Author's Note:
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.
You've Got Mail: Ch.6-Surprises All Around
Draco smiled as he saw Cocoa send him a message. It was odd to see on his face, and it felt weird doing it. He hadn't really smiled genuinely in years.
Pyropinkmonkey12: I HATE MY LIFE!!!
He raised his eyebrow slightly at that. In all these weeks, he had come to learn Cocoa was rather melodramatic. So, he didn't take this too seriously.
ResidentEvil: Really?
Ginny gave an exasperated sigh. Dragon was always so dismissive of her problems, it really got annoying.
Pyropinkmonkey12: Yes, really. This has been the worst day EVER!
Draco put on his best sympathetic face.
ResidentEvil: Ok, ok. What happened?
Ginny gave a wry smile at that. How to start, she mused. She supposed it would be ok to tell him about the vampire, he'd just think it was a crazy dream, but it was kind of embarrassing to admitting to almost kissing a boy in her dream, and she definitely couldn't mention Tom.
She looked at Colin, giving him a look.
"What?" He asked, blinking rather innocently.
She made a shooing motion with her hand. "Get going, I want to talk to Dragon in private," she explained, and he sighed before draining the rest of his tea, giving her a last hug, and heading back to find Aimee.
She turned her attention back to the screen and Dragon.
Pyropinkmonkey12: I just had this really bad nightmare, then I woke up late, and I was heading to class when I ran into this jerk. We argued for a bit, then I went to class and got detention for a week and it was just a bad day all around.
Draco scoffed at that.
ResidentEvil: It doesn't sound so horrible.
Ginny sighed again in exasperation. Trust me, she thought grimly, it was a lot worse than you could ever imagine.
Pyropinkmonkey12: It was, ok? But I don't want to talk about it anymore; that nightmare was scary as hell.
Draco felt a pang of sympathy. He frowned at that, but shrugged it off as a cramp or something and started to write back.
ResidentEvil: Alright, you don't have to say a thing.
Ginny smiled. Dragon was so understanding. Suddenly, Ginny's stomach growled and she looked down, surprised, before remembering that she had fainted before eating lunch. And she had missed breakfast, making her last meal about a day ago.
Pyropinkmonkey12: Gotta go, I'm about to have dinner. Talk to you later.
ResidentEvil: See you.
Ginny turned off the computer and put it on the night table next to her. Her outer clothes, which had been on the table, were now on top of it, effectively covering it from view. She didn't know if it was a good idea to let everyone (including the Matron) know she had a laptop.
She rang a little bell, which alerted Madame Pomfrey that she wanted something. In a minute the kindly witch had bustled over, plumping pillows and dusting as she went.
"Yes dear?" She asked as she made Ginny sit up so she could fluff her already rather fluffy pillow.
"I missed lunch and breakfast so do you think I can get dinner now?" She asked.
Madame Pomfrey nodded briskly. "Of course dear. Are you all right with soup?"
Ginny smiled; she was unmistakably reminded of her own mother. "Yes please," she answered.
The nurse nodded and walked off, leaving Ginny alone with her thoughts. She thought back to her dream, like she had countless times that day. What did it all mean? Who was the foreign guy? Try as she might to concentrate on that part of the dream and only that part, she felt her mind drifting to think of Malfoy. No! She told herself firmly. He's a stupid git, it was dream that's all.
She even managed to forget about him all through dinner, through Aimee's visit. Ginny didn't utter a word about her dream when they were doing homework together, or when Aimee was leaving. In fact, it only started up again when she was settling in to go to sleep.
Her mind started to review the way he had been so gentle in holding her, but Ginny wouldn't hear of it. "No," she whispered to herself fiercely.
"You know Weasley, talking to yourself is often the first sign of insanity," came that same annoying drawl from the foot of her bed. She didn't really want to look, she wanted to just die, but her eyes made the trip by themselves.
Draco Malfoy was standing at the foot of her bed, near the curtain, his hands in his pocket and his face remarkably passive. He wasn't even sneering or smirking at her.
Her face, however, snapped on a scowl as soon as she heard him. "What'd you want?" She asked viciously. Draco just tut-tutted and crossed his arms over his chest as he walked to the chair by her bed and sat. Her eyebrow crawled towards her hairline as she observed this, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Hostile, aren't we Weaselette?" He remarked. She started to fume at him again, and he got to the point. "I need to ask you something," Draco said quickly. Her eyebrow raised higher. He needed something from her? That just spelt trouble.
"What is it?" She asked before something struck her and she sat bolt upright to threaten him. "If this is about that stupid dream I'm not answering a single question about it so if that's what you want to know you can get the hell-"
Draco cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Please, don't insult me. I'd probably end up vomiting anyways," he told her with disgust lacing his voice. She sank back.
"Oh." Was all she said.
He smirked. "Good girl. Listen, this morning, when we ran into each other, I think we exchanged quills. You have my favorite, and I have your, pink, one," Draco said as he reached a hand into his robes and drew out the pale pink quill. Ginny almost burst out laughing right then and there.
"Is that all?" She asked him.
Draco gave a small snort of disbelief. "All? All? For your information, it is not exactly considered manly to write down notes in class with a pink (Ginny frowned when she noticed the way he said it with disgust) quill," he informed her, and she rolled her eyes.
"Geez, sorry I even asked," she muttered quietly, before pulling back the covers and climbing off the bed to go to her bag. Draco's eyes widened and she was about to reply something biting before she looked down and realized she was just wearing a pair of short pink boxers and a rather small tank top. She was going to sleep, after all.
"Weasley?" Draco choked out, his eyes still fixed on her body. Ginny felt the distinct urge to scream and hit him, but she breathed in deeply and forced herself to remain calm. She hated turning into the timid mouse when he insulted her.
"What's wrong, Drakie poo? Oh I see, you're embarrassed. Still a virgin, huh?" She said in a sweet voice, batting her eyelashes innocently at him as her eyes flickered obviously down to his privates.
He tinged pink, before standing and towering over her. "Don't even presume to talk to me normally, Weaselette," he threatened. Then, suddenly, his face lost the frightening expression, and he dropped back into the chair with an exhausted sigh. "Why is it that every time I've seen you lately, it's either been in various states of undress, or you're doing something embarrassing?" He moaned while rubbing his temples with his fingers. Ginny arched an eyebrow at the sudden change. He looked so, so, human, sitting there whining.
Ginny shrugged and went to her bag all the while trying to answer his question. "Like I know or care Malfoy. This hasn't exactly been the best couple of days for me either, as it's always me whose being doing the embarrassing thing. All you have to do is stand there and annoy," she told him dryly. He almost chuckled at her, before he stopped and realized what he was doing. He was here, laughing and joking with a Weasley! At that moment, Ginny had just returned to her bed, and was holding his quill out.
"Here, now gimme back mine," she told him, and he handed her back her pink quill, frankly glad to be rid of it. She climbed back into her bed (Draco got a rather nice look at her ass but he just wasn't into it) and he left without another word.
What's with him? Ginny thought fleetingly, before shaking her head. Wait, why do I care? She thought before shrugging and turning off the light. She just wanted to sleep.
***
Ginny woke the next morning, feeling refreshed and rather relaxed. No dreams last night, she thought happily. She even began to hum.
Soon after she had awoken, the nurse bustled in. Ginny found herself liking the kindly matron, and didn't see what her brother and Harry meant when they said she was annoying and overbearing.
She found out soon however.
"Can I please go down to breakfast?" Pleaded Ginny rather desperately.
Madame Pomfrey glared at her as she broke up bits of chocolate with a small metal hammer. "No, you're still weak," she told the girl sharply.
Ginny rolled her eyes, an inch away from hexing her way out of the Infirmary. "I feel fine! Now can I leave?" She demanded.
The nurse seemed to think for a moment, and Ginny resisted the urge to strangle her.
"Fine," Madame Pomfrey finally announced. "But only after some chocolate," she insisted and Ginny agreed.
Well, she really wouldn't have if she had known that in the matron's head 'some' meant 'as much as I can cram in the poor girl's mouth without her dying on me.' After choking it down, she changed quickly and, after grabbing her computer and the rest of her stuff, she went down to breakfast.
She was greeted with a big hug from Aimee and Colin. She looked down the table to see if Ron or Hermione or Harry was going to see if she was okay, and Colin followed her rather sad gaze.
It was Aimee who finally explained. "We didn't want to tell them because then they'd ask what made you faint and your brother and Harry would probably go beat Malfoy to a bloody pulp. While that sounds rather appealing I know, we just don't want them to get expelled," Aimee told her with a smile.
Ginny smiled back, revealed that it wasn't that her brother didn't care about her. But, at the back of her mind, there was a little nagging voice. 'Yeah, but why didn't he notice he was gone? Too preoccupied to wonder where his baby sister?' She shoved it to the back of her thoughts, mentally telling her own brain to shut up.
They sat and ate breakfast quickly, talking and laughing, before the bell rang and they headed to their first class, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Along the way, Aimee and Colin filled her in on all that had happened in the one afternoon she was gone. Aimee covered gossip, while Colin told her about their classes.
"The DADA professor is really cool, he's very mysterious, you know-"
"And apparently, Lavender and Dean were caught in the broom closet, so they're pretty much out in the open-"
"Yesterday was just an introduction, getting to know Professor Ivanovich-"
"Also, you'll never guess who broke up! Cho Chang and Michael Corner! Can you believe that they were both cheating with-"
"Aimee! Shut up! I'm trying to explain the homework!" Colin finally exclaimed, causing Ginny to stifle a laugh. Aimee huffed a little at being interrupted, but she let Colin talk.
"Anyways, he told us last night about this independent project sixth and seventh years are doing. Since seventh years haven't done much at all with vampires, and neither have we, we're all doing this together. Each person or group, he hasn't explained yet, will choose a certain known vampire and research them. Then at the end of term we'll present what we know to the class. We even get to go abroad to research! Isn't that cool?"
Ginny grinned at the prospect of travelling as she thought about it. It'd probably be rather challenging, but she relished the idea of travelling all over Europe.
The grin dropped as soon as she walked through the DADA classroom. A small gasp escaped her lips, and the books in her hands tumbled to the ground.
"Ginny? Are you okay?" Aimee's voice cut through her thoughts.
Her lips moved, but Aimee couldn't hear her. She leaned closer to hear a few faint words, that made her gasp too.
Boris Ivanovich was the foreigner in her dream.
***
Ginny sat at the back, watching her teacher, the murderer, shuffle papers at his desk. They were reading from the textbook he had just given them (It was called the Encyclopedia Vampira and had a horrible picture on the cover that caused Ginny to shudder and push a parchment over it), though the redhead was more inclined to study her teacher than her book.
He had black, short hair that was slicked back, yet it managed to look shiny not greasy. His face was mature, and rugged looking, and his piercing blue eyes that Ginny remembered so well also seemed to be a favorite of the girl students. He had the dark and mysterious look down pat. She had seen many swoon or giggle and blush when asked a question, though frankly, she didn't see anything physically attractive about him
Well, that and the fact that she knew he was an evil murderer.
Even Aimee had giggled and dropped her quill like an idiot when he had asked her to read a paragraph. Well, first she had been rather cold, knowing that he was the guy in Ginny's dream (Aimee was a big believer in instinct) but then she had looked up and saw him up close, and turned stupid.
Ginny's lip curled in disgust as she remembered this.
So far, he hadn't really noticed her at all, except to comment that he hoped she was feeling better. Rather coldly, Ginny had just shrugged, incurring the wrath of almost every female there. Some glared at her, exclaiming softly, "Well I never!" to each other while Ginny just gave them the Evil Eye.
Finally, Professor Ivanovich stood and cleared his throat at the front of the classroom. The girls looked up adoringly, eyes shining, causing Ginny to make gagging noises to Colin, who thankfully still believed her. Sort of.
(A/N: I decided that Ivanovich has the type of accent where you can tell he's foreign, but it doesn't actually affect his words. Ok?)
"Class, you may all close your books," he told them. There was an instant clapping as they snapped shut. "I'd like to talk to you about the project. Now, I have decided it will be a partner project, but to even things out each group will be one sixth-year and one seventh-year. I will choose the groups," he added rather sternly.
Ginny shivered and crouched back in her seat. Ivanovich had a nasty habit of walking around the classroom and through the many rows of desks as he talked, and he was getting closer and closer to Ginny. She could see his bright eyes flicker to her every now and then, and his face acquired an eerie smile as he walked.
She forced herself to tune back into what he was saying.
"And so, there will be designated days when you and your partner will be allowed to travel almost anywhere, with certain rules. You and your partner will have a binding charm so you don't lose each other, a special map that customizes itself to your surroundings, and teachers will be watching you from here. And oh, you need to report back at night," a few of the more perverted boys groaned at this, causing everyone to laugh. Even Ivanovich chuckled dryly. "Very funny, but also very necessary. Anyways, we will have a joint meeting sometime next week, where you will find your partner. Then you will have a week to decide who you'll be choosing to study," he was now right in front of Ginny's desk, looking straight at her. She began to sweat and looked down, avoiding eye contact. "I trust you'll all make very good choices," he said in his deep voice.
Go away, go away, go away, go away, Ginny chanted over and over in her head, clenching her fists under the desk. Thankfully, at that moment, the bell rang, and Ginny let out a deep breath, packing up as quickly as she could.
She walked out of the classroom with a backward glance at Ivanovich. He gave her a cold smile, one that didn't quite reach his eyes, and she stumbled out the door as quickly as she could. Ginny felt like a cold hand had gripped her heart and squeezed.
Ginny was terrified.
***
Draco stifled a yawn as he walked down the hall to his next class, DADA. He had just had History of Magic, and he was in no mood to go to another class, let alone do anything but sleep.
He shook his head to wake up a bit, and forced himself to pay attention to the conversation his friends Stephen Nott and Pierce Avery were having. Apparently Stephen was lamenting the lack of hot girls in Hogwarts.
"I swear, there's no one hot anymore! I don't know if I've slept with all of them, but you'd think there'd be more girls in this damn school!"
Pierce shrugged, then he seemed to think of something else, and his face gained a dreamy expression. "I don't know, have you thought about that Weasley chick? Those legs, man," he trailed off, shutting his eyes and grinning like an idiot.
Stephen and Draco just looked at him like he was insane. "You're joking right? Weasel?" Stephen asked with disbelief.
Draco thought of the night before in the Hospital wing, and her pajamas. Then he remembered the incident on the train, and in the hallway. He hated to admit it, but Weaselette was actually rather shaggable (heehee, funny word).
Pierce and Stephen were just arguing this, so Draco decided to step in and put an end to the argument.
"Hey, you're both right. Pierce, Stephen, I've seen her, and she is shaggable in the extreme, but the pure fact of being a Weasley almost counters it all," he told them with a smirk, causing Stephen to laugh.
Pierce thought for a second and shook his blonde head. "Yeah, I just meant for a quick screw, she'd be great," he explained, his face regaining the dreamy/perverted look. And he was gone into Fantasy Land.
Draco and Stephen just gave each other disgusted looks, and decided to ignore their friend. He clearly had no idea what he was saying, a Weasley? Honestly!
By now, they had just reached the DADA classroom, and walked in. It was their first class, though all had seen the ex-vampire hunter at breakfast the previous morning.
Draco took one of his usual seats at the back of the classroom. Sure he was smart, but that didn't mean he liked the classes or the teachers most of the time. After taking out the necessary materials, he took the chance to survey the room.
Dark was Draco's first impression. And rather bare, with only the desks, a blackboard, and the big teacher's desk. He shrugged mentally. Eh, it was like his room, but cleaner. And without a bed.
He turned, to study the teacher instead. Boris Ivanovich, Draco mused thoughtfully, one of the most famous vampire hunters in the world, and he's here, at Hogwarts, teaching. Man's got to have a hidden agenda.
Draco smiled wryly at that thought. He hardly trusted anyone. Not even his mother, really. Draco was a Slytherin down to the bone, unfeeling, uncaring, no friends, and just evil.
He sighed as he brushed his silver blonde hair out of his eyes. Draco had stopped wearing it slicked back as soon as he had realized it made him look like Lucius, so now it hung in his face constantly. It was getting hard to keep being so evil. Since Draco's father was gone, he held less power over the other Slytherins, and it was rather annoying to keep having to beat the younger students into submission. Kids these days.
Draco was stopped from further pondering by the start of class. Ivanovich stood from his desk and stepped to the front of the class. Everyone was silent in seconds. Draco quirked an eyebrow at this. The new teacher was good.
But then the professor began to talk, and Draco found himself ignoring other thoughts to concentrate.
***
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.
You've Got Mail: Ch.6-Surprises All Around
Draco smiled as he saw Cocoa send him a message. It was odd to see on his face, and it felt weird doing it. He hadn't really smiled genuinely in years.
Pyropinkmonkey12: I HATE MY LIFE!!!
He raised his eyebrow slightly at that. In all these weeks, he had come to learn Cocoa was rather melodramatic. So, he didn't take this too seriously.
ResidentEvil: Really?
Ginny gave an exasperated sigh. Dragon was always so dismissive of her problems, it really got annoying.
Pyropinkmonkey12: Yes, really. This has been the worst day EVER!
Draco put on his best sympathetic face.
ResidentEvil: Ok, ok. What happened?
Ginny gave a wry smile at that. How to start, she mused. She supposed it would be ok to tell him about the vampire, he'd just think it was a crazy dream, but it was kind of embarrassing to admitting to almost kissing a boy in her dream, and she definitely couldn't mention Tom.
She looked at Colin, giving him a look.
"What?" He asked, blinking rather innocently.
She made a shooing motion with her hand. "Get going, I want to talk to Dragon in private," she explained, and he sighed before draining the rest of his tea, giving her a last hug, and heading back to find Aimee.
She turned her attention back to the screen and Dragon.
Pyropinkmonkey12: I just had this really bad nightmare, then I woke up late, and I was heading to class when I ran into this jerk. We argued for a bit, then I went to class and got detention for a week and it was just a bad day all around.
Draco scoffed at that.
ResidentEvil: It doesn't sound so horrible.
Ginny sighed again in exasperation. Trust me, she thought grimly, it was a lot worse than you could ever imagine.
Pyropinkmonkey12: It was, ok? But I don't want to talk about it anymore; that nightmare was scary as hell.
Draco felt a pang of sympathy. He frowned at that, but shrugged it off as a cramp or something and started to write back.
ResidentEvil: Alright, you don't have to say a thing.
Ginny smiled. Dragon was so understanding. Suddenly, Ginny's stomach growled and she looked down, surprised, before remembering that she had fainted before eating lunch. And she had missed breakfast, making her last meal about a day ago.
Pyropinkmonkey12: Gotta go, I'm about to have dinner. Talk to you later.
ResidentEvil: See you.
Ginny turned off the computer and put it on the night table next to her. Her outer clothes, which had been on the table, were now on top of it, effectively covering it from view. She didn't know if it was a good idea to let everyone (including the Matron) know she had a laptop.
She rang a little bell, which alerted Madame Pomfrey that she wanted something. In a minute the kindly witch had bustled over, plumping pillows and dusting as she went.
"Yes dear?" She asked as she made Ginny sit up so she could fluff her already rather fluffy pillow.
"I missed lunch and breakfast so do you think I can get dinner now?" She asked.
Madame Pomfrey nodded briskly. "Of course dear. Are you all right with soup?"
Ginny smiled; she was unmistakably reminded of her own mother. "Yes please," she answered.
The nurse nodded and walked off, leaving Ginny alone with her thoughts. She thought back to her dream, like she had countless times that day. What did it all mean? Who was the foreign guy? Try as she might to concentrate on that part of the dream and only that part, she felt her mind drifting to think of Malfoy. No! She told herself firmly. He's a stupid git, it was dream that's all.
She even managed to forget about him all through dinner, through Aimee's visit. Ginny didn't utter a word about her dream when they were doing homework together, or when Aimee was leaving. In fact, it only started up again when she was settling in to go to sleep.
Her mind started to review the way he had been so gentle in holding her, but Ginny wouldn't hear of it. "No," she whispered to herself fiercely.
"You know Weasley, talking to yourself is often the first sign of insanity," came that same annoying drawl from the foot of her bed. She didn't really want to look, she wanted to just die, but her eyes made the trip by themselves.
Draco Malfoy was standing at the foot of her bed, near the curtain, his hands in his pocket and his face remarkably passive. He wasn't even sneering or smirking at her.
Her face, however, snapped on a scowl as soon as she heard him. "What'd you want?" She asked viciously. Draco just tut-tutted and crossed his arms over his chest as he walked to the chair by her bed and sat. Her eyebrow crawled towards her hairline as she observed this, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Hostile, aren't we Weaselette?" He remarked. She started to fume at him again, and he got to the point. "I need to ask you something," Draco said quickly. Her eyebrow raised higher. He needed something from her? That just spelt trouble.
"What is it?" She asked before something struck her and she sat bolt upright to threaten him. "If this is about that stupid dream I'm not answering a single question about it so if that's what you want to know you can get the hell-"
Draco cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Please, don't insult me. I'd probably end up vomiting anyways," he told her with disgust lacing his voice. She sank back.
"Oh." Was all she said.
He smirked. "Good girl. Listen, this morning, when we ran into each other, I think we exchanged quills. You have my favorite, and I have your, pink, one," Draco said as he reached a hand into his robes and drew out the pale pink quill. Ginny almost burst out laughing right then and there.
"Is that all?" She asked him.
Draco gave a small snort of disbelief. "All? All? For your information, it is not exactly considered manly to write down notes in class with a pink (Ginny frowned when she noticed the way he said it with disgust) quill," he informed her, and she rolled her eyes.
"Geez, sorry I even asked," she muttered quietly, before pulling back the covers and climbing off the bed to go to her bag. Draco's eyes widened and she was about to reply something biting before she looked down and realized she was just wearing a pair of short pink boxers and a rather small tank top. She was going to sleep, after all.
"Weasley?" Draco choked out, his eyes still fixed on her body. Ginny felt the distinct urge to scream and hit him, but she breathed in deeply and forced herself to remain calm. She hated turning into the timid mouse when he insulted her.
"What's wrong, Drakie poo? Oh I see, you're embarrassed. Still a virgin, huh?" She said in a sweet voice, batting her eyelashes innocently at him as her eyes flickered obviously down to his privates.
He tinged pink, before standing and towering over her. "Don't even presume to talk to me normally, Weaselette," he threatened. Then, suddenly, his face lost the frightening expression, and he dropped back into the chair with an exhausted sigh. "Why is it that every time I've seen you lately, it's either been in various states of undress, or you're doing something embarrassing?" He moaned while rubbing his temples with his fingers. Ginny arched an eyebrow at the sudden change. He looked so, so, human, sitting there whining.
Ginny shrugged and went to her bag all the while trying to answer his question. "Like I know or care Malfoy. This hasn't exactly been the best couple of days for me either, as it's always me whose being doing the embarrassing thing. All you have to do is stand there and annoy," she told him dryly. He almost chuckled at her, before he stopped and realized what he was doing. He was here, laughing and joking with a Weasley! At that moment, Ginny had just returned to her bed, and was holding his quill out.
"Here, now gimme back mine," she told him, and he handed her back her pink quill, frankly glad to be rid of it. She climbed back into her bed (Draco got a rather nice look at her ass but he just wasn't into it) and he left without another word.
What's with him? Ginny thought fleetingly, before shaking her head. Wait, why do I care? She thought before shrugging and turning off the light. She just wanted to sleep.
***
Ginny woke the next morning, feeling refreshed and rather relaxed. No dreams last night, she thought happily. She even began to hum.
Soon after she had awoken, the nurse bustled in. Ginny found herself liking the kindly matron, and didn't see what her brother and Harry meant when they said she was annoying and overbearing.
She found out soon however.
"Can I please go down to breakfast?" Pleaded Ginny rather desperately.
Madame Pomfrey glared at her as she broke up bits of chocolate with a small metal hammer. "No, you're still weak," she told the girl sharply.
Ginny rolled her eyes, an inch away from hexing her way out of the Infirmary. "I feel fine! Now can I leave?" She demanded.
The nurse seemed to think for a moment, and Ginny resisted the urge to strangle her.
"Fine," Madame Pomfrey finally announced. "But only after some chocolate," she insisted and Ginny agreed.
Well, she really wouldn't have if she had known that in the matron's head 'some' meant 'as much as I can cram in the poor girl's mouth without her dying on me.' After choking it down, she changed quickly and, after grabbing her computer and the rest of her stuff, she went down to breakfast.
She was greeted with a big hug from Aimee and Colin. She looked down the table to see if Ron or Hermione or Harry was going to see if she was okay, and Colin followed her rather sad gaze.
It was Aimee who finally explained. "We didn't want to tell them because then they'd ask what made you faint and your brother and Harry would probably go beat Malfoy to a bloody pulp. While that sounds rather appealing I know, we just don't want them to get expelled," Aimee told her with a smile.
Ginny smiled back, revealed that it wasn't that her brother didn't care about her. But, at the back of her mind, there was a little nagging voice. 'Yeah, but why didn't he notice he was gone? Too preoccupied to wonder where his baby sister?' She shoved it to the back of her thoughts, mentally telling her own brain to shut up.
They sat and ate breakfast quickly, talking and laughing, before the bell rang and they headed to their first class, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Along the way, Aimee and Colin filled her in on all that had happened in the one afternoon she was gone. Aimee covered gossip, while Colin told her about their classes.
"The DADA professor is really cool, he's very mysterious, you know-"
"And apparently, Lavender and Dean were caught in the broom closet, so they're pretty much out in the open-"
"Yesterday was just an introduction, getting to know Professor Ivanovich-"
"Also, you'll never guess who broke up! Cho Chang and Michael Corner! Can you believe that they were both cheating with-"
"Aimee! Shut up! I'm trying to explain the homework!" Colin finally exclaimed, causing Ginny to stifle a laugh. Aimee huffed a little at being interrupted, but she let Colin talk.
"Anyways, he told us last night about this independent project sixth and seventh years are doing. Since seventh years haven't done much at all with vampires, and neither have we, we're all doing this together. Each person or group, he hasn't explained yet, will choose a certain known vampire and research them. Then at the end of term we'll present what we know to the class. We even get to go abroad to research! Isn't that cool?"
Ginny grinned at the prospect of travelling as she thought about it. It'd probably be rather challenging, but she relished the idea of travelling all over Europe.
The grin dropped as soon as she walked through the DADA classroom. A small gasp escaped her lips, and the books in her hands tumbled to the ground.
"Ginny? Are you okay?" Aimee's voice cut through her thoughts.
Her lips moved, but Aimee couldn't hear her. She leaned closer to hear a few faint words, that made her gasp too.
Boris Ivanovich was the foreigner in her dream.
***
Ginny sat at the back, watching her teacher, the murderer, shuffle papers at his desk. They were reading from the textbook he had just given them (It was called the Encyclopedia Vampira and had a horrible picture on the cover that caused Ginny to shudder and push a parchment over it), though the redhead was more inclined to study her teacher than her book.
He had black, short hair that was slicked back, yet it managed to look shiny not greasy. His face was mature, and rugged looking, and his piercing blue eyes that Ginny remembered so well also seemed to be a favorite of the girl students. He had the dark and mysterious look down pat. She had seen many swoon or giggle and blush when asked a question, though frankly, she didn't see anything physically attractive about him
Well, that and the fact that she knew he was an evil murderer.
Even Aimee had giggled and dropped her quill like an idiot when he had asked her to read a paragraph. Well, first she had been rather cold, knowing that he was the guy in Ginny's dream (Aimee was a big believer in instinct) but then she had looked up and saw him up close, and turned stupid.
Ginny's lip curled in disgust as she remembered this.
So far, he hadn't really noticed her at all, except to comment that he hoped she was feeling better. Rather coldly, Ginny had just shrugged, incurring the wrath of almost every female there. Some glared at her, exclaiming softly, "Well I never!" to each other while Ginny just gave them the Evil Eye.
Finally, Professor Ivanovich stood and cleared his throat at the front of the classroom. The girls looked up adoringly, eyes shining, causing Ginny to make gagging noises to Colin, who thankfully still believed her. Sort of.
(A/N: I decided that Ivanovich has the type of accent where you can tell he's foreign, but it doesn't actually affect his words. Ok?)
"Class, you may all close your books," he told them. There was an instant clapping as they snapped shut. "I'd like to talk to you about the project. Now, I have decided it will be a partner project, but to even things out each group will be one sixth-year and one seventh-year. I will choose the groups," he added rather sternly.
Ginny shivered and crouched back in her seat. Ivanovich had a nasty habit of walking around the classroom and through the many rows of desks as he talked, and he was getting closer and closer to Ginny. She could see his bright eyes flicker to her every now and then, and his face acquired an eerie smile as he walked.
She forced herself to tune back into what he was saying.
"And so, there will be designated days when you and your partner will be allowed to travel almost anywhere, with certain rules. You and your partner will have a binding charm so you don't lose each other, a special map that customizes itself to your surroundings, and teachers will be watching you from here. And oh, you need to report back at night," a few of the more perverted boys groaned at this, causing everyone to laugh. Even Ivanovich chuckled dryly. "Very funny, but also very necessary. Anyways, we will have a joint meeting sometime next week, where you will find your partner. Then you will have a week to decide who you'll be choosing to study," he was now right in front of Ginny's desk, looking straight at her. She began to sweat and looked down, avoiding eye contact. "I trust you'll all make very good choices," he said in his deep voice.
Go away, go away, go away, go away, Ginny chanted over and over in her head, clenching her fists under the desk. Thankfully, at that moment, the bell rang, and Ginny let out a deep breath, packing up as quickly as she could.
She walked out of the classroom with a backward glance at Ivanovich. He gave her a cold smile, one that didn't quite reach his eyes, and she stumbled out the door as quickly as she could. Ginny felt like a cold hand had gripped her heart and squeezed.
Ginny was terrified.
***
Draco stifled a yawn as he walked down the hall to his next class, DADA. He had just had History of Magic, and he was in no mood to go to another class, let alone do anything but sleep.
He shook his head to wake up a bit, and forced himself to pay attention to the conversation his friends Stephen Nott and Pierce Avery were having. Apparently Stephen was lamenting the lack of hot girls in Hogwarts.
"I swear, there's no one hot anymore! I don't know if I've slept with all of them, but you'd think there'd be more girls in this damn school!"
Pierce shrugged, then he seemed to think of something else, and his face gained a dreamy expression. "I don't know, have you thought about that Weasley chick? Those legs, man," he trailed off, shutting his eyes and grinning like an idiot.
Stephen and Draco just looked at him like he was insane. "You're joking right? Weasel?" Stephen asked with disbelief.
Draco thought of the night before in the Hospital wing, and her pajamas. Then he remembered the incident on the train, and in the hallway. He hated to admit it, but Weaselette was actually rather shaggable (heehee, funny word).
Pierce and Stephen were just arguing this, so Draco decided to step in and put an end to the argument.
"Hey, you're both right. Pierce, Stephen, I've seen her, and she is shaggable in the extreme, but the pure fact of being a Weasley almost counters it all," he told them with a smirk, causing Stephen to laugh.
Pierce thought for a second and shook his blonde head. "Yeah, I just meant for a quick screw, she'd be great," he explained, his face regaining the dreamy/perverted look. And he was gone into Fantasy Land.
Draco and Stephen just gave each other disgusted looks, and decided to ignore their friend. He clearly had no idea what he was saying, a Weasley? Honestly!
By now, they had just reached the DADA classroom, and walked in. It was their first class, though all had seen the ex-vampire hunter at breakfast the previous morning.
Draco took one of his usual seats at the back of the classroom. Sure he was smart, but that didn't mean he liked the classes or the teachers most of the time. After taking out the necessary materials, he took the chance to survey the room.
Dark was Draco's first impression. And rather bare, with only the desks, a blackboard, and the big teacher's desk. He shrugged mentally. Eh, it was like his room, but cleaner. And without a bed.
He turned, to study the teacher instead. Boris Ivanovich, Draco mused thoughtfully, one of the most famous vampire hunters in the world, and he's here, at Hogwarts, teaching. Man's got to have a hidden agenda.
Draco smiled wryly at that thought. He hardly trusted anyone. Not even his mother, really. Draco was a Slytherin down to the bone, unfeeling, uncaring, no friends, and just evil.
He sighed as he brushed his silver blonde hair out of his eyes. Draco had stopped wearing it slicked back as soon as he had realized it made him look like Lucius, so now it hung in his face constantly. It was getting hard to keep being so evil. Since Draco's father was gone, he held less power over the other Slytherins, and it was rather annoying to keep having to beat the younger students into submission. Kids these days.
Draco was stopped from further pondering by the start of class. Ivanovich stood from his desk and stepped to the front of the class. Everyone was silent in seconds. Draco quirked an eyebrow at this. The new teacher was good.
But then the professor began to talk, and Draco found himself ignoring other thoughts to concentrate.
***
