Disclaimer--If you like it, assume I don't own it. The Potterverse belongs to JKR, Steve Klowes, Scholastic and WB. Fanon belongs to the multitude...I'm simply paying homage. Most of this scene is from GoF by JK Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended, and no money is being made.
Author's Notes—According to J.K. Rowling, Blaise Zabini is a boy. That's fine with me, but I've been thinking of her as a girl since I wrote MoP, and even if I wanted to switch, I'm not sure I could.
This is a short chapter, but it's a chapter. You can't have everything. ;-)
Progress has been a lot slower in this work, but I hope you'll all stick with me anyway. As you all know, I may not own it, but I work hard, and I love it, so if you read it and enjoy it, please review it! Please don't print or post this elsewhere without my knowledge.
Congratulations, all!! Book 6 is on the way!! Yay!!!
So it was that Ginny met Luna and Bion in the Great Hall that Saturday morning. She hadn't seen them outside of class in what felt like a dog's age, and they were in considerably better spirits than Ron (who seemed cross and defensive) and Hermione (who looked tense and preoccupied).
They started out with the Shrieking Shack. Ginny, who knew its history rather better than Bion and Luna could have imagined, thought it really was the most haunted house in Britain; haunted by Professor Lupin's sorrows and fears and self-remonstration. But Bion, quickly bored by ghosts who had fallen strangely silent before he'd even been born, pulled her and Luna down the street to Honeyduke's in quick order. Ginny wasn't sorry to be dragged away from her thoughts about everything she'd learned the year before and back into childhood, while Luna loved anything and everything new and unusual, so neither felt the slightest provocation to complain.
They took their time and explored every nook and sweet-scented corner of Honeyduke's as thoroughly as they could, although the clerk grabbed Bion when he tried to investigate the open cellar door. They finished with the purchase of each of their favorite sweets—peppermint frogs for Bion (Ginny could never understand how people found all that hopping in their stomachs pleasant), Fizzing Whizzbees for Luna (who loved the sensation of floating so much she made them each eat one so they walked on air to the next shoppe), and the classic simplicity of Sugar Quills for Ginny, all Bion's treat.
Happily eating an amount of sugar that would have scandalized Mum, they wandered between shoppes, and drunk in the sights of the street, crowded with Hogwarts students in a variety of bright weekend clothes. "Dad says stone sprites live there," Luna announced, pointing out a cave smudging the horizon.
"We'll have to explore it next time and see," Ginny said. She and Luna rolled their eyes and grinned at Bion's long-suffering groan of protest.
They did some idle Christmas shopping -- Ginny bought a little package of mentholated cat nip for Crookshanks at an Herbal Shoppe that was not much more than a little wooden cart in the street.
"What," Bion said doubtfully, "is that?"
Ginny glanced up in the direction he was staring. "Uh. Madam Puddifoot's?"
"Doesn't it look like a rather over-decorated tea cozy?" Luna asked distantly.
"Maybe that's part of its charm?" Ginny suggested doubtfully. "It seems to be successful, and there must be a reason."
"I suppose I'll find it charming enough if it serves a decent tea," Bion said stoutly, but he didn't look convinced.
"Oh, tea!" Luna agreed fervently.
"Tea would be nice," Ginny agreed skeptically. She didn't remember any of her brothers, or even her Mum, ever mentioning this place. They always talked about drinking Butterbeer at the Hog's Head. But Bion and Luna were already shrugging through the door.
"Ginny!" someone called before she could even squeeze all the way into the very small shoppe behind Luna. Tempest waved from a frothily-clothed table littered with empty plates. Across from her was a tall, frosty blonde with violet eyes. "This is my sister, Blaise," she explained. "Blaise, this is my friend Ginny Weasley, that I've told you about."
"Nice to meet you, Ginny," Blaise said with what seemed like quite a warm, genuine smile coming from a Slytherin. She wasn't wearing a POTTER STINKS badge either, which warmed Ginny's heart quite a bit. "I'm sorry," she added to Bion and Luna, "I'm afraid I didn't catch your names?"
"Bion Alderly," Bion offered looking rather stunned, though whether it was Blaise's courtesy or her looks, Ginny was amused to find she couldn't say. "And that's Luna Lovegood. We're from Ravenclaw."
"Ah. I know who to ask with help in my studies then," Blaise said with an easy grace that kept the words from sounding the way they would have if Draco Malfoy had spoken them. Ginny and Bion blinked.
"Only if they're interesting," Luna said calmly. "I can't abide being bored."
"Neither can I," Blaise agreed with a smile. "Would you like to join us and have some tea?"
"Oh, yes, please," said Luna. Bion had already begun pulling up two more chairs in their lace strait-jackets.
Tea was quite pleasant, though the tea itself was actually a bit heavy and brackish and the shoppe was humid and smelled of an overabundance of potpourri. They made the return to Hogwarts together and played a rousing game of Quidditch on the cheap school brooms available to students before dinner; the perfect end to the perfect day.