Musical comedy Murders of 1940 belongs to the playwright and the publisher, not me. I am not trying to claim it in any way.
All the characters and locations in this fanfic belong to J.K. Rowling, except for a few minor characters that I have added to spruce it up!

A Love to Die For
Part 4

I could hardly sit through a whole hour of Care of Magical Creatures. Or stand, as the case was. I couldn't even enjoy the unicorn that Hagrid had somehow obtained for his lesson for the next week. All I could think about was that cast list. Well, and Cliff. And those sparkling blue eyes, that perfectly angelic smile, his wonderfully bubbly laugh, that hair. I couldn¹t help but wonder if I had just dreamt him. He was so wonderful, and had stepped into my life out of nowhere.

"Virginia," Hagrid called, shoving me out of my reverie rather abruptly. "Would you like to come help me show the rest of the class the feed a unicorn?" I nearly groaned as the Huflepuff girls all simultaneously squeaked jealously. I doubted that a single one of them had ever gotten over their childhood love of unicorns.

As I walked up to the tall, thin creature with its shimmering white hair, Malfoy¹s face popped into my head. Why had he saved me? What had he been thinking? I was only Ginny Weasley. I was no one of any importance to anyone- except maybe Cliff. Or so I hoped.

I took the bag of herbs from Hagrid. Surprisingly, they were all Muggle herbs. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme- as my father said. I fed them to the unicorn as Hagrid told me to. It licked them gently from my hand. I knew that I should have been at least a little bit afraid- even a unicorn can become violent- but it was so beautiful and warm. When it had finished the herbs in my hand, it nuzzled my cheek, clearly hoping for more. I wished I had more to give it. I reached out and stroked the end of its nose. It was so soft and warm, like nothing I had ever felt before.

"Well, Virginia appears to have calmed him down enough for all you girls to come pet him, if you would like," Hagrid offered as a herd of girls sprinted for the animal. "One at a time, one at a time!" He shouted, in helpless attempt to soothe the crowd. I slipped out of the mob of girls unnoticed and stood back a safe distance from them. Excited teeneage girls could be just a dangerous as any wild creature.

As I waited for class to end, I began toying with the idea of sneaking off to see if the list was up yet. Hagrid wouldn't notice my absence, now that all his attention was on the girls surrounding the unicorn. As I began to back away from the group, towards the school, I felt a hand close around my arm. I squeaked and jumped nearly three feet in the air. A warm, soft hand covered my mouth as I was pulled behind a nearby tree. As soon as the grip loosened, I whipped around a kicked hard at the person in front of me.

"OW!" Cliff yelled, tumbling to the ground and grabbing his shin. "A fine thanks I get for sneaking you out of class to congratulate you!"

"Well you could have told me it was you at least!" I shouted at him, my apology forgotten.

"Would that have been before, or after you kicked me?" He shouted playfully, standing to brush himself off.

"Wait, what was that about congratulating me? What would you congratulate me about?" I demanded of him.

"Well, I'm not sure if I want to tell you now. You look so cute when you're angry," He teased, stepping closer. I could smell the cologne he was wearing. It smelled fresh and enchanting. I started to forget everything around me and think only about him. Then I remembered the reason I had wanted to leave class in the first place.

"I have to go see the cast list!" I blurted, preparing to dash for the school. I was stopped by Cliff's hand catching mine.

"That's what I came to congratulate you on, you playing Helsa," he said, smiling down at me. I stopped dead in my tracks, and looked up at him, expecting him to start laughing and tell me it was all just one big joke, or to wake up from this marvelous dream, but he didn't. The only thing left for me to do was squeal and hug him, which I did.

"Please tell me you were cast as well! Please!" I begged of him. I would feel absolutely terrible if he hadn¹t been cast.

"You are looking at Hogwarts newest Roger Hopewell," he declared proudly, grinning at me. I laughed and hugged him again and he picked me up and spun me around. Once he had put me down again, he stood there, just looking at me for nearly a minute. Then, just as I was about to tell him I should go back to my room, he took my hand a said "That's not all I wanted to talk to you about."

***

I spent more than half the night looking for that woman, and was nearly caught by Filch¹s stupid cat half a dozen times, but never did find her. I finally gave up around two and went back to the Slytherin common room. I never did go to sleep though. All I could think about was that every single moment that I had stumbled over a line or said the wrong thing. By the time I got to my first class I was entirely convinced that I had no chance at the part of Patrick O'Reilly.

Then there was that stupid Weasley girl. Why had I rescued her? Why couldn¹t I get her out of my head? What was wrong with me? It was probably just the trauma of such a big change in my life. Once I got used to not doing Quidditch anymore, I would forget all about her.

As my day continued, I sunk deeper and deeper into gloom. I tried everything to brighten my mood, but not even tormenting Pansy helped. By Potions, my final class that day, I nearly expected to fins a note next to the cast list telling me to never audition for a play again. I almost couldn't bring myself to go and look. But maybe it would make me feel better if I saw that that stupid Cliff hadn¹t made it either.