She scanned the Daily Prophet she subscribed to, searching for any news about Crouch. She had written an anonymous letter to Amelia Bones claiming that Bartemius Crouch was keeping his supposedly dead son under the Imperius Curse, hidden beneath an Invisibility Cloak in his own house.
'Maybe it's just too unbelievable for anyone to take seriously,' Ginny concluded with a sigh. 'Crouch Sr is an influential official in the Ministry after all…'
She took a bite of scrambled egg from the plate next to her newspaper.
Would Crouch Jr still escape during the Quidditch World Cup?
With Malfoy Sr dead and other influential former Death Eaters - the Carrow twins, Rowle, Avery, Crabbe, Goyle and Nott - locked in Azkaban, there probably wouldn't be a Death Eater attack.
Maybe she should hunt Crouch Jr down during the Quidditch World Cup next summer and either kill or expose him?
Absentmindedly she took the pumpkin juice - it was curious how she had gotten used to it - and drank it. It smelled like lavender and rain, mixed with… maybe Harry's scent? How strange…
The realization struck her that Dean wasn't here…
Everything felt cloudy.
Then suddenly her head felt like it was splitting apart as she rubbed her eyes. She loosened her Occlumency shields a little bit and the headache lessened.
The phial hanging around her neck felt slightly warmer than usual…
More importantly, where was Dean? Why wasn't he with her?
What if he was with another girl? Lately she had ignored him a little bit too much and she couldn't figure out why…
Well, if he had fallen in love with a different girl, she could just Obliviate him and curse the whore who had seduced him, till she was a permanent resident of St. Mungo's. That seemed like a reasonable response…
"Ginny?" she heard the voice of her beloved behind her and turned around with a smile.
"Dean!" she beamed at him as she jumped up and hugged him. "I missed you," she whispered into his ear.
It was too bad you couldn't tell whether Dean was blushing or not, since his skin was too dark.
He pushed her back with a complicated look - guilt and regret mixed with embarrassment, maybe?
"I shouldn't have done this…" he muttered to himself. Why did he sound so miserable?
Ginny used Legilimency on Dean's surface memories to understand what was wrong with him.
A memory surfaced: Dean receiving a pink potion from an anonymous sender, along with a note telling him to give it to a girl to see if she liked him - after all, a love potion supposedly had no effect on someone already in love.
Love Potion?
With a small cry of pain, Ginny clutched her head as the headache returned with sudden intensity.
"Ginny, are you okay?" Dean asked in panic. "I'm sorry, Ginny! I shouldn't have done this."
Dean was worried about her? That made her so happy!
He took her hand and gently pulled her away from the Gryffindor table.
"Let's go to the hospital wing to get you the antidote. I'm sorry," Dean told her as he pulled her away from her breakfast.
Dean hurried her through several corridors toward the Hospital Wing. They were all alone in an empty corridor, so Ginny decided to use this chance to seduce Dean a little bit. She had been giving him the cold shoulder for weeks and the desperation in his eyes suggested this might be the perfect moment to change tactics.
Still holding his hand, she casually tugged him toward an empty classroom they passed.
With a swish of her wand, she then closed the door and looked at Dean with an alluring smile. She enjoyed how Dean was clearly embarrassed.
"Are you really going to take me to the Hospital Wing when we finally have a moment alone?"
She sent a silent, wandless Compulsion Charm, giving him all kinds of naughty, pervy thoughts, as she slowly walked closer to him.
Dean - as if afraid - slowly backed away. He didn't know what to do in this situation. The conflicting emotions were clearly visible in his eyes.
Finally Ginny had him backed against the wall, as he couldn't step back any more.
"Ginny, you are not yourself… Please let me take you to the Hospital Wing," he pleaded weakly, but Ginny saw how he gulped when his eyes landed on her budding breasts under her robes.
"But I just want to apologise for ignoring you recently," she tilted her head as she stroked his cheek seductively, while sending additional stronger Compulsion Charms his way.
"We… we shouldn't do this, Ginny," Dean stuttered, embarrassed. He had probably never even kissed a girl, much less done anything beyond that. It was impressive that he could still resist her Compulsion Charms…
But Ginny had decided to make Dean hers and hers alone. With teenage boys, the simplest and fastest approach was always…
Ginny closed the distance, their faces almost touching.
"Did you ever kiss a girl before?" she asked, liking how he shuddered when her breath hit him.
He gulped again and shook his head wordlessly. Good.
So she just kissed him. Something felt wrong, but she ignored it, enjoying the way his reservations slowly faded. The phial on her necklace clinked and shook, grating on her nerves.
The Compulsion Charms seemed to finally take effect, as he suddenly groped her left breast.
Ginny moaned into Dean's mouth as she felt a sudden warm flush spreading from her chest downwards, as though she were blushing all over at once - as if the room had suddenly become very hot.
'No, I don't want this,' a small voice in her mind said… Huh?
"What are you doing to Ginny! Stupefy!"
She barely registered Harry's voice, too occupied by Dean's tongue and hands. Then a red light hit Dean and he sagged downwards unconsciously.
"Dean!" she screamed in panic.
"I'm sorry, Ginny," Harry said miserably as she turned away from her beloved. "Dean has given you a Love Potion!"
"No, Dean would never do that!" she denied, taking out her wand to cast a Reviving Spell on Dean.
"I'm sorry, Ginny… I have no other choice… Stupefy," he said as a red Stunner hit her and everything turned black.
Then she opened her eyes to find herself lying in a bed in the Hospital Wing… Where was Dean?
"Miss Weasley, drink this," Madam Pomfrey said gently, pressing a vial of clear liquid into her hands.
"Where is Dean?" Ginny asked the question that mattered most to her in that moment.
"Drink the potion, Miss Weasley, and I will answer all your questions. I promise."
The last thing she remembered was Potter stunning Dean and herself. She had to make sure that her beloved was okay, so she just complied and drank the potion.
It was like a fog lifting from her mind. Her Occlumency shields snapped back into place and everything that had happened was recontextualised.
That motherfucker… she was going to torture and kill that little shit.
She tried to ignore how dirty and used she felt. He had kissed her and even dared to touch her breast. Ginny took a deep breath to calm herself.
"You were brought here under the effects of a love potion. Minerva is already speaking with Mr Potter and Mr Thomas," Madam Pomfrey informed her very gently. "You're safe now, Miss Weasley. I know you've been through a lot, but can you please confirm that the effect of the love potion is gone?" she continued, still speaking to her as if she were a fragile glass doll.
"Yes," she rasped, trying not to let the anger and humiliation overwhelm her. "I certainly don't have any positive feelings for that bastard anymore…"
Madam Pomfrey sighed, deciding not to reprimand her for her choice of words.
"Do you remember what happened?" Madam Pomfrey asked gently. "You don't have to tell me any uncomfortable details until you are ready."
But Ginny just shook her head. Making Thomas look as bad as possible might give her some gratification. So she put on a haunted, scared persona to sell her act, as if she had just remembered something horrible.
"I… Dean drugged me with a love potion, then brought me into an empty classroom, where…" Ginny stopped, pretending to gather courage.
She felt Madam Pomfrey's hand squeeze her shoulder in encouragement and looked up to see the expression of the older woman. She looked deeply caring and empathetic towards Ginny, with a hint of sadness - completely different from the usual stern, no-nonsense expression.
This was exactly the reaction Ginny had been aiming for, but she still disliked others pitying her, as if she were a victim.
"Then… then he forced himself on me, kissed me with tongue and touched my breasts and body…" she continued with a shuddering breath while looking down. She brushed the back of her hand across her eyes, so that Madam Pomfrey wouldn't realise that her eyes were dry, with only anger in them.
"Thank you for telling me," the older woman said in a quiet voice.
"You are safe here. Minerva will take care of everything, and you may stay here as long as you need," she told her gently as she slowly withdrew her hand from Ginny's shoulder. "I'll inform Professor McGonagall of what you've told me," she said as she turned away, but Ginny caught her sleeve.
"Could you… could you bring Harry here? I want to thank him for rescuing me," Ginny asked in a little uncertain voice - she hated that she wasn't sure how much of it was an act.
"Of course, my girl. Just wait a moment."
Ginny let herself fall back onto her bed as she waited. Why did she ask for Harry?
If she didn't have the memories of her previous life, this would be far worse. But Ginny wasn't weak.
"Ginny?" Harry's unsure voice broke the silence. "How… how are you?"
Ginny looked up into Harry's worried face.
"I took the antidote to the Love Potion… not sure how I feel though…" Ginny said more to herself than to Harry as she looked at the ceiling.
She looked back at Harry - he was standing a few feet away from her, unsure what to do in this situation.
"I wanted to thank you for saving me. Who knows where Thomas would have stopped if not for you."
Harry froze, obviously only now realising what could have happened. But then he shook his head.
"I should have been there earlier… In the first place it was me who introduced Dean, I mean Thomas, to you. I'm sorry, Ginny…" he said miserably. Harry had an unfortunate habit of blaming himself for everything.
Ginny sighed.
She didn't know why she had asked for Harry, only that she wanted him here. This was frustrating.
"By the way, how did you find me? My necklace got warm…" she said, deliberately not naming their blood oath, aware that Madam Pomfrey could still be listening. Fortunately, Harry seemed to catch on, his eyes widening in comprehension.
"Yeah, it was like something in my body was driving me towards that classroom and I had no idea why… I'd forgotten about," he said, breaking off as his gaze dropped to the chain at her neck - the vial concealed beneath her clothes. "That…"
Ginny nodded, understanding, but let the topic drop. Who would have imagined that Harry's impromptu tweaks to the blood oath could prove so useful… She'd have to examine the details later - she wasn't in the mood right now.
She looked out of the window, seeing the clear sky with sunlight shining on Hogwarts.
"Being a girl in the magical world can be really scary at times…." Ginny muttered to herself.
"Ginny?" Harry's confused voice registered in her ears and she looked at his still worried face.
"Ah, you know, there are not just Love Potions, but also the Imperius Curse, the Memory Charm and all kinds of other mind-altering spells and potions… I kind of ignored that danger up until now… that was stupid of me," Ginny explained - she kind of enjoyed how Harry paled as he realized the truth behind her words.
Naively, Ginny had thought that her Occlumency shield would protect her against everything short of Veritaserum. She shouldn't be too confident in her own abilities - the confrontation with Croaker should have taught her that.
"No!" Harry exclaimed, startling her a little bit. "You shouldn't have to be worried about people taking advantage of you like that," he continued more gently, taking her hand in his. "I will protect you. No matter what," he promised, looking more serious than she had ever seen him.
Why did she want to believe him? He was just a stupid boy, trying to impress the girl he had a crush on…
"Why?" she asked with a hoarse voice. "Aren't you disgusted with me after what Dean did to me?"
She certainly felt kind of dirty for having allowed Dean to kiss her and touch her breasts while she was under the Love Potion.
Ginny felt tears flowing down her cheeks and turned away - she hated showing real weakness to others.
"I could never be disgusted with you."
Suddenly his arms were around her, her face resting against his chest.
"I love you," he confessed, his heart hammering so loudly she could hear it. "I don't care if you never see me as someone more than a friend… I don't care if you fall in love with someone else… I will do everything so that you can be happy and safe," he declared and she knew that he meant every word.
Harry was the one person in the world who could never betray or harm her - the blood oath guaranteed that.
Absentmindedly, she realized that the Love Potion had smelled partially of Harry mixed with the smell of her own body. She loved being Ginny, but she also loved… Harry?
She remembered the fake infatuation and obsession with Dean, caused by the potion, as the silence continued after Harry's proclamation. At this moment she felt calm, safe and loved. This was not like the false affection caused by mind magic.
She wanted to stay like this forever - to forget everything: Her past, the world around them, all the reasons that told her not to trust anybody else.
At that moment she realized what she really wanted and needed. And Ginny Weasley wasn't unassertive or meek, so she immediately took action to get the stupid boy to do what she wanted.
"Harry, why are you talking about me falling in love with someone else or us staying just friends forever?" she asked, pretending to be shy. "Do you not want to be my boyfriend?"
She could hear his heart beating incredibly fast - she really loved how she could affect him.
"What?" he asked, flabbergasted, clearly not expecting this question.
"You never asked me to be your girlfriend, Potter. So why are you pretending I have already rejected you?" she asked teasingly, as she leaned back to see his face. He was beet-red and his brain seemed to have short-circuited.
"You wouldn't?" he asked dumbly after a while.
"Wouldn't what?" she asked, as she tilted her head, with a confused look, pretending not to understand what he was asking.
Ginny could see the exact moment when Gryffindor bravery took hold and he decided to just do it, no matter the consequences.
She also noticed Madam Pomfrey standing in the corner of the room with a small smile, but chose to ignore her.
"Ginny Weasley, I love you! Please… be my girlfriend!" he asked, bowing slightly with closed eyes, awaiting her verdict - who bows when confessing?
"Say it again," she ordered. She really enjoyed hearing him confess to her.
"I love you, please be my girlfriend?" Harry obediently repeated, slightly confused as he looked up into her smiling face.
"Okay."
She looked into his startlingly green eyes.
"Okay?" he repeated oafishly.
But Ginny - having enough of her dense… boyfriend - just went for it and closed the distance in a kiss.
It was an amazing kiss, even better than Beltane. She felt Harry's shock melt away as he kissed her back, quickly taking the lead, their tongues meeting as he pulled her closer.
Kissing her new boyfriend was unexpectedly nice.
She could get used to this…