I've got no real gems of wisdom for you, no insights into life. So that means that you get to read the story without a super-long A/N or a quote. Lucky you.
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"Watch your mouth, Virginia! I don't appreciate it now, and I won't appreciate it when we're-"
"Shut up Malfoy! Do you think you could be just a little louder?" As soon as the words escaped her mouth, she knew she shouldn't have said them. Challenging Draco was probably the stupidest thing she could have done.
"Actually-" Draco began. Ginny slapped him.
Draco kept cornering her in the worst places: a hallway full of Gryffindors, Slytherins, or a mix of both houses. The worst was today when he had found her in the Great Hall and began bothering her about not wearing her ring. She still hadn't found a way out of the marriage, but she refused to wear the ring. She couldn't ask Hermione the Bookworm because Hermione was busy with after-Hogwarts studies. Ginny's friends didn't really keep a knowledge of arranged marriages and ways to get out of them with them, so she was stuck so far.
He comes to the damn school more now than he did when he was a student here. Ginny thought, annoyed. What really annoyed her, though, was even though she refused to wear the ring, the entire school knew of her upcoming wedding, thanks to Draco's frequent visits.
And, thanks to these visits, with the "support" of all the Houses, Ginny wasn't able to get much studying done for her N.E.W.T.s. She was unable to study with her friends, because all her valuable study time was devoted to arguing with Malfoy. Sure, she could have just worn the ring and gotten the arguing over with, but that would have been much like admitting defeat. Ginny wasn't one to admit defeat easily.
"I told you, Virginia."
"And I told you, Malfoy! Go away!"
"Mr. Malfoy, if you must have a shouting match with
Miss Weasley, I must insist you do it in private. You must stop this in Hogwart's halls. If you refuse to
discontinue these arguments, I may have to ask you to leave." Dumbledore's
voice spoke from behind Ginny and Draco. They both turned around to see
Dumbledore's amused expression.
"What's so funny?" Malfoy demanded. Dumbledore's smile widened.
"Ah, young love….it is a sweet thing." Dumbledore said, his eyes
twinkling. Then he turned around and walked off, leaving a stunned Draco
and Ginny behind. They were both
thinking that Dumbledore had finally fallen off his rocker. Of course, it could be argued that he had
fallen off much longer. But his
attitude confirmed their suspicions. Ginny recovered first. She cleared
her throat, and said nastily,
"You heard him, Malfoy. Go away." Malfoy smirked and said,
"You know you'll be a Malfoy, soon, too."
"Don't remind me." Ginny said, shuddering.
When Draco smirked, Ginny looked at him suspiciously.
"What?"
"Are you frightened of me, Virginia?"
"No. Not in the least." She said with bravado. He looked at her, knowing that her confidence was false. When he opened his mouth, she said dangerously,
"Say one more word, and I will hex you. As you may recall, I am quite handy with a bat-bogey hex. If you say one word about me 'liking' Harry, I'll kindly remind you that I was over that crush in third year. Deal with it, get over it, and then leave me alone."
Draco glared, and said nothing. With a final glare for good measure, he swished out of the Great Hall, his robes billowing in a style so reminiscent of Snape that Ginny could not help but laugh.
"What's so funny?" Blossom asked. "And what was that all about."
"Just Malfoy being Malfoy. Thinking he can rule my life, being an ass… you know, the usual."
"Oh, but you know that if you marry him, he can."
"What?" Ginny asked, shocked. She hadn't read anything about that in the Law books!
"Don't you know about Wizarding marriages?"
"What about them?"
"Well-"
The bell rang, and they were forced to scurry off to Potions
in order to avoid a detention, or deducted points, from Snape. Ginny looked at Blossom, who mouthed
"later", and they walked to Potions. Professor Snape had an interesting
class that day, and Ginny almost forgot about Malfoy. The key word there
being almost. He is just so annoying! Ginny thought,
wondering how she would get through a day of marriage to him, let alone a year
or more. She noticed that Blossom was whispering to her.
"What, Bloss?" Ginny asked, annoyed. She was having fun thinking of
horrible things to do to Malfoy, and Blossom was interrupting her thoughts.
"Well, I'm trying to tell you about Wizard marriages, but you're obviously not
listening!" Blossom replied with an air of one that has just been done a great
injustice. Ginny noticed this with some amusement. She muttered an
apology, which Blossom accepted. In no time, Blossom returned to her normal
happy-go-lucky self.
"I was saying, Gin, that if you take the Traditional Vows, which most couples
do, he will be able to rule your life. Not that it will take away your
free will, nothing can do that, not even the Imperius Curse, but he will have
magical control over you. If you take the Modern Vows, he'll still have
an amount of control over you, but you will also have some control over him."
"Oh." Ginny whispered, her eyes wide. Then a thought hit her.
"Blossom, how do you know this?" Blossom looked sheepish. Ginny wondered why Blossom knew all of this
information, because Blossom was a Muggleborn.
Blossom answered quickly,
"Well, Gin, I--, well, since I heard about your upcoming wedding, I thought I'd
research it for you. But, maybe you'll have a Muggle wedding." Blossom
added, sounding like she knew that that would never happen. Which, of
course, she did. Ginny thought that Blossom had started to say something
else. She didn't press the issue, however, as she knew that Blossom would
tell her when she felt like it. They had been best friends for awhile,
and they had pretty much worked out what the other would do. Instead,
Ginny just replied,
"Like I'd be that lucky." But she was confused. She had looked through much of the library and had not found a
single book detailing those aspects of Wizarding marriages. How did Blossom know, after only doing a bit
of research?
And what did Blossom mean, she would have to be obedient to
her husband? She was pretty sure
purple-spotted pigs would fly in Norway before she was even semi-obedient to a
dirty, disgusting Malfoy.
"Miss Weasley! Miss Hughes! Would you kindly inform the rest of the
class of the topic of your discussion?" Snape asked, his nonexistent patience
worn out. Ginny and Blossom looked at each other, and giggled.
** Later that night **
"I still can't believe that old bat gave us detention!" Ginny complained, for
about the fifth time that night.
"Well, I suppose if we're going to talk, we're going to get into trouble.
Or, to quote the Muggles, 'You do the crime, you pay the time.'" Blossom
pointed out rationally. Ginny raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, I know you're as mad as I am about it, Bloss, don't
lie!"
"Okay, so I am, but really, your day has been bad enough, what with that
arrogant ass Malfoy here." Blossom admitted, causing Ginny to give into
another fit of giggles. They continued to sweep the corridor that Snape
had given them for detention. They continued to chatter unconcernedly
until Filch swooped down on them and told them to go to bed. Of course, he kept muttering something about
it would have been "better if Dumbledore hadn't come back."
Ginny and Blossom returned to their dormitory and finished whatever homework
they had left. When they finally went to sleep, Ginny was sure she would
never wake up.
The said their goodnights and fell into a deep sleep.
********
Siminon- you know, I was kind of wondering the same thing. And then I remembered- oh, right, I should post! I know how annoyed I get when authors don't update.
Skitzo-phrenic- did I spell the name right? Sorry if I didn't… I'm kind of bad at the whole looking, memorizing and copying thing. True, I could just do a quick copy/paste, but that would be easy and I was never given an award for me being a genius. Anyhow, I know! But it's so much fun to write! I think the characters acting their age is so… so… wonderful for authors to write. I really am in awe of those who write them and keep them acting their age and in character. I love them, and hope that they update! But me, I prefer to make them buttheads. Or is it that they prefer to come out as buttheads when I'm writing them? Anyhow, thanks for reviewing!
Rose Petal- thanks!
Ang3l666- LOL, wouldn't we all want to wear Draco's ring? Ah, but sadly the characters are not real, and therefore we cannot marry them. *sigh* That just means that I get to be depressed… (j/k)
Karania Avalon- thanks!
But you all are lucky that I like ff.net and spend lotsa time here (okay, maybe not lots, I do have a life… though not much of one) so updating is just a click away! J/K… I am really on a caffeine low… I haven't had a pop for two days (trying to quit), but I'm going to be posting now. And, because I've been absolutely horrible about posting, as soon as I finish my tweaking of the story, I'm going to post it all as quickly as possible, because I think my beta for the sequel is getting annoyed at the fact that it has been about two months since she has gotten something to beta!
I'm shutting up now, and reminding you that reviewing (while not mandatory) is appreciated.
~Lili
