Sitting in the dining hall, Ginny picked at her food. She was usually hungry around breakfast, especially after a late-night run, but today, she couldn't seem to bring a spoon to her lips.
It didn't really help that Dean was sitting across from her, with a worried expression.
She had told him about falling in the lake when she arrived in the dining room. She avoided telling him about Luna, although she wasn't sure why.
"Do you want to go on a walk before class?" Ginny asked, wanting to escape the crowded dining hall.
"Sure," Dean replied, taking one last bite of his apple before pushing his chair in. "I need some fresh air too."
They strode out of the dining hall together, and Dean held the door open for her. She uttered her thanks at him, and took a breath of fresh morning air. All of a sudden, Ginny felt a little lighter. She had never done well with crowds.
"You alright from last night?" Dean asked, concerned.
"Yeah, just a little tired," Ginny answered truthfully. It was a little odd for her to be telling Dean everything that happened to her, but since they were a couple, she figured that it made sense.
"What do you have first period?" Dean asked, shoving his hands in his pockets, his breath making small clouds in the air ahead of him. They were walking through the gardens now, surrounded by small hedges and sloping green lawns, only broken up by the occasional smattering of rocks.
"Charms," Ginny recalled. "How about you?"
"Potions," Dean groaned. "I mean, the topics are actually pretty interesting, but the way Snape teaches them…" he trailed off.
"Makes them feel like medieval torture sessions?" Ginny offered. She had never taken Dean to be the studious sort, but over the past week, he had constantly surprised her with his eagerness to learn. She normally found excessive optimism irritating, but with Dean it wasn't bad; sometimes his positive energy even rubbed off on her cynical nature.
This must be what it feels like to have feelings for someone, she concluded, satisfied.
He gave a bark of a laugh, and for a moment she was worried she had spoken her thoughts aloud. She remembered her earlier comment about potions – that must be what he's laughing at, right? He looked down at her, about to say something, then changed his mind, preferring to silently watch her face for expressions.
She quickly found his gaze unsettling and quickly focussed her attention on the garden scenery, avoiding his brown eyes.
"Are you doing anything on Saturday morning?" he asked.
Ginny ran through a mental itinerary for the day, noting that she had Quidditch practice in the evening. "No, not really," she replied easily.
"Uh, did you maybe want to get breakfast at Joaquin's?" The new restaurant had opened in Hogsmeade last week, and Ginny had wanted to try it out.
The prospect of a date there sounded a little awkward, and against her better judgement, she asked, "What time were you thinking?"
"Maybe around 9am?" He offered, uncertain.
"Yeah, nine works for me." Ginny said. It would mean she couldn't sleep in, which was probably a good thing.
Dean checked his watch, a simple black-banded analogue, and remarked, "We'd probably better start heading off to class now, last time Seamus was late, Snape took 10 points."
"Ok, sure." Ginny replied.
They made their way back to the castle in what Ginny hoped was a comfortable silence.
"Miss Weasley!" The shrill voice of Professor Flitwick made Ginny blink and sit up straighter.
"Yes?" she replied. Her head felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool, and she couldn't wait to see her bed in the evening. I'll probably skip dinner tonight, she thought. Better to go straight to sleep.
"Could you please demonstrate to the class, since you were so well engaged, the proper wand movements for the foundations of a locomotive charm?"
Ha, Ginny thought, you won't be able to call me out on this. Luckily, she had gone through this the week before. With a flourish, she twirled her wand in a series of loops, and ending with a general flick in the direction of the door. It flew shut and the handle spun in its position. Oops, she thought, unapologetic. He did ask for the wand movements.
Professor Flitwick looked both pleased and irritated, and moved onto the next absent-minded student, hoping to catch them unawares.
Ginny scrawled in the margins of her parchment, writing a list of things to do before the end of the week. She hoped the date with Dean wouldn't go for too long, she had wanted to catch up with Thea in the library on Saturday too.
A cool wind tousled Luna's hair, whipping it in all directions. She exchanged her large fan brush for a more precise chiselled one, working quickly to capture the scenery below. The grounds were really at their prettiest on an autumn morning, she reflected as she worked. She paused to tighten her shawl around her shoulders; the breeze was bitterly cold at the top of the astronomy tower.
At least it worked to snap her out of her foggy, sleepy thoughts.
When she painted, she thought of nothing. Her mind emptied, and there was only the image; the canvas was her stage and she could portray whatever she pleased.
Standing back from her finished work an hour later, she realised that she had unconsciously painted a small figure leaning over the lake, and a second wading into the water. She smiled; it would make an interesting memory.