Hey, lovelies!
Ooh, Ginny's in hot water. Draco too but mostly Gin-Gin.
And if any of you are wondering about the whole Death-Eater-killing-Dumbledore thing with Mr. Malfoy, I just sort of ignored the second half of book 6. Just telling you. It does play a part in my next fic (just telling y'all) because I thought it would be interesting to experiment with that ; ).
Harry + Ginny = no chemistry
Ginny + Draco = : )
^The equations that define my life *waggles eyebrows*
Read'n'review, pleasy-please! Many tanks to all those who have.
Ooh, this blurb is looooong….showing that the author has NO LIFE WHATSOEVER…
Just read. Go. Now.
Chapter Five
Ginny skipped class that day. She couldn't face her fellow Gryffindors, knowing that they knew she was dating Malfoy. She simply lay in her dorm, staring at the ceiling, motionless. Her curtains were drawn when her fellow sixth-year girls came up to bed. They assumed "that tart" was sleeping.
In reality, Ginny couldn't sleep. Her stomach was twisted into a million knots, dreading breakfast the next day. Lessons-she couldn't even think about it. It was like a horrible nightmare, the worst one in the world, but she couldn't wake up. How could her brothers ever look her in the eye again, knowing?
And all of Gryffindor thought she was doing Malfoy. Not a plus.
The next, dreaded morning, Ginny went down to breakfast late with a heavy heart and shadows under her eyes from lack of sleep. The moment she entered the Great Hall, she knew that her hopeless dreams of the whole school having magically forgotten overnight were obliterated instantly.
Every eye at the Gryffindor table was turned toward her. Even the first years had heard, it seemed. She sighed. Well, she had to eat somehow.
She sat down next to Ron, thinking that he might be more sympathetic than, say, Parvati Patil. It turns out she was wrong. Dead wrong.
Ron turned a glare onto Ginny. "You think you can call yourself my sister, after dating that bastard?" he said in a deadened voice.
"Look, it's not what you think-" she started.
"Oh, is it? You think I can look you in the eye after you DID DRACO MALFOY?!?" Ron turned his head away after this.
"I didn't-"
"You make me sick," her brother said in the same, flat tone.
This was apparently the cue for the whole of Gryffindor to start whispering about her at the same time.
"That tart-"
"…maybe a dare?"
"…hope she's pregnant…"
"She deserves it!"
Harry and Hermione just stared at her, twin looks of disgust written all over their faces. That was the last straw. "Fine then," she said, trying to keep her voice even, "if all you narrow-minded pricks think I would even deign to sit with you, you can just shove it up your bony-"
"MISS WEASLEY!" Dumbledore boomed from the staff table.
"SORRY, PROFESSOR!" she yelled back. Dumbledore nodded and continued eating his deviled eggs.
She turned up her nose at the Gryffindor table. "I can't believe you call yourself wizards," she said disdainfully, then walked toward the Slytherin table.
Draco was reading his copy of The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 7 when Ginny approached him. She put a hand on his shoulder, and he looked around. "Oh hey, Gin, I saved you a seat," he said, beaming.
"Why is there an extra place?" she asked, staring curiously around at the Slytherins. They didn't seem to be looking at her with any malice.
"Oh, Pansy's crying her eyes out in the bathroom because I'm taken," Malfoy said airily, waving a fork of egg around for emphasis.
He saw her staring at the neighboring Slytherins, waiting for one of them to object to her presence. They didn't. "Oh, Gin, they don't care who I date!" Malfoy laughed. "We're much friendlier than you prats in Gryffindor give us credit for. See?" He waved at a fifth-year girl and she smiled back.
"Are you Ginny?" she asked her.
"Er-yes," said Ginny, surprised.
The girl leaned in closer. "Lucky. You got Malfoy. He was the most available boy in the whole House!"
They giggled together. Draco brushed invisible lint off his shirt. "Oh, get off your high horse, Draco," Ginny said, shoving him playfully.
It was a little weird. Not because the Slytherins weren't nice to her; to the contrary, they were far more hospitable than most Gryffindors. She asked Draco why this was. "Oh, it's just because you're dating one of us. Sort of gives you diplomatic immunity," he said, beaming at her. They held hands under the table the whole time.
When the bell rang, Ginny had actually had an interesting conversation with the fifth-year girl. Her name was Victoria. As she got up to leave, Draco tugged her back down using their joined hands. "Wait around a bit, I want to talk to you," he muttered in her ear.
After the Great Hall was finally mostly empty, he faced her. "Gin, I think this could be something good," he said seriously, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
She looked at him like he was crazy. "How?"
"Well, we can go public now," he said slowly, a grin spreading like molasses over his gorgeous features. "Only one downside."
"All the Gryffindors hate me and think I'm a tart who's doing a Slytherin?" she suggested.
"They think you're doing me? Good Lord," he muttered. "No, I was going to say that we're going to be made into a `shining example of house unity,' that's all. The Head Boy from Slytherin going out with Harry Potter's ex…"
He kissed her swiftly and jumped out of his seat. "Come on," Draco said, pulling his girlfriend to her feet, "we're going to be late for class."
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It didn't matter, once she thought about it, that her whole House and all of her friends hated her. No, what mattered to her was that she could kiss Draco in the halls like a normal girlfriend. What mattered was that she could hold his hand in public, eat with him, do her homework with him in the library. Ginny was so far in love, she honestly could care less what happened to everyone else. There was only one guy for her. The rest was second to him.
Nobody spoke directly to her, except for that annoying way people talk loudly on purpose so that the "leper" can hear them put her down. Other than that she was ignored on the whole, until the last day before Christmas break.
It was a snowy day in mid-December, and most of the school was outside having a snowball fight. Since Ginny was basically shunned by all her housemates, and Draco wanted to spend all his time with Ginny, they were stuck inside.
So it really didn't make sense that a first-year Gryffindor girl approached them while Ginny and Draco were, ah, "studying" in the library.
"Ahem," the girl cleared her throat. Ginny broke the kiss, slightly embarrassed. Draco's ears were red.
"Harry Potter wants to see you in the common room, miss," said the girl, staring at the carpet beneath Ginny's feet rather than at Ginny. She sighed. She was used to being ostracized by now, but still, it got rather lonely.
She looked back at Draco. "Want to come?"
"You know I can't really come in, right?" he said, scratching his head and stretching.
"Do you want to walk me there, then?"
"Well, I don't know the way, so it's really-"
Ginny rolled her eyes. Even while she was in love, she could still appreciate the fact that boys were so stupid. "Come on."
They arrived in front of the Fat Lady's portrait after a few, uh, delays. Draco kissed her goodbye sweetly. "I'll wait for you."
"You don't have to," she said, taken aback.
"I know." Then he melted into the shadows. She sighed and squared her shoulders for whatever was waiting for her inside the common room.
When she climbed through the portrait hole, a most unfamiliar sight greeted her eyes. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all looking at her from across the room, not with looks of hatred or disgust, but of sympathy and affection.
"What-" she squeaked out before Hermione tackled her in a huge embrace.
"I knew it! I knew!" sobbed the older girl into Ginny's shoulder.
"Knew what?" Ginny began to get hopeful. Had they finally realized that she actually loved Malfoy and decided to leave well enough alone?
Ron said gruffly, "I'm sorry I was such a git, Gin."
"Reeeaaaally." Ginny rolled her eyes, still patting Hermione's back.
Harry looked most repentant of all. "Ginny, I'm really sorry." Hermione finally let go, and Harry grabbed the redhead's hand in both of his. "I should have realized that you and Malfoy were only making Pansy jealous."
She froze. "What did you say?"
Ron shrugged. "You hate Pansy. He hates Pansy. We all really just despise Pansy. So it makes sense that you two would pretend to have a relationship to drive her mad."
"I'm so sorry I didn't figure it out earlier!" Hermione said, wiping her streaming eyes. "You don't have to tell him. He probably wants it a secret, right?"
"Wait. Wait. Wait. You all think that Draco and I faked having a relationship to make Pansy Parkinson jealous?" Ginny said incredulously.
"Who wouldn't want to put her off?" said Ron offhand.
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe I actually love Draco?"
There it was. The L word. Hanging out in the common room for all the Gryffindors to see.
Hermione stopped wiping her eyes. The kind look disappeared out of Harry's face. And worst of all, Ron glared at her like he had been all week.
Then Hermione laughed like a nervous hyena. "You don't really mean it, do you, Ginny? You always had that bit of Fred and George in-"
"You people just don't get it! I love him, I do, I want to be with him for my whole life! I'm not joking, I'm not playing a prank. Can't you just leave us alone?" Ginny's voice broke on the last word.
The kind look was back in Harry's eyes. "Ginny, I think he's playing you. It's probably a trick."
"That's the most awful trick in the world!" Hermione piped up. "Pretending to love someone-I can't imagine the person who would do that."
"You're not listening! I love him, he loves me, can't we just have our happily ever after?" Ginny was yelling now, but she did not care. How could they not understand?
"Ginny…I know this may be a bit hard to process…" Harry was holding her hand again.
"HE LOVES ME!" she bawled. "I KNOW HE DOES!"
This was the last straw. Harry lost his temper a bit. "Has he ever told you so? Think. Really think. When was the last time he told you?"
"He tells me all the…" her voice tailed off. Come to think of it, he hadn't ever really told her that he loved her. Ginny had always assumed that it was tacit, an unspoken bond between them. Could she really be that wrong? Could it really all be a lie?
"I have to go," Ginny muttered from between unmoving lips. And without a backward glance, the girl dashed out of the portrait hole to confront the boy she had thought was her one and only love.
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