Holiday
In the perennial war of resistance against her sister, Ginny won the first big victory. The judges agreed that her speech was more degrading towards herself and in line with the spirit of the competition.
The Student Council announced that the swearing-in ceremony would be held one day before the holiday.
Mrs. Lovegood, I didn't fail to accomplish your motto, no win could be found in the person with shame! Since no one has said anything bad about her, I turned her strength into a weakness.
When Ginny came back, Gryffindor gave her a round of applause and cheers. Hermione said, how did you come up with such a lousy idea, and then she cried.
Ginny said, why cry? Let's go to dinner. Don't make me eat boiled eggs anymore.
The next day, Colin said he'd teach Ginny how to wash photos. Ginny took her two rolls of film to Colin's dorm.
Colin used several corrugated boxes to surround a small compartment in the corner. It was airtight, with a small dark red light bulb on the top. He taught Ginny how to match developer, fixer, and washer.
"Wow, you're skilled." Ginny praised.
With dozens of photos in the photo box, Ginny is waiting at Colin's desk. She's a little out of hand and likes to rummage through Colin's old books.
Suddenly, she saw a piece of paper in the old deformed textbook. There were black marks on it. She opened the old book. There were a paper plane and a paper boat inside.
"This looks so familiar." She said to Colin.
"You folded it in the Transfiguration class, I thought it was pretty well folded, it would be a shame to throw that away. So I stuck it in the book."
"I think it looks a bit odd, can I have it back for a look?"
"Sure, it was yours anyway."
During the exam term of semester end, Professor Lockhart was denounced, not by Ginny, but by the witch who had subdued the Banshee. She had recovered her memory and sued Lockhart, and the officials dug up other cases against him. This lawsuit would bankrupt Lockhart.
While he was leaving, the whole school was enjoying the comforts of the impending holiday and saw this news as a double whammy of joy.
Ginny quietly went to say goodbye to Lockhart. Lockhart said that he had already expected this day to come, otherwise how could he have told Ginny about himself. He left this wand to Ginny.
"But Tina wanted you to have it."
"Can't keep it anymore. It will be given forfeit at the final hearing. Honestly, they don't have to. They identified my wand at the preliminary hearing, and I realized that it's just a piece of wood."
"What do you mean it's just a piece of wood?"
"It has no core. No phoenix feathers, no unicorn hair, no dragon heartstring, nothing. Inside the wood, it's still wood."
Ginny took the wand and felt nothing.
"What are you going to do after?"
"I deserve it. Don't worry about me." Lockhart said.
"Don't ever betray Tina again."
"Never again."
Lockhart picked up his bags and was about to leave.
"Goodbye Professor Lockhart!" Ginny said seriously.
"Bye." Lockhart displayed his most charming smile again.
The graduation ceremony and swearing-in session the day before the holiday took place at the same time, and it was moments before the inauguration that Ginny realized that Aquamarine is also a Head Chief, but a Vice Head Chief. The second place in the final competition is Vice Head Chief was ruled from the beginning. That was the explanation given to Ginny by the Student Council. But Harry said that if Ginny had been the one who lost that day, this rule wouldn't exist.
Ginny was fine with that. She and Aquamarine received the badge with the phoenix engraved on it together. She also asked Hermione afterward why is the Chief's symbol a chicken.
Ginny's inaugural speech was short. Her general idea is she would study hard and work hard, and live up to the expectations of her teachers and classmates. The rest of the two hours were reserved for Aquamarine.
The dinner that day was spent in a silvery green, with Slytherin winning the House Cup by a wide margin. They finished a full three hundred points ahead of Gryffindor, which was the second place. A new record for the highest number of points ever scored by a House Cup winner. But Ginny didn't care, she ran up to Snape with her full marks in Potions and said, look at that, Professor, look at that, full marks, will you give me back my grandmother's diary?
Snape, of course, had no diary to return and had to pretend he hadn't seen her, and Ginny smugly wandered around the Professor, wandering even more smugly in front of Aquamarine, until both of them had pressed their hands to their wands, then Ginny left with no more intention.
Before going to bed, Hermione collected Ginny's hair and finger blood.
"I'm using it for free research over the summer break."
"What research?"
"About you and your sister, there's been quite a lot of weird things this year."
The next day on the train, Ginny got the photos Colin had washed, she frowned at them and ran from the Chief's special VIP compartment to the Ravenclaw compartments. She found Luna, who was reading The Quibbler, with a familiar-looking boy sitting beside her.
"Hello Ginny, this is Neville who was lost. Neville, this is Ginny who forgot about you."
"Nice to meet you." Ginny stepped forward to shake hands, recalling the beginning of the school year.
They continued with their last question about the Crumple-Horned Snorkack and Mimbulus Mimbletonia. Ginny didn't get the chance to tell Luna about her two big discoveries.
One was in the photo she took on the day of the Deathday Party. A person was hurrying away in the corridor where the first attack took place on the third floor, holding a white wand. It was Aquamarine, she is the one who opened the door to the Chamber of Secrets.
The other was the scrap of paper that was retrieved from Colin was part of Riddle's diary. A passage of words kept on flashing and disappearing:
Is anyone there? HELP!
With these two big secrets in mind, Ginny begins her summer holiday.
