Ginny awoke lying on the floor in her dormitory, right next to her bed. She looked up and saw that her bed was still unmade. I must have fallen out, she thought, and rubbed her head. It did hurt, now that she thought about it.
“Oh, that was an awful dream,” she said to herself as she got slowly up off the floor. It was almost as though she had actually walked around the school in a hurry. She felt like she had run a marathon. Her legs ached, and she was sweating.
Once she was standing again, Ginny glanced at the clock, wondering whether or not she would be on time for breakfast. To her shock, there were only ten minutes left until her first class started. She had missed almost all of breakfast!
Hurried now, Ginny quickly pulled up the blankets on her bed as she would at home when she was rushing. She found that Tom Riddle’s diary was in her bed as well, and threw it back into her trunk. Hoping that nobody was there, she ran into the bathroom. Luckily for her, it was empty. She shut the door behind her and started the water for a shower, still wondering about her strange dream.
***
With speed that could only be learned from living in a house with eight other people her entire life, Ginny was ready to go to breakfast with two minutes to spare. She sighed with relief and hurried out of the dormitory clutching her bag filled with all of her books. She didn’t know what class she would have first, so she had had to pack all of the books. The bag wasn’t light, but she was prepared.
The common room was empty, what with everybody already down at breakfast or heading to their first class of the day. Ginny silently thanked her housemates for being more timely than she was and practically ran out the door.
The hallway to the entrance hall was equally deserted, and Ginny navigated it better than she had expected. It felt like she had just walked it effortlessly, and she was able to do it again.
The entrance hall, contrary to the hallway, was packed with students milling about, conversing with each other about their individual schedules. Ginny heard the occasional squeal as friends discovered they had classes together, and the more common moan when they found that they had to be on separate sides of the castle at any given time.
Ginny worked her way through the crowd, worrying that she would be late for class. Just when she had made it to the other side of the hall, near the staircase, she realized that she hadn’t gotten her schedule yet. She had no idea where she was going!
Irritated, she pushed through the groups of students much less politely than she had the first time, making it to the Great Hall’s doors just as the bell rang, signaling the start of the first class of the day. The students in the entrance hall started hurrying away to their classes before they were marked late. Ginny walked as fast as she could without running to get to the front of the Great Hall, spotting the Heads of House with the last few student schedules in their hands.
Ginny was almost to Professor McGonagall, who was looking at her strangely, her arms crossed threateningly, when she remembered that she wasn’t in Gryffindor. She turned to Professor Snape as her heart sank, and saw that he only had one schedule left in his hand. She looked up at him and gulped; the look on his face was not a forgiving one.
“Miss Weasley,” said Snape, shaking his head with fake regret. “Late on your first day, I see. Oh, I hate to take points from my own house, but . . . 10 points from Slytherin.” He gave Ginny a look that made her want to crawl under her bed and hide there until Christmas. “Let’s not let that happen again, shall we?”
He thrust her schedule forward, and Ginny took it, her hand shaking. She nodded and quickly turned away, and walked swiftly down the hall.
She didn’t look at her schedule until she was safely away from Snape. Once she was sure he couldn’t see her anymore, she looked down at her schedule. It was very complicated, and it made her wish even more that she was in the same house as her brothers so they could help her decipher it. Then again, they would already be in their own classes by now. . . .
Shaking her head clear of thoughts of her brothers and Gryffindor, she studied her schedule closely. The first item on the list was Breakfast, 8-9 am.
Great, thought Ginny angrily, I’ve already missed that. . . .
She looked down to the next item, and saw that she had Herbology first this morning, a Wednesday. Not one of the most entertaining subjects, in Ginny’s opinion, but more bearable than something like Potions would be. She scanned the rest of her schedule quickly – frowning when she passed flying lessons on Tuesdays, for she had been looking forward to them and would have to wait a week – and made her way out the huge oak doors to the grounds.
She was able to appreciate the beauty of the grounds more than she had the night before even in her rush. The sun was making its way slowly across the sky, lighting up the grass, the trees, and the lake. Ginny shielded her eyes from the glare of the sunlight off the lake and started on her way to the greenhouses.
When she had almost reached greenhouse one, where her class took place, she heard hurried footsteps following behind her. She turned and saw a disheveled woman rushing along. Ginny thought the woman looked old, but not as old as Professor McGonagall or Professor Dumbledore. She was short and squat, and the walk seemed to be straining for her.
Ginny thought about where she had seen someone like this before, and remembered how, only moments ago, she had been in the Great Hall with the Heads of House. Now that she thought about it, this woman was one of the Heads. She tried to remember the layout of the staff table from the night before, and finally decided that the woman must be Professor Sprout, the Head of Hufflepuff house and the Herbology professor.
“Oh,” Professor Sprout said as she caught up with Ginny. “Hello, dear. A first year, correct?”
Ginny nodded in agreement, and added, “You’re Professor Sprout, right?”
“Yes,” the professor answered. “Are you heading for Herbology?”
Ginny nodded again, her rare shyness kicking in. She had a feeling that she was about to be reprimanded for being late. “I got a bit . . . lost,” she said sheepishly.
“Oh, well that’s no problem,” Professor Sprout replied, waving her hand in the air like lateness was no big deal. “Everybody gets lost on the first day. Let’s head down together, shall we?”
Shocked, Ginny followed her teacher to the greenhouses. She had really gotten lucky. Any other teacher probably would have given her detention. That was how Fred and George made it sound, anyway. Fred and George. . . . She might have eaten breakfast with them, if only they were in the same house.
Her whole Slytherin situation was eating away at her; how had it happened, and was there any way to undo it?
***
Unfortunately for Ginny, the day passed very slowly, with each class seeming to last five hours instead of just one. They had been assigned homework in every class as well, leaving Ginny torn between wanting classes to be done and wanting them to last forever so she would never have to do her many essays. She had known going to Hogwarts would mean more work than she was accustomed to, but she still wasn’t happy with it. She never would be.
Finally, it was time for her last class of the day, Charms. Upon walking into the classroom, Ginny found that she had this class with the Ravenclaws. This seemed to please Professor Flitwick, the Head of Ravenclaw, as he was beaming from ear to ear when Ginny entered. Looking closer, she noticed that he was having an animated conversation with Luna Lovegood, who was sitting to his right. Luna seemed to be enjoying herself as well, but she didn’t look nearly as pleased as the professor. Ginny saw that there was an empty seat to Luna’s right, and headed to it.
“Yes, daddy has told me your class is delightful,” Luna was saying when Ginny sat down.
“Fantastic!” exclaimed Professor Flitwick, waving his arms wildly. He turned to Ginny now, “Hello, dear. Are you a friend of Luna’s?”
“Oh yes,” Luna spoke before Ginny was able to, surprising Ginny. “We met on the train here.”
“Wonderful!” said Flitwick, grinning once more. “Welcome to Charms!”
He turned to greet the students sitting on his left, and Ginny turned to Luna. “You really didn’t need to tell him we’re friends. Not if you didn’t want to,” she said, feeling embarrassed.
“But we are,” stated Luna, smiling at Ginny. “You seem like a very nice person, if self-conscious.”
“Oh,” said Ginny, surprised again. “But. . . . I’m in Slytherin. I wouldn’t think you would want to be seen with me.”
“Those silly houses don’t matter,” said Luna, a look of shock on her face. “All that matters is our qualities, and you really don’t seem like a stereotypical Slytherin to me. If you were, you wouldn’t want to be seen with me.”
“Um,” Ginny wasn’t sure what to say now. “Thanks.”
They passed the rest of the wait until class started in silence. Luna was swaying in her seat, her eyes closed and her head back as though she had fallen asleep. Ginny spent her time dipping her quill in and out of her bottle of ink, watching the droplets fall back into the bottle, making a tiny ripple with each drop. She almost missed Professor Flitwick stepping up onto a pile of books to address the class.
“That was an awkward silence.” Ginny swiveled on the spot, and saw that it was Luna who had spoken. She was staring right at Ginny, a friendly smile on her face. It was somewhat unnerving, and Ginny nodded slowly and turned back to face the professor.
“Today we will be working on getting to know each other and teamwork,” Flitwick was saying, gesturing with each word to a different student. He was a very visual teacher, Ginny noted. “It is very important that we all know how to work together without fighting. I will be putting you in pairs, and you will prepare a short skit about each other to be performed in front of the class.
“Look at the person across from you. This person will be your partner for this project. Everybody know who they’re working with? Okay, go ahead! I’ll let you know when we’re starting the skits.”
The class started shuffling around and finding their partners, some students more enthusiastic about the project than others. Ginny looked across the room for her partner, hoping it was a Ravenclaw. She didn’t want to have to deal with a rude Slytherin who didn’t want to do anything.
When she had found the spot symmetrical to where she was sitting, she found that the seat was empty. Confused, she started to stand up to tell Professor Flitwick that she had no partner, when someone tapped her on the shoulder.
She turned around, and there was Cassidy, her brown eyes sparkling with glee.
“Howdy, partner.”
Spellbound by ravenclaw1997
Chapter Notes:Sorry this chapter took so long to get out! I had writer's block, a cold, and not-in-a-writing-mood syndrome (a disease of my own invention) all wrapped up in one. Not fun.
Thanks to my mom for beta'ing! Also, for continuing to hit the down arrow key and saying, "Is that it?"
***
Chapter Endnotes:I know, I'm such an evil author. At least I told you who it was. The original plan was not to.
You know what that last sentence rhymed with? Review. Just do it! Like Nike. ;)