Stupid Analogies
Harry, still floating in the air, looked on as Draco ran after Ginny and was stopped by her brothers. He looked down at his hands. Gryffindor had won, but he had lost—in more ways than one. He looked farther (toward the castle) and saw Ginny tearing through the grounds toward the castle.
Harry began to shake his head and took a deep sigh. He began to head to the ground slowly, all the while asking himself just why he was helping a Malfoy.
*****
Ginny ran toward the castle in tears. She didn’t usually cry, but in the past twenty-four hours alone, she’d cried at least three times. With six older brothers, you’d think she would have learned how to simply reign in tears.
Once she entered the castle, she contemplated whether she should run up to her Gryffindor tower and lock herself in her dorm, or go to the founders and ask for advice.
She began to run toward the Astronomy Tower.
*****
“Hello, Malfoy!” The twins said in unison, too cheerful to be real.
Draco sneered. “Good-bye Weasleys.” He moved to walk right past them, but was grabbed by Charlie.
“Now, now, Malfoy. What would your mother say if she learned of your rudeness?” Charlie queried.
“Peasants, Weasley, are fair game,” Draco drawled.
“Peasants, are we?” Percy raised a brow.
“Lower,” Draco leered and shrugged out of Charlie’s grasp. He began to turn around to make his way toward the castle, but halted as Ron shot him a question.
“Well then, if we, Weasleys, are lower than peasants, would you mind explaining to me, what is it you find so special about the baby Weasley?” Ron’s words were dripping with disdain.
Draco turned slowly to face Ron. He stalked back toward the semi circle that the Weasleys had formed and said deathly quiet and all too seriously, “She won’t be a Weasley for much longer.”
When Draco’s words clicked, Ron heaved his right fist toward Draco’s left cheek. Thanks to his quick seeker reflexes, however, Draco caught Ron’s fist just before it made contact.
“You won’t live to see the day,” Ron spat furiously. “I’d rather die than have my sister be hurt by a Malfoy.” Ron took what looked like a calm step back. Draco was very surprised by this and thus, he was caught off guard when Ron went to tackle him to the ground. Ron had Draco on his back, throwing his best punches at him.
“That was – the most dirty – strategic bullshit – I have – ever – seen,” Ron said, in between punches.
Draco had managed to throw one good punch at Ron before the other Weasley boys dragged their brother off him.
Draco stood. He brought a hand up to the corner of his mouth. When he drew it away, it was stained with blood. He looked up to glare at Ron. “Strategic bullshit?”
“Oh, please. We know that you’re using Ginny for your own sick purposes. To ‘get ahead of the game’ I guess you could say,” Percy spat out, in a mixture of disgust and hatred.
“What in—” Draco wasn’t able to finish. The twins had decided at that moment to have their go at him.
They had thrown a good amount of well placed punches, before Bill and Harry stepped in. They each took a hold of a twin and yanked them off Draco.
Both of Draco’s eyes were turning a bit purple and his left cheek was already beginning to swell.
Bill tuned angrily to look at Charlie. “You just stood there, and let them do this?” He yelled at his younger brother.
“Oh shut up, Bill. You sound like mum,” Charlie replied warily. “Besides, he deserved it.”
“Well, when Ginny sees her plum-faced boyfriend, you’ll be the one to explain what happened,” Bill said angrily to Charlie.
Bill turned to look down at Draco’s beaten face. He found he couldn’t though, because Harry was already bent over him. Bill thought for a second that maybe Harry would want to get a piece of Draco for himself and start to throw punches. He sighed when Harry merely turned to comment on his brothers’ handiwork. “You really did a number on him.”
There was a loud gasp, and all the boys turned just in time to see Pansy Parkinson screech.
*****
Ginny walked into the room, closing the door behind her. She looked around the room, and realised only one founder was present in his portrait. Godric Gryffindor looked down at Ginny with a mixture of gentleness and confusion.
“Arthur’s youngest?” He raised a brow in Ginny’s direction.
“Yes, sir. I am.”
“Only daughter?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you love your father?”
“Yes, sir. I do very much.”
“Do you love your house?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then… why.”
“Excuse me, sir?” Ginny asked, knowing perfectly well what he was asking.
The man snorted. He knew she knew. “Why are you willing to risk your family and friends, for this boy?”
Ginny looked down at her hands. “I don’t know, sir. I was hoping you could help me with that.”
A knowing spark flashed over the founder’s eyes. “Are you not worried about how his family is going to feel, how they are going to react?”
“Of course I do. I just…” Ginny looked down at her feet hopelessly.
“Miss Weasley, let me tell you a story.” Gryffindor gestured for Ginny to sit down on the Ravenclaw sofa. She nodded and obeyed.
“When the school was first built, my fellow founders and I were very, very close. Salazar and I used to be the best of friends and so were Helga and Rowena. But as you have already seen, only Helga and Rowena were able to maintain that friendship.” Gryffindor paused, and Ginny looked up at him expectantly.
“Miss Weasley, do you know why Salazar and I grew apart?”
“Because of his growing evil ambitions,” Ginny stated, as if it were obvious.
“That may have contributed to his fleeing of the castle, yes. I was referring to what exactly caused the Slytherin – Gryffindor rivalry. Do you know what that was?
Ginny thought a bit before she answered, “I don’t, sir.”
“No one really does. Only a select few, my fellow founders, and I myself know. So I would greatly appreciate it, if you would try your best to keep it that way.” He raised a brow in Ginny’s direction.
“I won’t tell a soul, sir.”
Gryffindor accepted this with a curt nod. “Many people don’t know this, but Salazar had a sister. She was lovely, smart and very capable with a wand. She had fallen in love with a half-blood wizard. Knowing how her brother would react, she tried to conceal her affair from him, and I must say she did a rather good job for the three years it lasted. Inevitably, however, Salazar did find out. He was angered, not only because of his sister’s wizard’s impurity, but mainly because he had had other plans for his sister.”
Gryffindor took a deep breath before he continued. “Purity was very important to Salazar, so much, in fact, that it came near the point of obsession. He wanted to marry his sister. To begin to breed, what he thought, would be the purest line in the world. His sister would have nothing of it. She absolutely refused to marry him; she didn’t love him. Outraged, Salazar killed his sister’s lover in front of her eyes.”
Ginny’s eyes widened.
“She wanted to die, or at least that was what she told me hundreds of times.”
“Told you?” Ginny queried softly.
“Yes, told me. You see, after her lover’s death, Salazar’s sister had nearly committed suicide at their family’s castle. Salazar, though not many people knew it, loved his sister dearly. Their parents had died when they were young. She was all he had. He moved her to Hogwarts, in the hopes of keeping her alive and safe, and maybe even gaining her favour to wed. She was still very angry with her brother, so Salazar had arranged her living quarters at my wing of the castle. He had thought that since he couldn’t be close to keep her safe, at least I would.” Gryffindor took a long pause. It was so long, in fact, that Ginny had thought he had finished. Just as Ginny was about to urge him to continue, he began to continue on his own. “She stayed in the castle for four years. And to make a long story much, much shorter, we fell in love sometime during those four years.”
Ginny saw regret flicker across the Gryffindor’s eyes. “But—”
“But we never acted upon it, never said it. At least, I never allowed us to. She came to me one night, and begged me to kiss her. I refused. The following week, she married her brother.” There was another long pause. “She had just finished giving birth to her fourth son, and was suffering from complications in birth. After everything that could be done was over, a painful death was evident. Salazar sat by her side, hand clasped within hand, the entire time. When she neared her death, Salazar told her that he loved her for the first time since they were children.” Gryffindor closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “She stared up at him and gave him a sad smile. She used her free hand to cup his cheek and said, ‘I love him.’ She pointed toward the doorway, where I was standing, and then she died.”
Ginny was speechless.
“Salazar was furious.”
“I would think so,” Ginny said under her breath.
Gryffindor opened his eyes and smiled sadly at Ginny. “That isn’t the point, though.” He took another deep breath. “I loved her, but was unwilling to act upon it. Unwilling, because I was scared of her brother. She died leaving me forever wondering ‘what if’. She took my best friend away as well.”
“I still don’t understand, sir.” Ginny couldn’t fully grasp the point of his story.
“The point is, Miss Weasley, that the heart and brain have and forever will be one, despite what people say and what stupid analogies they try to come up with. The question at hand is if your brain is smart enough to realise that. Love is rash, true. But rationality is often lonely.”
*****
Parkinson’s screech had alerted everyone, including all of the teachers. Madam Hootch reached the scene first; McGonagall arrived not soon after. As soon as she took in the scene before her, McGonagall began to scold the Weasleys and Harry as if there were no tomorrow. Ron and Harry got themselves a month’s worth of detentions each, and a possibility of missing the Ball. The other boys would be sent to a meeting with the Headmaster. Madam Pomfrey conjured up a floating stretcher as soon as she arrived on the scene. With one loud command, Professor McGonagall cleared a path for Draco’s body to float alongside the nurse up to the hospital wing. The Deputy Headmistress rubbed her temples. She hadn’t even bothered to ask just exactly why she had been looking at a swollen and purple-faced Draco Malfoy. After witnessing the little scene between Draco and Ginny during the match, she found that she didn’t want to know.
*****
After their little incident with Malfoy, Professor Dumbledore had no choice but to ask Bill, Charlie, Percy, and the twins to end their stay at the castle.
Ron, however, was doing quite a fine job of keeping his sister away from Malfoy, all on his own. Or so it seemed. He had made sure that someone was always around her, watching her. Ron would escort Ginny to breakfast and accompany her back to the common room after dinner. He sat with her at lunch and spent most of his weekends with her. Forgetting about the incident at the beginning of Term Feast, Ron had arranged for Collin Creevey to keep an eye on Ginny during, and in between classes. When Ron and Hermione would spend time together, Harry would be appointed to watch her. Harry and Ron would also rotate spending nights in the common room, to make sure Ginny wouldn’t sneak out.
Only a few days until the Halloween Ball, Ginny began to send owls to Draco; they agreed to not see each other until that night. They were going together, whether Ron liked it or not.
Harry, still floating in the air, looked on as Draco ran after Ginny and was stopped by her brothers. He looked down at his hands. Gryffindor had won, but he had lost—in more ways than one. He looked farther (toward the castle) and saw Ginny tearing through the grounds toward the castle.
Harry began to shake his head and took a deep sigh. He began to head to the ground slowly, all the while asking himself just why he was helping a Malfoy.
*****
Ginny ran toward the castle in tears. She didn’t usually cry, but in the past twenty-four hours alone, she’d cried at least three times. With six older brothers, you’d think she would have learned how to simply reign in tears.
Once she entered the castle, she contemplated whether she should run up to her Gryffindor tower and lock herself in her dorm, or go to the founders and ask for advice.
She began to run toward the Astronomy Tower.
*****
“Hello, Malfoy!” The twins said in unison, too cheerful to be real.
Draco sneered. “Good-bye Weasleys.” He moved to walk right past them, but was grabbed by Charlie.
“Now, now, Malfoy. What would your mother say if she learned of your rudeness?” Charlie queried.
“Peasants, Weasley, are fair game,” Draco drawled.
“Peasants, are we?” Percy raised a brow.
“Lower,” Draco leered and shrugged out of Charlie’s grasp. He began to turn around to make his way toward the castle, but halted as Ron shot him a question.
“Well then, if we, Weasleys, are lower than peasants, would you mind explaining to me, what is it you find so special about the baby Weasley?” Ron’s words were dripping with disdain.
Draco turned slowly to face Ron. He stalked back toward the semi circle that the Weasleys had formed and said deathly quiet and all too seriously, “She won’t be a Weasley for much longer.”
When Draco’s words clicked, Ron heaved his right fist toward Draco’s left cheek. Thanks to his quick seeker reflexes, however, Draco caught Ron’s fist just before it made contact.
“You won’t live to see the day,” Ron spat furiously. “I’d rather die than have my sister be hurt by a Malfoy.” Ron took what looked like a calm step back. Draco was very surprised by this and thus, he was caught off guard when Ron went to tackle him to the ground. Ron had Draco on his back, throwing his best punches at him.
“That was – the most dirty – strategic bullshit – I have – ever – seen,” Ron said, in between punches.
Draco had managed to throw one good punch at Ron before the other Weasley boys dragged their brother off him.
Draco stood. He brought a hand up to the corner of his mouth. When he drew it away, it was stained with blood. He looked up to glare at Ron. “Strategic bullshit?”
“Oh, please. We know that you’re using Ginny for your own sick purposes. To ‘get ahead of the game’ I guess you could say,” Percy spat out, in a mixture of disgust and hatred.
“What in—” Draco wasn’t able to finish. The twins had decided at that moment to have their go at him.
They had thrown a good amount of well placed punches, before Bill and Harry stepped in. They each took a hold of a twin and yanked them off Draco.
Both of Draco’s eyes were turning a bit purple and his left cheek was already beginning to swell.
Bill tuned angrily to look at Charlie. “You just stood there, and let them do this?” He yelled at his younger brother.
“Oh shut up, Bill. You sound like mum,” Charlie replied warily. “Besides, he deserved it.”
“Well, when Ginny sees her plum-faced boyfriend, you’ll be the one to explain what happened,” Bill said angrily to Charlie.
Bill turned to look down at Draco’s beaten face. He found he couldn’t though, because Harry was already bent over him. Bill thought for a second that maybe Harry would want to get a piece of Draco for himself and start to throw punches. He sighed when Harry merely turned to comment on his brothers’ handiwork. “You really did a number on him.”
There was a loud gasp, and all the boys turned just in time to see Pansy Parkinson screech.
*****
Ginny walked into the room, closing the door behind her. She looked around the room, and realised only one founder was present in his portrait. Godric Gryffindor looked down at Ginny with a mixture of gentleness and confusion.
“Arthur’s youngest?” He raised a brow in Ginny’s direction.
“Yes, sir. I am.”
“Only daughter?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you love your father?”
“Yes, sir. I do very much.”
“Do you love your house?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then… why.”
“Excuse me, sir?” Ginny asked, knowing perfectly well what he was asking.
The man snorted. He knew she knew. “Why are you willing to risk your family and friends, for this boy?”
Ginny looked down at her hands. “I don’t know, sir. I was hoping you could help me with that.”
A knowing spark flashed over the founder’s eyes. “Are you not worried about how his family is going to feel, how they are going to react?”
“Of course I do. I just…” Ginny looked down at her feet hopelessly.
“Miss Weasley, let me tell you a story.” Gryffindor gestured for Ginny to sit down on the Ravenclaw sofa. She nodded and obeyed.
“When the school was first built, my fellow founders and I were very, very close. Salazar and I used to be the best of friends and so were Helga and Rowena. But as you have already seen, only Helga and Rowena were able to maintain that friendship.” Gryffindor paused, and Ginny looked up at him expectantly.
“Miss Weasley, do you know why Salazar and I grew apart?”
“Because of his growing evil ambitions,” Ginny stated, as if it were obvious.
“That may have contributed to his fleeing of the castle, yes. I was referring to what exactly caused the Slytherin – Gryffindor rivalry. Do you know what that was?
Ginny thought a bit before she answered, “I don’t, sir.”
“No one really does. Only a select few, my fellow founders, and I myself know. So I would greatly appreciate it, if you would try your best to keep it that way.” He raised a brow in Ginny’s direction.
“I won’t tell a soul, sir.”
Gryffindor accepted this with a curt nod. “Many people don’t know this, but Salazar had a sister. She was lovely, smart and very capable with a wand. She had fallen in love with a half-blood wizard. Knowing how her brother would react, she tried to conceal her affair from him, and I must say she did a rather good job for the three years it lasted. Inevitably, however, Salazar did find out. He was angered, not only because of his sister’s wizard’s impurity, but mainly because he had had other plans for his sister.”
Gryffindor took a deep breath before he continued. “Purity was very important to Salazar, so much, in fact, that it came near the point of obsession. He wanted to marry his sister. To begin to breed, what he thought, would be the purest line in the world. His sister would have nothing of it. She absolutely refused to marry him; she didn’t love him. Outraged, Salazar killed his sister’s lover in front of her eyes.”
Ginny’s eyes widened.
“She wanted to die, or at least that was what she told me hundreds of times.”
“Told you?” Ginny queried softly.
“Yes, told me. You see, after her lover’s death, Salazar’s sister had nearly committed suicide at their family’s castle. Salazar, though not many people knew it, loved his sister dearly. Their parents had died when they were young. She was all he had. He moved her to Hogwarts, in the hopes of keeping her alive and safe, and maybe even gaining her favour to wed. She was still very angry with her brother, so Salazar had arranged her living quarters at my wing of the castle. He had thought that since he couldn’t be close to keep her safe, at least I would.” Gryffindor took a long pause. It was so long, in fact, that Ginny had thought he had finished. Just as Ginny was about to urge him to continue, he began to continue on his own. “She stayed in the castle for four years. And to make a long story much, much shorter, we fell in love sometime during those four years.”
Ginny saw regret flicker across the Gryffindor’s eyes. “But—”
“But we never acted upon it, never said it. At least, I never allowed us to. She came to me one night, and begged me to kiss her. I refused. The following week, she married her brother.” There was another long pause. “She had just finished giving birth to her fourth son, and was suffering from complications in birth. After everything that could be done was over, a painful death was evident. Salazar sat by her side, hand clasped within hand, the entire time. When she neared her death, Salazar told her that he loved her for the first time since they were children.” Gryffindor closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “She stared up at him and gave him a sad smile. She used her free hand to cup his cheek and said, ‘I love him.’ She pointed toward the doorway, where I was standing, and then she died.”
Ginny was speechless.
“Salazar was furious.”
“I would think so,” Ginny said under her breath.
Gryffindor opened his eyes and smiled sadly at Ginny. “That isn’t the point, though.” He took another deep breath. “I loved her, but was unwilling to act upon it. Unwilling, because I was scared of her brother. She died leaving me forever wondering ‘what if’. She took my best friend away as well.”
“I still don’t understand, sir.” Ginny couldn’t fully grasp the point of his story.
“The point is, Miss Weasley, that the heart and brain have and forever will be one, despite what people say and what stupid analogies they try to come up with. The question at hand is if your brain is smart enough to realise that. Love is rash, true. But rationality is often lonely.”
*****
Parkinson’s screech had alerted everyone, including all of the teachers. Madam Hootch reached the scene first; McGonagall arrived not soon after. As soon as she took in the scene before her, McGonagall began to scold the Weasleys and Harry as if there were no tomorrow. Ron and Harry got themselves a month’s worth of detentions each, and a possibility of missing the Ball. The other boys would be sent to a meeting with the Headmaster. Madam Pomfrey conjured up a floating stretcher as soon as she arrived on the scene. With one loud command, Professor McGonagall cleared a path for Draco’s body to float alongside the nurse up to the hospital wing. The Deputy Headmistress rubbed her temples. She hadn’t even bothered to ask just exactly why she had been looking at a swollen and purple-faced Draco Malfoy. After witnessing the little scene between Draco and Ginny during the match, she found that she didn’t want to know.
*****
After their little incident with Malfoy, Professor Dumbledore had no choice but to ask Bill, Charlie, Percy, and the twins to end their stay at the castle.
Ron, however, was doing quite a fine job of keeping his sister away from Malfoy, all on his own. Or so it seemed. He had made sure that someone was always around her, watching her. Ron would escort Ginny to breakfast and accompany her back to the common room after dinner. He sat with her at lunch and spent most of his weekends with her. Forgetting about the incident at the beginning of Term Feast, Ron had arranged for Collin Creevey to keep an eye on Ginny during, and in between classes. When Ron and Hermione would spend time together, Harry would be appointed to watch her. Harry and Ron would also rotate spending nights in the common room, to make sure Ginny wouldn’t sneak out.
Only a few days until the Halloween Ball, Ginny began to send owls to Draco; they agreed to not see each other until that night. They were going together, whether Ron liked it or not.
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