Author: RavenEcho
Summary: Ginny hurts. And no one knows. It's not easy being a number. Her number is zero, because that's how many people understand her…may become a Draco/Ginny or a Ginny/Severus, or a bit of both, depending. Some Ginny/Remus.
Disclaimer: If I owned this stuff, would I really be on typing away?
Warning: May have slow updates (a month-long wait at most) because I have another fic, "Love and Honesty." Feel free to check it out… hint, hint.
Touch Me
Chapter 3:Ginny glanced out of her alcove. The halls were almost empty: only a few people were rushing by.
"Damn," she muttered. She only had a few minutes to get to Potions, and she was floors away from the dungeons.
The petite red-head gathered up her bag and began quickly moving towards the lowest floor of the castle, where Professor Snape's rooms were. After a few minutes, she heard the bell ring and cursed under her breath. "Fuck." Professor Snape was going to kill her.
"Wow, who knew such little Weasels had such foul mouths," an all-too-familiar voice taunted Ginny.
Ginny glared at her brother's long-time enemy. "Shove off, Malfoy," she hissed venomously, tucking her hair behind her ear.
She didn't notice her robe's sleeve slide down her raised arm, but Draco did. And he snatched upon the opportunity. Quite literally. The blond boy stared at all the cuts and scars upon the youngest Weasley's wrist.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Draco asked quietly, letting go of Ginny's arm.
"None of your goddamn business," Ginny Weasley snarled, pulling her sleeve down. "I have class to get to, so if you please," she said as she pushed him out of her way.
Malfoy stared after her, quite astonished.
A few minutes later, Ginny walked into Snape's class, fifteen minutes late, and appearing not to be worried about it either.
"Detention, Weasley," the teacher called. "And ten points from Gryffindor for your tardiness."
Ginny shrugged, quite unconcerned, as her housemates groaned. The red-headed teenager noticed that they didn't actually make any move to defend her, like they would've done with Harry or even Ron.
"To your seat," Snape ordered, looking briefly disconcerted at the lack of concern on his student's face at the thought of losing house points. He really needed to work on being more frightening.
Ginny glanced around the room and found that the only seat left was an empty table in the back of the classroom, in between the Slytherins and the Gryffindors. That meant she had no partner for the class and would work alone. She made her way back to the seat and deposited her books in the other seat beside her. Snape stared after her for a moment more, then reluctantly turned back to the board to continue his lecture. There was just something off about the youngest Weasley.
Ginny pulled out some parchment and a quill, ready to take notes. She had an excellent grade in Potions, and she wanted to keep it that way. It was the only thing she got any recognition for from her family. She was sort of famous for passing Potions class with flying colors. It was a surprising victory for any Gryffindor, what with the way Snape favored the Slytherins, and none of the earlier Weasleys had done very well at all in Snape's class. She was almost surprised that Percy hadn't succeeded in the class, what with all he talked about stupid cauldron bottoms for his research last year. But it seemed that the potions professor particularly disliked the Weasley boys, and graded them unfairly because of it.
About halfway through the lesson, Professor Snape ended his lecture and told the class to prepare to brew the potion they'd been taking notes on. With a nasty smirk, he told them to use only their notes, not the book, and erased the board with a wave of his wand.
Ginny snickered evilly at the fearful looks on the students' faces and walked over to the student store cabinet to collect the proper ingredients for the potion.
Suckers, she thought in her head as she returned to her table.
Ginny began methodically chopping witch's hair root into even pieces. She was actually glad that she was working alone. Now there was no partner to mess things up while she wasn't looking after them. Ginny added some water into the cauldron on the table with a wave of her wand and started a flame underneath it with another spell. Once the water was boiling nicely, she added the roots she had chopped, and also some powdered fish bone. She smiled when the potion stopped bubbling. According to the notes she had taken, the potion was brewing correctly. Fantastic.
At the end of class, Snape grudgingly admitted that Ginny had been the only one to brew the potion correctly. He even gave Gryffindor two house points for it, which he promptly took away again along with eighteen more when his Gryffindor students began talking.
Ginny was about to leave class with the other students when the bell rang, but Snape called her name.
"Weasley!"
The girl stopped and turned to face him, looking completely and utterly bored.
"Your detention will be served tomorrow night at 7:00, here in my classroom. Don't be late this time," he sneered.
Ginny nodded. "Yes sir," she said quietly, though not meekly, and she left the room before Snape could demand her to.
After she left Potions, Ginny wandered up to the Great Hall for lunch. She looked at the Gryffindor table: there were no places to sit with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. She might've sat with Fred and George last year, but they weren't here anymore. She readjusted her bag on her shoulder before moving down to the end of the long table and sitting in a seat by herself.
She grabbed a turkey and cheese sandwich off the platter before her and pulled out a book. It was a book on dragons that Charlie had given her for her birthday back in August. She knew he had only given it to her because he had already had it for his studies and couldn't afford anything else, but she appreciated it all the same. It was pretty interesting, so Ginny could see how Charlie had chosen a career with dragons.
Ginny ate most of her sandwich, all except for the crust, and after she had drained it down with a swallow of pumpkin juice, she stood to leave the Hall.
"Ginny!" someone called her name.
Ginny turned to see who it was and saw Luna waving her over to the Ravenclaw table, patting the empty seat beside her.
"So, how was class this morning?" Luna asked as soon as Ginny sat down. "You had Divination, right?"
"No," Ginny answered. "I decided to take Arithmancy instead. Remember? Because back in third year, Hermione told me Professor Trelawney was a bunch of shit."
Luna frowned. "Ginny, you really should watch your mouth. Cursing is so rude."
Ginny just rolled her eyes. Blaise Zabini was having way too much effect on her friend.
"I'm going to go do a little bit of homework in the library before my next class starts. I'll see you later, Luna."
"Bye Ginny," the dirty-blonde girl waved, pulling out an old Quibbler magazine. Ginny smiled at her friend. There were some things even Blaise couldn't change. Ginny left the Hall and started towards the library. Halfway there, she changed her mind and headed towards the Owlery instead. Maybe she'd write to Remus.
Ginny settled down on the straw floor of the Owlery, leaning against the wall. Smiling at the soft hooting of a few of the owls above, she pulled out some parchment so she could write her letter.
Dear Remus,
Today was the first day back in classes- oh the excitement. Not much is going on, except for I already have a detention in Potions and it's only lunchtime. What can I say, I'm a bad kid. No, not really, you know that. I was a few minutes tardy to Potions class, so Snape took a few points off and gave me detention. Same old, same old. As if I care. It was sort of ironic, because even though I missed the first fifteen minutes of class, I was the only one who made the potion correctly. Stupid incompetent people. I don't know how they're going to pass Snape's O.W.L. It might be funny if they all failed. I kind of miss Luna… she seems to be drifting away because of Blaise. It's sad. You know how few friends I have. But I'll be okay. I'll always have you, right? I prayed for you last night. I'm just sorry that I can't take away the pain you have in your transformation. You know that's why I cut when I pray for you. So I can share your pain. Well, I have to get to Herbology… I'm in the Owlery, and it's all the way out on the grounds, so I don't have much hope of being on time. Oh well. I miss you.
Love,
Ginny
Ginny folded the letter carefully and wrote Remus' name on the front in curly black letters. After letting the ink dry, she called down one of the school owls. It was a large brown barn owl.
"Hey, owl," Ginny said, tying the letter to the owl's leg. She carried it to the window and threw it out into the sky. After watching it start to flap away, she quickly turned and seized her books. She really did need to hurry; it wasn't a good start to the year to be late to two classes on the first day of school.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow, I got this one out fast… I just started writing last night and it all came out! I love it when that happens…I have an idea of what's gonna happen in the next chapter, but we'll see. I was disappointed that I only got two reviews for this chapter… so please, please review if you're reading this! I can even deal with criticism, as long as it has a point to it.
REVIEW RESPONSES:
Thank you EternalEcho, and also thanks to you, Golden Moon Phoenix.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Oh yeah… I need opinions on where to go with this fic, romantically, I mean. Should it be Ginny/Draco, or Ginny/Severus? I just don't know about Ginny/Severus: I'm not sure how good I'd be at it. So please tell me in your review how you feel! Thanks!