Melancholy and Bliss
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters you know from the Harry Potter series. I am not JK Rowling because I would be publishing this for money if I were.
Chapter 1 - Unexpected
"C'mon, Ginny! We're gonna be late!"
Ginny rolled her eyes at the sound of Ron's call and returned to her packing. She placed the final robe in the trunk and threw in her shoes.
Clasping the large iron locks, she heaved the trunk off the bed. She looked at herself in the mirror, sighing at her reflection. She knew that others saw an attractive girl, and Ginny supposed that she could see how they might think that. She was 5' 6" and slight, her curves finally having become the round, proportional shapes of a woman, rather than the lanky, awkward build the Weasley kids all seemed to go through. Her athleticism didn't hurt anything, and the firm, lean muscle lay well on her frame. She was thin, fit, and well built, and got plenty of compliments at school, but Ginny just couldn't see herself as anything but an awkward, unremarkable girl. The red hair and freckles that marked her as a Weasley, that made her a target for the Slytherins, and the hand-me-down robes and clothing she altered to fit her but still looked secondhand. She saw nothing attractive in that.
And then there was Harry. Ginny shook her head in disgust and confusion, thinking about Harry's sudden shift in behavior. She knew that he had seen Dumbledore die, and really, did any of them take the death well? No, but that didn't excuse his bad attitude, entitlement, and possessive treatment of Ginny. They had dated last year, but he had been the one to break it off. She didn't much care, but she bristled when he spoke to her like she was his property. She opened the door to her room and put the trunk outside, almost crushing Harry's foot.
"Watch it, Harry," she said, her voice tinged with annoyance. Speak of the Devil. She hated it when he would just appear outside the door. She felt cornered and defensive, which made her angry. Ginny was definitely not the passive type and wouldn't take that kind of treatment from anyone, but it seemed to only encourage Harry. He seemed to be perpetually flirting with her now. Away from Ron, of course, who would probably beat Harry into the ground for being so forward with his sister. Ginny knew exactly what he wanted, and she wasn't about to give it to him.
"Oh, please, Ginny," Harry replied, his face set in the seductive smirk that made almost every Hogwarts girl (and a few of the guys) melt, "you couldn't hurt me if you wanted to."
Why does he think that's attractive? she thought in pure confusion. She hated being treated like a weak little piece of meat. She may not feel terribly attractive, but that attitude just got under her skin. Her face set in a hard, emotionless expression, hiding her reaction, and she dropped into a fighting stance. "Try me," she said, her voice low and threatening. Harry brushed it off, tapping Ginny on the head lightly.
"Maybe later," he replied, his voice just as low, husky where hers was hostile, "but right now…" His hand trailed up the curve of her waist, his face drawing close to hers, looking possessive. Bile rose in her throat at his expression.
Harry doubled over with the force of Ginny's blow to his crotch. As he dropped, she snapped her foot up and around, her roundhouse kick connecting with the side of Harry's head. Ginny fell back into stance, then stood, glaring down at Harry, who was now curled up in pain on the second-floor landing. "Don't you dare," she hissed at him, her voice low and shaking with violent hatred.
"Ginny, Harry, let's – HARRY!" Mrs. Weasley rushed up the stairs, shocked to see the seventeen-year-old boy curled up in obvious pain at her daughter's feet. "WHAT HAPPENED?" At this acclamation, Ron and the other Weasley men ran into the room. Ron ran up the stairs behind his mother.
"What happened?" Ginny repeated mildly, her voice once again calm; too calm. "What happened was the horny bastard can't keep his hands to himself." Ginny turned to Ron. His hands were clenched into white-knuckled fists, glaring at his friend in both anger and disbelief. She looked him in the eye and spoke in her too calm voice; the tone she only used when she was extremely angry. "I suggest you keep him away from me, Ron. He may not survive next time." She heard Ron mumble something about killing Harry himself before she turned away.
Ginny hoisted her loaded trunk with an uncommon ease – Must be the adrenaline, she thought – and walked out to her father's used Muggle Nissan, placing it in the car's storage area and herself in the front seat.
She stood on Platform 9 at King's Cross Station, looking around at the foot traffic on the concourse. She was a good 30 feet away from her family, finding their chaos too much for her. She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear as yet another stranger wolf-whistled at her, trying to ignore the attention. Both boys and girls had stopped her on the way to the platform, giving compliments, requests, and offers from members of both sexes. A few girlfriends shot jealous glares her way, as well. Ginny had just tried to accept the compliments gracefully and keep going.
She glanced toward her family and saw Harry glaring at her, though still lustily. She almost shook her head; he still hadn't learned his lesson. She bristled a little bit at his possessiveness, but didn't react outwardly.
Turning from his gaze, Ginny strode through the barrier onto Platform 9¾. She climbed into the train, completely unfazed by the scarlet engine. She slid her trunk under a bench in her selected compartment (which was completely devoid of people) and lied down on her back, sighing and closing her eyes.
Draco ran his hand through his hair as he climbed onto the train, calming himself. Potter was being more of an ass than usual this year, and it hadn't taken any effort on his part to get him riled up. In fact, Potter had started it. Draco knew that he shouldn't have reacted, but it had been more than he could stand when Potter had spat out that horrid title. Death Eater… He rubbed the scar on his arm absently, then shook himself and strode down the train toward the Prefects' compartment. He walked up to the door and noticed how crowded the space was. He didn't want to deal with so many people. He would have enough of that this year, being Head Boy.
Head Boy, yeah, that was strange. He didn't know who this new Headmaster was, but he couldn't help but wonder if it was one of the Dark Lord's minions. It would make sense that Voldemort would take advantage of the opening, and since he thought Draco was loyal, making him Head Boy was just another set of high-powered eyes. Little did the Dark Lord know that Draco was completely against his agenda now, and he certainly wouldn't be playing along.
He turned around and walked back down the aisle, looking from compartment to compartment until he realized that there was only one compartment with space. Ginny Weasley lay on the bench in the small space, the only one in the small room. He fidgeted for a moment with the Head Boy badge in his pocket and then took a breath and raised his hand.
Why didn't he understand that she wasn't his anymore? It wasn't as though she'd really paid him much attention over the summer. She'd certainly tried to be social and had taken part in the various things her family had done over the summer, but she wasn't really interested in being too close to people.
Ginny sighed to herself. It didn't seem to matter what she did, she had always found herself slipping into depression. The grave air that hung around whenever there was silence or when someone mentioned Dumbledore didn't help things, but it had also covered for her moments where her face would glaze over for a moment. She was glad to be going back to school. She could bury herself in her schoolwork and push herself on the Quidditch pitch and ignore the empty, melancholy feeling that overtook her in quiet moments.
A small knock on the glass door startled her, and she rose and looked through the door of the compartment. What in the world…? Draco Malfoy stood outside her door, looking somewhat sheepish and guarded, an expression she had never seen on his face before. Ginny rose and slid the door open. "What do you want, Malfoy?" There was polite curiosity in her voice; no trace of her customary hostility. She surprised herself.
Malfoy seemed surprised too, and Ginny raised her eyebrows as a slight blush came up on his face. "Can I sit in here? Everywhere else is full."
A/N, 6 October 2011: After returning to this story roughly 5 years after I started writing this story, I finally posted Chapter 7 when a friend reminded me about this particular project. Within 12 hours of updating the story, I received two reviews about the first chapter, one a flame about my Harry-bashing and flat characterization of Ginny, and one that was slightly more constructive.
I considered the statements and agreed that the first chapters were very short and the characterization was flat. I was in a bit of a Harry-bashing period at the time, and there was a reason for Harry's extremely OOC behavior to be revealed in later chapters. In Ginny's case, yes, she was rather flat, and the detailed description and focus on the physical was perhaps awkward, but even that had a reason. Plus, I was writing this as a junior in high school and in my free time. It's a romance, and I was a teenage girl. It was fluffy, despite my effort to not look fluffy. I didn't develop the characters, partially because this is an altered timeline from the original stories, not an in-line side plot to be read alongside the books, and partially because I had ideas of certain things I wanted to have happen in the story and was more interested in making those things happen than the depth of characterization. The events of Chapter 6 were intended to be the catalyst for characterization, and explanations of the uncharacteristic behavior were planned to happen as the story developed.
I didn't have a plan here. The story was organic with the exceptions of the events I had planned, which is why it took me so long to get the 7th chapter written.
I have gone back and worked out a bit of characterization and some of the underlying reasoning and developmental triggers, and am so revising and fleshing out the story, but hopefully without altering the timeline too heavily. Please keep in mind that there are deeper reasons for the OOC behavior, which will round out and become clearer with time. Ginny will be sort of flat, as will Draco, and you will get the reasons for this in due time.
Please enjoy the reworked chapters as they are released, and please feel free to point out typographical errors and leave constructive feedback and questions. If you have a storyline suggestion or lots of in-depth criticism, please send me a private message and I will try to address your concerns.
