Hey! R&R! Thanks for reviewing guys, I hope the rest of it lives up to your expectations. Ginny and Draco will start liking each other soon enough and it shall be a grand event when it happens. And with my other story 'escape', I will only continue to develop it with harry potter characters if people want me to. But for now this story must go on! Hip hip hooray!

Disclaimer: J.K Rowling is in fact the person who came up with all these characters, places and in some cases objects. Not me. Don't sue me. Because I don't have any money. I spent it all on CD's and the third harry DVD!

Chapter 3: A series of unfortunate events

The next morning, Ginny woke up and lazily pulled on her robes to go down to the Great hall for breakfast. Regretfully, she left the soft bed, which she had had a sleepless night on. Something about the encounter with Malfoy had stirred something inside her. She had been probing her thoughts to figure out why she could not push it out of her mind, finding herself wanting to do it all again, just to have another chance to be closer to him…

She made her way into the Great hall and sat between Ron and Hermione, two of the only three people who didn't believe the Prophet article – the third, of course, was Harry.

"Morning Gin." said Hermione.

"Hi." Replied Ginny, while smiling at all three of them, noting that Harry looked back at her for only a brief moment and proceeded to blush and drop bacon onto his lap. For the past year, Harry seemed to have clicked to the fact that Ginny was no longer just Ron's little sister, and had taken quite a liking to her. Too bad, for Harry that is. Ginny was way past that, even thought Cho was way out of the picture. Harry was would only ever be a friend to her.

"Has the mail been yet?" she asked. Yet before anyone could answer, a giant whoosh of wings came from the far end of the hall, as hundreds of owls zoomed in to deliver their letters and parcels.

Very unexpectedly, a large barn owl swooped down and landed beside Ginny. Harry, Ron and Hermione seemed to have noticed this as well, and were looking at her questioningly. They most probably would not have been looking at her like this if it was a normal letter, but Ginny too, was curious, as she stared at the crimson envelope.

A Howler.

"Who-?"

But it seemed that they had all taken too much time staring at it blankly – it burst into flames and a booming voiced echoed across the hall.

IS IT TRUE? ALL THESE GUYS? I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL! WE SHARED ONE PASSIONATE AND PRECIOUS NIGHT TOGETHER AND IT DIDN'T MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU? WELL WE'RE THROUGH, AND DON'T EVEN TRY TO DENY WHAT YOU'VE DONE! I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT THERE ARE OTHERS… TWO OF THEM ARE MY BEST FRIENDS! HOW COULD YOU! SLUT!

This was followed by the longest silence that she had ever experienced. All around the hall people were dumbstruck, staring at her, in disbelief and shock.

"I… not hungry… have to…" Ginny got up from the table and strode out of the hall, totally aware of the many pairs of eyes burning into the back of her head as she left.

Draco saw Ginny getting up from the Gryffindor table to leave the hall. He leapt up at the same time, yet nobody noticed because they were all too busy gossiping about what they had just heard now that she had gone, supposedly out of earshot.

"Hey…wait up… WAIT!"

Ginny turned around to see Malfoy, smirking, and walking towards her. She was too infuriated to screw with his head now, all she wanted to do was be alone.

"Did you like it? It took me ages to think up that one." Draco said, leaning casually against the wall that Ginny had slumped on, blocking her from view of the Great hall's entrance.

"It was you! How dare you!" Ginny shrieked.

"Come on, I was just playing around. Besides, you would have done the same." With these words he went to turn around and go back to breakfast. In mid-turn, Harry, Hermione and Ron came through the entrance, just in time to see Ginny leaning against a wall with Draco Malfoy close beside her, looking very pleased with himself.

Thank god. Ginny thought. Surely her two friends and brother would realize what Malfoy had done, and make him pay. But to Ginny's surprise and horror, they were all looking at her in disgust. None more though, than Harry.

"I knew it wasn't true, but Malfoy? I thought you were better then that." Harry finished sounding deeply hurt, and they walked off towards the Gryffindor tower.

Draco's plan seemed to have worked better than he thought, and as he turned unwillingly to see what Ginny was about to do to him for punishment, he was astonished to see her in tears.

"How dare you." she quivered, silent tears pouring down her cheek. She stormed out of the entrance hall and down into the grounds, not towards the lake, but in the direction of the Quidditch pitch. Leaving Draco standing there, feeling disgusted at himself.

Most people thought of Draco as being the cold-hearted, evil and manipulative mini-me of Lucious Malfoy. Yet Draco despised his father, and even thought he did like to torment certain people to some extent, this game he thought he was playing with the youngest Weasley had morphed into just plain bullying. He hated himself that he had made her cry, even though he had made many people cry on countless occasions. How she had looked at him, with the utmost disgust and almost fear, made him squirm with guilt.

Her shiny tear stained cheek and her glittering chestnut eyes still lingered in his memory. Her beautiful blazing sheet of hair fanning as she turned away made him realize he had to make it up to her, no matter what. Though he did not know it now, the infatuation with her that flared inside him would make him leap into drastic measures.

It was time undo what had been done.

And what better way to do it … than with Rita Skeeter.

Well there we go, I hope you liked it! I have the entire plot mapped out in my head, but I need to go through a lot before I get to the important stuff. But it all ties in near the end, you shall see. And by the way, don't be shitty at me if you think the characters change, they need to. I can't have Malfoy being a sadistic git forever can I? Anyway, R&R and I shall carry on my pretties…