Yay! My first- ever second chapter! This is so much fun! Normally I have a hard time getting my stories going, but fanfics are easy! If you are reading these fics, you've most likely already read the Harry Potter series, so I can plunge you in headfirst without having to explain a bunch of stuff. And for those poor souls that have not read the books yet- READ THEM NOW! That's all I have to say. Now, to my story...
Oops! I almost forgot my disclaimer: "Harry Potter" and the names of the characters, items, events, and places therein are trademarks of J.K.Rowling under liscense to Warner Brothers Incorporated. i.e., I own nothing (except the plot).
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Chapter Two: The Hogwarts Express
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The car ride to King's Cross was spent listening to Fred and George's exclusive new cd from the Wierd Sisters (they're big fans of the twins new joke shop- I can't wait to visit myself) and talking about how wonderful Dad's new car is.
"And he won't be bewitching this one to fly, will he, Arthur?" Mum asked Dad, forcing a smile.
"No, of course not, Molly, dear," Dad replied, blushing scarlet. "We're here!" he announced, avoiding Mum's eyes.
"Well, then, we're off. Be seeing you in a bit, Mum and Dad, Bill, Charlie," Fred waved, and he and George got out of the car, their dragon- skin coats flapping in the light wind.
"Wonder what they're up to," Ron said, staring after them.
"Oh, I think I know," I said, and, sure enough, as soon as I smacked Ron in the face to snap him out of his fascination in a passing muggle talking on her cell phone ('There are portable fellytones?') and shoved him through the barrier in front of me, there they were. They had set up shop on the platform and were handing out pamphlets and samplers of their new material.
"Look!" Ron exclaimed, pointing at one of the pamphlets. "A homework machine!"
"Yep," said George proudly. "It's one of our best inventions yet. It'll do "O" quality work for you on any homework assignment. Guaranteed. Of course, if your teacher doesn't give you an "O", then that's your fault, because you're probably so dumb that they didn't believe you smart enought to produce an "O" paper. In that case, you can adjust the machine to give you "E" or "A" quality instead. It won't give you any less than a passing grade, though. I can't imagine who would want to hand in something they knew was reallybad. Even we weren't dumb enough to do that. We just didn't pay attention to what we wrote down on our homework, and retained none of it for our exams."
"Yeah, that's where we went wrong. Who cares, though? It's all over now," Fred declared happily. "Anyway, if any of your teachers finds out you've been using one of these, we aren't liable for any ah, damages,but we'll pray for you."
"Cool," Ron said, still in awe.
"Costs a pretty penny, though. I wanted to buy a prototype off them last year, but they demanded 100 galleons for it,"Lee Jordan said. I took 'them' to mean the twins.
"It's worth it, though!" Fred insisted.
"I know it would've been, but I didn't have the money at the time, and besides, the year was almost over. Now, if it had been the beginning of the year..." Lee trailed off, and handed George the box of extra samplers he'd been holding.
"Wow!" Ron said dreamily. Immediately afterward, a bushy, brown- haired figure with her hands on her hips appeared at his side.
"Ron! What are you doing? The train'll be leaving any minute now, Harry's trying to find a compartment," Hermione Granger nudged him. Ron kept staring longingly at the picture of the homework machine. George noticed it and walked over.
"Not to worry, there are certain discounts for family," he assured him.
"You could also enter in this raffle here and possibly win one for free,"George said, handing Ron a form to fill out.
"Ron!" Hermione said as Ron jotted down information. "You aren't thinking of BUYING one of those, are you?"
"No, I'm thinking of winning one,"Ron replied cooly, handing Fred the filled- out form.
"Thanks. Maybe since you're our brother we could maybe, ah, pull a few strings, eh?" Fred suggested, and Ron's face lit up.
"Ron! That's cheating!" Hermione said in disgust.
"So? If it gets me good grades.."
"Ginny!" Hermione squealed and ran over to give me a hug, noticing me for the first time. It didn't bother me in the least, though. I was having fun just watching the whole interaction. "Why do you have a scarf on your head?" she asked.
"I'll tell you when we get on the train," I promised. I spotted Luna Lovegood coming through the barrier and rushing towards the train. "Oh, there's Luna. See you guys in a bit!" I said, and made my way over to her.
"Hey, Luna!" I shouted. I chuckled as she waved back. Maybe she was a bit loony, but she was my friend. We had bonded a lot over what happened last year in the Department of Mysteries.
"Oh, hi, Ginny!" she said excitedly, and walked over, who I supposed was her dad in tow. "I'd like you to meet my dad. Ginny, this is my dad. Dad, this is my friend, Ginny Weasley." Luna moved aside and I shook his hand.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Lovegood." He was an quirky- looking man, wearing magenta robes and a long, lime green tie over a bright blue button- up shirt, orange slacks, and purple shoes.
"Nice to meet you too," he replied. His face was thin and his neck was a bit too long, on which, I noticed, he was wearing another tie, but this one was a red bowtie with yellow polka- dots. He kind of looked like an oddly colored rainbow.
On his face he wore a pair of glasses with huge lenses that were gold and sparkly around the edges, and his hair was combed over to one side of his head. I stood there, taking it all in, and suddenly it was really hard not to laugh. I was overcome by a fit of giggles that I tried to suppress as best I could, but soon I just couldn't take it.
"Come...on,Luna...we'd ...best try to...get a com...compartment" I said, manging to swallow the giggles that kept coming up every few seconds.
"Oh, I suppose you're right. Bye Daddy!" she waved to her father, and started to drag her trunk a long with me and mine.
As soon as we were far enough away, I burst into laughter.
"What?" Luna asked.
"Oh, nothing...It was ju...just something...Fred s...s...said earlier!"I choked out.
"Oh, okay,"Luna replied, and heaved her trunk up into the train. I did the same with mine and took a deep breath. Ah, that helped. My laughter had subsided to an absent giggle every now and then as we walked down the hallway of the train. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a compartment door swung open and almost whacked me in the face.
"Oh, sorry, Ginny," said the person behind the door. I knew that voice. Ans sure enough, as I moved out from behind the door, I saw him. There he stood. Harry Potter.
"Wow," I thought. "He looks better and better each time I see him!" I had never eally gotte over my crush on him, but I had gotten over my fear of even speaking to him. It wasn't much, but it was a start. He squinted at me.
"Why d'you have that thing on your head?" he asked.
"I'll tell you in a minute," I said, and followed Luna inside. Harry shut the door behind us and helped me put my trunk up. I made to sit next to Hermione, but before I could step over, Luna sat there, and the only place left was next to Harry. He smiled at me and I sucked it up and sat down. I'd just have to act normal as best I could.
"So," Hermione said. "Why DO you have that scarf on?"
"Yeah, I'm a bit curious, too," Harry added. Ron sniggered.
"Well," I said, untying the back of my scarf. "This is why." I let my hair fall down around my shoulders. Everyone gasped, except Ron, who started laughing REALLY hard at everyone's shocked expressions.
"Wow," Luna said.
"Yeah, Wow," Harry agreed. "Blonde."
"Yep. I decided I wanted it blonde, but I didn't want to go platinum or anything, so I chose a bit darker shade, and the stuff Hermione sent me had built- in highlights, so..." I babbled on.
"You used that stuff?" Hermione asked incredulously. "I thought you were joking! Wow."
Ron snorted. "Yeah, wow."
"Well, it IS really different, Ron," Hermione said.
"Good different or bad different?" I asked.
"Definitely good different," Harry said. "Ow, Ron, that hurt!"
"There will be no hitting on my sister while I am present! Well, actually, there will be no hitting on my sister at all, whether or not I am present!" Ron said.
"RON!" I exclaimed
"I wasn't hitting on your sister!" Harry said, defending himself.
"Were too!"
"Was not!"
"Were too!"
"Was...Malfoy?!" Harry asked, bewildered. I detected a hint of anger in his voice, though, too, and his hand was gripped tightly around his wand.
"Hey, Potter!" he laughed. "Isn't that your girl...friend?" he asked, slowing down at the end of his sentence and staring at me. I watched him as his eyes glided up and down my body, and came to rest on my hair. Can you say Ewww?
"But, no...she's a Weasley! But she's...no! I can't like a Weasley! I'm confused...Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" he yelled, then Harry and Ron yelled, too, realizing what he had just said. Then Hermione started screaming bloody murder and Luna kept yelling "STOP!"
Suddenly, the train jerked to a stop, and everyone stopped screaming. Harry and Draco were on the floor. Were they fighting over me? Harry was mid- punch, but was frozen like everyone else.
"What happened?" I asked.
"I...uh...well," Draco began, then stopped.
"Well, Malfoy, he, um said he...well, he was sort of oggling you..." Ron said uncertainly.
"I noticed."
"Ad, well, Harry and I ran at him, but Goyle ran at me, and Crabbe grabbed Hermione's hair...and...wel, we just started fighting," Ron finished. Harry and Draco got up sort of hurriedly and dusted themselves off, both avoiding looking at me. Goyle, got off of Ron, and Crabbe let go of the handful of Hermione's hair he had in his hands. Harry looked out into the corridor.
"Everyone's poked their heads out to see what's been going on," he reported.
"Well, then, I'd best be going.." Malfoy said, edging his way out the door.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Harry said, and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him back into the compartment. "You're gonna sit here and explain to whoever they send down to check on us why you started the fight."
"YOU started the fight!"
"No, I didn't, you did!"
"No, you did!"
"No, you did!"
"No you did!"
"No way, YOU di..."Harry stopped as someone knocked on the compartment door.
"Excuse me, I am a prefect, and I've been sent down to check on you and make sure everything's okay..." Ron had opened the door. Ernie Macmillan was standing there, frozen in shock. I was quite used to the expression now. Then, suddenly, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Everyone started screaming all over again, and Ernie ran out of the compartment. I could only just make out someone in the corridor ask Ernie what was going on.
"Ginny Weasley's dyed her hair blonde!" he said, horrified. Oh, no.
Oops! I almost forgot my disclaimer: "Harry Potter" and the names of the characters, items, events, and places therein are trademarks of J.K.Rowling under liscense to Warner Brothers Incorporated. i.e., I own nothing (except the plot).
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Chapter Two: The Hogwarts Express
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The car ride to King's Cross was spent listening to Fred and George's exclusive new cd from the Wierd Sisters (they're big fans of the twins new joke shop- I can't wait to visit myself) and talking about how wonderful Dad's new car is.
"And he won't be bewitching this one to fly, will he, Arthur?" Mum asked Dad, forcing a smile.
"No, of course not, Molly, dear," Dad replied, blushing scarlet. "We're here!" he announced, avoiding Mum's eyes.
"Well, then, we're off. Be seeing you in a bit, Mum and Dad, Bill, Charlie," Fred waved, and he and George got out of the car, their dragon- skin coats flapping in the light wind.
"Wonder what they're up to," Ron said, staring after them.
"Oh, I think I know," I said, and, sure enough, as soon as I smacked Ron in the face to snap him out of his fascination in a passing muggle talking on her cell phone ('There are portable fellytones?') and shoved him through the barrier in front of me, there they were. They had set up shop on the platform and were handing out pamphlets and samplers of their new material.
"Look!" Ron exclaimed, pointing at one of the pamphlets. "A homework machine!"
"Yep," said George proudly. "It's one of our best inventions yet. It'll do "O" quality work for you on any homework assignment. Guaranteed. Of course, if your teacher doesn't give you an "O", then that's your fault, because you're probably so dumb that they didn't believe you smart enought to produce an "O" paper. In that case, you can adjust the machine to give you "E" or "A" quality instead. It won't give you any less than a passing grade, though. I can't imagine who would want to hand in something they knew was reallybad. Even we weren't dumb enough to do that. We just didn't pay attention to what we wrote down on our homework, and retained none of it for our exams."
"Yeah, that's where we went wrong. Who cares, though? It's all over now," Fred declared happily. "Anyway, if any of your teachers finds out you've been using one of these, we aren't liable for any ah, damages,but we'll pray for you."
"Cool," Ron said, still in awe.
"Costs a pretty penny, though. I wanted to buy a prototype off them last year, but they demanded 100 galleons for it,"Lee Jordan said. I took 'them' to mean the twins.
"It's worth it, though!" Fred insisted.
"I know it would've been, but I didn't have the money at the time, and besides, the year was almost over. Now, if it had been the beginning of the year..." Lee trailed off, and handed George the box of extra samplers he'd been holding.
"Wow!" Ron said dreamily. Immediately afterward, a bushy, brown- haired figure with her hands on her hips appeared at his side.
"Ron! What are you doing? The train'll be leaving any minute now, Harry's trying to find a compartment," Hermione Granger nudged him. Ron kept staring longingly at the picture of the homework machine. George noticed it and walked over.
"Not to worry, there are certain discounts for family," he assured him.
"You could also enter in this raffle here and possibly win one for free,"George said, handing Ron a form to fill out.
"Ron!" Hermione said as Ron jotted down information. "You aren't thinking of BUYING one of those, are you?"
"No, I'm thinking of winning one,"Ron replied cooly, handing Fred the filled- out form.
"Thanks. Maybe since you're our brother we could maybe, ah, pull a few strings, eh?" Fred suggested, and Ron's face lit up.
"Ron! That's cheating!" Hermione said in disgust.
"So? If it gets me good grades.."
"Ginny!" Hermione squealed and ran over to give me a hug, noticing me for the first time. It didn't bother me in the least, though. I was having fun just watching the whole interaction. "Why do you have a scarf on your head?" she asked.
"I'll tell you when we get on the train," I promised. I spotted Luna Lovegood coming through the barrier and rushing towards the train. "Oh, there's Luna. See you guys in a bit!" I said, and made my way over to her.
"Hey, Luna!" I shouted. I chuckled as she waved back. Maybe she was a bit loony, but she was my friend. We had bonded a lot over what happened last year in the Department of Mysteries.
"Oh, hi, Ginny!" she said excitedly, and walked over, who I supposed was her dad in tow. "I'd like you to meet my dad. Ginny, this is my dad. Dad, this is my friend, Ginny Weasley." Luna moved aside and I shook his hand.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Lovegood." He was an quirky- looking man, wearing magenta robes and a long, lime green tie over a bright blue button- up shirt, orange slacks, and purple shoes.
"Nice to meet you too," he replied. His face was thin and his neck was a bit too long, on which, I noticed, he was wearing another tie, but this one was a red bowtie with yellow polka- dots. He kind of looked like an oddly colored rainbow.
On his face he wore a pair of glasses with huge lenses that were gold and sparkly around the edges, and his hair was combed over to one side of his head. I stood there, taking it all in, and suddenly it was really hard not to laugh. I was overcome by a fit of giggles that I tried to suppress as best I could, but soon I just couldn't take it.
"Come...on,Luna...we'd ...best try to...get a com...compartment" I said, manging to swallow the giggles that kept coming up every few seconds.
"Oh, I suppose you're right. Bye Daddy!" she waved to her father, and started to drag her trunk a long with me and mine.
As soon as we were far enough away, I burst into laughter.
"What?" Luna asked.
"Oh, nothing...It was ju...just something...Fred s...s...said earlier!"I choked out.
"Oh, okay,"Luna replied, and heaved her trunk up into the train. I did the same with mine and took a deep breath. Ah, that helped. My laughter had subsided to an absent giggle every now and then as we walked down the hallway of the train. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a compartment door swung open and almost whacked me in the face.
"Oh, sorry, Ginny," said the person behind the door. I knew that voice. Ans sure enough, as I moved out from behind the door, I saw him. There he stood. Harry Potter.
"Wow," I thought. "He looks better and better each time I see him!" I had never eally gotte over my crush on him, but I had gotten over my fear of even speaking to him. It wasn't much, but it was a start. He squinted at me.
"Why d'you have that thing on your head?" he asked.
"I'll tell you in a minute," I said, and followed Luna inside. Harry shut the door behind us and helped me put my trunk up. I made to sit next to Hermione, but before I could step over, Luna sat there, and the only place left was next to Harry. He smiled at me and I sucked it up and sat down. I'd just have to act normal as best I could.
"So," Hermione said. "Why DO you have that scarf on?"
"Yeah, I'm a bit curious, too," Harry added. Ron sniggered.
"Well," I said, untying the back of my scarf. "This is why." I let my hair fall down around my shoulders. Everyone gasped, except Ron, who started laughing REALLY hard at everyone's shocked expressions.
"Wow," Luna said.
"Yeah, Wow," Harry agreed. "Blonde."
"Yep. I decided I wanted it blonde, but I didn't want to go platinum or anything, so I chose a bit darker shade, and the stuff Hermione sent me had built- in highlights, so..." I babbled on.
"You used that stuff?" Hermione asked incredulously. "I thought you were joking! Wow."
Ron snorted. "Yeah, wow."
"Well, it IS really different, Ron," Hermione said.
"Good different or bad different?" I asked.
"Definitely good different," Harry said. "Ow, Ron, that hurt!"
"There will be no hitting on my sister while I am present! Well, actually, there will be no hitting on my sister at all, whether or not I am present!" Ron said.
"RON!" I exclaimed
"I wasn't hitting on your sister!" Harry said, defending himself.
"Were too!"
"Was not!"
"Were too!"
"Was...Malfoy?!" Harry asked, bewildered. I detected a hint of anger in his voice, though, too, and his hand was gripped tightly around his wand.
"Hey, Potter!" he laughed. "Isn't that your girl...friend?" he asked, slowing down at the end of his sentence and staring at me. I watched him as his eyes glided up and down my body, and came to rest on my hair. Can you say Ewww?
"But, no...she's a Weasley! But she's...no! I can't like a Weasley! I'm confused...Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" he yelled, then Harry and Ron yelled, too, realizing what he had just said. Then Hermione started screaming bloody murder and Luna kept yelling "STOP!"
Suddenly, the train jerked to a stop, and everyone stopped screaming. Harry and Draco were on the floor. Were they fighting over me? Harry was mid- punch, but was frozen like everyone else.
"What happened?" I asked.
"I...uh...well," Draco began, then stopped.
"Well, Malfoy, he, um said he...well, he was sort of oggling you..." Ron said uncertainly.
"I noticed."
"Ad, well, Harry and I ran at him, but Goyle ran at me, and Crabbe grabbed Hermione's hair...and...wel, we just started fighting," Ron finished. Harry and Draco got up sort of hurriedly and dusted themselves off, both avoiding looking at me. Goyle, got off of Ron, and Crabbe let go of the handful of Hermione's hair he had in his hands. Harry looked out into the corridor.
"Everyone's poked their heads out to see what's been going on," he reported.
"Well, then, I'd best be going.." Malfoy said, edging his way out the door.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Harry said, and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him back into the compartment. "You're gonna sit here and explain to whoever they send down to check on us why you started the fight."
"YOU started the fight!"
"No, I didn't, you did!"
"No, you did!"
"No, you did!"
"No you did!"
"No way, YOU di..."Harry stopped as someone knocked on the compartment door.
"Excuse me, I am a prefect, and I've been sent down to check on you and make sure everything's okay..." Ron had opened the door. Ernie Macmillan was standing there, frozen in shock. I was quite used to the expression now. Then, suddenly, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Everyone started screaming all over again, and Ernie ran out of the compartment. I could only just make out someone in the corridor ask Ernie what was going on.
"Ginny Weasley's dyed her hair blonde!" he said, horrified. Oh, no.