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 Right, just so you know, by now Ginny and Draco have been going out for about two months IN SECRET. This chapter is set during the Easter hols. I checked it out on the Harry Potter Lexicon and they do have one week for Easter holidays, where kids can get taken to Kings Cross and back on the train. So basically, Ginny has gone home on the train for Easter, but she's the only one.
Okay, last chapter was a little strange, I admit, and there wasn't much D/G, which I hope you can forgive me for, but no one's said they were confused, so. Anyways, I'm sorry for the long delay in updating, but I had a pretty bad case of writers' block.
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The scenery sped by as Ginny looked out of a window of the Hogwarts Express, her head resting against the wall next to it and her body curled into a ball on the seat. She had the carriage to herself – something she usually liked – but today she felt like having company. Drowning in her own misery was more enjoyable with a friend. But then, what friend did she have? The Fabby Four had disappeared off into a carriage with Seamus, Dean and some Ravenclaw boys – namely Ana's boyfriend Jack – and so Ginny had been left alone. Which meant she was thinking about two particular people when she really didn't want to.
Firstly, there was Thom. After that first, unsuccessful attempt to dump him, things had just sort of been left hanging in the air, with Ginny trying to divide her attention between her public boyfriend and her private one. Yes, it was true – Ginny Weasley had become a two-timing bitch. Although she did at least have an excuse – the sheer abnormality of the situation. When you were going out with your family's worst enemy behind their backs and couldn't seem to be able to dump your first boyfriend, things were always a little strange.
'But I can't hide behind excuses all the time' Ginny thought to herself, staring at the rolling hills in the distance. 'I'm dating two boys at once – therefore, I am a technically a two-timer'.
But then it wasn't like Draco didn't know she was still dating Thom. In fact, he didn't really seem to mind at all. Sure, he'd often send a scathing glance Thom's way when he was in the corridors (and many times just because Ginny was there too), but apart from that, he acted like everything was normal. And as much as it should have troubled her, Ginny really didn't mind. It was as if they had come to some unspoken agreement – the usual 'rules' of relationships had already been broken by the mere fact that Ginny and Draco were a couple (even if it was only in private), so if any other 'rule' was being broken, it really wasn't very important. The fact of the matter was that Ginny and Draco were a couple, and Ginny Thom were a couple too.
But she still got one of her by-now infamous headaches thinking about it.
And hours later, when the train arrived at Kings Cross and Ginny greeted her father, she was still turning the situation over and over again in her mind – all the way home in the car, all during dinner with the twins (who had come over to see how Ginny was), up until she fell asleep in bed that night. And in the end, she still didn't know what would happen in the end.
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"Mum, I'm going now!" Ginny shouted up the stairs to her parents. She was dressed in her casuals – a pair of old jeans, a black skinny rib, and an old pair of black shoes that used to belong to George. It was her "I'm-in-casuals-and-I-don't-give-a-damn" outfit – one of her favourites. It meant she got to wear one of the only pieces of clothing she had that wasn't a hand me down; the black skinny rib.
"Okay dear!" her mother shouted back from upstairs, her voice muffled by the distance and walls between them. "Remember to get some groceries for me!"
"Sure!" Ginny replied, finding her jacket and door keys before heading out of the front door and shutting it behind her. Breathing in the fresh spring air, Ginny stuck her hands in her pockets and started the long walk down the hill to Ottery St. Catchpole, the local village. She'd been eager to get out of the house that morning and clear her head. She'd woken up that morning with the most horrendous headache she'd had in a long time, and even the muggle aspirin she'd resorted to after her mother's Wizzy Whizz Headache Potion had failed wasn't working, although it had calmed it down a bit.
Trying to ignore the now faint pounding in her head, she headed down the hill to the village high street, smiling politely and waving to the locals she saw in the street. Some smiled back, whilst others just scuttled past, looking back at her with wary expressions on their faces. Ginny just ignored them; she was used to people doing that.
'Muggles can be so suspicious sometimes' she thought to herself, pushing open the door to the dim grocery shop and smiling at the grocer. Wandering over to the fruit, she started to look for the apples, grabbing a basket from nearby. Reaching out, she was about to grab one rather large, red one when suddenly her breath caught in her throat. She froze, her mouth open and eyes wide as her breath seemingly…stopped. Her eyes glazed over, blackness creeping into them as a shadow seemed to drop over her vision…
But then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the feeling stopped and Ginny could breathe again. She did so, taking a few large, gulping breaths to get the air back into her lungs. Blinking to clear the blackness from her vision, she shook her head and looked back at the fruit, confused. What had just happened? Why had she stopped breathing? She shook her head again, momentarily closing her eyes once more and taking another breath, before going back to getting her mother's groceries.
The rest of the shopping trip past uneventfully; she finished getting the fruit and vegetables, paid the grocer, and even had time to pop into the local bookstore and buy a book ('Old Magic' by Marianne Curley) before beginning the trek back along the high street and up the hill – only this time she had two full bags of groceries and a book to carry too. Halfway up the hill she stopped for a rest, sitting down on the edge of the road and setting her bags down beside her. She put her fingers to her temples, rubbing them steadily to try and rid herself of her headache (again). Apparently the mild noises of the village had been enough to make it even worse than before, the pounding in her head now making her feel slightly faint. She sighed, looking off into the distance at the hills and countryside going on for miles around the house and village, broken here and there by the odd church steeple of a nearby town.
'I love it here…,'she thought to herself, leaning back on the grass verge. 'It's so beautiful…
~Yes…~ said a voice in her head. ~It's a pity you'll never see it again…~
Ginny's eyes went wide and she put a hand to her throat as it tightened again, shutting off her airways. She gasped for breath, pulling at the collar of her jacket and top as she tried to get to the air, but to no avail. She tried to scream but she had no breath to do it with, as blackness once again began to creep over her vision and obscure her sight. Faintly she realised, as she started to lose consciousness, that her family were going to lose somebody else today, and they'd have to do the grieving process all over again, just when they were starting to get better.
'Oh well,' she thought as everything dissolved into blackness, 'At least I'll see Charlie soon'
///*///*///*///*///*///
She was lying on something hard.
She realised that first, as she opened her eyes to find them confronted with the same darkness that was there when she closed them. Secondly she realised that she was breathing again, her airways no longer constricted as she took in raspy breaths. Slowly, she sat up, wincing as her sore limbs resisted the rough treatment she was giving them. She felt around in the dark, trying to discern what she sitting on and coming to the conclusion, as she seized a handful of wet grass, that it was hard, damp soil, seeping into the seat of her jeans rather rapidly.
Looking around her, the darkness seemed to grow less as her eyes got used to the gloom, and although she still couldn't see very much, it was light enough so that she could see a little way in around her. She shivered in the cold, wrapping her arms around her torso and realising that somehow she had managed to lose her coat in the journey to…well, wherever she was now. Heaven, perhaps? Or maybe even…Hell?
~Oh no, my dear~ said the voice in her head again. ~It's nothing like that…~
'What?' Ginny thought, shooting up straight and looking around warily. 'What was that?'
~In time, dear, in time…~
'Okay,' Ginny thought, alarmed, as she tried (and failed) to see anything through the dark. 'This is just weird'
That was when she realised, thirdly, that she wasn't alone.
A groan echoed in the darkness, very close to her, and she put a hand to her mouth to stop herself from screaming as a figure sat up next to her. It put a hand to its face and groaned again, seemingly unaware that Ginny was sat right next to it. She held her breath as the figure rubbed it's eyes and blinked away in the gloom. And Ginny knew that as soon as it's eyes got used to the dark…
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" the figure screamed, pointing at Ginny with it's eyes wide. Her mouth hung open as she stared at the figure, a slight flash of recognition flickering in her mind…
"Oh my God! Ron!" she cried, putting a hand out to him to try and calm him down.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Shh! Ron, be quiet!" Ginny cried again, trying to stop him screaming as she attempted to grasp his hand. "Look, Ron, it's me, it's Gin—"
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
'Oh for goodness' sake!' she thought, frowning and finally managing to seize his hand. "Shut up!" she shouted instead. It seemed to work; finally, he stopped screaming, blinking twice in the gloom, before he at last seemed to recognise her.
"Gin?" he questioned tentatively, reaching out his other hand.
"Yeah, it's me," she replied, grasping onto it and edging closer to him. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing," he said, looking a round in the relative darkness. He blinked again, as if trying to get rid of it. "How…how did you get here?"
She shrugged, shuddering inwardly as she thought of the horrible few moments of near-suffocation that had occurred just before the whole world dissolved. "I don't know. I was…I was just sitting there on the hill on the way back from getting Mum's groceries and then it was like…like…"
"Like you were suffocating?" Ron supplied, his face (or at least what she could of it) grim.
Ginny nodded.
"I had that to. It was horrible"
Ginny nodded again, and both of them fell silent for a few minutes, mulling over the choking, until after a while Ginny spoke again.
"But why are we here?"
There was a pause, and then,
"A good question" said a voice in the dark.
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A/N So, what does everyone think? This chapter is leading up to some quite important things, but I won't say anything else, because that'd just spoil the story now, wouldn't it? Anyways, hopefully chapter 20 will be out sooner than this one was, because I seem to have got over my writers' block for the moment (touch wood!).
Thanks for waiting for, like, ever:
Bijuu (Well, now you know about the Ginny/Draco/Thom situation – I hope this chapter cleared it up for you anyway. Just for the record, Ginny is still going out with Thom but she's also going out with Draco in secret.) cashew (Hmm, I'm glad you like the mystery, I do too! Aww, poor you on your pain meds! I was going to have three teeth taken out (baby ones that just wouldn't go away) but one of them fell out yesterday so that put the kybosh on those plans, hee hee!) Wizzabee (Well, I certainly like your idea for an ending…whether or not it's right – well, you'll just have to wait and see!) Liz92 (I think you like Thom quite a lot, right? As to the dibbs, well, it depends on who gets to him first, lol! Although I might just take him myself…Sorry about the long update!) tay (Ahh, thanks for the romantic comment! I was just trying to make everything seem nice for them – they need it, lol! And thanks for all the holidays; you've made me a multicultural person!) MeEm (Okay, you are in SOOOO much trouble for saying you hate Thom! Every one loves him, including me! And no, he is NO WAY based on sorry guy. And o have to say I still don't care about cricket.)