The Cruelty of the Past

Chapter 19

No Scandals, Please...We're Malfoys

Ginny was slowly starting to get a handle on understanding her husband. She now understood that he cared a great deal about what image was portrayed of his family. There was nothing he could do to change the way his association with Voldemort affected people's views of his family, however clearly that was part of the reason the Malfoys had to be the best at everything. There was surely NO room for any more scandal. Because she wanted her child to grow up happy, she decided she would do her best to not bring any scandal upon herself.

At school she was continuing with her classes and Quidditch, and even had to mediate a problem between two Prefects. She also found Oliver Wood was becoming more and more of a friend. Hermione was trying to be a friend, too; however she was having issues balancing Harry and Ginny in her personal life.

Harry was still being an ass to Ginny. She began to wonder what she ever saw in him, and some small part of her wondered if there was just something about him that made anyone with the name Malfoy hate him. She now also found fault in almost everything he did.

Oliver had not come to watch practice as he had a meeting with a couple of parents of two first year Gryffindors who couldn't stop fighting. Tonight Ginny was running late after practice when Harry stopped her in the hall. "Ginny, I need to speak to you," he said as he stood at the door to his classroom.

Ginny now wished she had postponed practice until Oliver could come. Even if she wasn't in Harry's class, he was still a professor and she couldn't refuse him. She stopped dead, but kept her distance. "Yes, sir?"

"Come into my classroom." He moved away from the door.

She didn't want to, but could find no way to avoid it. She made her way in, wanting to keep her distance from him but not wanting to sit in a desk. He already had enough power being a professor. "What did you want?" she asked calmly.

Harry smiled at her. "Ron wanted to know how you're doing," he claimed lamely.

"Well, Ron is perfectly able to write to me himself," she replied.

He nodded. "Yes, but when does Ron pick up a quill of his own free will?"

Ginny nodded; she had to give Harry that one. "Tell him to write me."

Harry started moving closer to her. She backed up until she was pinned against a desk. "Ginny, I miss you," he started. "I know that you're not happy with Malfoy." He then brought his lips down on hers in the first intimate, aggressive thing he ever tried.

He's kissing me! Ginny thought. Who does he think he is? And was he always this bad at this?

His tongue forced it's way into her month. Ginny finally pushed him off of her. "Don't ever touch me again!" she ordered.

"You know you miss me. There's no way you like him touching you," Harry angrily countered.

"Given the choice between kissing you once more or Lucius every day for the rest of my life, I'll gladly kiss him! At least he knows what he's doing!" she yelled back at Harry. Wait one minute! Do I like kissing Lucius? No, it's not that; it's just he knows what he's doing.

Harry used Ginny's second of revelation to close the gap between them, but she pulled out her wand and threw her Bat Bogey curse at him, then ran from the classroom.

As she got closer to her room, she realized she had just cursed a professor. Crap, I'm dead now! Shit, she thought. She was sure she was going to be expelled. She was muttering to herself when she ran into Oliver.

He took one look at Ginny and asked, "What's wrong?"

Ginny felt very safe with him. "I'm pretty sure I will be expelled by morning," she sadly replied.

"What did you do?" Oliver asked, slightly alarmed.

"I cursed a professor," Ginny admitted.

"Stop, Ginny. Before we go any further, please tell me who you're talking to; Oliver or Professor Wood."

She looked at him, clearly puzzled. "What?"

"Are you confiding in a friend or confessing to a teacher?" he asked, smiling.

"What difference does it make?" she replied.

"Tell me, your friend, what happened." He began to lead her down the hall.

She relaxed a little. "Harry kissed me!" she said heatedly. "Then I insulted him and he tried again but I did my Bat Bogey on him."

"You won't be expelled," he assured her as he placed an arm around her.

"But he's a professor!"

"Yes he is, but his behavior is called sexual harassment. He's not going to say anything because you could say something in return. You can and should charge him with harassment!"

"I can't," she replied, not sounding defeated in the least.

"Why?" Oliver asked.

"Because I'm a Malfoy! I can't bring a scandal to the family name. I need to take care of this myself."

Oliver and Ginny had been walking and were now at the door to the Head Girl's room. Ginny opened the door and allowed him in to the common room she shared with Michael Corner, who now was scared shitless of her because her last name now is Malfoy. Ginny was pretty sure Draco had done something to the Ravenclaw who was the Head Boy.

"What are you going to do then?" Oliver asked.

"Well I don't fully know, but I'll figure it out."

"You can't let him get away with this. Would you like me to talk to him?" Oliver asked as he sat down on the blue sofa in the room. This was very common now for the two of them.

"No, it's fine."

"Can I ask something?" he said and she nodded. "Why are you so upset with him?"

Ginny flopped down next to Oliver and sighed. "Because he thinks that I should just be so... He doesn't understand that this marriage is not as bad as he thinks it should be."

"What is it like?" Oliver asked.

"It's... weird, I guess. I mean really, he's almost as old as Dad! However, we both know that we have to find a balance for the child we have to have. He's actually been very... Malfoy-like, but in a good way."

"What the hell does that mean?" Oliver asked, looking sideways at her.

"Well, you know how they have always been... you know, giving to the right charity, perfectly proper, forgetting they were followers of the Dark Lord. You know, everything you expect of respectable rich people."

"Meaning?"

"Lucius does his best not to offend me; however he still corrects me when he sees fit. He also asked me to take etiquette lessons. You know; how to act, what fork to use, and how to dance."

"How do you feel about this?"

"It's okay, I guess. I mean it makes sense to always try to be the best I can be, right?"

"I guess."

After Oliver left that night, she spent a lot of time thinking about what to do about Harry.

Ginny spent that weekend at the Manor as she did every weekend. On Sunday afternoon, she put on her Quidditch sweater. She knew the Gryffindor colors weren't the best colors on her, but she had her reasons. She made her way to Lucius' study and smiled. Tom had taught her a thing or two.

"Lucius," she announced herself.

He looked up at her and took in what she was wearing. "Ginevra, what on God's green earth are you wearing?"

She did a little spin as she explained, "It's my Quidditch sweater."

Lucius had noticed the Malfoy name on the back. "What is the Malfoy name doing in those colors?"

"Well, I'm the team captain," she explained.

"Do you know how many Malfoys are rolling over in their graves right now?" he spat.

She ignored his comment. "I wore this to remind myself I needed to ask if you could be home on Thursday night. I have my first match on Saturday and want to stay at school on Friday night."

"Ah, you want to be in top form, do you? Why would you think I would do anything to help Gryffindor?" he asked coldly.

Ginny got a hurt look on her face and replied, "You're right, I'm sorry." She then turned around, reminding him of the Malfoy name on her back, and spoke, "I just didn't want to be a disgrace to the Malfoy name."

Lucius realized that the colors on her didn't matter; it was her name that meant everything. "Thursday evening, you say?"

Thank you, Tom! Ginny thought to herself as she left the room.

A/N Not what you were expecting? You perverts! Leave me a review!