Chapter 2:
Ginny was quite literally, over the moon. Another Hogsmeade weekend was rolling around, and Harry had asked her if she was going. Honestly, it was one of the best things that had happened to her since the beginning of school. A sad thought, but one that was there nonetheless.
She did not like school, did not like the regimented format of being told what to do, and when. It was far too much like her homelife for her liking. Because of this, however, she really didn't get the grades that her Mum wanted to see. School was stressful for Ginny, and she well knew it, so anything to alleviate this was more than welcome. And an invitation from Harry…. Well… it was the stuff of dreams.
Walking through the halls on the way to the Great Hall for supper, Ginny was almost skipping, her robes flying around her. That is, until Draco Malfoy stepped out from a classroom and sent her a disdainful glare, "Weasley."
In a playful mood, too good to be brought down by the likes of him, she pursed her lips in an exaggerated imitation of his smirk, lowered her voice, and replied, "Malfoy."
His only response was to arch a golden eyebrow at her, before she walked past and went to sit with her house.
The table was alive with talk of the upcoming Quidditch season, which Ginny was looking forward to. She was going to try out for the open position of chaser for the first time, having snuck practice on her brother's brooms all summer. She was ready, and the possibility of being in a tight huddle with Harry was definitely a motivating factor.
Swallowing a bite of Yorkshire pudding, Ginny talked to Dean about new plays that the Cannons had employed over their, admittedly, poor season previously. They agreed that the Cannons relied far too heavily on a defensive position in order to give their Seeker, an excellent player by all means, more time to find the snitch.
The problem was, was that they rarely had enough points by the time the snitch was found by him to win the game, and their opponents were fully aware of this tactic, and exploited it shamelessly.
Dean was actually all for this ploy, disagreeing with Ginny's argument that the emphasis should not be placed so heavily on one player to win a game, and she was determined to prove him wrong.
So intent were they on arguing this, that by the time Ginny looked up, the table was close to empty, the trio having left almost an hour before. Cursing the missed opportunity to try to talk to her love, Ginny saluted Dean for a debate well argued, and stood, stretching her arms over her head to work out the kinks that had settled in her lower back.
She glanced around casually, and caught the silvery eyes of Malfoy. He audaciously winked in her direction, before turning back to a conversation with the tall, dark Blaise Zabini. Ginny stared at him in disbelief for a moment longer, completely shocked by his behaviour.
Dean leaned in close then, and she laughed at his comments on the Puddlemere and Canon game, before they walked out to head back to the tower.
From across the large dining hall, Blaise took in the barely discernible clenching of Draco's jaw as he watched the Weasley girl and her housemate, and remarked casually, "You got it bad mate."
--
So, the Hogsmeade day with Harry was not quite what Ginny had anticipated. Currently, they were walking down to the small town together, the wind blowing, the trees showing a riot of colours… and Ron and Hermione talking avidly to her supposed date.
No matter, Ginny decided to act like a Gryffindor, "So, Harry, what do you want to do today?"
"Well, Ron and I are going to go to the Quidditch supply shop, and I think Hermione wants a new book." Harry threw a teasing grin over his shoulder at the bushy haired girl who shrugged, having accepted her bookworm state.
Ginny chewed on her full lower lip plaintively, trying to figure out how to get this to a date of two. No ideas were forthcoming.
She sighed, and resigned herself to eating as much chocolate as possible in Honeydukes, and then drowning her sorrows in butterbeer. With any luck, she'd be so sick from the sugar overload, she wouldn't think of her aborted date.
Without them realizing, she fell slightly behind the trio, watching their backs get smaller, and farther away as they continued to converse animatedly.
"Well, that was just sad." A low voice remarked from her left, and she turned to see Blaise Zabini falling into step with her.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't speak loser." She replied cattily, looking ahead with a stony expression across her face.
"Ouch." Draco Malfoy remarked from her other side.
"Merlin, why me?" Ginny looked up in the sky, searching for answers. Her crush, the love of her life, was walking away without realizing he was on a date with her, and two Slytherin gits were giving her more attention than she needed, wanted, could stand…
"Love, even Merlin couldn't figure out your love life, that's for sure." Blaise remarked, unfazed by her earlier dismissal.
"He'd probably just call you a sad, desperate, bint and be done with it." Draco added, smirking mightily at the side of her face.
Ginny stopped smack in the middle of the path, and folded her arms over her chest. The two Slytherins stopped about a pace ahead of her, watching her with almost identical smirks across their faces.
"Go away." She enunciated carefully, as if speaking to a recalcitrant, very young, child.
Draco stared at her intently, as Blaise looked at his nails with exaggerated care.
"No." Draco drawled back just as slowly, his thin lips curving into a smirk.
Shoulders slumping slightly in defeat, she asked wearily, "Why do you keep following me?"
"Your pathetic life amuses me to no end?" He guessed, his smirk widening as she flushed bright red at the insult.
"That is not your best look." Blaise added helpfully.
Ginny turned her glare on him, before stepping around them and hurrying on to Hogsmeade, not looking back to see if the two horrible boys were still following.
"Well," Blaise watched her go, "That went well."
"You say that as if I should care." Draco drawled, thrusting his hands into the pockets of his beautifully cut robes.
"Stubborn."
Ginny ended up spending the majority of the day by herself, wandering around trying to see if the Golden Trio were up to anything interesting. Despite getting into a long and involved, though entirely one-sided, discussion with Hermione about the advantages of the new, recycled parchment that was now the basis of wizarding books, she really didn't spend any time with any of them.
Not having much money made shopping mildly boring, and Ginny decided, with a slump of her shoulders, to head back up to school, thinking that maybe she had some chocolate left in the bottom of her trunk from her birthday.
The sun shone across the lake, turning it into a fiery pool, and she stood for a moment, just breathing in the crisp autumn air. She did love it here… despite the fact that she didn't really like her schoolwork or classes. Hogwarts was her home, more so than the Burrow now. Even with what had happened in first year…
Turning to leave, she winced as she stepped on a pebble, feeling it through the thin leather of her worn shoes, and she bent down to pick it up. Eyeing the smooth stone, she turned back to the lake, and skipped it across the water, just like Charlie had shown her when she was five years old.
Ginny grinned as the giant squid smacked the surface in irritating after the stone landed, and she turned around once more to head back up to the castle.
She settled into her cozy bed, the drapes that were never closed due to her fear of enclosed spaces, with a good book, and the last chocolate frog in her possession. Sighing in contentment, she read until her dorm mates returned from their excursion, chattering loudly over new clothing, and the new strawberry-flavoured brand of butterbeer.
Ginny had nothing to add, and simply curled into herself, feeling so incredibly awkward. Never having had a close girlfriend, she envied them their easy camaraderie. They had long since given up on trying to involve her in their plans, and conversations, and most of the time, treated her as if she were invisible. She had no way of knowing how to change this established pattern, and it seemed easier to simply let it go.
Falling asleep in that position, curled up around her pillow, Ginny woke up halfway through the night, realizing that she was not only aching and uncomfortable from sleeping in her clothing, but also that she was drooling slightly.
"Oh lovely." She muttered, wiping the back of her hand across her lips before stretching her stiff muscles.
Ginny changed into her oversized pajamas, recognizing them distantly as having belonged to Fred or George at some point by the Puddlemere logo across the chest, and stood scratching her stomache absentmindedly as she tried to decide if she was tired enough to go back to bed. Unfortunately, no. Generally when she woke up, she was unable to go back to sleep, which made room mates really fun if they came in after she had fallen to sleep.
Throwing Anne, the 6th year Gryffindor who had the bed closest to the door and evil look, damning her ability to sleep, Ginny let herself out softly, treading down the stairs in her fluffy slippers.
The common room, however, was far from deserted. A couple was lying together on one of the couches near the banked-down fire, and Ginny smirked as she moved to one side to see who it was.
Their clothing was askew, moved aside to allow certain body parts to come into contact, and Ginny recognized Lavender Brown moving sinuously against an unknown male beneath her.
They were both moaning in a way that made Ginny jealous, and she could hear the wetness of flesh slapping against flesh. The air was heavy, cloying, and unfamiliar to Ginny, and she breathed in with curiosity.
The whole scene was so incredibly erotic to her innocent gaze. A strong male hand wrapped itself in Lavender's dark blonde locks, holding her still, another hand gripping her hip and moving her in an almost primitive movement. Each time she moved down, they both moaned, gasping for breath, no words spoken, and yet they were so together.
Ginny moved back into the shadows as Lavender sat up, her back arched, a thin t-shirt covering her upper body though her nipples stood out in stark relief against the white cotton.
She moaned louder as those male hands slid under, cupping her unfettered breasts, kneading the flesh there. Ginny could feel a rush of moisture between her legs, making her feel uncomfortably wet and sticky as she watched intently. Her gaze moved down the muscular arms to find herself looking at Harry Potter's passion-filled face.
Ginny froze. She seemed completely unable to look away from her crush, her dreams slipping through her fingers even as she watched Lavender throw back her head and cry out softly.
Shoulders slumping, moisture gathering in the corners of her caramel eyes, she slowly made her way back up to her dorm, not even caring if the two lovers had spotted her or not.
--
Almost a week later, Ginny was still in something of a daze, but anger was coursing through her as well, a burning anger.
She sat in the library, trying desperately to study for her potions test, the image of Lavender and Harry running through her head like the most bitter of Muggle films.
Rationally, she mildly realized that she and Harry had never really been together in any sense of the word, that he had gone out of his way to never be alone with her, to never give her anything other than the vaguest of friendships, but it still hurt.
How dare he? She glared at the back of his head from her position just inside the door to the Great Hall. Colin Creevey entered behind her, and giving her an odd look, he paused.
"Ginny?" His voice was tentative.
Ginny didn't take her eyes off of her new hate, and answered him out of the corner of his mouth, "Piss off, Creevey."
His eyes widened, and he hurried away from the crazed redhead. The Weasley temper was somewhat infamous.
Harry was eating ham. Ham. Ginny hated ham. She hoped he choked on it. Narrowing her eyes, she walked over to the Gryffindor table, and took a seat as far away from the Golden Trio as possible.
Not noticing the food appearing before her, or the startled first years surrounding her, Ginny took a bite of her chicken as she again glared at Harry's profile.
Chewing mechanically, barely tasting the white meat that the house elves had surely spent hours slaving over, she watched as Harry's dark head angled in over the table with Ron's and Hermione's. They were probably discussing something very important that they had no intention of ever involving her in. It was a little disheartening.
Why did she care? She forced herself to think about that all-important question. What concern of it was her's what they did? Just because she didn't really have any other friends… and her mild acquaintances and flirtations with Dean and Seamus didn't really count.
And the whole Lavender thing didn't really bother her as much as the lack of belonging did. Although, she did think that the older girl was a slut for casually having sex with a boy in the Gryffindor common room, where anyone and their mother could have seen them.
Ginny forced herself to look away from the Trio, and she looked around the Great Hall, noticing Luna Lovegood staring off to space as her housemates tossed peas in her general direction. She shook her head, and looked over at the Slytherin table, catching the eye of Draco Malfoy, who winked at her outrageously before turning to speak with Pansy Parkinson.
Shaking her head, Ginny realized that she was starting to get used to seeing the Slytherin. Before the beginning of this year, she was quite sure that Malfoy had never noticed her beyond the time that she had hexed the hell out of him in Umbridge's office in her fourth year.
Since their exchange on the train though, she had seen him on a somewhat regular basis. He seemed to go out of his way to tease her, but she had to admit that he seemed to not be as evil as Harry and Ron had always maintained.
Back to the matter at hand. She needed friends. Badly. Preferably a female friend that she could confide in. And she really needed to get laid. Virginity, despite what her mum thought, was merely an obstacle to overcome. Her eyes glinted with her new ambitions, and she looked around to see the little first years staring at her with morbid fascination.
She watched them from beneath lowered eyelids as she tried to remember if she had ever been that small. Impossible, or so it seemed, at her current height. With her luck, she'd end up taller than Ron. She was almost as tall as Charlie, who was her shortest brother now.
Hearing gasps of shock around her, she looked up in time to see Draco Malfoy slide into the seat on her right, displacing the first year who had been sitting there with remarkable speed.
"Malfoy." She acknowledged, determined this time not to come off as a shrieking shrew. He smirked at her, as if knowing how much self-control she was really exerting at that moment.
Trying to keep from looking around and showing him just how uncomfortable he made her, she was happy for once that the trio was still in a world of their own.
"Now, what did the chicken ever do to you?" He remarked, in his carelessly graceful way, gesturing a pale hand in the direction of her food.
"Nothing." She answered truthfully, staring at her fork as she speared it into the well-cooked flesh, assuming that if she tried to ignore him, he would go away. Kind of like a puppy. A really stupid puppy.
Leaning over, he grabbed a roll from the side of her plate, and bit into it, chewing thoughtfully as he watched her. It was quite disappointing the lack of reaction he had induced by sitting with her. He had been expecting more fireworks.
"Would you mind not eating my supper?" Ah, there it was, a faint hint of irritation in her tone. His smirk widened as her popped the rest of the soft bread into his mouth. She glared at him as he made a show of enjoying it, before sitting back to gaze back at her.
Locked into something akin to a staring contest, Ginny was not entirely sure how to proceed. His silver gaze was just so intense, it was hard to look away. It was uncomfortable and compelling all at once.