Harry Potter and the Games of Hunger

Chapter 3: Dark Clothes

Ginny kissed each of her brothers lightly on their cheeks, coming down from her tipped with George and benson down slightly for Percy. Her height was only occasionally something that bothered her, because standing at 5'9 put her at just slightly below most boys height, but well above some. She blushed a tiny bit, thinking of how West only slightly beat her.

"I expect we'll see you over the holiday, Ginny?" Percy said a bit too loudly, purposely catching the attention of more black-clothed people who crowded the bus station. "Do you want us to cross to the platform with you?"

"No," Ginny told him, leaning against her trolly and tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "I'll be fine crossing the platform." she avoided the question about going one for the holiday. Depending on how Hogwarts was, she very might as well spend it in Hogsmeade, sipping Butterbear with West.

"Alright then, that'll be that." Percy said despicably, as if he just made an important announcement and expected very one to follow through quickly. "We'll see you sooner than later."

"Bye, lil sis." George gave her a small grin. "House'll be a hell of a lot less blabby without you around."

"Oh, shove it." Ginny hugged him one last time. "I'll tell Filtch you said hello."

George brightened considerably. "Peeves too! Give Mrs. Norris a nice kick for me!"

Ginny nodded, laughing, putting her hands firmly on the trolly. "'Bye, you two."

"Bye," they echoed back, watching her adjust her trolly to walk back into the Platform. Ginny peeked around to the Muggles that passed by without so much as a glance - how they never noticed, Ginny wouldn't ever understand. They walked by as preoccupied and unsuspecting as ever as Ginny strode into the beam that led her onto Platform 9 3/4.

She felt the familiar rush of exhilaration and admiration as she crossed through the entrance.

Even growing up with it, magic still amazed her sometimes. While she didn't think she could live without it, despite all of Arthur's finely tuned lectures of how to live life without magic, she still appreciated all that magic could do. There wasn't much that it couldn't.

Through the barrier, Ginny could see the crowds of Hogwarts students, and, much like in Diagonal Ally, they stood in crowds, sometimes with parents. And, much like the Ally, the people clothed in black stalked the walkways. They were really beginning to unnerve her.

Regardless, she wondered forward, navigating through the crowds with virtual ease. She heard snippets of whispers walking past students.

"...All the old Professors fired..."

"...all the Slytherins missing..."

"...You-Know-Who is the actual Headmaster, Umbridge is just the new backup like McGonagall..."

Ginny snorted as she heard the last one. She had to resist the urge to turn back and wallop the fool who was spreading that rumor. As for the other two, thy had to be untrue as well, or at least over embellished. West said Gemma was attending her second year of Hogwarts, and she's a Slytherin.

In this though was when she caught the pair of cool blue eyes that made her heart drop, framed by thin blond eyelashes and lengthy, wavy buttery blonde hair. Already dressed in her robes stood who could only be Gemma with those eyes - even though everything else about her looked different. She looked soft, brittle almost, not stick like but delicate. Her blonde hair brought about her tanned complexion. She stood who Ginny assumed to be her mother, a young looking woman with the same blonde hair but sharper features like West. Her large sunglasses prevented her from capturing the woman's eyes, which she wore even inside the platform.She wore intricate Muggle clothing, a well fitting brown jumper with bright red pumps and matching painted lips and fingernails. She seemed to be pressing random buttons on one of those Muggle devices, a cell phone. "It's not working!" she cried in frustration, her voice fairly high pitched for an older woman. She amused Ginny in some way she couldn't place.