The Story of Virginia Weasley

Chapter 5: Unexpected

In only a few days, Draco Malfoy's position in the Slytherin house had dropped from the Slytherin Prince, to the Slytherin outcast. It seemed like there was a great scandal involving Draco, and the rest of the Slytherins decided that he was not part of them anymore. Students from the other houses were thoroughly shocked. After all, Draco Malfoy had a very high status in his house. No one seemed to know what happened, except the teachers and the Slytherins. The Slytherins were tight-lipped, and of course, no one else dared to ask or even bothered. The teachers naturally pretended they knew nothing, as they usually did when a student asks nosy questions. Nobody even dared to approach Draco Malfoy, who occasionally missed lessons, which the teachers would turn a blind eye upon.

Ginny Weasley was the only one who spent her free time searching for Draco Malfoy. She tried the library, the Quidditch pitch, the lake, and the infirmary when she visits Harry, and even the boys' toilet, where she had seen things she should never had seen. Ginny could not contained her laughter when she remembered the time she had went into the boys' toilet and walked in on Neville, who was washing his hands at the basin. There were several other boys in the toilet as well, and Ginny went red and apologized, and almost left the toilet until she saw Neville. His face was as red as a beetroot, and he seemed to be sweating profusely.

'Oh, hi, Neville,' she had said lightly, thankful that Neville was decently dressed.

Instead of responding, Neville's face reddened even more underneath his brown hair.

'G-Ginny! Don't look!' he cried out.

He covered his own eyes with one hand, and pushed her with another. Ginny let herself be pushed, laughing on her way out.

Neville was still blushing when he said, 'It's not funny, Ginny!'

She was walking into her Transfiguration class, thinking that she should try the boys' toilet again that day, when she spotted Draco Malfoy walking forlornly down the corridor. Looking around herself to make sure no one was looking, Ginny slipped out of the classroom. She hurried after Draco, who seemed to be heading outside the Hogwarts castle.

'Malfoy!' Ginny cried out as Draco pushed the door open.

He did not seem to hear her, for he did not stop or turn around, and continued walking, faster than before, as if he was late for some event. Ginny hurried her steps, and ran after Draco.

'Malfoy! Wait up!'

This time, it seemed as if he heard her. He froze in his tracks, and turned slowly around. At first, it looked like he was seeing through her, squinting his eyes, as if there was no one there. Then, his eyes met hers, and Ginny could see the puzzlement in Draco's eyes clearly. She thought that he did not recognize her, and that he had no idea who she was, but a look of comprehension entered his eyes, and Ginny knew that he recognized her. She moved slowly towards him, afraid that if she were too hasty in her approach, he would leave. Finally, they came face-to-face, and Ginny could see the questioning look in his eyes.

'What do you want, Weasley?' he asked in a demanding tone.

Ginny wrinkled her nose. 'Do you have to call me that? That's what you call my brother.'

'Actually,' said Draco in a matter-of-fact way. 'I call your brother 'Weasel', but that is beside the point. Why did you call me?'

'Well...' Ginny trailed off. She had never really thought of what she would say to Draco if she did see him. She had been concentrating on finding him, and was so focused; that she could barely remembered what she wanted to tell him.

Draco scowled. 'Well... what?'

'Well, I just wanted to thank you,' said Ginny, nervously twirling a loose strand of her red hair. 'You know, for saving my life that day.'

'Oh,' said Draco, as if he had forgotten all about it. 'You're welcome, then.'

He was about to turn away, when Ginny stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder. Draco gave her an odd look, and she quickly dropped her hand, as if she had just touched burning iron.

'If it weren't for you, I'd probably be... well, you know,' said Ginny rather awkwardly. 'And, um, thanks for telling me that the voice in the forest wasn't Tom, but Lord Voldemort. Before that, I never really put the two of them together. To me, they were always two different people.'

Draco seemed rather uncomfortable by Ginny's true confession. 'Um, that's all right. I understand,' he said quickly.

Regardless of Draco's assurance, Ginny continued, her voice breaking, 'It's just that when I knew Tom, I never thought he'd be You-Know-Who. He was the only friend I had then. And then, hearing his voice again that day made all those horrible memories come back. I kept thinking: it's Tom, it's my old friend Tom... It's just... I...'

What she intended to say later, Ginny could not remember. Draco had leant forward, and kisses her gently on the lips. Ginny remembered that her eyes were widening with surprise, and that she had succumbed into it, closing her eyes.

'What did you think you were doing?' she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, when Draco pulled away.

'Well... things were getting a bit uncomfortable, so...'

'So you thought that... doing that will make things less uncomfortable?' said Ginny, her voice trembling.

Draco smirked. 'You did shut up, didn't you?'

Without a thought, Ginny slapped him across the face, and stormed off angrily. Draco touched his left cheek, and he smiled lightly. Neither of them realized that a pair of eyes was looking down at them from a window.