Throughout her morning routine, Ginny kept trying to make light of the loneliness. Look, she thought, no one to fight over the bathroom with, and no incessant giggling over nonsense in the background, but there was little conviction in her musings. She was used to waking up to sounds at the Burrow; with that many people under one small roof, it was not to be avoided. She had grown accustomed to those noises. They were comforting. The silence was just eerie. Not to mention the sight of the unslept-in beds. Empty beds had been a symbol of the death that Voldemort brought in his wake. This is his fault, too, she thought sadly, It's his fault I am standing here like this. Truth be told, it was probably also his fault that she hadn't made more friends that would have made a nice buffer after the abrupt departure of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. After the incident with the Chamber of Secrets her first year, it was a bit difficult to make any good friends. True, she was fairly outgoing and had her fair share of what she loosely called "boyfriends," but there was no depth to any of them.
After surveying the room one last time, she sighed and left the room and moved toward the common room. On a normal day, the common room would be bustling with noise and movement. She half expected Harry, Ron and Hermione to be sitting in their favorite chairs by the fire waiting for her to come down so that they could all go to breakfast. No such luck, she thought. What she did find was Neville and the Creevey brothers who stood when she entered as if they were waiting for her. Ginny smiled slightly at the kind gesture and they all made their way to the Great Hall in silence.
So much of what she had experienced of the castle this year was off. There was an eerie silence and an emptiness that she had never before encountered. The dim passageways seemed almost sinister in the absence of laughter and obnoxious shouts. The stone corridors echoed their footsteps and Ginny felt a hollow where her once fiery spirit had resided.
To say that she was surprised when she entered the Great Hall for breakfast moments later would be an understatement. She almost thought she was in the wrong place. The four long house tables had been replaced with a single, much smaller, square of tables. The students seated were all gazing toward the center at each other. It looked like the discussion circles she had been a part of in Professor Lupin's Defense Against the Dark Arts class her second year. She moved to the table and took a seat next to Neville.
"Good morning, Ginny. Neville," greeted Susan, who was sitting diagonally from them. She and Neville struck up a conversation that Ginny did not care to partake in- something about NEWTS. Luna Lovegood entered a few moments later and found Ginny quietly chewing and staring blankly at her toast. As Luna took the seat to her left, Ginny glanced up and attempted a smile of greeting before looking back to her toast. Before Luna could say anything, however, the headmistress stood from the head table to address them.
"Good morning, students. As you have noticed, we found the house tables to be somewhat inefficient and impractical for this small of a group. Your professors and I have also discussed how we would like to handle your classes, because as it stands, they are practically empty. Our conclusion, then, is that the houses will be combined and classes will be taught with other year students. All of the sixth and seventh year students will attend class together, the fourth and fifth together, and the first, second and third together. As you are all very bright, I am sure that the younger students will not find it difficult to keep up, especially with as intimate as the class sizes will be." She went on to explain that the elective courses such as divination, arithmancy and care of magical creatures would be taught as independent studies in one on one meetings with the professors. She moved down and handed out the course schedules, which Ginny received without any real care.
She was mildly intrigued by the fact that she would be studying on a more advanced level with the seventh years, but she could not find it in herself to feel happy. She wondered, is this how Malfoy feels all of the time? It was a new experience to feel so… unfeeling. Nothing seemed to affect her. She was not surprised or happy. She was neither disturbed at the reason that these changes were taking place, nor irritated at the fact that the ferret was sitting across from her staring again. In response to his prolonged attention she looked up at him willing him to say something just so she could at least get angry, but nothing. Her held her eyes a moment before looking down at his toast. Apparently his breakfast is as interesting as mine, she thought somewhat callously. Aha! I still have emotions, she thought, I can be callous. Good for me.
At that moment, the owls arrived. While not many came in, a particularly large group headed toward the redhead and landed neatly in front of her, except for the one who effectively alighted directly onto her toast causing her to look up quickly. No less than five owls were looking at her waiting for their messages to be removed. Narrowing her eyes, Ginny removed the letters, oblivious to the looks she was receiving from around the table.
At the top of the pile was a letter from her mother. Oh great, just what I need today, she thought. She read her mothers hurried, but neat script questioning her about Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Did she know where they went? How could she let them leave? Did she know this was going to happen? Why didn't she tell anyone? Ginny sighed and moved to the next. She could see the compacted, untidy scrawl of Professor Lupin. In the letter she receive much of the same, except an added comment that he expected it to happen, but hoped it wouldn't. I thought I saw something in his face when he was saying goodbye on the platform, she thought, irritated with the inquisition she was receiving, though not surprised. Next was one from her father expressing his gratefulness that she had not unthinkingly joined the trio. Not for lack of trying, she thought bitterly. Then came a tidy note from her brother, Bill, asking the same questions again. Do they honestly think I know anything? And the last was a messy note that seemed to have been splattered with an unknown substance. It was from her jokester brothers, Fred and George, who asked her why she didn't go along. This is ridiculous.
She finally looked up from her letters to see most of the room looking curiously at her. She hadn't noticed the silence because there seemed to be a lot of that lately. She glared around at them as if daring them to ask her questions. When no one did, she picked up her things and quickly left the room, headed to her first class of the day, potions.
She entered the empty dungeon classroom and took a seat near the back to wait for the others to file in. A few minutes later, the class began to fill and Luna took the seat next to her. Again she looked appraisingly at Ginny, but Ginny's resolve was so fierce to not return the attention that she soon gave up. Luna thought how unlike Ginny this new person was a vaguely wondered if their had been a body-snatcher on the loose.
The twittering of quiet, personal conversations filled the room until Professor Slughorn entered at last, closing the door behind him. From the front, he glazed at his small group of ten students while collecting his thoughts with a crooked smile on his face.
"Good morning everyone. This is most unusual, but I must admit that I am excited. I rarely have the opportunity to teach a class so small and gifted. I must say that you younger lot did very well indeed on your OWLS so I am just going to plow ahead with the NEWT work for the older students and you should keep up just fine." Ginny noticed Colin Creevey throw a worried glance at a blonde Hufflepuff boy sitting next to him, and smirked slightly. As Slughorn continued his speech, Ginny looked around at the other students in the room. She hadn't noticed Ernie McMillan the night before, but he sat with a sixth-year brunette Hufflepuff near the front. In her sweep of the room she purposely avoided the back of Malfoy's head, though it was difficult because the platinum hair directly in front of her was emitting a glare that almost hurt her eyes. She felt offended that anyone's hair could be pretentious enough to hurt her eyes. Then she noticed the small seventh-year Ravenclaw, Lisa Turpin, sitting uncomfortably beside him. She should get here on time next class, and she won't be partnered with that git, she thought, and next time I will avoid a seat where he can sit in front of me. Honestly I think I might be blind by the time I make it to Charms. This was, of course, ridiculous, but she didn't really mind. It never occurred to her as she spent most of the class ignoring the lecture that Slughorn was giving about the magical properties of plants that she was spending an awful lot of time vainly attempting to insult Malfoy in her head. That was a lot of attention for someone she couldn't stand.
After potions, her group of ten moved together up the stairs to Professor Flitwick's classroom for Charms. The silence had finally been filled again with the quiet twittering of students, but there was no real solace in this as no one was twittering to Ginny. Even Luna had joined Colin and the blonde Hufflepuff from before. Everyone else seemed to be easing up with the progression of classes. They found it familiar and comforting. Ginny just found them annoying and boring, though last year she would have been thrilled to be in any of these classes.
Charms was an easy subject for Ginny, and she quickly mastered the day's lesson before zoning out. The shuffle of chairs and feet brought her out of her reverie and she noticed that her gaze had drifted to Malfoy again. "What the bloody hell is wrong with me?" she muttered angrily. This was apparently enough to grab his attention, and he turned around. Noticing her eyes on him, he bit out, "Like what you see Weaslette? I don't blame you. All you have to look at are that disgusting scarface and your family's horrifying red hair." He thought to himself that he should have come with something much smoother and that her hair was actually rather nice, but it was apparently enough to rile Ginny up.
"Oh yes, I think your hair is fascinating. I am surprised it hasn't fallen off of your head yet. How often did you and daddy bond over the bleach? Was it a nightly routine? Who will do it for you now?" She immediately regretted the swipe at his dead father and cringed expecting a well-deserved tongue-lashing. Instead, Malfoy blanched slightly before sneering threateningly and walking away.
I cannot believe I just said that! I am as bad as Ron. At the thought of Ron the numbness set back in, so she went after Malfoy again. Does he honestly think the world revolves around him? And why isn't he sobbing into his porridge about his parents. I thought he was a mummy's boy. Maybe he has no heart. No it's probably just frozen like the rest of him. Like that filthy sneer is frozen on his face. He just makes me so mad. She found, however, that being mad at Malfoy wasn't so bad when it replaced the numbness she felt when she thought about anything else. By letting her temper rise with Malfoy she knew that she was still capable of emotion, albeit a negative one, and she found that comforting. Malfoy was a constant. A constant pain in the neck.