I, Kavya,credit this entire chapter to Van Morrison for Brown Eyed Girl on repeat and coffee.
And Lindsay, who is a very intelligent gentleman P, credits it to something, but I don't know what.
Draco Malfoy was brooding. The She-Weasel had the gall to leave him waiting at the library, did she? It was an insult, an outrage, really, and Draco was predictably annoyed.
He was alone in the common room for once. When his fellow Slytherins had seen his silent rage, they'd made feeble excuses and departed immediately, leaving him to his thoughts. He wondered where Blaise and Pansy were. They were, at the very least, his friends, and he could use some amusement right now.
Suddenly feeling somewhat weary, Draco sat down. Was preparation for the NEWTS taking its toll on him? He ran his fingers over the expensive cashmere material of the sofa and his thoughts wandered back to earlier that day.
At Breakfast
Draco looked up as the owls flew in during breakfast. Mail time had come. Quickly spotting his eagle owl, he let out a low whistle, and the highly trained own flew to him at once and perched on his shoulder.
"What do you have for me today, Medea?" he asked soothingly as he stroked her feathers and reached for an owl treat in his pocket. The owl obediently dropped the note onto the table, and Draco reached for it with interest.
Weasel-
Meet me today. Same place, same time.
-DM
Underneath his initials Weasley had left her answer:
Insufferable Git-
Sure, just as long as you don't call me Weasel.
-GRW
It appeared that Weasley Junior had claws. Draco smirked and looked over at the Gryffindor table.
Weasley, completely oblivious to Draco's observation of her, was shamelessly ogling one of those Ravenclaw boys in his year. Terry Boot, or something.
Draco unconsciously narrowed his eyes, and almost as if Ginny sensed him watching her, her eyes flicked to him.
Their eyes met. Draco surreptitiously waved the letter in his hand, indicating he had received it. Weaslette seemed to flush a little, and stuck her chin in the air, an open gesture of dismissal.
With a toss of her red hair, she broke eye contact and started an energetic conversation with Seamus Finnigan, who Draco fondly referred to as The Irish Git.
Draco scowled at Ginny's profile. He'd never been spurned by a Weasley, and that definitely wouldn't start now. He'd have to include that in their library confrontation, for future reference.
Slytherin Common Room, Present
Blaise Zabini, also referred to as the man slut of Slytherin, strolled into the Common Room as if he owned the world.
"Look who got lucky," came Draco's snide retort from the corner of the room.
Blaise smirked at his friend and strode over to where he was sitting. "What, are you jealous? Sexual frustration can be just that, you know." '
"Enjoy your shag?" Draco returned acidly. Blaise was his best friend, and all that, but honestly. What a prick.
"I rather did, actually," Blaise answered truthfully. He paused, then leered, shaking his light brown hair out of his face. "Pansy can be an absolute wildcat in the bed, let me tell y-"
Draco cut off Blaise's explanation with a frantic wave of his hand. "Zabini. Not the time. Maybe later."
Blaise looked annoyed with not being able to share details with his best friend, but consented.
Suddenly, Blaise's green eyes lit up.
"This is about a girl, isn't it?"
Well there was no reason to sound positively tickled about it, Draco thought sourly.
"What if it is?" He challenged, trying to intimidate his friend. Blaise just looked more amused. Damn. It never worked with him.
"Then I'd laugh at you, call you a sorry ponce, and ask for details. Tell, tell."
Draco tried to look unaffected, and failed. "You'd laugh," he said sullenly.
"Me?" Blaise sounded injured. "I would never do such a thing. Me, your best friend? The one who rescued you from Millicent at the Yule Ball? Me, who Portkeyed you into that strip club, Sextravaganza? Me, who rescued you from McGonagall when she caught you hexing Potter?"
Draco groaned. "I wish you wouldn't do that."
Blaise brightened suddenly. "But it's my specialty," he said, sounded decidedly jovial for all Draco's petulance. "You glower and intimidate, I seduce and beseech. We both smirk, though. It's the Slytherin way," he said smugly, smirking even as he did so.
The portrait door swung open, and a decidedly mussed Pansy Parkinson entered, looking rather self-satisfied. Draco tried very hard not to direct his eyes heavenward, lest they get stuck that way, and spoke in a sneering drawl, "So you actually thought the coming at different times to cover your tracks would work?"
Pansy snickered. "Oh, come off it, Malfoy," she said laughingly. "Most of the Slytherins in here are too thick to comprehend the idea, let alone see right through it. Anyway, it's not you we're covering up for."
Draco understood. Pansy had been betrothed since birth to Marius Rookwood, Death Eater Extraordinaire Augustus Rookwood's spawn. Marius, one year their senior, was a tolerable character himself. He was somewhat dashing looking, or at least that's what Millicent Bulstrode said (and Draco had been so sure she fancied girls), and he was one of the less git-ty Slytherins, Draco decided charitably.
But Marius was also an incorrigible womanizer, lacked anything substantial in the brains department, and had approximately the presence of mind of a salad fork.
Pansy wasn't keen on marrying him, but she wasn't one to openly disobey her parents. She had just decided early on that she would shag bloody well anyone she liked before the marriage and had worked through approximately ½ the males in 7th year and a dozen odd chaps in 6th year too. She was currently seeing Blaise, and from the flirtatious looks they were throwing each other at the moment, it seemed to be getting serious.
Pansy, after blowing a kiss to Blaise, flounced up to the 7th year dormitories. Draco sighed with relief. Maybe Blaise had forgotten their previous conversation.
However, Blaise was not easily deterred, and he latched on to Draco once more.
"You might as well just tell me," he reasoned sensibly. "Otherwise I'm going to find out by tormenting some other student, and then I'll just taunt you even more mercilessly than I had originally planned." Draco disagreed internally. At least then he would have the satisfaction of knowing Blaise had tormented someone other than him as well.
Slumping low in his seat, Draco buried his silver head in his hands, buried himself in the pricey black and green pillows and mumbled something.
"What?" Blaise sat up straight now, aware that he had hit upon something of interest.
"Mphfsly." It didn't appear that Draco was making much of an effort to be coherent.
"Whattttt?" Blaise probed inquisitively.
"Weasley!" Draco looked a frightening combination of furious and hysterical.
"What about him?" This was definitely not what Blaise had expected, and now that he knew what was causing Draco's irritability, he didn't know how to go about asking Draco to elaborate.
"Not, him, her," came the pained voice under the mountain of cushions.
"There's a her Weasley?" This was a new discovery to Blaise. "I thought they were all blokes. Is she hot?"
A pillow came flying airborne towards him, hitting him squarely in the face.
"Well, then, I got my answer, didn't I?" Blaise heckled annoyingly. "What about the supposedly sexy Weaslette?"
"She's bloody driving me mad, that's what!" Draco snapped, finally reaching the end of his tether. "She's been playing hot and cold the past couple of days, and you're asking the most obvious, inane questions!"
"Well," Blaise said reasonably, "how should I know?"
Draco fell back onto the very comfortable couch in exasperation. "Argh."
Blaise stood and stretched "Just snog her or something," Blaise said, as if the answer was perfectly obvious.
Draco sneered at him. "Yes, I could do that, but I like to think I have more morals than you, seeing as you have virtually none," he countered rudely.
The other boy thumped Draco on the shoulder. "You'll figure it out." With those words, he gracefully jogged up the stairs leading to the 7th Years' dormitory.
Draco glared at his back. "Thanks so much," he called sarcastically behind his retreating friend. That had served to do nothing but anger Draco more.
Draco stood and headed for the portrait. He was going to find that ruddy Weasel, and when he did, he'd be having a few words with her.
Ginny's thoughts had progressed remarkably over the past few minutes.
She'd gone from 'Ohfuckdamnitwanker!' to 'Well, who said I have to sodding obey a Malfoy, anyway?' to 'oh damn he's going to kill me and dispose of my remains in various places around the castle,' to 'Well, bloody, bloody, hell. I think I missed an excellent opportunity for a free snog.'
The last thought had flowed unbidden into her mind, and she willed it away. She was not going to think about that now.
Chris tapped Ginny on the shoulder. "What's going on? You look like you're about to vomit," she said gracefully. "I mean, I don't necessarily have a problem, but Colin over there has a delicate stomach, and I mean, one is enough, but two puke marks to charm away? Can you imagine?" She asked, enjoying the disgusted expressions on the faces of Ginny, Colin, Jared, and Anna.
Ginny's other friend, Anna Pike smacked Chris not-so-lightly on the shoulder. "God, Chris," Anna admonished. "I don't think everyone needs a play-by-play on Ginny's potential vomiting, and Colin's subsequent hurl."
Chris rolled her eyes but assented grudgingly. "Well, I just thought you'd want to know," she began defensively, but Anna interrupted. "Well, you know, I think we're speaking for all of us," she said, narrowing her hazel eyes at Chris and tossing brown curls, "when I say we don't." She resumed French-braiding Ginny's hair solemnly.
Ginny's eyes wandered around the room, resting momentarily on Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They flew back immediately when she noticed they were all staring with something akin to annoyance in their eyes at Ginny's large group of friends nestled in front of the fire.
Ginny averted her eyes so it wouldn't seem like she had seen them staring, and then alerted Jared and Colin of the matter.
"Why are they staring at me," she demanded apprehensively.
"I would know because?" Jared's insolent voice returned.
"It looks like they're taking notes," Colin observed quietly. Ginny whipped her head around to look at him. "Stop moving!" Anna screeched, and Ginny obediently assumed a straight position again.
"They taking notes!" she asked out of the corner of her mouth. Jared nodded, noticing as well. "Yes, and they haven't taken they eyes off you in the past few minutes except once to compare notes."
"Go over there," Ginny instructed firmly.
"What!" Their protests were simultaneous.
"Just go over and see what they're writing," Ginny pleaded. "I need to know."
"What are we supposed to do?" Colin hissed quietly.
"Go pretend you're looking for a book!" Ginny said, indicating the bookcase that was merely a foot or so away from the Dream Team. "Please?"
The two males looked at each other and nodded reluctantly. "Fine," Jared said, "we will."
"But you owe us one," Colin added. Ginny nodded. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Colin and Jared were actually rather convincing, Ginny had to admit, as she watched them point to the bookshelf from their seats, stand, and sidle over to the large selection of books. They walked pointedly past the three 7th years, who barely acknowledged their presence and peered over their shoulders, just missing being caught by them.
Colin pulled a random book from the bookcase and the two boys came back to where the three girls were sitting, waiting.
"What was it about?" Ginny asked as soon as they sat down.
Jared answered, "It mentioned something about the legacy of the Septine, and how it had to be fulfilled according to the specification on some scroll," he said, clearly not understanding it at all.
Ginny frowned. What did that mean?
"It also mentioned some Order," Colin said doubtfully. "Couldn't get the whole name though, Ron's elbow was covering it."
"The Order of the Phoenix!" Ginny proclaimed excitedly. Finally, it was something she understood. "What about it?"
"I don't know," Colin said regretfully. "There was something about the Septine there too, though," he said decidedly, "and how it had to be inducted by the eve of its 17th moon."
Ginny's shoulders slumped. She had hit a dead end.
"There were a few books around them, too," Jared mused out loud. "Ancient Wizarding Leagues and Organizations, Facts on Familial Curses and Legacies, and Galleus Gilbridge's Guide to Getting Girls."
Chris snorted, and Anna couldn't restrain a chortle.
"That's Ron's," Ginny explained, dismissing it. "But I reckon Harry's been using it too, lately. I heard Parvati and Lavender saying he needed some help in that department."
"You could help him, Ginny," Jared suggested, waggling his eyebrows at her. Ginny grinned at him. "Very funny. But don't you think these little 'taunt Ginny about her famous crush on Harry Potter' are a little played out?"
"They could never be," Jared proclaimed dramatically. "They're too memorable."
Ginny rolled her eyes at her friend. "But you know I don't like him, right?" she asked him.
"Yes, well, I know that," Jared said. "But a lot of blokes still think you're nutters for him."
"Finnigan said that you wrote him poetry, signed them 'Seductive Sorceress', and sent them to him by school owl," Colin added helpfully.
Ginny snorted. "Me? Righttt. That was Hannah Abbot. Caught her in the act, myself. I'm surprised she still does it," she said thoughtfully. "But I guess some people are incorrigible."
"People like Malfoy?" Chris asked suddenly. Ginny froze. "Sure, he doesn't spend as much time taunting innocent Gryffs, too busy shagging his Slytherin harlots for that, but he can still be found going out of his way to torture firsties. Talk about incorrigible."
Ginny tried to even her breathing and wondered if her friends had noticed her sudden lapse of composure. If they had, they said nothing, and Ginny relaxed externally, but her thoughts had just been thrown into turmoil. She would be lying if she said she hadn't considered thought about Malfoy, but her friends reactions were enough to make her shudder. Nothing would shock them more than that, except perhaps if she told them that she was pregnant by Albus Dumbledore and Snape was the godfather.
Oh, gross. She wished fervently that she hadn't allowed that visual to plant itself in her head, and refocused on the conversation. Mercifully, her friends' conversation seemed to have taken a different turn.
"See," Anna was explaining patiently to the rest of the group, "it would be fine if she stopped following him around like a dog, but she doesn't have any pride."She shrugged flippantly. "I mean, of course he's not going to consider it, because he's a Slytherin. But If she insists on being some ruddy sycophant, she should do it somewhere where I don't have the misfortune of having to see her!"
Anna was referring to her sister, Kelsie, who was a 5th year and ridiculously obsessed with Blaise Zabini. Kelsie Pike was pretty enough, Ginny thought idly. All the Pike girls were, though they looked little alike. There were four of them, Eva, Anna, Kelsie, and Skylar.
Anna and Kelsie, the second and third siblings respectively, were as different as night and day. Their coloring was vastly different, and where Anna had fair brown hair and eyes, Kelsie had deep brown locks with hazel eyes. If closely observed, one could discern a slight resemblance between them, but upon immediate sight, they were very different.
The two sisters were also dissimilar in more than looks. Where Anna was shy, quiet around strangers, and slightly uptight, Kelsie was outgoing. Despite this, Ginny and Kelsie had never quite gotten along. Kelsie was, undoubtedly, very malevolent if crossed, and also a little too manipulative for Ginny's tastes. She still tolerated Kelsie though, for Anna's sake.
Anna, however, was irritated by Kelsie more often than not. Ginny zoned back into the conversation in time to hear Anna's annoyed outburst. "It's embarrassing!" she was exclaiming, flailing, and coming ridiculously close to sticking her hand up Colin's nose. "She's my sister, and she's throwing herself at him like a harlot! She has absolutely no House Pride!" The words 'House Pride', Ginny thought privately, deserved capitalization because of the fervor with which Anna used them.
The males in their group had evidently tired of the discussion about the latest Sports Illustrated Wizarding Swimsuit edition, and announced that they were going to go practice on the Quidditch pitch. Pretending not to hear Ginny's warnings that it was almost dinner, they fled at a somewhat ridiculously fast rate.
Chris was replying to Anna's rant calmly. "Come on, Anna," she said, loyally defending her housemate. "She's not bothering you, so why should go make a fuss about it?" Ginny privately thought Chris was being very reasonable, but Anna didn't agree. Her normally soft brown eyes flashed indignantly, and she tossed her head, causing a few curls to escape from the confines of her ponytail.
"She is bothering me!" Anna insisted vehemently. "And its none of your business, Chris, so you can just," she hesitated, choosing her words carefully, "piss off!"
Chris recoiled, and then flushed with anger. "Well fine. You can complain about all you bloody want, you vicious little harpy!" She stood quickly and stalked off in the general direction of the dorms.
Anna rose just as fast and marched in the opposite direction, toward the portrait door. She shoved it open, ignoring the protests of the Fat Lady, and disappeared.
It had all happened so fast, Ginny thought, bewildered. She looked in the both the directions her friends had departed. Ginny decided, for the sake of her own sanity, that she was going to stay out of this one.
Great. Along with these major mixed signals Ginny was getting from Malfoy, her two best friends were fighting over something as inane as Kelsie Pike and Blaise Zabini, and she hadn't even begun her seven-parchment-long potions assignment that was due, oh yes, the day after tomorrow.
Sighing, Ginny stood and got ready for dinner.
We didn't want to give too much away because that would require too much thought for the next chapter. And we think you guys have waited long enough. lovable grins
next chapter will be out soon! well, we haven't started it yet, but one can only hope.