldrons filled with books and other school materials. "We bought all your supplies, dear. Oh, and Dumbledore owled us with your advanced courses, so we got your things for those as well. So all that's left are your books, which you've got," said Mrs. Weasley. "I'll take those and pay for them, and meet you all outside."
When all of the shopping was done, the group returned to The Burrow, where Ginny made her way up to her room and flopped down on her bed. Suddenly, she heard tapping on her bedroom window. Looking out, she spotted three owls, and got off her bed with a groan to throw open the window for them. Two large brown owls and a smaller grey owl swooped into Ginny's room, landing on various perches. Collecting all three letters and giving each owl an affectionate stroke on their beaks which they returned with a soft hoot, she bade them goodbye as they flew out her window, then plopped down on her bed to open her letters.
Dear Gin,
HOLA BABYYYY!! Right now, Kay and Lorey are over here at my house. We are all about to go to sleep, because we are going to be doing a lot tomorrow. Why, you ask, are we together? Well, dearest Gin, during ourlast week together at camp, we collectively decided that it would be wicked to go through our school transfer programs and take a little trip to England. So Lorey, Kay and I all owled our mothers during that last week at camp, and they got it all arranged with our schools so that we'd be able to "learn the advantages and disadvantages of boarding school and appreciate the unique culture of Europe." Yes, that's right Ginny. Not only did you put up with us for an entire month, you will now be with us, 24-7, for an ENTIRE YEAR!! How BOMB is that!? We'll be coming to Hogwarts on September 2; you'll have to show us the ropes and everything. Mom had to go and get us all those weird school robes you guys wear over there; they're very…interesting. Kay thinks they're great fun- she wants to wear one all the time, with nothing under! Just playing, she doesn't, not REALLY (though I'm sure she does, knowing that perverted little mind of hers…). In any case, yeah…I can't wait to meet all those kids you've been talking about all summer. Slyths and Griffs, or whatever you call them. I want to meet that kid that thinks he's hot shit, whats-his-face, Boy-Who-Saved-The-World, and kick the shit out of him for messing with you. Then I want to meet every other eligible boy at Hogwarts, and…well, you know. Juuuust kidding! Anyways, we'll see you soon, sweetling!
With love, precious,
Lex
Dear Gin,
This is Kay. We're COMING TO HOGWARTS! BEWARE, LOVEY. WE'RE GOING TO DRIVE YOU NUTS!!
Love to you, Ginny thing,
Kay
P.S.- Those robes are sexy. I'm gunna wear 'em all the time!
Ginny,
I'm sure you've already read Lex's letter about us coming to Hogwarts as transfer students. I'm so excited, I think I'm going to explode! I hope there are lots of hot boys to drool over….it would be such a drag if there weren't. Though judging by your descriptions, I don't think I'll have too much to worry about. Oh, by the way, me and Kay spent the night at Lex's house, and last night they streaked my hair blue! It looks tight! You'll see it soon, in any case- you're going to FREAK! Love you much, baby. See you soon!
-Lorey
P.S-Can I meet Draco? He sounds hot as hell-you should do him!
Speechless, Ginny lay back on her bed, and let the news sink in. Suddenly, it hit her: her friends were coming to Hogwarts for a year! 'An entire…year…oh CRAP!!!' Ginny thought, panicking. 'Who was the criminally insane person that decided that those three, us four, could be together for an entire year without causing any major disturbances in, well, everything?!!?! No one will survive! Whoever approved of the transfer should be shot!' With her mental tirade over with, however, she realized that this could potentially be the best year she could ever hope to have. Barring physical injury, expulsion from Hogwarts, and mental trauma, this could actually be a good thing. Her three best friends had decided to stay with her at school for an entire year!
'Yes,' Ginny thought, now relaxing on her bed, stretching her arms out lazily, 'this could definitely turn out to be a good thing…and what was that thing that Lorey had mentioned…something about Draco?...he looked fine today…' and with that and a trace of a smile on her face, she turned over on her side and drifted off to sleep.
A/N: PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! I would desperately like to know if anyone likes where this story is headed; if they like it so far, etc. Any type of feedback, even negative, would be absolutely fantastic. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside to know that someone actually took time out of their lives to send me a little piece of their mind. –Jaylana88