Chapter 4- The Year of the Fox

Ginny found herself in McGonagall's office for the fourth time in two weeks. She kept her head down. Most of the portraits were asleep when she entered, though one had given a reproving wag of her head and Dumbledore his usual wink of encouragement. Ginny had tried to return with a smile, but didn't have one in her to give.

Professor McGonagall entered, walking briskly to her desk across from Ginny. "I'd say it's nice to see a familiar face, but this is simply excessive." Ginny didn't respond. "Being a Prefect does not give you reign to fulfill disciplinary actions yourself."

"I wasn't 'fulfilling disciplinary action'," Ginny retorted, her face getting red.

"Then do explain."

Ginny quieted once again. How could she say it was because of people talking about her? Talking about her family. Talking about Harry. She had even tried that reasoning when she had been sent here for hexing Lavender's face cream to give her bright green splotches. It had been Hermione they were talking about that time. Still, she couldn't take the gossip.

"You must exercise self control if you ever intend on helping the—" McGonagall stopped mid track, but Ginny knew what was left unsaid. She looked up. Had McGonagall actually been thinking about it? "In all your years here, you have never been in trouble so often." McGonagall stood and walked around to the other side of the desk.

"It won't happen again, Professor," Ginny mumbled, dejected.

"I hope to take that as your word. I have talked to Dean Thomas about heading up the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and we decided to keep those students from last year on the team, so long as they wanted their place and could keep to a satisfactory level of grades and behavior."

Ginny's heart lifted. "Alright," she agreed readily.

"You may go," McGonagall dismissed her.

Ginny grabbed her bag and ran. Transfiguration was next. They had rearranged the schedules so that only one time a week Ginny had to endure the fifth years. Now it was only Holladay that really had a chance to get to her, and he always did somehow. "Ms. Weasley has decided to join us after all," he said as she entered out of breath and red in the face. "How gracious of you."

"I was meeting with—"

"I don't really care about your rendezvous, but more about the time you've been empty from your chair."

Self control, self control, Ginny repeated over and over in her mind as her tongue was held fast between her teeth. A million sarcastic retorts tried to distract her. She turned to take her seat in the back next to Luna, but was stopped. "Ms. Weasley, I did not ask you to have a seat yet."

"Then why do you insist on going on about me being out of it? If you must continue in such an annoying fashion, would you please find a point?!" It all came spilling out of Ginny's mouth so fast, she hadn't realized what she said until it came falling from her lips in an infuriated cadence. She pressed her lips together as Professor Holladay's face turned purple. There was muttering among the other students.

"Take the corner seat," Professor Holladay said in a dangerous tone. Ginny walked quickly, thinking if Holladay had a similar mind to Moody, she'd be a small bouncing animal right now. He ignored Ginny for the rest of the class, just as Ginny preferred. She thought she was home free when the bell rang, but Professor Holladay kept the class late as he handed back an essay from the prior week. Ginny was the last to get hers and started to leave. "If you would work more on your assignments and less on your cheeky remarks, you might actually pass," Professor Holladay said.

Ginny—who hadn't looked at her paper until now—wanted to roll her eyes at the "D" on the top. She managed to keep from doing so as this had become a normal grade in Professor Holladay's class. The last paper had been marked down for being "too long," measuring out at 16 inches instead of 15. This one had "too obvious", "too many quotes", and "poor vocabulary" as some of the more blatant corrections.

"Yes, sir," Ginny finally said.

"I expect you here at one o'clock this Saturday for detention," he added with a smirk.

"Yes, sir."

"And I know you Weasleys have a problem with quality work, but I do hope you'll work a little harder and get at least an 'acceptable' before the end of the year."

"Yes, sir." Ginny's face and neck were now burning hot.

"You are dismissed," he said, sounding pleased.

Ginny practically stomped from the room, pretending each tile was Professor Holladay's head.

"I'm here captain!" Ginny shouted as she ran up to the Quidditch pitch towards the end of the tryouts. Detention had kept her thus far, and she was just glad to be free from the endless droning of Professor Holladay. "How's it going?"

"Dismal," Dean said, wiping a hand down his face. "We still have Peakes and Dennis Creevy will have to do."

"Right," Ginny said. They had spent most of their Prefect duties talking about Quidditch, and Dean even asked her to help him train the team. It seemed that lately he was one in a handful of Gryffindors that weren't a part of the 'anti-Ginny' club, founded by Romilda Vane herself. Outside of that she had Luna. At least they were mocked together. "What about Keeper."

"Worse than McClaggen, the whole lot."

Ginny made a face. "I suppose you'll have to make a star from scratch then?"

"We will, yes," Dean said. "A couple of the second year girls aren't so bad to play Chaser."

"Then what are you going to be playing?"

"Chaser."

"You can't have four chasers," Ginny said.

"I need you to play Seeker."

"Oh no, we talked about this," Ginny said. She had refused to play it. It was almost a reminder that Harry wasn't here to do it, and she didn't want any of that.

"We don't have a chance to win without a strong Seeker," Dean said. "And you've played it before."

"I don't care, you take the spot," Ginny said.

Dean sighed. "My eyesight's about as good as your average bat."

"They may be practically blind, but I do hear they have a surreal ability to navigate—"

"Ginny—"

"No really, Dean, you could be known for it!" Ginny said with enthusiasm. "We'll put a blindfold on you. It'll throw the other teams off, and then you swoop in and get the snitch. We can even tie your hands behind your back. Can't you see you're perfect for the job?"

"No, Ginny, you're Seeker, take it or leave it."

Ginny pouted and took a deep breath. "Fine," she said, yet another joy in life starting to be squashed. "I'll be Seeker."

"Thanks, I knew I could count on you," Dean said, grabbing Ginny and kissing her cheek. He walked off in the other direction and Ginny just stood there shaking her head.

Sunday had been one of the best lazy days, but N.E.W.T. classes didn't allow much time for lazy days. Luna was sitting in the library, a pile of books in front of her so that when Ginny entered you could just see her large eyes. "Hello," Luna said, her voice muffled.

Ginny jutted her jaw up as she strode over, her ears trying to ignore the several hushed tones and whispers that carried her name on the wind. Lavender Brown was sitting in the corner with a challenging look. Ginny was glad you could still see the hint of green tints. She was trying this whole 'self control' thing and walked on, sitting in front of the pile. "Having fun?"

"It's quite interesting, the diversity in culture among Muggles. It really is no wonder they aren't ready to accept Wizards, they can't even accept one another."

"Wizards don't accept one another either," Ginny said, picking up one of the books from the top. "What are they having you study?"

"Chinese," Luna said matter-of-factly. "The Asian cultures are quite different. They even have a different New Year."

"Oh," Ginny said. Luna took it as a great sign of interest.

"Yes, there are twelve animals that each year goes for, with their own symbols, and they repeat."

Ginny pulled out her Transfiguration book and a paper fell out of it with a note on top. She opened to a chapter in the middle and started to half read while listening to Luna. When she was finished Ginny asked about how she had done on her assignments for Professor Holladay.

"Fine," Luna said. "He wrote that I go off on too many tangents, but most people don't like to hear about Jutstone Weasels."

"Right," Ginny said, remember the discourse she had had on that last week. "What was your mark?"

"Overall? An E," Luna said.

"Would you mind if I read it?" Ginny asked. Luna pulled it out among a mess of other papers and Ginny read through it. All the same main points were there, save when Luna brought up what she called the master transfiguring mammal, the 'Jutstone Weasel'. She put it down and shook her head. "He's an awful teacher!" Ginny said.

"Definitely not what we had before," Luna said. "He certainly doesn't like you either, does he?"

Ginny shook her head. "No one seems to this year."

"I don't see why not," Luna said. Ginny smiled. Luna was refreshing to have around.

Ginny picked up the paper next to her book. "Just in case you find yourself in need of a little fun. Stay safe" was written in a familiar hand. On the back a password. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good". Ginny wanted to laugh, but just let the corner of her lips rise a little. She thought about the stories Hermione had shared, although she knew even Hermione's knowledge of how this map had been used by its previous owner was quite limited. And then there were those that had preceded him… Fred and George… Sirius…his friends.

Her mind started to turn as thoughts of proving Professor Holladay wrong about her came in and out. "We were born in the year of the Rooster," Luna said out of nowhere. "Hard-working, shrewd, bold, boastful, and correct are the listed characteristics."

"How about we start up the year of the fox," Ginny asked with a grin, opening her transfiguration book to a new chapter.

Luna looked up, curious. "I'm in," she said. Conspiring seemed to be something Luna tuned into very well.

A/N: Let's see who's figuring what Ginny has in mind. :D I'm very glad to have come to this point, and had a lot of fun writing the Transfig class.

Let's yield some reviews too!!!