"How was your summer, Ginny?" said Lena brightly, after Ginny had sat down.
"Lousy," she said.
"I'm sorry to hear that. Mine wasn't bad, but You-Know-Who being back definitely put a damper on it."
"I visited my extended family in Birmingham," said Amber. "Not everyone was convinced that he's back…"
"Yeah, that's the Ministry's fault, honestly," said Lena. "They're being so stupid about it."
"What made your summer lousy, Ginny?" said Amber, looking past Lena toward her.
"Just all cooped up due to safety concerns, and my family had a row with one of my brothers and he's not talking to us anymore." There were so many bad things about her summer that it was easy to pick and choose which ones to mention depending on the situation.
"Which one?" said Amber.
"Percy."
"The one who's now Fudge's Junior Assistant?" said Lena.
"Yep. That's what the row was about. He basically betrayed our family just to be in favor with Fudge. We think he must keep a picture of him under his pillow and probably snogs it every night before going to sleep."
Lena laughed nervously.
"I'm sorry," she said sympathetically.
Ginny shrugged. "He's always been my least favorite brother anyway. It was a long time coming, really."
"Who's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher do you suppose?" said Amber.
"Dunno," said Ginny, scanning the front table. "Maybe it's that woman talking to Dumbledore?"
"Probably," said Lena. "Wow, she's really ugly," she added scathingly. "Looks like a toad."
Ginny laughed; it was true. The woman was squat, had a wide, slack mouth, and had a revolting pink Alice band in her brown, mousy hair. She wore a loud, pink cardigan that matched her headband and Ginny knew at once that she hated this woman with every fiber of her being, despite not knowing anything about her.
"I'll be back," she said, starting to get up. "I'm going to go say hi to Michael. I haven't seen him since the end of last term."
"You didn't sit with him on the train?" said Lena, surprised. "I would have saved a spot for you, but I figured you'd be sitting with him."
"His compartment was already full when I passed by, so I sat with Harry, Luna, and Neville instead."
"Some boyfriend…" said Lena drolly.
Ginny spotted Michael at the Ravenclaw table, sitting between Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot. She walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around.
"Oh, hey!" he said, his face lighting up. He got up and hugged her. "Here, Terry, scoot over so Ginny can sit…"
Ginny squeezed in between them.
"Sorry I didn't save you a spot on the train," he said. "I thought you'd missed it!"
"It's okay. I sat with Harry, Neville, and Luna."
Luna, who was sitting across from Anthony reading The Quibbler, heard her name and looked up over the magazine at her with her saucer-like eyes. Ginny smiled politely.
"I was just telling Michael I sat with you on the train."
"Oh, yes," Luna said dreamily from behind the magazine. "That was very nice, nobody usually sits with me."
Ginny's cheeks went slightly pink and she smiled rather sheepishly. She felt guilty referring to her as "Loony Lovegood" earlier, along with many times before that, and worried she was contributing to her ostracization by doing so. She had considered it a funny joke, but now decided never to call her that again. Looking down the table, she saw Cho sitting on the opposite side from them with some friends. Their eyes met and Cho looked away, looking somewhat hurt and confused, and Ginny realized she must have been glaring at her and looked away hurriedly, blushing even harder. Get a hold of yourself, she thought furiously. Stop looking at her…
"Did you have a good summer?" said Michael, who didn't notice this.
Ginny hesitated.
"Yeah, fine," she mumbled. "You?"
"Yeah, not bad. America was fun, but moving wasn't. That was a big pain in the ass. I'm glad to be back here."
They made small talk for a few more minutes before Ginny returned to the Gryffindor table, kissing Michael on the cheek before departing.
Ginny ambled into the common room that night and saw Hermione having a loud argument with Parvati's friend, Lavender.
"…keep your big mouth shut about Harry! I've known him since our first train ride to Hogwarts, and he doesn't lie!"
Lavender looked furious but said nothing. She turned her back on Hermione and stormed off to the other side of the room to where Parvati was sitting. Hermione turned around as Ginny walked towards her.
"Oh… hi Ginny," she said. Her cheeks had a pink tinge and her hair looked frizzy as it always did when she was mad.
"Hi," said Ginny. "Did that girl call Harry a liar?"
"Mmm," said Hermione sadly.
"I hexed Seamus at the end of last year when he said the same," said Ginny.
"Well, I knew there'd be a lot of skepticism," said Hermione. "But it's still frustrating. Harry's going to have a really miserable time until the Ministry comes to their senses."
Hermione sat down in her usual spot by the fire.
"So who was that Luna girl on the train?" she said. "She was bizarre…"
"That's Luna Lovegood," said Ginny. "I met her during my second year. She's harmless, you just have to get used to her."
"What was that awful necklace she was wearing? It looked like butterbeer caps."
"Yeah, it was. She thinks it wards off Nargles or Wrackspurts or something."
"Wards off what?" said Hermione incredulously.
"I don't know, some creature only she believes in."
Hermione almost looked offended.
"She's just joking, right?" she said with a derisive laugh. "I mean, she doesn't actually believe in things like Nargles right? It's just an act?"
"No, no, you don't understand," said Ginny gleefully, for it was a rare occasion that she knew something Hermione didn't. "The less proof there is of something, the more Luna believes in it. That's how she rolls."
Hermione scoffed loudly.
"Well, I'm off to bed. Good night."
Ginny's Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson the next day told her the Ministry was unlikely to change its attitude any time soon. As she and Lena suspected, the new teacher was the ugly witch they had seen talking to Dumbledore at the start of term feast, who introduced herself as Dolores Umbridge. She turned out to be even worse than she anticipated, and served as nothing more than a Ministry stooge who had been installed to tell them everything was hunky-dory and that there was nothing to fear from Voldemort or any other Dark wizards that may be out to get them. Worse yet, she made it clear they would only be learning theory in the class. There was not going to be any practical learning or wandwork at all. Ginny was outraged by this and narrowly avoided getting a detention.
Harry, it turned out, had not been as lucky, and by dinnertime everyone knew he had gotten into a shouting match with Umbridge and earned himself a week's worth of detentions. Ginny was not remotely surprised. She knew Harry was not going to let her lies go unchallenged.
Her professors had given her a mountain of homework the first day back, and once she had completed it all she went straight to bed and fell asleep immediately.
Ginny woke up and got out of bed quickly. She was back to square one and didn't want to be alone with her thoughts. She got dressed and headed down to the common room.
"Morning, Hermione!" she said brightly as she spotted her by the fire. Harry and Ron had evidently not woken up yet.
"Hi Ginny!"
She looked to be in a very good mood. Ginny inquired as to the source.
"Oh, I knitted some hats for the house-elves last night," Hermione replied happily. "It seems they took them."
"What about your schoolwork?" said Ginny concernedly.
"I make it work," said Hermione simply.
Ginny said nothing. She had no interest in Hermione's house elf crusade. She went down to breakfast, ate quickly, and made her way to her first class shortly after.
On her way down to Herbology after lunch, Ginny passed Cho in the entrance hall and made good on her resolution to look determinedly away from her instead of glaring. Ginny liked it better this way anyway; she couldn't stand the sight of her, and it was much better pretending she didn't exist.
After a long day of classes, she returned to the common room to finish her homework, but she became distracted when the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, Angelina Johnson, ragged on Harry for getting detention from Umbridge, causing him to miss the upcoming tryouts on Friday.
"That's not his fault, he was just speaking the truth!" said Ginny very angrily. "You think he'd rather be in that old hag's office than down on the Quidditch pitch? Get over yourself! If you've got your knickers in a twist about it then you should go yell at Umbridge, not Harry!"
Angelina looked scandalized, but Ginny stormed out the portrait hole before she had a chance to respond. She headed to the library where it would be easier to concentrate, and found Hermione sitting at a table by herself, immersed in a long, tedious essay. Ginny plopped her stuff down and sat across from her. Hermione looked up, startled.
"Oh, hi," she said distractedly. "What are you so upset about?"
"Nothing," said Ginny, pulling supplies out of her bag. "Just schoolwork." She scratched her nose with her quill before dipping it into her ink bottle and beginning a nasty essay for Snape on antidotes. Hermione looked at her with what she thought was a bit of a suspicious look, which confused her, but the next second she was sure she imagined it as Hermione went back to her essay as if there had been no interruption.
"How are Harry's detentions with Umbridge?" asked Ginny quietly.
"Oh, it's not that bad really, Harry says she's just making him do lines. The worst part about it is that she keeps him there forever and he's stuck doing his homework until well after midnight."
"She's an old hag. I almost got a detention too on the first day, I was so angry we weren't going to be doing magic! What kind of Dark Arts defense class is that?"
"I know," said Hermione anxiously. "I don't know how I'm going to pass my O.W.L.s if she keeps this up…"
"Never mind that, what about the real world?" said Ginny incredulously. Was getting "Outstandings" in everything really the only thing Hermione cared about? "How are we ever going to be prepared to defend ourselves from Death Eaters or other Dark creatures? We can't go through the whole school year like this!"
"What choice do we have?"
"Well… I was thinking… maybe we should be teaching ourselves? Like form a club or something? Or perhaps someone could teach us in secret?"
Hermione looked back up at her apprehensively.
"Like who?"
"I dunno," said Ginny airily. "Surely someone from the Order could?"
"We can't do that; we'd get in so much trouble if we're caught. Besides, everyone in the Order that could do it is much too busy."
She went back to her essay. Ginny was not to be deterred, though; she sat and thought for a moment. Who would be capable of doing it? If it couldn't be someone from the Order, then it would have to be someone in the school already. McGonagall? No, she was much too strict to go for this. Dumbledore? Again, he was far too busy as both headmaster and leader of the Order to be a viable option, even if he were somehow agreeable to the idea. It seemed like all the teachers were out. She started losing hope, but no sooner had that occurred than the answer came to her at once.
"Harry should do it," she whispered.
Hermione looked back up at her, her mouth agape. Then she shook her head and gave a small, disbelieving laugh.
"You are not serious?"
"I am. Dead serious."
For a fleeting instant it looked like Hermione thought the idea had merit, but a second later she scoffed and said, "Ludicrous."
"Why not?"
"For one thing, Harry's got enough trouble with Umbridge already. Plus, this would be in addition to all his regular schoolwork. I couldn't ask him to take on this as well, not in his O.W.L. year. Harry's not really the outgoing type either, I don't really see him going for this, do you? And lastly, how do I know this idea is coming from your head and not from your heart?"
Ginny was prepared for this retort.
"I told you, Hermione —"
"Yeah, yeah, I know what you told me," she snapped. "And I already told you I thought you were full of it."
"Believe whatever you want, but please, at least think about it, okay? We've got to do something, and Harry has more experience fighting Dark Magic than any of us have! And you're right, you'll never pass your O.W.L. practicals at the end of the year if we don't."
"Fine, I'll think about it, but don't get your hopes up."
Ginny knew she had won. The seed had been planted. Hermione needed some time to convince herself that breaking the rules this badly was a necessary evil, but once she did, it was happening.
Ginny woke up and got out of bed quickly. She threw on her robes and went down to breakfast, which she wolfed down in less than five minutes, then headed to the library to work on her Potions essay that was due later that day. She stopped suddenly in front of the library door, as she couldn't remember if she had her Potions book with her or not. She began searching through her bag when a horribly familiar voice said, "Excuse me."
Ginny looked up and saw Cho standing a couple feet away looking at her, smiling tentatively. "Er — I was just wondering — do you — er — have a problem with me?"
Ginny felt her face grow warm.
"No," she said quickly. "Why would you think that?"
"Oh, it's nothing, I guess it's just all in my head," she said with a small, irritating laugh that gave Ginny the urge to hex her into next week. She found Cho quite unlikeable even on her own merits, and was glad to have a Harry-free reason to hate her. "It just feels like you're always… I dunno… looking at me funny… or glaring… I was just wondering if I did something to upset you..." She blushed and looked down nervously.
"No, don't be silly," lied Ginny, forcing a smile with massive effort. It was apparently pretty convincing because Cho's face relaxed when she looked back up at her. "Well, I have to finish this Potions essay… see you later…"
Eager to get away from her, she picked up her bag and hurried into the library. She sat at the nearest table and pulled out her essay, but she was flustered now and didn't make much progress on it. Cursing, she packed her things back up and headed to Transfiguration. As she had practiced her assignment of transfiguring hedgehogs more than the rest of the class, she was given less homework than everyone else.
She spent some free time with Michael that evening, but as this was his O.W.L. year, he'd been given even more homework than she had, and their time together was limited. Ginny went back to the common room to finish her own homework, which took her until almost midnight, and when she was finally done, her and Harry were the last ones left. He had gotten a late start on his thanks to Umbridge's detention. He was scribbling furiously on some parchment when she approached him apprehensively.
"Hi Harry."
"Oh, hi," he said rather irritably.
"What are you working on?"
"Potions essay," he said, not looking up.
"That's unfortunate. I spent most of my breakfast and lunch hours working on mine. I'm sure yours is even worse."
Harry grunted.
"Angelina said that you're missing Quidditch tryouts?" said Ginny.
"It's not my fault!" he said, his temper rising fast.
"I know, Harry," she said sympathetically. "I told her as much. I told her to get over herself and shut up, actually."
Harry blushed.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
Ginny woke up and got out of bed quickly. As usual she ate breakfast in a hurry before heading to her first class. Her teachers were already starting to introduce new material before most of the students had gotten the hang of the old material, and there were already noticeable traces of panic amongst the fourth-years. Ginny was starting to feel overwhelmed too; feigning happiness all the time took enough effort by itself. She took a little solace in that she was ahead of most of her peers academically.
She spent the rest of the afternoon with Michael following her last class, but to her annoyance, he spent most of the time complaining about the ridiculous amount of homework he had received as the teachers kept stressing how important their fifth year was.
"O.W.L.s, O.W.L.s, O.W.L.s," he said in an irritated, mocking voice. "I'm going to have to deal with this all year."
"I'm over a year and a half away from mine and they're already shoving it down my throat," groaned Ginny.
"Just wait. Next year will be unbearable."
Ginny had no doubt he was right and was dreading it. They ate dinner together and then went their separate ways to work on their homework. Once again, Harry was the last one left in the common room as his detentions meant he started later on his homework than everyone else. She could tell he was in a bad mood and didn't want to be bothered, so she merely bade him good night and went to bed.
Ginny woke up and got out of bed quickly. She met up with Ron at breakfast who, to her astonishment, informed her that he'd be trying out for Keeper on the Quidditch team. She had completely forgotten tryouts were that evening. Ginny had decided not to bother, as she thought she had very little chance of making the team with Angelina, Alicia, and Katie as the Chasers, who were all older than her and had been on the team for ages. Ron looked quite nervous and didn't eat much.
The anticipation of Quidditch tryouts seemed to make time move slower, and each of her classes felt twice as long as usual. When her last one finally ended, she headed out to the Quidditch pitch with Michael to watch.
"You didn't want to try out?" said Michael.
"Next year. There will be two Chaser vacancies."
They sat and watched as one by one, the would-be Keepers mounted their brooms and took off towards the goal posts. Ron went fifth, and he did all right, but he missed a couple of easy ones and even Ginny could tell he didn't perform as well as the third contestant. After Ron was a third-year student named Vicky, who performed at least as well as Ron did and probably a bit better. The last one did horrendously.
To her surprise, Ron ended up getting the job.
"Congratulations!" she told him after learning the news.
"Thanks, Ginny! Blimey, Fred and George better have some butterbeer in the common room! Wonder if Harry's out from detention yet? I can't wait to tell him!"
He marched boisterously off the pitch towards the castle as Angelina followed shortly behind but stopped to talk to Ginny.
"Hey Ginny, listen, you were right the other night about Harry, I shouldn't have gone off on him. I should have been more considerate given what's he's been through. Being Quidditch Captain is more stressful than you might think, though. I was probably a little hard on Oliver Wood when he was here…"
Ginny didn't really know how to respond but she appreciated that Angelina regretted how she treated Harry earlier.
"How come you picked my brother for Keeper?" she said. "Did he Confund you? I could tell there were at least two that did better than him…"
"Yeah, well, there were some other factors with the other two that made me not want to pick them. I'm hoping Harry can help Ron out some. Moral support, you know? I think Ron's big problem is a lack of confidence."
"You mean aside from him being a humungous git?"
Angelina laughed in spite of herself.
Ginny knew Hermione would warm up to the idea of Harry teaching the defense group, but she expected it to take longer than a week, and she was therefore extremely surprised when Hermione approached her in the common room the following Tuesday and did a complete U-turn from her position when Ginny first broached the idea.
"So, about your suggestion last week, Ginny. I've thought about it, and I think you were right. I don't know if Harry will agree to do it, but I'm going to try and persuade him."
"Don't tell him it was my idea," said Ginny seriously.
"Why not?"
Ginny hesitated.
"H-he will think I still fancy him!" she whispered, feeling the heat rise in her face. "It will seem less weird coming from you and Ron!"
The look on Hermione's face said quite plainly that she thought Ginny was being completely irrational, but her tone was light when she simply replied, "If you insist…"
Hermione informed Ginny the next morning that Harry was angry at the suggestion and refused but that she was also not deterred.
"Honestly Ginny, I think he would have taken it better if the idea had come from you. You should suggest it instead. I think you could convince him."
Ginny ridiculed this notion and refused. The last thing she needed was Harry yelling at her instead. She was already depressed enough as it was.
Two long weeks passed before Ron and Hermione had gotten Harry on board, and Hermione planned their initial meeting on the date of their first Hogsmeade trip in early October. Ginny had pitched the idea to Michael, and while he didn't seem too enthusiastic about it, he agreed to at least attend the first meeting and form an opinion on it afterwards. He invited his friends Terry and Anthony too, who seemed much keener on it. Ginny confirmed with Hermione that this was all right.
"Yes, absolutely," she said. "The more the merrier! We're going to meet in the Hog's Head Inn at ten o'clock on Saturday; I think we're unlikely to be overheard there. We're not breaking the rules or anything, but still. We'll focus on recruitment first, then next meeting we'll actually start doing stuff. At least that's the plan."
Ginny had been certain that what they were doing was so rebellious that they had to be violating the rules rather egregiously, so the revelation that they weren't was quite shocking to her. Giving it more thought, however, she realized there technically wasn't anything wrong with students simply gathering or forming a club, and so Umbridge couldn't really do anything about it even she did catch them.
"The Hog's Head?" said Michael uncertainly, when Ginny had passed along the information to him later that day. "Isn't that place a little dodgy?"
"It's not that bad," said Ginny. "Hermione wanted somewhere rather secluded; she still didn't think it would be good if Umbridge found out what we're doing, even if it's not technically illegal."
"No, I should think not," said Michael.
Saturday morning dawned and Ginny and Michael left the castle following breakfast, accompanied by Michael's friends, Terry and Anthony.
"Where do you think we'll be meeting up for these lessons?" asked Terry curiously. "Gonna have to find somewhere Umbridge won't find us…"
"Yeah I was wondering that too," said Ginny. "Guess we'll find out shortly."
Ginny entered the Hog's Head Inn behind Michael and his two friends and gasped. The place was very crowded with students; apparently the idea of a Dark Arts Defense group had been quite popular. Looking around, Ginny saw students from every House but Slytherin, including a few she didn't even know. Even Lavender had come, whom Hermione had argued with a couple weeks ago. Ginny narrowed her eyes slightly as she spotted Cho a short way away with one of her friends. Once Fred, George, and Lee entered, they all got butterbeers and took a seat in a circle around Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry whispered rather frantically to Hermione and gave her a rather ugly look; it seemed he did not expect this kind of turnout and was panicking slightly. Hermione tried to calm him down, and once the group had settled, she began speaking.
"Er," she said nervously. "Well — er — hi. Well… erm… well, you know why you're here. Erm… well, Harry here had the idea — I mean" — Harry looked at her sharply — "I had the idea" — she glanced at Ginny, who smirked — "that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts — and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us" — Hermione sounded more confident now — "because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts —"
"Hear, hear!" piped up Anthony.
"Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands," she continued, glancing at Harry. "And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells —"
"You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too though, I bet?" said Michael.
"Of course I do," said Hermione. "But I want more than that."
That's rich, thought Ginny, smiling, thinking back to their conversation a couple weeks ago.
"I want to be properly trained in Defense because… because… Lord Voldemort's back," she finished. Shudders and small squeals went around the room at these words, and Cho's friend actually shrieked. Ginny saw Harry was trying hard not to roll his eyes. "Well… that's the plan anyway."
Most of the crowd was not dismayed, and looked toward Harry eagerly, but a blonde boy who revealed himself to be Zacharias Smith demanded proof of Voldemort's return and an account of what happened during the third task. Harry was not pleased and, in Ginny's opinion, did an excellent job of putting him in his place.
Ginny thought the rest of the meeting went well, and there was great enthusiasm from most of them, but it turned out that neither Harry, Ron, nor Hermione had a plan for where to meet.
"Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere," said Hermione. "We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting."
She had them all sign a piece of parchment as a resolution to be a part of the club and not to tell Umbridge what they're doing. After Ginny and everyone else put their name down, Hermione stuffed the parchment back in her bag with a rather smug look on her face.
"I'm excited about this!" said Michael as they left. "This was a great idea!"
Ginny smiled to herself.
"That Zacharias bloke's a git, though," said Anthony. "I don't trust him at all, he'll probably blab to Umbridge about it."
"Yeah, I'm surprised Hermione invited him," said Ginny. "Gonna have to have a word with her about that later."
A cool breeze wafted through the air as the sun beat down on them. The four of them walked down High Street towards Hogsmeade Station.
"Fancy an early lunch?" said Michael as they approached The Three Broomsticks.
"Okay." Ginny turned into the tavern with Michael right behind her.
"See you back at the castle," he said to Terry and Anthony, who both said goodbye and continued walking.
