This is it—we're in 1998. It's a short chapter, but so important because of the plot divergence that follows. If you've read Draconian, you should have a fair grasp of what happens after this. If you've not, don't worry about it—I got you covered next chapter onwards.
Anyway, welcome to my interpretation of the next HP cast. I quite love this one in particular.
Daria Milky as Ginny Weasley
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SHE'S IN HER favourite spot when she feels a shift in the air. An awareness that prickles down her spine. It's the kind she gets whenever a Vision she's received comes to pass, but this one is more ominous than any other. She sets her book down and goes to the nearest window.
This is the calm before the storm.
A patter of footsteps makes her turn. "Let me go, Ron, I have to find Harry—" Ginny Weasley stops dead in her tracks. So do Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom. Ron is several steps behind, but he falters when he sees her by the window.
Astoria stares at them for a moment. She's not surprised to see the distrust on Ginny and Neville's faces. She has, after all, spent most of the term watching her fellow Slytherins torture them. But she's surprised to see Ron and Hermione. Does that mean Harry Potter is somewhere in Hogwarts too?
It makes her all the more uneasy knowing that he is.
She meets Ron's gaze for a moment. She hasn't seen him in months, and he looks thinner than when she last saw him. "Alecto Carrow's over there," she says, pointing to the left stairwell. "I'd take the right, if I were you."
They stare back at her, until Hermione nods and heads to the right. Ginny and Neville follow. But Ron doesn't move. When his sister turns to him, he waves at her to leave first. "Go on, I'll catch up."
When his friends are out of sight, he takes several steps towards her. "Hey," he says, haltingly, "how are you?"
She lets out a laugh, but it sounds more nervous than amused. "I've been better. You?"
"Good, good..." he says distractedly, then seems to make a sudden decision. He takes an unexpected step closer to her, and she finds herself pinned by his blue eyes. "He's coming," Ron says, his voice urgent. "You-Know-Who. We're going to fight. You should join us. Be on our side. Come with me."
She smiles a little at that. It's a nice offer, one that only a Gryffindor as brave and loyal as him would make. She almost wants to say yes. Almost.
"Ron, look at me." Her fingers pluck at her green tie and his eyes follow the movement. She sees the exact moment he understands before she even has to say the words. "Do you really, really think they'll let me join them?"
He opens his mouth, probably to let out a vehement yes, but then hesitates. She falls a step back from him. Now they truly are on two different sides of the war. He—a Gryffindor, Harry Potter's best friend and a Weasley—who fights for the Light. And she—a Slytherin, a member of Pureblood supremacists and a Greengrass—belongs to the Dark.
She takes one last look at him—at the boy he is before the war will turn him into a man—and smiles. "Goodbye, Ron. Watch out for the snake."
