Tally Marks
"That must be it." Ginny muttered flatly and flopped down on her bed.
"What?" Linda Rhey, one of the four other girls that bunked in the same room as Ginny, looked up from her book and stared at the dejected and slightly miffed redhead.
"Hell's gone and frozen over." Ginny stared up at the canopy up above her four-poster bed and sighed.
"Right," Linda replied cautiously and walked out of the room. "I'll just leave you to your own devices…." She said quickly and walked down towards the common room.
Ginny lay on her bed for a while, contemplating the ramifications of purgatory having been plunged into the sub-zero, before she started to work the situation out. Even when she carefully mapped out the whole dilemma in her head it still confused her. She decided, since there was no one else in the room, to say it aloud in hopes that the words would materialize and give her an answer.
"Malfoy tricks me and forces me into going with him to the Yule Ball."
Ginny made a metal tally that she earned the right for '1' revenge. (That is assuming Revenge can be divided up thusly.)
"I turned his hair blue."
Ginny mentally marked down one on Malfoy's side.
"We start dueling in the hall and get caught by the teachers."
Neither side gets blamed.
"We get detention and he ends up preventing my backside meeting with a particularly nasty looking pile of rusted scrap."
Ginny cursed quietly and made a note that she 'owed him one'.
"I spread vicious rumors about him in an attempt to get 'let off the hook'."
Another mark denoting that Malfoy could take out his revenge on her and she'd deserve it. He was ahead two to one and she owed him. This wasn't going well.
"Malfoy runs around, hexes or curses every one of my working players that he can get his hands on."
Mark one for Ginny.
"After a dangerously random chase we end up kissing."
Once more, neither side can be wholly blamed.
"He eavesdrops and learns that my family pride forbids me to dump him."
Mark one more for Ginny making the current score: Malfoy two, Ginny three and she owed him one. They were dead even.
"He then uses this knowledge and kisses me, but I kissed him in my daze so it's inadmissible." Ginny grumbled.
"I punch him."
One more for Malfoy, putting him in the lead.
"Dang." Ginny let out an exasperated sigh and sat up on her bed. "I suppose this is one of those situations that I should consult the handbook over…."
Ginny stood up and walked around the perimeter of the bed to her trunk, which rested at the foot of aforementioned piece of furniture. She opened the heavy lid of the trunk and began riffling through her stuff until she reached her books. She tossed her spare romance novels and textbooks aside and finally came to the book she was looking for.
It was paperback, brightly colored with a very tacky design and looked very much like a piece of uninteresting trash. The fact that it had the title ("One Hundred and One Fun Things to do With Your Pet Flobberworm" By Frank D'Abignale) emblazoned on the cover in a font that looked so spiraled and fancy it probably would have blended in with some of Professor Trelawney's personal library of the unreadable and uninteresting.
Ginny flipped the book open to the first chapter and skimmed past the actual suggestions of things to do with flobberworms. She turned onto page fourty-two and there was a second table of contents.
"Let's see…Indirect ploys…no…embezzlement…no…blackmail…no…Ah! Here we are!" Ginny stopped and smiled as she read through the summary of the section that would cover what she needed. She quickly flipped past the chapters of flobberworm suggestion and finally reached her hidden chapter about ploys. It took a while to find exactly what she needed but it was there.
"What should I do oh' Frank?" Ginny asked in a stuffy voice, obviously mocking Cho. Ginny read over what the handbook recommended she do in this sort of situation, did a double take, and blinked.
"You're kidding…." Ginny spoke aloud and waited, as if she expected Frank D'Abignale to appear in front of her and laugh. "I'm supposed to wait for him to make the next move?" Ginny looked down at the book again and confirmed it.
When a stalemate is reached and you find that you're more in competition with the mark than anything else you should wait for the mark to make the next move, then, depending on how severe their move was, employ one of the following tactics.
Reverse Psychology. Do nothing and be frighteningly nice, it tends to make them very paranoid.
Near Misses. Set up a series of traps to go off as he passes them, but make sure each and every one of them misses.
Ginny stopped reading there, mainly because the rest of the list was on another page and she'd have to go find it. She put the book down, let out a heavy sigh, and wondered just how credible their 'fabled leader' was. Ginny was about to sit back down on her bed and contemplate when one of the girls who shared a room with her knocked and came in.
"Ginny! Dear! Friend! Compadre! Buddy!"
One of the other girls that shared a room with Ginny, Cassandra Sisenta—a popular girl who managed to blend in with the rest of the popular people in the limelight (strange that), walked in with a smile on her face.
"What are you trying to get out of me?" Ginny asked and eyed her suspiciously. She rarely even talked to Ginny (unless you count 'Can I borrow a quill?', 'Don't you just loathe that Snape?' and 'How does my hair look?' as conversation), let alone came bursting in practically dripping with friendly warmth.
"Why nothing, dear, sweet, compassionate, understanding Ginny—." Cassandra sat down on the foot of Ginny's bed and beamed at her.
"Cut to the chase please, I'm not in the mood." Ginny cut her off flatly and Cassandra's expression went from absolutely sociable to dead serious.
"Look, I already asked Linda and the others. They told me whatever but warned me about you." Cassandra started and Ginny looked at the clock as a hint. "I need the room, just for about twenty minutes or so."
"Why?" Ginny asked and cocked an eyebrow. After all, Ginny had perfectly justified sulking to do. In response Cassandra cleared her throat and held up a small pink bracelet that had been broken off her wrist.
"Don't tell me that's one of those snogging-bracelet-things," Ginny said in monotone and Cassandra nodded.
"Dean just…um…knocked it off," Cassandra ventured but Ginny wasn't buying it.
Ginny just rolled her eyes, snatched her bag, and stood up. It was a well-known fact that Cassandra had been after Dean for a while, but Dean—being male—had hardly noticed. Apparently she'd gone the less subtle route and simply managed to break a bracelet on him.
"Fine," Ginny groaned and walked over to the door. "Far be it for me to stand between true lust!"
"You're a doll." Cassandra commented sarcastically but smiled as Ginny left.
Ginny walked down the stairs and into the Gryffindor common room. It was reasonably full, but everyone was studying. She walked past the couch and knocked Dean with her bag.
"Your lady-caller awaits oh Lord Thomas," Ginny whispered with a flourish.
"What?" Dean asked and stared at her like she'd gone nutters.
"Cassandra. Room. Up there. Now." Ginny spelled it out and he practically went running up the stairs. Ginny just rolled her eyes and walked out of the portrait hole. Perhaps watching Quidditch practice would be enough to calm her down.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"Quit fidgeting!" Tracey commanded and went back to casting the make up charms that would save Draco from having to explain his massive shiner. "It's very difficult to combine anti-swelling, coloration, and waterproofing spells at the same time!"
In truth is wasn't the fact that he was having the aforementioned spells cast on him that made him a bit wary (though that fact didn't help any), it was the close proximity to Tracey Davis. She was scary enough from ten feet away, now she had her hand actually—physically—touching Draco's head and her wand only inches from his face.
This situation would make anyone just a tad jumpy.
"Finished," She said (well…it was more of a hiss, but then again it wasn't hissing for her) and tucked her wand away. She took a step back from Draco and it felt as though a great icy shadow had receded from his heart. (That feeling could have been attributed to the frigid sink that was digging into his back though.)
Draco leaned forward and glanced at himself in the bathroom mirror. There was still a ghost of the great black, blue, and purple bruise left but it was hardly noticeable. Tracey Davis was good at concealing, good enough that one almost wondered what she naturally looked like…almost.
"Regrettably a minute remnant of the affliction still mars your features," Tracey began and took another step back as Draco stood up. "This is, most likely, due to the fact that your complexion is comparable to that of a glowworm."
"Insinuating something Davis?" Draco asked and eyed her as he tried to work out the kink that had formed in his back. Sitting on a small vanity stool and having the frigid sink of the girls' restroom digging into his back was not his idea of fun. (Well, not that alone.)
"Not at all." Tracey smirked. "Personally I wish my own skin would fall so pale, but alas it is never to be."
Draco looked at her strangely but she didn't elaborate. After a moment of silence Draco picked up his bag, and inclined his head to Tracey. She understood it as 'thank-you', because, after all the Slytherin need to be able to communicate silently. It was mandatory and helped maintain their level of psychotic creepy superiority. After thanking her he simply turned and left the bathroom, luckily—for him—he managed to avoid walking straight into Ginny Weasley by nearly fifteen seconds.
Draco halted and stared at the back of Ginny Weasley for a moment before he decided on a course of action. He couldn't let her see him exiting the girls' restroom; she might catch on to the fact that he'd had help covering up the aftereffects of her right hook. Instead of risking that he simply turned silently and started walking, swiftly, in the opposite direction.
He'd barely made it around the corner before he was stopped. Luckily—again for him—Ginny was out of earshot.
"What do we have here?" Draco couldn't tell either of the Weasley twins apart so he was at a loss to which one was speaking.
Both of the Weasley twins, Fred and George, were standing shoulder-to-shoulder and towering (slightly) over Malfoy. Which was quite a feat considering that they were only a few inches taller than him. They were both wearing the same malicious sort of smile that they normally reserved for special occasions. But then again, this was a special occasion.
"I do believe we have the pale blonde git who was snogging our little Ginny." The other one, whichever twin he was, answered.
"Wonderful," Draco drawled and looked at them both with an expression of severe distaste. "Do I simply attract every single freak and Weasley on campus?"
"Freaks yes," the first twin said and grinned.
"Weasleys just enjoy exacting revenge." The other added.
"As if I hadn't noticed." Draco sneered and eyed them both.
"Oh, he's being polite Gred." The first one, who was apparently George, turned to the other and frowned.
"And us without our bats Feorge." Fred shook his head and they turned their full attention back to Draco.
"Just what in the world do you two want, aside from good looks, money, and respect?" Draco asked them flatly yet they both continued to grin.
"We just need to have a bit of a…oh what's the term?" Fred started and George cut in.
"Chat." George supplied.
"Ah yes, that's it. We need to have a bit of a chat with you." Fred answered Draco's question and the twins grins suddenly turned quite malevolent.
Author's Notes: "Wow, chapter ten. This is almost deserving of something special. Perhaps a little song and dance number boys?"
Draco, and Terence eye Isis suspiciously and then go back to what they were doing.
"Oh come on, please?"
They start laughing at the very concept of dancing for this muggle psychopath's entertainment.
"She can't be serious." Draco scoffed.
"If she wanted a carnival attraction she should have gone to those Weasley brothers." Terence added and smirked.
"Why did I ask the bloody Slytherins?" Isis puts her hand to her forehead and addresses the readers. "Sorry folks. No song and dance spectacular this chapter. Maybe I can convince an A.D.A.D.A. student to help me next time…."
"You know, Anthony is usually available." Ginny, who magically appeared out of nowhere, recommended.
"Really? I'll check up on 'im then."
And thus ends the Author's notes that somehow became the lamest Omake ever. Celebrate for the disclaimer has been banished!
Whoot.