Forever Yours

FOREVER YOURS

Chapter 3

Ginny sat in her DADA class, bored listening to the teacher blab on and on about stupid jinxes and hexes.

She already knew most of the course material, after participating in the DA in her fourth year with Harry. Harry of course had been busy pining for Cho then, so he hadn't noticed her, but she had still learned a lot.

This year would be an easy one, thought Ginny as she yawned.

"Perhaps Miss Weasley would be able to tell us the proper way to do a Patronus, if she is finding this lesson boring," said Professor Picky, from the front of the room.

Damn, thought Ginny. She had indeed been daydreaming again and their stupid, plump old professor had caught her yawning.

Always being quick on her feet to give a snappy response, Ginny said, "I can tell you how to do a Patronus properly, Professor."

The old witch raised her eyebrows. "Go on."

"Well you close your eyes and think of a happy memory, the happier the better. Then close your eyes and shout Expecto Patronum and then an animal will come out of your wand that will be protect you against the Dementor."

Professor Picky seemed baffled at how much Ginny seemed to know about the answer to the question, when she had been clearly not paying attention.

"Well...good," she said, resuming her lesson.

Ginny smiled to herself. Harry would have found that funny, she thought. He loved it when she was cheeky, especially to people who deserved it.

The bell rang half an hour later and that was the end of her afternoon classes.

Ginny went up to the Dormitory to put her bag away, and when she came down, she saw Romilda Vain sitting in an armchair, gossiping with her friends.

She hid her smile as she made her way out of the common room. Romilda had been in love with Harry last year and had wanted to know everything about Harry from the 'real' colour of his hair, to whether he had a tattoo on his chest.

Quietly, she laughed to herself as she made her way down to the Dining Hall, thinking of what she had told Romilda. It had been a Hungarian Horntail on Harry's chest, if she remembered correctly. Harry had laughed with her about it for a few days, and Ginny laughed when she saw several girls running after him, trying to get him to take his shirt off.

"Hey Ginny," said Hermione, as Ginny sat down beside her.

"Hey," replied Ginny, taking a seat beside her best friend. "Where's Ron?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Like I know or care. Probably off with Lavender- again."

Ginny wrinkled her nose. "I thought they broke up."

Ron walked in just then as Hermione said, "I thought so too."

He sat down beside them and nodded to Seamus and Dean. "Hey guys. Who died?" he immediately asked, sensing the tense mood at their section of the table, as Lavender sat down beside Dean a little way away from them.

"You did, Ron," said Ginny.

He gave her a weird look, but then Hermione got up and left the table and walked out of the Dining Hall.

"What's wrong with her?" demanded Ron, looking around at everyone, wondering if it was just he who had witnessed Hermione being Hermione again.

"Oh Ron, you're such a prat," said Ginny. "Do you have to make out with Lavender in front of Hermione? Can't you do it in some deserted classroom like the rest of us?"

"I wasn't snogging Lavender! Like I'd want to!" retorted Ron.

At that moment Lavender looked up and heard what Ron said. She gave him a dirty look and then stomped out.

"What's with everyone?" he demanded, stuffing his face.

Ginny couldn't help it, so she laughed out loud. She stopped when she saw Ron's face though.

"Oh honestly Ron..."

"I swear, I wasn't snogging her," said Ron. "But listen Gin, she's blackmailing me."

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "Why on earth would she do that?"

He shrugged. "She wants to get back together, but I don't want to. I rather puke up slugs again then go out with her."

She rolled her eyes. "Right."

"So she says that if I don't get back with her, she'll start spreading rumours about me going out with someone really horrible."

Again she laughed. "Like who?"

"She threatened me with...Millicent Bulstrode," he whispered, as the heavy set seventh year walked by.

Ginny laughed so hard, she snorted. "Oh god Ron. You are such a wimp. Stand up to her, tell her you don't want to go out with her and to keep her empty threats to herself."

Ron sighed. "All right. I'll try. Is that why Hermione's angry again?"

She nodded. "I think she saw you with her. Tough luck."

Ron rested his head on the table. "It's only the first day back, and I've already got two girls angry with me."

Ginny patted her brother's shoulder, but then looked up when she saw an owl soaring above her and stopping at their table, in front of her.

All day, during lunch and in between classes, owls had been soaring everywhere as people wrote their letters to one another and received their replies.

Her reply was here. She carried the letter up to her common room and then sat down in an armchair beside the fire to read it.

It did not contain the enthusiasm that her letter contained. Nor any of the pleasantries.

She frowned as she read it over once more. This person seemed to very haughty when she had been nice. So she decided to respond in the same manner.

Ginny got out a fresh piece of parchment and started to write out her reply. Her hand shook with anger as she wrote. When she was done, she could hardly read what she'd written, so she crumpled it up and then wrote it over again, neatly.

Her anger was always very quick to shoot up, even though she tried to keep it in check.

So she carried her letter over to the same barn owl that was waiting for at the window and tied it to its leg and watched as it flew through the crisp evening air towards its correspondent.

After she had done that, she made her way to the library. She knew that that's where Hermione would be, so she went.

She walked through several of the boring sections until she came to the back of the library where Hermione sat reading a book about Unbreakable Vows.

"Hey," she whispered, putting her bag down and sitting down next to her.

"Hi," said Hermione, looking up. When she met Ginny's eyes, Ginny saw that she had been crying for her eyes were read and puffy.

"What's wrong?" she asked the older girl.

But Hermione just shook her head. "Nothing." She turned to go back to her book, but Ginny put her hand over the page she had been reading.

"It doesn't sound like nothing, Hermione. Come on tell me. Is it Ron?"

Hermione's eyes flashed at the name. "I don't want to talk about it."

Ginny respected her privacy. "All right. Then can you help me with these Unspeakable charms and hexes?" It was a sign of how good a friend Ginny was. Instead of pressing her friend for details when she was miserable, she chose to change the topic and give her privacy.

So for the next hour and a half, Hermione helped Ginny with her homework and they conversed quietly.

Down in the dungeons, the Slytherin king was returning to his common room, after a meeting with Professor Slughorn about his Potions homework.

When he returned, Blaise was sitting by the fire, waiting for him.

"Draco, a letter from Mother came today," he said, showing him the letter.

Draco sat down and opened the unsealed letter.

Dear Blaise and Draco,

I hope this letter finds both of you well on your first day of school. I am assuming everything is as usual, along with your classes and teachers. Mr. Zabini and I are about to leave for our trip to Ireland for a month, so any letters you need to write to us, address them to the address at the bottom and they will find us. If you need anything, especially you Draco, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Aurora

At the bottom, written in small script, was an address in Ireland. Draco handed the letter back to his friend and Blaise wondered if his little sister Maura was actually going to look for the banshee, like they had teased her about during the summer.

Ten minutes later, an owl started pecking at the window.

Draco took out his wand and opened the window and the owl flew in, to hand him the letter.

He opened it and began to read.

Dear so called Prince of Darkness,

I am so terribly sorry that my pleasantries were wasted on you, as it seems that you are above that and don't need it. To tell you the truth, I was not 'giddy looking forward to your letter' or however you put it. But I am sure that from now on you will be looking forward to my responses, as I will speak to you how you spoke to me so rudely in your letter.

You think you're above inter-house unity do you? It's actually to bring the whole school together so that another war does not end up taking place or any more petty fights between the houses. But of course you're too good for that aren't you? I'm assuming you are one of those who thought that the war that just took place was a joke right? But this 'inter--house unity' that annoys you so much, could prevent such a war from taking place again. But perhaps you are not one of those who lost someone in the war, so how would you know the pain?

Sincerely,

Chariot of Light

Draco raised his eyebrow at the letter in his hand. It had to be a girl who wrote this, he was sure of it.

But before he could think of anything else, he read the postscript at the bottom of the letter.

P.S- I've given a present, I hope you like it. I am sure it will teach you the importance of inter-house unity soon enough. It only lasts for about five hours. Enjoy!

"Um Draco..." said Blaise hesitantly.

"What?" he demanded, looking up.

Blaise struggled not to laugh but other students weren't that controlled. Several second and third years laughed heartily at Draco.

"What's so funny?" he snapped, getting up.

"Look in the mirror," mumbled Blaise.

Rolling his eyes, Draco turned the back of the parchment into a mirror and immediately tore up the paper when he saw his reflection on it.

His face was turning different colours every other minute. The colours were the two colours of each house and half of his face was one colour and then the other half the other colour.

He walked off to his Prefect bathroom and tried washing his face, but the colours kept on changing. He then tried to charm the colours away, but it wouldn't work.

His scream of rage was loud, but it didn't reach the library upstairs, where the castor of this spell sat smirking.

Ginny sat beside Hermione, smirking, thinking of the little present she had sent with her letter to her pen pal.

"Why are you laughing?" asked Hermione, seeing Ginny's gleeful face.

"Nothing." Ginny went back to her homework.

Hermione pulled the parchment away from her. "I'm not thick Ginny. Tell me what's going on."

Ginny smirked again and then said, "All right, I'll tell you. But you have to promise to tell me what's wrong and if it has anything to do with Ron."

She glared at her. "You know, you're just like Fred and George. Manipulative."

Ginny laughed silently. "I'll take that as a compliment."

With a half smile on her face, Hermione said, "All right, I promise. Now tell me."

So Ginny proceeded to tell her friend about what she had enclosed in her letter and why.

When she was done, they were packing up their things and leaving the library. Hermione was laughing when she had finished telling her.

"Oh my god, Ginny. I was right. You are completely your brothers' sister."

Ginny smiled when she heard this. "Which brother?"

"Obviously Fred or George," she said, walking alongside her. "Never Percy or Ron..." She stopped mid-sentence.

"No, Ron would never do that, would he?" Ginny said. "He's not that smart."

"He can be smart and thoughtful when he wants to," Hermione said sadly, sighing. "But he's usually got no tact."

"That's Ron," said Ginny, letting Hermione take over the conversation.

"I thought him and Lavender were over," she said, climbing the stairs. "But I guess she still has feelings for her. He could do so much better though. He needs someone who understands him, who knows the things he likes and dislikes. Someone like..."

"Someone like you?" Ginny said, hiding her smile from behind her hand, as she pretended to scratch her nose.

"Hey!" she said, looking at the look on Ginny's face.

"Oh Hermione," said Ginny laughing. "It's so obvious you fancy him."

She said the password and they walked through the portrait hole. "There's no use hiding it."

"Hiding what?" came a voice from the fireplace. Ron was waiting up for them, sitting in the armchairs.

Hermione gave a desperate look to Ginny, which Ginny understood completely.

"Nothing a big prat like you needs to know," retorted Ginny.

Ron glared at her. "Listen Hermione, there's nothing between..."

But Hermione just ignored him. She walked up the stairs to her Head Girl room, her arms laden with books, leaving Ron staring after her.

"Ginny you know there's nothing between Lavender and me. I told you, she's blackmailing me."

"You should be telling Hermione that, not me," she said.

He sighed and slumped deeper into the armchair, while Ginny looked through a book that belonged to Hermione.

After a few minutes, Ron said, "I saw you talking to Dean today. Are you guys getting back together?"

Ginny almost laughed. Her and Dean? "No. He was just asking to borrow my quill, but I wouldn't let him."

"Oh," said Ron. "Because if you are going out with him, it's ok with me." His voice got smaller at the end.

She couldn't help but smile, sadly. "Thank you Ron. But I'm not going with anyone for a while." And with that she walked upstairs to her dormitory and undressed.

She lay down in her bed and couldn't help but laugh at the irony at the situation. One of her flaws was that she laughed at everything. If something was scary, she laughed, if something was sad, she laughed. If something was ironic, she laughed.

Before Harry had died and, of course, before they had started to go out, Ron would always poke his big nose into her love life and tell her that the guy she was currently dating was wrong for her. He was always going on and on about how he hadn't given his permission and, as he was her older brother she should listen to him. But she had ignored him then.

Now, when Harry was dead, Ginny had stopped going out with guys altogether, wanting to focus on school and also having the memory of her dead boyfriend on her mind, she hadn't had much time for guys. But Ron wanted her to stop moping and was encouraging her to go out with guys again and even told her that Dean was a good choice, when before he had disliked him for the reason that he was making out with his little sister.

But now, he wanted her to be happy, even if he had to compromise on his happiness.