Pride Crushed, Dignity Rising
By: CNJ
PG-13
1
Ginny:
"We're in our last year and
if Malfoy hasn't succeeded in getting the best of us yet, I don't think
he ever will," my older brother Ron Weasley told his friend Harry Potter
as I caught up to them in the hallway. Then they saw me and
waved.
"Hello..." I called.
As I joined them, our two other close friends, Hermione Granger and Cheria
Radwin came up and we headed down to the great hall for lunch, talking
a mile a minute.
"...Malfoy hasn't managed
to make either Ron or Harry cry yet," Hermione added. "That's what
you two are proud of." Harry pushed his glasses up his snubby nose
and grinned at Ron, then the rest of us.
"And he won't this year,"
Ron added with a cocky grin. I had to smile a bit too as we entered
the Great Hall and sat that Monday in mid-November. True, Hermione,
Ron, Harry, and Cheria are in their seventh and final year at Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I, Ginny Weasley, am in my sixth
year, so I'll still have one more year to go. Draco Malfoy is a seventh-year
Slytherin who happens to thrive off of making other kids' lives miserable
with the exception of a few of his cronies in Slytherin. He especially
despises Harry. Malfoy's made just about everyone cry at least once...including
Hermione and Cheria and me. Everyone except Ron and Harry.
I know he'd especially love to see Harry break down and cry, but so far
Harry won't give him that pleasure. As the five of us ate, we talked
about the upcoming Quidditch game this Saturday as well as the Gryffindor
retreat which is being held from November twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh.
I'm the Seeker for the Gryffindor team; Ron is the Captain; Harry is one
of the Beaters and Cheria is one of the Chasers. This upcoming
game is Gryffindor vs Slytherin.
After lunch I had Potions.
None of the others were in that class; they have it earlier, so we parted
ways. Professor Gromer gave us an assignment that involved mixing
animal hairs with transformation fluids. Up until last year, we had
a Professor Snape for our Potions teacher. But he left last summer
after a fight with one of the other teachers and being burned out from
teaching. Our group had been at Hogsmeade last summer when we ran
into Snape and we talked and he said he'd accepted a position in Ireland
doing potions research. He'd had no patience with us students and
seemed crabby most of the time. None of us had cared for him much,
but then we wished him well before we parted. Looking back now, I
can see why he was the way he was with his sarcasm and sour disposition.
Gromer is more cheerful and I think he likes teaching this class.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I headed back to the Gryffindor
dorms that evening after dinner, I heard laughter in the hall. A
loud, rather malicious laugh. I stopped when I saw Malfoy with two
of his yes-men, Crabbe and Goyle. They were surrounding Neville Longbottom
and Malfoy was clutching a notebook.
"Give it back..." Neville
pleaded. He tried to reach out for it, but Malfoy, being taller
held it just out of his reach.
"Give it baaack..."
Crabbe mimicked and he and his cronies laughed. Neville is a seventh
year Gryffindor and is often targeted by Malfoy.
"Leave him alone!" I cut
in, running up to them.
"Oh, butt in where it's
none of your business, why don't you?" Malfoy's gray eyes sneered over
at me.
"Give that back to Neville..."
I said in a low voice.
"And suppose I don't?" Malfoy
glared. He pulled out his wand and with a spell, held the notebook
higher, leaning it toward the window. Goyle went to push it open.
"You won't...?" Neville
squeaked.
"Don't you dare, Malfoy..."
growled Harry, his eyes narrowed as he came up the hallway.
"Oh, it's you...Potter,"
Malfoy spat, his eyes narrowing back. "Of course as Head Boy, you think
you have the right to be giving orders." Harry is Head Boy and Hermione
is Head Girl this year. The two of them glared at each other, eyes
slitted dangerously for a long minute. Harry slowly pulled out his
wand. Malfoy must have seen it because he leaned out the window and
said a quick spell and the notebook went flying out the window.
"Oh...God..." Neville gasped.
Malfoy grinned maliciously.
"Ooops, it landed in a puddle
of mud out there," Malfoy banged the window shut and gave a shrug of false
"apology." "Never meant for that to happen, Roundbottom....I
mean Fatbottom...I mean, oh, I can never remember these names of these
idiots except...Potter." Harry's fists were clenched and his eyes
were still slits. "Cool off, Potter," Malfoy brushed past him, practically
pushing him into the wall. "It's not as if it's your precious notebook
I accidentally dropped." He stalked off to the Slytherin dorms with
his yes-men behind him, snickering all the way. Neville wiped a few
tears from his eyes.
"Oh, Neville, we're sorry..."
I put an arm around him.
"I'm going to kick Malfoy's
ass one of these days," Harry raked a hand angrily through his thick black
hair. "Really, that snob is getting on my nerves worse every day!"
"I think we should just
try to ignore him," I said softly as we said the password and entered our
common room.
"We've done that, Ginny
and his shit is getting worse all the time," Harry's face was a patchy
red. "That jackass has no respect for anyone but himself. I'm
afraid one of these days he's going to really hurt someone." We sat
by the fireplace.
"I'm concerned about that
too," I admitted.
"So what can we do to stop
him?" Neville asked.
"I don't know," Harry's
fists twisted in his robe pockets. "But all of us has to gather together
and do something."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later on that night, Hermione,
Harry, Ron, Cheria, Neville, and I put on Harry's invisibility cloak and
headed out into the courtyard to look for Neville's notebook. The
cloak is expandable, so several of us can fit in at once. It was
rather damp, cold, and windy outside. We eventually found it, all
wet and mostly muddied. Neville sighed and thanked us for helping.
"No problem..." Harry told
him as we headed back inside. Good thing we had the invisibility
cloak because we almost ran into Malfoy and Goyle as we were going in.
We waited until they'd gone back to their dorms before uncloaking partially
to give the Fat Lady portrait the password.
"Shhh..." Neville told us
as we looked nervously up and down the hall, then went in quickly and headed
up to bed.