Chapter 18
"I'll see ya later then, mate." Draco glanced up from his textbook, only mildly aware of the fact that someone was talking to him.
"What? Oh, yeah..." he mumbled, returning his gaze to the faded text in front of him. "See you later."
Blaise exhaled silently before exiting the library to meet with his girlfriend, leaving his friend with only a dense, worn book for company. It wasn't that he wanted to leave him behind — in fact, he had invited him to come along, but since they'd come back to Hogwarts, Draco had drifted back into his cold, uncaring shell. The fact that Blaise was currently occupied with his own girlfriend didn't help either; after all, Draco had no desire to feel like a third-wheel.
This is how he must've felt before, Draco thought bitterly as he lazily flipped the thin page of his book after reading the final sentence on the page nearly three times. Ginny was his friend too... He should've just said something. Blaise had always been good at hiding his thoughts though, probably even better than his friend if you considered the fact that he'd put on a false grin in addition to masking the truth. In actuality, he may have been fine with his two friends spending so much time together (he did manipulate them into that situation in the first place), but Draco could never be certain when he was telling the truth or showing them a façade.
It's no different this time, he mused, turning the page once more after skimming the paper. He's not acting any different than before. Does he really think everything'll just go back to the way it was? He snorted. He's not that daft. A loud thud jolted him out of his thoughts as Madam Pince dropped a towering stack of tomes on the table in front of him.
"The library is closed!" she hissed, her beady eyes narrowing at him behind tiny glasses. "What are you still doing here?"
Draco, indifferent to the ill-tempered woman before him, scanned the room quickly only to realize that everyone else had left and the library was indeed closed. Without a word, he stood up, shoving the book in his bag and ignoring the fuming Madam Pince as he left the room.
Ginny smiled as a giggling baby boy with short tufts of bright purple hair reached out to grab hold of her finger. Shifting her attention to his mother, she commented, "I see he has your hair, Tonks."
The woman, who was currently sporting bubble-gum pink hair, grinned happily. "Well, he's a mummy's boy. You can tell." Her voice held a hint of pride as the baby let out a squeal of delight.
"He's so adorable!" Sarisa cooed with obvious glee before she turned to Tonks. "Do you mind if I hold him?"
"He's all yours." As she handed him off to the beaming teenager, she added, "Careful though, he likes to pull hair." While Sarisa rocked little Teddy back and forth, Tonks started up another conversation with the red-head. "So, Ginny, what've you been up to?"
"Nothing really; there's not much to do here..." she answered plainly.
"What?" Tonks began with amusement. "Fred and George aren't keeping it interesting enough for you?"
She laughed. "Well, they are, but still..."
"Things could be better?"
Ginny looked away. "Yeah..."
"Well, I'd drink to that," Tonks sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the arm of the sofa. "Hopefully this'll all be over soon. I don't want Teddy to grow up in a world like this."
"I'm sure he won't," Ginny assured her. "Everyone's doing their best to get rid of You-Know-Who." It'd become habit to address Voldemort by the name so many called him out of fear, what with the Taboo and all. Tonks chuckled as she glanced over at Sarisa, who was making faces, eliciting tiny giggles from the boy in her arms.
Turning back to Ginny, Tonks said, "Harry's been made his godfather, you know. Remus asked him when he stopped by Shell Cottage."
The youngest Weasley grinned at the thought. "Just wait till you tell him his godfather's the hero of the Second War." Tonks laughed once more.
"Yeah, I'm sure Harry would appreciate that..." She paused as a quiet yelp of discomfort came from beside them. "Oh, Teddy! Let go of Sarisa's hair." Reaching over, she relieved the girl of the baby, but he continued to squirm in her arms. "Well, he's getting fussy, so we'd better get goin'."
"Try to visit again soon," Ginny spoke up. Tonks shifted Teddy to one arm before waving as she left the room.
"Will do." Ginny heard the young woman talking to her mother in the entry hallway, but she couldn't understand what they were saying since Sarisa started speaking a moment later.
"It's really amazing, isn't it?" she murmured with a smile. "That even at a time like this, people can make the best of it."
Ginny nodded in agreement. "But it'd still be nice not to worry about everything." The other girl laughed softly.
"I know what you mean." Suddenly one of the twins poked his head out from the drawing room.
"Oi, Ris! We need help packing these boxes!"
"I'm coming," she answered back before turning back to Ginny, who was wearing an expression of mild disbelief.
"Are they shipping stuff out again? I thought mum had hidden all of their products, especially with Aunt Muriel complaining and all."
Sarisa shrugged with a slight curve to her lips. "You know how they are."
"Talk about making the best of a situation..." she mumbled, causing the girl beside her to laugh. Before she could respond though, there was another call from the drawing room.
"Ris! Are you comin' or not?"
"Hold on a sec." The exasperation in her voice must've been evident, because Fred peered around the doorway with a grin.
"What's got your knickers in a twist?"
Ginny chortled heartily while Sarisa sighed, uttering, "I guess I'd better go help them..." as she walked towards the doorway.
Fred turned his attention towards his sister as the brunette girl walked past him. "You can help out too if you want."
"I think I'll pass."
"Suit yourself," he shrugged before disappearing back inside the room. Ginny hesitated for a moment, thinking that maybe she should've taken up the offer, but eventually decided to get a bit of fresh air.
Making her way to the entry hall, she asked, "Mum, can I go outside for a bit?" Mrs. Weasley and Tonks' conversation paused. A few seconds elapsed before there was a response.
"...Alright, but take your wand with you." As she already had it in her pocket (it was there more for comfort reasons, as she wasn't allowed to use it unless there was an emergency), she went to the opposite side of the house and opened the door that led to the backyard. There was a quaint little porch attached to the house, but she immediately walked down the few steps in favor of stopping next to one of the trees that had made its home in the yard. Grabbing onto a low branch, she climbed till she was a good number of feet off the ground before leaning against the trunk tiredly. She could see the sun setting on the horizon through the gapes in the leaves, but instead she let her eyes lazily flutter closed.
Draco and Blaise must be going to dinner now, she reasoned with a hint of longing grasping her thoughts. Unless they're already there, in which case Blaise is probably chatting idly while Draco plays with the food on his plate. She smiled at the thought, not even aware of how right her supposition was.
A few mornings later, Blaise packed up the last of his supplies for the day and slung his bag over his shoulder before turning towards the bed next to his, where the only other occupant of the room was mostly hidden beneath the covers. "Draco, get out of bed," he stated tersely, folding his arms in front of his chest. "Breakfast'll be over in twenty minutes."
"I'll just meet you in class," he muttered groggily in return before rolling over to go back to sleep, but Blaise wasn't about to let that happen.
"Oh, no you don't. I know you skipped dinner last night — for the second time this week, might I add — so you'd better get your arse out of bed and get some food."
"I'm fine," Draco growled, pulling the covers over his head. "Now bugger off." Blaise sighed before walking over, swiftly grabbing the pillow from his own bed and hitting his stubborn friend with it. Draco sat up almost immediately, snatching the pillow away before he could hit him again with it.
"What the hell was that for?" he demanded, though the irritated look on his face was weakened by the fact that he looked like a disheveled mess. Blaise simply ignored him.
"You may as well get ready now that you're up," he remarked with a slight grin. Draco scowled, but dragged himself out of bed nonetheless. "I mean honestly, what would Ginny say if she could see you now?"
The blonde scratched his head, his eyes locking on the floor in the process. "Don't say that," he stated, his voice holding no detectable emotion that could clue Blaise into the meaning of his retort.
"Why not?"
Draco shrugged. "I think it'd be better if we forgot about her." The other boy could do nothing but stare at him in surprise. "It was great and all while it lasted, but let's face it, we're not going to see her again," he reasoned matter-of-factly. This knocked Blaise out of his stupor.
"So we should just forget about her?" he wondered incredulously.
"Why not?" Draco prompted, mimicking the lofty tone his friend had had when he asked the same question moments before. Blaise gazed at him, entertaining the notion that maybe this whole conversation was some odd prank, but eventually he just shook his head in disbelief.
"You're being ridiculous," he huffed, turning his back to him and heading for the door. "Just go get ready."
Annoyed by Blaise's dismissive behavior, Draco snapped, "I'm serious. The whole thing was just a joke. And now that it's over, we should get back to reality. It's not like we ever considered being friends with a Muggle-lover before."
Blaise whirled around, a rare expression of anger on his face. "Are you listening to what you're saying? I miss her just as much as you do, but I'm not saying we should pretend nothing happened!" He paused, his jaw clenching before he turned away. "Now stop making excuses and hurry up. At this rate you'll be late for class," he gritted out before briskly walking out of the room, leaving a somewhat taken aback Draco behind him.
The dimming rays of sunlight that shone through the windows of Aunt Muriel's house found Ginny sitting on her bed, reclined against the wall with a few pieces of parchment in hand. Since she was so absorbed in what she was reading, the muffled sound of footsteps on the carpet just outside her open door went completely unnoticed until someone spoke.
"Who are those letters from anyway?"
Ginny jumped at the sudden noise and quickly refolded the letters before looking over to see Sarisa standing in the doorway with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. You mum sent me up here to get you for dinner," she explained.
"Oh, all right." Ginny swung her legs over the side of her bed before getting up and putting the letters in the drawer of her desk. Sarisa's eyes followed her curiously.
"Are they really from your boyfriend?"
The red-head frowned — she hadn't really been listening. "What?"
"The letters," Sarisa clarified, gesturing towards the desk where Ginny had placed the letters just a moment before.
"No, they're not."
"Oh, never mind then."
Now it was Ginny's turn to be stricken by curiosity as her brow furrowed slightly. "Why? What were you going to say?"
Sarisa glanced away as if recalling something before saying, "Well, in her note, Liete said, 'Things are really crazy around here. You'll never guess who Ginny's been hanging out with.'" Her shoulders lifted briefly before falling again. "And then she said a few other things, but that's why I thought Fred and George had been right about the letters being from a boyfriend." Ginny's cheeks turned a light scarlet, but the other girl took no notice as she smiled brightly. "I was just curious, that's all." She turned to leave, but the red-head spoke up again.
"Hey, Ris?"
The girl looked over her shoulder. "Mm-hmm?"
Ginny hesitated, not sure how to pose her question. "It feels weird being away from Terry, doesn't it?" she began awkwardly. "I mean, you miss him, but it's... different. Kind of like he should be here with you, but he's not." Upon seeing her look of confusion, she sighed. "I'm not making any sense..."
"No..." Sarisa murmured thoughtfully. "I think I know what you're saying." She frowned as she tried to put together an understandable response. "I think... it's like that with anyone you care about. When you're used to being around them, you start to expect them to always be there, so when they're not, it feels odd." She paused, tilting her head to the side inquisitively. "Is that what you're getting at?"
"Yeah... Kinda."
"Listen, don't worry about it. I'm sure it's perfectly natural to feel that way."
Ginny stifled a laugh. I don't think you'd be saying that if you knew who I was talking about...
"We should get downstairs," Sarisa noted a second later. "You're mum'll be wondering where you are." Ginny nodded before following her out the door, still contemplated what the older girl had said.
"Did you hear about Potter and his gang?"
"The whole dragon thing?" Draco responded monotonously as he and Blaise made their way down to the Great Hall for dinner. Ever since their small row in the dormitory, things had been a little strained between the two — Blaise had started spending even more time with Mandy, while Draco often retreated to either the library or the Common Room after classes. Regardless of their spending time apart from each other, a few more spats had still broken out — this just happened to be one of the few instances over the past week where they had a mutual agreement not to mention the source of their argument.
"Yeah, they say they're heading in this direction, but no one really knows," Blaise continued conversationally. This finally caught his friend's attention.
"What do you think would happen if Potter came here?"
A little surprised by his question (he had expected him to reply with one of his typical, simplistic responses), Blaise answered, "I don't know, but I'm pretty sure more Death Eaters wouldn't be too far behind."
He frowned grimly. "So it'd come down to a fight–" Draco was cut off by a much shorter boy ramming into his side as he came out of the classroom he and Blaise were walking past.
The boy — A Gryffindor, Draco thought with a sneer — narrowed his eyes before shouting, "Hey, watch it!"
He glared at the indignant boy before growling, "You're the one who ran into me."
"And you weren't payin' attention to where you were going!" the boy retaliated, causing the other Gryffindor present, a shy-looking girl about the same age, to hesitantly place a hand on his shoulder, but he simply shrugged away.
Having had enough of the kid's back-talk, Draco's jaw clenched as he reached into his pocket for his wand. "You little-"
Blaise stepped in between the two, grabbing his friend's arm to stop him from doing something rash. "He's sorry for bumping into you," he told the boy jovially. "Now run along." Draco shot a glare at the back of Blaise's head, but the young Gryffindor spoke before he could.
"Don't tell me what to do."
This time, the girl latched onto his arm tightly. "Euan, just come on..." she mumbled before pulling him away, though that didn't stop him from glaring daggers over his shoulder. Draco took the proceeding silence as an opportunity to rip his arm out of Blaise's grasp.
"Why'd you stop me? You heard him! He has no right–"
"Yes, yes," Blaise responded with exasperation as he started walking. "Cheeky little fellow, wasn't he?" Draco let out a low growl of frustration but didn't say anything as the pair resumed their journey to the Great Hall. It was only when they were just outside the large doors that Blaise spoke again, stopping to face his friend. "Draco, you can't keep acting like this." He tone was serious, and to Draco's surprise, more concerned than annoyed.
"And why would that be?"
Blaise sighed, leaning back against the wall. "Honestly? You're almost impossible to be around when you're in a mood this bad." Draco scowled before continuing on to the Great Hall.
"Then by all means, leave me the hell alone."
"You know Ginny wants to come back." At the sound of her name, Draco came to a halt and glanced back over his shoulder. "You know that as well as I do. So quit acting like her not coming back is her way of rejecting you." With that, Blaise continued on through the heavy wooden doors, leaving Draco in the hallway with his words of wisdom.
He simply stood there for a moment before his face hardened into a mask of indifference. You don't know that for sure…
"Gin, forget about the dishes." The youngest Weasley pulled her hands out of the soapy water to send a questioning look in George's direction. "We're leaving."
She couldn't help the small feeling of alarm that crept into her system as she asked, "Why? What's going on?"
He held up his Galleon from his days in Dumbledore's Army, not even the slightest trace of amusement on his face. "They've gone back to Hogwarts."
Ginny's eyes widened before her brain kicked into gear. Tossing the dish cloth in the sink and drying her hands on her jeans, she walked over to him. "How soon can we leave?"
"Now. Mum's gone to tell Bill and dad's meeting up with Lupin. We're all pretty sure something big's gonna happen. They wouldn't go back otherwise," he informed her as they went to the entrance hall, where his twin was arguing with a flustered Aunt Muriel, while Sarisa stood off to the side awkwardly.
"We're leaving now, whether you like it or not," he informed her resolutely, which only served to annoy her even more.
"You wait till your mother gets back!" she ordered sharply. "Until then, you are not stepping one foot out of this house!" Fred rolled his eyes, a gesture that didn't go unnoticed by the frail woman in front of him. "Don't you roll your eyes at me, boy! I will not be held responsible for whatever mischief you get into."
George mimicked his brother's earlier action as he gently pushed Ginny and Sarisa towards the door. "Let's just go," he suggested under his breath to Fred, who showed his agreement by opening the door.
"Hey! Get back here!" Aunt Muriel screeched as they filed out the door and promptly shut it with a thud, cutting off her shouts.
"But how will we get there?" Sarisa questioned as she pulled on a jacket to ward off the cool evening air. "I can't Apparate, and neither can Ginny..."
"You'll just have to side-along Apparate with us," George replied brightly.
Fred glanced over his shoulder at her with a grin. "We figure it can't be too much different."
"Oh God... You're gonna get us splinched, do you know that?"
"Geez, have a little faith, will ya?" Fred teased before coming to a halt a good ways outside the house. "This should be far enough," he murmured to himself before turning to Ginny and offering her his arm. "Hold on tight, alright? We don't want you ending up in some random place."
Ginny looked up at him a little skeptically. "And you've never done this before?"
"It'll be fine," he assured her with a broad smile. She glanced over at George to see Sarisa clinging to him with an expression of mild anxiety. Exhaling softly, Ginny grabbed Fred's arm.
"Well, here we go." George grinned at his brother, who mimicked the expression.
"See ya there," he returned. Ginny tightened her grip as she felt the air compress around her before her surroundings completely disappeared from view.
A/N - Yes! Ginny is finally going back to Hogwarts : ) (Of course, it's for the final battle... but still, at least she's going back.) From the reviews I've gotten, I'm really glad you guys don't mind me throwing in my own characters (it makes writing these scenes at Aunt Muriel's quite a bit easier).
On another note, yes, Draco is being a bit of a moron in this chapter, but honestly, can you imagine him being any other way? I don't really think he wouldn't have second thoughts about his whole relationship with Ginny, and that's why I put that in there.
As usual, I'd love to know what you guys think! (How am I doing with characterization, is anything unbearably annoying, who's your favorite character, ect.) So please review and I'll see you all next chapter : )