Back at School
The rest of the train ride was uneventful and Ginny couldn't wait to be on her way to Hogwarts in one of the carriages. Though, she knew the Thestral's pulled the carriages, she'd always felt a mite uncomfortable at not being able to see them. She grinned at the first years that nervously made their way with Hagrid to the boats. Fond memories lay within her first year…along with not so fond memories.
She rode in silence with Hermione and Ron, while the two carried on of their duties as Prefects, Hermione unrelenting in giving the students slack if they break the rules. Ron was complaining that Harry was abandoning him for "Loony" Lovegood; Hermione was shaking her head at such nonsense, assuring him that everything would be fine, then expertly nudged the conversation back to Prefect duties.
"-don't you think so, Gin?" Ron asked fervently. Distractedly, she nodded and returned to her thoughts. "See, 'Mione? It's not that big a deal, the midgets-" Ginny sighed, ignoring the rest of the conversation as Hermione yet again told Ron off for calling the first years 'midgets'.
I wonder how many first years we'll get in Gryffindor this year, she wondered absently. I hope there aren't too many. I hate it when the common room is overly crowded. She spent the rest of the trip thinking to herself in that manner and soon they had arrived at the sprawling castle. Hermione and Ron jumped out of the carriage very quickly in order to start Prefect duties, but Ginny took her time. There was no need for her to rush. Mrs. Weasley had been upset when Ginny hadn't been made Prefect, but Ginny was relieved. She was a lot more like her twin brothers than anyone else in the family and she would have hated to be a rule enforcer; although she did stick to her dream of being Head Girl in her seventh year. She thought about that as she leisurely fixed her hat on her head and stepped out of the carriage.
The moment she stepped into view, she felt eyes on her. She turned and saw Draco; he looked as if he'd like to stab her to death. She looked away quickly and ran to catch up with the first person she recognized, not wanting to be alone.
The rest of the day passed by without too much event. The Sorting Hat sang a lovely song (A long time ago the Founders Four/ Built this great castle and opened the door/ to students they found who could do magical works/ then I found the House for them, each has it's perks./ Godric's House is… it went on like that for ten minutes) and the feast was excellent, as usual. When it was over, Ginny made her way quickly to the Gryffindor common room. She decided to use secret passages to make her way there, because she didn't want to chance another encounter with Malfoy just yet.
During her third year, Fred and George had shown her a few and then just before they left school last term they had shown her all of the ones they knew about. She found it to be a quite convenient way to get around when she didn't want to be seen. Half way there she remembered that she hadn't asked for the new password and so began to run. There was one passage that actually went directly into the Gryffindor dormitories, but since it went directly into the boys' dormitories she had to get to the opening and down to the common room before anyone got to their rooms. Ginny was convinced that there had to be one that led to the girls' rooms, but she hadn't found it yet. She successfully made it into her own room by the time the other Gryffindors arrived. She sighed on relief as she shut the door to the 5th year girl's room and began to unpack. This didn't take too long because of a new spell her mother had taught her. In seconds, everything she owned was put away neatly.
Well, almost everything, the broken pocket watch she was fixing up for her father apparently didn't know where to go and so landed on her desk. She had hidden it away after she purchased it and had almost forgotten about it. She now examined it closely for the first time. There were all the typical hands, telling you whether or not it was lunch time yet, or whether there was a family emergency and needed to be at home. There was also a part saying when you were supposed to be in class. Ginny decided that it must have belonged to a student and that she would just fix that to be for when her father had meetings. But there was one part that absolutely perplexed Ginny. She stared at it for quite sometime before she figured it out.
"It's for Muggle Time!" she cried happily. Now she knew that her father would just love this present. He had such a fascination with Muggles. She looked carefully at the numbers and figured out that this watch had stopped at 3 in the morning about 50 years ago. She found it interesting that the watch would have the year as part of it, as well as down to the second. "I guess it just like to be really accurate," she mused. She turned the watch over and studied the engravings. It was a simple design, no great flourish. It was just a nice geometric pattern around the letters C.M. Ginny could only assume that they were the previous owner's initials. I'll have to change that to A.W. she thought, already making a mental checklist.
She set down the watch, deciding to work on it later, when it was quieter. In the time she had sat examining it the other 5th years had come in and were being their usual rambunctious selves. Ginny went to help them with their unpacking (or rather, teach them a new spell) and catch up after not seeing any of them for the summer months.