Huff… Puff…

Ginny collapsed onto the Hogwarts lawn exhausted and panting heavily, her lungs burning and legs aching.

She felt the wet dew of the grass from the early morning starting to soak her robes.

“These things really are terrible for exercise, aren’t they?” Alexa said, barely even sounding out of breath. “We should go find some real running clothes for you two. If you give me some sizes then I can get my parents to get you something. I don’t think I saw anything besides these dumb robes for sale in Diagon Alley.”

“Grrr, how are you not even out of breath?” Jack said from the ground next to Ginny, similarly wiped out, “We ran for what… must have been… miles!”

Alexa nodded, “Yes, probably like two or three total is my guess. You two made it the whole way without stopping, it only gets easier from here.”

“Blllleeeeeghhhhh,” Ginny complained, “My legs hurt.”

“You’ll be fine,” Alexa said, “In class we’re just sitting around all the time anyways. C’mon, get up. It only gets worse if you sit down. The great hall will be open soon, we should shower quick so we aren’t late.”

Ginny groaned, but managed to get to her feet alongside Jack.

“This better be worth it,” Jack said as the two of them hobbled back up to the castle.

Alexa scratched her head and looked vaguely embarrassed, “It will be… I’ll try to go slower next time though. I got too excited for our first run, I think.”

They all returned to their common rooms, all sweaty and dirty and showered off. Some of the Ravenclaws milling around in the common room in the morning gave them odd looks, but didn’t say anything. Ginny put on some new robes after she was clean and went down to the great hall.

Ginny and Jack were stiff all day, groaning slightly as they stood from their chairs. Things went smoothly almost the whole day. Professor Lupin for Defense against the Dark Arts was going over various types of magical creatures, which Ginny found interesting. The man still wore his same old ragged jacket, but was very knowledgeable on the subject whenever someone asked him any questions.

They went to Potions, which Ginny had been dreading a little. What if Snape said something else? Throughout the class, Snape largely ignored her, which was a relief. The class ended without incident, and they were set free again.

Alexa came over and they hung out a bit more wandering around together. They even did some homework together when they got tired of walking around.

Like that, two weeks passed. Ginny spotted Draco once in the hallways between classes, but the boy had simply looked annoyed before diverting to avoid her and Jack. Ginny, Jack, and Alexa ran in the mornings although Alexa took it much easier on them than the first day.

Classes were getting slightly harder, with their first rounds of exams in their classes coming up in the next week or so. Ginny didn’t have much trouble with the practical magic part, but the theoretical knowledge was difficult to remember since she had to do it for all of her classes at once. Especially potions, where you had to remember the properties of all the ingredients and how they interacted with each other for the exams.

It only took three days for Alexa’s parents to send them some workout clothes and a training plan, which Alexa was delighted to discuss with them at length. Ginny and Jack had been uncomfortable accepting the gifts, but Alexa was firm.

“What, you want to run in robes more?” She had told them, “Plus, we can swim for the upper body since they’ve given us some bathing suits too. They’re rich, they really don’t mind.”

Ginny and Jack had persisted in trying to pay back Alexa somehow, but Alexa had after much discussion managed to talk them down and convince them that it was a gift.

After some mornings, they swam about in the great lake instead of running. Jack had looked a little awkward as he stood there in his swimming trunks while Ginny and Alexa were in their own one piece bathing suits. But after a few days, he got used to it and whatever had been making him uncomfortable went away and they had fun swimming around together. Sometimes Alexa had them actually swim in laps and things, but mostly they swam after Alexa accidentally made them run too hard on one of the running days so they were just splashing around and having some fun.

Ginny started looking forward to their morning exercise. It was hard, but Ginny could feel herself growing stronger and not getting as tired the longer they went. And it was fun being able to just hang out with her friends with no one else around to give them weird looks for being a group of first years of mixed Ravenclaw and Gryffindors.

They all started spending some time with other friends in their afternoons, so it was only in the mornings that it was sure that Jack and Ginny would see Alexa. They still did meet after classes sometimes, but it wasn’t for every day like it had been in the beginning.

Ginny didn’t go back to Teregatt for the whole time. Balthazar had said for her to wait a week before coming back. But Ginny decided that it wasn’t enough for her after the week was over. She was going to wait a whole month and return then.

It was Wednesday of the third week and Ginny and Jack showed up on the great lawn in their bathing suits with their robes over the top of them. They looked around as they stood by the great lake, and saw that Alexa wasn’t there yet. Alexa had always been early every day, this would be the first time she would be late.

They waited for ten more minutes before they both started worrying.

“You think she slept in?” Jack asked.

“Alexa? No way,” Ginny said, “She wouldn’t do that.”

They waited for another twenty minutes, and Alexa still hadn’t arrived.

“Should we start without her?” Jack asked hesitantly, “She always tells us what we’re supposed to do…”

“I guess…” Ginny said, “She said it was ten laps as the main thing, right? Something like that?”

“I think it was fifteen,” Jack said, “Between those two big rocks on the shore like last time.”

“Okay, let’s do that and hope she’s just late,” Ginny said as she started taking off her Hogwarts robe, with Jack doing the same. In their bathing suits, they walked into the water that was fairly warm, luckily, even in the early morning. They did their laps, both looking up to the castle occasionally in hopes of seeing Alexa coming down to join them. But the girl never appeared, and Jack and Ginny went to breakfast without her appearing.

Ginny tried to spot Alexa at the Gryffindor table as more people trickled in for breakfast, but didn’t see her for a while. It was only at the end that Ginny saw her, looking rather down and trudging out of the hall after she was done eating.

Ginny tried to hurry to catch her, but before Ginny could pin her down Alexa was lost in the crowd.

Ginny frowned.

“We’ll talk to her after classes,” Jack reassured her, “She’ll tell us what’s going on.”

“Okay…”

After classes, they went looking for Alexa. They hadn’t discussed meeting today so they would have to go hunting for her.

Ginny flared her magic sense and searched for Alexa’s magic through the enchantments filling the air around her blocking her view.

She tugged on Jack’s arm, “Over this way,” She said as she felt Alexa. There were two more people with her. Girls based on the way their magic flowed through their bodies.

They made their way over and reached an abandoned corridor with no one else around. Ginny crept to the corner and turned to Jack and put a finger on her lips. He nodded and they reached around to see two older girls in Gryffindor robes looming over Alexa.

“...Ravenclaws?” One of the girls said, “Where’s your house pride, firsty? You’re a Gryffindor, they’re the competition for the house cup.”

“They’re my friends, I don’t care about some stupid competition!” Alexa said defiantly, “Why are you doing this?”

“It’s for your own good,” the girl replied, “Stay away from them. Or we’ll hex you again. Exercising in the mornings is only making you more of an outsider. Stop it and make some proper friends. Muggleborns like you need all the help you can get making the right connections. I mean just look at Hermione. She’s friends with Eric Potter of all people, she’ll have a bright future getting such connections with someone from a pureblood house that old and wealthy. Ginny Weasley won’t get you anywhere for your career. We’re just trying to help you.”

“Career?” Alexa said, “What? Why does that matter for my friends? I like running and exercising. Can’t you just leave me alone?”

“No one is going to tell you this, but everyone is thinking that you’re strange. Not adjusting to our magical traditions and fitting in like muggleborn should. Or that's what they'll say. If you’re not careful then you won’t have any allies left in Gryffindor soon. With those Slytherins around, who knows what could happen?”

“No. No they don’t. That’s not true! What do you two even want?” Alexa said, “Seriously?”

“For you to make some friends in your house. Only in your house,” the same girl said, “As the upper years, it’s our job to make sure that you can’t make mistakes like this for the first few years.”

Ginny stepped forward, ignoring Jack trying to tug her back around the corner.

“Hey!” Ginny shouted, causing all three girls down the hallway to startle and turn to her. “Leave Alexa alone you jerks!”

Jack reluctantly emerged around the corner and scrunched his face before shouting after her.

“Y-Yeah! Leave her alone! She’s our friend!”

The two older girls looked at them in amusement and drew their wands as one.

“We’re sixth years,” the girl on the right said, “What are you going to do about it? Do you firsties even know how to cast any spells yet?”

“We’ll tell the teachers!” Jack said, “You’ll get in big trouble!”

The girls snorted and the one on the left spoke, “I forget how new you are. Teachers don’t give a shit. Anything less than the hospital wing is barely worth a detention. You think the Slytherins can go around calling people mudbloods all the time in the hallways and we’d get in trouble for something like this?”

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Jack didn’t look convinced, but Ginny was. She remembered all of Harry’s memories. All the people at his school that had had some idea of what he went through and didn’t do anything. Were completely apathetic to his plight.

“This is so stupid!” Alexa said from behind them, “Why can’t I just be friends with who I want?”

The Gryffindor sixth year glanced over her shoulder. “You don’t have that luxury. You’re a muggleborn, if you don’t fight for every inch then people will discard you like trash.”

Ginny drew her wand and the two sixth years turned back to her.

“It’s the hard truth,” the girl continued, “We really are just trying to help.”

“So what?” Ginny said, “You’re just going to curse us because you don’t want us to be friends with Alexa? Because she should be friends with someone richer than us or something?”

The two girls shared a glance and the one on the right shrugged.

“May as well?” One of them said, “Teach them why they should listen to their elders.”

Ginny began extending four tendrils of her magic towards the two girls who held their wands at the ready. Jack had drawn his wand too and was pointing it at the two sixth years, but seemed unsure of what he could do.

Ginny felt the same if she only had a wand to work with. She could levitate things and create light with her wand, and that was basically it. Her wandless magic on the other hand…

Ginny hovered her magic tendrils floating just above the sixth year’s wand hands. Two for each girl. The wands were coursing with magic, so Ginny would be unable to move it with her tendrils. Ironically, the girls’ hands themselves were much less magically dense than the wand itself, so they would be a little easier to grab onto.

The tension rose and the girl on the right turned to the other, “What do you think? Boiling pus curse? Petrification?”

“Yes, let’s…”

The girl started moving her wand and Ginny lanced her tendrils into both girl’s hands and wrenched them open. Both dropped their wands to the floor simultaneously with gasps of surprise. Ginny released her tendrils buried in their hands and had the tendrils fly down and latch onto both of the now inert wands at once. Ginny was panting and sweating slightly from the large amount of magic she had used to move the girls’ hands to open to drop their wands.

Ginny’s magic tendrils attached to the wands and Ginny quickly started moving them so they started quickly rolling on the floor towards her and Jack.

The two sixth years were blinking confused at their wands that were still rolling away from them seemingly on their own.

“What? Huh… Agh!”

Alexa shoved the tall sixth year from behind and the girl stumbled to the side into a wall. The other sixth year girl went to help her friend as Alexa ran past them and towards Ginny and Jack.

Ginny had the two wands leap up into her hands as the two sixth years turned towards them, now looking angry.

“Let’s get out of here!” Alexa said, and the three of them started running away with the two older girls in hot pursuit, both shouting at them.

Ginny was breathing heavily and her heart was working hard. But she still managed to sneak a tendril of magic behind her as she ran and grabbed the hem of one of the girl’s robes and tugged sharply downwards on it.

The sixth year Gryffindor yelped as she was pulled to the side and crashed into her friend, sending both of them tumbling to the floor.

Alexa, Jack, and Ginny kept running for a while until they were back over by the great hall.

Jack and Ginny were breathing heavily as they stood by the closed doors of the great hall.

“Was that… why you didn’t show up this… morning?” Jack managed to get out through his heavy breathing.

“Yeah!” Alexa said only barely out of breath, “Those girls threatened me, and when I wouldn’t listen they petrified me and left me in an abandoned classroom. It only wore off right before breakfast. I hate them both so much! Like they should be able to decide who I’m friends with!”

“Yeah…” Ginny managed to say, “Bad…”

“Should we…” Jack swallowed and his breathing slowed a bit, “Tell a teacher? You never know, they might get in trouble.”

Ginny held up the two stolen wands and her friends looked at them in surprise.

“We should,” Ginny said, “They’ll be after these either way. We gotta find a teacher before they track us down or get some friends to come and curse us.”

“Ok, let’s do it,” Alexa said, “McGonagall or Flitwick?”

“McGonagall?” Jack said, “Those bullies are Gryffindors, aren’t they? McGonagall would be able to punish them.”

“Okay, I know where her office is,” Alexa said, “She’s probably in there right now. Let’s go over there right now.”

Alexa started jogging again and after a moment Jack and Ginny started after her, Ginny still holding the two stolen wands in one hand and her own in the other.

They reached the door to McGonagall’s office and took a few seconds to collect themselves. Ginny ran a hand through her hair to pat it down, it was sticking up from her running around so much.

Alexa knocked after they had made themselves more presentable, and after a moment…

“Come in!”

Alexa opened the door and the three of them went inside.

McGonagall looked up from the parchment she was writing on at her desk. She looked surprised when she saw Ginny and Jack flanking Alexa as she entered.

“What brings you three to my office today?” She asked.

“Two of the older girls were trying to get me to not be friends with Ginny and Jack because they’re Ravenclaws!” Alexa said indignantly, “Amelia and Isla, the sixth years. When I told them to go away they hexed me and almost hexed my friends!”

McGonagall raised an eyebrow, “Almost? What stopped them?”

Ginny lifted her arm to show McGonagall the two stolen wands and placed them on the teachers desk.

“They dropped their wands,” Ginny said, “So they couldn’t cast at us.”

“They dropped them?” McGonagall said skeptically as she inspected the two wands, “Why?”

They all shrugged, “I don’t know,” Jack said, “Their hands just spasmed all of a sudden and they dropped them.”

Alexa went to say something, but before she could say anything there was knocking at the door. McGonagall lifted her wand, “Just a moment,” She said, before flicking her wand and opening the door wide. Revealing Amelia and Isla, the two sixth years in Gryffindor robes standing just outside.

“Oh, good,” McGonagall said, “Why don’t you two come in. I was about to send for you.”

The two sixth years looked suspicious, but stepped inside but straightened as they spotted their wands on McGonagall’s desk.

“Professor, these first years stole our wands and ran for it!” One of them said, “What did they say happened?”

“Well, Alexa?” McGonagall said, “Let’s hear your version of events.”

Alexa swallowed nervously as Isla and Amelia glared daggers at her. But she haltingly told McGonagall what had happened. The only missing piece was why the girls had dropped their wands, and Ginny remained silent, not wanting to expose that she could do magic without a wand.

Alexa finished up and McGonagall turned to Ginny and Jack, “Well? Is this true?”

They both nodded and McGonagall turned to Amelia and Isla with a neutral expression on her face.

“And you two? What do you say really happened? Amelia?”

One of them glanced at the other. Amelia based on what McGonagall had said. She was the one that had spoken the most when the two were threatening Alexa.

“She’s blowing it all out of proportion,” Amelia said, “We just were trying to tell her how it wasn’t a good idea to focus on friends in other houses. We were just talking, no one was going to get hexed until they stole our wands and ran off with them.”

“And why did you drop your wands?”

The two girls shifted, “I don’t know,” Amelia said, “I’d say it was a curse but they’re just firsties so it probably wasn’t them. Maybe one of the seventh years messing with us underneath a disillusionment charm or something. Invisibly pranking us.”

McGonagall steepled her fingers and when Alexa opened her mouth to protest gave her a flat look to make her go quiet.

“Hmmmm. Amelia, Isla. This is very irresponsible of you, the first years are free to have friends in other houses. Especially when Ms. Weasley used to be one of our own.”

Ginny straightened. One of their own? What the heck was she saying? That she was more important than Jack because she used to be a Gryffindor?

“Both of you will lose twenty points for our house. Each.”

“But Professor-”

McGonagall held up her hand and Amelia went silent, “No. It was not your business, and I know you were only trying to help but this is not the way to do it.”

Trying to help? What else was McGonagall going to do to punish them?

McGonagall stared at Amelia and Isla who wilted slightly and looked chastened before turning to Alexa, Jack, and Ginny.

“Now you three,” She said, “Stealing a wand is a serious matter. You’ll each lose thirty points for your respective houses. And will be serving a detention tonight. I’ve heard that Hagrid needed help with something in the Forbidden forest.”

“The Forbidden forest?” Alexa said, “You’re sending us in there? Isn’t it, like… forbidden?”

McGonagall shook her head, “Hagrid will be with you, you’ll be fine.”

There was a pause as the teacher stared at them down.

“This is bull!” Alexa suddenly shouted, “We get detention and they only lose some stupid house points? How is this fair?”

“Careful…” McGonagall warned, “Or I’ll be inclined to take more.”

“Go ahead!” Alexa said, “Take a hundred, thousand for all I care! Gryffindor’s stupid anyway, I wish I was in Ravenclaw instead! Stupid Gryffindors have been nothing but jerks to me ever since I’ve gotten here!”

Alexa turned and stormed out of the room before McGonagall recovered from her shock at the outburst. McGonagall looked at Jack and Ginny, “You three will still have detention tonight. Let her know when she calms down from her outburst.”

“Do it,” Ginny said flatly, “Take a hundred points from each of us. It would make Alexa feel much better I think. I agree with her, this is super corrupt.”

McGonagall stared at them in seeming confusion.

“One… One fifty?” Jack asked hesitantly, “How many points can you take from us?”

McGonagall sighed, “Fine. Since you’ve asked for it. One hundred points from all three of you. You openly admitted to stealing a wand. Two wands. That’s not something I can just ignore. Now get out before you make things worse for yourselves.”

Ginny and Jack left, Ginny clenching her fist. This was so unfair! How could McGonagall do this to them, to Alexa?

Amelia and Isla went to follow, looking rather smug, but McGonagall pierced them in place with a look.

“You two, stay behind,” McGonagall said, “I’d like… a word.”

The two gulped, and the last thing Ginny saw before the door to McGonagall’s office shut closed behind them was McGonagall glaring at the girls and opening her mouth as if to yell at them.

Ginny jumped slightly as she felt Jack’s hand on her shoulder. She looked at him and he quickly lifted his hand again.

“We got to find Alexa,” Jack said before giving her a slight grin, “And tell her we got McGonagall to take away more of her precious house points.”

Ginny nodded, “Yeah. Actually, I know just the thing to cheer us all up…”

They found Alexa who was still upset, ranting about the injustice of it all as Jack and Ginny led her to an abandoned classroom that was out of the way.

They went inside and Alexa stopped her tirade and looked around. “Hey, what are we doing here?” Alexa asked.

Ginny tugged on her bond and a few seconds later Fawkes appeared in the corner of the room in a ball of flame. Alexa’s eyes lit up, “Fawkes!” She said, “Hi!”

Ginny walked forward and leaned down to get close to Fawkes. He eyed her and seemed confused about why she was leaning so close to him. Ginny whispered to him and he chirped back in response. After a few seconds, Ginny extended her arms and Fawkes hopped into her arms. She curled inwards to Fawkes who was cradled to her chest and warmed her right up. Immediately, Ginny felt much better and far more relaxed than she was only a few seconds ago.

Turning to her two friends, she saw them looking at the scene with obvious jealousy.

“Alexa, hold out your arms,” Ginny ordered. Alexa eagerly complied, her fingers twitching a little as she looked at Fawkes.

“Can I? Fawkes said I could?” Alexa asked eagerly, her earlier anger nearly forgotten.

“Yes, go ahead,” Ginny said as she stepped forward and carefully transferred Fawkes to rest in Alexa’s arms. Alexa gently curled her arms to hug Fawkes to her chest.

“He’s so warm when I hold him like this…” Alexa said dreamily, looking completely relaxed as she stood there cradling the bird that was mostly still and barely moved at all.

Alexa’s face relaxed and her anger seemed to drain away from her the longer she held Fawkes to her.

“Sorry, guys,” Alexa said, “I just made things worse, didn’t I? I shouldn’t have yelled at a teacher.”

“It’s fine,” Ginny said, “I wanted to yell at her too.”

They didn’t speak for a bit, all of them just watching Fawkes sitting in Alexa’s arms.

“Can I get a turn?” Jack eventually asked, “Fawkes?”

Ginny nodded, and Alexa reluctantly transferred Fawkes over to Jack for his turn.

After Fawkes finally left, and he had been passed around several times they were all far more relaxed. They still had detention, but it was only a single night. It couldn’t be that bad.

House points were still stupid though.