Thanks to those who reviewed-thanks again to my beta-Rhyannon, too.
None of this belongs to me, the only two characters that do are Theresa Gants and Amanda Renoylds. The song "Not Enough" belongs to Three Doors Down
Defeat Time-Lailaith
Chapter One: Fire and Ice
~Seven days underpaid gotta
give it up
Got no time for this life that
I'm livin up
Shackled down, kicked
around, now slave to the
grind
need some time for myself~
Three Doors Down-Not Enough
"Ok team," Harry Potter shouted across the field. "That's enough for today. Next practice is tomorrow evening, same time as today. You all did a good job today," he concluded, landing on the soft grass. The sky was quickly growing darker, the air becoming cooler by the minute. Taking in a relieved breath, Ginny Weasley landed, loosened the straps on her wrist guards and threw her Nimbus 2001 over her shoulder. Her broom was her life, so to speak. A year after Oliver Wood left Hogwarts, Harry was named captian. That year, Ron became the new Keeper. After the two beaters and three chasers left, it was time to hold try-outs.
Ginny went, fearful of humiliating herself, but proved to be an excellent chaser. As a birthday gift that year, her parents sent her a Nimbus 2001. Along with Ginny, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan made beaters and two fellow classmates of Ginny's became the chasers, Theresa Gants and Amanda Renoylds. Ginny was a major key player on the team. It became her life.
Skipping showering in the locker room, she instead decided to head back up to her dorm to shower before bed there instead. But she first needed to stop by the Library to pick a book she had requested. She briskly walked up the steps to the Castle, past the Great Hall and down a few corridors to the Library.
"Madame Pince," Ginny inquired, walking over to the great desk in the front of the library. "Has the book I wanted been returned yet?"
The librarian shook her head, "No dear, I'm sorry it hasn't, yet. Give it another day, it's due back tomorrow."
Ginny nodded her thanks and walked slowly back out of the library. She had requested a book to help her with her astronomy lessons, which weren't going too well at the moment. Ginny sighed, feeling tired and worried about her astronomy grade, and started making her way back to the Gryffindor Tower.
--*--
Draco Malfoy slowly trudged up the steps to the school owlery. Kicking some straw out of his path, he made his way over to the family's eagle-owl, which sat perched away from the other school owls. Draco unrolled the letter he had written back to his father, complete lies, but a letter nonetheless.
Father,
I am thoroughly preparing for my final task
to complete my training with the Dark Lord.
Do not worry about my behavior, school
has been hectic, for it's my final year, you know.
Quidditch is going well, the first match against
Gryffindor is in a week, I'm confident of a win.
I await your next letter with instructions.
-Draco
Clenching his teeth tight, Draco rolled the letter back up and attatched it to his owl's leg with a piece of string. He stood at the window, watching the bird until it was no more than a speck in the darkening sky. Sighing, he retreated, making his way casually down the steps of the owlery.
He continued down the hall, at an extremely fast pace, soon reaching the corridor which would eventually lead him down to the dungeons. As he rounded the corner, he met a wall of soft cloth and sweet smelling skin. Draco stumbled backwards, completely dazed. He caught a flash of flaming red hair and met two blazing eyes staring up at him from the ground.
"Watch it, Weasel," he spat, "It's not good for a Gryffindor to be seen down by the dungeons all alone."
He stepped over the dropped broom and wrist gurads and continued walking at a brisk pace, not once glancing down at the girl, leaving her in an openmouthed stare.
"Bastard," Ginny hissed at his retreating back.
Draco stopped dead in his tracks.
"What did you call me, Weasel?"
"You heard me," Ginny said, still on her knees on the ground. Lucky she had kneepads.
"That's interesting, coming from a girl who's father can't pay for his own family's clothes and food, a girl who's infatuated with that git, Potter, a girl who's best friend is a fucking mud-blood," he whispered, walking towards her.
Ginny launched herself at him. "Don't you ever," she slapped him hard across the mouth, "talk about my friends like that, you filthy son of a-" she stopped herself. She wasn't going to stoop to his level. He deliberately tried to get inside her head, to make her furious.
Draco was furious. No girl had slapped him since the Granger incident in his third year.
"Friends,Weasel?" he said, quietly. His face stung. Draco stopped less then a foot away from her. He could feel the heat from her anger coming off of her body. "I could hardly call the people you follow like a stray puppy friends."
Ginny stood her ground, not saying a word. Yet the frustration blazed in her eyes. That angered Draco. His eyes bored into hers. Fire met ice.
"Watch yourself, Weasel. If you know what's good for you, watch yourself."
--*--
"Did you hear about Malfoy, Harry?" Ron said in a hushed tone, leaning across the table. The two boys were in the Gryffindor Common room sharing a table with Hermione and Ginny. Ron and Harry were working on essays, and Hermione was helping Ginny with her Transfiguration homework.
Harry looked up from his Potions Essay with with a confused look on his face. "No, what about him," replying in a flat tone. Potions wasn't going well, adding Malfoy to that mixture definately didn't help.
"My sister down there," he nodded in approval towards Ginny, "knocked the crap out of him."
A loud bang sounded at the other side of the table. A startled Ginny looked up from her burnt feather at her brother.
"I d-didn't,"She stammered, not visibly caring that her feather was definately not transfigured into a flower. "I just slapped him...that's all."
"Slapped him?" Hermione said, a smile twitching at the corner of her mouth. "Why did you slap Malfoy?"
Ginny let out an audible sigh. "He -" she tried to find a place to start. "He was making fun...of me," she covered, not wanted to get Harry and Ron too upset about Hermione. Ginny could handle her brother, Hermione would only get frustrated with his attempts to 'protect' her. "I got tired of hearing it, so I smacked him."
Ron looked at his sister, fury clearly showing in his face. "Making fun of you? You never told me that!" his voice started to rise. "I would have pounded him so far into the ground, there wouldn't be enough left of him to be recognizable-"
"Because, Ron" Ginny started, her voice extremely firm, yet calm, "I knew you'd act like this."
Ron looked dumbstruck. He let out a feeble, "Oh..."
Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother, suddenly feeling a bit tired.
Hermione looked to Ginny, "Hey, are you ok?" she asked in a hushed tone. "He's only looking out for you, you know."
Ginny was staring at a point on the wall trying to calm herself. Her eyes snapped back into focus, looking at her friend.
"Yeah," equally soft, "I know. I'm just sick of it" she added. Hermione looked a bit worried, but nodded. She packed her homework and books into her bag, threw away the destroyed feather and turned to Harry and Ron. "It's late," she said, trying to work her voice. "I'm going to bed. I'll see you all in the morning." Ron and Harry gave her a nod, acknowledging their goodnights.
"Night, Gin," She heard Hermione saying.
"Night, 'Mione." Ginny slowly made her way up to the girls Sixth Year dorms. She soflty closed the door behind her, letting out a sigh of relief that no one was presently in the dorm for the night. She walked over to her bedside table, and tapped the wizard radio that Hermione had given her for Christmas the year before. It was made to play both the wizarding worlds music and news as well as muggle music. Ginny had instantly fallen in love with muggle rock when she recieved the gift (as had her father).
Ginny smiled as Three Doors Down came on, playing Not Enough. The song briefly took her mind off her overbearing brother, but only for the moment. After tidying up her room a bit, Ginny grabbed her pajamas and headed for the adjoining bathroom. Quickly undressing, she turned on the shower, and jumped in, not enjoying the feel of the cold floor and cool air. Letting the hot water spray down her back, Ginny let her mind go. Taking some deep breaths, she let herself relax and try to let her head clear of the past few hours contents. But her mind kept coming back to Malfoy. Draco. She suddenly shivered under the hot jet of water.
Turning off the tap, Ginny stepped out of the shower, dried herself off and slipped into her pajamas. She shuffled over to the sink in slipper clad feet, and proceeded to brush her teeth. She caught her eye in the reflection. Flaming red hair stuck to still damp, lightly tanned skin. Blazing eyes stared back at her with an unusual fire kindled in them. Ginny audibly sighed, bending to spit in the sink. Head rising, she ran a forearm across her mouth. Shaking her head slightly, she bent down to retrieve her wand from her discarded school robes on the floor, sending droplets of water everywhere. She pointed her wand at her hair, muttering a quick-drying spell, before pulling the now dry, thick, shoulder length mane into a loose tail.
Picking up her clothes which lay in a heap next to the sink, she slowly made her way back to the dorm room. Dropping her clothes in the laundry basket for the house-elves to pick up in the morning, she set her wand on the bed side table, lightly tapped the radio to turn alarm clock on, and climbed into the huge, four poster bed. Closing the curtains around her, Ginny lay back onto her pillow. "Something's not right," she whispered into the darkness, before falling into a fitful, uneasy sleep.
--*--
'DRACO!!!" Wirey arms wound themselves around Draco's neck. He rolled his eyes and tried to pry the death lock off of his neck.
"Go away, Pansy," he drawled, clearly not in the mood.
"But Draco," she whined. "Why's your face all red? All you alright?" she touched the red mark on his lower cheek close to his lip where the girl had slapped him. It still stung.
"I was teaching Crabbe and Goyle some fighting moves," he said, extremely annoyed, "and I got in the way of Crabbe's fist."
"Oh Drakie," Pansy whispered. "Do you need me to heal it for you?" she batted her eyelashes at him. Draco took ahold of the girls arms, throwing them off of him, with sheer force. "But-"
"Not now," he growled, turning away from her, and storming up to his dorm. He slammed the door and leaned against it for support.
"Oh, Hell."