Quite a few days went by. Ginny's routine comprised of going into classes, coming back from classes, occasionally a chat in the dormitories, but that was all. She remained sulky; there wasn't anything to do apart from attend classes. 

While she was walking down to Herbology with the rest of her class she saw the Gryffindor Quidditch Team- their captain Oliver Wood was discoursing loudly to them. Ginny stopped by to listen.

"This is our last chance -- my last chance -- to win the Quidditch Cup," he told them, striding up and down in front of them. "I'll be leaving at the end of this year. I'll never get another shot at it."

"Gryffindor hasn't won for seven years now. Okay, so we've had the worst luck in the world -- injuries -- then the tournament getting called off last year. " Wood swallowed, as though the memory still brought a lump to his throat. "But we also know we've got the best -- ruddy -- team -- in -- the -- school," he said, punching a fist into his other hand, the old manic glint back in his eye. "We've got three superb Chasers. "

Wood pointed at Alicia Spinner, Angelina Johnson, and Katie Bell.

Ginny had always wanted to be a Chaser, ever since she'd sneak brooms out of the broom cupboard and practice by herself. None of her brothers knew, of course, but what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them. She became quite good at it too, she talked about it with Hermione as well.

"We've got two unbeatable Beaters. " Wood continued.

"Stop it, Oliver, you're embarrassing us," said Fred and George together, pretending to blush.

She smiled. Pranksters, she thought.

"And we've got a Seeker who has never failed to win us a match!" Wood rumbled, glaring at Harry with a kind of furious pride. "And me," he added as an afterthought.

Somewhere in her chest, her heart fluttered. Harry was the best seeker she'd ever seen on the field. He deserved the praise he was getting.

"We think you're very good too, Oliver," said George.

"Spanking good Keeper," said Fred.

"The point is," Wood went on, resuming his pacing, "the Quidditch Cup should have had our name on it these last two years. Ever since Harry joined the team, I've thought the thing was in the bag. But we haven't got it, and this year's the last chance we'll get to finally see our name on the thing. . . "

Wood spoke so dejectedly that even Fred and George looked sympathetic. 

"Oliver, this year's our year," said Fred.

"We'll do it, Oliver!" said Angelina.

"Definitely," said Harry.

Just then, one of her friends called her inside and Ginny ran into one of the greenhouses, hoping that while no one was watching her, she'd see them play.

When she came back into the common room in the evening there was a notice on their bulletin board- First Hogsmeade Trip scheduled for end of October. Third years and above only.

Ginny knew about Hogsmeade, the beautiful village near Hogwarts. Her brothers had told her about all the shops around there. Sadly, only her brothers could go, she'd have to stay back and wait a year. She hurried up into the girls' dormitories to do her homework.

The next day, when she went down for breakfast she saw Parvati hugging a crying Lavender, who was mourning the loss of her bunny, Binky. She saw Harry, Ron and Hermione come over and ask her what was wrong. There was a an argument involving Ron and Hermione; Apparently last night Crookshanks had tried to eat Scabbers, and Ron wasn't very pleased about it. He kept scowling at the cat, and Ginny wondered to what lengths Ron might go to protect his rat.

"Don't mind Hermione, Lavender," said Ron loudly, "she doesn't think other people's pets matter very much. " he scowled and Hermione glared at him.

Ginny shook her head and went to her classes. She passed by the girl's bathroom on the way back, and couldn't help but overhear Moaning Myrtle, well, moaning in there. She took a deep breath and took two steps inside; The bathroom was the same, and the horrors it brought back were also the same. Myrtle was sitting on the window sill, sniffing.

"Um, Myrtle?" She asked tentatively. The ghost could be rather moody.

"What is it?" She snapped, and Ginny saw the recognition dawn in her eyes.

"I just- just wanted to say sorry....uh throwing stuff at you, i was just scared and-" She said. She didn't really mean to make Myrtle upset about it.

"Ah, so it was you who threw the diary through my cubicle?" She wailed.

"Yes-I was frightened of Riddle-"

"Riddle? Oh yes, that handsome boy....." Myrtle reminisced.

"Uh- yeah I'm really sorry" she finished.

"Well-ok" Myrtle replied.

On Halloween, she was heading upstairs with her fellow Gryffindor's to Gryffindor tower and saw that everyone was crowded around the staircase, no one was going in. She craned her neck to have a better look.

 "Let me through, please," came Percy's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password -- excuse me, I'm Head Boy --"

Oh no, thanks for reminding us, we'd forgotten, Ginny thought.

She was behind a lot of other Gryffindor's and couldn't see much, but whatever it was that had happened, it seemed to scare Percy enough to say, in a suddenly sharp voice - "Somebody go and fetch Professor Dumbledore. Quick."

Ginny saw Harry, Ron and Hermione huddled up in front. She went over to Ron and asked him what had happened- Ron told her he had no idea. She gasped when she finally managed to see what had happened.

The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor; great chunks of it had been torn away completely. Professor Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape hurrying toward him.

"We need to find her," he said. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady. "

"You'll be lucky!" said a cackling voice.

It was Peeves the Poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" said Dumbledore calmly, and Peeves' grin faded a little. He didn't dare taunt Dumbledore. Instead he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his cackle. "Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily. "Poor thing. " he added unconvincingly.

"Did she say who did it?" said Dumbledore quietly.

"Oh yes, Professorship," said Peeves, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see. " Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black. "

Ginny almost gasped out loud. She almost even thought Peeves was lying, as he always did, to create misunderstandings and watch the fun that followed.

Sirius Black, here? No way. He couldn't get into Hogwarts, of course, She thought. Percy had mentioned he wouldn't have the guts to harm Harry when he was in Hogwarts. It had been her, Ginny, who had thought otherwise. If You-Know-Who could enter the castle through a diary, so could Sirius Black.

"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore told them as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," he added to Percy, who was looking immensely proud and important. "Send word with one of the ghosts."

Professor Dumbledore paused, about to leave the hall, and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing. . . "

One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.

"Sleep well," said Professor Dumbledore, closing the door behind him.

There was an excited chatter. Ginny thought at least some of them should be scared that a mass-murderer was currently roaming around somewhere in the school, but none of them were. They were all telling others what they had seen or heard. Percy and Penelope were having a hard time controlling them.

 "Everyone into their sleeping bags!" shouted Percy. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"

Ginny picked a sleeping bag, and pulled it across the hall to where some other girls had put theirs, including Hermione. She realized Dumbledore didn't think that they'd have a problem sleeping with boys around. The boys didn't seem to realize this, and spread out wherever they wanted to. She imagined her mother realizing she'd spent the night with boys surrounding them. She could almost hear her yelling angrily when, true to his word, Percy shut the lights. There was a groan from many around her, people still hadn't set up.

Percy didn't sleep. He walked around between sleeping bags, telling people off now and then for speaking.

"No talking, Thomas. You can do without a braid tonight, Alicia. Silence..." He hissed at a few.

Finally, Ginny drifted off to sleep. The next day, the portrait of The Fat Lady had been replaced by a funny prancing knight and his fat pony. Ginny found him entertaining, but he was also quite annoying.

Sir Cadogan spent half his time challenging people to duels, and the rest thinking up ridiculously complicated passwords, which he changed at least twice a day. Ginny, Neville and Seamus had come up after a class and given him the password, which he kept denying and didn't let them enter. They had to wait almost twenty minutes until Percy came by and told him off in his pompous manner.

"He's a complete lunatic," said Seamus angrily to Percy. "Can't we get anyone else?"

"None of the other pictures wanted the job," said Percy. "Frightened of what happened to the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan was the only one brave enough to volunteer."

Ginny had also been noticing that Percy kept tailing Harry everywhere he went, keeping him within reach. She probably understood that it was because of Sirius Black. The teachers hadn't found him anywhere in the castle and he was still an exciting topic of talk among the students.

What she was longing for was the first match of the season, Gryffindor verses Slytherin. She loathed Malfoy and gave him disgusted looks when he passed her in the corridors. She couldn't wait for their team to beat his sorry ass. She had even heard Wood telling her twin brothers that he might, just might, allow them to hit Malfoy on the head with a bludger if he seemed to be troubling Harry and keeping him from getting the snitch.

Ginny just couldn't wait to get her mind off things and watch Quidditch.

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Sparked Firewhiskey