Chapter 2: Stalking Ginny
Harry began to watch Ginny. He watched her all day, every day. From the moment she slathered extra butter on her toast at breakfast until she shut her books and went up the stairs to her dormitory room at night.
He was beginning to feel like a right perv, but he had to do this. He had to wipe that smirk off her face.
A small part of him, the really pervy part, acknowledged that it was fun to spy on Ginny Weasley. While she wasn't as curvy as Parvati or as glittery as Lavender, she didn't exactly crack any mirrors. In fact, she was developing into quite a fetching young woman.
He couldn't admit that to himself, though, because that would take his edge off.
(An even smaller part realized that he was actually grateful to her. Since she had started her reign of terror, he hadn't dreamed of Sirius' death. But he definitely couldn't admit to that, because then he'd be thinking about Sirius' death again, which would bring back the nightmares…)
Harry practiced hexing his own watch because he knew that Ginny hated to be late.
Finally Harry put his plan into motion.
It was breakfast the morning that Professor McGonagall planned some important projects for her fifth years. Harry knew about this because Colin Creevey had been asking Hermione for special tutoring all week.
Harry struck at breakfast on a Thursday, when Colin and Ginny had Transfiguration as their first class.
That morning, Harry watched Ginny until she was absorbed by some last minute revision. Then he flicked his wand.
Ginny looked up at the motion.
Harry hissed at her, "Ginny, what are you still doing here? You're going to be late for Transfiguration! McGonagall will have you transfiguring snails into watches until next Saturday!"
Ginny looked at her watch, gasped in horror and bolted, scraps of parchment and toast flying behind her.
"Professor McGonagall, I'm sorry…"
"There's no need to apologize for being fifteen minutes early," Professor McGonagall said. "In fact, I'm glad you're here. You can help me set up the stations for the experiments."
Helping McGonagall "set up the stations" apparently translated to Ginny doing all the physical labor. Since McGonagall's "very important project" turned out to be "Practical Application of Transfiguration Spells on Non-functional Plumbing," that meant that Ginny got to deal with kitchen sinks and toilets that were plugged with… well, the usual things that kitchen sinks and toilets got plugged with.
What really ticked Ginny off was that she knew that Harry knew what this lesson consisted of. (He'd had it last year, after all.) So, ignoring the fact that she was the one who'd started this whole thing, she decided that she needed to get revenge.