Nowhere to Turn

Nowhere to Turn

"Ginny! Ginny, wait!" Ginny turned around to find Draco Malfoy striding after her. He looked as if he wanted to run, but Malfoy was far too dignified to ever run after anyone, let alone a Weasley.

"What do you want Malfoy?" she asked coldly, realizing as she did so that he had called her by her first name rather than the usual contemptuous "Weasley." And looking more closely she noticed that he had a look of earnest on his face.

"Ginny, I have something to tell you," he said breathlessly once he had caught up. "I'm ready to join your side. I'll spy on Voldemort for you and help the light side. I'm really not cut out for the dark side. All the murders and torturing...I can't take it anymore." She looked at him in disbelief. When would Malfoy ever admit to not being cut out for something? But then where were his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle? What if he was telling the truth?

"Really?"

"No," he said, his face hardening into a cold grin.

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"How could I have believed him?" she wondered as she bustled away furiously, the tips of her ears glowing red.

Outside, she walked briskly, muttering to herself about how gullible she could be. She came to an abrupt halt, and looked up. She was standing in front of a fountain. Magically enhanced, the water was spurting up into the shapes of different animals, and changing colors.

What was it Harry had said about fountains again? Ah, yes, Ginny recalled his words: "Muggles like to throw money in fountains and make wishes. They actually believe they will come true." They had had a good laugh about that one, but now...now she was willing to try anything. She knew exactly what to wish for. Since her fourth year, she had stopped fawning over Harry, and he new object of attention was, quite obviously, Draco.

"I wish Draco would join our side, and perhaps even look at me the way Harry used to look at Cho." She threw her silver Sickle in, laughed at her own stupidity, and strode away.

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"Ginny! Ginny, are you home?"

The voice sounded oddly familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. Although it sounded urgent, Ginny decided that the more pressing matter at hand was that she had not finished washing her hair.

"I'm here, but you will have to wait a few minutes!" she called out. "All I need is love...." she sang. The fact that someone was in her house did not seem to be enough reason not to sing in the shower. She didn't hear the door open over the roar of the shower, or her singing, but she did see the silhouette through the shower curtain.

"I thought I told you to wait," she said as she peered through the side of the curtain. Then she shrieked and jumped back.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded of the smirking Draco Malfoy.