Enough for now! On with the story…
But, just to be sure… ;)
DISCLAIMER; I do not own anything you recognize... it all belongs to the wonderful JK Rowling and her family of publishers! Please don't sue, I am a poor student and have no money anyways.
DISCLAIMER #2: (I might quote song lyrics as I feel it, and if I do, this applies) These song lyrics do not belong to me, and they are not meant to promote this story in any way. I love the bands, and actually buy the albums. If anyone is interested in any of the bands I list, I would love to pass on their greatness!
there are moments when I know it
and the world revolves around us
Straylight Run
7
Ginny was thoroughly pleased with herself. She knew she shouldn't be, but she couldn't help it when she knocked Draco into his place.
But it had been rough goings for her these last weeks. Draco spent a lot of time out of class escorting Emlyn around campus. And though she knew the newest Slytherin was probably already under Draco's spell, she still couldn't contain the jealousy she felt when she saw Draco and Emlyn together.
But while he ignored her completely out of class, he was a whole other person during class. She knew what he was trying to do, and had expected it. Draco tried to charm her into speaking to him again. And she continually shot him down. It was extremely hard, but Draco had to realize that not all Hogwarts girls thought he was irresistible…
After their fight in the hall, Draco had deliberately watched Ginny all through dinner, and not once did she look at him. He didn't care that he knew others were watching him. Draco knew that she was still mad for that comment he made on the train, she was right: they had been past seriously insulting each other and he blew it. She was also still mad about the Prefect schedule, which he had made no effort to change back.
Now, weeks later, they were in class together. Advanced Potions was one of the hardest classes taught at Hogwarts, and Ginny was only a sixth year. She was brilliant alright, and had been extremely unfriendly since their arguments. Draco had sat next to her during the first day of class in hopes of drawing her into conversation before Snape had appeared, but all of his questions were responded with a clipped "yes" or "no." And worse she wouldn't even look at him. Luckily for him, they had also been assigned partners, much to Ginny's annoyance.
It wasn't as if he was supposed to care that she was mad at him. Usually when they fought, he would be extra charming, and Ginny would forgive him without an apology. But this time she wasn't showing any signs that she cared that he was trying to be nice to her, and after four weeks, his patience with her was waning.
She was setting up their cauldron to start on the first brewing project in class. Draco was diligently slicing roots.
"Look, Ginny," he said, exasperated and willing to 'be human' as she put it. "Thanks for covering for me on the train."
"You're welcome," she said, still not looking at him.
"And I did change the schedule, but not to get back at you or anything. There were other… reasons," Draco finished lamely. Ginny didn't look at him, so he continued. "There is no way to change it back, so you're stuck with Fridays for the rest of the year." Ginny shot him a withering look and returned to tending to the cauldron.
Time to pull out the big guns, Draco thought, and reached into his bag and withdrew a box. Since Ginny still wasn't paying any attention to him, he pushed it in front of her.
"I nicked these for you to make up for it," Draco said, trying to hide his smile by acting aloof.
"Did you have to nick them because no one gave you a handout?" Ginny said viciously, deliberately referring to his comment on the train about her family. "Or were you just too cheap to pay for them?"
"Just open the box, Weasel," Draco said impatiently, his charming smile gone.
Ginny looked at the simple white box, and almost laughed. By the looks of it, Draco had tried to tie a bow with some string and the bow was uneven and wilted. But she smothered her laughter and opened the box, and almost drooled on the contents.
Pumpkin Pasties! He remembered my favorite! "I hate these," Ginny said gravely, closing the box and shoving them unceremoniously back towards Draco, immediately regretting the decision.
"Don't be daft, Weasley, you're lying. Those are your favorite," Draco said, picking up the box. "But if you don't want them, they really are my favorite…" Draco moved to put the box back in his bag, but Ginny lunged and snatched the box out of his hands.
"Don't be daft, Malfoy," Ginny imitated him. "You hate Pumpkin Pasties." Ginny swiped her finger in the icing and licked it off. Draco made another grab for the box, trying to take them away from her. Ginny pushed his hand away with hostility. "Shove off! These are mine! A stupid arse gave them to me to make up for being such a stupid arse."
"Right, so now we are even. And you aren't going to spread around that ghastly rumor, are you?" Draco asked dramatically, picking up the slicing knife again. "Because if you do, I might have to naff off from the embarrassment." Ginny laughed.
"Stop acting, Malfoy. You weren't really concerned about my threat, you know people wouldn't believe me anyways," Ginny said haughtily.
"I agree, there are too many girls here who could personally refute your claim," Draco smiled wickedly. Ginny gave him a disbelieving look.
"I was talking about the fact that no one would believe that I actually goshed my morals and found out what the Slytherin man-whore is hiding," Ginny said, trying to keep from laughing.
"Unbelievable, Weasley!" Draco looked incredulous. Ginny knew better.
"You're right, I should have threatened to spread around that the famous up-and-downer has a severe case of wilty wanger. That would have been more believable," Ginny gave him a sweet smile and almost laughed at his all too familiar expression. Draco looked like he wanted to strangle her.
"Gods, you are insufferable," he choked out. "Where did you learn that language anyways? One of your slutty friends, most likely."
"You're the only slutty friend I have, Draco," Ginny said seriously. He scowled.
"Well fine, we're even then. So you can pull that wand out of your arse," Draco said annoyed, he was fed up with her stupid little game. To his surprise, Ginny laughed.
"Don't get all brassed off, Ferret," she said. "Anyways, getting to see you passed out on the train is payment enough, you were real cute. You mumbled for your mum." She laughed loudly, and quickly squelched it at the look she got from Snape. But, her smile didn't last long after she saw the look on Draco's face.
She could tell he was pissed about the 'mum' comment. Ginny had learned last year that he didn't much like discussing his mother; he was extremely protective of her. But at least she knew what buttons to push to piss him off, and he definitely deserved it.
"Anyways, you don't have to call me Ginny just to get on my good side. Gosh, Malfoy, you sure are scaring me with your kindness bit," she teased him and laughed again. Draco scowled at her.
"I don't know where the 'Ginny' came from, alright? Get off my back about being nice since you don't like me when I'm evil either," Draco returned to slicing their roots.
"Who said anything about liking you, Malfoy?" Ginny said seriously, turning her attention to the now bubbling cauldron to look at him. Draco dumped the roots in and Ginny slowly stirred the potion.
"I'm just defending myself, Weasel-brat. Retract your claws," Draco said reaching across her for a potion bottle. She handed it to him without looking up.
"Ah, there's the giant prat I know. I missed that Slytherin love," she smiled. "How was your summer?"
"I worked hard, my father's got me in training," Draco said, then almost hexed himself in frustration. He needed to stop spouting things about when Ginny was around, though lately it seemed he couldn't help it.
"Training for what?" Ginny asked curiously. "Death Eater business," she teased in a dramatic hushed whisper. Draco smirked at her.
"Not Death Eater business, you know my mum's rule on that," he said. Technically, it was the truth, his training was for becoming an Aspect, but he conveniently left that part out.
"This is your last year though, you graduate and then…" Ginny trailed off, her voice growing serious. After the names of prominent Death Eaters were released, it was common knowledge that Lucius Malfoy was involved with Voldemort. Ginny also knew that Draco's father wanted him to follow in his footsteps. Draco had told her he wanted to do other things, and she trusted that. But she couldn't help but wonder…
Draco almost laughed at her expression.
"Don't look so concerned, Weasley. It's all just speculation anyways. My father has his hands full with other devious acts at the Ministry, hopefully he won't notice I've graduated until I die," Draco tried to laugh, but the bitterness in his voice wasn't lost on Ginny, who looked at him skeptically. "Or something like that…" Draco said awkwardly; Ginny was silent.
He tried to never bring up his father when talking to Ginny; he knew how she felt about the man. She firmly believed that Lucius was evil, and Draco did not contradict her. But she didn't know that what Draco wanted more than anything else was to earn his father's respect and love. Draco glanced over at Ginny quickly; she had her lip between her teeth and looked generally concerned. Draco decided to change the subject.
"So you didn't tell me how your summer was going in the riveting letter you sent me," Draco said in what he tried to make a light tone, hoping to lift the uncomfortable silence.
"You're lucky I even responded, it was so mean," Ginny replied, looking at him in clear loathing. "Why did you write me, anyways?"
"Because I relish the thought of pissing you off, even from hundreds of miles away," Draco dumped some of the sliced bat wings into the cauldron, then shot Ginny a devastating smile. She smiled back, shaking her head.
"So, you didn't answer my question, how was your summer?" Draco asked her.
"Well I finished my Healer internship at St. Mungo's around August. Harry showed up around then, and I spent the rest of the summer with him, Herm and Ron," Ginny said. She had brought up Harry just to see if it would finally piss Draco off, he usually paid no attention to any mention of Harry. But, today he seemed interested, which surprised her.
"Ah, and how is your goody-goody boyfriend doing?" Though he tried to keep indifferent to the subject, Draco had a hard time picturing Ginny with Scarhead. He usually kept out of it, but as of lately Harry was on his mind more because he was training to kill the stupid git.
Ginny laughed, "I didn't know you cared." She also didn't care to correct him that Harry wasn't her boyfriend, but Draco had always assumed they were together and had never bothered to ask.
"I don't!" Draco said forcefully, glaring into the cauldron.
"Geeze, you know I was just giving you the muck about. You've never gotten this worked up before…"
"No, I have, but you always bring him up even though you know I can't stand him."
"And I only bring him up because he's one of my friends! Honestly, what has gotten into you now?" Ginny scowled at him.
Draco knew that his newfound hatred for the Boy Wonder was because of his training, but obviously Ginny couldn't know that.
"Harry Potter pisses me off, and you brought him up. What did you expect? Flowers and a bubbling fountain of love? Back off, Weasel," Draco said darkly, stirring the cauldron with a renew interest.
Ginny could tell he was mad, but after a year of conversations like these, she knew how to manipulate him.
"Well, Harry doesn't like it when I talk about you either, so that should make you feel better," Ginny said darkly, faking her crossness. She actually did feel slightly bad for making him mad, mostly because she had deliberately bated him when they were having such a pleasant conversation. But, she was also quite confused. Draco usually ignored her comments about Harry.
"You talk about me to Potter, eh redhead?" Draco shot her a sideways smile and Ginny immediately felt better. "Do you tell him how handsome I am?"
Ginny rolled her eyes, "I'm sure if I actually thought you were handsome, I would have mentioned it." Ginny immediately regretted her where her 'manipulation' was headed, and hoped she wouldn't blush. But she could feel the redness creep up her cheeks and cursed silently. Draco was staring boldly at her, a smirk playing about his lips. His gorgeous, gorgeous lips…
Oh, how Ginny had lied. To put it plainly, she thought Draco was extremely hot. She could get lost in his eyes, daydream for hours about his lips, or blush five shades of red just thinking about his jaw. And that was not including his muscled arms that she would almost fall off her broom to look at during Quidditch, or the accidental changing room incident (that wasn't accidental at all), or the… oh she could go on. But it all added up to one major crush on the platinum blond Slytherin prince.
"Are you telling me I don't star in your nighttime fantasies, Weasel?" Draco asked her, purposely licking the lips her gaze had riveted on. Her eyes flew to his, and she could feel her face flush again. She needed to stop this conversation.
"Only if you mean my fantasies that involve several lawn darts and a large knife," Ginny smiled sweetly back at him, then worked on pouring their potion into a sample bottle.
"Kinky, Weasel," Draco smirked, "Pansy tells me she thinks I'm quite the looker." She watched as he unintentionally brushed his long blond hair out of his eyes.
Ginny swallowed, and concentrated on giving him a comical skeptic look, but the mention of Pansy brought her screeching back to reality, "I don't know if you want to base your self image off Pansy's highly qualified sense of style," Ginny said in all seriousness, "She thinks her hair looks good and when she actually resembles an electrified hamster."
Draco almost snorted in laughter, but held back and returned her serious look, trying to assume a wounded expression, "I'm hurt, Weasel, that was vicious,"
"Oh, come off it," Ginny snapped, "You said almost the identical thing last year…to her face!" She was so panicked about ending this conversation.
"I said her hair looked 'frizzy,' you just compared her to a shocked rodent," Draco replied, "Besides, you know I wasn't talking about Pansy. Do I get an answer – you think I'm sexy, right?" His smirk was almost too much to bear.
Ginny sighed, if there was one thing she couldn't stand about Draco it was his stupid narcissistic streak, so she made an effort to deflate his ego whenever possible. It was also a good cover for her actual feelings for him.
"I'm not confirming anything the huge full length mirror you probably have in your room tells you every day. So, stop being such an arrogant prick," Ginny picked up her bag and pushed by him. "You can clean up today; your huge ego will probably help too, if you ask it real nice," she smiled sweetly at him, and then waved goodbye to some Gryffindors who were still around and headed out of the dungeon.
---
The following weeks were very trying for Harry. Emlyn had not relented in her self-quest to make his life a living hell. But even though she pushed his patience to limits he didn't even know existed, he could forgive her with a single glance into her deep blue eyes. The only problem was that Emlyn never asked for forgiveness, and seemed to particularly enjoy making Harry suffer.
Actually, he had not spoken to her since their confrontation outside of DADA the first day. But Harry had her laugh and voice memorized. Even more curious was that he almost could feel her presence. However, Harry firmly refused to believe that it was true, mostly because whenever she was around something of his would malfunction, disappear, or explode, alerting him to her presence.
Today it was his tie, which had started to slowly choke him while he was studying in the library with Ginny. She was able to sever the tightening cloth before he had passed out, but not before he heard Emlyn's unmistakable laugh. He had stood up from where he had collapsed to catch her eye before she strode calmly out of the library with Draco. Ginny looked mutinous also, and he was touched by her obvious distress, though he had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't because he had almost passed out.
Everyone was shocked at Harry's lack of retaliation against the newest blonde Slytherin. And though Harry desperately wanted to stop the attacks, he was convinced that anything he did would only escalate the situation. Right now, Emlyn did nothing that was worthy of Harry's retaliation. His mind was on Voldemort and Death Eaters, and though sometimes her attacks caught him by surprise, they were basically harmless.
The only thing he hated about it was that he was back in the Hogwarts spotlight. Everywhere he went he heard whispers.
"She lit his shoelaces on fire today, he did nothing!"
Only because I couldn't run to catch her without falling on my face… he thought.
"I heard yesterday at dinner she turned his plate into his lap,"
Hermione did that by accident…
"She shot him a wicked jelly legs curse yesterday in Potions, he couldn't stand by himself and Ron had to prop him up because Snape wouldn't let him go to the hospital wing!"
That was quite embarrassing, I didn't even see the curse hit me…
"He doesn't fight back. I think he is scared of her."
"No, Harry just doesn't waste his time with stupid Slytherins when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is gaining power again,"
At least Gryffindor's still stand up for me…
The mention of Voldemort would always blacken his mood, rendering him unreachable until someone or something could pull him out of his dark hole. Usually Hermione or Ron would calm him, but lately it was getting harder to forget his destiny. Even Ginny was frustrated with him. At least with Emlyn's pranks he had an enemy other than Voldemort to focus his attentions on.
However, he was exactly where he didn't want to be. His hard work all through Sixth year to go unnoticed was gone in one flip of Emlyn's blonde hair. He didn't need the attention and actually positively loathed being talked about. But as much as he wanted his recluse life back, just him, Ron, Herm, and Ginny, he also wanted to keep Emlyn's interest. Maybe he wanted to keep it only because she had captured his interest in return…
Maybe that was why he didn't retaliate; he didn't want to bring their fighting to an end.
However, that did not mean she didn't infuriate him. Sometimes after she would remove his hair, or turn all his clothes inside out, Harry wanted nothing more than to conjure the full extent of his anger and prove to her that no one can mess with THE Harry Potter and get away with it. But then his thoughts would turn to the larger picture: Voldemort. And nothing he could think of would actually be worth extending energy over.
Emlyn never tired however, she pursued him ruthlessly, with unwavering anger. He had a feeling that she could be capable of much more, but held back. He also had wondered how he never saw her use her wand against him, or he never saw spells hit him. Hermione answered his musings with a scoff of disbelief.
"I would have thought you'd have figured it out, Harry. Emlyn uses Dark Magic to prank you," she said in her superior voice that used to drive him mad, but now only provided him with the relief that at least one of them knew what was going on.
He had looked up Dark Magic, telling himself he wanted to learn more about it, when in actuality he wanted to learn some spells. Maybe he could impress her, or if that didn't work, at least maybe beat her at her own game.
What he found surprised him greatly. First, it was supposedly incredibly difficult to learn, and Harry mastered some simple spells within a few hours. Second, Dark Magic was not at all evil.
Though it was more effective for 'evil deeds,' Dark Magic was just another way of looking at magic in general. It was as though he could see multiple ways to achieve the same goal. Which was why Emlyn did not have to use her wand to set his shoelaces on fire or curse him with Jelly-legs.
But no matter how hard he fought to keep his cool against her juvenile pranks, everything came to a screeching halt one night four weeks into the semester, four weeks into Emlyn's uncomfortable torment.
It had been a particularly bad day, and Emlyn pushed too far. It was dinner, and Harry was actually enjoying seeing Ron and Hermione fight again.
"Ronald, you have no right to talk to me like that!" Hermione was shrieking.
Ron's face was beat red and he looked ready to hurt Hermione. "I can't believe you would betray your house to help out that… that idiot!"
Wow, Harry thought, smiling to himself, this getting bad. Ron's really reaching for insults.
"He's not an idiot, Ron. He's a lot smarter than you, and it's actually nice to have an intelligent conversation for once."
"But you help him too don't you!" Ron went into dangerous territory with that one, Harry thought.
"No, Ron, I don't HAVE to help him. He's smart. He doesn't need my help and its actually nice to only do my homework once, rather then having to teach it to you again." Hermione said crossly. Harry shared a smile with Ginny.
"But Hermione, I… I mean, Harry and I had you first!"
"You didn't ask me, Ronald, and Lukas did. In fact I have to go meet him right now." She started collecting her books and quills and stuffed them in her bag with amazing speed. Ron was speechless, but not for long. He grabbed Hermione's Charms book and held it above his head. Hermione looked ready to punch him in the stomach.
"Harry, mate, Hermione's gone nuts! We have to do something!" Ron said, glaring directly at a livid Hermione.
Suddenly the whole Gryffindor table flew upwards, knocking everyone seated backwards onto the floor except for Harry.
"Gods, Harry! I didn't mean that!" he heard Ron call from the floor.
Harry ignored him, and quickly jumped backwards, searching as he always did for Death Eaters or Voldemort, and not finding them he tried to calm himself while searching for the pair of vivid blue eyes usually directed his way. He found them, staring back at him from the laughing Slytherin table. Except Emlyn was silent, a slight smirk on her lips.
Rage exploded through Harry, she had gone too far. Assaulting him was one thing, but bringing her hatred for him upon the whole Gryffindor House, and especially his friends, crossed the line.
He stormed through the students lying on the ground and leapt on top of the Ravenclaw table to point his wand directly at Emlyn.
The whole Hall quieted instantly, as if they were collectively holding their breaths, anticipating the fight.
"Let's go, Riley, fight me," Harry shouted, and watched as her lips barely moved. He felt a curse hit him, and his body went stiff. A Body Bind curse, Harry recognized.
But it made him even angrier, and he felt his knuckles flex. With one deep breath, his body exploded through the paralysis and he felt the curse retract. Emlyn's brows lifted delicately in surprise, but she still sat demurely next to Draco, challenging him with her eyes.
He felt the Ravenclaws he stood above move away, and heard Hermione, Ron, and Ginny move behind him.
It ends now, Harry thought. He had never been more wrong…
Ah yes, a sort-of cliffy. But I won't leave you without a little hint for 8! Obviously: a huge confrontation with Harry and Emlyn; not so obvious: new secrets revealed about Harry, Emlyn and Lukas. Draco and Ginny are hanging in there too! No worries!
And another HUGE thanks to my reviewers! You guys are the best! Beth5572, Shiz, dani, and Shwenny (And to your answer your question, Shwenny: Harry and Ginny are not dating. I'm sure I probably made it as confusing as I could, quite sorry about that! But the deal is that the whole school thinks that Harry and Ginny ARE dating, but that's only because no one is brave enough to actually ask if they are. They spend a good amount of time with each other, but only because Harry can only stand to be around Ron, Herms, and Ginny. Ginny and Harry don't care enough about the rumor to actually set it straight, so it keeps on going. They both know it's not true, and though they spend a lot of time together, it's not romantic. I could go on and explain, but you get the idea? Hopefully! If not, leave me a note, I'll make sure you get the whole deal! lol, and yes, Ginny will be a force to be reckoned with later on.. )
And so ends Chapter 7… get ready for 8! As always, read and review! –xxx