The Astronomy Tower
I was looking forward to my first potions class. So much, in fact, that I was the first student to arrive. So I sat in the very middle row in the very middle seat. In the very back. Draco was the next to get there, and he sat at my right. The other students began to arrive then, and when Ron and Hermione entered they sat as far away from us as possible without sitting in the very front. Harry, though, was the last to arrive, very nearly late, and so sat in the last seat--the one to my left.
I smiled at him, then at my fa--I mean, Professor Snape, who had just reached the front of the room. He looked angry. (I wonder why.)
He glared at Harry. "Mr. Potter, is there a reason you're back there with . . . with . . . the Slytherins, rather than the Gryffindors?"
Before I could stop myself, I said, "Daddy, it's not like there's a rule or something--I mean . . . Professor Snape . . ." *Oops . . .*
He turned his glare on me and I couldn't help but shrink down in my seat. "*Amethyst.*"
"Sorry."
His gaze returned to my left. "Mr. Potter, go . . . take . . ." he trailed off, furiously searching his mind for a task and then looked to me for some help.
So I helped him. I turned toward Harry. "Could you take me to the infirmary? I've been needing to see Madame Pomfrey, and I don't know where it is."
Okay, I lied; I knew the whole school by heart. Probably as well as those Weasley twins I always heard so much about. Oh well . . .
My dad miraculously lost his glare and looked at me with concern. "Amethyst, are you all right?"
"I'm fine. I've just . . . had a headache."
"Do you . . . Do you want to stay here, or . . .?" For once, he was uncertain.
"No, I . . . I'd really rather just go see Po--Um, Madame Pomfrey, and then I'll be back. I'm fine."
Still concerned, he frowned. "And you're sure you want Mr. Potter to take you?"
"That is what you were going to suggest, isn't it?"
"Yes, of course," he said, after directing a frustrated glare at Harry.
"Okay. We'll be back then."
Though *I* knew he was really speaking to Harry, he looked at me while saying, "Go straight to the infirmary and then come right back."
Since Harry was looking at me, also unsure, I answered for him. "Of course . . . Sir."
Harry and I walked to the doorway, but not before I received a hug from my father.
"Be careful," he said.
I wasn't sure why, but I went along with it. "I'll be fine."
I led Harry out, and heard him immediately switch modes, beginning the lesson. When the heavy door had closed behind us I smiled at Harry, who looked like he was having a confused, inner battle.
"Well how are you?" I asked, not knowing what else to say.
He blinked. "I'm fine . . . How's your headache?"
"Fine." He looked bewildered. "I just thought you might wanna get outta there. Plus, Daddy was looking like he was struggling for words. It was the first thing I could think of."
"I can't . . . get used to you calling him that. And . . . Anyway, I wanted to apologize for last night."
I sent him a half-smile. "What do you have to apologize for?"
"Well . . . I know that . . . Ron sort of . . . was talking about . . .Well Ma--Draco . . . and . . . I know that if you had stayed with us . . . things might have been different . . ."
Raising my eyebrow (as I seemed to do so often), I asked, "How so?"
"I don't know. You're with Draco now, and it's just . . ."
"Please don't say it that way," I said with a shudder. "You make it sound like he's my boyfriend or something."
He looked confused again. "Isn't he?"
I couldn't help but gape at him. I loved Draco, but . . . No. Just . . . No.
"But . . . You were . . . Both of you were . . ."
"Holding hands? Flirting? Doesn't mean anything. Not--Not . . . in this case."
"But he said that-- . . . Anyway, it doesn't matter."
"Wait--yes it does. Who said what?"
"But if nothing's going on . . ." He shifted his weight uncomfortably.
"Just tell me? Please?"
"Well, Mal--Draco," Harry began, wincing, "He kind of . . . gave us the impression that . . . you two were . . . Anyway, like I said, it doesn't matter."
I took his arm and, though it hurt a bit, looked into those bright green eyes. "It matters to me. And it seems like it might matter to you. So just tell me."
His eyes turned to the floor and his face turned pinkish-red. "He just warned us to stay away from you, that's all. He made it pretty clear that you two were . . . pretty close."
"We may be close, but . . . Wouldn't you warn Draco to stay away if . . . Well . . . If Ginny . . . Uh, if Ginny or Hermione liked . . . Well, him?"
He gave an involuntary shiver. "But that's different."
"How?"
"Nobody should . . . Well . . . Except for . . ." He sighed. "I don't know how to say this."
"You guys are rivals. You are pretty much...loathing each other. He just wanted you to stay away from me because of my dad. Because he knows...Well, he knows things, and he doesn't want me to get too close."
Harry sighed again, looking a bit downcast. "Do you think . . . that I should?"
"Should what?"
"Stay away from you."
*No!* my mind and heart screamed at once.
"Actually . . . I think that's your choice. If it was up to me . . . Well, I would want . . . Well . . . I would pretty much say the opposite of what . . . he said. Which . . . is why he said it . . ."
He smiled, oh thank the good Lord, he smiled! "So then you wouldn't mind if . . . Draco was a little bit . . . angry with you?"
I couldn't help smiling back. "He can kiss it."
As he grinned, we stopped walking. Ha! I hadn't even realized we'd started walking, but apparently we had. We both realized suddenly that we had walked all the way from the dungeons to the . . . astronomy tower, where, as it was mid-morning, it seemed perfectly abandoned. We both blushed a bit--Darn those blushing genes from Mom's side of the family! Grrr . . .
I tried to act angry, giving him the glare I'd learned from my father. "Did you lead me here on purpose?"
Harry, wide-eyed and looking almost scared, said, "No. I mean . . . Not on purpose . . ."
I laughed. "Okay. Then what do we do now?"
"I don't know," he said with a laugh of his own.
"Because . . . you know if it had been on purpose I would know, but . . . Since it wasn't, you know . . ."
He began to look worried again (Ha, ha). "Well . . . What if . . . What if it was on purpose?"
"You said it wasn't, so it doesn't matter."
"Just hypothetically."
"Hypothetically, I might . . . do this," I said, quickly kissing him on the cheek.
His mouth slowly formed a small smile. Hesitantly, he said, "You remember when I said . . . that it wasn't intentional?"
"Vividly," I answered, trying my hardest not to smirk (a habit I think I picked up from Draco).
Harry, looking toward the floor, shuffled his feet. "I . . . think I was lying."
I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and let a small smirk show. "*Were* you lying, or do you *wish* you were lying?"
Still shifting his weight he said, "Well . . . maybe it wasn't intentional, but . . . I'm not gonna say that I'm not glad we're here."
I finally laughed. "You know what? Me too."
He didn't look as if he were contemplating running away then.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Abruptly, he began to grin, but just as abruptly, his grin turned into a worried frown. "Are you sure you don't need to go to the infirmary?"
I laughed again. "Positive--unless you'd rather I left?"
"No--no--I . . . was just a little worried, that's all."
"Awww . . ." I couldn't resist kissing him on the cheek once more.
He beamed; we glanced to the door then--two sets of footsteps were walking towards the room. Harry motioned for me to follow him in hiding--in a closet. I didn't think about it then, though--the footsteps were nearing.
After a moment, I could make out Draco's voice. There was a girl with him, but I didn't know who it was; it looked as though Harry knew her, though. His face was forming a confused frown.
The door closed and the two continued their conversation.
"I'd just rather not talk about her," Draco was saying. "I--it's really . . . not any of my business what she decides to do."
"Maybe not, but you're just worried about her--like any good friend would be."
It sure didn't sound like this girl was a Slytherin. Maybe a Ravenclaw? Surely not a Hufflepuff? One thing I knew: she wasn't a Gryffindor. She couldn't be, talking to my Draco like this--or for that matter, him talking to *her* like this.
He sighed. "That's the problem."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm her friend. I'm . . . I'm the person her father sends to protect her. I'm not *him.*"
"And you never will be." Ouch. "But that's what makes you you. And, personally, I'm glad you're not him."
"But everyone knows that you like him," Draco said indignantly.
The girl sighed. "Liked. Past tense. It was a crush on 'the famous Harry Potter.' It was not . . . It wasn't . . ." She groaned and said, "Honestly, I'm ashamed of myself."
I almost laughed out loud but stopped myself in time. Harry was looking a bit ruffled, but I heard Draco laugh. He was actually *laughing* with her; usually only I could make him laugh like that. Not that I was jealous; I was actually relieved. After all, laughter is the best medicine. Besides, the look on Harry's face made everything worth it.
Then came his big mistake. "So do you think she can get over it too?"
"Draco I don't know," she said in a wistful voice. "I've never even met the girl. But . . . you have to know that even if she doesn't . . . you can."
"What makes you think so?" Skeptical boy.
"Because. You're you. You don't give up on anything. Although I wish you would sometimes . . ." This in an undertone, but loud enough to hear. Poor girl.
Draco laughed again, though this time not as genuinely. "I don't know, it's just . . . something about her . . . I mean, except for her and . . . you, now . . . I don't know any good people."
"You mean you don't know any other good people that see the good that's in you. Rather than . . . assuming that what they think is true. Seeing what they wanna see . . . rather than what's there."
There was a surprised silence for a moment, not only with Draco and the girl, but Harry and me as well. This girl must have been studying him for a really long time.
"I guess . . ."
"Well I see what's there. And . . . What's there may not be the stubborn, spoiled, little pompous, arrogant, evil brat that everyone else sees--"
"Thanks," Draco interrupted with a laugh. "That's . . . erm, helpful."
The girl laughed too. "*But* what's there is good. And sweet. And . . . stubborn. And arrogant. But that's okay. Because . . . You're not evil, no matter how much you try to look it."
"Are you sure about that?" I'd have bet money he was smirking.
Again, the girl laughed. "What's my name?"
"That's silly. Everybody knows who you are." Silly?
"Then who am I?
"You're Ginny," he said in a voice that remarked just how silly the question was.
"Exactly."
"Exactly?"
"You haven't called me Weasel or Weaslette, or just plain Weasley this whole conversation."
There was a silence for a minute, then Draco said, "I didn't."
After another slight pause, Draco laughed. The girl laughed too. "What?"
"Look where we are."
Another slight pause, then the girl said, "Um . . . Tell me. Because . . . I've never been here before. And . . . it can't be what I think it is."
"You don't know where we are?" I'd bet seventeen galleons he was smirking.
"Um . . . Why don't . . . you tell me?"
"We're in the astronomy tower," Draco said, laughing.
"I thought that might be it."
"Then why did you lead me here if you didn't know where we were going?"
"Lead?" She sounded puzzled. "I was following you."
"No, I was--you were following me?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Even if I'd intended to bring you here--I don't know the way. Like I said, I've never been here before."
"But . . . I don't know how to get here either . . ."
"That's crazy--I mean, you have classes here, don't you?'
"Yes, but . . . I just . . . I just follow everybody else."
"Wait. If . . .If neither of us knows . . . how we got here . . . How are we going to get back?"
"Get back?" Draco sounded as if this was a whole new idea to him.
"What, you want to stay here?"
He really stopped laughing then, and said (a little too quickly), "No. No, of course not."
She let out a slight laugh. "So . . . What do you propose we do?"
"I don't know." The first time I've ever known that to come out of Draco's mouth. "If you want to . . . we could go back . . ."
"What . . . do you want to do?"
"I don't know--I asked you." Twice! Did someone forget to tell me Hell froze over?
"Draco Malfoy--" A long pause. "Take me . . . where you will."
Harry had to put his hand over my mouth so I wouldn't give us away with my laughter; Draco started cracking up, too.
"You know what I mean," the girl said, slightly embarrassed, but still amused.
"No I don't."
"Well . . . Just . . . take whatever meaning you get, okay?" Okay, a little more than slightly embarrassed.
"All right. And . . . Thanks Ginny."
"You're welcome. But . . . Please--call me Virginia, okay?"
"All right," answered a (most likely) smiling Draco.
"Thank you. So . . . What now?"
"Well . . . It's up to you."
The girl sighed--poor thing. "Let's . . . go explore a little? Not . . . necessarily go back, just . . . roam?"
"That sounds . . . nice."
|~*~|
I'm ashamed to admit that . . . Well . . . The majority of what I just told you . . . had to be told to me as well. Most of the time I was staring at Harry, daydreaming. Anyway, so I heard the last part, and I heard them leave. When the door shut and we heard their footsteps trailing off down the stairs, I started laughing. I don't know what was wrong with me (and Draco too) to be laughing so much--especially in so short a time period. Maybe I was just on a "Harry high." Or maybe Prof. Dumbley-dore slipped something in our drinks to make us not so . . . Slytherin-ish. I just wish he'd do that to Daddy.
I'm rambling. Sorry. So I started laughing and Harry looked at me, sort of amused, then (understandably) asked, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
After I'd calmed down a bit he said, "What's . . . What's so funny?"
"It's just . . . the irony of it all. Two--well . . . four of us . . . in two pairs wander up to the astronomy tower without knowing it. And . . . you know, I must say, whoever that Virginia girl is--she's really lucky."
"Why?" asked Harry, frowning. I looked over it then, not understanding, but that was because I hadn't realized who the girl was. If I had known, I might not have gone on the way I did.
"Because obviously they totally like each other. And Draco, while he *is* definitely gorgeous, is also totally sweet when he wants to be."
Hesitantly, he said, "I guess I can see where that would be . . . good . . ."
He stood up and offered me his hand, which (of course) I took, smiling. Still holding my hand, he turned the doorknob of the closet--or, at least, he tried to. It wouldn't turn, as if it was locked from the outside. Harry looked at me, confused.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing. The door's just a little . . . a little stuck. But don't worry, I can get it open." After wrestling with the door and actually ramming against it a few times, he slumped against the wall with a sigh. "I guess it won't open."
"Did you try your wand?" I asked, trying to hide a grin.
He got one of those silly, light-bulb moment looks and pulled out his wand. It didn't work, though, and he turned to me.
"What? I didn't do it, if that's what you're thinking."
"No, I didn't think that," he said a bit guiltily.
I sighed and said in a voice reminiscent of the old Disneyland commercials, "So . . . We are locked in a broom closet. What are we gonna do now?"
Okay, so it was lame. But, I swear, somebody did something to the drinks!
He blushed slightly (from what I could tell, as it was beginning to get dark), but stayed silent.
"We're gonna *have* to do something or go crazy; you know that, right?"
Harry's eyes widened a little, but he nodded.
"What? I'm not gonna, like, torture you or something."
"No. Of course not--I know you wouldn't do something like that."
"Well stop acting like I'm Voldemort's mistress or something. Goodness."
He laughed. "You said it."
I laughed as well. (Maybe it was a house-elf screwing around with the drinks . . . Hm . . .)
"Please. Like I'm scared of that half-ass overgrown garden snake?"
He looked even more impressed and actually began to laugh. "Where did you-- . . ."
"What?" My face was gonna hurt later. Too much of this smiling, grinning, laughing business.
"You. You're just . . . You're so much different than I thought you'd be . . ."
"Yeah . . ."
"It's . . . hard to explain, but . . . Once I found out who you were . . ."
"You expected me to be a female Draco Malfoy?"
He cringed. "Well . . . Yeah . . ."
I laughed again. "It's okay. But . . . is it . . . a good thing that I'm different?"
He just looked at me for a minute like what I said hadn't even sunk in, then finally he answered.
"Yeah. It's a very good thing."
I smiled. "You know, you're exactly what I thought you'd be."
"Really," he said, looking a bit uncomfortable. Aw.
"Yup. Perfect. You're the only person--besides me--" I grinned. "That my dad can belittle and be impressed by at the same time."
He finally looked up from the floor again. "He's . . . impressed by me?"
"Not that he would admit it. But . . . I can tell. Not quite as impressed as I am. But . . . Yeah."
Once again he put away the look that he was dying to get away. "So . . . You wouldn't kill me for being locked in here with you right now?"
"Are you kidding? This is great. I mean . . . Um . . . Yeah . . ."
"I think so too," he said, with that great smile of his.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I mean . . . At least this way I get a chance to talk to you without worrying that Sna--your dad and-- . . . Draco will kill me."
"Don't worry about it. They might want to, but I wouldn't let them."
"Thanks." Again with the smile. Yay.