Picking Flowers

| V | Sunrise

Ginny could almost feel herself glowing the next morning as she took her place at the Gryffindor table for a late breakfast. Malfoy had remained sprawled over the foot of her bed right up until she had fallen asleep, though he had not been there this morning when she woke. When he had left, she did not know--the rest of her night and, she admitted, quite a few hours of this morning, had been taken up with one of the best, most satisfying sleeps Ginny had ever experienced. That spectacular kick to Malfoy's face had brightened her mood considerably and she flashed her brother, Ron, a cheery grin as she began to shovel pancakes onto her plate.

"You're in an awful good mood," Ron said grumpily, a forkful of scrambled eggs poised before his mouth. Ginny could only smile. If Ron knew that she had managed to kick Draco Malfoy squarely in the face, he would probably spontaneously combust with joy, before spontaneously combusting with envy. But she knew there was no way he would believe her. To the entire castle, the story and person that was Draco Malfoy was slowly being forgotten. The sense of gloom that had settled with Dumbledore's accouncement would, Ginny knew, eventually be lifted away as the months passed. She frowned as she realized that, soon enough, she would be the only one who remembered--really remembered--Draco Malfoy.

"Thinking of me?" Ginny jumped, dropping the spoonful of syrup she had been about to pour onto her pancakes. She didn't have to look to know that Malfoy was hovering right over her left shoulder. No other voice could sound so wicked and mocking. She turned to take in his face, noting his cocked eyebrows. The lack of a bruise from their encounter last night left her with a feeling of disappointment. She supposed that ghosts could not bruise.

"Never!" she said vehemently, glaring at him as hard as she could. To her surprise and horror, Malfoy's body became suddenly distorted. Ginny gaped as Colin Creevey passed right through him, emerging in front of her with a confused expression.

She realized what she had done, and almost slapped her forehead in exasperation. She shifted her glance back to Ron, noting that he was wearing his befuddled face--mouth turned down and eyes extra wide. He seemed to have stopped eating mid-swallow, and was staring at her as though she had gone mad. She hoped to god he was not inquisitive enough to ask her who she had just been talking to, but before she could find out for sure, Colin cut in.

"Are you angry at me, Ginny?" he asked, seating himself next to her despite not yet having an answer, "You don't look as though you're happy to see me." Ginny was once again struck by realization. She had been glaring at Malfoy--but because Colin could not see Malfoy, it had probably looked like she was glaring at him! That damned Malfoy was trying to make her look insane!

"No! No, of course I'm not angry at you, Colin," she said, giving him a weak grin. She would have to watch how she behaved in public what with Malfoy's ghost wandering around, and her being the only one who could see it. She didn't want people thinking she was crazy. "I'm just having a strange morning." She glanced back over her shoulder to see Malfoy still standing there, a bemused smirk on his face. He was definitely up to some sort of mischief.

"Well that's good, then," Colin said, directing his attention to the breakfast dishes laid out before him. He went directly for the sausages, and Ginny heard Malfoy snicker quietly behind her. Oh, mischief indeed. "Has Luna talked to you yet?" Colin questioned, in between chewing his first chunk of meat.

"Luna? She was supposed to talk to me?"

Colin's eyebrows lowered thoughtfully. "Ah well, I guess I can ask you all the same. We wanted to know if you were doing anything next weekend."

That's right! Next week would be the year's first Hogsmeade excursion. Ginny hadn't even thought about it once these past few days. She needed to stock up on enough Honeydukes chocolate to last her till the next Hogsmeade weekend--and, of course, getting out of the castle might also give her a few hours of relief from Malfoy. Surely he couldn't follow her there? She glanced quickly back at him, and frowned when she discovered that he was no longer there. A peculiar, niggling feeling of dread began to tickle her stomach.

"Gin?"

"Oh, sorry," she apologized. She'd been pondering over Malfoy's disappearance and had neglected to answer Colin's question. "I'm not busy. What are you guys doing?"

"We thought--"

Colin cut off as an entire pitcher of pumpkin juice was dumped, unceremoniously, over his head. Ginny gaped, unable to take her eyes off the now sodden Creevey and the plastic pitcher which had been discarded on the floor behind the benches. Mousy brown hair plastered to his forehead and shirt soaked, Colin looked the picture of shock. Ginny couldn't stop herself. She felt the first inklings of laughter begin to whell up in her throat--that was, before an entire pitcher of cold milk was dumped over her head. She turned to see Malfoy behind her, his arms crossed in satisfaction over his chest. He seemed about to burst out into laughter of his own, but to Ginny's surprise he turned his head away from her and pointed in mock modesty to her shirt. She could see a barely suppressed grin on his face before she followed the direction of his finger with her eyes.

"MALFOY!" she bellowed, all of her Weasley anger suddenly exploding. She jumped from her seat, fully prepared to charge the bastard--before she remembered that her plain white t-shirt was clinging transparently to her wet body, giving the entire hall a splendid view of her navy blue bra. Giving Malfoy a splendid view of her navy blue bra.

She scanned the hall hastily, mortified to find that every face was turned her way. Not only was she drenched in milk, her skivvies on full view, but she had shouted the name of someone who every other person in the hall believed to be dead. Great. Just great. She attempted to cover herself with her arms. It was no use. The Slytherins in the far corner started up a roar of laughter. Ginny felt tears prick at her eyes from the humiliation of it all.

"I've found you, you milk-brained fiend!" Ginny swung around to see Luna Lovegood barrelling towards her, with what appeared to be a large textbook in hand. The blonde had a look of pure outrage on her face, and she was coming at a speed that Ginny found very intimidating. Embarassment forgotten, she ducked out of the way right before the eccentric older girl chucked the book right at the place where she had been standing. She looked up in time to see it hit Malfoy squarely on the shoulder before bouncing off to the land on the floor with a loud thud. He cringed in pain.

The laughter in the hall ceased. Suddenly all of the attention was directed away from Ginny and onto the spot where the book had hit some invisible wall. No one could see anything, but everyone knew there was something there. Malfoy looked like a deer caught in the headlights, clutching his shoulder and grimacing at the unseeing faces around him.

Luna swerved around to Ginny, her eyes wide as they always were. She stripped off her sweater. "Put it on. Let's get out of here."

The two girls, with Colin in tow, hurried out of the Great Hall.

Ginny couldn't explain herself. She was now, thankfully, in dried clothes, but her cheeks felt as though they would be stained with embarassment for the rest of her life. Colin and Luna sat across from her in the library, homework spread out in front of them. Luna had insisted that she did not care for an explanation, but Colin still eyed her a little warily. Her head ached with all that had happened today, and with the need to share what was going on with her friends. But there was no way she could tell them something as crazy as this. Not even Luna, who was a little crazy by nature, would believe this.

"I'm being haunted by the ghost of Draco Malfoy," she said abruptly. Both her friends looked up from their work. She could have told them that they had both turned into giant radishes for all the reaction she got.

"I see," Luna murmured dreamily. For all the heroics she had performed this morning in the hall, Luna was still as spacy as ever.

Colin looked a bit concerned. "You should get more sleep, Gin. Don't worry about today. It was just Peeves, as always."

Thing was, Ginny had almost believed it was Peeves, too. Everyone else had come up to her and expressed how awful it must have been to be on the butt end of Peeves's horrible behaviour--even the Professors had decided that some punishment needed to be doled out to the wicked poltergeist. No one had even considered the fact that it could be anything else. Was it Peeves? Perhaps all of this had been the work of Peeves, and she was just the punchline on one of his nasty, drawn out jokes. Maybe Malfoy was safely comatose--or dead, whichever it was--and Peeves was just taking advantage of the situation. Oh, how her head throbbed!

"Hogsmeade!" Luna said, suddenly and rather loudly. "Yes, Hogsmeade. Ginny, you need to come to Hogsmeade with Colin and I next week. We have a surprise for you."

Colin, who had paused in his work to listen to Luna's tirade, nodded enthusiastically, a lively smile forming on his face. "That's right. I was telling you about it before. We'll have to make you look nice."

Ginny frowned. Why would it matter if she looked nice? What was this surprise about? Colin and Luna had never been so determined to get her to come to Hogsmeade with them. "Okay, then," she said, for lack of anything else to say. Whatever this was about, she sure hoped it would get her mind off Draco Malfoy--or whoever it was.

Ginny found herself creeping silently along one of Hogwarts' main halls, many hours after curfew that night. She had tossed and turned in her bed for the better part of the night, and yet sleep had solemnly refused her. It was not that she had been harassed--it was that she hadn't been harassed since the spectacle that morning. She was really beginning to think that the whole ordeal had really been Peeves' well-made illusion--that all this time she had suffered at his hands, rather than at Malfoy's. The thought made her bite the inside of her cheek. She couldn't fight the small feeling of regret.

She just needed to make sure. Maybe if she could find Malfoy, everything would be clarified. Yes, that's what she needed to do. She needed to find Malfoy.

She paused for a moment, holding her breath. No, the small shuffling wasn't Filch or the cat. It couldn't be. Ginny had long learnt that the best way to stay out of their company was to travel the corridors they least suspected. There was no way they would even patrol this hall tonight--they would pass it up for smaller nooks and crannies where amorous students or plotting pranksters might be hiding. No, this sounded all too much like the rustling of Hogwarts robes, and the forcibly quiet footsteps of school-appropriate dress shoes. She spun around, fully expecting to see Malfoy's bemused face right before her.

But the hallway behind her was shadowed and empty.

A passing fancy, she reasoned, stepping forward to continue on her way. And into something hard and warm she walked.

She couldn't hide her sigh of relief at seeing the loosened Slytherin tie she had become strangely familiar with. The disheveled blonde locks and piercing grey eyes almost made her smile. Almost.

"Malfoy!" she breathed, some of her earlier anger reigniting at the small, content smile on his face. It was strange to see his lips curved like that. Very strange. "You--you git!"

"That's a nice way to greet someone you've missed," he replied, snarky as ever. Ginny realized that both his hands were gripping her shoulders, his touch firm and oddly reassuring. This was Malfoy. It had to be.

She brushed him off, peeked around him to ensure that no one was coming, and began to walk again. He fell into stride beside her. "I didn't miss you," she remembered to say. She wondered why her words didn't sound convincing, even to her own ears. She hadn't missed him. She had just been confused as to whether or not she was being deceived by Peeves. Now, of course, she knew that she wasn't and that was why she wasn't more angry. They continued to walk.

"Where are you going this early in the morning?" he asked, more to himself than to her, "The sun's not even up." She looked sideways at him to find that he was not even watching her.

Truth be told, she hadn't had a destination when she'd set out of the Gryffindor Common Room not too long ago. She'd only wanted to find him, to make sure that he wasn't Peeves. But now that he was here, she knew where they would end up perfectly well. She decided not to tell him.

"That was an awful, malicious thing you did this morning," she countered, unable to keep some anger from her voice, "I'm glad Luna hit you with that book. I hope it hurt."

"Oh, it ached. Just like that kick in the face you gave me last night," he let his words sink in, his tone of voice mocking, "Now that was an awful, malicious thing, too, wasn't it? That kick in the face."

She chewed her lip. Well he had been pulling her toes! The obnoxious git could not possibly think that one little kick made it alright for him to humiliate her--AND Colin--in front of the entire school.

Well maybe it had been more than one little kick. Ginny couldn't hold back a snort of laughter as she recalled the agonized expression that had been on his face. It had just been so unlike anything she had ever seen before! She felt most of her anger dissolve almost immediately. Perhaps they were even now.

They came upon a small side door that Ginny often used to get out onto the grounds. It was nestled in a discrete little place that meant it was rarely, if ever, discovered, and in Ginny's experience, it was never locked. As they reached it, Malfoy seemed to realized where they were going.

"The pitch!" he said, and Ginny heard some wonder in his voice. He sounded unbelievably happy, but when she chanced a glance at him, his face was grim. He seemed to be grinding his teeth.

To her surprise, he opened the door for her. "Go on," he urged, ushering Ginny through onto the wet grass. The sky was a dark blue, and there was a long line of brightness along the horizon. Almost morning. In the distance, the stands of the Quidditch pitch stood proudly. Ginny felt her heart jump, as it always did, when she saw it. This was a place where she could fly, forgetting everything around her.

But she couldn't forget her current company, she realized. Malfoy had stepped almost tentatively out onto the grass, and when both of his feet were firmly planted, he let out a beaming smile. Ginny stepped back, not sure of how to react. He muttered something, looking at her with wide, surprisingly childish eyes. Ginny blinked, confused. Then, she was staring at his back as he sprinted, quickly, towards the pitch, his clothes billowing as they caught the wind. She began to run, too, suddenly eager to keep up with him.

She reached the pitch out of breath, glad to collapse to her knees on the soft grass. He stood at the center of the arena, turning around as though taking it all in. There was a cool breeze that rumpled his hair and splashed Ginny's face refreshingly.

She had to remember that this was Malfoy here. He seemed crazily out of character.

"What are you doing, Malfoy?" she called, sitting comfortably on the damp ground. She could feel the morning dew drops soaking through her jeans to her skin.

He turned towards her, as though just realizing she was there. He came closer, his face once again composed. Something about the way he stood, though, suggested to Ginny that he felt extremely relaxed, perhaps even overjoyed, if Malfoys were capable of such a feeling.

He watched her for a brief second. "This is where I died," he said, quite calmly.

Ginny's eyebrows rose. "I see." The sun was rising on the far side of the field. She looked up at him from her seat on the ground, and he returned her stare. As she watched, his body seemed to grow transparent in the sunlight until she could see the morning sun right through him. A vague outline of his body remained, but Ginny felt as though he were not really there. Malfoy was not really there. The person in front of her, this person through which she could see the dawn--this person was a ghost. It was not Malfoy at all. "You really are dead," she said, frowning up at him. Her chest hurt for some reason. The place behind her eyes throbbed heavily.

"Yup. Dead as ever."

He turned away, but Ginny could not help feeling like those eyes, a transparent grey against the sunrise, were still looking right into her.

Author's Note: Intense! What is brewing between these two? And oh no, Malfoy is really, really dead. Oh, rats! Despite this, he is still capable of amazing douchebaggery, as seen in the beginning of this chapter. Dead or not, evil sure suits him.

I am so sorry for this late, late, late, late chapter. If only I could begin to explain the technical horrors I went through this past month. My computer crashed for some reason--taking with it years of family pictures and all of the notes I had for this story. I have now learnt the art of backing your work up. Yes indeed. Now that I have a computer again, I really hope to get this story finished! Chapter six will be up soon soon soon.

Sorry for the wait again! Reviews, please.