A/N: Three apologies : one, this chapter is VERY long. Two, it's a bit emo. Three, it contains mild language. Sorry. Had to be done. Thankyou to reviewers!! I love you guys!! –hug-
Disclaimer: I am not lucky enough to as smart as to invent these characters myself. They are not mine. Too bad. –pout-
The Stone Speaks
Eleven: Confessions of a Nightmare
GINNY
"He's not going to do it," Ginny said flatly. "There's no way he's going to do it."
"Ohmigod, I think he's actually going to!" Hermione screeched.
"HARRY, DON'T YOU DARE!" Ginny yelled, raising a warning finger to her boyfriend, who now stood, shivering slightly, in only his Hogwarts trousers, in front of the Lake.
Harry grinned, his teeth chattering in the autumn air. "I have to, Gin!" he called back. "A dare's a dare. My only other option is snogging Fang!"
Ginny had to admit that the prospect of kissing Hagrid's slobbery Great Dane wasn't a very appealing one, but what was annoying her was the fact that she knew he was only doing this to show off to other females present – and not her.
Hermione shrieked and Luna laughed as Harry took a deep breath, about to dive into the Lake for a joust with the Giant Squid. Ginny rolled her eyes and sat back against the tree trunk of the great willow. She didn't really care if he did or not – it was just stupid, and he'd complain later.
There a second's pause, and then Harry kicked off, jumping ungraciously and landed an awkward dive that splattered water across the four members audience. His sodden dark-haired head bobbed up a moment later, his glasses misted up and dripped beads of lake-water.
"You. Retard." Ginny folded her arms. "You're going to catch cold and then you'll be moaning for us all to wait on you. I'll say now – no thanks."
Harry laughed, and splashed water at them. "Come in, the water's great," he shouted.
Ginny raised an eyebrow. "No," she said bluntly. "way."
"Pleeeease?" Harry pretended to plead, blinking his eyes pitifully, his short eyelashes glued together with water.
"I'll join you!" Luna yelped, and, without even removing her billowing Ravenclaw robes, flung herself clumsily into the Lake. She disappeared under the murky water, and then bobbed up, throwing her skinny arms around Harry's neck. "Hey, Harry!" she chirped happily.
Ginny's eyebrows shot up, and pursed her lips irritably. She didn't like Harry as anything more than a friend anymore, but it still annoyed her to see him hitting on Luna and Hermione when they were still dating.
She stood to holler at Harry to get out of the water and stop being stupid when someone grabbed her from behind. "Have fun," Ron's voice chortled, and then she was flung over his shoulders.
"No! Ron, put me down! I'll tell mum about this – don't you dare, Ronald Bilius Weasley -" she screamed, but it was too late. The world was staying in place as she tore through it, yelling, and then she was engulfed in freezing cold darkness.
Ginny's breath was knocked from her chest as she struggled to get back up to the surface of the Lake, red ponytails flowing around her face, ghostly illuminated by the dim light streaming through the dirty water. Then her head broke the water, and she gasped and spluttered for air.
"Ronald! Weasley!" she snarled, shaking water from her hair. "You idiot! This is freezing!" Ginny clambered out of the bank, rubbing mud from her eyes, and when she took her hands down, she stopped. Harry and Luna had gotten out of the water when Ginny had been thrown in, and the two of them, plus Hermione and Ron, were cozied up together. Ron was sprawled out on the grass, a dreamy grin on his freckled features as Hermione's head lay on his stomach; Harry, sopping wet and, Ginny noticed, still shirtless, curled up with Luna fitting cutely into his arms.
Ginny cut herself short, and stared at them all with a sinking heart. Again she longed for someone to care about her like that, but she knew that no-one did. She snatched up her discarded socks, shoes and robes, and headed back towards the castle, her hair a crazy, saturated mess.
She was trudging up the stairs when she found herself looking
at a shiny Head Boy badge, and she redirected her gaze up to Terry Boot. "Hello, Terry," she said dully.
"Ginny," said Terry stiffly. "I suppose there's a good reason why you are walking up the main staircase, barefoot, and dripping wet?" He peered down at her, a silly smirk on his face.
"Yeah, well," Ginny said, "I don't really give a damn if it's against Hogwarts policy or whatever you're about to tell me of because of."
"Ginny, I don't think you should be addressing the Head Boy that way," Terry said seriously, pointing his badge at her, in case she'd missed it.
"Well, I don't think you should be flaunting your new position around like a new girlfriend," Ginny replied snidely, glaring at Terry.
Terry turned the colour of a beetroot. "I do not flaunt girlfriends," he snapped, a frown etching itself onto his handsome face.
Ginny snorted. "Sorry, Terry, but I don't believe that, and I don't think you really do either," she retorted. "And if you can't remember your girlfriend-flaunting history, think back two years." In her fourth year, Ginny had gone out with Terry (along with Michael Corner, Dean Thomas and Sean Finnigan) and she had broken up with him because it seemed that his only hobby was kissing her in front of everyone to show her off.
Terry reddened further. "I did not -"
"Grow up, Terry," Ginny sighed, pushing a hand backwards through her wet hair, "I don't want to hear it." With that, she sidestepped around him and continued up the stairs. By the time she reached the painting of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor, her clothes were only damp, and her skin was dry, though a little cold.
"Troll skull," she told the large, pink-dressed, beribboned woman in the painting, and the canvas swung forwards to allow Ginny through. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil giggled as she dripped on the carpet, but the redhead ignored them and continued up to her dormitory. She showered, changed into a different set of robes, and then dried her shoes and hair with the simple Flagnio charm.
Ginny took her hair out of its messy ponytails, leaving it loose around her shoulders. She turned to the mirror, wanting to see how long her hair was getting and if it needed to be cut yet (she wanted to beg a side-fringe off of her mother), and she saw the piece of parchment tucked into the corner of the frame.
It was old (five months old, in fact) and beginning to curl at the edges; on it, in small, slanting script was: You're beautiful and I love you. Harry xx He had given it to her in August, telling her that, after breaking up with her at Dumbledore's funeral, he still fancied her, and she had stuck it on her mirror so that whenever she felt the need to look at her self and be negative about her appearance, she would know that someone loved her, whether she was pretty or not.
Ironic, isn't it? Ginny thought darkly, and ripped the parchment off, crumpling it in her hand and dropping it carelessly on the floor. She then flicked her hair over her shoulder, any thoughts of her haircut abandoned, and, stepping delicately over the screwed-up parchment, left the dorm.
She left through the portrait, and then realized that she had nowhere to go. Ginny looked through the tower window, and saw a crisp orange leaf float by; autumn had set it. "Hallowe'en," she said, remembering that it was tomorrow. The sixth and seventh formers were allowed into Hogsmeade for some Hallowe'en fun, and Ginny presumed that Luna, Hermione, Ron and Harry would all be going. She'd be expected to join them, but a vision of Harry, Luna and Hermione, Ron all kissing in the light of the full moon.
Ginny shivered. She was not going with them for Hallowe'en. She felt mean, but it couldn't be helped. She didn't want to be a gooseberry to their cuddling, and would rather stay in the dorm and eat chocolate, watching a horror movie.
Suddenly an idea struck Ginny. Malfoy. A small smile pulling at her mouth, she skipped down the winding stairs. The only problem now would be to find him in the labyrinth that was Hogwarts. An idea struck her, and she headed back to the Gryffindor tower, her legs pleading for rest from the endless stairs. Crossing to the boys' dorm, and sneaking past the wary eyes of Parvati and Lavender, she found Harry's bed, and burrowed under it until her fingers found the Marauder's Map.
Stuffing it into her robes, she slipped away, and back down from Gryffindor tower. Walking past the window she had stood at a moment ago, she opened the slightly creased map, and whispered, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good." Black lines drew themselves across the yellowed parchment, like spiders beginning their webs. Every inch of Hogwarts was carefully painted on the paper, and then Ginny murmured, "Draco Malfoy."
The parchment flashed, and the lines ran sideways as the magical map located the seventeen-year-old Slytherin. Curiously, he was in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, not moving at all. "Mischief managed." Ginny folded the map away and hurried towards the teenage ghost's haunt.
As she neared, she heard voices; a quiet male, and a soft, whispery female. She pushed open the door softly and stood in the shadows again, partly visible, but not too noticeable.
"So often I just think it wouldn't be easier to end it all. Just… zap. One spell. And then my life would get better."
"You could live with me in my toilet, if you wanted. Or you could go to the other side, I suppose. I was too scared to go to the Other Side and now I'm trapped in this stupid school forever."
"I would probably go to the Other Side… but I wish you could come too. It'll be really lonely, I guess, and how do I know that it'll be any better than here?"
"I don't know. It might be heaven… but it might be hell, too, and I just – Weasley!"
Ginny looked at her feet. "Sorry," she mumbled, but, very surprisingly, her face didn't glow. "I didn't mean to intrude."
Draco nodded. "It's okay," he muttered, but he folded his arms and held his elbows tightly. Then he looked up at Ginny. "Um… how much – how much did you hear?"
Ginny chewed her lower lip. "Enough."
Draco raked a hand backwards through his hair with a heavy sigh, dropping himself to sitting in the sinks. He stared down at his shoes, and for barely a second, he let his guard down enough for Ginny to see the immensely troubled look on his teenage features, like a very small child who is upset by something that he is too young to understand.
"Excuse me, but don't I know you?" Moaning Myrtle demanded rudely. Ginny looked up, and the fifteen-year-old ghost peered into the older girl's face. Then Myrtle gasped. "Ohmigod," she gasped. "I knew it! It's you, that disgusting girl!"
Ginny frowned, not understanding. "I'm sorry, but you must have me confused with someone else," she said politely.
"No, trust me, I don't. I see your stupid face every night when I try to relax," Moaning Myrtle snarled, "You're the one who hurled a book at me. You're the bitch who opened the Chamber of Secrets and helped You-Know-Who, my murderer, get stronger. You're Ginny Weasley."
Ginny's face darkened, and she looked down at the floor. That had made her first year in a safe haven, Hogwarts, into hell. She had been all excited about learning magic, and what happened? Oh yeah, a psycho fifteen-year-old possessed her, made her write on the walls in her own blood, and try to kill everyone.
Draco's mouth dropped open. "That – that was you?" he whispered.
Ginny didn't look up. "You're not the only one with a filthy past, you know," she said darkly, avoiding the shocked gaze that she knew was on her.
"Well, that was hardly -"
"Hardly what?" Ginny suddenly exploded. "Hardly worth anything? Nothing terrible? Let me tell you some news, Draco I'm-so-tormented Malfoy – my life has never been the same. I was possessed by the most evil man alive when I was eleven years old. I helped him return to power! Thanks to me, hundreds of people have died! I nearly killed Colin Creevey, Professor Sinistra, Justin Finch-Fletchey, Ernie Macmillan, my ex-boyfriend Seamus Finnigan, my grandparents, my aunt, my best friend, Hermione – I nearly killed myselfI cut my self open every day, a thousand times, just to write creepy messages on the wall. Other kids came home with good report cards and spellbooks and broomsticks. You want to know my souvenir of Hogwarts? I came back with this."
Then, furiously, Ginny yanked the sleeves of her robes up, past her elbow, revealing long, rough, angry, bright scars stretching from her wrist to her forearm, jagged and untidy, cut by an unsteady eleven-year-old's penknife.
"Now you know why I don't wear short-sleeved T-shirts," Ginny spat, shoving her sleeve back down and glaring at the Slytherin and the ghost.
There was a silence in the bathroom, ringing with emotions – Draco and Myrtle stunned, Ginny furious. It grew thinner and thinner, ready to snap, and then Draco sighed. "I'm sorry," he said softly.
Ginny slumped against the wall. "It doesn't matter, though, Draco, and I'm sorry I listened on you and Myrtle's private conversation. Myrtle, I'm sorry I threw a book at you," she said, feeling drained of all emotions and being left a dull, quiet shell.
"It's okay," Draco and Myrtle mumbled, Draco a little late. Then, curious, Moaning Myrtle asked, "Why did you come in here in the first place?"
Ginny flushed pink. She had screamed at Draco, and now she was going to try and ask him out. That would work. Anyway, Ginny corrected herself, I'm asking him out on a date. I'm just seeing if he wants to go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow. She forced a small smile onto her pale face. "Well… I was looking for you, Draco. Don't ask how I knew where you were, I just did. And then you and Myrtle were…" Ginny fell silent, wondering how to continue.
She'd never asked anyone out before. The guys had always asked her. "Er…" Ginny puffed out her breath, and then said nervously, "I just… wanted to know… maybe – perhaps – if you wanted to join me on Hallowe'en in Hogsmeade."
Something lit up in Draco's eyes, but something else more powerful shrouded it, and he said bitterly, "I can't."
"Why not?" Ginny pushed, gaining confidence. "It'll be fun."
Draco didn't say anything, and Ginny knew that her sort of-friend was hiding something. Then he looked down into her pleading hazel eyes, and sighed deeply. "I don't even have anything to wear," he confessed.
Ginny grinned. "What do you mean? It's not like you need a mask," she teased, poking her pointed tongue out.
Draco's eyes widened, but he let out the tiniest of laughs, and shrugged. "Okay, I guess," he said, and once again, a flash of a smile crossed his face before disappearing.
"You can come too, Myrtle. It'll be scary," Ginny said, smiling. She knew that the young ghost had never had any friends, and perhaps she and Draco could be her first. I'm on a roll with this new friend thing.
"Okay," Myrtle beamed. "Sure."
I'd like to see Harry, Luna, Ron and Mione having this much fun.
A/N: Yeah, that was a bit AU and a bit emo for Ginny, but oh well. Also, the reason that Draco is so unsure about Hallowe'en is because he doesn't want to get any closer to Ginny, because he knows he has to kill her. Hallowe'en should be fun… Hehe. Please review.