A/N: Yes, I haven't updated in a year, and yes, I know that I only had one chapter posted. But I was hoping that maybe people would have the heart to have faith in me - I have a good amount of this story planned out and I am trying really hard to work on it :)
Ginny woke early the next morning, a shaft of sunlight falling on her bed through the open curtains. She stretched lazily, content to be back at school, though she knew that the feeling would wear off as soon as classes picked up. She got dressed quickly, brushed her hair, and grabbed her book bag, ready to go down to get her course schedule.
Upon arriving at breakfast, she saw that she was one of the few people there, for she preferred to wake up early, unlike most of the population of teenagers. All the teachers were there, she noticed, scowling slightly at Professor Malfoy before sitting down at the Gryffindor bench. She was just reaching for some porridge when a small voice piped up from beside her.
"What's your name?"
Ginny turned quickly, spilling some porridge on the table, and saw Claire Peters, the little girl from the platform, looking at her with bright blue eyes. Ginny smiled at her and said her name, at which the girl smiled.
"My mum's told me about your family, she says that you're a great bunch of wizards. But I knew that already, 'cause you're in Gryffindor." At that, she also doled out some porridge and turned away from Ginny, focusing very intently on her food.
Ginny supposed the girl was nervous, and subsequently embarrassed because she had said too much, so she looked around the Great Hall, and saw Neville at the far end handing out schedules to the students at breakfast. Figuring it could be one of her duties as Prefect to help, and curious about her classes, Ginny got up to help him.
"Hey, Neville. Excited for classes to start?"
Neville smiled at her, but he looked slightly frantic. "Ginny, can you help me hand these out? I know this sounds bad as Head Boy, but I can't remember half of the younger students' names."
Grinning, Ginny took half the stack from Neville, glanced at the name, and went to go find the schedule's owner. Her stack dwindled down as the students trickled in, and she didn't have to help Neville as much as she thought she would, for he seemingly knew more than he had let on about. Finally, Ginny ended up with Neville's schedule, and he with hers, so they traded as they sat down for breakfast, for Ginny had never really gotten anything to eat during her conversation with Claire.
She looked at her schedule and swore under her breath, causing Neville to send her a questioning look. "Double Potions with the Slytherins again. I swear, they do this just to torture us. And now that Snape's come back, we're definitely in for it."
Neville frowned, and pored over his own schedule. "And I've got Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins as well. That's really a pity, I was looking forward to that class. Though I suppose any chance of that was ruined as soon as Lucius Malfoy stepped up to be teacher."
"Well, at least we'll have classes together," ventured Ginny, who saw that as 6th and 7th years from the same house, they had been given identical schedules.
Neville smiled brightly at this, and Ginny inwardly sighed. Slightly clueless, Neville made his feelings towards her quite clear, and she pitied that she could not return them, for she saw Neville as a brother. This would have to wait, though, until the problem directly confronted her, for she didn't have time to deal with it.
Sighing, she glanced at her schedule and frowned. She only had two classes today - Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration, but she figured that the day would most likely drag on, as both of the teachers were new and normally would just hand out a syllabus on the first day.
She spotted Luna getting up from the Ravenclaw table and made her way over, hoping they would have a bit of time to chat before classes started.
"Hey Luna, did you get a horrible schedule like me? Or were you lucky this year?"
Luna smiled and replied vaguely, "Oh, I'm sure you'll end up liking your schedule Ginny, but I really do like mine. And at least we'll have Charms together. Surely that can't be bad?"
Trust Luna to see the bright side in everything, thought Ginny. "Fine, I'm happy we have one class together. But they've stuck the Gryffindors and the Slytherins together for the two classes taught by Death Eaters. You'd thing McGonagall would have a problem with that."
"Maybe it's just hard to change that sort of thing. Double potions with the Slytherins seems to be a tradition." She then pulled a large pocketwatch out of her bag and looked at it, then sighed. "Sorry, Gin, I really do have to run. Care of Magical Creatures... You know, quite a long walk. Please try not to hex anyone."
At that, Ginny smiled, and left Luna, fully prepared to take on the challenges the day could bring. She headed out the Great Hall and through the corridors that were just beginning to fill with students. Twice she had to stop and help first-years who had looks of utter terror on their faces as they struggled to deal with all the tricks of the castle.
By the time she finally made it to the classroom, she was out of breath, and paused right outside the doorway to try to gain some of her composure before entering.
"Miss Weasley. Are you planning on holding up class all day? Or would you like to come in so I can teach?"
Ginny whirled around, surprised, and saw none other than Lucius Malfoy leaning against the door frame, a smirk just gracing his lips.
"Wha- I- Er... I was helping out first-years, sir. My duty as a prefect, and all," Ginny managed to say, caught off-guard by his appearance.
"Still, 5 points from Gryffindor for being late on the first day of class."
"Sir, that's hardly-"
His eyes narrowed, "I can easily make it more if you keep me waiting." He then turned on his heel and strode the front of the room.
Ginny edged into the classroom, not surprised to see everyone turned to face her. She flushed, embarrassed, and looked around for an empty desk. Malfoy was sitting alone, his two hulking friends sharing the desk behind him, but Ginny would be damned if she had to sit next to him. She saw that Neville had already taken a seat with Dean Thomas, but at least she got apologetic looks from both of them. Then she saw it - the single empty desk, directly in front of the teacher's desk.
Groaning mentally, she quickly made her way to the front and sat down, trying to avoid looking at anything but her desk.
"Now, I'm sure you all have heard of a certain... growth in the amount dark activity lately." At this, Ginny looked up at her professor, completely dumbstruck that he would be so frank about the current situation. Looking around, she the Gryffindors in the same state of surprise, though most of the Slytherins were smirking and exchanging glances.
"I am sure you all knew of my position in relation to the dark activities, but I can assure you that I no longer serve the Dark Lord. I have already made my intentions of helping the younger generation prepare for these dark times perfectly clear to the staff, and most importantly the Headmistress, but I know that the students your age will be slow to trust. At least the Gryffindors will, they always seem to get stuck thinking in black and white." He paused to let the Slytherins laugh, but Ginny was not amused. His facade might fool some people, but she knew that someone black-hearted enough to give and eleven-year-old a diary cursed with the soul of Voldemort was not going to give up his dark affiliations so easily.
"I have looked over the previous teachers' syllabuses, but I must say that it was much too much book learning and hardly any practical application." Ginny thought this was an unfair statement, for he had obviously not even considered looking at Lupin's syllabus, probably burning it simply because he was involved with the Order.
"And I'm going to teach you how to deal with the dark arts in real time. I considered having you write essays, but I really don't want to bother with your shoddy attempts at writing, so most of the work I give you to be done outside of class will be practicing. And I expect you all to practice until you achieve mastery, however long that may be." At this, his gaze lingered upon Neville, and Ginny's heart immediately went out to him. He really had improved in the last two years, and she hoped that he would be able to prove Malfoy wrong.
"We will be working on one-on-one dueling, with simple exchanges of spells, and perhaps a dueling tournament later in the year, but I have specifically asked the Headmistress to convert the unused Upper East Wing of the castle into a... battlefield of sorts. From there, you will be divided up into groups and work on team combat and group fighting. With hope, you will gain enough skill to not die your first year out of school." He ended his speech with a smirk, and gave the students a moment for it all to sink in.
Fine, he seems like he knows what he's doing, at least. It's a pity I can't hate his teaching, but I might actually learn something this year, something that will help me, thought Ginny. She was even slightly excited to see how exactly the group fights would work, but she did not have enough time to really consider this, as Professor Malfoy began speaking again.
"I understand that you may all be looking forward to dueling, but I don't want to have to deal with a group of incompetent wizards randomly firing spells, so I decided that I would give you all a chance to warm up today with simple blocking practice. Everyone, please find a partner and line up across from them in the middle of the room."
The students all scrambled out of their seats, desperate to not be left without a partner. Ginny tried to get to Neville, thinking that she would give him some confidence if they could work together, but Colin blocked her pathway, and she felt bad refusing him. As she and Colin made their way to the middle of the classroom, she saw Dean and Seamus already lined up.
Poor Neville, I wonder who he's stuck with... And then she saw - Neville, looking put out and quite nervous, was standing across from Draco Malfoy.
He's probably trying to scare Neville. Well, I won't let that happen. With that, Ginny dragged Colin to the end of the row where Draco and Neville were standing, and situated herself next to Neville. She gave his hand a quick squeeze and sent him a smile for reassuring, but he barely managed to return it.
Unfortunately, this exchange did not go unnoticed by Draco, who looked them both up and down, then drawled, "It's not a surprise that the blood traitors go for one another. But please, I don't need to see your disgusting displays of affection in here."
"Look, Malfoy, just because you seem to be incapable of making friends, it does not give you the right to ruin the happiness of everyone else." Ginny glared at him, then turned to face Colin.
Professor Malfoy then started to speak, cutting off any retort that his son could have given. "Now, just take turns exchanging jinxes. No hexes please, it is not my job to piece you back together. You may start... now." And with that, he walked back to his desk and sat down, not interested in seeing the students trying to get back into the groove of using a shield charm.
Ginny grinned at Colin, and sent a Jelly-legs Jinx at him, which he quickly blocked and returned her jinx. She soon fell into the rhythm of shooting and blocking, and even felt comfortable enough to glance at Neville, though she almost regretted it.
Draco was casting all his spells silently, something that the seventh-years had already learned, and Neville was slowly losing control on the situation. After Neville sent back a rather feeble jinx, Draco smirked and brought his wand up, focusing hard on the weaker boy.
Ginny knew this did not bode well for Neville, who was too shaken from his desperate blocking to notice, and she decided to intervene before Draco could bully him any further. But she was a tad too late, and as she stepped in front of Neville to cut off Draco's spell, she saw a jet of red light shooting toward her. Her eyes met Draco's, and she saw not only surprise but also what would have been fear on any other person.
Then - she felt herself flying backward, and felt pain, intense and burning, pain like nothing she had ever felt before consuming her entire body, and the distant sound of a scream that she realized was her own.
And instantly, the pain was gone, and she was thankfully engulfed with darkness. She hardly had time to enjoy the peaceful oblivion when she felt someone shaking her shoulders, their voice coming through to her as if out of a fog.
"Ginny - Ginny, wake up, come on. Ennervate. Oh, bloody hell -look, I'm sorry. I meant to hit that oaf. I never would have done that to you."
She heard the earnestness in the voice, and as she slowly opened her eyes, she was horrified to find Draco Malfoy staring at her, still holding her up by her shoulders. And as she glanced behind him, she saw the entire class staring at her, snapping her back to reality.
She shoved Malfoy's hands off of her, scrambling away from him. "Why are you so upset you hit me? As you said, both Neville and I are blood traitors, it shouldn't make a difference whom you crucio."
Draco backed away, shocked by her harsh words, and Neville stepped forward, helping Ginny stand up. She accepted his hand gratefully, wrapping her arms around him when she stood up, glad to have someone to comfort her.
She never noticed the look of hurt on Draco's face, the look of care in Neville's eyes, nor the cold, perceptive glance Lucius Malfoy gave his son.