x To Die For x

x Chapter Three: To Fight x

Three moving pictures of a naked Neville Longbottom had been pasted onto seemingly every corridor of the Hogwarts Castle the following Friday morning. Many horrified students and professors ran around the school summoning them down, some students laughed, and others were too scared to do anything about it. Who would pull such a wicked prank on an innocent person, anyway? He was hardly the little chubby boy he had been in his earlier years, but for some reason he never seemed to get the respect he deserved for being the kind and caring upper classman he was.

That morning he was nowhere to be found, and Ginny didn't blame him for not showing up to classes. Professor Snape especially would have undoubtedly taken advantage of the opportunity to humiliate him further either by some snide remark or demonstration. Sitting in Advanced Potions, Ginny bit her lip and fought her hardest to not feel any shame in what she had done. But it was true; this was all her fault. She could've prevented it, but she was too cowardly and she didn't. Pathetic.

At the end of class, Ginny glanced at Carmen, who looked back at her and winked, silently laughing. "If anybody stumbles across our...little friend...do tell of the assignment," Professor Snape said in a greasy tone, face looking cruelly amused. "Class dismissed."

Ginny got up and quickly shuffled out the door, trying to avoid her classmates, but they seemed to catch up to her anyway. "Ginny!" she heard from behind her, once she was out in the hallway. Knowing that she couldn't ignore the distinct voice of Carmen, she turned around to face her.

"Yeah?" she asked, trying hard to sound unemotional.

Carmen walked up to her and gripped her right arm, leaning over and whispering in her ear, "Look, there he is." Her shining hair cascaded down over her shoulder, hiding a vicious smirk. Ginny glanced up, and saw a timid-looking Neville Longbottom come down the hallway, cheeks already a dark shade of crimson. She and Carmen continued to stare until he was about ten feet away from them and still approaching, but then Carmen jerked Ginny in the opposite direction. She didn't protest—she knew that Neville probably wouldn't have wanted anybody rushing up to him with sympathy anyway.

"Oh, my God, Ginny," Carmen began to say in a suddenly very loud, excessive voice. "Those pictures were absolutely brilliant! I can't believe you were able to get them! Hilarious, isn't it?"

Horrified, Ginny's eyes bulged. Impulsively she jumped around to look at Neville and instantly knew she shouldn't have, judging by the sickened look on his face. He knew it was her. She quickly rounded on Carmen, utterly furious.

Ginny made a gigantic sweeping gesture with her hands, silently demanding 'Why the hell did you do that!?' but Carmen only giggled, pulling her over into a dark and unused dungeon. Ginny stumbled along, eyes on Neville again as he quickly turned around and went back the direction he had appeared from, appearing greener than ever.

"Sorry, Ginny," said Carmen, "but I had to do that, you can't get cross with me."

"WHY!?" Ginny screeched.

"Because, you obviously needed my help getting rid of all your boring little Gryffindor friends, didn't you? It's the only way you're going to be able to hang out with me. And anyway, I like you...it'd be a shame to have to do something like this to you too."

Ginny glared at her, but at that moment Carmen flung her arms around her in a tight hug. 'What the hell?' she wondered for a moment before regaining her senses and shoving the girl away. "He was my friend!" she yelled.

"Apparently not," said Carmen, crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her chin up. "Friends don't do that sort of thing to each other."

Ginny didn't know how to respond because what Carmen had just said was perfectly true, as much as she didn't want to believe it.

"You see, Ginny?" Carmen began again, starting to smile. "You're not like all the rest in your pathetic house. You proved that last night. Why hold yourself down?"

Ginny thought for a moment. "I don't know," she said truthfully. She was beginning to become incredibly confused. Just seconds before she had been absolutely sure that what Carmen had made her do was wrong, and that she had just been a complete bitch by saying it out loud in front of Neville. She was positive that the first chance she got, she would memory charm Carmen to make her forget that she had ever been pathetic enough to try and become her friend. She wanted nothing more than to never have anything to do with her again.

Yet now, she wasn't entirely convinced. Carmen had just proved a horrifying point and managed to somehow regain a shred of Ginny's confidence. But she also made her feel exceptionally vulnerable and naïve at the same time. Why am I buying into this so easily? Ginny asked herself.

Is this what I want? I would've never thought I could ever do something like this to Neville...but I just did. Does that mean that she's right? Am I different? Ginny held her cold fingers over her eyes for a moment and thought about where she really stood in the line of her friends. Perhaps I don't deserve to be in Gryffindor with my brothers.

"Ginny, you're not mad at me, are you?" Carmen asked.

"No," said Ginny in surrender. "I'm not."

"Good," said Carmen, maintaining a sweet friendly voice. "Because I really want you to come to the Slytherin house party tomorrow night."

"What?" Ginny said, blinking. "I can't go to a Slytherin party!"

"Of course you can," Carmen said. "All you have to do is act like you belong and nobody'll notice that you don't. And anyway, I'll show you around."

Ginny hesitated before complying. "Okay, I guess."

"Don't sound so excited," Carmen said sarcastically. "Come back to my dormitory after potions and we can get ready together, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, fine," Ginny said.

xxx

Ginny walked quickly back to the Gryffindor common room, not pausing to talk to any of her friends. How could she, after all, when she didn't even know if they were her friends anymore? The truth of the matter was that despite her best efforts not to believe it, she was horribly excited about the entire prospect of befriending a Slytherin and doing things that contrasted so starkly with her personality. 'What does that say about me?' she wondered. Perhaps a change was what she was looking for.

But this was much more than a "change". This was the complete alteration of a lifestyle, the betrayal of family, friends, and possibly...herself. Ginny was not thinking rationally enough at the moment to even consider the possibility that she was doing this, however. Her palms were sweating with anticipation as she entered the Common room and made her way to the sixth year dormitories to get a head start on her homework. She didn't want to have to think about it while she was getting ready for the party. More stress was the last thing she wanted.

"Oi, Gin!" Ron Weasley called, getting up from his usual spot next to the fire among his two best friends. He walked over to her. "You going to the match tomorrow afternoon?"

Ginny rolled her eyes before stopping to face him. Of course I'm not going, idiot. "There's a match tomorrow?" she asked sweetly.

"Honest to Merlin, Gin, you should've stayed on the team. At least then you'd know when the matches were," he said harshly. "Tomorrows a really important Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw! If we don't win we won't be eligible for the cup!" He was talking as if he was still on the team, which he hadn't been since his sixth year when he'd resigned due to poor grades. Hermione had finally decided to let them try and hold their own for a while, and it obviously hadn't worked out.

Ginny twirled her scarlet hair idly around her finger. "Um...no, I don't think I can make it," she said extremely quickly. "Cheer extra hard for me, okay?" She dismissively nodded her head for him and dashed away.

"No, wait!"

She set down her foot extra hard, digging it into the ground and rounding on her brother. "What," she said moodily. Why wouldn't he go away for once?

"Did you hear me wrong, maybe? This is a seriously important game for us! How come you can't go?" he asked incredulously.

Ginny bit her lip. "Ron. You're being way to overprotective. It shouldn't matter to you if I can go or not."

"This isn't me being overprotective," he said, "This is me being a Gryffindor who wants his house team to have some support! Come on, whatever it is you're doing couldn't possibly be more important than that!"

"Actually, it could."

"What're you doing then?"

Ginny was getting very impatient. "My God, Ron. If you absolutely must know, I'm meeting Carmen to get ready for a party."

"What party?" he demanded instantly.

"One that you are obviously not invited to?" she said; only realizing after she had said it that it sounded rather insensitive.

Ron jutted out his lower jaw in anger, not sure how to answer her. Ginny tried to resurrect the situation. "Look," she said. "It's a Slytherin party, you wouldn't want to go anyway."

"A Slytherin party!?" he shouted. Instantly, Ginny knew that she had said the wrong thing. "You're going to a Slytherin party?" He spoke so loudly that half the people in the common room overheard and turned their heads to stare at the feuding redheads. "Ginny, what's gone wrong with you? You're acting so stupid lately, being friends with all these bloody Slytherins...and look! Now you're becoming one! Perhaps you should just march right up to Dumbledore's office and ask to be re-sorted!"

Ginny gasped, and tried desperately to shut him up by throwing her hand over his mouth, but he shoved it off, suddenly lowering his voice to an angry whisper. "Blimey, Gin. You're different now."

She slapped him then. "Ronald Weasley, you are being such an insensitive git and I wish you would just stay out of my life! Is that too hard for your pea-sized brain to comprehend?"

With that she flounced up the stairs and to her dormitory, leaving her raging brother staring disbelievingly up at her and slamming the door shut.

There is no way I am going to miss this party, she thought determinedly to herself.

A/N: Well...there you go. Thanks so much to JessicaDracoMalfoy for reviewing the previous 2 chapters, I really appreciate it. If anybody has any type of comments or suggestions for the story (or thinks that Ginny is being way too OOC) feel free to tell me...that would be awesome. It'll only help.

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