Only The Heart Knows
By shadowlessphantom
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
A big thanks to the first two people who reviewed: Vouge-Act and Sorrowful Rain. The first two reviewers of the first chapter! Thanks. Oh, check out my other story if you also read LOTR (on my profile). That's all. Lotsa love, shadowlessphantom
Chapter Two: Random Detention Thoughts
It was probably Ginny's worst night ever. Detention WOULD have been no big deal if McGonagall hadn't assigned a sixteen-inch essay. And Professor Binns hadn't given them five chapters to read. And Professor Trelawney hadn't given them another six chapters to read. And the fifth years were getting ready for their O.W.L.s. And last Saturday's Hogsmeade visit was cancelled.
She had waited for Monday only a little bummed out, but unexpectedly, the teachers had thrown them with a particularly double number of homework than what they usually gave. Instead of sitting in the commonroom doing her homework, she had to be with Malfoy in detention.
'Great... study hours wasted...' she thought miserably as she trudged towards the front door of the castle, knowing Filch would be there. Another thing that would drive her crazy would be Filch's yammering all night for sure. Ginny only hoped they wouldn't have detention with him lurking around.
"Ms. Weasley, you're exactly on time. Wonder what's taking Mr. Malfoy so long?" Filch greeted the moment she was in his line of sight. Ginny rolled her eyes. 'How am I supposed to know? I am a Gryffindor and he's a Slytherin.' She wanted to reply sarcastically. But she was already in trouble and she didn't want to get into any more.
"What are we going to do anyway?" Ginny asked after a while's silence of waiting for Malfoy. What was taking him so long? 'We need to finish this detention, that bastard.' Filch smiled his toothy smile when he was so happy. "Oh, you'll be repotting mandrakes, lots of them Ms. Weasley. Though I wish Professor Sprout won't really give you earmuffs and gloves to make the task impossible." He said.
She turned away from him as Filch continued to smile like a silly idiot. 'Another bastard, this one. Not have earmuffs for mandrakes? Does he want to kill us?' she thought. Of course, that was what Filch would want. He most probably wants to get all the students in Hogwarts thrown out, and that would be, like, a world record.
"Mr. Malfoy, you're late. Not too thrilled, are you?" Filch said with a toothy grin as Malfoy walked towards them, without the usual sneer on his face. 'Maybe he has loads of homework too.' Ginny thought gleefully. At least BOTH of them were sort of—pressured or something tonight.
Malfoy didn't answer as Filch led them outside the castle. "Hey Weasley, what will we be doing?" he asked so impolitely. She smiled. "Ask nicely Malfoy." She teased. He scowled and turned away, turning to Filch. "Filch, what are we going to do?" he asked.
Filch, with his lamp bobbing in front of him and the only reason they weren't lost yet, turned around. "Ask Ms. Weasley. She already knows." And Ginny smiled triumphantly at him, receiving a glare as Filch continued to lead them onwards. "I'll know later anyway." He muttered, crossing his arms stubbornly and not wanting to ask politely.
Suddenly, Filch stopped and turned around, smiling quite mysteriously at both of them. Malfoy gulped. Ginny's heart began to beat faster. This wasn't good. 'He must be planning something horrible.' Malfoy thought, wanting to bolt back up to the castle and stay in his dorm until he died of hunger or something else.
"I've heard you two seem not to get along, Ms. Weasley, Mr. Malfoy. And I thought that maybe we can do something about that." He said, the mysterious smile still remaining on his lips. He looked horrible whether he smiled or not. The two of them glanced at each other, despite the fact that they didn't want to even look at each other.
"I'll strike a deal, whether you like it or not: within your detention week, if one of you makes any trouble, both of you, and take note; BOTH of you will get into trouble." He said. "Now let's go." He added with a sneer, knowing this DEAL was good. They followed quietly for a while.
Malfoy turned to Ginny and scowled a little while later. "Oi, Weasley, you better behave." He told her, giving a threatening glare. She scoffed. "Oh sure. Shouldn't I be more worried that YOU won't behave and get us both into trouble?" she shot back, crossing her arms. He rolled her eyes. "Can't be too sure Weasley, though I wish I could get into trouble and you serve detention for me. Won't that be a brilliant suggestion to Filch?"
Ginny ignored him and they continued to walk in silence. Meanwhile, Malfoy couldn't help noticing Weasley had actually a different hairstyle tonight. Her hair had gone long, he noticed that too, and instead of having it in a half ponytail and braided which she'd been having since he first saw her, her hair was up in a ponytail.
'Hell, what am I thinking?' he scolded himself, turning away and regarding Filch's hair instead. Now that hadn't changed a wee bit. 'Wonder if he even washes it.' He thought amusedly. But his eyes strayed yet again to Ginny, who was a few paces ahead.
He noticed another thing. Her hair seemed to follow how her hips swayed as she walked. 'Damn! Stop it Draco Malfoy!' he scolded himself again, this time pressing his thumb on his palm painfully. Just to make a reality check.
Damn. But it seemed more of reality CHECKING Ginny Weasley out than the supposed to be reality check.
"This is it? We'll be repotting mandrakes?" Malfoy asked in disbelief as Professor Sprout instructed them what to do and left. They were faced with about a hundred mandrakes to be repotted on new soil, and to make matters worse, still had two sets in the next rooms. The reason, and in Malfoy's opinion, the fake reason that "the soil is getting old" was bullshit.
Ginny was already getting her earmuffs, gloves and apron. "Yes Malfoy, this is it. Now hurry up. I don't want you to be lazy around here." Ginny scolded. "Whatever." He muttered. Malfoy walked over to get his earmuffs, only to see that the one pair remaining was the color pink. Shit. That was a girly color. No way.
"Weasley, mind trading earmuffs with me?" he asked nonchalantly, making it sound like it was nothing and he just wanted to REALLY trade. But it wasn't even near to NOTHING. Pink was a girly color, and Malfoy shouldn't be seen in that, in the present life or the next.
Ginny giggled, making Malfoy annoyed. "Sorry Malfoy. Finders keepers, or in my case, Finders users." She said and put hers on, a pair of dark blue earmuffs. He scowled and placed his on this time (and very reluctantly), in case Ginny came up with a mad plan and thought of pulling off one of the mandrakes off their pots and killing him.
And both of them started to work, with Ginny giggling whenever she happened to glance at Malfoy with his pink earmuffs. She only wished she had a camera to take his picture. Too bad.
Malfoy was sure they started detention at around eight o'clock. Now, it was almost nine and they were just going off to the second HUNDRED set. Great. He still had to study for a long test in Transfiguration, worth seventy- five points.
"Let's take a breather, my arms are so stiff." Ginny said, sitting on a big, upturned pot in the next room where the next set was in. Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Hurry up." he barked and leaned against the wall, his earmuffs around his neck. He crossed his arms impatiently.
He watched Ginny close her eyes, stretch her arms and smile. He scoffed, making Ginny open her eyes and look at him. "What?" she asked, not the least bit annoyed. But he was planning to get her annoyed.
"You're thinking of me naked, aren't you?" he asked, smirking at her. But instead of being annoyed, Ginny actually started laughing. "Oh sure. You're not even a sight to behold when dressed, what more when you're UNDRESSED?" she asked, rolling her eyes like a mad dog, as if she found what he said very funny.
Malfoy was annoyed and INSULTED. "For your information, almost all the girls think I'm the hottest guy in Hogwarts you dimwit." He demanded. She stood up and placed her fingers in a 'W' sign. "Whatever. Are you even sure those girls THINK?" she asked, trying hard not to laugh this time.
Malfoy was stretched to his INSULT point. He put his earmuffs back on (still pink; Ginny wouldn't trade with him at any and all costs), and walked over to the nearest pot. "Better put your earmuffs back on Weasley, before I pull this mandrake up and kill you." He said and they started to work again.
Malfoy couldn't hear Ginny giggling, but he certainly saw her. And it was the second time, now with the second set. Malfoy was wondering if Ginny would still be giggling at him at the third set of mandrakes.
"Last set, last set." Muttered Malfoy as they reached the third and thanks a lot, LAST room and set. Was he ever happier that moment. Bummer though, it was a week's worth of detention so he still had six days to bear both the detention and Ginny Weasley.
Malfoy noticed that Ginny too, seemed eager to finish, and he gladly helped her out. If it weren't for both of them, he wouldn't even be rushing to finish this. But since if he went slowly, he'd waste his OWN time, he'd rather help out and finish what's supposed to be done.
At last, at exactly eleven thirty two, both of them finished repotting the last of their mandrakes. "Cheers! Finished at last!" Malfoy heard Ginny say, as he removed his earmuffs. He rolled his eyes and strolled off with her towards the entrance to the greenhouses where Filch was supposed to be waiting.
"Finished now, eh? Oh, and I've thought of something to add to the deal. I want both of you to, every time you finish a detention, appear before me at the same time. So for example, if one of you finishes earlier than the other, you should wait for the other to finish." He said and smiled.
Malfoy was about to complain when Ginny elbowed him on the ribs. Filch didn't see this as he had already turned around and started leading them back to the castle. "Don't push it. You'll get us both into trouble, remember?" she asked, giving him an almost affectionate knock on the head. AFFECTIONATE. What was the matter with her?
"Hey, what's the fondness for? You act like I'm one of your brothers." He hissed, slapping her hand away. To Malfoy's surprise and glee, Ginny blushed, and it was obvious since her face was now comparable to her hair. "Whatever. It's just that I have six older brothers, okay? Just got used to it." She mumbled.
Malfoy decided to push this girl no further, though this was actually the first time tonight that he'd had her blushing. He was tired, and despite the love of making girls blush to make them inferior to him, he just had no strength left.
Actually, he wasn't sure if it was because he was tired. Anyway, Detention Day 1 was finished. That was more important that random thoughts about Ginny Weasley, or any Weasley for that matter.
The rest of detention was worse than the first. It was like Malfoy and Ginny were destined to be in detention this week, at the same time having loads of homework. If they knew better, they could have been cursed or something else worse than that.
In Detention Day 5, which was a Friday, despite the fact that they actually had a Hogsmeade visit the next day, it didn't prove to be something any of them could be happy about.
The reason? That night, at eight thirty, they had to clean the whole Third Floor corridor where both of them had been caught and where, unluckily, Peeves had decided to play with Dungbombs. He had stolen it from a second year student. Damn that second year.
"This corridor stinks so bad." Malfoy heard Ginny say as both of them, a mop and bucket each (plus a gas mask in the pure kindness of Madam Hooch), walked towards the corridor. Her eyes were tearing up. Malfoy couldn't blame her. The smell was beyond bad.
"Curse Peeves. And Filch too." Malfoy muttered meanwhile as they got started across from each other. He was cursing Peeves because of the Dungbombs, and then more especially Filch because of several more deals he'd made through out Detention days 2 to 4.
The first two deals were: that if one of them caused any trouble they would both be in trouble; and that after each detention task, they had to present themselves together to Filch meaning they had to wait for one another to finish the said task before any of them could go back in peace to their Houses.
And then, Detention Day 2: they should come on time together, meaning they had to meet in one place first before appearing before Filch. Detention Day 3: They weren't allowed to argue, fight or commit any other form of nastiness whatsoever (which was a big bummer for Malfoy of course). And lastly, Detention Day 4 and probably the worst of all: Malfoy should be kind and gentlemanly enough to do things for Ginny that she can't do, considering she's a girl.
Filch was so happy—he'd made it all up himself. But Malfoy wasn't too happy about it since more of the DEALS applied to his self-content and happiness to annoy and torture Ginny. He even thought of telling Snape, but there was no way he was giving Filch the satisfaction that these deals were affecting him.
Especially that Filch seemed to be experimenting on ways that would make detention harder. No way. It only meant goodbye to happy, rule breaking days and then being caught afterwards.
"Malfoy, do me a favor—open the higher windows. You're much taller than me." Ginny called as they dragged on from inch after inch of dungbomb dung. He didn't complain, as he knew Filch might be lurking around; he walked over to the windows and opened them. And if he complained and Filch was INDEED lurking around, it would fall under the NASTINESS and ARGUMENTS section of the deal.
"What for anyway?" he asked, hurrying up the opening of the higher windows, trying not to show the annoyance in his voice. "To let the smell out. It's getting worse." Ginny replied, walking back to her mop and bucket. As Malfoy finished and walked over to his own cleaning stuff, he couldn't help thinking how Ginny didn't take advantage of the deal that concerned her. For some odd of the oddest reasons.
'She didn't even boss me around and pretend that she can't do things even if she can. If that chance were given to me, I would have certainly took advantage of it.' He thought, once in a while glancing at her as she mopped.
And he also couldn't help how she mopped the floor really clean. 'Now that's housewife material.' He thought and almost smiled, for some reason he didn't and would probably never know. "Malfoy, you're mopping the same spot and it's already sparkling clean. Come on." She said, a bit of annoyance in her voice.
He looked down at the floor spot he was in, and saw it was as if Ginny WAS the one who'd mopped it. He didn't answer and moved onward. After all, they had reluctantly made a deal that they would synchronize the cleaning to make it easier for both of them, so it was silly of him to be engrossed in only one spot while Ginny was moving onwards.
Another thing Malfoy had noticed about Ginny and about the detention tonight was it seemed quieter. Maybe because of the added deals; but it seemed Ginny looked paler and well, stressed everyday. After all, it was their O.W.L.s this year. It wasn't his problem, but he actually, in one part of his toe, felt a bit of pity for her.
And one last thing, Malfoy didn't know why he was thinking and noticing stuff he shouldn't even notice. 'Draco, you're just stressed. It's okay. It's understandable. No big deal.' He convinced himself. But that didn't do much. Every time he looked at Ginny Weasley, he always noticed new things about her, he willed it or not.
Mean anything?
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
It was shorter than the first and a lot more talk and thoughts—so sorry if it's quite boring. Have any questions? Thought of any suggestions? Site them on the Review Section. Thanks.
By shadowlessphantom
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
A big thanks to the first two people who reviewed: Vouge-Act and Sorrowful Rain. The first two reviewers of the first chapter! Thanks. Oh, check out my other story if you also read LOTR (on my profile). That's all. Lotsa love, shadowlessphantom
Chapter Two: Random Detention Thoughts
It was probably Ginny's worst night ever. Detention WOULD have been no big deal if McGonagall hadn't assigned a sixteen-inch essay. And Professor Binns hadn't given them five chapters to read. And Professor Trelawney hadn't given them another six chapters to read. And the fifth years were getting ready for their O.W.L.s. And last Saturday's Hogsmeade visit was cancelled.
She had waited for Monday only a little bummed out, but unexpectedly, the teachers had thrown them with a particularly double number of homework than what they usually gave. Instead of sitting in the commonroom doing her homework, she had to be with Malfoy in detention.
'Great... study hours wasted...' she thought miserably as she trudged towards the front door of the castle, knowing Filch would be there. Another thing that would drive her crazy would be Filch's yammering all night for sure. Ginny only hoped they wouldn't have detention with him lurking around.
"Ms. Weasley, you're exactly on time. Wonder what's taking Mr. Malfoy so long?" Filch greeted the moment she was in his line of sight. Ginny rolled her eyes. 'How am I supposed to know? I am a Gryffindor and he's a Slytherin.' She wanted to reply sarcastically. But she was already in trouble and she didn't want to get into any more.
"What are we going to do anyway?" Ginny asked after a while's silence of waiting for Malfoy. What was taking him so long? 'We need to finish this detention, that bastard.' Filch smiled his toothy smile when he was so happy. "Oh, you'll be repotting mandrakes, lots of them Ms. Weasley. Though I wish Professor Sprout won't really give you earmuffs and gloves to make the task impossible." He said.
She turned away from him as Filch continued to smile like a silly idiot. 'Another bastard, this one. Not have earmuffs for mandrakes? Does he want to kill us?' she thought. Of course, that was what Filch would want. He most probably wants to get all the students in Hogwarts thrown out, and that would be, like, a world record.
"Mr. Malfoy, you're late. Not too thrilled, are you?" Filch said with a toothy grin as Malfoy walked towards them, without the usual sneer on his face. 'Maybe he has loads of homework too.' Ginny thought gleefully. At least BOTH of them were sort of—pressured or something tonight.
Malfoy didn't answer as Filch led them outside the castle. "Hey Weasley, what will we be doing?" he asked so impolitely. She smiled. "Ask nicely Malfoy." She teased. He scowled and turned away, turning to Filch. "Filch, what are we going to do?" he asked.
Filch, with his lamp bobbing in front of him and the only reason they weren't lost yet, turned around. "Ask Ms. Weasley. She already knows." And Ginny smiled triumphantly at him, receiving a glare as Filch continued to lead them onwards. "I'll know later anyway." He muttered, crossing his arms stubbornly and not wanting to ask politely.
Suddenly, Filch stopped and turned around, smiling quite mysteriously at both of them. Malfoy gulped. Ginny's heart began to beat faster. This wasn't good. 'He must be planning something horrible.' Malfoy thought, wanting to bolt back up to the castle and stay in his dorm until he died of hunger or something else.
"I've heard you two seem not to get along, Ms. Weasley, Mr. Malfoy. And I thought that maybe we can do something about that." He said, the mysterious smile still remaining on his lips. He looked horrible whether he smiled or not. The two of them glanced at each other, despite the fact that they didn't want to even look at each other.
"I'll strike a deal, whether you like it or not: within your detention week, if one of you makes any trouble, both of you, and take note; BOTH of you will get into trouble." He said. "Now let's go." He added with a sneer, knowing this DEAL was good. They followed quietly for a while.
Malfoy turned to Ginny and scowled a little while later. "Oi, Weasley, you better behave." He told her, giving a threatening glare. She scoffed. "Oh sure. Shouldn't I be more worried that YOU won't behave and get us both into trouble?" she shot back, crossing her arms. He rolled her eyes. "Can't be too sure Weasley, though I wish I could get into trouble and you serve detention for me. Won't that be a brilliant suggestion to Filch?"
Ginny ignored him and they continued to walk in silence. Meanwhile, Malfoy couldn't help noticing Weasley had actually a different hairstyle tonight. Her hair had gone long, he noticed that too, and instead of having it in a half ponytail and braided which she'd been having since he first saw her, her hair was up in a ponytail.
'Hell, what am I thinking?' he scolded himself, turning away and regarding Filch's hair instead. Now that hadn't changed a wee bit. 'Wonder if he even washes it.' He thought amusedly. But his eyes strayed yet again to Ginny, who was a few paces ahead.
He noticed another thing. Her hair seemed to follow how her hips swayed as she walked. 'Damn! Stop it Draco Malfoy!' he scolded himself again, this time pressing his thumb on his palm painfully. Just to make a reality check.
Damn. But it seemed more of reality CHECKING Ginny Weasley out than the supposed to be reality check.
"This is it? We'll be repotting mandrakes?" Malfoy asked in disbelief as Professor Sprout instructed them what to do and left. They were faced with about a hundred mandrakes to be repotted on new soil, and to make matters worse, still had two sets in the next rooms. The reason, and in Malfoy's opinion, the fake reason that "the soil is getting old" was bullshit.
Ginny was already getting her earmuffs, gloves and apron. "Yes Malfoy, this is it. Now hurry up. I don't want you to be lazy around here." Ginny scolded. "Whatever." He muttered. Malfoy walked over to get his earmuffs, only to see that the one pair remaining was the color pink. Shit. That was a girly color. No way.
"Weasley, mind trading earmuffs with me?" he asked nonchalantly, making it sound like it was nothing and he just wanted to REALLY trade. But it wasn't even near to NOTHING. Pink was a girly color, and Malfoy shouldn't be seen in that, in the present life or the next.
Ginny giggled, making Malfoy annoyed. "Sorry Malfoy. Finders keepers, or in my case, Finders users." She said and put hers on, a pair of dark blue earmuffs. He scowled and placed his on this time (and very reluctantly), in case Ginny came up with a mad plan and thought of pulling off one of the mandrakes off their pots and killing him.
And both of them started to work, with Ginny giggling whenever she happened to glance at Malfoy with his pink earmuffs. She only wished she had a camera to take his picture. Too bad.
Malfoy was sure they started detention at around eight o'clock. Now, it was almost nine and they were just going off to the second HUNDRED set. Great. He still had to study for a long test in Transfiguration, worth seventy- five points.
"Let's take a breather, my arms are so stiff." Ginny said, sitting on a big, upturned pot in the next room where the next set was in. Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Hurry up." he barked and leaned against the wall, his earmuffs around his neck. He crossed his arms impatiently.
He watched Ginny close her eyes, stretch her arms and smile. He scoffed, making Ginny open her eyes and look at him. "What?" she asked, not the least bit annoyed. But he was planning to get her annoyed.
"You're thinking of me naked, aren't you?" he asked, smirking at her. But instead of being annoyed, Ginny actually started laughing. "Oh sure. You're not even a sight to behold when dressed, what more when you're UNDRESSED?" she asked, rolling her eyes like a mad dog, as if she found what he said very funny.
Malfoy was annoyed and INSULTED. "For your information, almost all the girls think I'm the hottest guy in Hogwarts you dimwit." He demanded. She stood up and placed her fingers in a 'W' sign. "Whatever. Are you even sure those girls THINK?" she asked, trying hard not to laugh this time.
Malfoy was stretched to his INSULT point. He put his earmuffs back on (still pink; Ginny wouldn't trade with him at any and all costs), and walked over to the nearest pot. "Better put your earmuffs back on Weasley, before I pull this mandrake up and kill you." He said and they started to work again.
Malfoy couldn't hear Ginny giggling, but he certainly saw her. And it was the second time, now with the second set. Malfoy was wondering if Ginny would still be giggling at him at the third set of mandrakes.
"Last set, last set." Muttered Malfoy as they reached the third and thanks a lot, LAST room and set. Was he ever happier that moment. Bummer though, it was a week's worth of detention so he still had six days to bear both the detention and Ginny Weasley.
Malfoy noticed that Ginny too, seemed eager to finish, and he gladly helped her out. If it weren't for both of them, he wouldn't even be rushing to finish this. But since if he went slowly, he'd waste his OWN time, he'd rather help out and finish what's supposed to be done.
At last, at exactly eleven thirty two, both of them finished repotting the last of their mandrakes. "Cheers! Finished at last!" Malfoy heard Ginny say, as he removed his earmuffs. He rolled his eyes and strolled off with her towards the entrance to the greenhouses where Filch was supposed to be waiting.
"Finished now, eh? Oh, and I've thought of something to add to the deal. I want both of you to, every time you finish a detention, appear before me at the same time. So for example, if one of you finishes earlier than the other, you should wait for the other to finish." He said and smiled.
Malfoy was about to complain when Ginny elbowed him on the ribs. Filch didn't see this as he had already turned around and started leading them back to the castle. "Don't push it. You'll get us both into trouble, remember?" she asked, giving him an almost affectionate knock on the head. AFFECTIONATE. What was the matter with her?
"Hey, what's the fondness for? You act like I'm one of your brothers." He hissed, slapping her hand away. To Malfoy's surprise and glee, Ginny blushed, and it was obvious since her face was now comparable to her hair. "Whatever. It's just that I have six older brothers, okay? Just got used to it." She mumbled.
Malfoy decided to push this girl no further, though this was actually the first time tonight that he'd had her blushing. He was tired, and despite the love of making girls blush to make them inferior to him, he just had no strength left.
Actually, he wasn't sure if it was because he was tired. Anyway, Detention Day 1 was finished. That was more important that random thoughts about Ginny Weasley, or any Weasley for that matter.
The rest of detention was worse than the first. It was like Malfoy and Ginny were destined to be in detention this week, at the same time having loads of homework. If they knew better, they could have been cursed or something else worse than that.
In Detention Day 5, which was a Friday, despite the fact that they actually had a Hogsmeade visit the next day, it didn't prove to be something any of them could be happy about.
The reason? That night, at eight thirty, they had to clean the whole Third Floor corridor where both of them had been caught and where, unluckily, Peeves had decided to play with Dungbombs. He had stolen it from a second year student. Damn that second year.
"This corridor stinks so bad." Malfoy heard Ginny say as both of them, a mop and bucket each (plus a gas mask in the pure kindness of Madam Hooch), walked towards the corridor. Her eyes were tearing up. Malfoy couldn't blame her. The smell was beyond bad.
"Curse Peeves. And Filch too." Malfoy muttered meanwhile as they got started across from each other. He was cursing Peeves because of the Dungbombs, and then more especially Filch because of several more deals he'd made through out Detention days 2 to 4.
The first two deals were: that if one of them caused any trouble they would both be in trouble; and that after each detention task, they had to present themselves together to Filch meaning they had to wait for one another to finish the said task before any of them could go back in peace to their Houses.
And then, Detention Day 2: they should come on time together, meaning they had to meet in one place first before appearing before Filch. Detention Day 3: They weren't allowed to argue, fight or commit any other form of nastiness whatsoever (which was a big bummer for Malfoy of course). And lastly, Detention Day 4 and probably the worst of all: Malfoy should be kind and gentlemanly enough to do things for Ginny that she can't do, considering she's a girl.
Filch was so happy—he'd made it all up himself. But Malfoy wasn't too happy about it since more of the DEALS applied to his self-content and happiness to annoy and torture Ginny. He even thought of telling Snape, but there was no way he was giving Filch the satisfaction that these deals were affecting him.
Especially that Filch seemed to be experimenting on ways that would make detention harder. No way. It only meant goodbye to happy, rule breaking days and then being caught afterwards.
"Malfoy, do me a favor—open the higher windows. You're much taller than me." Ginny called as they dragged on from inch after inch of dungbomb dung. He didn't complain, as he knew Filch might be lurking around; he walked over to the windows and opened them. And if he complained and Filch was INDEED lurking around, it would fall under the NASTINESS and ARGUMENTS section of the deal.
"What for anyway?" he asked, hurrying up the opening of the higher windows, trying not to show the annoyance in his voice. "To let the smell out. It's getting worse." Ginny replied, walking back to her mop and bucket. As Malfoy finished and walked over to his own cleaning stuff, he couldn't help thinking how Ginny didn't take advantage of the deal that concerned her. For some odd of the oddest reasons.
'She didn't even boss me around and pretend that she can't do things even if she can. If that chance were given to me, I would have certainly took advantage of it.' He thought, once in a while glancing at her as she mopped.
And he also couldn't help how she mopped the floor really clean. 'Now that's housewife material.' He thought and almost smiled, for some reason he didn't and would probably never know. "Malfoy, you're mopping the same spot and it's already sparkling clean. Come on." She said, a bit of annoyance in her voice.
He looked down at the floor spot he was in, and saw it was as if Ginny WAS the one who'd mopped it. He didn't answer and moved onward. After all, they had reluctantly made a deal that they would synchronize the cleaning to make it easier for both of them, so it was silly of him to be engrossed in only one spot while Ginny was moving onwards.
Another thing Malfoy had noticed about Ginny and about the detention tonight was it seemed quieter. Maybe because of the added deals; but it seemed Ginny looked paler and well, stressed everyday. After all, it was their O.W.L.s this year. It wasn't his problem, but he actually, in one part of his toe, felt a bit of pity for her.
And one last thing, Malfoy didn't know why he was thinking and noticing stuff he shouldn't even notice. 'Draco, you're just stressed. It's okay. It's understandable. No big deal.' He convinced himself. But that didn't do much. Every time he looked at Ginny Weasley, he always noticed new things about her, he willed it or not.
Mean anything?
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
It was shorter than the first and a lot more talk and thoughts—so sorry if it's quite boring. Have any questions? Thought of any suggestions? Site them on the Review Section. Thanks.
