Banishment Day
Ginny was no longer calm, Ginny was most definitely freaking out. She had less than a week before quidditch practices started to somehow get a usable broom. So far her only options were to beg her parents who didn’t have the money and hadn’t spoken to her in over a month for one, beg Professor Snape to get her one out of the goodness of his bitter shriveled heart, or break into Ron’s dorm and steal his, or rob some other poor unsuspecting student. Ginny was completely and totally fucked, but no closer to a solution. She’d only told Marcus she had a broom because she was afraid otherwise he wouldn’t let her join the team, but now she’d rather die than explain that to him. Ginny had tried asking Harry for advice, but he had just shrugged and said, “Maybe Ron will come around.”
Unhelpful. The only way Ron would come around was if Ginny gave him her wand, and while Ron had friends and a family who still loved him all Ginny had was a new wand allowing her to do well in classes and a quickly slipping away dream of playing quidditch. Ginny couldn’t give up her wand for this. Doing well in classes might actually gain her parents' approval again someday—and it was fun to see the little vein in Malfoy’s forehead pop out whenever Ginny did better than him at something, which happened quite often.
The fateful Tuesday of Slytherin’s first quidditch practice arrived, and five minutes to, Ginny was still pacing her dorm in a panic.
“Just go down there…just go down there and tell them you forgot your broom. The worst that happens is Flint kicks you off the team, which will happen anyway if you don’t go at all.” Ginny mumbled to herself, pacing erratically.
“Fuck it,” Ginny dashed out of her dorm and down to the quidditch pitch.
“Weasley, you’re late!” Marcus Flint roared the second he saw her.
“I’m sorry, won’t happen again,” Ginny replied, feigning confidence.
Flint looked her over and his face turned stony, “Where is your broomstick?”
“Oh um…I’m so sorry…I must have forgotten it in my dorm…” Ginny put on her best innocent, lost, and afraid little girl.
“Weasley, you forget your broom…for quidditch practice?” Flint said, looking like he wanted to spit fire.
Ginny nodded, giving Flint her biggest sorry bambi eyes, “I’m really sorry, Captain Flint.”
Flint took a deep breath and roared, “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MIND! You show up two minutes late to quidditch practice without a BROOM and you're SORRY!” Flint seemed about three seconds from strangling Ginny when another player stepped in.
“Hey Flint, why don’t you cut the kid some slack? It’s her first practice, and she’s clearly nervous.” the tall boy with short dirty blonde hair said, placing a firm hand on Flint’s shoulder to hold him back. “Forgetting her broom was probably an honest mistake, a stupid mistake, but still honest.”
“It’s about to be her last practice if she’s not careful,” Flint muttered darkly, shoving the other boy's hand off.
“Just let her use one of the school brooms today and she can bring her own on Thursday,” the dirty blonde offered.
Flint gave him a hard look then turned back to Ginny with a deep scowl on his face, “Go to the quidditch supply shed and get a school broom and be back in the next two minutes so we can actually start.” He said firmly, “And Thursday you better damn well be on time to practice with your broom or you’re off the team. Got it?” Ginny nodded fervently and ran off before Flint could change his mind.
The practice itself went quite well. Ginny flew well and caught the snitch in a fair amount of time during all three of their pickup games. Ginny would have gotten it even faster if her borrowed broom wasn’t seven models out of fashion and didn’t have a habit of bucking nastily to the left every minute or so. The whole team besides Ginny were surly men twice her height, but Ginny refused to let that intimidate her. By the end of practice, Captain Flint had moved from screaming at Ginny to just giving her warry looks. But before he hit the showers he did leave her with another warning to remember her broom next time.
While the rest of the team hit the shower, Ginny went back to the supply shed to return her broom. As she was turning to leave she sensed a presence behind her.
“I promise I will bring my own broom next time, Flint, there’s no need to watch me,” Ginny said cooly.
“I’m not Flint, sorry for sneaking up to you, I just wanted to introduce myself.”
Ginny turned around to see the dirty blonde-haired player who’d talked Flint down earlier.
“Hi, I didn’t get to say so earlier, but I’m Adrian Pucey,” The boy stuck out his slightly muddied hand.
Ginny took it, “Hi, Ginevra Weasley.”
“That’s quite a name,” He smiled down at Ginny.
“I’ll be sure to let my mother know if she ever speaks to me again,” Ginny responded dryly.
“You’re funny and certainly not helpless. Was that scarred little girl bit with Flint all an act so he wouldn’t flay you alive?” Pucey asked.
“Depends, are you going to tell on me?” Ginny asked.
“Nah, Flint is way too intense for his own good, no need to prove him right about anything.”
“Thanks for that,” Ginny replied with a small smile, “And thanks for stopping Flint from murdering me earlier. I owe you one.”
Pucey smirked and shook his head, “Pro tip Mini Weasley, never tell a Slytherin you owe them. Might get you in some trouble someday.”
“Noted, any more wisdom to impart?”
Pucey laughed again, full-bodied and loud, “Not today. Come on, I’ll walk you back to the castle.”
“Okay,” Ginny followed this gentle giant, practically having to run to keep up with his strides.
***
The day after practice, Ginny chanced studying in the Slytherin Common Room, only to have Marcus Flint and his sixth and seventh-year friends all staring daggers at her. Ginny tried to bury herself in her Transfiguration to ignore them when a voice asked, “Why is Flint staring at you like you murdered his favorite quidditch player?”
Ginny looked up to see Draco Malfoy taking a seat beside her. She huffed in annoyance and turned away sharply.
“Still ignoring me, Weasley?” Malfoy asked.
“Still calling me sweetheart?” Ginny bit back.
“Yes, sweetheart,” Malfoy smirked and Ginny turned back to him to give him a withering look.
“Come on, tell me. What did you do to Flint?”
Ginny glanced back at Flint and his gaggle of hyenas then at Malfoy and sighed deeply, “I didn’t bring a broom to my first quidditch practice. I’m the team's news Seeker.”
“So I’ve heard,” Malfoy commented. “How did you forget to bring your broom to quidditch practice? That’s like the whole point.”
“I know!” Ginny snapped rather loudly. A few people stared and she lowered her voice to a whisper, “If you must know, I haven’t got one.”
“A broom?”
“Yes!” Ginny whisper-yelled.
“You’re on the quidditch team and you’ve got no broom?” Malfoy looked at Ginny in disbelief.
“Yes, why don’t you keep rubbing it in?” Ginny said bitterly.
“How did you even—?” Malfoy started.
“I lied to Flint when he offered me a spot, said I had a broom, but I don’t because Ron’s got the only one and he won’t give us up.” Ginny slumped back into her chair defeatedly.
“You could make him. I know a few curses off the top of my head,” Malfoy grinned evilly.
“I’m not cursing my brother for his broom, it’s not a good long-term solution. He’ll only give me the broom if I give him my wand, and I refuse to do that.” Ginny had no idea why she was opening up to Malfoy, but he was the first person who had bothered to ask what was wrong.
“Can’t you just ask your parents to buy you one?” Malfoy asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Ginny gave him an exasperated look like she thought he was an idiot, “No, I can’t do that, they’ve got no money.”
“Right, forgot you’re a Weasley.”
Ginny gave Malfoy a warning look. “Not that it would help anyway, my parents haven’t spoken to me since I got sorted into Slytherin. My dad’s been ignoring all my letters.” Ginny looked down sadly.
Malfoy was silent. When Ginny looked up he was staring at like a puzzle he couldn’t quite solve.
“What?” Ginny snapped, turning her face to a scowl.
“Aren’t you afraid, I’ll tell people your secret broomlessness.”
Ginny sighed and put her head in her hands, “It won’t matter Thursday. If I haven’t got a broom by evening practice, I’m off the team anyway.”
“Oh…” Malfoy grimaced. Something flashed in his eyes then his classic smirk was back on his face. “Well I’ve got to run sweetheart, I hope you find your broom,” He said loud enough for a few people to hear. He sauntered off with Ginny glaring after him.
***
The day of Ginny’s banishment came like any other Thursday. Everyone hated her and Ginny was miserable. In a few short hours, her dream of playing quidditch would be death—it had been a good two-day career. It felt like nothing could boost Ginny’s spirit right now. Ginny sat at breakfast miserably picking at her toast. She was alone as usual. Pucey had been nice to Ginny at practice, but outside of it he was keeping to his fifth-year friends, Ginny couldn’t blame him. Not even Malfoy was here to annoy Ginny. Even the weather was against her, the ceiling of the Great Hall was starting to rain that pissy rain that made you feel sticky if you walked in it. It was only 7:40 AM and Ginny already couldn’t wait for this terrible day to be over.
The mail came and Ginny stared down at her toast forlorn. Ginny never got any mail, she didn’t even get a Daily Prophet. She and Ron were supposed to share the daily issue, which had been a great plan by their family back when they spoke to each other, but now…Ginny just had to pawn the paper off other students later in the day when they were finished with it or knick copies out of the rubbish bins. What a sad existence she lived.
Thunk!
Ginny looked up in surprise as an owl flew away. “What the hell…” There in front of Ginny was an unmistakable broom-shaped present. Ginny looked around to see if anyone was coming over to claim it, but there was no one. No one seemed to notice or care. The broom was also unmistakable in front of Ginny as it had just quite rudely smashed her toast. Ginny looked around one more time, then slowly reached out one finger to touch it.
Poke, it was definitely wood. Ginny slowly peeled back the brown paper covering it to catch a glimpse of the label on the handle ‘Nimbus 2000’. Ginny dropped the wrapping like it had burned her and withdrew her hand.
“This must be a mistake.” Ginny pinched herself, and no not dreaming. Ginny gingerly reached out to look under the wrappings again, and yes, it definitely said ‘Nimbus 2000’.
Who would send Ginny a Nimbus 2000? Ginny began riffling through the wrapping looking for a card or return address, nothing. There was no indication whatsoever of where it came from. Ginny looked up at the staff table to see if Snape was watching, but he was absorbed in a discussion with Professor Quirrel. Ginny looked around the hall again, but there was still no one watching her. After that Ginny got up, filing the still partially wrapped broom under her arm, and rushed back to her dorm. On the way she passed a very confused-looking Harry, and almost bowled over Crabbe & Goyle in the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room.
Ginny rushed down the stone corridor to her dormitory and breathed a sigh of relief when it was empty. Ginny gently placed the broom on her bed and finally allowed herself to fully unwrap it. Inside was a beautiful, pristine, brand-new Nimbus 2000 broom. It gleamed in the low light of the dorm and took Ginny’s breath away. This broom probably cost more than everything Ginny owned combined, and for some unexplained reason, the universe had decided it should be hers.
Ginny began examining the broom for any clue of who might have sent it. She rechecked the packaging to no avail. She was about to give up when one tiny carving on the hilt of the broom caught her eye. There at the very top of the broom was a tiny heart, so small it was almost unnoticeable, carved into the wood. Ginny ran her finger over it. Whoever sent this broom cared about Ginny enough to send her the most expensive broom on the market and all they gave her as a sign was a tiny heart carved into it. Nothing about this year was going how Ginny expected.
***
“Weasley brought a broom,” Pucey cheered when he caught sight of Ginny leaving the girls' locker room on her way out onto the quidditch field.
“Captain, Weasley’s got a Nimbus 2000!” The other Chaser, Montague, shouted. “How’d you afford a Nimbus, Weasley, that’s got to cost more than your dad’s yearly salary.”
“Which excuse would you like: I robbed a bank or I’m the heir of Slytherin and daddy Salizar got it for me?” Ginny retorted.
“Alright don’t tell, mysterious pipsqueak,” Montague huffed. “That one’s got mouth,” He muttered to Flint.
“I don’t care what she’s got as long as she brought a damn broom,” Flint replied haughtily.
“You tell um, Marcus,” Ginny teased.
Everyone froze as all eyes went to Ginny and Flint as Flint gave her a murderous glare.
“I don’t care what sort of Napoleon complex you have Weasley, we aren’t friends and I’m not above replacing you out of spite. Out here on the field, you respect me and will call me Captain or Captain Flint, nothing else. Off the field, you stay out of my way. Is that clear?” Marcus's eyes practically bored a hole in Ginny. Ginny nodded mutely.
Flint turned back to the rest of the team, “Alright practice has started get your arses in the air now!”