The End Of The World
Author - Lee Velviet
Chapter Five - Bad Weasel! Bad!
Edited/Revised 11/5/06
-
Ginny was still lost in the turmoil of her emotions when she felt Malfoy tap her cheek.
"Hey…you still with us, Weasel?"
Ginny turned her head. "Don't call me 'Weasel'."
"What, are you absolutely clueless? I'm not going to call you by your real name - that'd just be wrong."
Ginny found herself glaring at him. "This whole situation is just wrong."
"No, Snape pairing us together in Potions was wrong -this situation we're presently in is Fate's idea of getting back at me for the past seventeen years of my life."
"Not that I really care, but why are you such a rat?"
He shrugged. "It's just what I do."
Ginny rolled her eyes and tried very hard to pretend Draco Malfoy was not carrying her up the stairs to Dumbledore's office.
"He's not here - unbelievable!"
Ginny frowned as she opened her eyes blearily and found herself abruptly and none too gently deposited into the chair before the Headmaster's desk.
"What are you getting so pissy about, Malfoy?" She rubbed her aching temples as the room spun crazily.
He stepped up to the chair and looked down at her impatiently. "I carried you all the way up here for nothing!"
Insulted, Ginny gaped at him. "You suck on so many levels right now, Mal-Ferret," she shook her head at him disbelievingly. "The only reason you carried me up here was to make yourself look good in Dumbledore's eyes?"
He sat on the edge of the Headmaster's massive desk and crossed his arms. "Not a day goes by that I don't wonder at the gullibility of you Weasley's. Why else would I have bothered dirtying my robes by touching you?"
"You should be proud of yourself - I haven't got words enough to explain how much I'm disliking you right now,"
He smirked, eyeing her lazily. "I suppose you're going to tell me now that you didn't like my kissing you back there either."
"I'd rather have kissed You-Know-Who," Ginny mumbled mulishly.
"I suppose that could be arranged, you know - " began Draco thoughtfully.
"Oh shut it, you snakey git," snapped Ginny angrily.
"'Snakey git'?" He shook his head. "You're the one who needs to work on their insults, Weasel."
"You know what? You're on thin ice with me already, Malfoy, and I can safely say, I'm not in my right mind right now, so if you want more from me than a measly punch, all you have to do is keep talking!" Ginny sat up in the chair, moving to the edge of her seat threateningly.
"I'll keep talking, " he stated nastily, pushing off the desk to kneel before her. " I think you need to learn a lesson about who makes the threats around here, Weasley," He grabbed her face firmly between his hands and looked straight into her eyes.
"Let me go," Ginny snapped through her teeth.
"I will, once you admit you're scared of me."
"Scared of you?" Ginny snorted. "I'm scared of your dragon breath, maybe!"
"I have never had dragon breath! My personal hygiene has never been less than perfect!"
He noticed her looking back at him with his very own smirk and snapped. "That's it!"
Ginny made a sound of protest as he leaned in and kissed her, hard. She tried to ignore the sensations curling through her and drew back her small foot, ready to kick him in a very taboo place - but he released her suddenly, and she opened her eyes to see him watching her oddly, breathing hard, his unusual silvery eyes moving over her face searchingly.
Finally he pushed away from her, running a hand through his hair, and began pacing, occasionally muttering something to himself.
She watched him in fascination, forgetting the kiss, never having seen him act so out of sorts.
"Malfoy, if you don't stop talking to yourself, they'll be sending us both to St. Mungo's," Ginny said finally, after he walked to the wall and proceeded to bang his forehead against it in a rather painful looking manner.
He looked at her sharply from the corner of his eye and cursed loudly.
She shrugged. "I thought I had problems."
"Oh, you have problems, Weasel - in fact, you have one big problem - me." He turned away from the wall with an odd look in his eyes, and it made her very uncomfortable.
"I'll admit, until this very moment, I've hardly thought of you as being anything besides something incredibly nasty on the bottom of my shoe, but you've annoyed me to the point of physical violence - and I pride myself on my self-control! From this point on, you'd better watch every little thing you say or do around me, because if you provoke me further, even just the smallest, insignificant bit, I won't be held responsible for the consequences!"
Ginny stared at him, wonderingly. "You didn't take one breath through all of it - what do you do, practice ranting in front of a mirror?"
Malfoy looked ready to pull his perfectly combed hair out by the handfuls. "I do not rant!"
"What do you call what you're doing right now? Giggling?"
Dumbledore stepped into his office just as Malfoy growled and dove for Ginny's throat.
He looked at them, his hands tucked into the sleeves of his elaborate robes, his eyes twinkling and his face wearing an amused expression, though Ginny could tell he did his best to look grave.
"So, am I to understand you beat up Mr. Malfoy, Miss Weasley?"
Ginny bit her lip to keep from grinning madly.
Malfoy made a strange choking noise, turned purple and fell into the chair next to hers, gripping the arms tightly with his fingernails.
-
She'd been right about the love potion - it was definitely wearing off. Harry had given her only a cursory glance that afternoon, and had barely spoken a word to her. She should have been glad, but with the return of her memory, it was more painful than ever to see him, and to know what had happened between them the year before…
Dumbledore had left the choice of telling her friends what had really happened to her, completely up to her - he'd been very understanding - but the return of her memory still hadn't gotten her out of detention. He'd barely said a word about the fact that she'd struck Malfoy, only that he didn't condone violence. Ginny had wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
Snape had left the choice of her punishment up to McGonagall, as she was the head of her house, and Ginny was to see the woman directly after dinner - which was where she was currently heading.
She got several smiles from her classmates as she walked along, and a lot of calls congratulating her on decking Malfoy - of course, the whole situation had gotten blown completely out of proportion, and her classmates were either more scared of her than ever, or were patting her on the back and saying mournfully how they wished they could have been there to see it.
She made her way into the Great Hall, and was so caught up in her thoughts that she could almost ignore the stares sent her way.
Ron was there, and Hermione too. Harry hadn't come down yet, she supposed.
She took her seat, and hesitantly looked at her brother. He looked as if he were torn between wanting to give her a major verbal lashing, and wanting to jump up and yell that yes, she was his sister, and how proud he was of her. She could hear it now, "Yeah, that's my sis - took out Malfoy with one hit! Always knew she had it in her!"
Ginny was still trying to decide whether or not to tell them about the memory charm-it was either, tell them and get it off her chest, and be utterly humiliated for the rest of her life, or keep it to herself, feel eternally guilty, and go slowly bonkers from it.
She decided to wait until the three of them could be alone. Harry would most certainly not appreciate all the problems that had come with her decision, well, neither would Ron for that matter - in his eyes, all the blame would fall on her, again, no doubt.
When Harry finally arrived at the table to sit next to her, she was fairly jumping with nerves - the knowledge that he was right next to her, and really wanted nothing to do with her was making her crazy, and she was furious at herself for it.
"Okay, Gin," Ron suddenly said with that air of finality of his, "what exactly happened today? Do you have any idea what I've been hearing all afternoon long? I actually think, at one point, someone said you and Malfoy had had a duel in Potions?"
Ginny pursed her lips and then said, "Well, that's just ridiculous - we didn't duel in Potions - we dueled in Dumbledore's office."
Ron's face went extremely pale. He blinked slowly. "You…what?"
Ginny sighed and shook her head. "Yep, Dumbledore was my second, didn't you hear?"
Hermione rolled her eyes and nudged Ron with her elbow. "She's not being serious you twit, honestly, you need to loosen up."
Ron scowled across the table at her. "Are you raving? Do you have any idea what people are saying?"
"Since when do you care what people are saying?"
He just pressed his lips together, his eyes narrowing.
Ginny sighed and chanced a look over at Harry - he was staring at her as if he'd never seen her before.
She decided it was time to find a nice dark hole to crawl into.
"So Harry…is the, er, potion wearing itself off yet?" Hermione asked hesitantly.
Harry kept his eyes on Ginny and nodded. "Yes, slowly - but Madam Pomfrey said it would still be a couple of days before it goes away completely."
Ginny blushed in humiliation and looked down at the table as it began filling with food. Oh, hell, she thought as her vision blurred, there were tears - hadn't she gotten rid of the bloody things in the passageway earlier?
"I'm going to bed." Not waiting to see their reactions, Ginny left quickly before she let the tears fall.
She paused on the top step of a staircase and dropped her head onto her knees. How long would it be before the numbness began to set in again? How long would she have to wait this time?
"Feeling sorry for yourself, Weasley?"
Ginny groaned. "What do you want?'
"Absolutely nothing. I just wondered if you were all right. Really, am I that bad…"
"I hate it when you try to act kind."
"Oh? Tell me, would you be happier if I slapped you again?"
His arrogant voice sounded far too eager for her comfort. "Too late, I already asked you to throw me out of a window. You missed your opportunity."
She heard him move and then he was sitting next to her on the step. "It's not that bad, you know - Potter's frigging blind, even with those stupid specs," he said conversationally.
Ginny peeked at him from between her fingers. Draco Malfoy, comforting her? Maybe he had dropped her out of that window earlier after all - she was suffering from a concussion and experiencing some kind of delusion. "What, are you out for my blood, Malfoy? Sorry, the diner's closed." She dropped her hands, and stood up to walk away.
"Have you told them, yet, Weasley?" There was softness in his tone that Ginny attributed to the fact that was trying to threaten her.
She stopped and turned back around to face him, her robes slashing the air with the abrupt movement. "It's none of your business, Mal-ferret, and just in case you were thinking about blackmail, don't bother. I don't know how you found out - listening at the door after the Headmaster dismissed you, no doubt, you dirty slithering sneak! I'm telling them the minute I can get them alone, although, I don't doubt you'll go running off at the mouth about it to everyone else."
Malfoy narrowed his eyes. "You think you know everything, do you? Well, you don't."
Ginny frowned as she watched him descend the steps, and shook her head. What was the evil little git going on about?
-
The 'telling' did not go well.
Her friends just stared at her, and her brother, well…
"Are you insane? If you were stupid enough to use a memory charm, you bloody well should have just used the Obliviate - it would have lasted for longer - forever maybe!"
"Ron!" Hermione hissed. "She's lucky she didn't wipe out her mind completely!"
"Lucky? It would have been lucky if it had! Then I wouldn't have had to come back to this!" Ginny shouted, her voice shaking.
Harry finally stopped staring at her and opened his mouth. "That has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard of anyone doing! Did you even stop to think about it, Ginny? Did you stop to think about how your Mum and Dad would've felt if it had gone wrong, if something had happened to you? Don't you ever think about anyone but yourself?"
Harry had gone red and was yelling himself by this point.
Oh, yes, it was safe to say, the amore potion had definitely worn off. She'd have to talk to Malfoy about the weakness of it - a spark went off in her brain.
Malfoy!
"Fine. I told you all, I told you why I did it, where, and when. I'm not going to say it wasn't stupid, but if you ever, ever, yell at me again, Ron, and it goes for you too, Mr. All-high-and-mighty Harry Potter, I'll personally see to finding a spell that will tie your tongues into knots! Not to mention other various and sundry parts of your bodies!"
Ron and Harry winced at the ferocity of her threat.
"I'm sorry Hermione - I have to go - I have a date!" Ginny grabbed up her robes and stalked out of the common room barely hearing the protests of Ron from behind.
Furious, Ginny wandered the school until she found who she was looking for - Draco Malfoy.
He was in the Library, draped lazily across a chair near the windows, swinging one leg boredly as he flipped the pages of a dusty tome.
"You read?"
His pale eyes flickered up to meet hers and he looked at her from beneath his brows. "Do I look like a complete moron, Weasley? Yes, I read."
"I'm not going to answer that." Ginny dropped to her knees next to his chair and looked out the window.
"Is there a reason you're sitting next to me, Weasel?"
"What's wrong with me sitting here?"
"Well, nothing, I suppose…except I can't bloody stand you."
"Liar."
He snapped the book closed, waved at the cloud of dust it emitted, and peered over the chair arm at her.
"Are you planning on staying there long?"
"Yes," said Ginny petulantly. "Why?"
"I just needed to know if I should leave or not."
"Wait!" Ginny grabbed his ankle as he stood up.
"Weasley, I know I'm devilishly good looking, but please, you're making a scene," he stated dryly.
"Oh, shut it, you know there's no one else in here but us this time of night,"
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe I came here because I knew that and might have wanted to be alone?"
"Really? Aww, poor ickle Drakkiekins - diddums have to find a quiet place to brood?" Ginny pouted, fluttering her eyelashes.
"Are you quite sure you weren't supposed to be sorted into Slytherin?"
"Ha-ha! No." Ginny let go of his ankle and stood up. "I'm tired of Ron picking at me, and Harry looking at me as if I were something stubborn that won't scrape off his broom handle."
"I fail to see what any of this is supposed to mean - it's not my problem you have a temper mental tyrant for a brother and a crush on a clueless nerd." Malfoy examined his fingernails with a bored expression.
"No, it's not your problem, but it's my problem, and I'm sick of it." Ginny grabbed his hand and looked up at him earnestly, a wicked sparkle in her eye.
"Want to go out with me?"
He stared hard at her, obviously trying to remember how to use his tongue. "I-you-WHAT?"
"I asked if you wanted to go out with me." Ginny tugged on his hand, and pushed him back into his chair before he fell over in shock.
"I…did you just-?"
"Really Malfoy, you must get your hearing checked," said Ginny happily. She'd never seen him act that way before. It was kind of fun, knowing she'd actually surprised Draco Malfoy.
He blinked at her, and then, before she knew what was happening, he stood back up and turned a look on her that was so menacing, so full of anger and dislike, that she actually began backing away from him. It reminded her of how he'd looked just before he'd slapped her that day, and her heart started thumping wildly in fear.
"Thought you'd play a joke on me, Weasel? Thought you'd give everybody a good laugh, did you? Well, I may have liked kissing you, but I'm not stupid enough to advertise it - if you thought you were going to get me to go out with you and then dump me like yesterday's rubbish, and draw attention from yourself, well you're dead wrong! I'm a Malfoy, damn it, and people don't toy with us, we toy with them! So go whining back to Potty and tell him I said to shove - "
Ginny's ears were beginning to hurt - and he'd said he didn't rant. The fierce expression on his cruelly handsome face was actually rather attractive, but…
She took a deep breath, stepped forward, and pulled his head down to kiss him.
The tirade stopped suddenly, and he seemed to flounder slightly before he grabbed her waist, turned, pushed her into his vacated chair, and knelt before her, turning the kiss around so that it was he who was in control, and not her.
Ginny wasn't surprised-he wanted to dominate everything else, why shouldn't he want to dominate a simple kiss?
She wished it were a simple kiss.
His lips were scorching across hers, and it was nothing like the kiss they'd shared in the corridor. It was better.
Much better, Ginny sighed to herself.
She was so caught up in the kiss, she didn't realize he'd slid his hand down to pull her against him snugly, and lifted her thighs to curl around his slim hips.
His soft, warm tongue ran across her bottom lip before darting inside to slide against hers, and she gasped, startled at the unfamiliar intrusion, before a soothing hand stroking her nape made her relax fully against him. She kissed him back hesitantly at first, and then with an intensity that had them both forgetting the need for air.
"Ginny…"
The breathless growl made her eyes snap open and she pulled back to look at him, her eyes unfocused.
He laid his forehead against hers, and panted, "I don't want this… don't want this…"
"Well," she returned, just as breathlessly, "I don't know what 'this' is, but we've got it, haven't we? So…where do we go from here?"
"You really are an innocent aren't you?" He pushed away from her and stood up, looking flushed and shaky. He ran a hand though his hair, and straightened his disheveled looking robes.
Ginny tugged hers down over her legs and cleared her throat, wondering when the world had turned upside down. What was she thinking, snogging Draco Malfoy in full view of anyone who might happen by, in a library for Merlin's sake!
She couldn't bring herself to regret a moment of it, and she found herself grinning up at a very cagey looking Malfoy.
"So? Is that all? Don't you have anything more to show me?"
Her breathy whisper made him close his eyes and shake his head.. "You've turned into a parent's worst nightmare."
"Not yet…but I'm working on it." Ginny grinned, feeling a huge weight lift from her shoulders. The mental picture of Harry that she'd always carried with her had finally broken, and she felt like she could breathe again. She stood up and put her hands on his shoulders, feeling ready for anything. "What do you say? Do you want to help me shock everyone?"
"What exactly do you want from me, Weasley?" Malfoy's eyes narrowed on her warily.
Ginny's velvety brown eyes darkened, and a cold smile crept across her lips. "I want you to teach me to be bad."
-
TBC
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