Ginny had woken up late the following morning and found herself rushing to the Great Hall to inhale some form of breakfast before rushing off to class. She and Hermione, thankfully, had most of their classes together. She knew Hermione was dying to take as many classes as physically possible, but had chosen not to over-load herself as she had done her third year.
Ginny rushed through the common room and saw that there were only a few students around. She bounded down the various staircases and rushed to the Gryffindor table. She spotted Hermione reading a copy of The Daily Prophet and dropped her bag next to her friend, sitting down and helping herself to some cereal.
Hermione looked up slowly and said, ‘Good Morning. Glad to see you got some rest.’
‘Perhaps too much,’ she replied through mouthfuls.
Hermione smiled. ‘You must have needed it. You were looking like a ghost the last two days. Missing him that much, are you?’
Ginny put her spoon down and said sadly, ‘It isn’t just Harry I’m missing. I’m just…’ She really didn’t know Hermione that well and didn’t want to say more than she should. But she knew that now that she had spoken, Hermione wouldn’t let her get away without saying more. She sighed and continued, ‘I just don’t like being alone and having to think about things.’
Hermione leaned close to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. ‘How can you possibly get through this year if you live with the weight of the entire world on your shoulders?’
Ginny didn’t look up at Hermione, but grimaced in response. Hermione continued, speaking quietly, ‘Ginny, Harry asked me to keep an eye on you, so I will, but you have to make a deal with me.’
Ginny looked over at her slowly and replied quietly, ‘What kind of deal?’
Hermione grinned at her and said, ‘Give me a little credit. I just want you to take it easy. I can’t study as much as I’d like if you’re going to act half-mad!’
Ginny couldn’t help herself and laughed. ‘Ah, I see. You can’t honour your promise to Harry if I’m being crazy and you want to get passing marks.’
Hermione looked at her incredulously. ‘I don’t just want passing marks, Ginny.’
Ginny put her hands up quickly. ‘Merlin, no! I meant the highest of marks.’
Hermione shook her head and went back to the paper, giving Ginny a little space to finish her breakfast. Ginny looked over her shoulder and commented, ‘You know, I haven’t read that thing all summer.’
‘I know,’ she replied quickly. ‘It’s probably not worth reading.’
Ginny gave Hermione an inquisitive look and said, ‘Nothing worth reading?’
Hermione didn’t meet her gaze and said, ‘No, not a thing.’
Ginny looked over Hermione’s shoulder and her eyes bolted open. She tried to grab the paper, but Hermione put it out of her grasp. ‘It’s all rubbish.’
Ginny set her jaw and said, ‘You give me that paper, Hermione Jean Granger, and you give it to me right bloody now.’
She must have looked fierce, because Hermione reluctantly moved the paper closer to her. She said quietly, ‘You can’t believe a thing in it, you know that, right?’
The students around them had turned their attention to the commotion, but Ginny paid them little heed. She flipped through the paper and saw the article she was looking for. There, in black and white, were she and Harry, holding each other very close at the train station. She could feel the heat rising on her face and watched again and again as she and Harry embraced and slowly pulled away. She felt her eyes stinging with tears, and could feel Hermione pull the paper out of her grasp.
‘How long have you known?’ she whispered.
Hermione was looking at her intently. ‘Does it matter?’
Ginny turned, her eyes blazing once again. ‘Yes, it bloody well does!’
Hermione didn’t look to be interested in fighting and said, ‘All summer. There have been articles all summer about the two of you. At first I thought you knew…’ She looked down guiltily and took a deep breath. ‘Then I figured it might be best if you didn’t know. I mean, I was there, Ginny.’
Ginny sighed and nodded. If their places had been reversed, she would most likely have done the same thing. She took a few deep breathes and said quietly, feeling the gaze of the hall on them, ‘I’m sorry…’
She started to get up, but Hermione grabbed her arm and pulled her back down. ‘Don’t you walk away after that, Ginny Weasley.’ She sounded cross, and Ginny knew she deserved it and worse. Hermione had been keeping tabs on her the last few weeks and Ginny knew she should be more patient. She relented and sat back down, not wanting to meet Hermione’s gaze.
Hermione said quietly, ‘Ginny, I know this must be upsetting, but they’re just pictures, they don’t mean anything.’
‘No…’ Ginny said quietly, ‘but it does mean that people are watching me…watching him…watching us…’ She stopped, recalling Harry putting a charm on them on her birthday and her smile turned into a scowl. ‘He knew, didn’t he?’
Hermione shrugged. ‘He never told me anything.’
Ginny shook her head disdainfully. ‘Why didn’t he tell me?’
‘I think you need to calm down.’ Hermione was watching her closely and was certainly not the only one.
Ginny could feel the anger coursing through her and said through clenched teeth, ‘I am calm.’
‘No, you are not.’ Hermione grabbed Ginny roughly and turned her towards her. ‘Look at me. You need to let this go for right now. Harry, if he did know, probably did it because he didn’t want you to feel any more pressure than you already do. I know that’s why I didn’t say anything to you.’
Ginny turned away bitterly and reached for her bag. Hermione continued forcefully, ‘Ginny, we care about you. Harry and I care about you. You can’t blame us for caring.’
‘No.’ She glared at Hermione and said, ‘But I can blame both of you for treating me like I can’t handle life. I don’t see either of you doing this to Ron. He isn’t as feeble and useless as I am.’
Hermione glared right back at her. ‘How dare you make that accusation? This has nothing to do with feebleness. This has everything to do with who, out of all of us, is dealing with the most pressure. And guess what, you got the short straw and won.’
They stood there glaring at one another before Ginny said, ‘Fine. Can we go to class now?’
Hermione took a deep breath and said, ‘Fine.’
She grabbed her bag from the floor and followed Ginny out of the Great Hall. Ginny tried to keep a brisk pace, and was surprised that Hermione was keeping up with her step-for-step. Their first class was Transfiguration, which was still being taught by Professor McGonagall. During the Start of Term Feast, Ginny distantly recalled being told that the Headmistress would be assisting in this class. She had been close about who would be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. There had been some rumour that the class would not start until second term, giving Hermione a veritable heart attack. She and Hermione had that class the following day. As they arrived to Transfiguration, Ginny noticed the class seemed larger than usual.
She sat at a table in the middle of the classroom and Hermione sat down next to her. Hermione pulled the requisite book out for the class, and a ream of parchment. Ginny slowly followed suit, noting there were students from all four houses of Hogwarts in the class. She looked inquisitively at Hermione, but Hermione shrugged and replied, ‘I guess there aren’t that many seventh years to have more than one class.’
Ginny nodded and started to say something when Professor McGonagall entered the classroom and said, ‘Good Morning. I hope you all are ready to master the art of transfiguration, as that is my intent for this year.’
She walked to the front of the room and waved her wand at the chalkboard. The day’s agenda appeared, and Ginny couldn’t help but notice the intense note-taking occurring beside her. She sighed and pulled a quill out of her bag to follow suit.
Professor McGonagall went on for the entire class explaining what would be happening that year and what would get them passing marks on their Transfiguration NEWTs. As the class came to a close, Dean Thomas raised his hand and asked, ‘Professor, how come all of the houses are in this one class? Are we all going to be together for the entire year?’
She sighed and replied, ‘Mr. Thomas, as you may be aware, many of the students have decided not to return to Hogwarts, as is their choice, and because of this, I have decided that the seventh years will be taking all their classes together. I know this is not a normal set of circumstances, but I believe this will be best.’
He looked confused and said, ‘Professor, there’s a rumour about Defence Against the Dark Arts. We all have it on our schedule, but there’s no professor assigned to it.’
She tapped her wand absently against her palm and replied evenly, ‘We are still working on that. After last year, we wanted to have a more active teacher, but the Ministry has, as of now, been unable to produce a worthy candidate that can stay all year. For now, that class is on hiatus. There should be a professor for you after Halloween break, and then a different one for second term.’
She stood for a few more moments and said, ‘Excellent. Thank you all and please have two rows of parchment for me when we meet next, on Monday.’
Hermione balked. ‘We will only have transfiguration once a week?’
‘Yes, Ms. Granger. I do not have the time to lesson-plan for this class more than once a week. I will trust that those of you that have returned for your seventh year can be industrious enough to manage yourselves as best you can.’ She smiled at Hermione and continued, ‘If that’s all, I shall see you all next week.’
She walked out of the classroom quickly, and Ginny watched her for a moment before seeing Hermione get up out of the corner of her eye. She called out quickly, ‘Hermione – wait!’
Hermione turned slowly and looked at her. Ginny took a deep breath and said, ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you earlier. I know you and Harry…’ She lowered her gaze and couldn’t bring herself to continue.
Hermione stepped back to the table and said quietly, ‘Its okay, Ginny. I mean, I can only imagine how upsetting that sort of thing can be. Just, just do me a favour; I’ll be honest with you if you’re honest with me.’
Ginny nodded slowly and smirked. ‘I really get it, you know, why Harry and Ron love you so much.’
Hermione flushed and laughed. ‘Come on, we have more classes to get to. I don’t want to be late.’
Ginny laughed and grabbed her things following Hermione to their next class. Their day was spent running from one class to another and Ginny had only found time at the very end of the day to reply to Harry’s letter. She was much calmer after discovering her new-found fame and asked him about it in the letter. She also made a point to thank him for the map, though she’d not had a reason to use it.