Did he think that it would be funny to make her pick up all of his books, and then push her so that all of them would fall to the floor again? Bloody bastard. She had apologized. Although, granted, she had used the word 'ferret' in her very insincere apology. Ginny tucked her flyaway hair behind her ear, and grabbed the last of Malfoy's books, and stood up off of the floor.
"Satisfied?" She asked him. Fixating her eyes on him without flinching, Ginny watched him as he smirked one of his horrible smirks.
"Don't do that Weasley. The floor's where you belong. In fact, you're beginning to look a lot like this one houself we used to have." Malfoy drawled.
Ginny ignored him, and shoved his books into his arms so that the ink bottle that was leaning precariously towards the edge, finally dropped and broke, soaking Malfoy's undoubtedly expensive robes. Before he could reply, or possibly even curse her, she quickly turned on her heel and strutted down the staircase to the dungeons. She didn't have any time to waste on Malfoy. If she didn't get to the dungeons fast enough to persuade Snape to make her potion, she was failing History of Magic.
With all her experience with Snape, Ginny had expected to him to turn a bluish red hue in his anger while she explained her situation to him. She was not at all prepared for the startlingly creepy smile that stretched across his face as she mentioned that she would require the assistance of his best students.
" Should I go get Hermione?" Ginny asked. Knowing Hermione, she was probably hidden in some hole in the library, researching a dusty old wizard.
" I believe you are mistaken Ms. Weasley." Snape murmured in a tone that struck Ginny as amused, at her expense. "Ms. Granger, although she tries desperately, is not by best pupil. In fact, I'm sure he will be able to assist you in your little predicament as he is due to arrive here in a short while. You may wait for him at the door." With these words, Snape went back to mixing the hideously black potion he had been working on before she had entered.
Hadn't Snape said "Due to arrive here in a short while?" Ginny threw death glares at him from where she was standing. She was wasting her precious time waiting for this "perfect pupil" of his when she could have already been on her way with help from Hermione. She could not afford any more time lost. Grabbing her book bag, she began to storm up the row between the desks rapidly approaching Snape. Just as she was about reach him and possibly do something she would regret, he turned and said simply, "I believe he has arrived." Ginny turned and looked at the dungeon door. To her utter disbelief and horror, in walked Draco Malfoy and one of his goons whom he quickly sent off.
"Sorry Professor. I ran into one of those bloody awful Weasley's on my way over. They really are as stupid as they look eh?" Malfoy laughed absently as he walked over to Snape. His laughter turned into a terrible smirk when he saw Ginny with a bewildered look on her face.
Ginny looked at Snape, and then back at Malfoy, and again at Snape. Was this a cruel joke? This was her term project for Merlin's sake!
"Um Professor Snape?" Ginny asked in her most sickeningly sweet voice. " I don't think I really need the help of your best student. I'm sure second best is perfectly fine."
"Nonsense" Snape said and calling Malfoy to him, they disappeared behind a door behind Snape's desk.
Ginny began to fidget. For all she knew, they were plotting the comeback of the dark lord and using her as a hostage. There was no way that Malfoy would agree to this. Ginny knew that much. He hated her just as much as she hated him and the thought that he would never voluntarily help her provided her an odd comfort. Snape would just have to let Hermione help her. The abrupt opening of the door behind which Snape and Malfoy had been talking rudely awakened her thoughts.
" Should I go get Hermione, Professor Snape? I'm positive that she has no classes and that she . . . " Ginny didn't even get to finish her sentence.
" There's no need Weasley, I never said I wouldn't help you. In fact, why don't we get started right now?" Malfoy interrupted.
She stared at him in absolute incredulity. Was he serious? Because she absolutely did not like the glint that was in his eyes and the smirk that was spreading across his plaster face. She could see Snape watching her with absolute amusement.
"Draco, I believe the correct potion for Ms. Weasley's situation is located in a black book titled Avante's Tales of Death and Time Travel. Be sure to follow all directions carefully."
With that being said, Snape continued to proceed with his work, and Malfoy began to walk out of the dungeon. Taking her books, and trying to catch up, Ginny reluctantly followed him into a side dungeon that she had never known existed. It was surprisingly nice, and although undoubtedly cold, the room seemed to give off a feeling of importance.
" Mine. Only the best of each year get their own to work on their potions." He drawled.
Ginny whirled at the sound of his voice. This was his? Maybe next year she'd try a bit harder at potions.
"Maybe we should get started Malfoy, I'm sure Luna is already there" Ginny glanced at her watch again. She was already a half hour behind.
"We, Weasley? You can't honestly think that I would help you?" Malfoy smirked, and reached under a shelf to retrieve the book that Snape had instructed them to use. Tossing it to her, he grinned. " You may begin. I'll watch."
Ginny groaned. Not only was this a really tough potion to concoct, she was absolutely dreadful at potions. She glared at Malfoy who was lounging on a ledge, reading a book. It was probably about killing muggles or setting fire to homes Ginny thought to herself. Aside from the occasional yell he gave her about how she was cutting a willow root on a slant instead of straight, he had completely ignored her. Ginny huffed and turned back to her work.
If there were just one word to describe the appearance of her potion and her ingredients that she had tried to prepare, it would be dreadful. If she were to mess up one ingredient, just one, she could be transported to the age of dinosaurs instead of Rome. Absent-mindedly cutting her mandrake roots, Ginny began to wonder why Malfoy had even agreed to help her. His hatred for her brother and Harry had undoubtedly continued on to her when she had first entered Hogwarts. Of course, this was expected, as she had hated him just from the stories her brother had told her. She glanced at him.
His eyebrows were furrowed, and she could see that he was chewing the side of his lip. Right at that moment, he looked so normal. If only he actually behaved that way.
Ginny looked at her mandrake roots. The book had clearly said to cut the roots once from the purple edge not the green. However, in her inattentiveness, she of course had instead cut from the green side. Ginny looked under the table to check if the shelves had any other pieces of root, but all they were filled with jars filled with something that looked oddly similar to body parts.
"Hey Malfoy!" Ginny called over to him. "Do you have any more Mandrake roots?"
He got up from his resting place and walked over to her. With a smirk and drawl, he leaned over her already cut and disfigured roots.
"Hmm . . . I knew you were stupid Weasley, but illiterate too? Here I was thinking that there could not possibly be anyone more idiotic than your brother."
She was fuming inside, and he knew it. What he didn't know, thought Ginny, was that she wasn't her brother. He was expecting her to curse him or even possibly punch him. And even though she sorely wanted to, she wouldn't. Ginny wasn't going to fail History of Magic on account of Malfoy.
"Should I take that as a no? If that's the case, I'm sure Professor Snape could find some for me. Although I'm sure that he would be disappointed to hear that his most prized student could not accomplish the task of finding a set of mandrake roots."
Ginny turned around and started to walk out the doorway when she felt a thud on the back of her head. For a second she was stunned, and when she turned around and looked at the floor, she found herself staring at the bag of mandrake roots that had just hit her head. Ginny looked at Malfoy. He was back at his ledge reading, pretending that he had never thrown a bag of wet and slimy roots at her head. Bloody Bastard. Picking up the roots and making her way back to her cauldron, Ginny continued to proceed with the complicated potion that was set before her.
It was only when she reached a set of instructions that required bat wings that she noticed that he was still there. Nervous as to what he might say or do this time when she bothered him, Ginny looked around herself for the bat wings before she dare say anything to him. When her long search found nothing, she finally decided that a verbal lashing from Malfoy was worth getting to Luna.
"Malfoy! I can't find the Bat wings I need to finish the potion!"
Without a word he got up and came over to her again.
"If you want the wings, look for them yourself," he drawled. "I'm done watching you and your pathetic attempts at potions Weasley. You'd have probably been better off as a squib."
That hurt. She'd have been crazy to say that it hadn't. But if Ginny knew one thing, it was that Malfoy had no right to criticize her or anyone in her family when his own father was in Azkaban.
"You must be so angry that all of us Weasley's are still roaming around England while your father's locked up in Azkaban. Do you miss him Malfoy? Does your mother?"
She had said every word in a sarcastic and biting tone so that she knew he would be angry. Already, she was regretting saying it at all. His eyes had contracted and his face had gone so slack that she was sure if she were to say another word, he would have shouted Avada Kedavra. To her surprise and utter horror, he began to get closer to her, almost as if he would strangle her, and she began to move back. She was frightened of the fact that they were alone and that her wand was in her book bag, a good two feet away. Ginny stretched her right hand as far as she could to see if she could get it out in time, when she felt her hand bang against something very hard. With a huge thunk, the entire cauldron tipped over and splashed her and the entire floor with an oozing greenish black liquid. Trying to hold her balance, Ginny blindly grabbed hold of the nearest thing to her, which was unfortunately Malfoy's robe. Suddenly, her feet gave way, bringing Malfoy down with her into the liquid. The floor didn't hit her head like she expected, instead she felt like she was being sucked into a hole, a feeling very similar to one she had experienced while using a portkey. Before she knew what was happening, all she saw was black.
Ginny woke up with a terrible headache. There was a noise surrounding her, chattering and bustling about that made Ginny wonder what her roommates were up to at this hour. Suddenly she felt a hard shake on her shoulder and opened her eyes right into the ones of a girl that frighteningly like Pansy Parkinson.
"Wake up your highness! King Arthur's already on his way and is about to reach the court with Merlin! We need to get you ready right away, and you're already late!" The girl whispered frantically to her.
Ginny could not imagine for the life of her as to why Pansy Parkinson was whispering to her about Kings and Merlin when she slowly realized that she was supposed to have been making a potion that was to transport her back to Rome. Looking around, she stared at the people in the room, all of whom were wearing long peasant dresses that did not look anything like the attire of Rome.
"Where am I?" she asked the Pansy Parkinson look alike. But all she got in response was a quick shaking of the head, and before she could say another word, she was hauled up to her feet and was attacked by a swarm of ladies. From every which direction her hair was being pulled and her dress tugged off her.
"Why on earth is everyone attacking me?" she shouted on the top of her lungs. To Ginny's dismay, not a single person stopped doing what they were doing. Instead, she heard a shout from Pansy over all of the ruckus.
"You're getting married!"