S t a r r y N i g h t s
Chapter one: Intoxicating
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It was way past midnight at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The moon shined straight into the sixth year Gryffindor girls' dormitory window. Most of the girls had pulled the drapes that hung on their bed closed to hide the shinning moonlight.
Ginny Weasley had not done this. She had lain down on her bed facing the window that looked over the Hogwarts grounds. All she could think about was how could people sleep on a night like this? There was just something about this night that was different, maybe even a little intoxicating. It was so natural, yet so supernatural feeling that she couldn't draw herself away from looking at the sky. The stars and the moon look so crystal clear, seeming so much closer than they actually are.
Whatever the reason it may have been Ginny had decided that she wasn't going to waste this perfect night. She got up and grabbed her diary and a quill; being that the moon was so bright it would be a perfect time to write. She then silently slipped out of the sixth year girls' dormitory and Gryffindor common room.
Ginny silently walked down the halls of Hogwarts castle making sure she didn't attract attention that might awake paintings or wandering ghosts, and of course Filch and Mrs. Norris. As she walked Ginny couldn't help but notice how different the castle felt at night. In the day it seemed so harmless and friendly. Nothing seemed very threatening there, everything that was a bit odd just added character to the old castle. In the night it was totally different. The darkness surrounded by pure silence and the coldness of the night felt spooky, which had to be the common feeling around the castle if a sixteen-year-old witch admitted to it.
After minutes upon minute Ginny was finally out of the castle and onto the grounds. Ginny looked up at the sky and felt so many emotions, but none of them amounted to fear, just freedom.
At the end of last year Ginny had really taken to writing. She had always loved to write, but after Tom Riddle's diary Ginny never felt quite safe to open up and write things down. She had tried many times before to start a new diary but every time she had gotten passed writing the first line all the memories of Tom, all the things she couldn't remember in her first year filled her mind. So instead of writing about her life, or personal things she just wrote about anything that came to mind that didn't have to do with her.
-
Now Ginny needed to look around for a place to sit. She went over to the trees close to the lake so she could look at the water. She wanted to sit someplace where people couldn't look out of the castle windows and spot her.
Walking closer and closer towards the lake Ginny found a nice spot to sit down right under a tall tree with branches that would cover but still let in the moonlight.
Ginny sat down quietly making sure not to crack any fallen branches, even though she was the only one out there. Ginny pulled her diary and stared at the pages before she took her quill out.
Ginny mumbled to herself. "Great, now that I'm out here I can't think of anything… I mean I know what to write, but I can't think of how to say it."
A lazy drawl answered Ginny's mutterings with, "You know, they say that talking to one's self is the first sign of insanity, Weasley."
Ginny looked around to see where the voice was coming from.
"Up here, Weasley."
Ginny looked up to find her least favourite person right above her sitting on a tree branch.
"Malfoy, what are you doing out here?"
"I could ask you the same… But I wont, because I don't care."
"Well I'm not moving because I like this tree." Ginny wasn't going to let her freedom and inspiration be ruined by Malfoy.
"I'm so thrilled to know you fancy the tree but if you're going to stay then don't talk out loud."
"I have just as much a right to talk as you do, Ferret," Ginny shot back.
Yes, Weaselette, but I was here first, and I don't feel like moving."
"Then don't complain about me talking."
Draco was obviously getting bored with this conversation so he sighed and said, "If you have the right to talk then I have the right to complain."
"Ugg, whatever, Malfoy, complain away. I don't really care!" Ginny shouted, growing angrier. "All I wanted to do was come out here, enjoy the moon and try to write."
"Write?" Malfoy scoffed. "Write what exactly? The latest lock of hair you've managed to sneak from pretty-boy Potter?"
"I don't like Harry, Malfoy. And even if I did, I would have better things to write about then Harry."
Malfoy snorted. "I'm sure you have a lot of interesting stories to write about the go on with your little friends."
"I don't write about what goes on in my life, I write stories, or at least I try to."
It started to become amusing to Malfoy with how Ginny always felt she had to defend herself. "I'm sure you try really hard, Weasley."
Ginny furrowed her eyebrows. "I resent that."
"I care," Malfoy drawled sarcastically and then went on to say: "All you seem to do is talk about writing, have you actually written something? As in where the quill goes on the paper and then you motion it to make letters. I hope I don't have to go farther, are you grasping what I'm saying?"
"Well I would be able to if you would just stop distracting me!"
"Good writers should be able to block out noises."
"You made that up."
Draco laughed. "See, I proved my point. I'm distracting you. Now if you were a good writer you would have left a long time ago."
Damn him. Why can't he just shut up and leave me alone? Why didn't I just leave before? Well hopefully I am annoying him, and then at least I got something out of this.
Ginny retorted to Malfoy with," Well, Malfoy, how do you know I'm not recording this in my diary to use in a story? A story about a good-for-nothing ferret that gets stepped on and eaten in the end?"
"I would say that was an utterly stupid story. And who would want to eat a ferret?"
"Are you always this hard to talk to? Or is this a special treat for me?" asked Ginny.
"Consider yourself special, Weasley."
Ginny sighed. "Is that a compliment or an insult?"
"Whichever."
Ginny didn't have a response for that. She just sat there staring at her quill, which she was twirling between her hands. Ginny didn't feel like writing now. Just sitting there felt fine to her.
The air was warm and would have been uncomfortably humid had it not been for the gentle breeze that danced around the grounds of Hogwarts. Ginny suddenly felt really tired. She closed her eyes while wondering about a lot of things. Mostly why was Malfoy being almost… nice?
-
It was now the morning at Hogwarts and all the students, except two, had spent the night sleeping soundly in their beds. The sun was now up in the sky shinning down on Ginny Weasley through the spaces in the branches from the tree she was laying under.
"Malfoy! Wake up!" Ginny had just woken up a few seconds ago and hadn't a clue what time it was. She prayed that she still had time to get to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Draco Malfoy had also just had the luxury of being woken up be a loud voice below him. "I'm up, Weasley, what do you want?"
"Don't you care that you might miss Breakfast? Oh and do you have a watch?"
Draco smirked. "Don't get your knickers in a bunch, Weasley. It's only 8:17; breakfast starts at 8:30."
Ginny had gotten up off the ground, grabbed her Diary and quill, then started walking. "I have thirteen minutes to get my books and things then get to breakfast, just great. I really don't want to see Ron, Harry or Hermione because they'll ask where I was last night."
"You know, you could always skip breakfast. I'm sure no one will miss you."
"I'm just going to ignore that…"
"If you ignored it you wouldn't have said anything, now would you?" Malfoy ran to catch up with Ginny. "Whichever you do doesn't matter with me. I'm going to the Kitchens to get breakfast instead."
"Well, I'm going to the kitchens too, so Ron, Harry and Hermione won't see me until later."
"Because they care oh so much about you."
-
Ginny and Draco both snuck inside Hogwarts Castle taking hallways and corridors where they wouldn't be noticed by other students.
Ginny was tired of the silence that surrounded them while they were walking. "You never did tell me why you were outside last night…"
"Maybe I just felt like going outside. And what's it to you?" asked Draco.
"Nothing… I was just wondering." Ginny did want it to become silent again so she kept talking. "Do you go outside a lot at night?"
"What's with all the questions? I go out when I feel like it. And I felt like it last night."
"Okay, you know you're not a very friendly person."
Draco turned and looked at Ginny. "You really amaze me sometimes."
Finally Draco and Ginny reached the Kitchens and entered.
-
"Miss Wheezy! Dobby hasn't seen you in a while." Dobby the house elf who had been helping the other house elves fix breakfast went up to Ginny and bowed.
"Hello, Dobby, would you mind if we ate breakfast in here?"
"Dobby would much like Miss Wheezy's company, but sorry for Dobby asking, who is the other person?"
Ginny turned around to look for Malfoy who was standing behind her.
"Umm… Hello, Dobby."
"Young Master Malfoy?" Dobby's eyes grew large, amazed and a bit frightened to see Draco.
"Lucius told me you died in a tragic oven accident." Draco avoided eye contact with Dobby, and instead focused his eyes on a spot on the floor.
"Harry Potter freed me, sir," Dobby explained with wide eyes that clearly showed respect for Harry Potter.
"Well, isn't Potter just a little saint," mumbled Draco.
Ginny started to get very hungry and annoyed by this conversation. "Dobby, is there some food already made that we can eat?"
"Dobby will get food for Miss Wheezy and Young Master Malfoy." Dobby shuffled off back into the kitchens to get food for them.
"Dobby, I'm not your master, and I never was," Draco said quietly under his breath, not sure if anyone could hear him.
-
Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley ate their breakfast in complete silence. Ginny didn't, for once, mind it because she didn't know what to say. What do you say to someone you've hated for a very long time that you're eating breakfast with? Were you supposed to talk about the weather, or your favourite type of tea? Those weren't really conversations you could have with Draco Malfoy, especially when you know he'd turn it into a way to insult you.
Ginny stood up from her chair. "Umm… well bye, Malfoy, I need to get my things for classes," she said hurriedly, and then walked out of the kitchens leaving Draco sitting in silence.
Draco started to wonder about the littlest Weasley. She really wasn't like all the other Weasleys. She was more passionate, if that made any sense. It was the only way Draco could describe her, not that he went around describing the Weasleys in any other term but poor and idiotic. Ginny Weasley still had the fiery temper the Weasley family was known for but she was more civilized than her brothers that Draco had sadly been subjected to during the Hogwarts school years.
-
Ginny Weasley ran frantically through the Hogwarts Halls to get to the Gryffindor common room. She wanted to get there before Harry, Ron and Hermione finished breakfast in the Great Hall. Ginny went up to her dormitory, got her things for classes and then left.
Ginny wanted to find Luna Lovegood (who was now her best friend at Hogwarts) before the classes started. She knew Luna would be outside the Potions classroom sitting down reading a book, because Luna being Luna loved to get to class very early.
"You weren't at breakfast today." Luna, who had long blonde hair and very pale eyes, was sitting on the hard stone floor reading a book upside down.
"I know, I went to the kitchens instead."
"With Draco," Luna stated.
Ginny frowned. "How did you know that?"
Luna rolled her eyes. "It's not that hard to deduct. You both weren't at breakfast," she explained. "That and I saw you two in the hallway going to the kitchens."
Ginny hoped no one else saw them sneaking away to the kitchens after breakfast. She knew it was a stupid idea to go with Malfoy but she was just so hungry that she obviously wasn't thinking clearly.
"Well, um, last night I went outside to write. I guess I lost track of time or something... but I fell asleep. I didn't really want to go to breakfast looking like a bum and have the others wonder where I was last night."
"Did you have fun with Draco?" asked Luna.
"Luna!" Ginny shouted. "I had no clue that ferret was going to be out there. If I had known I wouldn't have gone."
Luna looked up at the ceiling. "You know, I've always wondered why calling him ferret is an insult. I mean ferrets are soft and furry, how is that a bad thing? It would be fun to be a ferret."
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The stars look down at us from overhead, twinkling and glistening with overpowering beauty and mystery. They tell us to stop wondering about the secrets. Just breathe in the intoxicating feeling and let go.
Disclaimer for the entire story: I do not own the Harry Potter series. I am not JK Rowling. I am not making any money off of this. I'm just a bored teenager.