Yet another boring Potions lesson.
Draco sat on his workbench, listening as Professor Snape droned on and on about the many uses of dried Billywig stings. Like he'd need to know that. The day he'd found out dried Billywig stings were a key component in Fizzing Whizbees was the day he knew all he'd ever need to know about Billywigs. It was also the day he stopped eating Fizzing Whizbees.
And just as he was about to nod off (falling asleep in class was something he could often get away with in Snape's classes since he seemed to favor him for some reason), Draco felt something pointy hit the back of his neck. He winced and his hand went straight to his neck to massage it. He turned around and found an origami crane floating next to his arm.
Draco rolled his eyes. "How terribly original, Potter," he muttered. He opened the folded piece of parchment to find an ugly animated doodle showing Harry with a mallet in his hand, standing over what he assumed was a knocked out version of himself with doxies flying in circles above his head. A note was scrawled to the side: This is war.
"So I expect four rolls of parchment on the eight uses of dried Billywig stings in elementary and advanced potion making and no, Mr. Weasley, Fizzing Whizbees candies may not be used as one of your examples. Class, dismissed!"
As soon as Snape was out of sight, Draco walked over to Harry and pulled him aside. "What does this mean?" Draco pulled out the piece of parchment with the doodled threat on it.
"Exactly what it says, if you know how to read," Harry spat.
"'This is war,'" Draco read aloud once again. "Why? Because you're bored? For your information, we're already in a war. Remember? I'm the bully; you're the goody-goody. It's a timeless thing, really… you don't need to think of creative ways to remind me—I already know."
Hermione and Ron spotted Draco and Harry together and walked over to stand next to their friend. "What's your business, Malfoy?" Ron growled.
"What's my business?" Draco slouched a bit and crossed his arms over his chest. "Potter, shall I tell them what my business is?"
"You already told Dumbledore, you pillock! You don't need to tell the whole wizarding world!"
"Told Dumbledore what?" Hermione asked.
"Last night, Potter—" Draco stopped speaking all of the sudden and pushed through Harry and Hermione.
When the trio turned to see what had grabbed Draco's attention, Harry and Hermione immediately had to drop their books to hold Ron back. Draco had seen Ginny walking toward him. At contact, Ginny gave Draco a peck on the cheek and they walked away together.
"That's so cute," Hermione cooed. "Er, I mean, if Ginny wasn't going out with Draco and all," she trailed off at sight of Ron's glowering.
Harry sighed. "C'mon, Ron, let's go. She's your sister, not a pet dog; you can't keep her locked away forever."
"Merlin's beard, she's going out with MALFERRET! She's seen with him in public!" Ron yelled as they walked up a flight of stairs to get back to Gryffindor Tower. "And Harry! You're beginning to sound like Hermione!"
Hermione ignored the comment. "Well, Ron, remember that time when Harry went out with Cho? Well, they didn't really go out, it was more like a single date, but still, remember? Even though we didn't really like Cho, it was okay and Harry eventually got over her, didn't you, Harry?"
"Yeah," Harry answered. "So I bet Ginny's going to get over Draco really soon. I mean, what's he got to offer her? Plus, it's not like anyone finds a Soulmate at school or anything, right, Hermione?"
At this, both Ron and Hermione suddenly looked up, an action followed by an awkward silence.
"Uh, right," Ron said weakly.
Hermione smiled. "Anyway, I need to go study for an Ancient Runes exam I've got tomorrow. I'll see you two at dinner!"
"Uh, me, too," Ron said.
"You don't take Ancient Runes, Ron," Harry said flatly.
"I, uh, I was, er, I'm thinking about it! Oy, Hermione, want to teach me some basic runes or something?"
"Sure," Hermione said awkwardly.
Harry stared blankly as both his friends walked off to the library. "That was awkward." He went back to the Gryffindor common room and plopped down on an oversized armchair near the fireplace as Neville walked in through the portrait hole and sat opposite him.
"Up for a game of Wizard's Chess?" Neville asked.
"Forgive me for sounding incredibly nosy, but shouldn't you be studying for your Ancient Runes exam tomorrow? Even Hermione's studying."
Neville blinked and looked awfully confused. "We don't have an exam tomorrow. In fact, we don't even have a class scheduled for tomorrow."
Harry's mouth slowly fell open. "Oh," is all he could say at first. "Well, listen, I'm not really feeling up to chess at the moment, but let's have a go at it sometime later?"
Neville nodded as Harry rushed through the portrait hole, slamming it shut on the way out.
"Silly boy! Watch it! This is a newly painted hair-do I'm wearing!" The Fat Lady screamed after him.
But Harry was in too much a hurry to hear, or care.
"I mean, what Professor Binns teaches is really very important, because unless we learn about wizarding history, history will repeat itself, but honestly, the man's so terribly discolored and not clued in to anything! Today he fell asleep during his lecture on the Goblin War of 1412. I nearly thought he'd died!"
"But he's a ghost, he can't die again," Draco interrupted Ginny.
"Of course, I know that, but still. What I'm saying is, if we could somehow give him a hint that he needs to make his class a bit more interesting, people might actually be able to stay awake during his lessons. I've got good grades in everything except for his history class since I've fallen asleep through four of his lectures," Ginny moaned.
Draco smirked. "How about we meet on the astronomy tower tonight and I tutor you?"
Ginny laughed. "Draco Malfoy, there's only one thing you're good at tutoring on the astronomy tower!"
"So?" He shrugged, and they stopped in a corridor in front of a picture of a bowl of pears. "How 'bout it?"
"No," she said. "Even if I were to snog you senseless—wipe that stupid grin off your face!" Ginny whacked Draco's shoulder. "Whatever, I'm not going to—Millicent Bullstrode and Michael Corner make out on the astronomy tower every night!" Ginny finally blurted out. "That's disgusting so we're not ever going there until they find a new make out spot or they break up, and no, you will not sabotage them in some way to break them up."
"You ramble too much."
"You're ugly."
"You're a stiff."
"At least I'm beautiful."
Draco racked his brain for a comeback, but ended with, "Yes, you are." He shoved his hands in his pockets.
Ginny stood on her toes to give Draco a quick kiss on the lips. "But why don't you come to my room later tonight?"
"Later tonight?" Draco said mischievously.
"Tonight as in eight, not when I'm in bed, you horny toad!"
"Ouch!" Draco hissed.
"But still, my room?" Ginny asked.
"Why yours? What on earth can we do in there?"
"Exactly. So, my room?" Ginny said again.
"Fine, I'll apparate outside your door at eight, so let me in right away because I don't fancy being speared to death by raging Gryffindor goodies."
"Don't worry, I'll let you in. Only if you bring me a present!" She added.
"A present?" Draco arched an eyebrow.
"Of course!"
"Why?" He asked.
Ginny put her hands on her hips and looked very much like her mother in doing so. "Don't you remember anything?"
"Uh, it rained last night," Draco said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Today's our one-month anniversary, Draco!"
Draco choked. "Oh, that! I knew about that! I, uh, I just wasn't saying anything because I already do have a present for you," Draco ended quietly. "And I want it to be a surprise."
Ginny giggled. "I'll let you go now."
"Yeah, I need to go find your present," Draco said.
"You go do that," she smiled.
Draco stared awkwardly at Ginny for a moment. "Okay, bye!" And he apparated away.
"Well, that ought to keep him busy long enough," Ginny said to herself as she walked back to Gryffindor Tower.
"What to get the girl who has everything," Draco quietly read aloud.
At the moment, he felt extremely stupid standing in the section of the library he was standing in. All the shelves had been painted an awful shade of pink and paper hearts, cupids, and angels had been hung all over the place. The row lined with shelves of books about love smelled like fresh red roses. The smell was beginning to get sickening, but as Draco tried to take one of the books to read at a table, he found that he couldn't since the book was attached to the bookshelf by a—
"Chain of love," Draco read. And that's exactly what it was. An actual iron chain, painted red, was attached to the book. It stretched just barely to the end of the bookshelf—just far enough for the reader to read the book. Draco pulled out a few more books to find all the books were attached to the bookshelf in the same way. "How degrading," he muttered as he sat down and began reading the book about presents.
He hadn't exactly been on a real date with Ginny yet, but the fact that she'd invited him to her room had to count for something.
Draco flipped to the "First Dates" chapter.
This was a particularly odd thing for him to be doing. When he had dated Pansy Parkinson for a couple months (before they realized they were better off being "just friends"), a nice present for her might've been a dead weasel's head, but Draco had the feeling Ginny's tastes were a little different than a Slytherin girl's might be.
Then Draco began wondering what was happening. The moment word of his relationship with Ginny Weasley had gotten out, the Slytherin love was a little scarce in his corner of the dungeon. Pansy, of course, was furious with him. Theodore Nott had set a wild hippogriff loose in his room, and apparently now was the time his fellow Slytherins had decided to remind him of all his miseries, for everywhere he went, a dead ferret's head randomly appeared before him. All he had left were Crabbe and Goyle clones.
And he was going through all this just for a girl. A Gryffindor girl, at that!
Draco groaned. "I must be losing my touch."
He turned to the "She's the One" chapter.
Ginny was absolutely thrilled at the thought of Draco's visit later that evening. She was running about her room, making sure it was perfectly clean and spotless. Strings of popcorn and other holiday decor ran along the walls and the theme colors of her room were emerald green and maroon.
Earlier, she had sent a special order to the kitchen elves to prepare a mouth-watering dinner for Draco and herself. Ginny picked out some classical Italian music that she felt might set the mood she was after, and added an enchanted fireplace to her room just for tonight.
Lastly, she enchanted the ceiling so real snow would fall into her room, but made sure it dematerialized before it might touch Draco's head, for he was quite tall and according to anyone who knew him, cared greatly for his platinum Malfoy locks.
Though the appearance of the room was important, Ginny knew quite well that any normal boy would appreciate the appearance of the girl in the room as well, so Ginny had spent a little over an hour with Hermione to choose what to wear. She finally decided on a light-cyan turtleneck sweater with black slacks. Simple, yet elegant.
At the moment, Ginny was stuffing loose pieces of parchment into her desk drawers, which were enchanted to never get full.
He's going to be here any minute, Ginny thought frantically.
She continued stuffing papers into her desk, but suddenly froze when she saw a tiny black book with a puncture wound in the middle of it. She didn't even need to open it to know what it was.
Ginny stretched her arm to it, almost afraid to touch it. "Tom Riddle's diary?" She said to herself. "How did it get here? Again?" She bit her bottom lip and finally picked it up.
The diary was completely dry, but oddly felt somewhat damp in her hands. She peeled the cover open and began looking through the pages when she suddenly felt a reminiscent vibration in her fingers. She stared at the page before her, because she remembered that vibration from when she had been eleven. The diary was going to write something.
Tom was going to write something.
Ginny saw letters, then words form on the page. "I've come back to get what's rightfully mine," she read aloud.
What did that mean? She debated on whether or not she should write back, but then she heard a knock at her door before she could even begin to search for a quill.
"Gin? Are you going to open the door?"
It was Draco.
Ginny quickly stuffed the diary into the desk drawer and ran to the door.
Why would his two best friends lie to him? He'd almost taken his own life just yesterday to protect them!
Harry was breathing hard, pacing up and down corridors. He'd gone to the library at first, but Madam Pince hadn't seen Ron or Hermione. Then he went outside to the Hogwarts courtyard, but he couldn't spot his friends anywhere. Now he was just opening and closing doors at random.
"Ancient Runes my—" Harry suddenly saw a door materialize before him. "The Room of Requirement," he said in a daze. He put a hand on the doorknob. For some reason, he had a feeling what lay behind the door would be bad news, but he'd had that feeling before, and he'd yet to learn his lesson. He pushed the thoughts back, twisted the doorknob, and swung the door open to find a very dark room before him.
Harry searched for a light switch, but finally whispered, "Lumos," to turn on a tiny light at the tip of his wand. He was immediately able to see all four walls of the room had bookshelves pushed up against them, and one long bookshelf ran down the middle of the room; all the shelves were filled with rows and rows of books. He brought his wand closer to the spines of the books and whispered aloud, "Ancient Runes for the Novice, Balthazar's Romantic Runes, Cooking with Runes and Prunes, Dummies Edition: Ancient Runes, Germanic Runes—"
Harry suddenly stopped reading the titles.
"Ron! I can't believe you just did that!"
Harry's eyes grew wide. That…that sounds just like Hermione's voice, he thought to himself.
He heard a low laugh.
Out of curiosity, Harry quickly whirled around, and stopped when the light from his wand lit up two people's faces. He saw opened and unopened books scattered about them, notebooks, quills and two empty mugs on the table next to the couch the two people were sitting in. They looked quite comfortable.
The girl gasped.
"Harry," Ron said, a bit unsure of himself.
Harry mouthed wordlessly, shocked at what he was looking at.
"Ha—"
"Nox!" Harry croaked. And he ran out of the room.
Author's Note: Not very action-packed (unless you count Ron's little "adventure"), but quite eventful! And there's also that tension among the trio that I promised you. More on that later, of course. And did anyone catch my creative Lumos/Nox beginning/ending? Yeah, I thought that was creative. o-O; LOL!
Chapter Three: I know this chapter only showed Draco and Ginny preparing for their date, but next chapter Ginny will open the door so the date can actually begin! I'll have another trio confrontation, of course, and we'll also find out what Tom Riddle wants this time. Goody!
Thanks to my reviewers: Bubble, Jonah, bigreader, Maureen, Saadia, Andromeda77, Chantelle, Maggie, and Sasha. You keep the wheels churning!