Chapter 7
The Sunday that preceded their trip to King's Cross was chaotic. Everyone was busy packing their trunks with stray clothes were strewn all over.
"Ron are these yours?" asked her mum holding up a Chudley Cannons Boxer, this caused Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny who were busy sitting at their table, sorting out their books from her mum's shopping trip – to look up.
"Mum, I'd thank you not to embarrass me." seethed Ron.
Ron blushed heavily, seeing that he and his mum weren't the only occupants in the room. Hermione cheeks were dusted pink and she intensely studied Standard Book of Spells, Copy 4 (Which she no doubt had memorized by now) whereas Ginny silently sniggered sharing a humorous look with Harry, who seemed to choke, suppressing his laughter.
Ginny occupied her attention elsewhere and blankly noted that most of her books were hand-me-downs, some of them were frayed and worn. She set off to repairing them, using Sellotape to bind one particular copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, it turned out to be an arduous task taking her hours.
"Ginny! Come here." Her mum's shrill voice called out, after she had just finished making her book look unscathed from a Doxie Pixie attack. Deciding not to ask why she was being called – she headed to her parent's room. Lying on the thick lumpy blanket was a package tied with a brown string. Her mum held it out to her and looked at her, with her cheeks raised up in excitement.
"Go on open it!" urged her mum, brimming with anticipation.
Ginny tenderly unravelled the string, and a deep dark midnight-blue silk pooled out, Ginny tugged at it and on holding the material up – it flowed into the shape of an elegant silhouette. The neckline of the dress robe was circled, luminous silver thread was piped all across outlining it. The sleeves were long but ended in delicate tendrils, and emblazoned on the material were a thousand or so shiny twinkling stars embroidered in the same silver thread. It was ethereal
"Mum!" Ginny exclaimed, with eyes glazed in wonder, "This is beautiful." She tenderly placed the dress on the bed and threw her arms around her mum, embracing her. She wasn't sure how much her mum had spent, but this was truly the most precious thing she'd ever received.
Her mum embraced her back. "Mum, I don't know how much you've spent on this, but it's glorious. Thank you so much!" Ginny said whilst still in the embrace, her mum slowly slipped from the hug, and her face fell. She sat on the bed with downcast eyes.
"Oh Ginny. I didn't buy it." She sighed, "It was my old dress robe that I wore back in Hogwarts. I mean you know how it is here with things so tight. So, I tried my best to find you something, once I found this, I altered it a bit to fit you, and look!" she said, pointing at the threaded stars, "Don't they look bewitched!"
"They do!" Ginny exclaimed smiling with unshed tears, her mum was simply the most brilliant. She felt like she could do the laundry a thousand times and wash the dishes ten thousand times if it could convey how much this meant to her.
Her mum saw her smiling and did the same. "You're growing up to be a beautiful girl Ginny." she gestured towards her. "I think you'll look very pretty in this, and it's a shame I won't be there to see you dressed in this." She finished.
Ginny knew this was her mum's way of reassuring her, because while she had never openly told her mum about her crush on Harry, her inability to get over it, her feeling like she was lacking in the womanly charms department. She knew that her mum sensed it. Words needn't be uttered, but her mum knew, and this was her mum's silent way of letting her know that those were stupid assumptions.
While heading back to her room, nothing could remove the stupid grin on her face until she encountered a surly Ron and an uncomfortable looking Harry.
"What's tha matter?" she asked, on seeing no change in her sour puss brother, she turned to Harry shooting him a quizzical look.
"Dress robes." Harry supplied, holding out an atrocious looking frilly maroon gown.
"Ahh." Ginny said while practicing the most amount of control a human being ever possessed, in trying not to break out in fits of laughter at the thought of Ron prancing about in his dress robes.
Harry looked at her amusedly, as if he could read her mind, and nodded.
Once Ginny's initial amusement died down, a tiny creature made of guilt pricked at her. It wasn't fair that she just received the most intricate creation she ever laid her eyes on while her brother would be dressed in what looked like their hundred- and four-year-old Uncle Alfred's glad rags.
"You know!" Ginny exclaimed, taking the robe in question and examining it, "All is not lost!"
"Really?" Ron asked looking up hopefully, even Harry looked at her curiously.
Ginny nodded. In the new book that she had been reading there was a section on spells on transfiguration. It was a Multicorfors spell, used to change the colour of clothing, she supposed that once she reached Hogwarts, she could start practicing and maybe alter the dress to something more fashionable.
"Give it to me." She said, Ron threw the robe towards her, eager to get it off his hands as if it was smeared with Butober Pus.
"I'd be eternally indebted to you Gin, if you could change it." He said with his eyes peering at her kindly and his lips closed together. Ginny almost felt like holding this over him as leverage and extracting a favour, but she held back.
"Yeah, yeah. But don't expect any miracles." She said smirking at them and taking the dress robe to her room.
Once she was almost out of ear shot, she could hear Ron's boyish voice.
"She's an angel, she is, our little Ginny." He gushed. Ginny let out a laugh and decided that she should try to do something, perhaps this was the altruistic action that the book was talking about. This would be her little project, she thought, stuffing it in her trunk.
Ginny packed everything in her trunk and sealed it shut. She smiled, finally happy after a wildly confusing break.
The next day, they all got dressed sleepily. Hermione and her headed down, and caught the head of Amos Diggory floating in the Floo talking to her dad. They ate breakfast hurriedly, and afterwards her dad pressed a quick wet kiss on her forehead, she hugged him and bade him and Percy goodbye, seeing as they wouldn't be coming.
While they sat in the muggle taxis, Ginny idly wondered what would happen once she reached King's Cross. She knew that Harry, Ron and Hermione would soon return to their exclusive private bubble that surrounded them most of the time. She'd be left to her own devices, but she was okay with it. She realized that with the trio followed trouble. Her first year had been full of it.
Thinking about her first year, she mentally faltered, if only the whole 'Dark Lord possessing her bit' hadn't happened, then maybe she would've been socially more active in her second year. After she had returned at the end of her first year in Harry Potter's arms all frayed up and worn out – rumours had spread. A lot of people in her year had asked her about what happened, but she genuinely didn't know how to explain it.
What could she say? "Hey I barely knew what was going on" or "The only thing I clearly remember during my first year was strangling roosters and partly enjoying it." No, she feigned amnesia, but that wasn't particularly buzzworthy for a bunch of 11-year-olds. So, they left her, but kept talking about her. It wasn't as bad as the attention Harry had received, but the stares and whispers seemed to follow her everywhere through her second year.
It caused her to become paranoid and falter at conversations she normally was socially adept in. That changed though, the roommates who's names she barely recalled during her first year, were thankfully nicer and once they had taken time to slowly observe that she was a well-adjusted normal girl, they opened their arms towards her and she soon got along with them swimmingly even – dare she say.
They had never asked about what had happened in her first year, and she liked it that way. Her roommate Faye Dunbar – had asked a lot about Harry though, which irritated Ginny at the beginning but it soon wore off once she realized she could gush about Harry with someone who understood her.
She hadn't written to any of them and she felt like bonking herself – it was mostly due to her own clumsiness at not taking down their addresses at the end of the year. She was quite self-absorbed during her break she observed. That would change, now she'd be a hundred percent invested in the present, she willed.
She grew excited and kept shaking her legs, she'd get to see them! And now she had a lot to relay as well. Maybe it was for the better, not writing a letter. At least this way they'd have a lot to talk about in their dorm.
Arriving at King's Cross and sliding through the platform seemed to happen at a fast pace, owing partly due to her newfound excitement. She took her time hugging Bill and Charlie though, she had missed the presence of her older brothers, and she didn't realize how much until all of the Weasley siblings were under one roof this time.
"Thanks for the memento, Charlie!" she cried out after releasing him from her death grip that she called a hug. He smiled, ruffling her hair.
"No problem kiddo. Also, I doubt this will be the last time you'll be seeing us, so don't be so eager to say goodbye." He sneakily said. Ginny rolled her eyes at her older brothers and their insistent references to something that was brewing in Hogwarts. They wouldn't elaborate even when not in the presence of the ever-watchful Percy who'd shoot out death glares if they even dared to mention 'the event'.
"I'd dare not." She cheekily said - before a force of magnitude nature crashed into her, she noted that this 'force of nature' had arms that soon snaked around her and squeezed her into a hug.
She looked at Charlie in fear, but upon seeing him smile amusedly, she turned to the figure that had crashed onto her and spotted a mess of dirty blonde hair. A willowy figure soon came into Ginny's mind. Smelling a familiar scent of strawberries and cream that scented the hair, she excitedly turned and pushed her roommate away to see her.
"GINNY WEASLEY HOW COULD YOU NOT WRITE TO ME!" Saoirse O'Connor screamed happily chiding her. Several heads turned. Ginny didn't answer and instead shut further castigating by enveloping the wispy blonde into in a bear hug.
"I missed you! I'm so sorry I didn't!" she apologized while resting her head over Saoirse's shoulders. Saoirse patted her head and responded in the oh-so familiar lilt of an Irish accent, "Never you mind. We're here now!' They separated from their embrace.
Charlie beamed at Saoirse, waving at her and then extending his hand to which Saoirse held and shook.
"Charlie Weasley here, I hope you keep our dear Gin out of trouble." He winked.
"Aye! Will do so Sir." She bowed and mock saluted.
"Right," Ginny said, smizing her eyes, "More like, it'll be me keeping her out of trouble." She said in a matter-of-fact way, pulling her by her shoulders towards the behemoth black train.
"No comment." Saoirse said grinning mischievously. Saoirse went and hugged her dad for 'old time's sake' she claimed. On seeing Saoirse's dad, Ginny waved at him to which he smiled back and then they both entered the train and its multiple compartments. Ginny absently remembered that she'd lost track of Harry, Ron and Hermione but she figured it was for the best.
They continued walking down until they found an empty carriage, but upon entering they saw a small figure hunched over a book. The figure was that of a girl and when she looked up, her eyes widened at the sight of them, behind her thick-rimmed glasses.
"Ahh Look what we have here! It seems like fortune has smiled upon us!" Saoirse animatedly laughed out, flooding their unsuspecting roommate in a hug. Faye Dunbar smiled at Ginny in recognition, which seemed like a hard thing to do whilst being clamped under the wispy blonde. After which, Ginny too hugged her.
They both then settled in, putting their trunks up. The train was rolling away at the countryside, and the green foliage and sweet air left a good atmosphere buzzing in the train.
"So, how were your hols Faye, any luck with your neighbour?" Ginny asked the brunette, referencing her crush on her neighbour in their muggle suburbs.
"T'was good! Dad's company took us to Brighton, so I lolled away in the sun. Oooh and I also saw this amazing movie that I have to tell you guys about, but before I do look at my tan!" she exclaimed holding out her arm, and brandishing pale alabaster skin. Ginny squinted her eyes harder, searching for any melanin.
"Is that what goes for a tan now-a-days." Saoirse quipped, "Are you sure you're not part Vampire Faye?"
"Oh hush, you." Faye said, flapping her hands. "Anyways, Ginny, about the neighbour boy, No! I haven't made progress. I tried. I talked to him when we both took out the garbage at the same time, but it was all small talk! He talked about his posh private school and I wanted to talk about our school, but I couldn't. He probably thought I was a boring old drip." She sighed.
Saoirse nodded seriously, "He might've, can't fault him."
Ginny laughed and Faye pinched the blonde's nose. "Ow! What was that for?" she howled.
"For calling me a boring old drip!" Faye shot back. "Your words! Not mine" the blonde retorted.
Ginny smiled and added, "You're not a boring old drip Faye, you're our boring old drip." To which she received the same punishment. Clutching their noses in pain, Saoirse stared back.
"Hursh doeshn't ish" she said. To which Ginny nodded. All while Faye relaxed back at her seat, smiling smugly.
Their antics were soon interrupted by the sudden whoosh of the compartment door sliding neatly. A gust of wind blew in. The air in the carriage seemed to be perfumed by lilies and some other expensive scent that Ginny probably couldn't afford or name. And out emerged a tall, lithe figure. The individual had turned their back, hauling in their leather monogrammed trunk. Ginny recognized that trunk and turned to the figure.
The girl walked in long strides inside, brandishing her legs confidently with her back held straight. She leaned against the frame of the doorway and supported her weight on one hand.
"Miss me? Gals." Alessandra Zabini said in a smooth, melodious accent.
Saoirse quirked her brow commenting, "Now that's an entrance, if I've ever seen one!" she said pointing at Alessandra and nodding to Ginny and Faye. They laughed and agreed.
At once they all rushed and hugged Alessandra who seemed to bask in their attention. Helping her with her trunk they carefully placed it atop and they all sat, finally, staring at one another with elation at being together.
Alessandra soon questioned Ginny at her lack of letters, to which Ginny apologized sincerely. But the conversation turned away from that and they started discussing about the World Cup. (Saoirse jumped up at the mention of the Irish winning.)
"That Aidan Lynch is a cutie." commented Alessandra.
"Agreed." Nodded Faye.
Alessandra looked curiously at Faye quirking a dark brow, she then flipped her long silky black hair and turned to Ginny.
"On the topic of quidditch players, do you still have a crush on Potter?" asked Alessandra.
Ginny froze and felt like a deer caught in headlights. She didn't know what to tell, it was too complicated. But she decided to go with the truth.
"Actually, I spent the whole summer trying to stop crushing on him." Ginny admitted embarrassedly, she scratched her head, "Umm, a lot of methods, I even tried having a crush on someone else."
This was met by a multitude of reactions.
"Finally!" cried out Alessandra.
"Wot?" asked Saoirse.
"YOU? Not having a crush on Harry Potter? What are they going to announce next, that the Dark Lord is risen." Joked Faye.
Ginny's brow quivered in slight irritation; it wasn't like she was that bad.
On noticing Ginny's mild perturbance, Alessandra explained. "Come on Ginny, you can't fault us for reacting like this. In the time that we've known you - half of that was spent on trying to coax you out of your shell and the other half was spent on hearing you gush about Potter and his toad green eyes." (Ginny inwardly winced at remembering her first year poem that she penned.)
Ginny laughed in disbelief, "Come on you guys, I wasn't down that bad!" she said to no one in particular.
All of them skittled around, and seemed to find the floor very interesting.
"Guys?" Ginny weakly questioned.
Saoirse looked ahead and Ginny knew that look, it was Saoirse's wave of oncoming brutal honesty.
"Alright, I'll say it. You were Ginny! It was okay at the beginning since talking about Potter made you open up to us. But now that we know the real and amazing Ginny Weasley, we'd like to hear more about her shenanigans and less about Potter!"
Ginny laughed and nodded. "Aye, Aye, I guess I can do that."
The rest of the train ride was spent hearing about Saoirse's excursion in Glenteenassig Forest and her encounter with a Black Shuck. ("Omen of death it is." She exclaimed.) and Alessandra's luxurious holiday in Italy.
"Hence the tan girls." She said holding up her arm that had tinged from her former cool caramel tone to a more warmer one.
"That's a tan Faye," Saoirse pointed very seriously, at which Faye rolled her eyes.
The rhythm of the train, set them in exhilaration and was a signal that Hogwarts was coming close. Ginny settled in and for the first time, she noted, she was truly lit up with her stomach all squiggly with anticipation and excitement for the coming year. She would be spending her year with people she considered to be friends, and she was sure she'd have a grand old time.
