As Ginny came into the Great Hall she spotted her friends sitting in their usual spots and noticed the seat they had saved for her. She had been having the most awful day, she couldn't seem to get her mood to improve, and the fact that she kept running into that damn Malfoy git didn't help her out at all. ::Why does he have to be such a fucking jackass?:: she asked herself for the 2billionth time that day.
"Hey Harry, hey Hermione, hi Ron," she said casually, trying not to let on that she'd been having a bad day.
"Hey!" They all responded.
"What's wrong?" Ron asked inquisitively.
"Oh, nothing, just a little tired, that's all." She said, shrugging it off.
Harry eyed her for a few seconds, though that seemed to satisfy Ron and Hermione as they continued talking quietly. ::When are they just gonna admit that they have the hotts for each other?:: She noticed Harry watching her and turned her eyes in another direction, accidentally catching a certain gray-eyed stare. Ginny immediately lowered her eyebrows in her best glare, it was returned and then she broke the eye-contact. ::Why had he been watching me?::
She ate as much as her stomach could handle and picked up her bag, saying a quick goodbye to her friends. She was going to go up to the owl tower to send her, Harry's and Ron's permission forms to her mother. When she arrived at the tower she began rummaging around in her bag for the forms, feeling a purple-eyed gaze on her back, she turned around. A girl with waist-long black hair was sitting with an owl on her shoulder, staring at her. Ginny recognized her to be a 7th year Slytherin by the name of Blaise Zabini, she didn't know her, but Harry, Hermione and Ron had told her a little bit about the girl. She was a loner, very quiet, not very unlike Ginny.
They sat there in silence as Ginny caught Pig, her brother's tiny, hyperactive owl. He flew around her head, accidentally running into her back on his return around her and she had to pick him up off the floor, noticing Blaise's laugh she turned in the girl's direction and it was immediately stifled. She tied the papers to the owl's leg and threw it out the window. Turning back to the Slytherin she smiled. Blaise looked almost taken-aback by her act of kindness, sat there looking at anything but her, though she had a very weak smile on her face.
"Hi my name's Ginny." She answered quickly.
"I know who you are. My name's Blaise."
"Well, I take it you're going on the trip?"
"Maybe, you?" Blaise said in the same low growl.
"I've been considering it, I thought I wasn't going to know anyone...it looks like that's changed though." Ginny said, smiling. Blaise let out a tiny grin in return.
The end-of-lunch bell rang out somewhere below them.
"Well, I have to go," Blaise said.
"I c-can't be l-late for p-potions, Snape w-would k-kill me!" she added. Ginny laughed, knowing all too well what she meant.
"Yeah, I can't be late for McGonagall, she'd probably turn me into an orange tabby!" both girls laughed and headed down the stairs, saying goodbye when they reached McGonagall's classroom.
Ginny took her seat in the front of the room as McGonagall began class with the same introduction she'd been using all day. As the lesson began she was completely attentive, greatly the opposite of Snape's class. Transfiguration was Ginny's favorite subject, and she excelled at it quite well. After transfiguration she headed up to the divination tower, apprehensive of attending her least favorite class.
Climbing the stairs to the divination tower she sat down at one of the circular tables. Trewlany appeared out of the gloom and smoke a few minutes after she arrived. In her same misty voice she told them that they were not going to have class that day, everyone was taking the last period off due to a disturbance in the forest. There were a few shared glances and some ooh's and aah's as everyone began to re-pack their possessions. As they were leaving Trewlany told them it was safe to go into the grounds, but the forest was, as it always was, strictly forbidden.
Ginny walked as fast as she could to the Gryffindor common room to drop off her things, joining her three friends along the way.
"What do you think it is?" Ginny asked them.
"Well, we've concluded that it's probably a disturbance with the centaurs, there isn't much else in the forest after all," she ended, sounding far too matter-of-factly.
"And why couldn't it be something else, something more...evil?" Ginny said, hoping they'd catch on, it had been just two years ago that Harry had come face to face with Voldemort, and he'd been ever-rising to power since then.
"It isn't Voldemort Ginny, he wouldn't be so stupid as to come onto the grounds." Harry said quietly, not wanting to be over-heard.
With that they had reached the big oak tree and sat down under the shade. Ginny no longer had a desire to see what they thought it was in the forest, though they continued talking about it for about a half an hour. During that time she'd been watching people pour out of the school in large amounts, now seeing Draco followed by his two body guards and the Pansy. She glared in his general direction, hoping beyond hopes he wouldn't dare come near her.
~*~*~
Draco had just walked down into the grounds when he spotted Ginny, and realized she was glaring at him. He resisted the urge to laugh out loud.
"You know you're staring, don't you, Malfoy?" Pansy asked annoyingly.
"Sod off, Parkinson." He said removing his gaze from the sexy red-head.
"You like her and you know it!" She said, pushing him further.
"I do not, why would I like a weasel like her?" He asked, knowing it was true.
"Because you can't get her, that's why." She said, almost as matter-of-factly as Hermione.
"Like I said, Parkinson, sod off." Draco said in such a menacingly way that he knew she would push him no further.
He knew that in no way could he go harass Weasel-ette now, it would be too obvious. And he didn't like her, she was just... ::She's so sexy when she's pissed off:: ::Oh, hell, not that sappy shit again!:: He really needed some time alone.
"I think I'm going to go to the library." Draco said. At their questioning glances he said,
"What, I need to do my homework!" He had to bight his lip to keep himself from laughing at their incredulous stares.
And he turned around and walked back into the castle. He wasn't really sure if he was going to really go up to the library, he just really needed some time away from his friends, they were so annoying sometimes! Not to mention Pansy with her ridiculous accusations. There was no way on earth he liked the littlest Weasel, no way. ::Oh great, some people might call this denial...:: Not paying attention to where he was going he headed up to the owl tower. When he got there he looked around mildly amused that he'd not even noticed where he was headed. Oh well, he had to send his mum the parent permission form anyway. So he found his owl, tied the form to his leg, and let him soar away into the afternoon.
Glancing out one of the windows he could just barely see Ginny and her friends sitting under the tree, they were having a very animated discussion about something, though she didn't seem to be interested. She kept glancing from his friends up to the front doors, as if waiting for him to come waltzing out of them. He smiled at the thought, then caught himself and turned it into a frown. ::Why her?::
He watched for a few more minutes, then turned and
headed towards the Slytherin common room. Upon reaching it he wasn't surprised
it empty save for one raven-haired girl sitting in a huge chair by the fire.
"Why aren't you outside, Zabini?" He said menacingly.
"I should be asking you the same, Malfoy." She said in just the same tone, though lacking the smirk.
"Well, suit yourself, I'm only in here to grab something..." He trailed off. ::Why did I bother telling her?::
"And I'm only here to think." She said, as if reading his mind. ::Why did she tell me?::
"Well, I'll leave you to that then." He spat.
When he'd reached his room he laid out on his four-poster bed and closed the curtains. Considering taking a short nap.
When he awoke the sun looked as though it was about to set. ::Aw shit, I hope I didn't miss dinner!:: He rose from his bed and hurried down to find the common room empty. ::Good:: When he opened the doors to the Great Hall he found it jammed full with people all eating and talking noisily. He walked towards his friends, hoping they wouldn't be too curious. Luckily he found them and they didn't seem to notice his appearance.
~*~*~
Ginny watched him cross the Great Hall with great loathing. She simply could not stand him! Why on earth did he make it his priority to bother her so?
She decided to go up to the common room, she'd finished eating a few minutes ago anyway. When she reached the staircase leading up to the Gryffindor common room she was (yet again) grabbed from behind.
"Gi-Weasel, I just wanted to tell you that I'm going on the trip, you can't stop me, and I'm going to enjoy pestering you very much. I was just hoping that...-"
"Look Mal-ferret, I've had a very long day now will you just leave me the hell alone?" Ginny whispered. ::Why did I have to sound so desperate?::
"Well, if you're going to be rude about my polite offer then I'll just leave you be, but know that I'm going, and keep that in mind, k?" He said, hoping that he had pissed her off at least a little more.
"Whatever Malfoy." She spat almost as venomously as he had at Parkinson earlier that day.
"Well, see you around then!" He said cheerfully with a smirk.
"Hopefully not soon!" She said in just as cheerfully a manner, though completely fake.
::Why was he so keen to get a rise out of her?::
*A/N hope you enjoyed it, I'm going to be moving on to a few days later with the next chappy, classroom scenes are hard to write, though I have a reason for what happened in the last class o-O thanks for reading, and PLEASE review!*
ALSO: thanks to xangelcrisisx for telling me about my STUPID mistake, I was too…dumb to check the preview :-D, so…thank you!
