~*~Green and Gold~*~
By Kellyanne
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good…oh, I mean…I own nothing *sheepish grin*
Chapter 10
She kept her eyes locked on the blazing fire as the portrait swung open. She knew Hermione had entered the common room without even turning around. You could always tell when Hermione had entered a room.
"Is he worth it?" That's all that her friend said, the four, simple words hanging heavily in the air.
Ginny knew what the older girl meant. She wanted to know if Draco was worth more then family. She wanted to know if he was worth lying to her closest friends.
"Yeah," She said softly, looking down at her feet. She felt Hermione's hand on her shoulder and she fought between smiling and frowning.
"I felt the same way when I first fell in love with your brother."
Ginny looked up, a smile forming on her lips, "You love Ron?"
Hermione laughed, "Yeah. Call me nutters, but I'm crazy for the git. I'm just lucky he feels the same way."
"How do you know that he…you know…loves you?"
"I see it in his eyes, Gin. That weird glimmer in his eyes that you know wasn't there until you entered the room. The love shining at you that you can tell is a reflection of his heart." Hermione paused, the corners of her lips curling into a smile, "Kinda like what I see when Draco looks at you."
Ginny gasped, "He doesn't love me!"
"Alright, Gin. I'm probably wrong, but the way he looks at you in Potions…well…it's how Ron looks at me."
"You're nutters," Ginny muttered, playing with the sleeve of her robe.
"Most likely, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong." With that Hermione walked up the stairs to the 6th year dormitories, leaving Ginny to ponder over what her friend had said.
Was it possible that Draco Malfoy was in love with her? Could he look at her and see someone who wasn't merely the latest model of a broomstick, there to ride one day and tossed aside when the next broom comes into stock?
She let her eyes fall back to the fireplace, the once-glowing embers slowly dying in the hearth. She watched as the red coals turned orange, then yellow, before they flickered one last time and turned black.
She waited for something to happen. She almost expected the flames to burst back to their full height like a Phoenix being reborn, but nothing happened. The room darkened and an eerie silence fell.
It was late; nobody else was awake. She yawned, but stayed seated, her eyes locked on that bloody fireplace.
She wanted answers to come to life like a Phoenix. She needed to know how Draco felt and she needed to know now.
Unfortunately, no answers were born from the ashes.
Sighing, she settled into the chair and succumbed to sleep, her head full of soft images of a dragon that had managed to ensnare her mind…and her heart.
Ginny woke up realizing that she wasn't in her bed. She didn't want to get up, but she heard two familiar voices whispering above her.
"You think we should wake her?"
"Could we use fireworks?"
"Nah, that'd wake everyone up…"
"So, in other words, yes."
She opened her eyes, knowing full well whom the voices belonged to. She also knew that, at that moment, they were most likely getting said fireworks.
"Fred, George…what are you doing here?" She exclaimed, sitting up in the chair that, now, seemed very uncomfortable. She placed her hand behind her back and found fireworks. That explained the discomfort.
"Well, Ginny, my dear. We are the new," Fred started.
"Defense Against The Dark Arts teachers! George finished. Both twins flashed her toothy grins.
"What???" She exclaimed. Whether it was rumor or truth, everyone believed that the DADA job was cursed. Every year they got a new teacher and, by the last day of the school year, he or she was gone. Fred and George had beaten this rumor into her head since they first started at Hogwarts and now they were totally contradicting it by taking the job. Were they insane????
She sighed, knowing bloody well that her brothers were totally nutters.
"Gin, we're hurt. You don't want us as your teachers?" Fred asked, his bottom lips forming a pout.
"Come one, Fred. I can tell when we aren't wanted." The two tall redheads turned to walk away but Ginny reached out to stop them.
"Stop being such gits…"
Fred cut her off, "We're Weasleys!!! What else are we supposed to be but gits??" The twins both grinned at her.
"But I thought you two set up a shop in Hogsmeade,"
"Ginny, Ginny, Ginny, so young,"
"So naïve!!" The twins burst into fits of laughter and Ginny had to stop herself from attacking them. They might be older and taller, but she was still a Weasley and Weasley who could throw a bloody good punch when called upon to do so, at that!
"Ok, fine. You two still have the shop…so why are you teaching here? I thought the Defense Against the Dark Arts job was cursed."
George straightened up his robes, which, she noted, looked very new and very expensive, and his face went serious, a rarity for all Weasleys, "Gin, we only told you that to scare you."
"Just like when we told you that there were grindylows under your bed."
"THERE WERE!!! You flooded my room and set those blasted creatures loose in the water!"
Fred chuckled, "Oh, yeah."
"Anyway, Gin, what did you expect us to do when we heard that the teaching spot was open?"
"We certainly couldn't let that grease ball Snape get the position, now could we??" It scared Ginny how serious Fred and George looked.
"I…guess not," She said slowly. Finally, the faces of the twins cracked and they started laughing.
"You should have seen Snape's face when he learned that we beat him for the teaching job!!" George said, his words followed by a howl of laughter.
"He looked like You-Know-Who had just walked up to him and asked for directions!!!!"
Ginny sighed, "You guys are nutters."
"Thank you!!!!!!" They replied in unison as she walked up the stairs to her dorm. She quickly changed and went back downstairs where Hermione, Ron and Harry were standing around the two older Weasleys, who were clutching their sides from laughing.
Eager to get to breakfast, Ginny slipped past the group and ran down the hall.
Dumbledore must have gone crazy if he voluntarily let two more Weasleys back into Hogwarts.
"Hey, Ginger," He said as his fiery, little redhead came running down the hall, practically pushing past him. She stopped and looked up to meet his gaze, an elegant, almost arrogant smile crossing her lips.
"I didn't see you," She said softly.
He choked back laughter with a smirk, "Understandable. It's hard to see people from down there."
She glared at him and playfully smacked at his chest, "Don't be an arse, Malfoy."
"Oh, well, that takes all the fun out of my day, Weasley."
They both stopped walking and turned to glare at each other.
Finally, he started laughing, "You look funny when you glare."
"And let me guess, Malfoy. You look dashing??" Ginny grinned and he pulled her to his chest.
"Are you saying I'm not dashing already?" He whispered, planting a kiss on her forehead.
"You're cute, I'll give you that. But dashing…"
He leaned in for the kill, his lips moving softly over hers.
"…Yeah, dashing fits perfectly," Ginny finished breathlessly. He smirked triumphantly and laced his fingers with hers.
"Hey, Ginny, is that you?"
They both spun around. Draco groaned at the sight of Colin Creevey, an annoying fifth year who would lick scum off of Potter's shoes if it meant being close to 'the boy who lived.'
"Hey Colin," Ginny said, a fake smile plastered on her face. He had to choke back laughter.
"Ginny! It is you! I didn't think it was!"
Draco rolled his eyes, Like there were millions of beautiful redheads running around Hogwarts.
"Did you want something, Colin?" Ginny asked. He could tell she was trying to find an escape route.
"Yeah, I just heard…that there's a new DADA teacher!! The old one went crazy or something."
This was news for Draco as well. He had thought Snape would get the job this time, though he would have hated it if that slimy git had gotten it. Despite what all rumors said, he hated Snape like everyone else.
He turned and saw that Ginny was frowning.
"I know, Colin," She said, her jaw clenched. Blimey, she sounded aggravated.
"Well…I gotta go. I'm trying to get a picture of Harry and Dumbledore for…my collection."
Ginny sighed in relief when the boy ran down the hall, waving his camera in the air like a possessed Muggle.
Lacing his fingers with hers, they walked to the Great Hall, neither breaking the peaceful silence that had fallen over them. He groaned as his eyes realized just how far the Gryffindor table was from the Slytherin table.
"Well, I gotta go over to hell," He said, motioning towards the table of angry looking Slytherins.
She laughed, "I'll see you later."
He nodded and leaned in to kiss her. Her lips were as soft as ever and he let his kiss linger before pulling away.
"Mmm…you taste like vanilla."
She laughed, "You taste like pond scum."
He pretended to be offended, but who could stay mad at someone like Ginny, even if it was only pretend.
Ginny, though, seemed to think he was seriously stung by her words, "I was only joking, Draco. You taste like honey and peppermint."
He smiled before kissing her on the forehead, "I gotta go."
She ignored the silence that fell over the Great Hall as she walked down the aisle to the Gryffindor table. She wouldn't let them think she cared what they thought.
Inside, though, she was thinking the exact opposite. She wished they were talking about her instead of staring at her like she had a second head.
She was going deaf from the silence!!
She was greeted by only one friendly face when she sat down.
Hermione.
The older girl was looking up from a book, which rarely happened when Hermione started reading, and she was smiling sweetly at her.
"I'm glad for you," She said softly, her voice barely rising over a whisper.
"Thank you."
"Hey, Gin," Harry muttered. He had his head on the table and his hair was messier then usual, which was saying a lot.
"What's wrong?" She asked curiously. No matter how much she disliked Harry, he was still her friend…kind of.
"I just heard from Seamus that Snape is giving us a pop quiz on all we've learned so far this year," Harry groaned and slammed his head back onto the table.
Ginny groaned as well and took out her Potions book, "Everything we've learned???"
Ron looked up from his food and she saw that his eyes were narrow with malice, though she knew it wasn't for her, "Yeah, everything. Though, I don't see how much you could've learned, drooling over Malfoy all year."
She gasped at her brother's words and she suddenly lost her appetite. Weasley's never lose their appetites, no matter how bad things around them are.
"RON!" Hermione screamed, smacking her boyfriend across the chest.
Ginny stood, gathering her books quickly and holding them in unsteady hands, "Tell Professor Snape that I'm…feeling ill. I won't be in class."
She practically ran out of the hall, but it didn't feel like it was fast enough. She just kept running until she was in a part of the castle that she didn't recognize. She looked around and saw a painting of a knight. The knight was tugging at a pony, but he was moving, which was what she needed.
"Excuse me…where can I…" Before she could finish, the short knight interrupted her.
"Ah, a quest! You wish for I, Sir Cadogan, to help seek a destination? But, alas, I cannot refuse a maiden as fair as thee. I will lead you to the place you seek. Come, follow me, or else perish!!"
No…I just want to know where I am!" She said as she followed the resonating clanks of armor that the knight was making as he ran from painting to painting.
"Follow me, sweet lady, for a noble knight like myself will bring you to where you wish to go!"
"You don't even know where…" Her protests died in her throat when her eyes fell on a large painting hanging on the wall. The clanking of Cadogan's armor seemed distant, now, as she stared at the painting in horror.
It was a painting of Tom Riddle.
And written along the edge of the painting:
Count the minutes
Count the hours
Until the Dark Lord
Comes back into power
A/N: Well, it took a while for that chapter to come together. The damn ideas wouldn't come out, even after I hit myself over the head with a bloody sledgehammer.
ANYWHO, I hope you guys enjoyed it. Review if you love me!!!
Love from the author