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Ginny's Journey - Book 2 - Exile | ||||||
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Category: Alternate Universe Characters:None Genres: Drama Warnings: Violence Story is Complete Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 56 Summary: Ginny, expelled from Hogwarts due to the Chamber affair, now attends school in the American Midwest. New friendships and exciting discoveries await, but so do grave challenges. A savage conflict between pureblood bigots and their muggle-born victims is brewing, and Ginny finds herself drawn into the maelstrom. Hitcount: Story Total: 56408; Chapter Total: 4264 Author's Notes: Rowling owns the world, but I take credit (or blame) for pretty much everything within the American wizarding world featured in this series. About all she mentioned about the US wiz world was the Salem Witches Academy and the Sweetwater All Stars quidditch team. The concept of giving phonetically similar names to each book in a series (Expulsion, Exile, etc) is likewise not my own, but has been used by various authors, including Stephen King and Richard Wright. I don't think that concept is copyrighted, but you never know. |
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If you have not read "Ginny's Journey - Book 1", it is recommended that you do so first. For your convenience, here is the address: http://www.siye.co.uk/siye/viewstory.php ?sid=11752 < u>GINNY'S JOURNEY Book 2 - E x i l e *~*~*~*~*~* CHAPTER 20 - Busy Times WEASLEY, GINEVRA M. EIGHTH GRADER Charms: 8:00 - 8:55 AM : Miyazaki History of Magic: M & W 9:00 - 9:55 AM : Nacht Transformation: 10:00 - 10:55 AM: Chance Potions: 1:00 - 1:55 PM: Red Cloud Herbology: Th & F 2:00 - 2:55 PM: Root Defensive Magic: 4:00 - 4:55 PM: Grayson Remedial Defense Sat. 12:30 - 2:00 PM: Grayson/Esmerelda Astronomy: T & W 9:30 - 11:00 PM : Stephanovich All classes are M-F unless otherwise indicated. Breakfast Served: 6:45 - 8:30 AM Lunch Served: 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Dinner Served: 6:00 - 7:30 PM Snacks available in Dining Hall 6:00 AM - 10:30 PM Quidditch Team Practice M & Th, 7:30 PM “Remedial Defense?” Ginny looked up from her new schedule. “What’s that mean?” She was sitting up in her bed in the infirmary, waiting for Red Cloud to pronounce her well and turn her loose. Irma and Ashley had persuaded him to let them visit. They had also brought clean clothes for her to change into, and a plate of fresh muffins from the kitchen. “It means you’re lagging behind, so you’ll have to go in on Saturday to catch up,” Ashley responded to the question. “It’s not that bad; I had to do it in Charms for awhile. But if you’re talented enough to go up against Kayla Anderson and hold your own, you should be caught up pretty quick. Especially with Irma to help.” Irma had the exact same schedule, minus the Saturday class. Something else finally crystallized in Ginny’s mind. “Why does everyone call Esmerelda ‘Esmerelda’?” “Uhhh, because that’s her name?” Irma responded sarcastically. Ginny resisted an urge to chuck her half-eaten muffin at her roommate’s head. “No, I mean, the teachers. They call us Miss Weasley and Miss Reeves.” “Well, we’re not married,” Irma said, her face straight. Though she hailed from Louisiana, a state that prided itself on its French heritage, she had a dry sense of humor that was more commonly seen among Britishers. “I understand,” Ashley volunteered. “You’re wondering why no one uses her last name. It’s because she doesn’t have one. Not anymore.” Ginny started to reply, but Ashley wasn’t finished. “Look, kid, I’m not the one to ask about it. You need to ask Esmerelda herself.” “Do you know?” Ginny asked. Ashley nodded. “I understand,” Ginny added, and dropped the subject. Red Cloud came over with a small flashlight, which he shined into Ginny’s eyes. Nodding satisfaction at the result, he told her to follow the light with her eyes, then asked her her name, how old she was, where she was, the day of the week, and a few other questions. Then, he asked if her head hurt or her vision was blurry. Ginny said no, and he nodded curtly. “All right. Get dressed, then you can go.” The ensuing weeks were busy times, but overall productive ones for Ginny. The easy times were most definitely over, that was for sure. Most of the eighth-graders were actually marginally ahead of her, simply because they were expected to learn the same amount of knowledge in six years as Hogwartians were allowed seven (eight for the ones who had to repeat a year, like Slytherin’s Marcus Flint). But Ginny was a solid student and a hard worker, and her friends were always willing to help. She and Irma went pretty much everywhere together, and Ashley joined them for meals and studies. Two better friends could not have been asked for anywhere, and that was a good thing, because the rest of the school was somewhat distant toward her. It wasn’t overt hostility, not with most anyway, but just (she thought) a desire to keep their distance. She asked Esmerelda about this. “You’ve sided with Ashley, a half-blood, and Irma, a muggle-born,” Esmerelda had explained. “They know that you’re going to be targeted by Nettlebank and Anderson and the rest of that nasty little coterie.” A grim light of revelation flared alight in Ginny’s mind. “And they don’t want to be associated with me. With us.” Esmerelda was known to tell fibs on occasion, when the situation merited it, but she did not do so here. “Correct.” “So why aren’t they still going after me?” Ginny asked. “You know, like Kayla did, that one time.” “If you know anything about bullies, you know that they take the path of least resistance,” Esmerelda stated grimly. “They were just feeling you out, that one time, trying to see if you’d give up easily. But you didn’t, so they went for the Dolphins instead. The Geese are team players, the Wolves are brave and loyal, and the Bears are strong; kids who lack any of these assets will be the easiest targets. And also, we had one Dolphin of each sex. And I do mean had. The girl lasted only five days here, and the boy was voluntarily obliviated last night. So as of now, there are no Muggle-born Dolphins.” Ginny felt slightly sick at the thought. “Can’t Grayson or Chance do anything about it?” “Professor Chance has her hands full teaching and running the school. And Professor Grayson and I can only regulate what goes on inside our own hall.” “But don’t the other heads of hall stop the harassment on their side?” “Miyazaki, head of Wolf, will oppose this discrimination ferociously. Her parents, though they were both wizards, lived in muggle society about 60 years ago. They were forced out of their home and kept in a “relocation center”, because they were Japanese. This while her grandfather, who was a muggle soldier, was in the American army. And she selected a prefect who would do the same.” “And Dolphin and Goose?” Ginny persisted. As for Goose. . . .” she sighed. “Root’s sympathetic, but he doesn’t like getting involved in conflicts like this. His prefect is obsessed with rules and regulations, so she’s a natural ally, but she’s easy to fool because she lacks creativity. And then there’s Stephanovich, who has always opposed the admission of muggle-borns.” “Her?” Ginny’s eyes went wide with shock. “But she’s always fair with us.” “That’s because she’s sly,” Esmerelda said. “Oh, she’ll stop harassment of muggle-borns, and she’ll punish those who do it, but she always gives the minimum, a couple hours detention. Her prefect is Julius DiMuxen, who runs the whole band of thugs. Probably got about thirty-five serious followers, all told, maybe ten or fifteen in his core group. But make no mistake, there are a lot of sympathizers.” “Who are they going to go for next?” “The Geese, I’d say. They’ll have a better chance than the Dolphins, but that’s not saying much.” Ginny saw that this was true, and it bothered her, but there was little she could do about it. In any case, there were no immediate incidents with her. She was able to proceed with her studies undisturbed. Potions was far harder now. It had never been her best subject, and Red Cloud’s expectations were stratospherically high. Only the fact that nearly everyone else was also struggling allowed Ginny to get decent grades in the class. That and lots of help from Ashley, who was a virtuoso with a cauldron. Irma did the same in Herbology. She had a seemingly endless memory for which plant or herb or fungus did what. However, it was the opposite in Charms. Irma was a bit of a klutz with a wand, and Ashley was far from a natural. For Ginny, however, her wand was a natural extension of her body. And even though the Charms curriculum was very different between Hogwarts and Silver Grove, she was soon one of Professor Miyazaki’s top students. In most classes, that would have allowed her just to breeze through. Miyazaki, however, set her and the other advanced students to work learning additional spells. It was hard work, but when Ginny graduated, her arsenal of charms would be quite vast. Transformation was neither easy nor difficult for all of them. Professor Chance was quite competent, about on a par with Professor McGonagall (and that was saying something). She was also fairly easygoing, but dealt with troublemakers swiftly and decisively. Ginny saw two more students who pushed her tolerance too far receive her trademark punishment: one was turned into a dog (Ashley said that was one of her favorite animals to turn someone into), the other wound up as a gerbil. Ginny was careful to avoid making trouble. Astronomy was uneventful as well. Professor Stephanovich, the tall, beret-clad wizardess who ran Dolphin Hall, was overall pretty boring, but she knew her subject. And she was completely, scrupulously fair to all students, even Irma. Most people wouldn’t have even been able to detect that there was any hostility there. Ginny, however, understood people far better than most. She knew beyond a doubt that the Astronomy professor disliked her friend very much, and that she had to struggle to hide it. History of Magic was straighforward, but fun. Just as Professor Binns could make the most exciting subject as dull as a detention, Professor Nacht could take the International Wizarding Constitutional Convention and make it fascinating. Tests were easy and classes always seemed short. It was the favorite class of most of the students. Ginny, however, preferred Defensive Magic over all. And her progress in the subject was extremely rapid, but there was a year of it for her to catch up on. The Grade 7 curriculum covered the fundamentals of dueling, how to deal with certain magical creatures, and basic protection against dark magic. In eighth, the creatures got more dangerous and the dueling spells got nastier and more powerful. By ninth, according to Ashley, it would be almost pure magical combat. Also, ninth-graders could try out for the Dueling team. “What about tenth and up?” Ginny queried. “Can they keep taking it?” “Oh, yeah. Professor Grayson teaches Advanced Defense, mainly to kids training to be Aurors or MLE Hit Wizards. It’s a small class and it’s super-hard to get into and the work’s even harder, but if you graduate, you’ll be one of the true elite. Most dark wizards avoid this part of the world because they don’t want to tangle with one of our Aurors.” Ginny nodded. She had heard of the Swift Sword even in Britain, enough to know that they were universally considered to be the best. However, they were also known for their brutal tactics. Ashley and Ginny spent many evenings on the Quidditch pitch, which was very much unlike the one at Hogwarts in that it was completely covered with sand. Easier to conceal, Ashley had explained, and less dangerous. Neither of the two were on the main team. Ashley was reserve Beater, Ginny the reserve Seeker. The team was coached by Professor Miyazaki, and she had long since ejected all the members of DiMuxen’s little gang. And one nice thing, Ginny often reflected, about belonging to a school team instead of a house one: budget. Students learning to fly were trained on old Comets and Neutrons, but the Quidditch team was outfitted with sleek and maneuverable Nimbus 2200's. And Ginny finally saw the results of her year of hell: on a battered Bluebottle, she had been moderately impressive. On a purpose-built Quidditch broom, she was capable of moves that would perhaps have made even Harry gawk in amazement. In no time, she went from third Seeker to second. The first-string Seeker only kept his job because of his legendary eye. Ginny’s remark in her letter was true: all the players on the team did have nicknames. She was Red, for obvious reasons. Ashley had actually christened herself Pudge (one of her favorite muggle athletes shared that handle). Two of the Chasers were brothers who had been on the team for two years already, and were called Lightning and Thunder. The third was a girl who had joined them the following year, and she had dubbed herself Storm to go along with their theme. The Seeker was Eagle, short for Eagle-eyed (which he was). The Keeper was called Spot, because he had missed his first ever practice after being transformed into a dog. And The Beaters were Brick and Hammer. They made up a good enough team, but Ginny had seen better in her old Gryffindor unit. One night after practice, shortly before Halloween, the dainty little Charms teacher assembled the team together. “You will be happy to know that our first interschool competition will be one week from Saturday,” she announced. The team simply nodded. They knew when the game was, but that was all they knew. “And it will be an away match.” Everyone grinned. “We’ll be shipping out on Thursday night. For Maine.” The team cheered wildly. “And I know you’re looking forward to the trip. But make sure you save some energy for the match, OK?” Ginny turned to one of her fellow backups, whose name was Sheldon Carrington but who was known as Buzz, due to the very short hairstyle that he seemed to favor. “Hey, Buzz? I thought home team had an advantage.” “It does,” was the response. “So why’s everyone so happy about it being an away match?” Buzz grinned. “Because we get to ride down there on the Silver Wind,” he explained. |
| Reviews 56 |
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