The Awakening Power

Chapter 20: Practical Defense

The Awakening Power

by Sib

Chapter 20: Practical Defense

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Ginny sat in the library in the early evening, surrounded by a large pile of books. I'll never survive this year, she thought forlornly. She had believed the workload was heavy before Christmas, but with OWL exams approaching, the teachers apparently felt the students needed additional stress.

Of course, it didn't help that she happened to be starving. Her stomach gave a growl as she tried to concentrate on her work. It was about dinner time, and her appetite was not letting her forget the fact. She sighed as she continued on with her work, knowing that almost everyone else was at dinner.

Later on after the evening meal was over, she looked up and saw Hermione sitting down at her table, smiling at her.

"How's it going?" asked Hermione.

"Exhausting, honestly," Ginny said tiredly. "I don't know how you lot got through last year, on top of Umbridge. I saw some Hufflepuff girl crying in the corner a while ago, and I felt like going over to join her."

Hermione nodded sympathetically and patted her hand. "You'll get through it."

"Yeah. Ron got through it and got eight OWLs, so I suppose anything's possible," she said, giggling. "Well, he should probably give you a couple of them for keeping him on task."

Hermione laughed at that. "I noticed you weren't at dinner tonight," she said.

Ginny's face took on a guarded expression. "Yeah. A bit too busy... lots of work to do," she said, gesturing at her large pile of books, as if she needed to prove the point.

"Yes," Hermione said, nodding innocently. "I can see you have quite a bit of work here. In fact, I've noticed that you've been skipping dinners a fair amount lately."

"Busy. Terribly busy... you know how it is... OWLs are a killer year..." Ginny said, unable to keep her eyes from darting away.

"It's funny, though..." Hermione said, looking like she was giving a matter some serious thought.

"Er, funny?" Ginny said nervously, feeling a sinking sensation in her stomach unrelated to her current lack of food.

"Yes... I couldn't help but notice how Harry disappears the nights that you seem to skip dinner..." Hermione said, eyebrows raised.

Ginny's face took on a bit of a blush. "All right, Hermione, you can stop," she said. "Harry usually shows up to take me down to the kitchens and we get something to eat together."

Hermione grinned at her. "And you wouldn't be intentionally starting to miss dinners lately, now would you?"

Ginny felt even more embarrassed. Damn it, she is way too observant, she thought, feeling aggravated. "All right, all right. Maybe a little. But no one else is noticing, are they? No one's talking about it?" she asked desperately.

Hermione giggled. "Don't worry, no one's noticed anything, least of all Harry."

"Good," Ginny said, feeling relieved. She rested her chin on her hands glumly. "I'm so pathetic, aren't I?"

"I think it's sweet," Hermione said, smiling. "And let's face it, with Harry, it's best to take what he's willing to give."

"Yeah. That's what I figured," Ginny said, still looking gloomy.