A Shot At Happiness

A NEW ALLY

"Alright,  Ms. Weasley. Hand over the book to me. I'm sure whoever the book belongs to will come back later to collect it."

Ginny handed it over to her and before she could stop herself, she asked, "Professor, will we learn about Animagi this year?"

"No Ms. Weasley. Animagus transformation is too advanced for second years, it is introduced only from third year onwards."

Ginny nodded and went back to reading her text. She still couldn't concentrate but this time it was because she had another thought running through her mind.

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Ginny and Luna caught up with Neville among the crowd thundering toward the Great Hall for Lunch. The girls noticed at once that Neville was in an unusual mood- part entertained and part worried. They decided not to question him then, as they hurried to have lunch and discreetly leave the hall. Once outside the trio walked up to a beech tree on the grounds where they used to hangout in the previous timeline. The giant bushes surrounding the tree kept them away from prying eyes.

Once they all settled down, Ginny turned to Neville, “Alright Nev, spill! What’s got you so thoughtful?”

“Remind me again, why did I take divination?”

The girls shared a laugh. Then Luna said, “I see, Professor Trelawny is still making her tragic predictions?”

Ginny continued, “Did she tell you anything?”

“Just the same old thing, but I guess she doesn’t like me much after I made sure that her prediction that I would break one of her pink tea cups didn’t come true. So she targeted her next best prey- Harry. But the entertaining bit was Hermione! Oh! She hates the class. Bet she’s regretting taking it now,” Neville elaborated chuckling, all the while.

“So what had you look so worried in the Great Hall?” asked Ginny.

“It’s what she predicted about my Gran. She said something about not being so sure that Gran is well. Guess I ought to write a letter to Gran soon,” Neville said, his expression pinched. “Anyway, how were your classes? Any luck with Snape?”

“Yes actually,” said Luna. “We were able to get across to him that there are things to be discussed. Surprisingly, he agreed without throwing a fit”

“Well, that’s one thing down on our list,” said Neville

“And the next thing is the visit to the Chamber. We can’t put it off for much longer. We have to start training again else our magic will get out of hand,” Ginny reminded them.

“You’re right. So, when do we go down there?” asked Luna

      After discussing it for a while the trio comes to the decision that they will go down to chamber the upcoming weekend. It was decided that they’ll ask Dumbledore and Snape to accompany them so as to be kept under supervision when they are trying out their magic again after holding it in for so long.

      Soon, lunch was over and it was time for the young time travelers to return back to their classes. Neville bid them goodbye and jogged down the grounds to meet with the rest of his class for Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid. The girls too left for their class soon after that, all the while wondering how things will work out in Neville’s class.

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      The girls didn’t have to wonder for long. What happened during Hagrid’s first class was all over Hogwarts by the time they all came down for dinner. Draco Malfoy being the dramatic person he is, wasted no time in telling anyone who would listen about how Buckbeak , the hippogriff tried to kill him. Ginny and Neville felt guilty for having let it happen in the first place but knew that they didn’t have a choice as they needed Buckbeak in place for Sirius to escape later on. They feared that letting Buckbeak free might cause some serious changes to the occurrence of events.

Though the third year Griffindors looked sullen, Ron tried to lighten up the mood by chortling about some incident that happened during Hagrid’s class.
“You should have seen Malfoy’s face when Neville tripped him,” Ron was saying, chuckling.

“It was an accident, Ron. I didn’t mean to!” replied Neville defensively, though the odd twinkle in his eyes told Ginny otherwise.

“Whatever, mate. That was the highlight of my day,” added Harry.

“Honestly you two! You should be more worried about Hagrid,” admonished Hermione, though even she looked like she was trying to stop herself from letting out a laugh. 

    After an uneventful dinner, everyone walked back to their common rooms. Just like the previous night, Ginny and Neville disillusioned themselves and set off to find Luna, after which, the three walked towards the headmaster’s office for another night of reliving their past and trying to gain an ally.

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  As expected, Snape was already waiting for them impatiently, along with a patiently waiting Dumbledore who smiled at them as they entered his office.

“Here, at last,” drawled Snape on seeing them. “Now, what is it that you three deem so important that you had the audacity to use leglimency on me? Better yet, how is it that three students even know the art of leglimency?”

“Severus, if you would just let them explain, you will find the answers to all your queries,” said Dumbledore. “ You see, these three have a wonderfully magical tale to tell and they insisted that you should be told of this too. I must ask you to kindly refrain from interrupting them”

     Hoping that Snape would heed Dumbledore’s words and cooperate, Ginny, Neville and Luna once again begain narrating their tale. To say that Snape was astonished was an understatement. He had not believed them at first but did once Ginny began talking about Lily and Petunia. His expression when it was revealed that Sirius was not indeed a murderer and must be aided was priceless. If it weren’t for the severity of the situation, Ginny would have laughed.

     Once Snape was convinced that they had indeed come back in time, they all set about showing him their memories and bringing him in on their plans. Snape had some inputs to make too.

After sitting through another few tiring hours of discussion and informing Snape and Dumbledore about their plans to go down to the Chamber of secrets, the three of them made their way downstairs.

    They walked back to their common rooms drowsily and wasted no time other than a mumbled goodnight before all three of them crashed onto their respective beds in their dormitories. But amidst all the fatigue, they had a sense of achievement, for they had another thing down on their list- to make a new ally.