Chapter One
' The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw.'
Ginerva Weasley sighed and slumped against her chair. She had a sleepless night yesterday and was feeling exhausted. Professor Flitwick's long, boring lecture on the importance of the sixth year did not help either. Although her body was in class, her mind was far, far away.
She could not help wondering where Charlie was now. He had joined the Order and disappeared, going on a secret mission. Her mother had blatantly refused Charlie to join the Order. But the war was escalating and the Death Eaters were on a mad rampage, killing anyone, wizard or muggle, that crossed paths with them. Hence, the Order needed all the help they could get. The Death Eaters were also randomly destroying and raiding villages. In other words, the Wizarding World was very near chaos. Ron had wanted to join Charlie, but Molly insisted that he had to finish school before 'attempting anything stupid'.
Since Charlie had left, Ginny's anxiety for his safety showed even in her sleep. Terrifying nightmares plagued her dreams. Nightmares that sometimes did not even allow her to sleep a wink at all. Charlie was, after all, her favourite brother, tied with the twins, Fred and George.
"Okay, class. Instead of doing Charms today, I'll be teaching you something else".
Ginny snapped out of her reverie. Apparently, Professor Flitwick had finished his 'the importance of the sixth year' speech.
"Put away your textbooks, please. You won't be needing them". Professor Flitwick instructed, perched on the top of a huge stack of books.
" Professor Dumbledore has asked me to teach everyone of you how to perform a Etummoc charm. This is done in view of the war. Professor Dumbledore himself has invented this charm. Each person will be given two pairs of parchments. One set of them will be given to the parents and you may do what you will with the other set. It allows you to have a private conversation with whoever who holds the second piece of parchment which is bind to the first. I must remind you that this is strictly confidential and any student that tells anyone out of this school, who is not supposed to know will be severely punished by the Ministry of Magic and might even be sent to Azkaban. "
Ginny sat up a little straighter. This was going to be interesting.
"There will then be no need for the sending of letters, unless it's a parcel. As the members of the Order are using it as a means of communication, you can be safely assured that it is private and no one will be able to intercept the messages and read them, except the person who holds the second piece of parchment. Now, take out your wands. It's a relatively easy charm, so all of you should be able to master it by the end of this lesson".
Ginny walked out of the Charms classroom. The lesson had been fun. She had been able to do the charm just after a few tries. Professor Flitwick had been so pleased that he gave her a charmed feather that could dance and twirl around. It amused her to no ends, seeing the white tuft of snowy feathers floating about and dancing in the air. Not wanting to lose it, she had stuffed it into her pocket. She could feel the feather wriggling underneath her robes. It did not want to go into her pocket, but she had forced it anyway. Ginny felt a little sorry for the feather, but was too fond of it to let it float around along the corridors, and to be picked up by someone else.
"Hey." Luna Lovegood exited the Charms classroom. "You were fantastic!"
"Thanks".
Luna was her best friend. They practically went everywhere together. Although Luna could be a little queer at times, Ginny did not mind at all. She hated those uncouth fools who purposely went out of their way to humiliate and tease Luna. To make matters worse, they even nicknamed her 'Loony'.
How rude and insolent could they get? Did they have too much time on their hands to spare? So much so they mocked poor, innocent girls every time they saw one? Calm down, she told herself. Those fools always made her angry.
"Come on", Luna said. "If we keep standing here, we'll be late for class".
They squeezed through the sea of people. Everyone was rushing to get to his or her next class on time. People pushed and shoved their way through.
"Watch it", Ginny growled to a person roughly pushing her.
"This is madness!" Luna exclaimed.
"Precisely"
Out of nowhere, a first-year student charged through the crowd, knocking Ginny in the process. She tried to keep her balance, but there was nothing to hold onto. She did not have any idea where Luna was now.
Losing her balance, she landed flatly on her butt, with her newly charmed parchments from Charm class fluttering everywhere and the contents of her bag spilling out.
The mad crowd has disappeared around the corner, leaving her on the floor. Grumbling, Ginny tucked a stray strand of auburn hair behind her ear and started to pick up her belongings, before rushing off to find Luna and getting to her next class.
What Ginny did not know was that a piece of the charmed parchment had fluttered innocently when she had fallen down. The piece of parchment was blown across the corridor carried on the wings of a cool, calm breeze, as its mistress rushed away.
A pale, pointed face boy walked across the corridor. Draco Malfoy realized that he was late for his next class, Potions. No point hurrying, he told himself. Snape always did not mind when it came to Slytherins, especially him. Sauntering across the corridor, Draco saw a piece of parchment on the ground. He recognized it to be the charmed parchment that Dumbledore had the teachers teach every student in Hogwarts. Someone must have dropped it, he mused. Not knowing the reason why, he picked it up and put it into his pocket, before proceeding to the Potion classroom.