I'm not one for author's notesbegging for reviews (though I do like them) I do want to ask how extensively I should go into Ginny's time in Canada... I know that I need to include some to show how Ginny changes, but I thought that some input would be helpful.

Chapter 2: Transitions.

I disclaim

When it had come time for her to go to Hogwarts, Ginny Weasley was not scared. All six of her brothers had gone before her and she had heard them talk about all of the wonders that the castle held. Four of her brothers would even be there with her, and she would also have Tom. Tom was an expert on Hogwarts and had already told her lots about secret passage ways and funny ghosts.

Now it was time for her to go to a new school entirely. No one that she knew had gone to the Ottawa Academy of Healing. She didn't even know anyone who had been to Canada. All the information that Ginny had to go on was what she had read in two glossy brochures that had been sent to her, and the owl correspondence from the girl who was going to be her roommate.

Andrea York was just as apprehensive as Ginny, or so she said in her letters. Ginny did not know why this was because even though Andrea had never been to the Academy before, she had lived in Canada all of her life. Andrea's reply to this was that she lived in Surrey, British Columbia and that was a great distance away from Toronto-- greater than the whole of the United Kingdom.

Andrea seemed nice in her letters, which didn't come very often since it was expensive to send owl post to people overseas. Ginny hoped that this rooming situation would work out better than the one in Hogwarts, but she had a feeling it would be seeing as she was careful not to pack any diaries in with the stuff that she would take with her to Ottawa.

At home nothing had been said about the night of the graduation dinner, but she did notice changes in the way that she was treated around the house. She had even been invited to stay for a couple of nights at Hermione's flat, and though the first day was incredibly awkward, the next day the girls had connected over a trip to Diagon Alley and Hermione had managed to get Ginny to admit that she liked something as 'girly' as shopping. That night Harry and Ron had come over and the two Weasleys had entertained Hermione and Harry with tales from their childhood.

It was decided that Ginny was to take a plane to Ottawa as she had just gotten her apparition license and shouldn't yet be apparating such long distances. Mr. Weasley had been torn between excitement at all the muggles things, and sadness that his baby girl was leaving. Her mother had all but caused a seen with her tears and embraces. For all of their cautious reforms, none of her brothers had bothered to come see her off.

But England was behind her now. She was standing in front of the same buildings that she had studied in those shiny brochures. The ivy growing up the sides of the buildings was a little less green, and the stone of the buildings themselves were a little more chipped, but the scene was still very beautiful.

And terrifying. Not wanting to stand in one place for too long, Ginny brought out the map of the campus and started navigating her way to Carnell Hall, the residence that she would be staying in for the year, her shrunken luggage floating behind her.

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After only one wrong turn she had made it to the residence, and after a few conversations, to her new room. She passed her keycard over the indicated spot on her door and heard a clicking sound as the door became unlocked. She pushed it open.

Andrea was already there sitting on the bed on the left side of the room. The room itself was made of concrete and looked quite dull, but Andrea already had her side covered with posters of a group that was apparently called Ater Atra Atrum. All of her stuff had been put away neatly, and there was an inordinate amount of black scattered throughout the room.

"I hope that you don't mind that I took this side of the room," Andrea told Ginny after a few seconds of staring at her new roommate. "I slept on the left side at school and thought that a bit of the familiar would help ease my transition."

"That's fine," Ginny replied as she flung her stuff onto the right bed and quickly charmed it back to its true size. As she started to unpack she tried to thing of something to say to Andrea. It was easier to think of things to say in letters when you had more time to think. She had never been good at getting-to-know-you small talk.

Andrea herself was nothing like Ginny had imagined. She was shorter, skinnier, and a lot… mousier than she had pictured. Not that that was a problem Ginny thought quickly. On the contrary. Now it was less likely that she would be rejected.

If she based things on looks, and any one who had been involved in the war knew that appearances could be deceiving.

As she was taking her Holyhead Harpies posters out of her trunk s Andrea spoke, "You don't have to worry about your stuff getting stolen or anything. You can trust me."

"Me too," Ginny replied, and started taking her clothes out and placing them in piles on her bed.

"Well, I am going to send a letter to my boyfriend and let you unpack. We have a floor meeting at 10 o'clock."

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Ginny's floor was the smallest one in Carnell Hall with only 12 girls on it. Their floor meeting had been held in their Don Lacey's room.

Don. Ginny decided that a Don was something between a prefect and a headgirl. Lacey had said that the girls could come to them for anything. She was very sweet during the meeting and had really put Ginny at ease. Ginny even found herself volunteering to be the floor's representative for the Residence Council. From the sound of it she would be helping to plan events for the residence as well as for the floor, among other things.

Volunteering for the position had surprised Ginny. On the plane ride to Canada she had promised herself that she would become more involved in the social aspect of school instead of just focusing on her schoolwork like she had done at Hogwarts… but she didn't usually keep promises to herself.

She was slightly apprehensive, but more than a little excited about the position.

She hadn't even sat by Andrea at the meeting. Her roommate had shown up to the meeting late and had taken a seat near the door. She herself had been seated in between a blond girl named Anna who was from a place called Calgary, and a girl with longer blond hair named Tarren who was from Scotland—the small Ontario town, not the country.

Now that the meeting was over Ginny was exhausted. She went into her room, grabbed her toiletry kit and made her way to the bathroom. Anna was already at the sinks running her toothbrush under running water. She turned to see who had come into the bathroom.

"Hi, you're Ginny right? I love your accent. I'm Anna."

"Pleasure to meet you, Anna."