Chapter Three: Making a Fool of One's Self Is Healthy Right?
She knew she was asleep, that wasn't hard to tell since nothing around her was real.
Nothing she saw could've possibly been real. But how could she be having a dream that wasn't real and she knew it, was that even possible?
She moaned under her breath as her shoulder was nudged again.
"For goodness sakes Weasley, rise and shine!" Came a familiar voice from her subconscious.
Her eyes fluttered open and she saw Harry Potter leaning over the chair, shaking her harshly. "Good, you're awake. Come on, you need to get ready for class!" He exclaimed.
Ginny's eyes shot open and she looked around.
The commons room was quite full for the Gryffindor commons, five people at least were in there, which for Gryffindors who were normally out doing something, was a lot.
"What?" She looked around again. "Oh bugger!" She claimed, jumping from the chair and dashing to where she knew her room was, she had found it last night BEFORE she had fallen asleep.
She rushed into the room and changed quickly into her robes, brushing through her hair in amazing speed, having it still come out straight, but a little frizzy at the top.
She grabbed a ponytail holder and her books which, anal as she was, she had prepared the night before and set beside her nightstand.
With an exaggerated sigh she was out the door in five minutes flat.
Harry's eyes widened a great deal. "Wow." He mouthed looking her over. "And you don't have any toilet paper sticking out your rear then?" He asked, walking around her with a smile and squinted eyes.
"What in bloody hell are you talking about Potter?" Ginny questioned, looking about herself.
Was there something on her that wasn't supposed to be?
Did she look okay?
Her hair was fine wasn't it?
She didn't have a hole in the back of her shirt did she?
"I mean you were in and out so quick, wanted to make sure you didn't break anything."
Ginny gave him a questionable look.
After explaining that she wasn't as clumsy as Ron and that all her possessions and furniture were still in tact Harry let out a laugh. "Bones, Ginny, I meant I was making sure you hadn't broken any BONES!"
Ginny looked at him for a moment before blinking and laughing embarrassedly. "Oh, right…. Bones."
She feigned a laugh and then smiled as her cheeks turned a light shade of pink.
Great way to start off a day, Weasley. She thought to herself as she shook her head in utter disbelief at her early morning stupidity and followed Harry out of the room and downstairs so she could get going to her class.
"How… how long had you been trying to wake me up, Harry?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, looking up at the dark haired boy.
He shrugged and laughed, looking down at the considerably shorter counterpart.
Ginny hated being so short. It seemed like when she got into fourth year she stopped growing because she hadn't been embarrassed ENOUGH.
Like that was possible.
"Not long, I only yelled out your name into your ear ten times before starting to shake you at the same time." He snorted back his laughter, which failed, and he let his full blown, rich laughter fall out of his smile.
It was nice that he was actually smiling again. Ginny sometimes thought he would never smile again.
Sometimes he seemed so depressed it was amazing that she could ever see him smile again.
Ginny blushed but quickly shook off her utter humiliation.
Well, on the outside anyways. On the inside she was contemplating how possible it was that everyone had laughed at her for minutes on end while she lay there asleep.
She hadn't snored had she?
Mouth open and drooling?
She hoped not.
With a wishing glance towards the door, the wish being to skip today and just go back to sleep as she was still horribly tired, she shook her head with a displeased sigh and followed Harry around the corner.
It was odd to Ginny to know that over the past few years Harry had become considerably less non-unapproachable and they had actually formed some sort of friendship, indefinable at all causes.
She stopped outside her classroom and feeling a toxic awkward silence approaching, looked to the floor. Sure Weasley, that'll help a LOT…
She rolled her eyes at her mental uber-bitch and tried not to slap herself upside the head for reprimanding her own mind.
"Ginny?" Came a voice, snapping her back out of her daze. "Ginny! Come ON!" Annabella hissed from inside the classroom.
Ginny looked about herself to find that Harry had been gone long enough to be out of sight. Ginny's cheeks reddened considerably as she scuttled into the Potions room.
Ginny gave a meek smile to Annabella as she sat down in an empty seat in the back behind her friend.
"How long was I out there? Where'd Harry go? What happened?" Ginny inquired, her own voice lowered to a whisper as many of the students had followed suit.
In Professor Snape's class, sometimes keeping a low profile and staying under the radar was the best idea out of them all.
Annabella grinned somewhat regretfully. "I tried to wake you up Ginny, I did." She said and sighed. "You were only out there for a minute or so. But Snape was in here badgering us for not having the right text or some other reason that... well… I didn't get around to noticing you standing there, staring at the wall till a second ago."
Ginny felt her cheeks flush wildly with color.
Maybe she needed to be medicated for constant zonings.
With a wistful glance at the door she froze. Damn predetermined facial expressions! She had wanted to look at the door as if her life, itself depended on reaching it, to find Draco Malfoy standing there.
Out of his peripheral vision he saw her and his bored gaze at the board behind Snape's desk turned into a displeased glare in Ginny's direction.
Ginny's eyes widened in horror and she half shook herself back into her previous staring into the deep cauldron.
"Ah, so nice to see you finally in the classroom, Weasley." The slithering voice of Professor Snape made its way against the walls to the far corners of the classroom and to Ginny's ears, which had turned horribly red.
"Draco, good boy, thank you for coming." Snape's tone had changed from utter disgust to slight pleasure. Ginny shivered in her own skin at the sound of such a change. It wasn't normal for such a man.
"Take a seat next to the daydreamer and we can get started." Snape said finally and Ginny was… well… looking into the cauldron.
"Who, professor?" She heard Malfoy ask, she could feel him looking about the room.
"Weasley of course." Ginny snapped to attention, her eyes open with terror.
Oooooohhhhhhh no! He didn't just sit Malfoy next to her did he!
Ginny shot a glance at Annabella who gave her a concerned look. Probably because Malfoy not killing the poor Virginia in the duration of the class period was near impossible.
Ginny could feel every muscle in her body tighten as she heard Malfoy mutter a "yes sir", she could tell he was sneering as he did so.
There was a sudden change in the mood of the room about Ginny as she felt Draco come and sit beside her on the bench provided.
Damn benches were so small. She felt herself scoot over to allow him more room and so she didn't have to rub elbows with him.
Being in the way she was she was already almost halfway off the bench before she nearly fell off. Startled and setting herself straight she felt automatically uncomfortable sitting with half her arse hanging off the bench.
Shifting her gaze she noticed about three quarters of a foot of space between her and Draco, she also noted that he hadn't moved an inch.
Debating in her mind it best to not take the risk of falling over, she began inching more onto the bench until she was good and on it. Sadly this only made about three inches of room between she and Draco.
She could feel his eyes on her and she bent down to pick up her book, hopefully distracting herself from it all.
"Pull down your skirt Weasley." She heard Draco mutter over the low rattle of Professor Snape's voice.
"Excu-cuse me?" She asked, looking up at him, still bent over in her pursuit of the text book.
She was surprised and somewhat horrified to find him glaring at… her leg?
She could feel her brows furrow. Was that some sort of pick-up rape line or something?
Kinky… Wait… what?
"I said pull down your skirt Weasley, your thighs are showing, you have it too high up."
He grunted and turned back to Professor Snape, acting as if nothing like that had happened.
Ginny's eyes widened as did the color spectrum of her skin, she now reaching an all new red. She sat back up and shifted herself so her hands came to yank down her skirt as told to.
Now not only was she utterly uncomfortable, but she without her robe was flashing everyone the top of her bright red thong.
Considering how many house points she might have taken away for darting out class and never returning, she was unaware of the helpless noise that left her throat until after it happened.
Eyes wide she saw a smirk crawl across Draco's face from her peripheral vision.
DAMMIT! A clear pout on her lips she turned away so that she couldn't see any part of Draco... besides his shoes as she was staring at her own feet.
Her hands were now grasping her knees tightly and her knuckles slowly turning white as she stared intently down at the floor.
Her feet.
Anything else in that vicinity.
So Draco's feet as well.
When had she started to think of him as Draco?
He was Malfoy, not Draco. Never Draco.
Calling him by his first name insinuated that he was human which by the laws of all that was real was impossible.
"Alright, children," Professor Snape droned on. "Your homework for tonight will be to meet up with your partner, for those who don't understand it is the person you are currently sitting next to, and concoct one of the four potions I have listed on the board. If you come back tomorrow and it is completed correctly your grade will be high, if not, then it will logically be low. Oh and of course I'll be requiring three parchment sheets of step by step detail of the experiment. Detail, children. Detail."
Ginny's eyes widened again and she was sure that her ears were as red as her hair by then.
She had to see Dra- Malfoy again tonight so they could do homework? But, no! No that couldn't be right!
Snape wanted Malfoy to converse with her after hours and out of class?
No! No, no, no, no, no!
She slowly turned her head to catch Dra-Malfoy's reaction to find him glaring intently at the cauldron, obvious disappointment in his stormy grey eyes.
Wait, why was she looking into his… nevermind. She just needed to look away.
That's right.
Turn her head and… She wasn't looking away. Why wasn't she looking away? She still wasn't looking away. Ok, if need to- slap self silly.
Draco's eyes flitted as he caught notice of her staring into his gaze. Uh-oh she thought meakly.
"What are you staring at me for?" He snapped, his glare turning into a purely hating sneer. Ginny swallowed down her cotton mouth and tried to justify herself.
"Was gonna ask… um… you… where you wanted to be at… um… meet… if… to do this." She stuttered out, making a great impression on herself.
It was odd the look he gave her, as if she was completely daft for asking him such a thing. As if this knowledge was supposed to be pre-known.
As if asking was the most idiotic thing for her to do.
"What do you mean? I'm not doing anything. You're doing it tonight and tomorrow I'll put my name on it. I wouldn't spend a night with you Weasel." And with that Snape dismissed the class and Dr- Malfoy was gone leaving Ginny sitting there, mouth open in dead horror. She was going to do this by herself?
