A/N: I'm finally updating! I'm proud of myself. It's been almost two years! Ahh I'm such a bad person. Ok, I'm retarded but let's pretend like everyone at Hogwarts already knew about the Valentine's Day Ball because it was in the letter with their school supplies. Enjoy!
"Brilliant!" Blaise exclaimed after Draco had told him what had happened with Ginny. "She'll be falling over herself to go out with you! And she knew about the bet?"
Draco nodded. Blaise chuckled.
"They're so easy to manipulate. Well, most of them. I met this Muggle chick once…"
Draco pondered and Blaise launched into his story. Was he really manipulating Ginny? Draco shook himself. He didn't care, of course, and why should he? As the Sorting Hat had once said, "Those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends." And he was doing just that. Besides, it wasn't as if he actually had feelings for her. Not at all. What a ridiculous idea.
"You know, Draco, you should as the little Weasel to that stupid Valentine's Day Ball. If her brother saw you two together, he'd have to admit you won the bet, right?" Blaise said.
"That's the best idea you've had all day, Blaise," Draco said.
Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas burst into the Gryffindor common room.
"Listen up everyone! We have just broken into the Slytherin locker rooms and taken Draco Malfoy's broom!" Seamus proclaimed.
Ginny looked up to see Dean waving around a sleek Nimbus 2003 and her eyes widen. There was a split second of silence in the common room, followed by an eruption of cheering. Dean set the broom on a couch and everyone gathered round, including Ginny. She had to see what they'd do.
"Now folks, probably every single one of you in the room has been bullied, mocked, taunted or insulted by Draco Malfoy." Of course. Nothing would happen before Seamus made a speech. "And to tell the truth, we're sick of it, aren't we?" The crowd cheered approvingly. "So today, are we going to do something about it?" The crowd collectively yelled "Yeah!"
Dean cut in. "Ladies and Gentleman, we are going to hex Draco Malfoy's broom!" The crowd roared, then went instantly silent as Seamus raised his wand.
"Spasmodium Scopa!" (A/N: I know, lame, but scopa does mean broom in Italian. It was the closest I could get to Latin) Seamus shouted. The broom shined vibrant turquoise for a few seconds. The Gryffindors applauded wildly.
"Now we've got to put the broom back in the locker room. Everyone be at the Gryffindor-Slytherin game tomorrow and see Malfoy finally get his comeuppance. Thank you, ladies and gentleman!" Seamus and Dean took a bow and crawled out of the portrait hole.
Ginny whacked the Bludger to the ground with such extreme force that when it hit the ground it made a sizeable dent. She grinned, proud of herself. Not many people could do that.
Ginny's other teammates had left when their morning practice was over, but Ginny had stayed, intent on sharpening her skills. Now, Ginny decided, was the time to quit, as she had lost most of the feeling in her arm. Just as she was about to point her broom downward, Draco Malfoy came zooming up on his Nimbus 2003. Ginny sighed. She couldn't decide if she hated Draco or not. She knew he was using her for that silly bet, but just maybe…don't be ridiculous, Ginny, she thought to herself. She decided she was furious at him. Ginny Weasley did not respond kindly to people using her.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" she asked, gritting her teeth. Wait a minute…his broom is jinxed! Ginny remembered. She tried to stifle her snigger, to no avail.
"What's so funny, Weasley?" Draco asked.
"Oh, nothing, nothing…"
"Why don't you tell me now or…" in one lightning move, Draco's snatched the wand that was protruding from Ginny's pocket. "…you don't get your wand back."
"Give it back, Malfoy! Before I pound you with this bat!"
Before Ginny could stop him, Draco whizzed through the air toward the Forbidden Forest. Ginny followed, but her broom couldn't nearly match the speed of Draco's. Draco continued until he was above the exact middle of the forest and, with a grin, dropped Ginny's wand.
"NO!" Ginny yelled. As she flew toward him, Draco's broom started twitching. Then it started having flat out spasms. Draco hung on tightly, completely bewildered. The broom shot out from underneath him and sped toward the castle, and Draco fell into the Forbidden Forest.
Ginny swore. After hesitating for a second, she sped downward on her broom into the middle of the forest. She alighted softly and dismounted her broom. Ginny looked around and found Draco not far away, laying on a bed of what appeared to be soft moss. She went over to him. He seemed dazed, but generally unscathed. By his feet was her wand, mercifully unbroken.
Ginny did not understand Draco at all. One minute he was kissing her and the next he was stealing her wand. Frankly, it aggravated her.
"Smart, Malfoy, really smart. They should move you up to seventh year for that little trick," Ginny said sarcastically.
"I just fell about fifty feet and that's all you can say?" Draco answered.
"Oh please, you don't even have a scratch on you. Besides, you deserved it for taking my wand."
"Maybe I did. But what I'd really love to know is who the hell jinxed my broom?"
Ginny snickered. "Language, Malfoy…"
Draco narrowed his eyes. "Well, at least this didn't happen during the match."
"Too bad it didn't," Ginny mumbled under her breath.
"What's that?"
"Nothing! Now get up and let's get out of here before we get expelled." Ginny picked up her broom. "I'm not sure if this will hold both of us, it hardly even holds me. Hop on." They both mounted the broom and floated up a few feet very slowly. Suddenly there was a cracking sound and the broom broke under them. Ginny landed heavily on her behind.
"Owww…damn broom! Reparo!" The broom's two pieces flew together. Ginny turned to Draco. "Let's try this one more time." They mounted the broom and hovered for a few seconds, then the broom broke once again. Ginny sighed and repaired it again.
"Obviously that broom won't hold both of us. We'll have to walk back to the castle," Draco said.
Ginny looked around. The forest seemed to have shifted completely, nothing looked the same.
"Um…how?"
Draco pulled out his wand. "The Four Points spell. It'll point us north."
"Yeah, but is Hogwarts north?" Ginny asked doubtfully.
Draco shrugged and said, "Point Me." The wand spun around and settled on what was hopefully the direction to the castle. Draco started walking quickly so that Ginny had to jog to keep up with him.
After what had to have been an hour, Ginny broke the silence.
"My feet hurt."
Draco said nothing. A few seconds later:
"I'm cold."
Draco's eye seemed to twitch. Ginny grinned, knowing this was annoying him.
"I'm hungry."
Draco took a deep breath.
"I'm tired."
Draco whirled around. "Will you please shut up?"
"Sounds like someone's grouchy…didn't get enough sleep, Drakey Wakey? That's funny, I used to have a ferret and it slept all the time…" Ginny had gone too far. Reminding Draco of the day Professor Moody had turned him into a bouncing ferret was an insult to his pride.
"Listen, Weasley, if you don't shut your mouth about that my father can get your father fired from the ministry just like that," Draco said, snapping for emphasis
"Empty threats, Draco? You've sunk to a new low," Ginny retorted. Draco just narrowed his eyes and kept walking. He knew it was true. Ginny felt a little remorse, but only a little. They trudged on for what had to be hours, because it was getting very dark, and Ginny was getting nervous. Who knew what came out at night in the forest? Ginny stepped on something that made a squelching sound and she let out a high pitched squeak. The something turned out to only be a mushroom. It let out strange purple smoke that filled Ginny's lungs. She started coughing violently and sneezing.
"Ugggh," Ginny groaned. "I must be allergic to that stupid mushroom…" Well, this was turning out just great. Ginny knew how she must be appearing to Draco right now; her nose as red as her hair and her eyes swelling up. Draco was, in fact, sniggering silently.
"Shut up!" Ginny said. "You're not making it…any…better…" Ginny suddenly felt extremely drowsy. She fought to keep her eyes open and stumbled a bit.
"What's wrong with you, Weasley?" Draco asked.
"Just a bit…tired…" Ginny sat down heavily on the mossy ground.
"No time to sleep now, we've got to get back to Hogwarts," Draco said as he tried to drag her up. After tugging at her limp body for a while he realized she was fast asleep. Perfect. He poked her with his wand repeatedly, and when this generated no results, he sat down beside her sleeping form. He felt quite lethargic all of a sudden too. It must have been that mushroom, Draco thought, as he sank down next to Ginny and drifted off into a deep sleep.
Ginny wrinkled her nose as she felt something soft tickle it. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at about five little creatures leaning over her with huge eyes and noses. She shrieked and sat up. She'd been sleeping with her leg slung across Draco. Well, at least he wasn't awake.
The creatures began poking Ginny with pointy, painful fingernails. She tried to swat them away but they seemed unfazed.
"Get off me!" Ginny cried. The creatures just tittered more. One crawled up and tweaked her nose; another pulled her hair, causing Ginny to cry out in pain. Draco was now awake and trying to fend off the ones that were crawling all over him.
"Incendio!" He shouted. A flame burst out of his wand and all the creatures let out high squeals and ran away.
"What the hell were those?" Ginny asked.
"Goblins. They're afraid of fire. Annoying little buggers."
"It's almost dark; we must have slept for hours!" Ginny exclaimed.
"The jinx on my broom must have worn off by now," Draco said, and climbed on his broom. Ginny did the same and they both shot out of the treetops and sped toward Hogwarts.
They alighted on the front steps of the Great Hall. They peered inside and saw that dinner had already begun.
"Okay, you go in first, I'll wait a few minutes, then I'll go in," Draco said. Ginny nodded.
"Right." Ginny strode in and took her usual seat next to Sarah and Tina.
"Ginny! Where have you been all day?" Tina asked, obviously distressed.
"Well, you'll never believe what happened. I was staying late after Quidditch practice and Dra—Malfoy comes flying up on his broomstick and takes my wand, and then his broom starts freaking out, and he falls right into the Forbidden Forest."
"Oh that's right, his broom was jinxed! Too bad it didn't happen during the match tomorrow," Sarah said, looking genuinely disappointed.
"Then I stepped on some mushroom and for some reason it made me and Malfoy fall asleep for hours. We woke up just a few minutes ago."
"Wow. Weird. Did anything…interesting happen between you and Malfoy?" asked Sarah when Tina's back was turned. Ginny rolled her eyes.
"No. We hate each other, remember?"
"Sure. You hate each other so much that you just had to snog his brains out in the library, right?" Sarah grinned.
Ginny threw a pea at Sarah.
Ginny emerged from Transfiguration with Sarah and a flushed Tina, who was excitedly telling them that Robbie had asked her to the dance (she'd tried to tell them during class but had chosen not to incur Professor McGonagall's wrath).
"Hey Weasley!"
Ginny looked around and saw Draco, who was leaning coolly against the wall, and Blaise Zabini, who looked utterly bored.
"Have a date for the ball yet?" Draco asked. Ginny shook her head, her stomach fluttering.
"Wanna go with me?" Ginny was amazed at how nonchalant he could be.
"Um, sure," said Ginny, blushing.
By this time, Tina's mouth was wide open and Sarah was trying to suppress giggles. Blaise looked at Sarah.
"Well, since you're all alone I guess you can go with me," he said.
"What a privilege," Sarah replied, her voice not showing any signs of enthusiasm.
"Wear something nice for a change," Blaise said and he and Draco sauntered away.
Tina blinked several times in a row.
"Ginny, did Malfoy just ask you to the ball?" she asked incredulously.
"Er…yeah," said Ginny.
"As in the Valentine's Day Ball?"
Ginny nodded. Sarah jumped at the chance to explain.
"I walked in on them snogging in the library and he was, like, on top of her, and remember that so-called rumor we heard? Completely true."
"Sarah's exaggerating. When I fell in the lake, Draco gave me his cloak and when I gave it back he just kissed me and Ron saw. Contrary to popular belief, we weren't snogging in Filch's broom closet. But get this…" Ginny proceeded to tell Tina about the problematic bet.
"In fact, I can't believe I just said I'd go to the ball with him. What was I thinking?" Ginny lamented. "We hate each other!"
"Oh, don't be stupid, Ginny, it's obvious you loooove each other," Sarah said.
"Not true!" I protested.
"Ginny, that is so cute!" Tina squealed. "I never would have guessed. Okay, the next trip to Hogsmeade is this Saturday, so can get more eyeliner…"
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Tina, that stupid ball is in years and you're already getting ready?"
"Two weeks, Sarah, it's in two weeks," Tina said gravely.
A/N: So what did you think? Yeah I know, pretty boring chapter. I promise there will be more sexiness in the next chapter, though. I worked sooo hard on this chapter though, its one of the longest I've ever written. Perhaps I write better at two o'clock in the morning. Please review!