Ginny's Ghost

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- Chapter Five - Falling

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Alaraby.

Ginny woke up with his name in her head. It was still dark – she rose quietly from her bed, and crept with a smothered yawn to the window to look outside.

It was very early. The sun hadn't yet begun to lighten the sky.

She looked out over the grounds and barely made out the smoke rising from the chimney of Hagrid's hut. A low, flickering light burned warmly inside, painting the small windows with amber.

Hagrid! He'd been there! He'd remember Alaraby, surely.

Ginny dressed hastily, and made her way quietly from the tower. She crept across the snow covered grounds, feeling her cheeks grow numb in the frigid air, and knocked softly at the door.

Inside, she heard Fang bark once, sharply, before Hagrid shushed him, and opened the door.

"Well, lit'l Ginny! What're you doin' out 'ere so early?"

She smiled up at the half-giant and as he stepped back from the door to let her inside.

"I didn't think anyone 'sides Fang and me got up this early," he rumbled companionably as he absently rubbed his nose and lumbered across the room.

Ginny bit her lip thoughtfully as he waved her into an oversized chair by the warmth of the fire. She watched him in indecision for a moment as he added more wood to the blaze.

"So? What brings ya' by?"

"I'm sorry to bother you, Hagrid – "

"You ain't no bother, Ginny – it's been a bit lonely 'ere, now tha' yer brother an Harry, an Hermione are gone on. Miss 'em, I do."

"Me too,' said Ginny wistfully, and then she blurted abruptly, "Hagrid, do you remember a student who went here by the name of Alaraby Malfoy?"

Hagrid's smile dropped.

"Oh, I've gone and said something horrible, haven't I?"

"No, no. I just haven't heard tha' name in years." Hagrid settled himself in a chair across from her and scratched his head thoughtfully. Fang whined and padded over to rest his huge head on his master's lap.

"I – I know he died. I mean, when Voldemort was first rising – "

Hagrid winced slightly. "I'll never get used ter hearin' tha' name spoke out loud." He shook his head, and cleared his throat loudly. "Aye, he did…he was killed by 'him'. James, Harry's father, found him. He an Sirius. T'were a real blow. 'Laraby, why, he was friends with everyone. He were kinda' close wit' them boys."

"J-James and Sirius? Found him?" Asked Ginny faintly. She closed her eyes.

"That's horrible."

"Yeah, it were."

"Well, why doesn't anyone seem to remember him, Hagrid? I've asked almost everyone about him, save for you and Dumbledore."

"No one wants 'ter remember, Ginny. It were a big scandal back then, a student dyin' at Hogwarts. Hadn't happened since – well, blimey, since poor Myrtle. His death were a reminder that even Hogwarts weren't completely safe. That was when Dumbledore officially began tightenin' the wards around the grounds."

Ginny shivered. "Poor Alaraby. It's no wonder he sounded so lonely." It must have been terrible for him, watching his friends move on. It was cruel.

"What?"

She frowned. "He's a ghost, Hagrid – didn't you know? No, of course you didn't," she corrected herself.

Hagrid looked at her in surprise, his bushy brows arched. "Well, I'll be buggered. I never saw 'im, not in all this time."

"I saw him by mistake," Ginny hurried to explain. "Sir Nicholas told me about him, a-and I talked to him last night."

"I wonder why he never showed his self – " Hagrid began thoughtfully, and Ginny, well aware of his inability to keep secrets, hastened to explain.

When it was time for her to go, Ginny turned to Hagrid with a pleading look.

"Hagrid – perhaps it's best we keep this between us? It's his choice to remain unseen, and I really think it's best to go along with his wishes, don't you?"

"Er – o'course, o'course." Hagrid chuckled, and laid his hands over his stomach. "No one'll be hearin' anythin' from me, you can believe tha'."

Ginny smiled weakly and wrapped her scarf around her neck as she stepped out into the frozen day, trying her best to quash a sudden feeling of dread.

She only hoped she wouldn't come to regret her impulsive visit to her old friend.

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Ginny tried to concentrate on what Professor Sinistra was saying about the alignment of Mars and Jupiter, but something cool and tingly was tickling at her ear.

She rubbed her ear, and went back to taking her notes, but the odd sensation stubbornly returned, and she frowned, looking up to see if she could locate the source of the disturbance, but there was no draft, and her curls were tucked into a loose ponytail at the back of her head.

Ginny felt her eyes widen as her quill began moving of his own violation on her parchment.

'Hi there.'

She grinned, and stole the quill back.

'Alaraby?' She wrote, her hand trembling slightly.

This time her hand moved of it's own accord.

'Who else?'

'What are you doing?'

'I'm bored.'

'You had me scared for a second there.' She wrote back.

"I'm sorry. Still meeting me after classes?" This time he whispered in her ear, so low and so close that it made her tremble.

Ginny swallowed, and nodded. The girl seated next to her gave her an odd look.

"I'll see you later, then."

She only just felt Alaraby's friendly, husky, nearly nonexistent laugh tickle along the rim of her ear, and then he was gone.

Her heart was slamming against her ribs, as she stared unseeingly at her notes, but it definitely wasn't from fear.

When Ginny returned to the tower later, she was surprised and dismayed to discover Professor Sinistra still in residence.

She stammered an excuse to the teacher, and let herself out of the tower room feeling mightily disappointed.

She was at the base of the stairs when Alaraby appeared out of nowhere, making her jump.

He looked instantly contrite. "Ginny, I'm sorry – I just wanted to catch you before you left."

Ginny pressed a hand to her chest and smiled weakly. "It's all right."

"I wasn't expecting Sinistra to stick around like that."

"Me either." Ginny twisted her hands together, and stared at the floor.

"I'm up here, you know," Alaraby said quietly, sounding amused.

A blush stained her cheeks as she looked up at him quickly. The humor in his odd silvery eyes made her grin unwillingly.

"Have you realized you've actually left your tower?" She finally observed.

Alaraby looked up the winding stairs and shrugged. "I venture out occasionally – if there's good reason," he added with a slow wink.

Ginny giggled girlishly before she cut herself off with a rusty snort. "Now look at what you've gone and done – made me laugh – "

"And this is a bad thing?" He arched a brow at her.

"Isn't it? I mean, Ron always says I sound like a door with squeaky hinges," she confessed ruefully, absently lifting a hand to stroke her throat. "And you do not want to hear me sing – "

At which point Alaraby threw his arms wide, and his head back, and began to sing very loudly, and terribly off key, an old Muggle song Ginny recognized as being "Sweet Caroline".

Ginny was hard pressed not to clamp her hands over her ears. "Ugh! Stop, stop, stop!" She said before he could launch into another verse. "And I thought my ears bled when I sang!"

There was a wicked expression about his eyes suddenly that reminded her uncomfortably of Draco in that moment – if she remembered correctly, it was that look the older boy had had right before he pulled something extremely underhanded.

She was falling, so fast. Too fast.

"Well, we're well matched then, don't you think?"

Ginny eyed him crossing his arms suspiciously. "What are you thinking?"

"What are you on about? Nothing at all…" Alaraby looked back over his shoulder thoughtfully, and then slid his eyes back to look at her consideringly.

Ginny gulped as she watched a corner of his lips lift in a slight, confident smirk that made her abdomen ache.

Correction: she had fallen. And hard.

"Well…since our meeting place had been invaded…what do you say about taking a little walk?"

"Wow."

Ginny lay on her back in greenhouse number five, staring up at the night sky through the amazingly clear panes of glass. The warmth and humidity of the greenhouse should have made the panes overhead foggy, but the sky remained visible – and what a sky it was!

"It's unbelievable," she told Alaraby in a hushed voice as he drifted in a relaxed position a few inches from the ground beside her. He had his arms crossed behind his head, and was gazing at the starry sky in a solemn manner.

"It is – I'd forgotten what the view was like from here," he sighed softly.

Ginny could see memories flashing through his mind, and she searched quickly for another subject.

"I bet you brought all the girls here," she commented teasingly, and then bit her lip hard. She hadn't meant to bring that particular issue up, certainly!

Alaraby turned his head to look at her and laughed huskily, his eyes hooded lazily. "Jealous?"

Ginny made a disgusted sound and hastily resumed staring at the brightly winking stars.

Alaraby chuckled again, the sound making every last bit of her skin tingle.

It was so quiet for so long that Ginny, warmly wrapped in her robes and cloak, head pillowed on her arms, relaxed as she'd never been in another person's company, slowly began to doze.

The knowledge that he was right beside her was enough to keep a tiny smile curled about her lips as she drifted off to sleep.

Alaraby moved onto his side, and rested his head on one hand as he watched Ginny succumb to sleep.

He shook his head as he caught himself reaching out to touch her.

A long forgotten habit.

Little Ginny Weasley would have been horrified to know just exactly how many girls he'd brought to that very same greenhouse when he'd been living.

He smiled at his memories, trying and failing to keep a prideful smirk from his lips.

He'd definitely been a lover, not a fighter, he thought to himself ruefully as his eyes skimmed her fine features in the moonlit darkness.

Maybe if he hadn't spent so much time romancing the ladies, and practicing his counter curses instead, he'd have managed to grab his ass and run in the tower that night…

Maybe. Right.

He'd never had run, even if he could have made it. Too much pride for that. "Big heart, small brain," Luc would have sneered.

Alaraby sighed, and found himself staring at the young red-head's full pink lips, parted slightly as she drew in deep, even breaths.

It really wasn't a good idea, letting her get attached to him…but who the hell was he kidding? He was the one getting attached.

And she'd be gone within the year.

Alaraby tilted his head a bit to take a curious male study of her still form, and nodded slowly in appreciation. The girl was absolutely flawless – and he knew flawless. She was a stunner – and he again wondered why none of the guys in Hogwart's didn't have her physically attached to them at the hip.

If he had been alive, she'd have been in serious trouble…

The thought made him grin again, breifly.

Unable to help himself suddenly, he moved closer to her, allowing his hand to hover ever so slightly above her jaw, as his eyes ran over her silken looking skin, the long, thick fringe of reddish brown lashes laying on her lightly freckled cheeks.

He felt an odd ache in his chest as he stared at her, and felt his earlier despair return as he looked longingly at her fall of shiny, incredibly soft looking curls.

What was he going to do without her?

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TBC

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