Yes, I know - you all thought that Conversion was dead and buried, true? Well no, it's back, due to popular demand: Conversion, Part II, otherwise known as the Crusade. Here's a quick extract to whet the old tastebuds, so tell me what you think and then hop over to my author page and take a good look at the other parts! Cheers!
The Crusade – Glass Walls (Extract)
Cool autumnal light of mauve and peach fell calmly through one of the high stained glass windows into Hogwarts library, hitting the back of Ginny's neck and casting her shadow across the table. Cocooned at the end of one of the rows of shelves with Harry, Ron and Hermione, her fingers restlessly plied the pages of large, heavy volume – gilt-edged and gold-rimmed pages, decorated with massive coloured drawings that swam with movement. Her back was burning from the fire smouldering behind her at the end of the row, encouraged by the woollen jumper she was wearing. Her mind, however, was nowhere near the hot library, but was corridors away in a far distant Charms lesson.
Ginny gazed softly at the picture before her. It depicted a scene in which a great golden dragon was flying – with unfathomable lightness and grace - amongst snow-covered mountain tops, breaking through lazily furling cloud and into patches of bright, warm sunlight. Its painted scales glistened magnificently, and Ginny felt herself slipping away from her seat and into its realm. No matter how hard so tried to concentrate on what the words on the opposite page said, all she could do was blindly take in the patterns of the dragon's movement, and think about that classroom, three floors away, where she could see Draco in her mind's eye. Right now, either he'd be drumming his fingers impatiently on his desk, trying to make the lesson end faster, or else sitting at the front steeped in concentration the likes of which she could only hope to gain, in the hopes of avoiding confrontation with his new Slytherin enemies.
Since the scandal they had created weeks before at the Halloween Ball, Draco had been hounded by the Slytherins. Questions of what in hell he was doing plagued him everywhere he went in Hogwarts and beyond, and subtle ploys, provocations and plots that would be injurious to him were growing in frequency and severity – during the most recent excursion to Hogsmeade, he'd apparently had an un-hatched Doxy egg scrumptiously hidden in his bag by some unknown assailant. Once he'd returned, he'd almost been expelled for trying to sneak it into the castle. Luckily, as McGonagall had no proof he'd deliberately tried to smuggle it in, there was little she could do without evidence.
Whenever Ginny spoke to Draco about this though, he of course denied that these instances were troubling him. He always professed that to be able to know Ginny in the open was enough to make up for it, but Ginny could see quite plainly that he was getting continually more tired and hacked-off with these events. She didn't mention this, or at least, she hadn't yet. She knew she would have to talk to someone about it sooner or later, though, for fear of Draco's safety.
As of yet, their romantic association remained a heavily guarded secret. So heavily guarded, in fact, that nobody knew about it. As Ginny felt it wise not to mention Draco in public, and especially not to Harry, Ron and Hermione, they assumed that she had lost her interest in him, and that her one slip-up at the Ball had been purely to dismay and alarm. This wasn't true, obviously – she cared for Draco as fervently as she ever had – but admittance of this she knew wouldn't sit well with them.
When she'd returned from the funeral, after insuring Ron, Harry and Hermione wouldn't miss her presence for the few days she was absent, she and Draco had decided that keeping everything quiet would be safer for both. Ginny said it was because she didn't want the Slytherin's messing things up. Draco said it was because he didn't want Ron spontaneously combusting.
This hadn't perturbed the Slytherins. They were either still convinced that there was something going on, or Draco had alienated himself so completely that even if there wasn't, he couldn't retain a dominant place in Slytherin ranks. On the other hand, he was spending so much lesson time concentrating on his actual work that his grades now exceeded most in the years', excepting Hermione's.
"Found anything yet, Gin?" Ron asked, rousing her from her thoughts. She glanced at the page, flicked a couple over in what she hoped was a frustrated manner, and sighed.
For the full chapter, and the continued story of Draco and Ginny, visit my Crusade story. And I need a spare beta-tester for this story a.s.a.p. - anyone? Oh, and sorry for mistakes - this is read-through but un-beta-ed.