A/N- Well, I finished this chapter faster than I thought I would! :D Like chapter 7, this is just a chapter that moves the action along, so chapter 9 (and maybe chapter 10) will be more action-packed.
Theories on How Danger Finds Us - Chapter 8
So. Before I go any further in my tale, I feel like I must give another warning.
To this day, even as a write this out, I have no clue how everything got to the point that it did over my first year at university. One thing seemed to lead to another and suddenly everything went out of control and - I just don't seem to comprehend how it got to the point that it did, but for the purposes of this story, one must understand that things began to move very quickly for me once I got back from my shopping trip with Pansy and the boys.
And by "things", I don't mean things to do with my studies. I mean how things progressed with my social life.
I might skip around in this particular timeline from now on, so try your best to keep up.
I don't intend to confuse anyone; I simply want to write about what happened to the best of my knowledge if only to get some piece of mind as to why everything that did happen happened. I think, at this point, I've talked to just about everyone involved in the hopes of sorting it all out and I would include some of their perspectives, but it's not my story to tell. What seem to be the only things I am sure of are how I acted over the course of these events and my thoughts on each and every event. Because of this, though, my recount of everything is obviously going to be biased to my personal opinions on the matters, but oh well. As an English major, I'm compelled to write. It's my preferred way of recounting my memories and, well, I'd like to think that I'm damn good at what I do. (Although, I'm curious to hear thoughts that feel otherwise. Draco doesn't like to critique me because I think he's under the impression that I'd wail on him if he gave me a bad critique. This may or may not be true.)
Anyways, I'm just going to say that I'm skipping over my adventure in New York because I've already told you all about one of my shopping adventures with Pansy and, honestly, that day wasn't all that interesting. Trust me. I've contemplated adding it, but it seemed like one of those times that wasn't necessary for me to discuss because nothing exciting happened. Nothing else happened between me and Draco (and I bet you all thought that something else was going to happen. Didn't you? Just wait) and Pansy got all testy because she didn't find anything to her liking. Plus, Blaise happened to be particularly cheerful and snarky on that day, which does not bode well when Pansy's having a bitch fit.
What I will do, though, instead of recounting each and every event throughout the school year is to go ahead and get to the good parts. I mean, I detailed the first two days pretty well and I gave enough information about my first shopping excursion with Pansy, so I figure that I'm entitled to share the parts that I think readers will find the most interesting.
Example: Gareth asking me out on a date.
I feel like a lot of stories' protagonists have that first date, or that first experience, with someone who's totally incompatible with them before they get with that person who just works so well for them that they can't comprehend how or why it didn't happen before. I mean, Elizabeth Bennet had George Wickham before she found true love with Mr. Darcy. Eliza Doolittle had Freddy Eynsford Hill before Professor Higgings (I'm still not entirely sure what happens between those two. My opinion since childhood has been that they live happily ever after. And I'm sticking to it). And Rebeca Buendia had Pietro Crespi before she realized that he was a pansy and ran off with Jose Arcadio (the fact that he calls her "little sister" squicks me out a bit, I must admit). And I'm sure you all have figured out that I very quickly see the err of my ways, drop Gareth like a hot potato, and end up with Draco (Spoiler alert! Although I have a feeling that I've been dropping his name so much that two and two had to have been put together).
But, more to the point, about two weeks after New York, Gareth decided to ask me out on a date.
I think, by then, I had acknowledged the fact that I found Draco somewhat attractive. That small part of me that was all, "No, Ginny, you can't. He's a Malfoy and by that property alone, he's icky," was slowly becoming silenced by the part of me that thought he had a nice arse and that he really did grow into his pointy features a bit and, hmm; he can be nice when occasion calls for it.
But when Gareth asked me out, I was still in that stage where I thought Gareth was so dreamy, but then Draco was starting to enter that stage and, oh! Whatever was my feeble mind supposed to do when surrounded by so much hotness? No sarcasm involved there. I was honestly a bit perplexed as to how I should feel considering my contemplation of my feelings toward either guy.
I'm pretty sure that I ended up making a pros and cons list of both Draco's and Gareth's attributes late one night in the middle of the year instead of working on homework. I've searched for it, if only to get a laugh, but alas. It seems to be lost to time or in some waste basket somewhere. I don't know.
Gareth asked me out as soon as our Arithmancy class was over those two weeks later. We decided to make a habit of sitting near each other since he was better at writing down the lightning fast dictation from our professor and I was better at understanding what was going on, so we liked to study for tests together in either my dorm or his. We'd gotten to know each other pretty well over that short amount of time and what started off as a simple attraction turned into full-on infatuation. And although I may have lost interest early on due to the fact that we bickered like my mum and dad on some occasions, Gareth has more redeeming qualities to his personality and it was those qualities that won me over.
He turned to me as I started to pack up my things at the end of class, with me standing and him still seated in his chair.
"Um, Ginny, can I ask you something?"
I stuffed by notebook into my bag before sitting back down. "Sure," I replied with a smile. "What's up?"
"I was wondering if you would like to go on a date with me?"
I laughed nervously, biting the nail of my right thumb. I can be such a dork when a guy asks me out.
I sighed, chuckling again, probably looking like I had a screw or two loose before replying. "Um, that sounds great. What day did you have in mind?"
"How about Saturday?"
"You mean, tomorrow?"
"Yeah. That," Gareth replied sheepishly.
"Well, I don't have any plans, so tomorrow sounds perfect."
"Excellent. I'll pick you up around 11:30 in the morning. So be ready." He smiled.
I laughed again. "Why so early?"
He gave me a cryptic smile; a smirk, really. "Oh, you'll see."
We walked out of class together, and I gave him a hug before I headed for my European Magical History class.
Once Gareth was far enough away, I was immediately accosted by Blaise and Draco, identical grins on their face like they were the cats that got their respective canary.
"Aw, our ickkle Ginny's got herself a date," Blaise cooed, pinching my cheek.
I slapped his hand away and punched him on the arm for good measure. "Shut up! It's really no big deal."
"Oh, but it is!" he replied, his grin becoming wider, if that was even possible. "This is your first big date outside of Hogwarts. And, I must admit, it's a very good thing that you have Draco and I."
I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest. "Oh, really? And why is that?"
"I would think that the answer would be quite obvious, Ginny dear," chirped in Draco. He had gotten over being mad at me over making him sleep on the floor in New York about 2 days ago and was back to using my nickname. I swear; he's more of a girl that I am. "You're so lucky to have us because we can help you not screw this up."
I snorted. "Lemme guess? Is this the part where you guys turn a pumpkin into a beautiful coach and you turn a torn and tattered dress of mine into a beautiful ball gown?"
Draco put an arm around my shoulder before replying. "Ginny. Love. Do you honestly think that Blaise and I would do something that pig-headed for a first date?"
I glanced over to Blaise and then back at Draco. "Yes."
Blaise burst out laughing, as Draco turned to glare at him. "I don't see how you could find that funny, Blaise. You do realize that she's insulting you as well."
Blaise took a couple of deep breaths, composing himself. "Of course, you berk, but come on. Please tell me that you don't find the imagery she just conjured up to be hysterical."
"What do you mean?"
"Just imagine it: she's Cinderella and we're the fairy godmother, or godmothers, in this case."
Draco took his free hand and slid his palm down his face, starting at his forehead.
"I swear, I will never be able to understand how your twisted mind works, Blaise," I uttered, shaking my head slightly.
"Yes, well, enough about that. Back to the topic at hand: your first date."
"You guys act as though I've never dated before. I have had boyfriends, you know."
"Yes, and all of them were monumental failures. Thomas: has yet to get over you and still won't speak to you after you broke up with his jealousy-prone arse. Corner: last I heard, he's decided to bat for the other team, if you know what I mean. Oh, and lest I forget Potter: the saviour of the world is now shacking up with none other than the former resident slag of the Gryffindor house, Lavender Brown. We're here as a form of insurance," Blaise stated, ticking off each of my failed relationships on the fingers of his right hand.
"Did you really have to remind me about that last one?" I asked with a cringe.
"Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it," he replied with a sagely nod.
"Thank you, Dumbledore," I shot back.
"What? It's true. You need to accept the fact that Potter decided to run off with a skank after you broke up with him. It's nothing on you that he decided to do that. We know that it was kind of tough to break up with him, but by repressing that moment, you're not doing yourself any good when you finally decide to think about it." Blaise paused, furrowing his eyebrows. "And how did you know that Dumbledore said that?"
"I haven't really talked to Harry all that much since the break up since he got royally ticked off when I broke up with him. He's with Lavender because he's making up for the lack of physical contact that he got with me. I don't like to talk about it because you're right; it was tough for me to break it off with someone that I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with. And I know that Dumbledore said it because Harry's tried to talk to me, and he's rather fond of using that line on me. I've already felt enough pain having to deal with the constant threat of losing him and leaving him; I'm done with that part of my life."
"And you see, Ginny," Draco began, picking up the conversation as he began to lead me away from our classroom, "we don't want you to go through that with what's-his-face."
"Gareth, Draco. Gareth," I provided.
"Right. Gareth. Anyways, Blaise, Pansy and I have become quite fond of your presence in our little circle and we know how you are when you're around this Gareth - you get all giggly and you blush a lot. Keeping those thoughts in mind, we decided to assist you with this whole dating business since we consider ourselves quite astute in the art of dating."
"We're not serial daters, or anything like that," Blaise continued, "but we've had enough relationships that we decided to combine our collective experiences to form some theories on how to successfully date."
"Right," I drawled, looking back and forth between the two men. "Are you two sure that you aren't Psychology majors?"
"Well, I'm the Psych major, but you know that Blaise isn't," Draco replied, raising a hand.
"Trivial details," I stated with a wave of my hand.
Draco pinched the bridge of his nose. I could tell that he was beginning to get annoyed with my unwillingness to cooperate. I bit back a laugh when he did it for annoying the ever loving shite out of him has to be one of my favourite pastimes. Next to scandalizing Ron, that is. Poor boy gets worked up anytime I wear heels, for Merlin's sake. I can only pray that he does not end up with girls when he and Hermione decide to settle down and have children. But knowing my brother's luck, that exact thing'll happen.
Blaise noticed Draco's on-coming tirade and decided to talk some sense into me. "Ginny, we're not looking to harm whatever relationship that you might have with Gareth. We know how much you've grown to like him. All we ask is that you let us assist you every once in a while as you start to go on dates with Gareth."
"Are you pouting?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.
Blaise quickly got rid of the pout and doe eye look he was sporting to try to win me over. "What? No. No, never. Pfft. Like that ever works."
"Uh-huh. That's what I thought," I replied, crossing my arms over my chest. "But, to save my own sanity and to prevent any further pestering by the three of you, I'll allow you to assist me."
"Excellent choice, Ginny. Just wait until Pansy hears," Draco drawled as he and Blaise walked with me to my history class.
The next day, Pansy had me up bright and early to prepare me for my date. She had to very nearly drag me out of bed to get my tired and lazy arse into the shower, but I eventually took a shower as she laid out my outfit for that day.
I walked out of my bathroom, one towel wrapped around my body, another around my hair, toothbrush dangling out of my mouth, sort of eager to see what Pansy picked out for me.
It was mid-autumn-ish, so she picked out a burgundy coat with a cloth belt around the waist in the same colour as the coat; a grey, long sleeved, v-neck shirt; black, straight-legged jeans; and ballet flats in a shade of red that was a bit lighter than the coat. She also laid out a pair of black gloves that stopped just past my wrists in case my hands got cold.
I liked her choices and smiled as best I could with a toothbrush in my mouth, and she smiled back before shooing me back into the bathroom to finish my morning routine.
About an hour later, I was primped within an inch of my life and drilled by Draco and Blaise as to how I should conduct myself while on my date with Gareth.
"Guys like Gareth seem to notice when a girl is being fake. So honesty and sincerity is probably going to be the best policy with him; pardon the cliché. Also, don't worry too much about keeping your inner nerd under wraps." Blaise paused as I glared at him. "What? We've noticed that he finds it cute and, to a lesser extent, endearing."
"Oh," I replied with a pleased smile.
Just then, a knock sounded on the door. Everyone's ears perked up and I bolted straight for the door. I took a deep breath and opened it, revealing Gareth, a huge smile lighting up his face.
"I'm not early, am I?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.
I leaned back and glanced at the clock in the kitchen. "Nope. Not at all. Do you want to come in?"
"Um, actually, Ginny, I was kind of hoping that we could head on out? If you don't mind, that is."
"Oh, no! Of course I don't mind. I'll just say good-bye to everyone."
I gave quick hugs to everyone as Gareth said his hellos to Blaise, Draco, and Pansy. Back at the door, he grabbed my hand and led me into the middle of the hallway, rummaging through his coat pocket.
"What are you doing?" I asked with a laugh.
"I'm looking for the Portkey. It should be active momentarily. Ah-hah!" he announced in triumph, pulling out a small souvenir flag for, as I soon learned, Austria. "Grab a hold, Ginny. It should be activating in a couple of seconds."
I reached out and grabbed a small corner of the flag. As soon as my fingers touched the cloth, I felt the tugging sensation at my navel that signalled my departure from the hallway outside of my room.
We landed a few seconds later -- Gareth, on his feet, me, slightly sprawled out on the sidewalk that we landed on. I told you I was god awful at landing when travelling by Portkey. He helped me to my feet and I looked around, for I was surely not in England anymore.
"Gareth, where are we?"
"Ginny, welcome to my home land. Welcome to Austria."
A/N- Thanks for reading! Please review. :) Oh! And the line that Blaise says about "numbing the pain" is an actual line that Dumbledore says from the HP books. I haven't been able to look up which one, though, since I don't have my copies of the books here at school with me. But just know that that line is JKR's line and not mine.