A/N: Well, I've started another fic. I'm not posting this right away, as I have to finish ASBR. I hope you enjoy this though, as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Ms. Rowling. Anything to do with Hogwarts belongs to her actually. But I came up with this plot, so it belongs to me, thank you very much!
Splat. The rain starts to come down, heavier and heavier as the Hogwart's Express chugs along its tracks. She looks out the window with growing anxiety of what will happen this year. He's returned, she thinks, Will he get me again?
The thoughts linger in her mind, though she tries to shake them off. She brushes her red hair out of her face and stops looking out the window at the depressing sky.
Here, in this compartment, sits Ginny Weasley. Alone, and scared, she cuddles up in a corner. It's been four years since she had been possessed by Voldemort, but she still remembers everything. And all those thoughts race through her head every morning.
She thinks of her one comfort: her friends. Hermione and Luna most of all. It was a hard summer. She stayed at Grimmauld place, but Hermione hadn't been there. Hermione had gone off to Tibet. Luna was with her father, off getting ridiculous stories for the Quibbler. But she hasn't seen them on the train. Were they already at Hogwarts?
A sharp knock on the door breaks her train of thought.
'Let me in,' the cold voice says.
Draco Malfoy. She debates whether or not to open the door. Reluctantly, she does. 'What do you want?' she asks him, equally as coldly.
'There are no other compartments,' he replies as the rain gets heavier outside. 'Why aren't you with your goody-two-shoes friends? They abandon you or something?' His voice is mocking and cruel.
'I haven't seen them. They didn't abandon me,' she answers stiffly. 'What about your-' She pauses, searching for the right word. Minions, she wants to say. 'friends?'
There's a low rumble of thunder outside and lightning aluminates his pale face and icy eyes. The sharp angles of his pointed profile are shadowed and highlighted.
'I have no clue.' He sits down opposite of her. 'Those stupid gits probably got lost.'
Ginny suppresses a giggle. She will not laugh at his jokes. She looks out the window, which is beginning to fog up as the rain comes down harder. Ginny wipes away the mist; she needs to see the rain. The rain is a comfort to her. It comes down in ribbons of water. There is no wind to divert its vertical path. The pattering is now gone, leaving a steady rumble as the rain hits the steam engine train.
'Coming down quite hard, isn't it?' Draco says, catching her off guard with the lack of poison in his voice.
He too is looking out the window, but with a blank stare. That's no blank stare, Ginny says to herself. She knows that look. It's a look of longing. Longing for what?
Draco had also spent his summer alone. He had stayed in his mansion, his father off on business, his mother away at his grandparents.
'You're old enough to stay alone,' his father had told him as he had prepared to leave. 'No need for you to go off gallivanting with your mother!'
Draco wouldn't try and protest. There was no such thing as 'his own way'. Everything was Lucius' way.
Draco doesn't look at the Weasley girl. He is surprised that she isn't being cruel back to him after what he had done before.
'Yes,' she finally answers. Draco looks at her, his question lost in the other thoughts that he was thinking. 'It is coming down hard.'
He tries not to stare at her face once he notices it. She is beautiful, he thinks. So untouched... He knows this is untrue, but he can't help think of her as innocent.
They're conversation matches that of moment of silence until the rain stops. The sun seems to wake both of them.
Draco gets up, and mutters something about getting into his robes. He then heads off, leaving Ginny alone once more.
Oh Hermione, she wishes. Why can't you be here? She ponders once more where he friends are at. Finally, she decides to go looking for them.
'Gin!' the familiar voice welcomes her, and she is embraced by a skinny boy who seemed to be better fed than the last time she had seen him. Moody must've scared the living daylights out of the Dursleys to get them to feed him well!
'Hullo, Harry!' She greets him brightly, haven't seeing him all summer. 'Alright?'
'Alright!' Harry says enthusiastically. Ginny notices a glitter in his eye when he talks to her but she brushes it off as nothing.
'GINNY!!' A squeal erupts from behind Harry. Bushy-haired Hermione Granger ploughs through him to get to her friend. 'Oh, I've missed you so much!'
'You too, Mione!' Ginny is overwhelmed with joy as she hugs Hermione. Finally, she thinks, someone to talk to!
'I'm sorry we weren't with you, Gin!' Hermione suddenly apologizes. 'It's just that, well-'
Ron's familiar snigger comes from the compartment nearest to them. He steps out and stands very close to Hermione. 'Our Hermione here,' He brings his voice down to a whisper. 'Is afraid of thunder!'
'I am not!' Hermione protests, punching him in the arm.
Harry snorts.
Ginny giggles slightly, but her face doesn't mimic the laugh. 'Where's Luna?' she asks, trying to change the subject.
'She and Neville are having a conversation about Thestrals,' Harry says. 'They're both quite engaged in the conversation- You might not want to disturb them.'
Ginny doesn't know if Harry is speaking code for something. 'Mione,' she says, practically ignoring the rest of them, 'Can I speak to you?' She looks at Harry and Ron. 'Alone?' she adds.
Hermione shrugs and shoes the boys back into the compartment. Ginny leads her to the compartment where she had sat with Draco.
'What's the problem?' Hermione sits opposite of her, where Draco had sat.
By now the rain has stopped and only a few drips of water can be heard through the slightly open window.
'Hermione,' Ginny starts, thinking her words over carefully. 'I don't know what's wrong. I've just been... depressed.'
Hermione smiles warmly. 'It's just a faze,' she says. 'I went through it too.'
Ginny feels like punching her. It's not a faze, she thinks. You never went through what I've gone through. Look at your practically perfect life! You get good grades; your parents have lots of money! She starts to hate Hermione, right then and there. She tells herself not to be jealous and that Hermione has gone through things that were as bad as what she went through.
'Yeah,' Ginny mumbles, suddenly missing the rain and company that had showed up with it. She frowns at herself. It was Draco Malfoy, you stupid git. 'Mione,' she looks up at the sixth year girl who had matured greatly over the summer. In Ginny's eyes, she is a goddess. Smart, pretty, wise... Hermione has it all. 'I'm going to stay here for a while. You know, just kind of get some rest. I'm tired.'
'Sure,' Hermione says, smiling once more and making Ginny want to puke. She gets up and leaves Ginny alone.
'Alone,' Ginny whispers to herself. 'Once again, Ginny. You're all by yourself.'