Thirty-one: Perfectly normal
Twenty Muggles killed in 'gas leak'
To play Quidditch amidst it all, Ginny wasn't sure if it felt wrong, or liberating. Yet at the end of the day, there she was, tossing Quaffles like nothing had happened. Like Katie and Demelza hadn't walked out of the Room and the D.A.. Like that tiny second year wasn't flying in Dean's stead. Like the Cup still mattered as the Prophet reported incident after incident.
Yet somehow, by March the Ministry still stood and so Gryffindor played Hufflepuff. An endless back and forth as they tried to build a lead that could withstand their Seeker's inexperience. Ginny's arm didn't shake a single time as she scored goal after goal with a single minded obsession. In the end, they lost 150 to 180. While the rest of the team looked rather disappointed, Ginny mostly worried how bad they'd get annihilated by Chang's Ravenclaw.
Then, the next week Jimmy Peakes was called down by McGonagall during training and didn't return, shattering that illusion of normalcy as well. After that, she mostly took to the skies to feel oblivion.
Peakes family murdered in their home
In the meantime, the Slug Club had restarted, though in reduced numbers. Eddie Carmichael had disappeared during the Christmas break, alongside his family. Nine .'s or not, he had still been a Muggleborn and that had been far more decisive.
That left her only Astoria to talk with. And Slughorn of course, who, after he had concluded she was not upset with for the memory, treated her more and more like his star pupil.
Body of Eddie Carmichael found in London alley
D.A. meetings continued, their mock duels more and more tense. Ernie ended most practices black and blue all over as Susan ate up each spell they taught. Dennis finally nailed a solid shield charm and Ginny hoped, hoped it would be enough. Parvati had to go to madam Pomfrey after Padma accidentally blew her into a wall with an overpowered Ventus. After that, Parvati paired up with Lavender, but she kept coming. Eleven remained eleven.
At least until my Death Eaters get here, Tom mused.
Minister narrowly escapes assassination attempts
Scrimgeour kept sending her owls, requesting an audience, begging her to share what she knew. The parchment breathed out his desperation. She knew he was trying to do what was right. She also knew that she couldn't risk the news spreading. Scrimgeour, she might trust with the tale of Horcruxes, but he'd upend Wizarding Britain looking for them. Perhaps that way they'd find the locket, but they'd lose whatever chance they had at the others.
So she burned his letters and sent back polite notes of refusal, wondering if Scrimgeour's lack of pressure were a testament to his character, or the fact that he had too many urgent problems to spend too much thought on Dumbledore's legacy.
Three Aurors, seven Death Eaters dead after confrontation in Hogsmeade
She and Astoria racked their brains thinking about Horcruxes, even as she waited each day for Bill's reassuring missive that they had found Sirius Black. They watched the first two memories over and over, McGonagall more than content to leave the Headmaster's Office and its ghosts to them. Again and again, Ginny practiced with the sword, determined to end whatever Horcrux she stumbled across, animate or inanimate.
You want to fence with me, girl? How very Muggle of you, Tom mocked.
It just spurred her on to search more and more, even as she longed for those easy days in the Room of Requirement with Astoria and her collection of records. Her friend showed no more hint of vulnerability like she had in the Chamber of Secrets, but Ginny was quite sure the walls her friend had erected were brittle to say the least.
Vikram Patil killed in duel with Rodolphus Lestrange
Padma and Parvati missed the next week of classes after their father died. They didn't miss the next meeting of the D.A. There was desperation in their eyes, grief in their smiles and hate in their spells, but they kept coming. Eleven remained eleven.
The next time Nott tried to corner Ginny, Parvati sent him to the Hospital Wing for a week. She accepted her detention with a smile and Ginny gave her a thumbs up. The look on Nott's face just before Parvati's spell exploded in his face was one she would treasure forever.
Explosion at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour kills owner, four clients
At least DADA was still perfectly normal, Snape drilling dark art after dark art in them, with such vehemence Ginny wasn't sure if he wanted them to be able to survive whatever was thrown at them, or whether they'd be quick to adapt to a new Death Eater world order.
Until one day, Snape looked at her and told her he expected her in detention that night. While there had been many points losses, even more since the new year, this had been the first detention and for once, she had no idea what she could have done to provoke this.
"Must be having a particularly bad day," Colin muttered under his breath.
"It has to be. I mean, I was even taking notes," she said, gesturing at her parchment filled with notes on Fiendfyre.
The office was a mirror of the man. A dark room, curtains drawn shut and lit only by seven glass lanterns that cast as much shadow as light. Bookcase after bookcase, all of them trying to drown out the walls and filled with books that whispered to her in a way she had learned to distrust and loathe. Display cases like in his classroom filled up the rest of the emptiness, each containing an item she would rather die than touch. What had been shown in class had been curated carefully, no doubt at the insistence of Dumbledore that they weren't exposed to anything too dark. The collection here had been carefully curated as well, but for a different purpose. The chalice in the nearest case gleamed with a green substance she knew was poison. The skull staring at her from underneath a glass jar seemed to hold something, if not life then something worse. The one book confined to a glass case rather than a bookcase seemed to be bleeding.
And amidst all that madness were a desk and a chair for her, with Snape lurking behind his own desk, never having looked more like a vampire. As Snape set her writing lines and corrected essays with gratuitous application of red ink, she kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Had he found out she'd told Astoria of his tenuous position as a spy?
She was almost relieved when he put down his quill and looked at her with disdain. She stopped writing and stared back.
"I have been informed that you wish to find Sirius Black," he said. "As I personally cannot imagine a single reason why anyone would wish to find that reprobate, I am dying to hear your explanation."
"It's important for the war," Ginny said. If Dumbledore hadn't trusted Snape with the secret of Horcruxes, she saw no reason why she should.
"Important, and that is all you can offer? Would it by any chance be connected to all the time you and Miss Greengrass spend in the Headmaster's office?"
"I really couldn't say, Sir," she said and she could see Snape's eyes glimmer with hate.
"You are just like Potter. Rash, conceited and too deluded to realise you cannot win this war on your own. I wonder how come you two never got together. Perhaps if you had acquired those scars earlier, you would have caught his attention," Snape drawled.
Ginny wanted to hex him. She wanted to curse him till he toppled off his chair and knocked over all those display cases with dark objects he gazed at so lovingly.
"Do you know where he is or not? Otherwise I'll just leave," she threatened.
"You seem to have forgotten this is a detention. You may continue writing lines," Snape said, returning to his essays.
Ginny looked at him in disbelief as he struck through a particularly offensive line. It looked like her essay on Fiendfyre.
I've killed people for less, you know, Tom whispered, sounding almost understanding. She gritted her teeth and continued writing. It was already late, long past the usual hours of detention when Snape spoke again.
"It will be impossible to locate Sirius Black. During one of his ill thought out assaults, he bit off more than he could chew and died. It was very tragic," he said, his tone belying his words.
"Are you sure?" she asked, ignoring the gnawing feeling inside her stomach, the dreaded realisation that they may never find one Horcrux.
"Delightfully certain, yes."
"What, did you kill him yourself?" she sneered.
"Yes," Snape replied simply, one syllable carrying a lifetime of resentment.
Ginny dropped her quill.
"What? How? He was on our side!" she screamed, getting up and knocking over the inkwell, drowning hundreds of lines promising 'I will not be reckless'.
"Black was on no one's side but his own, as has always been the case," Snape replied in clipped tones. "But as to avoid you dragging me for a tribunal of your peers," he sneered. "Allow me to enlighten you. The Dark Lord's confidence is not easily earned, nor retained. Regular sacrifices have been required of me. And this, this wasn't even a sacrifice. It was a pleasure. And for him, a mercy really."
Ginny just blinked and then began to pack up, shoving her belongings in her bag. They were done here. This vile, vengeful man had just made their task that much more difficult.
"What did you need Black for?" Snape pressed.
"None of your business," she said, heading for the door.
"Ah, I see. An important secret, vital to the war that cannot be shared with me, but could be shared with a deranged murderer. How Gryffindorish."
Ginny tried the door, only it wouldn't open. Snape didn't seem surprised.
"I'd like to leave," she said.
"And I would like to be anywhere else than this wretched island. But we can't always get what we want, now can we?" he said as he stood up and walked towards her. "I intend to win this war, but it cannot be done if you keep secrets from me."
"They are not mine to share," she said, trying the door again as Snape glided closer and closer.
"Aren't they? Let me guess, they are Dumbledore's. Secrets he shared with you on nights that I attended on the Dark Lord and risked my life and sanity. But of course, you are a much more reliable ally than I am. Because you are still so pure. Because you were oh so tearful about the death of your friends. Never mind I have fought this war for almost twenty years now," he ranted, spittle flying from his mouth and his gestures wild and erratic.
"I'd like to leave," Ginny repeated, reaching for her wand and wondering if she'd get detention or expulsion for cursing Snape pre-emptively, even as he loomed over her, his own wand dangling by his side and the room darker than ever. A different emotion rose to the front. Not the hate she had come to associate with him, but something else. Something that tended to cling to Death Eaters. Fear.
"As soon as you tell me the secrets Dumbledore shared with you. We are losing this war and you can't change that, you foolish girl. But I might."
"Sure, but for which side?" she spat back. Snape sighed.
"It boils down to that, always to that, doesn't it? I am not to be trusted, only you and your noble friends, even if your mind is wide-open. So be it," he sighed and suddenly his wand was in her face. "Legilimens!"