Over the next few hours, Ginny learned that her fall from the broomstick could have been fatal. She had landed on her back and almost snapped her spinal cord. She had been in a coma for over three weeks, and was lucky that it hadn't been longer. Now, it was precisely twenty-three days since her fall, and she was returning to Hogwarts.
"Hi, Ginny," Jenna came up and gave her a big hug, "You've been gone way too long. C'mon, I'll start catching you up on the homework."
"Ugh," Ginny groaned, "do I have to?" It was O.W.L. year, and she knew all too well how much homework she would have to catch up on by now.
"You know I of all people would want to skip it, but I have instructions right from Dumbledore to get you caught up as soon as possible."
"Fine, fine, let's get started." Ginny gave in; it was going to be a long night.
***
"Morning!" Ginny skipped into the Great Hall, a smile on her face. She skipped over to where Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Jenna were sitting, taking a seat next to them; she greeted the tired-looking students exuberantly. "Hmm-hmm-hmm, dum-dee-dum-dum-dum," she hummed out loud. "Happy, happy, happy!" She was happy to be back.
"Shut up, Ginny," Ron grunted, only including a few more swear words.
"Well somebody's cranky this morning. What were you doing last night that kept you up so late? Following in our dear older brothers' footsteps? And I thought you were supposed to be a prefect!" she joked in mock-astonishment.
Ron glared at her reprovingly.
"Fine, fine, be that way!" she said, somewhat hurt. Oh well, she thought, must be preoccupied, so she took the Daily Prophet from the owl delivering it and paid him. With a cheery, "Thank you," she opened the paper, took one look at the front page, and immediately knew what was wrong with everybody. The headline said, 'Death Eaters take Azkaban,' and there was a side-article titled 'News of more deaths comes, see obituaries, pages 3E-19E'. "Oh my god," Ginny said out loud, "It's happening, it's really happening."
***
The day passed slowly for Ginny. Everyone was silent, and when asked a question, they would give a one or two word answer. That was what was happening with the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws anyway. For a change, the Slytherins were ecstatic; their parents were finally out of Azkaban.
That night, the Gryffindors were scheduled to have another Quidditch practice. Despite the healers' orders not to play Quidditch for at least a week, she went. She needed something to cheer her up, thinking she could at least count on normality while flying.
***
"Here! I'm open!" Ginny flew up alongside Ellie, calling for the Quaffle. Without acknowledging her call, Ellie tossed the Quaffle carelessly to Ginny, making her nearly drop it. When Ginny came face to face with Ron, she looked for an open pass. Nobody called, and Ron grabbed the Quaffle and passed it off to the reserve Chasers. That was when she realized that Jenna was open less then ten feet away. She called a time out.
"You guys, we play great when we communicate, but we're acting like little kids trying to talk through cans attached to string! You have to call or nobody will know where you are. The communication links have been cut." She emphasized with her hand, "Get out there and reconnect them!" She normally wouldn't have cut in and done Harry's job for him, but he didn't look like he was planning on doing anything anytime soon, circling above the practice, brooding.
One would expect an improvement at the very least. Yet, to no avail they were just as bad, if not worse, then before. Jenna would start their play, Macaroni, but Ellie wouldn't pay attention, she would go and do Cheese instead. All in all, practice was a nightmare.
***
Ginny awoke the next morning still tired. Yesterday seemed like a nightmare that lasted extra-long. Finally it was over, and they could start new today. It was probably just something that kept all the students up late the night before, a prank perhaps, that Ginny had slept through. It was possible; she really had been quite tired after getting back from the hospital after all. She decided that they were all probably just irritable.
Ginny showered, dressed, and walked slowly down to breakfast letting her mind wander, not thinking of anything in particular. She walked into the Great Hall, and sat down next to Jenna, who was slowly piling mountains of food onto her plate. Ginny looked at it in disgust. Suddenly, she didn't feel very hungry. Instead of eating herself, she just grabbed her bag and went off to Transfiguration.
Transfiguration came and went, as did History of Magic. Finally the morning classes were over, and she was walking to lunch. Sitting at the table, she served herself nothing but one half of a turkey sandwich.
"What's wrong, Ginny?" Jenna came up to sit down beside her.
"Nothing," she replied irritably, Why is Jenna, bugging me now? she thought.
"No, something's wrong. You're not eating like anything for lunch, usually now's your pig-out on every food in sight time of day. No, something's wrong."
Yes, something's wrong: my parents are dead, my brothers ignoring me, and the world is crumbling before our eyes! Ginny thought, but out loud she only said "Nothing's wrong! I just…" she paused "Had a big breakfast." and without even finishing her small sandwich, she went outside to sit under her favorite maple tree.
Ginny sat there, in the shade of the tree, leaning against the trunk. Above her, the leaves were mostly the red of late autumn, but a few padded the hard ground she sat upon. Closing her eyes in the slight breeze, she forced all possible thoughts out of her head, just sitting there until she heard the bell ring from somewhere deem inside the castle. Only then was she jerked out of her own little world and led to decide she might want to head to Potions.
***
"Ms. Weasley," Snape sneered as she entered the classroom, "you are late." Ginny hated Professor Snape and wasn't in the mood to put up with his attitude today. She turned to Jenna, who was sitting alone as far back in the classroom as she could go without being in the hall.
"Don't you just hate it when people tell you things you already know?" she said loudly. Then she turned to Snape, and lowered her voice a bit, "I am well aware of that, sir."
"Well, let's see. Five minutes late, so that should be fifty points from Gryffindor. We'll take ten for disrupting class, and another ten for your cheek." All the Gryffindors in class groaned. "That'll be another twenty for protesting! Now sit down, follow the instructions on the board!" he snapped, and sat down with a look of utmost triumph on his face.
Ginny didn't hesitate to reply, "Tut, tut, tut, and you call yourself a teacher! So Gryffindor wouldn't have lost any points if I hadn't come to class at all? Yet, coming makes us lose ninety points? I didn't know your job was to encourage missing class. Oh well, as they always say, teacher knows best! Bye!" and with that, she picked up her books again, and walked out of the classroom back to Gryffindor Tower, (which she knew would be deserted at this time of day) ignoring all calls to return immediately.