This is my favourite chapter yet... I got the idea for Ginny to have a dream... then it kind of morphed into a really strange dream, one that I might have had sometime... I dunno. I'm in a trippy mood.
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Finally, the night before they went back to school came. Ginny was spellotaping a Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six that Ron had had the year before, and managed to tear the cover off. Ron was warming his toes by the fireplace, with a mug of steaming hot cocoa in his hands. Hermione was reading her Ancient Runes book, trying to memorise all of the strange symbols. Harry was playing with the snitch that Ron had given him for his birthday.
Mrs. Weasley was over at their grandfather clock, which showed where all the members of the family were, prying off the cover. She had been so angry with Percy when he left that she actually removed his name from that clock, but now she was trying to fix it back on.
"Get dad to do it," Ron said lazily. "You're never going to get that done yourself."
And he proved his point when the glass shattered, sending shards of it into Mrs. Weasley's hands. Mr. Weasley rushed over and repaired the glass with a flick of his wand, and dragged Mrs. Weasley to the kitchen, muttering about women and machinery, sounding very much like the man from Titanic.
The sound of the tap running echoed through the silent house as the fire crackled merrily behind the grate. Ginny stretched and stood up, flinging the book haphazardly onto the couch.
"I'm going to bed," She announced. "Because I can."
"Hey, no one said you couldn't, mate." Ron murmured, as she scampered upstairs. She quickly changed into blue pyjamas and crawled into her bed, covering herself up with her heavy doona. She closed her eyes...
She wasn't in her room anymore. She was in the room of requirement, after a DA meeting of her fourth year. As they had finally got a teacher who wasn't afraid to let them practice defence in her fifth year, the DA had disbanded.
Harry was there, and he was speaking to her, though her hearing was blurred, as if she was underwater. She tried to focus her hearing and realised what he was trying to say.
"Ginny... I think you look really nice..." He murmured, barely audible. She moved closer, all the better to hear. "Ginny..."
He was drifting away. No, she couldn't let him drift away... she caught hold of his wrist, and he drifted forwards, towards her. He could stop now... no, he was coming too close... stop... he put one hand on each of her cheeks and pulled her close to him. Her head rested against his chest and she put her arms around his neck. She felt warm in his arms, almost... safe. He put a hand under her chin and lifted her head up. She levitated a few inches, until they were almost nose to nose. She could feel his breath against her lips. A single tear fell from his eye, forming ice when it fell from his chin onto the ground. It went straight through the ground, making an ear- piercing ping where it hit. As if in some kind of vacuum, the floor crumbled and was sucked into the place where the tear of ice made contact with the ground, but they remained where they were, the room of requirement shuddering all around them.
"You look really nice." Harry breathed. Then he was kissing her, she wasn't expecting this... she moved her hands down his back and closed her eyes. They tumbled mid-air, the vacuum of the floor finally getting to them. Ginny opened her eyes as he pulled away and realised it was not Harry she was kissing... it was Draco...
"Why are you here, you don't do DA lessons," She muttered as they were sucked through the floor, landing in Dumbledore's office. Ginny straightened her robes self-consciously and stared Dumbledore straight in the eye. Could he see through the ceiling and know what she had been up to? Kissing two boys? But when Dumbledore spoke, it was in Hermione's voice...
"Griffin... head crowned in flame... Malfoy name... Hogwarts united..."
"What?" Ginny and Draco said together.
"That is The Dragin Prophecy."
"Ginny, we have to go to school." Draco said, in Harry's voice, now staring at her. Ginny shrieked as Draco's eyes turned red and rolled back in his head... all she could see was the whites...
She shot up in bed, drenched in icy cold sweat.
"Stop screaming you crazy freak!" Fred said playfully, pinging her in the centre of the forehead. "You have to go to school. Mum and Dad are leaving in twenty minutes, with or without you."
Ginny knew that her parents would never leave without her, but she quickly jumped out of bed and threw on some muggle clothes haphazardly, brushing her teeth and pushing Ron aside to spit in the basin.
"OW!" Ron yelled as he hit the wall, unknowing of Ginny's strength. "Whatchadothatfor?"
"We have to go," Ginny said as she ran down the stairs, dragging her trunk after her. Ron, however, decided to get her back for the bathroom incident and leapt from the upper landing onto Ginny's back. Ginny, not expecting this, screamed and fell down the remainder of the stairs, Ron riding her trunk like a surfboard down to her. She shrieked and rolled aside just as the heavy trunk hit the floor where she had just been.
"I could have died , Ron!" She yelled, yanking her trunk up, jamming her shoulder, and dropping it again, only to land on her toes. "Is this morning all about pain? Is this some kind of punishment for dreaming about... Harry!" She squealed as she saw Harry drag his trunk down the stairs, with not as much urgency as Ginny had. Ginny's eyes widened as she saw how much effect the dream had on her... she now had the urge to run into Harry's arms, to tell him not to turn into Draco next time she decided to kiss him... she tore her eyes away from him and ran out the door.
This happened every time she lay eyes on him, so she decided to just not look at him.
They boarded the Hogwarts express with only minutes to spare. No sooner had Mrs. Weasley hastily handed them sandwiches through the open train window, the horn blasted and they were off. Zoe, of course, was there with Charlie to see them off, Ginny waved exuberantly to her as they became tiny specks on the horizon.
"What's that you were saying about a dream this morning, Gin?" Hermione said to her.
"Ah, nothing." Ginny said, looking at her black faded sneakers.
"You're not good at lying, Gin. Spill."
Ginny sighed, and beckoned Hermione to the next carriage, and relayed the dream to her, conveniently leaving out the part where she opened her eyes and found out it was Draco.
"So... do you think you have a crush on Harry?"
"No!" Ginny said. She didn't... right? "Of course not... They walked back to the main carriage in silence. When they arrived, they saw three all-too- familiar figures in the doorway. Crabbe, Goyle, and... Ginny's heart lurched... Draco.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione spat at him. "Surely you have a first-year to terrorise?"
"That gets boring after a while, I thought I'd find a mudblood to terrorise..." Draco said, eyeing Hermione.
"Shutup, Malfoy." Ron said warningly.
"Or, you know, I could just find someone really poor to terrorise... I don't mind. Form a queue, people! First in line gets my new insult!" Malfoy said like some kind of circus manager.
"What's that, the one you've spent all summer thinking up?" Ginny said, anger taking over her bashfulness at the memory f her dream.
"What's it to you, Weaslette?" Malfoy said. "Here's a funny for ya... What will The Dark Lord kill first, with a disfigured forehead and covered in red hair? This train carriage!"
Bang. No-one really knew who struck first, but a second later, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were on the floor, all having been hit with the bat-bogey curse.
"Thought I'd give Malfoy a bit of nostalgia, remembering what Ginny did at the end of our fifth year," Harry said, kicking the unconscious form of Draco Malfoy into the hallway.
"Same idea I had, mate.' Ron said, storing his wand in his pocket.
"Me too." Ginny said.
The train pulled up at Hogsmeade station, and they got off, all full of anxiety at the year ahead. But for Ginny, the year was going to be very interesting... very interesting indeed.
