Author's note: You know what, I think I'm going to stop putting these at the start...because I'm probably getting really annoying by attempting to make predictions on what will happen...so tata :P...
Chapter 8
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Draco was sitting in his favorite leather chair in front of the common room fire; he was waiting for the last few Slytherins to show up. When the last few took their seats on the floor, he began.
"Now, I am assuming most of you would like to know where I have been the past few days. I'm not sure what the teachers told you, but they probably told you I was sick. But the fact was that I nearly died a few nights ago. I was found soon enough and Snape came and fixed me up and brought me to the hospital wing. My father came to pay me a visit that night, we had words, then I flat out refused getting the dark mark, he got pissed, I turned around, he cursed me and I woke up in the hospital wing one day later." He said as if it were the last thing on his mind right now, and quite coincidentally it was.
"Who found you?" Asked Pansy curiously.
"Now I'm just going to put it bluntly, Virginia Weasley and her friend, what is it? Connor? Colin? That's it, is the reason I am still alive." He said while smirking a little at the common room's reaction. There were a few collected gasps sand some people started to whisper to their friends.
"Virginia Weasley? So that's what that was about. She caused quite a commotion in her common room the night you went missing." Said one of the fifth years, Tommy Milter. When Draco raised one eye brow quizzically, he took that as a sign to continue. "Well, I learned from a "source", that she told Potty and Weasel off when they were mouthing off about us. She told them that she thought them weak." He said with a grin.
"Yeah, and the morning you weren't there, me, Katy and Ann found her at the bottom of the north tower, she was bloodied up pretty bad, we brought her to the infirmary, but the curtain must have been draw, because we didn't see you in there." She said sadly.
"Well it wouldn't have really mattered, I was asleep then anyways. But we owe the little Weasley and her friend. We leave the both of them alone. If you see the two of them being mistreated, you know what to do. She stood up for us, and now we can do the same. Okay, I'm done talking, so does anyone else have anything to say?"
"Yeah, we need to start thinking about our quidditch practices!" Yelled one of the sixth years.
"Yes, we do. But we will leave that for another meeting. Right now I think I'm going to sleep." He said while standing up and walking over to Blaise. "Blaise." He said in a quiet whisper, so that they were the only two that could hear. "I need your help. I want you to find me a book."
"Wow, never in my life have I ever been asked such a question by Draco Malfoy himself. What book do you need, as you know, I have millions." He said with a smirk.
"I want to know about the Goddess, by the name of Clywynn. I don't want you to tell anyone about this. This is between us." He said hen walked away into his room. He lay down on his bed and let his tired muscles relax as he fell into a deep slumber.
When Draco woke up the next morning, had a long needed shower and went to the common room in search of Blaise. Blaise of course was lounging back on a couch and looking highly amused. Draco went over and was about to ask a question when Blaise cut in. "Yeah, I got your book. It's called Prophesies of the Past. Don't know why you need it, but here it is." He said lazily while handing Draco a thick, hard cover book. The book was visibly old. It was covered in dust, no matter how hard Blaise had tried to clean it, the pages looked ruffled and brownish. The cover itself was covered with an old, deteriorating silk cloth that may have once been a dark blue, now looked brown and gray. Much like the rest of the book.
Draco took the book carefully in his hands; afraid it might fall apart, and said his thank you, then went into his room to put the book in a safe place. He came back out and sat down beside Blaise.
"So. Where did you get it anyways?"
"The restricted section of the school library." He said flashing Draco a toothy grin. "Where else?"
"You know, someday you are going to be the death of me. If I get caught with that..."
"Oh, even if someone saw you with that, they would assume you got it from Lucius. Plus, I doubt that book has seen the light of day for a long, long time. And plus, it's not like you're going to strut down the hall with the ancient book now are you?"
"Fine. Now let's get some food." He said while walking away, no even bothering to see if Blaise was following.
When the two of them walked into the great hall they were met with a large commotion. At the Gryffindor table, there was a large crowd and everyone was talking. They got close enough to see that the group was formed around the red headed girl. They heard the constant questioning of their entire table, and Draco vaguely heard someone yell out.
"Sit your asses down and leave her alone you prats!" The group then cleared a bit, and some people went back to their seats. Draco and Blaise could now have a clear view of Ginny sitting their smiling at, who Draco assumed was Colin.
"So, she finally got out then. You would think that they would keep her longer." Said Blaise. Draco shrugged his shoulders and went to his seat between Blaise and Pansy Parkinson.
"Hey Pans." He said while putting his bag behind him on the ground.
"Hey, look over at the Gryffindor table and tell me what you see." She said very out of character for her.
Draco looked and saw that there was still a small group of people around the girl, but then he looked up the rest of the table. There were people who seemed to want to sit on the opposite end of the table in which Ginny was sitting at. They kept throwing her withering glances. Then he looked around some more and found the trio. They were sitting at the farthest seat possible away from her, and her brother was glaring out right at her and Potter was poking at his food with his fork. Granger was reading a book like usual. "Well, a lot of people do not seem too happy to have her back in their mist. Potter and Weasel aren't looking too pleased either." He said turning his attention back to Pansy.
"My point exactly. I think most of them are still miffed about what she said to them a few nights ago. And you know Gryffindors; they are the only house that still really cares about the animosity between these two houses. They would see what she did as a betrayal to her house her friends and her family. But still, it seems that she got through to some of them, because they are all gathering around her. And now Longbottom seems to be staying close to her because he is afraid of the others. He cant stand up for himself, he has no confidence. But Virginia is full of it, so he figures he is better off with those two, than with his other "friends"."
"Well you certainly put a lot of thought into this, but you are right. It is going to be rough for them if their house is turning against them. Gryffindors may be incredibly stupid, but they can be the cruelest of all the houses. They are for sure the most dysfunctional." Draco sighed and put some cereal and milk into his bowl and started eating. He quickly glanced over at the Gryffindor table, and saw McGonagall telling everyone to leave Virginia alone. He went back to eating his cereal.
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"Finally, cant people tell I am not in the mood to talk to them?" Ginny said while putting a small piece of egg in her mouth.
"Well, you were missing for a few days, and there were a lot of rumors going around." Colin said as if he was angry at the gossipers in the school. "Come on, eat up. You need to eat to get your strength."
"Sorry Col, I'm just not hungry." She said while sipping a little bit of her pumpkin juice. "Well see ya Colin; I'm going to go to the library and study."
"But Gin, it's Monday, don't you have Divination?" He asked.
"I used to, but I talked to Dumbledore and Trelawney, and they both agreed that I didn't have to go to that class any more, as it almost resulted in me going to St. Mungos. Dumbledore says that I might be having a class with him to make up with it, but he has to arrange it. So, see ya later! You to Nev, see ya!" She said while walking away.
Ginny spent a good half an hour looking for a book; until she got so fed up she went and asked Madam Pince.
"Excuse me, but could you help me find a book?"
"Of course dear, what book are you looking for?" She asked politely.
"Um, I don't know, but I wanted to find a book with information about an old Goddess." She said, trying to sound casual.
"And which Goddess would that be?" She asked once again.
"Um, Clywynn?" She said, trying to keep her face neutral.
"Well we do have a book concerning her, but it is in the restricted section and I can't let you in their without a teacher's signature."
"Please, I don't want it for school work, I want it for curiosity. I swear I won't do anything, you can even go get the book and open it to the page I want and you can sit their looking over my shoulder the entire time. I really, uh, want to learn about her, my mother told me something about her, and my family, and I want to see what she was talking about." Ginny was grimacing internally for coming up with such a lame lie, but she kept her face straight and kept looking straight into her eyes. She heard Madam Pince's sigh, and she really thought she was going to be refused. Then she surprised her by smiling.
"I'll see if I can find it. Now you shouldn't tell people about this, because I would get into a lot of trouble with hall the other students wanting to get into the restricted section." She turned around and went to the far side of the library, then out of sight.
A few minutes later, she returned empty handed. "I'm afraid that the book isn't there anymore. I must have let another student have it." She smiled sadly.
"Well, if it isn't a problem, could you look to see who signed it out?" She asked, trying to make her voice as sweet as possible.
"Okay, now let me go check and I'll be back again soon." As she walked away again, Ginny stood wit her hands on her hips, and tapping her foot on the stone floor, causing it to echo in the empty library. When she came back, she looked even more distressed.
"Well, it doesn't seem to have been signed out by anyone! It could have either been taken by one of the teachers, or a student has taken it. I'm sorry, but if I ever find it, you will be the first to know!"
"Well I appreciate that, but could you tell me the name of the book, so if I ever find it, I will be sure to hand it in to you?"
"You're such a sweet girl, it is called Prophesies of the Past, oh dear, it is almost time for second period, and you had better get going! Now I will remember to tell you if I see it." She said while ushering Ginny out the doors.
Ginny walked to her next class, History of Magic. She got there just as the previous class was crowding out to move to their next classes. She sighed and leaned against the wall until she could finally walk into the now empty class. She sat down and pulled out her textbook. Professor Binns seemed oblivious to the fact that Ginny was sitting there. Not until more students arrived, did he look up. Once the whole class was there, all Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, he began droning on and on. By the end of class the only thing Ginny learned, was that she was running low on ink, there was gum on the bottom of her desk and one of the Hufflepuffs dyed their hair. She hurried out of the door as soon as the period was over. She went to the Great hall and sat down at a bench closest to the back doors. When Colin walked in, she flagged him down.
"Well how was your first morning back?" He asked.
"Fine, boring, but there were no "incidents"." She said with a humorous smile. She put a piece of bread on her plate and began to butter it. When she looked up, she noticed Colin staring at her.
"What?" She asked.
"Is that all you're going to eat?" He said in a serious tone.
"Possibly, what's it to you?" She replied.
"Gin, you need to eat. You have been sick for a while and you body needs the food. Eat some more Gin, please?" She was really shocked by his pleadings so she grabbed a bowl and filled it with brothy soup. She ate it slowly and in small spoonfuls and when she finished that, she looked at him again.
"Are you happy now?" She said.
"Mildly." He said with a smirk. Then whapped him across the head with a bagel she stole form his plate. They burst out laughing and then they continued to goof off, until Professor McGonagall told lectured them on how they were disgracing the Gryffindor name. That sent them into fits of laughter, and she walked away shaking her head. When they had finally settled down, Ginny told Colin that she had to leave for her herbology class; he smiled and told her that he had herbology too. So they both went grabbed their books and bags, then they walked outside to the greenhouses.
When they got to the greenhouse, Colin stopped and started talking. "This is going to be an interesting class, we share it with Slytherins." He said looking around. When the two of them walked by, some of them smile at her, a few of them even said hello. It was a little unnerving in her point of view, but she didn't really mind. When the class finally settled down, Professor Sprout walked in and said.
"Okay students, today is going to be a special class, I am going to take you into the Forbidden Forest and show you some of the rare and wild plants that grow there!" She said with such a happy smile that they couldn't help wonder if she was in a sane mind.
IMPORTANT!-I will not be continuing this story unless I get some more reviews to tell me that I am not wasting my time writing...because I really want to start a new fanfic, but I'm going to wait because I don't want to be writing two stories at once...but I will write one more chapter, because I am already half done it...
Author's note: I'm sorry for making this one a short chapter as well, but you see, when you don't have a mouse, it takes a long time to do things on a computer...my mouse kind of stopped working and I am getting really tired of pressing TAB and ALT all the time...so hopefully I will get a new mouse and I will make my next chapter really long! PLEASE REVIEW!