Students filed into the great hall one after the other. In pairs and groups, witches giggling and gossiping and the young wizards talking about their summers to one another and rolling eyes at the giggling girls. It was a sight to behold as they all took seats at their respective tables greeting one another.

Albus sat like a king in his overdone chair which was dead center at the staff table up on the platform. He watched the students flow in with his grandfatherly face and twinkling blue eyes that welcomed them in. Behind his mask was a face of worry and maybe irritation. The sorting over the summer had not gone as planned. Harry had not responded to him once and had not stayed out at his aunt and uncle's house. Molly had been popping in on him every ten seconds about the boy and about their arrangement and the order members were not much better.

As the last few students trickled in Albus rose to his feet to give his yearly Welcome Back speech. He had spotted the two students he most wanted to speak with but he knew that would have to wait. Lines needed to be drawn and rules enforced with those two before they got any further out of line. He also needed to have a talk with Severus about his new fifth year. For now, his speech.

Albus spread his arms wide in a welcome gesture and in a signal for silence. "Welcome back to you all, for another year here at Hogwarts. I hope all of your summer's were exciting and you had a good long break from the classrooms and exams."

He paused here to smile down at them all before continuing on. "I would like to remind you all to that the forbidden forest is actually forbidden. There are many dangerous creatures in there so I must impress upon all of you not to go wandering into it.

I am sure this year will be another exciting one. Even with dark forces moving, here at Hogwarts we will always offer safety and sanctuary. Under my reign you will be safe."

His eyes raked over every student in the hall as he held their attention and then they met a pair of emerald eyes for a moment, followed by a pair of violet. Albus was sure they would understand his message. He clapped his hands once, rubbing them together. "Now. Let's eat!"

With those words the food the house elves prepared suddenly appeared and every type of dinner dish was served for the feast. Albus watched them all dig in and then took his own seat again watching and waiting.

Ginny still had sore scratches on her neck and chest, though they weren’t nearly as angry as they had been thanks to the helpful Ravenclaw’s healing spell. Her Harpies shirt was still worse for wear, however, and that had the redhead rather angry. Top it off with the fact that she’d yet to run into Harry or her brother or Hermione and that meant Ginny was really not in a great mood. She didn’t know if Harry had even talked to the other two yet, and she would like to know what footing they were on. If they were four rather than two strong, it would be nice to know.

She slipping into the Great Hall and onto the bench where she normally sat with Harry and the others. She smiled at Dean, who still seemed a bit awkward after their breakup. She really wished he wouldn’t be. They hadn’t broken things off on bad terms or anything. It would have been nice to not feel awkward around her housemates. Ginny sighed and looked around the hall, hoping she might see a head of messy black hair coming her way.

The sorting would start soon, and then Dumbledore would surely make a speech which would probably lead to him staring at the raven haired boy in an uncomfortable way. Then there would be food and Ginny could lose herself in the ruckus until it was time to retire to the Gryffindor dorms. It was odd, but for once she was seriously looking forward to that escape. Somehow Hogwarts just didn’t feel as much like home this year.

Harry slid down quietly onto the bench next to Ginny, who seemed to be locked into her own head at the moment. He made sure that the seat on his other side was occupied as well, and not by anyone who would be interested in bothering him too much. Things had gone better than he could have ever hoped with Ron and Hermione earlier, but that didn't mean he wanted to tempt his luck more before he had to, and tomorrow would mean a day full of lessons with the both of them where problems could start.

He gave her a once over and realized that it looked like his younger friend had been on the wrong end of either a fight or a serious attack by Crookshanks. "What in the name of Merlin's beard happened to you?" he said before he could stop himself and then promptly wanted to cover his mouth with his hands so that he didn't say any other dumb things. Ginny was almost as likely as Ron to aim a curse or a punch when something had caused her to look like she did now.

"Not that you look bad," he corrected quickly, stopping himself from adding that she never looked bad to him, "it's just that I'm not used to you ever taking any damage from your battles. Did someone ambush you? Do I need to kill them or string them up by their ankles or something?"

“Harry!” The boy’s arrival shook Ginny from her thoughts and she smiled at him. “Nice to see you too,” she said, rolling her eyes at her friend. She knew she looked rather terrible. Her hair was still up in a messy ponytail, that was all the messier after her scuffle with Pansy, and she hadn’t actually been in a real fight in quite a while. The most she usually sported were quidditch bruises, and those were definitely not so… scratchy. She sighed.

His compliment didn’t miss her ears, however, and a genuine smile graced her lips. “I got into a little… incident on the train.” She smirked at Harry then, trying to look over at the Slytherin table and find the pug faced girl who should still be sporting a broken nose. “Parkinson decided she wanted to play, so I let out some of my frustrations. It was actually quite relaxing, though she did basically ruin this shirt. It is my favorite too…”

The redhead’s robes barely covered any of her muggle attire, but she didn’t really care. She never was one to strictly follow the rules after all. Plus, she wanted to proudly show her battle scars. “So where did you end up on the train? The pug mentioned something about a girl and chocolates…” She shot him a knowing look, almost laughing at the boy. She was sure by now that the Slytherin had been exaggerating whatever had happened, but she would have a bit of fun with Harry. After all, what were friends for?

All the students were packed into the entrance hall after getting off the carriages and Hermione had gotten lost in the crowd. Ron looked for her over the heads of the crowd since he was a good full head taller than most of them but he didn't see her. His freckled face was still red from his carriage ride long rant about Malfoy being a prefect and a stuck up git. All Ron wanted to do was get to the Gryffindor table and fill his stomach which was growling.

The red head stalked forward with the crowd of students and shoved his way through the doors to the great hall and immediately spotted Harry and Ginny at the Gryffindor table so he made his way over and sat across from them and immediately began loading his plate full of food. Ron was on his second spoonful of food shoveled into his mouth when he looked up to notice his sister's appearance. His eyes bulged comically and he sprayed food all over. "Wot 'ap 'en oo!?" He asked his sister through a still full of food mouth.

Hermione got separated from Ron on her way to the entrance hall but it was a nice reprieve from his bad mood. To be fair Malfoy hadn't been as terrible as he normally was and Hermione thought Ron was acting childish but that was nothing new for the boy. The Gryffindor witch entered the great hall and looked for her missing friends and found them all already sitting at the Gryffindor table. Witch a friendly smile she hurried over and dropped into the seat next to Ron and across from Ginny.

"Hi Harry, Ginny. Train ride ok?" She asked before she really got a good look at them. Harry looked fine if a little puffy around the eyes but Ginny was all scratched up and her shirt was ripped in different places. To make matters worse Ron was trying to eat and speak again which meant food was being sprayed all over the place. "Ronald that is disgusting." She told him with a frown and then turned her frown to Ginny. "What happened to you?"

Ginny glared full on at her brother. "Why do you insist on speaking with a mouth full of food?" she asked with a hiss. The boy was not only repulsing her, but he also interrupted whatever conversation the younger girl was having with Harry. Now she wasn't sure if he'd tell her about his experience on the train. She pouted slightly as Hermione echoed her brother's question, though with more syllables. She really needed to get these scratches healed and change her shirt before everyone and their mother asked about her little tiff.

"I broke Parkinson's nose," she stated simply, taking a large bite of food in an attempt to keep from having to elaborate. She wondered how long it would take for the other Gryffindors to find out about her other activities on the Hogwarts Express. It was up in the air as to how they'd all react. She might want to warn The Caldwell boy to avoid her hot-headed brother, though she was pretty sure the Ravenclaw could hold his own against Ron.

With a glance at Harry, Ginny continued eating. She wondered if he might continue their conversation. It seemed his conversation with Ron and Hermione went well enough, if they were freely sitting with the two of them. Maybe that meant he was prepared to share his actions with all of them.

It seemed that his brilliant plan had been thwarted by the fact that there were seats on the other side of the table as well. He nodded amiably to Ron and Hermione as they sat down and helped himself to some dinner. Now that he had actually gotten some sleep he should probably eat as well. Otherwise he might pass out from lack of nutrients. Harry either needed to learn to take better care of himself or hire someone to do it for him.

"I'll tell you later," he said out of the side of his mouth to Ginny. He did want to talk to her about Skyler, but not now, and especially not I front of Ron. He took Slythern hating to new levels. Harry hoped that the two across the table wouldn't even notice that he had spoken. With Ron, this even seemed like a safe bet. Hermione was likely to have noticed that he spoke, but hopefully given the circumstances she would assume that he and Ginny were getting together or something and leave it alone for now.

Just to be safe he turned the conversation in another direction. "Hey Ron, who do you think seems good to fill out the team this year?" Quidditch was always a safe distraction topic. Ron would talk until someone actually stopped him and Hermione would soon ignore them entirely in favor of something that she found less boring.

He ignored his sister's complaint and Hermione's about his eating habits but humored the girls and made sure to swallow this time before talking. "Brilliant Gin! Sucks about your shirt though." He added on knowing that it was one of her favorites because she wore it so much. If their mum wasn't such a freak about clean clothes Ron would think it was disgusting how often Ginny did wear it.

The red head gave his full attention to Harry and jumped on the topic of quidditch. "Don't know mate. A few from last years try outs weren't so bad. That Temperance bloke might make a good chaser if he gets trained up a bit."

Hermione gave Ginny a disapproving look. "You broke her nose? Ginny you really shouldn't be fighting on the train. You're lucky you weren't caught." She told the younger girl with a frown and looked over at the slytherin table to see if the girl in question was crying to Malfoy yet. Surprisingly she didn't see either of them but she did see the rude girl from the prefect meeting.

The gryffindor witch turned back to her friends to catch Harry telling Ginny something out of the corner of his mouth. The bushy haired girl's frown turned severe. She would have to have a talk with Harry because she had heard the rumors on the train about him and some girl. Luckily Ron was too busy complaining and ranting about Malfoy to listen to anything else but it had been easy to tell it wasn't Ginny in the rumors.

The gryffindor witch shook her head when the boys began talking quidditch and asked Ginny as she ate, "What were you fighting about with Parkinson?" There had been some interesting rumors going down the train about Ginny too but Hermione hardly believed them. Ginny had only recently assure Hermione that she was pretty much in love with Harry so there was no way she would be snogging some one else. This was a reason Hermione respected the younger girl so much because that was the kind of loyalty Harry needed and deserved.

Ginny nearly choked on her pumpkin juice when Hermione’s attention was focused back on her. What was she supposed to say to that? Well, she could always just leave out the most recent events… That would probably have to work. She groaned, wishing she could ignore the other girl in favor of the quidditch talk the boys were involved in.

“Oh, you know Parkinson. She had a few names for me based on my dating history apparently. Don’t see what’s so wrong with it, really, but I had to correct her.” She grinned proudly at the other Gryffindor, remembering the way she’d shocked the Slytherin by pounding in her face. “Can’t let someone call me a slag without doing something about it, you know?”

She figured her language might get Ron’s attention, but the redhead didn’t really care. Eventually she would convince her brother that she was growing up. It might take a while, but she would get through that thick skull of his.

There was another nagging feeling that Ginny really needed to focus on later when she had some time alone. She was really confused about her own feelings, and she wasn’t sure who she could talk to about them. It was obvious by the looks Hermione was throwing her that she couldn’t talk to the older girl. Maybe she could turn to Skyler? But she just met her. It didn’t seem fair to dump something so personal on the other girl’s shoulders. Maybe she should just talk to her best friend about it, even if he was the key person in her troubling thoughts. Yes, Ginny would have to just suck it up and talk to Harry. Eventually. For now, she needed to eat.