Smells like Slytherin Spirit
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any lyrics used in this story. This story also used a small rip off plot of Mean Girls.
Chapter Two: Fresh Meat
Monday, 8:02, August 26, 2005-Scorpion Valley High School, Slytherin, Princeton County, Colorado, United States of America
Ginny, Ron, Harry, Fred, George, and Hermione stood at the curb of Scorpion Valley High School, a five story brick building that looked like the school from the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. (You all know how big and nice looking that school is don't you?)
Ginny played with the buckle of her cargo bag, the kind that went over your head and fell into place at your hip, "So here we are. I'm a sophomore at Scorpion."
Ron referred to himself, Hermione, and Harry, "And we're juniors."
George stated, "And Fred and I are senior citizens."
Fred snickered at his brother's remark and said, "I'm tired of standing around…meet you in the parking lot after school losers. Don't get stung by those scorpions."
Fred and George wandered across the quad and into the school. Hermione sighed, "We ought to get going too guys. See you later Ginny."
Once again the Trio had left Ginny abandoned and alone. She squeezed the strap of her bag so tight that she could feel her knuckles turning white, "Here we go."
She wandered through the large groups on the quad, receiving many glares from the students. She even heard one yell, "Who's the fresh meat?"
8:43
Ginny sat in her first period class, physics. She always sat in the front of the room because she got a better view and therefore could understand the material better.
Class started and a short woman with brown, spiky hairwalked in, rapped her ruler on her desk, and shouted, "Shut up! We're going to have a good class this year, guys. And we've got a new student…come on up here and introduce yourself."
Ginny put her pencil down and nervously took a step up to the front of the room, "Um…my name's Ginny Weasley."
There was a silence. Ginny scanned the faces at the desks and met two cold, grey eyes. The eyes belonged to a tan, slender, black-haired girl with cunning facial features and great boobs that Ginny couldn't help but notice. The girl stared back menacingly and Ginny blushed.
The teacher asked in an annoyed voice, "And? Where'd you move from, got any brothers or sisters? What do you do on your free time?"
Ginny stammered, "I moved from Gryffindor City and I have seven brothers if you include my foster brother Harry Potter and I like to paint, sketch, write, or photograph things on my free time."
The teacher smiled, "Well, my name is Miss Nigel and welcome to sophomore and junior physics."
Ginny smiled and sat down, tugging on the loose string of her faded Squeeze jeans.
11:54
Ginny stood at her locker switching books when a shadow was cast upon her. She looked up to find Blaise Zabini, dressed in grey corduroy shorts and a grey, zip-up, polo hoodie, his usual shaggy, dark brown hair. Ginny looked down at the floor and noticed he was wearing black flip flops.
He spoke in his charming, boyish tone, "Saw you in physics. You were a major dork."
Ginny mumbled, "Well thanks."
Before he could say anything else, Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle joined at her locker.
"Ooh, nice pic. Who is it?"
Ginny asked, "Which one?"
Draco pointed to a picture taped on the door of her locker.
Ginny muttered, "Napoleon Bonaparte."
Draco snickered and sneered, "What a fucking nerd!"
He slapped the locker with a great force, making Ginny jump. Then he slammed Ginny's locker shut and got close to her face. He didn't say a word, but his breath on Ginny's neck was enough to scare the shit out of her. Draco began to smirk and led his cronies away. They all bumped her with their shoulder, causing her to drop her book.
Ginny gasped and called out, "Blaise, wait!"
Blaise turned around and made two closed fists and crossed them over each other in a violent pounding. Ginny was not sure what it meant, but she was sure it was some sort of rude gesture.
She muttered, "Asshole," and picked up her book.
1:17
Ginny sat in study hall at the library. She had her own table and she had surrounded herself by as many books as possible, building, in her view, a safe fort. Just as she was sure she had gotten away from everyone, her books were shoved aside. Ginny looked up to see a tall, abnormally thin girl with long, black and blue-highlighted blonde hair. The girl had many piercings on her ears and Ginny saw a tattoo of a dragon on her collarbone. The girl was actually very pretty in a dark kind of way, but it became even more distinct with her attire: blue jeans, high-heeled black boots, a black blazer over a black My Chemical Romance t-shirt, and plenty of spiked jewelry.
The girl wasted no time in introducing herself, "I'm Fleur Delacour."
Ginny repeated for about the fiftieth time that day, "I'm Ginny Weasley."
"I know who you are. Everyone knows who you are after Pansy Parkinson tells them. But don't sweat it, you're fresh meat. It'll fade within a week."
"Wha"-
"I made you a map of the school in study hall. It also includes a list of the cliques in our school on the back. I do it for all the new kids, but they assume I'm a freak and join a different clique. It's not that I don't have friends. I have a few. One of them is Neville Longbottom. He's appears really queer, and he is. Kinda like Mean Girls, 'too gay to function'. But get back to me if you have any questions."
She was gone as fast as she had come.
3:16
Ginny wandered across the parking lot and leaned against Fred's car. She took Fleur's map from her backpack and unrolled it. On one side it showed the school and on the other it showed the cafeteria enlarged, showing who sat at what table. The tables had labels that varied from 'Plastics' to 'Male Jocks' to 'Female Jocks' to 'Cheerleaders' to 'Cool Kids' to 'Individualists' to 'Nerds' to 'Freaks and Geeks' to 'New Kids' to 'Socialburns' and all the way down to one girl who sat alone everyday. Ginny was the third to the lowest of the social food chain. She sighed and tucked the map away just as soon as Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George appeared by her side.
Ginny casually said, "Hey guys. How was your day?"
Fred stated, "George and I got a few weird looks but since we're part of the matured student body, no one really gave us a hard time. We wouldn't have cared anyway."
Harry sighed, "I wish Ron and I could say the same. We have all our classes together, but no one will talk to us. We tried to get noticed all day long."
Ron nodded his head, "It was useless."
"Well I started off the day in study hall at the library and their library is gianormous! Anyhow, I met this girl named Cho Chang and her friends Hannah Abbot and Lavender Brown. They called themselves the ABC's because all their last names start with either A, B, or C. They're big brainiacs just like me, which is good because Cho is like my new best friend now. We have all the same interests and stuff. The day went really well for me." Hermione was huffing by the time she finished her day's summary.
Everyone stared at her. "What? How was your day, Gin?"
Ginny shrugged, "I got embarrassed in front of my sophomore/junior physics class"-
Ron interrupted, "Oh yeah, I heard about that. Seamus was there."
Ginny glared at her brother and went on, "Then I got harassed at my locker by Draco Malfoy and his cronies"-
Ron muttered, "Asshole."
But Harry interrupted, "He was actually nice to me. We talked about football all study hall."
Ginny glared at her 'adopted brother'. "Then I met a girl named Fleur Delacour. She was oddly nice to me. I think she's a little Gothic."
Just then a high-pitched shrill laughing sounded across the parking lot.
A cold, harsh girl's voice snarled, "Shut up Elizabeth, you sound like a goat."
Ginny followed the noise and her eyes landed on the girl from physics. She was coming their way. She was dressed in a white mini skirt with a blue, button-up, floral print blouse and blue Converse All Star shoes. She was closely followed by a blonde-haired girl dressed in a ridiculously short, pink sundress, and a short, brown-haired girl with glasses and torn blue jeans and a pink zip up sweatshirt. The girl currently had her nose stuck in a book.
The girl from physics class shouted at Ginny, "Hey, you're the whore from physics, right?"
Ginny gasped, "Excuse me?"
The girl sneered, "You heard me. You are the girl from physics, aren't you?"
Ginny nodded, "Yeah. Who are you?"
The girl laughed, "I'm Pansy Parkinson."
"Did you call me a whore before?"
The girl with glasses and the book coughed, "PMS!"
Pansy spat, "Mariel, shut it!"
"I only called you a whore because I witnessed you hanging out with Fleur Delacour." Pansy put quotes around 'hanging out' with her fingers.
Ginny furrowed her brow, "I don't think hanging out with Fleur makes me a whore."
Mariel maliciously snarled, "You would only think that if you were a prostitute."
Ginny gaped at the three girls.
Mariel went on, "Look, I'm not going to judge who you hang out with. Pansy doesn't like the girl so I guess that makes her a whore. It's not my call to make."
Ginny uncrossed her arms and said, "Well it was nice to meet you, but we've got things to do. Goodbye now."
The group slowly got into the car and drove off.
Thursday, after school, August 29, 2005, at school
The week had smoothed itself out for the kids. Ginny made friends with Fleur Delacour and Neville Longbottom. Hermione was now an exclusive part of Cho, Hannah, and Lavender's group. Harry and Ron caught up with a few of their old friends: Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, and Lee Jordan. Fred and George were still Fred and George.
On Tuesday the kids were all asked to sign up for fall sports. Harry and Ron immediately signed up for football and Hermione's pick was simple: volleyball. However, Ginny, who was unable to choose, signed up for both soccer and cross country. She knew it would cause problems, but she could deal with it. Practices started Thursday.
Harry and Ron were geared up in their practice uniforms, huddled in a group with Seamus, Dean, and Lee when the coach appeared.
"Shut up! I'm Coach Snape and I expect you to be out here at 3:30 everyday, fully dressed, and prepared to be worked to the bone. Now you morons aren't playing for JV anymore. You're playing for my team-varsity. So you better get your puny maggot attitudes in gear. Got it? Good, now I'm gonna call off your name and your passing partner's name. You'll be assigned to your partner all season and you'll warm up passing and other shit. Okay…
"Vince Crabbe and Neville Longbottom"
"Greg Goyle and Lee Jordan"
"Alexander Alystheimer and Seamus Finnegan"
"Xavier Whitman and Dean Thomas"
"Shepley Van Slade and Harper Lesley"
"Fred Weasley and Marcus Flint"
"George Weasley and Malcolm Baddock"
"Mason Bulstrode and Palmer Parkinson"
"Michael Corner and Tyler Derrick"
"Terrence Higgs and Oliver Wood"
"Brandon Montague and Ernie Macmillan"
"Adrian Pucey and Elliot Warrington"
"Harry Potter and Blaise Zabini"
"Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley…any questions?"
Ron and Harry glanced at each other before breaking off to their partners. Ron slowly stalked over to the place where Draco was stretching his arm, which Ron was sure could pound him into the ground.
Swallowing his fear of the blonde monster, Ron shakily greeted, "H-hey Malfoy."
Draco looked up with a smirk plastered on his face and nearly squealed, "Weasel! Let's warm up, dingle nuts, then we can get our scrimmaging on so tomorrow I can be placed quarter back, bitch!"
Ron nervously laughed and caught the football the Draco aimlessly threw at his head.
A few yard lines down, Harry met up with his partner, Blaise. "Uh…howdy neighbor." Realizing how stupid he just sounded, he shook his head and bent down to tie his cleats again. Blaise didn't say anything. He just threw the ball at Harry, who caught it instantly. They passed back and fourth in silence for the next fifteen minutes.
Snape interrupted them, "Alright guys! Get your asses over here! Pucey, Warrington, leave the water boy alone!"
Adrian Pucey and Elliot Warrington trotted over to the huddle chuckling.
"Now I want the juniors to go over to that half of the field and the seniors to that half of the field. I'm sure you'll all agree on positions. I just wanna see some scrimmaging."
Harry and Ron jogged over to their half of the field and waited for everyone to come over. They didn't know who elected Malfoy as king, but he took over and started yelling like Snape.
"I'll be quarter back; Zabini's wide receiver; Alexander's center; Crabbe, you'll be right tackle; Vince, left tackle. Now Xavier's tight end; Shepley's slot receiver; Potter, you be fullback; and Weasley can be tailback. Palmer's gonna be running back. The rest of you can be the other team, okay? Alright let's get this bitch started! Don't get too distracted by those cheerleaders, boys. They're just practicing like we are. There's plenty of banging to go around! Ooh-wee!"
Blaise smirked and chuckled under his breath as he took his position. Malfoy's arrogance must have been some sort of Slytherin inside joke.
Inside at volleyball practice, Hermione was doing quite well. She knew almost all the drills and could show off her spiking abilities. Most of the time she was setter, but they were scrimmaging at the moment. The only thing that was going wrong was that Elizabeth Dunn was giving her a hard time. Lucky for Hermione, Pansy was at cross country practice with Ginny.
Ginny had been checking in and out with her soccer coach and her cross country coach, but had spent the majority of her time at cross country. Finally her coach confronted her.
"Listen, Ginny, you'll have to choose between my team or soccer. What'll it be? You've seen the ropes, so choose."
Ginny bit her lip. Soccer looked really hard. Plus, she was better at running than scoring a goal. "I'll stay here."
Coach Hooch smiled, "Excellent. Now I'll have two star runners."
Ginny cocked her head, "Who?"
"You and Pansy of course. You should go running with her after school sometimes."
Ginny furrowed her brow and went off to join the rest of her team.
6:47
Ginny, Ron, and Harry were crashed in the living room on their giant, leather, wrap-around couch, icing their legs and other aching muscles. The plasma screen TV was turnedon and they were watching ESPN. It was on a commercial, though.
"So how was your practice, Ginny?"
Ginny sighed, "I started out going between cross country and soccer practice and then chose cross country. Then we went on a warm up lap around the school grounds-do you know how big that is? Anyway, then after that we took five thirty minute runs. My legs are so sore."
Ron sighed in response and turned his attention to the TV. Harry began to explain his and Ron's practice, "Our coach is Mr. Snape."
Ginny's eyes widened, "You guys have the PE teacher as your coach? That has to suck."
Harry nodded, "We got our practice uniforms and we got all suited up and went out on the field. The first thing Snape says to us is, 'Shut up! I'm Coach Snape and I expect you to be out here at 3:30 every day!'"
Ginny laughed, "You have my sympathy."
"Thanks. Then he gave us our passing partners. We basically practice passing and ball handling tactics. Anyway, mine is Blaise Zabini and Ron's is Draco Malfoy."
Ginny put a finger in her mouth, imitating gagging. Harry burst our laughing. "Anyway, we worked on that for a while and then we did scrimmaging. Malfoy isn't that bad; in fact, he's got really good leadership skills, if that's what you want to call them. He assigned us positions and we played the whole practice. I think Snape put me on the first string 'cause the seniors don't have that many players, let alone ones that are worth a shit."
Ron turned back to Harry and Ginny, "Their best player is probably Marcus Flint and he runs like a grizzly bear. But Wood came here instead of Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw and he was always pretty good. I bet Malfoy's quarter back, though."
Ginny retorted hotly, "The teachers and coaches here play favorites and they don't even bother to hide it. Do you know what Coach Hooch said to me today?"
Harry sat up and put his ice pack on his shoulder, listening intently. Ron 'hmmed'.
"She told me that I should start running with Pansy Parkinson after school!" Ginny exclaimed. "Like I'm gonna run with her."
Just then, Mrs. Weasley called them to the kitchen for dinner. Harry grinned and turned off the TV. Ron was already limping to the kitchen, muttering, "Yum, food. I wonder if we're having mashed potatoes with chicken gravy. Sure smells like it."
Ron was right.
8:56
Ginny was in the back yard swinging on the swing set that her mother had put up for the neighborhood kids she babysat. Molly babysat for Hermione's youngest brother Herman; Seamus Finnegan's seven younger siblings: Holly, Tony, Sydney, Autumn, Frank, Billy, and Rory; Lucy and Louis Longbottom; Ramona Lesley; the Pucey triplets: Elliot, Ethan, and Eleanor; and Draco Malfoy's sisters: Desiree and Danielle (who went to school and only stayed at the Weasleys' until piano practice.) Babysitting was not the correct term for Molly Weasley's latest occupation. She ran a day care center.
Ginny was currently trying to stretch out her leg by flexing it back and fourth on the swing. She heard a rustling sound in the bushes and looked up. Blaise appeared from behind the shrubbery that divided his yard from hers. He wore black wind pants and a black hooded sweatshirt. His dark, shaggy hair was stuffed under a black stocking cap. From the light that was shining from her patio, Ginny could see that he was sporting a new shiner, from his mother, no doubt. Blaise took a few steps into the yard, his hands shoved the pockets of his wind pants. He removed one hand and gave her a small wave, mumbling, "Hey."
Ginny flashed him a quick smile and asked in a low tone, "What do you want?"
Blaise shrugged, "I'll leave then."
Ginny rolled her eyes and snarled, "You have a lot of nerve, you know that?"
Blaise turned and stared at her with his dark blue eyes.
Ginny got to her feet, "You were nice to me those few days and you expected me to keep your little secret and then when we go to school you treat me like dirt! Now you come over here and want to make conversation with me? What does this mean anyway?" She imitated his hand movement the first day of school in the hallway.
Blaise just stood there, his hands in his pockets, staring at her. To Ginny, his eyes looked like glossy, frozen ice. She shivered and looked at her shoes.
Blaise spat his response at her, "You'll soon find that I'm like that all the time. If you want to me to be a friend, that's just fine. I can be very open sometimes, but I probably won't give you the light of day. Call me conceited and self-absorbed, I really don't give a shit, but I don't want anything to do with your poignant rampage that you females go through over males. I don't like to get emotionally involved. You do not want to know what goes on in my head, Ginny. It's just fucked up. I'd rather put up a blockade and protect you from my ill-intentioned thoughts than get you entailed. So, it's your decision how deep you're going in. If you want to talk, I'll talk. If you want to hang out, we'll hang out here. Don't take this the wrong way, but my friends expect me to uphold a reputation. If you want to hug, make out, shag, if you will, we'll hug, make out, or even shag. Only if we talk about you, not me."
Ginny swallowed dryly and tried to find her voice, "I don't know what to say."
"Then don't say anything. Life isn't all about words." He turned and began walking toward his house.
Ginny called out, "Wait! I have an hour before bedtime. You wanna hang out?"
Blaise shrugged, "Only if it's in my bedroom. I've got way better music than you."
"Okay."
Blaise led Ginny up the stairs to his bedroom and turned on the CD player. "Have you ever seen the movie Garden State?"
Ginny shook her head, "What's it about?"
"It really doesn't have a point, but the soundtrack is the shibby. This song is called "Let Go" by Frou Frou."
Blaise flopped onto his bed and motioned for Ginny to lie down. Ginny smiled and leaned back onto Blaise's arm. She listened to the techno-rock beat and studied the lyrics.
Drink up baby down
Are you in or are you out?
Leave your things behind
'Cause it's all going off without you
Excuse me too busy you're writing a tragedy
These mess ups
You bubble-wrap
When you've no idea what you're like
So let go
Jump in
Oh well, what you waiting for?
It's alright
'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown
So let go
Just get in
Oh it's so amazing here
It's alright
'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown
It gains the more it gives
And then advances with the form
So, honey, back for more
Can't you see that all the stuff's essential?
Such boundless pleasure
We've no time for later
Now you can wait
You roll your eyes
We've twenty seconds to comply
So let go
Jump in
Oh well, what you waiting for?
It's alright
'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown
So let go
Just get in
Oh it's so amazing here
It's alright
'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown
Ginny looked up at the sky window and watched the twinkling stars in the sky above. She stopped breathing for a moment and then began breathing in sync with Blaise. She shifted her head closer to Blaise's and felt his soft, silky hair tickling her cheekbone. This was the beginning of something beautiful, she could tell.
Author's Note: That's the second chapter. I hope you liked. I've already got the third chapter started and it's going pretty good. I'm also working on a new chapter for a new Ginny/Blaise story. It's gonna be at Hogwarts though. I hope you like that one. And I know that I rarely update, you just have to have patience with me. Please review, the reviews keep me writing.
MAF