Drop a Loop

Ginny glanced up at the owls fluttering above her in the Great Hall. Snowflakes fell from the ceiling on the Christmas morning and melted before they hit the tables.

When she had woken up that morning, she had seen that there was no gift from her parents yet. Maybe they're just late, she thought, glancing down the table at where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting. The new Hogwarts student waited.

"Errol!" she heard from where Ron was sitting. Ginny's head shot back up and she saw the old owl tumbling amid the cluster of wings and bodies. He fell out of the sky and landed on the table. Ginny took the package from him and scanned the card quickly.

They were just late.

Ron moved over to where she was and picked up a few pancakes to pile onto his plate.

"Have you had any of Lockhart's classes yet?" he asked, mouth full. "They're horrid, Ginny. Really. Git -"

"He's not," Hermione cut in, voice going a few pitches higher. "What's that, Ginny?"

Ginny was staring at the package which was torn open so that she could see the jumper. Her mouth was hanging open.

"Did Mum give you maroon too?" Ron joked, taking another large bite. "Always gives maroon to me. I wish she would give me another color - blue, maybe. Even orange."

Harry smirked, glancing at Ron's fiery hair.

"She's didn't," Ginny whispered, fear etched into her young face. Hermione moved her hands away from the package and looked, turning a bright shade of red as she did.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, mouth pressed together as though trying not to laugh.

"What is it?" Ron asked, reaching across the table and grabbing the offending package. "All it is, is a jumper. I mean, you didn't get a letter on it. You're lucky -" He broke off, mouth forming a wide circle. Turning red, he handed it over to Harry.

Harry inspected the jumper for a moment and grinned. "Well, Ginny, if it's you, I think she got the gender wrong.

After breakfast, Ginny threw the sweater under her robes, hiding it in the folds. How could she have done that?

Two head bobbed up from a table in the common room and looked up at Ginny. Fred and George grinned together.

"Why aren't you wearing your jumper, Ginny?" Fred asked. Ginny felt her face burn in a blush.

"I think Mum messed up," she muttered quietly, glad that the other members of Gryffindor house were still at breakfast.

George stuck out his hand and Ginny handed it over, careful not to let it show too much.

The twins unwrapped it and glanced at the picture. Fred burst out into laughter.

"Dropped an extra loop, did she?" he asked through gales of laughter. Ginny snatched the package back and ran into the girl's dormitory.

She looked at the jumper again for a moment, seeing the lion. The note pinned to it had mentioned that her mother made it with a lion because she was proud that Ginny made it into Gryffindor. What else did she expect? Ginny though bitterly, but regretted the thoughts against her mother.

The lion looked like the ones on old shields, with its claws up and roaring bravely. Down near its knitted leg was a dropped loop and a perfect switch back up to its stomach.

Ginny pulled through her robes, glad that she had put them on in the morning instead of something else, and found her wand. A basic transfiguration spell would work to fix the problem.

Concentrating hard, Ginny muttered the words that she thought would fix it. She expected to see the loop pulled up and made more appropriate, but instead, she found the colors of the shirt changing. The red around the lion turned to a deep green and the lion itself became silver.

The loop remained there.

Ginny gave it a few more tries, but it remained at the colors with the same image. Finally, she threw her wand on the floor, head bent over it, and sighed. If she could get away with never wearing it -

No. Mum would expect me to wear it when I get off the Express to go home, she thought miserably.

Ginny felt defeated. She took off her robes and threw the jumper on over her shirt and placed the black on again, walking out into the common room.

When the break was over, Ginny inspected her schedule closely. She would have Lockhart's class first that day.

From across the table, she heard someone yelling her name.

"Weasley!" came the shout from Slytherin table. "Weasley!"

Ginny glanced at Draco, ready to turn back in case anything went wrong. Ron and Harry were both staring at Draco intently.

"If you wanted to be in our house, you could have just come over here," he yelled, eyebrows wiggling up and down slightly.