25 October 2005

A note from Starry: Hey guys, sorry for not updateing soon. I got a virus on my other computer and had to send it to get cleaned. They erased all of my stories and graphics and everything that I had been working on. My uncle was nice enough to lend us his computer, thus me updating now. So yay for uncles, I guess. So here's chapter six... enjoy!

This story will mostly likely be ten chapters long, so we're near the end!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter Six: Same Life, New Room

When Ginny woke up the next morning, she wasn't happy. She was frightened and worried that Draco had found the letter and was now showing it to everybody in the school. Why hadn't see put it in her pocket before running out? Because Draco had been very close to her and it had made her nervous and happy.

Deep down she had been hoping for him to kiss her and end the horrid feeling of want that her heart was feeling recently. Why was this happening to her? Why suddenly change feelings from hate to want in a couple of days? Echo was really starting to affect her and it was not good.

"Ginny?"

Moving her brown eyes to her drapes, she remembered that she was still inside her bed. Recognizing Hermione's voice, she pushed the drapes aside and smiled at the older witch.

"Did you write the letter?" Hermione asked her.

Ginny nodded before remembering what had happened. No, Hermione couldn't find out about Draco knowing. She would probably go and tell Ron and Harry about it and then more trouble would be on their side.

"I sent it but I was in a bit of a rush, so I don't know if I tied it correctly on the owl's leg. I hope so, I think I did."

Hermione looked at Ginny suspiciously. "Why were you rushed?"

'No! Don't ask me, I don't want to tell you.' "I needed to be back here for my transformation, remember?"

Seeing Hermione nod made Ginny feel a bit more relaxed. She didn't want to be answering anymore questions on the events that had happened the day before. No one needed to know that she had wanted to feel Draco's lips on hers. That she had enjoyed being against the wall while Draco took steps towards her. Nope, no one needed to know that.

"The reason I came was because Professor McGonagall was looking for you earlier today. She said something about Dumbledore giving you your own room or something like that. She told me to tell you, that you need to go to him before your transformation occurs." Hermione smiled and looked really happy when she said this.

"Oh Merlin's Hermione! I'm going to have my own room and not worry about my roommates seeing me after 8! And I'll be able to eat a nice dinner and go outside and talk—", Ginny shut her mouth before she could say Draco's name. Hermione could not find out that she had gone against the Trio's instructions and went outside and talked to Draco.

Hermione raised an eyebrow and looked at Ginny suspiciously. "Ginny, who were you going to talk to?"

"I'm actually talking about me after I have found a cure. I will be able to go outside and talk to people you know? It will be normal, I will be normal. Oh, Hermione I'm going to go and get dressed."

Without waiting for Hermione to say anything, Ginny jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom where she closed the door. Once inside the bathroom, she pressed her back against the door and stared at the ceiling. She had almost said Draco and she knew Hermione would have gone into a full lecture about how irresponsible she was being. Right now, she didn't want to be treated like a child.

Hearing that the door had been shut from the outside, Ginny smiled and regarded herself in the mirror. When was all of this going to be gone? Was this her true form? She hoped not! She didn't want to live her life as a single person forever!

'If I hadn't chickened out yesterday, I would have probably gotten my first kiss…'

Cursing herself for running out of the owlery the day before, Ginny took off her clothes and stepped into the shower that she had started a few seconds ago.

xoxoxoxoxox

He was sitting in the Slytherin table observing the Gryffindor table for any sign of the weird Weasley girl, but so far she hadn't showed up. Could whatever she had affected her? What in Merlin's beard was wrong with her? The letter had talked about some cure on what she had and he wanted to find out what it was. Did she have a deadly disease and she was slowly dying until they found a cure for it?

His thoughts were broken when he noticed Ginny walking into the Great Hall with her hair dripping wet. Draco kept his eyes on her and examined everything she did. If she was sick he could probably find some clue on how the Mudblood Granger was treating her. In the letter she had said that it was Granger who had found out about The Changing of the Lady.

After a while of staring at her and not finding anything suspicious, he became frustrated and decided to think of someone more important, Echo. He hadn't gone out to meet her the night before and now he was angry at Ginny for being the reason why. If she hadn't dropped the letter than he wouldn't have found it and no curiosity would have consumed him and he would have gone outside. Had Echo been outside waiting for his arrival? He felt a twinge of guilt at the image of seeing her waiting for him, sitting on a bench staring at the sky, waiting for him. He shook his head and said, "Who cares, she's done that to me a couple of times already. It's her turn now."

Draco hadn't listened to what he had said, because if he would have, he would have noticed that he was (For the first time) saying something negative towards her. Well kind of.

The bell signaling the end of breakfast and beginning of classes rang and the all the students in the Great Hall got up and began filing out. He stayed seated and scanned the people going out the doors.

'Why am I looking for her? She's a bloody Weasley and she's so ugly… I wanted to kiss her and touch her though, despite her appearance. What the bloody hell are you doing to me, Weasley?'

xoxoxoxoxox

Ginny felt relieved when she walked out of the Great Hall in the middle of the great masses of people. She had noticed Draco staring at her for a long while, and that had made her nervous and uneasy. It looks like he's not giving up on finding out why she had looked the way she had the other day.

Potions didn't seem to bother her today, because the events that had happened recently kept circling her head. She didn't even care when Snape took points off of Gryffindor because she wasn't pairing up with someone else. Hadn't he noticed that no one wanted to be paired up with Ugly Weasley?

She finally teamed up with Michael Corner from Ravenclaw who had groaned when Snape had dragged him towards her. She didn't blame him, she wouldn't want to be her own partner either.

After Potions finished she went into Charms and once again her mind wasn't in the class but on a certain Slytherin and the day before. She couldn't understand why lately she had been attracted to him. Was this the work of Echo?

How could it be Echo if Echo was her, the only difference was that she had a different name! No, it must be the way he acted towards her when she was Echo.

The day continued with Ginny's mind in the clouds and when lunch came she was brought to reality. Lunch meant that she was going to have to see him! That was not good because he had not forgotten the incident two days previous.

When she walked into the Great Hall she was surprised to see Michael Corner standing in her way and smiling at her.

"Ginny I have something to tell you…" he said with an unreadable expression.

The Great Hall seemed to have grown quiet and everyone was staring at the two young teenagers standing by the doors. Ginny noticed this but didn't back down or squirm away. She liked the attention she was getting because never in her life had she ever been the center of attention. What would Michael want though?

"What is it?" she asked, confident.

Perhaps during their assignment in Potions earlier in the day, he had realized that she wasn't a bad person and he wanted to get to know her more and introduce her to other people as well. How wrong she was…

"I came to tell you to stop sending me owls and telling me that you like me. I don't like you! Have you looked at yourself lately? You're grotesque, and the only reason we were together in Potions was because I felt sorry for you. Look, why don't you move on, eh? I don't want to hurt you or anything but I don't think it will work out between us. So just move on, alright? No hard feelings, love." Michael winked at her before turning around and walking back to his friends who were laughing and giving him hi-five's.

Everyone was silent for a few seconds, before erupting into laughs and boo's. Ginny looked around and stared at faces she had seen all her school life and some she hadn't, all of them were laughing at her. Was she enjoying the attention now?

She glanced over to the Gryffindor table and noticed that the Trio was not there. She felt a bit glad seeing as not all of her house was laughing at her. Neville Longbottom was glaring daggers at Michael and so were Seamus and Dean.

Why had she let this happen? Why didn't she just punch him like she had with Draco? Ah, yes detention. She didn't want to get detention again, she just couldn't. Continuing to stare at the laughing student's, she began to feel the walls she had built (And the ones Malfoy had started to break) to keep the words and insults from hurting her, had now fallen.

Before turning around, Ginevra Weasley looked at Michael and at that moment she wished for Merlin's wrath to take her. She turned around and slowly walked out of the Great Hall and up to Gryffindor Tower.

'Silly girl you are, Ginny. Such a silly girl…'

How could this happen? Why hadn't the professors stopped the situation? Had they been secretly laughing at her too? Was Draco laughing at her? She hadn't looked for him but deep down she knew he was the one that had probably laughed the most. Reaching the Fat Lady's portrait she looked up and whispered the password.

"You need to stop whispering the password around. I sometimes can't hear you…" she said before opening up and giving Ginny access to go into the Common Room.

xoxoxoxoxox

'Stupid Corner, he had no right to do that to her. I'm not even that stupid to do that to her. The way everyone was laughing at her and her expression was hard at first but I could tell her façade wanted to break…'

Draco was in Defense Against the Dark Arts and instead of paying Professor Lupin attention, he was thinking of what had happened during Lunch.

He had been waiting for Ginny to arrive to continue to study her (Yes, he was back on that. He just had to find out what was wrong with her… that's it, right?) And note any change. He had noticed Corner and his friends laughing quite a lot and he had been annoyed. He saw him walk towards the doors and he wondered what the idiot was up to. When he saw Ginny walking in, he knew it was not going to be good.

Hearing everything that he had said, Draco wanted to punch the Ravenclaw and hex him into the next century. When everyone was laughing he wasn't. He hadn't found it amusing or funny at all, he found it to be disgusting and the one he found grotesque wasn't Ginny, but Corner himself. What caught his attention was the way Ginny was looking at everyone laughing. He had seen those eyes but he just couldn't remember on whom he had seen them. He felt the need to protect her but he didn't understand why.

It was the same confusing feeling he had felt the day before, when he had wanted to kiss her and touch her. He was even skipping meetings with Echo just to think about Ginny! The Changing of the Lady really had him thinking.

'Changing of the Lady…'

Suddenly he was wishing that time could go faster. He thanked Merlin for the fact that he had a break after this class, because he was going to need it. When the class got dismissed he ran out of the room and headed straight towards the library.

xoxoxoxoxox

Ginny had not attended classes the remainder of the day and instead stayed in her bed with her drapes closed. The world was evil and she didn't want to do anything with the world. Society was going to be the end of her.

The bubbles of sadness had drowned out the Weasley temper and all she wanted to do was cry instead of bat-bogey hexing, Michael. Perhaps once she was out of Hogwarts she could do that to him and just shrug off when the Ministry contacted her for her actions. She studied the top of her bed and felt anger begin to rise again. Why did she have to have that stupid curse?

Turning over she spotted the watch Harry had given her, and noted that she was supposed to be meeting Dumbledore in a few minutes. She still had thirty minutes before she changed into Echo, so she'd better get up and start her way to his office.

Getting up she grabbed her wand and walked out of the safety of her bed and descended the stairs.

Her journey through the halls was not pleasant. The few students that were walking to dinner looked at her before going into a fit of giggles or laughter. She held her head up high and continued to walk.

When she finally reached Dumbledore's office, he greeted her with a warm smile and offered her a seat. She sat down and peered over at the headmaster, waiting for him to speak.

"I heard of what happened in the Great Hall during lunch. I am very disappointed in the whole school at the moment. They know better than this, you are a fellow a student and they shouldn't treat you like this. I have given Mr. Corner detention and trust me Miss Weasley, this will not happen again." Dumbledore smiled at her again and by just staring at his eyes, Ginny knew that he meant everything he had just said.

Before she could say anything else, Dumbledore spoke again.

"Now, down to the reason why you are here. You will be moved to your own room that is in Gryffindor Tower and a house elf will bring you your food and you will be able to eat in there. Your room is equipped with a table, a bed, a desk, a closet, a lavatory with a shower and bath, and a window that faces the Quidditch field. I assume that after today's incident you will want to eat all three meals in your room, so the house elf will have prepared your food when you arrive from class and in the mornings when you wake up."

Ginny was speechless. All this was for her! She was finally going to eat a peaceful meal and not get in bed at exactly eight o'clock! She could parade around in her nightgown and no one would say anything to her. She looked over at Dumbledore and thought she saw the same twinkle she had seen when she was here for her detention.

"Is there anything you would like me to do, Miss Weasley?" he asked.

Ginny shook her head. "No Sir, thank you. That will be all, is there anything else that you wish to tell me?" she asked, hoping that the answer was no. She wanted to go to her new room and explore it.

"Very well, you will find that your things have been moved to your new room, and you need to not go into your old room. You must hurry Miss Weasley, you only have five minutes before your transformation!" He got up and Ginny did so too. Both of them walked out of his office and after descending the concrete stairs, they both went their separate ways.

Running all the way to Gryffindor tower tired Ginny out, but she didn't care. At the moment the only thing that mattered was her new room. She came upon the Fat Lady and yelled out the password and raced up the stairs to her new room.

xoxoxoxoxox

He had had no luck in finding anything about The Changing of the Lady, but that didn't mean that he was going to give up! It meant he had to look harder.

'Why am I even bothering with this? She's just a stupid girl, that deserves much more than—'

WHAT! Had he just thought what he thought? Something was definitely wrong with him, and he didn't like it one bit, right?

Putting down the letter that the littlest Weasley had written, he stretched his arms out and yawned. He noticed that he had missed dinner but he didn't care, besides he wasn't hungry. His heart seemed to have jumped back to life when he noticed that if he went out he was probably going to find Echo there.

Running to his closet, he got out a fresh shirt and put it on. He fixed his hair and grabbed his broom and mounted it. Without caring if his roommates saw him, he flew out the window and into the night to talk to his beloved Echo.

Upon reaching the Quidditch stands, he felt disappointment dawn on him when he saw she wasn't there. He was about to go back to his room when he smelled something in the air and saw something in the distance by the lake. He decided to find out what it was and flew towards the fragranced person.

xoxoxoxoxox

The new room was gorgeous! She loved it already. She had eaten dinner calmly and acted like she was asleep when Hermione had knocked on her door. She didn't want to speak to anyone right now because she felt so unworthy. What had happened had left her with a doubt in everyone. Maybe everyone thought about her like that, even her brother and friends.

She ate and decided to go outside and fly around because she hadn't done that in a while. Mounting her broom she flew out of her new chambers and flew around the sky. Since she didn't want to talk to anyone, she decided to not go to the stands and decided to find a new place.

The lake was nice and tranquil, it was perfect for her and this made her really happy. She was away from society and no one could hurt her or laugh at her because of her appearance. Why were people like that to her? Why couldn't they just accept the fact that she was who she was and she couldn't change it all. They needed to learn how to look beyond appearances and search deep into a person's soul and judge them by that.

Hmm, was she saying this to a particular someone? A blond boy who was a year older than her and in her rival house? As if reading her thoughts, that boy jumped from his broom beside her and looked at her with a questionable expression.

'Merlin, how can I ever get away from him? Stupid Ferret…'

"I finally found you Echo. I missed you so much." Draco sat beside her and slowly reached to grab her outstretched hand.

Ginny's heart was pounding harder than it had when they had been in the owlery but she didn't make any movements or anything to show her alarmed state. She felt the urge to pull her hand away from his and yell at him for being a stupid follower of society. Why didn't he look at her during the day like he was right now? Was he playing a game with Echo so he could get with her and just use her and call her as one of his conquests?

The event that had happened earlier had her feeling depressed and it was evident. She looked away from the Slytherin and decided to take interest in the rippling water a few feet away from them. Maybe he really was trying to start a real relationship with Echo but he was confused because he was thinking on how they were going to communicate, right? This was the only thought that kept circulating in Ginny's head while sitting there beside him holding his hand.

"I don't know why I'm being attracted to a person who I am supposed to hate. Every time I see her, a force seems to pull me towards her and deep down, I don't want to fight the feeling. She's not as beautiful as you but somehow, if I look hard enough, I can see that she really is beautiful. I don't even know why I'm telling you this right now…"

Upon hearing this, Ginny turned to face Draco and studied his gaze to see if what he had said was true about her! He had actually talked about Ginny of the Day, and it had been something good! He had called her beautiful! He was actually confiding in Echo about his unexplained feelings towards her. She wanted so much to speak to him and tell him that she was Ginny, but what would he say? Would he be repulsed and then insult her about how he had been lying about her ever being beautiful.

Draco noticed the change in Echo's expression and asked, "Are you ok?"

He had been asking himself that question since he had arrived. He noticed that she wasn't looking as her regular self. Tonight she seemed to be sad, he could tell by the way her eyes kept glancing out towards the lake. He had often seen this look on Pansy when people offended her or called her, "Pug-faced wench."

Who would ever call Echo, ugly? Little did he know that almost all of the school had laughed at her and made fun of her earlier in the day, 'cause of her appearance. He imagined that whoever could ever think of her as being ugly was blind, because Echo was everything but grotesque.

Ginny sighed and felt it was time to go back to her room. She didn't feel like talking to Draco at the moment. What he had said was now making her heart beat but the memory of the previous event was making her feel hopeless. Maybe Draco Malfoy had meant the things he had just said about Ginny of the Day, but she would never find out, right?

Getting up she let go of his hand and felt her heart do a painful beat as she saw his expression sadden at the action. She knew he didn't want her to leave, but she just had to. She couldn't stand it anymore, she knew that if she stayed she would either cry or tell him that she was Ginny and this was her curse.

Draco got up and felt disappointment as he noted her preparing to get on her broom. The weird thing was that tonight, he didn't feel the urge to stop her. He knew that this wasn't the last time they were going to see each other. At least he hoped not.

"Goodnight, Echo," he said after the redhead, who was now flying off towards the castle.

He yawned, jumped on his broom and flew off towards Slytherin tower. It wasn't until he was on his bed that he realized he had seen her fly off towards the castle. Sitting up straight in his bed, he began to wonder in what house she was in and why he had never seen her during the day.

xoxoxoxoxox

Ginny reached her room and slowly got off her broom walking to her soft bed. The thing Draco had said was digging a hole in her head. Had he really meant what he had said about her being beautiful deep down?

She changed into her nightgown and slipped into her sheets on her bed. Sleep wasn't dawning upon her because a lot of thoughts were running around. She couldn't forget what had happened in the Great Hall and the newly acquired information that Draco had told her kept making her heart beat faster, stomach flutter and excitement rush through her body. Could Draco be falling for Ginny of the Day?

Ginny's eyes widened at the second thought that had just popped up into her head. "Oh Merlin, could I be falling for him?"

Starry: If you're wondering about the other stories... they'll be updated... eventually... Please review and tell me what you thought of this. Thanks!