With each passing turn of the wheel to Hogwarts, Ginny's heart sank a little more. She knew it was a big deal that the Hogwarts students not reflect poorly on the school, and that McGonagall would not be happy with them once she had them in her office.
Much too quickly, it seemed, did they arrive back at the school. The moment the seven students climbed out of their carriages, McGonagall stepped up to them and ushered them into a tight group. She then proceeded to lead them back to the castle and into her office.
Once they were in her spacy, hexagon-shaped office, they all sat down on the hard-backed chairs that lined the wall opposite of her desk. Each sat nervously in their seats, not sure what to expect from the strict deputy headmistress.
McGonagall shut the door, then began pacing back and forth in front of them.
"You," she said, stopping in front of Remus. Ginny noted that although she still acted very much like the present-day McGonagall she knew, this McGonagall was noticeably younger - the lines on her forehead and around her pursed lips were much fainter, the tight bun her hair was pulled into was (could it be possible?) not so very tight, and her eyes were more lively. However, at the moment, they were dark with anger as she glared down at Remus.
"You," she repeated. "Explain to me what happened."
Lowering his eyes, Remus began to mumble what had happened. When he finished, he ventured a look up at the headmistress but by then, she had moved over to Lily.
"Miss Evans. You are the level-headed one here. Why did you not stop them?"
"I tried, ma'am..." Lily began to say.
"Obviously not enough," McGonagall answered in a hard voice. "And you three," she said as she walked to the end of the line and stood in front of Ginny, Hermione, and Draco with her arms crossed. "Professor Dumbledore has informed me that you are exchange students from Scotland?"
"We are," answered Hermione for them.
"Allow me to let you know that this behaviour is NOT acceptable at our school."
"Yes," replied all three students simultaneously.
"Have I made myself clear?"
"With all due respect, professor, crystal clear," said Ginny.
Without another word, McGonagall moved to the front of the room and stood behind her desk, surveying the silent students.
"None of you are to EVER do something like this, do you understand me?"
"Yes, ma'am," chorused the 7 students.
"I will be deducting 100 points for each of you from Gryffindor."
Ginny's throat tightened at these words. They had lost 700 points for Gryffindor...that meant their house had gone into the negative point range. What would the other students think? Especially of her, Hermione, and Draco...after all, they were only new kids.
"Now return to your common room," finished McGonagall as she sat down and began scribbling furiously on a large piece of parchment.
With bowed heads, they trailed after one another out of her office. James, who was the last one out, shut it behind him and leaned against it with a sigh.
"I can't believe that just happened."
"Me neither," said Sirius as he flopped down heavily on a stone bench outside the office.
"Likewise," added Remus. Him and Sirius seemed to have forgotten the fight they had just engaged in only an hour ago, and had apparently came to a silent agreenment that they would forgive each other and focus in on the main problem - the fact that every student in their house was going to loathe them until the end of the year and perhaps even longer.
"This is just wonderful," Ginny said, her tone thick with sarcasm.
"Marvelous."
"Totally brilliant."
"Pure splendipity."
"Sirius...is splendipity even a word?"
"I don't know, Lily, and right now I must say that I reallly don't give a damn either."
"Oh...right, sorry about that."
Silence crept in amongst the seven students as they all stared at the ground, the fight earlier complete erased from their minds. Each was just as afraid as the next of leaving the empty corridor and facing the rest of the school - by now, the other students would have seen the crystals in the hourglass which held the points fall, and figured out what happened.
"I'm going to bed," grumbled Draco broodingly after a few minutes. "Anyone feel like joining me?"
"I'll come too, I s'pose," said Remus. James and Sirius also agreed to go with Draco, and soon it was decided that the girls and boys would head to their dormitaries in seperate groups.
"Bye Draco," said Lily as he hugged her tightly.
"Good night," he replied with something of a crooked smile at her.
The other couples also exchanged their good-byes; to no one's surprise, though, Hermione, Sirius, and Remus remained firmly in their places, avoiding each others' eyes.
With a few last "Good luck"s to each other, the group split ways and began the long walk back to their common room.
"Gah! Remind me again why we're doing this, James?" came Ginny's voice from the foot of the dark staircase in the Gryffindor common room. It was 1 AM and James had just awoken her and told her to follow him downstairs.
"Shh, keep your voice down," answered James in a whisper, "and we're doing this because we have to find a cure for your disease."
"Couldn't we wait until the sun came up to do it..."
"The library is always too busy during the day," he replied matter-of-factly. "Which is why we're going to sneak in right now. Now shush, and follow me."
Grudingly, Ginny obliged and crept after James through the dark shadows of the sleeping castle. They reached the huge library, and once James had muttered "Alohomora!" unlocked the door, and wandered into it.
The tall shelves filled with dusty volumes loomed over them menancingly as they split up and began to search for anything that might help them.
After a few moments, Ginny whispered, "James, I found one!"
"What row are you in?" came the answering voice from somewhere to her left.
Looking up, she spotted the number "19" on a sign hanging above her and read it out loud. Soon, her companion arrived with 2 books in his arms.
"Took these just in case," he said in response to her questioning look.
They settled themselves down at a low, round table near the entrance. Each took a book, and soon, the library once again became silent (save for the quiet breathing of James and Ginny) as they became engulfed in their reading.
"Hey look at this," Ginny said 15 minutes later. She held up her book, pointing the lit tip of her wand at the words on the page she was turned to. The title of the page read, An Unnamed Terror: The Rarest Disease Ever. "I think this is about mine. It says that this is the rarest disease known to wizardkind, it's not contagious, it..." here she squinted her eyes, for the words on the page became smaller with each passing sentence "...has no cure unless..."
"Wait a second," interrupted James, "unless??"
"OH MY GOD," Ginny shrieked, not bothering to keep her voice down. "It says that -" she lowered her voice back down to a whisper "- there is one cure for it, but it's one of the most trickiest things to create. It's an amber-coloured crystal which, if worn by the one with the disease, will continue to restore their magic as the disease eats away at it so they can continue to live a normal life."
James, who had been listening to Ginny intently, jumped up in ecstasy at these words, knocking his chair down in the process.
"Read that again, Ginny," he said, his voice shaking slightly.
"There is one cure for it, bu-"
"No, no, stop there. That's good. What...are you KIDDING me...I can't BELIEVE..."
"I know, James, I can't believe it either! But how are we going to make this stone? There's no list of..." Ginny stopped as she turned the page. On the other side, a long list of 20 or so ingredients to make the crystal had been printed. A lump in her throat grew with each passing line she read. These are really rare ingredients, she thought numbly to herself. No, more than rare...they're impossible.
"What's wrong?" asked James frantically. He had sensed her tensing up.
Ginny's eyes shone with tears as she looked up at him. "James...these ingredients are impossible to attain. There is no way we will be able to make this."
"No, we will. I promise, we'll find a way."
Before James could elaborate on his statement, one of the magnificent oak doors of the library opened and a figure appeared in the doorway, holding a lit wand.
"Who's in here?" called out the voice of the librarian.
"Crap!" exclaimed James in frustration. He quickly reached over and tore out the page from the book Ginny held, then grabbed her hand and made a run for it. The two of them veered out of the beam of light cast by the librarian's wand, and escaped through the back door of the library.
"Are we safe?" gasped Ginny as she tried to catch her breath.
"Yeah, I think she went back to bed," the other student replied as he ventured a cautious look into the library. Much to his relief, everything was dark and silent once again. "Come on, we'd better get back before we get into any more trouble."
They took another few seconds to regain their breath then, with James clutching the ripped-out sheet of paper tightly in his fist, hurried back to their common room.
The first thing Ginny took note of when she went downstairs to the Great Hall the next day was the not-so-subtle tension between Hermione, Sirius, and Remus.
"What's going on?" she whispered into James' ear as she sat down next to him.
"Hermione yelled at both of them for being immature at Hogsmeade yesterday...in front of the entire Great Hall," he murmured back with a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Like everyone doesn't hate us already, she had to go and make a scene?"
"Yep. Hey, it was entertaining," he replied with a slight smirk. "They both deserved it."
Ginny shrugged, and looked around. Their group had significantly decreased in numbers - Peter (to no one's surprise) was not there again, nor were Lily and Draco. Merlin knows what they could be doing, Ginny thought sarcastically. However, as she looked beyond their little huddle, she saw that the majority of the students at their long house table kept shooting death glares at them, and that everyone to their immediate right and left had shifted as far away from them as possible. On the other hand, the other houses, including the supposedly kind-hearted Hufflepuffers, all looked positively gleeful.
"Oh, I forgot to ask you," said Ginny to James. "Did you guys get any attacks from people when you headed back to the common room last night?"
"Eh, only a few," he answered. "Nearly got hexed by Sparticus Humnley, but luckily Wimble was passing by and gave him a detention for practicing curses in the hallway. How about you girls?"
"Nothing except a handful of glares. I guess we deserved them," she said with a sigh.
"Ah, don't worry about them," James said lightly, smiling at her. "Anyway, d'you want to meet today after classes to try to find some way to" - he gestured at his pocket in which he had put the ingredients list for the crystal - "obtain some of these? I think I might just have a few connections."
"Oh?" Ginny replied, cocking an eyebrow. "What could those be?"
"I suppose you'll just have to come by later today and check them out. Meet me in the common room at 4:00 PM today." He winked at her, then got up and left.
Shaking her head, Ginny took one last gulp of pumpkin juice, then picked up her bookbag. She said good-bye to the three who remained at the table, and followed James out the doors.