"Hey, Weasley," Draco Malfoy called to the girl standing at the top of the stairs.
Ginny Weasley ran a hand nervously through her long red hair. She knew that Draco was only calling to her because he had thought of some new way to tease her. She attempted to walk down the stairs, but Draco stepped in front of her.
"Not so fast, Weasley. Let's have a chat, shall we?" Draco asked.
"Leave me alone, Draco," Ginny said, annoyance covering her nervousness. "I have to get to class."
"Ginny Weasley… You know, you might actually be pretty if your father could afford to buy you nicer clothes."
"Shut up," Ginny warned.
"I'm sorry, Weasley. Did I hurt your hand-me-down feelings?"
"Draco, I'm serious. Leave me alone!"
"Who's going to make me, Weasley? Everyone else is in class. It's just you and me." He touched her face with his right hand, running his thumb down her cheek slowly.
Ginny pushed his hand away quickly. "Get your hands off of me, Draco!"
"Aw, but this is so much fun, Weasley." He ran his tongue through his teeth and raised an eyebrow. Before she could react, he pinned her up against the wall. Draco studied Ginny's face and was pleased to see the fear it showed.
"W-what are you going to do to me?" Ginny managed to ask.
"Whatever I want to," Draco said. Then, realizing he had scared her enough, he added, "Relax, Weasley. I'm not so hard up that I'd rape you or anything. I don't screw low-class Witches." He moved so that she was no longer trapped against the wall. He returned to his position at the top of the stairs, preventing her from getting away.
Ginny was shaking. "Why are you always such a jerk, Draco?" She asked.
"It's fun," Draco said with a smirk. "So, Weasley, I heard your daddy's so poor that he's begging for cash on Diagon Alley now."
"Shut up about my father," Ginny warned.
"Father? Please, he's no father. He can't even afford to buy his kids their school supplies. Weasley, admit it. Your daddy's just a poor, pathetic loser."
"I said shut up!" Ginny said, shoving Draco. She was stunned by her own strength as he fell backwards down the stairs. When he landed at the foot of the stairs, he did not move. Ginny froze. Had she hurt him?
"Draco?" She called softly. She walked cautiously down the stairs. "Draco, are you okay?" He remained motionless. "You're not funny, Draco," she said. He was kidding. He had to be. Any minute, he'd jump and grab her. As Ginny reached Draco, she realized that he was truly hurt.
"Oh my God… Oh my God, what did I do?" She asked aloud. Fighting was not allowed. Would she be expelled from Hogwarts? "Draco, come on, please get up." She took his arm and tried to find a pulse. There was none.
"Oh my God. I killed him!" Ginny panicked. She ran to find help, leaving Draco at the foot of the stairs.
"Ron! Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening!" Ginny cried as she ran into the Gryffindor common room. It was empty except for Ron Weasley and Harry Potter, who were running late.
"Ginny, what's wrong?" Ron asked, hurrying over to his sister.
"Draco," she began, but could say no more. She collapsed into hysterical sobs.
"What did he do to you?" Ron demanded. "If Malfoy hurt you, Ginny, I swear to God I'll kill him!"
"You're too late!" Ginny shouted. She tried to catch her breath.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"He's already dead."
"What?" Harry and Ron asked in unison.
"He was teasing me, and then he started making fun of Dad, and I just… Ron, I… I pushed him… I didn't realize how hard I pushed him until he fell."
"Where is he?" Harry asked.
"He's still at the bottom of the stairs."
"Are you sure he's dead?"
"I'm positive."
"Gin, maybe he's just unconscious," Ron said.
"Ron, I checked. He doesn't have a pulse." She looked up at her brother, her eyes large and round, and asked, "What am I going to do?"
"Don't worry, Ginny. We'll think of something," Harry assured her.
Harry and Ron followed Ginny to the stairs where Draco Malfoy, who was indeed dead, had met his end. It was most unlucky that at that exact moment, Fred and George Weasley happened to walk down the hall.
"Whoa! What happened to him?" Fred asked.
And so, once again, Ginny tearfully retold the events. "Way to go, Gin," George said. "I think you finally did something worse than Fred and I ever did…"
"Mum and Dad are going to flip out, Ginny," Fred added.
"It's not really a bad thing," Ron said. "Malfoy had it coming. Besides, she was defending our father's honor. I'm proud of you, Ginny."
"Ron, no one deserves to die," Harry said.
"Malfoy did."
"What am I going to do? I can't let anyone find out what happened. They'll put me in Azkaban!" Ginny sobbed.
"Don't cry, Gin. Somehow I doubt they'd put you in Azkaban just because Draco fell," Fred said.
"Yeah, it's not your fault Draco fell," George said, mimicking his brother's tone.
"No one even needs to know that you saw the fall," Ron added, catching on.
"You mean-" Ginny asked.
"Weasleys stick together, Ginny, and you are a Weasley. We protect our own," Fred said.
"He's right, you know. No matter what happens, Weasleys stick together," George said.
"Forever," Ron added. "So we Weasleys won't tell, and Harry here is like an honorary Weasley, so he won't tell either, right Harry?"
"Right," Harry said. Although he hated lying, it had been an accident, and Harry could see no point in turning Ginny over to the authorities. "I'll keep your secret, Ginny," he promised.
"We'd better get back to class, before the professor thinks anything's wrong," Fred said. He dragged George away with him.
"Don't worry, Ginny. No one needs to know what happened," Ron said.
Mrs. Norris, beloved cat of Argus Filch, discovered Draco Malfoy's body an hour later and swiftly brought Filch to the scene. He cursed, and then alerted Albus Dumbledore, as well as the teachers of Hogwarts.
"This was no accident," Severus Snape spat. "Look what I found." He was kneeling by the corpse. He lifted up a strand of red hair from Draco's hand. "It looks like a Weasley was here." Hermione Granger arrived at the scene as Snape discovered the hair.
Thinking quickly, before anyone else could see the hair, Hermione subtly transfigured it to match her own. "Professor, the Weasleys have red hair. That hair is mine." She walked over to him. "Draco pulled it from my head when he passed me in the hallway."
Snape stared at the hair, then at the girl. "What have you done? What are you covering up?" He demanded.
"Severus, perhaps you should sit down for a moment," Minerva McGonagall recommended. "You have had a terrible shock. After all, Draco was from your house." She led him away before he could protest.
Hermione ran to the Gryffindor common room, where she found the Weasleys and Harry sitting around the fireplace. "Alright, I just lied for one of you," she said calmly. "Which one of you did it?"
"What?" Came the collective response.
"Snape found a red hair on Draco Malfoy's dead body. Don't even pretend you didn't know he was dead. Now tell me. Which one of you killed him?"
Ginny's eyes were wide with terror. "You, Ginny?" Hermione asked, stunned. Ginny nodded.
"What happened?" Ron asked.
"I lied for her… I transfigured the hair to match mine so that Snape couldn't prove it was one of you."
"Why did you lie for me?" Ginny asked.
"Well," Hermione paused. It sounded awful, even to her. "I hated Malfoy. I think you did everyone a favor."
"Please don't tell anyone, Hermione," Ginny begged.
"I wouldn't dream of it."
The incident was never mentioned again, and although Snape insisted that there had been fowl play, Draco's death was ruled an accident.