Twins

An amazed silence prevailed as all eyes in the Great Hall were fixed on the girl who seemed to be about seventeen-years-old, sitting in the chair beside Professor Dumbledore as if she always had.

Some hesitating applause started but quickly died as everyone waited for some sort of explanation. When none came, the attention slowly was turned somewhere else and the eating began. The chatter grew louder and soon the sound level was back to normal, but three students at the Gryffindor table were still talking in hushed voices, sending sharp glances at the staff table.

"I know I've seen her before! She reminds me of someone," Harry said, looking annoyed that he could not place where he had seen the very familiar face.

"Maybe she was a student here? And then changed schools or something? Nah. Blimey, I wouldn't forget someone who looks like her," Ron replied, getting an angry look from Hermione.

"If she has, it's in the registration book of Hogwarts students. They have it in the library; in the school section."

"Let's go then!" Harry said impatiently, wanting to know whom the young professor was.

Ron rose with a last, longing glance at his plate. Harry felt a prickling feeling between his shoulder blades and turned around, his green eyes met a pair of whirling gray ones belonging to Sarah Trotter. Their gazes locked and Harry felt Ron elbow him in the side.

"I think Snape was wrong, maybe you have a chance after all!" Professor Trotter broke the eye contact and the Trio went for the doors. They didn't notice the petite redhead who came trailing behind them, which was exactly the point.

***

"No. She is not in any of the registration books from 1989-1992," Hermione said, sighing. Harry looked disappointed; he knew whom she was, but he couldn't figure it out.

"Cheer up, we have DADA tomorrow," Ron said, checking his schedule.

"Let's go, then. I hope Professor Dumbledore knew what he was doing when he took someone so young..." Hermione said, worried.

"How does she know Snape? And what did she mean by 'turning his back on her'?"

"...I mean what if she is not capable of teaching? And..." Hermione's voice trailed off when the three friends disappeared behind the bookshelves.

Ginny stepped out from behind the shelf where she had eavesdropped on her friends. She sat down by the table and absently started to turn pages in the registration books.

There she was herself...what a hopeless picture! She knew that she wasn't very beautiful but honestly, was it that bad? The picture was four years old but she was aware of that not much had changed since then. Bright red hair, tattered robes, and no curves whatsoever. How could she possibly seduce Harry? Sure she had boyfriends, but with most of them it had been like being friends.

None of them had made her feel like girls in books did. No wobbly knees or fireworks when they had kissed.

She sighed and looked down at the large 1992 written in gold on the book. An idea popped out of nothing up in her head.

'I think spying finally is starting to become natural to me,' she thought. It was all about being a step ahead to understand and a step behind to listen. Listen: she always had but it was hard for her to grasp what she was supposed to do.

For the moment she knew what she would do with the information she had. She would do a research on Sarah Trotter. She picked up a quill and some parchment and started to scribble down the facts.

Harry recognized Sarah; she was in her late teens, professor at Hogwarts, and she knew Snape in some way.

Dumbledore must have seen her about the job. That made Harry and Snape the keys, as they were the only ones who seemed to know anything about the girl. She didn't count Dumbledore since she knew from experience that it was harder to get information from him than teaching a dragon to talk. She opened the book of 1991 and found P, to discover that the only thing about Potter, Harry James was 'member of Hogwarts´. Everyone else had a picture and some personal information, but not Harry. Why?

She looked up and noticed that the library was empty. It had to be late...her eyelids started to feel heavy and her shoulders relaxed. Disconnected words flew through her brain; registration, Snape, key, Harry James Potter...She woke up.

James...of course! Now she remembered: Harry had once told her that his mother and father had registered him when he was only a baby. And Harry was born 1980, she thought, going to the group of shelves with the sign 'school section´ and found the book of 1980. She found P and there was a picture of baby Harry. She had to hold back an 'awww´, because it was stupid to sit in the library totally alone in the night and awww... over baby pictures.

She started to read and found nothing of interest...live in: Godric's Hollow...blah blah...parents: Lily Potter and James Potter...relatives: Aunt Jane Potter, grandparents Elizabeth and Harold Potter. Aunt Petunia Evans. Godfather: Sirius Black.

Funny... she didn't know that James had a sibling.

Well, that's not much help. That left Snape.

When she had started with the registration books she could carry on with them she thought and counted in her head. Snape would have started at Hogwarts around 1970 she thought and gathered 1969-1972's books. No Snape in 1969...or 1970...but in 1971 she found Snape, Severus. Born: 1960...parents...live in: Godric's Hollow. Snape had lived in the same town as Harry's family had, she noted.

Hadn't Snape and James Potter been in the same year? She finished the text about Snape when an idea hit her...If Snape and Professor Trotter knew each other where would they have met? At Hogwarts maybe?

The Trio had not thought about the possibility that the girl may not be seventeen, but Ginny had once encountered a boy she thought was seventeen who had turned out to be much older...

She turned pages and almost fell out of her chair in amazement that she had been right: two pages behind Snape, Severus was Trotter, Sarah printed, and nothing more.

'It was too easy,' she thought in disappointment as she scanned the empty page for something that could give her more information.

'Why did Harry recognize her?' She put away all the books and went for the doors. Surprised, she discovered that the doors were shut. That meant that the library was closed. Had Madam Pince missed to check the library for students as she always did? Not that she couldn't walk out, the doors weren't even locked, but it meant that it was after curfew. Now she had to be careful so she didn't run into Filch or the prefects.

She sneaked out and started the long way back to the Gryffindor Tower. Nearly half way there, she heard steps and quickly hid behind a statue of some not very famous wizard. The steps grew louder and Ginny held her breath, if the person... no.... she could hear two pairs of steps... if the persons would turn the corner to her right there was no chance that she wouldn't get discovered. She prayed that they would go on down the hallway and not turn off.

A voice rang out and Ginny swore under her breath, it was no one else than the Slytherin Prefect Pansy Parkinson accompanied by Draco Malfoy. Ginny peeked out from behind the rather unknown stone wizard and watched how Draco rapidly whipped his head around. She must have made some sound since he looked directly at her.

"What is it, Draco?" Pansy asked.

"Nothing, Parkinson. Why don't you go back to bed? I'll take care of the last corridor." Pansy looked surprised and then something seemed to strike her.

"Of course, Draco." She said flirtingly and walked away with violently swaying hips.

Ginny almost laughed at the blonde's disgusted face. Without turning around he said, "It has taken me two years to make Parkinson see that I find her obnoxious and now she thinks she has a chance again. Couldn't you have found a better place to 'hide´?"

"I would if there had been any better places," Ginny replied, stepping out completely from behind the statue. "I've been in the library. I found something weird," she said and started to explain how she had ended up behind a not very famous stone wizard in the middle of the night. Malfoy looked bored but he didn't interrupt.

"So Potter is interested in this new professor? Well, there must be something you can find about Sarah Trotter. It's impossible to start at Hogwarts and not getting documented at least once. And we're not going to tell father that Scarhead is infatuated with a teacher."
"He's not in love with her! He's interested because she's familiar to him," Ginny defended her friend.

"Jealous, are you?"

"I've already told you, he could very well be my brother!"

"Yes, but you say it so often, maybe you're trying to convince yourself?"

Ginny just threw her hands in the air started to walk towards her common room again. Draco smirked; it was almost too easy to make Weasley become angry. He knew it was childish and immature, but he had to live his feelings out on someone. Potter and Co were not funny. He could drawl his old comments and it still made Weasel's ears red, Potter's eyes to start searching for a teacher and let his hand move towards his wand, and the Mudblood to jut her chin. He was so bloody tired of it all.

He wanted the war to end before it had even started. It was true that Draco was a Slytherin that liked to be mean and hated Muggleborns, but Voldemort could go to... What sort of maniac wanted to destroy his likes?

Not many people knew that Lord Voldemort was a Mudblood himself, but Draco had done a research on him years ago with help of all the dark books in Malfoy Manor.

Every paper in the huge, dark room that represented a library could easily fit into the restricted section here. And of course Weasley had helped him with some of the missing bits. She had, after all, faced the lunatic.

"Hey, Weasley!" he called after her retreating back. She turned and waited as he came after her. "Good job with Trotter. Think about what I said about not telling Father." Ginny looked absolutely dumbfounded.

Draco smirked; if he'd know it was so easy to shut her up he would do it more often.

"Thank you. And thanks for saving me from detention."

Draco turned on his heel and said, "No problem, Weaslette. And I didn't save you; 20 points from Gryffindor for being out after curfew." With that he left a fuming Ginny Weasley behind.

Uncontrollably she kicked the wall, angry with herself and with Malfoy. Angry because she had let her guard down and because he had used the advantage.

Typical Malfoy to play dirty. But she had herself to blame; she had known when she agreed to help him that he would me just as mean to her as always. Damn the Gryffindor heart she had.

Someone came and asked her to save the world and of course she couldn't resist, could she? No, she had to feel proud that he had chosen her and agreed, putting away all objections with the thought that she was a Gryffindor she was brave enough.

But back then she couldn't have imagined what she had gotten into. She had been naive; she hadn't seen the lying as a burden but more something exciting, an own secret to guard. Now there was no one of those she loved whom she hadn't lied to and it was starting to wear on her.

She had lost her appetite and worriedly noticed that she was going skinnier. She had always been very thin but now she had to use the sixth hole in her belt instead of the third as she used to. No one had noticed since she always wore loose fitting clothes from her brothers.

The life she lived was obviously not good for her but she couldn't give up, partly because she had sworn that she would not, partly because she knew that what she did mean something to the world, and partly because Draco Malfoy was the only human on earth that could understand what she felt. Whether they wanted it or not there was an eternal bond tying them together.

She didn't like him at all but she didn't hate him. He had turned his back on his father and what he had been raised to believe. She actually respected him a lot for that. But he was still a git.

Seduce Potter, he had said, yeah, right very likely he'd fall for her now when he didn't before.

But, a little irritating voice said, you didn't try before, did you? Wait a minute, was she actually thinking about seduce one of her friends?

She threw her hands in the air again and turned to once again try to reach her common room. Poor Ginny... she didn't know that this was only the beginning of the obstacles she would meet.