Ginny liked to believe she was a good student. She always went to class, she always handed her assignments in on time, and she often found herself raising her hand to contribute to class discussions. Granted she was never as invested in her studies as Percy, and didn't take them as seriously as Lily or Hermione, but she managed to stay within the top ten of her classmates, and she liked learning new things. However when it came to History of Magic Ginny could really care less.
She found herself constantly struggling to stay awake, and found the lessons tediously boring. She was almost certain that Professor Binns was actually less boring in the future, which was a stretch since she disliked his class then too. Even Lily who often bee-lined for a seat directly in front of the teacher sat with her friends in the back of the class, and Ginny swore she saw her doodling on a piece of parchment instead of paying attention.
"Did James tell you he scheduled a practice before dinner?" Sirius asked, reaching under the table to pull an apple out of his bag and taking a large bite out of it
"Do you have another one of those?" James asked, from where he sat with Lily and Alice across from them.
"No," Sirius responded tossing the apple over to James, who gingerly bit off a large chunk before tossing it back over to Sirius.
"Frank mentioned it when I passed him in the hall," Ginny whispered back, although she could have just as easily yelled and Professor Binns wouldn't have noticed.
Sirius munched on his apple loudly, as he spoke "Do you want to head to the pitch a bit early before the team gets there?"
"Not for extra drills right?" Ginny asked, scrunching up her nose remembering the last time Michaela had asked her to head to practice and hour early, and the two had spent the time running drills that would have made James proud, but left Ginny exhausted by the end.
"Not exactly," Sirius grinned.
"Alright, my last period is free so I was going to catch up on homework, but then I can meet you on the pitch?" Ginny asked, her heart doing flop in her chest.
In all the chaos Ginny and Sirius hadn't had a lot of time to really be alone. Her mind was in a million places, and with her secret meetings with Regulus and trying to keep her grades up, on top of James scheduling practices nearly every night; they had found it nearly impossible to have more than a few moments alone together.
"Even the talk of homework makes my heart swoon when you say it," Sirius joked.
"Does that mean you'll go to the library today and work on the homework I know you haven't touched yet?" Ginny asked.
"Not a chance, I didn't make it this far by doing homework," Sirius laughed, tossing the rest of his apple over to James who gingerly finished it off.
"No i'm afraid he relies heavily on me to pass," Remus added, from where he sat in front of his two friends.
"And you know I'm extremely grateful Mooney," Sirius joked.
The rest of Ginny's classes passed like a blur, but also left her feeling more overwhelmed with the amount of homework she was getting assigned in her classes. She wondered how Hermione had always managed, she was always taking twice as many classes as her brother; and Ron barely managed to stay ontop of his work when they went to Hogwarts. Everyone else seemed to be much less stressed than her. James and Sirius barely ever cracked open a book, and even when they did they seemed to complete their assignments in no time. Then again they didn't know the things Ginny knew, and they didn't carry the weight of the wizarding world on their shoulders. Ginny couldn't help but laugh bitterly as this thought crossed her mind, this must have been how Harry felt.
"Laughing at your homework is always the first sign of madness," a soft voice interrupted Ginny's thoughts, nearly startlingly her out of her chair where she sat tucked away at a back table in the library; where she had been sitting for nearly an hour without accomplishing much.
Ginny looked up embarrassed, and to her surprise Narcissa Malfoy - or rather Narcissa Black stood behind her, her light blond hair pulled back into a pony tail, and a pile of books stacked under her arm.
"Sorry I didn't mean to startle you," She responded, grinning sheepishly.
Ginny continued to stare open mouthed. She had never really known Narcissa Malfoy in the future, but she always imagined her to be cruel and hostile like her son and her husband. Yet for all their encounters here in the past she had never been anything other than kind to Ginny.
"I couldn't help noticing we were working on the same thing," She continued, pointing to the book stacked on top of her pile and looking pointedly at the pages Ginny had spread out across the table.
"Oh," Ginny replied lamely, completely taken aback from the encounter.
"I'm sorry if i'm disturbing you, I'm just truly awful when it comes to ancient runes," She grinned.
Ginny looked down at her own work spread across the table, ancient runes wasn't her best subject, often she would ask Remus to help her out when she got stuck - which was often. Narcissa usually sat near the front, and always seemed to be scribbling down everything.
"So am I," Ginny admitted, unable to contain the smile that spread across her face.
"Would you mind if I join you?" She asked, looking at the empty chair beside her.
Ginny only hesitated for a moment. She had no reason not to like Narcissa, just some prejudice from her husband and son in the future, but Ginny had to admit she really didn't know Narcissa at all. For all Ginny knew, Narcissa didn't want to marry Lucius at all, it was an arranged marriage set up by their families, Narcissa really had no say in the matter. Severus wasn't the stuffy git of a professor that he was in the future, so maybe Narcissa was the same.
"Not at all, I really could use the help," Ginny said smiling, reaching over to pull out the chair for Narcissa.
"I've been stuck on the same one for nearly an hour,' Narcissa whispered, opening her book for Ginny.
"Oh you're much further along than me, I'm still at the top of the page," Ginny giggled.
The two girls sat in the back of the library until it was time for dinner, both completing their runes homework for the week, as well as their transfiguration essay. Ginny couldn't help feeling like she had poorly misjudged Narcissa. She was exceptionally kind for a Slytherin, and she was extremely patient with Ginny as they worked through the ruins together. Ginny couldn't help but like her.
"I heard you're going to the Malfoy Easter ball," Narcissa stated, as the two girls left the library and made their way to the great hall.
"I do plan on attending," Ginny responded.
"I know we're not exactly friends, but I do like you Ginevra, I know it's not my place, and forgive me if I step over a line, but you don't have family here correct?" She asked gently, the smile disappearing from her face.
"Yes," Ginny responded wearily, wondering where this conversation was heading.
"I heard you spent Christmas with the Prewett twins, I know we haven't really had the chance to talk before. But Sirius and I were close growing up. He and Regulus were always my favorite cousins," She started, as if sensing Ginny's discomfort. "You can spend the Easter weekend at my family's manor, I have lots of dresses you can choose from for the ball." She added, the smile on her face completely genuine.
"What happened?" Ginny asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You said you were close to Sirius and Regulus?"
"Sirius didn't agree with our family values, and we were forbidden to speak to him, and after my sister was cut off from our family, our parents didn't let Bella and I spend to much time with our family, instead of summers at Grimmauld, we were shipped to the Malfoy's or the Nott's or the Lestrange's. Our parents didn't want us to disgrace our family." She sad sadly.
"That hardly seems fair," Ginny replied sadly.
"Nothing's really fair when you're a pure blood witch, your duty is to your family, and to whoever your husband is to be," Nacrissa finished. There was no sadness in her voice as she said this, just defeat and understanding, and it made Ginny's heart break as she looked at this girl who would be forced into a marriage she clearly didn't want, only to have an heir who would turn out to be prat.
"I'm sorry," Ginny said, knowing that sorry wouldn't be enough.
"It's hardly your fault, it's my duty to my family," Narcissa shrugged, forcing on a smile that indicated the topic was now closed. "My invitation is there if you want in Ginevra, it'd be nice having a girl to actually talk to there, and I'm sure Regulus would be happy to know you'd be taken care of," She grinned.
The two girls came to a stop as they stood just inside the entrance of the great hall.
"I'll think about it and let you know," Ginny smiled, as the two girls parted ways. Ginny heading towards the Gryfindor table where she spotted her friends. And Narcissa across the hall to the Slytherin table.
"I'm starving," Ginny said, as she took the empty seat beside Sirius and reached across the table to start loading her plate.
"Where were you?" Sirius asked, as soon as Ginny sat down.
"In the library," Ginny responded, shoving a fork full of food into her mouth.
"Oh she was in the library!" James exclaimed sarcastically from the other side of Sirius.
"Why?" Ginny asked, moving her attention from her plate to James, who had streaks of mud on his face. "Where were you?" Ginny asked, looking back over to Sirius to see that her too had mud on his cheek.
"With the rest of the team at a practice you should have been at," James responded angerly.
"Oh no!" Ginny cried. She had gotten so absorbed in her homework with Narcissa it had completely slipped her mind that she had Quidditch practice. "I completely forgot, Narcissa and I just got so caught up in ancient runes that I-"
"Nacrissa Black?" Lily asked, looking over at Ginny in confusion.
"Forget about the practice, I waited on the pitch for you for over an hour," Sirius interrupted.
Ginny's heart sank, not only had she forgotten about her practice, she had also forgotten she had made plans to meet Sirius.
"I'm sorry, Narcissa came-"
"It's fine Ginevra, I didn't realize you liked spending all your time with the rest of my family," Sirius cut her off angerly, as he got up from the table and stormed out of the hall.
James gave her a dirty look as he reached over stuffing a few buns into the pocket of his robes before following his friend out of the hall.
"He spent the whole practice distracted worrying about you, James even cut it short so they could go look for you," Frank stated, as if this would help Ginny.
"I'm sorry, I've just been getting so behind on my homework I lost track of time," Ginny replied, looking over at her friends.
"They're not really mad Ginevra, I'm sure they understand," Alice offered smiling.
Ginny nodded at Alice in way of acknowledgement, but Ginny knew her friend was wrong. She needed to find a way to make it up to Sirius, because it seemed that as of late all she was doing was letting him down.