Chapter 4: Chapter 4
"No Ginny" Mrs Weasley said to her daughter.
Ginny Weasley fought against the urge to both verbally and physically curse her mother. Her brothers had gone to Hogwart's, meaning that she was alone at the burrow. She had hoped to be able to go flying, she loved flying, it made her feel free and powerful. She loved feeling the air against her face, she felt like a majestic bird soaring above the world.
Her brothers would never let her fly, because she was a girl and the youngest. So she had to settle with sneaking into the broom shed at night and fly around. She wouldn't claim she was at a professional level, but she was at least better than Ron and would easily fly circles around him. While she missed her brothers, and she did, but she was glad that she finally got the chance to fly without being treated like a glass doll.
Unfortunately...she was so excited that she forgot about her mother.
"You will not be flying outside" Molly Weasley AKA Mrs Weasley, shook her head with amusement and a small smile at the silly words coming out of her daughter's mouth. "You could get hurt."
"I'm a better flyer than Ron!" Ginny said, wishing her words would get through to her mother.
"Oh please" Mrs Weasley responded with a small scoff "you've never flown before Ginny" She said, Ginny wished she could correct her but knew she couldn't because that would be admitting to sneaking out at night "besides you're clothes could get dirty"
"Then I'll clean them" Ginny said.
"No Ginny" Mrs Weasley said "flying is hardly an activity suited for young ladies. Your brother's are gone, that means no distractions so I plan to spend the year teaching you the proper thing someone your age should start learning. How would you like to start learning to cook today? We can work on cleaning tomorrow"
"Cooking? Cleaning?" Ginny repeated with disbelief in her voice.
"Of course dear" Mrs Weasley said with a small nod "you need to learn how to be a proper housewife and..."
"But I don't want to be a housewife!" Ginny interrupted
"Ginny, when you get older you will get married. Your husband will need you to know how to cook and clean and..."
"If he loves me then he'll like me even if I don't know how to clean." Ginny argued.
"Ginny, I understand that you don't want to learn when you could be playing but this is good for you, and if you don't learn now then we will have to cram all this in between your summers at Hogwarts. You need practise or you'll forget and then you'll have to relearn everything."
"But...but I don't want to be a housewife! I want to play quidditch and..."
"Ginny, don't be silly" Molly interrupted "there is nothing wrong with being a housewife, I understand why you might think so now but it really is the best thing for you and you'll thank me when you're older, now go and clean your room. I'll see how good your cleaning skills are. Don't worry Ginny, you'll be a proper lady once I am done with you." Molly smiled and turned back to cleaning the dishes.
Ginny growled and stormed off to her room, she rushed into her room and slammed the door. Tears filled her eyes as her mother's words played over and over.
Why did she have to be a house wife?! She was smarter than Ron, he could barely count yet her mother would probably encourage him if he wanted to be a quidditch player. She hated cleaning, why doe it matter when magic can just clean everything? Besides, mum complains about money all the time, why doesn't she just get a job? She could have gotten a part time job instead of just complaining at dad.
Ginny was prepared to unleash a torrent of curses and insults centered around her mother when she noticed a letter sitting on her desk.
'Odd' She thought 'I never get letters. And where's the owl? IS it Ron? Fred and George always send weird letters with random colours'.
Ginny walked over to the letter, she slowly and carefully opened it. She took it out and read the contents.
[[Hello Ginny, this is Harry Potter, you might remember meeting me on the platform when you dropped your brothers off at the train station.]]
'Harry?!' Ginny couldn't believe it, Harry Potter remembered her and was writing to her!
[[I was hoping you'd remember me. I can honestly say that I haven't forgotten you. I was wondering if you wished to continue talking via letters. I'd very much still like to be your friend if you're willing.]]
She read with disbelief, Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived was writing to her and asking to be her friend. Wait, she remembered that Harry doesn't like being the boy-who-lived, though she supposed she understood that. She didn't like being the youngest, she understood what it was like when people treated you like something you didn't want to be. Next time she meets him she should act like it doesn't matter, he'll like that.
[[You might be interested to hear about Hogwarts, it's a brilliant looking castle. All the teacher's I've met have loved me so far. I've made some friends in Slytherin, I know so many people act like it's a home for death eater wannabes but I like it here. I hope that you join me when you come to Hogwarts.]]
Slytherin? That surprised Ginny a lot, she remembered hearing Ron tell her that Harry was definitely going to be a Gryffindor, though he also told her that the two would become best friends and rule Hogwarts together so she supposed that he was making it all up. She always heard Ron talk about how Slytherin's are evil but that doesn't make sense because then it would mean that Harry was evil.
And Harry couldn't be evil, he was nice to her on the platform and he wrote to her before any of her brothers. Maybe Slytherin wasn't that bad, though she wasn't sure if she'd be in Slytherin.
[[I'm the best in my class at the moment. I like my classes so far, I haven't had potions class yet but I don't think I'll like it. I don't mind the subject but I don't particularly like the teacher. He looks like a creepy bat.]]
The best in his class? That's brilliant, he must be really smart then. The description of the potions teacher made her laugh, her brothers had always described the guy in the same way.
[[If you're want to keep writing with each other then write me back a letter. There's some parchment in the letter for you to use, once you're done with your letter just take the envelope my letter came in and say 'Mercury'. You can keep it by the way, it can stay hidden from everyone except you.
Love from your friend, Harry.]]
Yes! She'd love to keep writing to him, it'd be nice to have someone to write to her. She took out her parchment, a half an hour later she had wrote a letter that was perfectly not embarrassing in any way and told Harry that she'd like to be his friend. She was about to find an envelope when she remembered the second part of the letter, she took the envelope that Harry's letter had come in and inspected it for several seconds.
"Mercury" She eventually said, she watched with fascination as the envelope ion her hand turned into a beautiful and small white owl. It was no bigger than the size of her hand, the owl flew up to her shoulder and began nudging her face with it's hand before it flew back to her hand. Ginny cooed and began petting the adorable bird. "Oh, you're so adorable" She smiled, the bird preened at the praise. "your name is Mercury right?" The bird nodded. "Are you my owl now? The letter said you can stay hidden, does that mean you can become invisible? Will you take my letter and come back to me?" Mercury nodded after each question.
Ginny grinned and got an envelope and placed her letter into it, she handed it to Mercury who took it and flew off to Hogwarts. Ginny smiled as she watched it fly away. If she was near a mirror then she may have noticed the her eyes briefly turning green before they turned back to their usual brown.
______________
"Do you notice something unusual about Isabella?" Daphne whispered to Tracy as they followed Harry and Isabella. The girl currently had her arms wrapped around Harry's.
"Do you mean other than her acting like a lovestruck puppy?" Tracy whispered back "She's happy, happier than she's ever been."
"I know, I'm worried" Daphne confessed "I don't know if I should be happy for her, what if he's controlling her?"
"I don't think so" Tracy said with a thoughtful expression "apart from being happier and more confident, she's pretty much the same."
"Same?" Daphne hissed "She rarely leaves him and acts like he's her entire world"
"Yeah, I know but what do you think will happen if we confront them?" Tracy hissed back. "Let's just wait for a while and try to learn more before we go charging in like Gryffindor's."
"Fine" Daphne sighed, though it was clear that she didn't like it.
As soon as they arrived in the potions classroom they sat down and waited for the professor to arrive. The professor arrived two minutes later.
He stormed into the class, slamming the door open as he did so. He walked to the front like he was going to kill someone, he suddenly stopped and turned to face the students. Harry looked at Professor Snape with an emotionless face, though he was internally resisting the urge to rip off the man's legs and beat him to death with.
"There will be no foolish wand waving in this class!" Snape snapped at a few students who had their wands out. They quickly placed their wands away to avoid the anger of the potions master. Snape began taking the role call, though he said each name in a way that made you believe that the names had either disgusted or offended him in some way. He paused when he got to Harry. "Ah yes, Mr Potter, our new celebrity." He said in a soft but mocking voice.
Harry didn't show any visible reaction though he was internally thinking of how he would kill Snape. Eventually he decided, he could either give him a nice and painful death or he could drag it out and make the prat suffer. Hmm...yeah...the second one.
"You are here to learn the subtle and exact art of potion making." Snape said as he glared at the class "As there is little wand waving, many of you will find it hard to believe that this is magic. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory and even put a stopper on death, if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to deal with. Potter!" Snape suddenly snapped and turned towards Harry "What will I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Many people were surprised, even the Slytherin's, while it was well known that Snape hated everyone, he at least favoured his Slytherin's. Though it appeared that his hatred of Harry Potter extended beyond his love of his house.
"Well Potter? Are you going to answer?" Snape asked, ignoring Hermione Granger as she thrust her hand up into the air. "Thought you wouldn't..."
"The draught of living death sir" Harry cut Snape off "a sixth year potion, and one we learn at newt level."
"A lucky guess won't save you Potter" Snape sneered and most of the class looked at him with disbelief, it was clear that that wasn't a guess. "Where would you look if I told you to find a bezoar?" Once again ignoring Granger.
"Your options are a potions store, your cabinet or the stomach of a goat"
"Quiet Potter, nobody likes a know it all. And sit down!" He snapped at Granger who had stood up, she ducked her head and sat down. "Tell me Potter, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
"Nothing they are the same plant" Harry replied "they also go by the name of aconite" Harry added.
"Five points for cheating Potter" Snape said as he locked eyes with Harry, Harry supressed a grin as he began what would be the ruining of Snape's life. He sent his magic into Snape's head while keeping Snape from entering his mind, he viewed the potion masters knowledge of potions before he took it away while also seeing if there was anything else interesting for him to look at. He secretly had his magic stretch out, it connected to Snape's dark mark and his magical core and it got to work.
"You're just as arrogant and stupid as your father!" Snape shouted once he exited from Harry's mind, having viewed fake memories that led him to believe that Harry was just confused. He waved his wand at the board "The instructions are on the board. Get to work!" He commanded.
"But sir..." Hermione Granger raised her hand "you haven't written anything on the board"
"What?" Snape turned to the board, he waved his wand so the instructions would appear but they didn't "What?!"
He waved his wand again and again, the class wasted half an hour as they watched Snape try and do the spell necessary to get the words appear. He then began casting several other spells and they didn't work, he growled and then realised that all the students were watching him. He picked up a piece of chalk and walked over to the desk, ready to write down the instructions for the potions when he froze. He had forgotten the instructions...how?! He was the youngest potions master in the country! How did he forget such a simple potion?!
He walked back to pick up a textbook, he glared at anyone who sent him a questioning look, he then found the page and began reading out the instructions as he wrote them down on the board.
"There! Now get to work!" Snape snapped. He sat down at his desk and began thinking for a long time, his face filled with horror as he realised that he couldn't remember anything about potions! Not a thing! He tried to think of something, anything but he couldn't! His magic wasn't working either! What had happened?! It was fine before, what had changed?! Wait! Potter! It was the Potter brat! He had somehow done something!
Snape snapped his head towards the class when he realised that the class was leaving, they had placed their vials on his desk and they had all left. Damn Potter!
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