-1Chapter 11 - Hit Me With Your Best Shot

As Draco left the tower he heard Ginny sob. It took every morsel of himself not to turn around and comfort her and apologize to her. Draco glanced back at the door and then turned around and continued to walk down the stairs of the tower.

As soon as he walked down the finally step and started down the corridor he heard someone call after him, "Oy, Malfoy!" Draco turned around and saw Harry and Ron coming up behind him, he sighed and continued walking. He heard Ron start to run, but Draco did nothing to try to outrun him or lose him. Draco felt Ron grab a hold of his cloak, turn him around and before a word was even muttered Ron's hand connected with Draco's eye.

Draco stumbled back a bit, but as soon as he regained his balance Draco punched Ron in the nose. Draco knew it was a mistake when he heard his knuckle of his already bruised hand break the bone in Ron's nose.

"Bloody hell!" both men exclaimed. Draco cradled his hand in his other hand as Ron grabbed his nose in pain. Both men stood there and stared at each other and then broke into a full fledge fight.

A few minutes later Ginny decided that it was time to get going. She hasn't seen Ron all day and all last night for that fact. Ginny really didn't feel like hearing Ron yell at her, so she just wanted to get to her own room as soon as possible. Ginny wiped her eyes, once again applied the concealing charm to herself, and left the room.

As she reached the bottom step she saw two people in the hall way one of them was most defiantly Harry and Ron was the other, but she couldn't make out what he was doing. She ran over to Harry and tugged on his arm.

"Gin, where have you been?" Harry asked.

"What's Ron doing?" as she asked that she looked a little closer, "Harry, he's beating on someone." She saw a glimpse of blonde hair and her eyes widened. "Ron, get off him!" Ginny screamed and tried to run at him. Harry caught her; he didn't want her to accidentally get hurt. Ginny pushed Harry off of her and pulled out her wand, pointed it at Ron and said a spell that got Ron off of Draco.

"What the bloody hell!" Ron screamed.

Ginny ignored her brother and ran to Draco's side, "Draco, are you okay?"

"Never better," Draco spat out as he sat up and whipped his nose with his sleeve seeing blood. As he stood up he grabbed at his stomach, Ginny tried to help him up, but he flinched from her touch, "Don't," he whispered softly to her. Draco leaned against the wall and shouted at Ron, "Good show, Weasley."

Ron came to stand face to face with Draco, "What the hell did you do with my sister last night?"

Before Draco had the chance to say something Ginny said, "You know Ron, I'm sick and tired of having to explain myself and my where abouts to you! I am 16 years old I can take care of myself!" When she turned around she saw that Draco was walking away from them. Ginny ran after them. "Where are you going?"

"Haven't decided yet." Draco responded still limping away, "I might head over to Madam Promphrey's office and heal myself up, or I might go talk to Dumbledore and get transferred, or I just might go to my room and fall unconscious on my bed. Which ever it is, don't worry yourself over it."

"Draco…" Ginny said walking to keep up with him.

Draco sighed, "Weasley, just leave me alone!"

Ginny backed away, she never heard that tone in his voice before, and it scared her to the core.

Ginny walked back towards her brother and Harry all the while hugging herself and holding back her tears.

Ron was about to say something when Ginny said, "Don't you worry anymore. He broke up with me a little while ago." Ginny didn't wait to see what Ron said back to her, she just kept walking back towards her tower.

When Draco got back up to his tower, little Tom was there sitting in the common room. Tom didn't see his friend all day, and wondered what happened to him after the episode between him, Ginny, and Harry.

When Tom saw Draco walk into the tower he gasped and said, "What happened to you?"

"Nothing, kid." Draco said as he continued his journey to his room.

Tom followed him to his room, but the door was very rudely shut in his face. Figuring that Draco wanted to be alone he turned around and went to his own bed.

After Draco shut the door on his little friend, he limped over to his bed, carefully removing his clothing. Once he was comfortable he lay in his bed, pulled the sheets up to his neck, and did something that he hadn't done since he was a kid; he started to shed tears. Tears from pain inflicted on him just moments before, tears from the pain and hurt he saw in Ginny's eyes, and tears for the only love he ever had which he threw away.

Ginny, on the other hand, had to face the looks and stares from all her Gryffindor friends, she paid no never mind to them and continued to her bed, where all she wanted to do was sleep. Though, sleep wasn't even a comforting idea, every time she fell asleep, she kept on having a nightmare of Draco. She couldn't remember most of the dreams, but she knew it had to do with Draco. She would wake up screaming, panting, sweat damping her sheets, and his name on her mind. It was amazing how it never woke up her roommates.

By two o'clock she could not stand it any longer, sleep did nothing for her, and she wished for it not to come. She grabbed a box out from under her bed and opened it up. Inside were every letter he ever sent to her and every rose he ever gave to her. The roses had a spell over them to keep them fresh and alive. She started to cry. She knew that there would be no more sweet, passionate kisses, no more stolen moments, no more laughter, and everything going back to "Malfoy" and "Weasley". He already called her 'Weasley' just that night. Oh how she wished she had taken pictures of them that summer, so that she'd always remember him. She looked at her bracelet, took it off, and turned it over. She read it over and over in her mind, "To Virginia C. Weasley on her 16th birthday. Love Draco C. Malfoy. Miracles can happen in more than one way." Ginny wiped at the tears that fell to her cheeks as she touched the engraved part of her bracelet over and over again. This was all she had left, the last single proof that Draco Malfoy was friends with a Weasley. She put her bracelet back on her wrist as she opened her diary to re-read everything that was in there. She wrote in it every day, capturing every bit of her memories.

An hour and a half later sleep was calling to her, but she did not respond to it. She took a shower and got dressed for the day.

Meanwhile in another part of the castle...

A Slytherin boy was having the same problems. He couldn't sleep because he kept on having nightmares over and over again. Nightmares about what he believed to have happened Halloween night, even though he still couldn't remember it. Over and over again he saw himself hurting the girl that he loved, seeing those fang marks on her neck, seeing her scream out in pain, seeing her scared and not knowing what to do, begging him for him to stop. As he sprang up in bed he had sweat pouring off his face, soaking his hair, breathing heavily. He went into his bathroom and took a long shower.

He kept on thinking what could have happened if she didn't stun him when she did. What if he had hurt her worse? He didn't want to think about it. He got out of the shower and quickly changed.

Draco sat on his bed cradling his guitar from Ginny in his hands. He placed a silencing charm and took out the sheet music for the song he was learning for Ginny. He went through a lot to get this for her. Draco had to get Hermione to get him a muggle magazine and had her help him order it; which means that he had to tell Hermione about his guitar. Draco wished he didn't have to go to Hermione for help, because it was very uncommon to find any sheet music in the wizarding world; he was lucky to get what he got for his Bryan Adams music. He sighed and thought, "And now she'll never hear it."

Draco knew that Ginny still had feelings for him. He decided, though, that he had to go against his own feelings and get Ginny to stop having those feelings. No matter how much he wanted it or wished for it, she could never be his. She'd be so much safer ending up with someone like that Creevy boy or Longbottom. Draco looked at his guitar and then at his sheet music; he shrugged his shoulders and practiced till later that morning.

Hermione was awoken that morning by a loud banging on her door. She said, "Come in, Ginny," thinking that it was Ginny finally coming to her to talk. But when the door opened it wasn't Ginny; it was Mary a second year student. "What's wrong, Mary?" Hermione asked.

"It's Ginny! She's in the common room and she won't move or say a word! You have to come see her!"

Hermione didn't say a word; she ran by the little girl and down into the common room. What she saw there made her sad. Ginny was sitting on the couch staring at the fireplace; there were bags under her eyes, and tears were running down her cheeks. Hermione went to sit next to her friend. She grabbed her and shook her. "Ginny! Are you okay?" Hermione didn't get any response. "Ginny please talk to me."

Ginny slowly moved her head to look at her friend and said, "I lost him, Herm. He's gone." Many more tears spilled from her eyes.

"Come on, let's get you upstairs." Hermione grabbed a hold of Ginny's arm and pulled her off the couch. Hermione put her arms around the girl and steered her towards her room, passing both Harry and Ron on the way. Lavender came out of her room and saw the sight before her.

"What's wrong, Ginny?"

Ginny only cried more. Lavender put her arm around Ginny, and the three of them headed for Hermione's room.

When they got there they sat down on Hermione's bed and Ginny told them everything. She showed them the bruises on her arms, the cut on her face, and the bite on her neck, which was finally going away, and told them how she took Draco to the hospital wing. She then preceded to tell them how he broke up with her, she left the part out about how Ron beat Draco up, she didn't need to start a fight between everyone.

The three decided to skip their morning classes.

That afternoon at the Great Hall...

Draco kept on looking over at the Gryffindor table. "Still not there," he said to himself. Hermione, Lavender, and Ginny didn't show up at Breakfast in the morning, nor did they show up for Transfiguration class that morning. Draco was starting to get a little worried; Granger never missed a class in her life.

Suddenly, the doors to the Great Hall opened and his head shot up.

There they were, the three Gryffindors. He couldn't get a good look at Ginny because she was too far away. But as he watched her he noticed that something was wrong. She wouldn't talk to anyone and she kept on picking at her food. He wondered at that moment if she was okay, but a part of him said, "Why are you thinking that? You are a Malfoy, she is a Weasley. You don't love her! It's not that you don't deserve her, it's that she doesn't deserve you."

The next day for Ginny was just as bad as the previous day. She fell asleep during her Potions class and got 50 points taken away from Gryffindor and a detention with Snape.
She, again, did not feel like eating that night. So instead of heading to the Great Hall, she ran up to her room.

She took out her diary and opened it up.

"Dear Diary,

I guess Draco really didn't have any feelings for me. All day today I've been seeing him flirting with other girls. We've been avoiding each other; too, he even went back to the original slicked back hair. I don't want to go to Transfiguration class tomorrow because I know I'll be forced to talk to him.

Well, I have to go serve my detention with Snape now. So bye."

It was Ginny's first detention with Snape since her first day back, and she knew that Draco wouldn't be helping her out this time.

As she sat in Snape's room with the others who would be serving detention with her, she saw someone come in who put a smile on her face. It was Draco's little 'mini-me.'

Tom came in and sat right next to Ginny. "Hi, Ginny."

"Hi, Tom," Ginny smiled for the first time in two days.

"You don't look too good. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I have just been having some hard time sleeping at night. How's Draco doing?"

Tom just shrugged his shoulders, "I dunno."

"What do you mean, you 'dunno'?"

"I mean he hasn't spoken to me in two days. I don't know what's wrong with him, but he's changed."

Ginny was shocked; she couldn't believe that Draco would be so ruthless or so cruel to Tom. Before she could say another word, Snape walked into the room and ordered his students to go polish the trophy room. All but Ginny; he told her to go clean the bathrooms. Ginny sighed, and with no complaints, took the muggle cleaning items and headed off to the bathrooms.

She scrubbed and cleaned for what seemed like hours. As soon as she finished though, she looked back at her work, and slightly smiled at a job well done, but she knew by the end of the week it would be messy again.

As Ginny was walking back to her tower she heard someone behind her, "Hey you! What are you doing out after curfew?"

Ginny recognized the voice, she froze for a moment, and without turning around said, "Just coming back from a detention."

"Ah, Weasley. What did you do this time?" she turned around and saw him there with his arms folded across his chest and a nice shiner on his eye.

"Ow, Malfoy, what did you do, step on a rake?"

Draco didn't respond to her for a moment, for he took her in. She didn't look too healthy, her skin looked pale, she looked as though she was getting thinner, and there were noticeable bags from sleep deprive under her eyes. He shook his head to get the thoughts out of his head and said, "I'll have to take points." He took out his pad and started to write it down.

"Whatever. Now if you don't mind." Ginny said as she turned around and continued walking away.

Draco sighed, put everything back, and just turned around continuing his rounds.

When Ginny got back to her room it was way past curfew time. She was so tired that she hoped that she would just have a dreamless sleep. But, alas, her hopes didn't come true.

The next morning...

Draco was walking to his class when a girl grabbed him by his tie and pulled him towards her. Draco immediately thought it was Ginny, but it wasn't; it was Cindy.

"You know, Cindy, when most girls pull me aside like this, it's usually to have a snog session." He hated saying that, but he had to get rid of his feelings for a certain redhead.

"That's exactly why I did this," Cindy said as she pulled his head down and kissed him hard, not passionate like Ginny did.

Draco heard someone gasp and run by them. He pulled away and said, "Remember where we left off." He kissed her again, and with that, he walked into the classroom.

Meanwhile...

Ginny was on her way to Transfiguration Class when she heard someone say, "You know, Cindy, when most girls pull me aside like this, it's usually to have a snog session." Ginny frowned and thought to herself, 'Does that line really work?' As she walked by the two who were making out so publicly, she gasped, as she saw that it was Draco and some girl. She so wanted to pull them apart and bitch-slap the girl, but she remembered that Draco wasn't hers anymore.

Ginny walked into class as she held back her tears.

She walked to her desk, took out her things, and just sat there. She was soon greeted by Draco.

"Good Morning, Weasley," Draco said with a forced smile.

"Only for you it is," Ginny said with a hint of disgust in her voice. "By the way, you have lipstick smeared all over you."

Draco took out a handkerchief and wiped his mouth clean. It was one thing he missed about Ginny. Ginny was one of the very few girls in the school who didn't put make-up on, but when she did, it wasn't overly done.

Before Draco could say another word to her, Professor McGonagall entered the room.

"Good morning, class," she said with a cheery disposition and went right into her lesson.

Ginny was so tired; she kept on nodding off, but always quickly woke back up.

An hour into class Ginny fell asleep; her head was leaning on her shoulder and she was slightly snoring.

"Miss Weasley, can you answer the question?" McGonagall said, not noticing that her student fell asleep.

Draco nudged Ginny in the side to try to wake her up, but it didn't work.

"Miss Weasley?"

Draco nudged her a little harder and Ginny woke up with Draco looking at her, unnoticed to her, she let out a piercing scream

"Miss Weasley!" Professor McGonagall said when she realized that her student fell asleep in her class.

All the other students started to laugh; mainly the Slytherins.

Ginny went pale and thought for a moment that Draco's eyes softened up like he was trying to apologize, but as she looked back at him he was chuckling along with everyone else.

"That's enough!" McGonagall said. "Miss Weasley that will be 25 points from Gryffindor, detention, and next time, make sure you do your sleeping in your own bed!"

"Sorry, Professor," Ginny said.

The class was over and everyone ran out of the room, while Draco went over to Cindy, kissed her quickly, and walked hand-in-hand with her to lunch.

Tears started to come from Ginny's eyes as she watched the two, and she ran towards the Gryffindor tower.

"Do you think we should talk to him?" Lavender asked.

"No, besides, do you really think that he'd talk to us?"

"True. True. So what do we do?"

"Sadly, nothing," Hermione said as Harry and Ron showed up and took their girlfriends to lunch.

That night, she had detention with Snape, yet again.

"That's three times in two months. Ms. Weasley, some people might actually think that you enjoy cleaning bathrooms."

"Well, they can't be that bad, Professor, I just cleaned them just the other night."

"Actually, Moaning Myrtle decided to haunt the girls' bathroom, and decided that it would be fun to overflow all the toilets." Snape gave Ginny a sarcastic smile, "So have fun."

Ginny once again scrubbed and scrubbed until she ached all over and this time walking back to her tower, she actually walked into someone. As a result she fell to the floor

"Hey, watch where you're going!" Came from the person standing over her.

"Malfoy, I should have thought," Ginny stood up, whipping herself off.

"Coming back from detention again?" Ginny only nodded, "You know you really have to stop sleeping in class." Draco said with a hint of a laugh.

"I would if I could stop having nightmares of someone beating on me." with that said she turned on her heels and walked away. The minute the words came from her mouth she regretted saying them. She knew that Draco hated himself for hurting her, but she could forgive him for that, but what he was doing to her now, taunting her, and throwing his new girlfriend in her face, that was a bit too much for her.

The next time that Draco had transfiguration with Ginny, Ginny was not sitting at her desk. She was actually sitting with someone else, one of the girls from Slytherin, who was just too happy to switch with her and have Draco Malfoy as a partner. He watched as Ginny chatted along with the girl next to her. Draco took his seat next to the pretty Slytherin, he smiled at her, and he too started up a conversation until class started.

The following week Draco noticed that Ginny wasn't in class, he saw Hermione and Lavender there, so he sat there thinking about what could be her reason. His eyes suddenly went wide and counted in his head from the last time that Ginny was sick. 30 days. He knew the reason why she wasn't there, and for a moment he felt bad. He ripped off a piece of his parchment and wrote something down.

After class he quickly bumped into Hermione and slipped the piece of parchment into her hand. Hermione was about to say something when she saw Draco run off and catch up with Kayla, another girl from Slytherin.

Hermione took the paper from her hand and opened it.

"What is it?" Lavender asked.

"Of course!" Hermione yelled, "How could I have not of known?" with that said she ran up to the Gryffindor tower to help her friend out.

Lavender was there looking confused. She picked up the piece of parchment and noticed that there was just an incantation written on it. Shrugging her shoulders she just went to meet up with Ron.

Before Ginny knew it, it was already December. She couldn't be more excited! She was going home for vacation in a few days. All her brothers were going to be there, and all their girlfriends were coming too. Ginny had no clue how they were going to fit them all into the one house.

Through that one month, a lot had happened. First of all, Ginny decided to change seats and get a new partner for Transfiguration class, much to McGonagall's protest. Draco had a new girl once every other week. Ginny wondered if he ever took any of those girls to bed with him, or if he sang to them at any point in their relationship, but most of all she wondered if he still treasured the guitar that she gave to him. Ginny also saw that Tom was starting to get ruder and more evil, and he was no longer friends with Helen Creevy. Ginny wanted to cry! How could Draco do this to him? She decided that it was time to talk to him; it was one thing to shun her, but another to shun Tom.

It was two days before everyone was going to go away for the Christmas Holiday when Draco met up with two other Slytherins, Marcus and Stephen.

"You know, Draco, rumors' going around that the girls you have been with, have been left, well, lets say, unsatisfied. What's wrong mate?" Marcus asked.

"None of your bloody business," Draco said and kept on walking.

"Well, most people think it has to do with the Weasley girl," Stephen called out.

Draco turned around and said disgustedly, "The Weasley girl? Oh please!"

"It's true, Draco. People claim to say that they saw the two of you making out at Honeydukes a few months back," Stephen said.

"With that bitch! I think not! You couldn't even pay me enough to touch her!" Marcus and Stephen didn't look convinced though. "Guys, she is a poor Weasley. I am a rich and powerful Malfoy. Do you really think that I would ever go for someone like her? I wouldn't even touch her with a ten foot pole."

Then a voice from behind him said, "Are you sure a ten foot pole is going to be long enough?"

A part of Draco said, "Please don't let that be Ginny, please don't let be Ginny." When he turned around, he saw Ginny. She had her arms crossed over her chest and tears forming in her eyes. She turned and ran away.

Draco, not caring what the others would say, ran after her.

Meanwhile...

Ginny was one her way to find Draco to make him get the old Tom back when she heard him conversing with his friends.

When she heard him say, "With that bitch! I think not!" Ginny could remember a time when he would hurt anyone who would call her such evil names, and here he was saying them. "You couldn't even pay me enough to touch her!" Ginny flinched as she heard what he was saying about her. "Guys, she is a poor Weasley. I am a rich and powerful Malfoy. Do you really think that I would ever go for someone like her? I wouldn't even touch her with a ten foot pole."

This was when Ginny decided that it would be a good idea to let Draco know she was there.

She stepped out from around the corner and said, "Are you sure a ten foot pole is going to be long enough?"

She knew that there were tears in her eyes, but she would not allow them to fall until she got in the safety of her room. She turned around and ran away. She knew that Draco would never follow her.

But Draco did follow her, right up to her tower. He saw her run through the portrait and rushed to quickly enter the tower before the fat lady closed.

He followed her up to her room and heard her say, as she turned towards to him, "Hit me with your best shot, Malfoy!"

"I'm... I'm not going to hit you," he said, a little confused.

"It's a figure of speech, Ferret Boy! Come on! Tell me I was nothing to you. Tell it to my face! You can say it pretty good behind my back."

"Ginerva, I..."

"No! You don't have the right to call me that anymore!" she said, throwing more things into her trunk.

"Look, I'm sorry, what was I supposed to say? I was just trying..."

"Trying to what, Malfoy! To protect your own reputation? To make sure that no one ever found out that you touched a 'poor Weasley' like me? Without a ten foot pole!"

"Look I..."

"What the hell are you even doing in here? You don't have to explain yourself anymore to me! We're not in a relationship, not even a friend one, even though you promised we would be in one! Just tell me, God damn it! Was I ever anything to you?"

Draco was silent for a moment. He could tell her right now that he used to love her, that a part of him still did, but stupid as he may be, he said, "Yeah."

"Was it really something, Draco, or was I one of the 'chosen ones'. One of the ones who get to spend a few weeks with you?"

Draco didn't really know what to say, "I…"

"Cause seriously, do you tell them all that you love them, and stay with them when their sick, and change your hair just for them?"

"No, you were one of the special ones." He wished he could take that back the words that flew out of his mouth.

Ginny walked up to him and slapped him so hard across the face that it made his head turn. "Leave, Malfoy, and don't come back! I don't want to ever remember you or what I ever thought I had with you!" She took her bracelet off and threw it at his head; he caught it and looked at it. "And take that with you! I don't want it anymore. I don't want anything to remember you by anymore."

He moved towards her and said, "Ginny, please, I'm..."

"I said GET OUT!" Her face was getting red.

"Ginny, I'm sor..." before he could utter another syllable, he saw Ginny raise her wand and say a spell. He was pushed back by something, and the next thing he saw was the door slam in front of him and an imprint of his body in the wall behind him.

He walked down to the common room to exit the tower when he saw Hermione and Lavender come up to him.

"You better go check up on her," he told the two.

"Why, what did you do?" Lavender asked.

"I made a huge mistake, and there's no way to fix it. I had the chance to tell her that I still loved her, and I blew it!" He walked to the door.

"Then why the masquerade?" Hermione asked.

"She's a lot better off without me in her life!"

"Can't you see that she's not better off! All you have to do is look at her!" Hermione said. "She hasn't eaten right for weeks; she barely has a night where she's not woken up by nightmares! Can't you see that you make her happy? That you're happy when you're with her?" Draco didn't say anything and opened the door. "If you can't see that, maybe you are a cold, heartless bastard who will never find love!" With that, Hermione and Lavender ran up to Ginny's room.

Draco looked down at the bracelet in his hand, the bracelet that never left Virginia's wrist until now. He dropped the bracelet into his pocket and left the tower.

To Be Continued…

Not one of my best chapters… I know.