A/N: I decided to update pretty quickly, to make up for the long period of
time I was away, but it ended up taking me longer than I expected. Plus,
the last chapter was kind of boring, so hopefully this one will catch your
attention better. ^_^
~*~
They were only five minutes into the trip, and Draco was already feeling queasy. He'd now remembered the exact reason why he hated riding the knight bus, it made him sick to his stomach. Luckily for him, Seamus had taken the hint and was facing the other way, writing a letter to Parvati. Draco managed a weak chuckle when he saw that.
Adjusting his one pillow and propping his feet up on his trunk, he settled in for another long, boring ride. He positioned himself so he could watch Ginny, and saw the back of her head. She seemed to be having an argument with Anthony, which looked like even less fun than he was having.
Indeed, across the bus, Ginny WAS arguing with Anthony.
"So, about your friend Blaise..." he tried to start up a conversation.
Ginny shot him an exasperated look. "Look, Anthony. I don't want to talk to you right now. Please leave me alone."
The Hufflepuff shook his head at her. "Dumbledore put us in these groups so we could get to know each other. We have to follow the rules." His goofy smile was enough to annoy anyone.
"I don't CARE about the rules! I don't want to talk!" She found that her voice was getting louder and louder with each response.
"So, is Blaise just the grouchy type? Or was that her way of flirting? I'm very curious as to-"
Ginny couldn't take it anymore. "Shut up!" She threw a pillow at his face, and even though it was a very juvenile gesture, he closed his mouth. "Now, I'm going to take a nap, and you're going to not talk to me. Alright?"
Anthony nodded, deciding to try to talk later on when Ginny wasn't being so hostile.
Watching this whole scene, Draco smiled. He felt bad for Ginny having to endure the stupid guy, but she seemed to be handling it well. It was sort of humorous to watch; Anthony honestly didn't know what he was dealing with.
-
Blaise had only ridden a knight bus once before, and that was on the night her parents died. It pained her to think about that night, but she did anyway. She remembered it distinctly; her parents had been trying to get her to come to some sort of party, with all of their friends. She hated her parents and their friends, and what they were doing with their lives.
Blaise did not want to get involved in dark magic, and had been able to avoid it until then. To this day, she didn't know exactly what her parents had wanted her to do that night, she had ran out on them before they could explain. But she knew that it involved serving the dark lord, and she refused. She'd ran and ran, and after a couple hours, a knight bus pulled up in front of her.
She'd been surprised, she hadn't called for it. But when she got on, the minister of magic himself had been waiting for her. He had told her that her parents had been killed, but didn't tell her how or why. He said something about a faulty cauldron, but Blaise knew the truth. Voldemort had killed them.
"Hi, Blaise. Want a chocolate frog?" A voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
She looked over to Harry, surprised. She couldn't find her voice for a moment, and couldn't decide whether she was angry or overjoyed that he was talking to her. After choosing angry, she spoke to him.
"Why would I want something from you?"
The boy frowned, opening the candy and putting it into his own mouth. He wasn't used to people being mean to him for no reason, besides Malfoy. And her comment earlier about him not being the only one without parents had gotten to him, he was curious about her. Why was she being so cold?
"You know, just because you're in Slytherin, that doesn't give you the right to be so mean to people. I thought maybe you would be different after talking to you on the train, but I was wrong. You're just like everyone else in that ruddy house."
This was the same person he'd warned Ginny against being friends with the day before. Why was he going out of his way now to talk to her? Harry internally kicked himself for how he'd been treating Ginny.
Blaise hadn't replied to him yet. He looked at her face, and saw a look of disgust on it. Her features were actually very pretty, Harry noticed, when she wasn't frowning like she was now.
Harry's words had hit her hard. 'You're just like everyone else in that ruddy house,' echoed in her ears, while she found that yet again, she couldn't talk. Had she been using her Slytherin label as an excuse to shut everyone out and be a cold person? It was the exact opposite of what she wanted to be.
Shrugging, Harry turned away. It was obvious she wasn't going to respond.
-
It was a long three hours, of jumping and being thrown around by the knight bus, until it slammed to a rough stop. Many of the students had amazingly been sleep, and confused looks were shared throughout the bus.
Draco and Seamus had succeeded in not sharing a single word. Blaise had slept and managed to only look at Harry once throughout the whole ride, in which he was just sitting, lost deep in thought. Anthony had tried several more times to strike up conversation with Ginny, and she had shut him down every single time.
At this point, everyone from the upper floor had come down to the lower one, and Dumbledore smiled. "Well, students, we have arrived. Please take your stuff, and wait outside of the bus. We will then separate into our cabins and get a good night sleep. Our activities begin tomorrow, bright and early."
Draco walked over and edged Ginny awake, she was still out on the couch. She stirred, and smiled at him. "Are we there?" He nodded, and then grabbed his trunk. She followed him, and they walked off the bus, to find themselves in complete darkness.
"What time is it?" Ginny questioned, holding her hand in front of her, as to not bump into anything. "It must be the middle of the night!"
Seconds later, Blaise joined them, lugging her trunk behind her. After everyone was unloaded, the knight bus zipped and bounced away into the night.
Blaise yawned, and plopped down onto her luggage. She just wanted to go to bed, and sleep on everything she'd been thinking about today. Hopefully she'd be able to brush it off by morning.
Dumbledore mumbled a few spells, and suddenly the area around them was lit, by torches going in a circle around them. Around the circle were six cabins, made of wood and very comfortable looking.
"This, as you can all see, is where we will be staying for the next two weeks. I do hope you will all enjoy your stay here, and make the most of the training you will receive. We will be staying in the cabins, as you know, with a single partner of your choice. Each partner group may pick one other partner group to share their cabin with. Please go ahead and do that now. Arrange yourselves in groups of four."
Draco looked to Ginny, wishing he could share a cabin with her. Though he knew automatically that it would not be allowed, under more than one circumstance. How could he find some way to share her cabin?
Ginny suddenly realized that she wouldn't need to share a cabin with Hermione liked she'd dreaded the whole way here; she could very easily just be partners with Blaise! "Blaise!" she whispered, "Be my partner!"
Her friend's eyes lit up, and she grinned happily. "Oh, all right! Great idea Ginny!" It seemed as though the thought hadn't occurred to her, either.
Off a little ways away, Draco was still pondering his situation. He could perhaps be partners with Goyle, or maybe even Seamus, who seemed to mind his own business enough to not worry about Draco sneaking out of his room to see Ginny.
"Hey, Goyle, partners?" he said, in his rather cold voice.
His big Slytherin friend gave him a sheepish look. "Sorry, I'm already partners with Terry Boot, from Ravenclaw."
Draco muttered under his breath, and went off to find Seamus, but stopped in his tracks. He'd somehow managed to get Dumbledore to let him be partners with Parvati. "Lucky bastard..." Draco commented.
He saw Hermione in a corner, obviously partners with Parvati's sister Padma. She was shooting hateful glances to Ginny, while sitting and waiting for further instruction.
What was he going to do?
Dumbledore eyed the groups of twos, and asked, "Does everyone have a partner?"
Begrudgingly, Draco raised his hand.
Something seemed to humor the old headmaster, and he grinned. "Perfect. Mr. Malfoy, you can be partners with Mr. Potter, who also is without a partner."
Draco's mouth dropped.
Not able to control herself, Ginny let out a small giggle. "They can join our group, we need two more people!" At this, Blaise seemed to jab her in the ribs. Ginny didn't understand why, it didn't matter to her much anymore if people knew about her and Draco. What else would she be upset about? Draco highly despised Harry, but he would survive.
Truthfully, Blaise was going to have a hard time avoiding Harry if he was in the same cabin as them. She hoped she would be over everything by morning. She really hoped so.
Harry scowled, grabbed his stuff, and walked over to Draco, though was careful not to stand too close to him. This trip already seemed to have a gray cloud hanging over it for everyone.
The students split off into their separate cabins. Draco, Ginny, Blaise, and Harry were sharing the dark green one on the end, and as they got closer, they saw that it had carvings of serpents on it.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Of course, it just figures that I'd get the one with snakes. Great. Wonderful. I'm going to bed, goodnight Ginny, Blaise," his voice lowered a few noticeable decibels, "Draco."
The name sounded weird coming from Harry's mouth. Almost...foreign.
With that, he walked into the room on the left side of the cabin and slammed the door. Draco shrugged, and followed the girls into their room, on the right. "I can go to bed in a bit. After Harry falls asleep...stupid git."
Surprisingly, both girls shot him warning looks.
"What?!" he cried.
Ginny just sighed, and Blaise shook her head. "The point of this trip is to look past houses and such...and to become friends with everyone. At least try, Draco?"
He muttered.
Ginny frowned, as she was angry with Harry too. "Draco, even if he IS an insufferable git, you have to share a room with him. Let's just all be civil."
Reluctantly, he nodded, and set Ginny's trunk of belongings at the foot of her bed.
The room was set up pretty typically; the walls and floor were made of wood. There were two single beds along each wall, with a separate nightstand next to each. There was one floor lamp, a desk, and a two-person couch. A single window adorned the back wall, with black curtains flapping in the night breeze.
Ginny got up to shut the window. She remembered that her blanket was in her trunk; she'd knitted it herself years ago. The soft red fabric was only a little bit worn. Pulling it out and smoothing it down on her bed seemed to remind Draco that he needed to get some sleep and unpack his stuff.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning, alright babe?"
Ginny nodded, and stepped closer to him. He took her in his arms, and held her close. "I'll be nicer to everyone. I promise," he whispered to her.
She eyed him playfully. "You'd better!"
"Or else what?" He leaned in for a goodnight kiss.
She dodged it artfully. "Or else you don't get any of that."
Mocking desperate shock, Draco dropped his arms. "I promise!"
She giggled, and kissed him straight on the lips. "Goodnight."
~*~
A/N: This chappie was a bit longer; hopefully this'll help you all forgive me even more for not updating forever. Updates are steady again! Yeah! Everyone dance around! [or not.just thought that'd be cool...guess not]
~*~
They were only five minutes into the trip, and Draco was already feeling queasy. He'd now remembered the exact reason why he hated riding the knight bus, it made him sick to his stomach. Luckily for him, Seamus had taken the hint and was facing the other way, writing a letter to Parvati. Draco managed a weak chuckle when he saw that.
Adjusting his one pillow and propping his feet up on his trunk, he settled in for another long, boring ride. He positioned himself so he could watch Ginny, and saw the back of her head. She seemed to be having an argument with Anthony, which looked like even less fun than he was having.
Indeed, across the bus, Ginny WAS arguing with Anthony.
"So, about your friend Blaise..." he tried to start up a conversation.
Ginny shot him an exasperated look. "Look, Anthony. I don't want to talk to you right now. Please leave me alone."
The Hufflepuff shook his head at her. "Dumbledore put us in these groups so we could get to know each other. We have to follow the rules." His goofy smile was enough to annoy anyone.
"I don't CARE about the rules! I don't want to talk!" She found that her voice was getting louder and louder with each response.
"So, is Blaise just the grouchy type? Or was that her way of flirting? I'm very curious as to-"
Ginny couldn't take it anymore. "Shut up!" She threw a pillow at his face, and even though it was a very juvenile gesture, he closed his mouth. "Now, I'm going to take a nap, and you're going to not talk to me. Alright?"
Anthony nodded, deciding to try to talk later on when Ginny wasn't being so hostile.
Watching this whole scene, Draco smiled. He felt bad for Ginny having to endure the stupid guy, but she seemed to be handling it well. It was sort of humorous to watch; Anthony honestly didn't know what he was dealing with.
-
Blaise had only ridden a knight bus once before, and that was on the night her parents died. It pained her to think about that night, but she did anyway. She remembered it distinctly; her parents had been trying to get her to come to some sort of party, with all of their friends. She hated her parents and their friends, and what they were doing with their lives.
Blaise did not want to get involved in dark magic, and had been able to avoid it until then. To this day, she didn't know exactly what her parents had wanted her to do that night, she had ran out on them before they could explain. But she knew that it involved serving the dark lord, and she refused. She'd ran and ran, and after a couple hours, a knight bus pulled up in front of her.
She'd been surprised, she hadn't called for it. But when she got on, the minister of magic himself had been waiting for her. He had told her that her parents had been killed, but didn't tell her how or why. He said something about a faulty cauldron, but Blaise knew the truth. Voldemort had killed them.
"Hi, Blaise. Want a chocolate frog?" A voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
She looked over to Harry, surprised. She couldn't find her voice for a moment, and couldn't decide whether she was angry or overjoyed that he was talking to her. After choosing angry, she spoke to him.
"Why would I want something from you?"
The boy frowned, opening the candy and putting it into his own mouth. He wasn't used to people being mean to him for no reason, besides Malfoy. And her comment earlier about him not being the only one without parents had gotten to him, he was curious about her. Why was she being so cold?
"You know, just because you're in Slytherin, that doesn't give you the right to be so mean to people. I thought maybe you would be different after talking to you on the train, but I was wrong. You're just like everyone else in that ruddy house."
This was the same person he'd warned Ginny against being friends with the day before. Why was he going out of his way now to talk to her? Harry internally kicked himself for how he'd been treating Ginny.
Blaise hadn't replied to him yet. He looked at her face, and saw a look of disgust on it. Her features were actually very pretty, Harry noticed, when she wasn't frowning like she was now.
Harry's words had hit her hard. 'You're just like everyone else in that ruddy house,' echoed in her ears, while she found that yet again, she couldn't talk. Had she been using her Slytherin label as an excuse to shut everyone out and be a cold person? It was the exact opposite of what she wanted to be.
Shrugging, Harry turned away. It was obvious she wasn't going to respond.
-
It was a long three hours, of jumping and being thrown around by the knight bus, until it slammed to a rough stop. Many of the students had amazingly been sleep, and confused looks were shared throughout the bus.
Draco and Seamus had succeeded in not sharing a single word. Blaise had slept and managed to only look at Harry once throughout the whole ride, in which he was just sitting, lost deep in thought. Anthony had tried several more times to strike up conversation with Ginny, and she had shut him down every single time.
At this point, everyone from the upper floor had come down to the lower one, and Dumbledore smiled. "Well, students, we have arrived. Please take your stuff, and wait outside of the bus. We will then separate into our cabins and get a good night sleep. Our activities begin tomorrow, bright and early."
Draco walked over and edged Ginny awake, she was still out on the couch. She stirred, and smiled at him. "Are we there?" He nodded, and then grabbed his trunk. She followed him, and they walked off the bus, to find themselves in complete darkness.
"What time is it?" Ginny questioned, holding her hand in front of her, as to not bump into anything. "It must be the middle of the night!"
Seconds later, Blaise joined them, lugging her trunk behind her. After everyone was unloaded, the knight bus zipped and bounced away into the night.
Blaise yawned, and plopped down onto her luggage. She just wanted to go to bed, and sleep on everything she'd been thinking about today. Hopefully she'd be able to brush it off by morning.
Dumbledore mumbled a few spells, and suddenly the area around them was lit, by torches going in a circle around them. Around the circle were six cabins, made of wood and very comfortable looking.
"This, as you can all see, is where we will be staying for the next two weeks. I do hope you will all enjoy your stay here, and make the most of the training you will receive. We will be staying in the cabins, as you know, with a single partner of your choice. Each partner group may pick one other partner group to share their cabin with. Please go ahead and do that now. Arrange yourselves in groups of four."
Draco looked to Ginny, wishing he could share a cabin with her. Though he knew automatically that it would not be allowed, under more than one circumstance. How could he find some way to share her cabin?
Ginny suddenly realized that she wouldn't need to share a cabin with Hermione liked she'd dreaded the whole way here; she could very easily just be partners with Blaise! "Blaise!" she whispered, "Be my partner!"
Her friend's eyes lit up, and she grinned happily. "Oh, all right! Great idea Ginny!" It seemed as though the thought hadn't occurred to her, either.
Off a little ways away, Draco was still pondering his situation. He could perhaps be partners with Goyle, or maybe even Seamus, who seemed to mind his own business enough to not worry about Draco sneaking out of his room to see Ginny.
"Hey, Goyle, partners?" he said, in his rather cold voice.
His big Slytherin friend gave him a sheepish look. "Sorry, I'm already partners with Terry Boot, from Ravenclaw."
Draco muttered under his breath, and went off to find Seamus, but stopped in his tracks. He'd somehow managed to get Dumbledore to let him be partners with Parvati. "Lucky bastard..." Draco commented.
He saw Hermione in a corner, obviously partners with Parvati's sister Padma. She was shooting hateful glances to Ginny, while sitting and waiting for further instruction.
What was he going to do?
Dumbledore eyed the groups of twos, and asked, "Does everyone have a partner?"
Begrudgingly, Draco raised his hand.
Something seemed to humor the old headmaster, and he grinned. "Perfect. Mr. Malfoy, you can be partners with Mr. Potter, who also is without a partner."
Draco's mouth dropped.
Not able to control herself, Ginny let out a small giggle. "They can join our group, we need two more people!" At this, Blaise seemed to jab her in the ribs. Ginny didn't understand why, it didn't matter to her much anymore if people knew about her and Draco. What else would she be upset about? Draco highly despised Harry, but he would survive.
Truthfully, Blaise was going to have a hard time avoiding Harry if he was in the same cabin as them. She hoped she would be over everything by morning. She really hoped so.
Harry scowled, grabbed his stuff, and walked over to Draco, though was careful not to stand too close to him. This trip already seemed to have a gray cloud hanging over it for everyone.
The students split off into their separate cabins. Draco, Ginny, Blaise, and Harry were sharing the dark green one on the end, and as they got closer, they saw that it had carvings of serpents on it.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Of course, it just figures that I'd get the one with snakes. Great. Wonderful. I'm going to bed, goodnight Ginny, Blaise," his voice lowered a few noticeable decibels, "Draco."
The name sounded weird coming from Harry's mouth. Almost...foreign.
With that, he walked into the room on the left side of the cabin and slammed the door. Draco shrugged, and followed the girls into their room, on the right. "I can go to bed in a bit. After Harry falls asleep...stupid git."
Surprisingly, both girls shot him warning looks.
"What?!" he cried.
Ginny just sighed, and Blaise shook her head. "The point of this trip is to look past houses and such...and to become friends with everyone. At least try, Draco?"
He muttered.
Ginny frowned, as she was angry with Harry too. "Draco, even if he IS an insufferable git, you have to share a room with him. Let's just all be civil."
Reluctantly, he nodded, and set Ginny's trunk of belongings at the foot of her bed.
The room was set up pretty typically; the walls and floor were made of wood. There were two single beds along each wall, with a separate nightstand next to each. There was one floor lamp, a desk, and a two-person couch. A single window adorned the back wall, with black curtains flapping in the night breeze.
Ginny got up to shut the window. She remembered that her blanket was in her trunk; she'd knitted it herself years ago. The soft red fabric was only a little bit worn. Pulling it out and smoothing it down on her bed seemed to remind Draco that he needed to get some sleep and unpack his stuff.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning, alright babe?"
Ginny nodded, and stepped closer to him. He took her in his arms, and held her close. "I'll be nicer to everyone. I promise," he whispered to her.
She eyed him playfully. "You'd better!"
"Or else what?" He leaned in for a goodnight kiss.
She dodged it artfully. "Or else you don't get any of that."
Mocking desperate shock, Draco dropped his arms. "I promise!"
She giggled, and kissed him straight on the lips. "Goodnight."
~*~
A/N: This chappie was a bit longer; hopefully this'll help you all forgive me even more for not updating forever. Updates are steady again! Yeah! Everyone dance around! [or not.just thought that'd be cool...guess not]