Disclaimer: JK Rowling created this world. I just wreak havoc in it.

Chapter 5

Temper and Truth

~*~

“Gin! I’ve got the greatest news. But you have to swear - ”

“Where the hell were you!” Ginny interrupted before Colin could get another word out.

She had searched for Colin until her free period was over and then she headed to Ancient Runes, which was not a class she shared with Colin. She had spent the entire class period fuming about her meeting with Malfoy. She was going to kill him. When she couldn’t find Colin afterwards she decided she might have to maim her best friend. She found him in the common room just before dinner.

"What do you mean? I just got - ”

“I meant after lunch. The meeting with Malfoy, remember?”

“Oh, that. Well, that’s what I was going to tell you. I don’t need the information anymore. Blaise and I had a little talk this afternoon. He said he just got a camera for his birthday. He wants to know everything I know about photography! And he said Malfoy told him to ask me - ”

“Why that sneaky, Slytherin, son-of-a-” she started as it dawned on her exactly how Malfoy had gotten her alone.

“Blaise said Malfoy wanted to talk to you anyway. What was it he wanted to talk to you about? Was he insanely mad about that Edgecomb girl? I told Blaise what you had done and he thought it was an absolute riot!”

Colin was speaking excitedly and Ginny was beginning to wonder what all the two had discussed. Suddenly she wasn't sure she wanted to tell Colin what had transpired in the classroom. He seemed so excited about finally talking to Blaise and she was being a bit selfish. She should be asking Colin about his prospective boyfriend. But what was this about the Edgecomb girl?

“So you and Zabini are getting on well then?”

Colin grinned at her. She could see that he was blushing slightly.

“So far so good. Nobody else knows about him yet, so you have to swear not to say anything. The only other person who knows is Malfoy and Blaise said he just told Malfoy last night even though they've been friends for years! And the only reason he told Malfoy was because he thought Malfoy was coming out!”

“He thought Malfoy was gay? What made him think Malfoy was gay?” Ginny finally cracked a smile.

Colin was starting to laugh now. “That's what I asked him. He said that Malfoy was acting really strange last night after his little meeting with Edgecomb, said something about being 'unsatisfied' with her.”

“Oh god! She was the Ravenclaw he was meeting with after detention yesterday! After I -”

“Exactly! So that's when I had to tell Blaise what you'd done to him.

“Well, the prat deserved it.”

“Not that I don't agree with you there, but one still has to wonder -” Colin started with a mischievous grin.

“Don't even start, Colin Creevey. I don't even like the git. Why would I be jealous of his little snogging session with the Ravenclaw? He's not even a good kisser!” Oops. She shouldn't have said that. Oh how she wished she could grab those words and stuff them right back into her mouth. “N-not that I would know.”

It was too late; Colin had already caught her mistake and looked very interested.

“What's this about Malfoy's kissing ability, or lack thereof?”

She sighed. Why didn't she just keep her mouth shut? At least she had lied and said he was a bad kisser.

“While you were traipsing off with your new boyfriend, Malfoy decided to get me back for blackmailing him.”

“And what does this have to do with kissing Malfoy?”

“He took a picture of us kissing and then threatened to spread nasty rumors about me,” she said bitterly.

“Taking a page out of Ginevra Weasley’s Book of Blackmail, is he?” Colin said, obviously amused.

“It’s not funny.”

“And how, pray tell, did your lips end up on his in the first place?” he asked with a bemused smirk fixed upon his mouth.

“For your information,” she replied, not liking the look Colin was giving her, “he forced his lips on mine and he got a knee in the bollocks for it.”

“You didn’t!”

“I did.”

“Gin, that’s just so - so - evil! I almost feel sorry for Malfoy.” He was appalled but he was still laughing.

“You shouldn’t. He’s a sneaky, Slytherin git and he deserves everything that’s coming to him.”

“So I take it you aren’t going to call it even and let it go at that?”

“What do you mean ‘call it even’? We’re far from being even.”

“You’re blackmailing him, he’s blackmailing you. Wouldn’t you call that even? Actually, you’ve kneed him in the bollocks, and lets not forget yesterday’s potion incident. I think you’re two up on him.”

“I thought you were all for Malfoy getting what was coming to him. What happened to that? You helped me get that photo.”

“Yes, but...”

“But what?”

“Well, I thought the photo would be enough for the year. And maybe he isn’t all that bad. After all, Blaise is friends with him and, well, he can be an arrogant prig, but...”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing! Since when are you such a Malfoy supporter? Wait, this is because of Blaise, isn’t it? You’ve known him for, what, a whole hour? And you’re ready to take his word that Malfoy isn’t all that bad?” Ginny was losing her temper now. “If he’s such good friends with Malfoy then maybe you shouldn’t trust him. How do you know he spent his whole free period chatting it up with you because Malfoy sent him to keep you busy so you wouldn’t follow me to the classroom.”

“So you don't think it’s just possible that Blaise may actually like me? You think he's just another one of Malfoy's cronies doing his bidding? I don't think you're even giving him a chance. You were the one who told me to go for it with Blaise.” Colin was angry, but as always he remained calm.

Ginny was incensed. She couldn't believe her own best friend was lecturing her on giving a bloody Slytherin a chance! She knew she was being a bit irrational but she felt like Colin was being a traitor. Her fury with Malfoy was renewed and it was not helping that her best friend was practically siding with him.

“Fine,” she said as she turned on her heel and walked back through the portrait to go to dinner. She chose to ignore him as he called after her, but she was irate and didn't want to argue with Colin anymore. She picked a poor time to have an argument with him as she had wanted him to accompany her to get her wand and they both could throw a few hexes at him, but Colin didn't seem interested in aggravating Malfoy anymore now that he and Blaise had finally gotten together. It was now a personal vendetta. She didn't need Colin to help her. She was perfectly capable of handling Malfoy all on her own.

She sat quietly at dinner occasionally glaring at Colin who was sitting with his brother Dennis. She was sitting across from Hermione who was discussing something about Hagrid with Ron and Harry. As usual they were talking about something that apparently didn't involve her. She was glad for once because she wasn't in the mood to speak to anyone. Hermione had asked her briefly whether she had a row with Colin to which she replied with a sharp yes. Hermione had taken the hint not to ask, but gave her a sympathetic look. She was grateful at first but she noticed that Colin had also received a sympathetic look so she decided she wasn't speaking to Hermione for the rest of dinner.

She got up to leave dinner early and told Ron and Harry that she’d be a little late meeting them out on the pitch. They were so engrossed in their conversation that they barely acknowledge she had even spoken. Ron just nodded his head and said, “Later, Gin.”

“If I’m not out there in fifteen minutes you can find Malfoy and kill him. It’ll be his fault,” she decided to add as she walked away. She caught Ron’s look on bewilderment and noticed he was about to get up but Harry said something to catch his attention again. Malfoy had already left the Great Hall as he was nowhere to be seen. She went straight to the dungeons.

Malfoy was waiting, smirking as always. She wanted to tear the smirk right off his face.

“My wand, Malfoy.”

“In a hurry, are you?” he drawled.

“Yes. Ron and Harry are expecting me and if I don’t show up in twelve minutes they will come looking for you, so I’d suggest you hand over my wand. Now.”

He pulled the wand from an inside pocket of his robes but didn't hand it to her. He began twirling it expertly through his fingers. “And what would I get in return?”

“I’ll tell you what you’ll get if you don’t return it. I’ll - ”

“Am I interrupting anything, Mr. Malfoy? Miss Weasley?”

Professor Snape had just returned from dinner.

“Not at all, Professor. I was just returning Weasley’s wand. She left it behind in one of her classes.” Malfoy continued to smirk.

“How very kind of you, Mr. Malfoy,” he said though she was sure he didn’t really mean it. She was almost sure that he knew very well that Malfoy didn’t just happened across her wand and was being so generous as to return it.

“Right,” she said as she glared at Malfoy. He handed her the wand, the smirk still glued to his face. Snape then turned to her.

“Have you given any thought to what we discussed yesterday?”

“Yes. I would like to be in Advanced Potions.”

“I thought so. Very well, Miss Weasley. We shall see you on Tuesday then.” He nodded to her and then Malfoy and continued to his classroom. She too decided it would be best to leave before she was too tempted to hex Malfoy. She didn’t need another detention.

~*~*~



“What was that about Malfoy?” Ron had asked her when she reached the pitch. “We were just about to come looking for you.”

“It was nothing. Shall we practice now?” she said as she mounted Fred’s old Cleansweep.

“Are you sure, Gin? If he’s bugging you we’ll go hex him for you. I’m sure we can get some of the DA members together and we can turn him back into a slug,” suggested Harry. Ginny smiled slightly. It was nice to know they cared.

“I’m fine. Really,” she replied genuinely this time. “Now I’m ready for a go around the pitch.”

“So are you still trying for Chaser?” Harry said getting a Quaffle out.

“No. I’ ve decided to try for Beater.” Harry and Ron both gave her odd looks. She grabbed the club Harry had pulled out for her and then she kicked off. Harry mounted his Firebolt and started flying circles around her.

“Okay, let’s see what you can do. Keep the Bludger away from me.”

She nodded and Ron released one of the Bludgers. It zoomed straight toward Harry but she quickly cut it off. Her club connected directly with it and the Bludger went flying straight into the stands. Harry and Ron stared at her in astonishment as she repeated this over and over again. The force that she struck it with was immense, especially for someone with such a small frame. Her Cleansweep wasn’t nearly as graceful as Harry’s Firebolt, but she managed to outmaneuver the Bludger each and every time and she sent the ball flying straight to the same spot in the stands again and again. Harry motioned for them to land.

“That was amazing, Ginny!” Harry said his eyes wide with excitement.

“Bloody brilliant!” was Ron’s ecstatic comment. “You’re almost as good as the twins!”

“So do you think I might have a shot at one of the Beater positions?”

“Where did you learn all that?” Harry asked. “When we played over the summer you were practicing as a Chaser.”

She shrugged. “Sometimes Fred and George practiced a bit with me over the weekends during the summer holidays.” She failed to mention that it helped imagining that the Bludger was Malfoy’s head and the spot she was aiming at in the stands was where she imagined his body to be.

~*~*~


Draco was impressed. Again. The little Weasel never ceased to amaze him. She was going to be in Advanced Potions and she hadn’t even taken her OWLs yet! Somehow she had impressed Snape. Advanced Potions students were selected strictly by Professor Snape. Only students he felt showed true potential and talent with potions were invited to the class. Most students didn’t even know it existed, as it wasn’t part of the normal curriculum. Not that many cared anyway.

Draco, of course, had been invited to take the class after he had received an Outstanding on his OWL. Like all advanced classes, it started a week into term in order to allow schedule changes to be made and to determine when would be the best time for the few who were invited to the class to take it.

He wondered exactly how she managed it seeing as how she had been in detention just last night for not making the Draught of Peace correctly. Surely Snape wouldn’t allow her into Advanced Potions if she weren’t capable of creating the types of advanced concoctions they would be producing.

He needed to know more about her.

He had resigned to the fact that he found her fascinating. He knew he should still be furious with her for the photo and for the knee to the groin. She obviously detested him. It made absolutely no sense for him to be thinking so much about the volatile redhead.

She wasn’t the most gorgeous girl at Hogwart’s, but she was attractive enough. She didn’t seem to wear layers upon layers of cosmetics nor did she seem to use blemish-removing charms to try to make her freckles disappear as many girls had a tendency to do. Her beauty was subtle but natural. But her looks weren’t the only reason so many boys at Hogwart’s found her so attractive. It was that she had an air of confidence about her. If she was insecure at all she hid it well.

He wondered why Potter hadn’t noticed her. He knew Potter had been busy ogling Cho Chang, who had an exotic beauty. But from Draco’s experience she wasn’t much of a kisser (then again, suddenly nobody was much of a kisser since this afternoon) and she was a bit prudish. He wondered if Potter had ever kissed Ginevra Weasley. He felt jealous at the thought, which confirmed the fact that he might actually have feelings for the littlest Weasel.

He decided that he would take his Headhealer’s advice and accept those feelings. For years his father had taught him to deny his feelings. Well, bully to his father! He liked her. There, he admitted it. At least to himself. The problem now was going to be getting her to like him. Or maybe it would be better just to keep it to himself. Maybe his Headhealer’s advice wasn’t so good. Denial was much easier.
~*~*~
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