Thanks, Mate
chapter ten; Word
AN: wow, I can't believe it! I finally made it to 10 chapters! I've never written 10 chapters of anything before, so this is a personal milestone. . . this fic altogether keeps stringing along milestones for me, and I'm really enjoying the ride Well, anyways, here it is! My latest work! Read on, read on:P
"Look, Ron, I know what you want but I can't do that."
"Ginny. . ."
"I can't, Ron!"
"What do you mean, you can't? You talk to her all the time! It's not like you can't get her to spill her guts out on first command; she's bloody hormonal!"
"And you can't?"
"Not at the moment, no!" Ron said as he struck himself in the head with his book, enraged as hell. He grunted as he followed his little sister down their little secret passage to the Gryffindor wing, mulling the situation over in his head. Bribery? Like I know how to bribe. . . I could always ask Harry to - forget it; he'll let his imagination run wild, that one. . . Blackmail? Like what, that bloody scrub rag she used to carry around the house? Ugh, I'll never find that; she cleans up too well. Begging? . . . Worth a shot, I guess. . . Eh, who am I kidding? She'd milk me for all I'm worth and then ditch the job.
"Cunning little bitch." he muttered.
Ginny spun around in what seemed a blur of ballet and extreme physical ability with an expression that could only be described as dangerous. "I'm a what, Ron?"
"A cunning little bitch." he repeated, barely faltering from the fact that she'd heard so well. "Yeah, that's right; I said it. Know why, Ginny? Cause that's what you bloody well are!"
"Well excuse me for having a shred of decency, Ron; you obviously missed that on the way out of the gene pool."
"Oh, I missed lots; decency, understanding, common sense, a fucking operational mind; the list just keeps growing, Ginny! What else haven't I got, cause I'd sure hate it if the records fell out of date!"
"Ron, she's distraught, and you're expecting me to just prance right in and ask, 'Gee, Hermione, why the long face?'" She stopped, coming up close to his face to speak slowly dark and clearly as to make sure he understood her next point entirely. "I can't help what happened, Ron. I can't fucking help anything, so don't expect me to blow off what little confidence in me she's got left for the sake of your bloody nervousness!" she spat, tears welling in her eyes. Her chest heaved slightly but she held her composure, leaving the tears with nothing to do but glimmer in her eyes.
"Yeah, that's right, Ginny; cry." her brother taunted. "Go on, cry. Because you've got it so hard, what with your perfect little personality and your dignity and your hero of a boyfriend." he spat harshly, and the more she heard of it, the more she really did want to cry. "Let's not forget all that decency you've got!"
"You have no idea what my life is like, so don't bloody pretend you do!" Her face burned as red as her hair, wet, hot tears falling down her cheeks.
Ron snickered, only fueled by her outrage. "Oh, so I have no idea what your life is like? Are you fucking sane?"
"Stop fucking cursing at me!" she screamed, the tears coming so long and hard that it raped her voice raw as she did so.
"No!" he retorted. "I won't, okay? So get used to it!" he roared in her face, and his cheeks reddened as the blood pumped into his face, his tears ready to fall yet completely forced back. She just stood there, staring at him, at his expression, at the fear in his eyes that completely betrayed him. . . and he'd never made her feel so small.
"I've got 5 months to live, Ginny." he stated, out of a mix of anger and spite and dread and desperation all at the same time. "And I've got about 10 days to basically set things right for my girlfriend and my kid so they can manage without me for the rest of their lives. I've got no money, no inheritance coming to me ever, I'm not even of age so that I can actually try and set something up. . . oh, and let's not forget, Hermione father's an abusive son of a bitch who despises me so much that he'll kill any child of mine before he lets his daughter in his house with it."
"Abusive?" Ginny piped weakly, testing the waters with an extremely dangerous edge. "Wha-"
"It doesn't matter!" he boomed back, embarrassed with himself that he'd let that slip in public. "Nothing matters anymore, Ginny; nothing matters except me figuring out some goddamn way to keep a straight enough face so I can do what has to be done. Let me tell ya, Gin, it's not working! Because you won't talk to Hermione, and she sure as hell won't talk to me right now, so she's just gonna sit in all that depression until it finally drives her mad, and I'm not too keen on letting that happen, but I've got no means of communication left with her."
"What are you talking about?" Ginny annunciated, all the building blame he'd dumped on her starting to spark something. "Ron, if there's anyone she'll talk to, anyone, it's you, and you know that!"
"No she won't!" he shrieked, his voice so sore from all the shouting that it barely reached a proper volume level.
"Oh yeah, well why not, then? Tell me, Ron."
"Because she's scared of me!" he roared, his face burning six shades darker, his eyes ablaze as they accumulated more moisture, unable to hold it all as it poured down his cheeks. Ginny's face fell so fast, her lungs arrested themselves, completely stopping her from breathing. "She's fucking terrified! That's why she's not talking to me, Ginny, that's why! So ya wanna know who she has been talking to? Malfoy. She's more scared of me than Malfoy. Do you have. . . any idea, any clue how this is clawing at me?" he paused, almost hyperventilating to get some air into him, trying to stabilize himself without remembering how it was done. "Something's. . . really, really wrong. . . and she won't let me help her." He swallowed hard. "She pushed me away when I tried to touch her, Ginny. I put my arm out, just to hug her. . . and she. . . just like that. . . I mean. . ." His voice choked as his arms moved uncertainly, as if reconstructing the whole scene but at a complete loss as to how to go about it. With just a second more of frustration, he hit himself in the head so hard that made a loud sort of sickening sound, and with that, he angrily let his arms shoot stark straight at his sides before he turned on his heel to leave, completely giving up.
Ginny swallowed, moving her head back and forth slightly, as if fighting with a voice in her head as to how to get him to stop walking away. Anything, anything, just don't let him leave like this. "I'll talk to her!" she called pleadingly, staring at his back as he stopped moving, remaining in that same position for so long that she could barely conclude what he was thinking. He turned nothing but his head as he looked at her, seemingly unchanged by any presence of tears or redness in her cheeks.
"Yeah." he choked. "You do that." And with that, he was gone.
"You mean . . . people really do wear that?" Ginny asked cautiously, almost disgusted at the thought as she stared down at the page. "It's hideous. Merlin, that's a compliment. . ." she shuddered, flipping the page in one of Hermione's muggle magazines so she wouldn't have to bear the sight any longer.
Hermione flinched slightly in her body's now usual way of replacing a laugh, lying back deeper into her pillows as her eyes closed slightly. It was kind of nice having a little company aside from Ron and Draco and the occasional Hogwarts staff member chock full of the answers to her life. Ugh, it was sickening, really. Ginny was just so casual and genuine; it was a breath of fresh air. Well. . . almost. There was still something. . . eh. . . off about her. . . Come to think of it, Ginny was never one for such. . . abruptness, say. Hermione'd never seen her so hurried in her actions, the pages of the magazine snapping as she flipped through them, constantly moving some part of her body as if she couldn't sit still. . . She was never like that; but oh baby was she whipping those pages fast. . .
Baby. Hermione thought suddenly, every thought and emotion immediately dropping. No baby. . .
". . .Hermione?"
"Oh, sorry; did you say something?" she replied tentatively, opening her eyes. Her breathing hastened for a moment, but she was able to mask it fairly quickly.
Ginny sighed. "You alright? You seem kinda distracted."
"I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Oh." Ginny stared at her a moment. "Okay." she said strangely, her eyes darting back down to the magazine for distraction. "Ugh. Utterly repulsive." The page flipped again with a snapping sound and Hermione sighed. Why did Weasleys always have to be so obviously embarrassed?
"Hey, Granger!" a familiar voice called from the hallway. Ginny's eyes swerved to the door with an immediate malice as it opened to reveal Draco, who propped his bag on top of the night stand of an unoccupied bed before sifting through it, continuing to speak idly. "The kitchens are all backed up; one of the house elves set his sodding pillow case on fire, so the - " His voice went completely inaudible as he looked up, noticing Ginny for the first time. He looked at her for a moment, opening his mouth to speak in what looked like the beginnings of an insult, then shut it just as abruptly. "I'll be back once the lunch tray comes through." he said tersely, closing the door behind him as he exited the room.
"Jackass." Ginny concluded, returning to the magazine once more.
Hermione sighed. "Be nice, Ginny."
"Nah." she replied as indifferently as if she had been asked if what she was reading was actually interesting. She stopped a moment, hovering her hand over a random model's chest, and abruptly brought her palm to smack it loudly.
Hermione jumped. "Why do you keep doing that?"
"Why won't they move? Did you petrify it or something?"
"It's a muggle magazine, Ginny; the pictures don't move."
Ginny blinked. "Ew."
"Ginny, I'm serious; could you be just a little nice to him?"
"Why should I?"
"Because he's trying really hard to make up for what you all think he 'did', and it's not fair to keep shoving it in his face." she replied, almost gritting her teeth as she did so.
"Merlin's balls, stop defending him; you sound hideous doing it."
"What does that even mean?" Hermione erupted, exasperated.
Ginny sighed. "Hermione, do you really think this would all be happening if fairness actually existed? Come on, now." she said pleadingly, looking at her friend with the most pitiful look. Pity. Ugh. How disgusting. Just looking at the way it contorted her face, changed her volume, her tone. . . it really made Hermione want to sick up.
She shivered, her whole body vibrating with her utter disgust. "Alright, fine, be a complete bitch to him, for all I care; just stop looking at me like that!"
"Fine! I will!"
"Fine!" Hermione returned, falling back onto her pillows, frustrated.
Before Ginny could even comment, the door opened once more as Draco silently made his way to them, tray in hand as Ginny's silent glower displayed her fury. He set the tray down, fixing the rolling table over the bed before placing it in front of Hermione. He glanced at Ginny apathetically as he paused. "Weasley," he acknowledged.
"Malfoy," she returned, nearly spitting.
He nodded, turning away from her to avoid using every curse within his immense multilingual vocabulary just to tell her off. "They sent up what they had just so you could take this." he said as he directed his attention back to Hermione, holding up a small vial of what looked like some thick, purple variation of a potion. "Pomfrey says to drink it before you eat; I'll bring more food to stomach it out with once the kitchens are alright."
"What is it?" Hermione asked tentatively, barely sure she really wanted to know.
"Calming draught."
"A sedative? What for?"
Draco shrugged. "She thought you could use some after what happened this morning."
"What happened this morning?" Ginny asked, refusing to be let out of the conversation by the likes of any Malfoy.
"Nothing; little accident, that's all." Hermione said, waving it off in a mix of inattentiveness and embarrassment.
"Chucking an Arithmancy text at Pomfrey could barely be considered an accident." Draco pointed out smoothly, a wry smile crossing his lips as he chuckled.
"Oh, shut up." Hermione retorted. "If I hadn't done that, you'd have found something bigger to throw at her, so don't pretend you're so bloody perfect."
"I don't pretend, Granger; I perform. Remember that. And drink all of that; it's not as bad as it looks." And with that, he silently took his leave.
No sooner than the soft thud of the door was heard did Ginny jump right on board. "Ugh. You're gross. Why're you so. . . chummy with him?"
"Well, it gets a bit lonely around here, if you haven't noticed!" Hermione retorted. "Besides, when you spend a lot of time with someone. . . you learn to tolerate each other, alright?"
"That looks a little deeper than toleration to me."
"Shut up, Ginny." she replied curtly. "You don't know him, don't bloody pretend you do." And with that, she swigged the whole calming draught down in one gulp.
Ah. Sedation. That did feel good.
"Well, she's furious with me, if that's what you wanted to know." Ginny offered, masking her disgust with a rather large gulp of pumpkin juice before continuing on with her dinner.
Ron grunted. "Great. What'd you do this time, Ginny?"
"I didn't do anything!" she snapped. "She just got all mad when me and Malfoy didn't get along! Honestly, does she really expect us to be all peachy?"
"Still, she didn't tell you anything? Not even before Malfoy showed up?" Ron thought out loud, stabbing at his chicken idly. "It just seems a little. . . I dunno. . . strange."
"I told you already." she started, chewing what bit of food she had in her mouth before continuing. "She won't talk to me; you're just gonna have to talk to her yourself."
"My God, could you chew with your mouth closed?"
"My God," she mimicked. "Could you not sound like such a muggle?"
"What do you have against muggles?"
"Nothing! It's just annoying!"
"My girlfriend's muggleborn, Ginny; it's a hard habit to break." He sipped at his drink, letting a moment pass silently. "Where's Harry at?" he asked. "I haven't seen him since Potions."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "With Lavender and Seamus again."
"Ginny, just get over your pride and forgive him. Keep things simple, for once."
"I did already." she retorted. "He just doesn't know about it yet. Besides, it's funny when he thinks someone's mad at him; it drives him insane."
"Oh really? And when did this little enlightenment happen for you?" he asked as he raised an interested eyebrow.
"After he stood up for you and Hermione, at that meeting." she admitted smally. Ron blinked thoughtfully. "A little much, I know, but. . . Well, you can't blame me! I needed some proof that he actually cares about what's happening!"
"Of course he does, Ginny; he's my best mate! How could you say something like that?"
"Well for someone who cares so much, he's letting what little tidbit he thinks he's got going on with me get in the way of spending time with you your last few days. Some best mate, yeah?" She choked, realizing her mistake as soon as she made it. "I didn't mean that."
He paused momentarily. "I know." he lied. "And for someone who's already 'forgiven him', you sure are spinning a shiteload of accusations. Don't comment; I'm just saying." He said forebodingly. Ginny sighed. "I've got things to do. Talk to you later, yeah?" He got up silently, making his way towards the tower through the vastly empty halls. "Little bitch. . ." he growled, letting his foot fly straight into the stone walls for good measure of emphasis. "Thinks she knows everything, doesn't she, the little. . ." He grunted, closing his eyes as his fist punched straight into the wall, as well. He wished he had half the balls to just bash his head into it. He may as well; it would solve just about everything, wouldn't it? At the very least, he'd completely bleed the hell out of himself and delay a few days worth of Azkaban.
Of course, he was hoping for more extreme effects, at the moment.
"Weasley! Wait up!"
Ron's disgustingly frightening episode paused as he turned his head to the source of the voice to find Malfoy, looking as darkly arrogant as ever. His face was completely bare of any form of grin, however. Ron grunted. "What do you want?"
"A word." he replied brusquely. "Too much?" Ron's dark look seemed to be enough of a prod to continue. "No wise cracks, Weasley. Did you send your sister down to hospital today, or did she just happen to be visiting?"
"Why's that your business?"
"Merlin, just answer the question!"
"No." Ron growled, turning on his heel to continue walking down the hall.
"You wanna know what's wrong with her, right?"
Ron turned ever so slowly, staring at him.
"Well?" Malfoy prodded. "That's why you sent your sister down, right? To find out? You Gryffindor are all alike; you can't match subtlety for your own balls."
"Out with it, then!" Ron burst, infuriated.
Then, without a doubt, was the strangest moment in history Ronald Weasley had ever witnessed. Malfoy turned his head to his left painfully slow, staring out into the open air. Then to the right; same procedure. Then, he did something even more peculiar; he waved his hand for Ron to come closer. "Come on, come on!" he hissed. "I have to get back downstairs; they don't know I'm gone!"
Ron merely blinked, completely dumbfounded. He was imagining this, yeah? There was no other explanation. . . no other sound one anyway. Then again, behavior like this associated with a Malfoy shouldn't have the word sound within the same thirty inches of parchment altogether. What else could he do, though? For all he knew, Malfoy looked dreadfully serious, aside from looking utterly ridiculous, his hand waving faster every moment Ron chose to stay put.
"I'm serious; come here, damnit!" he hissed, and, taking one last look around, Ron reluctantly obliged. "Okay." Malfoy said, sighing. "Look, any way I try to say this is just gonna sound wrong. . . so I can't be held accountable for what wording flies out of my mouth, yeah?" Ron nodded slowly, a confused eyebrow lifting silently. This was absolutely bonkers. "Hermione told you about her . . . fainting the other day, right? I know she did; I was there."
"You were what?" Ron burst, and Malfoy cringed.
"Shite,can you keep it down to a whisper?" he muttered menacingly. "Yeah, I was there; that whole conversation said nothing to you? Merlin, you're thick; Gryffindor's not even the word! That non-subtlety thing's really got to change, mate, it's pathetic. . ."
"Don't call me 'mate'." Ron snarled.
"As I was saying. . ." he continued impatiently. "She didn't tell you why she fainted, right?" Ron shook his head stupidly. Malfoy sighed. "Ugh. Okay, so she was in this meeting, up in McGonagall's office. . . you know McGonagall, always sticking her fat-ass nose in everything; she thought it best to suggest Hermione . . ." he swallowed his sentence, staring at Ron's complete obliviousness. He couldn't do it, not with him looking at him like that. He cleared his throat, closing his eyes tightly.
Silence.
"Well?" Ron urged impatiently. "Ou - "
Malfoy's tongue went wild, completely shocked by Ron's sudden voice, but it was just as well. "ShetoldHermionetoconsiderabortionandthenshefaintedandthat'sit." he blurted. He opened his eyes, somehow wishing that Ron wouldn't have heard that; he couldn't have. Malfoy didn't even know what he said himself.
Oh, but he heard.
Every.
Single.
Word.
An: wow, that chapter was fairly painless. Sorry for the slight cliffhanger, you'll be rewarded, I promise:P please review, the faster you review, the faster the next chapter will be up!
- love, Suki
formatting updated July 26, 2006