Of Slaughtering Slugs and Terrifying Turtles It started off a normal Saturday, well as normal as humanly possible for the students of Hogwarts. It was morning time and all the students was sitting down at their respective tables, blissfully unaware of the chaos that was looming forever around the corner; chaos that would consume the whole of Hogwarts into mass disarray, as it always does year after year.
As I said, all of the students were sitting at their respective tables; except for one, who was just about to join hers. Hermione Granger came into the Great Hall and joined her two best friends, Ron and Harry, on the Gryffindor table. They briefly grunted a good morning to her, and carried on their conversation about Quidditch, as Hermione didn't particularly care who was the better team out of the 'Slaughtering Snails' and the 'Terrifying Turtles', or whatever they were called, she turned her attention to observing her fellow Housemates.
Naturally on a Saturday morning the whole school rife with gossip, specifically old gossip as Saturday was the catching up day-the poor students had relive again the telling of how Professor Snape had found Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore snogging in the Astromey Tower, and now he will not speak to Dumbledore for stealing his "lady friend" Now Hermione, who was quite a sensible girl in many respects, did not approve of spreading gossip- because it could be twisted too easily and could get out of hand, and her fellow friend Harry was hurt because of spreading gossip, that was all nonsensical lies- she did however get her information by overhearing the gossip and then observing who the subject of gossip to verify the truth. For instance, everyone thought that Lavender and Seamus had a crush on each other, but they are too shy to tell each other; however Hermione knew that Seamus had a crush on Dean, because of the way he acted around him, and Lavender had the biggest crush on...shudder...Snape, because of the way she acted around him, and they were both using the rumour to cover it up.
'So...' she mused to herself, looking around thoughtfully, 'what is there today?'
She overheard Lavender and Patti gossiping that Draco had a Chimera, which she knew was not true because there were only 15 left in the world and they were all situated in a magical reserve in Africa.
'Besides,' she thought, turning to look at the arrogant blond on the Slytherin table, who animatedly talking to Blaise, possibly adding to his list of "1001 ways and means to kill Potter with Hair Gel " 'Malfoy is scared of a Hippogriff; he would not be that brave, or that stupid, to keep a Chimera.'
Her observations were suddenly turned to a small redhead who was sitting just a few seats opposite from her, Ginerva Weasley, or Ginny as she was more informally known. Ginny had just let out a small, soft sigh and was staring into space.
'The classic textbook case of Love sickness,' Hermione thought, quite dreamily, it pleased her to see her friend finding a new love.
She tried to follow Ginny's gaze, it went just past Harry, which gave her a bit of relief, to-
'No! It can't be!' Hermione silently exclaimed. She stared at the person that she thought Ginny was staring at. 'It's not! I think...but then again...'
She looked again, she was sure...almost sure of it.
For the past few weeks, Ginny had been acting very oddly, she had become much more quiet and much more withdrawn, she was often caught staring outside the window towards the Quidditch pitch, sighing. Hermione thought at first it was because she was annoyed or upset at herself for playing so badly in the Quidditch matches, especially the last one against Slytherin, but it was something else, something that was causing her to play badly.
Now Hermione was sure she found the reason, well...sort of sure. She just needed a little more evidence to prove her suspicions.
'Gin? Are you OK?' Ron inquired, looking both concerned and curious at his sister's strange behavior.
'Wha?...Oh!' Ginny exclaimed, snapping out of her daydream and looking quite startled, her ears turning a bright peony colour. 'Yeah, yes I'm fine. I think...I think I left something up in the Common Room. Bye everyone.'
She got up quickly and walked away.
'Well, I haven't seen her act that strange since-' Ron began, but then was interrupted by a loud crash from behind him. He turned quickly to see Draco and Ginny on the floor, breakfast spread all over themselves.
'You had better watch where you are going, Weaslet!' Draco snarled, picking himself off the ground.
'You were the one who bumped into me, Ferret!' Ginny retorted, wiping herself off.
Ron went to get up, to defend his little sister, but Hermione prevented him by holding his arm, looking at the two of them, curiously.
'I'm going to have to wash my clothes now, I've got the smell of Wizard traitors all over me' Draco said maliciously 'Well I've got to get new shoes, I've got Death Eater scum all over them, and that's what you are Draco, a piece of scum on my shoe.' She said nastily, uncharacteristically for Ginny, even towards Draco. He looked quite surprised by this insult as she walked off.
Hermione watched this incident with surprised eyes, she had found her last, and possibly only, piece of evidence, but how was she to deal with this?
'Oh poor Ginny...' she thought in sympathy, at the poor girl's apparent situation.
'Well...' Ron said, looking quite uncomfortable, as the chatter returned to the Great Hall, after the outburst of Ginny.
'You were saying Ron?' Harry inquired.
'Well, I was going to say that Ginny hasn't been acting that weirdly since her first year,' he suddenly looked very worried, 'you don't think that-'
'No!' Harry interjected, seeing the fear in Ron's eyes. 'No, he's gone, he couldn't, he wouldn't do that again.'
'Are you sure?' He asked again, the worry still apparent.
'Very sure.' Harry reassured his friend, he saw the worry disappear, but replaced by a very odd look.
'Well,' he said, 'that only leaves one option then, doesn't it?'
Ooooh cliffhanger ending!
I hope you enjoy this chapter and the next one is coming out quite soon, it is going to be a little short.
Here is a litttle snippit of it, just for you.
''Hermione, did you just coo?' Ron exclaimed, looking at the girl as if she was a lunatic'
Please RR!