Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and I never will…unfortunately.
hpdancer92: Keep your pants on…jeez…
LiZz: I'm proud.
Aquagurl13: I'm really sorry about the lack of updates. I'll try to fix it. As for re-reading the books, I have re-read OotP, but I don't own the other ones. This chapter is Draco, and maybe a little Ginny. Grandmothers was torture by the way…
Moon Princess: The romance is coming, don't worry. And you'll always be Moon Princess to me. Besides 6 is my number, so I can't let you have it. Well technically my number is 666, but…
volley ball chika: No, in the fifth book, it says he stole the snitch, not that he was a seeker. I'm pretty sure it says he's a chaser in the first or second book, but it has been several months since the Librarian would let me get the books out…
Mel: The duel…shall happen! Soon! In this chapter or the next one. Or maybe the one after that… *sets mouse traps and lets loose a cat. Die rat-boy! Die!*
Atlanta-avalon1.1: Have I ever told you that you have a really nice evil grin?
I feel bad. Usually I average about 12 reviews for this story, but I got only 7 this chapter, and 9 on the one before. I seem to be losing my audience. I guess that's what happens when you go into temporary hiatus. Oh well. Like they say (Anybody know who 'they' are?), the show must go on. O story in this case.
Carpe DiemFor the first time in his life, Draco Malfoy was alone. He knew why, too. All because Dumbledore told him he had to use a different last name. He was supposedly a pure blood whose family no one had ever heard of, so the Slytherins wouldn't associate with him, and the rest of the school wouldn't because he was a Slytherin. Not that most of the school had ever talked to him, but he had always been able to count on Crabbe and Goyle being there to rant to at least. And right now he was in the mood to rant.
The day hadn't started off well. He had been scorned by, of all people, his own father. And when a Malfoy scorns someone, all Slytherins scorn them. He supposed if he wanted to, he could befriend Snape, but he had never really liked the potions professor. And while his episode at breakfast was something of a conversation starter, it was highly unfavorable. Then, he found out the Potions professor didn't favor Slytherin like Snape did, but instead was in favor of inter-house relations. He had been stuck between a blonde girl he didn't know and the wall. And she had tried to talk to him. It was extremely annoying. Transfiguration hadn't been any better, as he was paired with a Hufflepuff who could barely tell one end of his wand from the other. Malfoy had spent the rest of the after noon in the Hospital Wing. Now he was walking across the Hogwarts grounds, Madame Pomfrey having healed the boils, and he was in a very foul mood indeed.
As he walked near the edge of the lake, a blur of red caught his attention. The littlest Weasley. Well, if he couldn't rant, he might as well vent his frustrations through teasing the Weaselette.
She was lying on her stomach facing the lake surrounded by books and parchment, with her legs crossed at the ankles, swinging them back and forth, and humming something. Draco vaguely wondered how she could be so cheerful. She stopped writing for a second and put the end of the quill in her mouth, then hurriedly took it out when she realized there was ink on it. Draco snorted and she looked over her shoulder at him.
"What are you looking at?" she asked, rolling her eyes. Her smirked and allowed his eyes to travel up and down her body.
"Not much. You know little Weasel, we are stuck in the past, and you actually seem to be having fun somehow."
"Well we wouldn't be stuck in the past at all if it wasn't for you Draco Malfoy. And I've decided to make the best of things. We're in a time when our parents were younger and we weren't born yet. Not to mention the schoolwork is all extremely easy. It easy to have fun."
Draco just stared at her. Easy to have fun? She was one to talk. She was a Gryffindor, and Gryffindors didn't care about things like blood. They didn't care whether they were sitting next to a Mudblood or not.
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, the Weaselette gathered her things and stood up, saying, "If you'll excuse me, I have to go do my homework." Draco shook his head as she walked away. She was the strangest of all the Weasels. Then he realized he hadn't actually done any teasing.
~*~*~*~*~*
Ginny walked away from Malfoy feeling proud of herself. He had only gotten one insult, and she had done most of the talking. Much better than usual. This day was turning out to be quite fun. She had known all the answers in Charms, and made some friends in her dorm. She had met Alice Reynolds (Longbottom) and, despite her initial feeling of sadness, they had had a nice conversation. Ginny vowed to herself that she would get to know the young woman so she could tell Neville all about her when they got back.
If they got back.
Ginny wasn't stupid. She knew that this had never happened before, and it was nearly impossible to send someone into the future, more than a few minutes, and even that was extremely hard and very nearly illegal.
She knew she was just putting a cheerful face on things. She had been here less than one day and she already missed her friends and Dean, her boyfriend of two years. What if they couldn't get back? Would they just live their lives in this time? Actually watch themselves be born?
Stop that, she thought to herself, if anyone can get us home its Dumbledore. Besides, you should be thinking about Harry right now. That thought left a knot in her stomach. She had come to think of him a brother, and she knew how much it must hurt him to be surrounded by people he knew would die, and not be able to do anything about it.
Her cheery mood now completely gone, Ginny entered the Gryffindor common room.