The next morning I stirred when the sun's morning rays peeked through the blinds. I hated the morning it was just a reminder that I was going to have a horrible "rest of the day."
"Morning could be better if there wasn't any afternoon" I grumbled into my pillow.
"If there wasn't any mornings then there will be none of that delicious breakfast food that you love so much, Silly Ginny" I felt the bed dip slightly as my friend Loraine sat next to me. Loraine, who was a 6th year, transferred into Hogwarts during the end of 4th year. The moment we met we knew that we were best friends, and I guess you could say the rest was history. She was the only friend I had at this god forsaken place, everyone simply shunned me away after the Chamber of Secret incident.
Loraine had beautiful tan skin that reminded you of fresh honey, her eyes were a very light blue, that when you looked at them it was like looking into the ocean. Her long brown hair was accented with small streaks of blonde highlights. She was tall and had the perfect body; sometimes I was envious of her since the majority of Hogwarts male population drooled all over her. I was just simply her shadow.
Mind you, I wasn't horrible to look at! Over the years I've grown curves in the right places and now stand at 5'8. My hair wasn't an ugly orange/red color as it used to be. Now it was a dark copper that reached my mid-back, and the tips we slightly curled. Most of my ungodly freckled disappeared when I reached puberty and now I only have some slightly dusted over my nose and cheeks. My favorite part about me was my eyes; they were an intense green that reminded everyone was the greenest grass.
"Uhh... Why are you always so perky in the mornings, it depresses me!" I glared at Loraine. "Well I have to be perky in order to cover both you and me" she laughed.
There was no use arguing, she is very persuasive and always wins anyways. "What's wrong Gin, you look like your sick." She eyed my concernedly. "I'm not sick, I just had another encounter with Malfoy" At the mention of Malfoy, Loraine looked ready to explode.
"Why do you let that prat get to you! You are the better person, he only criticizes people because he is jealous!" "Jealous! Ha! What is there to be jealous of, he's filthy rich, and even though he is a bastard, he is incredibly good looking." I answered.
"Whatever, lets just go to breakfast and forget." Loraine stood up and walked to the door, "I'll wait for you down in the common room" Then she was gone.
I stretched quickly and stood up and walk toward my closet. 'Wow' I thought to myself, 'what a variety' I sighed upon seeing my lack of clothing. I threw something on, and then turned to look in the mirror. I saw my puffy complexion from all the crying. "That won't do" I said to myself. I muttered a quick spell to remove the redness and bags under my eyes. 'Perfect...well at least as perfect as I can get' I though miserably.
I walked down the stairs and saw Loraine leaning against the wall. I swear that girl will be the death of me. I smiled and remembered all of our adventurous encounters.
"Ready" she quirked an eyebrow at me. I nodded.
We walked out the common room and headed to the Great Hall. Our trip there was uneventful; we simply talked about the latest school gossip.
We took a seat at the edge of the Gryffindor table nearest the professors table. I became antsy since my stomach was having a full fledged Orchestra.
"Uh… what's taking so long!" I practically growled witch caused Loraine to jump on her seat. "I think Dumbledore is making a speech, look." Loraine nodded her head toward Dumbledore.
Sure enough her was standing and asking everyone for silence.
"I hope everyone is having a wonderful year so far. As we all know Halloween will be in a month and we decided this year to have a masquerade ball." Whispers soon filled the hall. The boys grunted since they hated dressing up, and the girls started giggling, talking to their neighbor about what they will dress up as.
"There will be Hogsmeade trips every weekend until the ball, so you will have plenty of time finding a costume. Don't forget you must wear a mask!" With a bow Dumbledore concluded his speech and waved his hand, and the food magically appeared.
I soon lost my appetite. I hated balls. It was full of girls laughing madly at jokes that made no sense, but they do it anyways to get attention.
"This is going to be so much fun, Ginny!" Loraine was jumping excitedly.
"Yes, loads of fun" I said with fake enthusiasm.