Disclaimer: I am not JKR and I am not making any money whatsoever from this.
Chapter 6: Hogsmeade
The next month went by without much incident; Ginny continued to visit the Common Room and although she had run into Draco several times, they both ignored each other's presence and were therefore able to co-exist in relative peace. Ginny kept an eye out to see if she noticed the Slytherins bothering the first year again, but had so far not seen much.
Ginny was walking to the library glumly having left Ron and Hermione talking excitedly about the first Hogsmeade weekend. It just wasn't fair, that her brother got to go to Hogsmeade when she couldn't. Next year, he'd be so bloody infuriating, strutting about Hogsmeade, showing her around as if she were a child, suddenly a shout rang out through the hallway and she was startled out of her thoughts. She rushed down the hall to where a couple of fourth year boys had grabbed a first year's bag.
"Give it back." The girl had said imperiously, seemingly not scared of the two. The boys merely laughed. Ginny rushed over to them.
"Lewis, what is this? The Slytherin crest? Why such House pride?" The boy asked, "When you know that you don't belong there."
"You don't even belong at this school, you little mudblood." The other boy said.
"Don't you say that filthy word!" Ginny screamed pulling her wand out of her pocket and brandishing it like a sword.
"A Weasley? Of course! You are all mudblood lovers aren't you?" The first boy said, his green eyes twinkling in merriment.
"I warned you!" She said and muttered the incantation to the Bat-Bogey Hex, she'd read about it last week and had been dying to try it. She obviously needed some practice as the small bogeys weakly flied around the boy's face as he swatted at them, so she repeated the spell on the other boy, this time the bogeys were at least bat sized although still not very quick, oh well, she thought, I've got six brothers, I'm bound to get more practice and she turned to the girl.
The girl, Lewis, was scowling and Ginny was taken aback. She had been expecting thanks or even a smile, then remembering the first time she'd met Ernie she prepared herself for the attack which didn't take much longer.
"Why'd you do that?" The girl yelled angrily after the boys had run away to the infirmary swatting at the bogeys, her curly black hair and waving like angry clouds.
"They were bothering you." Ginny said firmly.
"Yeah, well, now you've done it! It'll be worse now, once everyone else hears, they were starting to get bored with me," the girl bent down picking up her bag and the Slytherin patch which had been ripped off by one of the boys. She slung the bag over her shoulder and reached inside her Hogwarts robes placing the Slytherin crest in the pocket of her stylish pink robes and said, "now that a Gryffindor has "saved" me, much less a dirt poor Weasley like you, they'll never let me live it down!" The girl sneered at her and walked down the hall, her robes billowing behind her. Ginny stood there for a few minutes frowning at the ingratitude of those she tried to help and then smiled as she realized that Slytherins were Slytherins no matter which world they came from.
Ginny was still upset as she sat on Lavender's bed flipping through Witch Weekly. Ginny was supposed to be helping Hermione find appropriate robes for a visit to Hogsmeade, but as all her suggestions were quickly shot down, she had settled for flipping through the magazine looking at the latest robe styles and wishing Hermione had let her sleep in instead of dragging her out of bed so early just to rub it in her face that she got to go to Hogsmeade; Harry can't go either, she reminded herself, maybe I can hang out with him, then quickly dismissed the idea as she could barely say more than three words to him without getting butterflies the size of hippogriffs, it was safer staying away.
Hermione finally chose a deep red robe that cinched in at the waist and had sleeves that ended just at the elbows, "what do you think?" She asked as she tied up her hair with a matching ribbon, looking quite pretty.
"Perfect." Ginny said, wishing that she could have a pair like them. The newest styles were more form fitted, unlike the ones she usually wore from her mother's days as a student, which were quite loose. She was about to return the magazine to Lavender's desk when she properly saw the cover for the first time, New Hair Color in Two Minutes, one of the lines proclaimed. "Do you think Lavender will mind, if I borrow this?" She asked Hermione who was taking her cloak out from inside her closet.
"No, I think that's last month's, she was trying to change her hair color yesterday, ended up removing all color, Madam Pomfrey had to fix it." Hermione said happily obviously thinking the episode had thought her roommate a lesson about vanity.
"Thanks!" Ginny said as they walked out of the room, Hermione moving down to the common room while Ginny who was still in her nightgown made her way to the second years' rooms.
"Luna." Ginny said as she sat down next to the Ravenclaw.
"Hello." Luna said looking up from her eggs. "What do you want to do today?"
"Go to Hogsmeade." Ginny said barely containing her excitement.
"We aren't third years." Luna said dismissively returning to her breakfast.
"You forget who my brothers are," Ginny told her grabbing a roll from a basket and buttering it. Luna glanced over to the Gryffindor table and gazed adoringly at Ron who was sitting next to Hermione trying to console Harry and she rolled her eyes when she heard a sigh, until she realized she'd been the one to sigh. "The twins," she glancing at where they were currently trying to sneak up on Angelina Johnson who'd already seen them and had her wand in hand ready to hex them.
Luna dragged her eyes away from Ron and stared at Ginny before asking shrewdly, "what've you planned?"
"We are going to Hogsmeade." Ginny said.
"So I've heard." Luna answered her dreamy voice returning.
Luna and Ginny stopped in front of a statue of a one-eyed witch, "I think this is Samantha the Sneaky, she was one of the first female Aurors; she was the best at stealth and disguise." She informed Ginny who was moving towards the back of the statue.
She followed her noticing what seemed like a crack in the middle of the old woman's hump. Then again she could be young and be in one of her disguises…
"Dissendium" Ginny said taping the statue and the crack expanded growing into a large hole. "Go on." She said sounding anxious. Luna shrugged and climbed in head first and slid down. It was amazing, the dark made it feel very exciting and she was taken by surprised when she fell unto the ground. She had barely stood up when Ginny fell in front of her with a thud. She conjured a small fire and placed it on the ground while Ginny did a quick scourgify on both of them.
Luna peered into the darkness wondering exactly where this tunnel led, Ginny had been unwilling to "ruin the surprise" and she wondered why it mattered.
"What color do you want?" Ginny asked her looking down at the magazine.
"Red." Luna answered quickly; Ron's smiling face coming to mind. She remembered that day; he'd saved her favorite doll, Selene, from being pulled out by the lake's tide, how he blushed as he handed over the doll. He was so wonderful, only true heroes were that humble.
Ginny rolled her eyes, "we can't, Weasley red is too easily spotted otherwise we wouldn't even be doing this." She said exasperated, Ginny didn't have much patience.
"Brown, I suppose," she answered looking at her long blond hair. Ginny quickly worked the spell on her and they transfigured a rock into a mirror and Luna had to admit that it looked quite good. Her father had brown hair and she'd always wondered how she'd look with it.
Ginny quickly did her own hair into a raven black that made her seem quite pale and stand out harshly against her brown robes. "We should change our robe's color," she said thoughtfully trying to think of which color to choose.
Ginny brightened up immensely and quickly said "Pink." Luna stared at her unblinking trying to think of what she meant.
"All right," She said and waving her wand quickly Ginny's robes turned a soft pink.
"I've never worn pink before." Ginny stated looking at her self in the mirror. She had tied a wide ribbon around her waist to draw in her nicest pair of robes and it had made her brown robes look even sadder, but in pink they looked almost stylish.
"You look very nice and I think a nice dark blue would be fine." Luna said.
"Huh?" Ginny asked turning away from the mirror, "Oh, of course" and she drew her wand from the pocket of her robes and she waved it at Luna's lavender robes. They drew their cloaks over their robes and hurried down the passageway.
They had reached the bottom of some steps after what had seemed like a lifetime, Luna had begun to think that Ginny's brother's had lied to her and that they had instead been thrown into a Perpetual Passage, people had been known to disappear forever after entering them and then what would her poor father do all alone! Ceaseless Steps, that's what these were! They often were attached to Perpetual Passages!
"We're here," Ginny exclaimed suddenly bringing Luna out of her thoughts.
"Open it up!" Luna said motioning towards the trapdoor and Ginny lifted the door slowly and poked her head out, "its clear" She said and climbed out. Luna put out the fire that she'd been carrying and climbed out behind her.
Luna looked about the room, clearly a cellar from the low ceiling and the many crates and boxes that filled the space. "Come on." Ginny called to her from the staircase, looking back at the floor Luna couldn't make out where the trapdoor was, worried for a second that they wouldn't be able to return, she quickly dismissed the thought knowing they'd get back somehow and followed Ginny up the stairs.
Ginny opened the door slightly and peeked out, "We have to be quick! And duck down!" Luna barely had a chance to think about this command when Ginny slouched down, opened the door and sneaked out; Luna followed closing the door behind her and didn't see much except a garishly bright magenta robe.
When she straightened up beside Ginny she saw the most amazing sight ever! Better than a thousand Unicorns, candy! She'd never seen so much, it was overwhelming. "Where are we?" Luna asked looking back where they'd come from. There was a counter in front of the door and the robe was worn by a young woman with very bright pink hair, she supposed it did sort of match the dress and it was festive.
"Honeydukes!" Ginny said squeezing through all the students to the wall full of chocolate. Luna followed her, thinking it the best adventure she'd ever had.
They'd had an amazing time only having one close call. It was starting to get late and they were hurrying back to Honeydukes from Zonko's to make sure they got in while the store was still busy. On their way out of Zonko's they ran into Ron and Hermione. Ron had been dragging Hermione by the hand saying, "and we've been looking at books for over an hour!" He was so preoccupied by his ranting he didn't even look at them, merely muttered a "sorry" and pulled Hermione into the shop. Hermione had looked back suspiciously but Ginny had quickly averted her gaze and pulled the staring Luna away.
At Honeydukes they walked around the store pretending to be browsing until they neared the counter and waited for the girl to turn around so they could sneak down, but her parents were standing there talking to her about the pink hair and it didn't seem like they would be stopping anytime soon.
"Luna!" They heard and turned to see Draco flanked on either side by Crabbe and Goyle. "What are you doing here?"
"Visiting Hogsmeade." Luna said.
Ginny stood there unsure of what to do, he would tell and they'd get in trouble and "Please don't tell on us!" She blurted out.
Draco looked taken aback and Crabbe and Goyle looked shocked. "What is this? A Weasley begging help from a Malfoy? I see you've learned your place."
Ginny didn't care what he said; she'd get down on her knees if it helped her case at this time. "Please."
He looked at her for a minute then smiled, "of course I won't tell, but you owe me."
"Can you help us?" Luna asked.
"How?" He demanded.
"Cause a distraction, we have to sneak through that door behind the counter to get back to Hogwarts." Luna said and Ginny was upset, she was telling him about the secret passage.
"All right." Draco said, interested by this information, turned to Crabbe and Goyle, "any ideas?"
Crabbe smiled and Ginny thought it was the first time she'd ever seen him think. "I've got a few." He said in a sort of grunt and he pulled Goyle towards the cockroach clusters with him
Draco smiled at them and followed after the boys. A few seconds later they heard a shriek and they looked over and saw cockroaches swarming over everything. The owners and their daughter rushed over and Luna and Ginny ran behind the counter. Luna had pulled the door open and was down the stairs when Ginny looked back; Draco was covered in cockroaches and was yelling, "My Father will hear of this!" Ginny followed Luna down the steps and they returned to Hogwarts.
A/N: Longest chapter yet, right, also the first chapter not entirely in Ginny's point of view, after this not all of them will be. The next chapter is entirely in Draco's point of view. You might not see that chapter for about a year; Draco is causing problems! A smart Crabbe and Goyle? Well, they're not smart, but of average intelligence, I have trouble believing that they would be allowed to pass the grades if they were that stupid! Harry and co. might just be slightly biased, but only slightly!
Chapter dedicated to:
Wizard Clothing, or How I Learned That the Chapter Illustrations Have Got it All Wrong (A commentary on wizard fashions) by Polly, on Mugglenet. I even wasted hours of my time designing all sorts of robes, so that I could properly describe them while writing.
