AN: Sorry this chapter has taken forever to write. Today I finally just sat down and wrote it. It's done (this chapter not the whole story...I wish...) I hope that people review because this chapter took forever to write and I'm looking to spend a hard 2 hours typing it up. Probably more. IT's 7 pages in Microsoft Words that's a heck of a lot of typing...it would be amazing to hear reviews.
Anyway I'd love to hear reviews!
HyperSquishy- You got that right. They're pretty awful but they're Slytherins...as for Ginny well she has the unfortunate disposition of a Gryffindor although she seems to be able to make the switch pretty well.
caillion- Thanks a lot. It means a ton to me to have people compliment my story. It makes me want to get more updated, faster.
louey31- Yep. Those two will be found plotting a lot in this story. That's the way the Slytherins roll...anyway I'm delighted you enjoyed it. I can't say whether Ginny will catch on but if she did you know she'd concoct devilishly evil plans of her own...
beyonce-85- I'm so glad. Thank you so much!
Disclaimer: Yeah no claims on anything whatsoever.
Ginny lay in bed and sighed again. According to the clock next to her bed, it was 5:59 AM. She looked blearily around the room-too much silver too much green- and she felt disgusted with herself. Why had she decided to passively accept what had happened as fate? It was so unlike her! Then Harry's eyes came back to her, the disgust, the hatred, the sense of betrayal. How could she fight that? Her fate had already been decided; to rebel would only make it worse. She closed her eyes, willing herself to fall back asleep. She did not want to think about Harry, it would just make things that much worse. Her mind mocked her, refusing to let the subject of Harry drop. It had pained her beyond words to hear him accuse her of such a stupid crime. As much as she had tried to deny it, she'd never gotten over Harry. When he'd accepted rumors at truth, not even waiting to hear her side, it had shattered her. How was it possible that that boy who'd looked at her without pity, sorrow or anything, had in her first year saved her life? It was unthinkable. It left her wondering whether she'd known Harry at all.
She hadn't thought of Harry in a while and she examined her feelings. This was an exercise she'd been doing for five years now- his face would enter her mind and she'd gauge her reactions. She let Harry's face float before her and was surprised that the image of him catching a snitch or smiling at her or some such memory was replaced by the expression he'd wore asking her whether the rumors were true. She felt a wave of cynicism wash over her, everyone always believed Harry no matter the lack of necessary evidence, but with her no one even asked for her side of the story.
She heard Draco's voice in her mind, "Oh dear me, how could I forget- I was talking about 'Darling Harry'." As she smiled at the memory Ginny realized two things – one, she no longer had a crush on Harry, in fact at this rate she might very well soon hate the Boy-Who-Lived; two, what Draco said seemed to be coming true, "You seem to be getting more like us every day." She didn't know how it could be, but the Slytherin boy seemed to be growing on her. Possibly.
A sharp rap on her door jerked her from her musings, "Ginny, get up," Draco said tersely, "It's time for breakfast."
Her entering the Great Hall surrounded by Slytherins set off a buzz of gossip, she could see about three dozen heads turn her way then quickly look elsewhere. She felt the whole room's eyes on her and it made her terribly self-conscious. All she wanted to do was run and hide. She felt physically sick. Suddenly a cool hand gripped her arm; she looked up to see Draco. Was he reassuring her? Steadying her? Whatever he was doing, she took it to heart. With Draco's arm reassuringly on her, she felt a different set of nerves, ones that had nothing to do with the crowd scrutinizing her.
He led her to the Slytherin table and she sat beside him, for once profoundly grateful towards the blond boy. Ginny looked at the food in front of her and felt nauseas.
"I don't want any," she said when Draco graciously offered her pancakes.
She looked glumly down at her plate while those around her happily ate. She had assumed that she would find mild acceptance in Slytherin but only three Slytherins had spoken more than five words to her.
"Eat some toast," Draco said, urging a piece on her.
"I'm not hungry," she protested as he forced it into her hand.
After being practically force-fed a piece of toast breakfast was over and class was to begin. Ginny wound her way to Divination, finding a pouf very far from any other student. She noticed that the other Gryffindors stayed well away from her. It was depressing.
On the way to Care of Magical Creatures two Gryffindor boys, both in her year, knocked her to the ground causing her books to fly in every direction. People snickered and no one even bent to help, many deliberately treaded on her papers.
She bent over to start collecting her scattered belongings when she heard a cold voice say, "Pick them up." She looked up to see Draco towering over the two Gryffindors who suddenly did not look quite so cocky. "Pick them up immediately," Draco commanded imperiously, wand raised.
The boys flung themselves onto the ground quickly gathering Ginny's things in a manner that was almost comical; but Ginny did not laugh. Draco looked at her but she avoided his gaze, disgust rising in her throat like bile. The boys shoved the books on Ginny and fled, shooting Draco looks of absolute terror.
"Thank you, Draco," Ginny said frostily.
The boy blinked in surprise, "What?" he demanded. "What's wrong?"
"I didn't need help you know, I could've sorted it out on my own," she replied heatedly.
A look of hurt flickered across Draco's face to be replaced almost instantaneously by anger. "Fine Ginny," he spat. "I see you're insistent on self-reliance, or perhaps, could it be you're ashamed to be seen with Slytherins? I thought you were different but I was kidding myself, you Gryffindors are all the same."
He stalked off and Ginny cringed in guilt. How could she have been so cruel? Maybe Draco was right, maybe she did consider herself superior. He had only been defending her, what had made her blow up in his face? Defending her, well that was it wasn't it? She was sick of people defending her – Mum, Ron, Fred, George, Charlie, Harry, Hermione and now Draco Malfoy.
Oh, it was so stupid; Draco Malfoy wasn't anything like Ron-embarrassing, over-protective, abandoning her for Hermione and Harry. No, she thought smirking; Draco would never abandon her for Hermione and Harry. Her guilt swelled and when she started off to Care of Magical Creatures her eyes were troubled.
She never noticed Zabini scrutinizing her expression and withdrawing with a smile.
-- - -
"She's feeling guilty," Blaise reported to Draco in a whisper. His eyes never moved from the ghost Binns. If anyone had looked at him, they would only have seen an apparently rapt student, an appearance he was quite convincing at.
"She ought," Draco replied fiercely. "The Weasel is an ungrateful wench."
"What were you doing anyway, why were you helping her?" Blaise asked idly.
"I dunno, I guess I was just playing the role- why? It didn't make things worse, did it?"
"No, this'll probably make her that much easier to win over. Speaking of which, do you have a plan?"
"To do what?" Draco asked, flicking his wand and causing Ron's Potion essay, which he'd been frantically writing for the last fifteen minutes, to burst into flames.
Ron's yelp of horror woke the slumbering class who regarded the smoldering parchment with vapid expressions before resuming their naps.
Draco chuckled cruelly and turned to Blaise, "But in seriousness, how the hell do I win over this Weasel? She's like immune to my charm."
Blaise rolled his eyes dramatically, "Are you honestly telling me that you don't know how to win over a pitiful former Gryffindor?"
"I don't bother winning girls over, they just naturally fall for me," Draco said defensively, shaking his pale hair out of his eyes, well aware that girls adored this. His movement caught the attention of half the female population in the room.
"You're incredibly thick, Pretty Boy," Blaise said grinning. "OK, when she apologizes tell her some bull about how that's why you don't like helping people. She'll lap it up, you also ought to put on the troubled soul act later in your room, saying how you're afraid of the future and crap like that. Girls dig that. If you start to lose her just be yourself," Blaise paused and smirked, "No wait, that'll probably make it worse."
- - - -
Ginny endured her morning classes through sheer will power. It was agonizing; she endured the taunts and snide remarks, the pranks, and the rumors with surprising grace. She could have crumbled and burst into tears, indeed that was what everyone wanted and expected. Instead, she stood tall and proud, reminding herself sternly that neither Gryffindors nor Slytherins cried.
So when Michael Corner told her that he was glad he'd never shagged a Death Eater sympathizer, she just grinned and replied that she had the unfortunate luck of having had a boyfriend who didn't know what to do with his tongue let alone his genitals. The boy's face had flushed an unusual shade of crimson. However, when a small Hufflepuff third year asked Ginny what it was like to shag Draco Malfoy, she faltered.
God- was this what people thought? Well it must look very suspicious she granted, after all, less than a week ago, she'd hated his guts and now, as far as the rest of Hogwarts could tell, they were inseparable. Whether it was true or not didn't matter. Still, it stung that everyone thought she was loose, didn't they know better? Yet a part of her argued that as far as they knew, she was a Death Eater sympathizer, something that they'd never dreamed of associating with her up until now. So naturally it would, as far as they were concerned, cause everything they thought they knew about her to come under question. For not the first time Ginny wondered where the hell term Death Eater sympathizer came from.
In a startling burst of clarity, it hit her that the rest of the school viewed her as Draco Malfoy's whore. This thought was so disgusting that she lost her appetite entirely.
- - - -
"Where the hell is she?" Draco demanded.
He glared around the Great Hall, as if daring someone to answer. Only one person didn't flinch under his furious gaze.
"Probably up in her room," Blaise said calmly.
"You said she was supposed to be a guilt-racked mess! Skipping lunch doesn't seem like something a person who's racked with guilt would do!"
"I'm just as confused as you are," Blaise confessed.
"Damnit Blaise, we can't let this fall apart just because this girl suddenly decides to have issues!"
"I know," Blaise said wearily, "Look let's go back to the dorms and figure out what's wrong and then we'll decide what to do."
Ginny heard the steps outside her door but she ignored it. Even when they began to talk in a whisper, she did not feel the slightest inclination to determine their identities. Only when her name was called did she bother to investigate. She opened the door to see Blaise standing there. Beside him slouched Draco who looked extremely sulky. It couldn't be more apparent to her that he didn't want to be there. No doubt, he was still angry about that morning she thought with a lurch of guilt.
"Hi Blaise, Draco," she said the latter boy's name with hesitation.
Draco acknowledged her with a slight nod of his head.
"Draco I'm so sorry," Ginny said cautiously.
He didn't deign her a response, his expression stony.
She bit her tongue for a second, and then launched into an apology. "Look, it's no excuse for what I did but I guess I'm a little sick of people sticking up for me. I'm fully capable of taking care of myself, yet no one seems to realize that."
Draco's expression was indifferent but she continued.
"I know you were just being nice and I'm truly grateful. It's...nice to know you have someone looking out for you...I guess." She felt incredibly stupid, perhaps Draco had forgotten all about the incidence, perhaps he hadn't really been sticking up for her. Maybe it was just chivalry. Somehow the idea of a chivalrous Draco Malfoy was highly amusing and she fought desperately to keep from smiling. Her lips twitched but she managed to regain her composure. Draco's silence was starting to irk her.
"Please say something," she urged him.
He closed his eyes for a second, as if seeking respite from her presence, as if he couldn't bear being near her.
"You Weasleys are so damned ungrateful," he finally said.
Ginny blinked, well their conversation was not getting off to a good start, there's a surprise. At least he was talking. That meant something – didn't it?
- - - -
"OK, just play it cool, look as if this is the last place you want to be. Let her take the initiative; don't talk until you feel she's done apologizing."
When she opened the door, Draco adopted an air of indifference, and he carefully molded his expression and his posture so that the Weasel would think he was sulking. As if Malfoys ever sulked!
She started to apologize almost at once, entreating him to forgive her- It was really nice of him to do that, but she was sick of people sticking up for her. Yada yada yada. As if he cared. Nice, he almost sneered. Malfoys weren't nice either. Still, it was amusing to watch the Weasel girl apologize, something that fit that family to a T. It seemed to be something of a trait in their family –always apologizing for their existence and whatnot. Subservience was to a Weasley as power was to a Malfoy...a smile tugged at his lips but he managed to quash it.
"Please say something," the girl Weasel entreated him. Her mud brown eyes filled with emotions he guessed were concern, sorrow, and all the rest of those Gryffindor emotions.
God but it was pathetic.
He closed his eyes, not wanting to have to look at those eyes, they were bothering him for some reason.
He opened his eyes and following Blaise's instructions said, "You Weasleys are so damned ungrateful."
He fancied her mouth dropped open for a second but it might have been his mind. She seemed to recover but did not reply. They truly were subservient. It was rather disappointing, what had happened? Last Friday she'd been so vibrant, her fury and hatred for him positively undiluted. Now she was coming to regard him as a friend, no doubt. Friends with a Weasley- as if!
How amusing would it be to stomp on all her beliefs and tell her the truth? To watch her face crumple as she tried to rationalize things and found she couldn't. To watch those brown eyes fill with tears. Oh, it would be positively delightful. But he had a job to do right now so he had no time to dwell on such flights of fancy.
"You know, that's why I don't do nice things," he emphasized the word, letting his lips curl into a sneer around its syllable. "It's because of people like you – ungrateful...wenches," he took great satisfaction in the way she elicited a gasp from her salmon-colored lips at his words.
She took a deep breath most likely trying to curb that Weasley temper. Come on, he urged her mentally, blow your temper, curse me off, do whatever. Instead, she bit her bottom lip with her pearly teeth, infuriating Draco. How could she possibly be a Weasley- she wasn't doing anything, he was hurling abuse at her and she was taking it in stride! She was simply letting him vent his anger. He looked to Blaise for an explanation or something, but the boy was gone. What the hell? He turned back to Ginny; he couldn't believe she was related to Weasel King! He scowled at her; she was being almost as insufferably patient and calm as that filthy Mudblood Granger! That brother of hers, Ron, would have cursed him into oblivion by now...or rather made some sad attempt at such. The boy had never been very good at magic, Draco thought smirking, his Weasley genes kicking in, no doubt. However, this girl, she could work her way around a hex with unexpected skill. He remembered all too clearly that Ginny had a mean Bat-Bogey Hex.
She was not falling for him using Blaise's techniques, so he had to resort to his own methods.
"Course you can't possibly expect a Weasel to know or practice any laws of the gentry," he said.
A pink tinge touched her pale cheeks, evidence of a barely reined-in temper.
Ah, Draco thought with satisfaction, that one did it.
"Are you about done?" Ginny said, her words clipped and devoid of emotion.
"No," Draco snapped, pressing his lips to hers firmly, possessively.