Chapter 6 A Full Week
The rest of Ginny's week was full to the brim. Tuesday she had DADA, Potions, Transfiguration, and Quidditch (she was Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team this year and was holding tryouts throughout the week.). It was more hectic than she had thought. It was a damn good thing that she had Mondays off or she might of dropped dead during the middle of the year.
DADA went great. Harry was an amazing teacher as he had proved in the old D.A. classes that he had taught. He made it fun and educational and that was an accomplishment in itself. He picked her as a dueling partner to show the class how some of the curses and counter curses were done. Everyone was doing much better with Harry as their teacher and it amazed Ginny how interested all of the students actually were in DADA now that the war was over.
Potions was always an easy subject for Ginny. She just seemed to have a certain knack for making Potions. Snape had always begrudged her for it and had singled her out throughout all of her time at Hogwarts. Draco however was making the class as fun as possible. They were learning how to make Felix Felicis or 'Liquid Luck'. It was extremely hard to make but it was worth the challenge if you did it right. Everyone had been completely relaxed after the first ten minutes when they realized that Professor Malfoy's teaching methods were not like Snape's. Though he taught with a firm hand he didn't play favorites and he wasn't too strict.
Professor Granger was the new Transfiguration teacher. Ginny could barely keep from laughing throughout the whole lesson. At times Hermione looked so frustrated that Ginny thought her head was going to explode. It never did though, even when she had to show Collin the same wrist movement ten times. All in all the class was pretty much fun except for the fact that Hermione had no patience whatsoever. Ginny had no idea how she had taught Harry and Ron anything with that amount of impatience.
When the final bell for the day rang Ginny couldn't have been happier. She ran up to her dormitory and grabbed her Quidditch things and headed to the Quidditch pitch for tryouts. Not as many people had turned up today as she thought would. That was why she had decided to make tryouts last all week. That way if any of the students had too much to do or wanted to squeeze a little more practice in before trying out then they would have the chance. She had two people trying for chasers today, three keepers, a seeker, and a beater. Maybe one of the chasers was up to par. Other than that she thought the seeker was fairly good but no one else was probably going to make the cut and if they did God help the team.
Ginny dragged herself up to her dormitory slowly. Today had to be one of the longest days that she had ever had. The rest of the week ahead of her didn't look any better. The school had started up a special class for morphing into an animagus. Only the strongest witches and wizards in the school were given the privilege of taking the class and Gin had scraped in by a hair. She had that on Wednesdays and Fridays. Lupin had come back to teach the new Animagus class. It was held at night so that some of the teachers could learn as well.
By the time the weekend came Ginny was exhausted. It was Friday night and she was sitting in the common room by herself seeing as Collin had gone down to dinner with Pamela. She had decided to cook her own since she had to make up the final draft for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. She was sitting cross legged on the floor with notepads and pictures spread all around her. Her dinner was sitting on the coffee table, forgotten. She was scribbling away on a clipboard then going back and crossing things out and rechecking others. She had put a pencil through her hair to keep it out of her face. She had on old sweatpants that road low on her hips and a tank top in black that stated that the Little Engine no longer gave a shit. That was how Draco found her.
Draco had noticed that Ginny never came down for dinner and after waiting for ten minutes had decided to check on her. He had gone to the kitchens first and gotten a plate fixed for her. He walked down the hall towards the common room and stopped short in the doorway. She had reading glasses on that were slipping down her nose as she read. Every now and then she would push them back into place. He smiled as he listened to her muttering to herself. He knocked on the door frame.
Ginny jerked her head up at the sound. Draco smiled at her. "Is this a private party or can I come in?" He smiled at her with a lifted brow.
Ginny shook her head a couple of times to clear it of the numbers still running through it. "Sure." She took off her glasses, rubbed the bridge of her nose, and put the glasses back into place. "Come on in and have a seat." She glanced around at the mess that she had created. "If you can find one." She added embarrassed.
Draco walked in and put her dinner down on the coffee table beside the grilled cheese sandwich that had already gone cold. "I brought you dinner. This one you're going to eat." He sat down behind her and started massaging her shoulders. "What's so important that you didn't eat anyway?" He looked over her shoulder and saw all of the snapshots around her. "Organizing Creevey's photography collection?"
Ginny looked over her shoulder at him and grinned. "No. I have to cut at least half of these people to have the final cut for Gryffindor's Quidditch team this year. Some of the decisions are very hard to make though."
"Oh." Draco leaned over her and picked up the clipboard. About three pages were filled with all of the players stats: strengths, weaknesses, position they're trying for, position they'd be best at, weight, height, endurance, strength, body fat, build. Draco blew a breath out between his teeth. "Damn you're thorough. I would have hated to have you for my Captain." At her look he quickly corrected himself. "No. I mean... You're a good Captain and that means that you'll probably win every game this year, but if I was trying out for the Quidditch team I wouldn't want to tell the most beautiful girl in Hogwarts all of this about me unless I got a date out of it." Ginny laughed.
"Well, I don't know about the most beautiful girl in Hogwarts bit, but thanks for the rest of it. I really want to prove to everyone that I can be a good Captain this year. Most of the people seem to think that Harry gave me the position because of what used to be between us. I want to prove those people wrong. I want to show everyone that I deserve this. That I earned it. You know what I mean?"
Draco nodded. "Yeah. Now... are you going to eat or do I have to force feed you?"
Ginny looked around. "But, I have to finish all of this." She indicated the papers with a wave of her hand.
Draco shrugged. "That's simple. You eat and I'll read their stats to you. We can do this in half the time if we do it together and then you can actually get some sleep before we go to Hogsmeade."
"Oh!" Ginny sat up straighter. "By the way, I told Collin about tomorrow. He wanted us to meet him and Pamela for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron and I told him that that would be fine."
Draco gave her a skeptical look. "Are you sure that he doesn't just want to try to kill me?"
Ginny giggled. "No." She got up and cleared a space on the couch and set the plate in her lap before shoveling some of the mashed potatoes into her mouth. "But, if you want to date me then you have to do it sooner or later right?"
Draco nodded. "I guess I can't argue with that. Okay."
Ginny smiled at him. For the next two hours Draco read the stats to her and she told him what she thought. By the time Collin got back from dinner they only had three more people to cut.
Collin came up short when he saw how chummy they were. "Hey Gin." He said as he walked into the room.
Ginny turned on the couch and smiled up at him. "Hey! You right on time. We're about to cut the last three people, and then we have the whole team."
Collin glanced from her to Draco to the piles of paper on the floor. "Wow. When I left you had to cut like twenty people. I can't believe that you got through them that fast." He grinned down at her. When he saw the dark circles starting to form he sat next to her. "All right. Let's cut the last three people."
They worked together for about thirty more minutes before they finally finished. Ginny looked up stunned. "All righty then. I have three chasers including myself, two beater, one keeper, and one seeker. Thank God. The Gryffindor Quidditch team has been formed." She sighed and leaned back, removing the glasses and setting them on the coffee table. "Thanks guys. If you two hadn't helped me then I would have been up all night working on this." She stood and stretched.
When Draco saw her yawn he smiled. "I think it's time that the Princess retired for the night." He grabbed her hand and led her to her bedroom. He waited a little ways away while she gave the door her password. Ginny turned. "Sorry. I have to run to the kitchen and put the dishes to soak and get a glass of water before I go to bed."
Draco held his hand up before she could move past him. "You go lie down. I'll get the glass of water. Then once you're asleep I'll do the dishes and let myself out. Okay?"
She smiled and tried to cover another yawn. "You sure?"
Draco simply nudged her into her room. He was back in less than a minute with a glass of water for her. "Good night, Princess." He kissed her forehead and shut her bedroom door behind him. He gathered up the dishes and carried them into the kitchen.
Collin followed him. "Thanks for helping her. She would have pushed herself and been up all night and then gone to Hogsmeade without any sleep because she's looking forward to your date." He pulled out his wand and with a flick of his wrist the dishes started to clean themselves. He leaned back on the counter and looked Draco up and down. "Maybe she's right about you. Maybe you have changed." He held out his hand and Draco took it.
As Draco headed for the door he looked back at Collin. "Do me a favor? Make sure she actually sleeps. I know that you have her password, just make sure that she sleeps."
"I will." Collin nodded to him.
"Thanks." Draco turned and walked out of the door. When it closed behind him Collin grinned. I'll be damned was his last thought before he turned out the lights and headed to bed.
A/N: Hey guys! Sorry that it has taken so long to update. I've been working crazy hours and planning a wedding so... Hopefully you can understand. Anyways... Here it is. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Bria/gemini69
Dracoginnylover24-- As always thanks for the review and the luck. You may wish luck to everyone every time you review but I thank anyone who wishes me luck every time they do. lol. I'm really glad that you've enjoyed this so far. I'm about half way done with the next chapter so that should be up some time in the next week or two. Thanks again for stickin with me.
SweetSourBlood-- Thanks for the review! Glad you like it so far and hope you stick with me through it.