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Rating: T: mild language

Date Posted: January 5, 2013

A/N: Once again, thank you all for reading, reviewing, following, and favoriting! I'm so excited; there are so many of your reading! :O Again, reviews will be addressed at the bottom, so please, enjoy this un-beta'd mess! Hope you enjoy :)

The funny thing about Hogwarts was that regardless of the professors' threats of detention for late-night or early-morning wandering, Ginevra Weasley had nothing to worry about as she wandered the halls.

It was barely four in the morning; Ginny – as she preferred to be called - had been walking for nearly three hours, and had yet to encounter a single staff member – Filch, the groundskeeper, included. It certainly made things much more peaceful for her – much easier to think.

It was only early December, and yet most of her friends were already beginning to start studying for the O.W.L.s. To Ginny, it was all just plain stupid. All she wanted to do when she left Hogwarts was to play Quidditch, hopefully for the Holyhead Harpies. What did she need O.W.L.s for?

Ginny shook her head, her thoughts spinning madly around her mind. After wandering aimlessly for so long, she had somehow found herself in the courtyard, her worn-down, dirty boots, marring the pristine white of the snow that blanketed the school grounds. The sun was inching its way up in the sky – not quite ready to start the day. Not that she could blame it, really.

Her breath was visible in the unfriendly air, floating out of her lungs in thin, white wisps. She had only been standing outside for a small minute but her hands were already ice, her toes losing feeling from the place in the confines of her boots, her cheeks and nose stinging and red from the morning breeze that bit at her exposed skin and played with her blood-red hair.

She sighed, knowing that she'd have to go and get ready for the day soon. Groaning, she realized that once the sun rose fully, she'd have to do work and see people. No thank you, she thought, turning around to walk back to her dorm for a nice, warm shower. Or maybe she's go to the Great Hall for a bite of breakfast first...

She glanced down at her ragged pyjamas, the bottoms soaked from the wet slush that seeped though her boots. Or maybe not...whatever. Her stomach was keening softly at the thought of being denied food for another hour, but Ginny ignored it, heading back up to her dorm room.

The walk back was long and uneventful. Part of her was hoping that Peeves or someone would jump out from around the corner, just so she's have some action, some adrenaline in her veins. Not even the Gryffindor portrait, The Fat Lady, was awake enough to scold her for being out after hours (well, before hours, really.)

As she walked into her dorm room, Ginny attempted to be as quiet as possible so as to not wake her sleeping roommates. Although, she was very tempted to conjure some water as a wakeup call... she shook her head. Bad idea; those girls would murder her.

Grabbing her toiletries, clothes, and towel, Ginny made her way into the empty bathroom, commandeering one of the stalls as her own. She hadn't completely warmed up from the cold outside, so she turned the water as hot as she could without burning herself. The shower loosened her muscles, helping her to relax from the stress of school and Quidditch. She stood in the shower for a good twenty minutes before actually washing herself, her skin pruning in the hot water.

By the time she was finished, her fingertips and toes were raisins, but her hair smelled delicious – her favourite vanilla-scented shampoo having been liberally applied to her red hair – and her skin felt soft and warm. She got dressed quickly after stepping out of the water in order to keep that heat from escaping too quickly. Instead of allowing her hair to air-dry or borrowing one of the girls' muggle hair-dryer, Ginny took her chanced of burning her hair and cast a quick drying charm on it (luckily, she did it correctly or else she would have had to go to Madame Pomfrey and explain how she caught her hair on fire).

She threw on her Hogwarts uniform and cast a quick tempus to check the time. Five-thirty...still a bit early for her tastes, but it wasn't like she would be able to go back to sleep (what with her roommate Victoria's snoring...). Most of her roommates were still asleep but a one had rolled out of bed to get ready for the day, the empty bed as evidence. Deciding that there was no point in staying in the darkened dorm room, Ginny grabbed her school bag and headed down the stairs, ignoring the snogging couple on the couch as she walked out the portrait hole.

Walking down the halls, she watched in amusement as the suits of armour her brothers, Fred and George, had charmed last year waltzed together as others sang bawdy love songs in their deep, monotone voices.

She smiled as she turned one of the corners, catching sight of unruly, I-just-rolled-out-of-bed black hair and green eyes peering out from behind rounded spectacles. Just the guy Ginny wanted to see...

Harry Potter was an incredibly strange guy: quiet, bookish, usually keeping to himself. And yet, he was supposedly some charming, charismatic superstar – the saviour of the Wizarding world. In the five years she had been at Hogwarts and been a Gryffindor with Potter, he had probably said a grand total of maybe ten or twelve words to her.

Potter wasn't reserved or deep and thoughtful like many people assumed; he was just antisocial.

And Ginny, being the cold-hearted bitch the school considered her to be, loved to mess with him.

She wasn't mean, mind you. She simply messed with him – teasing and flirting with him in over-dramatic ways just for the sake of watching him squirm, making weird faces at him if they happened to catch each others' eyes. Her favourite was to loudly act like the two of had been best friends from birth, then act hurt and confused when he scowled and attempted to shake her off.

Basically, she was just plain annoying.

"Hey Harry!" she called out, smiling brightly as his face took on an expression of disgust when he realized who was in the corridor with him. She walked over, flinging an arm over his shoulders and pretending that she didn't notice his cringe. She pretended that she didn't notice his eyes trained on her arm, staring at it as if it was some kind of filthy parasite.

"Long time no see, eh?" she asked. "If I didn't know better, I'd think that you were avoiding me!" She turned to face him, her eyes growing wide innocently and lips forming a pout. "You weren't avoiding me, were you Harry?"

Potter grunted in response, refusing to meet her eyes as he carefully peeled Ginny's arm off of him. Free from the red-head's grasp, Potter stepped away, putting a good arms length between them. He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped, instead shaking his head and walking in the opposite direction.

Ginny called after him as he made his way down the hall. "Alright, nice to see you Harry! I'll talk to you later, okay?"

He quickened his steps as he ignored her. Ginny noticed and smirked, continuing on the path to the Great Hall.

xxxxx

It was still relatively early, so the number of students in Great Hall was small. Majority of which were Ravenclaws (the house was notorious for their early risers, unlike Gryffindors, who were infamous for being late to their first classes), with the occasional Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Ginny's stomach moaned painfully as her nose caught the delicious aroma of her classmates' breakfasts. Freshly baked bread with apricot jam… steaming bangers sitting juicy and fat on porcelain plates… fried eggs covered in ketchup and/or brown sauce… buttery mushrooms straight from the pan that seem to simply melt in your mouth…

Ginny was not a human pig like her brother, Ronald, but she couldn't lie – she loved food. One could not grow up in the Weasley household (what with her mother cooking practically gourmet meals with pitiable ingredients every day) and not enjoy eating. Thank Merlin for their high metabolisms.

She smirked when she caught sight of Potter who was – no surprise there – blatantly avoiding everyone by sitting at the very far end of the Gryffindor table, glaring down at his food as he ate. A part of Ginny was sorely tempted to purposely sit as close to him as possible. However, her eyes quickly fell on her boyfriend, Dean Thomas, and all thoughts of Harry Potter were banished from her mind.

Dean was too engrossed in the book he was reading as he shovelled food in his mouth (Ginny rolled her eyes, what was it with guys eating like the plate would be taken away from them at any given moment?) to notice as Ginny sat down next to him. Until she reached over and stole a piece of bacon off of his plate, that is.

"Hey!" he exclaimed in surprise and indignation. "Who do you think you-?" He cut off as he looked up to Ginny's smirking face as she nibbled on the stolen food.

"You would think," she drawled after swallowing the chewed up food. "That after three months of dating you'd know someone's name." She sighed dramatically. "But I guess that's just asking way too much, huh?" She stuck out her hand for him to shake. "My name's Ginny Weasley. Would you like me to write it on your forehead for you; so that you don't forget?"

Dean rolled his eyes; he was used to her dramatics, by now. Pushing away her outstretched hand, he reached over and kissed her lightly. She had to fight to keep the smile off of her lips.

"Good morning, Gin," he smiled. "Sleep well?"

She sniffed in response, trying to see how long she could pretend to be angry at him. "I guess," she shrugged. She reached over in an attempt to grab another piece of food, only to have her hand lightly smacked. Dean shook his head in a mock exasperation, a smirk playing on her lips.

"Uh-uh," he waggled her finger at Ginny. "You don't get any of my food if you're going to have that attitude.

Ginny pouted, crossing her arms to cover her chest. "Fine," she huffed. But she smiled brightly, leaning in to plant a kiss on his lips. He eagerly met and deepened the kiss, the breakfast between them quickly forgotten. His lips were soft against hers, and they still carried the lingering taste of pumpkin juice on them...

"Ew, can't you two eat each other's faces somewhere else?" A voice called beside them. "I'm trying to enjoy my breakfast and I can't do it with you two here."

Ginny broke the kiss and turned to the side to find her dorm mate, Demelza Robins, watching them and pretending to gag into her pumpkin juice. She rolled her eyes and ignored the female Gryffindor: this was the girl who didn't know private from public displays of affection.

She turned back around to Dean, but he had, unfortunately, began eating again, all his attention on the food in front of him. Ginny grabbed a plate, her groaning stomach remembered, and filled it with various meats and pastries. The goblet in front of filled itself with the perfect amount of pumpkin juice (not a drop too much, not a drop too little).

More people began flowing into the room, including Hermione Granger, her brother's girlfriend. She was supposedly the "brightest witch of her age," but Ginny always had her doubts. I mean, she was dating Ron; how bright could you possibly be to do a thing like that? Regardless, Hermione was nice: the type of girl that someone like her brother definitely needed.

Ginny smiled sweetly to the girl's face, but frowned in pity behind her back (not unlike majority of the Hogwarts' population). It can't be easy being a muggleborn in this generation...

The noise level of the Great Hall steadily rose as more and more students began coming in – eager to get a bite of breakfast before they headed off to their first class. Her two best friends, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood (who was actually a Ravenclaw, but usually migrated from the Ravenclaw to the Gryffindor table during meals) sat down on the side opposite of her and Dean, their conversation changing quickly: from the strange hat that Luna decided to wear today to the upcoming Quidditch game to upcoming Weird Sisters concert.

Inside, Ginny sighed in contentment as she leaned against Dean, listening to Ron and Hermione bicker like an old married couple from the opposite end of the table. The professors sat up at the head table, overseeing the crowd of teenagers, probably talking about what lectures they'd give today. She took in the sights of cheery morning people (and the not-so-cheery, not-morning people), the sounds of everyone's conversations blurring into one loud hum, the smells of everyone's breakfasts, and the feel of Dean's arm wrapped around her waist.

She rested her head on Dean's shoulder and smiled.

Today would be a good day – she could feel it.

So, yeah, this is just a smaller filler chapter to introduce Ginny. To be clear: the different Ginny and Harry chapters follow the same timeline, so this chapter is happening simultaneously to the previous one.

cc4s: Thank you for reviewing, I'm very happy that you enjoyed it :)

mdauben: I deeply apologize for the confusion; I should have clarified that. Yes, the first chapter (as well as this chapter) takes place about six months before the prologue. Sorry for the confusion, and thank you for reviewing!

Next chapter will be up in about a week, so see you then :) Leave a review if you liked it (or, if you hated it, leave a review! :) ) I love hearing what you guys have to say!

Nox,

LaughWhileCrying