It was late, nearly curfew, and Ginny was sat in the library finishing her Muggle Studies essay. It was quickly turning dark outside the windows and rain was pounding against the glass window. The wind howled and shivers ran down the young girl's spine.
She usually loved this type of weather; the cold winters always made her feel alive. This was what she lived for. A clock struck nine somewhere in the distance and she knew she had to leave. Putting her book and essay into her bag she stood up.
Outside the library the corridors were empty and very dark. She felt alone, and excitement cursed through her veins. Rounding the corner though any happiness that she felt fled.
Her eyes widened at what she saw a girl a bit older than her and obviously a Hufflepuff judging by the tie that was now on the floor had her arms wrapped around a boy's neck. Now, it wasn't the fact that they were standing there kissing that shocked her; it was the fact that the boy in question was her own boyfriend.
Without thinking she moved over to them and tapped the girl on the shoulder.
"Do you mind if I borrow your kissing partner for a moment?"
The girl gave her a glare that would have stopped most people's blood from running but she took no notice as she dragged Michael Trenchwood over to the corner.
"Who's she?"
"Oh, you mean Megan?"
"Yes, I mean what the hell were you doing?"
"Kissing, what did it look like?"
"But... I thought that..."
"Oh that's so sweet, you thought that we were exclusive. No honey, you see Megan's my girlfriend as well."
"WHAT?!"
Ginny felt her eyes begin to water; this wasn't right, it was supposed to be just the two of them not them and Megan. Without waiting she brought her hand in contact with his face, taking pleasure in the echoing sound.
Michael stumbled backwards moving his hand to his face where a large red mark now rested.
"I can't believe you would do this to me. It's over, if you ever come near me or one of my friends again I swear you'll have more than a handprint."
Then without waiting she turned and ran up to the common room, tears were flowing from her eyes and it was difficult to see where she was going. Through the common room and up the girls stairs and then finally Ginny fell onto her bed still with her tears flowing.
She curled up in a ball on her bed and cried for what felt like hours. The rest of the room was silent except for her own sniffing. A few moments later a low scream was heard and the curtains of the bed next to hers was moving.
She sat up her eyes still sore from all the crying and moved to the other bed, pulling the curtains further apart she saw Amanda laying there in a cold sweat her eyes wide with fear.
"Mand, are you okay?"
"I will be."
She was speaking in the low whisper again. That showed whatever it was was important. She wasn't looking at her face and was again playing with her hair in that nervous way. Ginny let a small ohh escape her throat. It must have held more than she thought as Amanda met her eyes.
"Gin, what happened?"
She found herself crying again gently trying to wipe the tears away. Amanda pulled her quilt up and patted the space next to her. Ginny climbed under the blankets and found herself leaning onto Amanda.
"Michael and I just broke up."
"Oh Ginny, I'm so sorry."
Her voice was still just above a whisper but now it wasn't filled with the raw emotion of earlier but with love and caring for her friend. Ginny found herself being hugged close again and her tears began to fade.
"What happened?"
"He was seeing somebody else as well."
"The scumbag! How about we curse him a little, I know a good one which affects him every time he kisses a girl. It makes his breath taste like the thing she hates the most and then she'll never kiss him again."
Ginny laughed in spite of herself and caught the sparkle in her friend's eye.
"It's good to see the old Amanda back, can I ask what happened to you?"
The sparkle disappeared and a small sign met Ginny's ear. She looked closely at Amanda she looked far off like she was in another world.
"Alright, but no yelling okay and no getting all mad and doing something stupid."
"Okay so what happened?"
"Well this summer, I was well kind of... well okay I was raped."
"What, how, who, why?"
"Wow, lots of questions Gin."
She was laughing lightly at her friend. But the look Ginny was shooting made her look stern again.
"Alright, alright. But I'm getting better okay so I can't get into it to much because I'll just go backwards and I think we're all sick of me clinging to you all and I know Sirius is sick of it."
"Amanda!"
"Okay, well you know I was with Billy well Lucius knew, and he told my father. He kept going on about how I was always dishonouring the family and then he raped me."
She laughed again and Ginny hugged her close as she tried not to cry.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"It's hard Gin. It really is. I trusted him and this is what he did. But Sirius knew, he took care of me and made sure I didn't try to kill myself again –"
"Again! You tried to kill yourself!"
Ginny felt Amanda's arms slide around her. And they sat there for a while.
"It's alright Gin, I'm alright and you don't have to worry about me. I'm almost back to my old self again come on I can even sit next to Remus no problem anymore."
They stayed like that for a while just talking and catching up and learning about each other again once more building their close friendship of being able to tell each other everything and coming up with a plan to learn a spell which would mean neither would ever be alone.
Okay yes this one is the last one for today and you might notice that Ginny is now single, there's a good reason for that and you'll see it soon, I promise. As for those who wanted to know about if anyone else would find out about Amanda, well here's Ginny and also Amanda is back to normal now, so let the fun of pranks begin. The first one is in the next chapter
Kris