Osiris Curse

Ginny ate dinner silently, enjoying the rumors of Draco's karaoke escapades at the local pubs. She noted that the man -man being a loose term- of the school's conversations was not at dinner that night. She could hear Ron snorting with laughter at random intervals all while saying he always knew there was something Draco was hiding. Hermione would mildly scold them to not speak of others rudely, yet no one paid her mind seeing as she would have to suppress a fit of giggles every time she heard the story being told once again. Still, that didn't keep her from shooting Ginny a 'look' every so often. She was still the only person that knew that it was Ginny that had begun the (true) rumor.

While all of this amused Ginny greatly, she could not help the nagging tug at the back of her mind saying that you never know when Draco would seek revenge and how bad it would be. She tried to silence it by telling herself that he had broken the deal and all was even. Still, it was common knowledge that Malfoy's did not play fairly; first year experiences taught her that the hard way, despite all the previous things she heard of the family.

Ginny ate the last of her tapioca pudding then decided to head up to the dormitories early to try and see what she could figure out about her recent dreams. When Harry saw her get up he quickly offered to walk her to the Common Room. Ginny mentally noted to tell Hermione to stop trying to get Harry to be all nice to her since everyone knew she had the most embarrassing crush on him.

"Um... no, no thanks," she said sweetly.

She'd been able to talk to him with more ease lately, but every so often her old speech habits -that came when she was around Harry- slipped back in.

Harry nodded then turned back to Ron who was currently trying to regain breath after laughing so hard at the thought of Draco in drag, singing "You Are the Only Wizard in My Heart."

Trying not to attract attention to herself, she slipped out The Great Doors and ran down an empty hallway to the stairs that led to the Gryffindor tower. When she got the portrait of the Fat Lady she realized with exasperation that she had left to visit another painting, most likely her friend Violet. Cursing just as she heard Ron do plenty of times, she took out her frustration by kicking the stone wall. The stupidity of her actions soon took their toll as the contact of the stone with her foot caused much blinding pain. This of course, instigated more vulgar language until,

"My, my, listen to the mouth on Miss Virginia."

All cursing came to a sudden and abrupt halt; much like a needle being pulled off a spinning record.

Slowly, Ginny turned to face him with one hand keeping a firm grasp on her wand in the pocket of her robe.

Draco's eyes caught her attention first. The stormy gray eyes were glinting madly as he slowly made his way towards her.

Ginny backed up, her face void of emotions, until her back pressed against the wall.

"You know," he said in a strange, malicious voice, "I have been hearing some pretty strange rumors in the hallways of this school."

Ginny stayed level with him and asked coolly, "Really?"

"Yes, really," he responded in an annoyed voice.'

Trying to feign innocence she asked, "So, um, what would these rumors be about? I never could resist good gossip!"

Draco looked much like Snape at the moment, ready to strangle her for her mock ignorance.

"It had something to do with a blonde, fifth year Slytherin who apparently likes to serenade fairies at gay pubs with Celestina Warbeck songs, in a slinky red dress."

This version of the story she had not heard before. She could not help but laugh hysterically at the image this brought.

Still slightly wheezing for breath, she said, "I don't think red is your color."

Draco's face immediately contorted with anger.

"Listen Virginia-"

"It's Ginny!" she added, annoyed.

"Shut up. Don't play dumb. I realize it is hard seeing as you are a Weasley, but you must have something in that thick head of yours. I know you started these horribly untrue rumors. I should have expected you not to be able to see something without jumping to conclusions then spreading them around even though you don't really see what's going on!"

Ginny's mood shifted quickly from amused to rage.

"Excuse me? I believe we had a deal that you keep your mouth shut about my family and I and I would tell everyone about the concert! I could've gotten more if I wanted to. I know how important your pride is to you, but I asked for one simple thing and you couldn't hold up your end of the bargain! All I wanted was for you to lay off the insults! You don't realize how sick and tired I am of hearing things about my family's financial situation! You don't realize how much I hate hearing things about red hair and freckles and secondhand clothing! You don't realize how much all the jabs I get about liking Harry hurt me!"

By this time she was in tears, but she kept going, finally getting everything off her chest, not realizing it was Malfoy she was spilling all this to,

"Those things really hurt me and it sometimes makes me hate being a Weasley! Being overlooked by everyone including my family because the only thing that makes me stand out is that I'm the only girl! I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!! Only Tom ever made me feel better and then he betrayed me and -"

She stopped immediately, realizing she'd said too much. Draco was observing her, half-amused, half-puzzled.

Then, he smiled.

It wasn't a smirk or a grin. It was an evil sardonic smile that made his lip curl up nastily, as if she were easy prey.

"You make it all easier you know that?"

Utterly confused and frightened, Ginny said nothing and was holding her wand with a death grip, reflexes ready.

Draco moved forward, a leopard stalking a frightened rabbit, slowly closing the gap between the two of them.

Soon there were only a few inches between them and they were still staring each other in the eyes, brown meeting grey.

She tried to read his eyes to figure out his next move but they were too many emotions in them. She could see satisfaction, regret, disgust, eagerness and so many more emotions each contradicting each other; almost as if he were weighing his options in his head.

Then his next actions were the most unexpected ever.

Before Ginny could even comprehend what was happening, Draco quickly pressed his lips against hers.

Shocked, Ginny tensed all over, eyes wide in shock, and arms flailing.

Draco put all his body weight onto hers until she had no choice but to relax.

The first comprehendible thought that ran through her mind was that, this was her first kiss.

The ones that followed were along the lines of "What the-?" and "This is Draco Malfoy! Kissing him is evil!"

Ginny realized that this was probably the only guy that would want to ever kiss her at Hogwarts and she should enjoy it while she could. So, she did.

Ginny began to actually kiss him back, relying on instincts about what to do.

Draco noticed and smirked, then kissed her harder, his hands running through her hair.

"This isn't so bad," Ginny thought, "Not at all what I would have ever imagined my first kiss to be, but this is pretty good! I always pictured it to be Harry and to be sweeter, not go straight into snogging. But I like this better!"

Then Ginny figured thinking was too distracting and just concentrated on kissing Draco with as much passion as he was kissing her.

The back of her head began to hurt as Draco pressed her hard into the wall behind her.

Not wanting to stop the kiss to tell him to stop, but not wanting to be in pain either, Ginny pushed all her weight against him so that still lip-locked they pressed against the other wall, this time Draco being the one with all the pressure on his back.

Had he been expecting this, Draco's weight would have been able to hold up against her petite body, but caught off guard he was easy to move. Draco didn't bother to think too much about this as Ginny was actually quite a good kisser. Not good, great.

They were heavily snogging in the hallway when a bunch of gasps and yells at the end of the hallway made them stop to look.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron stood there along with other Gryffindors who were coming back from dinner.

Ron was purple in the face yelling obscenities while Seamus and Dean held him back. Hermione was standing eyes wide, her hands covering her open mouth. Harry looked in shock and disbelief with all color gone from his face, frozen to the spot. All the rest just stood in amazement and disgust, just staring.

Ginny realized how she looked. Her hair was all out of her ponytail, in disarray and her lips swollen. Her gold and scarlet tie was crumpled by their feet while Draco's was barely hanging on his shirt, which had the top buttons undone. Draco's hands were at her waist half under her shirt. She did not remember all this happening. She must have been too caught up in the moment.

Her face burning, she pushed herself away from Draco who was just leaning against the wall, smirking at the Gryffindor reactions.

"How can *he* be so calm?" Ginny asked herself, envious.

She became aware that she should say something, anything. This was so damn embarrassing!

Her voice shaky, she managed to finally say something, "Um... I have to go..."

And that was all she said. She might have babbled on and on with some lame excuse but she couldn't get any farther as a huge lump rose in her throat and the shame of all this was causing her to cry. With blurry vision, Ginny pushed past the Gryffindors and just ran. Hermione ran after her, leaving the rest of them there.

Ginny didn't think about the fact that she had left Draco by himself surrounded by Gryffindors. A snake trapped in a lion's den.

With Hermione gone after Ginny, the remaining Gryffindors looked at each other and nodded knowingly.

The last words heard from Draco before all of them pounced was "Oh shit!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ron, Harry, Seamus, Dean, Fred, George and various other Gryffindors were tensely sitting in McGonagall's office. Ron was grumbling to himself about evil, git Slytherins, Harry was fumbling with the hem of his robe looking as if Hedwig just died, and the twins were currently thinking of new ways of torture for Malfoy through 'Weasley Wizard Wheezy's.' The rest just sat there nervously awaiting punishment.

"PRACTICALLY MY WHOLE HOUSE ATTACKING A DEFENSELESS STUDENT! GRANTED YOU MAY NOT LIKE MR. MALFOY, BUT THAT IS NO REASON TO PUMMEL HIM SO! WHERE ON EARTH ARE YOUR ETHICS? HOW COULD YOU ALL JUST GANG UP ON HIM SO? GRYFFINDORS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE BRAVE AND CHIVALROUS. WHY YOU ALL ARE JUST A BUNCH OF YOUNG MINDLESS, JUVENILE DELINQUENT, THUGS!" McGonagall scolded them all.

Some of them snickered at the word "thugs," causing McGonagall to continue to rant.

"Excuse me Professor, but we were just protecting my sister's honor, which that git fouled," Ron interrupted.

"And what, may I ask, did young Master Malfoy do to taint your sister's honor?"

"He was snogging her senseless in front of the Gryffindor tower!" Ron said cheeks burning with anger.

Professor McGonagall's cheeks tinged slightly with the mention of "snogging senseless," but that did not stop her from replying.

"Really, and was he forcing her to partake in the action? You may have not realized it Mr. Weasley but your younger sister is growing up and can make her own choices!"

Harry made a small choking noise at this but that did not deter Ron.

"Obviously Draco brainwashed her and took advantage of her!" he shouted as if it were the most obvious thing ever.

"Mr. Weasley! That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life!" McGonagall paused then said a bit more calmly, "Since it was a Slytherin that all of you heartlessly battered, I will allow the head of that house to decide your punishments as he sees fit."

All the students gasped with the exception of Harry who was still in his depressed state of mind. The rest were thinking "NO! Not Snape!" or "Damn McGonagall!" or "Why couldn't we have beat up a Hufflepuff instead?"

"Now go! Straight to your dorms and lights out!" Professor McGonagall said as all of them filed out, grumbling about the unfairness of life.

"You will report to Professor Snape before breakfast tomorrow! Do not forget!" McGonagall called sternly after them.

All of them muttered incoherently in response. Ron was walking next to Harry just going off and off about Malfoy and several things he could go do to himself that were a quite a bit rude. Harry walked without paying much attention to anything. Ron, so caught up in his rage did not notice his friend's distress until they were lying in their respective beds.

"Hey Harry?" Ron asked, not sure of he was awake or not.

Naturally he was.

"Yea Ron?" he asked in a toneless voice.

"Well, I know how you feel about my sister and I... I guess I want to say I'm sorry."

"Yea, I am too."

"Besides I doubt Ginny really likes him. Maybe it was a ploy to get you to notice her or something. You should go tell her that she shouldn't try to get you jealous, 'cos you already like her!"

Harry was silent then sighed.

"Ron, I'd rather not talk about this at the moment. I'm going to sleep. G'night."

Ron was silent for a few seconds, and then asked, "Harry? Why do you like my sister? I mean last year you were crazy for Cho then all of a sudden this year you are all head over heels for my sister. Not that I mind, best you than any other wizard out there. But still, why?"

Harry thought about it for a moment then began to talk in a slightly pained voice,

"Remember last year, when we got out at King's Crossing Station?"

"Yea..."

"Well, my uncle and aunt were late picking me up, something about a nutritionist for Dudley. Anyway, when the twins set off that package of dungbombs by accident, Ginny came up to me. Since I couldn't hang out with you cause of my uncle and aunt, I was just watching from far. While you and everyone else went to straighten up the mess, she came to where I was waiting for my uncle and aunt. She said she knew about everything that had happened during fourth year and if I ever needed to talk she would be there. Why she told me that, I don't know. Then she walked away to join you guys, but when she walked away, she seemed different. Like she looked older and I dunno, prettier or something. I know she's not the only one who cares for me, but there was something different about her."

"Oh," was all that Ron said after. What else could he say?

He added a 'Goodnight Harry' for god measure then fell asleep after a few minutes.

Harry however, stayed up the whole night, replaying the scene in his mind over and over.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A bit earlier, when Hermione went after Ginny.

"Ginny?"

Hermione had followed her into the library, but now she was lost behind the vast amount of books.

She tried again, "Ginny?"

She heard nothing, but she knew she was here and began to speak.

"Ginny, it's OK. We'll calm down Ron. We can fix everything! I just need you to come out!"

A muffled sound came from the east corner then a small, red-headed person came out slowly.

Ginny looked up at Hermione with bloodshot eyes and said meekly, "He hates me."

"Who? Ron? He doesn't hate you! He hates Malfoy. I'll admit though, he might be a bit... erm, anger," Hermione answered, trying to be comforting.

Ginny snorted.

"Believe me, that is the understatement of the year. But... I don't know what happened. He just kissed me, and I... I kissed back. Does that make me a horrible person?"

"No, of course not! Malfoys are big in the dark arts. He probably did some sort of Confundus charm or something!"

"I don't think so," Ginny said looking away.

"Look, whatever happened, it will get sorted out. Believe me. We will get everyone to calm down about this. Everything will be fine."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

But Ginny knew as smart as Hermione was, she probably couldn't fix this.

Hermione was tempted to ask if this had anything to do with the rumors and such but refrained and led her back to Gryffindor tower. Luckily when they got there, everyone had gone to bed and there was no one to make things worse. When Ginny walked into the fourth year dormitory she thanked god that all her roommates were asleep or else they'd try to make her "tell all."

It had been quite an interesting day and all Ginny wanted to do now was sleep and pray that this was all forgotten in the morning.

But things usually get worse before they get better. It was only November and already Ginny could tell that this would be a long year.