Abandon

"What were you thinking?"

Ron Weasley, her freckled brother was standing in front of her, the air around him submitting parental, his arms folded over his chest, a questioning look on his face.

"He was cold, Ron!" Ginny protested, her eyes widening fearfully. "What if he starved to death or something?"

"Then we'd celebrate," Ron said logically as if it was the most obvious thing to do.

"He's not that evil. You only hate him because he was in Slytherin."

"No! Because he was awful to us!"

"Yes, well, you still thought he was evil before that!"

"No!"

"Yes!

"No," Ron said calmly in a child-like manner, his bottom lip quivering. "Stop it! Stop arguing with me..."

"Why?"

"Because I am older!"

"So? Only one year!"

"That's it, I am telling Mum!"

"Ahem."

They both turned to the noise and saw Draco Malfoy standing there, his hair wet from his noticeable shower, in newly laundered clothes. He wore regular jeans, and a maroon sweater with a 'R' imprinted on it.

Ginny looked at him sheepishly, but as she observed it him more closely her expression quickly modified to astonishment. He just looked, well, there was no other word for it, hot. Of course, the sweater didn't add into the "hot" effect, as it reminded her of Ron...she shuddered inwardly.

Ron nudged her. She looked at him, annoyed.

"What?" she whispered.

"Stop drooling, Gin, it's disgusting."

"I was NOT - OW!" Ginny cried aloud as Ron kicked her. He eyed Draco stonily, nodding a fracture of his head.

"Hello," he said coldly.

"Hello, to you, Weasley," Draco retorted. Ginny could see that Draco was biting his tongue from harassing her brother. Finding this extremely amusing, she bit back her laughter.

"I'll show you to your room," Ginny offered. Draco turned to her, startled. Then he nodded, managing a hesitant smile.

"No you won't!" Ron exclaimed, pushing Ginny into the wall. "Oh, sorry, Gin," he added as she scowled fiercely at him. "I'll take him."

"But I can - oh, oh, oh," she trailed off as Ron pinched her arm painfully. Ron gritted his teeth.

"I'll take you Malfoy," he said. It looked as if he was conquering the world as he said this.

Draco backed away a bit. "Umm...it's alright, Weas- Gi- your sister can take me." He looked distinctively uncomfortable.

"I'll take you," Ron repeated, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at him. Finally, Draco relented and they walked a careful distance from each other down the hallways. Ginny looked after them, leaning over a bit, eyeing Draco's backside appreciatively through his loose pants.

Not a bad sight.

She squinted her eyes.

Nope, not a bad sight at all...

~*~

Ginny was cleaning her room. It was a messy view. Clothes had been thrown over the bed, the bed next to hers, which used to belong to Charlie, one of her many favorite brothers, was vacant. She looked at it, feeling a head rush come through, and sat down with a plop. She knew she wasn't remembering Charlie when she glanced at that bed - no, she remembered somebody else. A wistful smile filled her lips as she blinked. She could remember her birthday with him, he had sat on Charlie's bed, and she had sat on her own and listened carefully as he read out his summer assignments for muggle school.

But then...her face fell; Christmas had arrived and it had happened. It was a year ago, she scolded to herself. Get over it, Ginny. You needed him out of your life once and for all...he wasn't right, he was sick, Ginny, he was sick...he was addicted...

There was a soft thump on the door. Ginny glanced up.

"What do you want Ron? I told you already, I didn't steal your teddy bear, for the freaking last time!"

There was silence at the other end of the door. Then, it opened, and Ginny suffered through shock as she saw it was Draco's head. He wore an amused smile on his face.

"Can I come in?"

"What for?" her voice was not harsh; but she quickly blushed at the rudeness of the question.

"I wanted to ask you something," Draco admitted.

"Alright."

Draco took this as admission and came in. "Listen...I wanted to ask you an important question..."

"Yeah?" she squirmed and sat up on her bed, her arms around her knees, looking over at him.

"Your brother..."

"Yeah?"

"Is he ...queer?"

"Queer?" Ginny echoed. She choked back a laugh with a massive struggle, red creeping to her neck from the resistance. "Not that I know of...why?"

"Well, he wanted to take me to the room..." Draco raised an eyebrow at her.

"Oh! Oh! Oh, no!" Ginny laughed, the red ringlets of her hair falling over her face. He looked at her, blinking. He had never heard that kind of laugh before, soft, swift, and easy. He felt the corners of his lips threaten to tug upwards.

"He just wanted to make you keep your distance away from me," she explained. "That's all. He's overprotective with the guy stuff ever since last Christmas. Don't worry, my brother completely hates you."

"You sure about that?" he said, with a reluctant tone.

"Positive," she said, nodding.

"Okay great." He turned around, twisting the knob. Then, he stopped, and looked back at her.

"Last Christmas?"

Ginny's bright smile faltered as if she had just realized what she had just blurted out. Her eyes shone with flashes of fury and avoidance.

"You should get dressed for dinner," she said, changing the subject abruptly.

"Alright..." He still stood his ground, however. "You're okay, right?"

"Just go!" she found herself shrieking, standing up, folding her arms over her sweater, not meeting his eyes. "Please."

He obeyed. He left.

Her breath shook with grief, and she fell back onto the bed again, her eyes closed. She wished she didn't have to open them ever again.

~*~

That seemed like a good place to stop. I am really making progress with this fic and I am relieved, because the first chapter wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. I can't believe I got so many supporting reviews for the first chapter! This is why I decided to post it early. I really am hoping for reviews for this chapter :). So do me a favor and review, it'll make me post a lot more faster. Oh, yes. I didn't put a disclaimer, so I am going to put one right now for the whole story:

Disclaimer: The lovely J.K. Rowling owns all settings, including but not limited to the Burrow, Hogwarts, etc, and of course, the characters, animals, etc. I own the plot, the typed/written words, and my own little Devon.

Leave a review, everyone!

Love,

~Court.