Ginny Weasley and The Year of The Snake

Ginny Weasley & The Year of The Snake

Chapter Five ~ New Acquaintances

A sound of moving fabric and a light appearing made Ginny open her eyes sleepily.

"Rise and shine," said Celeste brightly. She was standing beside Ginny's bed in her school uniform, looking ready for the day.

"Urgh," groaned Ginny, pulling the blankets over her head.

"Come on, get up. You have to have a shower and get ready for school before I introduce you to everyone," said Celeste, pulling the covers back and tugging on Ginny's wrist.

Ginny glared up at her. "What time is it?"

"Six," replied Celeste, picking up Ginny's clean uniform from the big armchair near her bed.

"How long have you been up?" asked Ginny disbelievingly, rolling out of bed.

"About half an hour," said Celeste, taking Ginny by the shoulder and pushing her firmly towards the door.

"Where are we going?" asked Ginny, feeling a little annoyed at being woken so early.

"Bathroom, I told you, shower first, then introductions later," said Celeste firmly.

"I need to brush my hair," complained Ginny.

"I've got your hairbrush right here," replied Celeste, waving a large handful of clothes in front of her, from which Ginny could see the handle of her hairbrush sticking out.

Ginny smiled and nodded. "Talk about enthusiastic," she said, in a fake mocking voice.

Celeste just rolled her eyes. "The bathrooms are always on the left of the room, on the other side of the hall. So I'm guessing that one will be ours," Celeste told her, pointing to a door on the other side of the hall.

"Okay," said Ginny, taking her things from Celeste and walking towards the other door. She turned the knob and pushed it open to reveal a white marble bathroom. The room was divided into two parts, one with a large floor length mirror and three basins with smaller individual mirrors above each, three cubicles with a toilet in each one and a shelf of large, fluffy towels, in all colours. Another shelf held lots of different soaps and hair care potions. On the other side of the room that was divided with a three quarter length wall, held five cubicles of varying sizes. Ginny glanced into each to see what was in them. Two of them held large baths against one wall with six different taps in each. Ginny presumed they must hold different types of water or bubble bath like the ones in Gryffindor. In fact this bathroom looked a lot like the ones in Gryffindor. The other three cubicles had showers. Overall the room was quite nice, it had the same green, circular hanging lights that were in the Slytherin common room.

"Right," said Ginny to herself, choosing a shower and placing her clothes, hairbrush, toothbrush and toothpaste, which Celeste seemed to have found as well, down on the high bench that was in the cubicle. She went around the parting wall to the other side of the room and chose a pretty light blue towel, some soap and something with which to wash her hair.

She emerged from the bathroom about twenty minutes later, fresh faced, hair damp and her pyjamas under her arm. After she'd dumped her stuff on her bed she left the room cautiously to look for Celeste. Ginny walked up the hall towards the common room and spotted Celeste almost instantly. She was sitting on one of the couches in the middle of the room with a golden haired boy. A huge book was spread out on the coffee table in front of them. "Hey Ginny," said Celeste, beckoning to her. Ginny walked over to Celeste keeping a wary eye on the boy.

"Hi," said the blond boy, standing up and shaking Ginny's hand enthusiastically, "I'm Phoenix Volatus, it's nice to meet you. Celeste told me you'd changed, I hope you like it here," he said, a huge grin on his face. Ginny stared at him for a moment before smiling back. His huge grin was a little disconcerting, it reminded her of Fred and George when they'd just pulled a prank on someone.

"Don't worry about him, he's always unnecessarily cheerful," said Celeste, noticing Ginny's anxious look.

Ginny nodded. "Nice to meet you too. What are you two doing?" she asked sitting down on the carpet that the two couches and table were on.

"We're researching the uses of Mandrakes in various potions," Phoenix told her.

""Why?" asked Ginny in confusion, thinking she'd forgotten something for homework.

"Professor Sprout said that we're doing them this lesson."

"We didn't have anything else to do right now so we thought we might as well have a look at what they are before class," said Phoenix. "Did you know that the Mandrake, or Mandragora is often used in potions to induce passion, increase wealth or overcome barrenness and in many antidotes for poisons and to counteract potions effects that have gone wrong and is the main ingredient in the Mandrake Restorative Draft?"

"No, I didn't know all that, except I know that the Mandrake Restorative Draft is normally used on people who have been petrified," said Ginny, staring at the book intently.

"Oh, right, last year," said Phoenix. "Good thing you didn't get any of us, we always get picked on as it is, don't worry its cool," he said smiling. "No body here cares about it." Ginny looked up at him in relief and smiled.

"Ginny, we have Herbology today, you're going to have to get a new timetable," said Celeste.

"Oh no, I've just remembered, I'm going to have to get a new timetable and I haven't done all my homework yet," gasped Ginny. "What subjects do we have today?

"We have Transfiguration with Ravenclaw, Herbology, History of Magic, Charms with the Ravenclaws again and Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors and then we have a free lesson because we have Astronomy at eleven. Don't worry we'll go see Professor S. this afternoon about a new timetable, but for now just stick with me," said Celeste.

Ginny was about to reply when a voice spoke up somewhere behind her. "Who are you?"

"Hey Tom," said Phoenix as Ginny turned around to look at the speaker who was now walking towards them with such stealth and grace that Ginny instantly knew why he was nicknamed Cat.

"Tom Lestrange, meet Ginny Weasley. Ginny's changed houses from Gryffindor because they were being prats," said Celeste.

"It's a pleasure," said Tom politely, holding out his hand for Ginny to shake. Ginny took it and looked up at him. He reminded her of someone she'd seen before but she couldn't place where she might have seen him or her. Celeste had definitely been right when she'd said he had the bluest eyes you ever saw. They were almost like a cross between navy and royal blue and when she looked him in the eye it was like looking into the eyes of somebody who saw and knew everything. Everything she thought, everything she knew and every little secret she hid. "So, anything you found interesting in Slytherin so far?" he asked, sitting down on the carpet and leaning on the coffee table.

"Well, for one thing the lights in here are green and," began Ginny, but she was cut off by Phoenix and Celeste beginning to laugh loudly.

"There you are," screeched a slightly older looking girl with waist length dark brown hair who rushed across the room in her pyjamas and grabbed hold of Celeste. "Where the hell have you been and what's happened to your bed, its gone?" she asked hurriedly, her words practically tumbling over each other.

"Whoa, slow down Cassie, I just changed rooms is all, I'm sharing with Ginny now, she changed last night," answered Celeste, looking highly amused and trying to point to Ginny even though Cassandra was holding both her arms.

Cassandra dropped Celeste back on the couch and swung around to stare at Ginny in wide-eyed amazement. "Neat, Malfoy is going to be spitting chips," said Cassie looked delighted. "It's great to meet you, you're a legend around here," she said, shaking Ginny's hand enthusiastically. "Anyway, I have to go now, I promised I'd meet Anthony early and I need to get ready, so I'll see you later," said Cassie before running off towards the girls dormitories as suddenly as she had appeared.

"That was..." said Ginny pausing, trying to think of the right words.

"Quick," Tom finished for her.

"Yeah, quick."

"Who's for breakfast, I'm starving," asked Phoenix, standing up and stretching luxuriously.

"Great," said Ginny eagerly. Like her brothers, she was always ready to eat and could consume mountainous amounts of food without putting on the slightest amount weight.

"Honestly Phoenix, how can you still be hungry? I know you got up last night to get food from the kitchens, I heard you eating it in your bed. I bet if I look you'll have crumbs all over it," said Tom irritably.

"But I was hungry," moaned Phoenix, clutching at his stomach.

"Did I hear someone mention something about food?" asked a black haired boy with a white bandage wrapped around his right hand who had just come out from what Ginny guessed must have been the boys' dormitories.

Celeste groaned in exasperation. "Yes Will, we're going to breakfast now," she said, throwing up her hands in disgust. "In my opinion you all eat far too much, yes you too Virginia, I've seen you eat before," she said when she saw Ginny's expression.

"You have, when?" asked Ginny, feeling a little put out at being told she ate too much, even though it was probably true.

"When you turned Draco orange," said Celeste over her shoulder as she walked towards the common room door.

Ginny was going to protest that she hadn't really turned him orange when the black haired boy came up beside her. "Hey Ginny," he said.

"Err, hi," replied Ginny, unsure of who this new boy was exactly.

"Cassie told me she'd met the girl who changed when she came looking for Xavier Whitby to tell her the password to the Prefects bathroom where she's supposed to be meeting her boyfriend," he told her. "I'm Will Ricketts, by the way," said Will smiling at her.

"Oh, okay. What happened to your hand?" asked Ginny.

"Millicent's cat attacked me yesterday, it's an evil, vicious, conniving..."

"This is all very interesting," cut in Phoenix. "But we're going to eat now," he said, placing his hands on their backs and pushing them both towards the common door. The three of them followed Celeste and Tom along the stone passageways until they came up to the stairs and Phoenix and Will raced up them, pushing passed Celeste and Tom, and racing into the Great Hall. Ginny hurried up the steps after them, sliding past Celeste and following the two boys in. She stopped suddenly at the door and turned around to look at Celeste who had just come up behind her.

"Can you have a look for me, and tell me if there are any Gryffindors in there?" she asked, looking a little pale.

"Okay, if you want," said Celeste with a frown, but she glanced around the door all the same. "No Gryffindors, just a couple of Ravenclaws and a few older Slytherins," said Celeste, looking back at Ginny and Tom, who was waiting patiently beside them. "Don't worry, you'll be just fine. There's a rule in our house that states that no matter what we think of one another, to the rest of the school, we must always appear united. So if a member of our house is in trouble, it's expected that we stand up for them, even if we don't particularly like that person. It'll be cool, now come on or those two will eat everything there, which isn't that much this early but they always put out the good stuff first," she said, taking Ginny's arm and pulling her inside.

It felt very strange to Ginny to be sitting at the Slytherin table as a Slytherin. She knew that her family though that all Slytherins were evil, but these people were genuinely nice. As it turned out, nicer then the Gryffindors in her own year had been recently. Maybe it was because Slytherin had all sorts, from Muggleborns, half bloods, purebloods, rich purebloods and poor purebloods, like herself. Some of the children came from Death Eater families and some from normal wizarding families. Like Tom had said, 'The only thing that all Slytherins have in common is the burning desire to get what they want. No matter what they have to do to get it.' He was right, as usual and Ginny knew deep down inside that this was just the beginning of what she needed to be different, to stand out from the rest of her family.

Most of the day passed quite smoothly. By the time classes had started Ginny had met at least a third of Slytherin. Starting with Phoenix's older sister, Rosalind and a few of her friends, Giselle Lennox, Esmé Avery, Lumiére Delacour and Cassiopeia Black who were all in fourth year. Ginny had asked if Cassiopeia was related to Sirius Black and was told that they were distant cousins. Celeste, Tom and Ginny left the Great Hall before the morning rush of students to go to the common room to get their books and wait around till the start of the first class, leaving Phoenix and Will to finish their mountains of food. It was a good thing they left when they did because Fred and George appeared at the top of the marble staircase just as the three of them started down the stairs leading to the dungeons. On the way they met the Slytherin Prefects who had just been talking to Snape about Ginny, or so Lachlan said. Lachlan and Caledonia Ignatius were the sixth year Prefects. Xavier Whitby and Aurora Zabini, who had the same dark red hair and green eyes as her brother Blaise, except Aurora's eyes were a much darker green, were the fifth year Prefects. Orion Black, Cassiopeia's older brother and Willow Ackerley were the seventh year Prefects. Celeste told Ginny later on that Orion and Willow were a couple and Tessa Wilkes was trying to break them up so that she could go out with Orion, b apparently Orion refused to even think about going out with Tessa because she was, as Celeste put it, an evil, two-faced bitch who would most likely end up in Azkaban along with her father. By the time they reached the common room there were hardly any Slytherins left, most of them had already gone to breakfast, muttering hasty 'Hello's as they passed the three of them on their way to breakfast.

Once in the common room again Tom and Celeste introduced her to Isis and Anubis Khamun, fifth and fourth years, who turned out to be half Egyptian. After that Zara Zabini showed up with a tall girl and a bunch of excited first years. Zara introduced the tall girl as Vashti Rookwood, her best friend. Which Ginny found a little amusing, they were like twins that weren't ment to be. They were both very pretty but Zara was incredibly pale with long, straight black hair and Vashti was tanned with long, curled strawberry blond hair. Ginny barely had time to notice all this before she was pounced upon by the group of first years all asking numerous questions. Celeste came to her rescue and dragged her away to get their books.

Ginny met the other three Slytherin second year boys in their first class, Calvin Easton, a nice, mousy haired boy with glasses, Octavius Avenger, an American boy from New York and Eric Zeller, an Australian from Melbourne. Octavius and Eric had both moved to London three years ago because they both had parents that worked in the Department of Mysteries who were part of the International organization. In their first class, Transfiguration, the Ravenclaws looked at Ginny strangely. So far Ginny hadn't seen any of her brothers, although she had seen Hermione heading to the library at morning tea but by lunch time people were starting to stare at her. It seemed as though the whole school knew she'd changed, except her brothers.

At lunchtime, Ginny retreated to the Slytherin common room and refused to come out until her next class, in case her brothers found her. She didn't feel as though she could cope with them yelling at her at that moment, maybe tomorrow. When the bell went for Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors, Celeste told her to lighten up because she looked like she was on her way to the gallows. There was no one else in the classroom when the Slytherins entered. The eight of them took their usual seats at the back of the room, Ginny sitting in between Eric and Celeste. They were only there for a few minutes before the Gryffindors arrived with Rose in the lead.

Ginny stared at them as they stood just inside the door way, their mouths opening and closing like goldfish, and suddenly realised that when Tom had said that the Gryffindors were a bunch of prejudiced, self-centred, egotistical, conceited, arrogant people who thought that they were Merlin's gift to the wizarding world, he was right.

"You!" hissed Rose, a furious look on her face.

"Yes, me," said Ginny casually, tapping her quill idly on the desk.

"We thought you left!" said Rebecca hesitantly from behind Rose.

"Now why would I do something stupid like that?" asked Ginny coldly, a cruel smirk spreading across her face, her blue eyes glittering menacingly.

Becca took a step back like she had been slapped.

"Because you are an evil person who should have been expelled for what you did!" snarled Rose, pointing her wand at Ginny. "You were never a real Gryffindor and now you're one of them, a Slytherin," Rose practically spat out the last word.

"You'll pay for that McDougal," growled Phoenix, rising from his chair and pointing his wand straight at Rose. As if by some silent command Eric, Octavius, Will and Calvin rose with him, like a king and his warriors.

"We're not learning defence spells just yet children, so could you please put your wands away," said Professor Lupin from the door way, "and take your seat so we can get started." The rest of the class went well, although the Gryffindors kept shooting nasty glances at Ginny but she ignored them with the air of an ice queen. The Slytherins had a study period in the library after D.A.D.A. and Ginny sat in a secluded corner near the Restricted section and tried to write a letter to her parents.

Ginny refused to go to dinner that night but asked Celeste to bring her back some food. Instead, she curled up on one of the couches and tried to memorise her Herbology notes.

~*~

"Psst, Draco, you awake?" called Cassandra quietly, pushing the Infirmary door open gently.

"Unfortunately," replied Draco, peering into the darkness. "Is that you Cass?"

"Who else would want to come and see you this late?" teased Cassandra, tip toeing across the room to Draco's bed.

Draco sat up and glared at her insolently. "What do you want, Cassie?"

"Oh, Draco dear, what makes you think I want something?" asked Cassie innocently.

"Because, you always want something?" replied Draco, leaning back resignedly on his pillows.

"Well maybe this time I don't want something," said Cassie, running her finger up and down Draco's arm.

"That's about as likely as my mother joining a professional Quidditch team," sneered Draco. "Now what was it that you wanted?"

Cassandra laughed lightly and flicked his arm. "I wanted to tell you something," she said, looking at him expectantly.

He groaned. "Fine, what is it?"

"Dumbledore has finally lost it and is going for a term of house unity. He's making all the first and second years go to Hufflepuff, the third and fourth years are going to Gryffindor, the fifth and six-"

"What!" shrieked Draco.

"What, what?" asked Cassie, staring at him seriously.

"Tell me your joking," snarled Draco from between clenched teeth.

"Of course I'm joking. Honestly Draco, I think being by yourself up here has addled your brains, you need to come back to civilisation mate," said Cassie, patting his arm gently.

Draco glared at her, and if looks could kill Cassandra would have been six feet under in a matter of seconds.

"Actually I only came up to tell you that there's a new student in Slytherin."

"Huh," asked Draco stupidly.

"A. New. Student. In. Slytherin," said Cassie slowly, as though she was talking to a rather dim witted child.

"Who," asked Draco suspiciously.

"Apparently the student and his or her dorm mates were attacking each other. So Dumbledore thought it best to separate them," continued Cassie, completely ignoring Draco's question.

"What do you mean by 'his or her dorm mates', don't you know if it's a boy or a girl?" asked Draco unbelievingly.

"Of course I do, idiot," said Cassie, rolling her eyes and taking a careful step back.

"Well then, who is it?" asked Draco exasperatedly.

"It's," said Cassie, taking another careful step back.

"Yes," growled Draco.

"You'll just have to find out when you get back," said Cassie laughing. Draco swiped at her with his good arm but she just turned around and ran out of the room. He could hear her laughing all the way down the hall and dearly hoped that she would be caught and given detention for being out after curfew.

As Cassie darted down the corridor she almost demolished Ginny who was walking tremulously towards the Owlery at the end of her first day as a Slytherin to send her laboriously scrawled letter to her unsuspecting parents.