The Secret Admirer

Chapter 4: Sketches

"So, how have you been?" Ginny asked. She was in the Hospital Wing to visit Hermione.

"Good," Hermione replied in a hoarse voice. "I should be out of here soon, but you'll still need to meet with Neville for me tonight."

"I will," Ginny agreed. "What do I need to do with him?"

"Well, we are supposed to be writing a five inch report about five plants and their importance. It's nothing too major, but Neville and I really need it completed," she replied.

"Okay, I have to go now, Ron and Harry will be wondering why I'm not at lunch by now. I'll see you later."

"Bye Gin. Tell Ron and Harry I said hello."

"I will Hermione," I answered, hurrying out faster, so she couldn't say a word more about Harry and how we should go to the ball.

****

Ginny walked slowly towards the library, going to meet Neville to help with the project. The corridor she walked in was empty and dully lighted. The books she was carrying grew heavier with each step she took.

She was a little ways past the Entrance Hall when she heard something behind her. It sounded like a...person. She turned around slowly just as the nearest torch that was lit went out.

She dropped her books and muffled a small cry. There was a person with a hood over their head. They towered over her, and she felt herself shrink backwards. There was a small glint of silver. Ginny gasped. It looked like a muggle weapon, a knife, which they had been learning about in Muggle Studies.

The person moved closer to her and placed a dead, cold hand on her face. As he moved closer, a sigh of relief came. It was only a ring on their hand. When the ring touched her skin, she jerked back a little.

He spoke in a deep, raspy voice, "You said you wanted to meet me in your letter."

Ginny ignored what the person had just said. She panicked and grabbed the person's hand from her face. She took two fingers of his hand in hers and did the same for the other hand. The person stared at her, obviously confused about what she was about to do.

Ginny gulped one time. She had never done what she was about to do, and to tell the truth, she was very shaky about doing it for the first time. She shut her eyes and yanked her hands, with the person's fingers in them, in different directions.

There was a dull crack, and Ginny let go of the fingers immediately. She heard the person cry out in pain and fall to the ground. He whimpered,

"What the hell did you do? I think it's broken!" Ginny scampered to pick up her belongs she had dropped, and she ran out of sight before that person could catch her again.

****

Ginny dashed into the library. She wasn't alone in there, but Neville was nowhere in sight. She sat herself down at an empty table and started to get ready for whenever Neville decided to show up, still a little jumpy about what had happened in the corridor.

Twenty minutes later, Neville came running into the library.

"Sorry...I....late...had...something...hi," he panted, doubling over to catch his breath.

"It's okay," Ginny said. "I've already started. I began to research Thorn Aciadas."

Neville sat down across from her and began to work

****

They didn't finish the project. Sometime, the conversation turned from the roots of a plant to things other than Herbology. Ginny found herself explaining to Neville about Hermione trying to force her to go to the Christmas Ball.

"She's always mentioning the ball now, and I seriously don't think I'll be going at all. She doesn't seem to understand the more she pesters me, the more I really don't want to go."

"Yeah," Neville nodded. "I don't think I am going either."

"Why not?"

"Well, I, er," He turned a bright shade of pink. "couldn't get a date."

"Oh," Ginny said, unsure of what else there was to say. "Well, I don't have a date either."

Neville turned an even darker shade, and he began to fumble with the book. He ended up dropping the book on his foot. The book was a very thick one, and must have hurt because he let out a very loud, high-pitched yelp.

"Are you okay Neville?" Ginny asked.

"I'm...fine," he said, untying his shoe, so he could see how bad his foot was. Ginny tried hard not to laugh. It seemed that everything bad always happened to Neville.

Nevillle moved onto the floor to examine his foot, and Ginny started back to her research.

Sometime while Neville was under the table and Ginny was reading, an owl flew into the library, swooping around the room. The owl showed off a bit more and then he landed in front of Ginny.

"Ginny?" she heard Neville ask. There was a loud thump, and Ginny expected that he had hit his head on the table. "I think my toe is fractured. I am going to go to the nurse."

"Okay," Ginny replied, not taking her eyes off the letter. "Do you need any help?" She asked, though she didn't bother to listen to Neville's answer.

"No, I'm fine." He limped out of the library, but Ginny didn't notice. The parchment that this letter was on was different. It was thicker and a darker shade of tan. She picked up the letter slowly and unrolled it.

It wasn't a letter at all. It was a few drawings. The first one was of Hogwarts. She ran her fingers over the gray castle. Every little detail was marked on this picture, even the small mark of dried blood from a Quidditch accident a year ago. The towers were drawn to just the right height, and the color of everything, it was like you were staring at an unmoving picture.

She set the first drawing on the table and looked of the next one. This one was of the shelves of the library. She looked over to her right at the shelves. It was exactly the same as the drawing. Some of the books were taken off the shelf, sure, but other than that it looked exactly the same. On some of the books in the drawing you could read the title.

She also put this one aside, and took out the last one. She gasped to herself when she saw this one. It was her. She looked into her own chocolate brown eyes and her own flaming orange hair. Normally Ginny thought she was normal and plain looking, but somehow in this drawing she looked older, more mature, and even beautiful. She quickly shut her gaping mouth, and she looked at the back of each painting, hoping to find the signature of the artist.

There was nothing. She carefully rolled the pictures back up, trying not to damage them at all. She picked up her belongings and left the library.

****

She had forgotten about that stranger in the hallway, but as she walked back to her dorm to turn in for the night, she remembered. The person was gone from the hallway he had fallen down in, as she expected. While she walked past, she casually looked for any sign that the person might have left to prove who he or she was. There wasn't anything.

Later, she met up with Hermione in the corridor, who had just been released from the Hospital Wing. Hermione had heard from Neville that the project wasn't finished, and she was slightly upset.

"Ginny it is due in two days, and I already have a lot of work to make up!" Hermione cried.

"I know, but I'll met with Neville again and finish it tomorrow! Okay?"

"Fine," Hermione said. Then she noticed the drawings Ginny was carrying. "What are those Ginny?"

"What are what?"

"These." She took the sketches from under Ginny's arm and examined them.

"Ginny, did you draw these?"

"Of course I didn't Hermione. You know that I can barely draw a stick figure." Ginny snatched the pictures back.

"Who did then?"

"I don't know."

"Come on Ginny, I know that you really do know."

"No, I seriously don't." A sly grin spread on Hermione's face.

"Was it from your secret admirer?"

"Might be," Ginny said, " but there was nothing that told me it was from them though. Could have been from anyone. Now I am going to my dorm and going to bed."

Ginny walked off. Hermione stood there for a few moments, her grin slowly leaving her face.

Because she knew Harry couldn't draw at all.