Clueless Bystander, thank you for my first review :) I know it's not that great, but I've never really written one of these before. Plus, I'm not writing it, sadly, as good as i could because I keep getting distracted since I already have the major events and the end planned clearly in my head, but not the things in between that have to lead up to events, etc. They're a bit fuzzy...
D/C: Oh yeah yeah, i forgot to put this in the first two "chapters" but I know anyone reading this already knows, blah blah, i'm not Rowling, these are her characters, not mine, blah...
+Three+
The Pairing
Ginny woke to find the blankets kicked down at the foot of her four-poster bed and slowly sat up, yawning slightly, looking about herself for Serena, who was no where to be found amongst the mess of blankets.
Odd, Ginny thought as she lazily got out of her bed. Serena was there when I went to sleep. Hmm...
All the curtains were drawn across the windows, muting the morning light, but it still managed to glow through the thick material and the room was hot, almost stuffy. She slipped quietly to the nearest window and drew back the drapes, pushing it open, a slightly warm breeze flitting into the dormitory. Ginny brushed a lock of hair from her eyes and turned, scanning the room, noting that none of the other girls were awake yet. Somehow feeling satisfied with this, she crept to the foot of her bed and quietly as she could creaked open the lid of her trunk, pulling out a fresh, uniformly black witches cloak for classes, a pair of socks and underclothes, and a brush with a wooden handle carved into the likes of a Gryffindor lion. Slipping into the bathroom for the Girls' Dorms' she stood before the mirror and watched herself brush a few knots from tossing and turning out of her hair, staring at herself questioningly.
Feeling refreshed from a shower and ressed in clean robes, her wet hair brushed, again, and piled and pinned up in a messy, but somehow perfect looking bun, she tip-toed out the door and down the staircase to the Common Room. It was empty and again, feeling for some reason satisfied, she went out the portrait hole and and made her way to the Great Hall for an early breakfast before classes.
The room was lit with a misty, mellow light that filtered down from the enchanted ceiling, made to look as the true sky outside did. She sat down at the empty Gryffindor table and a plate of food filled up from seemingly nowhere, scrambled eggs and white toast. Amused, Ginny began to eat, watching her glass fill up with cool, clear water. Normally, the table would be full with many different kinds of eggs and toasts and drinks for everyone to take their pick. Apparently, the House Elves hadn't forgotten what Ginny took to her plate every morning when she came down early for breakfast, seeing as all they sent up was what she would have taken anyways. Feeling like she needed to thank them but couldn't, she nibbled her toast after her eggs were gone and looked about the room. There were two Ravenclaws eating also, and a handfull of Hufflepuffs, but Ginny sat almost happily alone at the Gryffindor table.
"Hello," someone said almost behind her and something crumpled up inside. She loved eating a small, quiet breakfast in the mornings, apart from any other noisy Gryffindors. Someone sat down beside her and stole a piece of toast and she smiled, because it was alright, it was only Harry, and he wouldn't bother her, except maybe for a piece of toast. An array of eggs and toasts and marmalades and drink pitchers, sausages and bacons, homefries and hashbrowns and too much more materialized atop the table and Ginny knew this meant it was officially the beginning of breakfast and others would be coming down too. She grabbed her last piece of toast as Harry reached out and spooned some eggs onto his plate.
"Sorry Harry, I was just going to go on a walk..." He nodded and was about to say something when they both heard his name and Hermione, closely followed by Ron, came and sat down next to him, reaching for breakfast. Ginny looked up at the double doors that the Gryffindors would be entering from and saw another group spilling into the Great Hall. She turned and saw a noisy gang of Slytherin's entering also, trickles of each House spilling in from their dormitories. Quietly, Ginny disappeared in a growing crowd of students and slipped out through the main doors, standing on the steps of Hogwart's entrance. Slowly she walked down them, absently holding her piece of toast, towards the lake, were the Giant Squid appeared to be lazily floating on it's back, every now and then splashing rippls across the smooth surface. Reaching it she stood there for a moment contemplating kicking off her shoes and peeling off her socks, and walking along the lake's shore, water washing over the bare skin of her feet, robes trailing behind her like a large, awkward, black lilypad stuck to some girls legs, but the reasonable part of her brain told her she was an idiot and she found herself strolling across the grounds to Hagrid's.
Fang was outside and he whined and barked as she came near. Tossing him the piece of toast she stroked the back of his neck quietly.
"'Ey Ginny. Fine day, aint it? Fang, get away, she got nothing for you, now, go on." He appeared from behind her, his face looking slightly sweaty but pleased. "I uh, heard Fang barkin his fool head off. I was in back plantin the pumpkins for next month, Halloween, you know."
"Yeah, I know," she smiled. "Hello Hagrid."
"Do you want a cuppa tea? Got some nice bread toastin itself in there," he said, gesturing to his cabin.
"Oh no, thanks, that's alright, I was just taking a walk, I just ate breakfast." He nodded, quite a pensive nod to be coming from Hagrid, and gazed out across the grounds at the Quidditch Pitch.
"Harry'll be back on the team then, eh?"
"Yeah, Umbridge is gone..."
"Foul little witch. You kin talk to Dumbledore, you know, Ginny. Fine man, 'e is."
"Yes, I know...I'm sorry Hagrid, I should be getting back to the castle now, don't want to miss my first class."
"'O course. You tell Harry and them to come and see me sometime soon, a'right?" Ginny agreed and quietly stood up, waving goodbye as she made her way back up to the castle.
A couple of days passed by in a growingly-familiar schedule of classes; days meshing together in a haze of what was almost a week. A meeting for the Prefects was announced for that night and Ginny stared at the bulletin board in which it was pinned up with an almost mournful sigh. Ron joined her and also groaned, which prompted Hermione to come over, scan the parchment, and roll her eyes at them.
"What's so bad about a meeting, tonight?"
"They're dead boring," Ron said, turning to scan the common room for Harry, looking to play a game of chess.
"No they arent, Ron."
"They are," Ginny agreed. "It's about the same stuff every time. I'm going to put my things away." She murmured and shouldering her bag she headed up to her dorm, dumping it on her bed and scooping Serena into her arms. "I haven't seen you all day," she murmured, as the kitten yawned and flexed its tiny claws, relaxing against Ginny. Deciding not to go back down to the noisy Common Room, she moved her bag and lay down on her bed, curling up so her knees almost touched her forehead, tiny Serena seeming content to curl against her stomach.
"Ginny?" Hermione murmured, a hand on Ginny's shoulder shaking her slightly, enough to awaken her.
"Mmm?" Ginny cracked open her eyes. The room was dimmer, Serena was gone, and Hermione stood above her, next to her bed.
"It's time for dinner, and then the Prefect's meeting." Ginny nodded and sat up slowly, rising from her mussed bed and following Hermione down the stairs, the Common Room empty but for the two of them, and Ron and Harry.
Down at the Gryffindor's table, Ginny sat quietly and picked at her food, waiting for Hermione to get up. After what seemed to be at least fifteen minutes Hermione murmured something to Ron and nodded to Ginny, who sighed and also stood up.
"A meeting, Harry." Hermione said importantly.
"We'll be back in the Common Room soon," Ron added, not seeming as pleased, and he and Ginny followed Hermione out the Great Hall and down a short corridor to a portrait of a group of giggling ladies drinking tea, and Hermione whispered,
"Willow leaves," stepping back as the small portrait swung open to reveal the entrance to a room rather like a House's normal Common Room but a bit smaller, with soft, bellagio colored armchairs. The Head Boy and Girl were already seated in the bigger of these chairs and Hermione, Ron, and Ginny sat down also, just as more prefects came in.
There was Ernie Macmillian and Hanna Abbott from Hufflepuff, and Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil from Ravenclaw. After a few moments of silence mixed with pointless conversation, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson also showed up, smirking as the took their seats, Pansy pretending to have accidentally touched Hermione and was making a big show of brushing off her robes and smiling nastily, mouthing "mudblood" all around the room.
Something in Ginny's stomach suddenly squirmed. These were all sixth year prefects, was this a meeting only for elder prefects? Feeling very out of place, Ginny fidigited slightly and eyed Hermione who seemed completely unfazed. Ginny was just about ready to whisper to Hermione when the portrait swung open again and a couple Fifth year prefects came in almost breathless, very shortly followed by the rest of them. Now that she wasn't feeling so miserably out of place, Ginny gloomly sat back in her chair as the Head Girl stood up, clearing her throat quietly before taking a quick attendance.
"Right," she said, looking about at them all after concluding that all of them were present. "Dumbledore has told us that it would be quite nice if this year ran smoothly, unlike any other year for the past six or so." She paused to eye Ron and Hermione, and Ginny knew that if Harry had been there, the stuffy Head Girl would have positively glared at him. "We, the Head Boy and Girl, told him that would be quite pleasurable and we decided that would be our goal. Over the summer, we two corresponded by owl, trying to think of why things haven't been running as nicely as wanted for the past couple of years." Her eyes flicked to Ron and Hermione again but barely with pause, she kept right on talking. "We have realized that many prefects abuse their privilege of having a badge pinned to their robes. Some, if not all, of you favour a certain House or two, and are determined to find as many excuses as possible to punish other Houses, which is quite unfair." This time, her gaze paused on Draco Malfoy and Ron quietly tutted angrily when the Head did not use Malfoy as an example. The Head Boy decided it was his turn to speak,
"We have decided that each Prefect will have a partner, and it will not be a partner of your choosing...This year, what will happen is, every time you give someone a punishment, whether in deduction of points or a detention, and everytime you award points also, you must write down the date, whom was punished or rewarded and what House they belong in, and a reason why. These will be your records and reports.You and your partner, of course, will be from seperate Houses. Your partner will look over your report and if he or she thinks a deduction of points was wrongly taken, the points will be given back to the House. If he or she thinks it wasn't necassary or right to award points, those given points will be taken away. As for detentions- every time you give someone a detention you must alert you partner and tell him or her why it was given and if they do not approve at all, the detention is cancelled. But, if you think you gave a detention for a very good reason and are displeased that you partner does not agree you may alert one of us, Head Boy or Girl, and if your reason for a detention does happen to be a good one, you may proceed with it, but let your partner know we have given permission! Partners must meet and give each other their reports every Friday! Were you all listening?"
"Yes," the prefects echoed dully.
"Ginny!" the Head Girl said, picking a student at random, "would you please give a summary?"
"Of course," Ginny mumbled. "Every time you punish or reward a student you must say who, what House he or she is in, and why. Every time you give a detention you have to alert your partner. If your partner thinks that the detention should not be given, then it will not be given, unless you complain to the Head Boy or Girl and they give you permission. This is all so that the school runs smoother this year and favortism will be easier to control."
"Yes, but complaining isn't really the right word, maybe alert...Now, for the Partners. Everyone, up please, up, up!" The Prefects all obediently rose to their feet and the Head Boy whisked their chairs back against the wall with his wand while the Head Girl revealed a chalk board on the wall and transfigured a large vase of flowers into a top hat.
"I can't believe this," Ginny heard Malfoy mutter to fellow sixth year Prefect, Pansy. "How stupid, this isn't going to work at all."
"Attention!" The Head Girl snapped and the Prefect's all looked back at the hat. "Form a line, sharpish now! First in line is first, Hermione, step over here if you please...Gryffindor, right?"
"Yes," Hermione said and watched the Head Boy tap the hat and bits of parchment rained down into it.
"Draw, please." She reached in, drew a slip, and read,
"Ronal-"
"No, partners can't be in the same House, sorry." ermione nodded grimly and drew again and came out with Ernie Macmillian. The Head Girl asked her to not put the paper back into the hat and marked on the chalkboard, Hermione Granger and Ernie Macmillian. "Ernie, you can get out of line now...once you have selected a name or been seleted, you are free to go." This continued, with Ron being paired with Padma Patil from Ravenclaw, and Pansy Parkinson went with Hannah Abbott from Hufflepuff, much to her displeasure.
Uncomfortably, Ginny stuck her hand into the hat and pulled out a slip. Nervously, she unfolded it and it read- Pansy Parkinson. In relief, she handed it to the Head Girl, saying that Pansy had already picked out of the hat. She nodded and took the slip, telling Ginny to pick again. Feeling somehow relieved and just knowing it would be alright, thinking she'd probably get Goldstein, but that would be better than Parkinson! Now almost lazily, she drew from the hat again and read the parchment with a mounting feeling of disgust and horror. Her mouth felt papery dry as she handed the bit of parchment to the Head Girl.
"Malfoy," she said quietly, and swallowed noislessly to clear her throat. "I got Draco Malfoy." Not bothering to watch her name get written on the board next to Malfoy's with the Head Girls crisp, precise script, Ginny left the room, feeling a presence following her. As the portrait snapped back shut, Malfoy steppd up to walk beside her then, then took a slightly longer stride to be ahead of her and swung about in front of Ginny, stopping her in her tracks.
"So, we're partners, huh, Weasley?"
"Looks that way, Malfoy."
"Oh sorry, Weasley, are you in a hurry to get back and be comforted by you Potty love?" he taunted as she tried to push past him.
"I don't love Harry," she snapped back vemenously.
"Have you truly come to your senses, Weasley?"
"I guess so," Ginny said, just trying to get rid of him. He smirked at her and before her brain registered it he was striding down the hall in the opposite direction, towards the Slytherin dungeons.
Sourly, Ginny muttured the password and entered the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Hey, Ginny," Hermione said, looking up from her Arithmancy book, just as Ron and Harry looked up from what seemed to be charts from Divination.
"Who'd you get paired with?" Harry asked, seming to think this was a good enough excuse as he put down his quill.
"You'll never guess!" Ginny said, appearing very pleased and happy with the situiation. Hermione groaned and shook her head in a pityingly.
"What?" said Ron, looking confused, "Who'd you get?"
"Malfoy," Hermione said.
"How did you know?" Ron asked but before Hermione could even answer he shook his head, mutturing "slimy git" and asking Ginny if it was true. She nodded glumly and sat down on the arm of one of the Common Room's comfortable armchairs.
"I'm going to have to meet with him every Friday so we can exchange reports, can you believe it? And everytime he gives someone a detention!"
"You know what he's going to do about the detentions," Hermione sighed. Ginny nodded unhappily and fell into the chair.
"What's he going to do with the detentions?" Ron asked, again clueless.
"Well, he might just not tell me when he gives out detentions so I won't know and when the Head Boy or Girl sees his report with the detentions on it with crappy reasons, they'll wonder why I didn't do anything about them. Or, more likely, because he'll have less reason to get in trouble, he's going to tell about every detention he gives like he's supposed to, but give tons of them so I'm constantly reviewing his crappy reasons and having to find him and tell him to take the detention back."
"Oh," Ron said, looking vaugely at the floor for a moment before shaking his head in disgust. "Stupid, slimy, git of a ferret. Hey Harry, want to play a game of Chess?"
That Monday night had passed pretty quickly, Ginny having gone rather early up to her dorm and lay in her bed until she fell asleep with Serena against the back of her legs. Tuesday dripped slowly by and Wednesday was passing just as sluggishly. Ginny stepped out of Transfiguration class, pleased to be the first one in her class to be able to transform a turtle into a tea kettle, and was making her way down the hall to lunch and walking past Gregory the Smarmy when something shot out and grabbed her arm, pulling her behind the statue, a firm, slightly calloused hand pressed across her mouth. She squirmed for a moment but realized very quickly this would do her no good and went still. She was released and spun around to see a Malfoy discreetly wiping his hand off on his robes, but not discreetly enough.
"Sorry, I didn't know, do I have a disease?" She asked bitterly, "How contagious am I?"
"Shut up for once, Weasley. I need to tell you something."
"And it couldn't wait two minutes so I could be happily sitting down at a lunch that I'm really starving for-"
"Surrounded by your gaurd dogs?" Ginny shrugged and said quietly,
"They wouldn't have done anything."
"No? Want to go and find out?"
"Oh, Malfoy, just tell me what you want," Ginny said in exasperation, leaning against Gregory's back.
"Well, Weasley, instead having to embarassingly hunt each other down whenever one of us gives a detention, I thought we could do it an easier way and already got permission from the professors that you and I could do this at anytime, in class or corridors, etc.," he said arrogantly.
"What?" Ginny asked in surprise. Malfoy had supposedly though of an easier way to contact each other about detentions, and had already got it cleared by professors?
"Yes, Weasley. Aren't we lucky," he said sarcastically, pulling out his wand. She stiffened slightly, and he laughed. "Afraid I'm going to curse you? At least you recognize my superiorty. Anyways, watch." He pulled out a scrap of parchment and wrote Weasel is a loser. He tapped the pice of parchment and murmured, "Accina Ginny Weasley." The parchment folded itself up into something like a paper airplane and zoomed to Ginny, falling into her hands. She crumpled it and stuck it in her pocket.
"I've seen that before, Ministry of Magic."
"That's where I got the idea," he rolled his eyes, sneering slightly, as he pocketed his wand.
"Why are you being so..." Ginny said, slowly, "I don't know. Obedient about this whole partner thing?"
"Because," he drawled, "I'm not going to mess up my being a Prefect. You can run to your gaurd dogs, now."
"Are you afraid of them," Ginny asked, raising an eyebrow and it was a very close thing to a taunt.
"What are you talking about, Weasley?"
"You caught me in the hallway because you didn't want to approach my friends at lunch. So you're afraid of them?"
"I don't like a fuss," he said mysteriously and she shrugged.
"If you say so."
"Oh Weasley. Weasley, Weasley. What would have happened if I had come up to you at lunch?" She arched an eyebrow slightly, again, and thought about it a moment. She could picture Harry glaring daggers at Malfoy alongside Ron. Ron would mutter worthless threats and curses which would probably get Harry riled up a bit too. Malfoy would have to retort or look like a coward. If he retorted, being a Prefect, there was more against him for being Head Boy. She shrugged and said simply, for the first time agreeing with Malfoy,
"A fuss." He nodded and was gone.
"Ginny, where have you been?" Ron asked peevishly as she sat down next to Hermione, quite late for lunch.
"I was...talking to Malfoy."
"What?"
"Ron, cool it," Ginny said, rolling her eyes and reaching for a sandwhich of a platter. "It was about the whole prefect thing. He thought of a better way to alert each other about detentions than running around finding each other, and he had to inform me, that's all."
"Well, why didn't he inform you here?" Harry asked. Ginny shrugged and Ron looked savagely about for Malfoy.
"He's up to something," he murmured, and Ginny shook her head.
"He's not up to something."
"What makes you so sure?" Ron asked hottly.
"Eat your vegetables, Ron."
"What?"
"Eat your vegetables," Hermione snapped at him before Ginny could repeat yourself.
"What's your problem? What's that supposed to mean?"
"I think it means to mind your own business," Harry said quietly, grinning slightly, but still looking darkly around for Malfoy every couple of minutes.
A/N: i hope who ever reads this thinks its at least alright so far...please review if you've read, thanks, i'd love to hear the thoughts from whoever's reading
