THE DRAGONS FIRE

Chapter 2

The following morning, Ginny awoke at six o'clock. She was ready to start a new day, and new year, at Hogwarts, and wanted to forget all of the thoughts she had last night of Draco Malfoy. She got ready and went down for an early breakfast in the Great Hall. She sat down at the Gryffindor table beside her only Gryffindor friend, Elizabeth Abbott. Ginny didn't really get along with many girls from her own house, who were in her year, so she had a lot of friends in different houses. Ginny's two closest friends were Pam Parkinson and Brianna Zabini, both in Slytherin. Pam was Pansy Parkinson's sister, which had turned Ginny off of her at first, but they were nothing alike, and Bri's brother Blaise was one of the nicest Slytherins you could meet, and Bri was just like her brother. A lot of Gryffindors frowned on the fact that Ginny preferred the company of Slytherins to her fellow Gryffindors, but Ginny didn't really care. No one in Gryffindor had wanted to befriend her in her first or second year, so she had looked elsewhere. Ginny was sure that if she, Pam and Bri had all been in the same house, they would have been best friends. It didn't help that Ginny's parents didn't want their daughter to be friends with children of powerful Death Eaters in You-Know-Who's inner circle, but Ginny had worn them down, and they had allowed her to spend two weeks at Bri's house over the summer. She had had a blast partying with her friends and some other Slytherins, and she had felt like the Sorting Hat may have made a mistake with her.

But her reminiscing about her summer had come to an end. Professor McGonagall was now moving down the table handing out timetables.

"Miss Weasley, I trust that you know about the Prefect meeting tonight?"

"Of course Professor, I'll be there," Ginny said with a smile.

"Very well. And Miss Weasley, could I have a word with you in my classroom after breakfast? I'll give you your timetable then, and discuss it with you."

"Yes Professor."

Professor McGonagall moved away and, struck by a new thought, Ginny turned to Elizabeth. "Liz, who's the new DADA professor? There's no one new."

"Oh, that's because they couldn't find anyone. Dumbledore will be teaching all the Defense classes this year."

"What? Since when does Dumbledore teach? Oh well, I bet he'll be awesome."

"Yeah, so why didn't McGonagall give you your timetable?"

"Oh, she wants to talk to me about it. Which reminds me, I better go up to the Tower and get my bag. Talk to you in first class?"

"Sure, bye Gin."

Ginny left the Great Hall and hurried up to her dorm so that she wouldn't be late for her meeting with McGonagall. She made her way to the Transfiguration classroom and the Professor waved her in.

"Come in Miss Weasley, have a seat."

Ginny sat down and looked up at her Head of House.

"Alright, Miss Weasley, I'll get right to the point. As you know, you did double course work last year, your regular fourth year work, plus fifth year work. You also know we only offer that option to our brightest pupils, some of whom decline or whose parents refuse to put them under that kind of pressure. However, to my pleasant surprise, you did very well. You easily could have taken your OWLs at the end of last term; however, the testing board discourages early testing, and with Professor Umbridge on staff last year, we didn't want to do anything, shall we say, out of the ordinary. Now, however, we have a bit of a dilemma. You should be starting sixth year courses, but cannot do so until you take your OWLs. We are trying to have someone from the testing board come administer a private test for you. However, you have had the entire summer holidays to let the information you will be tested on in your OWLs slip your mind, and I don't think it is fair to administer the test to you without at least two weeks' revision. So, you will have the first two weeks of term without your usual classes. However, some sixth year students, who are the best in their classes, will be helping you prepare yourself for the test. I sincerely hope that you are all right with all of this and are able to take your OWLs early, because if you don't, we have ourselves a bit of a dilemma."