The End Of The World

Author - Lee Velviet

Edited/Revised 11/5/06

Chapter Seven - Careless

-

Ginny frowned at the door. "Snape is sure taking his sweet time getting here. I know we've been here for at least twenty minutes. At this rate we'll see midnight before we get out of here."

"A pity, that. God knows you need all the beauty sleep you can get," commented Draco blithely from the other side of the classroom.

Instead of giving him an extremely offended look and retaliating, Ginny looked over at him. "Handy, you being on the other side of the room when you said that."

Draco boredly looked at her around the large glass jar he'd been studying the unbelievably disgusting contents of. "As if you'd try anything."

"After yesterday, you mean?" Ginny began pacing, feeling impatient. "I suppose you're the kind of guy who'd grab a woman's wrist in mid swing, and say something melodramatic like, 'You've already tasted the back of my hand, darling, shouldn't you have learnt by now, not to strike me?'" Ginny snorted. "Sounds like something out of those romance novels my mum is always reading."

"Well, I never accused your mother of being terribly classy," Draco murmured as he walked up to lean lazily against Snape's desk.

Ginny bit back a barbed remark and stared at the classroom door. "Isn't there a twenty minute rule, or something?"

"A what?"

"You, know, a twenty minute rule? If the teacher doesn't show up within twenty minutes, you get to leave?"

"Why am I not surprised you'd think of that?"

"It makes sense," Ginny argued. "Teachers are always spouting off about we're wasting 'their' time – well, it's really 'our' time isn't it? I say, if they can't show up on time, we should be allowed to hit the road."

"I'm sure Professor Snape would appreciate your opinion on the matter."

Ginny sighed. "I'm tired. I don't know why I'm standing here like a git, talking to you when I could be in bed." She glanced up at him and froze.

Draco ran a hand through his hair, his eyes hooded as he looked back at her. There was uncharacterisitc warmth in his sudden, lopsided smile that made her heart start racing. She'd never seen him smile like that…she found it very disturbing.

"Do you realize, that in the past twenty-four hours, you've twice used the word 'bed' and 'you', referring to me, of course, in the same sentence?"

"I – I did?" Ginny swallowed and backed away from him as he suddenly began advancing on her – she inadvertently backed into a desk and got trapped between his arms.

"You did," he said huskily.

She looked from side to side to find an opening from which to escape – but he had her stuck. 'Where the hell is Snape?' she wondered wildly.

His fingers caught her chin and he tilted her head up to look at him. "I have something to tell you, Ginny."

Her breath caught painfully, and she stared up at him. "What?" A hundred crazy possibilities rushed through her mind, only to be stopped by his sudden smirk.

"Snape's not coming."

"Snape's not – not coming?" Ginny's eyes widened in realization. "Snape's not coming."

"He had other business to attend to…he told me to tell you our detention has been moved to tomorrow night." Draco's eyes glinted wickedly.

"You rat!" Ginny put her hands against his chest and pushed him away from her. "I can't believe you!"

He shook his head at her. "Relax, Weasel – I don't have any designs on your body." He watched her thoughtfully. Well," he amended, "I might, but – "

"Shut up!" Ginny glared at him nastily and grabbed her pack from the desk near the door. "I hate you!"

"Oh, come on, you have to admit, it was rather clever of me."

"Clever? Wasting my time was clever?"

He shook a finger at her. "Uh-uh. 'Our' time, remember?"

Ginny growled and stomped out the door.

Draco caught up with her in the corridor. "What's wrong, Weasel? Feeling inferior?"

"Don't you dare refer to me as being inferior! Do NOT talk to me, Draco…I'm going to bed." She stalked down the corridor, her red curls streaming.

He had the nerve to reach out and grab her arm, and she felt an angry heat in her cheeks as he pulled her to a stop in the torch lit hall.

"That's three times now," he drawled, his face shadowed as he looked down at her.

Ginny made a strangled choking noise and cut her eyes at him.

He shook his head. "You just don't learn very quickly, so you?"

"Learn what?"

"You shouldn't trust me, no matter what I say." His eyes flashed silver as he tossed his hair out of his eyes. "I don't care if I tell you the sky is blue, it'll end up being green."

"Warn me all you like, Malfoy – I won't fall for anything you might do easily – don't worry about me. I'm not in this to be your 'friend'. I know what you're about – or do I have to remind you I've only had to put up with you since I was six years old?"

"What are you – oh. I'd forgotten about that." Draco said thoughtfully, amused.

"I'm not surprised. The amount of nasty things you do daily is probably mind-boggling. Well, I haven't forgotten. Do you know how long it took my parents to pay for those stupid 'x–rays'?"

"Well, if you hadn't dropped that bloody huge chunk of concrete on my foot, I wouldn't have had to get 'x–rays'…"

-

The Past

Ginny was sitting outside of Florean Fortesque's Ice Cream Parlor waiting for her mother to return from the second hand robe shop with Fred and George. Their first year at Hogwarts was due to begin, and she'd never seen her mum so happy.

She sat on a bench and swung her legs, and watched as several other children exited the Ice cream shop with huge peanut butter ice cream cones. She looked after them longingly and then looked down at the ground, feeling terribly sorry for herself.

"What's wrong Weasley? Can't your Mum even afford a measly ice cream for you once in a while?"

Ginny looked up at the sound of the cold voice and inwardly cringed. She stood up from the bench and stepped defensively behind a short decorative pillar nearby that came up to her waist – she watched he owner of the voice mutinously over the small plant potted in a concrete container atop it, her brown eyes wide beneath her fuzzy mass of red curls. It was Draco Malfoy. He stood before her with his arms crossed, a nasty smirk on his small, pale face.

"Leave me alone," Ginny said in a trembling voice. She twisted her tiny hands into the fabric of her pale blue robes and prayed he would leave.

"Aww, are you going to cry little Weasley?" The boys pale silvery gray eyes held an odd shimmer that reminded her of the opal on her grandmother's favorite pendant. She frowned at him, thinking how much she now hated opals.

"I'm not going to cry," she told him, lifting her chin. "You'll never make me cry."

"I bet I could," he said nastily, his eyes narrowed. "All I'd have to do is point out how ugly you are, with that horrid red hair and those huge freckles. Not to mention that rag on your back your mother calls a robe. The Ministry ought to take you away, you know - your parent's can't even afford to feed you all. I heard Father say it just the other day."

Ginny felt tears trembling on her eyelashes but refused to blink and let them fall - could the Ministry really take her away from her family? Of course not! Her dad worked in the ministry!

"Shut up, you don't know anything! You're nothing but a - a spoiled brat!"

"I may be a spoiled brat, but at least people don't make fun of me behind my back."

Ginny thought of her brothers and giggled. "Yes they do…especially about your name! Ron laughs every time he hears it!"

He looked at her with a sneer. "So he thinks my name is funny, does he?"

"Everybody thinks your name is funny, Malfoy."

Fisting his hands, he took a threatening step forward. "Say that when you're not hiding behind something, you worthless, ugly little weasel."

Ginny's temper flared. She watched the boy take another step, and heaved against the concrete planter hard enough to nudge it from its base – it landed with a thud on Malfoy's foot.

Ginny watched in satisfaction as the boy's eyes widened, and he grabbed his foot, hopping up and down, using words she'd never even heard before.

"You dirty muggle – lover!"

"I hate you, you – you -" her mind spun for a real whopper, and then landed on something she'd heard Charlie yell at Percy the other day - "bloody wanker!"

"Ginevra Weasley!"

Ginny froze as she heard her mother yell from behind her.

Draco looked up at her, a painful but satisfied looking smirk on his lips.

He commenced whining immediately. "I think you broke my foot!" Ginny's jaw dropped open in horror. He wouldn't!

He did. He even managed to summon up some crocodile tears for her mother's benefit…

-

"Your foot wasn't even scratched," Ginny muttered in disgust at the memory.

"How would you know? I'll have you know, it swelled up like a bloody balloon. It was the size of a puffskein."

"So, you mean it resembled your head."

"Well, your wit has definitely not improved since then,"

"What? You didn't think hearing an eight year old girl call someone a bloody wanker was witty," asked Ginny dryly.

"It just pointed out how very provincial your background was."

"It doesn't take much to piss me off, if that's what you mean," Ginny growled.

"You really need to learn some self–control."

"Again, you shouldn't be talking about self–control, Mr. 'I-hex–people–when–their-back's–are-turned'!"

"I was fourteen, and very sexually frustrated, for Merlin's sake," he suddenly snapped, his eyes narrowed. "I was practically a child – I can't be held responsible for something I did during puberty."

"Ew…" Ginny wrinkled her nose and turned away again. "Please spare me the details of your journey into manhood – I might actually become ill."

Draco watched her with a raised brow.

She shifted uncomfortably. "Stop leering at me, you dodgy prat."

" 'Dodgy?' I much prefer 'unprincipled, or even unscrupulous…that has a nice villainous edge to it, don't you think?"

"Yes…brings to mind greasy haired muggles with black capes and top hats, participating in much mustache twirling."

"I have absolutely no idea what you just said, nor do I care…I'm going to bed – Quidditch practice begins tomorrow you know. I have to get my rest."

"Yeah – you have to rest up so you can think up new ways to cheat," Ginny muttered beneath her breath as he moved away, and walked tiredly up the stairs out of the dungeons.

Hermione cornered Ginny before she even made it to the common room.

She groaned tiredly and slumped against a wall. "Why won't you people leave me alone?"

Hermione, her arms crossed, her nose twitching, paced in front of her, mumbling beneath her breath.

"Is something wrong?" Ginny asked, watching the girl shake her head.

"Wrong? Wrong!" Hermione rolled her eyes expressively, taking hold of Ginny's shoulders.

"Honey, I never thought I'd be saying this to you, but – you're an idiot."

"Nice to know what you really think of me," said Ginny wryly.

"You have to wake up – and as much as it grieves me to be the one to tell you this…I don't want to see you get hurt," Hermione looked down at the floor, and then looked at the red head with resignation.

"Malfoy is just playing with you, whatever it is he told you, to get you to turn on Harry and Ron like that, it's not true."

"I didn't 'turn' on anybody," Ginny said stubbornly, stepping away from Hermione. "They turned on me."

"Listen to me, Ginny – I overheard Malfoy talking to a bunch of boys in the hall outside of the potions classroom today. I had forgotten my notes, and gone back in to retrieve them – and just as I was about to leave, I heard them."

"What did he say?" She sighed boredly. "Let's see – could it be something along the lines of 'I'll get in her knickers and then snub her in front of the entire school"?"

"H – how did you know?" Hermione looked at her in surprise.

"He's Draco," said Ginny with cold simplicity.

"Ginny…what's happened to you? You aren't the same girl I knew. How can you not show any emotion over this? You're acting like stone statue."

"Thank Merlin for that." The red head sighed and turned away. "If you don't like the way I am, Hermione…well, you may just want to stay away from me."

Hermione helplessly watched her friend walk away.

"This has got to stop - you can't live without feeling anything, Ginny…you're only hurting yourself," she finally called after her, desperately.

"As long as I'm the one doing the hurting…well, see if I care…"

-

Ginny wasn't surprised to get a note from Professor McGonagall the next afternoon, requesting a meeting in her office.

The charming mask came to her easily, the lies to her lips effortlessly. She wasn't surprised about that either…

"Miss Weasley…while the school does like to encourage inter–house relations…I'm afraid I've been hearing some rather disturbing things about you and Mr. Malfoy of late…"

"What exactly have you heard, if you don't mind my asking, Professor?" Ginny sat forward in her chair, a sickeningly sweet smile plastered on her face. "Because I know common gossip is far beneath a Hogwarts teacher like yourself."

The woman actually flushed, and Ginny felt a part of herself grin gleefully.

"Er, well, Miss Weasley, I guess the details aren't important…" her eyes examined Ginny over her spectacles shrewdly.

"I'm just concerned, with all that you have been through lately…you do know Mr. Malfoy's reputation."

"Yes, ma'am…but if Draco had done even half the things people have accused him of, that'd make him, well…the devil himself. He's really not as bad you all think."

'You should be ashamed of yourself', Ginny told herself scoldingly, 'lying to a teacher. You know very well Draco is just as bad – or worse even, than his reputation.'

She inwardly shrugged off her pestering conscience.

"I'm worried he may try to take advantage of you, Miss Weasley, to be perfectly honest –

"We're just friends, Professor…who knows, maybe I'll rub off on him?"

The temptation of taming Draco proved too much for old McGonagall. Rather than warn Ginny away from him, she took a deep breath and picked up a peacock feather quill on her desk to run through her fingers thoughtfully.

"All right, Miss Weasley…just, please, bear in mind, teenage boys are rather – unpredictable. Be careful around him."

"I will, Professor – thank you for your concern." Unpredictable. Had it been so bloody long since the woman had been a teen that she'd forgotten just how 'unpredictable' teenage girls could be, too?

"You are dismissed then, Miss Weasley. Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon, Professor."

Ginny walked out of the office with a cold smile tugging at one corner of her lips.

-

TBC