Chapter 2
The rest of breakfast went by quickly and Ginny met the rest of her yearmates. The boys mostly kept to themselves, further down the table, but she briefly met John Harper, Lucian Burke, Balthazar Montague, and Alton Flint.
Flora and Hestia seemed aloof, but nice enough. Selene Vaisey and Iris Travers were already friends, but seemed outgoing and Ginny chatted with them excitedly about Quidditch. Aurellia groaned and turned to Hestia and Flora pleadingly when the conversation turned to statistics and the ineffective but esoteric strategies employed by the Canons.
Talk of the Canons caused Ginny to check on Ron and Harry. Hermione was still eating alone, looking around with worry and not a little sadness. Ginny resolved in that moment to befriend the girl. She felt a little bad for her. She knew a little about being stuck with only boys all the time, and if what she’d interpreted from Ron and Harry’s stories was correct, Hermione was often the odd one out.
When she turned back, the feast had finally finished. An older girl approached the first years.
“First years, with me. We’ll leave ahead of the rest of the house.”
Ginny got up with the rest of her yearmates and followed the prefect out the hall. She took in the castle as they walked. Portraits were hung everywhere and occasionally said something encouraging to them. She thought she caught a glimpse of the Slytherin house ghost, but he drifted into a wall before she could be sure.
They descended down multiple flights of stairs and along long dark corridors until they reached a blank stretch of wall. The prefect stopped and spoke without preamble.
“You have all been sorted into the greatest house in Hogwarts. In Slytherin, you will make friendships and alliances that will last a lifetime. You are expected to do well in your classes, present a unified front to the other houses, and not get caught in any rule breaking.”
Ginny smirked at the phrasing of that last rule.
“Vincere.”
At that word, a stone snake arced from the ground. Beneath the snake was now a wooden door, inlaid into the stone. The prefect opened the door and led them into the Slytherin common room. It was large, with ornate furniture centred around multiple fireplaces. Stone pillars with snake iconography littered the room. But the most fascinating aspect of the common room were the gigantic windows that looked out into… the lake. Ginny watched as a school of fish swam by and grinned. The lake cast the room in eerie blues and greens, giving it an ethereal and haunted look.
Ginny noticed matching grins on the other first years and they followed the prefect to their dorms.
Ginny and Aurelia grabbed beds next to one another, as did Hestia and Flora and Selena and Iris.
Ginny practically shivered with excitement as she slid under the covers of her four-poster, deciding to unpack her trunk tomorrow.
***
Ginny woke up before the rest of her roommates. A lifetime of living close quarters with her brothers had trained her to be an early riser, else risk not getting a crack at the shower at all. After showering, she quietly unpacked her belongings, hung her robes in her wardrobe, and packed her parchment, quills, and textbooks in her bag. She stopped, flipping what looked like an old diary over. T.M. Riddle. Huh. Maybe her mum had got it in the bargain bin at Flourish and Blotts? She tossed it back into the trunk, she’d take a look later.
By the time she had finished giddily organising her things—another luxury as it was almost impossible to keep anything organised or private at the Burrow—her roommates were just starting to wake.
“Weasley…”
Ginny turned to see Vaisey looking at her.
“You can call me Ginny, whatsup?”
“Oh alright, Ginny. What are you wearing?”
Ginny looked down.
“Robes?”
“They’re not your size,” Vaisey said, seeming genuinely confused. Iris threw a pillow at her. “What?” Vaisey said, looking annoyed and turning to her friend. “They’re not.”
“Ignore her,” Iris said, rolling her eyes. Ginny knew her face was completely red now.
“But… did you even get them tailored?”
“Morgana, you’re such an idiot,” Iris said. Ginny ran a hand through her hair. Bill had coached her on this somewhat. She didn’t know if his advice applied to Slytherin though. Just own it.
“They’re second-hand.”
“But why—ow! Iris!”
“You cannot just shut up, can you?” Iris said.
“I’m just trying to help. She can’t go around like that!”
“I don’t really have much of a choice,” Ginny snapped.
“Why? Were your parents busy?”
Iris put her head in her hands, somehow making it worse by making it clear that it was common knowledge that her family was poor.
“No, they can’t afford tailored robes.”
“Wha—” Selena slumped. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
Selena looked mortified and didn’t speak to Ginny for the rest of the morning. Flora and Hestia looked at her pityingly. She needed to get out of here.
Ginny left without another word.
“Ginny! Gin!” She whirled around, anger and shame warring within her.
“What?” she snarled, realising too late that it was Aurellia. The girl took a step back, but steadied herself.
“Breakfast?”
Ginny’s shoulders sagged.
“Yeah.”
Breakfast was quiet for the girls. No one seemed to know what to say around Ginny, which just made it all the more horrible. Ginny sporadically tried to look over at the Gryffindor table. There were whispers about what Harry and Ron had done last night, but she hadn’t been able to talk to either of them—nor the rest of her family for that matter, and she couldn’t catch their eye now. About halfway through breakfast, someone finally broke the awkward silence.
“Okay, what’s going on here?”
They turned to see the black haired girl that hugged Aurellia at her sorting.
“Nothing,” Ginny said too quickly. The girl rolled her eyes.
“Obviously not nothing. Aurellia, what is it?”
Aurellia blushed, but didn’t say anything. The girl’s eyes narrowed.
“Someone better tell me what’s going on. You’re all supposed to be over the moon about starting Hogwarts. Did any Gryffindors give you any trouble?” she said with an edge to her voice.
“No!” Selena said, glancing at Ginny. “Err, well, I may have brought up Ginny’s robes.”
‘Her… oh Morgana. What are those?”
“My robes,” Ginny said, anger completely winning over stress about her family’s reaction to her sorting and her shame at having everything secondhand. The girl scoffed.
“If you can call those things robes. Absolutely not.”
“What?” Ginny said, her teeth gritted and her hand on her wand.
“Give me your measurements.”
“What?” Ginny said, now completely confused.
“Your measurements. Honestly, are you stupid as well as poor?”
“Pans!” Aurellia said.
“What? I’m helping.”
“You’re being mean,” Aurellia said. The girl—Pans, rolled her eyes.
“Measurements? For robes?”
“I don’t know them. I never got them taken,” Ginny said.
“Show me your schedule.” Ginny glared at the girl, but handed it over. “Good, you have nothing after breakfast. We’ll go back to the common room and get you measured.”
“For what?”
Pansy looked toward the ceiling as if praying for patience.
“Robes,” she enunciated.
“I… can’t afford them,” Ginny said.
“Obviously, you’re a Weasley. I’m buying them.”
“No!” Ginny said immediately. “I don’t need charity.”
“Yes, you do. But that’s not really your fault. Anyway, that’s not how Slytherin works. If you go around wearing those monstrosities, it’ll look bad for us. Just like when Vincent inevitably starts flunking, Theo tutors him.” The boy who must be Vincent nodded, seeming unphased by this condemnation of his scholastic ability.
Ginny blinked at the girl.
“You don’t have a choice. Common room after breakfast.” And with that, she turned and started talking to the other second years.
“Sorry,” Aurellia said. “She’s just like that.”
“I…” Ginny trailed off, unsure what to say. She was silent for the rest of the meal and followed Aurellia and Pansy to the common room.
Pansy clapped her hands in delight and waved her wand. Ginny’s jaw dropped as the girl non-verbally summoned a tape measure, which, much like at Ollivanders, began taking her measurements—only much more invasively. The tape measure wrapped tightly around her body in multiple places, measuring each and every part of her. A floating quill recorded the measurements.
“How did you do that?” she asked.
“What?”
“Summon the tape measure?”
“Oh! It’s enchanted. I’ve used it so much though, I can do the activation wordlessly.”
Ginny gave her an impressed look and Pansy preened slightly.
“It’s not that impressive,” Pansy said, clearly not meaning it at all. Ginny just raised an eyebrow.
“Perfect, we can direct order these right away,” Pansy said, ignoring Ginny’s look. “Should come by tonight if we express them.”
“It really isn’t—” Ginny began.
“It is,” Pansy interrupted. “You’re a Slytherin. If a Slytherin girl goes around wearing that travesty, my mother will send me a howler.”
Ginny finally gave in.
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Of course!” Pansy said happily and then turned and left without another word.
Ginny sat with the girls in transfiguration. She was frustrated that she hadn’t been able to turn a matchstick into anything that remotely looked like a needle. Professor McGonagall had repeatedly told them to visualise the result they wanted when they cast, but what did that even mean? She stayed late after class to talk to her.
“Professor?”
“Yes, Ms. Weasley?”
“What do you mean by visualise the needle?”
“Is this a joke?” Professor McGonagall asked warily.
“No. I… don’t know what you mean. Aurellia tried to explain it. She says she sees it in her head…” Ginny screwed up her face, trying to ‘see’ it like she heard words in her head.
“You can’t see an image in your head?” Professor McGonagall said, looking worried. Ginny shook her head. “Of anything?” She shook her head again. “But you can imagine a matchstick?”
“Yeah… I mean, I know what a matchstick is and I could describe it, but I can’t see it.”
Professor McGonagall looked at a loss.
“I’m not sure what to tell you, Ms. Weasley.”
Ginny’s face fell.
“But I’ve tried other spells and they work for me.”
“I’ll look into it, but I’ve really never heard of this. Transfiguration is extremely visual compared to other branches of magic.”
Ginny nodded and left, feeling downcast. Aurellia was waiting for her.
“We’ll practise, don’t worry. There has to be other people who have this problem.”
Ginny nodded, buoyed by her friend’s chipper attitude.
***
History of magic was a disaster. Binns didn’t take the register, didn’t acknowledge the few hands that went up, he just droned on in a monotonous voice. Ginny gaped at him for a moment, then looked at her textbook. The ghost was reading verbatim from the textbook! She had thought her brothers were joking about him. In a fury, she packed up her things and left the classroom early. The ghost didn’t look up once. It was the last class of the day and she had no desire to waste her time on something she could just read and take notes on. She strolled around the grounds, taking it all in in the daylight. Hogwarts was beautiful. She looked up and saw bridges hundreds of feet up, connecting turrets and towers. She smiled. She would find her way up there at some point. She couldn’t wait to explore the castle. For now, she wandered to the Quidditch Pitch and stared longingly out at it.
“Oy!”
She turned around. The beefiest, meanest looking man she had ever seen was striding toward her.
“Yes?” she practically cheeped.
“The Slytherin Weasley, yeah?”
“Yes?”
“Fantastic. Not a fan of your brothers, but Quidditch seems to run in your blood. Charlie Weasley was Morgana’s gift to the broom.” The man went over to a nearby shed, waved his wand, and disappeared inside of it. He came out with a school broom that looked to be a few models up from Charlie’s old clean sweep four. He roughly shoved it at her.
“Go on.”
“W-what?”
“Show me what you can do. Potter destroyed us last season. You’ve got a good build for a seeker.”
“You’re on the team?”
“Marcus Flint, captain and chaser.” He held out his hand to her and she shook it, awed.
“I’ve only practised for Chaser.”
He shrugged. “Let’s just see you go up.”
Not believing her luck, she grinned, hopped on the broom and took off. Merlin, this was incredible. It was so much more maneuverable than the one at home. She let out a delighted cry and plummeted toward the ground as fast as she could. She heard a yell, but it was background noise, she grinned as the world narrowed into her and the ground. Something told her she could wait just a bit longer than she usually did to pull out. As she pulled, she added a double corkscrew, he hair dragging along the wet grass for just a moment and then she was right side up and skimming the grass. She banked turned, did a loop, laughing as she did, and headed toward Flint.
He was staring at her. Then, without warning, he whipped a small stone at her. She caught it without thinking.
“Ow!” she said, dropping the stone and rubbing her palm.
“What the fuck was that, Weasley?” he said, a slow smile spreading across his face.
“You threw a rock at me, you maniac!”
“Not that, the dive!”
“Oh, I do that at home all the time?”
“How long have you been playing?”
“Never played, just flown.”
He gave her an odd look.
“Most your entire family plays. Why haven’t you played?”
Ginny’s look darkened.
“Cause I’m a girl.”
Marcus blinked.
“What?”
“I’m the girl of the family.”
“What’s that got to do with Quidditch?” he said, seeming genuinely confused.
“Precious, unladylike,” she said with distaste.
“How is it unladylike? The best chaser and seeker in the league right now are women…”
Ginny laughed and shook her head.
“Tell my mother that.”
Marcus mirrored her action and shook his own head in dismay.
“Does this mean you can’t join the team?”
“What?” Ginny said, eyes wide, mouth hanging open.
“Well, you have to try out, but we need someone who can match Potter. Higgs is leaving and he couldn’t hold a candle to the wanker.”
“You’re serious?”
“Tryouts are on Friday.”
He stalked off, leaving Ginny staring after him in total shock.
***
“I can try out for the team!” Ginny said, hugging Aurellia.
“What team? Gobstones?”
“Quidditch!” Ginny said.
“Oh! That’s fantastic, Ginny!” Aurellia said, looking genuinely happy for her, despite her lack of interest in the sport.
“You’re trying out?” Draco Malfoy strode across the common room. “What position?”
“I think Flint had Seeker in mind, but I’ve mostly trained on Chaser.”
Draco’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m going for Seeker.”
“May the best player win, then,” Ginny said, holding out her hand. He eyed it, and something flashed across his face.
“Deal.” He shook her hand.
At dinner, she couldn’t catch Ron’s eye. She grumbled to Aurellia that they were impossible to get a hold of.
“Just go over there. No one will care about the house rivalry. Your entire family is there.”
“Fine.” But just as she made to stand up, the night post flooded in.
“Oh! Those are your robes!” Pansy exclaimed, as three owls flew in and dropped off a massive package in front of her. Draco was quick on the uptake and snatched her plate out of the way just in time.
“Thanks,” she said, her eyes softening on him. Draco, to Ginny’s surprise, blushed and nodded.
“Of course.”
“Weasley’s got a howler.”
Ginny paled at those words and whipped around. She’d heard her mother was fairly free with the howlers, but…. oh no… But the red letter wasn’t headed for her at all. Errol was headed directly for Ron.
“RONALD WEASLEY!
HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR! I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! YOUR FATHER'S IS NOW FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, AND IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT! IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE, WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!
IT IS YOUR FAULT YOUR SISTER GOT SORTED INTO THAT SNAKE’S NEST. SHE WAS YOUNG AND IMPRESSIONABLE AND YOU WEREN’T THERE FOR HER ON THE TRAIN. I’LL BE COMING UP THERE TO TALK TO DUMBLEDORE AND WE’LL SEE ABOUT A RE-SORTING.”
With that, the letter incinerated, spraying ash all over Ron’s dinner. Ginny’s mouth was hanging open. Ron openly glared at her.
“Impressionable!?” Ginny said, outraged.
“That’s what you took from that?” Draco said, looking as if he was trying not to laugh.
“I am not impressionable!”
“I don’t know,” Aurellia said, smirking. “I’d like to take credit for luring you into the snake’s nest.”
Ginny shot the girl a glare, but then couldn’t hold back a smile either. Chuckles broke out across the Slytherin table, which caused Ron to only glare at her more.
“Come on, I want to see how you look in these,” Pansy said, levitating the box of robes.
“Okay,” Ginny said happily and jumped up.
“Aren’t you worried about the re-sorting?” Flora asked. Ginny shrugged.
“It wasn’t like I threatened the hat into putting me here. It’ll just re-sort me into the same house.”
She was following Pansy out when she was waylaid by Harry Ron and Hermione in the Entrance Hall.
“One sec,” Ginny said. Pansy shrugged and stepped off to the side.
“Bet you’re happy,” Ron said.
“Generally? Yeah.” She glanced at Harry and hated that she felt her cheeks heat. But she pushed past it. She was a Slytherin now. Slytherins did not fall to pieces in front of their crush.
“Can’t believe you. Laughing with all the junior Death Eaters. You disgust me.”
Ginny flinched back.
“What?” she said, her voice cracking.
“Ron!” Hermione said, glancing apologetically at Ginny. Harry… Harry just looked awkward.
“You know it’s true Hermione. She’s friends with Parkinson! After everything she’s said to you.”
Hermione glanced at Pansy, who, not helping at all, smirked and waved. Hermione glowered at the girl, but turned back to Harry and Ron.
“Ginny didn’t do any of that, and she’s allowed to make friends with her housemates, whether I like them or not.” She sort of faltered on these last words, but glared fiercely at Ron.
“Her housemates want people like you dead, Hermione,” Ron said.
“Not to interrupt this… fascinating discussion. But just because I think Granger is an annoying, stuck-up know-it-all with no taste and horrible hair, doesn’t mean I’m planning her death,” Pansy said.
“Pansy!” Ginny said. “Hermione is great.” Pansy made a disgusted face and looked Hermione up and down. Ginny ran a hand through her hair.
“Their families are death eaters!” Ron practically shouted, looking furious. “Come on, Ginny.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled. “We’re going to Dumbledore’s now—ow!”
He jumped back, shaking his hand. Ginny turned to see Pansy, wand out, and all levity gone from her expression.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, what with your table manners, that your mother never taught you any other manners.” Pansy glanced at Ginny. “Allow me to educate you. You do not grab women suddenly. You don’t force them to do anything.”
Ron pulled out his wand. Harry, somewhat reluctantly, backed him up, pulling his own. Ginny could feel her crush on that brave boy in her head shrivel up.
“Harry, Ron! She’s right.” Both boys turned to Hermione, aghast. Pansy cocked her head at the girl. “You shouldn’t have grabbed her like that. You’re also being horrible to her.”
“She’s in Slytherin, Hermione!”
“Who cares?” Hermione shouted back. Both Pansy and Ginny were staring at the girl in shock. “It’s a stupid house! All of this is ridiculous.”
“You might not understand, because you’re—”
“A mudblood?” Hermione said fiercely.
“Hermione, I would never—”
But Hermione had pulled her wand and was now holding it on Ron, fury etched into her features.
“Tell me what I don’t understand, Ronald Weasley. Tell me, what you’ve learned that I haven’t.”
Ron turned completely red.
“Your family didn’t fight in the war! Every wizard who’s ever been bad has been in Slytherin!”
Hermione laughed and it was high and mirthless.
“I can name five, off the top of my head, who fought for You-Know-Who, who were in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff or foreign wizards who never went to Hogwarts. And who do you think that war was fought over, Ronald? Who’s family do you think they fought for the right to torture and murder?” Her wand was now so close to him, he’d gone slightly cross eyed watching it. “I can assure you it wasn’t yours, Mr. Sacred Twenty-Eight. Don’t you dare tell me what I understand.”
Ron looked equally furious, but he seemed wary of her wand in his face and didn’t say anything. Pansy was staring at Hermione. Harry looked incredibly awkward and was glancing at Hermione’s wand.
“Let’s go,” Ginny said, tugging at Pansy. It took a moment for Pansy to jolt and nod. Ginny shot Hermione a grateful look and led Pansy back to the dungeons.