Disclaimer: I am not JKR and I am not making any money whatsoever from this.

Chapter 8: The 2nd year Gryffindors

Ginny slammed the door as hard as she could and walked forcefully into the hallway knocking right into someone.

"Ginny," she heard Luna say from the ground, "where are you going?"

"This is all your fault!" She yelled at Luna who was now standing up. Luna didn't respond, but merely stood there and looked at her with a faraway look as if she didn't find her even slightly interesting. "You and your stupid cousin! Why did he have to be your cousin? Why did he have to help us! I actually thought he might be a decent person! He's nothing but a muggle hating prat!" She stopped and looked around; she had no idea where she was.

"Are you better?" Luna asked her stepping over a suit of armor.

"Yeah, where are we going?"

"A classroom, I figured you wouldn't want to go back to the common room," she said pointing down the hall.

Ginny followed her into a nearby classroom and sat down in one of the desks. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay; you had to get it out of your system somehow."

"How can you stand it though, knowing you're related to him?"

"He's not so bad."

"Not so bad?" Ginny was completely stunned by this statement. "Are you kidding me? He's mean and hateful and arrogant. He's always insulting someone and he hates muggleborns for no good reason."

"You are completely right."

"What?" Ginny asked baffled, this was becoming a bad habit.

"You are right."

"Well, but then how can you say he's 'not so bad'?"

"If I need help, he'll give it. When we were younger he'd defend me from anyone who teased me. If it wasn't for him last year, the Slytherins would never leave me alone."

Ginny looked away, she didn't know what to think anymore. Luna was right, she'd seen Malfoy help Ernie out with his Potions homework plenty of times and he hadn't even teased him much about it. At Hogsmeade although he'd told her she owed him, he'd given Luna his help without so much as asking for a please. Earlier, he'd helped her for no reason at all, although she knew he'd been lying about not wanting to see her hurt.

Yet, a few minutes ago she'd been so close to running over and hexing him for insulting her brother and friends, the only thing that had stopped her was that she owed him a favor, now that he'd saved her, two.

It was so confusing the way he acted; Luna he teased but not maliciously, in fact, if what Luna had said was true he could even be said to care for her. He treated Ernie like a friend and even inspired unflinching loyalty, which wasn't much from a Hufflepuff since they all pretty much were. The way he had talked to Crabbe and Goyle in Honeydukes certainly didn't seem much like someone commanding their bodyguards. But then, the way he spoke about Ron, Harry and Hermione it was as if he truly hated them and he sounded so mean it was easy to believe everything that was said about him.

"My mother didn't believe muggleborns should be allowed into the wizarding world either." Luna looked miserable, but she had no idea what to say to make her feel better. They sat there for a few more seconds while Ginny racked her brain for any comforting words she may have but didn't get a chance to say anything because Luna stood up and walked out closing the door behind her. All she could think was that Mrs. Lovegood had been the nicest person ever.


Ginny had been avoiding the Common Room for the past few weeks, spending time in Gryffindor with Ron, Neville and Hermione as Harry was either off with Professor Lupin or at Quidditch Practice. Hermione, who'd definitely recognized her in Hogsmeade, kept bothering her and asking her why she didn't hang out with her friend. Ginny ignored her questions as she couldn't say she was avoiding anything to do with Malfoy and instead focused on trying to beat Ron at wizard's chess.

Hogsmeade weekend had once again arrived and she felt a sense of déjà vu. Hermione had once again dragged her out of bed at an ungodly hour and had once again ignored all her suggestions. The only difference being that this time Ginny sat on Lavender's bed feeling quite depressed as she knew that this time she couldn't sneak to Hogsmeade with Luna.

Hermione finally chose a sage green robe that was quite warm, which had been Ginny's first suggestion. She saw her pull her hair back with the barrette Ginny'd given her for her birthday and apply some lip gloss. Ginny looked at her in confusion as she'd never seen Hermione wear lip gloss before and for the first time noticed that Hermione seemed quite nervous and giggly. Unable to comprehend why Hermione was acting so strangely she wished her good luck and went to her own room, maybe she'd go back to sleep after all, it wasn't as if she had anything to do.

Finally deciding she was more hungry than sleepy she showered, got dressed and walked down to the Great Hall. It looked quite empty with all the older students at Hogsmeade and she couldn't help but notice Harry was nowhere to be seen, she'd been thinking about asking him to play a game of wizard's chess. She was getting up from the table to take a walk around the school when someone called her. She looked down the table at Colin who was walking towards her. She stood there unsure of what to do as he walked up to her. She still felt immensely guilty when she thought about him and she hadn't talked much with any of the other second years, which was hard as there were only six of them.

"Hi Ginny," he said smiling at her as if they were the best of friends, "we were wondering," he paused and she looked over his shoulder and saw the others abruptly look away, "would you like to join us? We were thinking of having a game of Quidditch and we need a sixth and if you'd like to play, then you're welcome."

Ginny was shocked, she'd never expected this. "I'd love to!" she said enthusiastically.

They played in teams of two chasers and a keeper and the game was awkward at best. Colin wasn't much of a flier and although at first Ginny had looked at him strangely for wearing trousers by the third time he got turned upside down while trying to defend the hoops she was glad, she didn't really want a view of his underwear.Ginny and David Fay were by far the best players, the girls, Sarah Henderson, Joy McGowan, and Iris Higgins were pretty good fliers but kept dropping the ball.

It was strange hanging out with them again, as there were only six of them, they had all become pretty good friends in the first weeks of school last year, but as Ginny had distanced herself from everyone they had bonded with each other. Ginny hadn't said anything but "excuse me" and "thank you" to them in over a year and as they joked with each other she felt like an outsider but, she knew that in time she'd fit in.

Despite the drawbacks, Ginny had a great time. It was the first time she'd played Quidditch with anyone else and had been glad for the chance to make new friends; at least now, she hoped, sharing a room with the girls wouldn't be as uncomfortable.


After the game, Ginny, David and Sarah won, they went back to Gryffindor Tower, were they played Exploding Snap, and Ginny lost horribly. At dinner she even sat with them and although it was strange not sitting with the third years or her brothers, it also felt good. She'd always felt like an intruder with the third years although they were all very nice about it and she'd always felt like a baby with her brothers. Here she was just part of the group; just now, Colin was telling them an amusing story about his brother, Dennis, turning all the milk in the house sour in a fit of rage when Colin had first received his Hogwart's letter.

Ginny looked down the table, Ron and Hermione looked very worried and Harry looked upset, she made a note to ask them about it later and continued to look around the room. At the Hufflepuff table Ernie sat across from Hannah staring at her as she ate and at the Slytherin table, Malfoy was telling a story to the other third year Slytherins who were all laughing. Ginny looked over at the Ravenclaw table and saw Luna sitting by herself, her gaze lingered and she felt guilty for not speaking to her for the past few weeks, noting that she sat alone. Luna met her gaze and smiled sadly, Ginny smiled back and turned around to once again join the conversation, I'll apologize tomorrow on the train.

A/N: By the way, I'd always assumed that the reason that Harry's year had so few student was because he was born during the worst of Voldermort's reign of terror, in my view, Ginny's years has even fewer students, but the first years are a rather large group (about 20 per house), I assume the festivities of October 31st, 1981 weren't limited to just fireworks!