+Chapter Five+
Ginny Sees His Eyes
D/C: you know the drill..Rowling's characters, not mine
A/N: sorry about the crappy chapter title ; )
A reminder of the end of chapter four: "Fine," he said. "Come on Ginny." Sighing, she got up muttured goodbye to a slightly left-out looking Harry and trailed Ron and Hermione to the Prefect's lounge. Once inside, Ginny scanned the room and again saw Malfoy amongst his books, scrawling away on a piece of parchment, ignoring her when she quietly sat down across from him.
After a moment of watching Ron and Hermione out of the corner of her eye, them watching her and Draco Malfoy, Ginny silently pulled out her weeks report.
"Here," she said, holding it out to him. He looked up at her and she realized, angry with herself, that she had been holding her breath for this moment. But the doors of his eyes were firmly closed into a silvery rain cloud and she sighed, knowing she would probably never see even a faint outline of something behind those twin doors ever again. Quietly, he looked at her for a moment, then, ignoring her outstretched hand with the report in it, he picked through his bag, pulled out his own report, and traded it for hers, scanning it quickly. Deftly, he crossed out one of her lines, which she managed to see was a deduction of ten points from Slytherin because Goyle had purposefully tripped a third year Gryffindor. She saw him writing besides it that he was there and it was purely accident. Sighing in frustration, Ginny read his report over three times, searching for something she could cross off with a good excuse as to why.
Smirking slightly, he handed her report back and took his own, walking over to put it in the Prefect's report folder. Ginny sneered at him and stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder.
"I'm done, Ron," Ginny said acidicly, and before he or Hermione could say anything she pushed her way out of the portrait hole and made her way back up to Gryffindor. The Common Room was filled with laughing, yelling students, pleased for a carefree Friday, but Ginny didn't want to be around any noise. Turning on heel she walked right back out of Gryffindor Tower.
"Why'd you even go in there?" The Fat Lady called after her crossly, since she'd been awoken from a nap to let Ginny in. Ignoring the crabby picture, Ginny walked down the stairs and back into the Great Hall. She was amazed that the Common Room could have been so loud when quite so many Gryffindor's were still in the Great Hall at dinner. Passing through it she burst out onto Hogwart's grounds, hoping for some peace and quiet. As the large double doors shut behind her, the noise was abruptly cut off and she breathed in the lovely smell of seven-o'clock at night at the end of September.
Making her way for a large oak tree, she sat beneath it and pulled a book from her bag when she heard a yell. Annoyed, she peered out from behind the tree towards the Quidditch Pitch, which Ron was jogging to, whom Harry was yelling to, the whole team seamed to be congregating for practice. Sighing, Ginny shoved her Herbology book back in her bag and stood up again. Casting a glance at the Gryffindor Team, she turned around and made her way back up to the castle. Again passing through the noisy mess of dinner time, Ginny found herself walking towards the Prefect's lounge and without thinking gave the group of ladies their password and went back into the room. It was deserted but for Malfoy and for a moment she glared at him, tipped back in his chair, reading his History of Magic book. Deciding it was better to be alone except fo a quiet Malfoy than to be somewhere else, she sat down at a nearby table and opened her Herbology book on its wooden surface, pulling out a slip of parchment, her favorite quill, and a bottle of black ink, to start her essay on Self-Fertilizing Shrubs for Professor Sprout. About three paragraphs on with it and crossly scanning her book, an apparently very absorbed Malfoy seemed to just notice her.
"Weasley, what are you doing here?"
"I'm a Prefect, I'm allowed," she said automatically, not looking up from her book.
"Why aren't you hanging out with Famous Potty, Weasel, and Mudblood?"
"Don't call her that," Ginny said angrily, finally looking up at him and glaring. He was actually smirking slightly, and seemed amused. "Hermione is doing homework or something, and Harry and Ron are at Quidditch practice. I just wanted some peace and quiet, Malfoy."
"So Weasley," Malfoy prodded, completely ignoring her requst for peace and quiet. "How do you feel about Harry being taken back onto the Quidditch team without anyone even considering the youngest red-head?" She blushed slightly and pressed her quill against the table.
"Harry deserves it..." she mumbled. "I can be on the team in my Seventh Year."
"For one measely year," Malfoy said, almost exactly what she had told Hermione those many weeks ago.
"I don't care," she retorted shortly, trying to get back to her work.
"Sure."
"What's your problem? It doesn't matter, Malfoy." Ginny said hottly.
"Oh, I think it does," he said in a quiet, almost menacing murmur. "I think you really liked being on that Quidditch team, Weasley and you really wish Potty hadn't taken it back without even talking to you."
"Stop," Ginny snapped, glaring at him. He leaned back in his chair, smirking slightly, obviously pleased that he'd gotten to her. Suddeny, the Portrait hole swung open and Ginny turned in her seat, hoping it wouldn't be someone loud and annoying because she really just wanted some quiet space to do her work, but she sighed as she saw who it was-
"Draco! There you are, I've been looking all over for you!" Pansy yelled, rushing in and sitting at his table, pulling the empty chair opposite him close and sitting besides him.
"Hullo, Pansy," Draco said dully, picking up his quill.
"What are you doing in here? Why aren't you doing your work in our Common Room?" she whined. Ginny rolled her eyes and hoped Pansy, or both of them, would leave soon, setting her quill to her parchment.
"What are you doing here?" Pansy said nastily when Draco ignored her and began to continue his essay. Without bothering to look up, Ginny almost smirked.
"Same reason Malfoy's here."
"And why's that?" Pansy said almost suspiciously.
"Getting away from our Houses," Ginny said innocently, re-dipping her quill in the ink bottle.
"Draco, is that true?" Pansy simpered, ignoring Ginny now.
"Yes," he replied tartly, scratching off a line from his essay.
"Oh Draco, what's the matter?" she wailed. "Was it me? Did I say something wrong?"
"Parkinson," he snapped. "You haven't been my girlfriend since our third year, three years ago, Pansy, get over it and get away from me." She stared at him for a long moment, her eyes cold but teary.
"Draco, you better, you just..." she trailed off, staring at him as he continued writing. Stomping her foot she tried to lean in but he pushed her away, and it was possible that Pansy might have finally taken the hint as she stormed from the room.
"That was harsh, don't you think?" Ginny remarked, laying down her quill. He actually looked up but she didn't bother to scan his eyes, having long given up hope that she might see something other than the cold, closed doors.
"No," he said simply. "We broke it off three years ago, she's still trailing me like a lovesick puppy. Do you like Longbottom?" His question caught her off gaurd and she frowned,
"No, I don't like Neville..."
"Imagine him following you around everywhere, and whenever you tried to hide someplace quiet he would find you and whine and complain and fawn over you?" She couldn't imagine it.
"That's different," Ginny said slowly. "I never loved Neville."
"It's not different," Malfoy retorted, "I never loved Pansy."
"That's mean..." she said quietly, but he only shrugged and dipped his quill in his ink bottle. Quietly, she watched him scratching his quill against the parchment of his essay and contemplated a great many things that were beginning to run through her mind. Finally, she sat back heavily in her chair, tilting it back on two wooden legs. "Malfoy?"
"What?" he asked shortly, probably only acknowledging her because he had to pause to scratch at the tip of his quill with a fingnail and then re-dip it in ink.
"Did you skip dinner again tonight?" she asked, unsure if he was going to answer her and growing annoyed as he continued to write.
"Yeah, why?" he asked and there might have been a hint of a challenge in his tone as he waved the parchment to dry and let it roll up upon itself on the table.
"When was the last time you ate?"
"Breakfast and lunch, everyday. Weasley, what-do-you-want?"
"Nothing," Ginny said innocently. "Just wondering why you don't eat dinner." He paused from flipping pages in his Herbology book and stared at her for a moment. No one in his House, unless you counted the slightly obsessive Pansy Parkinson, had taken much notice, if any, to his absense from dinner. And here was Weasel's little sister matter-of-factly asking him to tell her why he had been skipping dinner. Gryffindork, he told himself.
"If you must know," he said slowly, "nosy little Weasley, Quidditch practice has begun, teacher's are having great fun assigning loads of homework, though lucky for you this is probably just a Sixth Year thing, and Prefect's duties have gotten a bit more- tedious. So I decided since I've never been much a dinner person anyways, to just skip it and get all my homework done. Is that alright Weasley?" he drawled. Ginny thought this just happened to be quite an alright idea, seeing as she too preferred just having breakfast and lunch.
"Yes, fine," Ginny said lightly, letting herself roll her eyes. He returned to his work but his mind didn't seem concentrated anymore and glanced up to see the little Weasley licking the feathers of her quill like a lollypop. Seeming to realize he was watching she blushed slightly and pulled another quill out of her bag, holding it out to him. "Sugar Quill?" she offered. For a moment he only stared at her with a slight note of incredulity and then shook his head.
"No...that's alright..." She shrugged and stuck it back in her bag, pretending to open her Transfiguration book and begin to read. Slightly annoyed now she turned the page and half-heartedly scanned the text. Ginny had realized this whole partner thing with Malfoy was going to probably last the whole year and then decided she didn't want to have to deal with a year of fighting at least once a week with a Slytherin prat. So she decided to at least and try and be nice and hopefully he would be civil, also. But so far, he was sneering, being sarcastic, or refusing any and all of her attempts.
"Do ou plan on becoming a Death Eater?" she asked abruptly and then bit her bottom lip, angry with herself for letting her thoughts slip out her mouth.
"What?"
"Nothing," she murmured, "I just, I don't know. Nothing." After a moment of silence and Ginny fiercely trying to read a page, Malfoy muttured a firm, almost defiant sounding,
"No."
"What?" she said, a little nervously.
"No I do not plan on becoming a Death Eater."
"Oh, well, Draco, I'm really sorry, I don't know why I asked...Well...why not?" He studied her for a moment, face calm, eyes expressionless, but on the inside, battling with himself about whether or not he was going to open his mouth. She was doing it again. Asking him things no one in his House had probably even considered, making him want to talk freely. "Don't you, er, support Vol..." her nerves seemed to fail her and she shrugged, "him?"
"Yeah, I guess I support "him". He's got some of the right ideas, you know." Her eyes darkened and again he felt like he had to let himself keep talking. "But I don't want to become a Death Eater...an eternal servant of some other wizard. I'm my own person, you know? No wizard I've never met or my Father is going to make me pledge eternally alligance under someone else..." he stopped, feeling like he'd said too much and scowled deeply at her as if it was all her fault. Of course she had been listening to him and was quite confused by what she had heard, but at the moment, she wasn't paying too much attention to his words, because those she could ponder anytime. What had her staring at him right now was that the doors had opened and she was trying to drink in as much of it as she could. His eyes seemed to actually change slightly in color and depth and she saw the old hatred swirling heavily in there, but also his own personal confusion and desperation, at the same time a cool, uncharacteristic gleam of life, but the double doors were swinging shut, and Ginny took heart to the phrase "when one door closes, another door opens", because just as his eyes closed up completely and his mouth stopped leting loose the words that had sunk into Ginny's mind without her paying attention, the portrait hole swung open and Hermione came in.
"There you are," she sighed, coming up behind Ginny who turned around and stared at her in a way that reminded Hermione of a deer caught in the headlights of a Muggle car, of surprise and alarm and a subtle trace of innocent guilt. "Why are you in here?" Hermione asked, glancing at Draco Malfoy in slight alarm and slight suspicion. "Harry and Ron are back from Quidditch practice, we've been looking all over for you, Harry and Ron are in the library checking out all the shelves for you.
"Oh well, I'm just getting some peace and quiet in here to do my homework, it was even too loud outside with, with the team shouting and things. So I came in here and Malfoy was working too, so what?" Ginny challenged. Hermione looked slightly alarmed and Ginny was surprised at herself, wondering why today she could keep her mouth shut.
"Alright, sorry," Hermione said, raising her hands. "We were concerned. Come on." For a moment, Ginny contemplated sitting there and refusing to go with Hermione, but automatically she put her things in her bag, slung her bag over her shoulder, and pushed out of the room, Hermione following her. Once they got into the Common Room and saw Ron and Harry get up from their seats and walk forward, asking where she had been, Ginny wrenched free from Hermione, who had begun holding onto the sleeve of her robe.
"I'm not a baby!" she yelled, and quite a few people looked up at her, but she didn't seem to care. "I was doing my homework, I wanted to be left alone, and as soon as you realize I'm not sitting quietly in the corner you have to send out the search party to rescue me from Dumbledore's big-bad-unprotected school!"
"What's your problem?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow at her like she was a child throwing a temper-tantrum. "I'm fifteen, and that's not my problem, its your's! Will you please accept that I'm not stupid enough anymore to get the life sucked out of by some stupid possessed diary and I don't need a babysitter here at school!"
"That's not what we thought at all!" Ron yelled,
"Then why can't you leave me alone? How come every year it's "where's Ginny? Hmm, how about we decide she's a silly little kid that got herself in a big nasty mess all alone at school and we have to go rescue her and interrupt whenever she gets some time to herself?""
"That's not true!" Hermione and Ron yelled in unusion and Ginny stalked up to her dormitory.
"What's her problem?" Ron said, looking around at everyone staring at him. Lavender and Parvati gave him slightly reproving looks but everyone else slowly went back to their work.
Ginny hurled herself onto her bed, laying with her face down, coils of dark red hair twisting across the pillow. What is wrong with me? she wondered to herself, feeling the soft movement of the bed as Serena pounced up to sit beside her. Why am I like this today? Is it true that peoples habits can rub off on you? I've never been around Malfoy much before, and now I've probably seem him for about and hour and a half or so just a little while ago, is he like this around his friends? Does Malfoy have friends, or just body gaurds? What does he really think of his House? Why am I even thinking about that nasty git? Oh his eyes are lovely, he's a lot more than I always thought he was, I wonder if anyone else has ever seen his eyes like that? Oh but what was he saying when his eyes were like that? I have to bring that subject up again! Whatever it was...oh right...oh I don't think I'll bring that up again...My God, he doesn't want to be a Death Eater! I never really though of it that way before, he'd just be serving someone else, I guess he really is his own person. Does he not want to be a Death Eater only because he's being forced into it? I can't believe it, his father can't make him do that! Why am I even thinking about this? I should just go down stairs to the Common Room and hang out with Herm- oh no, right I can't, geez, what was wrong with me down there, why am I like this today? Can people's habits rub off on you that quickly?
In a whirlwind of thoughts, Ginny didn't notice Serena curl up right next to her and begin to purr softly, tucking her front paws underneath herself and looking quite content. Slowly, Ginny began to feel soothed and a little sleepy and by the time Hermione cautiously came in to stand beside her bed, she was fast asleep.
After Ginny had left, Malfoy found that he couldn't concentrate on his work. All he could think of was Ginny. All he could think of was Ginny and the things he had told her, when he should have kept his mouth shut. He had grown up with Lucius teaching him to block his mind, emotions, and pain, to keep his mouth shut and act smoothly. And in about five or ten minutes, he had told a little mudblood associater things he was not supposed to be pratting on about like one does about the weather when there is nothing else to be discussed. Restlessly, he paced the room, wondering what she had thought of what he'd said and wondering why exactly he was wondering about anything at all. Glancing at a small, hovering clock that was floating aimlessly near the portrait he saw he should probably get back to his House. Gathering his things he left the now deserted room and strode down the empty corridors. Reaching his House, having said the password and the portrait hanging open, he paused and glanced at the bulletin board stuck on the wall next to the entrance and stared in faint disgust.
Tacked up in between the list of the next three Hogsmeade weekends and a reminder from last week that Quidditch practice was beginning, was a large, bright notice and an attachment at the bottom of it for Prefects.
October 1st
Christmas is little more than two months away, and guess what? This year Hogwart's is holding it's very own Christmas Ball! It even has a theme! The ball will be based on the mystery of Future Times, and though costumes are, of course, optional, we hope you will all have fun dressing up to this theme. The ball will begin at six o'clock on Friday, December 24th and is expected to go on through the night!
All Prefects will have a part in the preparation of this event and will please attend a meeting October 2nd, after dinner.
Heady Girl Melissa Gnuoy
And
Head Boy Avery Hugh
Draco Malfoy scowled at the large piece of crisp parchment, all thoughts of Ginny being cleanly cut from his mind by the upcoming Ball and one of the last lines- all Prefects will have a part in the preparation of this event. Guessing that this would have to do with partners, Malfoy sighed and finally went into his House, the portrait closing softly behind him.
