Ginny was having a good time. She was being her true chatty-cathy self, which she revealed only to the people she was comfortable with. And indeed she was surrounded by her closest friends. everyone present in that particular compartment knew this side of Ginny; everyone except Harry. This was a freaking revelation for him! He had never seen Ginny so loquacious and carefree before. She was always this silent, shy girl to him. But not anymore. It was like she had blossomed into a beautiful flower from a bud.
As Harry sat there in the corner consumed by these thoughts, the others( Hermione, Ron, Luna, Neville and Ginny) were quite busy laughing and joking. Ginny had finally let herself be. She felt so much better. Yes, there was some kind of pain; pain relating to the fact that Harry may never love her the way she loves him. But she wasn't going to let this make her unhappy. She had other things to be thankful for. After laughing long and hard at a particular joke cracked by Neville ( that was a first. Usually he never really cracked jokes or even if he did, they weren't really funny) Ginny was dying to use the loo. As she got up to leave the compartment, Luna offered to go along with her. Both the girls happily shut the compartment door and started moving towards the loo nearest to their compartment. Aaarrgghhh! The girl's loo was occupied. Her bladder would burst! She banged on the door again but no one responded. As they were about to turn back, they heard sobs. Ginny and Luna exchanged glances and immediately entered the nearest compartment which was occupied by Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Lavender Brown. Someone was missing. Parvati Patil. Ginny and Luna guessed right. On making quick enquiries they learnt that Parvati had been acting strange since morning and this was just one of her crying fits. Ginny felt sorry for her and really wanted to console her but she was in a bad situation. She had to get to a loo. So she and Luna hurried along the corridors.
Merlin's beard! All the loos in the Gryffindor carriage were occupied. Perfect! This was freaking perfect! Looking at Ginny so annoyed and in evident distress, Luna coolly suggested using one of the loos on the Slytherin side, as it was the nearest. Under different circumstances Ginny would never have agreed, but desperate times required desperate measures. So she accepted Luna's offer and put on a straight face and walked coolly into the Slytherin carriage. As expected, they were welcomed with pleasant insults from some of the girls( Pansy Parkinson being the most amiable girl that she is). Ginny knew better than to retaliate. She was on a mission. Besides she was accustomed to the Slytherins' civilities. But something was strange. Most of the boys were staring at them, constant staring. And the others were passing them fleeting glances. Strange glances. Anyway, now was not time to contemplate the hidden meaning of these stares and glances. She headed towards to loo ignoring all the insults, stares and glares. Luna was her usual, unaffected, dreamy self. She tagged along in her own pace.
Just as they were about to reach the loo, the train took a sharp turn. Ginny was completely thrown off balance and was about to kiss the floor when someone from the opposite side held her. Before she could look up to see her rescuer's face, there was a sudden jerk and she along with her hero fell on the train floor. Despite all the jerking and falling, she was just thankful that her bladder somehow held it together. As she opened her eyes, while still lying on top of the mystery hero, she looked directly into a pair of gray eyes. The most beautiful gray eyes. But she soon snapped out of her trance because those eyes belonged to Mr. Draco not-so-nice Malfoy! She hurriedly scrambled to her feet with some help from another Slytherin boy( handsome Slytherin boy), whom she knew as Blaise Zabini. She looked around for Luna and found her sitting on the floor and humming to herself, completely at peace. Ginny asked if she was ok and was glad that she was not injured in any way. She then turned back to her hero umm.. I mean Malfoy. He was standing right behind her and wore a strange expression. Maybe the expression wasn't strange, perhaps it looked strange on him because the times that she saw him, he always wore a smirk on his face. But this time it was a mixture of surprise with a dash of embarrassment that he wore. Also there was something kind about his eyes,w with a shadow of sadness and a hint of longing. "What is wrong with you Ginevra Weasley??!!" she thought to herself. Realising that two pairs of eyes were staring at her, she soon composed herself and thanked Malfoy for saving her from falling the first time and acting as a mattress *a very handsome and strong muscled mattress hmmm...snap out of it Ginny! He's the enemy* when they actually fell. She was already prepared for a malicious and demeaning reply. But what actually came out from his mouth was completely the opposite. Did she hear correctly? Was she still in her trance? Draco Malfoy was actually nice to her. His exact words were" It's the least I could do. I'm glad I was here at the right time. I hope you're not hurt. Are you ok?" "I'm fine. Thanks to you" she replied. This was all very confusing and pleasantly shocking at the same time. Before she got too carried away and started acting like a complete idiot, she had to get out of here. She immediately turned to Luna and helped her get up. She again said a quick thank-you to Malfoy and was just about to leave when Malfoy again did the unthinkable. He held out the door for them and accompanied them out of the Slytherin carriage. This was not only shocking to Ginny buy to the other Slytherin's present there as well. They literally gawked at the scene. Pansy was about to hurl a few insults, but even she seemed to lose her voice.
Soon they were out of the carriage and heading back to their compartment. The only person unaffected by all this was Luna. How could she not be surprised??!! She simply stated that Malfoy was quite nice as a person but was pressurised by his family to pretend otherwise. That was something deep to say. But Luna usually was deep and kind of crazy. Luna had entered their compartment as Ginny headed to the loo, the main reason why she had actually got out of the compartment. On finally finding the loo empty, she immediately went in to give her bladder a rest. She felt relief, physically. But her mind was in a daze. It was swirling in and out of thoughts concerning what just happened. Images of Malfoy were floating in and out. She thought to herself that maybe Luna was right. Maybe he really is a nice bloke. He surely was nice and respectful today. Was this a pretence? Or was the other Malfoy everyone knew him as a pretence? She had to stop thinking about him. It was nothing great that happened. But it sure as hell felt good. Her heart was even doing a little dance inside. And boy was he handsome! She never saw him often and the times she saw him she was too pissed at his words to really appreciate his looks. He was gorgeous and there was no point denying it. No wondered most of the girls secretly desired him. Those strong arms, hard yet comfortable chest, perfect hands, angelic face and beautiful beautiful eyes...who could ever resist him? She was getting way too ahead in her thoughts and so she told herself to stop with the thinking. He was Harry's nemesis. Harry, the boy she loved. She wasn't supposed to fantasise about his enemy. With these internal contradictions she reached her compartment door, but before entering she tried to forget what just happened and get back to reality. As she went in and joined the others, one thing she realised that trying to forget what happened with a certain gorgeous Slytherin would be quite difficult.