"Gin!" Ginny was crushed by enthusiastic screaming followed by a hug that literally took the breath out of her.

"Hi!" Ginny responded enthusiastically. She was guessing that the lanky blonde in front of her was her roommate, Marie, but Draco hadn't mentioned if she had more roommates. It seemed odd that there would only be two Slytherin girls in seventh year, especially in a world dominated by Voldemort.

"How was the party? I want to hear everything. I'm so jealous you were invited." The blonde was pouting in an exaggerated fashion, and her words tumbled out a million miles a minute.

"Well, it was in my sister-in-law's honor," Ginny responded dryly.

"You know what I mean. You get invited to everything. I wish my parents were in His inner circle." How did any version of Ginny hang out with this woman? It had been two minutes and Ginny wanted to run in the other direction. "So?"

"So…?"

"I want details, remember."

"Well, the décor was very… black. And purple."

The other girl smiled knowingly and rolled her eyes. "So Pansy."

"Yeah. So Pansy," Ginny replied awkwardly. "And, um… what else do you want to know?"

"What was he wearing?"

"Sorry, who?"

"You know, the love of my life." She sighed dramatically.

"Right." The blonde looked at her expectantly. "Actually, could you help me with his name? Don't freak out but I am having a lot of memory problems. Draco thinks I was attacked. Pansy found me passed out in the forest."

"You didn't lead with this?" It was hard to tell which rose more: the pitch of her voice or the volume. "Giiiiin!" Definitely the pitch.

"Sorry, I just didn't want to have to worry you if I didn't have to."

"I'm sure Draco nearly had a heart attack."

"He was really worried." Still really strange.

"He is so irritating."

"What?" She was talking about Ginny's fiancée, and if they weren't really together, well she didn't know that.

"Don't act surprised. You complain about him all the time."

"I know, just habit, you know, defending him in public." The other girl nodded knowingly, shifting position to rustle through her desk. She came out with a photo book. The name "Marie Hemlocke" was printed in bold letters in the front. Each letter glittered with gold and little fireworks were popping out of them.

"I'll go through this with you." Marie opened the book, pointing to various witches and wizards Ginny had only known in passing, if at all. "And that's the love of my life," Marie said with a sigh as they reached the picture of none other than Vincent Crabbe. "Isn't he dreamy? Can you remember what he was wearing?"

"Honestly, no, I can't, sorry." There had to be a way out of this conversation. Out of this friendship. For some reason this strange irritating Slytherin was harder to deal with than Draco. At least he had somehow become a caring person; this girl made Ginny want to claw her eyes out.

"And that's Margaret," Marie continued, making snide comments about nearly every girl in the photo book. "Such a horrible color on her. I can't believe her friends let her go out in that, but they're not much better, are they?" Luckily, Ginny got the feeling that she wasn't required to respond to these remarks. They seemed to tumble out of Marie unprompted as she plowed forward without pausing for Ginny to comment.

The next day, Ginny was wandering through the hallway on her way to breakfast when a burly hand grabbed her and yanked her. Naturally, she screamed and fought against her attacker, finally turning around and performing her infamous Bat-Bogey Hex.

"What the hell, Gin?" Ugh. Ginny was so tired of that nickname. GINNY! She wanted to scream. G-I-N-N-Y.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"What do you mean?" The large man whined. As the bats cleared, she realized who she was talking to: Gregory Goyle.

"Merlin, Goyle, haven't you graduated by now?"

"What is wrong with you today, Gin? Goyle? Did I do something to upset you? And you know I skipped last year. Special mission and everything." He winked. Goyle actually winked at her. Ginny did not want to know what that meant.

"Look, I need to eat food before I can process whatever this is," she moved her hand to gesture at his general person as she grimaced.

"Seriously, Gin. Tell me what I did wrong so I can apologize and move on. I miss you." Ugh. He had gotten closer, his hot breath on her neck. She thought the fact that she was marrying Draco bloody Malfoy would at least prevent other Slytherins from pawing all over her.

"I am engaged, Gregory." Ginny was willing to use his first name to divert suspicion, no matter how much it pained her.

"You didn't seem to care about that last Thursday." Goyle said in what he must have thought was a seductive tone, but it sounded more like an angry cat snarling. He tried to touch her again, but she dodged it like a Bludger.

"I'm serious, Gregory. I know I've led you on—"

"Led me on?" He was angry now, but Ginny wasn't upset. Angry Goyle felt much more familiar. Angry Goyle she could deal with. "That's what we're calling sleeping with me, what, half a dozen times?" So much for keeping it a secret from everyone that her and Draco weren't a couple.

"Gregoryyyy," Ginny whined. She hated the way it sounded coming out of her mouth, but it seemed to calm Goyle down. Godric, this was a mess. How was she going to explain her strange behavior? "I'm sorry. I thought I heard someone coming down the hall," she whispered.

A look of relief washed over his face as he nodded.

"But I do have to end things with us."

"Why, Gin?" He sounded devastated, and she almost felt bad for him, the key word being almost.

Why, indeed? Ginny sighed dramatically. "This weekend with Draco—we're really a couple now, Gregory."

"What?" He looked dumb and dumbfounded at the same time.

Ginny nodded with as much sympathy she could muster for the person standing much too close to her.

"But you said you loved me." Oh Godric.

"I'm so sorry, Gregory. I think there was just always something there with Draco and it just came out this weekend."

"Are you sure?" He looked crestfallen. "We only had a month." He half-talked, half-whispered to himself.

Ginny awkwardly extended out her arm to pat him and he grabbed it, pulling her into a tight hug. Unsure of what to do, Ginny awkwardly patted Goyle's back as her shoulder started to soak with what she could only conclude were his tears. Goyle's large fingers dug into her shoulder blade and spine and his chest was pressed against her own, cutting off her breathing.

"Goyle," Ginny managed to cough out. "You're crushing me."

"Goyle again?" His voice was cracking. "Gin, are you sure I didn't say something to upset you?"

"No, Gregory, will you stop being so dramatic? I have to eat," Ginny said in her best haughty voice. Infuriatingly enough, that seemed to trigger something in Goyle because he nodded resolutely and wiped his tears away, mumbling an apology. Ginny didn't respond and walked away. She did not like what constituted normal behavior for her counterpart. Not at all.

As she walked into the Great Hall, Marie waved her over enthusiastically.

"You're late to breakfast this morning," Marie said in an over-the-top teasing voice, wagging her eyebrows up and down. "Ever going to tell me where you run off to in the mornings?" Well at least my shame was private.

"Nowhere, Marie. Where were you when I woke up?" Changing the subject to Marie seemed like a good strategy to get the blonde off her back.

"You know where I was," she said suggestively. Ginny looked at her blankly, waiting for her to remember something that wasn't about her: that she had supposedly lost part of her memory. "Ohhhh," Marie said slowly, realization dawning. "You don't. Well,"—she paused for effect—"I'll tell you all about it." Marie then dove into a story so horrifying that Ginny almost crushed the glass holding her pumpkin juice in her bare hands. Despite Marie's repeated insincere whining of "no, don't look", Ginny looked, turning her head around to the staff table with the most neutral face she could muster while making eye contact with Severus Snape. The Potions Master—Headmaster, now—nodded curtly at her and she broke eye contact. How could her roommate be sleeping with him?

"Isn't he dreamy?"

"Um…"

"I mean, he's no Vincent." Marie giggled. "But don't tell him that."

Ginny sighed and tried to smile. There was no accounting for taste.

Her first class was History of Magic. She sighed as she slid into her seat and waited for Lockhart to start droning on about something or other. Unfortunately, Lockhart called on people so she couldn't tune him out as she wanted to. She played dumb when he called on her (which was easy to do, really, as she had no idea what he was talking about) and rushed out of class when it was over. She had a free period and couldn't wait to go to the library. Just as she thought the words, she felt a sad smile on her face at the reminder of Hermione. What had happened to her in this strange world? Every student in her year that had been a Muggle-born was absent at breakfast this morning; it was difficult to imagine that Hermione had escaped being kicked out of school, as well.

As she walked into the library, she awkwardly made her way up to Madam Pince. "Excuse me, Madam Pince?"

"What do you need, Ms. Weasley?" Madam Pince replied in an exasperated tone. Well, some things would never change.

"Well, I'm doing a report on the Dark Lord and was wondering if there are any books on the history of his reign," Ginny said in her best mock-innocent voice, trying to convey regard for a man that she had spent years fighting.

"Ms. Weasley, why are you wasting my time?" She opened her mouth as though to say more but closed it again with a sigh. "Follow me."

Ginny couldn't help but let out a small gasp as Madam Pince walked her to what looked like several dozen books, all in the same series titled Tales of our Lord, His Feats and Accomplishments by Gilderoy Lockhart.

"Er—thank you, Madam Pince."

"You're welcome, Ms. Weasley," the librarian replied as she left Ginny with the strange series. She started to go through the volumes as she picked out the one that appeared to be about his return and began to read, trying to suppress her rage as she did so.

"After being reunited with the Stone, the Dark Lord called on his loyal followers, who rejoiced at the sight of his glorious return." Ginny scoffed; the book styled Voldemort as the creator of the Stone, and Dumbledore as someone who defeated Voldemort in order to obtain it.

"Unfortunately, a young boy threw himself into the fight between the Dark Lord and the late Albus Dumbledore, a sad casualty in the war to improve the education of the young." Ginny nodded numbly, hugging the awful book to her just to have something to hold. She had thought Harry wouldn't have been alive with everyone so sure of Voldemort's reign, but there was still a small sliver of hope that she had held onto.

The next book was about the "improvement" of Hogwarts. "The Dark Lord's first mission was to remove the non-magical students that only drew power at the expense of other students; grades improved almost immediately… In order to maintain our Secrecy, memory charms were performed on the young Muggles who had attended Hogwarts previously… As a result of the work on the Muggles, St. Mungo's can now cure most wizards who run afoul of a strong memory charm…" And that was enough for the day; things were worse than she thought. Ginny closed her book in anger and glanced up at the clock; she had already missed her period after lunch, but she doubted anyone would care. She was, after all, in His inner circle, as Marie had so delicately put it.