Ginevra Scorned

The howler came first things in the morning. Harry truly had no idea how news traveled that fast, but as soon as the mail arrived in the morning, via a cacophony of owls swooping from the Great Hall sky, there was screaming from the Slytherin table. A Red-faced Ginny sat there as the voice of the very sweet mother from yesterday, Mrs. Weasley, screamed at her from a bright red letter with big red lips floating in front of her.

“Ginny, your father and I are so ashamed of you! The first Slytherin Weasley in a century! Have you any idea what message this sends about your father and I’s child-rearing abilities? I told you absolutely no funny business, and after one day you are already tarnishing the family name—!” The letter went on screaming about family image and obligation, misuse of magic, and the pitfalls of associating with families who had ties to You Know Who. By the five-minute mark, Ginny’s face had turned from embarrassment to anger. She looked livid as she smacked the table and stormed out of the Great Hall before the howler had even finished speaking. On her way out she bumped into her brother Percy who shoved her with his shoulder and gave her a deeply unimpressed look.

“Nice going Ginny,” He spat sarcastically. Her name sounded like an insult in his mouth. She stormed past him without looking back. Ron rolled his eyes at her display and went back to wolfing down his bacon.

“Aren’t you going to check on her?” Harry asked nervously.

Ron snorted, “Nah, she picked her side,” He looked over at the Slytherin table darkly.

The howler eventually moved on the cajoling Ron’s virtues for making it into Gryffindor, and Ron seemed much more taken by this.

As they ate Harry kept glancing at the door, hoping Ginny would come back. After she didn’t for a long time he excused himself to go look for her. He traveled down big unfamiliar halls looking for where she might have slunk off to. It’d been quite a display in the Great Hall, but they had class in a few minutes so he couldn’t imagine she’d have gone all the way back to her dorm. In a small window ledge near the library, Harry caught a glimpse of red hair.

“Ginny?” He called out tentatively as he came to stand before it.

The girl looked up at him with red splotchy eyes. She quickly began violently wiping her eyes to hide the tears. “What do you want?!” She snapped.

“It’s me, Harry, from the train yesterday.”

“I know who you are!” She snarled, “Ron’s perfect Gryffindor friend.”

“I’m far from perfect, my aunt and uncle think I’m a freak.”

“Why?” Ginny sniffed.

“Cause I’m a wizard and they aren’t, I think you guys call them muggles.” Harry replied, “May I sit?” Harry gestured to the other side of the windowsill.

Ginny waved a hand at him to sit. “My family thinks I’m a freak, and now everyone knows that I am. They’ve always thought I was bad news, since my first sign of magic bad things have just happened…I don’t try to, but people just get hurt around me. Now this is just more proof that my family was right to mistrust me.”

“I don’t think being in Slytherin automatically makes you bad,” Harry offered. “I accidentally set a Boa Constrictor loose on my cousin Dudley once.”

Ginny chuckled softly at this. “Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“Would you have been upset if you got sorted into Slytherin?”

Harry’s face looked conflicted as he answered, “Yeah, I would have.”

“Oh…”

“I don’t think if I’d been sorted into Slytherin that would make me evil, it just wasn’t who I wanted to be.” Harry added. “I’m sorry if that’s not the answer you were looking for.” He looked quite sympathetic and it made Ginny’s stomach turn uncomfortably.

Ginny glanced down at her watch then wiped her eyes one more time. “I’ve got to get to class,” She said curtly.

“Can I walk you?” Harry asked.

“No, I’m fine,” Ginny pushed past him and swept away before he could protest.

***

In each class that day, it became clearer and clearer to Ginny that not a single Slytherin liked her. Ginny’s dormmates took to staring at her darkly and whispering behind her back in an oh-so-unsubtle way. There was a dark-skinned boy who kept looking at Ginny intrigued, but every time she met his eye he’d scowl and look away. The worst were Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Malfoy seemed to have taken it upon himself to become Ginny’s friend, and his idea of being her friend was to tease her mercilessly. By lunch, he’d called her every version of Ginger, Gingersnap, Oi Weasley, and Sweetheart, and asked her truly ridiculous questions like “ever touched hippogriff” at totally inopportune times. By Charms Ginny had decided if he threw one more quill at her head, he was going to lose his.

“Now swish and flick, Wingardium Leviosa” Professor Flitwick demonstrated the spell, and his feather rose high in the air. “Now you try.”

“Wingardi—wingardi—wingar—Oi Crabbe what’s the spell again?” Goyle nudged Crabbe and asked. Goyle shrugged helplessly.

“It’s Wingardium Leviosa you idiots,” Malfoy chided, casting it on his own spell. The feather shook slightly but didn’t rise off the desk.

Ginny looked down at her own greyish brown feather, “Wingardium Leviosa.” She swished her wand and ended with a gentle flick and the feather began to slowly rise off her desk.

“Oh well done Ms. Weasley! Eyes this way everyone, Ms. Weasley’s done it, bravo!” Mr. Flitwick gushed.

Malfoy leaned down from his own seat in the row above Ginny and whispered, “Well done, sweetheart.”

“Call me that again and you die,” Ginny hissed back, not even bothering to look at him.

“Whatever you say, Ginger.”

***

This truly awful day of course couldn’t just be over, it of course had to end with double potions with the Gryffindors. When Ginny went to enter the dungeon-level classroom her path was stopped by her brother Ron, flanked by a sheepish-looking Harry.

“Ginny,” Ron spat angrily before pushing past her and dragging Harry with him to the farthest back desk on the left side of the room. Harry looked back over his shoulder at Ginny and offered her a weak smile. Ginny sighed and moved to the opposite side of the room, and went to sit at a desk beside the dark-skinned boy who kept looking at her earlier.

“This seat's taken,” A cool voice behind Ginny said. She turned around to see her dormmate Daphne scowling at her. “So move,” she snapped, grabbing the chair and pulling it back, effectively pushing Ginny out of the way.

Ginny stood there looking around helplessly as all the other chairs began to fill up. Even the puffy-haired Gryffindor—Hermione—who had eight books in front of her had found a seatmate.

“Take your seats,” a bone-chillingly cool voice said, as their Professor swept into the room in high-collared, flowing black robes that matched his sheet of black hair.

“Is there a problem Ms…” Professor Snape gave Ginny an unimpressed look.

“Weasley,” Ron supplied from his own desk. Arsehole, Ginny could speak for herself just fine. “Her name is Ginny Weasley, sir.” Ron added.

Ginny glared over at him and made a split-second decision, “It’s Ginevra Weasley, sir, not Ginny.” Ginny was tired of how her nickname sounded like an insult in everyone’s mouth. Quite frankly, right now she’d rather be called anything else but Ginny. Well anything except sweetheart, that just made her want to gag.

“How riveting,” Professor Snape said in an unimpressed drawl.

“Her name is Ginny, not Ginevra, sir!” Ron shouted from his seat.

Snape rounded on him, “Was I speaking to you Mr…” He gave Ron a look up and down, “Weasley?”

“No sir…” Ron said nervously.

“Then you would do well to not speak out of turn, five points from Gryffindor.”

Ron went to argue, but Harry seemed to stop him with a firm nudge.

Snape turned back to Ginny. “Are you struggling with the concept of what a chair is, Ms. Weasley?”

“No sir, they just seem to all be taken.” Ginny replied.

“Go sit beside Mr. Malfoy.”

“But—” Ginny started to argue.

“You would also do well not to speak out of turn just like your brother, or do I need to take points from Slytherin too?” Snape gave Ginny a withering look.

“No sir, sorry sir.” Ginny fell heavily in the seat beside Malfoy, glaring at him. Draco grinned back smugly.

As class progressed and Snape grilled Harry about various things from their potions textbook he had obviously not read yet, while Hermione's hand seemed forever planted in the air above her head, Draco kept trying to pass Ginny slips of parchment, which she pointedly ignored. Eventually, they moved on to making a basic cough potion, and Draco spoke up while Ginny was violently mashing some dung beetles.

“You can spend all year hating me, or you can just cave now and save yourself a lot of time. I think we’d make excellent friends.” Draco smirked as he said it and his tone made Ginny’s skin crawl.

“I’ll pass, Malfoy.”

“Your loss Ginny,” The way his tongue curved around her name made her want to punch him in the throat. In two days her name had been reduced to little more than an insult, practically a slur. It hurt in a place deeper than Ginny knew it could.

“It’s Ginevra,” Ginny hissed back angrily.

“Whatever you say, sweetheart.” It took everything in Ginny not to stab him right then and there. This was proving to be the worst first day of school ever.