Flipside

Chapter Two

Ginny finally came to her senses, backing slowly out of the greenhouse and softly shutting the door. Still in shock, she picked her way along the beaten path through the vegetable gardens and continued on her way up to the castle. Night had fallen on the school, and the mass of tower and turrets that was Hogwarts was illuminated by the flickering of hundreds of candles burning in the rooms.

Suddenly reality hit Ginny, and she bolted into a run, tears beginning to cascade down her cheeks. She ran up the stone steps of the castle, and pushing open the double doors she burst into the empty Entrance Hall. To the one side she could hear the rumble of voices from the hundreds of students now sitting down to dinner. The dinner that he had made her late for, the one that now seemed less than appetizing.

Instead of heading towards the Great Hall, Ginny looked around self-consciously to see if anyone was there, then proceeded to sprint across and up the stairs, and tore through the corridors on her way back to the dormitories.

The next thing she knew, she found herself flat on her back with the breath knocked out of her as she tried to turn a corner. Gasping for breath, she tentatively opened her eyes. Looking down at her with his arms crossed, complete with an amused smirk, was Draco Malfoy.

"Well, well, Weasley. Rushing off for a snog-fest with Potter are we?" Draco drawled in amusement. "That will have to be 10 points from Gryffindor for the horrid mental images I am now forced to endure."

Ginny's eyes narrowed in rage at him. "Just because you are Head Boy now Malfoy," she said, spitting his name like it was poison, "does not mean you must flaunt your authority." Glaring at him she continued, "-and for your information I am no longer seeing the lovely Harry Potter," her voice was dripping with sarcasm. "You do realize that it is the polite thing to do to help me up from the ground? But of course who would ever accuse a Malfoy of being polite?"

Narrowing his eyes at the girl he replied suavely, "well, Weasley, dearest, if anything we Malfoys are - shall we say courteous." With that he promptly reached down grabbing both her wrists and yanked her to her feet.

Her eyes now glittering with malice, she glared at him. "If. You. Don't. Mind," she sputtered. "Get out of my way, and please let go of me." As she spoke she violently swung her arms down attempting to wrench them from his grasp. To her dismay, he was much too quick for her, and instead he twisted her around, pinning the small girl against the stone wall, her wrists securely held in his hands above her head.

His mouth was now positioned dangerously close to her ear and as he spoke his breath tickled her neck, "just because you asked so nicely," he growled, "I don't think I will."

Ginny suddenly became scared. As she gasped for breath, her heart was pounding somewhere around her ears, and she finally caught a glimpse of her surroundings. Instead of the brightly lit passage way that she was use to taking to the Gryffindor common room, she found herself in a corridor barely brighter than black. It was cool there, almost as if it were situated in the dungeons rather than on the third floor. The only light came from a dingy old window at the other end of the hall, that's surface was blotted out with dirt and grime, tangles of cobwebs clotting in the corners. An old musty smell permeated the air, mixing with the smell of raw sweat emanating from Malfoy and emphasized in their close proximity. She began to shake in fright, the reality of being caught in an abandoned corridor by Malfoy, who stood at least six inches taller than her, and obviously much stronger. This fear then transformed into raw anger and Ginny narrowed her eyes at the Slytherin in apparent rage.

"Malfoy," she warned. "I said it before and I'll say it again," she continued in a whisper through gritted teeth, "get the hell away from me." This time up swung her leg, her knee connecting directly with his stomach, having aimed a bit too high for her primary target.

Draco's eyes went wide as his breath got kicked out of him. Letting go of Ginny's hands, his arms wrapped around his stomach and he sagged up against the girl, further trapping her against the cool stone wall. She pushed him off of her, and he collapsed against the stone wall, trying desperately to support himself with one arm. Ginny took a last look at sorry excuse for a wizard before darting away.

This time her feet found the right path, not stopping until she was concealed behind the curtains of her four-poster bed. Collapsing down onto it, gasping for breath after her sprint, she buried her head in her hands and finally allowed the sobs to overtake her. Flashing through her mind like a broken record was the scene from the greenhouse, as well as an echo of Draco's last words to her, words that were wheezed out in barely a whisper as she flew as fast as she could from that dreaded corridor. His reply to her angry plea for freedom, in five simple words she barely caught...

"I don't think I will."