Chapter 15: That's A Lot of Stuff

Well, I must confess, I am having more and more difficulty sticking to my mental statistics. And it's becoming effortlessly more frustrating to avoid the piling evidence against my belief. Never before have I been so confused. This morning Justin Finch-Fletchley was found petrified, not twelve hours after the Dueling Club. With him was also a strangely discolored Nearly Headless Nick, who is the more perplexing victim as the case may seem.

So I very reluctantly admit that people's logic has almost doubled. However, I am still a proud member of Harry's comic relief and moral support, which is now a whole job in itself. The twins and I tried our best and Harry seemed to appreciate our efforts in a funny way. Ginny however was less supportive, she seemed the most spooked about the whole ordeal and if I hadn't been laughing the whole thing off I'd be with her. I tried to explain to her how we were trying to help him and she reasoned that the whole thing just scared her too much to joke about it. I understood where she was coming, so I laid off of Harry in her presence.

Christmas had come so quickly I almost had no time to get everyone presents. But of course Willow Bryden never fails! Or at least I would have been very disappointed if I had. The holidays were quite enjoyable and everyone was quite cheery, spare Percy but he's a prat. I was extremely relieved to see that even Ginny was caught up in the spirit of Christmas.

I woke up on Christmas morning strangely early for my normal habits. I immediately spotted the pile of presents at the foot of my bed and proceeded to attack them like Ron attacks food at meals. I had received a charm bracelet from Ginny that matched my locket. In a small heart shaped frame was a picture of the two us on the train. I had found her a kitten in a shop in Hogsmeade, he was a black and white tabby named Toby. George gave me a muggle record player and Fred had gotten me ten assorted records from the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Clash. I had in return gotten George a necklace that was a G on a leather strap along with a book entitled 'The Sneaky Art of Sneaking'. Fred got a similar necklace with an F and various Zonko's products.

Harry had given me some sweets and Ron followed him in the same fashion. I had given Harry a Gryffindor scarf with a moving snitch on the edges; Moony had sent it for him because it belonged to James, Harry's dad, and I bought Ron a new chess set to replace his hand-me-down one. Hermione had given me a book on charms called 'Handy Charms for Everyday Life' which seemed quite useful. Hermione got an organizer that was charmed to organize your schedule in the best manner and to verbally remind you of anything you have to do. From Luna I had received a necklace, which she made herself, to ward off my own Nargles, as well as this month's edition of the Quibbler. In return I gave her a copy of 'The Strangest Creatures You've Never Seen' which included all of Luna's favorites, Nargles, Heliopaths, Wrackspurts, Crumple-Horned Snorckacks, and so many more.

Bill had sent me a Goblin made jewelry box from Egypt and I had given him a bag that was impervious to all spells and could hide items from anyone except the owner. Charlie's gift made me laugh as I opened the same box of sweets I had sent him, but then again great minds think alike. I had also received a purple sweater from Mrs Weasley and a box of treacle fudge from Hagrid, which surprised me because he and I had never really met since Diagon Alley, however a note included invited me to come for tea the day after Christmas. Uncle Moony had sent me several Defense books and a small wolf charm that fit on my bracelet, in return he received a Gryffindor colored sweater.

The last gift was an old, singed teddy bear and a picture of a younger me on a swing being pushed by my father, my mom was standing in the background. The attached note read:

I pulled this from the wreckage of your home.

Happy Christmas-

Albus Dumbledore

I wrote some quick thank you notes to Mrs Weasley, Bill, Charlie, and Dumbledore. Then I sent Hagrid a letter promising I would be there tomorrow, probably with the twins. Lastly, I wrote a more detailed letter to Uncle Moony:

Dear Uncle Moony,

Hope you had a very enjoyable Christmas. Do let me know how it went, and I'm sorry I couldn't be there to keep you company. I promise I'll spend time with you this summer. I really liked the charm and can't wait to read the books; I think you're rubbing off on me. I'm just waiting around for everyone else to wake up before breakfast. Well, hope you're feeling well, I know the full moon was yesterday.

Love always,

Willow.

Just as Otter took off out the window, Ginny woke up with a loud yawn. "Morning," she called groggily.

"Happy Christmas, sleepy head," I teased back. She made a sound of disbelief, mentioning that it was only eight before hungrily attacking her own presents. She looked over at me when she was done.

"Where's my present, Missy?" she questioned. I laughed and reached for the carrier under my bed. I handed her Toby's cage and she squealed in delight when she saw him before giving me a bone-crushing-Weasley hug. The two of us then descended the stairs and joined the twins. We all went to the Great Hall for breakfast and had a very quite holiday, playing exploding snap and having snow ball fights.

On the next morning I woke up, showered, and got dressed in a warm sweater and jeans. At around noon, the twins and I made our way to Hagrid's hut. I was so excited to meet him, just because everyone agreed that he was so friendly. Fred knocked on the door and the large Hagrid invited us in.

"Hullo you three! Glad ya' could make it down ter see me. Was hopin' ter get a word with you Willow."

"Sure Hagrid, what's up?"

"Want cha' to know yer parents were good people, some of the best to be honest. Yer mother 'specially. You look just like 'er, ya know. Such a shame ter see 'um go."

We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about my parents, telling stories, and eating Hagrid's odd cooking.

The rest of the holidays flew by and before we knew it the monotony of classes was back in full swing. In fact, first year was passing by even more quickly after the holidays. Before anyone really knew what had happened, it was mid January, though it felt like yesterday had been Christmas. Everything had returned to normal, the good and the bad; Ginny was zombie like, I was hardly sleeping, and the twins were, well, oh-so-twin-like.

This is why I was surprised that on one Saturday morning Ginny came and sat next to me during breakfast, the way she had in the first week of school. She began to eat like she did this everyday. I assume she saw me staring, so she asked, "Did the twins do something to my face?"

"N-no," I stuttered. "I'm just happy to see you here is all. Seems like classes are ruling our lives." Or some are just being really weird, I added to myself.

"Yeah," she said, changing the subject quickly. "What do you say we steal the twins' brooms and do some flying today? Unless you're planning to do something else today?"

I groaned to myself. She knew how dreadful I was at flying. I had sprained my ankle during our first lesson. "Oh, Gin, you know I'm a rubbish flyer," I argued.

"Nonsense, we must teach you! No Weasley can't play Quidditch and you are no exception." When she got all passionate like that is was hard to deny her. So I gave into her demands, trying to forget about my pile of essays I needed to start. I mean, how often does your best friend return to her normal self? Not often, I'll tell you.

After two hours of playing out on the pitch, we finally collapsed on the ground laughing uncontrollably. Ginny was an amazing teacher and she had dubbed me worthy to be a Weasley, Quidditch skills and all. We sat outside and laughed and talked. A little voice in my head was practically screaming 'Confront her!'. I knew it was time I talked to Ginny about her strange behavior, but I kept thinking that as soon as the fun stopped she would just morph into zombie Ginny again. I wasn't ready to let her go quite yet.

We went to the kitchens for lunch, avoiding the noise and bustle of the Great Hall. The house elves got us a sandwich and a glass of pumpkin juice each. We ate our lunches on our way down to Hagrid's hut. Ginny and I spent a little over an hour with Hagrid, having tea and listening to stories. When I looked at Ginny's watch, we realized the time and made our way back to Gryffindor tower. She and I spent the rest of our night working on homework in the Common Room. The new term continued like this, the old Ginny replacing her former self.

The morning of Valentine's Day, Ginny and I walked down to breakfast, arm in arm, only to be blinded by bright pink and red decorations. I was confused, but only for a moment when I caught sight of a festively dressed, grinning Professor Lockhart among a table of much less cheerful teachers. After thanking people for his cards and clapping his hands, Professor Lockhart's 'friendly, card-carrying cupids' came into the Hall.

Ginny, who had been entranced from the start, wasted no time in writing Harry a musical message to be sent anonymous. She was so excited I didn't even bother to insult the pompous professor. It was on our way to History of Magic when they saw Harry receive his valentine. The small, unhappy dwarf grabbed Harry's bag when he refused to wait, ripping it in the attempt. As Harry picked up all his fallen things, trying to get ink off of his belongings when the message was delivered. Harry looked mortified, but I looked to Ginny, ready to comfort her. She was staring at the diary in Malfoy's hand and then to Harry, a look of utter terror plastered to her face.

I had only gotten a few glances at that book in particular. The book that kept my best friend isolated for all that time. Ginny's diary, and it was in Malfoy's hands after falling out of Harry's bag. I couldn't blame her for looking so freaked out.

Harry disarmed Malfoy, causing the diary to fly into the air so Ron could catch it. Harry looked quite satisfied. Moments later Ron looked murderous as Malfoy shouted at Ginny, "I don't think Potter liked your valentine much!" but Harry was able to pull him away.

I followed Ginny into class, her head in her hands. The rest of the day was slow and difficult. Ginny was extremely upset, and I was pretty sure it was more about the diary then Harry's obvious dislike of her valentine.

I received two valentines myself, one per twin. Each one was silly and came with some chocolate. I got sent out of Potions for breaking out in laughter after reading George's card, so I waited outside for Ginny before we walked back to the Common Room together, laughing at the priceless scowl on Snape's face when I interrupted his lecture with my loud giggling.

I had gotten so comfortable with having the old Ginny that even the work-packed Easter holidays couldn't damper my cheerfulness. That would be why I was frazzled to see Ginny missing from the stands on Saturday's Quidditch match. We had decided to meet there, but upon my arrival there were only two Weasleys to be found watching the game, none female. I figured she had just taken a detour of something, settling into my seat to watch the match.

Just as the players were mounting their brooms, Professor McGonagall came onto the pitch announcing the game's cancellation, insisting that we return to our common rooms. It was there that we would wait for further information from our Heads of House. I walked out of the stands towards the team's locker room to wait for Fred and George. The three of us then made our way to Gryffindor tower, finding the missing Ginny on one of the couches.

Later that evening McGonagall entered the common room, followed by Ron and Harry. She read us a list of new rules that had been put into effect. The reason for the rules was another attack, another double attack. The victims this time were Penelope Clearwater, Ravenclaw prefect and Gryffindor's own Hermione. When the news of Hermione's attack finally set in, Ginny was sobbing on Fred's shoulder, while I just cried silently. George put his arm around me and I assume the four of us made a sad sight. First Colin and now Hermione, Gryffindor was being hit the hardest with these attacks as Lee pointed out, they even stooped as low to petrifying out ghost! One Hufflepuff, one Ravenclaw, two Gryffindors, and one Gryffindor ghost, but it wasn't over yet. Lee kindly suggested we just chuck out all of the Slytherins. I had to agree, even if it doesn't stop the attacks, we could always do with less Slytherins.

We were hoping that everything would calm down for a while, like the way it did after Justin and Sir Nicholas were attacked. But it just got a whole lot worse, the evidence being the announcement we got the next morning at breakfast. Hagrid had been arrested and sent to Azkaban, for the attacks! That was just ludicrous and to make it worse the "school governors" had put in a demand for Dumbledore's resignation. That was just bonkers! Without Dumbledore everyone, teachers, students, and ghosts alike, knew we were doomed. The school would be closed for sure now.

Hullo! Okay I lied, I said that with it being Summer I would update more frequently. Well, that idea crashed and burned. However, this is the longest chapter yet, with 2,422 words without the Author's Note. Okay, so this chapter covers like 100 or so pages in the actual book. There's probably only two more chapters left, three tops. But have no fear there will be a sequel. Any ideas on names of the second part? ~Dino Flavored Ramen