HARRY POTTER AND THE SECRET ENEMY

Harry Potter and all associated characters and situations are the property of J.K. Rowling. I make no claim to ownership.

AN 1: This chapter and the next one are a bit experimental with lots of time skips and events happening out of sequence. Please be sure to read the date/time stamps at the start of each section.

AN 2: Also, today is October 9th not October 10th, because I apparently have a congenital defect of some kind that makes me unable to read a calendar.

CHAPTER 14: Ginny's Day (Pt. 1)

2 September 1992, 7:00 a.m.

(The First Morning)

Ginny awoke suddenly and stared at the ceiling in wonder. For a second, she wasn't sure where she was and briefly wondered whether the previous day – and night – had been a long strange dream.

"Good morning, Ginevra," said a dorm-mate with a cheerfully nasal voice. Ginny closed her eyes. No, it had not been a dream.

1 September 1992, 6:45 p.m.

(The Sorting Ceremony)

When the rest of Ginny's class arrived by the edge of the lake for the boat ride over to the castle, she was already there to greet them in her school robes. She estimated about thirty-five students in her year – smaller than Ron's class but quite a bit bigger than Percy's. As Ginny and Luna got together to discuss their separate journeys, Luna introduced the girl to two other First Years: Tori and Colin. Tori, who Ginny had met briefly at the Potter Birthday fete, was a bubbly, hyperactive girl with lustrous black hair in an attractive bob cut who was incredibly excited about going into Hufflepuff. Colin was a bubbly, hyperactive boy with curly blond hair ... and a camera he insisted on using to take a picture of every single thing that crossed his path.

Ginny noticed a few odd looks thrown their way as the foursome talked. Then, she remembered that Tori's full name was Astoria Greengrass and her sister, Daphne, was a Slytherin in Harry's class, while Colin was so transparently a Muggleborn that he might was well have been wearing a hat with the word emblazoned on it in flashing letters. Luna, who was fairly knowledgeable about their year-mates, pointed out some of those who were glaring at them. Drusilla Crabbe was the daughter of a suspected Death Eater, while Niles Harper and Kevin Bletchley were apparently just bigoted jerks who liked to hang around with the children of suspected Death Eaters. The fourth member of that group was Marietta Edgecombe, a stuck-up social climber who Ginny had known and disliked for years. Undoubtedly, they all disapproved of Tori fraternizing with "blood traitors" and "Mudbloods." Neither Ginny nor Luna knew any of the other First Years who were all milling about anxiously while waiting to get into the boats. Ginny did notice one skinny girl with brunette hair that fell haphazardly down into her face, mainly because she made a point of standing apart from the rest as if unwilling to socialize.

Hagrid loaded the First Years into their boats and guided them to the castle where he turned them over to Professor McGonagall for the introductory speech. There was a brief bit of excitement when various ghosts wandered into the room and carried on a conversation about Peeves. Later on, she would mention that to Harry, who laughed to realize that the Hogwarts ghosts carried on the exact same conversation every year in order to spook the First Years. As the children were ushered into the Great Hall, Ginny looked around. On one side was the Gryffindor table where the Twins were waving at her excitedly, much to the embarrassment of Percy who smiled at her and then hissed at Fred and George to settle down. Interestingly, Jim and Ron smiled at her wanly, but they both looked completely dejected about something. She was pleased to see that they'd gotten to Hogwarts in one piece, but she suspected that they were now in trouble, which, to be fair, they deserved to be. On the opposite side of the room at the far end of the Slytherin table, Ginny could barely make out Harry Potter, but he did make eye contact and nodded at her reassuringly.

The Sorting was mostly a blur. The Hat sang something about the Founders that she barely followed in her nervousness. Then, McGonagall started calling out names. Creevey went to Gryffindor, where he immediately introduced himself to a startled and annoyed Jim. Bletchley, Crabbe and Harper all went to Slytherin, as did Astoria Greengrass, seemingly to the young girl's great surprise. She made her way to the end of the Slytherin table and sat next to her sister and directly across from Harry and his two friends. Marietta Edgecome went to Ravenclaw. The big surprise, though, was Luna Lovegood being Sorted into Gryffindor. Apparently, she'd already made some Gryffindor friends on the train because a girl with incredibly bushy hair and a blond guy who was a bit stocky but on his way to being rather handsome stood up and clapped for her before inviting her to sit with them. Jim's reaction was less welcoming, as he literally put his head down into his hands as if the day couldn't get any worse. Finally, it was down to Ginny and the shy girl who hadn't spoken or even made eye contact with anyone thus far.

"Weasley, Ginevra!" Professor McGonagall called out. Ginny was surprised as she'd assumed that her name would put her dead last. Mustering her confidence, she walked down to the stool where the Sorting Hat rested. She had half-believed Harry when he told her about the Sorting Hat, but she'd imagined something a bit grander and not so shabby.

"Shabby, am I?" said the Hat, causing Ginny to emit a soft "meep."

"Um, sorry?" Ginny thought rather than said. She was suddenly surprised to realize she was having a psychic conversation. "You're just ... not what I was expecting."

"Humph, you shouldn't be expecting anything at all. Who'd had thought Harry Potter of all people would be such a blabbermouth? Oh well, let's get this over with. You are a Weasley, I see. Though the first female Weasley in centuries. Ever since that unpleasantness with ... ah, forget I said anything about that. I suppose Potter's not the only blabbermouth around here."

"Wait, what are you ...?"

"No, no. Forget I mentioned it. Anyway, you are, as I said, a Weasley. So I suppose you'll be wanting to follow in your brothers' footsteps blindly without the slightest thought to your own ambitions. That seems to be the Weasley way. On the bright side, I suppose if you're in Gryffindor with your four brothers, they can look after you and protect you and keep you from any sort trouble. That's good, right?"

"What?!" she explained mentally. "No! I'm not blindly following anybody! I do have ambitions of my own, you know, and I certainly don't need any of them looking after me and protecting me! I can look after myself and find my own way, thank you very much!"

"Hmm, feisty!" exclaimed the Hat. "Lots of Gryffindor spunk, I see."

"Eight-year-olds have 'spunk.' I have determination."

"Heh-heh. I suppose you do. So I guess there's only one question left. Which is more important? That everyone around you know how brave you are? Or that you actually be brave?"

That question surprised her and brought her up short. She thought for a few seconds. "Be brave, always," she finally said and with firm conviction.

"Humph. About bloody time one of you lot said that," the Hat said before finally shouting out:

"SLYTHERIN!"

2 September 1992, 7:01 a.m.

(The First Morning)

Ginny rubbed her eyes. No, it had not been a dream. And someone had been speaking to her, so she should probably respond.

"Good morning, Drusilla," Ginny said somewhat guardedly. Drusilla Crabbe had been relatively pleasant to her, albeit in an unctuous manner. She even invited Ginny to use her first name, though only while in the First Year dorm room until she'd "proven herself." Drusilla's brother Vincent was one of Draco Malfoy's ... henchmen?! It still seemed absurd to Ginny that a twelve-year-old boy would have henchmen, but apparently Draco Malfoy did, and so Drusilla would have to be viewed as a ... well, a henchwoman Ginny supposed. Or perhaps henchgirl was the proper term for a First Year. So far, Drusilla hadn't tried to murder her in her sleep (though it had only been one night so far), but the Pureblood was rather insistent in calling her "Ginevra" even though she'd asked twice to be called "Ginny." On the bright side - sort of - outside of the First Year girls' dorm room, she would be neither "Ginevra" nor "Ginny" but "Weasley," at least for the next month according to last night's crash course in Slytherin etiquette. She could handle that. She would always be a Weasley no matter what color necktie she wore. She just hoped that the rest of her family would feel the same. After finishing her shower, she came out in her bathrobe to find Astoria brushing her teeth.

"Good morning, Ginny!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

"Good morning, Greengrass," Ginny replied pointedly.

"Oh, honestly, are you seriously going to do that?"

"Hey, it was your sister who explained the rules. Outside of our sleeping quarters, we're not to call anyone else in Slytherin by their first names for a month unless it's a blood relative. I'm not even allowed to call Harry by his first name until October at the earliest, and he lived at my house last Summer."

Tori just rolled her eyes. Ginny turned and headed towards the door ... where she was met by her other dorm-mate, the girl whose brown hair kept falling down to cover her eyes. Ginny knew her name by now. She just couldn't quite bring herself to say it.

"Good ... morning," she said somewhat lamely. The other girl grunted softly and then stepped past her into the bathroom.

1 September 1992, 7:20 p.m.

(The Sorting Ceremony)

Professor McGonagall removed the Hat, and Ginny stood up slowly and made her way over to the Slytherin table. She did not even attempt to make eye contact with any of her brothers while on the way. Harry and the shorter of his two friends stood and made room for her. As he helped her to her seat, Harry spoke softly but urgently, his tone belying the warm welcoming smile he was giving her.

"Breathe. Relax. Smile as if you're thrilled to be here and never expected to go anywhere else. That's good. Okay, actually that's a little too intense. Tone it down a little. You're 'thrilled to be here,' not 'an aspiring ax murderer.' Also, these are my friends. Theo Nott and Blaise Zabini. Across from us are Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass. I believe you know Daphne's younger sister, Astoria."

"Actually, I prefer to go by Tori," said the young Greengrass.

"No. You. Don't!" Daphne said irritably. "Astoria is the name of a daughter of an Ancient and Noble House. Tori is the name of a Muggle actress you saw once in a magazine."

"While we're on the subject of nicknames," said Tracey to Ginny, "you should totally go by Ginevra. That is a wonderful name! You should never go by a nickname if you have a name like that."

"Is that so, Theresa?" said Blaise with a mischievous smile. The girl stuck her tongue out at him in response.

"No," said Ginny firmly. "I refuse to go by Ginevra. That's where I draw the line."

"But it's a lovely name," said Daphne.

"Oh, I agree. And when I'm grown and married I plan to use it... assuming I marry someone whose surname fits well with Ginevra. But Ginevra Weasley sounds like someone's elderly and slightly senile spinster aunt."

"She's got a point," said Harry. "I didn't even find out my full Wizarding Name until Summer after my first year. And if someone had told me my first day here I had to go by Hadrian, I'd have flung myself off the battlements. So, I guess you can go by Ginny."

"If she gets to be Ginny, I get to be Tori," said a petulant Tori Greengrass.

"Someone kill me now," muttered Daphne.

"Anyway, first names don't really matter right now. I was joking when we talked about it this morning, but now I'm quite serious. No first names until October 1st at the earliest unless someone specifically asks you to address them that way. And I won't be asking you to until then because it will put a target on your back that we don't want."

"You told me to call you Harry the first time we ate breakfast together!" exclaimed Theo irritably. "And you called me Theo without asking permission first!"

"Yes, well, to be honest, I was insanely reckless and aggressive this time last year because I didn't know any better. Luckily, we're both from Ancient and Noble Houses. Different rules and all that." Harry stopped suddenly. "Actually, that's a good point. There's probably a bunch of fiddling social rules for Slytherin girls that I don't know about." He turned his attention back to Daphne. "Daphne, I'm calling in my favor."

She looked at him in consternation. "The one I owe you for the New Year's Eve Ball? That's four months away! You could be dead by then!"

"Yes, I know, but this is an emergency. If I don't survive to the end of the year, I'll make it up to you from beyond the grave. Anyway, I'd like for you to give Miss Weasley a crash course in Slytherin etiquette as it applies to females."

"What makes you think that female Slytherin etiquette is any different than male Slytherin etiquette?" asked Daphne, who seemed slightly affronted.

Harry looked at her as if it were a silly question. "Well, I've met you all, of course." She made a face at him, and so he leaned in more closely. "If you help Miss Weasley out and she excels in our House, it will make Draco Malfoy furious." He actually said the last word in a sing-song voice that made Tracey laugh. Daphne's eyes narrowed.

"Well, that's a valid reason, I suppose. And anyway, I have to give Astoria a crash course in how to behave tonight. I guess Weasley can join in."

"Why do I need a course in etiquette?" asked the younger Greengrass indignantly.

"Because our parents and I all thought you'd end up in Hufflepuff where etiquette lessons would have been wasted if not counterproductive," Daphne said. "How did you get Sorted into Slytherin, anyway?"

Astoria shrugged. "The Hat said that wanting to marry Cedric Diggory wasn't valid grounds for a Sorting and anyway the Slytherins desperately needed someone to cheer them up."

"I thought that's what I was for," said Harry with a smile.

"You thought wrong," said Daphne deadpanned.

"Oh, stop being so mean to Harry, Daph," said Tracey teasingly. "You're just still mad that he ruined your Grand Master Plan last year."

"Tracey, shut up!"

"Did I?" asked a perplexed Harry. "I don't remember that at all. What was your Grand Master Plan?"

Daphne sighed. "Honestly, it was nothing too grand. I was just going to lay low and let Malfoy continually make a fool of himself until Christmas Break when I'd invite everyone who he'd insulted to a Christmas Party and spend the whole night stirring up people against him. Then, I'd challenge him in the Spring sometime after I'd built a nucleus of support. You know, a traditional Slytherin power play. And then, you caused that insane spectacle at Halloween and ruined everything."

"What did he do?" Ginny asked.

Blaise laughed, still amused by the memory. "Oh, he just goaded Malfoy into challenging him to a duel in the middle of the Common Room and then beat him with a quick draw maneuver without firing a single spell. Malfoy nearly pissed himself on the Common Room floor while Harry just walked away whistling the tune to some old Muggle Western."

"Shhh," said Harry. "Remember. Be magnanimous in victory." Harry glanced over at Draco who was sitting some distance away next to Warrington, Pucey and the Bletchley Brothers. Unlike the mask of politeness the boy had been wearing for months, he now looked at Harry with an obvious sneer, though Harry was surprised to realize that it was, at least in part, because Harry was being so visibly kind to a Weasley. He turned to Theo.

"Any progress on your special assignment, Agent Nott?"

"Loads. I need to research some stuff in the Library this week, but I've got some good leads."

"Agent Nott?" asked Daphne with a crooked eyebrow.

"Yeah, apparently I'm now a part of Harry's spy network, at least according to Granger. Also, something about wrist communicators which I didn't understand but which sounds awesome!"

"We'll put it on the to do list," said Harry with a laugh.

"Excuse me," came a bland voice from the end of the table. "Could someone pass the pumpkin juice?"

Harry and Ginny both turned and were somewhat startled to see that while they'd been talking the last of the First Years had been Sorted into Slytherin and had somehow made it to the end of the table next to their group without anyone noticing. Her plate was rather sparse, and she'd been playing with her food all this time rather than eating. She hadn't looked up as she spoke. Instead, she kept her head down, allowing her somewhat stringy brown hair to fall down into her eyes and cover part of her face.

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry," said Harry contritely. "We've all been nattering away here about my friend's unexpected Sorting, and we've been completely ignoring you. My apologies. I'm Harry Potter. And you are?"

With her right hand, the girl swept her hair back behind her ear and looked up at Harry and Ginny with a pair of gray eyes that revealed no emotion save perhaps the faintest trace of disdain.

"Wilkes," she said flatly.

A silence descended on that part of the table as everyone in Harry's group abruptly turned to look at the girl, who was almost certainly the offspring of that Wilkes. If she suffered any nervousness over the attention, it didn't show.

"Amaryllis Wilkes," she continued. "Though if all the First Year girls are getting cutesy nicknames, I guess you can call me Amy."

2 September 1992, 7:35 a.m.

(The First Morning)

As Ginny made her way down to breakfast, she thought about her House-mate, Amaryllis Wilkes, and what it meant that they'd be sharing rooms for the next seven years. During their impromptu "etiquette lesson" the night before, Daphne had explained the girl's family history. Frankly, if the Hat had mentioned that she'd be roommates with Erasmus Wilkes's daughter, she might have asked to be Sorted elsewhere. Then again, she'd answered rather emphatically that she wanted to actually "be brave" rather than just be thought of as brave, which she supposed was the Hat's way of warning her.

When the Toymaker was killed by the aurors in 1980, Linnea Wilkes was barely two months pregnant. It was quite possible that the Lord Wilkes himself didn't even know that he was an expectant father at the time of his death ... for which Ginny's father was awarded an Order of Merlin. Seven months later, Linnea gave birth to the child in a Ministry holding cell, named her Amaryllis, and handed her off to Lord and Lady Goyle, who had grudgingly agreed to serve as godparents. Linnea, who was an unrepentant Death Eater, was then transferred to Azkaban where she died a week before Amy's first birthday. Amy probably had no personal memories of her parents, but Ginny shuddered to think about what she'd been told about the elder Wilkeses by her godparents, who were both suspected Death Eaters themselves and who were also vassals to Lucius Malfoy.

Lost in thought, Ginny was caught by surprise when, just down the corridor from the Great Hall, a hand darted out of a classroom and yanked her inside. She was just about to reach for her wand when she realized it was her brother George. He put his finger to his mouth and said "Shhh!" Then, he closed the door to the empty classroom and regarded his sister for a second before sweeping her up in a hug.

"Are you alright, Gin? Did anyone down there try to hurt you or anything? You just say the word and Fred and I will hex them into toads!"

She laughed. "No, no one's done anything so far. There's only four Slytherin girls in my year. Tori Greengrass and I are going to be great friends. Drusilla Crabbe is a stuck-up cow but hasn't said or done anything threatening yet. And Amaryllis Wilkes just keeps to herself. She's a bit creepy, but she hasn't given me any reason to think she wants revenge for her parents' deaths or anything. Besides, Melissa Bulstrode, the Seventh Year prefect, came in last night and said she wasn't going to put up with any trouble in the girls' dorm no matter whose parents killed whose. Which was kind of a disturbing way to put it, but still somewhat reassuring. How are Ron, Fred and Percy taking things?"

He shrugged. "Mainly, they're still in shock, I guess. We ... haven't really talked about it."

She paused and studied her brother's face. "How are you taking it?"

George looked away for a few seconds before he spoke again, more quietly. "What did the Sorting Hat say to you?"

She hesitated. Part of her felt that her conversation with the Hat was personal. But another, bigger part of her wanted some understanding from her family. So she told him.

"Do you want everyone to know you're brave?" he repeated. "Or do you want to be brave? That's what it said?" She nodded. He seemed amazed by that, and suddenly she realized.

"It said the same thing to you, didn't it?" she asked softly.

George looked strangely embarrassed. "Yeah. It said that I had a lot of virtues that used to be Slytherin but that Slytherin House had since forgotten. And that if I were brave enough, I could go into Slytherin and maybe start the process of changing it into something more and better than what it had become." Suddenly, he seemed oddly guilty. "But ... I couldn't. See, Fred had already been Sorted into Gryffindor, like I always knew he would. And ... I just couldn't bear the thought of being separated from him, let alone Sorted into a House where we might become enemies. So when it asked me that ... I said 'I just want to be in Gryffindor.' And so that's where it put me."

He came back over and put his hands gently on her shoulders. "I know this will be hard for you. I still don't know how Mum and Dad and the others will react. But I don't care what House you're in. I'll always be there for you." She smiled, and the two hugged warmly. "As for the rest, I'll talk to Fred and Percy and find out where they are. Honestly, I expect Ron will be the only one to be a pain about it, but Fred and I will set him to rights later when we have a chance to talk to him."

She smiled again. When they left for the Great Hall, Ginny's spirits were higher than they'd been since her Sorting. They remained high as she sat down at the breakfast table next to Harry and across from Daphne (or "Potter" and "Greengrass," she supposed) and didn't start to flag until she looked up and saw Errol, the Weasley family post owl, flapping through the window towards her table, a bright red envelope clutched in its talons.

The next chapter will be posted on Monday, October 12, 2015. "Ginny's Day (Pt. 2)" in which the shock waves from Ginny's unexpected Sorting continue to ripple through the Weasley family. Also, Ginny and Amaryllis Wilkes have a little chat.