I Hate Charms

I hate Charms.

Luna crumpled up the piece of parchment and tossed it to Ginny. Luckily, it was a good toss, and Ginny caught it right away. She looked at Luna and nodded before replying underneath Luna's writing.

Not as much as I do. What do you have next?

Ginny also crumpled up the bit of parchment, which now only had room for a few more bits of writing before they had to start writing on the other side of the parchment. She tossed it to Luna, but her aim wasn't very good at that moment. Luna didn't catch it, but it did land on her desk and she quickly picked it up and hid it from the Professor. Flitwick was too small to see past the boy's head who was in front of her. Luna smiled and replied to Ginny again.

Potions. Why?

Luna yet again crumpled the parchment and threw it to Ginny, wondering why Ginny was so interested in what Luna had next. Ginny caught the parchment yet again and opened it, flattening it on her desk. She quickly wrote back to Luna, not paying attention to the people around her.

I was thinking of not going. I have Muggle Studies. Did you want to ditch class with me?

Ginny tossed the parchment to Luna again, but this time it was intercepted. The boy in front of Luna had turned around and grabbed it with his hand. "Professor Flitwick! Professor Flitwick!" he yelled. He stood up and nearly ran to the front of the class. Ginny looked worried, but for some reason Luna didn't seem to care. "Look what I found!" the boy yelled again.

Professor Flitwick took the very crumpled piece of parchment from the boy and told him to sit down. "I hope this is worth it," he mumbled. Professor Flitwick didn't like getting interrupted during his class, but if it was for something important, he didn't mind. Flitwick read over the parchment once he was able to open it up. It wasn't very legible, but he understood the part about ditching class. "Who's is this?" he asked the class.

The boy who had shown him the note instantly shouted out without hesitiaton. "It's Luna's and Ginny's!" He had been eyeing who was tossing the note the whole time and had figured out that it was Ginny as well. "Miss. Weasley and Miss. Lovegood, please stay after class."

Ginny sighed, but Luna merely nodded her head. Ginny wondered why she didn't care that they were going to get in trouble, but then again, she didn't seem to overly care about much.

The rest of the class went by slowly, even though there were only fifteen minutes left after Flitwick had found the note. When class was over, Ginny and Luna collected their things and then went to the front of the room, where Flitwick was. "Girls, girls. I'm afraid I'll have to give you a detention. Hm... Let's see... Monday at eight, right here." The girls groaned, but Flitwick ignored them.

Monday... Ginny thought in her head as she was about to leave. She turned around and walked back to the Professor. Luna stayed at the door, waiting for her friend. "I have Quidditch practice on Monday. Could it possibly be a different day?" Ginny asked him hopefully.

"Well... I guess so. I'll ask Professor Snape if he can take you."

Snape!?! "Okay, Professor." Ginny wasn't looking forward to having detention with Snape, but she knew that she couldn't miss a Quidditch practice. She left the room with Luna, knowing that they'd have to go to class. Flitwick would be watching them, or would have someone follow them to make sure that they went to class.

Later that day, Ginny got an owl from Professor Snape. It was short and only told her to go to the Potions classroom at seven on Tuesday. It was Friday, but Ginny knew that Tuesday was too soon. There's no way out of it, she assured herself, knowing that there was nothing she could do about it. The damage was done. All Ginny could do now was to somehow get through it.

When Tuesday came, Ginny was dreading the detention all day. She wondered if anyone else would be there, or if it would just be her and Snape. That thought gave her a shiver so deep that it didn't go away for hours. Ginny didn't want to be alone in the Potions classroom with Professor Snape. If she had someone with her, at least she'd be able to share the torment with someone else.

"I have to go now," she told Ron, when she was in the common room.

"Why?" he asked her. They had been playing Wizard Chess and he had almost beaten her. "What a convenient time to leave, Gin."

"It's nearly seven already. If I'm late, it'll probably be another two detentions." Ginny picked up her bag from beside the chair she had been sitting in and put it on her back.

Ron nodded at Ginny, agreeing with her. "Yeah. It is Snape." Ron began to put the game away as he said goodbye to Ginny. The way he was talking to her, it seemed like she was going to the gallows, but Ginny knew that it was worse. She'd probably have to rebottle all of the most disgusting ingredients, just because she was a Weasley. Snape always seemed to save the worst things for the members of their family to do.

When Ginny got down to the Potions classroom, it was two minutes past seven. She quickly walked towards Professor Snape, who was at the front of the room with a stack of parchment in front of him. Ginny looked down at the parchment and then up at Snape, wondering if the parchment had anything to do with her.

"You're late," he drawled.

"Sorry, Professor," Ginny mumbled, not wanting him to find another reason to punish her. If she spoke too loudly or too confidently, he'd think that she was 'acting like Potter.' Ginny was smart, though, and tried to avoid as much punishment from Snape as possible. This seemed to have worked and Snape moved on, giving her the instructions for her detention.

"You are to copy out these old essays onto these pieces of parchment." Snape put his pale hands on the parchment, indicating to Ginny that she would be using those piece of parchment. They were the same ones that she saw when she came in. Ginny was curious why she had such a simple punishment, but she didn't dare ask Snape why he was being easy on her. She took the parchment and brought it to one of the desks in the classroom. Then, she went back up to Professor Snape and took the old essays. She also wondered why he needed essays copied out in the first place, but there were too many possibilities. There was no use thinking about it. It was more than likely that Snape just wanted to give her something to do.

When Ginny sat down, she saw that there was someone else in the classroom as well, sitting two seats over to her left. It was Theodore Nott, an older Slytherin boy. So that's why this is so easy, she thought. It looked like he had the same punishment - copying out essays for Snape. Ginny opened up her bag that she had brought with her and took out her quill. She rearranged her things so that she could get the work done quicker and then started to copy out the old essays.

Ginny glanced a few times at the Slytherin boy, who seemed to be very concentrated on his work. That, or he didn't have any interest in her at all. He didn't even insult her about being a Gryffindor or a Weasley. Ginny looked up at Snape at that thought and realized that Nott obviously didn't want another detention as well. Just then, Snape spoke. "I need to go to my office for a bit. I trust you'll be fine." With that, Snape got up and left the Slytherin and Gryffindor all alone. He knew that they wouldn't let each other leave. The automatic hatred between the two kept them in their place.

They continued to write out the old essay papers, quietly for a while. Snape didn't come back, but that didn't bother the two students. They continued to work, eager to get out of the classroom. Suddenly, though, Ginny dropped her quill and it landed next to Theodore's foot.

Just my luck, she thought and got up to retrieve the quill. She didn't expect him to even move her foot, but to her surprise he handed her the quill. "Thank you," she said quietly and took the quill.

"No problem," he said. They found that during the giving and taking of the pen, their eyes met. It was only for a moment, but suddenly Ginny didn't see a Slytherin in front of her and Theodore didn't see a Gryffindor. They saw each other, exactly as they were. Before it lasted too long, though, Theodore coughed and Ginny looked away. She went back to her seat, then, wondering what would become of that moment. Would anything happen, or would they ignore the same feeling that both of them felt.

It was probably just me, Ginny assured herself when she got back to her seat. What she didn't know, though, was that Theodore felt the same surge of feeling that she did.

Shortly afterwards, Snape came back into the room and found that it looked like they didn't hate each other any more. They both looked relaxed, but he just pushed the thought away. What could have possibly happened between the Slytherin and Gryffindor in less than ten minutes?