Hi guys! It has been far too long and I have no real explanation for lagging so except the cat peed on my notes? The alarm clock didn't go off? I missed the bus?

But mostly life sucks...and then I died. ;o)

Hope you have fun.

Disclaimer: I do.

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Chapter Four

Gunfire

Brilliant! Bloody brilliant! I just knew that he would stand me up.

Damn him. He is probably lurking somewhere laughing his ass off while I stand here looking like a blooming idiot.

Ginny ground her teeth and cast dark looks down the corridor, scaring some Hufflepuff first years into giving her a wide berth.

He was supposed to accidentally run into me five minutes ago, now I'm gonna be late for Transfiguration.

Her teeth grinding had attracted quite a few odd looks from passing students but the corridors were emptying fast as classes started.

Impatiently Ginny shifted from one foot to the other.

Finally spotting Malfoy and a gaggle of other Slytherins at the very end of the hall heading toward her corner Ginny got ready.

One-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand. Go!

Ginny walked forcefully around the corner bumping into blackrobed Malfoy in the process and artfully dropping her books and parchment all over the floor.

"Can't you watch, where you are going, you slick haired prat!"

Ginny bent down to retrieve her scattered things.

"Miss Weasley!" said a cold voice filled with anger. "You will see me tonight for detention! And 50 points from Gryffindor for your insolence."

Ginny looked up with eyes wide as saucers.

Oh. My. God.

Snape looked down his pointy nose at the redhead, positively glowering with suppressed rage.

Behind him Ginny could just make out Malfoys face. He wore a comical expression as if he couldn't quite decide between just sneering or plain laughing out loud. Ginny mouthed a heartfelt "Fuck you" at him. That apparently proofed too much for him and he sniggered audibly.

Snape turned around, his robes billowing and stabbed an accusing finger at the offending Slytherin and hissed:

"And you will join Miss Weasley, since you two evidently share the same kind of humour."

YES! Serves him right.

But isn't it typical? I get detention and points deducted, he just gets detention.

Nevertheless Ginny couldn't help but smile to herself, hastily bending to cram her books and parchments into her bag to hide it.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After dinner Ginny made her way to the potions dungeon just to be stopped in the Great Hall by Professor Snape himself.

"Miss Weasley," she really started to hate the way he pronounced her name, like some sort of curse. "you will go to the astronomy tower for your detention and polish the telescopes without using magic." Ginny groaned inwardly.

There have to be at least two dozen of the things!

Snape extended his pale hand to accept her wand.

"Yes, professor." She handed him her wand.

"You will stay until I collect you." Snape snarled and dropped her wand carelessly into his robe pocket.

@#%€*~#!

After shooting one last vengeful look after the retreating professor, debating with herself whether she could stick out her tongue at him without anybody noticing, Ginny turned around and headed to the stairs.

As she reached the fifth floor and started tackling the stairs to the sixth it occurred to her.

Malfoy is going to be there, too!

Now she couldn't help a wide grin.

This is even better than the running-into-each-other-by-accident-plan. Detention together, what could possibly be more believable as a start for romantic entanglement. And detention in snogging place number one at that!

Ginny pondered the possibilities. They could get caught in a compromising position by Snape. No, that was out. Snape would probably bury them in detention 'til graduation.

She reached the door to the upper platform of the astronomy tower at last.

Did I actually just contemplate getting into a compromising position with Malfoy? Just for the sake of stepping out of the shadow of my brothers dearest, the uber-student, the clowns and the best friend of The Boy Who Lived?

Just to show everyone that I am no little weasel?

I should be tested for substance abuse.

She shook her head, attempting to clear it of doubt. She had made her choice and was going to stand by it.

Ginny had made a deal with the devil.

With that she opened the door.

Oh no! Please Merlin, no!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Little sighs of passion echoed through the seemingly empty room. Shuffling feet could be heard and the rustle of clothes.

But no one was to be seen.

Suddenly the door to the astronomy tower opened slowly, a shaft of light fell into the hallway, illuminating...nothing.

"You can't use your tongue for that! Do it like this."

A quickly stifled gasp could be heard, more rustling of clothes and the door to the tower was closed as stealthily as it had been opened.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny trudged down the steps to the common room blinking bleary eyed into the sun. It had taken until one in the morning to polish all the telescopes after Ginny had finally convinced Goyle to use the proper cleaning utensils.

To think he might have used his tongue to clean things in detention before. To think if I hadn't been there next time in Astronomy I might be pressing my face onto a surface Goyle cleaned with his...ugh.

Ginny shuddered violently.

Let's never think about that again. Buttercups and Daisies...

It had taken Snape another half hour to finally show up and send her off to bed.

So she felt pretty wiped and not at all up to what greeted her as she entered the common room.

About twenty of her fellow Gryffindors sat, stood, lounged and generally loitered and all of them looked up at her with accusing, or confused expressions.

Ginny was fully awake now.

"What? Who died?"

Grave silence answered her.

"WHAT! Why are you all staring at me?" She yelled exasperated.

Just then the portrait swung open to reveal a rather dishevelled Ron, leaning heavily on an equally mussed up Harry, each of them sporting a black eye.

"Oh my, what happened to you two?" Ginny hurried up to his brother and her friend.

As Ron saw Ginny his eyes narrowed.

"YOU!" he spat so venomously that Ginny almost took a step backwards. She saw Harry lay a restraining hand on Rons shoulder. Hermione stood up from her place on one of the couches.

Ginny hadn't even noticed that she had been among those staring at her.

Hermione spoke in her prefect voice to her fellow students, sounding all calm and reasonable.

"Please, I think we should leave Ron and Ginny alone for a while."

Nobody moved.

"I meant, get out!" she raised her voice impatiently and made shooing motions with her hands. "There is such a thing as privacy!"

Slowly the assembled Gryffindors got up from their assorted places and started shuffling out of the portrait hole casting the occasional furtive glance Ginnys or Rons way.

Harry and Hermione stayed looking grave.

Ginny felt outnumbered.

Bristling she complained: "I thought this was such a private matter. Why are you still here?"

She knew she had overstepped the line as Ron shook off Harrys restraining hand and rounded on her.

Talk about tickling the bear.

"How could you! That vermin! How could you let... I can't even say it!...How could you hook up with him!" Ron rounded angrily on Ginny. "But we showed him. Showed him not to lay a hand on my sister. Wait 'til Mom hears about this." Ron had gone beet red, in combination with the black eye it looked rather like an apoplectic racoon.

Showed him? Does Ron know? How can he know?

Did he really go and beat up Malfoy?

Ginnys thoughts whirled around in her head like an angry cloud of bats.

"I haven't done anything!" Which is true... up to now . "What the hell are you blabbering on about?" She was confused big time.

Ron spat: "Goyle!"

"Goyle??"

"Goyle! You...him...in the astronomy tower last night. Harry..." at that Harry disrupted Rons nearly incoherent rant.

"Why didn't you tell us, Ginny? I thought we are friends?" He looked sorrowfully at her through his glasses, his green, green eyes magnified.

Ginny couldn't believe her senses.

Does he practice this?

"Of course we are." Where did that come from?!

Ginny could have kicked herself for this Pawlow-like response.

Then what Ron had said actually registered.

"You think Goyle and I..." she started incredulously then her sense of humour kicked in, she fluttered her eyelids "Ron, it is so good that you finally found out. So we don't have to hide anymore." She took a step forward and put her hands on Rons chest beseechingly. "Goyle and I are in luuuvv!" She stretched the word to impossible lengths. "We have already talked about eloping to Gretna Green, it's not that far, you know?" She would have continued to babble just to enjoy the intensifying look of rage and incredulity on Rons face, hadn't Hermione interrupted her.

"Ginny, can't you see that this is really bothering Ron? Honestly, I would have thought you would be more mature about this."

For a moment Ginny cringed as she realised that this might really be something for her brother to get upset about and felt bad about making fun of him.

But then several other things occurred to her as well. She looked Hermione in the eye and said vehemently:

"Mature? Talk about mature! The mature thing would have been for my brother dearest to just ask me. But noooo, he just assumed that whatever he heard from somebody else, however improbable, is the truth. Why ask me, I'm just the little sister who never gets taken seriously. Merlin forbid, I should make my own decisions." Ginnys face felt hot with fury. She had worked herself into quite a state of righteous anger.

"Let's talk about this in a sensible fashion." Hermione might as well have tried to placate an erupting volcano.

"No! I don't want to calm down! Me and Goyle, my ass! How could you even for one second think that he and I…"

Now Ron got into the fray once more.

"Might have been the fact, that Harry saw the two of you yesterday together, all cosy up in the astronomy tower. About to…" Ron faltered, apparently too disgusted with whatever mental picture he had just conjured.

Ginny grabbed the opportunity to get in between.

"Harry?! Harry saw me? And what exactly could he have seen? NOTHING! Because nothing bloody happened! Goyle and I had detention together. We were cleaning the telescopes." Now Ginny turned to Harry angrily. "What were you doing up there anyhow?"

Harry coloured slightly and Ginny understood. Crossing her arms over her chest she ventured: "I see. I bet you were just pissed that your and Lavender's favourite snogging place was occupied." Even though she wasn't really paying attention to anybody else in her anger, Ginny could her a faint gasping noise from Hermione. A fast glance to Ron showed her his eyes bulging with surprise.

"How do you know about that?" Hermiones voice didn't sound that confident anymore and Harry looked positively alarmed.

"Ginny, you have to keep this to yourself. If Voldemort," at the mention of that name Ron winced. "ever finds out how much I care about her…" Harry trailed off and looked intensely at Ginny.

Drama queens, the lot of them.

Ginny couldn't help but think and nearly sniggered.

As if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named would bother…

but then he might.

That sobered Ginny up quickly.

So he really likes Lavender.

A tinge of sadness crept into her thoughts which only served to make her mad all over again.

"Why didn't you just ask me about it? No, instead you go off half cocked, make a spectacle of yourself and me for that matter. By now probably all of Hogwarts is buzzing with rumours about Goyle and my supposed romance and the fact that you went and got beaten up by him is probably only making it more believable. Brilliant Ron! Fucking brilliant!"

With that Ginny shoved Ron out of the way and with a last glare at Harry who looked sheepishly back, stalked up to the girls dormitory, seething with anger.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

If Ginny had known how right she had been, she would have gone straight to the lake and thrown herself in instead of continuing like nothing had happened.

When she came into the Great Hall the next morning a hush fell over the assembled crowd. As she walked to her familiar space at the Gryffindor table she could have heard a pin drop to the floor. Keeping an unconcerned face she moved past the tables of Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and slid into her place next to Solange.

The usual buzz started again but everybody keep throwing her weird looks and her fellow Gryffindors gave her a wide space.

Solange leaned over to her and whispered urgently:

"Ginny! What in heck happened? Everybody says Snape caught you and Goyle having sex last night in the astronomy tower."

Ginny spit out her pumpkin juice. More looks were thrown her way.

"WHAT? No!" Solange motioned her to keep it down.

"I got detention from Snape last night, cleaning the telescopes." Solange nodded, that much Ginny had already told. "Goyle was there as well, also having detention. Apparently Harry saw us there and drew the complete wrong conclusions. Don't know how he could though, because nothing happened." She added desperately.

"I didn't believe the stories, of course." Solange said hastily.

"Then why do you look so relieved right now?" Ginny started buttering her toast figuring it would help keeping up the pretense of normalcy.

"Because Tops said…" Solange hesitated and threw Ginny a questioning look.

"Well?" Ginny urged.

"She said that you might do something as foolish as dating Goyle to…well, to get noticed."

Ginny missed her mouth with the toast.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This day had to be the worst ever. Ron kept glowering at her, Harry looked beseechingly at her whenever the opportunity presented itself and... had Hermione been tsk-tsk-ing into her direction? And those were just the Dream team. The Gryffindors avoided her very glance like the plague.

Ginny had never felt so utterly miserable.

And now, to top it all off Crabbe had waylaid her in one of the less well used corridors and shouldered her into a classroom shutting the door.

But he hadn't done anything as of yet, except keeping her from leaving. Now he shifted from one foot to the other, scratched his neck and kept throwing her glances.

Ginny felt nervous and highly creeped out.

What's taking him so long?And why is he looking sort of nervous?

"It is customary for the bully to say something when having cornered the prey." Ginny ventured. "If that is too much of an intellectual challenge, start with the hitting already." She braced herself. But Crabbe only stopped shifting and scratching finally. Instead he looked at his shoes as if they held the secrets of the universe.

"Don't want to." Crabbe then rumbled to her utter astonishment.

"What?"

"Wouldn't hit a girl." Then he looked at her in a way that he probably thought seemed clever but only succeeded in making him look shifty. "Unless she started."

This is getting weirder and weirder. Am I supposed to hit him so he can hit me in self defense??

I must be totally off my rocker. Why would he want that?

"Well, what do you want?"

Now he starts with the shifting and scratching again. What. Is. The. Matter!

"WhatisthiswithyouandGnl?

Unwillingly Ginny leaned forward in an effort to catch Crabbes near unintelligible mumble.

"Did you just ask , what it is with me and Goyle?"

"Yes."

"NOTHING! WE WERE JUST HAVING DETENTION TOGETHER!" Fed up and badly in need of an outlet Ginny hollered loud enough to dislodge some plaster from the ceiling.

Crabbe looked relieved.

What is wrong with this picture?

Ginny sqinted at Crabbes ugly visage which at the moment positively glowed with… happiness?!

"Why are you grinning like even more of an idiot than you usually are?"

Then it occurred to her.

Ugh, I am much too young for this. I'll be scarred for life!

Hastily she added: "Scratch that! I don't want to know. Rest assured I have no intentions on Goyle. " Ginny shuddered at the visual that started playing inside her head. "In fact as soon as I graduate I'll join a nunnery. Never thinking those thoughts again would be too soon."

She backpedaled, aiming to get as much distance as she could between her and the now obliviously happy Crabbe.

Unhindered Ginny reached for the door and fled the scene.

TBC