[A/N: In which we learn how Harry and Ginny & Draco and Hannah first meet. Cute.]
"You're stupid!" Harry shouted at me.
"No I'm not!" I shouted back.
"Why would you jump out from under the cloak? Why? Oh, yes, because you're stupid," Harry said.
"I couldn't just stand there and let him get attacked," I said.
"He was selling us out. You most definitely could've," Ron said.
"He was trying to get his daughter home safe. You can't blame him for that. It's his child," I said. "Besides, they saw me, they know he was telling the truth, now Luna will stay safe and Mr. Lovegood shouldn't be harassed too badly. It all worked out."
"You're still an idiot," Harry said. "In other news, I think you might've been right about the cloak."
"Oh, really?" I asked.
"That spell should've picked up on us, but it didn't," Hermione said shaking her head. "I can't explain it."
"Well, either that cloak is fantastic or it used to belong to death himself," Ron said.
"So. . . If the Hallows are real, and He-Who-Is-So-Anal-About-His-Name gets the Elder Wand. . . He could be really powerful," I said. "And if he knows about the wand he'd know about the stone and the cloak as well."
"I think Dumbledore wants us to get all three of the Deathly Hallows," Harry said.
"No. Hallows might not even be real. It's the Horcruxes we need to get after," Hermione said.
"Well who's to say we won't stumble upon them as we're looking for the Horcruxes?" I asked.
Hermione groaned. "Trust me. This is a bad idea. We don't need to get sidetracked. We need to stop You-Know-Who from being alive. And we need the Horcrux for that."
"But what if the only way to destroy all the Horcruxes is to the have the Hallows? What if that's why he put the symbol in there?" I asked.
"There is no talking to you," Hermione said.
"There's no talking to you," I said.
"I'm just saying, he would want us to stick to the task at hand," she said.
"Whatever," I said.
"Whatever yourself," Hermione said.
Hermione and I leered at each other for a moment before Harry cleared his throat.
"Now that the two of you are done with what I'm sure was an exercise in seeing who was smarter between the pair of you, might we try for a little civility?" Harry asked.
Hermione and I exchanged glances again and looked to Harry.
"Good," Harry said. "Now what I suggest is that we continue to search for the Horcruxes and make them our priority." Hermione nodded and smiled smugly. "However, should we come across any information involving the Hallows, they should also be investigated thoroughly. Can everyone live with that?"
"Sure," Hermione and I said in unison.
GINNY POV
"It was February now and after a rather horrible start to the New Year, I was already looking for to Easter break so that I could go home.
"Muggle Studies is the dumbest class ever," I said walking into Emily's dorm.
She looked up at me from her bed where she was lying down.
"You still go to that class?" she asked.
"Carrow says she'll curse me if I don't and that my 'boyfriend' won't be able to get me out of it," I replied plopping down next to her. "Not feeling well."
"No," she sighed.
"Sorry," I replied.
She shrugged and rolled over to me. "I have some good news and bad news. Which do you want first?"
"Bad news," I replied.
"I'm leaving Hogwarts. Going back home with Fred," she said.
"No! You can't leave me, Emily. Luna's already gone and I never see Neville. I won't have anyone but Draco and Kaitlin if you leave," I said.
"I know, I'm sorry. I wouldn't leave if I didn't have to," she said. "And I don't mean to make it worse but, Katie's leaving too."
"Why is Kaitlin leaving?" I asked.
"She has to go once a month to that ridiculous lock down at the ministry and she doesn't get wolfsbane potion and then she has to drag herself through school every day and she's tired and miserable and failing. Snape told her this morning she had a week to pull her grades up or she was getting thrown out of school and since I'm leaving she decided she'd just leave with me," Emily explained.
"Well, what's the good news?" I asked.
"That you're going to be an aunt, like, biologically," Emily said.
It took a moment for it to sink in.
"You and Fred are having a baby?" I asked.
Emily nodded. "Your mom is over the moon obviously. Or at least that's the impression I got from the letter with all the excited words and stuff. Soon as I told Fred, he sent me back an owl basically demanding I come home since we all seem to end up in detention getting tortured quite a lot here."
"Yeah. You and I have had some good times in detention," I said. "But he's right. You will be so much safer at home and not here. Even if I will be lonely."
"Draco and Neville will keep you out of trouble," Emily said. "And you won't be alone with them. And I'll write to you every week to tell you how I'm doing. How everyone's doing."
"Good," I said. "When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow morning after breakfast," she said. "I have to pack."
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Nearly four. Aren't you usually entertaining Mira around now?" Emily asked.
"Yes, I actually do have to get over there," I said.
"You will be all right with just Draco won't you?" Emily asked.
"Of course I will," I said. "Why?"
Emily sat up and shrugged. "I dunno. I just think you need a buffer."
"A buffer?" I asked. I was so confused.
"Like. . . You need someone else to hang out with so you don't spend so much time with Draco," she said.
"Why?" I asked.
Emily looked coyly down at her feet. "You're gonna be mad. . ."
"About what?" I asked.
"Well, I was with Kassia and Neville a few days ago and we couldn't help but notice that. . . You guys are like, compatible," Emily said.
"Compatible? Like. . . Romantically compatible?" I asked. "You're kidding."
"You're angry," Emily said frowning.
"No. . . Offended," I replied.
"You're both good friends to start with, which is good, but sometimes we all feel like there's this Draco and Ginny club with its own little secrets going on and this façade of a relationship you're parading around promoting doesn't seem like so much of a front," Emily said.
"He is my ex-boyfriend's sister's ex-fiancé. My best friend's baby's daddy. That is so against the rules," I said.
"So is your best friend's brother, or your brother's best friend. Off limits means nothing to you Ginny Weasley," Emily said.
"But that's very against the rules. Draco's just my friend," I said. "And I know it seems like we're extra close but it's because there's like this thing between us—and it's completely platonic."
"What is it then, Gin?" Emily asked.
"We're both really pathetic, you know. We're both miserable and we both miss Harry and Hannah and. . . I can't really explain it," I said. "It's like we're in the exact same situation and we wouldn't even have to be pretending if they were here."
"Nothing you said just now made sense to me," Emily said.
"I know," I said with a sigh. "Anyway, I promise, I am not falling in love with Draco Malfoy, especially while Harry is still mucking about in the middle of nowhere."
"Okay. . . I don't want to have to come back to Hogwarts to beat sense into you," Emily said.
"You have my word," I said. I flashed her a smile and then hopped over to Hannah's room where Draco was in the middle of his last ditch effort to get Mira to sleep—singing. It was the same song every time and it was always a hilarious sight.
"Into a place where thoughts can bloom, into a room where it's nine in the afternoon. And we know that it could be! And we know that it should. And you know that you feel it too. Cause it's nine in the afternoon. Your eyes are the size of the moon. You could cause you can so you do. We're feeling so good, just the way that we do when it's nine in the afternoon. Your eyes are the size of the moon. You could cause you can so you do. We're feeling so good."
I tried not to laugh but by holding it in I let out a loud snort which just made me laugh anyway. He looked over to me and scowled.
"I'm sorry. She's almost asleep. Keep going. Back to the street, down to our feet, losing the feeling of feeling unique," I teased.
"I don't think we can be friends anymore," Draco said rocking Mira who was starting fuss again.
"Okay, seriously, because she wakes back up all the way," I said walking over to her basinet. "Back to the place where we used to say, 'man it feels good to feel this way'. And now I know what I mean."
I looked up at Draco who sighed.
"Back to the street. Back to the place. Back to the room where it all began. Back to the room where it all began," he sang. I smiled.
"Cause it's nine in the afternoon. Your eyes are the size of the moon. You could cause you can so you do. We're feeling so good, just the way that we do when it's nine in the afternoon. Your eyes are the size of the moon. You could cause you can so you do. We're feeling so good, just the way that we do when it's nine in the afternoon. Your eyes are the size of the moon. You could cause you can so you do. We're feeling so good, just the way that we do when it's nine in the afternoon."
When her eyes closed and didn't open back I air-fived him and then plopped down on Hannah's bed.
"Ain't teamwork grand?" I asked.
"Not when you're making fun of me," he said.
"That's when it's funniest," I said. "Why wasn't she sleeping anyway? Did she have a sudden change in sleeping habit?"
"She's starting to teethe apparently so her mouth hurts so she screams," Draco said. "And there are not enough cold, chewy, baby toys in the world to pacify her."
"Well, you'll always have Panic! At the Disco to bail you out," I said. "So you want to hear something funny?"
"Sure," he said. "Want to hear some bad news?"
"No. I've had enough," I said.
"Too bad," he said. "You ready for this?"
"What?" I asked.
"You have to come over my house for Easter Break," he said.
"Bullshit. My parents would never allow it," I said incredulously.
"According to the letter my parents sent me, they did say yes. They can't really say no can they?" Draco asked.
I sighed. "Why do I have to come over?"
Draco shrugged. "They want to meet you or something. Apparently they detest that you're a Weasley but are letting it go because you're pureblood."
"I'm so happy they can see past my flaws," I said rolling my eyes.
"Go on, vent your other bad news to me," Draco said.
"All of our friends who know that our whole relationship isn't real are afraid that it might end up being real," I said.
Draco scoffed. "So they all started taking crack, then?"
"I should say so," I said. "But, Emily said it's because we spend so much time together and we get along so well and there are things about the way we behave with each other that we don't, like, express when we're hanging out with everyone else."
Draco shrugged. "I think it's just because we're pathetic and in the same boat. We both miss people who might never come back and no one else gets that."
"That's exactly what I told Emily," I said shaking my head. "Well, she only told me all this because she's leaving and so is Kaitlin."
"My favorite ninja is leaving Hogwarts? Why?" Draco asked.
"Kaitlin is leaving before she can flunk out of school and Emily is leaving because she's going to be a mother apparently," I said.
Draco laughed. "And the next generation of redheaded children begins."
"Hey, we Weasleys are proud of our hair," I said. "But I am excited to be an aunt."
"You already are basically," Draco said pointing to Mira.
I shrugged. "Mira is not a blood relative. But that doesn't mean I will love her any less when Fred has a baby. Anyway, it'll be refreshing to be around a kid in a situation where people aren't like 'is that your baby' and I'll say 'no' and they say 'then why are you acting like it is'. I am thoroughly over this fake relationship. It is destroying my social life."
"I'm too busy to have a social life and too self-important to care what other people are saying about me," Draco replied.
I rolled my eyes. "Sometimes I forget you're a Slytherin, but then you say things like that and I have a moment of clarity."
"If Hogwarts isn't a pile of rubble by the end of the year and this war actually turns out like it's supposed to, I am convinced Mira will be in Slytherin and make me proud," Draco said.
"And break her mother's Gryffindor heart," I said shaking my head.
"Maybe not. When I first met Hannah she said she wanted to be in Slytherin," he said.
"Oh, right, back when she was 11 and crazy," I said. "Or maybe it was because Snape was her favorite person in the whole world and she wanted to be just like him. Then she met Harry and well, everyone is second bananas to Harry in Hannah's world."
Draco nodded. "I learned that the hard way a few times. There's just something about 'be nice to my brother or I'll dump you' that I just couldn't get through my thick head."
"Obviously," I said rolling my eyes again.
"Tell me," he said, "what was your first encounter with Harry."
I felt my face flush red. The humiliation still haunted me.
"I was 10. My mum had helped him onto Platform 9 and 3/4. I thought he was just this cute but kinda scrawny kid. Then I found he was Harry Potter and I became a nightmarish fan girl," I said. Draco laughed. "I didn't talk to him that day of course. But then over the summer one day, I came down stairs and he was sitting at my kitchen table and he saw me, smiled and said 'hi' and I ran back upstairs to my room mortified."
Draco laughed. "So you've always fancied Potter then?"
"I think I was more of a fangirl in the beginning to be perfectly honest with you. That lasted until my third year when I 'realized' that I was coming on too strong and that really, every time he looked at me he saw his best friend's little sister," I said with a shrug. "Of course, after Michael Coroner and Dean Thomas I knew that I still liked him, or you know, actually liked him for the first time. But I knew he'd come around to me."
"How could you have been sure of that?" he asked.
"After I broke up with Dean and he got dumped by Cho and was finished rebounding with Parvati, we both were tight and he's like the best person in the world to talk to after a break up. He's incredible. He said things like 'you should hate men, Ginny, because we're stupid and the only reason you should keep us around is for procreation at your leisure'," I said.
Draco laughed. "It would be like Potter to kiss your ass like that. I would never say anything like that to Hannah."
"What would you have said 'not all guys are bad. I'm not a bad guy'?" I asked.
"Probably," he said.
"And that is exactly why we can only ever be friends," I said shaking my head. "Now you tell me, what was your first encounter with Hannah like?"
Draco laughed. "She hated me. I didn't think she did at the time because I was 11 and so far up my own ass I couldn't see straight. But in retrospect, she was definitely making fun of me and she told me when she first met me she hated me immediately."
"Ah, classic Hannah. What happened exactly?" I asked.
"I was in Madame Malkins getting fitted for my Hogwarts robes while my parents were off buying my things and in walks this scrawny little messy haired boy with this really pretty red headed girl. That was way back in the day when she only ever wore pigtails and had her face looked like a pizza because she had so many freckles, but I saw her and I was really floored," he said. "And I remember thinking 'I hope she's not a Weasley'."
"Fuck you man," I laughed. "So you've always been a terrible person."
"Correct," he said. "But, I asked if they were first year Hogwarts and they were like yeah. And I asked where their parents were."
"And Hannah said dead with a smile on her face didn't she?" I asked. Draco nodded. "It's great watching her meet people who don't know who she is."
"But after that awkward exchange she asked if we'd met before because I looked familiar and I said, 'no, you'd remember meeting me," he said.
"And then she decided she hated you," Ginny said.
"Yeah, I'm pretty certain that's when things went downhill too," he replied with a nod. "Anyway, then she realized who my dad was couldn't remember what my name was—and she said like maybe it was Dragon or Dracula until I corrected her and then she started babbling on and I was ignoring her and she realized I wasn't listening and said 'you don't care' and I was like 'you catch on quick."
"Wow. Why did she ever fall in love with you?" I asked.
"No idea. But she introduced herself and I told her I'd be in Slytherin and I recall her saying something like 'oh, you'll be a shoe in' but in that really condescending and sarcastic way that she says things. She said she'd be in Slytherin or Gryffindor and then I said 'what's so great about Gryffindor?'," he said.
"The nail in the coffin—that was reason you were never going to be friends that year," I said.
"It gets worse," he said.
"How could you possibly make it worse?" I asked.
"Saw Hagrid out the window and I was like 'oh, isn't he a servant or something?'," Draco said.
I shook my head. "You know talking about Hagrid is grounds for you to have your ass kicked no questions asked."
Draco sighed. "Secret?" I nodded. "I talked about Hagrid during my third yea and Hermione punched me in the face. I walked around with a black eye for ages saying I'd walked into a door or something."
"Go Hermione," I said.
"Anyway, after Hagrid, I just continued to be totally skeevy. 'Dad says it's a pity if I don't make the house team' and 'Snape and my dad are great friends'," Draco said. "And then I was leaving and you know what I did?"
"What did you do?" I asked.
"I winked at her," he said.
I laughed. "Well aren't you a Ham and cheese sandwich?"
"What does that even mean?" he asked.
"That you're a hot ass mess and you're cheesy," I said.
"So rude," he replied.
"I know," I said.
"Still. . . Even though she hated me and I came to despise her. . . I don't know. . . No matter how many times she called me albino or said I was a douche or really insulted me in any way. . . I think I have always loved her," he said. "I just did not feel normal if she wasn't paying me any attention. Probably why I was mean to her in the beginning."
"You were mean to everyone in the beginning," I said.
"But it was different with Hannah. I made fun or Ron and Harry—duh, and I made fun of Hermione because I was ignorant and in Slytherin. But Hannah. . . I knew I could make fun of her for not having parents or being a half-blood or associating with the Weasleys, but she always stood up to me and she always had to have the last word and that was so annoying, but, everyone else was afraid of me or they wanted to be my friend. And she wanted nothing to do with me," Draco said.
"And you, with your high sense of entitlement wanted what you know you couldn't have," I said.
He sighed. "We really are pathetic aren't we?"
I nodded. "I think so."
[Chapter title credit to Panic! At the Disco for their song "Nine in the Afternoon"]