A/N: Sorry this took so long. Lots of holiday things have happened, and I lost my muse for a long time. But now it's back, so all is good. Read on, and review me, please?
Disclaimer: I disclaim.
Chapter 5:
After her detention, Ginny walked back to the Gryffindor common room nearly in tears. Colin was the only one in the common room when she rushed in.
"Ginny? A little early to be back, aren't you?" he asked standing like a gentleman should. She looked up at him and he noticed her puffy red eyes. "Bloody hell, Gin, what's wrong? Did Snape try to molest you? I knew he was a pedophile!"
"Snape wasn't over the detention," Ginny said as they both had a seat on the red plush couch. "And, ew, Colin, that's disgusting!"
Colin shrugged. He was so positive that Snape was a sick and evil man. "So, if it wasn't Snape, then what happened?"
"Well, Draco was over the detention," Ginny started, a reluctant glance at Colin before proceeding.
"Oh, I think I understand now," Colin said, nodding.
"No, you don't know the half of it," Ginny laughed ironically through the tears that she was holding back.
"Do tell. It'll feel better to tell," Colin encouraged.
"Well," she sniffed, "I walked in and we both had some snarky comments, and then he told me to make sure the ingredients in the closet were in order, and I went to the closet, and the boggart was still in there, and...and..." Ginny started helplessly weeping.
"Oh, Merlin." He pulled her to him and let her cry on his shoulder. Once she had calmed herself, he pulled her away, comfortingly rubbing her hair down. "Tom?" he asked her, nodding a little.
"Tom," she replied, nodding along with him. "I know it was just a boggart, but I was just so scared, and he snarled at me, and then I didn't have my wand, and I flashed back to the chamber, and I was so scared, Colin. I was terrified, and I fainted."
"Oh, Ginny, it's all ok. It was just a boggart, and he's not alive anymore. Harry got rid of the diary, and he brought you out of the chamber, and it's all okay." Colin held her as she finished crying.
"He knew it wasn't gone. He tricked me into the closet. It was all his fault that I was bloody scared unconscious," the anger in Ginny's voice becoming more apparent with every word, as well as the fact that she was gasping for breath.
"That was wrong of him, Gin, but please calm down. You'll make yourself sick." Colin summoned a box of tissues to them and handed one to the sobbing girl.
"I know, Colin. I need to calm down." She wiped her tears and straightened herself up as she began taking deep, relaxing breaths. "But just because I'm calm doesn't mean I'm going to not be mad. That was a horrible, mean, vile thing for him to do."
"Yes, it was." Colin always agreed with Ginny when she was in this state of mind. If he disagreed, she'd just become illogical and impossible to talk to. Unfortunately, the thoughts that were running through his head were screaming that Malfoy, no matter how much of a total arse he was, didn't think that her boggart would take the shape of Riddle.
"Oh, Colin, I've got to go. I have prefect duty tonight. Can't get caught skiving off my duties. I'll be put in another detention with that git." Ginny pulled out her wand and magicked her face back to its normal, non puffiness.
"Gin, don't be too hard on Malfoy. Oh, wow, did that just come out of my mouth?" Colin marveled at those words for a minute before continuing. "But, seriously, I don't think that he meant any harm."
Ginny stared at him for a moment. "Okay, Colin. Whatever you say." She walked out of the portrait laughing to herself.
Page break, page break! Woot!
After laughing his arse off at Draco's situation, Blaise finally gave his supposed "best friend" the Heimlich maneuver.
"Thanks," Draco said dryly when he was able to breath again.
"No problem, old boy, no problem. You just supplied me with enough amusement for this entire next week," Blaise said, still laughing.
"Glad I could be of such a grand assistance," he said, smiling wryly, then stood. "I'm going to take a walk. Don't be here when I get back." As he left, he could still hear Blaise's taunting laughter.
Walking the hallway, he couldn't help but ponder that word.
Love.
He had been obsessed with the word when he was around eight. He could remember reading anything he could about love. Unfortunately, those saucy novels his mother had proved to be the opposite of what he was looking for, and he quickly figured that out.
But even they all talked about that feeling, too. He didn't know what love was, but was sure that he hadn't ever experienced it. He could identify respect, disappointment, approval, acceptance, rejection, and so many different feelings from his parents, but he couldn't identify love.
The books he had read made him believe that love was expressed with hugs, kisses, words of thought and praise, and so many other little things to show a person that you appreciated them and the place they held in your life. Those things were not allowed in the Malfoy family.
His mother had finally explained that love, in their family, was about knowing, deep down, that you were always loved, but that showing that you loved one another was a weakness that could very easily be taken advantage of by an enemy. He still hadn't gotten it, but he told her that he understood, because she was getting very annoyed with him.
He hadn't ever thought about what it was after that. He left it behind, in his childhood, believing that he wouldn't ever experience the type of love those books had spoken of.
But as he walked these hallways, he had fallen. How, he didn't know. When, still not sure.
The girl was not the one he was supposed to fall for. His parents were looking for him to marry a high society minion from Beauxbatons. He had met her a few times, and they had hit it off perfectly fine.
He didn't want to become all poetic and weepy eyed for a Weasley girl. A crush, he could accept. A small obsession, he could turn around completely. Love? Love wasn't a choice. Love was a demand the gods made upon a simple soul with no self discipline who couldn't take control of his or her own destiny.
"Damn my simple soul," Draco said out loud to himself as he shook his head and turned a corner.
"You don't even try to be stealthy or sly, do you, Head Boy?" a voice asked from the opposite direction.
"Don't have to be, I'm..." Draco started the statement off as a snarky comeback, but lost all train of thought when he turned to see the same girl who tormented his heart.
"Head Boy?" she finished for him, taking a page from his book, smirking.
He couldn't think of anything to say. It was as if his entire brain had shut down.
And it was making him mad.
"What's the matter, Draco? Weasel got your tongue?" Ginny asked, then realized how that sounded. "Um, taking that last statement back."
Still, he stood there, staring at her, his hands stuffed in his pockets.
"Merlin, Draco, would you say something? I know you've got plenty of snarky comebacks for my brother and his friends. Where are mine?" He studied how she stood there, one leg turned slightly to the side with her arms crossed. It was so insanely sensual, although he couldn't understand why.
He started to wonder if that was his problem. He was trying too hard to figure out the "Why" and "How." Yes, that had to be his problem. If he just acted without thinkingâ₢??
But wasn't that how they ended up with her unconscious after seeing a boggart in the form of the teenage Dark Lord?
"Damn," was all he said. Ginny stood as he turned and walked away from her.
"Wow, and I thought Harry was good at brooding," she snarled, flipping her hair as she turned and walked in the opposite direction.
Being compared with the Boy who Refused to Die? Draco suddenly found his voice again.
"What did you just say?" he demanded as he turned to where she was walking away.
"I said I thought Harry was good at brooding. Unfortunately, you've given him some bloody good competition," she called back from over her shoulder.
Draco did not like the fact that he had to run after the redheaded seductress.
"I do not appreciate being compared to that...that...oh, bloody hell, I can't even come up with a good insult for Harry bloody Potter right now!" Draco yelled as he fell perfectly in step with her. "This is what you do to me. I hope you're bloody well happy!" He stopped walking.
Ginny turned fiercely back around. "I do this? How do I do this? I don't want to do anything to you, but does that stop you from doing what you do to me? No, so just leave me alone, because none of this is my fault!" she screamed. Draco would be lying if he tried to say that he wasn't the least bit taken back by her sudden anger.
"I don't know what the bloody hell I do to you! I've never done anything directly to you! Played a few tricks on your brother and his friends, but I have never done anything to intentionally hurt or frustrate or injure you!" Draco yelled back as soon he caught his bearings.
"Intentionally! Intentionally isn't the only way you hurt people! Intentionally or not, you do."
"And intentionally or not, you do, too."
The yelling had ceased, and the two stood there, trying to digest what had accidentally slipped from their own mouth, and also what the other had put out in the open, also. It was Ginny who made the first move, throwing her hands up, stomping her foot, squealing in anguish, and stalking back onto her path for prefect duties.
Draco waited until he was sure she was gone before scolding himself for his little emotional outburst. The wall also got in a little of the scolding action, as he pounded his head up against it while repeating, "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid," for about fifteen minutes. After he was finished, he used his wand to recover from the nasty bruises his forehead was encountering, and began the trek back to his common room.
As the portrait swung open, Blaise and Pansy looked away from the fire. When they saw it was Draco, they both burst into a fit of the giggles.
"What is wrong with you two?" Draco asked.
"Oh, nothing, Draco," Pansy said. "Blaise here was just telling me all about your little predicament." She giggled again.
"Bloody hell, Blaise, why do I bother telling you anything?" Draco yelled.
"Oh, Draco, you know you can't keep anything from us." Blaise smiled, a type of innocent, but you know he's guilty smile.
Draco gave him a death glare before retreating to his dormitory. His first impulse was to wreck everything, but he realized much too soon for his taste that it wouldn't solve anything. He'd just have to clean it up, and he hated tedious cleaning chores.
He settled on a cold shower and banging his head up against the shower walls.
Page break, page break, woot!!
Ginny had stomped away in quite a tizzy. Mimicking Draco's words all the way back to the common room, she screamed when the Fat Lady told her that she should breath more often.
Hearing the scream, the trio, Neville, and Colin had turned to see the portrait swing open.
Ginny surged through the open portrait, her anguish apparent to all sitting inside. She was still mimicking, but now, it was the Fat Lady's words instead of Draco's.
Colin stared at her for a moment, as did the rest of the group, before saying, "Gin? Are you okay?" She stopped what she was doing, which was stomping around in little circles, crying out in frustration, and uttering nonsense that none of the five could quite get a grasp on.
"Okay? Okay! No! I'm not okay! This day--no, this week has been the single most confusing week I have ever had to live through! I cannot begin to describe what I'm feeling at this moment, but damnit straight to hell if 'okay' is not one of the words I can use." With that, she rushed up to her dormitory.
The group sat there for a moment, staring at the space she had been standing in when she started to scream.
"I think she'll be okay," Ron said, not even trying to understand what he'd just heard.
Harry shook his head. "I'll never understand girls."
Hermione just nodded to Colin, who had given her a pleading look that silently asked if she'd go check on Ginny.
Neville was simply scared out of his wits.
Page Break, Page Break, Woot!!
Ginny was throwing pillows. Feathers were flying everywhere.
That would've been just fine with Hermione, had she not been allergic to whatever bird had been stripped naked to make Ginny's pillows.
Silently standing there until Ginny was finished with her tantrum had been Hermione's plan.
"A-choo! A-choo!" Well, there went that plan. Ginny looked up from her pillow destroying.
"Yes, Hermione, may I assist you in some way?" She smiled a tight lipped smile that clearly stated her frustration over her temper tantrum being interrupted.
"A-choo!" Hermione sneezed again. "Ginny, I--a-choo!--was just wondering if you wanted to talk about whatever was bothering you. A-choo!"
Ginny flicked her wand and the feathers all disappeared. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as she looked at her friend.
"Hermione, dear, I do not wish to talk. If I wished to talk, I would have explained what was wrong when I started to throw my fit downstairs. I came up here because I do not want to share my anger and frustration with the lot of you. That, and I thought for sure I was about to give Neville a heart attack. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some serious demolishing to do...," Ginny calmly stated all of this before screaming again and going for another pillow.
Hermione backed slowly out of the room, so she did not disturb the she-beast with the harmful claws.
She was shaking her head as she walked back down the stairs.
"Is she okay, Hermione?" Colin asked.
"Just go ahead and reserve her a room in St. Mungo's. The girl is mad!" she cried as she gathered her books. "I'm going to bed. You had all best be going soon, too."
"Told you she was all right," Ron stated as Hermione walked back up the stair. "Night, 'Mione!"
All done. You all like?? Tell me, please?? Off to go write, and goof off elsewhere. Love you all!