Author's Notes:

Hurraaaay! Let us all rejoice, for I have uploaded once again!

I have done quite a bit of outlining, so I finally know where the story is going. I've also set up plotlines that go in mysterious directions so things could still go totally of rails. But let me tell you, there's some epic shit coming waaay down the line!

Anyhow, please enjoy!

They were all doomed. Something far worse than anything anyone in the magical world had ever imagined had happened! There, just a few feet in front of them, stood Lord Voldemort, cadaverous pallor, glowing red eyes and all. Except this time he didn't have just one or two or even tree, but six heads ! And twelve arms holding as many wands! The sight of all those heads and tangled libs fitting on one body was truly haunting. Then six voices spoke as one in a terrible chorus "Did you really think you were the only one ? Foolish little book !"

It took almost everything Ginny had to remind herself what was going on, brandish her wand and speak the incantation in a trembling voice "Ava… wait no! Ridiculus!"

The figure of Hexa-mort toppled over under the weight of the six heads. Ginny laughed. No one else did.

Professor Lupin stepped forward and the boggart turned into a silver disc with distinct patterns. With his own riddiculus he turned the disc into a balloon that deflated noisily and flew back into the wardrobe.

The silence was deafening. Which wasn't surprising: a school teacher outing himself as a werewolf so publicly was rather shocking after all. Then she noticed everyone was looking in shock at her or the place where her boggart had stood. Wait, what the hell ? Clearly the werewolf teacher revelation is more shocking !

Then her sleep deprived brain reminded her that most people weren't half evil-genius-diary and hadn't made the connection. It probably didn't help that they all had been freshly traumatised by Hexa-mort.

She turned towards her shocked classmates. "What ? This isn't weird !" It definitely was.

No reaction.

"I'm sleep deprived !" That was true.

Still no reaction.

"I saw him in a nightmare last night! He turned me into a book!" That was totally made up, but she really didn't want to think about where the idea of Hexa-mort had come from. Her nightmare had been about Ignatius Barnabus Prewett turning her into a squib so she would continue the family legacy at the Department of Paperwork and Tedium, which didn't exist of course.

"I have a vivid imagination! Ok?"

Most of the class seemed to finally regain some of their composure.

"Hum, hum. That was a rather unsettling vision. Though thank you, miss Weasley, for illustrating an interesting property of boggarts. Namely, that they are indeed harder too face for people with a particularly vivid imagination." Professor Lupin took over. "Now, let us take a 5 minute break to clear our heads. After that those who haven't had their turn yet will get a chance to face the boggart."

After the break the lesson went on normally as the students faced the boggart one after the other. Well normally except for the fact that the boggart now kept turning into Hexa-mort, threatening to turn them into various inanimate objects, but the initial shock had worn of.

The streak of Hexa-morts was only broken when Hermionie's boggart took the form of Professor McGonagal, announcing that all her exams since first year had been regraded and that she had failed everything. She didn't even need to cast the Ridiculus charm, as half the class burst out laughing and the boggart cowered back.

Then Harry Potter stole Ginny's thunder by making the boggart take the shape of a dementor. A wave of cold and misery washed over the class. Professor Lupin jumped in action and spoke "Expecto Patronum!" sending a silver wolf at the boggart, forcing it back in the wardrobe.

"Thank you, mister Potter, for illustrating another peculiar property of boggars. They are able to mimic not only the shape of a dementor but also it's aura, though thankfully to a lesser degree. This makes it extremely difficult to use the ridiculus charm. I didn't let mister Potter try, because a dose of dementor exposure is the last ting you need to start a day of classes."

The defence class ended shortly after that and they all made their way to History of Magic for a double period where Ginny would at last be able to catch up on some sleep.

Ginny woke up from a strange dream where everyone in her family acted like complete buffoons, Harry Potter was more full of himself than Draco Malfoy and all the witches in the world were irresistibly attracted to him. She shuddered, thinking about the theory, held by some scholars, that dreams offered a glimpse into alternate worlds.

It took her some time to realise she was still in the History classroom, alone and, judging from the light outside, it was almost time for dinner. She'd missed lunch and Arithmancy. At first, she was annoyed at her classmates for not waking her up, but then she noticed the faint shimmer of a Stinging Shield around herself. She'd finally done it ! She had successfully acquired the habit of unconsciously casting a protective spell every time she fell asleep. Tom had been trying for months, but he only did it when he explicitly thought about it.

Ecstatic at her success and with a growling stomach, she made her way to the Great Hall for dinner. As soon as she sat down at the Gryffindor table, Harry leaned over and whispered "Ginny, I think you should take a break tonight."

"Why ? What do you mean ?"

"You're obviously not sleeping well, waiting for Black to strike each night… We tried to wake you up at the end of History of Magic, but everyone who tried got a nasty stinging hex…Hermione told us you missed Arithmancy."

Ginny had stopped halfway through lauding her plate with mashed potatoes and was trying hard not to show her shock at the realisation. She had completely forgotten about the amazing plan to catch Sirius Black. Luckily, judging from Harry's good health and the absence of background noise about Black's capture, he hadn't struck yet. And now Harry was taking her obvious sleep deprivation as an excuse to question her plan.

"Right, of course. I appreciate your concern, Harry, but my lack of sleep has nothing to do with Black. I've just been …reading too late into the nights. I finished my book now so it's all good, I'll get more sleep from now on."

"Are you sure …" he started.

"We've already been over this and lets not discuss this in public! People are staring."

"Don't worry, I think they have a very different idea of what you're whispering about." said Hermione with a cheeky smile.

That strange remark made Harry blush for some unfathomable reason, but at least it made him quit the subject and turn to his meal.

Ginny quietly wandered where Harry had been sleeping this week, she'd have to ask him in private. She half expected him to have set up camp in the common room to catch Black before she could, the sneaky bastard. Wait, should I do that ? Hmmm no, Black might enter the dorm trough a window…

Later that evening, Ginny went to her dorm to finally meet her new dorm mates, before pretending to go to sleep and sneaking into the boy's dormitory.

"Ah, there she is! And she looks more awake than an inferius this time." said whichever of the Patil twins was in Gryffindor.

"Weasley! We need to talk." said… Violet Brown or something like that.

"I know, I know. I haven't been very sociable this week. I was busy, but I -" started Ginny.

"That's not what we mean, Weasley! We're used to having to share a dorm with weirdos like you. We're talking about you sleeping in your own damn bed!" said … Brown, sounding quite irritated.

Ginny's eyes went wide. How could she possibly know? Had Hermione blabbed? "What did Hermione tell you ?"

"Granger has nothing to do with this! Just stop sleeping in our beds, ok? It's gross, you sleep with your clothes on! Do you ever even change or shower?"

"And it's really not an appropriate way to make move on someone, you know?" Added Patil, who seemed to take the situation less seriously.

"Hum, I use cleaning and freshening charms daily, so my hygiene is irreproachable, thank you very much! And you should know that using soap daily is bad for your skin." (Tom had believed in taking care of himself, trough a healthy diet and rigorous exercise routine. And skincare had been no exception.) "And when did I ever sleep in any of your beds?"

"Every night except Tuesday." said a new voice.

Ginny recognised the girl who had just entered the dorm as her potions partner, though she still didn't know her name.

"See? Even the weirdos are sick of it." shot Brown.

"I don't think you do it voluntarily, though. You just walk into the dorm already half asleep and fall face first into the first unoccupied bed you find. And then we can't wake you up cause you sleep under a shield…" said Potions girl calmly.

"Huh, that does sound like something I would do… sorry, I guess…" Ginny started "Wait, what happened yesterday ? Cause I came in really late. How could I-"

"I went to the bathroom for two minutes ! Two minutes, Weasley! And when tried to get back to my bed, I bounced into one of your damn Shields! I shouted to wake you up but the damn thing blocks sound, I guess!" Shouted Brown.

"She woke all of us up instead." added Hermione, who had just entered the dorm.

"Right, ok ok, I'll try to stop doing that… Which one is my bed then?"

Brown made and exasperated noise and seemed ready to pull her hair out. Potions girl chuckled and answered "It's the one furthest from the door, there's a little golden plaque with your name on it, and your trunk at the foot. You really can't miss it."

There was a moment of silence where they all looked at each other. Well actually, they were all looking at Ginny and she looked around at the four witches. Brown, Patil, Hermione and Potions girl, arranged in a gradient of emotions, from exasperated to amused.

"Right, of course,…humm… sorry about all that. I've been pushing myself too hard this week, time sensitive stuff. Don't ask, it's a secret, but it's almost done so I shouldn't go to bed like an inferius anymore." she said in an uncharacteristic awkward tone.

"Great ! Now that that's out of the way, I'm sure we'll soon all be good friends." said Potions girl with a bright smile.

Hermione got a downcast look, Patil snorted derisively and Brown turned away mumbling under her breath "We just had to get a third freak…"

"What was that, Brown?" asked Ginny regaining her characteristic manic demeanour.

"I was hoping you'd be normal. But no! They had to give us another freak!" said brown, facing her.

"You want normal, do you?" said Ginny taking a step towards the blonde witch. "Well, you have come to the wrong place! Look around you, Brown. You're at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Even the Headmaster is half mad! You want normal? Then you better grab a hoe and go scratch at the dirt with the Muggle peasants! That's what normal people do."

"Hum actually, most Muggles aren't peasants anymore." Hermione corrected.

"Oh right, I forgot. They aren't, are they? What do they do then?" Said Ginny, turning a twinkling gaze towards her Muggleborn friend.

"All kinds of things, really. I don't know what the most common job is, but there's a lot more Muggles than magical people and there many more different jobs than in the magical world."

"How interesting! What's the craziest thing Muggles do?"

"Hum, astronauts maybe? That's people who go to space, mostly to do scientific experiments. Some have even been on the moon."

"Really? Fascinating! Do you hear that, Brown? Sounds like the Muggles are getting even freakier than us. Watch out, 'normal' is losing ground! Even in your own dormitory you're outnumbered by freaks! Are you sure you picked the right side, Violet?" said Ginny, getting closer and closer to the receding witch.

"Lavender… my name is Lavender." said Lavender in a small voice.

"Right, Lavender! I'll try to remember. Anyway, good talk! We should do that again sometime. Goodnight!"

Ginny went to bed and cast an alarm charm to wake her up in one hour, when the other girls should be asleep. Before drifting of, a strange thought crossed her mind. Lavender had complained about sharing a dorm with three freaks, which obviously included Hemrione, for being a bookworm, and Ginny, for being awesome, but who was the third one? Patil was Lavenders friend and no one else slept in their dorm, right?

More notes (also from the author obviously, I mean who else could it be from, I don't have an editor or even beta readers… on that note if you're interested, let me know ;))

Quiz time!

1. Aside from Ginny's indie!Harry dream, there are two references to other works of fiction (of the non fan variety) in this chapter, can you find them?

2. Can you guess the name of Potions Girl? (requires relatively niche canon and fanon knowledge.)

Ten house point per correct answer!

Please click the buttons that give me dopamine!

Next up Chapter 7: I don't have a title yet