A Joke at Ginny's Expense
On the train……
Ginny sat on the Hogwarts Express, staring out of the window to the green fields in the distance. A tear trickled down her cheek, as she thought of her brothers and friends, still at Hogwarts, while she was on her way back to her family, in disgrace. Mrs Weasley would never forgive her for bringing such shame on the family name; she had been duped by that bastard, Draco Malfoy, and in her teachers' and family's eyes, she had given in to a Slytherin. The embarrassment of it all; Ginny shivered in her seat, and she pulled her cloak tightly around herself.
But she hadn't known what she was doing. It hadn't been her fault. Yes, she had slept with him, but she couldn't have helped it! Malfoy had used a seduction drug on her, as she had told Professor McGonagall over and over again. But no one believed her. Ginny went over the terrible night in her mind……
They had all been at the end of exam ball. Malfoy had been looking his usual slimy self in an emerald green silk cloak, with royal blue lace at the cuffs. Ginny had looked at him, sneered, and turned away to converse with her fellow Griffindors. Later on she was feeling depressed, because Hermione was dancing with Harry, and Ginny had not yet been asked to dance; Malfoy came up to her, and offered a drink; Ginny looked down her nose at him and refused – she still had her dignity, even if no one had asked her to dance. He placed the drink down on the side next to her, anyway.
"Jealous of Hermione, are we Ginny?" Malfoy drawled. "Jealous because she's dancing with famous Mr Potter, and you haven't been asked by anyone, not even someone younger than you? Well, you'll never be asked to dance; not by Potter, not by anyone."
Ginny felt suddenly sick, and grasped the table nearest her. What Malfoy said was true, she knew it. She had never been asked to dance, and never would. She loved Harry only, and her dream of him asking her to dance was shattering into a million pieces by Malfoy's cutting voice. He swaggered off, satisfied that he had crushed Ginny's confidence enough for the minute.
"Ginny, what's the matter?" It was Lavender, looking anxiously into Ginny's face. "Ignore Malfoy, nothing he says is true. Have a drink, it looks as though you could do with one."
Gratefully, Ginny accepted the glass which Lavender offered her, and tipped it down her throat with one gulp. It was warm and sweet, and she could feel it heating her from the inside outwards as she drank it. She was feeling better already. In fact, she almost began to feel sorry for Malfoy; he thought that he was making her feel ill, when all he was doing was making her feel sorry for him.
Ginny convinced Lavender that she was all right, and walked across the room towards Dean Thomas, who was discussing Quidditch tactics with fellow Gryffindors. As she walked, the room started to spin around Ginny, and she felt suddenly very weak. She felt herself falling towards the floor of the hall, but, just as she was about to hit the ground, a strong hand caught her around her waist, and she felt safe. "Thank you", she murmured, before lapsing into unconsciousness.
Twenty minutes later……
Ginny opened her eyes and looked around. She was lying on a bed, in a room she had never seen before. There was a green serpent painted on the wall. Her head was muzzy, and she couldn't see properly. Suddenly she saw the outline of a figure walk across the room towards her, and she lifted her head up to see who it was. It was a boy, and he was wearing an emerald green cloak, with blue lacy cuffs; he came over to the bed. "How are you feeling, darling?" His voice was smooth and soft, and Ginny wanted him closer. As if he knew what she were thinking, he lay down on the bed beside her. He stroked her hair, and Ginny felt a surge of pleasure and helplessness oozing through her limbs. She pulled him towards her, and could feel the warmth from his body seeping into hers, as he kissed her, deeply, passionately. She wanted him, she needed him.
Later……
The nest morning, when the first shafts of sunlight were dancing on the bare floor, Ginny opened her eyes; her vision was no longer blurred by the potion, and she suddenly wondered what had happened that night. She remembered being at the ball, but after that she had had a very strange dream – she had been having sex with Draco Malfoy! She laughed softly to herself, and sat up on her bed. And yet it wasn't her bed – and that wasn't her room either – where was she? There was a Slytherin serpent painted on the wall – "Oh God, please, please tell me that it was only a dream". Before she had time to even contemplate the thought, the door opened – by Pansy Parkinson.
"Malfoy, dear, what happened to you last night? There was this terrible rumour about you and that dreadful Weasley girl, and I just……" She tailed off, staring at the small figure of Ginny, dressed in a skimpy lace nightie, getting out of Malfoy's bed, and Draco himself, in a pair of shorts, swanning out of the bathroom. "MALFOY! You didn't! You wouldn't! With that excuse for a girl! Why?"
On the train……
Ginny shuddered in her seat on the train as she recollected the three days after Pansy had walked in. Three days of hell, and she remembered everything that had been said to her; Malfoy announcing to the whole school (with the exception of the teachers) that he had had a bet with Crabbe and Goyle that he could get Ginny into bed; Malfoy then walking around saying to anyone that would listen that Ginny was "desperate for it", "a slut", "a whore", and all the rest; her brothers were not even talking to her for doing such a thing; lectures from Professor McGonagall about "choosing the right time for such activities, not at school", and repeated pleas from Ginny herself that she had been under the seduction potion. But no one believed her; the only teacher who may have known how to make such a powerful concoction would be Professor Snape, and he swore that he had never heard of such a drug.
Ginny had been sent home for the rest of the term, until she had "learnt to control her sexual feelings" (she cringed with sheer embarrassment at the remembrance of Madame Pomfrey saying this in front of her), and until Malfoy had stopped boasting. Although Malfoy had got in trouble for "going on about the incident more than was necessary", it was a small price to pay for the emotional agony Ginny had gone through, and that which was to come, from her parents, who were "shamed, disgraced and disgusted" according to McGonagall.
Ginny was now regarded as the 'slut' of Hogwarts; it was thought that she had let down her family's name, her house's name, and even the name of the school. She had no dignity, no self-respect. Not a pupil at the school was unaware of Ginny's actions, and only Ginny knew, or believed, that it had not been her fault. Malfoy had hurt her more than she could possibly imagine. He had enjoyed a joke – a joke at Ginny's expense……