Love's Talent
Chapter 14: Contestants Concerns
LunarianPrincess
A talent contest and performing class brings new alliances and blooming romance, but is a sinister force trying to prevent it from being successful?
Pairings: GW/DM; KS/DS; some HP/LL and HG/RW
SDA, I do own Darien Solaro and Kassara Saravati. This is in Ginny's sixth year and some of the characters might seem OOC, but bear with me. Feedback is appreciated, but please try to keep criticism constructive, Thanx in advance
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Last Chapter-------
A malicious smile grew onto Jade's face. Her eyes were vacant, and there was a tear sliding down her cheek as she watched her brother's best friend race after the girl he loved.
"You have done well," the voice was harsh, otherworldly, and completely disembodied. As Jade heard this, the hall was filled with silence.
Now---------------
Ginny headed out of Advanced Transfiguration, a class some called animagus training, pleased by the lesson. She had sat behind Malfoy, a thing which made her happy though she would never admit it. On the other side of Kasi was Jade, sitting adjacent to her brother. They headed to the library after class in order to finish their parchments which were due soon. She and Kasi finished early, dare had left to check on one of his assignments and Kasi chattered about his great personality. Ginny listened patiently while Kasi droned on, a tolerant smile on her face.
Ginny finished her last parchment with a triumphant flourish. Kasi and she gathered up their books and quietly left the library. She walked along a little-used corridor which she knew was a quick way to the Gryffindor floor. Deciding to tease her friend for forgetting her transfiguration book, which she had ended up carrying, she spoke up.
"So Kasi, did you know you forgot your Transfiguration book, or maybe you were so focused on DARIEN that you didn't notice?" she asked playfully. She watched as Kasi looked at her empty arms and gave a loud groan.
"Great, now we'll have to go back to the table to get it," she lamented pitifully. Ginny gave a small laugh before grabbing her friend's arm and stopping her.
"What do you mean, Kasi, I already got your book, c'mon we can leave the library now," she said playfully, noticing Kasi still thought they were in the library. She laughed when Kasi looked around and gave a wry chuckle when she realized where they were.
Ginny turned the corner, the smile still on her face when she registered the scene in front of her. Draco stood, looking at her in dread, cradling Jade. They were twined around each other and Ginny's face drained of color as she realized what it meant. She bit her lip as tears flooded her eyes, she couldn't even say why it had hurt her so much. She stood paralyzed by the shock when he opened his mouth.
"Ginny!" he called with his hypnotic voice, his exclamation shattered her paralysis. She shook her head to clear the confusing fog of her thoughts, turned and sprinted for her life. She didn't even register where she was going. Finally, when she reached the painting she stopped for a second to compose herself. She wiped her tears and straightened her shoulders before saying the password and fleeing through the common room. She raced up the stairs into her bedroom and threw her belongings onto the chair before flinging herself upon her bed and weeping. She cried for a few minutes then had a thought I'm being silly, I had no claim to him, Jade said she did, and I'm hurt the Draco never said anything about it, but I truly thought he cared at least for a minute.
"You're really fast, you know" Kasi remarked wryly. Ginny gave a sobbing laugh from her place on the bed. She was glad her friend was here. "I'm sorry Ginny, I know you cared about him," Kasi said softly.
"I did but his actions are his own choice," she replied almost inaudibly.
"But he had no right to lead you on," she said vehemently.
"It's in his nature, he's a Malfoy," at this statement Ginny had an odd thought, he was a Malfoy, and yet he was nice to her, even sweet sometimes, why, she was a Weasley. This thought made her suspicious but she shook it off, thinking she now knew the real Draco.
"It still doesn't make it right," Kasi told her. Ginny sat up, she wiped her face and smiled at her loyal friend.
"Thank you, I'm glad you think so," Ginny told her, hugging her tightly. After they had disengaged they spent the night discussing the contest and costumes. Ginny fell to sleep relieved that she had such a good friend.
The next morning Ginny slept through the sunrise, which was one of her favorite times of day. Because she woke so late she ended up throwing on her uniform quickly and just taming her hair into a precarious ponytail, from which errant curls were rapidly escaping.
She ate very little at breakfast, her energy was focused on not looking at the Slytherin table. Kasi did her best to distract her best friend, but she was not really succeeding. Ginny was very relieved when breakfast ended and the students were allowed to go to their classes. She was likewise happy that their first class was Defense Against the Dark Arts, with one of her favorite teachers, Professor Lupin, who had been allowed to return to teaching after he had proved so loyal to the cause.
She went through the day almost on autopilot. She listened, fascinated, to professor Lupin's lecture and demonstration with control through essence control. She was surprised to realize that the method explained was the one Tom had used to control her in her first year. She decided to talk to him about it at the next opportunity to see if there was any possibility of remnants of such a spell.
In her next class she felt a bittersweet pang when they were studying history of constellations and she was assigned Draco. She followed along with the lesson afterward but her thoughts remained on Draco and Crup she wondered if he wanted to continue singing and recording or if he had other ambitions. Which brought up another thought, how much did she truly know about the man she had come to love in such a short time?
She determinedly wiped her mind of any thoughts of him as she walked to the last class of the day. She was perversely glad that it was advanced potions with Snape. It meant she would be working so hard there would be no opportunity to think about him.
Draco frowned as he tried to catch Ginny's eye and all she did was pointedly ignore him. He hadn't been able to sleep last night, he had been plagued with vague pangs of guilt. A feeling Malfoy's never had, showing even more that he had turned out differently than his father had wanted him to. He felt anguished by the fact that she had never even given him a chance to explain or defend himself.
With that resentful thought he felt a little angry and wounded by her inability to trust him. He focused on the simple review assignment Snape had assigned. Dare kept giving him reproachful looks, doubtless because that girl of his had exaggerated what had happened. He felt even surlier as the class went on, already his housemates stayed away from him, knowing the results of angering him in such a volatile mood. Oddly he was grateful for the solitude, it gave him a chance to analyze his motive and what he actually wanted.
He spaced out for the rest of advanced potions, confident in his knowledge and ability at this subject. He walked out at the end of class still pondering the questions he asked himself. He wandered up to the library, hoping to finish his work before he went to dinner. He walked to the very back of the library and sat down before pulling out his work and beginning it. He worked for a while before a very hesitant Ginny approached.
"Jade came to me, she told me what she did, I want to say that I'm sorry I blamed you, she said that she asked you to keep it quiet, so I just wanted to… to apologize," with that enigmatic statement she quickly left his presence.
He stared after her longingly, did that mean he still had hope? He quickly shook off that thought and returned to the work in front of him. He packed his things up when he was done and headed off to drop them off in his room before dinner. He returned and met Dare as dinner was about to start.
"Students, I have an announcement!" Dumbledore's voice boomed through the Great Hall. All off the sound cut off abruptly, students swiveled on the benches to survey the headmaster. "All of those wishing to be in the talent contest must attend an orientation meeting this evening to commence at the end of the meal, it will be in the new performing classroom, which is near the library, if you wait for Professor Barrington you can just follow her to the room, that is all, you may begin," at this a great swell of noise began. All the students were discussing their ideas for their talents. Draco frowned when he realized he would never be able to have a private conversation with Dare as the volume would simply never allow it. He resolved to catch his best friend and find out what Kassara had said about him.
Well that's about it for this chapter, I know it was really boring but there will finally be some DracoGinny action next chapter and who knows what will happen later.
Before I thank people I want to say that I will be working on the Halloween chapter soon and I have not received what these people want their characters to be for Halloween:
Lorraine McQue
Aryn Little
Ria (Annamaria) Martinez
Gigi (Giana) Jenson
Brie Haun
Jenni Baily
Emilia Harkin
Honey Clarkson
Dylan Necetis
Jaqueline McKinsey
If you told me what you wanted to be and I have your name up there just remind me of what you wanted to be. Thanks, now the individual thank yous.
Dracosbaby7: I'm glad everyone is having this response to Jade, she's my favorite character because she gets the most comments. I think that my whole plot twist will be a real surprise to everyone, at least I hope it will be. This chapter didn't really advance the plot but it was kind of essential to what happens next. Next chapter should be short but it will be a cliffhanger, my first one, I'm so excited! Thanks for your wonderful, inspiring comments, of course if you have any ideas on what should happen between Draco and Ginny it would be most appreciated!
sakura-no-hana-hoshi: happy holidays, I'm glad you liked this story, was this chapter good? Please review!
Deth's Flaming Arrow: I think it's because I possess the evil sarcasm of a weird character, I'm glad you liked the way I wrote her, I was a little hesitant at writing other people's characters because I always seem to add a bit of my own feelings into the characters so I'm glad it worked!
Ediblemongoose: I think your name is really cool! I'll try to work you in, since you asked so nicely and everything,
hoppers: no offense but I'm glad you had no idea what I was talking about, it will make the twist even more unexpected. Jade may be a little scary but she has a really good reason for being that way, wow I feel like I have to defend her because I know what's wrong with her, sorry I got a little distracted. I'm working on the making up but I'm having a little trouble with romantic inspiration because of my oblivious best friend, not to mention that he's ruined me for other guys, sorry felt a small need for a pity party, thanks for the great review!