Llama: WOW, fast update, no?
Dolly: Sorry, we don't really have time to do a whole summary. But, basically:
Ginny = Tutor. Tutoring Draco, Blaise, and Neville.
Neville + fat camp = hot + conceited.
Draco = hot! wants Ginny.
Harry wants Hermione.
Hermione + everyone else wants Neville.
Blaise = crazy! hot! wants everyone + Draco.
Ron = sleeping.
Voldemort = M.I.A.?
Llama: And that's really all we have time for. If you want a more thorough summary, uhm, read the story over? Haha it's not that long. I don't think it would really take that long, but hey, to each his own.
Dolly: NOW READ ON!
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
"TALKING" ((THINKING))
Draco walked back to where Ginny and Blaise were sitting, arms wrapped around their legs, while rocking back and forth.
"Well, there's no tutoring today, guys. What do you wanna do?"
Jumping up, Blaise chimed, "I haven't been to Hogsmeade in forever. What do you say to 3 butterbeers?"
"Sounds good to me; I'm freezing!" Ginny laughed as she pulled on her jacket.
"Alright," Draco said. "Let's go, then."
"Wait," Ginny's face fell, "Hogsmeade weekend isn't until next week…"
"Not a problem!" Blaise said excitedly. Draco and Ginny looked at him. "I know a way! I saw it on Potter's map!"
"Map?" Draco repeated.
"Yes!" Blaise exclaimed. He then proceeded to tell them about how he found Harry, Harry pulled out his map, and how it showed all of Hogwarts and the passage ways out of it.
"You know the one-eyed witch statue with the hump?" Blaise asked Draco.
"The one that looks like your mum?" Draco asked, looking confused.
"Yeah! The hump opens and there's a passage way that leads straight into the Honeydukes cellar!"
"You sure about this, Blaise?" Ginny asked nervously.
"Of course he is!" Draco laughed, slapping his friend on the back. "I say we check it out!"
"Oh, alright. But, we can't let anyone see us!"
"Yippee!" cried Blaise.
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"Hermione!" cried Harry as he rushed into the common room.
"Yes, Harry? What is it?" she replied, looking away from Neville who was sitting on the couch beside her.
Harry immediately ran to them and squeezed himself in between them. He then placed one arm around Hermione's shoulders, and used the other to push Neville. Unfortunately, the former plump boy was still not very graceful and toppled off of the couch onto his bottom.
"Jeez, Harry," he muttered as he got up and walked away, "You don't have to be so rough."
Harry frowned at him and turned back to Hermione, who was staring at Neville's retreating back with slight traces of a pout on her face.
"Hermione," Harry said, getting back her attention. "Would you like to take a walk with me?"
"Sure, I guess," Hermione sighed, as she now didn't have anything better to do.
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Ginny, Draco, and Blaise were on their way to the one-eyed witch statue when a roaming Pansy Parkinson spotted them. She strut over, in her short skirt and low-cut top, and both Draco and Blaise could barely keep their excitement to themselves, though neither was truly interested.
Ginny scowled. ((Boys,)) she thought grumpily.
Pansy opened her mouth to say something, but then suddenly noticed Ginny and frowned. "Why is Weasley walking with you two?"
The boys snapped out of their hypnosis and seemed to just realize Ginny was standing next to them.
"Well, I-uh-we…" they both stuttered helplessly.
"Don't be silly, Parkinson," Ginny said, scowling at the red-faced boys who were trying to keep their cool, "I was simply walking near them, not with them."
She then continued on her way. She could make it to Hogsmeade on her own. She had already known about the map and the passageways, anyway. Just because the Golden Trio didn't notice she was there didn't mean she wasn't, and just because they ignored her didn't mean she couldn't hear every single word they said.
Ginny smirked at the thought of them, thinking they were so clever and secretive, when she knew about every single one of their plans to defeat Voldemort, problems finding dates to balls, and even some unresolved sexual tension she was sure they didn't even know about.
"Gits," she muttered in distaste as she stepped into the witch's hump and strolled down the tunnel to Honeydukes.
A jingle from her pocket reminded her that she hadn't been shopping in a long time. She had a lot of money saved up from tutoring, and now that she had three young minds to mold, the income was pretty damn good. She suddenly remembered her pupils.
((Damn gits can't even learn the name of the potion,)) she thought to herself.
She remembered what a jerk Neville had turned out to be, and also how Draco and Blaise were probably still oogling Pansy's goodies.
((Damn,)) she thought again as she climbed through the trapdoor and into the Honeydukes cellar, ((How am I to keep Draco's eyes away from whores like her?))
A little voice in the back of her mind answered for her to become a whore herself, but she immediately scowled at the idea.
((Draco likes me,)) she thought surely, ((He doesn't care about those other trollops. Their perfectly proportioned bodies don't interest him.))
Then the annoying little voice in her head reminded her of how he had completely forgotten her when Pansy Parkinson strut up to them in her revealing outfit.
Ginny walked out of Honeydukes into the snowing Hogsmeade street.
((Well, a few new outfits couldn't hurt…)) she thought as she stepped into Mistress Mandy's robes for teens.
The shop owner, Mandy, was a teen herself. She looked as if she had barely finished school and insisted that she knew all of the latest trends and hottest styles. She piled clothes into Ginny's arms, and then pushed her into a dressing room.
Since there were no other customers in the shop, Mandy insisted on seeing Ginny in every outfit and, according to her, Ginny looked wonderful in all of them.
Ginny suspected she just wanted to sell, but nonetheless she liked a few of the outfits herself. She picked out a couple pairs of sandals also, but before she paid for everything she realized how silly it was of her to buy all this in the middle of winter, where none of these clothes would most likely keep her warm. She had an internal struggle against her better judgment, and then finally decided stubbornly that if Pansy could do it, surely she could do it better. Worst come to worst, she would just cast a heating charm, right?
She paid for her purchases and left with quite a lot of bags, Mistress Mandy calling after her to come back soon.
Across from Mistress Mandy's there was a hair salon. Ginny cringed, but braced herself and stepped in, promptly collapsing from both the heavy fumes and the weight of her many bags.
"Can I help you?" a woman asked her from behind the counter, where she was filing her nails and looking extremely bored.
After getting up from the floor and straightening herself out, Ginny replied, coughing slightly, "Yes… I've actually… Uhm… Well, I've run out of my styling potion, you know, the one that lets you pick what you want and-"
"Yes, yes," the woman interrupted, "I'm quite sure I know what you mean." Without glancing at Ginny, she flicked her wand and from a shelf behind her floated a small bottle onto the counter. The label read: All Purpose Hair Dressing Potion by Val Vavoom.
"That will be ten galleons," the woman drawled lazily, holding her perfectly manicured hand out for the money.
Ginny, who had been wondering what kind of a name "Val Vavoom" was anyway, plopped the money into the woman's outstretched hand, took the potion, and left with relief that fresh air awaited her. She decided to go to the Three Broomsticks and see if Draco and Blaise had stopped staring at Pansy and come to Hogsmeade.
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It was about ten minutes after Ginny left that Draco had come back to his senses and realized who he was staring at. He managed to bring Blaise back to reality also and they decided to go to the Three Broomsticks and see if Ginny was waiting there for them, which, in their pompous minds, was what she definitely should have done.
When they arrived there, however, she was nowhere to be seen. They ordered butterbeers and figured she would show up eventually.
"So," Blaise began, "What've you gotten Ginny for Valentine's day?"
"Valentine's-It's not even February!" Draco stammered
Blaise stared at him, "Of course it is! February 4th, to be exact."
Draco looked at Blaise in astonishment. Valentine's Day was in ten days and he had absolutely no idea what to get for Ginny, who was now his girlfriend.
Blaise shook his head at the blonde boy, "I can't believe you didn't remember. I bought her present ages ago."
"You?" Draco was taken aback. "What did you get for her?"
"Knickers," Blaise answered back with the air of someone commenting on the weather, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to buy for your best friend's girlfriend.
"KNICKERS?!" Draco shouted, angrily shooting up from his seat. "You can't buy knickers for my girlfriend!" he yelled, jabbing a finger into Blaise's chest.
Blaise stood up, too. "Oy!" he replied angrily, "I bought them before she was your girlfriend!"
Draco scoffed. "What-and that makes it all okay?" he sputtered.
"Yes, I'd like to think so," Blaise crossed his arms and glared at Draco.
"Well, it's not!" Draco replied harshly, "And you're not giving them to her!"
"Excuse me?" Blaise stared.
"I won't allow it," Draco said, placing his hands on his hips and looking down on Blaise as if he were superior.
"Now you listen," Blaise shook his finger at Draco, "I paid good money for those knickers, I personalized them and everything!"
"Personalized? What the bloody hell would you have to say on knickers?!" Draco shrieked, throwing his hands in the air and looking thoroughly harassed.
"Why, I believe that's between me, Ginny, and the witches I paid to embroider them."
"Zabini…" Draco began warningly.
"Hey! At least I got her something! You go on talking about how much you like her and all your silly plans to get her to notice you-using me, might I add-but you didn't even remember to get her something for Valentine's Day!"
Before Draco could jump Blaise and beat him to a pulp, the door opened and Ginny walked in, shaking the snow out of her hair and carrying many shopping bags.
The boys walked over, took some from her, and led her to the table like perfect gentlemen. Although this sudden burst of manners unnerved Ginny a bit, she didn't say anything and decided to enjoy it before they came to their senses.
"So, you finally stopped staring at Parkinson and remembered our plans for today, eh?" Ginny smirked, raising an eyebrow at each of them. The boys shrugged embarrassedly.
"What did you buy?" Draco asked, reaching for one of her bags as if it was Christmas.
"None of your business!" Ginny snapped as she slapped his hand away and pulled her bags closer to herself and charming them shut.
"Oh, I get it," Blaise said cheerfully, "Our Valentine's presents are in there aren't they?"
Ginny snorted. "No. You thought I'd get you something for Valentine's Day?" she laughed in their faces. "In case you boys didn't notice, it's the boys that give the girls gifts on that certain holiday." She shook her head. "Honestly."
After a moment of silence, Ginny spoke up again. "You know, I could really use a butterbeer, in case either of you noticed. I'm absolutely parched," she snapped angrily.
Both boys jumped up from their seats and went to order more butterbeer. Ginny sighed. When they came back she decided not to be so harsh on them. They spent the rest of the day drinking butterbeer and telling jokes.
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Before Harry and Hermione could even reach the portrait hole to go out for their walk, Ron bundled down the stairs, calling out to them.
"Oy, you lot!" he called as he ran to them. "Have either of you seen Ginny?"
"I haven't," huffed Hermione, not forgetting what Ginny had doe to Neville.
"You?" Ron turned to Harry.
"I-er-no.. No, I haven't" Harry lied. Ron frowned at him and Harry quickly asked, "What do you need her for?"
"I need her to sign this letter for mum that I'm sending on Valentine's Day. I need a while to charm all the special effects, but the writing must be done," Ron sighed. He stomped over to Neville, who had been lured into conversation by Lavender Brown.
"Neville, have you seen Ginny?"
"Ginny?" Neville replied, frowning. "Yea, I have."
"When?" Ron asked. "Where is she?"
"I saw her this morning. She bloody well attacked me when I tried to stop her from going to see Ma-"
"Mac-McGonagall?" Harry interrupted.
"McGonagall?" Ron frowned in confusion.
"No, not McGonagall," Neville corrected, "She was off to see-"
"Snape!" Harry interrupted again. "My mistake, she was going to see Snape, of course."
"Harry, you just said you haven't seen her. How could you know she was off to see Snape?" Ron asked.
"Well, you see," Harry walked over to Ron. "The thing is I forgot to tell you that I actually saw Ginny," he cast a silencing spell behind his back at Neville, "And she said she was actually going to see Snape, to hand in an overdue Potions assignment."
If Ron had known better, he would have known that Professor Snape didn't accept late work; he would have known that Ginny was far too responsible to not turn in her work on time; he would have noticed the look of silent outrage on Neville's face. But, Ron didn't know better, so he simply believed every word Harry said and left the common room to go find Ginny and have her sign the letter to their mother.
Hermione, however, knew better than Ron and everyone else in their year and did notice all these things. She took the silencing spell off of Neville, but before she could say anything to Harry, Neville was already shouting.
"Bloody hell, Potter!" Neville roared.
Harry and Hermione were both taken aback, the Neville they knew was shy and quiet. Apparently acquiring looks had also acquired him an attitude.
"First, you slam the portrait in my face. Then you shove me off of the couch. Now you put a silencing spell on me so you can lie to Ron!" (Funny that whenever couches are involved, someone ends up angry?)
"Please lower your voice, Neville," Hermione whispered frantically, looking scandalized. She patted his arm awkwardly.
Harry was disgusted. "I wasn't lying to Ron, I was protecting Ginny."
"Protecting her?" Neville snorted, "Do you know who she's with right now?"
"Yes, and I'd say it's better him than you, any day of the year," Harry narrowed his eyes.
"I thought you of all people would understand, Harry! He's your sworn enemy, after all!" Neville shouted in a choked voice.
"Ginny's with V-Voldemort?" Hermione squeaked with her hands covering her face.
Harry ignored her. "Which makes it all the more amazing that I think he's better for her than you are!"
"Better than Neville? Harry, what-" Hermione stumbled with her words.
Harry shook his head and took off out of the common room.
Hermione stared after him and then walked away from Neville and up to her room.
((Neville, worse than Voldemort?)) she thought. ((No, Harry's just angry; he didn't mean that, of course he didn't.)) She shook her head at these thoughts. She liked Neville; just because he had an argument with Harry she wasn't going to throw the possibility of them out of the window.
((I wish I hadn't turned him down for the Valentine's Day Ball,)) she thought sadly.
Llama: YAY! There it is!
Dolly: Sorry it's short.
Llama: Yeah, we figured it was better to give you at least a little bit of something rather than dragging it on and on.
Dolly: Yeah, so, although it is pretty short, we hope you will still review and we'll try to update really soon.
Llama: Mhm, I think about once more before summer is over.
Dolly: We actually need to work on the story a lot after that next chapter, so if it takes a little longer than usual (forget the whole two years fiasco), bear with us because we're actually doing some writing this time, rather than having it already written out.
Llama: So, yeah. Review, please! And stay tuned for the next chapter!
Dolly: And, sorry we're so bland. It is 2;30 in the morning, afterall.
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