Title: Fragments

Author: Tiny Q

E-Mail: [email protected]

A/N: Hi! Yes I know, I shouldn't be staring a new fic until I finish 'Guilty by Association' but don't you worry, it won't interfere! I have had this one for a while and I need something a little more light hearted. I think Peeves acts a lot like Gollum from The Hobbit but oh well! I own nothing but the plot! Got that?! So don't sue me!

Fragments

Chapter 1

Bouncing Ferrets

'Oh my god!' Ginny Weasley thought frantically as she ran through the halls of Hogwarts. 'I am soooo late! Snape is going to kill me!' The halls were deserted and Ginny tore down them faster than she ever had before. Yet she knew that it would still be a few more minutes before she actually reached her potions class.

'Why don't I just skip?' she asked herself as she rounded another corner, leaving skid marks from her black soled boots. 'Because then I'll be in even more trouble,' she hissed at herself in response.

When Ginny had woken up she had thought it would be a good day, though the events that were unfolding as of late made her realize that perhaps she had been mistaken. Breakfast had gone by without a hitch but on her way to Herbology she had managed to drop all her textbooks in a large mud puddle (It had been raining that night).

Despite the gloomy weather that usually made her oddly cheerful, Ginny couldn't help but feel a little down. That was how she had wound up in Hagrid's hut. After lunch she had been walking outside by herself to brood over life, and it had begun to rain once again. At first she didn't mind but it began to hail and she had had to take shelter for fear of getting a concussion.

At the end of the hallway were the stairs to the dungeons and Ginny almost whooped with happiness but managed to contain herself. Putting on a bit of extra speed she sprinted down the last stretch. She was two meters from the stairs when she felt her arm brush against something as cold as death which made her stop dead in her tracks.

"Oh looky what we have here!" Peeves said in his cheery voice as he came out from behind a tapestry. "A wittle late student. Now shall we let her pass or not?" He floated around her and hovered right before her, barring her only way to class.

Ginny clutched her arm where the apparition had brushed against it. It felt as though it had just been dunked into a large bucket of ice water and was now beginning to thaw. Ginny had been in contact with the many ghosts of Hogwarts before but she never remembered it feeling like this. Curious as to what had happened she reached out and brushed her fingers through his middle.

"Hey!" he said angrily and backed up a bit. "No touchy!" Ginny pulled her fingers back before he had even said anything and clutched them to her chest. The feeling was now as though her fingers had been in an ice box for a few hours and were throbbing. ''What the hell?' she wondered and took a step back from the ghost, not wanting to feel the horrible feeling again.

The ghost didn't seem to notice her reaction and was now pretending to think. His eyes finally lit up and he looked down at her with a twisted grin. "I don't think the wittle student is going to leave. She is going to stay here and keep me company!"

"Oh come on Peeves," she said exasperatedly, "I have potions! Snape will give me detention if I'm late!" She looked up at the stubborn look on the poltergeist's face. "I promise to keep you company after class."

Peeves seemed to contemplate this for a moment and was about to reply when Ginny heard a drawling voice, from behind the ghost, interrupt him.

"What's wrong Weasel? You're not scared of Peeves are you?" Ginny leaned to the right and looked past the ghost and straight into the eyes of Draco Malfoy, who was standing a few steps below the landing she was on.

"None of your business, Malfoy," she hissed.  "Go bother someone else."

"Ooooooh!" Peeves squealed happily as he whirled around to see who Ginny was talking to. "It's Ferret Boy!"

"Shut up!" he snapped at the ghost. Ginny bit her lip to keep herself from laughing out loud, but it didn't work. She let out a short laugh but quickly covered her mouth with her hands. Peeves began to spin around her in joy, sending cold chills all up her body.

"What are you laughing at Weasel?" he demanded angrily.

"Nothing," she said quickly.

"She's laughing at the Ferret Boy!" Peeves chirped, still spinning.

"Shut up you stupid ghost," Malfoy hissed at him but kept his cold eyes on Ginny's.

Peeves let out a shout of rage and charged at him. Unfortunately Ginny was standing between the two and he decided to pass through her rather than go around her. Ginny let out a yelp of surprise, it felt as though she had just fallen into the lake in the middle of winter. Everything ached with cold and it seemed as though her soul was dying. 'Ridiculous!' she told herself but let out a short scream as she felt herself lose her balance and fall down the stairs into Malfoy who was looking up at the ghost with a mixture of horror and amusement.

"Hey!" Malfoy cried out in a startled voice and caught her in his arms; the momentum from her fall, however, along with Peeves who had now passed through Malfoy, caused him to lose his balance as well. Before either of them could react they were both falling headlong down the stairs with Peeves floating in the spot they had occupied moments before, howling at them to come back.

'Oh god,' Ginny's mind screamed. Everything was a blur and she could feel herself hitting the walls, steps and Malfoy but knew that it was the landing that would hurt the most. The tumbling seemed to never end and she caught herself wondering if perhaps it never would. That she would just fall for eternity. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden impact of the ground as they hit the bottom of the stairs in a great heap. Ginny's head smacked the tile hard as she landed and everything went black.

~*~

"Weasley wake up," she heard someone say. It sounded so far off and almost passed it off as nothing until she felt someone shake her. Hard.

"Wha..." she mumbled and tried to open her eyes. The lights were so bright that they hurt and she quickly closed them again.

"Wake up!" the voice snapped again and shook her harder than before. She attempted to open her eyes again to find that the blinding light had been replaced with the normal dim light of the halls of Hogwarts. Blinking rapidly her eyes finally focused in of the face that moments before had been a blur.

Ginny let out a squeak of surprise as she realized that it was Malfoy's face that was looking closely at hers. As soon as he saw that she was awake he leaned back on his hunches and looked at her crossly.

"You almost killed me you know!" he said angrily.

"It wasn't my fault!" she said hotly. "If you hadn't pissed off Peeves I wouldn't have fallen."

"Whatever," he hissed then stood up, leaving Ginny to scramble up on her own. As she stood she swayed on the spot with a sudden case of vertigo. Shrugging it off she looked around the bottom of the stairs and found her bag lying on the last step. Angrily snatching it up she turned and headed in the direction of her potions class.

"Where do you think you're going Weasley?" Malfoy sneered from beside her. He had also begun heading in the direction of Snape's potions class.

"Potions," she snapped and continued to walk.

"Impossible," he sneered.

"Excuse me?" she hissed a little startled at his statement.

"I have potions right now. And unless you got transferred into my class, which I highly doubt, then you are stupidly going to the wrong class," he said and Ginny looked at him as though he had grown a second head. "But then we can't expect anything more from a Weasley now can we?"

"What the hell is your problem?" she hissed, stopping in the middle of the deserted hall. "I have potions now, so you are the one who is stupidly going to the wrong class."

"No," he hissed back standing directly across from her. "I have had potions all year at this time."

"So have I," she snapped then continued to walk down the hall.

"Where are you going?" he growled and walked after her.

"I am going to prove to you that I am right and you are wrong," she said crisply and continued to walk without looking back. Malfoy walked beside her and the two of them stayed quiet the entire time, glaring at each other every now and then.

During the walk, Ginny looked around and noticed that there was something just not right about her surroundings. Everything seemed dimmer and less real some how. At first she had just brushed it off but the closer they got to the potions classroom the more she noticed it. Then it struck her. The floors of the halls were different. Looking down she realized with horror that all of the tiles had been replaced by red carpet.

"What the hell?" she gasped out loud, coming to a sudden stop. Malfoy looked at her sharply and stopped a few paces away. "The floors." He looked down then looked back up at her.

"What's going on around here?" he asked her then looked past her and pointed at the walls. "All the paintings are blurry."

"What?" she asked and turned and looked for herself. Sure enough, all the paintings they had passed were blurry. All you could see were mixed colors and the outlines of what was once in the image. "What happened?"

"How am I supposed to know?" he snapped, then cocked his head to the right. "Do you hear that?" he asked her suddenly.

"Hear what?" she replied, looking at him as though he had gone crazy. But under the circumstances she wouldn't have blamed him.

"Laughter," he said in disbelief.

"In the dungeons?" she asked. "That's like saying brooms don't fly."

He looked at her darkly then quickly walked towards the sound of the supposed laughter.

"Come on," he called to her. "It's coming from Snape's room."

'What the hell?' she wondered, not for the first time, and ran to catch up with his quick stride. As they approached Ginny heard the laughter too but she couldn't believe her ears. Within moments the two of them were standing before the door to the potions classroom which seemed to be echoing with mirth. Without looking at Ginny, Malfoy pushed the door open and all the laughter stopped.

"Ginny! Draco!" someone said happily as they stepped into the room. "We have all been waiting for you!"

Ginny looked towards the source of the voice and nearly screamed in horror. There, standing at the head of the class, was Professor Severus Snape. But he no longer looked like the greasy haired professor she loved to hate. No, the Snape that stood before her had a large, genuine smile on his face, his hair had been washed and put up in dreads and he was wearing purple and red instead of his usual black.

"What the-" she heard Malfoy start from beside her but he stopped himself and looked around. Ginny followed his gaze to see all of his class and her own sitting about the room blowing bubbles out of their wands.

"We're learning how to make a bubble potion. Isn't that right Harry?" Snape said cheerfully, waving his own wand causing a stream of bubbles to flow out.

"Right Professor!" Harry said cheerfully from the front row.

Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. Ginny stood there dumbfounded and was suddenly struck with a terrible feeling of deja-vu.

"Oh no," Ginny said with dread. "This can not be happening."

"What do you mean?" Malfoy sneered sarcastically from beside her. "This sort of stuff happens all the time here."

"I think I dreamt this," she muttered and looked wide eyed at the scenario unfolding before her.

~*~

A/N: So what did you think??  In the words of Ed the Sock: Is it smash or trash?? You decide whether it continues or not! Reviews please!