Sorry it took so long, I got writers block and had to restart this chapter like three times over until I got it right, I know shame on me, go ahead and yell, I'm ready. Finally the long awaited chapter. (In apology for my laziness there will be a chapter in the near future… the next week in other words… and it will be longer.) This is totally off topic, but who can guess why my border thing is 6? Take a guess and I'll give you and imaginary cookie, they're yummy.
None of this is really mine.
PercyandCassandra: Thank you so much for saying it's beautiful.
Midnightblue17: Though I already sent you a message, I felt obliged to say thanks to offering to be my beta. I heartily accept!
Ginervamalfoy1849: I will update soon, for your sake. Plus, what's up with the 1849, I love your name, but is it a date or just a number?
K'onix: Your name as well has gotten me confused, but it's your choice! Thanks for your advice, I'm always looking to correct my writing and make it better, I'll go back and check for what you said.
Anotherloveroffanfiction: I'm glad I came up to your standards! It makes me too full of myself I feel sometimes. I want your name, it's brilliant!
Black111star: I swear the next one will be longer.
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Ginny stormed around her 'room.' 'That pompous git! Damn him and his superior act!' she thought to herself fuming two hours after her interaction with the king.
Flashback
After taking a look at her, Tom told the guards behind her to take her to her room and get her into suitable clothes, and then leaned over her to whisper something in their ears that made them chuckle. She sneered at him. He was attacking her pride, something that she took care of with the utmost carefulness. He had better watch what he said around her or she might attack his as well, no matter the people around him.
Smirking at her he turned and walked away following the way Heather had gone. Ginny guessed as he disappeared that he was going to apologize for making the girl leave him before.
The guards had tugged her toward an open door and pulled her through, their grip never loosening. 'At least they're learning from their mistakes,' Ginny thought to herself. They pulled her down a maze of hallways, all with so much splendor Ginny had to pinch herself to make sure it was real a couple times.
The walls were stone and pictures turned their heads to stare at them as they walked by, some shouting hellos, others yelling for her to get a comb, and others making rude remarks about her hair and dress. Ginny didn't understand them at all, the dress was beautiful, her mother had made it perfect in every way. No seam was uneven and it shone so brightly she felt she would have to close her eyes sometimes from its brightness.
When they arrived at her room ten minutes later, Ginny turned to the mirror to see what was so bad about her dress.
There was a large rip up the seam that made it up to the top of her thigh, it only opened when she walked, but when it opened, both of her pale white legs were left bare. Fuming even more, she felt that she needed to throw something. The guards, leaving the room, gave her the perfect chance. As they bolted for the door after letting go of her, Ginny pulled the first thing in reach, (a vase as it happened to be) and hurled it at their retreating backs.
Grabbing the door, one of the three big burly men pulled the door closed. Ginny, disappointed that the vase hadn't reached her original targets brightened considerably when she heard the resounding crash that the vase made against the door and the curses on the other side. Her foul mood being brought back when Ginny thought back to her discussion with Tom.
End Flashback
"Ah, one of the Weasley bunch." he had said. What was that supposed to mean? She looked once again down at her dress, where had she gotten that rip? She hadn't even felt anything why it had ripped and nothing after either. She was barefoot as well and she could see black nubs peeking up at her from underneath the dress. Deciding to give up her tantrum for the moment and go in seek of a bathing room, Ginny peered around for another door.
There was one to the left as well as one the right. Taking a guess, Ginny walked to the right door and threw it open. Inside there was a common room. Sofas were everywhere with two fires on opposite sides of the room. Girls adorned in all different glorious dress stood and sat around, chatting.
Stepping into the room, Ginny received some strange glances. The girls closest to hr shrank back as though if they came to close they might become infected. Keeping her distance, Ginny asked, "Where's the washroom?"
The girls looked around themselves as if asking which of them was brave enough to respond. A girl spaced a little ways away from them answered, "The common one is over here, I'll show you."
Ginny turned to focus on her. Her midnight black hair was cut at shoulder length and gleamed in the sunlight coming through the windows. Her dress was a deep green and on her ears she wore emerald earnings. She stood a couple inches shorter than Ginny at about 5'5 and her feet were bare as well.
She crooked her finger and Ginny came, as if drawn to her. Her deep tan and flawless beauty made the girls around her look ugly, quite an accomplishment. She waited for Ginny to catch up to her and then turned, expecting Ginny to keep up. "I'm Cho." The girl said, "Cho Chang."
"I'm Ginny Weasley." Ginny said and flashed the girl a smile hoping she would return it. Laughing, Cho slowed her pace and stuck out her hand.
"Nice to meet you." She said her words rolling perfectly. Ginny took her hand in her own and shook it in a firm grip, glad that Cho responded with just as much ferocity.
"So, what's up with those girls?" Ginny asked pointing her thumb over her should at the girls still huddled in a group near where she had entered.
"Ignore them." Cho said, rolling her eyes. " Lavender and them are hardly the type you want to keep a conversation with for long." She pointed at her bosom, "Their full down here," she tapped her head with her fist, "but empty up here."
Cracking another grin, Ginny followed Cho past another bunch of chairs with girls lounging on them, gossiping and to one of the many doors along the walls. Opening it Cho invited her in as steam seeped past the doorway.
"Now, you have your own private bath room in your room, but these baths are much bigger and I think that they're nicer personally." Ginny stepped in the doorway and Cho closed the door behind her.
Through the mist Ginny could see even more girls lounging in huge pools of steaming water. Giggling and splashing each other, swimming around or lounging on the sides of the pool, the girls paid no attention to the two newly added people to the room. Leading her around the pools, Cho took her to a back room where she told Ginny to step under the waterspout and rinse off and then put on a swimming robe.
Rinsing off her dirt and grabbing the soap she saw on the wall, Ginny cleaned herself and then used the herbal solution in her hair to bring it back to it's original state of hanging to her waist. Stepping out of the room with her robe on she leapt into the water and screamed with delight at its warmness.
Resurfacing, She paddled her way to shallower water and dove beneath the surface again. Coming up once again for some much-needed air she heard her name called.
Turning she saw Cho and swam towards her. Surrounded by a group of girls, Cho looked at home. Pushing her way through their mass she pulled up next to Cho who was telling the girls of some thing she had heard of a girl named Romilda. Stopping in mid-sentence she greeted Ginny with the nod of her head and turned to the other girls. "This is Ginny Weasley, she's new, right?" Cho turned to her as if for conformation. Ginny nodded her head.
A Chorus of "Hello Ginny," and "Nice to meet you," rang in her ears. Then Cho began listing off the girls who each raised their hand from the shallow water and waved at her.
Starting from the right, Cho hardly gave Ginny time to say hello to each girl. "Claire, Bella, Sofia, Minnie, Emma, Charlene, Kristen, and Fleur." Turning back to Ginny, Cho asked, "So are you going to the ball tonight?"
Ginny sighed, "Yes," she said pausing. "That's what I'm here for." Cho and the other girls gave squeals of delight and Ginny looked around at them, confused.
"What?" She asked wondering if she should slink away from them. If they liked balls, obviously she wouldn't be able to fit in with them well with her tomboy attitude.
"We'll dress you up!" Volunteered the girl Ginny believed to be Sofia. All the girls agreed nodding their heads along.
"We can give you one of our dresses if Tom hasn't already filled your closet. Oh, it's going to be so much fun tonight, you just wait. Tom's balls are the best. We'll get out at four and that should give us enough time for the eight-o-clock opening." Claire jumped up and down in the water as she said this, making the water around her ripple. Soon all the other girls had joined her and waves of water threatened to hit Ginny in the face.
"Alright, alright, I get it." Ginny said, after receiving a mouthful of water.
"So, you'll let us?" Cho asked.
"Let you what?" Ginny asked, hoping they would drop the topic and let her get dressed by herself. Maybe then she'd have a chance of making herself look so horrendous that the King would scream with shock and send her home.
"Get you dressed of course." The girl Ginny now knew was Sofia giggled. Each brilliant face around her was hopeful, their faces holding the delight as if they had a present waiting to be unwrapped. Her resolution dropping, Ginny sighed once again.
"Alright." She said, defeated. The chorus of excited giggles that followed made her roll her eyes, now she knew she was surrounded by girly- girls. How she would get along with them she had no idea. Glancing at the clock, she registered for the first time what Cho had said before. "Wait," she said, confused, "you said that the ball was at eight but the announcement said it was at five."
"Tom likes to bring the girls in early as a joke," said Emma, rolling her eyes. "He loves to watch when they figure it out and have no idea what to do with themselves." Ginny narrowed her eyes and growled under her breath.
Seeing her expression, the girls were quick to defend him. "He's not as bad as people think." Cho said and the other girls made noises of agreement. "He's actually one of the most alluring men I've ever met." She added after an afterthought.
Curious, Ginny asked, "What are you guys doing here?"
Cho looked at her in surprise, "Why, were here for the same reason you are."
"You're here for the ball?" Ginny asked in puzzlement, these girls seemed like they hadn't been summoned in the past days or weeks even, they looked like they had been here for years.
" Well, yes… and no." Cho said, receiving looks of total bewilderment. "We're here because we have been to a ball or balls and were accepted by Tom. Now, we just go to every ball we can, it's rather boring if we can't."
" Oh," was Ginny's intelligent response.
Another one of the girls spoke up, Minnie Ginny guessed. "The balls are so much fun. You can dance, you can eat, you can talk with people, and you can talk with Tom." Her eyes became glossed over.
"Talk to him or fawn over him?" Ginny said under her breath while rolling her eyes.
If was quiet for a moment and Ginny began to wonder if they had heard her, when they all started talking all about what they were going to do to her hair and what dress she could wear, arguing every now and then. Ginny sighed, leaned against the pool and zoned out, this was going to be a very long evening.
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Next chapter the ball! Plus a whole bunch of more goodies if you review. Just do it, you'll make me very happy. By the way, age from the books doesn't count in my story girls are as young as I need them to be, so Cho and them are a year or two older then Ginny. Plus, you know those girls that hang with Cho? I need Harry Potter names for them (Fleur is Fleur and Minnie is Minerva.) Any others that you can come up with, (I'm having a slow brain today) let me know.