We'll beat them at their own game, hold heads high without no shame, We'll beat them at their own game, Oh yes we'll make them pay – Payback, Me
A pure white snow owl floated down to the Slytherin table, dropping a note on Pansy Parkinson's lap.
So is it a deal?
She glanced over to the Gryffindor table, meeting eyes with the one and only Harry Potter, and nodded without hesitation.
"I have a question…" Ginny hesitated.
"What's that?" Malfoy took Ginny's swinging hand as they walked around the shimmering lake.
"About the other day…after McGonagall's…"
"What, that kiss?"
"Er…yeah…" Ginny was startled at how natural it seemed to him.
"What about it?"
"We didn't discuss kissing, Malfoy."
"What does it matter?" Draco scoffed at her. "Potter was right there, it was the perfect set-up. Didn't you see his face?"
"Yeah but…"
"But what then?"
The cool September air was beginning to get warmer by the second. Ginny tugged her tie a bit looser.
"Well…it was a bit…odd."
"How so?" Malfoy seemed almost offended.
"Well I'm not used to you just up and kissing me, am I!" Ginny exploded.
"Just forget about it, Weasley, Merlin! Get kissed for what, the second time in your life and get all huffy at me!"
Ginny opened her mouth for a rebuttal, found no words, so walked away.
Harry and Pansy were walking the corridors, discussing the details of their plan.
"It's exactly what she's doing to me, see, and you'll be getting back at Malfoy too."
"Yes, Potter, I kind of caught on to that. Do you think I would be doing this just to help you?" Pansy snipped.
"Er…" Harry yanked Pansy back around the corner upon seeing Ginny Weasley, stalking down the hallway. Alone.
"Weasley!" Malfoy cut her off, panting for breath and he tried to rationalize. "Look I'm sorry about that, just talk to me."
Ginny crossed her arms and slouched into a 'Well I'm waiting…' stance.
"I'm sorry, you know me…kind of known for saying stupid things when my head is too far up my arse."
"I suppose so."
"This isn't the point though. You were going to tell me something…"
"Right. I overheard Ron and Hermione—" Ginny stopped talking and was instead focusing on Harry and Pansy Parkinson, who had just walked around the corner hand in hand.
"What?" Malfoy questioned, his patience waning.
Trying for a little payback eh, Potter?
We'll see about that!
Ginny didn't have to think about it. She completely reacted on her instincts. Her evil, little instincts…
Ginny pulled Malfoy towards her, snogging him hard and fierce. When they parted, Malfoy looked flustered for the first time in his life.
"What…" he started, dazed at Ginny's sudden force.
She gazed into his eyes in the best 'lovey-dovey' manner she could fashion. "You're an amazing kisser," she informed him softly, placing another little kiss on his lips.
"Not so bad yourself there, love." Malfoy replied, catching on.
Ginny glanced over to Harry and Pansy, furrowed her brow, and took Malfoy's hand. "Let's go back outside, Draco…it's too crowded in here…"
Harry stared at the scene before him, planted into the floor.
"Well that didn't work." Pansy turned around and began to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Harry questioned her, trying to move his feet to catch up but finding the task rather difficult.
"I'm not going to watch that every time we meet up with them in the halls. I'm out."
Harry sighed and closed his eyes. Brilliant plan…and it was so close to working. Harry scoffed at his own, stupid plan for payback.
But the way she looked into his eyes…
And how will they react, to see we've joined on in, How will they react, When we match their sin for sin? – Payback, Me
Make believe it doesn't hurt you, to love to make them pay, Make believe it doesn't hurt you to see them lose their way – Betrayer, Me
The second the doors closed behind them Ginny was grinning madly and muttering to herself.
"Ha! Let's see how he likes the taste of that! How pathetic; he couldn't have really thought that that would work! But I showed him, yessiree indeed I did! Ha! Ho ho, let's see how he likes them apples should we? Ha that was perfect!"
"Hypocrite." Malfoy coughed.
"What was that?" Ginny looked at him, distracted.
"Nothing…got something in my throat. Ahem hem, HYPOCRITE! Ah, what a horrible cough!"
Ginny frowned. "I suppose hypocrite would be a good word to describe me…"
Malfoy looked at her, pleased. "Yes, I suppose it would be, glad you've reached that conclusion by yourself."
"Har har." Ginny laughed sarcastically.
"So, Ginny Weasley, you've sunk to a new low, what are you going to do now?"
"Erm…"
"I have a suggestion, how about finish what you were about to tell me in there?"
Ginny plopped down by the lake. Malfoy plopped gracefully down next to her. How one plops gracefully, Ginny wasn't sure, but she knew that only a Malfoy could pull it off.
Ginny sighed and stretched out her arm to skim her fingers over the water. She gave a small gasp and the shock of the coldness for late September.
"Well?"
"It's raining." Ginny stated.
Malfoy cocked his head to one side, put out a hand and looked up to the sky. "What? No it's not."
"No, Malfoy." He looked at her. "It's raining!" Ginny made a cup of her hand and scooped water up and over to Malfoy. He, too, gasped at the shock of the freezing temperature and stood quickly. Ginny rolled laughing.
"Stand up." Malfoy ordered.
"Why? So you can push me in the lake?"
"No," Malfoy responded, grabbing her wrist and pulling Ginny to her feet. "Because I believe in giving girls the chance to run before I pummel them."
Ginny locked eyes with Malfoy, trying to place the seriousness of his last statement. In his eyes she found him very serious.
She squeaked as she turned and ran, Malfoy taking off barely after she had started.
He chased her around the perimeter of the lake before grabbing her around her waist and throwing her to the ground. They rolled down a small slope momentarily before stopping, Malfoy having pinned Ginny, holding her shoulders to the ground, his body hanging over hers by less than a foot.
She struggled against him, laughing at the horseplay she had never seen in him before.
"Gin," He said smoothly, catching her attention; Ginny fell limp. "What did you overhear Granger and your brother talking about?"
It was inevitable. She had to tell him, she was pinned.
"There's a spy in Voldemort's ranks."
Malfoy didn't cringe at the name.
"I don't know who it is. I think they stopped talking when they noticed I stopped writing my essay. But there's someone there."
"I'll tell him to keep his eyes open." Malfoy said quietly, making a mental note to himself. "Thanks."
Ginny nodded, and surprisingly felt her stomach drop a little when Malfoy released her shoulders and sat up.
They sat in silence, until the questions in Ginny swelled up to an unbearable extent. "Were you really going to kill him?" she asked softly.
He seemed to be expecting the question at some point in time. "That was the plan." He sighed, picking at the grass around him. "I almost had, until the others showed up."
"Hmm…" Ginny made a strange questioning noise.
"What?"
"Harry told me that you were lowering your wand when the other Death Eaters arrived."
"How would Potter know?" Malfoy inquired hotly.
Ginny shrugged. Malfoy didn't buy it.
"He was there wasn't he? Hidden somewhere? That's why there were two brooms. That's how everyone knew…"
Ginny looked away to the sky, the lake, the grass before her, anywhere but Draco Malfoy's confused and distant eyes.
After a minute, Ginny chanced a glance at him. He had closed his eyes. His eyebrows were slightly furrowed and his lips were moving slightly. It seemed to Ginny Malfoy was reliving the night's events. He opened his eyes. "Snape did it anyways…didn't matter if it had been me or not. It was bound to happen at some point."
Ginny nodded and looked away, furiously blinking away tears that had surfaced in her eyes upon reliving that night herself. That night, and Dumbledore's funeral.
"Yeah…it was." She agreed softly.
"I suppose that explains why Potter hates me even more."
"Does he?" Ginny questioned. "I hadn't noticed."
"Funny." Malfoy stated, but his voice wavered, and couldn't even hold straight sarcasm.
"That's not all Harry told me." Ginny continued.
"I figured as much. Doesn't really seem the bloke to keep things to himself."
Ginny didn't respond to this, but spent a few minutes trying to decide how to word the sentence burning through her mind. She looked across the lake, over to the Whomping Willow, where a little bird was fluttering dangerously close to the top branches.
She opened her mouth, decided to take a breath instead, and shut it again. "He…"
Malfoy didn't question her when she paused, but uncharacteristically waited patiently for the rest of the sentence, his eyes, too, finding the small bird with a death wish.
"He said…" Ginny sighed and closed her eyes, remembering the night she had stayed up with him all night, listening in full detail to the night's events; hearing things no one but Harry and Dumbledore and Malfoy had known.
"He was so close, Gin." Harry actually had tears in his eyes. Ginny couldn't decipher if they were for Dumbledore or Malfoy, but part of her had suspected a bit of both. "He was so close to surrendering."
"It wasn't meant to happen." Was all Ginny could think to respond. "If he were meant to it would have happened."
"But so close. He was lowering his wand." Ginny raised her eyebrows at this astonishing piece of information. "He was lowering his wand and Dumbledore was convincing him to hide at the Order. And then the others came into the tower, and they all stood, talking; to each other, to Dumbledore, and then Snape…"
Harry gave in to the emotional torment, racking through his body and sobbed for nearly an hour. Ginny sobbed with him.
"Are you alright?"
His voice was distant, but Ginny heard it almost clearly. She didn't respond, but continued to live in the past.
"What could have happened? He would have given Dumbledore his wand, Dumbledore would have unfrozen me, and we could have fought them off together. How much would be different? Dumbledore would be alive and I—"
"Hey." Malfoy spoke again, touching Ginny's arm lightly, yanking her mind back to the present. "Are you alright?" he repeated the question, and in her right frame of mind Ginny could sense a hint of concern mingled with comfort.
"What?"
"You're crying." He pointed out softly.
Ginny touched her cheek and was mildly surprised to find it wet with salty tears. "Oh." She breathed, using the sleeve of her robes to wipe her eyes. "Yeah, fine."
"What did he say?" Malfoy pressed her lightly for the information.
"He…It's not important." She changed her mind. She really didn't want to get into it with him again, and bringing up his staying at the Order would only cause a negative reaction, she was sure.
She stood. "I'm hungry. It's about dinnertime." She waited, seeing if Malfoy was to join her, making sure the proof of her tears was gone before she reached the castle.
"I'm not really hungry." He replied slowly. "You go on ahead, I'll catch you later."
"Okay." Ginny seemed unsure of leaving him, but her stomach set her legs into motion and she found herself heading up to dinner without him anyways.
Draco Malfoy watched still as the little bird perched on the highest little branch of the Whomping Willow, chirping a little happy song. He also watched as the tree gave a violent twitch, sending the bird up again into flight, where it circled the tree and landed again on a lower branch. The Willow slammed itself into the ground, and the merry chirps of the bird ceased.
I'm that bird. He thought miserably. I can jump and fly and dodge and dart as much as I like, but I'll always keep perching, and eventually I'll get smashed. I'm that bird…and my tree grows bigger with every decision I make.
So what do I do?
Make them anyways, I suppose…
I'm that bird. Ginny sighed to herself as she looked back down to Malfoy by the lake, catching the Whomping Willow in her view as well. And that tree gets bigger and bigger, with every secret I betray.
So what do I do?
Betray them anyways, I guess…
Betray their trust, Dispose their trust, and make them pay because they trust. Betray their trust, betray their trust, betray, betray, betrayer – Betrayer, Me
It's not what it seems, Not what you think, No I must be dreaming – I Must Be Dreaming, Evanescence
Ginny searched for a spot to sit far away from Harry and her brother, but found that they weren't at the table, nor was Hermione. Ginny began to wonder this when her stomach reminded her she was too hungry to think. She sat down and started dishing food onto her plate.
Tension rose so thick in the air that Ginny could have sawed it with a plastic knife.
Kendry was eating in a pristine manner, partially facing away from Ginny.
Ginny, reminded of her small spat with Kendry, in turn, faced away from her.
For five minutes they sat and ate in silence.
Kendry turned to Ginny. "I'm sorry I kept bugging you about it. You answered my question and I should have just accepted your answer."
Ginny turned to face her friend. "Sorry I snapped at you. Malfoy and I are kind of dating…I was unsure about it for a bit."
They continued to eat.
Ginny returned to the common room from the library just after curfew, and found only three people occupying it.
She realized upon quick inspection that it was just the Trio, sitting around the fire in silence.
Ginny was about to head up to the girl's dorms when she caught the look on her brother's face, ashen and almost nauseated, like he could be sick any moment. She hadn't seen him looking like that since the year he made himself throw up slugs.
The others, too, had pale, sorrowful faces.
"Ginny," Ron croaked softly as she approached them slowly.
"…What's going on?" Ginny asked hesitantly.
A small tear fell down Harry's face that he didn't bother to wipe away.
Hermione gave Ginny an almost sympathizing look.
"Guys…what's wrong?" Fear blossomed in Ginny's stomach and rocketed throughout her body, spread further and further with her every heart beat.
Hermione cleared her throat.
"Gin…" she lost the will to talk for a moment and took a deep breath. "They found Lupin."
It's only in my mind, Not in real life, No I must be dreaming – I Musts Be Dreaming, Evanescence
Oooh! Bet you hate me for leaving you there, eh? Well go ahead and hate me, I'm used to it!
Thanks for all the reviews, just keep em comin! Feedback from readers keep me motivated to write!
Next time: "What's wrong with you lately? You don't talk, you don't eat, I don't have classes with you but I'm sure you aren't paying attention! What is with you?" "Lupin's dead, ok!" Ginny screamed, finally speaking the words, making them real. "He's dead and it's all because of me!"
Lupin barely had strength to stay conscious, let alone open his eyes, but when he did he saw the figure of ------- standing over him.