Anthend : Chapter 5
Ginny slunk into the Great Hall, morbidly hyperaware of every whisper and glance that wasn't directed at her. She was glad that Colin was with her, and even gladder that Hannah, with her fiery eyes and no-nonsense attitude was with her. Hannah, with her proud posture and straight head never invited pitying glances.
She caught sight of Harry almost right away. He was sitting with Ron and Hermione - as usual - and was laughing, ostensibly at something Hermione had said. Hermione was grinning broadly, a change from her usual disapproving scowl, and Ron was happily shoveling baked beans and heavily buttered bread into his mouth. She forced her glance away, almost painfully, and sat down with Hannah and Colin. She was grateful that Harry didn't look up and see her. She glanced back at him, compulsively, his head thrown back, his hair messy and sticking straight out, his green eyes bright behind the round frames. He looked so happy that Ginny felt a painful lurch somewhere in her chest. She wished, suddenly, that she was happy that he was happy.
But she wasn't.
Ginny turned her gaze onto the Ravenclaw tables. Cho sat by herself, but she looked so confident and self-sufficient that she didn't come across as being alone. Ginny knew that if she had been in the same position, she would have been horribly aware of every look darted away, as if everyone was thinking, What a loser.
Ginny kept on looking at Cho, as if trying to find something - other than beauty, sex appeal and Cho-ness - the other girl had that she didn't. Something to catch a young man's heart and keep it. Something -
Something . . .
A myriad of emotions swept over Ginny. Not so much jealousy as something else, something almost indefinable, a painful, desperate need to have what Cho had.
Harry Potter.
The two words always stirred something in Ginny. Harry Potter. A name she'd grown up with, revered, even. A name that had been just that, a name, until she had seen him in his first year at Hogwarts, getting on the train. A name that had slowly formed into a real person, real but somehow not, a hero who burped and drank too much pumpkin juice and had peeing contests with Ron (she'd come across them once) and was nice to her. A name that had, as she grew to know him better, ceased to be the name of a hero and had just become the name of the boy she loved.
Harry Potter.
The name of the boy who had kissed another girl.
Harry Potter.
The name of a boy who wasn't perfect, and who didn't love her.
Harry Potter.
Ha-fucking-rry. Po-fucking-tter.
Harry fucking Potter.
HarryfuckingPotter.
Ginny slowly became aware of the low murmur of Colin and Hannah over the baked beans. She listened half-heartedly, not really taking interest.
There was only one thing that would interest her now.
And he was getting up and making his way over to the Ravenclaw table.
_____
Look at her.
Draco sneered, inwardly and outwardly, as he watched the female Weasley brood over her breakfast, her eyes pathetically turning towards Potter's radiant face - radiant like a pile of Skrewt dung - like a bloody blooming sunflower to the sun. It made him ill, it really did. The whole melodrama - narrated to him avidly by one Pansy Parkinson - was like a bloody soap opera without the benefit of skimpy clothing. Weasley loves Heroic Harry. Heroic Harry lusts after black-haired siren. Weasley catches Heroic Harry and Evil Seductress - from Ravenclaw - in a romantic clinch. Weasley runs off sobbing her little heart out. Heroic Harry runs after her - after exchanging one last kiss with Evil Seductress - to save the day.
What was going to happen next?
Golly gee, he was just going to hold his breath with fascination till the next installment of Lord Harry's Scandalous Affairs (gasp!) came out.
Draco rather liked that. Lord Harry's Scandalous Affairs. It had a poetic ring to it.
He turned his contemptuous thoughts back to Weasley. She was half-listening to her little loser friends' conversation, her eyes slightly glazed - oh my! With tears, no less - as she watched Hunky Harry lean over Cho and exchange a few words which left Cho smiling like the proverbial Skrewt that ate the rabbit and Harry looking more radiant than ever.
Draco almost rolled his eyes, but caught himself in time. He turned back to the stimulating conversation that Crabbe and Goyle were having. Crabbe was busily shoving beef and beans into his mouth, the living picture of what his ancestors must have looked like before the invention of knives, forks, and other eating utensils. Goyle was grunting into his orange juice while thumping his meaty, sweaty, fleshy hand on the table with energy, if not brainpower.
Draco watched the Weasley jump up and skitter out of the Great Hall. Harry's attention was caught by this, and he looked up. Draco sniffed the air in anticipation as Harry scuttled out after the redhead.
I smell confrontation.
Draco stood up, his light eyes reflecting the perverse enjoyment he got from this. Lord Harry's Scandalous Affairs, hmm? Maybe Lord Harry and the Evil Villain?
He'd work on an appropriate title later. Now he had a cauldron of thick, delicious tension to wade into, and hopefully stir up.
Draco almost rubbed his hands together in glee.
______
Ginny leaned against the wall, taking in deep breaths, trying to suffocate the sobs welling up in her throat.
She'd thought she could handle it, she really had.
She'd been wrong.
I was wrong about a bloody lot of things, wasn't I?
She didn't look up to see Harry come out of the Hall out of her, but she heard him, heard the slight panting breaths that seemed somehow incongruous with the athlete she saw on the Quidditch pitch. The one who could do three loop-de-loops in the air and lunge effortlessly between the speeding Chasers without breaking a sweat. The one who could make her heart jump and her palms sticky whenever he did that little thing where his thighs gripped his Firebolt tightly and his strong hands snatched the Snitch from the air.
My Harry, her heart sighed.
Cho's Harry, reality insisted.
She heard Harry come close towards her, then stop uncertainly when he was within a few feet of her. "Ginny?" he said, as uncertain as his footfall had been.
Ginny looked up, after blinking away the salt water that would erode her pride and activate Harry's guilt. She didn't want him that way, not with guilt.
Liar.
She'd take him any way she could.
But guilt would only make him stay with her for a while . . .
And she needed him for longer than that.
"Yeah?" She asked, her voice slightly louder than she had wanted. She wouldn't make this easy for him.
Even if she loved him.
"Are you - all right?"
Ginny looked at him for a moment, knowing her silence was betraying the pride she desperately wanted to keep. But she couldn't bring herself to speak, couldn't bring herself to say the words that would exonerate him from any obligation towards her, because she wanted him so badly, even if it was just for these few minutes . . .
Even if he went back to Cho . . .
A new voice broke the silence. Ginny looked up, startled, to see a long, lean figure rest his shoulder against the wall, the darkness absorbed, not reflected, in the white-blond hair, making him look like the black devil he was.
"Yes, she's all right." He replied in answer to Harry's question. "Not that it's any of your business, Potter." He made Potter sound like Poop.
Harry swung around, his defenses immediately going up, as they always did when he was confronted with the slimy git. Ginny could see his muscles tense under the black robes - hell, she could practically see his hair bristle in indignation. "Stay the hell out of this, Malfoy," he almost growled.
"I hardly think that you're in any position to be saying that to me." Malfoy practically oozed smoothness. Ginny almost admired the slimy way Malfoy knew how to get under Harry's skin, the exact buttons to push with his paws.
"What the hell does that mean?" Harry spat, not backing away as Malfoy came off the wall in one fluid, graceful move. "Never mind, I don't want to know. Stay out of this."
"Let me guess." Malfoy drawled. "This is between Ginny and you." He brought his face sharply against Harry's, almost rubbing his cheek against Harry's. "Wrong." Malfoy said softly, whispering, into Harry's ear. "This involves you. Ginny. Cho. Me."
Harry said nothing, simply stared at Malfoy with undiluted loathing. Ginny realized with a start that he looked almost exactly like Snape, then, and a prickle raced down her spine.
"Get out of here, Malfoy." Ginny said quietly, the force behind her words unmistakable.
Malfoy turned his cool, inscrutable gaze on her then, and Ginny almost flinched from the heavy meaning behind his next words. "Is that how you're going to play it?" he asked.
Ginny hated the way that sounded. It sounded as if she and Malfoy shared something, and she could tell from Harry's expression as he slowly turned his head towards her that he heard that note too.
"What are you talking about?" she hissed.
Malfoy was facing her in an instant, his long fingers gripping her shoulders, his eyes boring into hers. "What the hell do you think I'm talking about?" He asked with soft sibilance. "Who found you and walked you to the infirmary? Who the hell do you think you were kissing two nights ago?"
He was taunting her, knowing she couldn't deny his words, knowing that if she didn't deny them it would damn her in Harry's eyes.
Such cool, knowing gray eyes.
She hated him so much.
"Ginny?"
Doubt in that voice.
She hated Malfoy.
Everything was very still, waiting for her answer.
She tried to back away, but Malfoy's hands held her in place.
And from somewhere far away, Ginny heard someone say "Imperio" and suddenly Malfoy's arms didn't seem that strong.
_____
Harry watched Ginny, waiting for her answer, tense, unwilling to believe Malfoy's lies, or the ring of truth that was in them. Unwilling to think what the expression in Ginny's wide eyes meant.
Then suddenly, almost too fast for him to see, Ginny wrested out of Malfoy's arms and slammed back against the stone wall. Her teeth jarred from the impact, and Harry could see her eyes open in shock. More shock as her head started banging repeatedly against the wall, loud, vicious thumps. Harry stared, unable to do anything, too shocked to move. There was something vaguely familiar about that look on her face. It looked like she was banging her head against the wall on purpose, but Harry could also see the internal struggle, the faint, strained movements of the head from side to side, as if trying not to do it.
Something familiar.
And then Harry remembered.
He remembered his fourth year, being commanded to jump, trying not to obey that voice . . .
Imperio.
The Imperius Curse.
It was only when students started coming out of the Hall to see what the commotion was that Harry sprang into action.
Malfoy was one step ahead of him, already placing his hands on Ginny's head and trying to stop the blows. Harry tried to soften the blows by placing his own hands behind Ginny's head, but all he got for his troubles were two extremely sore hands.
"What the hell's going on?" Ron shouted, fighting through the crowd.
Crucio.
Harry heard the voice, the soft, insidious voice, so soft he could hardly hear it. He jerked around, trying to see who had said it. Then he swung around again, in time to see Ron stiffen in pain and start jerking him arms, flailing them helplessly.
Harry remembered the pain, the red-hot pain that slashed through the limbs and made you realize that there was nothing more horrible than physical pain -
"Call Dumbledore!" Malfoy growled, his voice loud and commanding. "Call Dumbledore, you fucking idiots!"
Harry saw Hermione wrench herself out of the crowd and start running off, ostensibly in search of Dumbledore.
It was long minutes before Dumbledore appeared, running fast, but his face grim in resolve, calm. He saw him lift his wand, and for the second time Harry saw why Voldemort feared Dumbledore . . .
Before Dumbledore could do anything, though, Ginny went limp on the ground, exhausted, her nose bleeding and the back of her head wet. At the same time, Ron gave one last spasm and flopped on the ground, his eyes glazed.
Dumbledore dispersed the crowd with a flick of his hand - the students scrambled to exit the cramped hallway.
"All right." Dumbledore said grimly. "Get the Weasleys down to the infirmary, you two, and then you can tell me what happened."
| Previous Chapter | Home | Next Chapter |
Draco and Ginny belong to JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Warner Bros and various other corporations. They are being used here without permission and/or affiliation with the above. None of the authors listed here make any profit from these stories.