Well, I've read the fifth book, and I've decided not to change my characterization of Ginny. She'll remain as I've made her so far, since I began this fic before OotP's publication. A silly mistake on my part, I agree, not waiting until after I'd had more insight on what J.K. would do with Ginny, but it was fun nonetheless. I hope you will keep in mind as you read this that my Ginny is completely different from J.K.'s newest, more developed one.

And, for those who haven't read the fifth book yet (no rush, guys! Prolong the agony! I don't blame you... some of us mourned for days...) I'll try my hardest to carry out the rest of this fic without giving away any spoilers, but... no guarantees, okay? If it's absolutely important to the plot, I may have to include something from OotP... but I'll try to avoid it when I can. And who knows? Maybe if I do add a spoiler, I'll be so subtle about it that only people who've read the book will know. So... En garde!

Also, this is more of a filler than a real chapter. I was getting impatient about how long it was taking me, so I decided to put something up. It's relevant, but not as long. Short and sweet. Fun.

Thank you all for your patience. I hope you like this chapter as much as I did writing it.

Disclaimer: I own Holden, Ian, Tad, and the plot. Rowling owns everything else (except Dorothy Parker and her fabulous work), including me, not that I mind. Don't sue.

*****

Scratch a Lover, Find a Foe

Chapter 3

It only took twenty more minutes of hunger to dissolve Ginny's resolve to stay in the Gryffindor common room and finish her charms essay without dinner. She pushed her chair out from the table she was sharing with two first years and slipped her shoes back on.

Hermione and Ron were sitting at the table nearest the portrait hole, their books, parchment, and quills spread over the dark wood's shining surface. Harry's things were also in disarray around his seat, but it was empty. Probably went to fetch something, Ginny thought with an inward shrug. Ron gave her an inquisitive glance as she walked past, and she stopped to assure him she was just going to the kitchens.

"Alright, Gin. Why didn't you come to dinner?" Hermione's quill stopped its hurried scratching and she looked up.

Ginny pulled on one of her curls thoughtfully. "I got held up, that's all. When I got out of the library I came straight here so I could get the table farthest from the fire place."

Ron nodded, wishing they'd gotten back earlier, especially since Malfoy hadn't been at dinner, and wouldn't have been able to annoy them on the way out. But Harry'd been a slow eater that night for some reason. Because of Harry's lingering, they were stuck at a table very near the flaming wood, and Ron had already discarded his robes and rolled his sleeves up to stay a little cooler.

He bid good-bye to Ginny, and after the portrait swung back into place, Hermione placed an urgent hand on his arm.

"What is it?" Ron asked, startled.

"Malfoy." Ron's face drew a blank. Hermione sighed, but her uneasy eyes never shifted or lost their intensity. "Malfoy wasn't at dinner, was he, Ron?"

"Well, no... I was just thinking about that too." Hermione looked a little relieved, but her expression changed in the blink of an eye as soon as Ron continued. "If Harry hadn't been so bloody slow--"

"What are you talking about? Wait. Never mind, that's not the point. The point is that both Ginny and Malfoy were missing from dinner tonight. And Ginny was in the library, so anyone could have gone there... Though I doubt more than two people would go to the library during dinner..."

"Including yourself?"

"What?"

"Hermione," Ron's voice became level, the way a good friend delivers very bad news to another good friend in the least offensive way possible. From one friend to another. "If something made you absolutely sure that you had to be there, you'd miss anything to visit the library. You should know this by now. The whole school does."

Hermione scowled, "Fine, excluding myself, only two people would want to visit the library when nobody else is around."

"Anyway... Gin and Malfoy in the library alone? Yea, right. She'd have cleared out as soon as she spotted him. She's not stupid, Hermione." Ron's voice lacked the strength of faith he was trying to establish.

"But she doesn't know everything we do, Ron. Nobody's told her about--" She stopped when Harry slumped back into his seat and leaned forward to massage his temple. They were silent a moment, watching him slowly rouse himself to their situation, his tired eyes shifting from the open potions text in front of him to their worried faces.

"What is it now?" he half groaned.

The three kept their heads bent close together until well after Ginny returned.

*****

Ginny took her time going down to the kitchens. It was unintentional; she was just thinking about a Longfellow poem she'd read that morning during breakfast. When she finally did round the corner to the kitchens' entrance, she was surprised to see someone already standing there. Well, leaning there, as it was.

She could tell it was a guy from his height and stance, from the way the person was slouched along the wall with his arms folded across his mid-section, from the way he had crossed his left ankle over his right. Wary that it could be him, she quickly threw herself back and close to the wall, peering around to get a better look at whoever it was.

Sandy blond hair, hooded eyes, no school robes, just his slacks and shirt, unbuttoned at the top, his tie loosened. Tie. Blue and Bronze; Ravenclaw. Not Slytherin; not Malfoy.

She stepped into view of the person, and smiled a little as he turned to face her.

Holden Sterns pushed himself away from the wall he'd been lounging against and smiled broadly at Ginny as she approached him. "Hi, Ginny."

"Hello, Holden." Ginny looked up at him, at those friendly dimples, at his eyes...his startlingly blue eyes. She'd never seen eyes that fathomless before, but they were shining at her, as if they held the happiest of secrets and stories to tell...if only she were to ask... She was staring, and she cleared her throat, blushing a little. "What, um. What are you doing here?"

The Ravenclaw shrugged. "Waiting for you," he leaned toward her as though he were about to bow, and stopped when his eyes were level with hers. Those eyes! "if that's all right?"

"What? Oh, yes. It's fine." Ginny took a step back before she would accidentally allow herself to start staring again. She tugged on one of her curls and fixed her eyes on his shoes. His ankles were still crossed. Hadn't Ian mentioned something about that stance before? "Was there something you wanted?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact," he replied, straightening up and turning around to pick up his bag... Ginny hadn't even noticed it was there. "You can do me a favor in telling me where you were during dinner, and," he rummaged around a bit before pulling out a paper bag with Ginny's name on it in big red letters. "eating this."

He handed the bag over to the prefect, and she opened it slowly, hoping it wasn't something as awful as pale yellow Bernie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. What she found was a sandwich, a banana, and some pretzels.

"Wow," she breathed. "Thanks, Holden. I'm starving. Um, do you think I could have a--" she cut herself off when she noticed that he was holding a glass of milk. He hadn't had that when she'd looked down into the bag. "How did you--"

"Keep it cold? Cooling charm. I'm really good with charms."

"Oh," she said as she took it. She'd been about to ask how he got it so quickly or how he'd hid it from view, but she let it drop. Some magic tricks were better left unexplained. "thanks."

"Now," he shouldered his bag and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I'll walk you back to the stairs, and you can tell me where you were. Tad said something about Malfoy and the library. What happened?"

Ginny fell into step beside him. "Oh," she sighed. "nothing of importance. He was watching us, Tad and me, while I showed him how to get stuck things...unstuck."

Holden nodded thoughtfully. "The Wasi suffix. Very useful. But go on; how long had Malfoy been there? Watching you I mean."

"I don't know. I didn't notice him before Sarah and Valerie left. I only saw him because he moved his hand. He was pretty well hidden, otherwise. But I saw him, and he knew that I saw him, because he reached for his wand--"

"And then?" Holden interjected. "Did he hurt you? Stun you? Insult you?" His tone had changed from humored to worried, and Ginny didn't like it. It made her uneasy.

"No... I threw him onto the ground." Holden stopped and turned to face her.

"...threw him..."

"Onto the ground."

"With... what?"

"The Wasi suffix." Ginny smiled. "He was wedged between the book shelf and the wall."

"So you threw him onto the ground?"

"Face first"

Holden smiled down at her. "Good. And Tadfield was there. His story's true." Ginny nodded. "So, what about afterwards? Malfoy doesn't seem the type to forgive and forget."

"No," she sighed, beginning to walk again. He fell into step with her. "he threatened me, but he's done it before, so I don't think he'll really do anything."

"Don't underestimate the enemy, Ginny. It's not wise to turn your back on a coiled snake. Or a tiger, for that matter. People in India wear masks on the backs of their heads when they hunt tigers, because tigers won't attack you from the front if they can avoid it..." He shrugged, coming back. "Anyway. Let me know if he's bothering you, because it's just not right, you know? You're too sweet for someone like Malfoy to be tailing you."

Too sweet? What on earth? He barely knew her; how could he say anything about her disposition? And Ron would disagree. Fred and George too, she thought.

They'd reached the staircase Ginny needed. They stopped, and Ginny studied her shoes.

"Um, thanks again for dinner, I'll be sure to eat it all. And thanks for worrying about me." She looked up at him. "It's funny, Malfoy has kept me from getting to two meals on time in the same day. You'd think he was trying to starve me to death or something."

His dimples flared into view again. "No problem, Ginny." He paused, then added "We can't have you getting any skinnier than you already are, right?"

She noticed his teasing tone and answered just as lightly. "No, not with Ron calling me 'Beanstalk' after my growth spurt this summer. I could probably stand to gain a few pounds with how withered I must look."

"Not withered," he replied thoughtfully. "No, not a dried up beanstalk, but a flower. You're just slender like a flower's stem. That's all."

Ginny flushed a little at his compliment... At least, she thought it was supposed to be a compliment. "I've never seen a flower with bushy red hair and freckles," the laugh that she forced sounded nervous. Holden laughed genuinely.

"No, I don't suppose many have. But you need to go to your common room, at least, before Filch starts making his rounds. I swear he starts ten minutes before curfew, just to catch the stragglers." He was whispering, as though it was a secret. But not one that his eyes boasted of holding, Ginny decided.

She smiled and whispered back, "Actually, he starts twenty minutes early, and I'm sure you have homework to finish anyway, if you've been waiting for me since dinner ended."

"That I do," he laughed, moving away. "Good night, Ginny."

"Good night, Holden."

Ginny was halfway up the stairs when she heard him call her name one last time. She turned around.

"We'll have to see about that flower, won't we?" he called from the bottom.

"Yes," she said, unsure of his meaning. "We will."

*****

So…yes. Something more about Holden and some underlying plot as well.

If you've got time, please review; you know we authors can only get better when someone shows us where we've messed up. And we try to fix it. Or improve upon it… you know what I mean. Thanks again, guys!