I want to preface this by saying that the reason I was able to tell Colin about the Sorting Hat is because everyone is told about it by their wizarding siblings. Colin, like other Muggle borns who aren't Hermione, never bothered to read Hogwarts: A History or any schoolbooks before arriving at school, so that's why he asked. Ron knew about the hat from all our brothers attending before him, and told Harry straight away when he asked, and Hermione knew about it already from reading Hogwarts: A History. McGonagall doesn't mention it before the sorting because she knows almost everyone will know already, and that Muggle borns will soon find out. Joanne just pretended that they didn't know in her story in order to create an admittedly entertaining fan theory that the hat has a Fidelius Charm on it and is it's own secret keeper. It's not true though. Now that I've said that, let's get back to first year me.

I rushed downstairs and out of the portrait hole as quickly as I could, and had gotten myself down two further floors when the last thing I could possibly want happened. I came across Peeves, who burst out of a suit of armour and gave me quite a shock. He then moved two suits of armour in front of me so that the tight corridor was blocked, and refused to let me pass unless I glued my tongue to the roof of my mouth.

"Look, Peeves, I'm trying to get to detention and I'm already 10 minutes late, I'll be in such serious trouble if you delay me further, please just let me past!"

"Nope, ickle firstie Weasley must stop her speech ability to get past!"

"Fine, fuck you Peeves!" I yelled at him, and sprinted off in the opposite direction. The diversion meant that I was 20 minutes late when I finally met Filch on the third floor.

"Why are you so late?"

"Well-" I started, but he cut me off.

"Actually, no, I can't be bothered to hear excuses, just take this mop and start from the end behind you. There's 4 corridors on this floor, if you do it properly we should be finished by midnight. Do it improperly, and well, I might just get some other ideas" and he shuffled away, muttering to himself. I just considered myself lucky that I wasn't punished any further and got on with the job. Of course it was extremely dull work, but that's what you expect from a detention.

I finished at half past 11 and headed back upstairs to the dormitories, now finally able to write to Tom.

"Hello Tom, sorry it's been a couple days since I last wrote, there's been so much going on. I'm at Hogwarts now and I'm in Gryffindor like the rest of my family, which is great, it's by far the best house. Which are you in, I don't think I've asked you yet"

"There is no need to apologise Ginny. I am a Slytherin, and I must say I do not approve at all of most Gryffindors. Their tendency to choose strength and bullying over intelligence greatly irritates me. You of course, are a rare exception"

This was a rather rude comment to make.

"Excuse me, I will have you know that most Gryffindors are not like what you claim. A second year friend of mine, Hermione Granger, is a Gryffindor, and Muggle born no less, and she is the best in her year and one of the best in the whole school, and I have plenty of others who are nice people too. It seems to me like you have some silly predujuces". This was the first time something Tom had said had annoyed me, and I hoped it was the last.

"Before you reply again, think for a moment. Picture a Slytherin in your head. What thoughts immediately come to mind?"

I bit my lip.

"Arrogance, bullying, nastiness. But that's justified. The only Slytherins who have interacted with me are horrible people".

"Yes, Ginny, the ONLY ones you have encountered have been like that. Please do not tar us all with the same brush. Do you think I'm a horrible person?"

"No, but you're an exception, which is exactly what you just said to me"

Tom seemed to hesitate. I felt rather smug, clearly I'd outwitted him. This was further emphasised by the next thing he said to me.

"Tell me more about your first day at Hogwarts"

I grinned. Classic change of subject, that's standard for people who knew they'd lost arguments. Little did I know at that point how important this exchange would prove to be, and for all the wrong reasons.

"It's been terrible for the most part, to be honest. I got a detention from Professor Snape, who teaches potions and seems to really hate people who aren't in Slytherin, and Professor McGonagall's transfiguration class is by far the hardest"

"I'm sure Professor Snape doesn't hate all non Slytherins Ginny. What makes you think that?"

"He acted in a really terrible bullying manner, asking only the Gryffindors really difficult questions at the very start of the class, and docked us points for giving cheeky answers. But we were justified in doing that, how were we possibly supposed to know the answers? He does this to everyone but his own Slytherin students, and did the same exact thing to Harry Potter last year, even though he is the most famous wizard in the world, and the one who defeated You Know Who."

Tom gave a long pause at these last words.

"Who is this You Know Who you speak of?"

"Well, no one like's saying his name, it's scary. But you're from fifty years ago, so I'll say it once just for you. Lord Voldemort is his actual name, but please don't make me say it again". I shuddered, really hoping Tom would honour my request.

Somehow I got the feeling Tom was taken aback and unnerved by this, as if I was talking about him, but I surely couldn't be, You Know Who was after his time.

"How did Harry Potter defeat this Lord Voldemort?" he said eventually.

"It's a big mystery. You Know Who, please call him that Tom, it scares me seeing his actual name, went to the Potters house one night. He killed Lily and James Potter, and tried to kill Harry, but couldn't. His curse rebounded back on to him, and he had to flee. I still think he's out there somewhere though trying to regain strength. He doesn't sound human enough to die"

"That is-"

"Very interesting" Tom replied slowly. "How old was this Harry Potter when this happened?"

"He was only a baby"

"Ok. Ginny, if you don't mind, I would like some time to digest this information. Can we speak again tomorrow?"

"Um, sure".

I bit my lip, confused. Tom seemed really nervous. I couldn't fathom why. Oh well, it was late anyway and I had flying the next day. I really needed to get some sleep.

The next morning, at breakfast, Harry approached me.

"Hey Ginny, would you like to join me, Ron and Hermione in visiting Hagrid on Saturday afternoon? It'll be after Quidditch practice"

"Sure, I'd love to" I told him. "I'll ask Demelza too"

"Great, see you then, oh and good luck with the flying test tomorrow, I'm sure you'll smash it!"

"Thanks, I'm feeling very confident myself, are you going to come and watch me?"

"You know what, I'm not sure, I'll have to ask Wood what the plan is but as he's judging you alongside Madam Hooch I should be able to"

"Ok, see you later then"

"Bye"

He walked back to sit with Ron and Hermione. At that moment Demelza and Amy walked in.

"What took you two so long?" I asked.

"Demelza was helping me with my hair and makeup, wanted to go for a new look today" said Amy.

She did indeed look very pretty. But before I could stop myself, I said this:

"Well I don't need makeup to look pretty, I have outstanding natural beauty".

Don't ask me what the fuck I was thinking there, why I suddenly decided to become so arrogant all of a sudden!

Demelza and Amy gave me cold looks.

"Not everyone is as perfect as you, Ginny!" snapped Amy

"Yeah show some respect, that took a lot of work from both of us!" added Demelza, slamming her hand on the table.

I bit my lip and looked down at my legs.

"Yeah, you're right guys, I dunno what came over me there, I'm sorry"

"What did Harry want, anyway?" asked Amy

"He invited me to Hagrid's with him, Ron and Hermione after Quidditch practice Saturday" I told them. "Either of you two want to join us?"

"I can't I'm afraid Gin, I'm meeting a couple Ravenclaw friends that afternoon" said Demelza "and in the morning if I somehow don't pass the flying test"

"I'll come along though! I'd love to get to know Harry!" exclaimed Amy

"Alright, but be warned, as soon as Ron finds out who you are he'll probably want to use you for free Quidditch tickets" I said.

"Don't worry, I get that a lot" Amy said, waving her hand dismissively.

At that moment, the post arrived, and I saw the dreaded Howler attached to Errol's leg. As soon as it landed, I grabbed the letter and sprinted outside into the Entrance Hall. I was hoping I could get up at least one flight of stairs so that as few people as possible heard it, but I wasn't fast enough. The letter opened when I was on the bottom most step.

"GINEVERA WEASLEY!" came Mum's amplified voice, and I heard a huge laugh from the Great Hall. I moved further up the stairs, the less they heard, the better. "A DETENTION ON YOUR FIRST DAY, AND STRAIGHT AFTER YOUR BROTHER STOLE THE CAR. YOU BOTH HAVE BOUGHT SHAME UPON THE FAMILY, I'M ABSOULTELY DISGUSTED! AND TO INSULT SOMEONE WITH A BIRTH DEFECT, WE RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THAT!

I thought that part was rather unfair, as I didn't know Avery had a birth defect until after I insulted her. But then I remembered Snape wrote to her, so of course he'd have conveniently left that out.

"I WILL NOW GIVE YOU THE SAME WARNING AS RON, ANY MORE MISBEHAVIOUR AND YOU ARE COMING STRAIGHT HOME!"

The letter then exploded. I heard a crowd of people walking up the stairs, Demelza and Amy at the front. I bit my lip as they approached.

"How much did you hear?"

"Enough" was all they said.

We then headed upstairs to History of Magic. We quickly discovered that this was the most boring class in the school, as although Professor Binns's entrance through the blackboard was entertaining, that was where any fun in the class ended. He was the only ghost teacher, and he clearly thought he was still centuries in the past, as all he did to teach us was read from his notes. Most of the class struggled to stay awake, and Demelza and I spent most of the time playing with mini quaffles, taking it in turns to throw them into the drinks cups on the others table from varying angles and distances. When that became tiring, we spent the rest of the time with our heads on the desks, doodling absent mindedly.

After the break we had DADA, and Lockhart had decided to take a very different approach to his teaching this time. After what he called "an unfortunate incident" in his second year class the previous day, he was no longer going to show us any dark creatures first hand. Instead, he was to teach us by re-enacting parts of his books and having us write down the important parts. He at first chose people at random to partake in these demonstrations, and I was unfortunate enough to be picked to play the part of the Wagga Wagga Warewolf. I embarrassed myself hugely with a terrible attempted howl, but Lockhart didn't seem to care, in fact, he thought I had enjoyed it, and declared that I would now be playing the part of all his enemies in future demonstrations for our class, despite my protests. Honestly, the sooner he left, the better!

After lunch, we had our first Charms lesson, and this one was much more enjoyable. I was able to get the Wingardium Leviosa spell perfect on my first try, and Demelza and Amy both mastered it after a couple attempts. Flitwick awarded Gryffindor fifty points for this, 30 for me for getting it right first try, and ten each for Demelza and Amy for being the only others to get the spell right in that class. We weren't set any homework as a reward, but everyone else in the class was, which led to us getting a lot of jealous looks as we left the room.

Astronomy was our first class of the day, at midnight. In this class we learned about the various planets and other space stuff, as well as their positions and the various effects they had. I got back to the common room exhausted, and just hoped I'd have enough energy for flying the next day. I didn't bother writing to Tom though, I'd save that for the weekend.