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Dance With Me
Chapter 3 – The Consequence for Loudness
It was Tuesday morning, bright and early, and once again, Ginny was not in the mood to drag herself out of bed. She was so tired, that she felt like a human blob that couldn't move. Also, her head was full of different emotions that she couldn't quite exactly remember anything about at the moment.
She finally reached the washroom, and when she splashed ice cold water on her face to wake herself up, yesterday's events came racing back to her mind. She was pleasantly surprised to have Harry as her date for the Christmas dance, happy for Sara because she was going with Colin to the dance, and… Malfoy. She still wasn't sure what she thought of him – one minute he would be cold and sneering, then yesterday, it suddenly seemed as if he had a heart.
No, he doesn't give a rat's arse about me, thought Ginny. He just gave me the quill because he's rich and probably didn't need it anyways.
With that settled in her mind, she made her way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. As she was going down the steps, she tripped over something and nearly fell headfirst down the stairs, but caught onto the banister just before anything like that happened. Doing so hurt her wrist even more. It was just getting better from Pansy knocking her down the other day, and now she felt another throbbing pain in it. Heart pounding with shock and fright, she lifted her head up, only to see Pansy Parkinson snickering at her once again, and twirling her hair. That must mean one thing, thought Ginny.
And she was right. Beside Pansy was Malfoy, and he looked cool and calm as always, but Ginny could see that he wasn't as collected as he might seem. His eyes were slightly narrower than usual, and his breathing was slightly heavier. Just very slightly, though. A few seconds later, he walked down the rest of the staircase.
"Draco!" shrieked Pansy. "Draco, wait for me!"
If Malfoy heard her, he didn't show it, because he went straight into the Great Hall like he hadn't heard a thing.
He must have heard her, thought Ginny. With a high-pitched voice like that, even the deaf should be able to hear it.
Pansy huffed to herself, completely ignored Ginny, and headed to the Great Hall. Ginny wondered why Pansy always picked on her. Maybe she was jealous, although Ginny could not think of any reason at all what she would be jealous of... besides the fact that Pansy was butt-ugly and Ginny wasn't. With that also settled in her mind, she finally headed down to the Great Hall.
Draco was fuming when he reached the Slytherin table, because of that Parkinson cow. First, she almost kills someone by trying to trip them down the stairs, and then she starts drooling over Draco again as if nothing bad had just happened. She disgusted him, she really did. She was a disgrace to womankind… actually, a disgrace to humankind.
"So Drakie," Pansy said in a voice that she might have thought sexy, but in fact sounded something like fingernails on a chalkboard. "Thought anymore about that dance? I'm still available, you know."
"Obviously, you're still available," Draco responded coolly. "Who'd want to go with you? Not me." With that, he left the table without even finishing his toast, leaving behind Pansy who was close to tears.
Ginny had just finished her breakfast and exited through the doors of the Great Hall when someone behind her forcefully pushed open the doors and ran right into her, knocking her down AGAIN. But she had had enough; her temper was beginning to flare up. She got up and looked behind her, and sure enough, Malfoy was smirking down at her.
"Weasley, at first I thought you were extremely clumsy, but now I'm beginning to think that you have a liking for the floor," he said.
Ginny, face flushed, robes dirty from the floor, was extremely ticked off, and started shouting. "SHUT UP MALFOY! JUST BECAUSE YOU MIGHT THINK YOU RULE EVERYTHING DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU CAN KNOCK PEOPLE OVER ALL THE TIME AND PICK ON THEM! YOU ARE SPITEFUL AND DESPICABLE AND -"
"Malfoy! Weasley!" McGonagall had arrived. "Just what on earth do you think you are doing, at breakfast time creating such a ruckus out here! You are disturbing the peace that the professors rarely get around here! Detention for both of you after classes!" With that, she stormed off.
What… on… earth? thought Ginny. I wasn't even being that loud!
"Thanks a bunch, yelling like that and getting me in trouble," said Malfoy, glaring at her. "Your Weasley temper sure gets on my nerves." He also stormed off, leaving Ginny standing there in the Entrance Hall.
She bit her lip, not knowing what to do. She thought she might have lost control, yelling at Malfoy for accidentally knocking her over, now that she thought about it. She was the one being loud, anyways, and she now felt guilty about it.
"Aaargh!" she screamed, frustrated. She definitely needed some alone time in the library right now.
Ginny was dreading the dismissal bell, because it meant that she would have to face McGonagall, not to mention Malfoy, in detention.
Riiiinnngg!
She sighed, packed her books, and headed down to McGonagall's classroom. When she arrived, she saw that Malfoy was already there, seated at one of the desks with his arms crossed, looking bored, but annoyed. Taking a breath, she headed over in his direction and plopped down in the seat next to him. He barely seemed to notice.
McGonagall stood up from her teacher's desk. "Weasley, Malfoy, I hope you have learned your lesson…"
She droned on and on, and Ginny rolled her eyes (making sure McGonagall didn't notice, of course). She was making such a huge deal about Ginny yelling; Ginny didn't even see the point she was trying to make.
"…so I will let you two stay here for a while to sort your problems out, and you may leave when you are finished." With that, she left the classroom, closing the door behind her.
"Well, I know I'm finished," said Malfoy, in a bad mood. He got up from his chair.
"Wait," said Ginny hesitantly. Malfoy looked over at her, eyebrows slightly raised.
Well Ginny, say something! she scolded herself.
"I – I'm sorry for getting you in detention, I know you didn't yell at all and you don't deserve to be here, and – I apologize," she blurted out. She lowered her eyes to the ground, slightly embarrassed to be apologizing to Draco Malfoy.
"Well, now you know to keep your mouth shut," he sneered, but seeing the hurt look on her face, his voice slightly softened. Just slightly. "See you around, Ginny."
Taken aback at him using her first name, her eyes flickered back up to him, but he was already out the door.