WORD! Three chapters in three days! I'm pretty much a God by now. This scene/chapter whatever was supposed to be in the last one, but the last one went on kinda longer than I though. Oh well. Right now, though, I'd like to personally thank my reviewers.
Ameera-undomar, AuntAnnie, cinderemma, Southern Charm83 (thanks for all the advice!), iluvpuddin, caught in my own world, catnipob, Fallen Roses 07, & Flipinpenname.
Thank you guys a bunch! On to Chapter Eight: The Ocho… (Sorry that was lame; it's from Dodgeball.)
Chapter 8—For a Smile they can Share the Night (Journey lyrics, I know.)
Ginny left the Hospital Wing feeling, slightly better about herself. Blaise turned out to be a great friend and boosted her self-esteem. Her stupid fasting idea took a turn for the worse; the opposite of the results she was expecting. You wouldn't say that Ginny is naive; it's just that she was very upset and her judgment, at the time, was impaired.
She officially decided Potter wasn't worth her time anymore. For friends, she had Hermione, and now Blaise. Ginny laughed lightly. If she had known that after her break-up that she would become good friends with Blaise Zabini, she would think it crazy. He's a Slytherin and Draco Malfoy's best friend. That's another thing Ginny was curious about. Why on earth had Malfoy helped her earlier? And when he was waiting in the Hospital Wing, she did notice that he looked a tad bit concerned; Ginny had caught a fleeting glimpse of worry flicker through his eyes. Ginny was replaying the scenes from earlier in the Hospital when she remembered something: she still had to tell Dumbledore and Logan what had happened. Dumbledore she could handle, but she wasn't sure about Logan. If he knew that Potter was the reason for her fainting spell, then it would look like she wasn't over him.
Ginny walked up to Gryffindor to get her bag and then she was going to head to the library to catch up on some work. Logan and she would usually just talk in the library instead of actually doing work. She had actually learned a lot about him. He was a beater for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Both his parents were very successful Aurors, though his father was killed by a Death Eater. He had a younger sister named Evelyn; she would be starting Hogwarts the next year.
Ginny absolutely loved talking to Logan. They weren't officially in a relationship, but there was enough chemistry between the two for one to form.
Ginny recited the password to the Fat Lady portrait and walked into the Common Room. She was surprised to see Ron, Hermione, and, to her disgust, Potter, sitting around. As soon as she entered, Ron ran over to her.
"Ginny! Are you okay? I was so worried!" Ron hugged her.
"Ron, I'm fine, settle down." Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother's behavior.
"Gin, why'd you pass out?" Hermione had come over and asked the million-Galleon question of the day.
"Uhm…" Ginny trailed off. Should I really tell them? Well, not with Potter around. She whispered to them, "I'll tell you guys later," giving a pointed glance at Harry, who was sitting there looking like a lonely puppy.
"Oh, okay, Gin." Hermione hugged her. "I'm glad you're okay." Ginny smiled at her.
"Thanks Hermione. Listen, I came back just to grab my bag, and then I was going to the library to do some homework. All right?"
Ginny went up the stairs to her dorm to retrieve her bag. She was just about to close the portrait behind her when a hand stopped her. She looked up and saw Harry, giving her a pleading look.
"Please, Gin. I really need to talk to you." Ginny didn't even give him a response. She just turned on her heel and continued on her way down to the library.
"Potter, not now. I need to do a lot of homework; I need to talk to Dumbledore and Logan, so just…leave me alone. You're not worth my time." I won't cry…I won't cry…I won't cry…Ginny silently promised herself.
"Well, can we talk on the way to the library?"
Ginny cast a glare at him. "Fine. Say what you need to, Potter, but I won't make any compromises."
Harry sighed. "Ginny, you don't know how sorry I am. What I did was stupid. You…you're an incredible person, Gin. I should never have let you go."
"You didn't let me go. I let myself go. What you did was not only stupid, it was horrendous. And with my best friend, no less! Do you honestly expect me to forgive you?" Ginny was practically yelling now.
"Ginny, please. I…I can't eat, I can't sleep. Just your forgiveness would mean the world to me."
"And you had once meant the world to me, too. But you threw it away. You threw it all away." Ginny started to speed up. She was not crying, no, but she couldn't stand to look at the young man any longer.
"Ginny, wait! Please, I'm begging you. You have no idea how much this is hurting me." At those last words, Ginny whirled around.
"Hurting you?! Hurting you?! Do you even know what I've been through these past couple of weeks?! How could anything possibly hurt you, anyways? What you did was heartless! Completely heartless! Now leave me alone. I never want to talk to you again." Ginny turned back around and walked quickly down the hallway, but Harry was quicker.
"Gin. Stop, right now." He grabbed her shoulders and shoved her a little roughly against the wall, and she gasped audibly. "All I want is your forgiveness. Please, Gin. Just forgive me, and I'll never talk to you again." He was shaking her shoulders lightly to get the point across.
"No, Potter. Because then you would win. And I won't let you get away with this. You're going to have to carry this burden for the rest of your life, and you deserve it." Ginny spoke confidently, but she was a little afraid of what Harry would do. He never got violent, but he seemed pretty desperate.
"Damn it, Ginny!" He yelled right in her face. "You don't get it, do you? You are, without a doubt, the most stubborn person I've ever met!" He shook her shoulders roughly once more.
"Get your hands off of me. Right now or I will yell again." He still didn't remove his hands from her shoulders. "Get off of me! Leave me alone! Don't you get it? I don't want to see you ever again!!" She tried to struggle against his grip, but to no avail. Then, Ginny heard footsteps. Slightly urgent footsteps.
"Potter, just what do you think you're doing?" It was Malfoy. "I believe she told you to leave her alone."
Gee, he seems to be saving me a lot lately…Ginny thought to herself.
"This doesn't concern you, Malfoy." He still hadn't taken his grip from Ginny's shoulders.
"On the contrary, Potter. This Weasley here happens to be quite close with my best mate, Blaise, so, indirectly, it does concern me. Get your hands off of her."
Ginny was slightly, nay, completely surprised about what Malfoy was doing. He was defending her, trying to get her out of the situation she was unfortunately in. When Harry didn't remove his hands, Malfoy stalked forward and ripped his arms from their grasp on Ginny's shoulders, and then he stepped between Harry and Ginny, guarding Ginny with his body.
"Now listen, Potter, and listen good. You ever lay your hands on her again, and you'll be sorry. Mark my words." Malfoy was sneering at Harry.
"Consider them marked." With that, Harry walked away back in the direction he and Ginny had come from earlier.
Ginny stepped out from behind Malfoy and huffed in annoyance. "I swear he is the most thick-headed, ignorant little jerk I have ever met!"
Draco chuckled lightly. "Finally, someone understands my pain. Are you…uhm…all right?"
Ginny looked up at him. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Thank you, again. I might need to hire you as my bodyguard if I don't stop getting into these situations." She smiled up at him. For the first time, she took in his appearance. His skin was very pale, but not albino. His eyes looked like two little full moons with just one dark crater in the middle. His face was very sharp and angular, though it suited him. His hair was platinum blonde, and it hung loosely around his forehead, quite different to the sleeked back look he used to maintain.
He sort of smiled back. "Well, I hate the kid just as much as you do, apparently. Plus, you looked like you could use some help."
"Well, thanks again." Ginny remembered back to the other night when Draco had tried to physically remove her from the library and compared it to recent events. She became confused. "Hey, how come you're being, like, nice to me?" She asked the question before she realized that his mood could change completely in a matter of seconds.
Surprisingly, it didn't. "Well, I told you at detention that night what Blaise had told me about you. I put two and two together and figured Potter was the problem, so I didn't want to add to the jerk you already have to deal with." Draco knew he was only telling part of the truth; the rest would just have to wait. He smiled again at her.
Ginny returned his smile. "Oh, okay. Well, I have to get going to the library; I have a ton of homework to catch up on. I have no idea how I'm going to do it all this weekend."Ginny started to walk away. "I'll…uhm…see you around, okay?"
"Wait, I can help you if you want." Draco had let it slip out before he could think over what he was suggesting.
"Uhm, okay. That would be great, actually, because I need a lot of help with that Potions essay."
"Sure thing." They began to walk towards the library in an awkward silence. Once there, they sat at a table in a dimly lit corner. "So, what do you need to know for the Potions essay?"
Ginny sighed. "Everything. I can't even begin to fathom why he put me in the higher class." She took out her Potions book and perused the text. After a few minutes, she slammed the book shut. "I can't do this. I can't do homework right now. My mind is all jumbled up." She came to a decision in her mind. "Listen, I guess…I guess I'll tell you…what happened. The reason why you're being nice to me."
Draco perked up. "Really? You don't have to, not just yet, if you don't want to."
"No, I do." She sighed. "Well, I guess it all started last year. You know how I was going out with Potter," he smirked slightly at her use of his last name. "Everything was great, you know, young love and all that jazz. I even had a great best friend, Mallory Sinclair."
"So is she the one you hexed last week?"
"Indeed. Anyway, we dated all through the summer…" Ginny recounted the entire story to Draco, and at the end she was near tears.
Inside, Draco was livid. Even he would never do that to someone. Now he had another reason to hate Potter. This girl sitting before him had hurt herself for the selfish prick. "I swear, next time I see that Scarface again, I will—"
Ginny laughed, despite the situation. "No, you don't have to do anything. Oh, shoot. It's almost dinnertime and then I have to meet Logan back here." She gathered her things and put her bag on her shoulder. "I'll see you later, okay? Bye, Mal—" She stopped herself. "Draco."
"Bye, Weasley."
Ginny left the library without a backwards glance. She walked all the way to the Great Hall in a mood similar to the one she was in when she had left the Hospital Wing earlier. When she walked into the Great Hall, she saw three pairs of eyes on her: Logan's, Blaise's, and Dumbledore's. She smiled at each of them in turn to assure them that she was okay. She took a place next to Hermione at the Gryffindor table and dug in; relishing the taste of the food she had dearly missed.
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A/N: yeah, well. it's not as long as my past two, but it's something. there was a bit of d/g, so it should be all good. i want some reviews, people. it's not that hard to do :D
Contest: In this chapter, I used a movie quote and a song lyric. Now, if you find the movie quote and know what movie it's from, give your answer in a review. Same for the song lyric; if you know the lyric and the song/artist, give your answer in a review. People who get the right answer will get a virtual hug and they get to create their own character (name, personality, house) based on themselves that i'll use somewhere in the story. not necessarily the next chapter.
people who get both answers will get the same, as well as having the chapter dedicated to them.
weeeee 3 good luck, munchkins.
ALSO: i know the chapter title is lame, but it kinda works...i guess...they smiled-- spent time together in the library. w00t.