Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me.
Chapter Nine
Pansy glanced up when Theodore walked in, but no one else took notice of his entrance. Draco was too busy examining the exposed skin of Blaise's chest that his gaping uniform afforded him as he made the Veritaserum to even look up. All three had already discarded their robes, the heat from the fires warming them even though the dungeons themselves were shockingly cold. The Slytherins were, by now, used to the chill, but the Gryffindors were huddled tightly around their individual fires.
Theodore tossed his own robes down as he stepped closer to Pansy, rolling up his sleeves and starting to chop up the goat livers, effortlessly melding with Pansy even though she had started the potion without him. Snape was busy taking points off of the Gryffindors, but he did notice Theodore's arrival with a tilt of his head, his eyes speaking for him; he'd discuss it with Theodore after class.
"Did you get her to class?" It was Draco, surprisingly, who asked, and Theodore looked up at him warily before answering.
"Yes."
"And you made sure to give her the tie?" Blaise asked casually, stirring the violet liquid.
"Yes." Pansy answered, dropping in the chopped liver into their lime potion, turning it violet as well with a puff of smoke.
"Good. That hasn't been used in years, but it used to exemplify loyalty to the Slytherin house, also meaning that they'd have the full protection of the house." Draco explained lazily, his eyes never leaving the faintly glowing skin of Blaise's chest.
"Well, I doubt it's going to go over well with her house mates." Pansy said dryly. Blaise looked up sharply.
"Do you think we should…?" He asked, reaching for his robe as Draco mimicked his actions. Pansy shook her head sharply.
"No. Think about it; you barging into a sixth year Charms class just to make sure a Gryffindor's not being eaten alive? Real subtle." Theodore snorted.
"I doubt that it'd be Gin that was getting eaten." He chuckled softly while Draco shot him an intense glare.
"When did Weasley become 'Gin?'" He growled in an undertone. Theodore slowed, looking at Draco warily. It seemed as if their entire little group was holding their breath, Blaise discreetly eyeing Theodore as he slowly mixed the potion. Draco was outright glaring at him, and Pansy had stopped stirring completely to watch the sparks.
"Just this morning." Theodore said cautiously. Pansy was also eyeing him warily; she hadn't seen them being particularly close.
"And what were you doing with her this morning?" Blaise asked cheerfully—that wasn't good. They all knew that when either Blaise or Draco were sounding cheerful, then it meant that someone was going to lose vital organs.
"She was getting dressed, and I was getting food." Theodore said calmly. They both still looked murderous.
"Blaise, Draco, stop acting like love struck Gryffindors." Pansy snapped. The effect was instantaneous.
"Pansy!" Blaise nearly shouted, horrified. "We are not in love with a Weasley—"
"Or are we acting like Gryffindors!" Draco finished, both looking properly miffed. Pansy caught Theodore's eyes and they both burst into giggles.
"You should have seen your faces!" Theodore gasped, leaning against Pansy.
"It was hilarious!" She snickered into her palm. Draco and Blaise looked offended, before returning to the potion, this time Draco working on the actual potion and Blaise watching Draco. The other two's laughter subsided, and silence reigned for a few minutes while they finished up the potions. Once the little bottles were labeled and the sparkling liquid was on Snape's desk, they cleared out the cauldrons, still having a few minutes left in class.
"I think we should check on her." Blaise finally said. Pansy looked at them, exasperated.
"I don't think you should. After all, Vaisey's going to be keeping an eye on her. I doubt that she's going to need—"
"Vaisey?" Draco asked incredulously. "You asked Vaisey to keep an eye on her?" She bristled angrily, glaring.
"And what the hell is wrong with Vaisey?" She snapped at them. Rather than cower, they both rose to the occasion, feeding off her anger to fuel their own.
"Vaisey is a daft ingrate that doesn't even know the meaning of the word 'watch,' and is probably poorer than Weasley. He'd lose sight of her in the very instant he caught sight of her." Blaise snapped, grabbing his robe and tossing Draco his. "We're going." While Theodore and Pansy watched, helpless, Draco signaled to Snape who nodded in return, and then turned back to the two sitting at the empty cauldron.
"We'll see you in History." Draco said coldly, before storming out of the room, following Blaise. Pansy looked at Theodore, scowling mulishly.
"Bloody bastards." She growled under her breath. Theodore laughed, dropping an arm around her shoulder.
"Look at it this way, love; more time with just you and me." She wasn't able to hide the grimace that crossed her face, and he laughed at the sight of it. Pansy glanced at the clock and groaned; it was going to be a long ten minutes.
§
Once I had made it back to the main hallways, I realized that Aberforth had indeed been right; classes had ended already. That was obvious by the buzzing crowd, and the glares from anyone I passed wearing a red and gold tie. I returned the glares with indifferent looks; apparently, Potter had managed to turn the whole house against me in barely two nights. That was pretty impressive, I had to say.
"Move out of the way, Weasley." Someone behind me said, before violently knocking against my shoulder as they pushed past me. I shot the girl a cold glare, causing her sneer to fall off her face and make her rush to catch up with the rest of her friends. I snorted to myself. Fifth year Gryffindors—they might have been taller than me, but they were younger. The thing that had scared the "courageous" Gryffindor off though was probably because I was known to be the one that Tom had once "possessed."
I hurried further down the hallway, dodging all sorts of legs that stuck out and elbows to the ribs as I passed my loving house mates. By the time I made it past the library on the fourth floor, I was already pretty damn bruised and inches away from cursing the next person that "accidentally" bumped into me. An angry scowl was plastered onto my face, but that didn't seem to stop people.
An awful ripping sound was suddenly heard from behind me, and I swore violently when my bag considerably lightened. I spun around, drawing my wand and scanning the crowds for the person that had their wand out. Luckily, I caught the person before he could put his wand away: Dean Thomas, his dark skin contorted into a devious grin. Before he could do anything else I whispered the Conjunctivitus Curse, making him cry out in pain and drop his wand. I Accio'd it towards me, before pocketing it and quickly repairing my bag and putting everything back in it.
I turned around and started to leave him. I was going to ditch his wand somewhere where he wouldn't find it for a long time; I was thinking along the lines of the Vanishing Cabinet, or the Room of Requirement. Maybe not the Room, though; if he knew about its existence, he'd know how to get into it and find his wand. Just as I was about to turn around the corner, a heavy arm settled around my shoulders. An arm that I recognized all too well.
"Well, dearest sister of mine, fancy meeting you here." Ron sneered. I tensed underneath his arm, trying to dart out from underneath him but unsuccessful due to the grip he had on my far shoulder. I turned to glare up at him, his freckled face twisted into a near-grimace. I was immensely happy that somewhere along the line, I had managed to lose my ghastly freckles, so now my skin was just ivory pale and unblemished.
"Let me go." I said quietly. He laughed cruelly.
"I'm afraid not, sister. After all, I believe you've just cursed Dean over there—plus, I know someone that's been dying to talk to you." I felt my heart seize first in fear and then in anger. I grabbed my wand, using the Banishing Charm to push him away from me. I glared up at him, only slightly aware that the entire hallway had gone silent.
"Stay the fuck away from me, Ron. I'm through with you and your bloody 'Golden Trio.'" I spat at him violently, my wand hand steady as I pointed it directly at his chest from only a few feet away. His eyes widened, before they settled once again into a self-satisfied smirk that made me wary.
"I wouldn't try threatening me, Ginny." He taunted. I tightened my grip on my wand, taking a step forward.
"You don't even know the meaning of that word, Ronald Weasley." I hissed. "I can hurt you so bad that you won't be able to tell the difference between the sky and the ground." His smirk only widened, and I realized why when I was spun around by a furious looking Hermione Granger.
"Threatening your own blood?" She asked angrily, her bushy hair bouncing in her ire. My glare only deepened as I took a step away from her, my wand trained on her.
"He's no blood of mine." I spat viciously. "This farce has been going on for two years, and he's turned a fucking blind eye to it!" She looked murderous, taking a step forward and completely ignoring my wand. She leaned down to glare at me in my eyes, which I definitely wasn't that opposed to. Maybe if she saw just how pissed I was, she'd get a hint that I actually meant business.
"Harry is good for you, you lying little slag." She snarled at me with much more wrath than I could have thought her possible of. "Without him, you're nothing; you need him to be worth anything. Otherwise you're just a useless little waste of space, an annoyance that leeches off of others."
I felt myself falter back a few steps, just to get away from her poisonous words. She wasn't ever nice to me, not after Voldemort had been finally killed, but this was much worse than she had ever been. It was like she had been possessed by Potter, full of much more rage than was usually obvious. It somewhat scared me, actually; I still hadn't fully gotten over my fear of Potter, and having her exhibit signs that he usually did, it was just as bad as seeing him in person.
A muffled gurgle from behind me had me halfway turning, before another arm settled on my shoulders and the other wrapped around my waist. I felt my muscles tense in surprise, ready to leap away, before I realized what I was smelling: expensive cologne. More specifically, Malfoy and Zabini's expensive cologne. I glanced up at them, meeting both of their eyes so they could see how grateful I was of their intrusion. Sure, my pride was curling up in agony at having to be rescued by them, but I wasn't ready to take on Potter's groupies, not yet.
"Granger, and here I thought you were knowledgeable." Malfoy drawled casually. He was on my left side, and he was the one that had his arm wrapped around my waist, his wand held casually between the fingers of his other hand.
"We thought you'd notice that Ginny here has a tie on—a Slytherin tie." I was faintly surprised that Zabini actually used my name. Hell, I was surprised they even knew my name. Well, maybe that was pushing it; I'd have expected them to extensively research my background before even letting me near Nott and Parkinson.
"And you know what that means, Mudblood." Another muffled sound of outrage came from behind me, and I smirked when I realized what it was. Ron—somehow they had either cursed him or wounded him, and I didn't really care which it was. I didn't even flinch at the name, either; even though my parents had always told me that they were just as equal as us purebloods, they had stressed that I was to never to marry one—to keep the lines pure. Besides, I myself always had a bit of the pureblooded bigotry that the Slytherins were known for. I just hid it better.
"Or do you need us to explain it to you?" Zabini asked smoothly at her silence. I nearly jumped out of my skin when Malfoy's hand started to trace small circles on my far hip, but then settled much more comfortably in their dual hold. After all, it did feel unbelievably good.
"A Slytherin tie on a member of another house means that that particular house has extended its jurisdiction over that member of another house, or that the member of the house has given their loyalty to the house." Granger finally spouted out, sounding like a textbook as per usual. I could just feel the smirks on the two men next to me.
"Correct, Granger." Malfoy purred. "So that means that if you hurt Ginny here again…"
"We'll personally make sure that you won't be able to read another one of your bloody books again." Zabini hissed, his voice finally losing all traces of civility as his grip on my shoulder tightened again. Malfoy's hold on me also tightened, but neither of them held me so tightly that it was painful. Granger looked sickly, and I couldn't help but feel a smidgeon of satisfaction. Time someone brought the mudblood down a notch, I thought to myself. The word slipped into my vocabulary effortlessly, and fell through my subconscious just as easily. Guess those Slytherins rubbed off quickly.
"Come, let's get Ginny down to her class, love." Malfoy urged quietly, and as a single unit we turned around and started walking down the hall. I met the eyes of several stunned students, staring at them until they looked away as we continued down the hall. No doubt this would be around school by my lunch; the two Slytherin princes standing up for Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter's girlfriend, against his two groupies. That would definitely have the gossip whores talking.
As soon as we were out of sight of the rest of the students, their arms fell off of me and I had to stop myself from visibly showing the sadness I felt from the lack of their comforting bodies. They still remained close enough to show that I was with them, glaring at any poor student that came across us in the hallway. We didn't really have much time left before my next class would start, but I stopped them on the first floor to make use of the Vanishing Cabinet. They both looked at my quizzically, before I grinned wickedly, pulling out the light golden wand that belonged to Thomas.
"You're a bitch." Zabini said in admiration. I preened at the compliment, before tossing the wand in the closet and shutting it.
"No, if I was really a bitch I would have transfigured it into a dirty rag." I said casually, striding towards the dungeons. They only took a moment to catch up with me.
"Let me be the first to tell you that you surprise the hell out of me." Malfoy told me, sounding slightly shocked that he was actually saying this to a Weasley, of all people.
"The feeling's mutual, Malfoy." I said dryly. It seemed somewhat strange to still be calling him Malfoy; by now anyone else but a Slytherin would have requested that I use their first name, not their surname. But…it was Malfoy, and I didn't even know him well enough to call him Draco. Besides, it just seemed like a violation of some unwritten law to call him, Zabini, Parkinson, or Nott anything but their surnames.
By now we were pretty much dashing through the dungeons. The passing period of fifteen minutes was going to be over in a just a few more; I had taken too much time cursing Thomas, taking his wand, and verbally sparing with the two-thirds of the Trio. I didn't have any idea how they were going to get to class on time, either; I didn't know what their next class was, but Potions was the only class this far down into the school, and it was a very good possibility that they were going to be late if they kept their word and escorted me all the way down to the entrance of the Potions classroom.
"Are you taking me all the way down?" I asked them at large, my breath coming out slightly quicker than normal with my increased blood pressure.
"Yes." Malfoy answered.
"Doesn't that mean that you're going to be late for your own classes?"
"Yes, but that doesn't matter. We're in the same class, and it's only Binns. I doubt he's notice it if we walked right through him when we came in." Zabini said offhandedly. I smiled slightly, finding us only a hallway away. I heard the sound of voices just around the corner, and we slowed down. I glanced at them uncertainly, suddenly nervous, shifting the bag to my other shoulder. They looked at each other, and then fixed their piercing gazes onto me, making me twice as uncomfortable.
"Yeah, so, the class is right there. I better get inside before Snape has a conniption." I said, edging around the corner.
"We don't want to tell you to stay out of trouble." Malfoy started.
"But…if someone even thinks about hurting you, don't be afraid to curse their balls off." Zabini finished. I grinned maliciously.
"Don't worry—I'm not afraid to get a detention for cursing someone." They nodded in approval, before realizing something, both training scrutinizing eyes on me.
"We met you on the fourth floor; the Charms hall is on the third. What were you doing up there?" Zabini questioned sharply. I looked towards the ground, feeling guilty.
"I may have accidentally and inadvertently jinxed Creevey." I muttered into my shirt. I heard twin snorts of amusement and glanced up.
"Jinxed him? That's all?" Malfoy asked. I glared at him, offended.
"Of course not. The bloody coward tried hexing me while we were supposed to be practicing wordless charms." I said, smiling ruefully.
"With what?" Malfoy followed up.
"Jelly-legs Jinx." I snorted. "Stupid boy didn't even know how to curse someone properly." Just then, I realized that the voices from the hallway around the corner were gone, meaning that class had started.
"Shit." I muttered, turning around and shooting them an apologetic look. "Snape really is going to have a conniption. See you later."
"Pansy's going to pick you up from Potions to take you to your next class." Zabini said. I nodded, waved briefly, and darted around the corner. The door was still open, thankfully, so I was able to dart in and take up my customary seat in the back of the classroom. There was an uneven number of people in the class, so I had always worked by myself; I didn't mind, and Snape didn't really care, either, since I was able to do just as well as by myself as any other pair did together.
The gloomy atmosphere of the dungeon seemed to suit me better than anything, and I secretly loved this class more than any others. Potions was my pride and joy; I was the best at it over all my other classes, and in those I was in the top of my classes. Snape didn't even assign me the same potions that the others were given; he gave me N.E.W.T. level potions and beyond. And I managed to make them all perfectly, too. I grinned to myself; I definitely wasn't modest in any way.
"Veritaserum, Miss Weasley." Snape said to me sharply. I nearly jumped out of my chair; I hadn't heard him walk up to my solitary desk. I nodded at him, already reaching for my book. "And we need to talk after class about your detention." I nodded again, and he spun off to go torture some of my classmates.
I stared after him with mixed feelings. Fear was definitely among them; I hoped the Aberforth hadn't felt the need to actually tell Snape that I requested him. After all, even though we had a semi-decent student and teacher relationship, I was still a Gryffindor, and I was supposed to hate him on principle. He tolerated me, and I personally idolized him for his knowledge in Potions, but we hadn't ever had the same kind of relationship that he held with his favorite Slytherin students. I swallowed, getting up to get the ingredients; hopefully, he wouldn't hold the fact that I was a Weasley and a Gryffindor against me.
Hopefully.
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A/N: Slightly later than I intended, but it's out nonetheless. I'm finally back to sleeping in my own bed, thank the gods, too.
Notes-The Conjunctivitus Curse causes one to lose their sight. I accidentally and temporarily revived Dumbledore from the dead in the last chapter. If you're one of the people that read it, which should be, for the most part, almost everyone that reviewed, sorry 'bout that. I added a note into last chapter's A/N, and now I'm mentioning it here. He's been changed to Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother--thank you sweetsunshine16 for catching this error!
Finals week. Good god, I'm going to flunk all my classes. ((shifty eyes))
Okay, so somewhere I started a new fic. I haven't finished it, but would you be interested in reading it? The downsides of this: my updates would be further apart, since I'd be updating two fics instead of one. The other one is a DGB, too, but a different take on it. Seven parts, seven perspectives. Would you reviewers want me to post it? (I'm not going to tell you more than that, though. It's vague and etc., but I really like writing it so far).
Review responses in the author page. Also, I've come to the conclusion that I want 150 reviews for Christmas. I'm not pressuring you to review, not at all--It's up to me to get the chapters out there so you can review and get me to that Christmas present.
...but if you'd review, I'd love you a bit more. :D
-Rapture
