To everyone who is wondering why I have Ron & Hermione going to the Ball together, DON'T WORRY!!!!! I know the rules!
CHAPTER 8
"Ginny!"
Ginny smiled slightly, admiring Draco's bare flesh.
"It's after 3!"
She rolled over, and found to her dismay that it wasn't Draco beneath her, but her bed. Ugh. Only a dream.
"Ginny, are you okay?"
"Huh?" Ginny reached up to rub her eyes, looked down and saw that she was wearing a gray t-shirt; a gray t-shirt that smelled very much like her date. Good. So, at least some of her night hadn't been a dream.
"Ginny!"
Ginny rolled to the side and saw Hermione staring at her. "Are you okay? I thought you were sick. It's 3:30."
"Really?" She sat up and yawned, and Hermione suddenly gasped.
"You are so busted!"
Ginny's eyes quickly darted around the bed, looking for evidence, but she saw none. "What?"
Hermione jumped onto the bed and pulled the curtains shut. "Your neck."
Ginny scooted towards the foot of her bed, dug around in her trunk and came up with a small mirror. On her neck were half a dozen large purple and blue hickeys. "Oh. That's bad."
"You didn't have those last night."
"Yes I did."
"Ginny Weasley, you did not!"
"Shhh," she hissed. "Someone is going to hear you!"
"Sorry." Hermione looked around, pulled out her wand, and quickly said a silencing spell. "There."
"That's it?" Ginny asked.
"What?"
"Now no one can hear us?"
"Right."
That's good to know. "Can you help me cover these?" she pleaded. "Ron will go ballistic."
Hermione raised an eyebrow and smiled. "First, I want to hear the details."
"That's evil," she pouted.
"Fine. You explain to your brother and your housemates and your teachers how you left the dance just fine and woke up looking like a Blast Ended Skwert had got the best of you."
Ginny groaned and flopped back down. "I was just about to go to bed when he showed up."
"Who?"
"Draco."
"Where?"
"In the common room."
"But how-"
"Okay," Ginny interrupted. "Let me tell you and then you can ask questions."
"Right. Sorry."
"No one was in there, and I was literally heading for the stairs when the portrait opened, and there he was, just standing there. I asked him what he was doing and he said he wanted a proper goodnight kiss. So I asked him how he knew the password, and he said he wasn't sure if he did, but the Fat Lady was drunk, so it was easy to get in." Ginny decided to leave her story at that.
"You got all those hickeys from a proper kiss goodnight in the common room?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
"Well, yeah. I mean we were alone."
Hermione reached up and tugged the curtains on the left side of Ginny's bed. "Then why in the world would your curtains be charmed shut?"
Ginny let an audible groan escape. Only Hermione would think to check such a thing. "Okay. Fine. I did let him up here. But we didn't do anything terrible. I mean, we weren't naked!" At least not totally naked.
"Weren't you afraid of getting caught?" she hissed.
"Well, no. I mean, people aren't exactly looking for Draco Malfoy to be in my bed, you know."
Hermione shook her head. "As a Prefect, I should not let this go unnoticed, but as your friend, I will. I think being your friend comes first."
Ginny could barely keep herself from rolling her eyes. Hermione was becoming more like Percy every day. "Now will you help me cover these?"
She pulled out her wand again. "Only if you promise not to do this ever again!"
"Hermione! I will not promise that. You said you'd help me if I told you, and I did!"
"Fine," she frowned, defeated. "I think the covering spell will work well for this."
"How long will it last?" Ginny asked, gathering up her hair.
"It's pretty strong. About two weeks." She muttered several words, flicked her wand once, and Ginny felt a tingling spread across her neck.
"Thanks." She looked and the mirror, and to her relief, saw nothing.
"You know," Hermione said quietly. "If you allow him up here again, things that are horrible could very well happen."
"I'm beginning to think they wouldn't be all that horrible," Ginny replied cheerfully before jumping out of bed.
***
"I've already got an owl from my father," Draco told her in the library. "He's a bit upset that I took you to the dance."
Ginny nodded and peaked up over her stack of books to make sure Madam Pince wasn't watching. "My parents would be too, I suppose. Why did you tell him?"
"I didn't. Probably Pansy." His lips curled into a sneer. "She's rather angry that I didn't take her to the dance."
Ginny nodded thoughtfully. That explained a lot of things. The holidays had been in full effect for a week now, and this was the first day she had spent time alone with Draco and he was still as confusing as could be.
"So I think it would be best if we didn't see each other anymore." His eyes were cold again, the way they were whenever he saw Harry or Ron.
"What?" she asked, positive she had misunderstood.
"I mean, it's been fun, really. I had a good time. But obviously our lives are going in two different directions."
Ginny stared at him silently, wondering if this was the same person who had sworn a week ago that he wasn't going to be like his father.
"So I'll see you around, Weasley."
With that he stood up, gathered his books and left the library, and Ginny remained still, unsure what had just happened.
Two days before classes started again, one day before the few students who had left Hogwarts for the holidays would be back, Hermione opened her copy of the Daily Prophet at the breakfast table and let out a scream.
"What?" Ginny looked over while Ron and Harry leaned across the table.
"Oh no, no," she gasped. "Listen." By then, the Great Hall had fallen silent and all the students were hanging onto her words. "There was an attack yesterday evening in Diagon Alley, believed to be headed by You Know Who's Death Eaters, and aimed at any Muggle born witch or wizard. Several witches and wizards were injured and three were killed. The attack went awry when the wife of a known Death Eater, Martha Zabini, apparently tried to stop the attack, resulting in her death, the death of her son Blaise Zabini, and Philip Poddington, current employee of the month at Frances's Fine Frocks." Hermione's voice trailed off, and in the silence, Dumbledore cleared his throat.
"Now that you all know," he began, surveying them over his glasses, "I will remind you again that it is more important now than it ever has been for us to unite within. We will not be strong if we cannot do so. Now, may we have a moment of peace for our fellow student."
While the heads around her bowed, Ginny's eyes darted towards the empty seat directly opposite of Draco. He stared determinedly at his cup. She knew that Blaise and Draco had been friends of some sort. Harry had mentioned more than once that in Potions they were usually paired up.
"I can't believe this," Ron said as they headed towards the common room. "I mean, even a Death Eater wouldn't kill his own son, would he?"
"Apparently so," Harry sighed.
"This just goes to show you what kind of people they are," Hermione began, and then fell silent as Draco crossed their path.
Draco stared at them defiantly, as if ready to attack if they even offered one word of consolation.
When he had passed, Ron muttered, "I just don't know how Dumbledore thinks we can unite with them. I'm glad you had sense enough not to see him anymore, Ginny. It was bad enough that you even went to the dance with him."
Hermione shot him a dirty look.
"Oh," Ginny noted. "I left my good quill in the Great Hall. I'll be right back." She retraced her footsteps back to the entrance hall, glanced around quickly, and then darted down the narrow hallway she had seen Draco enter. She found him in a dim, unused dungeon, staring at a thick book.
"Get out."
"I just wanted to see how you were," she told him quietly.
"Get out."
"I'm, I'm sorry."
"Why?" he asked coldly. "You didn't do anything."
"I know. But I'm sorry that your friend is gone."
Draco shrugged indifferently. "He should have known better."
"Draco . . ."
"What do you want, Weasley?" he demanded, standing up so quickly the table fell over. "Do you want me to cry on your shoulder and beg you to comfort me? Well it's not going to happen."
She shook her red head. "No. I just wanted to check on you.
"Well I'm fine," he roared. "Bloody terrific."
Ginny just watched him silently as he raged.
"Get out! Go back to your little friends and tell them how Draco Malfoy is having a breakdown! Tell them, Draco doesn't care that his friend died. He's probably on the verge of joining his father! Get out!" He stepped towards her. "Out!"
Ginny stepped backwards. "I don't believe that."
"Now!" He grabbed her by the wrists and shoved her, but she didn't go out the door. Instead, she hit the door jam and stumbled.
Ginny stood to her feet and took a deep breath. "Fine. I'm going. You did a good job though. I was ready to believe that you weren't the person I had always thought you were."
"Well I guess I'm not, am I?" His hand was raised as if he was going to hit her.
"No. You're worse. I never thought that even you could reduce yourself to this."
Draco stared at her, his eyes wide with fury. He lowered his hand slightly and grabbed her. "Get out, before I do something I regret."
Ginny wrenched herself out of his grasp and turned for the door. On the other side of the doorway she paused and said over her shoulder, "We'll help you if you ever need it. You know we will."
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