A/N: Hey guys! This didn’t take too long, right? I mean, I’ve done worse. I think I have too many hobbies. Anyway, thanks soooo much to everyone who reviewed! You guys are amazing. Don’t know what I’d do with out you!
Enjoy Chapter 9!
When Ginny woke up the next morning, a smile appeared on her face before she had even opened her eyes. She hummed during her entire shower for the first time in what seemed like ages, and even the thin beams of sunlight shining through her window seemed brighter than usual.
It was amazing what one little conversation with a certain formerly love-struck friend could do for one’s mood. Without the constant worry of getting trapped alone and awkward with Harry, she reckoned her stress level could be taking a very positive turn. She was already feeling better than ever, and when her high spirits lasted even through Snape’s abysmal Potions class, she knew that everything must have been finally falling into place.
Well, almost everything. She still hadn’t figured out whether Malfoy should be classified as a friend, enemy, annoyance, or any of the other possibilities that had taken up permanent residence in her brain. But whatever he was, she was not about to let him spoil her good mood. In fact, she spent the majority of her day hardly even aware of his existence.
Until starting off on her way to History of Magic, that is.
Still humming quietly to herself, Ginny dug through her bag while walking from her dormitory to Professor Binns’ classroom. Her hands rummaged through scrolls and bottles of ink, double-checking that she’d remembered her latest essay, but her mind was busy reliving what had to be the most stress-free breakfast she’d had in months. She and Harry had shared a wonderfully platonic conversation, and she couldn’t help but dwell on how much easier it was to talk to him since last night. No more worrying about what to say or how to act, or counting escape routes out of the corner of her eye every time he looked her way. Just the thought of it brought a grateful sigh from her lips.
Grabbing her homework and snapping her bag shut, Ginny turned onto the next corridor before realizing that it was already occupied.
“Betcha liked playing the hero, huh, Draco?”
She froze.
Blaise Zabini was leaning against the wall, flanked by several other Slytherins and facing a very livid Malfoy. “What, is Potter your new role model or something? Maybe you thought if you let him win the game and saved his little girlfriend, he’d let you join his fanclub.”
A shrill giggle followed, and Ginny didn’t even have to look to recognize it as Pansy Parkinson’s.
“Shut up, Zabini,” Malfoy snapped, his mouth curling dangerously.
Blaise made to grab his wand, but stopped when he noticed Ginny’s sudden appearance. A sneer of his own grew on his face, and he lowered his hand from his pocket.
“Well, speak of the devil,” he said, regarding her with a mixture of glee and contempt. “Looks like you’ve got a stalker, Draco. I never knew you had a thing for Weasels, but…to each his own.”
Malfoy’s head spun in the direction Blaise was looking, and his pale eyes widened for a moment before narrowing into slits. Ginny tried hard not to flinch at the look on his face. He was glaring at her so fiercely it was as if acid was shooting from his eyes, trying to burn a hole right through her. She opened her mouth to speak, without a clue of what to say, but before she could do so much as blink, he was brushing coldly past her and stalking off down the corridor.
With a harsh laugh, the other Slytherins disappeared into a classroom, leaving Ginny standing alone in the hall with her mouth still open and her eyes swimming with confusion. She felt like she’d just jumped right into a very fast, very angry hurricane. Shaking her head slowly back and forth, she continued walking to class in a sort of baffled daze, trying desperately to sort out what had just happened.
Why had Malfoy looked at her like that? Like…like he hated her and everything about her? Ginny turned into Professor Binns’ room and slumped down into a chair in the back row. Ignoring the start of the lesson, she put her head in her hands and closed her eyes momentarily. Blaise Zabini had been taunting him about what had happened during the match. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t realized before how horribly they must have all been treating him because of it; after all, he had lost them the Quidditch Cup. He must be furious with her.
A few guilty moments later, Ginny realized how ridiculous she was being.
This was, of course, not her fault. She’d never asked him to play the hero (although she had to admit she was grateful) and he had no right to blame her for how his so-called friends were reacting. If anything, she should be angry with him. He still hadn’t explained all the strange things he’d been ranting on about in the hospital, and she wasn’t having much luck figuring them out on her own. All the aggravation he’d caused her definitely justified a little resentment. But of course, being Malfoy, he had to go and act like it was her fault his broom had come racing towards her unconscious body at top speed, completely ignoring the Snitch two feet in front of it.
Ginny huffed and slouched further down into her chair, tossing her essay forward when Professor Binns called out for them in his hollow voice. There was nothing for it. She would just have to ask him to his face why he was being such an inconsiderate jerk. Maybe while she was at it she could force him to explain whatever nonsense he’d been trying to get across while she was busy being choked to death by Madam Pomfrey’s potions. It didn’t sound very promising, even in her own head, but it was as close to a plan as she could manage. She spent the rest of the hour agonizing over how to begin such a confrontation, but when the bell finally rang, she was only left wondering how History of Magic, of all things, could have gone by so quickly.
Her sketch of a plan having undergone no further progress, Ginny glanced at her classmates stuffing pages of sleepily written notes into their bags, and looked mournfully down at her own blank parchment. Slipping it back out of sight, she slung her books over her shoulder and headed sulkily for the door.
This situation was really not going to pay off come O.W.L.s.
After class, Ginny entered the Great Hall for lunch, glanced inconspicuously over at the Slytherin table, and scowled at the absence of the usual white blond head among the rest. Walking towards the other Gryffindors, she bit her lip in worry. She did have an hour off after lunch, but if he didn’t show up soon, it was quite possible that she’d lose her nerve entirely.
Sitting down in her usual chair, she said a quick hello to Harry and Hermione. Ron, however, had retreated behind a large copy of the Daily Prophet, and so was oblivious to her arrival.
“Since when do you get the paper, Ron?” Ginny asked, while choosing a sandwich from one of the silver trays dotting the tables.
“I don’t. Nicked it from Dean during Transfiguration. I can’t believe we didn’t hear about this at breakfast! Everyone must have read it…”
“Read what?” Harry and Ginny asked together. Less than twenty-four hours earlier this would have been cause for a large amount of discomfort. Now they merely glanced at each other before turning their attention back to Ron’s paper.
“Have a look at this!” he spread the page out over the table, his finger resting on a picture of a smiling, middle-aged woman standing in what looked like a narrow office cubicle. The headline was written in bold black letters across the top of the page.
“Member of Securities Committee reported missing; Ministry receives devastating blow,” Hermione read out loud, leaning over her pumpkin juice towards the Prophet. Her eyebrows were drawn together in worry. “You don’t think…Death Eaters?”
“Who else would want to weaken security at the Ministry?” Harry said quietly.
“Not at the Ministry,” Ron shook his head and frowned down at the paper. “Listen: ‘Early this morning the residence of Ursula Hopkins, leader of the security officials in charge of protecting Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was found empty after a four-day period of absence from work. While investigators found no immediate reason as to why she had disappeared, several reports revealed that signs of a struggle were discovered in her home.’” He glanced up at the others. “That’s us, innit? She was in charge of all the spells and stuff around the castle.”
“They haven’t all gone then, have they?” Ginny asked anxiously, unable to keep the traces of fear that were currently crawling up her back from reflecting in her voice.
“If they were I doubt we’d all be sitting around here talking about it,” said Hermione. “There must be other people keeping them going. They can’t have left it all up to one person.”
“Still though…” Harry’s voice trailed off as his eyes lingered on the picture; the black-and-white woman was waving cheerily back at them, obviously unaware of her impending disappearance. “It can’t just be a coincidence.”
“Well, if they don’t find her soon, they’ll get a replacement, right?” Ginny suggested. “I mean as long as the school has someone looking after all its enchantments””
She stopped mid-sentence as something caught her eye outside the Great Hall. From her seat at the Gryffindor table, she had a full view of the corridor beyond the large wooden doors, and, accordingly, anyone who happened to walk past them. And this particular someone seemed to have almost glowing blonde hair….
“I have to go,” she said automatically, pushing her chair away from the table and standing up, all the while trying to keep her eyes fixed on the place Malfoy had stood only seconds ago. “Sorry, I just remembered”I have to do something”See you guys later.”
“Wait, what”” Harry stammered, starting to get out of his chair.
But Ginny was already rushing away from the table, completely missing the suspiciously raised eyebrows that passed between her friends, her mind set on continuing her pursuit. She stopped outside of the Great Hall, glancing feverishly up and down the corridor for any sign of Malfoy. Her eyes landed on a stone staircase leading to the dungeons, and she had a sudden spark of realization. Breaking into a run, she followed them downward.
While Ginny had never actually been to the Slytherin common room before, she knew from Harry and Ron that it was somewhere beneath the rest of the school. Hoping her hunch about Malfoy’s whereabouts was right, she dodged a couple of cobwebs hanging from the moldy ceiling and stepped down into the dungeons. The dusty suits of armor lining the walls seemed rather more ominous than usual, having somehow lost the familiarity they’d acquired during her routine trips to Potions class. As she stood for a moment at the foot of the stairs, quite clueless as to where to turn next, a clattering above her made her jump. She spun around in time to see a group of third years with glistening silver and green badges on their chests rushing down the staircase; they stopped only long enough to give her own badge a contemptuous glance, before turning down a corridor on the left and disappearing from sight.
Hardly daring to believe her luck, Ginny hurried after them. Her footsteps echoed loudly off the dark stones of the dungeon floor, but she was too intent on keeping the Slytherins in sight to slow her pace. Less than a minute later, she skidded to a stop around a corner and her eyes landed on a stretch of blank grey wall. The third years backed away as a hidden door suddenly opened, and Ginny just caught a glimpse of a long, narrow room with high-backed chairs and a stone fireplace, before it swung shut with a thud.
Taking a deep breath (which she immediately regretted; the air was thick with bits of spider web), she stepped gingerly down the hall. It was only when she had come within feet of the now invisible door that she realized she didn’t know the password. Cursing, she gave the stone wall a frustrated kick. Not at all surprised when this accomplished nothing, she resigned herself to waiting outside until Malfoy decided to come out again. He did have to go to class, after all. And she was too determined to give up when only a solid foot or so of rock was standing in her way.
A very solid foot, as her throbbing toes reminded her painfully.
Ginny sank down against the wall to wait. Her heart gave an enormous leap when the door swung open again after a few minutes, but it turned out only to be the third years she had followed in the first place. Now looking very suspicious towards her apparent fascination with their common room, they scurried away up the corridor, throwing hostile glances over their shoulders. Ginny sighed and glanced half-heartedly up at the closed stone door. It would have been impossible to decide whether or not she was relieved, so she settled instead on watching the spiders crawling stealthily up the dungeon wall. Luckily (or was it unluckily?), she didn’t have long to sit and watch their slow progress. After she had sustained several more strange looks from the odd Slytherin on their way to class, Malfoy finally ventured out, a copy of Achievements in Charming tucked under his arm.
Not noticing her presence at first, he paused to check his pockets for his wand. As Ginny pushed herself off of the dusty floor, he glanced up through the blonde hair swept across his forehead and his eyes landed on her. Taking advantage of his moment of surprise, Ginny crossed her arms and tried to arrange her face into what she hoped was a formidable enough expression.
“So.” She hadn’t exactly thought this plan through very thoroughly. But as Malfoy had yet to stalk off without a word for the second time that day, she figured she had a moment to collect her thoughts. Discovering unhappily that there were no such useful things to be found in her head, she blurted out the first thing that came to her. “What is the matter with you?” she exclaimed.
“Excuse me?” Malfoy, it appeared, was no longer in a state of silence. “Is this some sort of routine of yours, stationing yourself outside other people’s common rooms to ambush them? Because if so I suggest you seek psychological help.”
Ginny scoffed, anger starting to prickle underneath her skin as her eyes glittered heatedly. “The only one who’s going to need help is you, Malfoy, if you don’t tell me why you’ve been acting like such a prick all of a sudden,” she snapped, scowling at him.
“All of a sudden?” he repeated, his eyebrows flying up in mock surprise. “I’m flattered, Weaslette. And here I was under the impression that you always think I’m a prick.” He took in her angrily narrowed eyes. “What, did I damage your delicate feelings? Too bad Potter’s not around to make it all better”I’m sure you’d just love to go back to the lake and finish snogging yourselves silly on some rock””
“See, this is exactly what I meant, you can’t go two minutes without”” Ginny stopped, her hands freezing in mid-air where she had thrown them up in exasperation. Did he just say…What did he just say? In the midst of all his prolonged babbling, she was sure she’d heard “Potter,” “lake,” and “snogging” in the same sentence. She lowered her arms and stared at him incredulously, not sure how to interpret the strange mixture of emotions that were fighting to reveal themselves in his blazing eyes. “Have”Have you been spying on me?” she asked, altogether appalled at the idea.
“As if I’d ever sink so low,” Draco scoffed. “You should pick a better spot next time you and Pot-head want to go somewhere private, as”I’m sure you’ve realized”the grounds aren’t.”
A sneaking suspicion started to grow inside Ginny’s mind, and the idea of it took her confusion to a whole new level. “Is that why you’re acting so mental? Because I was talking to Harry? I talk to him everyday!” she said, glaring back with the type of glare reserved specially for him.
“Yeah? Well it didn’t look like such an innocent conversation from what I saw.”
“There was nothing to see!” Ginny said, her voice rising to a shriek. “Harry and I are friends! And it took long enough to convince him of that”I’d rather not have to explain it to everyone else too!”
Draco blinked, a touch of uncertainty creeping onto his face. “What do you mean ‘friends’?” he asked. “Everyone knows you’ve both been obsessed with each other from the start. And the way he was…all over you….” He looked as if he was struggling to swallow something very sour. “It’s enough to make anyone sick!”
“We have not been”” Ginny let out an extremely frustrated growl. There was no point arguing with him. It wasn’t like she was going to accomplish anything. Nobody ever did with stupid, stubborn ferrets, in her opinion. She took a deep breath, trying to control herself. “Why do you care, anyway?” she asked finally, feeling more annoyed than angry.
“I don’t,” he shot back, his face suddenly wiped of any expression.
He was getting quite good at proving her right. She didn’t think she’d ever met anyone so incredibly stubborn.
“And I’m supposed to believe that, after you just spent the last five minutes going ballistic because you saw me and Harry together?” she asked, darting in front of him as he tried to inch towards the stairs. “I want”no, I deserve to know what’s going on.”
Draco glared down at her, and she was suddenly very aware of how tall he was. “You’re”in”my”way,” he said, pronouncing each word separately. His gray eyes turned stony in the dim light of the torches on the dungeon wall.
“And”I’m”not”moving,” she said in the same rough tone, “until you give me an answer.” Her heart was pounding erratically in her throat as she stared straight into his narrowed eyes.
He kept her gaze for a moment, his heavy breathing the only sound in the otherwise deserted corridor, before grabbing her shoulders and crashing his lips onto hers.
Ginny’s eyes flew open in shock. Complete, mind-boggling, jaw-dropping shock. Except her jaw couldn’t drop, as that particular part of her had been temporarily commandeered. There was no way she could have seen this coming”although a small portion of her mind thought that she should. Being kissed by Draco Malfoy? King of All-
Things-Slytherin? It was absolutely insane. But it wasn’t.
Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god.
And what was worse, that sentiment was almost definitely double sided. On the one hand, having her lips touch his was surely against every law nature had ever thought to devise. It was wrong, pure and simple. Her brain was busy screaming in protest as everything it had come to believe was sent spiraling down the drain, ignoring its feeble attempts to pull them back.
But on the other…it wasn’t really that bad. Yes, her heart felt like it was about to go off like a time-bomb, and her entire body was trembling as he held her against him, but aside from that….Well, to put it simply she could get used to this. The warm pressure he was putting on her lips flooded her body, reaching every nerve down to the very tips of her fingers. Her eyes fluttered shut. She thought she might understand why so many girls were crazy about him now. It was dizzying”almost intoxicating”to be kissing him. Which she suddenly realized she was doing.
She, Ginny Weasley, was kissing Draco Malfoy back. And liking it.
Ginny felt his hands tighten on her shoulders, and moaned quietly into his mouth. She reached up to tangle her fingers in his silvery hair, and suddenly, the hands and lips were gone, and it was over.
Her breath coming in soft pants, she kept her eyes closed as he pulled away from her. She could hear him breathing, and felt an involuntary twinge of regret that she could no longer feel it against her mouth.
“Does that answer your question?” she heard him whisper, his voice hoarse and out-of-breath.
Still unable to open her eyes, it took a moment for his words to penetrate the hazy mist clouding her mind. She felt similar to the way she had upon first waking up in the Hospital Wing after falling hundreds of feet on the Quidditch field. Like someone had accidentally put her brain in slow motion. Trying to jar her mind back in gear, she shook herself mentally and slowly opened her eyes.
The dungeon corridor was deserted once again.
A/N: Reviews are so very yummy...