Surrender

"Miss Ginevra Weasley?" Professor McGonagall's voice carried across the Gryffindor common room.

Ginny glanced up from her chess game with Harry Potter, towards the open portrait hole where McGonagall was standing.

"Please come to my office immediately."

Ginny nodded her acknowledgment and stood up. She took one last look at the chessboard.

"Knight to F7." She watched as the magical chessman moved across the board and broke Harry's queen into pieces. "Checkmate," she declared triumphantly. "Harry, you may be the Boy Who Lived, but you really need to work on your chess skills."

*~*~*

Ginny followed Professor McGonagall to her office. As she entered, McGonagall gestured to the spare chairs across the desk while McGonagall herself took up her own. Lately, this room was becoming far too familiar to Ginny as she found it more and more difficult to resist the mischievous streak that had been so pronounced in Fred and George, her twin older brothers. The pair had recently left school prematurely to open a practical joke shop in Diagon Alley.

Ginny waited until McGonagall had settled before she launched into her prepared story.

"Professor, if this is about those cherry bombs, I had nothing to do with it. I didn't even know they would blow up. The twins sent them to me. I guess I should have known, considering the source, but if I had known they would explode, I would never have thrown them at Malf--"

McGonagall interrupted Ginny's speech. "This is not about the incident in the corridor yesterday, although we will be discussing that later. I have called you here today to tell you that you have been allowed to take the TOADs."

"What are they?" Ginny asked.

McGonagall pursed her lips at the disruption. "The TOADs are the Tests Of Acute Difficulty. They are seldom offered, and in fact you are only the second student at Hogwarts presented with the opportunity in over forty years. Now this year, while the other fifth years are taking their OWLs, you will be able to sit for the TOADs with them. Should you pass, you will have the choice of staying with your peers, and return as a sixth year, or you may bypass that and return as a seventh year."

Ginny stared at the Transfiguration teacher as if she had just grown an extra head. Skip sixth year? Finish a year early...if I could pull this off, I would be in the same year as Harry! It was a fairly well known fact that Ginny had had a crush on Harry Potter for a good eight years long before she had even met him.

The professor could practically see the thoughts whirling through Ginny's head. She continued, "I realize this is a lot for you to take in and you certainly do not have to decide immediately. Your parents have also been informed. You should discuss it with them."

"Could I tell anyone else?"

"I will leave that to your discretion. As I said, this is only on the condition that you pass them completely. If you do not, your scores will be translated into OWLs and you will complete your studies as normal."

Ginny sat mutely, trying to comprehend everything. "So, if I pass them, I still have a choice between going ahead and staying where I am?"

"That is correct. Over the next two terms, immediately after these Christmas holidays, you will receive private tutorials for each subject to get you up to sixth year level. At any time, if we feel that you are falling behind, with your current or future schoolwork, you will be removed from the program. Do you have any questions?"

Ginny stared at the older woman blankly, letting the information filter into her brain. "You said that I was the second in forty years, right?"

"That's right, yes."

"Who was the first?"

McGonagall smiled slightly. "I cannot really divulge that information, although she is in Gryffindor. I'm surprised she hasn't mentioned it."

Understanding flickered over Ginny's face. She must be talking about Hermione, she thought to herself. But why on earth wouldn't she have mentioned it?

Ginny was brought back to reality when Professor McGonagall cleared her throat. "Do you have any other questions?"

Ginny shook her head numbly. Her head was still spinning with all of the possibilities that McGonagall had just presented to her.

"Good, then you are dismissed."

"Thank you, Professor." Ginny got up and hurried to exit the room.

"Wait a moment." McGonagall called. Ginny froze with one hand on the doorknob and looked back to the older woman who was now sorting through the neat stacks of parchment on her desk.

"Yes, Professor?"

"You will have detention next week, scrubbing the trophy room floor for that little incident in the corridor. Without magic."

Ginny sighed and nodded, resigned to her fate. She had almost escaped without the detention. It had been worth it though. She had magicked the small red fireworks, known as cherry bombs, to fly under the hem of Draco Malfoy's school robes. They had exploded with loud bangs and flashes of sparks could be seen coming out of the bottom of the robes. In hindsight, Ginny thought he was actually lucky that his trousers hadn't caught fire. As far as she was concerned though, Ginny believed he had deserved everything he got. Draco took great pleasure in tormenting her whenever they crossed paths. That particular day he had knocked the books she had been carrying out of her hands, and then levitated them above her reach. In retaliation, she pulled three small cherries from her bag and sent them into Malfoy's robes with the flick of her wand. They were actually quite ingenious and one of the Weasley twins' more popular recent inventions. They looked and felt like real cherries, until the victim of the practical joker tried to take a bite. Then they would explode in their face. Fred and George had actually lived without eyebrows for four months while they developed them.

Her books had quickly fallen back to the ground when the bombs had started going off inside Malfoy's robes. She had gathered them up and run down the Charms corridor before Malfoy could retaliate. She still laughed when she thought of the look on his face.

She quickly wiped the grin off her face when McGonagall told her to report to Mr. Filch for detention the following Thursday. Ginny nodded solemnly, thanked the professor again then exited her office and returned to the Gryffindor common room.