hello again, another chapter after a long period of time...

Chapter Five: Time Alone

Shayne got inside the doors and cradled her hand, looking down upon it she found that it was extremely red, but the feeling was retuning to normal. Ho many times she'd wanted to hit him and now she finally did, but on the contrary, how many times she'd wanted him to simply look at her, to pay attention to her and that still hadn't happened.

Shayne pushed all those thoughts away from her, thinking that she could just wrap her hand around a cold goblet of pumpkin juice to relieve the pain. For a couple of empty heads, it sure had hurt to hit the two of them, and it hadn't helped that she'd hit one after the other and used the same hand.

When she got to the great hall, the table was buzzing and she heard her name several times and caught looks towards her several times out of the corner of her eye. This year seemed to be going extremely different than the last five, now she was getting enough attention to cover up for all the time she'd spent without it.

Shayne watched as Harry, Hermione and Ron entered the great hall and joined Ginny, who after a brief… what Shayne knew was a bad re-telling of the story, looked surprised her way. Shayne looked down, wondering how exactly she was going to explain that to Ginny, who would Ginny believe, some Slytherin or her own flesh and blood.

For the second time that day, Shayne watched as Draco Malfoy and his group of three walked her way, but once again he just sneered at her and took an empty seat across from her and ignored her thoroughly. Blaise grinned as he sat next to Draco and cocked an eyebrow.

"Am I glad I'm not the object of your aggressions?" he laughed. "I must say, I was surprised to see you confront that Gryffindor Git, but what exactly did he say to make you so mad?" Shayne collected her thoughts as she continued with her dinner.

!#$&(

Over at the Gryffindor table, Ginny had just stolen a glance at Shayne after being told what had happened and was utterly confused.

"But why on earth would she hit you?" Ginny protested. "She must've had reasons, with you and your big mouth." Ron looked extremely distressed at his sister.

" I didn't-"' Hermione cut him off.

"Ron, just tell the truth." Ron dropped his gaze and began to stuff his face. "She overheard Ron saying how he doesn't trust her, and then he threatened her with his wand so she hit him." Hermione's words hit Ginny weirdly.

"You, Ronald Weasley, threatened a Slytherin?" he nodded and Ginny grew a small grin. "I never… ever would've expected that, as stupid as it was." Ginny couldn't get a grip on why Hermione would've defended Shayne, except for the fact that Hermione was a do-gooder. "It just proves that you deserved it in the end, so I'm definitely not going to hold it to her." Harry had the idea to change the subject and just went for it.

"We're going to do our homework in the courtyard after classes, you going to join us?" Ginny was caught off guard, how many times she'd wished he would simply ask her to spend time with him, but this wasn't with him, it was with the three of them and it wasn't the same, plus, she already had plans.

!$$&&(

Shayne shrugged, but lowered her head as if ashamed. "He spoke bad of my parents." She said in an undertone, hoping desperately Blaise wouldn't question any further, and he didn't he took her tone of voice as a clue to not go on with it, even though any Slytherin would know of her parents.

"Ahh, well anyways, you've got quite the fan club now, most of Slytherin house knows who you are, if they didn't before, and the rest of them wish it had been them who'd decked Weasley. Save pansy though, she's a bit sore that you took the rest of your aggression out on Draco." Shayne had to laugh at that one and leaned forward as Blaise pointed in Draco's direction. Hanging off his arm was pansy, paying as much attention to the now purple eye of his, telling the story that he'd had a run-in with some large creature after class. Shayne shook her head and laughed.

"So now I've been replaced by …"she trailed off trying to make sense of exactly what Draco had said without laughing.

"In one version it's the whomping willow, in another it's the squid and in a final attempt to keep his status, Draco here says a winged Leski had a go at him." Blaise chuckled as Draco stole an irritated look his way, stopping his gaze upon Shayne for a moment and trying to shoo pansy at the same time. Pansy pushed hair out of his face and he turned back to her and pushed her away rather roughly.

"Bloody girl when will you get a clue?" He stood picking her fingers off of the edge of his cloak. "I don't like you." Pansy frowned and looked around a bit embarrassedly.

"But Draco-" she tried to protest and cut herself off in a laughing tone. He just shook his head and walked away from her whilst she turned and tried to act as if it hadn't happened and persisted to salvage her image.

"Ooh, harsh, I'd swear his heart was made of ice, either that or he has a black hole where it should've been." Even though Shayne liked Draco, it was purely his looks, she knew there was nothing good to him besides that, and his confidence, blood, but Shayne herself wasn't worried about blood.

"Have you ever considered how many times he'd tried to get rid of her without being so harsh?" Blaise asked her. Shayne contemplated this, but when she didn't respond, he went on." several thousand, she's persistant, she'll have forgotten every word he spoke and be dangling off of his arm by nightfall." Shayne had always thought Draco did like pansy, he'd always been seen with her on his arm, yet all this time she was just a brainless little girl with a crush.

"Still." Shayne replied, feeling a bit of remorse for the girl, Shayne, on the contrary, did have a heart.

!$#$&

Later that night Shayne found herself waiting in the library for Ginny, who'd said she would be there in a bit. When Ginny did arrive, she had company; a certain red head that looked a bit scared of Shayne.

"I told Ron he had to apologize for being so clueless and idiotic." Ginny informed her, letting go of Ron's robes and watching him carefully. "Go on." Ron's eyes peered out from his lowered gaze at her, and his mouth opened to speak, but Shayne stood, stopping him.

"No, I should apologize, for hitting you, but not for confronting you…" Ron looked hesitant.

"I-I had no right to…." He stuttered upon words. "No right to judge you like that." Ginny remained quiet, even though he looked to his younger sister. Shayne offered her hand to him and he stared at it for quite some time before she spoke.

"So you won't accept my apology, even though I've accepted yours?" she questioned to rather get his engines moving or something so he wouldn't stand there like he was immobile."

"Uh, yeah." Ron reached out and grabbed her hand, shaking it briefly. Shayne smiled at him awkwardly.

"Your jaw hurt?" she questioned out of the blue, eying his jaw line with a bit of regret, she was lucky Ginny had forgave her in the first place, and yet so easily. He grinned pensively.

"A bit yeah." He lowered his gaze to the floor as f he was embarrassed, but Ginny cut in.

"I know I said that I would join you tonight, but Harry and the others asked if I would join them, do you mind?" Shayne was a bit surprised, but she'd had the speculation from previous years, of what she'd seen, that Ginny had a thing for Harry.

"No, not at all." Shayne replied, and Ginny smiled at her, pushing Ron towards the doorway.

"I promise. Tomorrow night…" Ginny replied smiling. Shayne sat back down, her mind concocting different ideas of how she was supposed to go about her homework, she dreaded having to hand in her essay to Snape that following Monday, or even looking at it, she hated Snape's essays.

Shayne ended up spending the next two hours alone, she'd written over three hundred words to her Potions essay and read pages one through thirteen in her new Defense book. She was used to being alone, but being stood up by someone who claimed their friendship over her wasn't what she'd expected. Shayne gave up on waiting and returned to the common room. There was an empty chair, which she took happily in the corner and pulled out her journal. Rifling through pages until she found the last blank one, she wrote down the incident before lunch and the significance of Ginny's 'change of plans' just before Draco Malfoy entered the common room alone. She groaned to herself, as he made way straight for her. Shayne snapped her book shut and made to get up and walk away, but he held his hands out in front to stop her.

"It's rather rude to ignore me when all I wish is to speak to you for a moment." Shayne furrowed her brow and sat back down, even though she had the greatest urge to smack him again and walk away.

"In a civil manor Malfoy, or do you wish to threaten me with revenge some more?" she asked, curious as to exactly why he wished to speak to her at all after the humiliation she hoped she'd put him through. He cocked his pretty little head to the side and made a small tsk-tsk sound.

"Two things Pryor, first is that Zabini asked myself to tell you he couldn't make it to your study session." Shayne glowered at him harder as he looked implying her way.

"And the second?" she asked to get him moving…literally. He narrowed his eyes and looked around the room at its other occupants.

"A truce…" he paused giving her enough time to show her surprise. "I withdraw my threat of future payback and leave no need for apologies, and you… simply… make nice." She tried to hide the fact that she wanted to laugh, was she actually seeing Draco Malfoy offer a peace treaty to her or was he simply trying to make her lower her guard so it would be an easier attempt at revenge.

"Are you kidding me?" She laughed out. "You can't be serious, is this your attempt to play nice, or some sort of prank." he raised a brow.

"You don't have to accept it-"she cut him off as she stood, mere inches from himself.

"How about this Malfoy…" she absent mindedly looked down to his lips with the sudden urge to take them captive with her own. "You…withdraw your threat." She pried her eyes from his lips and made null all of those thoughts. "And I won't apologize, and that's as far as it goes." She sidestepped him and began towards the girl's dorm stairs.

"Bloody ingrate." He said aloud so she could hear, she turned to see him watching her, but it wasn't her he was eyeing, it was the book that she held in her hand.

'What on earth is in that book' he thought to himself, consequently frowning to himself as he thought about it. 'The easiest revenge would be to get that book and use it against her' his eyes turned to her, he wanted revenge, but even more than that he wanted her, having Shayne Pryor upon his arm would do two things, it would make him look good and it would make his father proud, for her parents had been purebloods and death eaters.

"Just going to stare like that?" she questioned and he snapped out of his own thoughts. "If I ever decided to make nice with the likes of you, I'd have gone mad first." He grinned all of a sudden.

"Then what would you call Zabini, he is the likes of me, You, Pryor, are the likes of me." She again had the urge to hit him and took a step his way, though knowing that if she did hit him, she had no means of protection and no clue what he could actually do to her.

"I'm nothing like you Malfoy, you…are your father, and Blaise, has manners, he has a heart… you, you have a shriveled, ice cold version of that… anyone you come in contact with can see that simply by the way you treat others… you're evil Draco Malfoy." He looked at her a little less friendly with that, he looked like he wanted to beat the bloody magic right out of her, but she just escaped up the dorm stairs without another word.

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Morning came and shayne found her way to the breakfast table without mishap, or running into the would-be pissed off Slytherin male she'd so easily offended without even knowing it. Shayne noticed Blaise comfortably conversing with one of his higher males in the house of Slytherin, and chose to slide into one of the empty seats beside him.

"… As I was saying, I don't really understand…" he trailed off as he noticed her presence and looked over rather pleased. "Well good morning." He voiced, turning to face her and waving off the person he'd been conversing with, which turned out to be an annoyed Jason Putterly. "And how was your sleep?" she was a bit surprised with his question, but answered anyway.

"Fine, and I suppose by you manor yours was as well." He nodded, drinking from a nearby goblet. "Why was it that you sent Draco Malfoy with your excuses when you knew perfectly well that he wanted to throttle me?" He got this sly little grin that made her question it altogether.

"I supposed that you'd simply hit him again, give him a second black eye, or escape up the dormitory stairs if he tried anything, males cannot enter the stairs to the female's sleeping quarters, let alone the quarters themselves, I had no reason to question your safety." She nodded to signify she understood as she placed the end of a piece of toast in her mouth and took a bite, swallowing before her next question.

"Where were you anyways?" His grin widened to complete amusement.

"Worried were you?" She ignored his question and continued with her breakfast without looking at him. "There was a slight mishap with our dear Quiddich captain mere moments after the meeting, I'd gone to find my books and then was on my way to the library…Draco didn't threaten you did he?" His concern seemed so real Shayne had to turn and look into his eyes to see if it was palpable. She hesitated with her response as she watched him look at her with actual concern.

"No." she answered softly, surprised by both the question and his expression. "What exactly happened to Flint?" Blaise's grin returned.

"You'll hear in time." He finished and went on to ask her how her night alone was.

!&

"So you agree with Ginny now?" Hermione questioned Ron for about the fiftieth time after not getting exact answers from the bumbling redhead. "You like this girl now?" Ron shrugged.

"She's nice, I'm just saying that I was…could be wrong about her, she apologized to me, and I was willing to admit I was wrong and apologize to her." Harry grinned.

"That's a first… so you like her?" Ron's expression read extreme shock.

"No." He squeaked, side glancing at Hermione, which amused both his sister and Harry, but had no effect on the girl with her head stuck in a book. Hermione was waist deep in one of her arithmacy books and had been since Ginny and Ron had returned the other night, throwing in the odd question that was always the same, yet worded differently. "But I still don't trust Zabini." He put in and Hermione snorted but didn't say another word.

"Did you hear what happened last night, there's something that happened to flint and he's in the hospital wing, but I haven't exactly caught on why?" Ginny cut in, her eyes floating up and down at Harry as he seemed to have no clue what she was talking about.

"Whatever t is I hope it's serious, then maybe we have a chance at catching up with them." Ron said ruefully.

"That's rude, even if it was flint." Ginny put in, a little disappointed in her brother. He narrowed his eyes her way.

"What are you, some Slytherin lover now?" Ginny returned the glance, glowering at him and grabbing her bag.

"That's exactly what I am Ron, and it's all to spite you." She got up and began to walk away from the table. Harry shook his head at his best friend.

"Ron!" Harry reprimanded him with that one word and got up himself. " Would you quit this already, I'm surprised Ginny trusts you" he caught up with Ginny and tried his best to calm her down. Shayne noticed this from the Slytherin table and was growing some ideas of her own in that head of hers.

$$&&&

Ginny joined both Blaise and Shayne in the library that evening and to Ginny, he seemed to be paying extreme attention to the Slytherin girl.

"Am I interrupting something." She asked the pair, Shayne leaning over the table to help him with something he claimed he needed help with. Shayne looked up a little caught off guard.

"Um…no, what exactly would you be interrupting besides homework?" Ginny grinned.

"Oh, never mind." Shayne shifted herself back into her chair and casually sat back with her arms upon both armrests, looking at Ginny closely.

"No, really, I'd like to know…"Shayne laughed, chancing a glance at Blaise, who was watching Ginny suspiciously too. Ginny shrugged.

"Yes Ginny, I would certainly like to hear this as well." Blaise put in, making Ginny nervous and stuttering upon her very own words.

"I-um…well-I, I just, you two seemed really into your work, I didn't want to disrupt it or anything." She held her breath, wondering if they'd fall for it, becoming more and more nervous as time relayed on. Shayne shook her head.

"I was trying to show Blaise how to fill out his astronomy chart… we have to fill out this stupid thing by tomorrow morning…" she flicked at a piece of paper in front of her, moving it closer to Ginny, who took a closer look and looked extremely baffled by what she saw, of course she would have no clue, Shayne and Blaise were a year ahead of her.

Ginny moved the paper back towards her. "I'd love to help but…" she trailed off, shaking her head. " I have absolutely no idea what on earth that thing is, but maybe, if you know how to do it, you could help me with this?" Ginny pulled a similar piece of parchment out of her bag and showed Shayne; in fact, Shayne had done them the year prior.

"Yeah, just give me a minute." She turned to Blaise, who looked oddly patient, like he was extremely mellow. Somehow Shayne thought this odd and frowned, "what's that?" she pointed at the look on his face and he erected a brow. "What's with the 'Draco Malfoy' "I'm the king of the world' look you've got about?" Blaise looked thoroughly offended and then grinned, scooting his chair away.

"I hope you're not going to hit me?" He teased, making Ginny get this odd look.

"What's going on, why would you hit him?" Shayne glowered through a grin at Blaise and turned towards Ginny to make her response.

"Next time you see dear Malfoy, take a closer look at his right eye…" Shayne explained vaguely, leaving the small Gryffindor girl a little clueless. Shayne got up and finished helping Blaise with his chart, then helping Ginny with hers, although to professor Sinistra, that would be considered a form of cheating.

The next two hours were rather quiet, save the other students occupying the library and the times Blaise would ask questions. Ginny was occupied with something from her divination classes, namely some sort of journal that portrayed the happenings of her everyday life for purposes, and both Blaise and Shayne were occupied with an essay they'd received from Snape, on which both parties seemed quite distraught about.

Shortly after that, somewhere around eight-twenty the table was approached by Draco Malfoy himself and one of the team's chasers, though both came unnoticed until Draco spoke.

"Weasley…Pryor…" Draco dragged on in saying more than he ought to have, Shayne and Ginny, not to mention the subject they'd come to see in the first place, all looked up. His focus was on Blaise for several reasons. As he made to speak, Ginny covered her mouth with her hands as she let out an un-expected laugh. All eyes were fixed upon her, but hers were upon Draco Malfoy and she tried her best to conceal her laughs. Draco scowled at her. "Have you gone mental little one-" he was cut off.

"Go about your business Malfoy, or she'll have another reason to stifle her laughter." Subconsciously, as Shayne finished, he shut his mouth and his scowl was turned upon her, but he leaned down and placed a hand upon he table as he leaned close to her for some sort of intimidation tactic.

"Keep you mouth closed Pryor, like it ought to be, or I'll have to do it for you." he stared evilly at her, and she could see the color of his eyes extremely vividly, a soft gray like the color of steel with the softest hint of blue, she was trapped…

"Threatening a girl now Draco, where have your minions wandered off to, they get lost on their way to find themselves?" Blaise cut in. "what is it?" Draco stood, but kept his attention on Shayne, Ginny still hiding the odd giggle.

"Your presence, Zabini, Is requested in the hospital Wing… flint has some very exciting news for the entire team…" Blaise stood slowly, as if dreading the entirety of the hospital wing. He filed his things in his bag, taking his sweet time, and when he finished, he trotted off, but stopped as he came to the other side of the table, leaning upon it between the two females.

"We'll have time to finish this tomorrow…" his eyes traveled from Shayne to Ginny and then he stood up straight and followed off behind Draco and the other. Ginny's mouth was uncovered, but her smiles were evident.

"I'm guessing, by Blaise's antics, that you hit not only my brother, but Malfoy as well?" Shayne smiled and pretended to study her nails.

"Mere moments after such confrontations with your brother occurred." She breathed upon her nails and then pretended to brush them off on her robes for effect, Ginny giggled, but frowned once more.

"And exactly why is flint in the hospital wing?" Shayne smiled again, almost laughing aloud, save the fact that Madame Pince walked by that very moment. Shayne leaned closer.

"He got caught behind closed doors with Virginia Steele last night, that's why Blaise didn't join me either." Shayne had informed Ginny of the things that had happened the previous night during their lunch hour, when both skipped out and sat in the courtyard. It was then that Shayne took the opportunity to ask Ginny of her crush upon one Harry Potter ("we must do something about that now mustn't we").

"Ahh… and what may I ask, were they doing…" Ginny inquired.

"You don't want to know." Shayne assured her and began upon her homework, but Ginny was still curious.

Afterward, Shayne walked Ginny –most- of the way back to Gryffindor tower, though was not allowed within certain vicinities. The two girls had quite the conversation on the way, especially since Ginny insisted on knowing the –full- story of flint and his little missie, but the most intriguing part of their walk was when they happened upon professor Windillo (the new D.A. teacher) reprimanding a very red-faced Hannah abbot and Ernie McMillan.

When Shayne returned to the common room for the Slytherin house, Blaise was lounging on the couch, arguing about something with Draco and a pair that looked somewhat like Crabbe and Goyle stuffing their faces with sweets. Blaise sat up as he noticed Shayne's presence and cleared his throat, which made her look at him. She rose a brow, awaiting whatever it was he wanted, but he didn't even stand, just Grinned.

"Just wanted to get the chance to say goodnight this time." Shayne was getting the impression he was trying too hard to be nice to her at the expense of his popularity, maybe he was a little trustworthier than she thought.

"Good… night." Shayne hesitated in saying the words, but somehow felt obligated and couldn't' not say it, just his demeanor made her feel comfortable with saying it. She turned and began up the stairs, but didn't go straight to sleep.

Draco scoffed as the girl retreated up the stairs. "I think you've gone soft Zabini… 'Oh, I-I just wanted to say goodnight this time'." He laughed and turned to Crabbe and Goyle.

Crabbe, having just swallowed, laughed and then batted his eyes. " 'Oh Blaise, goodnight…'" He over dramatized it, again stuffing his mouth with something as he and the two others continued to laugh, but Blaise just relaxed comfortably into the corner of the couch.

"The two of you can laugh all you want… being Gay I wouldn't expect you to respect such things as a girl more than-" he was cut off by a stuttering Goyle.

"We're not…" he toyed, astonished that someone would think such a thing... even Draco couldn't help but stifle his laughter.

"You know, I've never actually seen either of you hit on a girl, let alone date one…" Blaise continued thoughtfully, toying with their minds because he knew how easy it was. "And Draco, Pansy's nothing to brag about, you have no reason to laugh, you see that is the only girl I've seen pay attention to you, save Shayne's blow to your eye and your verbal spats…" he looked sideways at Draco, who was scowling, but had no direct response. "I suppose your father would be quite impressed if you could get yourself a girl with a bloodline such as Shayne's wouldn't he?" Blaise played that he was thinking about it for a moment and then shook his head. " But you could never… ever have her now could you? Especially since you've been such a prat, she tells me she thinks you have no heart at all…" he looked up at Draco, who stood abruptly and stared downwards with narrowed eyes.

"I don't want her…" Blaise nodded his head, mocking that he believed, but truly didn't. "She's a disgrace to her own name and to the Slytherin house." Blaise sat up once more.

"Oh is she now?" he casually asked.

"I've booked Quiddich practices for the next three consecutive days Zabini, if you wish to spend all that time with your precious girlfriend then do it, but don't come crawling back to the team when she shuts you down…" Blaise mocked offence by placing a hand over his heart." miss one practice and you're off the team, you see, I have full authority and I can do as I please." With that he walked away and Blaise leaned back once more, amused as he placed both hands behind his head and began thinking.

!#$&

To My Reviewers:

yeah whatever: hope you liked this one, i know i've been a pain and hope you keep reading.

Morgaine of Ithil: you'll just have to wait and find out, but if you like this one, you might like some of my other stories.

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