Things Change
A/N ah ha, chapter ten is here! This has all taken ages lately (It's the P's fault cause of all the homework they give us - i.e. too much) so I'm sorry about that, but not much I can do (unfortunately). Anyways, this chapter has been 'planned', so to speak, so it will probably be a lot more organised than previous ones. Now, I haven't got much to say (I'm too busy thinking about going to see '2Fast 2Furious'. Yey!) so, on with the story!
Luv yaz all!
p.s. ~ one dashy thing is like, a thought or voice or something that *is* Ginny thinking, but *not* her thinking at the same time. Like a voice in her head.
Anyways, bye bye!
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Ginny entered the great hall with the others the next morning, keeping her head down as she passed the Ravenclaw table, whilst trying not to look at the Slytherins or where Harry was sitting. She didn't want *him* to complicate things even more. Thankfully for her the others didn't notice her strange behaviour; Ginny didn't feel like being interrogated by them today.
Seating herself down at the table, she watched as her 'friends' began to eat and talk. She was getting more and more removed from them these days, she thought fleetingly as she tucked into her own breakfast. But she didn't mind. At least she had...
Ginny's thoughts stopped there. She had been about to say Thom. 'But', she thought as she munched on some cereal, 'Did she really have him anymore?'
As far as she was concerned, the night before had changed everything. Thom had almost kissed her, for goodness sake! Sure, she thought Thom was great and he was one her friends - that would never change - but the fact that he...that he might...
"Ginny"
She was broken out of her reverie by somebody waving their hand in front of her face. She had been so absorbed in her own thoughts she hadn't noticed someone calling her name. She looked up, searching for the owner of her hand, and found herself looking into the face of Harry Potter.
"Gin, can you pass me the sausages please?" he asked, his tone slightly aggravated. He'd probably been trying to get her attention for a while. Ginny waited for the familiar feeling of being completely dumbstruck to strike, but to her utter surprise (and by the look of things, Harry's as well), she found herself saying "Sure", and handing him the plate. She realised what she'd done almost straight away, and blushed, looking down. Harry's mouth was agape, as was Ron's. Hermione, who was sitting next to them, just smiled and winked, almost too quickly for Ginny to see, before turning back to Ron and nudging him affectionately. Both boys stopped gorping and looked away, going back to their own breakfast.
Ginny looked at the table, not daring to even *glance* upwards in case she met Harry's gaze.
"Wow..." she murmured softly to herself. She felt like she was in shock. She had never spoken to Harry so clearly before, being too shy and overcome to do so, but now...she had spoken to him so clearly...
Suddenly, the noise in the great hall quietened down, and Ginny looked round to see what was happening. Every face in the hall was turned to Dumbledore, who had stood up at the High Table and rapped on his goblet with a golden spoon.
At once, Ginny felt her stomach turn. Dumbledore's eyes didn't hold their usual sparkle, but seemed rather more grim. His face was unsmiling as waited for everyone to quieten down, and when he began to talk his voice was grave.
"Students," he said, looking round at them all. He paused for a second, looking through the crowd, and for a moment Ginny thought he caught her own gaze. "I'm afraid the other professors and I have some rather grave news. It seems that Lord Voldemort has returned in full. There has been another attack"
Ginny felt as if her stomach had turned to ice, as the students broke out into terrified, frantic murmurings. Dumbledore raised his hand for silence.
"I will not lie to you all. There were no survivors. It seems that the attack took place in South Africa, and I'm afraid that some students have lost family members because of this. Those who have been affected have been notified, and I ask that you do not question them about it. Just support them in their grief and let them know that you are there for them"
Ginny felt a slight sense of relief come over her as the students began to talk again, the chatter panicky and confused, and although Ginny felt worried and concerned, she was thankful it wasn't Bill getting hurt. She was thankful he wasn't getting hurt like Charlie...
Suddenly, and without warning, Ginny felt all the grief and confusion and misery from Charlie's death wash over her, as if it had never quietened. She felt like the room was spinning, the air becoming hot, burning her throat, suffocating her, drowning her...
Almost in a daze, she got up from the table as hurriedly as she could, forgetting all her things and nearly tripping over the bench before rushing out of the great hall, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks.
Unbeknownst to her, Thom looked up as she ran out. Seeing her in such distress, he was about to get up, but before he could, he saw Malfoy leave the hall out of the corner of his eye. It distracted him for a second, and pausing, he decided to leave Ginny alone. They still needed to talk about the night before - and she would probably want to be alone anyway, he reasoned to himself, before he carried on with his breakfast.
What Thom didn't know was that at that moment, Draco Malfoy was doing what he should have been -following Ginny.
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Ginny ran in any direction, through the next corridor that came along, not knowing where she was going and not really caring either. She ran for what felt like forever, until she stopped, out of breath and crying, and looked around to find she didn't have a clue where she was. She leant against the wall, out of breath, looking around to try and find out where she was. The realization that she didn't know where she was had calmed her down a bit, and she glanced around, trying to decide which way to go. There were two corridors in front of her, and she was about to take the right one, when a voice behind her made her jump.
"I wouldn't go that way if *I* were a little Gryffindor wanting to get out of the dungeons, Ginny"
She turned round, her expression irritated, to see Malfoy standing a yard behind her, his usual sneer on his face.
"What the hell are you *doing * here Malfoy?!" she cried, practically stamping her foot on the stone in her frustration. "Why did you have to *follow* me?! My day's bad enough already, and you've now tailed behind me down here *just* to have a dig at me I suppose, and -"
She was cut short by Malfoy taking one long stride across the corridor and clamping his hand over her mouth. Her eyes widened in shock, but then it turned to anger, and she started to struggle free. Malfoy just laughed, his strong arms keeping her restrained.
"Don't bother Ginny, you're not strong enough anyway. Besides, I only came down here to find out why you ran out of the great hall in such a flap after Dumbledore said that crappy speech about You-Know-Who -"
SMACK!
Upon hearing Draco call Dumbledore's speech 'crappy', Ginny had wrenched herself free from his grasp and drew her hand back, striking him hard across the face. Instantly Ginny put her hands to her mouth in astonishment, her eyes wide as a red mark appeared across Draco's cheek. He just stood there in shock, his hand held to the side of his face.
"Oh..." Ginny breathed softly, her eyes transfixed by the red blot slowly spreading over his face. "Oh dear..."
Draco looked at her for a second, shaken, but then his face turned angry. Slowly, he advanced towards her, his eyes narrowed into malicious slits, his blond brows twisting into a scowl. Ginny darted backwards, trying to evade his grasp, but before she could go very far, she backed into a wall and his hands had grabbed her wrists, holding them tightly up to her chest. Ginny looked at him with large startled eyes.
"You should really learn to be more careful Ginny..." he said, his voice a deathly whisper. "You never know what carelessness can do..."
His face came closer to hers as he spoke, their noses nearly touching. Ginny felt captivated by his eyes, the anger swirling in their grey depths scaring her, yet at the same time looking almost...enchanting, somehow. Their faces got closer, closer...
And then he was leaning forwards and his lips were pressed against her own, his tongue making an unexpected intrusion into her mouth as she stood still in shock. She had expected to be hit, perhaps just threatened, but this was *certainly* not something she would take as the normal way of getting revenge.
He still held her wrist pressed against her chest, her back leaning uncomfortably into the wall as he pushed into her, supporting himself on her body, but after the split second shock, Ginny knew what was coming next and it didn't matter. She was right. The memorable feeling of electricity running down her spine overtook Ginny completely as she closed her eyes, and she found herself responding to his kiss, going on tiptoes and pressing her own body up against his in an attempt to get closer to him. Slowly, she could feel Draco's hold on her wrists getting weaker, and soon she gently removed them from his grip, snaking them up across his chest and around his neck as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Ginny shivered as he ran a hand around her waistline, his fingers brushing the skin between her skirt and blouse and sending a rush of excitement through her whole body. He held her closer to him, kissing her as if she was about to slip through his fingers, running his hands up and down her back hungrily. Ginny lost herself willingly in the feeling of passion, all thoughts on the young man kissing her like no other ever had. And all because of something he said...something about You-Know-Who and...
~Charlie...~
Ginny opened her eyes and pushed against Draco's chest abruptly and without warning, breaking the kiss and sending him off balance, almost flinging him into the wall in her rush to stop him touching her. She put her hands to her face, almost in self-disgust, as Draco looked across at her with a glare of confusion.
"What the hell did you do *that* for?" he asked accusingly, watching as she started to pace across the corridor, her eyes hidden by her hand. She stayed silent for a moment, and, guessing that she wasn't going to reply, he asked again.
"Ginny? What's going on? Why the hell *did* you do that?" he persisted. She stayed silent again, as if she hadn't heard what he said. He exhaled, annoyed. "Are you going to answer me or not?"
Yet it was still like she hadn't heard him, and this time he took two long strides across to her and grabbed hold of her shoulders, shaking her forcefully.
"Ginny, what's going on? Why did you just push me, for heaven's sake?!"
His tone was not kind, more brutal, and Ginny, looking into his icy grey eyes with her own soft brown ones (A/N I always though Ginny had green eyes, but she's got brown in the books, so...), did the one thing that he had least expected. She burst into tears.
For all the training young Malfoys went through, in etiquette and such, one thing they would always deal with badly was a girl crying her eyes out, especially if it was for an unknown reason. Draco watched as salty tears flowed down Ginny's rosy cheeks and her small body shook with sobs. It seemed as though his arms were the only things that held her up.
"Stop it" he said harshly, shaking her again, causing Ginny to collapse into more sobs. "Stop being so stupid!"
He shook her once more, as if he wanted to knock some sense into her, but this time, Ginny thrust out her hands and pushed them against his chest for the second time in five minutes, dislodging his hold on her shoulders as she turned from him. She made to run, but stopped suddenly, and he could see her shoulders drop as she put one shaking hand to her forehead, hiding her eyes as she turned back to him.
"He's dead," she said, her voice trembling as she walked slowly back towards him. "He's dead, and now he's being joined by others. And the worst thing is, I can't stop it from happening. I can't stop them from dieing just like he did"
And with that her legs gave way under her, and she crumpled to the floor, the tears flowing fast as she rocked back and forwards on the stone, her hands curled up under her chin in an act of self-comfort. Draco watched this, wondering briefly what he should do And what he finally did decide on went against every human instinct he had except guilt. But Malfoys were not raised to feel guilty, and he was no exception. So Draco walked past her, as she sat on the floor, her sobs filling the quiet of the corridor, and left her there, his eyes fixed ahead as he went.
The only thing remaining was Ginny, with the echoes of his retreating footsteps for company
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A/N So, how was that? I would *definitely* say that that was better than my last chapter (transition ones suck badly! At least, mine do!). Anyways, I've been having an internal battle about whether I should end this here on not, but I decided that the "potency" of the ending wouldn't be quite as effective if I carried on straight away. Well, I do have to say that I'm quite proud of this ending anyway, but I just have one to thing to say - what sort of a person *is* Draco?!?!?! Is he even a person? Some of you might be like, "Well, why didn't you make him nice to her then, make him comfort her?". The truth is, I was going to have him do that, but I just read the end of the last book again (5 DAYS TIL OoP!) and I thought, "God what a creep!". He is *horrible* in that! And I thought, well, there's no point in making him OOC, cuz then that defeats the whole object of *him*. Draco is to nice what bunnies are to sharp pointy teeth (unless you watch "Monty Python and the Holy Grail - killer bunny!)
Btw, I JUST GOT EVANESCENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I officially don't have to borrow it off all my mates anymore! I love that band! I really like 'Going Under', 'Everybody's Fool' and 'My Immortal'. =D
I'm a happy non-pointy-toothed bunny!
Anyways, please R&R, it means a lot, yadda yadda yadda. =D
Luv,
S.e.a
A/N ah ha, chapter ten is here! This has all taken ages lately (It's the P's fault cause of all the homework they give us - i.e. too much) so I'm sorry about that, but not much I can do (unfortunately). Anyways, this chapter has been 'planned', so to speak, so it will probably be a lot more organised than previous ones. Now, I haven't got much to say (I'm too busy thinking about going to see '2Fast 2Furious'. Yey!) so, on with the story!
Luv yaz all!
p.s. ~ one dashy thing is like, a thought or voice or something that *is* Ginny thinking, but *not* her thinking at the same time. Like a voice in her head.
Anyways, bye bye!
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Ginny entered the great hall with the others the next morning, keeping her head down as she passed the Ravenclaw table, whilst trying not to look at the Slytherins or where Harry was sitting. She didn't want *him* to complicate things even more. Thankfully for her the others didn't notice her strange behaviour; Ginny didn't feel like being interrogated by them today.
Seating herself down at the table, she watched as her 'friends' began to eat and talk. She was getting more and more removed from them these days, she thought fleetingly as she tucked into her own breakfast. But she didn't mind. At least she had...
Ginny's thoughts stopped there. She had been about to say Thom. 'But', she thought as she munched on some cereal, 'Did she really have him anymore?'
As far as she was concerned, the night before had changed everything. Thom had almost kissed her, for goodness sake! Sure, she thought Thom was great and he was one her friends - that would never change - but the fact that he...that he might...
"Ginny"
She was broken out of her reverie by somebody waving their hand in front of her face. She had been so absorbed in her own thoughts she hadn't noticed someone calling her name. She looked up, searching for the owner of her hand, and found herself looking into the face of Harry Potter.
"Gin, can you pass me the sausages please?" he asked, his tone slightly aggravated. He'd probably been trying to get her attention for a while. Ginny waited for the familiar feeling of being completely dumbstruck to strike, but to her utter surprise (and by the look of things, Harry's as well), she found herself saying "Sure", and handing him the plate. She realised what she'd done almost straight away, and blushed, looking down. Harry's mouth was agape, as was Ron's. Hermione, who was sitting next to them, just smiled and winked, almost too quickly for Ginny to see, before turning back to Ron and nudging him affectionately. Both boys stopped gorping and looked away, going back to their own breakfast.
Ginny looked at the table, not daring to even *glance* upwards in case she met Harry's gaze.
"Wow..." she murmured softly to herself. She felt like she was in shock. She had never spoken to Harry so clearly before, being too shy and overcome to do so, but now...she had spoken to him so clearly...
Suddenly, the noise in the great hall quietened down, and Ginny looked round to see what was happening. Every face in the hall was turned to Dumbledore, who had stood up at the High Table and rapped on his goblet with a golden spoon.
At once, Ginny felt her stomach turn. Dumbledore's eyes didn't hold their usual sparkle, but seemed rather more grim. His face was unsmiling as waited for everyone to quieten down, and when he began to talk his voice was grave.
"Students," he said, looking round at them all. He paused for a second, looking through the crowd, and for a moment Ginny thought he caught her own gaze. "I'm afraid the other professors and I have some rather grave news. It seems that Lord Voldemort has returned in full. There has been another attack"
Ginny felt as if her stomach had turned to ice, as the students broke out into terrified, frantic murmurings. Dumbledore raised his hand for silence.
"I will not lie to you all. There were no survivors. It seems that the attack took place in South Africa, and I'm afraid that some students have lost family members because of this. Those who have been affected have been notified, and I ask that you do not question them about it. Just support them in their grief and let them know that you are there for them"
Ginny felt a slight sense of relief come over her as the students began to talk again, the chatter panicky and confused, and although Ginny felt worried and concerned, she was thankful it wasn't Bill getting hurt. She was thankful he wasn't getting hurt like Charlie...
Suddenly, and without warning, Ginny felt all the grief and confusion and misery from Charlie's death wash over her, as if it had never quietened. She felt like the room was spinning, the air becoming hot, burning her throat, suffocating her, drowning her...
Almost in a daze, she got up from the table as hurriedly as she could, forgetting all her things and nearly tripping over the bench before rushing out of the great hall, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks.
Unbeknownst to her, Thom looked up as she ran out. Seeing her in such distress, he was about to get up, but before he could, he saw Malfoy leave the hall out of the corner of his eye. It distracted him for a second, and pausing, he decided to leave Ginny alone. They still needed to talk about the night before - and she would probably want to be alone anyway, he reasoned to himself, before he carried on with his breakfast.
What Thom didn't know was that at that moment, Draco Malfoy was doing what he should have been -following Ginny.
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Ginny ran in any direction, through the next corridor that came along, not knowing where she was going and not really caring either. She ran for what felt like forever, until she stopped, out of breath and crying, and looked around to find she didn't have a clue where she was. She leant against the wall, out of breath, looking around to try and find out where she was. The realization that she didn't know where she was had calmed her down a bit, and she glanced around, trying to decide which way to go. There were two corridors in front of her, and she was about to take the right one, when a voice behind her made her jump.
"I wouldn't go that way if *I* were a little Gryffindor wanting to get out of the dungeons, Ginny"
She turned round, her expression irritated, to see Malfoy standing a yard behind her, his usual sneer on his face.
"What the hell are you *doing * here Malfoy?!" she cried, practically stamping her foot on the stone in her frustration. "Why did you have to *follow* me?! My day's bad enough already, and you've now tailed behind me down here *just* to have a dig at me I suppose, and -"
She was cut short by Malfoy taking one long stride across the corridor and clamping his hand over her mouth. Her eyes widened in shock, but then it turned to anger, and she started to struggle free. Malfoy just laughed, his strong arms keeping her restrained.
"Don't bother Ginny, you're not strong enough anyway. Besides, I only came down here to find out why you ran out of the great hall in such a flap after Dumbledore said that crappy speech about You-Know-Who -"
SMACK!
Upon hearing Draco call Dumbledore's speech 'crappy', Ginny had wrenched herself free from his grasp and drew her hand back, striking him hard across the face. Instantly Ginny put her hands to her mouth in astonishment, her eyes wide as a red mark appeared across Draco's cheek. He just stood there in shock, his hand held to the side of his face.
"Oh..." Ginny breathed softly, her eyes transfixed by the red blot slowly spreading over his face. "Oh dear..."
Draco looked at her for a second, shaken, but then his face turned angry. Slowly, he advanced towards her, his eyes narrowed into malicious slits, his blond brows twisting into a scowl. Ginny darted backwards, trying to evade his grasp, but before she could go very far, she backed into a wall and his hands had grabbed her wrists, holding them tightly up to her chest. Ginny looked at him with large startled eyes.
"You should really learn to be more careful Ginny..." he said, his voice a deathly whisper. "You never know what carelessness can do..."
His face came closer to hers as he spoke, their noses nearly touching. Ginny felt captivated by his eyes, the anger swirling in their grey depths scaring her, yet at the same time looking almost...enchanting, somehow. Their faces got closer, closer...
And then he was leaning forwards and his lips were pressed against her own, his tongue making an unexpected intrusion into her mouth as she stood still in shock. She had expected to be hit, perhaps just threatened, but this was *certainly* not something she would take as the normal way of getting revenge.
He still held her wrist pressed against her chest, her back leaning uncomfortably into the wall as he pushed into her, supporting himself on her body, but after the split second shock, Ginny knew what was coming next and it didn't matter. She was right. The memorable feeling of electricity running down her spine overtook Ginny completely as she closed her eyes, and she found herself responding to his kiss, going on tiptoes and pressing her own body up against his in an attempt to get closer to him. Slowly, she could feel Draco's hold on her wrists getting weaker, and soon she gently removed them from his grip, snaking them up across his chest and around his neck as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Ginny shivered as he ran a hand around her waistline, his fingers brushing the skin between her skirt and blouse and sending a rush of excitement through her whole body. He held her closer to him, kissing her as if she was about to slip through his fingers, running his hands up and down her back hungrily. Ginny lost herself willingly in the feeling of passion, all thoughts on the young man kissing her like no other ever had. And all because of something he said...something about You-Know-Who and...
~Charlie...~
Ginny opened her eyes and pushed against Draco's chest abruptly and without warning, breaking the kiss and sending him off balance, almost flinging him into the wall in her rush to stop him touching her. She put her hands to her face, almost in self-disgust, as Draco looked across at her with a glare of confusion.
"What the hell did you do *that* for?" he asked accusingly, watching as she started to pace across the corridor, her eyes hidden by her hand. She stayed silent for a moment, and, guessing that she wasn't going to reply, he asked again.
"Ginny? What's going on? Why the hell *did* you do that?" he persisted. She stayed silent again, as if she hadn't heard what he said. He exhaled, annoyed. "Are you going to answer me or not?"
Yet it was still like she hadn't heard him, and this time he took two long strides across to her and grabbed hold of her shoulders, shaking her forcefully.
"Ginny, what's going on? Why did you just push me, for heaven's sake?!"
His tone was not kind, more brutal, and Ginny, looking into his icy grey eyes with her own soft brown ones (A/N I always though Ginny had green eyes, but she's got brown in the books, so...), did the one thing that he had least expected. She burst into tears.
For all the training young Malfoys went through, in etiquette and such, one thing they would always deal with badly was a girl crying her eyes out, especially if it was for an unknown reason. Draco watched as salty tears flowed down Ginny's rosy cheeks and her small body shook with sobs. It seemed as though his arms were the only things that held her up.
"Stop it" he said harshly, shaking her again, causing Ginny to collapse into more sobs. "Stop being so stupid!"
He shook her once more, as if he wanted to knock some sense into her, but this time, Ginny thrust out her hands and pushed them against his chest for the second time in five minutes, dislodging his hold on her shoulders as she turned from him. She made to run, but stopped suddenly, and he could see her shoulders drop as she put one shaking hand to her forehead, hiding her eyes as she turned back to him.
"He's dead," she said, her voice trembling as she walked slowly back towards him. "He's dead, and now he's being joined by others. And the worst thing is, I can't stop it from happening. I can't stop them from dieing just like he did"
And with that her legs gave way under her, and she crumpled to the floor, the tears flowing fast as she rocked back and forwards on the stone, her hands curled up under her chin in an act of self-comfort. Draco watched this, wondering briefly what he should do And what he finally did decide on went against every human instinct he had except guilt. But Malfoys were not raised to feel guilty, and he was no exception. So Draco walked past her, as she sat on the floor, her sobs filling the quiet of the corridor, and left her there, his eyes fixed ahead as he went.
The only thing remaining was Ginny, with the echoes of his retreating footsteps for company
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A/N So, how was that? I would *definitely* say that that was better than my last chapter (transition ones suck badly! At least, mine do!). Anyways, I've been having an internal battle about whether I should end this here on not, but I decided that the "potency" of the ending wouldn't be quite as effective if I carried on straight away. Well, I do have to say that I'm quite proud of this ending anyway, but I just have one to thing to say - what sort of a person *is* Draco?!?!?! Is he even a person? Some of you might be like, "Well, why didn't you make him nice to her then, make him comfort her?". The truth is, I was going to have him do that, but I just read the end of the last book again (5 DAYS TIL OoP!) and I thought, "God what a creep!". He is *horrible* in that! And I thought, well, there's no point in making him OOC, cuz then that defeats the whole object of *him*. Draco is to nice what bunnies are to sharp pointy teeth (unless you watch "Monty Python and the Holy Grail - killer bunny!)
Btw, I JUST GOT EVANESCENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I officially don't have to borrow it off all my mates anymore! I love that band! I really like 'Going Under', 'Everybody's Fool' and 'My Immortal'. =D
I'm a happy non-pointy-toothed bunny!
Anyways, please R&R, it means a lot, yadda yadda yadda. =D
Luv,
S.e.a