Only The Heart Knows
By shadowlessphantom

Warning: YOUR OWN FLAMES WILL BURN YOU IN HELL. See you there mate. If you got a problem with what you read, tell me nicely, you don't need to be nasty, as you'll get old. If you don't want to be nice and get old, then fine. FLAMES are accepted. Thanks.



Chapter Three: Closer Than Usual

"Ginny, you okay?" Colin asked as he watched his best friend trudge down from her dormitory to the commonroom for breakfast, and later, Hogsmeade visit. She looked rather sleepy, she had circles under her eyes and she was quite pale.

"Me? Oh yeah, course. Tougher than You-Know-Who." She muttered and yawned. According to Hermione (who Colin thought to be THE ONE who should be referred to as tougher than Voldemort because she could stay up late studying and never be sleepy the next day), Ginny had gone back from detention at around almost three, looking really tired.

"Oh, of course. You mopped the whole third floor corridor, didn't you?" he asked, fixing one part of Ginny's mangled hair. She nodded and yawned again. "I almost screamed when I looked at the mirror. I look horrific." She replied with a soft smile.

"Well anyway, we have a Hogsmeade visit. And I haven't told you something yet." Colin said as they got out of the portrait hole. She smiled again. "What is it?" she asked. Colin rolled his eyes. "I broke up with Judy yesterday and she freaked. Good thing Mrs. Norris came before she could hex me so escape was top priority first." He said.

"What? Why did you break up with her?" asked Ginny with an air of surprise. He shook his head lightly. "I just couldn't stand her uncalled for jealousy. I mean, sometimes there's nothing to be jealous about—but then SHE gets jealous. How weird is that?" he asked.

"Good morning." Someone greeted as they sat down in the Great Hall (they seemed to reach it faster when they were telling stories). Both of them looked up. It was Harry, with Ron and Hermione absent.

Colin noticed too, as he asked: "Where's Ron and Hermione?" Harry shrugged. "Hermione had a terrible headache, so Ron accompanied her to the Hospital Wing since she didn't want to miss the Hogsmeade visit." Then he turned to Ginny. "Good morning."

Ginny smiled as she got bacon and bread. "Morning to you too." She replied with the same soft smile she gave Colin at the commonroom. Harry noticed that whenever she was tired, her smile seemed more reserved—sort of the old Ginny type of smile.

"Hermione told me how awful you looked when you went back from detention." He said, trying to strike up a conversation as Judy, who didn't even say hello to anyone in the Gryffindor table, dragged out Colin from them. Colin reluctantly followed.

"Not to mention how dreadful I smelled. The Dungbombs were horrendous." She muttered with yet another smile. Harry resisted the urge to compliment her on that. 'Pipe down Harry... you'll hint too much, and this isn't even the time to hint your feelings to her.' He told himself, just listening to Ginny as she babbled about Filch, Malfoy, Mrs. Norris, Malfoy, Peeves, Malfoy, Madam Hooch and the gas mask, Malfoy, and did I mention, Malfoy?

"You seem to be getting it on with Malfoy, don't you?" he asked, knowing Ginny hated it. Or at least that was what he thought, though somehow; he could feel from the way Ginny talked about him that it was otherwise.

Ginny snorted. "I get some advantage though. See here, Malfoy must be kind and gentlemanly enough to do things I can't, considering I'm a girl."

Harry smiled. "That's Filch's deal right?" he asked joyously. Ginny nodded and laughed. "Yes. He's lucky I'm not exactly feeling revengeful. Maybe I'll abuse my advantages on Sunday." She replied and grinned at him. For a while they were just laughing and looking at each other's eyes.

And Ginny felt an all too familiar jolt inside her stomach. Harry was the first to turn away as Ron and Hermione came, and it relieved Ginny. She had time to think. To think that somehow, maybe her old feelings for Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, was returning.



"...And she liked, tried to curse me again, if not McGonagall came to my unintentional rescue." Colin was telling Ginny of the events that happened when Judy had dragged him out of the Great Hall while she and Harry were talking. They were inside the train already.

"Good thing. You might have turned to a toad or something and hopped all the way beside me to have breakfast." She replied, grinning and imagining a really warty Colin look-alike toad beside her in the Gryffindor table.

"Good thing? It was the BEST thing that happened at that time. She could have made me a cockroach instead and stepped on me so I'd die easier than if I were a toad you know." He said and shook his head in amusement. Ginny just giggled and decided not to talk about it any further.

"Just as I thought Colin. You ditched me with HER." Rang out an all to familiar voice as both Colin and Ginny reached the middle of the train in search for Luna Lovegood (who they somewhat became friends with since she was less weird this year, but could get really weird sometimes) and a free compartment.

They were teasing each other, ruffling each other's hair messy. The whole friendly, affectionate, best friend teasing that they were.

The best friends turned around and looked at Judy with her OWN best friends. Ginny resisted the urge to smirk, cross her arms and snap at her to make her annoyed. She didn't want a commotion. But the people now starting to gather around was thinking there was a commotion and paused to watch.

"I didn't DITCH you. I BROKE up with you. And we're not together, so how the hell would I be ditching you?" asked Colin, rolling his eyes in a way girls of their year found him really adorable.

Judy didn't look like she found him adorable at any rate. She looked more like getting her wand and making Colin the second Boy-Who-Lived, if he ever actually survived a deadly curse with a scar in his forehead like Harry's.

"Then explain the PDA, Ginny Weasley." She said, turning to the red head beside her ex. Ginny sighed. "It's not PDA, silly, it's PDF! You know," and she dropped her voice in a mock, mysterious voice that was still heard by everyone, "Public Display of Friendship. Only, don't tell anyone we're best friends. It's a big secret."

Judy frowned at her obvious show of sarcasm and crossed her arms. "I don't believe you." She said. Ginny and Colin scoffed at the same time. "Why did you ASK?" she demanded, rolling her eyes. Judy didn't answer and just glared and glared and well, glared.

Colin was laughing now. "Come on Gin, there's Luna. Let's go before this corridor gets narrower that her already narrow mind." And they walked off. "Watch out Ginny. You just might find yourself naked in front of everyone in Three Broomsticks. Watch out." She threatened.

They didn't turn around and everyone who had paused to watch started moving again. Malfoy was one in the crowd and looked at Judy, the girl who had threatened Ginny. He wondered if she'd do it.

He was finding Ginny's life interesting lately.



After a few events in Hogsmeade, Ginny stayed for a while in her dormitory, promising to Colin she'd follow for dinner. She hadn't been writing on her diary, and of course, she had some updating to do.

She reached for a small book key chain on her bag, and whispered, "Engorgio." At once, the small book turned to normal book size. And that was how she kept her diary—she always brought it around, and of course people would often think that she only had a design on her bag.

She opened it to her last entry. "Aparecium." And invisible ink started to show and curve into lines and words. After that time with Tom Riddle's diary, she had suddenly a lot of ideas for her own diary and how she would keep it. It was cool now anyway. She was just a little bit traumatized.

Damn it, it was since she had gotten detention and was looking forward to annoying Malfoy. Getting her specialized ink and a quill, she started to write at how detention didn't seem to be so bad at all. She was having a good time arguing with Malfoy anyway.



"What took you so long? Now we're late!" Malfoy demanded angrily as he met with Ginny for Detention Day 6 at the foot of the Divinations classroom. Their task for today: clean it up, change all the curtains, tablecloths, blah blah blah. The list goes on.

"Well I'm sorry, I was studying for my O.W.L.s." she hissed, rolling her eyes as finally, the door opened and a stairway was brought from the ceiling so they could climb. They kept quiet and steered clear of all possible argument subjects. Filch grinned and showed them the room.

"Trelawney went crazy today, and when she did a spell it didn't work out, so here is the result." Beheld in front of them was—a very beautiful mess. A few of the crystal balls and teacups had exploded and shards littered the floor.

"Have fun." He said and went down. The door had magically closed, leaving both of them with each a broom, dustpan, rag, and a feather duster. There was also one big trash bin. Malfoy didn't know how to use any of those, except of course, the rag for wiping.

"Weasley, how do I use these stuff?" he asked, looking blankly at the broom. Is it possible he could fly with this? She sighed impatiently and picked up the broom and dustpan. "Like this." He said and showed him how it was done.

"And this feather thingy?" he asked meanwhile, looking at the stick with a lot of chicken feathers sticking on to them. "It's called a feather duster." She started dusting away with it to show him how. "It's a sort of old version of it already. They don't use feathers anymore now." Malfoy put an 'oh' look and started to work. If he thought better, these things were Muggle stuff.

"Why do you know how to use these stuff?" he asked as they started with the shards. Malfoy was doing exactly what Ginny was doing. She was picking the larger chunks of the broken teacups instead of sweeping them.

"I take Muggle Studies Malfoy. It's quite useful for detention actually." She said flatly, as if she wasn't in any mood to talk. Both of them fell silent, and only the occasional throwing of the broken chunks hitting the bin could be heard.

He looked up at her. She looked really tired, as her eyes were drooping and she was already a bit pale. Her eye bags were so obvious that she already looked like a monster. Maybe he should ask if anything was wrong.

"Wea—ouch!" he exclaimed, as a large piece of a broken crystal ball dug dim on his palm. Fuck it, why wasn't he goddamn looking at what he was doing? That hurt and he wasn't planning to pull it out, since it would hurt more. "What? Are you all right?" Ginny asked, tossing a piece of teacup on the bin and walking over to him.

"Shit." Malfoy cursed under his breath as she took his hand and examined it. "Close your eyes Malfoy." She ordered. He raised a brow and frowned. "What for?" he asked. Ginny rolled her eyes and laid a hand gently on his eyes. "Just close them." And he, for some reason, obeyed.

At once, a sharp pain ran on Malfoy's palm and his eyes snapped open. "Ow!" He was about to curse her when he saw that Ginny had removed the big chunk from his palm and now, had tossed it on the bin. She grabbed a handkerchief on her pocket and folded it into three.

"What are you doing?!" he demanded as Ginny took his hand again. "Stopping the bleeding. But first I have to check if no shard was left." She replied patiently, like she really knew what she was doing.

Malfoy didn't know why, but his fingers tingled where she touched them. His breath caught, and he couldn't breathe. His cheeks burned, and he knew that he was blushing. Oh why for Merlin's sake?

"No shard left. That's a relief." He heard her say and she smiled at him reassuringly. And why? "Weasley, why do you know how to do this stuff? Planning to work at the Hospital wing?" he asked, though it came more as a real question than a sarcastic comment.

So of course, she answered him. "I have six older brothers who need taking care of when our Mom's busy. And since I'm the only girl, I am the only other one who could take care of them. And boys are crazy—they get themselves wounded most of the time when they're playing it rough." She replied.

Malfoy didn't have the nerve to answer as Ginny applied pressure on his palm, making the bleeding stop. His heart was beating very fast. Shit. Why was it? Hell... damn it all!

"Malfoy, you're so red. What's wrong? Do you want me to take you to the Hospital Wing? Come on, if you'd like." She said, pulling him towards the door. "No, I think—I think it'll be fine." He stuttered. Man oh man. Draco Malfoy never stuttered. What was up now?

At last, when the bleeding had stopped, Ginny carefully tied her handkerchief around his hand. "There. Now, why don't you go dusting? You can't hold the dustpan and broom; I'll do that part. You can just be off dusting and wiping the tables clean." And she walked away to continue their work.

Malfoy did what he was told. At the back of his mind, he knew his pulse was racing, but the reason was unclear. 'Could it be?' he thought. 'No, no way! Shit, it couldn't be.' He convinced himself.

Or could it really be?



A/N:

That chapter was totally weird, but anyway, I hope you like it. Remember to review, that's something you HAVE to do after every time you read a fic here, right? So what are you waiting for? Do it now!