A Life More Ordinary

A Life More Ordinary

Ginny Weasley wasn’t your average teenager. First off, she was a witch. She went to a private school in the Scottish countryside that was for witches and wizards. Ginny came from a large family with the last name Weasley. She hated her last name because so many people liked to call her “Weasel, Wheezy, or Weaselette”. It didn’t help matters that she and her entire family had flame red hair. All in all, Ginny had a lot of things to be unhappy about. Usually she wasn’t unhappy. Today, however, she was.

It had started when the school headmaster, Professor Dumbledore had announced a Yule Ball. She had been in the middle of buttering a rather delicious blueberry scone when he had stood up and called for everyone’s attention.

“I’m sorry to interrupt everyone’s breakfast. I have an announcement to make.” Dumbledore looked through his half-moon glasses at the students and waited for them to be quiet. Ginny stopped buttering her scone and placed it regretfully placed it on her plate. She saw Ron eyeing it and hoped he wouldn’t snatch it while her back was turned listening to Dumbledore. “There will be a Yule Ball again this year. As you all know, there hasn’t been one since our Tri-Wizard tournament three years ago. I thought we would all enjoy one again. You will receive more information at our dinner hour.” Without any further comment, Professor Dumbledore sat back down. Ginny watched as he poured ketchup on his eggs and began to eat again. Suddenly remembering her own scone, she turned back to her breakfast. Only, her scone was missing.

She looked warily at Ron. “Alright, Ron. Hand it over. I know you have my scone.” She got up from her seat and stood next to Ron.

Ron looked up at her innocently. “I’m sure I don’t know what you are talking about, Gin-Gin.” Ginny noticed several large scone crumbs lining his mouth and littering the front of his shirt.

“You bloody liar! You have crumbs all over your mouth and down the front of your shirt. You ate my scone!” Ginny stamped her foot loudly as she did this, causing students from other houses to stop eating and look. This included Hermione and Harry, who happened to be sitting next to Ron.

Ron brushed the crumbs off his front and mouth and placed a pained expression on his face. “Look, I’m horribly sorry Ginny. I don’t know what came over me. I was hungry and thought it would be funny.”

This comment infuriated Ginny. “ ‘I’m horribly sorry?’ ‘I don’t know what came over me’? That’s all you have to say? That was my breakfast, you twit!”

Now Ron was irritated. “What’s the big deal? There are plenty of scones here.” He thrust the basket in front of her face. “See? Just take another one and eat it.”

“That was the last blueberry one!” Ginny turned away from Ron and stomped back to her seat. She began to pack up her things. As she walked past Ron, she said, “I hope you choke on it!”

As she left the Great Hall, she heard Hermione gasp and Harry laugh. ‘I hate all three of them!’ she thought. ‘They’re as thick as thieves. They never let anyone enter their group or think we’re worthy enough.’ Of course, she was thinking of herself, Neville and Luna. She felt like they would never truly be a part of the ‘trio’, no matter what they had shared.

Ginny was stomping to her first class, which was potions with the dreaded Professor Snape. Ginny threw open the dungeon door and strode over to the table she shared with Ivy Flint. No matter what, the Gryffindors always seemed to have potions with the Slytherins. Due to the unfortunate circumstances of her first year when Voldemort had possessed her, not many Gryffindors had wanted to partner up with her. Things were different now and she had plenty of friends, but Snape had refused to let her have a partner from her own house. She was stuck with Ivy Flint. In Ginny’s mind, she referred to her as Poison Ivy due to her rude attitude and the fact that her own house hated Ivy.

Ginny slumped into the chair and placed her head upon her schoolbag like it was a pillow. “What’s the matter, Ginny?”

Ginny rolled her head to the side and saw Ivy quirking an eyebrow at her. “I hate my brother and all his friends.” Ginny fully expected Ivy to start in on the magical trio, but she didn’t.

“Is that all? That was why you threw that hissy fit in the Great Hall?” Ivy turned back to the essay she had been writing.

Ginny was offended by her partner’s lack of caring. “No, that’s not all,” she said coldly. “My brother stole my favorite breakfast when my back was turned and was completely unrepentant for it. He’s so annoying!” Ginny rolled her eyes.

Ivy dipped her quill into her inkpot and looked at her. “You want my opinion?”

“Alright. What do you think?”

Ivy turned back to her essay and continued to scribble in her untidy scrawl. “You’re mad at your brother because he’s stolen something from you. It wasn’t just your breakfast, though. You’re mad because you feel like he’s stolen any chance you had with that Potter boy.”

Ginny sat up and looked at Ivy, incredulously. “What?”

Ivy looked into Ginny’s eyes. “You heard me. I know you like him. Or you used to, at least.” Ivy turned her eyes away from Ginny and began to blow on her paper to dry the ink. “So were you mad that he embarrassed you in front of Potter?”

“No.” Ginny knew what Ivy said held some truth, though. She had liked Harry. She had given up on him ages ago. Ginny would not let herself like Harry again. Besides, after that whole Cho fiasco, she wouldn’t dare date Harry. He had taken to calling Cho a human hosepipe. She didn’t want to run the risk of seeing what he would call her. Since Sirius’ death, he’d developed an even worse brooding side. Only Ron and Hermione seemed to be able to break through it. She loved him when he was happy, however. His eyes would remind her of brilliant emeralds and he would start talking about something that he was particularly interested in. His kind and caring side could drive Ginny to tears. She watched him look after Neville when someone mentioned the cruciatus curse or St. Mungo’s. He was a genuinely nice guy. She just wished he could get over Sirius’ death. No matter how much she was attracted to him and liked him, she wouldn’t leave herself open to his charms again. It had hurt so much when she had discovered his crush on Cho Chang. She didn’t ever want to hurt like that again.

Returning to her original thoughts, Ginny looked back at Ivy. “No, it’s not like that at all. I am just sick of how they all stick together. It’s annoying.”

Ivy seemed to be thinking deeply and then spoke. “You’ve got marks all over your face from when you were leaning your head against your book bag.” She went back to her essay.

Ginny was horrified and dug through her backpack to find a mirror. “Merlin! This is terrible! What am I going to do?” She would have to wait for them to fade, which would take forever. How would she face the Slytherins and her own house?

Ivy sighed deeply and pointed her wand at Ginny’s face. “Refreshen,” she said quietly. A beam of bluish light fell onto Ginny’s face. She pulled out the mirror again and saw the marks had faded. “Anyway, all you Gryffindors are thick like that. Why are you surprised? Did you want into their little club?”

‘Yes, desperately!’ said a voice deep in the recesses of her mind. Admit that to Ivy? Never! “It’s just disheartening. I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Fine with me.” Ivy rolled up her parchment and set it on the desk in front of her. “Did you finish your essay for Snape?”

Ginny nodded and pulled out her own essay. “Yeah. Our answers have to be the same since we’re partners, right?”

“I should think so. You said that moonstones strengthened the effects of the solution, right?” Ivy was busy looking at the people entering the classroom. Colin Creevey entered and Ivy looked back at Ginny. Ginny wondered briefly if Ivy liked Colin. She seemed to do a lot of staring at Colin when she knew he wasn’t looking. Ivy was fortunate that she looked nothing like her brother Marcus. No one would ever wonder if there was any troll blood in him. Her dark wavy hair fell halfway down her back. She had large blue eyes and china doll-like features. Ginny wondered what Ivy saw in Colin. He was sort of odd looking with large eyes and larger ears. She quickly discarded the idea that Ivy might fancy Colin. After all, Slytherins never dated outside their house. There was no way Ivy could like goofy Colin Creevey. A beautiful girl like Ivy could have any guy she wanted within her own house, even Draco Malfoy. Ginny thought that Ivy never suffered from unrequited love. It was another reason to hate her.

Ginny looked back at Ivy and saw that she was looking at Colin again. She was probably plotting his death or deciding how small to shrink his ears. No matter, however, Ginny rolled up her essay and tapped Gregory Goyle on the shoulder with it. He turned around and glared at her. He looked ready to kill when Ivy interrupted. “Goyle, be a lamb and pass in our essays.” She batted her eyelashes at him and Goyle snatched both of their parchments. He practically ran over to Snape to pass them in. “He’s so stupid,” confided Ivy in a stage whisper. “I can’t believe he failed potions last year and now has to repeat his sixth and seventh years at the same time. Honestly, he’s as dumb as Marcus.”

Ginny giggled and looked at Goyle. Goyle was listlessly drawing a picture of a jack-o-lantern while Snape was explaining how the make their next potion. “He’ll never make it right this time. He’s not even listening. He’s got the Halloween feast on his mind.” She watched as Goyle drew a particularly large cake and was spending an inordinate amount of time detailing its decoration.

Ivy rolled her eyes at Ginny. “He’s a useless lump. Oy, Goyle!” Ivy whipped her wand from her robe pocket and thumped him. “You have to pay attention this time. This is your last chance to learn this stuff.” Goyle grunted and slowly put away his drawing. Ginny decided it was time that she paid attention and looked back up to Professor Snape. He sure to chose a tricky one this time.