Hey guys, sorry it's taken me so long to update. Let's just say that I had a small argument with my mother that resulted in my being scared to get on the computer for a while. So, enough details about that. Thank you guys so much for reviewing, the most amount of reviews yet were given on chapter six. I'm so excited to see how you guys like this chapter. Here it is!
Chapter Seven
Ginny woke up in a rather uncomfortable position, lying on the couch with her head on her arms, both of which had fallen asleep. She did however, wake up feeling quite refreshed, and as memories of the night before came flowing back into her mind, she couldn't help but feel a bit elated. She was rebelling! She remembered the pleading note she had written to Hermione, and the long fall through the wall. The fall through the wall? All her aches and pains from the night before were gone, except for a few small bruises on her stomach.
"Feeling better?" asked a drawling voice as Ginny sat up.
"Actually, yes." Ginny replied shortly.
"That's exciting," Draco said with a sigh.
"I knew you'd think so," Ginny retorted.
"Haha, very funny, Weasel."
"I think it is."
At that moment a large appeared through the fireplace of the room, spreading soot through the chambers as it flapped its mighty wings. The bird was a beautiful one; it had a black coat of brilliantly soft feathers. It clasped a sealed letter in its beak.
"Whose bird is that?" asked Draco, rather shocked, looking at the giant bird in front of him.
"Dunno," Ginny shrugged.
She reached out to take the letter from the bird's beak when it opened its mouth and squawked "Are you Ginerva Weasley?"
Ginny about had a heart attack. She had never known a bird that talked before. Draco, who was in a better state than Ginny, opened his mouth to speak.
"You're the Malfoy boy. Yes," the bird said, "I was warned of you. No, the letter is not for you, back off now. Why don't you go down to breakfast and eat a nice cobbler? Leave me to talk to Ginerva for a while." Draco stared at the large bird with wide eyes. Ginny watched at the bird rammed himself against Draco's legs, forcing Draco to back out of the room. "Go on, go. Shoo," said the bird.
Ginny laughed as the door shut behind Draco. "Can I help you?" she asked.
"I come bearing messages from a Hermione Granger," the bird said, bowing its head to the ground.
"Hermione? I should have known," said Ginny. She made herself comfortable, sitting on the couch cross-legged, and patted the spot next to her. "D'you want to sit?" To Ginny's complete surprise, the bird took to the air and began to repeatedly pound its head into the wall. "Oh my God!" said Ginny, open-mouthed. "Stop!" She leaped off of the couch and lunged across the room, pulling the giant bird away from the wall. "You remind me of a house elf," Ginny murmured.
"Actually miss," the bird clicked its talons together and transformed into a small, green creature, clothed in numerous household items. There was, of course, a tea cozy on his head. There were giant oven mitts on each of his hands, and an odd number of socks on his feet, some covered in flying bats, or gophers, and some were just plain white. There was a lacy apron around its lower midriff. "I is bringing tidings from Misses Hermione Granger. My name is being Dobby."
"Dobby!" shrieked Ginny. "You're Harry's friend."
"I am truly honored that Misses Weasley remembers me and calls me Harry Potter's friend. I is very honored. Misses Hermione Granger wishes to tell you that she received your letter and she is delighted to see that you are doing something to get back at that insufferable prat. She also says that she will do anything she can to help you and she wonders if you can meet after lunch in the library. She is having a free period then," said Dobby.
"Oh good," squealed Ginny. "I'm so glad she got my letter. Dobby, will you please tell Hermione that I have a free period then too and I would be delighted to meet her in the library after lunch today."
"Yes Misses Weasley." Dobby turned to the fireplace to go off to where ever Hermione was, but was stopped by Ginny.
"Oh and Dobby?" Ginny looked into his eyes. "Thank you!"
Dobby's eyes began to water as he said, "You is being a really great person Misses Weasley." Ginny waved goodbye as he stepped into the fireplace, which instantly turned green, and disappeared.
Ginny got dressed and went through her usual morning routine and stepped into the hall, meaning to head down to breakfast, but was stopped by Draco Malfoy, who had been waiting for her while she was talking to Dobby. "What was that?" he asked, enraged.
"Just a bird. I don't know where it came from, or how it got my name. It seemed to think that I owed Gringotts fourteen galleons. I told it 'impossible,' that I've never had fourteen galleons in my life, and why would I buy something worth more than I could afford? Then it seemed to get the point and mumbled something about going to find its manager. It really was quite weird," Ginny lied. She was in such a good mood and didn't want to anger Draco by telling him that his old house elf had come to pay her a visit.
Draco mumbled something under his breath.
"What was that?" Ginny asked.
"I said that you are a worthless piece of trash who couldn't afford a decent quill. Why they got the impression that you had fourteen galleons is beyond me, because it is quite obvious from your appearance that you do not possess that kind of money."
"Oh yea?" asked Ginny. "Then how did I get this?" She opened her robes to show a dazzling necklace, it appeared to be made of real diamonds, and it shined with radiance unknown to other jewels. Truthfully, the necklace was worthless. Ginny had cast a glamour on a piece of string and tied it around her neck. She had gotten rather good at glamour charms since Tonks had been in and out of the Burrow and Ginny had been in and out of Headquarters all summer.
"I suppose you stole it," drawled Draco.
Ginny turned on him, face flaring a brilliant shade of red. "You think that my family, the Weasley's, would resort to stealing? That is not something that a family such as ours would do. Yours might, but I don't know why you would need to steal. Unfortunately, I am not as rich as your family, but that doesn't stop us from being honest people. Perhaps you should think about what you are going to say before you say it, it may be insulting." The faint hand print on Ginny's face turned a darker shade of red as she stalked off into the Great Hall, heading not for the Slytherin table, but the Gryffindor table, so that she might be able to sit with Hermione.
Before she made it ten steps, however, Draco's hand had grabbed hers and whirled her around to face him. "Who slapped you?" he asked.
"None of your business," snapped Ginny.
"For your information," Draco began, "I do not like people who attack others, especially people who hurt women. If you tell me who smacked you, I can go get him and teach him a lesson."
"Why do you automatically assume that it was a guy?"
"No girl has hands that big."
"I don't need you to get back at him. I am perfectly capable of doing that myself, thank you very much."
Ginny threw a distressed look at Hermione as Draco guided her to the Slytherin table. As soon as she sat down, (at the far end of the table, away from Draco, Blaise, Pansy and everybody's cronies), the post came, bring Ginny the last thing she wanted to see.
A Howler.
Ginny grabbed the howler and sprinted out of the Great Hall and into the entrance hallway, shooting a hateful glare at Ron as she passed the Gryffindor table. No sooner than she had reached the entrance hall and slammed the doors to the Great Hall shut, that the red letter burst into flame.
"GINERVA WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU SHOUT AT YOUR BROTHER AND YOUR FRIENDS, ARGUING OVER A SLYTHERIN NO LESS! YOU ARE DISGRACING THE FAMILY," shouted Ginny's mom. "DO YOU NOT REMEMBER HOW THE MALFOY'S HAVE TREATED US OUR WHOLE LIVES? WE TRIED TO BE CIVIL TO THEM AND WHAT DID WE GET IN RETURN? NOTHING! NOW YOU GO AND INSULT RON, HARRY, AND HERMIONE, AND TAKE THE SIDE OF A DEATH EATER'S SON! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND? AND RON TELLS ME YOU WANDER AROUND LOOKING LIKE A COMMON PROSTITUTE! HAVE YOU NO SHAME, GINERVA? YOU APOLOGIZE TO YOUR BROTHER AND YOUR FRIENDS THIS INSTANT, YOUNG LADY, OR THERE WILL BE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES. AND DON'T THINK I DON'T MEAN IT!" The letter shredded itself and dissolved as Ginny slumped against the wall next to the great oak doors.
She understood what her mother was saying all right. In so many words it was 'I hate the Malfoy's, the Malfoy's hate us. Be nice to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and stay away from Draco.' She also didn't doubt that there would be serious consequences if she didn't obey her mother's wishes. Probably something as severe as not being allowed to go home for Christmas break.
But did she really want to go home for Christmas break? It's only September, Ginny thought. But...Yes, she did want to go home for Christmas break. She wanted everything to go back to the way it had been. She wanted to be friends with Harry and Ron again, she wanted to live in her own dorm, and she wanted people not to look at her every day when she walked into the Great Hall for meals. She wanted things to be normal.
Sighing, Ginny stood up and walked back into the Great Hall to get her school bags, having totally lost her appetite. She held her head high, trying to show confidence, but it was difficult when there were whispers traveling throughout the hall, for everyone had heard her mother.
"Is it true she sided with Malfoy?"
"But Malfoy's and Weasley's are sworn enemies."
"I bet her mum is a redhead too, she sure has a temper."
"You sure are a prostitute, Weasley," said Pansy as Ginny walked by her.
"I learned it from you," Ginny replied, trying to hold back her tears. She hated being yelled at; it made her feel guilty and dirty. Thinking through what classes she had, she realized that she couldn't skip to take a relaxing bath, because she had Potions first block.
For Ginny, Potions was terrible. She couldn't concentrate on anything that Snape was saying, and the fact that she had to face her fellow Gryffindors did not make it any better. Arithmancy, however, was worse. When Professor Malkings mentioned that if you added green and red, green would dominate, Ginny burst into tears and was sent to visit Madame Pomfrey.
When she got to the infirmary, Madame Pomfrey gave her a calming draught and told Ginny to get some sleep and write her mother a letter. This did not appear to be the best advice, because Ginny left the infirmary crying harder than when she came in.
Ginny headed to Draco's quarters to try and catch up on sleep before meeting Hermione, but was intercepted by Peeves. "Oh Ginny, you ninny, now what have you done?" he sang. "You've given up shame and Drake thinks its fun." And he flew away cackling, disappearing through a side wall.
Ginny was not having a good day.
She slept right through lunch and woke up when the back to class gong rang. Thinking she was late to class, she grabbed all her books and sprinted to the greenhouses for Herbology, only to realize that she didn't have Herbology until next block.
She trudged back to the castle and up to the library to meet Hermione, and practically fell into Hermione's welcoming arms, tears seeping out through the corners of her eyes. "My day has been terrible," she sobbed.
Hermione led Ginny to a back corner of the library and sat Ginny into a beanbag chair. "I know. But it's going to get better because I know when and where we can get back at Blaise, and I've got ideas for the others too."