Author's Note: This is a two chapter update, be sure to read the previous chapter as well!

Sorry this took so long, considering the subject matter of chapter 8 I needed to be sure that A: It wasn't too depressing considering the current crisis, and B: I had a second, happy chapter to post at the same time to leave you all on a good note.

My family and I are all alright, thank you Obi-Wan Kenny.
Hope everyone is alright too!


Ginny and Tom sat next to each other at the breakfast table. There was a bit of a gap between them and the next children in the row. This had been the case for many days now. It seemed to her that no one really wanted to be near either of them after the kerfuffle of four weeks ago. Perhaps the animosity should have died down by now, it had been almost a month, but grudges held long and hard in this place.

If they'd cared, perhaps Ginny would have at least tried to mend those bridges. But she didn't, neither of them did. They didn't care, they got along fine with just the two of them.

Honestly they were having a blast learning to turn their crayons different colours and levitate leaves. The colours didn't stay, and the levitation was never very high, but that was because they were still wandless. Basic, kind of weak magic was still magic, even if it wasn't the same as turning a teacup into a pineapple and making it dance off a desk.

At the head of the staff table, the matron stood. "Attention everyone. Tomorrow, we will be having an outing. The weather is warming up now, and we have all been cooped up for too long, it wouldn't do to have anyone catch the rickets."

She sat back down, leaving the children to all chatter excitedly amongst themselves.

"Excuse me ma'am?" asked a small black haired boy, "Where're we going?"

"We shall be headed to the seaside. Some nice sea air will do us all good," she replied.

Ginny turned to Tom, "Have you been on outings before?"

"Just once," he said, taking a mouthful of porridge, "About two years ago. We went to a park. It was boring."

Ginny nodded and turned her attention to her own breakfast. Even if the outing was boring, she'd like to have a change of scenery.


The beach was empty, save for the groups of kids scattering across the vast sandbank. The ocean was very blue, reflecting the wide sunny sky, a few picturesque clouds rolling across the horizon. There were all manner of colourful shells peppered along the sandy shore.

To the far right was a collection of tall sharp rocks like spires, the kind that stories said sunk ships, and just beyond that, burrowing into the cliff face behind, was a large ominous looking cave.

It was the only unappealing part of the beach. Naturally, that was the part Tom wanted to explore.

Ginny might have protested, save for two things. One, she was just so incredibly grateful to be out of that stuffy building that had served as her home for the past too goddamn long. And two, the other option was to hang around one of the other groups of kids who didn't particularly like her and who she didn't particularly like. Because Tom was going to that cave, one way or another.

"Come on, Ginny!" the boy in question called from several feet ahead.

Never let it be said that Ginny didn't have a sense of adventure.


The rock spikes were even taller than she'd thought. The cave itself was quite high up, and although she could pick out a path to climb up through the freaking spikes, hollows, and generally uneven stones, there was no way this was safe.

"We can levitate things," Tom said, "Could we hover each other across?"

Ginny looked at him. "Tom, we sometimes drop leaves. It's probably safer just to climb."

"Could we just appear at the top?"

"Apparition is dangerous without proper training. People lose limbs."

"I did it when I was running from Marcus, I'm still fully limbed."

"Okay, go ahead." She crossed her arms and waited, eyebrows raised.

Tom stood there awkwardly for a moment, seemingly unwilling to admit he had no idea how to even try going about that.

"I have an idea," said Ginny, "Instead of trying to use magic to solve every single problem when we're not even trained yet, we could just climb."

Tom grumbled, waving his arms at the sharp rocky climb, "But look at it."

"You're the one who wanted to explore this thing."

Tom stuck his tongue out at her, then turned and started climbing.

Ginny sighed, then followed. She'd hoped that maybe he'd just give up and head back to the nice beach with the shells and the waves. She looked over at the shore, the other kids were making terrible sandcastles and splashing in the water.

They made it to the top with little incident. Tom had nearly lost his footing once, after having made the mistake of looking down, but caught himself immediately.

He pulled himself over the ledge and into the mouth of the cave.

"I don't think I like heights," he said, reaching down to help her up.

"That's too bad, there's a magic sport called Quidditch that you play while flying on broomsticks."

"Broomsticks? Can't you just fly?"

"I'm not even sure if there is a flying spell."

"That's a shame" Tom said, wrinkling his nose. He turned and walked into the cavern.

It was dark, but not dark enough that they couldn't see. Their eyes adjusted quickly.

The moderately sized, winding cave turned a sharp bend, and revealed a truly massive cavern, large enough that it held a small lake inside. In the centre of the lake was an island. The limited light reflected off of the water's surface onto the craggy stone walls, giving the whole place a creepy, mystical ambience.

After they were done gaping, Ginny walked over to the edge of the lake.

Tom pushed her in. Ginny shrieked at the sudden cold.

"Tom, what the hell!"

He giggled, dipping the tips of his shoes in the water.

She started to paddle back, when she felt something touch her leg.

It grabbed her, and started to pull.

"Help! Tom, something's got me-" she was dragged under. She kicked and flailed, trying not to lose any more air.

And then she could breathe. She opened her eyes. She was still submerged, but around her head a bubble of air had formed, the Bubble-Head Charm or something like it. She looked down at what was attacking her leg, but it was too dark to see down here.

She felt a hand grab her arm, and she gripped back tight.

She was pulled out of the lake suddenly, and landed practically on top of Tom. His arms and chest were soaking. She rolled over onto blessed dry ground.

"I'm sorry," Tom blurted, sitting up and looking shaken. She turned her head to face him.

"I thought it was harmless, that you'd just get wet. I didn't mean to hurt you."

She threw him a rude gesture. He should know better than to just push people into lakes.

"Hey, I'm apologising. You're supposed to forgive me."

"You've gotta give me a minute, I nearly drowned thanks to you." An over-exaggeration, but she wanted him to feel bad for just a little longer.

"No you didn't, it takes minutes to drown even when you haven't just taken a big breath, and you were only under for thirty seconds if you're lucky."

She sat up and glared at him, her hair dripping. Her dress made an awful squelching sound as she moved.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Something grabbed me, I dunno what," she said. She really should stop ending up in damp caves.

Tom walked over to her, placed a hand on her arm and closed his eyes. His hand felt oddly warm. In seconds, Ginny found she was completely dry.

"Thank you."

Tom smiled at her, then started looking around. He came back with a long stick.

He walked over and plunged the stick into the water, waving it about. He jerked as it snagged on something. Whatever was in there must have grabbed the stick.

Tom was nearly pulled in as he tried to pull the stick back out.

Ginny grabbed Tom from behind and heaved. They fell over backwards as the tension suddenly gave way. The stick landed on the stone with a clatter.

"Did we get it?"

"I think so," Tom said, "Come look."

There, lying on the stone and still partially wrapped around the stick, was the monster that had tried to drag her under. It was seaweed.

"Are you kidding me?" Ginny yelled, outraged. It could have at least been a Grindylow. Seaweed? Seriously?

Tom started laughing again. He shut up when Ginny glared at him.

"Isn't it a good thing that the lake isn't filled with monsters?" he asked, still amused.

"You'd think so," Ginny grumbled.

"We could bring someone else up here, give them a scare."

"Why would we do that?"

"It'd be funny."

"It was funny watching me nearly drown, was it?

"You didn't nearly drown."

Ginny just stared at him.

"No," he admitted, "it wasn't."

She walked over to the edge of the water and kicked a pebble in, watching the water ripple. The sound echoed around the cave.

"I wonder what's with that island," she said, looking over to the island in question. It wasn't very big, probably just big enough for four people to stand side by side.

"It's very flat," Tom said, "It's probably just how the rocks are here."

"Maybe."

"Hey, watch this," he said, picking the stick back up and pulling the seaweed off the end. He stood to the side, paused for a moment, and then threw it into the air above the lake.

It stayed there.

Ginny clapped, "That's amazing, Tom." She meant it, she wasn't even sure she was ready to levitate a rock yet. Tom was learning very quickly.

"Thank you, I-"

He was interrupted by a great splash as the thing fell down into the lake, narrowly missing spraying them.

Ginny laughed.

Tom grabbed a flat rock and shut his eyes. In moments, the rock started glowing. He tossed it out onto the water, where it floated gently on the surface like a feather. The light reflected off of the water, creating odd and beautiful patterns on the ceiling.

She admired the light for a moment. But, two could play at this game.

She placed her hand just on the surface of the water. She concentrated on what she wanted, fixed it in her mind, then pushed her magic towards it.

The lake shimmered, then turned bright pink. The light from the floating rock was still white on the ceiling, but the rays shining down into the water were now tinted pink.

She grinned at it, then at Tom. He grinned back, eyes sparkling.

A small war began, each trying to one up the other on adding to the magical pile atop the lake, things floating or spinning or exploding. Changing colours of things, or make things stick together.

"We should head back. We don't want to get left behind," Ginny said eventually, feeling that it had been at least an hour.

"Yeah, alright."

They walked back around to the cave entrance and looked down at the spiky climb.

"If a few of those rocks were just a bit higher," Tom said, "No one could ever get up here. We could do that, after we learn -what did you call it? Apparashon?"

"Apparition."

"After we learn Apparition, we could seal this place off so that only we can get in. It would be just ours."

Ginny smiled, "I'd like that."

They climbed back down, which was easier than the climb up in some ways, although the shadows had shifted, making it harder to see where the proper footholds were.

Tom ended up falling the last foot or so to the ground, though he was only bruised. "I really don't like heights."

Ginny helped him up. "That's alright, I don't think they're mandatory."

"There you two are," called Sarah, "I was wondering if we'd have to leave without you. Where were you?"

"Just over there," Ginny said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the cave.

"I'm sure. Well, we're all heading back now. Time for a final head count and then it's back home."

Ginny's stomach twisted at that. That orphanage would never be home to her, she had a better home waiting for her. Probably.

Even if she could never get back to the Burrow and her family, Hogwarts wasn't too far away.