It started raining just as Ginny walked out of the castle doors and made her way towards the greenhouses. It wasn’t a harsh rain, but it was bad enough to soak through the thin, hand-me-down robes she was wearing at the moment. So when she entered the greenhouses, every eye in the class naturally wandered over to her.
“Now that Miss Weasley has finally decided to join us, we can begin,” Professor Sprout stated as Colin motioned for Ginny to sit next to him. She nodded in acknowledgment of the Professor’s comment and moved over to the indicated spot.
“Now, seeing as your O.W.L exams will start in less than a month, I hope I don’t have to remind you of their importance. They won’t only affect your future, but…” Ginny stopped listening to the Professor. She had given the same lecture about the importance of O.W.Ls right before every class of the last semester. Instead, Ginny slowly took out the note from Draco and opened it in her lap. She checked that Colin and the Hufflepuff next to her were paying close attention to Sprout’s words, then quickly skimmed through the letter:
I will meet you at the usual place at eight o’clock. Hope you like the jewellery.
-D
The note was brief, but she was used to that. Ginny crumbled the note and hid it in her pocket, returning her attention to the Professor.
“… and so, today we will start reviewing first year. Who can tell me what this is?” Professor Sprout held up an ugly looking plant that Ginny correctly recognized as belladonna. The lesson dragged on and Ginny ended up working with Colin as usual. He was one of few people in her grade that she spent any time with, and along with Luna Lovegood, he was nearly a best friend.
“So how come you were late?” he asked her casually when they were divided into pairs to identify different plants that were spread out around the greenhouse.
“I forgot something, so I had to return and get it,” Ginny replied slowly, not taking her eyes off the plant in front of her.
“Eh. You’re lucky it’s Sprout. Any other professor would take points off,” Colin commented.
“Yeah, I guess,” Ginny nodded absently.
“So I heard about you and Harry…” The boy’s obsession with the Great Harry Potter had decreased over past five years, but it was definitely still there.
“Yeah, and no, I won’t get you an autograph,” Ginny teased the now-blushing Colin.
“I wasn’t going to ask you to get me one,” he tried to convince her.
“Keep telling yourself that, and you might believe it one day.” Ginny grinned and wrote another plant down on the list.
“Well, whatever. So do you like him?” Colin had a bad habit of getting right to the point when he wanted to know something.
“Yeah,” Ginny answered without thinking. “I mean…” She hesitated in her answer. Ginny did like Harry - as a brother and a friend- but she had seen too many of his ‘cracking under the pressure’ moments to still admire him. Besides, he didn’t hold that kind of attraction to her anymore.
“That’s great!” Colin exclaimed. “Harry deserves a great girl like you, Ginny.” He squished her in a big hug, right before the bell rang. Ginny had to hurry to get to her next lesson: Potions.
Gryffindors had Potions with Ravenclaws, right after the sixth years. It was something that Ginny has always looked forward to, partly because she knew she would get to see Draco in passing, and partly because Potions was her strong subject. But now, when she walked down the corridor towards the dungeons, she saw a black haired boy rushing towards her instead of a blond one. The latter was strolling towards them as well, and to Ginny he seemed to be walking deliberately. However, she had to turn her attention to the Trio before her.
“Hey, Gin,” The Boy Who Sucked At Potions said as he pulled her into a hug. Ginny threw a bewildered look at Draco, silently asking him for help. It was about time, because Harry decided to plant a soggy kiss on her cheek. He was going for her mouth, but she managed to get out of the way in time.
“Potter, stop eating the little weasel’s face off,” Draco ordered. The Boy Who Was Blushing At The Moment let go of Ginny, who mouthed ‘thank you’ to Draco before turning back to the Trio.
“What I do with my girlfriend is none of your business, Malfoy,” Harry growled.
“I believe it is,” Draco said coolly with a dangerous light in his eyes. “You almost made me lose my breakfast. The weasel girl and Potter making out? Is there a Dementor nearby or something?” Ginny almost smiled at his cheeky remarks. She knew he was jealous.
“Bugger off, Malfoy,” Hermione joined in weakly. Inside, Ginny suspected that she enjoyed their snapping just as much as she did.
“Make me, Granger,” Draco challenged as the bell rang.
“Maybe some other time,” Hermione said, tugging on Ron and Harry. “Come on guys, let’s go. We’re already late.” And they left the hallway empty.
“I really didn’t want to see that,” Draco remarked, taking Ginny’s books and walking her towards the dungeons. He had a free period, so he could afford to linger behind and spend at least some time with her.
“I’m sorry.” Ginny’s remorse was obvious from her voice. “He came out of nowhere and then he was all over me. Are you okay?” she asked worriedly. Draco was still glaring at the stone-paved floor as the walked.
“Yeah, I just wish we could tell everyone that we’re together, so Potter wouldn’t touch you. And then I wouldn’t have to hang out with Parkinson and the likes of her.” They had been over this so many times, but it always ended with the same resolution: there was no way they could tell.
“I wish we could, Draco, I wish we could.” Ginny sighed. “But if you don’t want to hang out with Parkinson, you could always become a priest,” she said with a grin.
“No, thanks,” Draco said dryly. “But you could tell Potter that you have someone else.”
“Yup, and when he asks, I shall tell him who so he can tell all my brothers and whoever else is protective of me so they can get together and go on a killing spree. Great idea, my dear ferret,” Ginny said, scooping her books into her arms. She stood on her tiptoes to reach Draco’s mouth and gave him a quick kiss. Sometimes she thought that he never stopped growing.
“…eight…” Draco breathed out as Ginny rushed towards her Potions classroom. He stood in the corridor and watched the door she disappeared behind for a long time before he went to the Room of Requirement. He needed to work on his ‘project’.
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“Late again, Ms. Weasley," Professor Slughorn said as Ginny entered the Potions classrooms. “Make sure it does not happen next time.” This was exactly what Ginny expected from the Potion master, and so she took her seat next to Luna without a word.
“Today we will brew Draught of Peace. It's not an easy potion, but I don't doubt your success.” Slughorn flicked his wand and the ingredients appeared on the board.
Ginny took out a new cauldron that Fred and George bought her when they started their joke store, because they knew about how much she enjoyed brewing potions. She carefully measured out the ingredients as the directions indicated, and tried not to think about Harry. She knew that what she was doing was wrong, and that she should not use him like that, but she made a mistake when she let him kiss her. If she broke up with him now, it would definitely hurt his feelings and it would arouse more questions than at the beginning, and she realized that she could only go on like this for so long before something snapped. Her attention was claimed by her potion again, when the liquid bubbled and turned an ugly shade of pink instead of bright green which it was supposed to turn.
She looked around to see Slughorn watching her with raised eyebrows - obviously he expected her to do better. Ginny quickly added a few ingredients that should, in theory, turn the potion the right colour, and forced her conscience to shut up about the Boy Who Was Obsessing About Her Now.
Ginny was rushing through the hallways; she got so caught up in her research about Time-Turners that she almost forgot about her date with Draco. Almost. As if she could ever miss out on an opportunity to spend some time with him. Ginny took out a hand mirror to check herself in before entering the Room of Requirement, but the door opened, and smiling, Draco pulled her in.
“You don’t need that,” he said, looking down at the pocket mirror in her hands.
“Thank you.” Ginny blushed, not sure what to say.
“So how was your day?” He asked as they walked over to the sofa. Ginny seated herself in Draco’s lap, and he Accio’d two Butterbeers.
“Bad,” she answered, taking a sip from her bottle.
“Did Potter do something?” Draco’s eyes darkened, and so Ginny said quickly:
“Of course not, you know what I told him.” He tightened his grip around her waist protectively, and his eyes did not light up for a while. “I am sorry, Draco,” Ginny said. “I don’t want to hurt him, but I don’t know how to get out of it now.”
“You COULD just tell him that you don’t like him anymore…” He softened a little bit, but his voice was still rather harsh.
“You know that I can’t. We have been over this,” Ginny answered tiredly. “So how is your ‘project’ going?” His dark and secret mission had never failed to get his mind off the topic, and it seemed to work again.
“I don’t know if I can get it finished.” Draco sighed. “It’s so dangerous. I wish Dumbledore would agree with Snape on this… I always thought that he put the well being of his students first, and now I just don’t know.”
“In war, you have to take risks.” Dumbledore had said that to Draco at the beginning of the year, and he repeated it to Ginny, who reminded him of this very same quote every so often.
“I know, I know.” Draco shook his head impatiently. “But what if it does not work? What if he kills Mother? Or what if it does work and someone else gets hurt?” Ginny knew that the real Draco was not the evil spoiled brat everyone thought him to be. Well,spoiled - yes, brat - yes; but no, he definitely did not want to kill his classmates.
“Don’t worry, your mother will be alright once we fix that damned cabinet, and he promised to let her go right away, so Dumbledore can hide her. And once they are in school, there are going to be Order members around to capture them. There is no risk in it.” Ginny tried to soothe him. She knew that there was a risk, and a quite large one in her opinion, but Draco needed someone to tell him that it would be okay, and Moaning Myrtle simply was not reassuring enough.
“Yeah, well I don’t know how to fix it.” Draco said in reply and took a sip from the bottle.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, we will figure out something. I don’t see why Dumbledore doesn’t fix it himself if he thinks it’s so important…” Ginny cuddled closer to him, attempting to lighten up his gloomy mood.
“He has more important things to do.” Draco placed his Butterbeer on the floor and put his other arm around Ginny, pulling her even closer. “Besides, the Dark Lord would find out if I got help from someone.” Ginny could feel him shudder under her.
“We’ll figure it out,” she said and placed a kiss on his cheek. “For now, let’s worry about much more trivial things.”
“Like?” Draco asked her as he traced her collar bone with his lips and pulled her into a kiss.
“Harry,” Ginny answered, not missing the sinful tone of his voice.
“Easy. You dump him. And we tell everyone that we are together and that I am not a Death Eater and that I like to play ping pong,” Draco said, putting butterfly kisses all over her neck.
“You like to play ping pong?” Ginny asked, pulling away from him to take a closer look at his face.
“It’s a good game.” Ginny just rolled her eyes at his retort, as a ping pong table appeared in the room.
“Have you ever played?” Draco asked Ginny, motioning to the ping pong table.
“A couple times,” Ginny replied. She was rather familiar with the game due to her father’s obsession with Muggles, and so she expected to win easily. However, when they started to play, both exceeded each other’s expectations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ginny climbed through the portrait hole after a nice and long snogging session with Draco. Surprisingly they had tied at ping pong, much to their annoyance, but as the clock showed larger and larger numbers, they decided to go to bed.
Hermione was sitting in an armchair near the fire alone, facing away from the portrait hole. She was mumbling to herself, and she seemed very distraught to Ginny, who crept behind her without making a sound and saw the older girl holding the Time-Turner and looking at it deliberately. Hermione obviously made her decision, for she turned the Time-Turner a couple times, and disappeared almost instantly. At that moment, Ginny seized her chance. She grabbed on the golden chain that held Hermione’s Time-Turner and disappeared along with Hermione.
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When the uncomfortable time travel stopped, Ginny found herself next to a very angry Hermione, who immediately pulled her into a broom closet.
“Ginevra Molly Weasley!” Hermione bellowed after placing silencing charms on the room, “What have you done?!”
And then someone opened the door.
“Now that Miss Weasley has finally decided to join us, we can begin,” Professor Sprout stated as Colin motioned for Ginny to sit next to him. She nodded in acknowledgment of the Professor’s comment and moved over to the indicated spot.
“Now, seeing as your O.W.L exams will start in less than a month, I hope I don’t have to remind you of their importance. They won’t only affect your future, but…” Ginny stopped listening to the Professor. She had given the same lecture about the importance of O.W.Ls right before every class of the last semester. Instead, Ginny slowly took out the note from Draco and opened it in her lap. She checked that Colin and the Hufflepuff next to her were paying close attention to Sprout’s words, then quickly skimmed through the letter:
I will meet you at the usual place at eight o’clock. Hope you like the jewellery.
-D
The note was brief, but she was used to that. Ginny crumbled the note and hid it in her pocket, returning her attention to the Professor.
“… and so, today we will start reviewing first year. Who can tell me what this is?” Professor Sprout held up an ugly looking plant that Ginny correctly recognized as belladonna. The lesson dragged on and Ginny ended up working with Colin as usual. He was one of few people in her grade that she spent any time with, and along with Luna Lovegood, he was nearly a best friend.
“So how come you were late?” he asked her casually when they were divided into pairs to identify different plants that were spread out around the greenhouse.
“I forgot something, so I had to return and get it,” Ginny replied slowly, not taking her eyes off the plant in front of her.
“Eh. You’re lucky it’s Sprout. Any other professor would take points off,” Colin commented.
“Yeah, I guess,” Ginny nodded absently.
“So I heard about you and Harry…” The boy’s obsession with the Great Harry Potter had decreased over past five years, but it was definitely still there.
“Yeah, and no, I won’t get you an autograph,” Ginny teased the now-blushing Colin.
“I wasn’t going to ask you to get me one,” he tried to convince her.
“Keep telling yourself that, and you might believe it one day.” Ginny grinned and wrote another plant down on the list.
“Well, whatever. So do you like him?” Colin had a bad habit of getting right to the point when he wanted to know something.
“Yeah,” Ginny answered without thinking. “I mean…” She hesitated in her answer. Ginny did like Harry - as a brother and a friend- but she had seen too many of his ‘cracking under the pressure’ moments to still admire him. Besides, he didn’t hold that kind of attraction to her anymore.
“That’s great!” Colin exclaimed. “Harry deserves a great girl like you, Ginny.” He squished her in a big hug, right before the bell rang. Ginny had to hurry to get to her next lesson: Potions.
Gryffindors had Potions with Ravenclaws, right after the sixth years. It was something that Ginny has always looked forward to, partly because she knew she would get to see Draco in passing, and partly because Potions was her strong subject. But now, when she walked down the corridor towards the dungeons, she saw a black haired boy rushing towards her instead of a blond one. The latter was strolling towards them as well, and to Ginny he seemed to be walking deliberately. However, she had to turn her attention to the Trio before her.
“Hey, Gin,” The Boy Who Sucked At Potions said as he pulled her into a hug. Ginny threw a bewildered look at Draco, silently asking him for help. It was about time, because Harry decided to plant a soggy kiss on her cheek. He was going for her mouth, but she managed to get out of the way in time.
“Potter, stop eating the little weasel’s face off,” Draco ordered. The Boy Who Was Blushing At The Moment let go of Ginny, who mouthed ‘thank you’ to Draco before turning back to the Trio.
“What I do with my girlfriend is none of your business, Malfoy,” Harry growled.
“I believe it is,” Draco said coolly with a dangerous light in his eyes. “You almost made me lose my breakfast. The weasel girl and Potter making out? Is there a Dementor nearby or something?” Ginny almost smiled at his cheeky remarks. She knew he was jealous.
“Bugger off, Malfoy,” Hermione joined in weakly. Inside, Ginny suspected that she enjoyed their snapping just as much as she did.
“Make me, Granger,” Draco challenged as the bell rang.
“Maybe some other time,” Hermione said, tugging on Ron and Harry. “Come on guys, let’s go. We’re already late.” And they left the hallway empty.
“I really didn’t want to see that,” Draco remarked, taking Ginny’s books and walking her towards the dungeons. He had a free period, so he could afford to linger behind and spend at least some time with her.
“I’m sorry.” Ginny’s remorse was obvious from her voice. “He came out of nowhere and then he was all over me. Are you okay?” she asked worriedly. Draco was still glaring at the stone-paved floor as the walked.
“Yeah, I just wish we could tell everyone that we’re together, so Potter wouldn’t touch you. And then I wouldn’t have to hang out with Parkinson and the likes of her.” They had been over this so many times, but it always ended with the same resolution: there was no way they could tell.
“I wish we could, Draco, I wish we could.” Ginny sighed. “But if you don’t want to hang out with Parkinson, you could always become a priest,” she said with a grin.
“No, thanks,” Draco said dryly. “But you could tell Potter that you have someone else.”
“Yup, and when he asks, I shall tell him who so he can tell all my brothers and whoever else is protective of me so they can get together and go on a killing spree. Great idea, my dear ferret,” Ginny said, scooping her books into her arms. She stood on her tiptoes to reach Draco’s mouth and gave him a quick kiss. Sometimes she thought that he never stopped growing.
“…eight…” Draco breathed out as Ginny rushed towards her Potions classroom. He stood in the corridor and watched the door she disappeared behind for a long time before he went to the Room of Requirement. He needed to work on his ‘project’.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Late again, Ms. Weasley," Professor Slughorn said as Ginny entered the Potions classrooms. “Make sure it does not happen next time.” This was exactly what Ginny expected from the Potion master, and so she took her seat next to Luna without a word.
“Today we will brew Draught of Peace. It's not an easy potion, but I don't doubt your success.” Slughorn flicked his wand and the ingredients appeared on the board.
Ginny took out a new cauldron that Fred and George bought her when they started their joke store, because they knew about how much she enjoyed brewing potions. She carefully measured out the ingredients as the directions indicated, and tried not to think about Harry. She knew that what she was doing was wrong, and that she should not use him like that, but she made a mistake when she let him kiss her. If she broke up with him now, it would definitely hurt his feelings and it would arouse more questions than at the beginning, and she realized that she could only go on like this for so long before something snapped. Her attention was claimed by her potion again, when the liquid bubbled and turned an ugly shade of pink instead of bright green which it was supposed to turn.
She looked around to see Slughorn watching her with raised eyebrows - obviously he expected her to do better. Ginny quickly added a few ingredients that should, in theory, turn the potion the right colour, and forced her conscience to shut up about the Boy Who Was Obsessing About Her Now.
Ginny was rushing through the hallways; she got so caught up in her research about Time-Turners that she almost forgot about her date with Draco. Almost. As if she could ever miss out on an opportunity to spend some time with him. Ginny took out a hand mirror to check herself in before entering the Room of Requirement, but the door opened, and smiling, Draco pulled her in.
“You don’t need that,” he said, looking down at the pocket mirror in her hands.
“Thank you.” Ginny blushed, not sure what to say.
“So how was your day?” He asked as they walked over to the sofa. Ginny seated herself in Draco’s lap, and he Accio’d two Butterbeers.
“Bad,” she answered, taking a sip from her bottle.
“Did Potter do something?” Draco’s eyes darkened, and so Ginny said quickly:
“Of course not, you know what I told him.” He tightened his grip around her waist protectively, and his eyes did not light up for a while. “I am sorry, Draco,” Ginny said. “I don’t want to hurt him, but I don’t know how to get out of it now.”
“You COULD just tell him that you don’t like him anymore…” He softened a little bit, but his voice was still rather harsh.
“You know that I can’t. We have been over this,” Ginny answered tiredly. “So how is your ‘project’ going?” His dark and secret mission had never failed to get his mind off the topic, and it seemed to work again.
“I don’t know if I can get it finished.” Draco sighed. “It’s so dangerous. I wish Dumbledore would agree with Snape on this… I always thought that he put the well being of his students first, and now I just don’t know.”
“In war, you have to take risks.” Dumbledore had said that to Draco at the beginning of the year, and he repeated it to Ginny, who reminded him of this very same quote every so often.
“I know, I know.” Draco shook his head impatiently. “But what if it does not work? What if he kills Mother? Or what if it does work and someone else gets hurt?” Ginny knew that the real Draco was not the evil spoiled brat everyone thought him to be. Well,spoiled - yes, brat - yes; but no, he definitely did not want to kill his classmates.
“Don’t worry, your mother will be alright once we fix that damned cabinet, and he promised to let her go right away, so Dumbledore can hide her. And once they are in school, there are going to be Order members around to capture them. There is no risk in it.” Ginny tried to soothe him. She knew that there was a risk, and a quite large one in her opinion, but Draco needed someone to tell him that it would be okay, and Moaning Myrtle simply was not reassuring enough.
“Yeah, well I don’t know how to fix it.” Draco said in reply and took a sip from the bottle.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, we will figure out something. I don’t see why Dumbledore doesn’t fix it himself if he thinks it’s so important…” Ginny cuddled closer to him, attempting to lighten up his gloomy mood.
“He has more important things to do.” Draco placed his Butterbeer on the floor and put his other arm around Ginny, pulling her even closer. “Besides, the Dark Lord would find out if I got help from someone.” Ginny could feel him shudder under her.
“We’ll figure it out,” she said and placed a kiss on his cheek. “For now, let’s worry about much more trivial things.”
“Like?” Draco asked her as he traced her collar bone with his lips and pulled her into a kiss.
“Harry,” Ginny answered, not missing the sinful tone of his voice.
“Easy. You dump him. And we tell everyone that we are together and that I am not a Death Eater and that I like to play ping pong,” Draco said, putting butterfly kisses all over her neck.
“You like to play ping pong?” Ginny asked, pulling away from him to take a closer look at his face.
“It’s a good game.” Ginny just rolled her eyes at his retort, as a ping pong table appeared in the room.
“Have you ever played?” Draco asked Ginny, motioning to the ping pong table.
“A couple times,” Ginny replied. She was rather familiar with the game due to her father’s obsession with Muggles, and so she expected to win easily. However, when they started to play, both exceeded each other’s expectations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ginny climbed through the portrait hole after a nice and long snogging session with Draco. Surprisingly they had tied at ping pong, much to their annoyance, but as the clock showed larger and larger numbers, they decided to go to bed.
Hermione was sitting in an armchair near the fire alone, facing away from the portrait hole. She was mumbling to herself, and she seemed very distraught to Ginny, who crept behind her without making a sound and saw the older girl holding the Time-Turner and looking at it deliberately. Hermione obviously made her decision, for she turned the Time-Turner a couple times, and disappeared almost instantly. At that moment, Ginny seized her chance. She grabbed on the golden chain that held Hermione’s Time-Turner and disappeared along with Hermione.
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When the uncomfortable time travel stopped, Ginny found herself next to a very angry Hermione, who immediately pulled her into a broom closet.
“Ginevra Molly Weasley!” Hermione bellowed after placing silencing charms on the room, “What have you done?!”
And then someone opened the door.
To Be Continued.
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This story is a favorite of 21 members. Members who liked Queen of Deception also liked 859 other stories.
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