Ginny got back into the normal school schedule fairly quickly. Hermione had kept her moving at a rapid pace from their classes to the library with very little alone time. Ginny knew Hermione was doing it on purpose, after what she’d said their first day of classes. She had spent some time in the library, while Hermione was busy with revisions, to put together a try-out schedule for the Gryffindor team. She had seen very few students that had been on the last team in her fifth year, and wondered if she’d be able to get enough players to have a team at all.
Hermione had received a letter from Harry in the middle of the week. Ginny hadn’t gotten a response from him, and Hermione had reluctantly shared with her what Harry had said. They sat quietly in the library talking about him.
‘Why doesn’t he just ask me himself?’ Ginny said tersely to Hermione.
She sighed in response. ‘He asked me to keep an eye on you; he must think that I know what’s bothering you…which I do,’ she added slowly.
Ginny shook her head and put her quill down. ‘Hermione, if he thinks something’s a matter, maybe he should realise he shouldn’t hide things from me if, as he says, he cares about me.’
Hermione looked up at her, hurt, and replied, ‘Ginny…he does care about you. More than you, clearly, know. Give him a break. He’s a boy; he doesn’t know what to say.’
Ginny picked her quill back up and tapped it absently on the parchment in front of her. She said quietly, ‘I really don’t need this right now.’
‘I know,’ Hermione said quietly. ‘But I think there are countless girls that would trade places with you.’
Ginny looked at Hermione sharply. ‘That many girls chasing him?’
Hermione looked confused and said, ‘No; having a dedicated boyfriend.’
Ginny took a deep breath and turned back to her schoolwork. She wondered, if she really had a dedicated boyfriend. She still questioned why, after they’d had so many conversations over the summer about being open with one another, he circumvented her and went to his best friend for information. She and Hermione left the library late in the evening and headed back to the Gryffindor common room. Ginny, thanks to her friendship with Hermione, had been privy to all the latest goings-on at the school. Earlier that day, Hermione had told Ginny that a date had been set for the memorial, but had not told her more. She had also informed Ginny that it would be prudent to have the try-outs either the coming weekend or later in September.
As per the information Hermione had provided, Ginny had put up several posters around the Gryffindor halls calling for any and all students interested in playing Quidditch and winning the House cup. The red-headed girl sat down in the common room, hoping to avoid any pointless conversations. She tried to genuinely smile when Lavender Brown came and sat down next to her.
Lavender smiled at her and asked, ‘How are classes going? I see Hermione’s really pushing you.’
Ginny turned the ends of her lips up in a weak smile and replied, ‘She’s certainly going to keep me on task.’
Lavender looked over Ginny’s shoulder at the remaining flyers and commented, ‘I’m sure we’ll have a great team this year.’
Ginny nodded. ‘I hope so. I’ve been trying to plan for this since I got the letter this summer.’
Dean walked up, keeping his eyes down. ‘Hey, I saw your flyers. I’ll be there for try-outs.’
Ginny looked up at Dean. ‘I’ll be happy to have you. Know anyone else that’ll play?’
Dean shook his head. ‘I think you’re going to have to go for a lot of second and third year students. I don’t recognise too many students from the fifth, sixth or seventh years that know anything about Quidditch.’
Ginny looked around the room and realised Dean was right. She didn’t know most of the students returning. Many that were in her own year hadn’t come back either. Many of the girls she had considered friends were long gone. The girls she shared a room with didn’t play Quidditch; she knew they wouldn’t be interested.
Dean nodded, watching her survey the room and said, ‘Yeah, not much to work with, yeah?’
‘We’ll win this year,’ Ginny said defiantly. ‘We’re going to have to make it work.’
Dean sat up. ‘Yeah, sure. Just tell me what you want me to do, captain.’
Ginny laughed, despite her usual brace of worries, and said, ‘Thanks. Just find some people who can play and are Gryffindors. I want to win; like Harry did when he was captain.’
Dean seemed slightly disappointed with the mention of Harry, but nodded. ‘I’ll see what I can do. Maybe we should have a meeting before the try-outs?’
‘Do you think that’ll drum up more support?’ Ginny asked.
‘It can’t hurt, right?’ Dean responded.
Lavender nodded, having listened too much of the conversation. ‘I’ll see if I know anyone who’s interested.’
Ginny spotted Hermione coming into the common room. Hermione waved her over and Ginny smiled consolingly at Lavender and Dean and headed over to Hermione. She followed Hermione to her room.
‘What’s with the secretiveness?’ Ginny asked.
Hermione waved her wand at the door to put a non-verbal, silencing charm on the door and said, ‘I know I shouldn’t tell you, but they’ve decided on the date for the memorial and I thought I should tell you.’
Ginny raised her eyebrows. ‘I figured you weren’t going to tell me.’
‘I changed my mind,’ she said hurriedly. ‘It’s not this weekend, but next. I’m sure your family knows, but you might want to send them a note nonetheless.’
Ginny was eyeing Hermione suspiciously. ‘Why would I do that?’
‘So they know you know!’ Hermione exclaimed. ‘This way they won’t have to find a way to tell you. You’ll already know.’
Ginny looked at her for a second and then nodded. ‘Then they don’t have to worry about me.’
Hermione shook her head. ‘Not because they don’t want to, I’m sure.’
Ginny nodded absently. ‘No, you’re right.’ Ginny looked around Hermione’s room and said, ‘I’m going to head back to Quidditch business, are we revising later?’
Hermione nodded. ‘Do you need any help?’
‘With revisions? I think I’m okay.’ Ginny turned towards the door.
‘No,’ Hermione called to her. ‘Do you need help with the Quidditch stuff?’
Ginny turned slowly. ‘You want to help me? How?’
Hermione looked startled. ‘What do you mean ‘how’? Hermione crossed her arms and said sternly, ‘I don’t know if you know, but as Head Girl, I have met almost all of the students in our house. If any knew anything about Quidditch, don’t you think I’d know?’
Realising her mistake, Ginny smiled. ‘I’m sorry. I thought you meant you might come out.’
Hermione’s scowl disappeared and she started laughing. ‘Can you imagine me on the pitch? Then we’d definitely lose the House Cup!’
Ginny headed for the door and said, ‘Why don’t we talk about it at dinner?’
Hermione nodded and started pulling books out of her bag, paying Ginny little mind. Ginny headed back to the common room and saw that Seamus had joined Dean and Lavender. Ginny spent a few hours chatting with them about everyone they knew and built a sizable list of candidates for the team. Ginny knew she’d be playing Chaser, she had a feeling Dean would reprise his role as Chaser as well. This left another Chaser slot, two Beaters, one Keeper and one Seeker. Now more than ever did she wish Harry were around to help her. If he played Seeker, they’d surely win their matches.
Ginny was surprised to see a response from Harry so quickly. He apologised for not having said something sooner and admitted he’d both known about it and didn’t want to alarm her or her family more. She didn’t know how genuine his apology felt, but tried to accept it at face value.
She felt a slight sense of betrayal and mistrust and tried not to dwell on it. The distance was making it difficult for her to appreciate what Harry most likely did not intend to be hurtful. She chose not to reply to him at that time, but would do so later in the week.
Ginny spent much of the week rallying support for the Quidditch team and trying to keep up with her studies. As the week went on, her irritation with Harry had dissipated and she almost felt ready to make some reply.
The day of the try-outs came and Ginny was surprised to see so many familiar faces. Hermione was true to her word and had drummed up quite a few of the younger students. Ginny was concerned about how small her team may eventually be, but tried not to let it bother her. She started off by having the students fly around the pitch a few times to get a feel which ones had a good command of their brooms. Once that was done, she noted on a roll of parchment who she believed had the most promise and then had the students who were there for the position of Beater show their skill.
The day wore on and Ginny wasn’t sure how much closer she was to filling the team. All the students had tried out and she was circling the pitch and trying to score the latest Keeper candidate. Not one of the candidates had been able to stop her from scoring on successive attempts. She had Dean swap positions with her and the Keepers seemed to have more luck stopping him.
She flew down to where Hermione and Luna sat in the stands and commented, ‘This isn’t going as well as I’d hoped. Did Harry have this much trouble?’
Hermione nodded. ‘I’m afraid so, yes. But he had you and Ron. That made it easier.’
Ginny sighed and watched as Dean tried again and again to get past this latest candidate and was having no luck. He flew down next to Ginny, winded and said, ‘Ginny, you might want to give this one a go. She hasn’t let me through once!’
Ginny looked up. The sun was starting to set, and she shielded her eyes with her hand and saw the student still floating in front of the goals, her silhouette showing against the sun. Ginny consulted her roll of parchment and noted that the current Keeper was Natalie McDonald. She was two years junior to Ginny and had not gone out for the last Gryffindor team. She had been giving Dean an impossible time and Ginny kicked off of the ground to try her best. Dean tossed the Quaffle to Ginny. She sized up Natalie and flew closer to her.
‘Looks like you’ve been giving Dean a hard time. You up for another go?’ Ginny asked.
Natalie nodded and replied enthusiastically, ‘Absolutely!’
Ginny could see she was tired, but was not going to give up. Ginny liked the spunk and nodded to Dean. ‘You’ve been brilliant, but you’ve been up here for hours. I’ll take care of this last one. Thanks for your help.’
Dean nodded and wiped his brow. ‘I’ll see you back in the common room.’
Ginny flew around the pitch a couple times and flew straight at the goals. She flew straight at Natalie and then stopped short, having the broom jump in the air in an awkward motion. Natalie didn’t lose sight of her and kept her eyes on the Quaffle at all times. Ginny threw it hard, but Natalie easily blocked it.
Ginny smiled and nodded with approval. The Quaffle flew high in the air and Ginny flew up to retrieve it quickly. She hadn’t realised how late it had gotten.
She snatched the Quaffle out of the air and thought she’d try something different. Flying higher and higher she thought she’d try a technique Harry had mentioned to her. As she floated for a few moments she felt an unusual darkness and foreboding around her. She looked around but didn’t see anything. She looked at the handle of her broomstick and felt her fingers chilling, as if a stiff breeze were being levelled at her.
She turned and looked around, and the sense of foreboding seemed to double. She couldn’t see anything, but started to fly downwards, thinking perhaps they’d worked enough that day. As she moved through the waves a thick blanket of darkness hit her and she felt herself losing her grip on both the Quaffle and her broomstick.
The ground seemed to be coming quickly and she felt like she’d never be cheerful again. She fell of off her broom and grabbed for it, but it fell just out of reach. She was hurtling to the ground and she tried to reach for her wand but something hit her squarely, stopping her descent. She was stopped in mid-air and looked around. There was a darkness descending all around her and a silver otter came flying towards her.
She was frozen for a few moments before she pulled her own wand out and called out weakly, ‘Expecto Patronum!’
A horse came galloping out of the end of her wand, but it faltered and faded quickly. She finally felt motion take hold again and was only a few yards above the ground. She could just make out Hermione’s figure from below. She saw her broom on the ground and called out, ‘Accio!’ Her broom came flying back to her and she grabbed it in just enough time to cushion her fall. She still crashed heavily into the ground, rolling over once before stopping. She was dazed and confused and saw a hare come bounding past her and jumping into the air behind her.
Hermione came rushing to her side and said desperately ‘Ginny, you have to conjure a Patronus! Yours will be strong enough to send them away.’
Ginny felt herself shaking and shook her head for a moment. Hermione bent down next to her and said urgently, ‘If you don’t, we’ll all be done for.’
Ginny took a few deep breathes and thought back to her happiest moments with Harry; the feel of his lips on hers, the feel of his hands running through her hair and called out again, ‘Expecto Patronum!’
This time the horse came galloping out with all the strength she had left. The horse bounded past her and it was only then that she saw a brace of Dementors surrounding them. The entire pitch was enveloped in darkness and the Dementors had come seeking them out.
Natalie was no where to be seen, but Ginny turned her gaze away from the Dementors to see both Hermione and Luna standing behind her. Luna was looking serene as usual, but Hermione was showing an unusual amount of distress. Ginny’s Patronus was shielding them, and the Dementors closed in for a few minutes before backing away into the night.
Ginny felt all her energy spent and slumped onto the ground, her hands falling limply to the ground. Hermione was at her side in a moment, holding her up as best she could. She could distantly hear Hermione saying to her, ‘Ginny, you were brilliant!’
Ginny nodded mutely, leaning heavily on Hermione. She was trying to take deep breaths, but still felt as though she’d never see her family again and even worse, never see Harry again. She had never been under a Dementor attack before, and didn’t know how many had been there.
Hermione was trying to help her off the ground, but Ginny was feeling too weak to move. She felt herself falling forward and could feel Hermione wrap her arms around her and say something to Luna before she blacked out entirely.