Take A Deeper Look

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Chapter Four: Sweetness

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The alarm sounded once before a pale hand slapped down upon it. She rolled over and groaned. It was too early! And she had double Potions first thing. Ginny sat up quickly. Double Potions meant two hours paired with . . . "Draco. Bugger!"

Out of bed in a flash, she hopped into her shower stall and quickly woke herself up. Mid-scrub on her arm, she stopped. Why was she rushing? Virginia Weasley, no! You hear me? N-O, no! She took her time after her mental berating. So much so that she found herself running from the Gryffindor Tower to the dungeon Potions room.

"Glad to see you want to join us, Miss Weasley," Snape drawled as she ran into the room and sat in the first open spot she came across.

Ginny waited for him to continue, and give her detention, but he just turned away. "Odd . . ."

"Indeed. I was sure you were going to lose points and receive a horrendous detention," her table partner replied. Draco looked at her quickly. "In fact, you should have."

"I – uh – I," Ginny sighed. "I function well without breakfast." She turned towards the front and listened as Snape went over their potion.

"It will need to brew for thirty minutes, so I expect you all to have it ready to brew in thirty. The rest of the time will be used to test you potions." Ginny wanted to raise her hand, to ask what potion they were doing, but he hadn't finished talking. "Pair up with your table partners," Snapes' black eyes focused on her, and she suddenly felt like she was being measured. "Miss Weasley, I suppose you shall have to work with Mr. Malfoy . . . again."

"He sounds so happy for us!" she said sarcastically. Something's up with Snape – what? Why is he still watching me?

"Start the cauldron, I'll get ingredients."

"Sir, yes, sir!" she muttered loudly. "I really need to eat breakfast, I'm too sarcastic in the mornings . . ."

Draco sat down at the table again, arms laden with ingredients. "What are you muttering?"

"A spell to make Snapes' eyes star permanently crossed." Oh the sarcasm.

He looked at her strangely. "You're very odd when you've missed breakfast."

"Thanks," she grinned at him before starting on the roots of asphodel.

"You – Never mind. Pass the chameleons tail," Draco stuttered out. She shrugged to herself as she tossed them over to him. What was he about to say?

One the cauldron was set to brew; Ginny leaned back in her chair. She was really hungry.

"Can't you, I dunno, shut your stomach up?" Draco asked her with annoyance. Her stomach had been growling for the past ten minutes.

"I could if I had food. But I don't, so I can't," she replied bitterly, immediately guilty for her tone. "Sorry. I'm cranky and sarcastic when I've missed breakfast."

Draco nodded before standing up.

Where was he going? Ginny watched as he approached Professor Snape. He's so weird!

~~*~~

"Sir?" Snape lifted his head. "Would it be possible to take the Weasley to the kitchens? Her stomachs' incessant noise is aggravating."

Snape pursed his lips. "No, Mr. Malfoy. Take your seat."

Well, I tried, he thought as he sat back down. Her stomach greeted her, causing him to scowl.

"I'm going to talk to Colin; you're only getting more pissy," Ginny said as she sat up. "I'll be back in ten."

Draco folded his arms across his chest as she left. He was not getting pissy. He didn't get pissy. "Pissy" was for females; Draco got annoyed.

"Attention!" Snape barely raised his voice to quiet the class. "If you kept within my time limit, your potion should be ready."

He watched as Ginny approached their table and took her seat next to him. She was certianly a weird one.

"Fill your goblets three-quarters of the way, and drink in one gulp or it won't work," Snape instructed.

"Do you have any clue as to what potion we just brewed?" he heard her whisper from his side.

"No. It's different from the mystery potions we had to make last year," he gave her a goblet of the pinkish liquid.

"Oh joy," she tipped the drink into her mouth and swallowed. Letting out a small, but high, scream of pain, she clenched her teeth.

Draco put his goblet down upon seeing her reaction. She was holding her throat and looked like she was trying to say something. "Professor!"

"What is going on here?" Snape looked at the red head that seemed to still be in pain. "What happen, Mr. Malfoy?" he grabbed his wand from an inside pocket, ready to cast the cure for their mystery potion.

"I don't know. She just drank the potion." Draco stared at Ginny for a moment before he saw her eyes roll back into her head and her body fall backwards. The shocked Potions Master caught her clumsily, sending the entire class into a flurry of whispers.

"Get her to Madam Pomfrey as quick as you can, Mr. Malfoy," Snape handed the unconscious girl off to him, after checking on her breathing. He turned back to the class with a glare. "Silence!"

Draco shifted the small girl in his arms so that one arm was under her knees and the other just below her shoulder blades. His audience watched as he quickly made his way out the door.

His legs burned as he went as fast as he thought safe up three flights of stairs and through the corridors to the Hospital Wing.

"Madam Pomfrey?" where was that woman? He put Ginny's still form onto a bed. "Madam Pom –"

"Mr. Malfoy! Quiet your voice. Now, what is the dilemma?" as Draco moved aside, she let out a gasp. "What happened?"

"She had some sort of a reaction to the potion we were making. Started gasping, like she had no air, and then passed out."

Tutting about, Pomfrey looked at the boy. "Was root of asphodel an ingredient? Did she have anything at breakfast?"

What was this – an interrogation? "Root of asphodel, yes. Food, no."

Nodding, the old nurse went into her storage room and came out with a phial of something purple and gaseous. "Well? Help me, boy! Sit her up, so I can give her this."

Draco blinked before doing as she had told him to do. Madam Pomfrey opened Ginny's mouth and let the gas flow in.

"Lay her down. She should wake in a few minutes." The phial was replaced just as an irate Potions Master and slightly amused Headmaster came in.

"Severus Snape!" the nurse didn't seem at all happy. "Did you know the girl had not eaten?"

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy informed me of it."

"And you still let her drink a potion with root of asphodel in it?" Draco had never heard the woman scold a professor before; it was amusing.

"I saw no reason not to," Snape scowled, not at all liking the woman yelling at him.

Dumbledore interrupted the two before Pomfrey could say anything else. "I believe what our dear Poppy is saying, is that taking a potion with that certain ingredient, on an empty stomach, has the repercussions we see before us now."

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Ginny heard voices before she saw people. Where was she? Why did she feel so empty?

" . . . has the repercussions we see before us now."

That sounded like Dumbledore . . . She opened her eyes, willing herself not to make too much noise, and looked up to who was standing closest.

"Draco?" she tried to sit up, only to be pushed back down. "Draco, where am I?"

"The infirmary, Virginia. Now lay down," he turned his back on her as she scowled. "Madam, she's awake."

"Oh, smashing! How do you feel, dear?"

"Hungry," Ginny replied bluntly. "What happened?"

The nurse left, leaving Dumbledore to answer. "You felt the aftereffects of not eating before taking a potion with asphodel in it."

"Is that all?" Draco smirked. She was still as sarcastic as earlier.

"I see you have your spunk back," the Headmaster answered with a grin; Ginny couldn't reply for the chocolate brought back by the nurse was stuffed into her mouth and a brief "you might feel sick for the rest of the day."

"A report will have to be sent to the Governors, seeing as Professor Snape knew that you had not had breakfast," the old man said gravely as Ginny finished her chocolate.

Wide eyes darting from the Headmaster to her Professor, she shook her head. "Is that really necessary? I mean, there really was no harm done. Please, Professor?"

"Well, seeing as how the report would have to be filed by you, and you don't want to file it, I see no need," the man smiled. "Off to class now."

"Thank you, Professor!" Ginny snatched another piece of chocolate as she jumped off the bed. "Still in potions, then?" Draco nodded as he followed her from the room.

~~*~~

"We really should keep them apart. It can only bring about trouble, Albus," Snape said as he watched them leave.

"Yes, you're quite right, Severus. However, I doubt anything we did to keep them apart would do just that. They're both very bright students, they would figure it out eventually."

Snape nodded as they walked down the halls. "He has spoken of becoming a spy, Albus. And I think he just might do it, because she asked him to."

"Did she really?" he acted as if he hadn't known this knowledge.

"Not directly. But they have talked, and I think she has convinced him to stay for the good."

Dumbledore clasped his hands behind his back, nodding. "So it seems. Then there is nothing we can do about it, now. He has made up that firm mind of his, we both know there is no changing it."

"Yet we both wish we could?"

"Yes, yes, we do. He is in for some of the hardest times he shall ever face." They caught sight of the pair, Ginny laughing as she threw a pieces of chocolate at the man-boy. "But I do believe she is just what he will need to get through them. Don't you agree?"

"Albus . . . History repeats itself. I do not want him to suffer as I did. He is too much like a son to me."

Before turning his corner, Dumbledore smiled. "Then he will prevail just as you have, Severus. And possibly find what he once lost."

~~*~~

Laughing, Ginny threw yet another piece of chocolate at the blonde to her side. He was deflecting them as best he could, but she nailed him with that piece.

"Hey! What'd I ever do to you?" he pulled the piece out of his hair.

"Well, let's see. You insult my family constantly. You insult me constantly. You tease Hermione for being Muggle-borne. You call my brother "the weasel." You generally hate everything about my life," she ticked the things off with her fingers, looking thoughtful.

"Okay, I get the point." Draco scowled at the redheaded girl. They both knew she had known it was a rhetorical question.

Ginny smiled. "You asked, I told!" eating the rest of the chocolate, they entered the classroom only to have her bombarded by questions. She had just enough time to gather her things and explain what had happened to her peers before the bell rang.

And just enough time for Ron to hear what had happened and for him to immediately turn it on Draco by lunchtime.

"I wouldn't down that he did it on purpose! You know him; he's always out to get people he doesn't like. He probably knew –"

"Shut up, Ron!" Ginny turned a slight shade of red as her voice echoed throughout the room. She lowered her voice immediately. "He didn't do a damn thing! I put the root of asphodel in. I watched everything he did, so he had no chance to do anything to the potion. It wasn't his fault that I ended up in the infirmary – it was mine! Got it? It was my fault, so stop making me make you look like an arse!"

Ron sat there, fish mouthed, as his fiery little sister left the table in anger; Harry was laughing at his side.

"You know you deserved that, Ron," Hermione said, trying to hide her smile. Harry, however, didn't mind showing that he found it highly amusing.

"Oh, shut up, Harry!" Ron said once he had recovered.

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Delirious – Deeper

Norah Jones – Don't Know Why

Avril Lavigne – Anything But Ordinary

Jimmy Eat World – Sweetness

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Yeah, so this was a filler-like chapter!

I just didn't want to split up the really important part of the story that is coming up next chapter. Trust me, you will enjoy the next chapter. I even promise that you will! (I don't usually promise things about my stories.)