Cruel Beauty

Rating: PG-13

Summery: Alternate Universe. When Ginny was six years old her parents died and she was left in the care of her mother's beautiful yet cruel sister. She raises Ginny with misguided views on love, will Ginny be able to love or is she too late to save?

Disclaimer: Anything that you recognize is not mine

A/N 1- Okay I need to clear up some things about the last chapter. I realize that Maria seemed kind of pointless and rushed, I have explanations for both of these things. It seemed rushed, because it was, I was going to evolve the character more but I got tired of her and kind of just decided to introduce her and kill her. But if you noticed the time frames, Ginny spent most of her days with her pretty much for the entire summer, so she got to know her very well. I also know that Virginia may have seemed OOC, it was done on purpose, and I'm not explaining that now, it comes later in the story. Maria was extremely necessary for things that happen later in the story, I know that everyone is probably confused and hating me, but I promise that if you wait, you'll find out why I put her in the story so abruptly, she does serve a purpose!

A/N 2- Now a note for this chapter. Hate me if you want to but I'm skipping ahead 3 years and like a few weeks. Ginny has just started her fifth year at Hogwarts, I'm sorry if people wanted to see her younger years more, but this is the plot line that I have had in mind since I wrote the first chapter and I'm sticking to it. You will have flashbacks and if people really want it I'll write about her 2-4 years at Hogwarts after this is finished. Thanks for bearing with me, and now on with the show!

Chapter Ten

Love is a Social Disease

You can't start a fire without a spark
But there's something that I guarantee
You can't hide when infection starts
Because love is a social disease Bon Jovi

Three years later

I woke with a start in my bed. I sat up and took deep breaths while wiping the sweat off of my forehead. I got up and went down to the familiar common room taking a seat in my usual chair by the fireplace.

I closed my eyes and let the memories wash over me, I should have known better than to sleep, it only surfaced things that I would rather forget. I felt a presence beside me, "Draco." I acknowledged him without bothering to open my eyes, I knew who it was.

"You really need to get some sleep, you're going to collapse one of these days from exhaustion." I finally opened my eyes and looked him over. His face was still the cold unfeeling one that it always had been and his voice sounded cruel, he never did now how to show affection. Even when he worried it came out bitter and sarcastic.

"Perhaps you should worry more about yourself, after all you are up during the night the same as me."

"I'm only up because you are. So if you would sleep then you would really be helping out the both of us." We often had this conversation, in fact we had it every night when he came down to keep me company.

"You aren't my keeper Draco and I am not a child. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself and I am not going to 'collapse' from exhaustion, I don't need sleep."

He let out a menacing laugh, "of course you don't, I forgot that your body doesn't need rest like us lowly mortals." His expression became serious as he scooted to the end of his chair so that he could speak more quietly to me. "Did you have that dream again?"

"Don't I always."

He sighed, "it's been three years Virginia, I know that you feel guilty, but let it go."

"I can't. You were right, I should have just stayed away from her; but I needed her. And because of my weakness, she's dead." We went through this every time that I dared to fall asleep. Whenever I slept I would eventually dream about Maria, it was extremely traumatizing to me to find her dead body; it haunted me still.

This was the point in the conversation that Draco knew to change the subject, there was no use in trying to convince me that what had happened was not my fault, I knew better. Draco drummed his fingers together before telling me about the latest girl that he had been seeing. Ever since about his fourth year (my third) girls had begun to take a liking to the resident school bad boy. He dated a lot of girls, but despite popular belief, he never did anything with them, something about tainting his body with their unworthy hands. He was still a snob.

Draco was starting to annoy me with his ramblings of this "hot" Ravenclaw girl that wanted him bad. "Oh my god, I don't care about this girl!"

Draco narrowed his eyes, "so Virginia how is your social life going; or should I say lack there of."

I rolled my eyes. "I choose not to have a social life, at least not with anyone here. So I don't really take that as an insult; but nice try." Draco smiled and we just sat in a comfortable silence. It had been like this for a while with us, joking around and teasing each other. Everyone needed some fun in their lives, no matter how little the amount and this is where we found ours.

Our tight knit relationship was actually one of the reasons that I had no social life. Everyone assumed that we were more than we let on, why else would we be together all the time. We flirted occasionally, but that was as far as anything went. I always figured that since I didn't believe that someone can be in love, then what was the point of dating people? It was all meaningless.

Anyway, most girls in the school either hated me because I was the resident heartless bitch, or because they thought that I was with Draco. And the guys were all too terrified of Draco to come near me, so that left me with the dragon for company. Not that I minded, I held no desire to be around those people anyway.

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Classes were the same way that they had always been, unbelievably easy for me. I found it laughable that they had made me a prefect. A prefect was supposed to represent hard work, discipline, intelligence, and a respect for the rules. Well, I had intelligence. The other things, not so much. The head of the house chooses their own prefects so I guess that I shouldn't have been that surprised, Snape seemed to like me; well as much as Snape can like anyone that is. He respected my overall bitterness and sarcastic view of life, and I think that he had a thing for Velena.

Velena. Yes, she was still around, making my life miserable. I have no idea what she was up to that summer before my second year, but she had made up for the free time that I had enjoyed. I was fooled that summer into thinking that all my breaks would be that way; but she quickly squashed that idea the year after when I was given constant tests that made the OWLS that Hogwarts professors give look elementary.

I'm still not sure what happened to Maria. Well, obviously she was murdered, but there were no clues as to who. My first suspect was Velena, and I still have a lingering doubt about her innocence; but it wasn't her style. When Velena destroyed someone she would gloat for days; it put her in her element. But the days that followed Maria's death were just the same thing for Velena. She became noticeably stricter with me but never mentioned my rebellious acts. She loved secrets and she could go for years with letting you believe that you had gotten away with something, and then bam, she would blackmail you with it.

The aurors never came over to our house to question either one of us. I left Maria's house that day and never told anyone besides Draco what had happened. I'm not even sure how they had found out about it; but they had, and it was in the paper. The only thing that the Daily Prophet said about the incident was that she had no remaining relatives and the ministry had no leads.

For a year after it had happened I held my own investigation. Besides Velena my only other theory was that someone had broken into her home and killed her; and even that would be my fault because Maria only left the doors unlocked so that I could get in at night.

I never understood why she had such an impact on me, but she did. I still thought of her often and for one brief sappy period in my life I imagined that she was in heaven with my mother, and they were both watching over me.

However, I did move on in my life. Maria was gone, and no amount of mourning was going to bring her back. I was depressed for a long time and it taught me a valuable lesson; don't love and you don't get hurt. I was pretty sure that I didn't love Draco. We were close and we talked, but I don't feel the same for him as I had felt for Maria. I may have known him longer but there was one big difference; she knew how to love and she felt it for me, even though it was never spoken. Draco had never been shown love and it was doubtful that he believed in it either. So we were a strange type of friends, but there was not that whole self-sacrifice, we're in this to the end thing.

I appreciated my relationship with Draco because he is the only person that would accept what we had together. He didn't expect me to hug him and be affectionate; he didn't expect me to ever tell him what he was to me; and he didn't expect me to change for him. And I did not expect any of these things from him. Like I have always said, we were friends by default. We depended on each other because we had no other choice; we understood one another and we kept each other sane. It was a good deal and it had worked for five years. Until, one day he changed the rules, and by that, he changed everything.

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A/N That really was not one of my favorite chapters to write. That's why I don't really like skipping ahead because you always have to go back and clear up a lot of things, but it had to be done, so sorry if it wasn't that good! Okay now that I have this chapter out of the way things are going to start progressing between Draco and Ginny, but it might not go exactly how you think. Anyway please review, I really appreciate all the feedback that I've been getting!

Some dude- Thank you for the two in depth reviews! I really love long reviews so I appreciate that you took the time to write me two of them! I love psychology (it's my favorite class!) and I know exactly what you're talking about, they both need to learn a lot before they have any prayer of being together. Thank you again and I hope to continue to see your reviews!

Nirvana- Sorry about the spelling mistakes! I was too lazy to proofread so I just kind of posted it! I know that this is a big no no in the world of writing, but oh well! Lol! Thank you, I actually had the song Bittersweet Symphony playing when I was writing this chapter so it had me being really ironic about everything (putting in someone to love Ginny, then having them die) I actually figured that I would get flames for that chapter, because I finally did read over it and I thought that it sucked because it moved too fast, but I didn't! Thanks for reviewing again!

Zainab- I'm flattered that the first time that you have reviewed more than once is on my story! I love getting reviews from the same people because it lets me know that I am holding the reader's interest. Also, thank you for adding me to your favorites list, it is such a great compliment for me when people do that! Hope that you continue to review and I'll continue to read them!

Darcel- I know!!! I feel like bowing my head in shame for having that be so speedy! *bangs head against table for being so lazy* Well hopefully the quickness of the chapter didn't bother you! Now what kind of author would I be if I said who murdered Maria right after it happened? *cackles evilly* I'll probably end up drawing it out and it will be the person that you suspect all along. Okay so now that you probably think that I'm a complete idiot I'll just shut up, lol! Oh well, thanks for reviewing again!!!!!!!

TokyoGal89- Yes, poor Maria. Ah the pain of being introduced and killed in the same chapter. I'm glad that you like Virginia's rebellion, I thought that it was time that she stopped being such a little chicken! Lol! Thanks for reviewing again, and I'm glad that you appreciate my quick updates!

Lyss- I'm an idiot, I messed up reviews. Feel free to throw things at me and shout at my ignorance. I'm so sorry about someone that you loved passing away, it's really tough to lose someone. I hope that you find peace in the situation and I'll be sure to pray for you.

Katherine K- It made you cry? Aww, that makes me feel good and bad at the same time! It's nice to know that you felt the situation and writing real enough to shed tears, but sad because I hate it when anyone cries! Thank you so much for reviewing and I'm touched that you are enjoying my story!

Veritas Scriptor- Hey, I've been missing your reviews!! I completely understand about you being busy, it happens to all of us! Thanks for finding the time to read my story and review!! Thanks again and I hope to hear from you soon!

k00lgirl1808- Rest assured, I will keep going with this story! It has seemed to take over my mind lately, hence why I keep putting out a chapter a day! Lol! Thank you for reviewing again and I hope that you enjoyed the latest chapter!

Nyah- Yea, I hate writing really sad chapters. Wait, no I don't, that's all that I write anymore. Lol! Oh well, thank you for the review and the compliment! Hope to hear from you again soon!

Icefaery- Poor Ginny, she finally finds someone and then they die. I'm a mean author, lol! Well, if you were a little disappointed that she wasn't confiding in Draco anymore, have no fear because that is not going to be a problem again! Hmm, that is the question of the day, did Velena have anything to do with Maria's death. I think that I'll steal a line from the movie Don't Say A Word and leave you with "I'll never tell!" Lol! Thanks for reviewing!

Please Read Okay, I know that this is like my fourth author's note this chapter but I need to let everyone know that I won't be able to update until like Saturday. I'm not going to be home until then so I won't be able to! Sorry, but I will be writing, so expect new chapters this weekend!