What's Love?
A/N: Yay! I updated fast! Hm, maybe the lack of reviews is because some schools have already started. Oh well, I'm just having so much fun writing this again! Ah, I hope the document manager will stop being gay... I don't want to have to put (different scene) or whatever for every time a scene changes! GRRRR! I hope I figure something else out then. And it won't even let me use asterisks! I don't think I spelled that right...
Chapter 16
Ron sat up and Hermione helped him to stand up. His anger had been knocked out of him when his head hit the floor.
Ginny stepped out from behind Draco, seeing that the angry atmosphere had disappeared. Her eyes locked with her brother's for a few seconds before he turned to leave.
"Your brother is scarier when he's mad at you than when I just piss him off." Draco muttered.
Ginny looked to the floor and smiled.
"Next time, I'll just have Hermione knock him unconscious."
(story start)
"So how did it go?" Draco asked.
He and Ginny were sitting under the beech tree by the lake. Ginny had just returned from her father's funeral a few hours ago, but she came out of her dormitory just a few minutes before.
It took a while for Ginny to reply, but she finally spoke.
"Percy was there."
Her face showed no emotion as she said this, and her voice was flat.
"Percy?" Draco asked. "Which brother is he?"
"The one who left us for his job." She looked into the water before her. Her reflection was pale and depressing to look at, but her expression was blank. "Even after You-Know-Who came back, he still wasn't on speaking terms with us because he had to keep his pride and dignity."
Draco didn't say anything. He just looked over at her reflection in the water and saw the same thing she saw.
"I didn't think he would come back," she continued. "If he couldn't come back after he realized he was wrong, I thought he never would for any reason."
There was silence for a few moments. The only sounds that could be heard were the other students chattering happily because it was the weekend. The leaves made a rustling noise as the breeze stirred them.
"I never realized," she began again, "how little difference it made whether he was alive or dead while I was at school. But once I got home, everything changed completely! It made me realize what little importance he was to me at school. I never really thought about him, actually. The only place he's ever mattered was at home; the only place I've ever really acknowledged his existence."
"But you miss him, don't you?" Draco asked.
"I did while I was at home but here at school, it doesn't really matter," she replied. "Being at school is like another life. The people are the same, my daily routine is the same. Nothing has changed here."
Draco nodded in understanding.
"Have you seen your brothers there?"
"Yes, all of them. Ron and my mum were the only ones that really cried. I did a little but not as much as them." She looked away from her reflection and stood up. "There really was nothing I could do to stop it from happening. I guess-"
"DRACO!" came a loud female voice.
The two students turned around to see Pansy Parkinson making her way over to them.
"Dear God..." he sighed. "Hide me quick before she sees me."
"She already has seen you."
Pansy approached them and sent a glare Ginny's direction. She turned back to Draco.
"Draco, it's my birthday in three weeks. Do you have a present for me yet?" She asked, sitting on her knees very close to him.
He immediately stood up and distanced himself from the Slytherin girl.
Ginny slightly smiled at this.
"Er...yes! I have one for you, but I'm not giving it to you early." He replied.
She pouted, crossing her arms over her chest and sticking out her bottom lip.
Ginny's grin grew wider and slightly chuckled.
"I'm not giving it to you early!" He said in a final tone. "Last time I did, you made me get you another present for your real birthday!"
Ginny laughed and covered her mouth.
"Well it's not like you can't afford it, unlike some people!" Pansy retorted, sending a look at the redhead.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ginny snapped.
"Why are you hanging out with her anyway?" Pansy asked in a disapproving tone. "I thought you hated Weasleys. And your father would go nutters if he ever found out."
"Well your father must already be nutters, having lived with you for the last sixteen years." Ginny retorted, even though Pansy had not spoken to her.
"Okay, I think we better go," Draco said, dragging Ginny by the arm towards the castle.
Ginny pulled herself away from him but continued to walk.
"That Pansy Parkinson!" Ginny said bitterly. "One of these days, I'll knock the wind outta her!"
"Yes, but at least you don't have to tolerate her all the time." Draco replied. "For some reason, she likes to go up to the boys' dormitories a lot."
She raised her eyebrows.
"And what exactly does she do up there?"
"What do you think? To remind me of ridiculous things like her birthday."
"Well, are you going out with Pansy?"
"No," he replied flatly.
"Then why did you go to the Yule ball with her?"
"It wasn't exactly my choice."
They were walking down a hall now and saw Hermione reading the bulletin board. Ginny quickly ran up next to her to read about the school events.
"The Hogsmeade trip is in two weeks!" She exclaimed gleefully. "I need to restock on sugar quills. I ran out because I used them all up in Professor Binn's class. All he does is lecture and I find myself falling asleep from lack of anything to do."
"Well, you could take notes on what he is saying," Hermione suggested. "You never know when you'll miss something important."
"That class is useless." Draco said behind the two girls, causing them to both jump. "The dead fool doesn't know whether what he's talking about is true or not."
"Well how would you know?" Hermione asked stiffly. "You don't exactly pay very much attention in class either, Malfoy."
"He said that Winston Witherspoon was the minister of magic from seventeen-thirty-four to seventeen-fourty when the textbook says that he lived in the fourteenth century," Draco said to prove he was right.
Ginny smiled.
"Whatever, Malfoy,' Hermione muttered.
Ginny suddenly remembered Pansy's birthday.
"You can get Pansy's birthday present at Hogsmeade!"
"Of course! Why didn't I think of that earlier?" Draco said sarcastically.
"Shut up..." she muttered.
(somewhere else later in the evening)
"So you're getting along with Malfoy quite well," Hermione said in the Gryffindor common room. "How do you tolerate him?"
"I don't know, it was gradual." Ginny shrugged.
"Have you told anyone in your family you're friends with him?"
"Of course not!" She said. "And I'm thankful Ron didn't either. I think he's not so mad at me anymore, he's starting to talk to me now."
"That's good." Hermione said.
"What are you two talking about?" came Ron's voice.
"Nothing," Ginny replied.
Her brother came to sit with them and Harry appeared also.
"The Hogsmeade trip is in two weeks," Harry said. "Are you going?"
It took Ginny a while to realize he was talking to her.
"Yes," she replied simply.
"Are you going by yourself?"
Ginny thought about it. She never really had to go by herself except before. She always had Fred and George to go with or her boyfriend, but she didn't have a boyfriend currently.
'Maybe I'll go with Draco,' she thought. 'He obviously doesn't want to go with Crabbe and Goyle again, and I don't think he'd be very happy to get stuck with Pansy either.'
"I don't know," she replied. "I might go with my friend."
"Oh," Harry muttered.
Ginny wondered what was wrong with Harry but shrugged it off.
"Well, I'm off to bed now." She said and went up to her dormitory.
A/N: Okay, I have no idea what the point of this chapter was. It was pretty pointless, don't you think? Well, I was hoping to get to the Hogsmeade trip in here, but I had to include something about the funeral. I also wanted to form a neutrality between Hermione and Malfoy, but it only shows a little bit. Well, not really I guess... Er...the closest thing to a neutrality between them was the fact that he didn't call her a mudblood! So keep that in mind! R&R!