Chapter 3- Harry the Angered



Whoohoo 12 reviews! I'm so happy (previous comment has best effect when you insert the llama from The Emperors New Groove, I love that movie!) Sorry back to business. This chapter is a bit weird… go with it!

Disclaimer: If this was the real thing it wouldn't be on the computer it would be published in its millions to be snatched up by eager fans. But it isn't and sadly it won't be, get the picture?!



Ginny sighed and flung herself morosely onto the balcony railing. It was Tuesday night and she had resigned herself to the fact that Harry was never going to ask her to the ball. He had been cross with her all that day, reproving her twice for wandering around in her underwear (although she had tried to tell him that it was a bathing suit) and three times for not letting him finish Draco off. She in turn was furious at him for describing her simply as Ron's little sister and for behaving so immaturely when in actual fact she had probably saved him from being expelled. However, cross as she was, she couldn't help still being head over heels in love with him. His fierce determination to protect her, although slightly annoying, was also totally swoon worthy and at least while he was angry at her he paid attention to her. Ginny smacked her head with her hand. How pathetic she sounded. She had to get over him. She had to find somebody else. She had to…

"Ginny?"

She jumped about a foot in the air and spun round to see Harry standing behind her.

'Uh-oh.' She thought, 'I'm getting a serious sense of déjà vu.'

"Oh hi Harry." She said nervously

There was a pause as they both looked away and pretended to study the view.

"Look Harry I …" Ginny began just as Harry said

"You know Gin …" he smiled at then waved his hand, "Sorry, you go first." he said and Ginny drew a deep breath.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. But I truly only had the best intentions for stopping you beating Malfoy into a pulp."

Harry laughed and put a hand gently on her shoulder to stop her apology.

"Gin, I should be the one apologising. I acted like a complete prat. I guess my pride was hurt or something. You did the right thing and I guess I was just too embarrassed to admit it. Forgive me?"

"Harry, you don't have to…"

"Please Ginny, I want to, I need to apologise. But will you forgive me?"

"Of course I will Harry!" Ginny beamed at him and he smiled warmly back at her.

The looked at each other for a long time. Finally Harry made a move towards her as if to kiss her again but then he stopped.

"Oh God. Ginny, I'm so sorry. Why does this keep happening to me?"

Ginny looked at him, startled.

"What? What's wrong Harry?"

"This," he gestured with his arms, "this whole thing. You and me, here, Ron would kill me."

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Who cares what Ron thinks?" she asked, "I certainly don't, you and me Harry, that's none of his business."

Harry stepped away from her, as if her near proximity was making him lose his will to fight against her.

"You don't understand Ginny. Last year, I promised Ron I would protect you. In these times we need to look out for each other and I said I would watch over you." He stopped and ran a hand through his hair, "I mean to carry out my promise Ginny and I'm going to protect you from everything… even myself." With those last words he turned and stormed off the balcony leaving Ginny in a state of absolute shock.



Ginny hardly slept a wink that night. She tossed and turned, getting caught in the sheets and tying herself in knots. When she finally did get to sleep she had confused dreams about Draco and Harry laughing at her, teasing her, wearing masks so she didn't know which was which. She finally woke up in a dead sweat the next morning, Wednesday morning, the last image replaying in her mind, the picture of Draco snatching her out of Harry's arms and bearing her away. She gave a snort and climbed out of bed, the idea that Draco would even come close enough to her to "bear her away" was laughable. The Ultimatum was noon that day. The idea sent her heart plummeting towards her feet. 'Today is going to be very interesting.' She told herself glumly reaching for her school things. However, the day passed by very uneventfully until lunch time. Ginny sat staring at the clock, it read 5 to 12. 'This is it.' she thought, 'Time is almost up.' Just then Dean Thomas approached her looking very nervy.

"Ah Ginny." He said haltingly, "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

She looked up at him in surprise.

"Alright, sure." She said standing up and following him to a corner of the great hall.

 Dean shifted nervously from foot to foot then began to stammer out: "Um well, I was wondering…you see we've been friends for ages and I thought…well what I'm trying to say is…"

"He's trying to ask you to the ball Ginny."

They both turned to see Harry behind them looking grimly at the pair of them.

"Oh!" Ginny said, genuinely shocked, "Oh, right."

She looked between the both of them. 'Right Harry,' she thought, 'last chance, time's running out.'

Just then the clock in the great hall struck 12. Ginny closed her eyes in defeat but opened them suddenly as she felt a tugging at her right wrist. She looked down at it but there was no one pulling on it. The sensation got stronger and stronger and soon she was having to heave the opposite way with all her might to stop herself from flying in the direction it was pulling.

"Ginny, what are you doing?" Harry asked.

She did look very strange but she had no time to explain as the tugging became so strong she couldn't hold back anymore and she went flying forward, her wrist leading her. She was yanked past the Ravenclaw table and was almost past the Hufflepuff's when she saw Draco Malfoy approaching her in much the same fashion from the Slytherin table. His left wrist was leading him instead of his right and he was looking very bewildered but also very angry. He caught sight of her and opened his mouth to say something but at that moment the tugging sensation stopped. They stood exactly two metres away from each other and stared down at their wrists, waiting to see if whatever was going on had stopped. Apparently it had and they both raised their eyes at the same time.

"What was that?" Ginny asked Draco who shrugged.

"You tell me." He said crossly. Then he shrugged "Well that was an interesting little diversion in an otherwise boring day." He said cockily, "See you around Virginia." And he made to walk away. He had barely taken one step however before he was jolted backwards. He looked at her accusingly.

"What?" she asked

"I can't move." He said crossly, "You try."

Ginny obediently tried to step away from him. But she was yanked back to her place.

"Uh I can't move" she complained.

"What have you done Virginia?" Draco snapped, "And why am I involved?"

Ginny looked suddenly shifty and glanced down at her right wrist. Draco noticed and gave her a sharp look.

"Virginia, what have you done?" he repeated angrily

Ginny blushed and looked away from him.

"I think maybe I might have had some very small part to play in all this." she said haltingly.

"I knew it!" Draco said, "What have you done you stupid little…"

"I wouldn't finish that sentence if I was you Malfoy."

"Ron!" Ginny squeaked in surprise

Draco rolled his eyes, "Two Weasels in one day? What have I done to deserve this?"

"Shut up Malfoy." Ron snapped

"I seem to be hearing that phrase a lot these days." Draco quipped but seeing the gleam of anger in Ron's eyes he fell silent.

"What are you doing with him, Ginny?" Ron continued regarding Draco as if he was a squashed snail he had just trodden on.

Ginny opened her mouth to reply but closed it again obviously at a loss as to what to say.

"Ron? Ginny? What's going on?"

Draco groaned as Hermione came up beside them.

"Yeah Gin are you Okay? What happened back there?" Harry chimed in coming to stand next to his friends.

Draco sighed, "Yippee the whole gang's here." He said sarcastically.

"Shut up Malfoy." The four Gryffindors chorused as one.

He smirked and looked away. There was silence for a few moments then Harry stepped forward.

"Well?" he demanded, "Are you coming Ginny?"

"I …ah…I can't." she said softly

"What do you mean, you can't?" he asked eying Draco suspiciously.

Ginny shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.

"We're sort of attached." She said finally. Seeing their reactions she hurriedly explained a little further. "Our wrists are joined, magically and we can't move away from each other."

Without any further questioning Ron scruffed Draco and shook him roughly, "Let my sister go you Slytherin Slime ball!"

"Nice alliteration." Draco remarked casually looking past his attacker with a bored expression.

"Ron let him go." Ginny commanded, "it…it might not be his fault."

Draco's eyes widened in surprise. "Mightnot, huh?" he asked sardonically but only Ginny understood his surprise at being accused by her.

Ron, Hermione and Harry had rounded now on the youngest Weasley.

"Ginny?" Hermione asked softly, "Do you know what's going on?"

Ginny, in her desperation, looked past her friends and right into Draco's eyes.

'Help me out.' She pleaded in her mind. It seemed that Draco heard her because he stepped forward.

"As if she had anything to do with it. I'm the Slytherin here, remember? Yeah, that's right Weasley I tricked your sister and Potter your girlfriend into being attached to me. Gosh I'm just so evil, aren't I?"

It was Harry this time who made a violent movement towards Draco but Hermione managed to hold him back.

"What exactly did you do?" she asked suspiciously but Draco only shrugged.

"Does it matter? It was probably some spell little Gryffindors shouldn't be messing about with." He looked pointedly at Ginny here and she blushed. Hermione watched the exchange with her head cocked to one side and Ginny, noticing, turned her face away.

"Anyway," Draco continued, "Virginia and I are going to see our omniscient headmaster who no doubt will have some miraculous solution to our little problem. Goodbye." And he grabbed Ginny's arm and hustled her out of the great hall.



"What do you mean you can't fix it?!" Draco exploded rudely at Dumbledore about half an hour later, "Wait 'til I tell Potter that his fix it man of all trades isn't foolproof."

"Malfoy don't be so rude." Ginny said shocked then she smiled apologetically at Dumbledore, "Sorry but we're a little freaked about…"

"Shut it Virginia. So Professor are you saying you have absolutely no idea how to get us out of this mess?"

"Yes Mr Malfoy that is exactly what I'm saying." The headmaster said mildly, "It seems to me that you managed to get yourself into "this mess" so it looks like you should get yourself out of it."

Ginny sagged and Draco sent her a disgusted look before returning his attention to Dumbledore.

"So do you have any suggestions as to how we can fix it?"

Draco and Dumbledore began discussing ways of breaking the invisible chain linking them. Ginny sat wriggling with guilt and finally she couldn't take it anymore.

"The chain won't break until Harry asks me out!" she finally blurted out immediately clapping her hands over her mouth in horror as she realised what she'd let slip.

Draco turned slowly to look at her and she thought she'd melt under his gaze of scorn. She had never felt so little and low in all her life and she felt tears well up at the humiliation of it. Dumbledore was a little more subtle but she could see the disapproval in his gaze nevertheless.

"A love spell Miss Weasley? Those can be very unpredictable not to mention dangerous."

Ginny shook her head, "It wasn't a love spell." She said in a very small voice, "it was an ultimatum spell."

"A what?" Draco asked but Dumbledore nodded.

"I understand." he said kindly, "Well it looks as if nothing can be done until Mr Potter asks Miss Weasley out." Ginny could have sworn that his mouth crinkled up slightly in mirth but the next second he was completely serious.

"Oh great, just great!" Draco groaned, "He's ignored her for six years what if he never asks her out?!"

One of Ginny's tears slipped out and the Slytherin shot her a look of utmost loathing at her weakness. There was an awkward pause then Dumbledore said softly:

"I think I can probably manage to break the chain for approximately half an hour at the beginning and end of each day. That should let you do various necessaries before being attached again. Now let's see, what about 7 in the morning and the evening how does that sound?"

"Fine." Draco said grumpily but Ginny was still too choked up to do anything but nod. "Are you sure you can't get us any longer than 30 minutes?" Draco questioned but their headmaster shook his head.

"I'm afraid that even that is testing the limits of my expertise Mr Malfoy. Now for the more mundane matters. Obviously you will have to grant each other significant amounts of respect in the aspect of toiletry matters and I expect you to both be very mature in this feature. As for your sleeping arrangements, it's obvious you can't sleep in both dormitories so I would suggest the hospital wing would be a sensible place to stay. I'll consult with Madam Pomfrey on this matter. Ravenclaw have less numbers this year so I think you should eat at their table as there is plenty of space and it will be neutral ground for you both. As for classes, well I think Miss Weasley you could handle 7th year classes for a while, couldn't you? Well if that's all I would recommend you have the rest of today off to organise these things." He paused and then, with definite humour he said, "Well I suppose you two will be accompanying each other to the ball tonight, that'll be nice. A bit of Gryffindor and Slytherin unity is just what this school needs."

Draco stood up abruptly, "Well that's not what you're going to get." He growled. "Get moving Virginia." He yanked her to her feet and marched out of the headmaster's office.



Okay definitely weird but I had fun writing it nevertheless. I apologise again for the OOC –ness! Right well I had fabulous reviews for last chapter. Thank you to:

Jessiebear: I'm exceedingly glad. Thank you for reviewing again.

LiTtLe-bLaCk-sTaR: Blimey what pressure! I hope this was good enough for your favourites, lol! Thank you for reviewing I have updated soon as you requested.

Charmed-Goddess-07: I had to think for a minute what you meant about the "romance fic" but I guess you meant my comment about Draco. I'm so glad you love my story after only two chapters. YIPPEE! Thanks for your encouraging review.

MelissaAdams: Glad I made you chuckle. I'm a bit worried though that you enjoyed the author comment more than the story, lol : ) Thanks for reviewing my second chapter.

Cherrie Berry Draco Luver: I am so sorry I stole your idea! How similar was it? I guess I must have invaded your mind, sorry about that! You don't think Draco is out of character? Good but I still think he is and that Harry is a little evil. I have also read stories where Harry and Ron go bad and I hope to try and avoid that in this story…we'll see how I go. I have updated and not very long at all after you reviewed so I hope you liked it. Thanks again.

Thank you to everybody who read my story.

Cheers,

Jess/star123