Wow! My first upload since made all those weird changes...Anyway, I guess I lied! I'm sooooooo sorry, this chapter took FOREVER! But my computer has, like, over 100 viruses (sadly, I'm not exagerating) so I've been having to use mydaddy's when he wasn't using it- which was hardly ever. And then, when I was about halfway through with this chapter, I decided I didn't like it (Draco was really occ) so I deleted it and started over. So, yeah, sorry I didn't upload.
Usually, I just say my thank yous at the end, but I wanted to make sure everyone saw it. I love all my reveiwers! It makes me so happy to see them in my inbox (not to mention makes me write faster). Thank you allso much!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the settings, just the plot. Take that too if you want it.
Ginny had always had classes with Malfoy, she'd just never really noticed until now. Well, of course she hadn't been completely oblivious to his presence- he made that entirely impossible between his snide remarks and his blatant amusement at making her angry. But at least after the few customary insults, her threats of violence, his entirely too confident innuendos and one of them acting upon afore mentioned treats of violence and hexing the other, the classes had passed in nearly tolerable silence.
Now he was everywhere.
During breakfast, his eyes never left her. He talked normally if not more than usual with Pansy, but throughout the whole conversation, she felt his unabashed gaze.
On the way down to the dungeons for potions, she could hear footsteps behind her. Annoyed and unnerved, she turned, only to find there was nothing there. When she continued, the footsteps resumed. Turning again, trying to catch a glimpse of her pursuer, she saw nothing. By the time she finally reached the classroom, she was positive she had a slight case of whiplash. Draco Malfoy entered nearly three full minutes later, just as the final bell rang.
During the class he hardly spoke at all, except to correct her use of themes when the potion clearly called for a pinch of sage (although his definition of correct vastly differed from Ginny's. His meaning instead matched that which she had always associated with 'antagonize'). Despite his uncharacteristic silence, he's eyes never seemed to leave her. He watched her every move with an intense concentration that was so drastically out of character for the usually remote Slytherin that several times she found herself shirking away from his prying eyes.
If she had had any doubts it had been him that she had heard in the dungeons, they were removed when he took the long way to Defense Against the Dark Arts, which happened to coincide with her regular route to Herbology. He stayed at a carefully maintained distance away from her, but there was no denying that he was following her. In fact, he didn't seem to care at all if she noticed that he was behind her or not.
At lunch, his watch became even more unguarded. He seemed to have a total disregard for the fact that his gaze was now drawing attention.
"Ginny," Ron said through a mouthful of potatoes, looking slightly concerned, "I think Malfoy's looking at you."
Ginny looked up from her plate, which she had been studying very intently for the past several minutes, and glanced at the Slytherin table where the blond sat staring at her.
Luna sighed contently. "Ahh, young love." She said, staring off into space with a dreamy look upon her face.
Ron looked suspiciously at Ginny. Apparently the thought that she and Malfoy could be in love was horrifying enough to make him stop eating. And considering it was Ron, that was quite impressive.
Looking simply disgusted he said, "Ginny you're not-"
"Of course not, Ron." She interrupted, wrinkling her nose in distaste. "That's just revolting."
"You know," Luna said, smiling, "Male Zorlacks will stare for hours upon end at a female until he decides whether or not she's suitable for mating."
"Malfoy better not be even thinking about mating with my little sister or Merlin help him-" Ron stood, apparently with every intention of demonstrating to Malfoy just how painful having one's head bashed in with a mallet could be.
"Ron, I've said it a thousand times. There's nothing going on between Malfoy and me." Ginny said exasperated, pulling her brother back down into his seat.
"Personally, I think the whole process is rather sexist, but when you're as rare as a Red-Crested Zorlack, I suppose you have the right to be selective." Luna continued.
"Actually, no. Including that time, you've only said it twice. I would appreciate to hear it the other nine hundred and ninety-eight times now." He said looking from Hermione, fixedly reading her book, to Harry who had fallen asleep with his head on the table, for agreement.
"Ron," Hermione added reasonably, looking up from her book, "Ginny dislikes Malfoy nearly as much as you do."
"Supposedly there are only twenty-three left in the wild." Luna added. "So really there aren't that many choices anyway."
"Fine Ron, would you like me to yell it right here?" Ginny asked, feeling more then a little exasperated with her brother's stupidity. "Write a song about my endless disdain for Malfoys? A limerick maybe?"
"Yes, actually." He said. "That would be rather nice about now."
"Ron, you're making a dig deal out of nothing." Ginny insisted, temper flaring a bit.
"Ginny, if there's something going on between you and the ferret, I have a right to know."
Teetering on the edge of a outburst, she said. "First off, there is nothing going on. Second, even if there was, it's my own business."
"If there was? Is there? I'm your brother and-"
"And what, Ron? And you want to protect me? Is that it? I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself." She said, raising her voice several octaves.
"Of course you are." He said, looking taken aback by her sudden anger, "I just-I just mean…"
"Really, you two are making a spectacle." Hermione said, blushing slightly.
Ginny looked around. People, (one blond in particular) were indeed staring at them. "So what?" Ginny asked, feeling irrationally annoyed with Hermione for breaking up the argument. "I could stand here screaming bloody murder. What does it matter if I do? I-Harry are you alright?"
A rather loud thump interrupted her as Harry fell off his chair onto the ground.
Appearing startled and confused Harry looked up at his friends' concerned faces from the ground, rubbing the back of his head. "Bloody-"
"Harry are you okay?" Hermione asked, almost immediately at his side.
"Scar." He said lowering his voice. "It was bothering me all night and again just now. I think he's planning something."
"That's probably why Malfoy's been such a fruit case today. It must have been Harry he was looking at." Ron said looking slightly relieved that Draco hadn't been lusting after his sister after all. "You know he's in on all of daddy's little plans."
"Ron." Hermione said reproachfully. She turned back to Harry, "But this isn't exactly new news, is it Harry? I mean, your scar's been bothering you constantly lately, right?"
"Yeah, but this is…different. Stronger somehow."
"Maybe we should talk about this later." Hermione said, shooting a look at Malfoy, who was still staring in their direction.
"Why?" Ron asked, looking completely clueless. After a second, his face brightened in understanding. "Oh." He said cleverly. "I got it."
Hermione patted her boyfriend's hand. "Good job, Ron."
Ginny sighed. She couldn't stay one more minute in the room between Ron plotting and Malfoy staring, without saying something to her brother she would regret later and a fight with Ron was really not something she needed at the moment.
"Let's go Luna; I got to get some air." Ginny said, offering her Ravenclaw friend a hand up.
"Sure," Luna said, taking proffered hand and following Ginny out.
As an afterthought the redhead added, "Bye Ron, Harry, Herm."
"Uh-huh." Ron said, waving her off without looking.
"You know," Luna said, a little more loudly than normal, "He seemed much more interested when we were discussing your mating habits."
Ginny laughed as Ron waved them off again in complete oblivion- exactly as Ginny wished she could be to the pair of slate grey eyes still following her.
The rest of the day followed in much the same manner. Everywhere she went, she could feel his gaze following her. By the end of the day, she was ready to skip dinner and just escape to the safety of the Gryffindor common room, and would have too if that wouldn't have put Ron back into protective-brother mode. After finishing a quick diner, she and Colin nearly ran to the tower.
Sinking down onto her favorite couch, she sighed and let her head fall on Colin's shoulder.
"So tired." She mumbled. "I just want to sleep."
He laughed, the sound rumbling across his whole body, rocking her head. "No homework tonight?"
She shook her head.
"At least you don't have infirmary duty tonight." He said.
She nodded, closing her eyes. Then, suddenly, her eyes flew open. "Colin!" She groaned, "Why'd you have to remind me?"
"What?" He asked as his friend stood up quickly, brushed off her robes and grabbed her bag.
"I have to go to the hospital wing tonight."
"Can't you just go tomorrow?"
"Quidditch." She answered shortly, headed for the door. "And I haven't done my three nights this week. I have to go."
"Bye, Gin!" He called, but she was already through the portrait hole.
She of course, should have known- should have known as soon as Colin mentioned the hospital- that Draco would be there. She should have realized there was no way that there was no way he would not be there.
And despite all of that, it still came as a surprise when the curtains around on of the cots were suddenly thrown open right in front of her and Malfoy's face was suddenly only inches from her face. She gasped and stepped back.
Draco was likewise shocked by the vastness and …creativeness of her vocabulary. The obscenities streaming from her mouth made even him cringe. He made a mental note to never sneak up on her again as her cursing swiftly dissolved as she recognized him and was replaced by some rather painful sounding threats, most of which including the removal of body parts he had grown rather fond of.
"What are you doing here?" She demanded, after finishing a particularly dreadful sounding threat involving a broom stick, mouse trap and a shovel.
Draco, having stopped listening around the part about the shovel, was staring again at her neck. The scarf was gone, but her normally untamed hair was brushed smooth and her curls were very deliberately arranged to fall around her neck.
"I've had it with you following me around, you bloody wanker." She continued angrily. "I want this to stop right now or so help me, I'll-"
She broke off, looking startled, as he reached out and brushed the hair behind her ear. Had it been under any other circumstances, it would have seemed an almost affectionate gesture. His eyes were full of an emotion she couldn't quite place.
"Is this why you were late?" He asked, eyes focusing suddenly and his voice sounding strangely harsh.
"What?" She asked.
"When you were late to class Monday- it was because of this wasn't it?" He asked, realizing belatedly that he hadn't seen her at all on Sunday, not even at meal times. How could he have been stupid enough not to realize she hadn't been there?
"Malfoy, it's none of your bloody business-"
"That's crap, Weasley. Something major like this happens and you don't even tell anyone?" He asked. Taking a chance of course, because for all he knew she could have told the whole Gryffindor house, but it seemed from her blanch, that he was correct in assuming she had kept it a secret. "How stupid can you be? Who did this to you?" He asked, although of course, he already knew.
She sneered, the expression failing to portray any degree of hostility at all and instead showing a look of complete fear. "What, a Malfoy pretending to care about someone other than himself?"
"My God, this is more important than you and me. This is-" He stopped, at a complete loss for words. "Just…come here."
She didn't move. With an aggravated sigh at her stubbornness, he moved to close the space between them.
"Here." He pulled out his wand and gently, put it to her neck where only the slight outline of the bruise remained. Murmuring something so softly even she couldn't hear, warmth jumped from his wand down her neck and rippling down her spine. She shivered.
"Thank you." She said quietly. Bruises, one of the bodies most basic ways of repairing itself (and therefore most deeply encrypted in the mind) were oddly enough more difficult to heal then broken bones. If not for that fact, she would have healed it herself ages ago.
The spell was more of a symbolic gesture, an offering of peace than anything else. Ginny didn't pull away and Draco hoped that it signified that she had understood his figurative olive branch and had accepted it.
Tentatively, she smiled at him.
"Hey, after all," He said with a crooked grin. "We might have to 'spend some time together in the same general vicinity.'"
Umm...I can't quite decide whether I liked the end or not, so I guess ya'll can tell me what you think. Anyways, thanks again. I'll have another chapter up soon (vacation starts for me on the 11th and I'll try to update before then).Plus,nothing puts you in the mood for writing like a twenty-four hour car ridewith nothing else to do.
(Special note to QueenThayet) I updated on A friday. Does that count?