Title: The New Ginny Weasley
Author: Jaylana88
Pairing: Ginny/Draco, mostly. Will be some Ron/Lavender, and Harry/Hermione sprinkled in.
Rating: R, for language and some explicit content that would probably traumatize young ones
A/N: The usual author's noteà I do not intend to copy, infringe upon, or abuse the characters I have borrowed from J.K. Rowling, but if someone thinks I am, try not to sue. I have no money.
The New Ginny Weasley
Chapter 9: First Day Back and The Games Begin!
Pansy turned around and flashed a nasty grin as Draco and Blaise slunk as quietly as they could to their seats. She had walked with them and the Americans, along with Colin and Ginny, until she had realized that they were all going to be disastrously late and had made a break for it; she didn't want to make a fool out of herself by sneaking in late to class, like those two were doing now. Facing the teacher once again, she schooled her face into an innocent, interested expression as the teacher said testily, "Ah, Misters Malfoy and Zabini, I presume? Thank you for taking the time to join us. Take out your books, we're starting on page 37, where you should have left off after your summer reading that was assigned to you at the end of the semester."
'What a load of idiots,' thought Pansy, smirking inwardly. 'They get all caught up in their little romances, and they've already screwed up. It's the first day back! It's not even lunch yet!' with a huff, she turned to her open History of Magic textbook, zoning out on the print.
'Those boys…' she thought idly, sighing to herself dramatically, which caused the entire class to turn and stare at her incredulously. Oblivious to it all, she plucked at the feathers of her quill, thinking to herself, 'This is going to be such a long year….'
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"Hello, Miss Weasley. Take a seat please, we were just beginning our lecture for today," a stern, young-looking lady said firmly as Ginny walked dazedly into the classroom.
"Excuse me, ma'am, but who are you? I must've missed that bit too…" Ginny trailed off as the new professor looked at her sharply before smiling slightly.
"I am Professor Ferry. I will be teaching you 6th year level Defense Against the Dark Arts. Now, your seat, if you please?" Ginny nodded, head down, and made her way to the only open seat, next to Kay, who was sitting next to Lorey and Lex in the front row. The three girls looked unaccountably nervous, though Kay seemed to be handling it better by staring out the window and grasping her quill with a white-knuckled grip. Lex and Lorey both looked slightly pale. Smiling encouragingly at them before turning to face the board, Ginny took out a bottle of ink and a quill and proceeded to jot down everything Professor Ferry said concerning curses in the next 45 minutes.
The class continued just so until the bell rang and students began putting their notes away, standing up and stretching.
"Homework tonight is to write a brief, 5-paragraph essay on the effects of curses on animals vs. humans. Tomorrow, you will only need your wands. Class dismissed."
"Shit, that was so boring I thought my brain was going to melt!" exclaimed Kay. Lex and Lorey both nodded rapidly, as the three newly-sorted Slytherins walked down the hall with Ginny quickly.
"It wasn't at all as bad as I thought it would be," said Lorey in a flippant manner even though she had been panicking a mere 45 minutes earlier, at the start of class. "What've we got next?"
Digging around in her book bag, Lex pulled forth a crumpled schedule and scanned it quickly, before announcing, "Double Herbology with…Hufflepuffs. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? And what the hell is Herbology, anyway?" she asked, a confused look clouding her face as she looked up at Ginny.
"It's for plants, and things," Ginny said. "You'll like it, trust me. The Professor's nice. She's the Hufflepuff Head of House," she explained while pulling out her own schedule.
"What've you got, Gin?"
"…." Ginny's mouthed dropped open as her eyes stopped on her next class.
Snatching it away from her, Kay scanned Ginny's schedule as well. A slow grin spread across Kay's face as Ginny's eyes widened even further.
"Oh…noooooo….." Ginny groaned out.
With a solid whack to Ginny's arm, Kay exclaimed, "Oh, don't give me that! You know perfectly well that a double block is going to be LOADS of fun with all-those-boys...especially the one you're diggin'…." She trailed off suggestively, wiggling her eyebrows, fingers and nose all at the same time, making her look particularly odd.
"Stop it, you're freaking her out!" Lex said, swatting at Kay's hands in a futile attempt to ward off Kay's gesturing.
"Man, you are so weird, Kay!" Lorey said playfully, before poking at Ginny's cheek repeatedly.
"Stop that, you crazy girl!" Ginny batted at Lorey's finger, before giggling.
"Hmph, and you tell me that I'm weird? Who's doing the weird shit now, biatch?" Kay said, sticking her tongue out and scrunching up her nose at Lorey.
"Oh quiet, you goon. It's no wonder you're from California- you're all a bunch of lunatics!" Lorey rolled her eyes good naturedly at her friend.
"Hey man, Cali's where it's at!" Kay defended.
"Where what is at, exactly?" Lex said, raising her eyebrows and pursing her lips mockingly at Kay.
"Well," Kay paused, then her eyes lit up and she said, "me, for one thing," nodding once in an affirmative way, she pointed to herself, grinning triumphantly as if she had scored some kind of point. Lex, Lorey and Ginny all stared at her with blank expressions as they all tried to contain the mirth that was threatening to overcome them.
"And then there's the boys," Kay added, in what was supposed to be a thoughtful tone, but turned out to be a stuttered comment as she started giggling in the middle of it, which caused the other girls to laugh as well.
"God you're a riot, Kay," said Lorey, wiping her eye as tears of laughter leaked from one of them.
"But I'm Californian, baby, through and through," Kay beamed, then rolled her eyes at the lot of them. "There's even a song about us kids…." She trailed off, thinking about the lyrics for a moment before lighting up with remembrance as she walked with the others down the steps leading to a large row of greenhouses.
"Ooooh, I got 'em!" Kay squealed, then cleared her throat and raised her left hand in a fist to her mouth like an imaginary microphone, "It goes…Wiiiiiiith the red top down, starlit sky, pretty little blue green in her eye she's my…California giiiiirl!" Kay belted out in a high voice, though it surprisingly sounded on-key. Students rushing out towards Greenhouse 6 looked at her oddly as Kay threw her head back and sang, and one even ran into a door when they stopped to get a glimpse at the odd American.
"Kay, must you sing!?" Lex exclaimed when Kay had finished her impromptu performance.
Clapping sarcastically, Ginny grimaced, then grinned when she saw Kay pouting.
"You were smashing, babe," Ginny said with a smile, and Kay brightened immediately.
"This is it, then?" said Lorey, halting in front of a large glass door with the words "Greenhouse 6" painted on them in dark green lettering.
"Yup, you guys'll be here for two classes. It'll go by fast, don't worry about it," Ginny said reassuringly.
"Alright well, here we go!" Linking her arms together with Lex's and Lorey's, Kay somehow managed to push open the door, hold it open, and lug the two other hesitant girls in at the same time.
"Bye Gin!" was the final utterance from the startled, but slightly resigned voice of Lorey as the glass door slammed shut.
Ginny smiled, happy that Kay had gone back to being her normal, bubbly self. It was slightly disconcerting, the way Kay had been nervous earlier. 'That just never happens,' Ginny thought, wondering to herself. 'It's good that she snapped out of it by the time she got into class…class? CLASS!! Potions is on the other side of the CASTLE!!' Ginny thought, panicked.
"Shit! I'm going to be late!!!!" Ginny shrieked, then bolted towards the castle, running toward the dungeons.
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'Where is that Weasley? I thought she said she was going to have Potions with us from now on….' Pansy frowned as she glanced at the door leading to the Snape's Potions classroom for the umpteenth time since class had started.
"Ginny's going to get it once she sets foot in Snape's room….he's going to pound her into the ground for being late!" Blaise whispered lowly to Draco. Blaise's observation seemed correct because even though Snape was a particularly irritable individual on a regular basis, his expression seemed abnormally unpleasant today.
A curt nod, however, was the only response Blaise got, as Draco attempted to keep his attention on the board where Snape was busily writing down the ingredients of their first in-class potion, to be brewed next period. 'Where is she?' Draco thought, his gaze discreetly straying towards the door, just like Pansy's had moments before. Slytherins had an uncanny ability to add an element of stealth to any of their movements. Sneaking covert glances at the door seemed to be one of those movements.
Suddenly, Ginny Weasley did just that, opening the door with a bang, her cheeks red from running as she desperately tried to refill her lungs with the required amount of air. 'Breathe, breathe', Ginny thought, sucking in air rapidly. She was so preoccupied with the typically involuntary action of respiration, however, that Ginny didn't notice the fact that her Potions Professor, wearing a particularly nasty facial expression, was advancing on her from behind. She did notice, however, the curt tap on her shoulder as she gasped for air. She also noticed the fact that the room had gone deathly silent, and that all eyes had gone towards, not her, but somewhere behind her and above her. Which meant….Ginny swallowed as her throat suddenly grew dry, and she clutched her book bag as she turned around slowly, facing Professor Snape.
"Hello, Miss Weasley," said Professor Snape in a low, biting snarl, one eyebrow cocked at her, as if daring for her to speak.
"Uhm…hello Professor Snape," she said slowly, calming her voice down to its typical manner. 'It won't do anyone any good to see you scared of him. He's just a damn professor, for Merlin's sake!' she thought, somewhat wildly.
At the clear, articulate response to his discouraging greeting, Snape's eyebrow shot up even further. 'Well that's odd,' the Professor thought. 'Every time I've ever done that, they broke down in tears and had to be escorted to the infirmary….' Snape looked back down, and narrowed his eyes at the youngest Weasley girl he had reluctantly consented to be promoted to his 7th year Advanced class.
"Well well, an articulate, coherent response from a Weasley. What a surprise," Snape said mockingly, sneering at her slightly.
"Yes well, that's why I was put into your class, right Professor? Since I can spout relatively articulate, coherent responses to 7th year potions questions?" Ginny said, innocently enough, though there was the slightest twitch at the corner of her mouth as she spoke.
Shocked, Snape could only mutter in what hopefully sounded like a cold, curt tone, "Supposedly, Weasley. Take a seat, next to Pansy, there." 'See if that gets to her,' thought Snape nastily.
"Alright, sir," Ginny said in the same innocent inflection, and turned to take her seat in the midst of the designated Slytherin tables. 'Please don't take points, please don't take my points,' Ginny chanted desperately as she made her way to her seat next to Pansy.
Shocked once more, but desperately unwilling to let his students, especially those abominable Gryffindors, see him in such a state, Snape said hastily and in as nasty a tone as he could muster, "Well, as Miss Weasley here has already addressed so promptly, she has been placed into this course because she is at your level, as in, she is as smart, and probably smarter than most of you," he gestured vaguely to the Gryffindor side of the room again, and was answered with narrowed eyes and hateful glares from the Gryffindors, before continuing, "Miss Weasley passed the entrance exam last year at the end of her 5th year, and she was accepted into this class because she has a contribution to make. Which is more than I can say, once again, for most of you…." Snape trailed off, before throwing a last, venomous glare at the Gryffindor sect. The Gryffindors responded this time with not only hateful glances at the Potions Professor, but also to the Slytherin side of the class.
Ginny, now seated comfortably next to Pansy and in front of Draco and Blaise, who were sitting together at a desk, blushed slightly and lowered her eyes down to look at her hands, clasped in her lap.
"Damn bloody Gryffs," Pansy muttered darkly, which Ginny answered with a sharp glance. "Not you, sweetie, just them. They're crazy, the whole lot of them. Thinking we're servants of the Dark Lord, and all that. They're so fucken paranoid, it's unbelievable! Just because Snape likes us more than them…" she trailed off as Snape turned back to the board to continue the interrupted lesson.
"What the hell is Ginny doing here!?" Ron whispered furiously to Harry, who was seated next to him, hastily scribbling down the ingredients on the board.
"Ron, she's your sister. Don't you remember when your mum bought those advanced books for her yesterday at Diagon Alley?" Harry whispered out of the corner of his mouth, dipping his quill in his ink pot before glancing up at Snape's lecture notes once more.
"No…oh, wait, right. You mean you knew, and you didn't even bother telling me when we got to Potions that my bloody sister was going to be in my class!?" Ron hissed at his friend, a bit louder than necessary, and Harry winced as Snape caught wind of their conversation and spun around to stalk towards their table with an ugly expression on his face.
"Mr. Potter, is there a problem?" Snape drawled, angrily narrowing his eyes at him and glancing at Ron out of the corner of his eye.
"N-no, sir, nothing wrong, Ron was just, erm, asking if he could borrow one of my quills," Harry thought up quickly, his mind desperately trying to find a way to get the both of them out of the way of Snape's wrath without losing points. 'I guess that's not possible,' thought Harry, as Snape's expression grew impossibly angrier as it bore down solely on Ron.
"Mr. Weasley, is this correct?" Snape asked menacingly.
"Erm….ye…yes, Professor, I mean, yes, I just wanted to a quill," Ron gulped, as an eyebrow shot up at his stuttering.
"Well, in that case. Mr. Potter, please give Mr. Weasley a quill, as he is so obviously unable to provide one for himself," Harry mutely handed over his extra quill, which Ron took, gaping at Professor Snape.
'No points off? Well today just might be my lucky…' Ron thought as the Potions Professor walked briskly back , but was interrupted as Snape called back over his shoulder.
"Oh, and Mr. Weasley? Twenty points from Gryffindor for coming unprepared, and for not paying attention."
Groaning, Ron put his head in his hands as the Slytherins on the other side of the room burst out snickering. Hermione turned around in her seat at the front of the classroom and glared at him, a sure sign of impending lecturing. Ron rolled his eyes at her, and opened his mouth to say something but was stopped when Harry gave him a sharp glance. Muttering to himself, he picked up the quill Harry had given to him and dipped it into his ink pot as Snape's lecture continued.
"Alright everyone, now that I've explained how to make it, get to work. Groups of four. You have 40 minutes to get it boiling, or else," Snape announced darkly, looking around the room at his students. The entire Gryffindor side had long since sunk into a stupor, and was that drool coming out of the side of Finnigan's mouth? 'Bloody idiots,' Snape thought to himself, rolling his eyes. Surveying the other side of the room, however, he noticed that the majority of his own house wasn't all that better. The only ones who seemed to be fully coherent, lacking the typical signs of extreme boredom (eyes glazed over, mouth slack, etc.), were the four in the front. 'Pity one of them has to be a Gryffindor, and a Weasley to boot,' Snape thought. 'Though she doesn't really seem like one. She's much better than that idiot brother of hers, thank Merlin.' Snapping out of his thoughts, Snape raised an eyebrow and spoke sharply to his students.
"Well!? What are you waiting for? Pull out your cauldrons and get started!" Snape snapped, which brought everyone else out of their dazes. Commotion quickly engulfed the room as the students began to set up their cauldrons and pull out the necessary ingredients for the potion.
Ginny and Pansy turned simultaneously around as Draco and Blaise propped their cauldrons up on their desks.
"Make sure to store your robes away. As I'm sure you've all learned by now, since you are in your final year at Hogwarts," Snape said sarcastically over the din, "robe sleeves drag. Unless you would like your robes disintegrated into a pile of ash this time around, I suggest you take them off. And girls, hair must be up. Make sure to put your gloves on before handling any of the ingredients. Especially you, Longbottom."
All the students paused, and, stopping what they were doing, proceeded to shrug off their robes to lay them on their chairs. Ginny bent down to get out her new gloves, which she had purchased specifically for this class out of her own meager savings, and turned to the table that she and her Slytherin friends would be sharing. The two boys were busily taking ingredients out from the cabinet under the desk, and Pansy was measuring out ingredients quickly. Ginny blinked quickly, once. 'They sure make a good team,' she thought, watching as ingredients were set out and swapped and measured and then swapped again to be put back under the desk. They were organized, quick, and almost militarily going about their tasks.
"You guys make a good team," Ginny said, deciding to voice her thoughts.
"A lot of practice," Pansy said, not taking her eyes off the vial she was holding.
"Seven years together in the same Potions class'll do that to you," said Draco as he came up from underneath the desk to set down a small, greenish bottle with what looked like thick, black liquid in it.
When Draco bent back down to retrieve another item, Blaise came up, this time setting down what looked like a bottle of red sand, saying, "Plus it gives us extra time at the end of class to make fun of those blundering idiots," Blaise glanced pointedly at the other side of the room, where Ron had just spilled what looked to be an entire bottle of, well, something very blue, onto his desk, "if we finish early. But we could always use the help. Start mixing everything in that Pansy's already gotten out. Make sure you follow the directions. Snape would have a field day if he saw you mess up," Nodding once at her, sternly, he bent down once more to hunt for the last ingredient on their list.
'Okay, let's go then,' Ginny thought, furrowing her brow in concentration as she grabbed the first ingredient that Pansy had measured out. Glancing each time at the sheet of parchment she had written her notes on, Ginny proceeded to mix in each ingredient in its exact order, peering at each one to make sure that she was correct. Her hands became a blur as her concentration grew and there was nothing but her and the ingredients and the potion. So absorbed was she, and so mechanical her methods, that she hardly noticed that the noise at her own table had stopped, and that Pansy, Draco and Blaise were all looking at her, slightly surprised. Oblivious to the three, she added the final ingredient with a cluck of her tongue, and turned the fire underneath the cauldron to medium. Sitting back with a sigh, she took off one glove and flicked a stray wisp of hair out of her eyes. Suddenly Ginny paused, finally realizing that Draco and Blaise were no longer pulling out ingredients, or that Pansy was done as well. Pushing the hair out of her eyes, Ginny's eyes widened when she realized she had finished the potion and that her partners were all staring at her intently. Putting a hand behind her head, she grimaced and said sheepishly, "Erm…sorry?"
"Whatever are you sorry for?" Pansy asked, an eyebrow raised.
"That was…pretty fast…" said Blaise, glancing at Draco for affirmation.
"Fastest I've seen anyone else I've ever seen. Faster than us, even," Draco said, emphasizing.
"No wonder you got accelerated. You're smashing at Potions, Gin," Pansy said, finally grinning, which succeeded in relaxing Ginny the tiniest bit. She still had Draco and Blaise to worry about, however.
"A Gryff, better at Potions than even the most capable Slytherins? Impossible!" Draco exclaimed, gesturing at Ginny and frowning slightly.
"I agree. How the hell did that happen?" Blaise said calmly, glancing sharply at Ginny, who was blushing and looking at the floor ashamedly.
"I mean, look at all of them, over there. Hopeless at Potions, the lot of them! So where'd this bit come from?" Draco glared towards the Gryffindors, who were talking loudly, trying to figure out what to do after step 2 written on the board.
'I think I pissed him off….' Ginny thought wildly, the hot, stinging sensation of prickling tears beginning to overwhelm her eyes. 'No! Don't let anyone, especially them, see you cry!'
"What's going on here? You lot can't possibly be done, it's only been…12 minutes!" Snape said, suspiciously.
"Gryff did it all," said Blaise quickly, glancing at Ginny, "it looks alright, I don't think there's anything wrong with it, and all the ingredients are used. I'm just having trouble figuring out how she did it so fast."
Ashamed, Ginny slumped her shoulders down, and stood up wearily.
"I'm just going to go to the b-bathroom, Professor. I'll be right back," Ginny choked out, and she hurried out of the room before Snape could open his mouth.
As soon as she had rushed out of the door, Snape turned to the three gaping students from his own house, and muttered lowly, "What in Merlin's name did you do to Weasley!?"
Ginny flew out of the classroom and leapt up the steps. When she reached the top of the dungeon stairs, however, she didn't stop, hurriedly turning left. She finally slowed to a walk, and then collapsed next to a finely polished suit of armor. Leaning her head on her arms, she fought to keep her throat from constricting as the tears welled in her eyes. Keeping her eyes shut, she thought desperately to herself, 'I will not cry, I will not cry, I w ill not cry….alright maybe I will, god dammit.'
Letting out a quick sob, she drew in gasps of air, calming herself as she clenched her fists in her robe. Finally, her struggle to contain her tears stopped, and, she took in a deep breathe, and another. Relaxing her body, she slumped even further down, sighing to herself.
'I didn't mean to mess their potion up, if I had known that I was doing something wrong, I would've just sat there and done nothing!' Ginny thought, sadly, as her eyes began tearing again. Forcing them down so that her eyes were dry again, she said to herself sternly, "Get it together! You'll go and apologize to them, and then you'll ask Professor Snape to move you to the Gryffindor side," she resolved, nodding her head firmly before taking a final deep breath and standing up. Eyes dry and face only slightly red, she made her way slowly back to the dungeons.
What she saw when she reached the door to the Potions classroom, however, made her want to crawl back up the stairs and keep running until she was inside her dormitory, under her bedcovers.
When Ginny had exited the classroom in a blur of red hair and swishing school robes, Draco and Blaise had stared at the door, bewildered, until the furiously shaking figure of Pansy Parkinson attracted their attention simultaneously.
"Draco Malfoy! What on earth possessed you to berate the girl for finishing our work!!?! You…bloody….idiot!!!!" Pansy turned, snarling, punctuating each pause with a sound smack on his chest that caused him to emit an airy "oomph!"
"Ow, Pansy stop it! I did nothing of the sort, and you know it!" Draco protested.
"He's right, Pansy, what's the matter with you? And why did Ginny just run out?" Blaise asked, defending his friend by physically attempting to ward off Pansy's attack.
"And you!"
"That's quite enough, you three!" Snape said, and the three paused to look at him. Not used to being ignored entirely, he had watched the friends fighting in bemusement until realizing that, by the way things were going, his most valuable students, besides the new and now-absent Weasley girl, were going to get pummeled by a fellow Slytherin.
"But sir, look what she did!" Draco whined, pulling up his shirt sleeve to show a vivid red spot on his arm from where Pansy had pinched the life out of him a moment ago.
"Oh stop being a baby, Drake. She scratched up my hand!" Blaise exclaimed angrily, his typically unaffected composure breaking as he stared, horrified, at the marks Pansy had made, and he raised his hand to display the reddened welts streaking glaringly across the top of his hand.
"Well you two deserved it! Ginny's all upset now, and it's all your fault!" Pansy glared at them balefully, crossing her arms over her chest and jutting her chin out rebelliously. Draco and Blaise, meanwhile, looked at Snape questioningly, how, instead of backing his students, glared at them as well. Astonished, the two boys gulped nervously as Snape advanced on them menacingly as if they were a pair of obnoxious Gryffindors!
"Professor? Erm, sir?" Draco said, the 'erm' he had uttered the only display of his nervousness.
"Is what Pansy says the truth? Did you really run Ginny out of my Potions class?" Snape said lowly, his eyes hooded by the slightly greasy-looking hair that had fallen into his eyes.
"Well, personally, I don't think we did. But that's what Pansy says," Blaise said, sniffing at the fuming girl standing at his left.
"Well what in Merlin's name are you waiting for?! You'd better get after her, or I'll start taking points!" Snape snarled, and Blaise and Draco gasped. Never before had their Potions master and Head of House threatened them with point loss. Draco couldn't even think of a single time when Snape had deliberately deducted points from his own house before. Too stunned to react, the two boys could do nothing but gape at Professor Snaoe, who was stalking back to the front of the classroom, muttering about idiotic teenagers chasing out his new student, who was very capable by the way and seemingly not in the least bit related to her pathetic excuse for a brother.
"Get your arses moving, boys," Pansy growled out, and grabbed the back of their robes, hauling them, to the astonishment of the entire class, right out the door. Once outside, they all stopped, Draco and Blaise vainly attempting to ward off Pansy's verbal tirade, which was the situation Ginny came across when she came back.
"What the hell are you guys doing?" a slightly amused, yet weary voice said from behind Draco.
"Gin! We were just coming to look for you! The boys are sorry, they were just being ruddy idiots. Again," said Pansy, glaring pointedly at the two in question, who glared back at her spitefully.
Stepping up to Ginny, Pansy reached up to put an arm around Ginny companionably, and started to steer her towards Blaise.
"Blaise, say you're sorry, you great oaf, or else," Pansy said, sickeningly sweet and smiling at Blaise with a forced expression of pleading on her face. The look clearly said, 'This is good enough for now, but you're going to die once I get you alone.'
"Sorry, dearest. Didn't mean to upset you," Blaise said sincerely, inclining his head in an apologetic manner. Satisfied, Pansy clucked her tongue and then turned Ginny, unresisting to face Draco.
Slightly nervous, but determined not to show it, Ginny raised her eyes to meet Draco's intense gaze.
"Oh but I don't want to! I mean, erm…I…ahem-apologize-ahem Ginny," Draco muttered.
"What was that Drake??" Pansy said angrily, narrowing her eyes at him threateningly.
"What, Draco?" Ginny said softly, raising her gaze to meet his eyes and arching a brow at said boy, who was crossing his arms over his chest mutinously.
"I'm…I apologize, Ginny. We didn't mean to make you feel bad about anything. And you really did a good job on the potion. We-I just couldn't believe that you had done it that fast," Draco grumbled, irritated, grudgingly complimenting the shocked Gryffindor.
"Well done, Draco. First time I've even heard you utter the word 'apologize'. Ever," said Pansy, nodding in what seemed to be an approving manner.
"I know, I'm surprised," Ginny said in a light tone, shaking herself out of her 'Draco just apologized! To me!' daze quickly.
"Hey, I can apologize! No one ever seems to deserve it though, so I just don't bother," said Draco, hastily explaining himself. 'Wait, I'm making myself out to be the good guy. What the fuck?!' he thought, realizing what he had just said.
"Well I'm glad I deserve it then," said Ginny, now smiling slightly.
"Yeah, sure, let's get back," Draco said quickly, looking slightly disgruntled. He turned back to the door, and reached out for the handle, but a small but firm grasp on his forearm prevented him from anything more. Turning to the girl who had grabbed him, he raised an eyebrow and said, "Well?"
"Well," Ginny said cheekily, "here it is, Draco. The way I figure it, you owe me, because you made me feel the worst. Blaise I can get over, but you…..," she trailed off enticingly, as Draco's eyes darted to Pansy pleadingly. Pansy smirked, and winked at him, but didn't do anything besides that to help him out. Rolling his eyes at his friend's inactivity, he turned his gaze back to the eye-catching redhead who just barely reached the lowest part of his shoulder.
"But I…." Draco said, trailing off just as Ginny had just done. Ginny stepped closer to him, not breaking eye contact, and brought her hand up towards his chest. Anticipating her touch, Draco, leaned towards her instinctively, not knowing what he was doing. He was rewarded, however, not with a caress, but with a sharp poke to the space between his ribs.
"But you, on the otherhand," Ginny finished, "must be dealt with. So you owe me, and expect me to collect."
"It's a deal then," Draco said, nodding, not one to back down from the note of challenge in Ginny's voice.
Nodding once, Ginny turned to the door and opened it, unable to help the small smile of victory on her face as she walked back into Potions. And that smile grew broader as she felt a light touch on the small of her back, as Draco followed her back into class.
'Ohhhh this is going to be so goooood….' Ginny thought, a glimmer of deviousness in her eyes. 'And the games begin! Heads up Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley's out for revenge!' she crowed inwardly, and made her way back to her desk as the chattering of the students in the Potions classroom flowed over her.
AN: Hi everyone! I am now perfectly healthy, and am back on track busily churning out chapters for The New Ginny on a regular basis. Sorry this bit took a week; I was sick and my computer had no internet access for that time (a tragedy, I know. I was horrified when I found out). Luckily, it got fixed. So now, here I am, finally able to update this thing. Reviewer shout outs next chapter.
-Jaylana