x To Die For x

x Chapter Two x

The next few days passed by quickly and blurred together in Ginny's memory, as most weeks tended to do. It was a frigid Saturday morning, and she stood with Hermione and Ron in the line to enter the picturesque village of Hogsmeade.

Filch checked off their names, and grumbled something about corrupt students with too much freedom before allowing them to proceed. Ginny rubbed her hands together outside in the frosty weather, suddenly very aware that she needed new gloves, because her old ones were nearly worn through at the fingertips. The air made the short trip seem extra-long and drawn out that day.

Upon reaching the village, Ron and Hermione immersed themselves in their ritual conversation about how unfair it was that Harry couldn't go due to extra Quidditch practice. Ginny was glad she wasn't on the team anymore.

"I'm going to head off to meet somebody, Ron," Ginny said, under the preconception that he wouldn't even listen to her.

"Who?" he demanded rapidly, proving Ginny wrong. He still seemed uptight about her going off on her own, especially now that he knew she was in to dating...even if she had only gone out with the two most unexciting boys at Hogwarts. Or so they were in Ginny's opinion, and she hadn't had a boyfriend since then.

"Carmen del Valle," answered Ginny boldly, putting her hands on her hips as if he had offended her. Saying the name made her feel almost rebellious.

Hermione looked ruffled, breathing in sharply while Ron stared at her in bewilderment. "You?" he said incredulously.

"Yes, do you have a problem with that?" Ginny said, a little too harshly. But she couldn't let her brother walk all over her.

"I bloody well do have a problem with that! I have one hundred problems with that! She's like...Malfoy's Spanish female counterpart, she's a slut, she's a Slytherin, she's—"

"Shove it, Ron," Ginny said, and walked away from him, disappearing into the crowd. Signature Weasley temper, that was. She could faintly hear Hermione yelling ("You're so thoughtless, Ronald!"), and smiled. She was free.

She continued to rub her hands together as she walked down the street to the main intersection that would lead her to where she was supposed to be meeting Carmen. Occasionally she would pause to look at her reflection in a shop window, and fix her hair or blazer. For some reason, her hair had decided to lie flat and thin as wet paper that day, and the only thing she could manage to do with it was to throw it up into a ponytail.

Ginny reached her destination, Nicholson Avenue, within a matter of minutes and walked determinedly down the road in search of number fourteen. What type of place is this supposed to be, anyway? Ginny asked herself, realizing that she indeed had no idea what type of building she was looking for.

She noted the number of each shop and restaurant as she walked, enjoying the rebellious feeling she still had. It was one thing to be doing something your brother disapproved of, but it was another to be doing that plus meeting one of the most popular students in school. Merlin...am I really that shallow? She wondered, but decided against it – she was simply trying to annoy Ron.

Her jovial mindset began to fade, however, as she passed by numbers 17 and 15, then 13 and 11. Where was 14? She quickly stopped in to each shop and tea place in the area, checking for Carmen. Perhaps she had gotten the number wrong, Ginny had thought. But she was nowhere to be found.

Well, then where the hell was she?

Ginny trudged back to the Main Street, the smile on her face gone. She searched around for a few of her friends, before finding Ron and Hermione in the Three Broomsticks.

"You were lying, weren't you?" Ron said spitefully as Ginny approached. She and Hermione glared at him.

"No, I wasn't, actually," she said as she sat down. "Not that it's any of your business."

"Well then why are you back so quickly?"

"Ron! It doesn't matter, okay?" Ginny said, completely fed-up with her brother. Why was he acting like such a prat? Trying to ignore him, she ordered a Butterbeer and drank at least half of it before her hands and cheeks began to thaw out. Hermione had tried to start a conversation about the American holiday of Thanksgiving, but Ginny honestly could have cared less.

Besides the fact that she had wanted to meet Carmen, she still really needed to get started on their project, and it was weighing heavily on her mind. "I'm going to the bookshop," she said abruptly, and got up to leave.

The shop's section on Polyjuice potions was extremely small; it consisted of two books, to be exact. She was flipping through the first one entitled "Polyjuice Pleasures: The Purposeful Potion," when she heard a familiar scratchy voice. Putting the book down, Ginny scanned the room for the girl who, just seconds before, she had decided she despised.

"Carmen!" she called. The girl and her friend looked up, gazing at her for a few seconds.

"Ginny," she reminded her.

"Oh, right. You're the girl that –"

"You were going to meet on Nicholson Avenue an hour ago," Ginny interrupted.

"Yes, well, sorry, but I had to...er...meet somebody else. Last minute," she said, as a smirk crept onto her face. She glanced at her friend, winked, and giggled. Ginny was absolutely torn between wanting to jinx her to hell and adore the way she could have the authority to do something so rude and make it seem completely okay.

"Oh," Ginny said stupidly. The three girls stood there uncomfortably for a second, before Ginny grabbed the Polyjuice book again and thrust it under Carmen's nose. "I found this book," she said. I probably look like such an idiot, she thought.

"Erm...cool," said Carmen, obviously not impressed at all.

"Do you want to go work on the project?" Ginny asked pathetically.

Carmen hesitated for a moment while her friend sneered. "Let's see what you've got first."

"Wha –?"

"COME ON!" Carmen yelled suddenly, grabbing her wrist and running towards the door, then out of the shop. The three girls ran at least one hundred feet away from the store before stopping, when they stood in a small circle, Carmen still clutching Ginny's wrist. "Yeah!" she yelled.

Ginny's heart was racing – she knew what had just happened. The Polyjuice book was still in her other hand, brand new and unpaid for. She gawked at Carmen, and then screeched "What the bloody hell was that?!"

Carmen smirked again, and grabbed the book. "Research," she said. She then reached into her pocket, and pulled out a small glass trinket in the shape of an hour glass with iridescent green liquid at the bottom. Smiling, she turned it over, watching the liquid flow to the other end, before un-doing the silver chain around her neck and slipping it on. "Marvelous, isn't it?" she giggled to her friend, who nodded.

Ginny watched in amazement as the girls examined a few other things they had apparently stolen. How had they gotten away with it? Didn't shops have anti-theft spells cast all over them?

"See, Ginny, why not have what you want?" Carmen said in a carefree voice. "Come on."

Ginny followed Carmen and her friend as they waltzed with their arms linked down the street, pausing to wink at and blow kisses to random boys as they passed. They own the world, Ginny thought dazedly.

They entered a small gift shop on the corner of Main and Prentice, apparently called "Madame Forgrove's Fabulous Trinkets," a dimly lit place shelved with various assortments of tiny sparkling accessories, gifts, and jewelry.

"Oh, how beautiful!" Carmen's friend gushed at a miniature bouquet of glass roses.

"Isn't it?" came the voice of the woman behind the counter. "One of my personal favorites. We have it in three different colors, too!"

"Really?" said Carmen. "Could we see?"

"Certainly! They're right in the back," said the woman happily. "I'll be out in a minute...they're rather difficult to spot, being so small and my eyes losing their touch." She laughed, and bustled her way through a door in the back corner.

"Quick, Ginny," hissed Carmen. "Find something you like."

"But –"

"Hurry!"

Ginny, heart still beating a thousand times a minute, was too overwhelmed to know how to react. There were so many beautiful things in the shop...things she never would have dreamed of being able to have before, but now...she could.

And she didn't want to disappoint Carmen.

After a moment of silence, she heard Carmen's friend, whom she know knew was called Aurely, gasp. "She's coming back!" she whispered articulately. "Go!"

"Come on, Ginny," whispered Carmen, and she was once again pulled out of the shop by her wrist, other hand clutching a golden pendant necklace.

xxx

The rest of the afternoon, Ginny walked around Hogsmeade in a daze with Carmen and Aurely feeling high on the strongest rush of adrenaline she'd ever had. She couldn't believe what was happening.

How's Ron going to feel about this, Ginny? She asked herself.

The day had begun to draw to a close, and students had started to leave the village for the warm comforts of the Great Hall back at Hogwarts. The three girls were still sitting in the Three Broomsticks, conversing over tankards of warm Butterbeer.

Carmen was explaining her last rendezvous with the newest chaser of the Slytherin Quidditch team, Blaise Zabini. "...And then when he reached for my jumper, I was like-"

"You guys," Ginny interrupted, "I've really got to head back," She was afraid of the direction Carmen's story was beginning to take.

"Yeah, okay, whatever," said Aurely. "See you."

"Cheers," said Ginny, and she stood up to leave.

"No, wait," Carmen began hastily. "I have a favor to ask you." Another smile began to creep across her face, and Ginny noted how lucky she was that such a malicious facial gesture could still allow her to look pretty.

"Yeah?" Ginny asked, rather eagerly. Her head was spinning and at that point she was feeling so giddy and carefree that she was willing to do almost anything.

"You know Neville Longbottom, right? He's the chubby lad in your house."

Ginny nodded, smiling at the thought of Neville. They'd always been pleasant to each other.

"Well, the other day in Transfiguration, the oaf transfigured my purse into an anole, and now I can't get it back!" She gestured wildly with her hands, and then took a sip of Butterbeer.

Carmen lowered her voice. "So anyway, while he was fussing over it, trying to help, I noticed how unusually...small his hands were. Like, they were really really small and stubby. And you know what that means."

She and Aurely began to giggle. Why did they even care?

"So what we'd like you do to is...check it out for us. You know, sneak a little peak at him in his dormitory. It couldn't be that hard, right?"

Ginny's mouth dropped open, wide. She couldn't believe it.

"Didn't you have fun with us today?" Carmen asked, smiling sweetly.

She saw no way out of it – Ginny gritted her teeth. "Fine," she said, standing up again to leave.

"Oh, and Ginny," Carmen said. Ginny spun around. "Why don't you have these, I never use them." She searched around in her purse for a second before pulling out a pair of Omnioculars, handing them over, and winking.

Ginny suddenly felt very light headed. Saying no more, she shoved the Omnioculars into her pocket and walked out of the Three Broomsticks into the wintry night.

xxx

"Ginny, where have you been all day?" Ron asked worriedly, rushing up to her as she entered the common room.

"With friends," she answered, brushing him off. "Where's Harry?"

"Just got back from practice, but I think he went off to take a shower. Should be down in a few minutes, I'd guess. Why?"

Ginny didn't answer; instead she walked over and sat down in her favorite armchair by the fire, trying to warm up. Ron appeared to be too confused by her to bother to retaliate, and he went back to finish whatever essay he had been working on with Hermione.

Harry emerged from the dormitory stairwell about ten minutes later with damp hair and a freshened look. Ginny jumped up when she saw him, trying to get to him before he reached her brother and Hermione.

"Harry!" she called. "Can I borrow your invisibility cloak?"

"Yeah, sure. What for?" he answered, smiling politely.

"I'm just going to run down to the kitchens and grab some crackers – I'm starved!"

Ginny was surprisingly good at lying. Harry looked at her somewhat unbelievingly however, because he knew that it was a rare occasion for students to get back from Hogsmeade without a full stomach. "I'll go grab it for you," he said, jogging back to the boy's dormitory and emerging less than a minute later holding a bundle of silvery material.

"Thanks, Harry," she said, slipping it over her head while nobody appeared to be looking, and she felt the bulge in her blazer pocket that she knew was from the Omnioculars. She pulled them out, and quietly slipped herself into the boy's dormitory. "I'm so sorry, Neville," she whispered, as she gently pushed open the door labeled 7th Years.

A/N: Thank you for reviewing! Hm...this is a pretty long chapter. I'm really worried that Ginny is being way too OOC, but I keep telling myself that she's just being insecure and experimental. After all...she's only sixteen. So...Carmen still a Mary-Sue? I don't think so. I'm open to anything though...criticism, praise, flames, whatever.

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