Things Change

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or anything, but I definitely own this piece of writing! J.K Rowling owns all the characters and stuff. I do, however, own her 'friends' and some more new characters that'll appear later on, and the plot is ALL MINE!

A/N Okay, I've started this chapter right after I've finished chapter 13, so hopefully you'll all get a quick update! I'm going to try HARD to make this one long, and I think I will do so, because some stuff that is quite important will happen in this chapter (if I don't forget about it, lol!). Anyways, not much to say, so here we go – chapter 14 (Eek!).

A/N2 The extract from 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' is written by J.K Rowling. I'm not making any money from writing it down, so don't sue! No, really, don't!

~ means a voice in Ginny's head speaking to her

'blah blah blah' means Ginny thinking (without the blah blah blah!)

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'...The Chimaera is a rare Greek monster with a lion's head, a goat's body and a dragon's tail. Vicious and bloodthirsty, the Chimaera is extremely dangerous. There is only one known instance of a successful slaying of a Chimaera...'

Ginny jotted down the notes onto the parchment with her quill, careful not to spill any ink on the volume in front of her. Her table was sheltered from the rest of the library, surrounded by lots of bookshelves, and she quietly worked away on her Care of Magical Creatures homework, looking for the most interesting beast she could find. She flipped back to the index, looking for another reference to the Chimaera as someone sat down further along the table. She flicked pack with a page number, running her finger down the page until she found it. She read the first few lines, her eyes running along the page, but she quickly frowned, sighing and closing the book.

"What to do..." she murmured under her breath.

"You could try this one?"

Ginny looked up at the sound of the voice, and saw that the person along the table had spoken.

"Oh, thanks Amy," she said, taking the book she had passed her. Amy McGuire smiled and pushed her glasses further up her nose.

"No problem"

In her large brown glasses and oversized robes, Amy wasn't the prettiest girl in Hogwarts, but Ginny was prepared to bet she was one of the nicest. She was a fifth year Hufflepuff (although she was often mistaken for a first year) with fluffy brown hair and brown eyes, and the temperament of a saint. Ginny didn't see her that much, as they didn't have many lessons together, but they'd say 'hi' in the halls and talk sometimes. Other than that she didn't seem to be around much.

"So," Ginny said, opening the index and scanning the 'Cs'. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Amy replied, doing the same with her own book. "Life's going on just the same as always. Oh, that reminds me...I haven't seen you since, well, before..." Amy trailed off, looking uncomfortable. Ginny forced a weak smile.

"It's okay Amy. It's been four months already, so...Obviously I'm not going to get over it straight away, but I'm getting better. Anyway, hows..."

Ginny waved a hand in the air, trying to remember the name. Amy grinned.

"Lucy? She's fine. Just as annoying as always, but she's even worse now that she's graduated. And the boys! My God, she's in a sticky situation right now. She's going out with this boy, right, and she loves him to bits. But then there's this other boy. She's known him since she was a kid, and they've always hated each other (believe me, I've seen it), except now...well, he wants to go out with her, but she doesn't know what to do because she says she thinks she loves him and her boyfriend"

Ginny was dimly aware that her breathing was coming quicker than it needed too. God, it was like Amy's sister Lucy was in exactly the same situation as herself...well, except for the whole 'loving the other boy as well' thing.

~Are you sure?~

'Shut up' Ginny told the voice in her head, trying to act normal so Amy would stop staring at her like she was weirdo.

"Uh...poor Lucy. I wouldn't like to be in her situation. Oh no, sir-ee" she replied, forcing herself to smile, all the while thinking 'God, I sound like an idiot'

"No...," Lucy replied, her eyebrows raised. "Well, anyway, I was talking to her, and guess what she told me?"

"What?" Ginny asked, momentarily forgetting her embarrassment as she leant forward to hear what Amy had to say.

"That she would follow her heart! Now, I'm all for romanticism, but that was just corny. I mean..."

Ginny tuned Amy's voice out of her head as she slowly sank back down onto her seat. Great, so Lucy was going to follow her heart. That really helped Ginny. If she followed her heart she would go to Thom, because there was no way on earth that she was ever going to love Draco. Come on, she hated him! Her heart fluttered with fright every time she saw him, not love...it couldn't be love.

She leant back in her chair, exhaling and blowing her hair up around her forehead. This was all too complicated...

"...Well, anyway, I have to go now, so I'll see you around, yeah?"

Ginny jerked her head round as the sound of Amy's voice once again penetrated her skull.

"Uh...yeah, I'll see you" she replied, giving a half-hearted wave as Amy slung her bag over her shoulder and left. After packing up her own things, she slumped in her chair, wishing that the floor would swallow her up so she didn't have to think about it all. Every thing was way too complicated and difficult and tricky for her to try and sort through it all.

"Why me?" she said out loud, looking at the ceiling. "Why is it me who gets the complicated life?"

"Because you just do?" Draco said, sitting across from her. Ginny stared for a second in disbelief, before scowling at Draco with such vehemence his smirk wavered for a second. But it was only a second, and then it was back on his face again.

"What, not happy to see me?"

Ginny raised an eyebrow, drumming her fingers on the table.

"Obviously not then. I wonder why..."

Ginny stopped listening, all the while still drumming her fingers on the table. She had managed to straighten when he had appeared, but now she was having trouble doing what she knew she should have done straight away.

Leave.

It was like she had been glued in place with an Unstickable Sticking charm. She was trying to move, trying to get away, but she couldn't. She tried with all her might to get herself to leave, but it was practically impossible. But that wasn't the scary part. The scary part was that she felt like half of her wanted to stay anyway. And that terrified her. She clenched her fist on the table top, trying to move, but it wasn't working.

"Hey, are you even listening?"

Draco's voice broke her out of her reverie, and she scowled at him, still desperately trying to move. "No. Why should I? All you're going to do is say horrible stuff about me"

Draco put a hand to his heart, an expression of pretend-sadness on his face. "Oh, your words cause me so much pain" he said, his voice carrying a nasty mock-wounded tone.

"Yeah, well, when you have a heart of stone, words don't do much harm" Ginny replied, glaring at the table as she waited for his comeback. And waited a bit more and a bit more and a bit more. Finally, she looked up, to see him leaning back in his chair, hands behind his hand as he smirked at her with an odd expression on his face.

"What?" she said, folding her arms and leaning back just the same as him. She wasn't going to let him faze her, and her resolution had been hardened by her tears four days previously.

"It's just...you, Ginny Weasley, are weird"

"Oh, thanks," Ginny said, scowling even harder as she tried to push away the feeling of upset rising in her chest. "Just hurt me some more"

And with one final shove, she rose to her feet, gave him a scalding look and picked up her bag.

"We must hurt to live, Ginny" he called after her, trying not to attract the attention and disapproval of Madam Pince.

"On the contrary Draco," she muttered under her breath, slipping through the door into the corridor. "Those who hurt can never live as well as those who love"

And even though it was just a whisper, intuition told her that he heard her.

///*///*///*///*///*///

Ginny sat on her bed, looking through her book once again for information on the Chimaera. Her parchment was now full of notes for her to take to the next lesson and show Hagrid, and she was pleased. But a little bit of last minute work wouldn't do her any harm, and besides, it would take her mind off of the 'Situation'.

"...Chimaera's are...particularly...vicious...with...no tolerance...for...humans...or...other beasts...of ...any kind...," she murmured to herself as she wrote it down on her parchment. "They are...one...of the...most...dangerous...beasts...known to...muggles and...wizards...alike..."

She paused for a second, looking back at the book, but just then the sound of tapping at the window distracted her, and she looked up to see one of the school owls waiting for her outside the window. Getting up, she walked over to the windowpane and opened it, moving to let the owl fly in past her. It landed on her bed and shook of it's wings, sending tiny droplets of water over her sheets.

"Oh dear," Ginny said, sitting down besides the owl. "That was a bit silly"

The owl eyed her contemptibly, ruffling it's feathers importantly as it held out it's leg for her. Ginny untied the letter, folding it out and scanning the page.

Meet me at the top of the Astronomy Tower at midnight. Tell no one, and make sure no one sees this note. Wrap up warmly – it's going to be a cold night.

She recognised the handwriting – it was Thom's. 'But why', she thought to herself, frowning as she read it through again, 'would he send me such a strange note and use one of the school owls?'

She frowned again, but, deciding not to think anything of it, she shrugged and folded the note back up. Getting out her wand, she whispered a spell, and the parchment went up in flames.

"Go on," she said to the owl, which had flown to the top of the mirror. "I'm not sending a reply"

Even though she had been relatively polite, the owl seemed to take offence at her dismissal, and once again ruffling it's feathers, it took out of the open window. Ginny raised an eyebrow before shaking her head, and going to get her cloak out of her trunk.

///*///*///*///*///*///

12:05

She was late.

Cursing under her breath, she sprinted up the last few steps to the astronomy tower and flung open the door, a smile fixed on her face. She looked around, wondering why Thom had not thrown his arms around her, to see an empty tower. The smiled faded from her face as she moved forwards onto the windy turret, turning around and wondering where he was.

"I can't be that late..." she murmured under her breath, wrapping her cloak more tightly around herself as a particularly cold gust of wind blew through the tower.

"Well you're not exactly early, are you?"

Ginny stood still for a second, not quite ready to believe what she had just heard. Slowly, she turned her head, her body following along, until she was facing the direction of the voice, and then she gradually raised her head, until the owner of the voice was in full view. That was when it hit her.

"Oh My God. Oh my God! What the hell are you doing here? And where in God's name is Thom?" she cried, practically dancing around the top of the astronomy tower in anger. Draco just watched her with a conceited smirk on his face, his arms folded across his chest. "Wait...,"

Realisation dawned on her face. She swung round to face Draco, her anger clear on her face.

"Oh my god, you set me up. You set me up! Oh my God, you are just...Uggh!" she cried, actually stamping her foot on the ground in her frustration. She sat down on the observation bench around the edge of the tower, her elbow resting on her knees as she stared miserably at the wall, the wind whipping her hair around her face as it hit her from behind.

Draco, who had been watching her with his usual characteristic sneer on his face, sat down a little way along the bench from her, the sneer now gone and replaced by a face almost as annoyed as Ginny's had been a few moments before. They sat in silence for a few moments, before Draco opened his mouth to speak.

"How else was I supposed to get you up here?"

Ginny looked round at him, a mild frown adorning her face, but despite her silent objection, she felt it soften slightly when she saw his face. He was scowling at the floor like a spoiled child, slouching against the wall with both arms slung over the low battlements and one leg stretched across the floor. Despite her loathing of him, Ginny felt a slight twinge of sympathy a she took in his spoilt-brat expression. She waited for a few moments to see if he spoke again, but when he didn't, she spoke instead.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Draco said, his voice matching his expression. "That if I hadn't faked Thom's writing and used a school owl, you wouldn't have come up here"

Ginny sat there for a second, slightly bewildered. She started to speak, hesitated, and then finally started again.

"But why did you want me to come up here?"

Draco stayed silent, still staring at the floor with his brows furrowed. Ginny waited for a second, before sighing frustratedly and throwing her hands in the air.

"Look, if you're not going to say anything, what was the point of me coming up here in the first place? Why am I up here in a freezing February wind in a very thin cloak with someone I really don't like in the middle of the freaking night?!"

He stayed silent once again, and Ginny, beginning to get incredibly angry, was about to get up and leave, when at last he said,

"Because I don't know how to hate you anymore"

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A/N Okay, okay, I know I said it would be longer, but it just would have ruined it if I hadn't ended here. I was going to carry on from this bit, but when I read it through it just sounded sort of stupid carried on. Anyways, now you've got your first ever cliff-hanger from me, haven't you? ::grins evilly::

Oh yeah, and I've FINALLY discovered how to do all the formatting stuff! Wahoo!!!!

Now, you have to go and review, okay? Just press the little button

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