Chapter Eight
When Ginny reached the library, Mrs. Pince instructed her to shelve a huge stack of dusty books. Dropping her bag next to a table, she began her task. Despite her daydreaming, Ginny was making good progress. After only ten minutes, she had just about cleared her stack of books. As she reached for the last book, however, a pile larger than her original one was dropped onto it. When she looked up, she was only mildly surprised to see who had dropped them.
"Mr. Malfoy, I should have known." Ginny sighed in exasperation and reached out to pick up the next few books from the new stack.
"Weasley?" Ginny didn't miss a beat in shelving to reply, instead muttering an apathetic "Hmm?". Draco folded his arms across his chest. "Let me just get straight to the point. You see-"
Ginny interrupted with a laugh. "It doesn't matter where you start, Malfoy, you'll always end the same way." Ginny spoke in matter of fact tone. "You're an arse."
With that, she reached for the next book to shelve. Draco grabbed her arm, then thought better of it and let it go, finding his purpose more important than bickering and scaring her off again. He put up his hands in mock defense. "There's no need for random acts of hostility. Look, Weasley, I really need that pendant back."
Ginny smirked. "Oh, really? And just what makes it so special?" Draco looked disinclined to answer that. Ginny looked at his silent form with contempt. "You're a joke, Malfoy."
Draco's patience was running thin. It took every fiber of his being to keep from losing his temper with her. "Look, I know we don't get along very well, but I really need you to do this for me. As a favor?"
Ginny snorted with laughter. "What makes you think I'd be willing to do anything for you, let alone give up something I know nothing about? What if it's Dark Magic and you just want it back so you can torture more innocent victims? I would never forgive myself if I put something like that in the wrong hands." Ginny's arms were folded now.
""Listen, Weasley, if it is Dark Magic, isn't there a chance it's already being used on you?"
She shook her head. "You wouldn't want it back if it was. I know how much animosity there is between our families. You'd probably like to put me under spell."
Draco laughed to himself. Not this spell, you can be sure of that, Weasley. "Not hardly. If I had powerful Dark Magic, why would I waste it on you or your family when I could just push you off that book ladder or something?" Ginny secured her position on the ladder and eyed him warily. "The magic in that is not meant for you, Weasley. It's really important I get it back."
"Unfortunately for you, Malfoy, what's really important to you doesn't matter to me. It's not meant for me? I think the amulet's chosen that for itself hasn't it?"
Draco's eyes widened in horror. He hadn't even thought of that. The amulet could have chosen her. Now there was no choice. He had to get it back now, at any cost.
"What? Cat got your tongue, Malfoy? Problem?" Ginny stepped down from the ladder and faced him, smirking again.
Draco's eyes narrowed. "I need to get the amulet back. So we've got to-"
"Why do you need it back? And who said anything about "we"?"
"If you don't give it back," Draco continued, ignoring her. ""We" will have a lot more problems. That thing's not even mine."
Ginny didn't look surprised. "What did you do, Malfoy, take it from some poor girl on the streets? Smuggle it in from Diagon Alley?"
Draco moved toward her, putting his hand on her shoulder. "This is serious. You don't want it. It's…"
Ginny became a little more flustered with every inch he came closer. The arm he was touching was tingling and she couldn't help but lean into his hand a little. The way he was looking at her was so desperate, so persuasive, that she almost gave him what he wanted.
"What do you want then, Malfoy?" she asked, trying to keep her mind on track.
He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her a little closer. "What's best for both of us. Trust me, it'll make us both miserable if you keep it."
Ginny, blushing, slipped out of his grasp and backed up to the bookcase. "And why is that, Malfoy? I'm not giving it up until I know what it does." She climbed the book ladder to continue shelving and looked at him pointedly. "What does it do?"
Draco climbed up after her, his eyes at her level, but standing a step lower. Ginny scooted back on her step as he came closer, eventually holding the top of the bookcase to maintain her balance. As if he were to relay an important secret message, Draco was quickly closing the gap between the two of them. Ginny became flustered and nervous in those few seconds it took for him to get to her, the feeling dizzying. When his lips brushed her ear to speak, Ginny lost it. She gripped the bookcase a little tighter to stabilize herself, but her feet slipped from the step she had been on. Ginny was sent crashing to the floor, the bookcase knocking over the ladder Draco was standing on, sending both the case and the boy toppling after her.
There was a loud thud combined with the sound of hundreds of hardcover books falling off their shelves. Draco had landed between the bookcase and Ginny, who was on the floor. It was only a split second later that they heard an ear-piercing shriek from the other end of the library.
"MISS WEASLEY! MR. MALFOY!" Mrs. Pince stormed toward them. "I have had absolutely enough of your shenanigans! You two are here on a detention, one of several days you're to serve, if I recall. You've failed to even near the completion of your assignment for today's detention and in the process wrecked my library! Both of you will be serving a week more for me, separately. I expect these books to be back where they're supposed to be, understood?" A few wisps hair had fallen from the bun that had been at the top of her head and her glasses were askew from her anger and sudden movements. She magically lifted the bookcase off the students and turned on her heel, marching back to her desk.
"I can't believe this. I have Quidditch practice at this time the rest of the week. Damned Mrs. Pince." Draco glared at her back as she pulled out the chair of her desk.
Ginny shifted uncomfortably. "Malfoy?"
"What?"
Ginny blushed and strained against his weight. "You're still on top of me."
She was right. Draco was still laying where he had fallen, straight across her torso. He quickly stood upright. The pins Hermione had put in Ginny's hair fell out when Ginny stood, flowing down her back to the floor. Draco, who had been brushing dirt off his clothing, noticed and smirked at her. He gestured at the red hair pooling at her feet.
"Does falling cause that to happen often, Rapunzel?" With all honesty, Draco had to admit she looked like a princess, if not a haphazard one.
Ginny straightened her skirt. "With what's happened recently, nothing would surprise me," she huffed. "Another week's detention. I haven't had a detention in years, and now I've got eight of them."
"It won't be as bad as you think." He bent, picking up some books and sliding them onto shelves.
Ginny laughed. "You should know. With all the time you've served for our teachers, you could be a house elf."
Draco scowled. "Don't compare me to a house elf. Ever. Got that, Weasley?"
"Touchy…"
Draco growled and slid an entire armful of books onto a shelf. Ginny stopped him. "You're supposed to put them in order! You can't just slide them up there like that!"
Draco sighed heavily. "Yes, I can. Just wait. If you want, you can do your own couple shelves and I'll do mine. But I'm telling you, I'll be done long before you will." Draco thought he heard her begin to mutter things like "half ass" and "stuck up prat", but he wasn't too sure and let it slide.
Within five minutes, Draco had finished shoving all the books onto his shelves. Taking out his wand, he spoke an incantation and the books magically resorted themselves into their correct places.
"Experience?" Ginny asked, peeved. Draco just smiled, saluted her, and walked out of the library.
Ginny spent another two hours and a half shelving her books the way she was supposed to. She cursed him for cheating and for having finished, for pestering her and for just being a prat. She was bitter and, dare she admit it, lonely. The time she spent gave her time to think and wonder, but in the end was not time wasted. She had set aside the books off Hermione's list and a book for herself, a romance. "Heavy Heart of a Hippogriff Handler" had a character on the cover wearing leather pants and a beckoning smile. It had convinced Ginny to pick up some light reading to take her mind off things. Stuffing it in her book bag, she checked out with Mrs. Pince and went back to the Gryffindor common room.
The common room was dimly lit and quiet at this time of the evening. The Quidditch team was on the pitch, several students were working in their dorms and even most of the figures in the paintings on the wall were off visiting other parts of the castle. Ginny sighed, deciding to deliver Hermione's books.
Walking up the stairs toward the Head Girl's room, she wondered. What was she going to do? Her situation was stagnant with Seamus. She cared, but she didn't; he cared, but he didn't. She was seeing it more like the relationship of convenience it was. Really, it wasn't even a relationship. She sighed again. The amulet was changing color every day, and she worried what it might do. What if it really was Dark Magic? She thought about taking it to Dumbledore, but she didn't think the situation was that serious. Malfoy, however, did.
Malfoy. Ginny didn't really know how she felt about him. There was less hatred than there had been before, but that had been mostly based on things he'd done to her brother, Harry and Hermione. Harry was still acting oddly lately, but Harry, really, was the least of her worries.
She reached the door to Hermione's room. It had a little label on it. "Hermione Granger, Head Girl". It looked very much like the writing on her Head Girl badge. Hermione had earned her title. She still studied twice as much as everyone else, and would probably be studying even now.
Ginny knocked at the door and walked in as usual. She was surprised at what she saw. It was normal for Harry to visit Hermione in her room, but not for them to be sitting as intimately as they were. They'd been sitting right next to each other, Harry's hand cupping the side of Hermione's face and her hand on his knee. Hermione looked like she was in a daze until she had realized Ginny was in the room, at which time she snapped back to reality, flew apart from Harry and assumed a look of slight panic. she tried to speak.
"Ginny, I…um, well…"
Ginny put her out of her misery. "It's alright, I … wasn't expected." She smiled meaningfully. "I'll just drop by later, okay?" Without waiting for a response, she turned on her heel and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. She shook her head and smiled to herself. She wasn't exactly sure what had happened, but then again, they probably weren't sure either. However, Ginny knew what she thought she saw, and from the look of it, Harry and Hermione were going to be spending a lot more time together.
A few months ago, Ginny would have been upset with the situation. She was mostly over Harry, but seeing him with other people was always difficult for her. Seeing him with Hermione felt normal, though, and Ginny wished them well. Sure she was a little jealous, but she had Seamus. Well, sort of.