A/N: Thank you Finnspa for pointing that out. I found some other slight inaccuracies and suspect grammar upon rereading so I am just going to go ahead and repost.
Ginny woke up late the day after the match. The common room was quiet and bleak as Gryffindor's loss still lingered in the air. Hermione was in her usual spot by the fire, reading a book. Harry and Ron were apparently still in bed.
"Hey," said Ginny quietly, sitting down next to her.
"Oh, hi," said Hermione.
"What are you reading?"
Hermione held up the book so she could see the cover: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Ginny had her own copy of this; it was a required book from year one.
"Haven't you read that cover to cover by now?" Ginny said, smirking.
"Twice," said Hermione. "Good job yesterday, by the way," she added. "Looks like I'm now the only one who can't play Quidditch."
"Nothing wrong with that," said Ginny.
"I know, I just feel… I don't know… left out, I guess? It just seems like I don't have any common interests with anyone, even my friends."
"You should meet my friend, Amber, she's a lot like you," said Ginny.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, she loves schoolwork almost as much as you, I think," she said with a chuckle.
Hermione gave a half-hearted smile.
"Oh, I don't know what's wrong with me," she snapped. "I'm just stressed, I guess."
"Well, that's normal… O.W.L.s are approaching, after all…"
"Yes, and I know I'm going to fail everything!" she said frantically.
"Come on, Hermione… if you fail everything, then we've all failed everything…"
Hermione was not comforted by this and Ginny decided to just leave her be and head to breakfast. She was in one of her moods.
When she reached the Great Hall, she looked at the Ravenclaw table to see if Michael was there, but he was not. Though he had said that he didn't blame her for the Valentine's Day debacle, he seemed more distant towards her than before. She saw Luna sitting by herself, absorbed by The Quibbler as usual, and went to sit with her.
"Hi, Luna. Seen Michael today?"
"Oh, yes, he was here, but he left a few minutes ago," said Luna cheerfully. "I saw you play yesterday. You're a really good flyer, you know. Though I guess it was lucky Summerby got that Wrackspurt right as he was about to catch the Snitch."
Ginny, who knew full well that Summerby had simply had a cold, just muttered thanks and grabbed a muffin. If Michael had indeed just left the Great Hall, she should have passed him on the way down. It was Sunday, so there were no classes. She figured he must have gone outside.
"I've asked Daddy to send you a free copy of March's Quibbler," said Luna vaguely.
"Huh?" said Ginny. "Why?"
"There's a very important story in that one," she said dramatically. "Daddy's really excited, he thinks it will be his bestselling edition yet!"
Ginny wondered what crackpot story she would be in for. Some ludicrous conspiracy theory or the "discovery" of some new fictitious creature seemed like good candidates. She was quite shocked when Monday morning arrived and an owl delivered her March's edition of The Quibbler, she saw a picture of Harry staring at her from the front cover, with the headline:
HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST: THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN
Ginny's stomach felt like it dropped a couple of feet. She flipped through the magazine to the article and started reading. Harry had spilled everything; every little detail, from the moment he touched the Triwizard Cup to appearing back at the front of maze with Cedric's body. She read about how Harry and Cedric had arrived in a graveyard and wondered if it was part of the third task, and how Peter Pettigrew (she gave an involuntary shudder when she read the name), had killed Cedric on Voldemort's orders. Harry recounted how he had been tied to a headstone, how Pettigrew had cut off his own hand and dropped it into a smoking cauldron, how Voldemort's hideous, feeble, child-like body had then been dropped into the concoction and rose back out as the skeletal monster that everyone feared…
Ginny could not read any further. She put the magazine away and barely ate any of her breakfast. The bravery Harry displayed by doing this was exactly the sort of thing that made her fall for him so badly. She couldn't wait to see the look on Umbridge's face when she learned about this. Looking over at Harry down the table, she noticed Umbridge was already standing over him, white-faced and furious, staring at the magazine. Ginny felt a mixture of hatred and satisfaction. Umbridge said something to Harry and walked away clutching the magazine to her chest in her stubby fingers.
"Take that, you twisted —" Ginny muttered under her breath. "You evil, worthless —"
But she couldn't find a word strong enough to express just how much she loathed that woman. She caught up with Harry as they finished breakfast. Taking a deep breath, she said, "I can't believe you did that interview, Harry, that was really brave." Before the moment had a chance to become awkward, she quickly added, "How did the old hag take it?"
"She gave me detention," he said, shrugging. "Pretty much what I expected."
Ginny resolved to finish reading the story after she gathered her courage, but Umbridge had banned The Quibbler by mid-morning. This turned out to be a huge mistake, as every student who hadn't read the story by then made sure to do so now in order to see for themselves just what could have been so bad to warrant the entire magazine being banned. Ginny quickly found there was no need to finish reading the story; students were quoting it left and right in the corridors, in front of classrooms, in the bathrooms, and then in the common room once everyone had finished with dinner, and Ginny was pretty sure she'd heard the entirety of it in dribs and drabs by the end of the day. This time the gossip was not as malicious as it usually was when it concerned Harry; on the contrary, the tone was one of curiosity and intrigue. It seemed students were a lot more open to Harry's version after hearing the unsatisfactory explanation of the Azkaban breakout provided by the Ministry. Cho and Harry made up the very next day, of course, as Ginny knew they would have anyway, but she was sure Cho found him completely irresistible now.
Ginny sat with Lena, Amber, Demelza, the Creevey brothers, and two third-year boys Ginny knew were named Jimmy Peakes and Ben McDonald in the corner of the common room that evening, where Harry was a hero. Fred and George had put an Enlargement Charm on the front cover of The Quibbler and hung it on the wall, so that Harry's giant head gazed down upon the proceedings, occasionally saying things like "The Ministry are morons" and "Eat dung, Umbridge" in a booming voice. Ginny and Lena were drinking butterbeers.
"Umbridge checked me for The Quibbler today," said Colin proudly. "But I ripped the page with Harry's interview out and shoved it in my textbook, then bewitched it to look like schoolwork. Joke's on her!"
"That's what Jack Sloper did too," said Demelza. "I was talking to him earlier."
"Oooooo," said Lena mockingly.
"It's not like that," said Demelza, rolling her eyes. "We're friends, that's all."
"Did you all see Draco Malfoy?" said Ginny contemptuously. Demelza looked pleased with the change of subject. "His precious daddy was outed as a Death Eater. He looked murderous."
"That must be why he gave my sister Natalie a detention over nothing!" said Ben angrily.
"I saw his father at the Ministry once, he certainly looked sleazy," said Amber.
"He wormed his way out of Azkaban after the first war," said Ginny. "Said he was acting under the Imperius Curse."
"They believed that?" said Lena furiously.
"I hear his family is really rich," said Jimmy. "I bet he paid them off!"
The atmosphere got quite rowdy as people drank more butterbeer that Fred and George had presumably nicked from the kitchens. Ginny got an idea and announced she would be right back. She hurried to her dormitory and retrieved the bottle of firewhisky from her trunk and showed it to them.
"Where on earth did you get that?" said Lena, awe in her voice.
"A friend," said Ginny simply.
"Damn, Ginny, you know all the right people, don't you?" said Lena, shaking her head.
She poured some in her and Lena's now empty butterbeer bottles. She offered some to Amber too, but she refused, looking very wary. Ginny and Lena dumped the firewhisky in their mouth and swallowed. Lena coughed and sputtered; Ginny did too but not as much. She knew what to expect; it burned her throat badly but she didn't care. The rest of the group stared at them, open-mouthed. Ginny filled her empty butterbeer bottle up completely and then gave the bottle of firewhisky to Lena, who poured herself another shot's worth and drank.
"That's so strong," she choked. Ginny took another large gulp of the firewhisky. Lena pulled out a pumpkin pasty and ate, handing another one to Ginny. She took it and ate too; it helped with the burning slightly, but not much. She started feeling the effects of the alcohol fairly quickly and drank again.
"Slow down, Ginny," said Amber, who looked seriously alarmed now.
"Just stop me if I'm about to do something stupid," said Ginny, looking over at Harry, who was having a laugh with Ron, Fred, and George.
"You're doing something stupid right now! You shouldn't be drinking that stuff!"
"Oh lighten up," said Lena. "You probably should go get some water or something, though," she added, looking at Ginny.
"Yeah, prob'ly", said Ginny. She stumbled up to her dormitory and poured herself a cold glass of water and gulped it down, soothing her burning throat. She poured another for Lena and took it down to her, but spilled half of it on the staircase on the way back down.
"Hey, Fred, George!" Ginny yelled. "C'mere!"
Fred and George, who were chatting to their friend Lee, looked over and began making their way toward her.
"What can we do for our little sis?" said Fred with a grin.
"Want some?" said Ginny without preamble, pointing to the bottle of firewhisky.
"You've outdone yourself this time, Gin-Gin," said George.
Fred and George were the only two she'd ever allow to call her that. The twins downed the rest of their butterbeers, conjured some glasses, and eagerly poured themselves a shot's worth of the firewhisky.
"Can I try it?" said Demelza tentatively. "I turned fourteen last November."
Ginny was younger than she was when she first tried it, so she poured out a small amount and handed it to her.
"To Umbridge getting eaten by a troll," said Fred, holding up his glass.
"Hear, hear!" said Lena, holding up her butterbeer bottle which now contained the hard liquor. The five of them drank. Dean Thomas saw what was going on and approached Ginny, asking for some. Ginny agreed and went to pour some for him but began spilling it everywhere.
"I'll get it," said Dean, grinning, and he took the bottle from her, poured himself some, and drank.
"Are you gonna tell us where you got that?" said George.
"Later," said Ginny. Dean thanked her and went off to sit with Seamus, and the pair of them began talking excitedly. Ginny stared off into space as a feeling of great contentment washed over her. She went to take another large gulp from her now half-empty, repurposed butterbeer bottle, but Amber stopped her.
"No, you really shouldn't, Ginny. Come on."
"I'm fine!"
Ginny fought Amber off and thew some more down her throat. Amber grabbed the bottle and yanked it from her grasp. It fell to the floor with a crash, firewhisky spilling everywhere.
"Evanesco," said Amber quickly, waving her wand. The bottle fragments and the spilt firewhisky vanished.
"Hey!" said Ginny angrily, but two seconds later she forgot about it. She smiled stupidly.
Lena got up, red-faced, and shouted, "We need some music!"
A Weird Sisters song emanated from somewhere. Lena was dancing in front of them, her blonde hair flying every which way. Ginny stood up and nearly fell over. The room was spinning and she started feeling nauseous. She stumbled around to look for Fred and George again and found them not far away, laughing at Lena.
"Ware'z 'Arry?" Ginny slurred.
"He went to bed," said George. "Looks like you might want to, too," he added, smiling slightly, though he looked a bit concerned at the same time.
Ginny couldn't argue; she could hardly stand up. She went back and grabbed her bottle of firewhisky and hurried up the stairs to her dormitory, tripping twice and bumping her shoulder roughly on the door jamb. She shoved the firewhisky into the bottom of her trunk and vomited in front of the bed.
"Evanesco," said Amber again, who had evidently followed her upstairs. The vomit vanished. Ginny clambered into bed.
"There you go," said Amber, closing Ginny's bed curtains. "You'll be all right."
Ginny woke up the next morning in a panic. She realized what had happened the previous evening and a wave of terror engulfed her. She couldn't remember anything past a certain point. Anything could have happened. She could have confessed her feelings for Harry, or tried to snog him, or snogged a random person, or… well, anything.
"Amber!" she yelled frantically.
No answer. She looked at her clock and gasped; she had already missed half her first class. She stood up and quickly realized she wasn't going to make it to any class that day. She was not still drunk, of course, but she still had the sensation that the room was not stationary. Her stomach and head ached horribly. She made it to the toilet and vomited again, but this time it was mostly dry heaves. After verifying she had put the firewhisky bottle back in her trunk last night, she rushed to the hospital wing, and she was in such a state that Madame Pomfrey had to give her a Calming Draught before providing something for a hangover. Luckily, Madame Pomfrey didn't ask too many questions, though she did tell her that she really shouldn't be drinking that much at such a young age. Ginny fell back asleep and had some very vivid, explicit dreams involving Harry. She woke suddenly and saw Lena and Amber standing over her.
"Hey," said Lena, smiling.
"You woke me!" Ginny said crossly. "I was having such a good dream."
"Feeling alright?" said Amber.
"Better," said Ginny. "I didn't do anything really stupid yesterday, did I?"
"Yeah," said Amber sardonically, "you drank like a quart of firewhisky —"
"No, I mean, really stupid. Like something really embarrassing. Something that would, let's say, make Michael really mad…"
"I embarrassed myself way more than you did," said Lena, laughing. "I think you went straight from tipsy to nearly passing out and went to bed before you had the chance."
Ginny looked at Amber who confirmed this. Ginny let out a huge sigh of relief. She shuddered as she imagined all the things that could have happened last night, and what the consequences would have been.
"After you left, I started snogging some random sixth-year," Lena continued. "Amber came and rescued me" — she put a mocking tone of emphasis on the word — "after she put you to bed."
Ginny was released from the hospital wing at lunchtime and felt good as new. She was even able to make her afternoon classes, though she had trouble concentrating; her brain felt like it was filled with mud. Hermione caught up with her at dinner.
"I heard you were in the hospital wing earlier," she said. "What happened?"
"Oh, I accidentally ate one of Fred and George's items for their joke shop and was puking everywhere," Ginny lied promptly.
"You're doing it again," said Hermione. Ginny gave her a puzzled look. "You always scratch your nose when you lie," she continued. "It's like a subconscious tic, or something."
Ginny realized that she had, in fact, reached her hand up to nose to scratch it without being conscious of doing so.
"How do you notice these things?" said Ginny, astonished.
"I first noticed it when you" — she paused, looking around to make sure they weren't going to be overheard and lowered her voice — "when you said you no longer fancied Harry, over the summer. I was pretty certain that was a lie. And then you kept doing it every time I suspected you weren't being honest about something. I didn't think much of it at first, but after like ten times, well… that's a pattern."
Ginny looked away from her.
"Why didn't you believe me when I told you I was over him?"
"I've got eyes, Ginny, I can see the way you look at him," said Hermione. "Harry may be too hopelessly oblivious to notice, but I'm not."
"Fine, I still fancy Harry," said Ginny, defeated. "Happy?"
"Not until you tell me what happened to you! Why were you in the hospital wing?"
"I — fine, but promise you won't judge me."
"I won't judge you Ginny, I promise."
She told her everything, including where she had gotten the firewhisky, and about the first time she had tried it back at Grimmauld Place. Hermione looked at her with her mouth open while she recounted the story, but said nothing. When Ginny finished, Hermione put her arm around her and hugged her tightly.
"I'm so sorry, Ginny. It wasn't a coincidence that you did this right after Cho and Harry made up, is it?"
"I — I don't know." She hadn't thought about that at the time, but it did make sense that that may have had something to do with her reckless behavior…
Hermione looked at her sadly.
"How're his Occlumency lessons going?" said Ginny, trying to change the subject.
"Badly. He had another dream last night. Or vision, whatever you want to call it. Whether his inability to close off his mind from Voldemort is his fault or Snape's fault, it's hard to tell…"
"It's Snape's," said Ginny at once.
"Glad to have an unbiased view of the matter," said Hermione with a wry grin. "Well, I'll see you at the meeting tonight."
They had their first D.A. meeting that night since the Quibbler story dropped. This gave Ginny an opportunity to talk to Michael.
"Hey, you," she teased, after they had both arrived in the Room of Requirement. "What's been going on? We haven't talked much lately."
"Oh, Ginny, I'm so sorry. My professors have absolutely slammed us with O.W.L. stuff and I've just been so busy. I'm really sorry." He kissed her on the cheek.
"No problem," said Ginny. She accepted his story; it seemed reasonable.
Their relationship went back to normal, and Ginny quickly discovered he was not lying about his workload. She noticed Harry, Ron, and Hermione feeling the pressure of it too. Ginny took to avoiding Harry for a while and spent more time with Michael instead. Now that Harry was back with Cho, she found this was her best way of coping. With everyone's workload getting so bad and Quidditch practices resuming, this was not that difficult.
When April arrived, they finally began Patronuses during the D.A. lessons.
"You can only produce a Patronus if you think of a really happy memory, or thought," Harry explained at the beginning of the meeting. Ginny's heart sank. She knew she would not be able to do it.
"Expecto Patronum!" roared Harry, and a giant silver stag burst from his wand and bounced around the room. The class oo-ed and ah-ed.
Soon the words "Expecto Patronum!" filled the room, but not much happened. A few people produced whisps of silvery vapor and yelled excitedly, but Ginny had no such luck.
Ginny noticed Seamus a short way away and did a double take.
"Hey! What are you doing here?"
"Changed my mind after The Quibbler story came out," he replied. "I was probably going to anyway… even me Mam got skeptical of the Ministry's version of things."
"He just doesn't want to get Bat-Bogeyed again," joked Dean, who was standing next to him. "Expecto Patronum!"
A silvery whisp escaped his wand but was extinguished quickly.
"Ah, well, that was something, at least!" Dean said excitedly.
Ginny tried to think of something happy. First time going to Hogwarts? Nope, she couldn't help but think about what followed that. Her first Quidditch match? Nope, they lost, and she only got the Snitch because the other Seeker messed up. She instead settled on the first time she rode a broom.
"Expecto Patronum!"
Nothing. Ginny tried a few more times, screwing up her face in concentration, but had no success at all. She was hoping Harry would come over and help her, but saw that he was too busy fawning over Cho to notice. Ginny threw her wand on the ground in anger.
"You'll get it!" said Dean encouragingly. "It's not like I'm much better."
"But I can't get it to do anything!" shouted Ginny, as if it were the wand's fault. She kept trying; eventually after about fifteen attempts she was able to produce a small amount of silvery vapor, after focusing so hard on the memory of Angelina telling her she had made the Quidditch team that it almost hurt.
She looked over at Harry again; he was helping Neville, who was having problems as well.
"Harry, I think I'm doing it!" yelled Seamus. "Look — ah — it's gone… but it was definitely something hairy, Harry!"
Ginny was watching Hermione's otter Patronus soar around the room when the door burst open suddenly. Dobby the house elf came running in, his head covered in Hermione's elf hats, his already enormous eyes bulging so that they now looked almost comical. Nothing was comical about his expression though, which was one of pure terror. The room had gone silent in an instant. The elf ran to Harry.
"Harry Potter, sir…" squeaked the elf, trembling from head to foot, "Harry Potter, sir… Dobby has come to warn you… but the house-elves have been warned not to tell…"
Dobby ran headfirst into the wall and bounced off, cushioned by his hats. Harry seized him by the arm and said, "What's happened, Dobby?"
Dobby muttered something Ginny could not hear and began hitting himself on the nose with his fist before Harry stopped him.
"Who's 'she,' Dobby?"
Ginny's blood went cold. She had a nasty feeling she knew exactly who "she" was.
"Umbridge?" asked Harry, who was very much on the same page as Ginny.
Dobby nodded, then tried to bang his head off Harry's knees; Harry held him at bay.
"What about her? Dobby — she hasn't found out about this — about us — about the D.A.?"
The elf said nothing but fell to the floor in an effort to kick himself.
"Is she coming?" Harry asked quietly.
Dobby let out a howl, and began beating his bare feet hard on the floor. "Yes, Harry Potter, yes!"
Harry straightened up and looked around at them all.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" he bellowed. "RUN!"
Horrified, they all bolted towards the door. Luckily, the Gryffindor common room was on the same floor and Ginny, Hermione, and Ron all made it without a problem. Harry, however, did not return, but none of them dared to go look for him. If he'd been caught, it was already too late for them to do anything about it. Ginny started feeling the panic well up inside her again. After an excruciatingly long forty-five minutes, he finally came through the portrait hole, looking quite unhappy.
"What happened?" said Ron at once. "She didn't catch you, did she?"
"Yes and no," said Harry. He launched into an explanation of what happened. Malfoy (now a member of Umbridge's "Inquisitorial Squad") caught him as he was heading towards a nearby bathroom, and Umbridge sent him to Dumbledore's office where there were a number of Ministry wizards waiting, including Kingsley, Fudge and Percy. Cho's friend, whose name was Marietta, had ratted on them, and another Slytherin had found the parchment with all their names on it.
"But don't worry, nobody's been expelled," Harry said quickly, seeing their terrified faces. "Kingsley modified Marietta's memory before she could admit that there had been more than one meeting, and Dumbledore told them he organized it and that this was the first one. I tried to stop him from taking the fall, but he wouldn't allow it… there was nothing I could do…"
"So what happened to him?" said Hermione.
"He's gone. Left. No idea where. Took Fawkes and Disapparated."
"Harry, you can't Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts!" Hermione hissed.
"Well, I don't know what it was, all I know is he grabbed Fawkes, there was a bright flash of flame, and he was gone."
Ginny was too relieved about nobody being expelled to be worried about Dumbledore at the moment. He was Dumbledore, he'd be fine. Umbridge replaced him as Headmistress, but she had basically been that already. Fred and George set off a huge crate of enchanted fireworks the next day which caused Umbridge all kinds of problems, as they multiplied whenever she tried to Stun or Vanish them. Though any of the teachers could have taken care of them easily, they clearly preferred seeing Umbridge struggle all afternoon with them instead.
It was Fred and George's turn to be the heroes of the Gryffindor common room that night. Ginny left the bottle of firewhisky in her trunk this time.
"This is just the beginning," Fred told her. "That was our whole stock of fireworks, but we have other stuff planned. Let us know if you want in on it."
"We've got the premises now," George said. "You know, for the joke shop. So we're not concerned if we get expelled. We're ready to get out of here anytime."
"What other stuff have you got planned?" asked Ginny.
"Let's just say it involves a Portable Swamp big enough to fill a corridor," said Fred airily.
"What if you're caught?" said Ginny. "Umbridge probably isn't going to expel you without punishing you first."
"We'll summon our brooms," said George.
"She hasn't put an anti-Summoning Charm on them?"
"Nope," said Fred. "We even got Flitwick to confirm it."
Ginny was impressed. It really did seem they had put some massive thought and planning into this.
"Speaking of which," said George, his tone changing to one of mock seriousness. "What's this we hear from Miss Granger about you learning to fly by stealing our broomsticks from Mum and Dad's broom shed?"
"I'm gonna kill her," Ginny muttered furiously.
"Nah, sis, it's clear by the way you fly that we made a mistake not teaching you ourselves," said George, sounding impressed.
"We'll forgive you, but only if you beat Ravenclaw," said Fred warningly, though his smile said quite plainly that he really didn't care at all.
