The Adventure
By RowlingIdol
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't own the song `That's Not My Name'. This chapter contains a drug reference and slight language. Review if you wish! They are most appreciated.
Chapter 2: That's Not My Name
The first day back at school was awkward. Usually there was always sort of an aura in the air. An anxious aura of the students rushing to their new classes. Today's aura was that of nerves. First year students traveled in packs. Ginny even saw one first year holding the hand of a very annoyed Prefect on the way to class. The kid had looked terrified though, no doubt fearing that a dead body would fall out of a passing broom closest, leftover from the battle of Hogwarts.
Ginny chuckled to herself over the thought of a dead body falling out of a closest, the first years screaming in a panic. She shouldn't be laughing, she though to herself. Maybe she was doing it because of her own nerves. Luna hadn't returned to school as she wished she had. She was going off adventuring with her father. Neville was there, but his case was completely different.
Neville was the Herbology Professor's Assistant. A part time job if you will. However, he was no longer classified as a student. She would see him later that day. She chuckled again at the thought of Neville's clumsiness. She envisioned walking into class and finding him trapped inside a giant Venus Fly Trap.
"Something funny Weasley?" a voice drawled to her left.
Ginny was startled by the voice, but she knew too well who it was. She frowned at Draco as she found him walking next to her.
"Yes actually." she huffed, speeding up her pace to get rid of him.
"That's odd…. I didn't hear anyone tell a joke." He sneered. Ginny stopped and turned to glare at him.
"You're lucky I don't report you for smoking hash on the train over here!" She accused, hugging her books to her chest.
"I will have you know that Ron kept sniffing me at breakfast this morning! No thanks to you!"
"You're not going to report me." Draco said lazily. "You're too much of a goody two shoes."
Ginny went red in the face.
"I. Am. Not." Ginny said sternly
"Prove it." Draco hissed.
Ginny paused and anxiously tapped her foot.
"I'm saving it until you do something really bad. Then I will tell." She said finally, holding her head in the air.
Draco golf clapped his hands.
"Bravo! Weasley has learned the art of blackmail!" He said sarcastically. He smirked at her and continued on to class.
Ginny stood in the hallway, students beginning to brush past her in their hurry to reach their next class before the bells rang.
He was such a jerk! She probably should go and tell a professor right now, but then she'd be late for class herself. Maybe after lunch… Or dinner….
Oh hell, she was a goody two shoes.
~*~*~*~
"I'm sorry Ginny! I really am!" Neville Longbottom continued to apologize as Ginny left the greenhouse, a stain of goo covering the front of her robes.
"I already told you Neville, it's all right." Ginny said. She scooped some of the goo off her robes and shook it off her hands into the grass.
"I guess I still have a lot to learn." Neville said, hanging his head as he caught up to Ginny on her way back to the castle. The other students from the class that had just let out were making their way to lunch.
"It was your first day. You're going to make a great professor one day. Trust me." Ginny said, turning to face her friend. Neville went red.
"Thanks Ginny. And again, I'm sorry. I didn't think I was squeezing the plant that hard…."
"I think I got most of it anyways." Ginny said.
"Well, I'd love to sit with all of you again, but I have to sit with the other teachers." Neville said glumly. "But at the Hogsmeade trips Professor Sprout said I'm welcome to go with you guys…. If…. You're going that is."
"I didn't even know there were going to be Hogsmeade trips this year." Ginny said. "After… well…. You know." Ginny shrugged. Neville nodded.
"Yeah well from what I've heard its mostly a means to allow everyone to relax, get over all that happened. My gran always said shopping made her feel better….. Granted she didn't really have good taste for all those antiques she bought….. It did seem to make her happy."
Ginny smiled.
"Shopping would be nice. Plus a trip to the Three Broomsticks…" Ginny sighed wistfully.
"Well its in a few weeks so I will keep in touch for plans, all right?" Neville said, as they approached the Great Hall.
"Sure." Ginny said with a smile.
Neville walked off, giving Harry, Ron, and Hermione a wave at their table before making his way to where the other teachers were.
"Oh Gin! What happened to your robes?!" Hermione cried out as Ginny approached.
"There were some issues in Herbology class today…." Ginny said, taking a seat next to Hermione, away from Harry.
"I take it Neville played a part in this?" Ron asked. He smiled at his sister.
"Of course. But its okay. First day jitters." Ginny said. They all laughed lightly. Clumsy Neville!
She shrugged out of her stained robe and shook her red hair out of the ponytail it had been pulled in.
"Make sure you eat a good lunch Ginny, we have NEWT prep after this." Hermione said before shoveling a large spoonful of mashed potatoes in her mouth.
"You mean you're in the same NEWT prep class?" Ginny said, slightly going pale.
"Of course!" Hermione said after swallowing. "They only offer one class. All 7th years, and 8th years, are in it."
"Speaking of 8th years…." Ron said softly. "Did you know that Malfoy came back to school? That toad!"
The Golden Trio then proceeded to stare across the hall in Draco's direction.
"I bet he eats Doxy eggs for lunch." Ron said. Hermione and Ginny both gave him a look.
"What?" Ron said. He then went red and went back to his food, muttering to himself- "He probably does…"
"I don't know why he had to come back." Harry said loudly, shooting a glare across the hall. "Why didn't he stay home like the rest of the Slytherins?"
It was Ginny's turn to stare across the hall. Harry was right. Out of all of the house tables, Slytherins table was the most bare. A huddle of grimy looking first years sat on one end, some 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years, the largest variety out of the whole house, in what looked like a group of their own on the other end. The 5th, 6th and 7th years sat in the middle. And Draco. The only returning student. Sat all alone between the groups of the older students.
~*~*~*~
Draco's first class of the day was hell. Probably worse than hell, but he really wouldn't know. He felt like he had been held back. His morning classes consisted of him sitting in on 7th year classes. Followed by a grueling 2 hours of NEWT prep, and then one more 7th year class with Professor McGonagall.
The students in his morning classes ignored him. It was a shock, but still expected. When he had been at Hogwarts he seemed to rule the Slytherin house. Students of all ages in the Slytherin house looked up to him. He would crack smart ass jokes and remarks loudly in class. Granted he did get in trouble sometimes. Not including the whole `vanishing cabinet, killing Dumbledore' scenarios. How he wished he could forget those. He wasn't used to being snubbed.
He picked at his food in the Great Hall, dreading NEWT prep. He knew he'd be in the same room as Potter, and he hoped to avoid him as much as possible.
A loud voice echoed across the hall. Hermione was loudly greeting the Weasley girl as she approached their table.
"What happened to your robes?!" He managed to hear.
The three stared at the obvious stain on her robe and then smiled at her as if to say `its all right, these things happen'. The girl sat. They shared a quick laugh and then the girl took off her stained robe and set it beside her on the bench. With a shake of her head her loose curls feel around her shoulders. It made Draco think of silk red ribbons. Pretty silk red ribbons. Pretty……
Shit. He needed to stop thinking like that. Why was he thinking these kind of things? Malfoys didn't think things like that over penniless women, let alone Weasleys, who definitely needed to be considered halfpenny less for all it mattered to him. Or did it only matter to his parents?
"Bloody hell." He muttered to himself. Maybe he needed to lay of the hash.
He heard Harry said something loudly about Slytherins but kept his head down.
After a few moments he felt funny, like someone was staring at him. He looked up and down the Slytherin table but he was being completely ignored. He glanced up at the teachers table. Professor McGonagall saw him and gave him a short nod. Neville had apparently spilled his drink over some papers and was trying to clean it up.
His eyes came upon the Gryffindor table next and suddenly it was apparent who had been staring. Even though he had only glanced recently enough to see her eyes flick quickly to her plate, the color of her face was a plain giveaway.
~*~*~*~
Shit. He had caught her staring. She was such an idiot. Why was she even caring about him being all alone and ignored? He had been nothing but rude to her and her family over the years. He was the biggest jerk of all time. He didn't deserve her thoughts.
"Are you ready for class?" Hermione asked Ginny, excitedly reaching for her stuffed book bag.
"Sure." Ginny said, hoping her face wasn't as red.
"You all right?" Harry asked, coming over and reaching for Ginny's book bag.
"Yeah I'm fine." She replied quickly.
"Your face looks a bit red. Are you feeling well?"
Ginny sighed. Curse her blushing.
"Yeah just nervous. NEWTs are very important after all." She lied.
~*~*~*~
Harry toted Ginny's book bag to the NEWT prep class held in an old Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The classroom was very full.
"Oh poo, all the good seats are taken!" Hermione said as they crowded around the doorway. Of course, Hermione meant that all the front seats were occupied. She sighed.
"I suppose we have to sit in the back then." She trudged towards an open seat. Harry and Ron high fived behind her back. Ginny pretended to be occupied looking around the room while she waited for seats to be taken.
As usual, Hermione seated herself closest to the center of the blackboard, with Ron on her right, who insisted Harry sit on his right. Ginny would have taken the seat to Hermione's left but it was occupied by some blonde who was chatting avidly with the girl in front of her. The class was filling fast.
"Take a seat take a seat! Hurry hurry hurry!" Called the teacher. Hermione looked up at that point.
"Oh Ginny! You're going to have to sit elsewhere!" Hermione said sadly, aware of the seating predicament.
"It's okay, I can sit here." she said, taking a seat two rows back from the trio, one from the back. She made sure she was angled away from Harry. The only way he could stare at her longingly now would be if he could rotate his head like an owl. Success. Or was it?
~*~*~*~
Draco had snuck into the NEWT prep class behind with a group of chatting students, who weren't aware of his presence. The ministry wizard hosting the class was preparing a stack of thick pamphlets to pass around to students.
"Take a seat take a seat! Hurry hurry hurry!" The wizard called to the students. Draco spied the messy black hair of Potter and took a roundabout way around the classroom, making his way to the far back corner of the class where he wouldn't be noticed.
The students around him continued to chat loudly. Draco hid his face behind his fancy leather book bag, trying to hide because Potter had turned around in his seat.
"Pay attention pay attention please!" The teacher called. "You are all old enough to keep track of your belongings so I expect you NOT to lose this pamphlet!" He handed a stack of pamphlets to the student at the front of each row for them to pass back. He could see Granger's hideously poofy hair bouncing in her anticipation to get her book.
A student a couple of seats forward groaned at the heaviness of the book. When it was his turn to receive the book he was greeted by warm brown eyes which quickly turned dark the second they met his.
"What are you, stalking me?" Girl Weasley hissed at him, allowing the heavy book to drop loudly on his desk. Students turned at the sound. He was now noticed by the entire class. His eyes flicked briefly to Harry. He looked as if he was ready to get up out of his seat and the sight of where he was seated. Oh that's right, didn't the girl mention yesterday on the train that Potter had some sick fascination with getting back with her that she didn't share? The memory was vague (he really needed to lay off the hash) but he was sure of the fact. He grabbed his book, opened it, and hid behind it. The teacher cleared his throat and started droning on about the basics of what they'd be expecting with their NEWTs.
~*~*~*~
The teacher passed out a couple of pages of sample questions which made even Hermione cringe near the end of the class. They were to go over them and turn them in by next week. No doubt Hermione would have hers turned in early. But the worst part of the class had yet to come.
"I am pairing you up." The wizard announced. An uproar of cheers and groans echoed around the classroom. The teacher held up his hands to get their attention.
"Let me finish let me finish!" He said. "I am pairing you up, for THIS assignment. Not the whole class." He announced. The students calmed down. A week wasn't so bad compared to previous classes where they had been paired the entire term, take Potions for example.
The teacher took the roll list and started pairing people off. Ron and Hermione got paired together. Harry got paired (to his disappointment) a Ravenclaw boy (to his delight).
`please please please no no no' Draco heard the girl in front of him whisper. `anyone but him…'
"Miss Weasley?" The teacher called. Ginny raised her hand. The teacher glanced at his roll sheet then behind her.
"Miss Weasley you will be paired with Mr. Malfoy." The teacher read out, scribbling down the decision on his grade sheet.
Harry, Ron and Hermione proceeded to stare in his direction. Ron glared and made faces at Draco. Harry just blankly stared at him before turning his gaze (painfully) to Ginny. He and Hermione were giving her a `I'm so sorry! Study with us!' look. The girl kind of shrugged.
Draco cleared his throat a little. She turned around.
"Damn Weasley you look like you've been sentenced to death." He drawled slowly. She glared at him.
"I have a name you know." She snapped. Draco paused.
`Shit I don't remember her name!' Draco suddenly remembered.
"Am I really so bad to be paired with?' he changed the subject.
"You are such a pig Malfoy." The girl sneered.
"Mmm…. I do enjoy bacon." Draco said, smirking. The girl tutted and turned back around.
The bell rang signaling freedom of the class. She quickly stood up and reached for her book bag.
"So Weasley-" He began. Her head snapped up.
"That's not my name." She said angrily.
"Sure it is!" He said, grinning evilly.
"No. Weasley is what you call my brother. If we're going to be study partners this week you better stop calling me that." She said, pointing a finger at him. He wasn't fazed.
"Whatever you say Weasel." He said, brushing past her. She stood at her desk for a moment before shouting after him.
"That's not my name!!!"
~*~*~*~
The morning of the next day went a lot better than previous morning. Ginny wasn't splattered with magical plant goo and Neville let slip the date of the upcoming Hogsmeade trip, two weeks from next week. Ginny made a reminder to herself to make plans with Hermione.
"You are so lucky you have me." Hermione sickenly cooed to Ron at the lunch table.
"These questions are so stupid!" Ron said, slapping down the sample NEWT question sheet. "I hope Harry's having better luck than me. Then I can copy off of him."
There was a slapping noise as Hermione hit Ron's arm.
"Owwww!!!" He cried out.
"Ronald you KNOW you can't cheat on the NEWTs!"
"Harry would let me cheat…." Ron mumbled. Hermione glared at Ron and tossed her hair, going back to her sample sheet.
"Will you let me cheat off your sheet?" Ron asked Ginny.
"No! I have enough problem as it is with Malfoy for a partner. I don't need you bothering me. I'm going to be on my own with this one…" she said solemnly.
If she had been partnered with anyone else she wouldn't have to do the study sheet on her own but it was apparent that Malfoy wanted nothing to do her, and she him. Therefore, she was on her own the assignment.
It was quiet at the table as the three of them studied and ate. Harry was still off in the library with Travis, the 7th year from Ravenclaw.
"Hey Weasley." Came a voice from down the table. "You got a minute?"
Ron glowered at the approaching voice.
"For you Malfoy?" Ron snarled. "I don't even have a second."
"Ronald!" Hermione hissed.
"Not you Weasley." Draco said, glaring back at Ron. "This Weasley." Draco said, looking at Ginny.
"I told you, that's not my name." Ginny said.
`What was her name again?' Draco thought quickly.
He remembered hearing her being called a drink… An alcoholic kind.
`Wonder what that's about….' He thought.
`Mead? Tonic? Vodka? Maybe she's good at drinking games. I'd like to see that….. No, no…. Don't think about that! Something else. Something with a `Juh' sound. Jane? No that didn't sound right. Mary? No, that was her mother's name… or was it Molly…..'
"Hello? I'm talking to you!" the girl said loudly, interrupting his thoughts.
"Whatever. Do you want to study or not?" He snapped, folding his arms across his chest.
"That depends on who you're asking." Ginny shot back.
`Damn it this bitch isn't caving on this name issue' Draco thought.
"I'm asking you, darling." He said, smiling in an evilly sweet sort of way.
"Are you calling me `DARLING'?!" She practically shrieked.
"I know you just didn't call my baby sister `darling' you prick!" Ron said, standing up.
"Ron! Calm down! You're causing a scene!" Hermione said, pulling on Ron's sleeve, trying to get him to sit back down.
"It's okay Ron." Ginny said. "I've got this handled." She turned to Draco.
"Fine. Library. Tomorrow. After lunch." She said. She grabbed her belongings in a hurry and stalked out of the Great Hall in a huff.
~*~*~*~
Ginny sat at a table in a far corner of the library, a large stack of books in the center. She peeked around the stack and stared at a table several down from hers. She could barely make out the top of her brothers head over the many stacks of books littering his and Hermione's table.
She sighed and peeked around the other stack of the book, eyes trained on the door. She glanced at her faded Velcro strap watch. He should have been here by now, that pompous jerk. Making her wait. She had taken the time out of her schedule to meet here to study for that Merlin awful NEWT prep assignment and he was late. She should have known.
"Looking for someone Red?"
Ginny jumped in her seat and turned around. Draco was standing behind her chair, his arms full of more books.
"You scared me." She said, glancing at the books in his arm.
"Sorry." He said, shrugging. He set the books down on the table, dust rising out from beneath them, causing Ginny to sneeze.
"Bless you." She barely heard him say.
"What did you say?" She asked him quickly.
"Bless you. You sneezed." He said hurridly.
"Before that." she said.
"Uh…."
"Did you say you were….. Sorry?" Ginny asked, whispering the last word. Draco just shrugged.
"And that's not my name by the way." Ginny said, leaning back in her seat, glancing sideways at him
"Darn." Draco said in a `it doesn't matter' tone. Ginny glared at him over the new stack of books.
"Whatever. Do you want to split up the sample questions? Or do you just want to work on them all together?" She suggested.
"Whatever you want J." Draco said. Ginny raised an eyebrow at him. He sure was weird. Maybe he was high again.
"Fine. I'll take the first ten. You take the other." She said.
~*~*~*~
Hours passed in silence as they rummaged through book after book, trying to find answers for their questions. Ginny had only answered three of hers and she suspected Draco hadn't even finished one. She couldn't tell because of the stack of books between them.
Her head buried in a book she looked up quickly after feeling something bounce off her head. She stared around her, looking for what had been the cause. She shifted in her seat, causing a paper swan to fall to the floor. She frowned and picked it up.
She sat up a bit and peeked over the smaller stack of books. Her mouth fell open in horror.
"Is that what you have been doing this entire time????" She hissed.
"Maybe….." Draco drawled, an army of origami swans littering his side of the table.
"I can't believe I got stuck working on this VERY important assignment with YOU! Of ALL people!" Ginny said loudly.
Madam Pince shushed fiercely in her direction causing her to shrink back into her chair.
"Aw come on, bird." Draco said softly. Ginny continued to glare at him. "We had fun on the train up here. What happened?"
Ginny's mouth fell open again.
"You were as high as a kite on the train and you damn well know it!" she hissed.
"Not the entire time." He said, winking. Ginny's mouth continued to fall open.
"You're high now aren't you?'
"No! What makes you think that?" He said taken aback.
"How you're acting! You never gave me or any of my family a damn and now you're trying to be all `buddy buddy' with me. Well its NOT working!"
There was silence for a few minutes between the two.
"And I did NOT have fun on the train over here."
More silence.
"Not even a little bit?" Draco asked.
"Yes." She hissed.
`Okay well it kind of had been fun. In an odd sort of way….' She thought to herself. They hadn't spoken much, not much had gone on, but they had managed not to eat each other on the ride to school. Perhaps since they had survived the train ride they could learn to survive the week. `As long as that slacker gets to work on this damn assignment!' She thought. She shook her head and went back to working on her forth question.
Another paper swan, this one smaller, dive bombed the stack of books and into the book Ginny was reading. Ginny sighed and pushed it away.
"Are you not going to read it?" came a voice from the other side of the stack of books.
Ginny sighed loudly and slapped down her quill. She unfolded the paper bird and read one word:
Hi
"Hi." Ginny said aloud, annoyed. She tossed the paper aside.
Another swan dive bombed. How was he launching those things? She picked up the second one and opened it as well.
How many questions have you finished
"More than you have." Ginny said smartly.
Another swan bomb.
Wanna bet? Show me
Ginny sighed again, tired of his stupid weirdo Slytherin probably hash induced game.
She held up her paper over the stack of books to show him.
"See? Now get to work." She told the stack of books he was hiding behind. Draco's blonde head came up from behind the stack of books. He held up his paper, his selection of ten questions fully answered. Ginny's mouth was beginning to feel sore from all the falling open it was doing.
"You're done?" She said.
"Yeah. It was pretty easy for me." Draco said.
"Then why did you stay here if you were finished? Why didn't you go off and annoy your friends instead of staying here and annoying me?"
The look on Draco's face made Ginny regret what she had said. She remembered the previous day and how alone he had looked at the Slytherin lunch table.
"I'm…. I'm sorry. That was rude of me to say." She said, looking down at her open books.
"It's all right. You're right. I don't have any friends." Draco said quietly.
"I'm sure you have friends…." Ginny started.
"Not here I don't." He said. "No one wants to be around me after all my family and I have done. A perfect example is you."
There was silence. Ginny twirled her quill between her hands.
"Well. It's true you've done lot of bad things…. And your Aunt almost killed me."
"Well your mom killed my Aunt." He shot back. Ginny frowned.
"Look. Our families have always had differences…." she started again. Draco snorted.
"Big differences." He said.
"Right." Ginny said. "Big differences. But I don't see why people just can't move on from everything. I'm trying to. After my brother died… Well…. That's what I've been trying to do. Move on." Tears welled up in her eyes. She looked away, hoping he wouldn't see.
"I'm trying to move on from Harry. From what my parents expect of us. Harry and I, I mean. Move on from the war. I want to be my own person. The battles changed me. Changed my family. Changed a lot of people. Is it so wrong to think that it could change other people too?"
~*~*~*~
Draco thought hard about what she had said. Was she implying that she thought he had changed too? Or was she just rambling like she had on the train?
"No." Draco said after a while. "It's not wrong."
"It's just how I see it…." She mumbled.
"I'm glad you do." He said. He couldn't tell if it was the light in the dim library but he thought he saw her smile. God she was pretty when she smiled.
A book collided with his forehead.
"Are you okay?" she asked him wide eyed. He had just smacked himself in the head with a massive tome.
"I'm fine." He said, shaking off his thoughts. She gave him a weird look before returning to her paper. He felt awkward sitting there now. It hadn't been a problem when she still thought he was working on his sample questions. But now he felt it was too much. He decided to press the envelope and stay there. After all, she had stayed in the train cabin long after Potter had stopped looking for her.
Another few hours later, Ginny had finished her paper. They swapped their papers to get the answers they missed. They left their book bags at their table as they went to put their books back.
"Are you sure you didn't have even a lints worth of fun on the train?" Draco pressed, carrying the larger stack of books. Ginny went red in the face.
"It was kind of fun. On the run from Potter…. Hiding from him…. Causing him at that panic…. You know he probably was about to send a search party…." Draco whispered. Ginny stifled a giggle badly. It came out anyways. He was funny.
"All right all right….. It was a lints worth of fun." she said.
"So what are you doing two weekends from next week." Draco said. Ginny nearly dropped her books.
"Wh-wh-wha-what?" She spluttered, eyes blinking rapidly.
"What are you doing two weekends from next?" Draco said again, this time slower.
"Probably going to Hogsmeade with Hermione…. Why." Ginny said, eyeing Draco suspiciously.
"Well, since you had fun on the train, maybe we could have fun… there…. In…. town." he trailed off.
Oh God he was digging his grave right then and there what the hell was he doing? What the hell was he saying? He REALLY needed to lay off the hash. Did he just ask the Weasley girl to Hogsmeade?
`It totally isn't a date!' His mind screamed. `I'm desperate for friends! Oh Merlin I'm a goner….'
"AS FRIENDS!" Draco shouted in the library. Madam Pince gave him a threatening look from around a nearby corner.
"As friends…." Ginny mulled. She had decided she was going to move on with her life. Get past the past. And she couldn't argue with the fact that Draco was being snubbed by the rest of the school and had no friends here.
"On TWO conditions." she said. She set her books down on a shelf. She held up two fingers to Draco and ticked off her conditions.
"Number one: JUST as friends." She said.
"And two: you have to properly ask me by name." She smirked with her final request. Draco smirked back.
He had finally figured out a way to find out her name. When he had asked to see how many questions she had finished on her assignment he had looked at the upper corner of her paper for her name. She was looking at him with the satisfied assumption he was going to spout off some crazy name.
"Fine." He said. He'd play her game.
"Ginny will you go to Hogsmeade with me… As friends." He said.
"That's not-----" She had begun to say. She blushed a deep pink.
"All right. I'll go." she said. She then turned on her heel and headed back to their table to retrieve her book bag.
~*~*~*~
Author's note: This chapter turned out WAY longer than I expected. I hope that's okay with people. I also hope people like this story so far. I know I do. Usually my stories haven't revolved around Draco and Ginny in school so it's a different direction for me. Did you understand the `lints worth of fun' lines? Like, you know, pocket lint? I don't know. That was the smallest thing I could think of besides `a dust spec worth of fun'. Please please please review. It would mean a lot to me! Thank you for reading.
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