Napkin Scenes

Anyway, enjoy the chapter! I hope it holds you over until the next one comes out. I'm not sure when that will be.

I'm so glad I finally got enough inspiration... or lack thereof, to write this.

Please review if you want.


* * * * *

Chapter One

My seventh year at Hogwarts, according to me, started the moment I stepped onto the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9 3/4. I decided to wait around the Platform a bit.

My sister Ivy had run off as soon as we had crossed the barrier and had probably already found a compartment and was catching up on the latest gossip. There were first years trying not to cry as they said goodbye to their parents and first years staring around in awe. A lot of the old students were greeting each other and trying to get rid of their parents at the same time.

I felt a pang of jealousy at the fact that my parents didn't say goodbye to me when I left for Hogwarts. They just sent us off in a specialty limo to King's Cross Station.

Spotting Draco, I decided to go join him. Of course Crabbe and Goyle were standing behind him, making sure none of the other people on the platform touched him. I noticed a bubble of space that seemed to surround them, a semi circle that nobody dared to enter.

Draco caught sight of me and seemed to groan in displeasure before straightening himself out. It was his duty to be civil to me; I was a fellow Slytherin.

But then I spotted an entrance onto the train and decided I didn't really want to stand with Draco Malfoy and wait for everyone else before finding a private compartment. I made a swift turn to the left and stepped up into the Hogwarts Express. I looked over my shoulder to see Draco giving me a curious look. I smiled to myself before flicking some of my hair behind me. Seventh Year had begun.

Walking down the hallway, I found an empty compartment. I decided to take out my notebook of sorts. I could have called it a journal or a diary, but it wasn't really either. I didn't write my innermost secret thoughts in it. I didn't write my daily happenings. I just wrote what came to mind. And even then... I still didn't want to call it anything but 'my notebook'.

Flipping to the first page, I found the list of my goals for the year. I had titled the list: How NOT to be a Stereotypical Slytherin.

1) Stop following Draco Malfoy around

2) Make new friends, preferably in other houses

3) Find a boyfriend, also in other house

4) Start studying

It wasn't much of a start, but I had almost accomplished goal number one. If avoiding Draco Malfoy was accomplishing it.

I flipped to the next page, not wanting to check anything off as the year hadn't even started. I had started writing people that I thought might be a good choice to befriend. There was Susan Bones from Hufflepuff but she was always so giggly and I hated that. Even though I had a tendency to giggle madly around Draco. But it was on purpose...

Hmm.

Hermione Granger was also a candidate. She was smart, could help me study, but she was a Mudblood. Or rather, a muggle born if I wanted her to like me. I sometimes had daydreams of becoming friends with Granger and then becoming the fourth member of the little group she was in. Perhaps Harry Potter would find me attractive and ask me to Hogsmeade.

But Draco would have laughed at me if he knew. So I learned to block out the silly imaginings.

There was Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. They seemed to like gossip and I had loads of gossip that they would have killed for. They would have instantly become my friends. But I didn't want to bribe them for friendship.

Or did I?

No. That wasn't the point of my list.

I was pondering possibilities of other people when the compartment door opened up. A red headed girl peeked in and spotted me before stepping back out. I was going to return to my notebook when I heard a loud sigh and she poked her head back in.

"Do you mind if I hide out in here for awhile?" she asked cautiously, "I mean, unless your friends are joining you..." She made the word 'friends' seem like a disease she wasn't too fond of.

I was desperate at that point and decided that maybe I could get her talking and make friends. I didn't even know her name. This would be quite difficult.

"Sure," I shrugged casually; a very Slytherin response. Actually, a Slytherin response would be "No you slimy Gryffindor," for she was wearing her robes already with the Gryffindor Lion on them. But I was looking for a friend. So my response was that of a Slytherin looking for a friend.

She sat across from me and immediately looked out the window but glanced at the door every few seconds.

"Who are you hiding from?" I asked with a slight glare.

She looked at me, debating whether to tell me or not. She shook her head, "No one."

"Fine, if you don't want to tell me..." I mumbled, "Just because I'm an evil no-good Slytherin."

"Excuse me?" she turned her head towards me, her fiery red hair in a frizzy mess. I noticed her robes were rather tattered and seemed a size too big for her. Wait... red hair...

She was a Weasley. I remembered her. She was the little sister of Ron Weasley, friend of Harry Potter. Wow. She had connections.

I decided to change the subject, "What's your name again?"

"Ginny... Weasley," she added as an afterthought, not sure whether to admit it or not.

I nodded and she seemed a bit shocked at my response, "I remember you. You're the one who put the bat-bogey hex on Draco in fifth year. Or rather, your fourth. But that was awhile ago..."

"I... you see... I was just defending myself. You can't really blame me," Ginny crossed her arms, a sign of discomfort. I had human behavior down to an art.

I shrugged, "I can understand. Besides, Draco deserved it."

We were in silence for awhile until she spoke up again, "Why isn't Malfoy sitting with you? I thought you went with him everywhere."

Here we go... "I've decided we need some space. I don't really want to be seen with him anymore."

"Oh?" she asked.

"Who are you hiding from?" I asked sweetly yet again.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "My brother."

"Why?"

"He thinks it's okay to interrogate me about any and every boy I've ever talked to," she uncrossed her arms and slouched in her seat in a pout, "So now Colin is all upset because my brother thinks I'm going out with him."

I raised my eyebrows, "Colin Creevey? Isn't he..."

"No! For the last time! Everybody seems to think that!" she cried, irritated. "Colin was just dating that fifth year girl over the summer, but nobody believes it!"

Ginny seemed to cool down and continued, "Anyway, Colin is probably angry at me because his girlfriend was standing there with him while Ron yelled at him about supposedly dating me..." she paused, "Sorry. You probably didn't want to know all of that."

"I asked, didn't I?" I replied.

Ginny sat up in her seat and pushed some hair out of her face before turning to look out of the window again. She glanced back at me before asking, "Why are some Slytherins so nasty?"

"Do you need to ask?" I replied.

She shook her head. "So... Pansy, right?" I nodded, "You're different when you aren't around Malfoy."

"How so?"

"You aren't so... superficial. At least, not right now you aren't. And you aren't as dim as I thought you were," Ginny waited for my reaction. She probably didn't need it though.

"Gee, thanks," I muttered.

"I would have taken that as a compliment," she told me haughtily before closing her mouth. She stood and stepped out of the compartment, shutting the door behind her. She didn't even say goodbye, was my nagging thought.

I hummed a Wierd Sister's tune to myself before staring down at my notebook.

Right after Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, I added the name Ginny Weasley.

%^%^%^%

I carefully avoided Draco the rest of the train ride and felt a bit lonely as I realized he obviously didn't care. It wasn't as if he had tried to find me.

When I climbed up into a carriage, it waited for a few minutes to see if anyone else was joining me. I stared gloomily out at all of the people and caught sight of Ginny's red hair making its way across the crowd. She climbed into a carriage after her brother and his friends. One of which was Harry Potter. I noticed that she was usually with them when they weren't plotting to save the day or in classes. But then I also realized, she didn't really need to be with them. She probably just felt like gracing them with her presence before finding someone else to grace.

I wished I was like that.

That's when Draco climbed in and sat next to me. "Where were you on the train?"

Crabbe and Goyle climbed in too and sat across from us. Blaise soon joined us and the carriage took off.

"Hello Pansy," he greeted. I nodded back.

"So?" Draco asked, still waiting for a response.

"I was sitting with Millicent," I told him coolly. It was a complete lie, but I knew Millicent usually sat with Ravenclaws on the train and if Draco asked her anything, I could trust her to cover for me. She hadn't been my roommate for the six previous years for nothing.

Millicent Bulstrode had changed significantly over fifth and sixth year. She had started caring what she looked like. She had starved herself to a slightly smaller figure that suited her better. This immediately changed her social life and ever since Millicent was always having to decide what boy she agreed to go to Hogsmeade with.

I had been jealous. Suddenly Millicent gets a figure and she's the prettiest girl in school? I had always had a perfect figure, perfect hair, perfect everything... but Millicent did have personality and could keep a conversation going for more than ten minutes. I couldn't. That's where I faltered in the social world. I blamed it on being a Slytherin but I knew that even Draco knew how to keep a conversation going. And he was as Slytherin as it comes.

We reached the front doors of Hogwarts and made our way inside. I made sure my robes were still immaculate before heading into the Great Hall without Draco. Ha, that would show him.

But as I sat down at the empty table, I realized he hadn't even noticed as he was conversing with Blaise about his summer. His father had broken out of Azkaban...

Oh gee, what an exciting summer, I thought sarcastically to myself.

Nobody wanted to hear about my boring summer sitting in the Parkinson Estate trying to find a way to be productively bored. Nope.

"... that it was rather 'pleasant' in Azkaban. They feed you twice a day and even if the Dementors are rather haunting... it suited him fine. An added bonus was that my mother wasn't there to constantly nag him: 'Oh Lucius, what am I to do about my satin gown? And what about my perfect hair? Oh... I can't do anything on my own...'" Draco broke off his poor mocking of his mother to which Blaise was chuckling slightly and Crabbe and Goyle were laughing.

His mother wasn't like that at all. Sure, she was always worried about the littlest things, but she had been surviving on her own...

Women weren't that daft. Not even Draco's mother.

He sat next to me by habit. Blaise sat on his other side. Crabbe and Goyle sat across from Draco, staring in anticipation at their plates and wondering to each other what they would be having for dinner, claiming they were starving even though I had no doubt they had eaten enough snacks on the train to feed a Third World country.

I stared over the other tables to the Gryffindor table, blocking out Draco's drawl. I saw Harry Potter being greeted by his other Gryffindor friends, Hermione Granger lecturing Ron Weasley about something. Ron seemed to be blushing as Loony Lovegood paused behind him, interrupting Hermione, to tell Ron she thought his red hair looked rather like a tomato. I wanted to snort out laughing at that. It was amazing I had even heard it as their table was across the Great Hall.

Loony went to the Ravenclaw table and Hermione resumed her lecture. Then Ginny arrived with Neville Longbottom next to her motioning at his pocket and on the verge of tears. He had probably lost his stupid toad again.

I stopped watching and my heart skipped a beat. How did I know so much about them? Oh right, I had been going to school with them for the past six years. It was pathetic that I knew every secret about them and had never talked to them once.

I was ready to leave Hogwarts and make my own way in the world.

Too bad I was stuck at a table I had been eating meals at for practically half my life.

Habit. Habit. Habit. Did it ever end?

"Father, Father, Father," Draco chanted over and over like a mantra to everyone.

"Food, Food, Food," Crabbe and Goyle demanded.

"Tonk, Blabber, Bloof," Dumbledore responded.

Red hair flashed as Ginny Weasley turned into a flying goddess of fire with flames dancing around her new red dress. The dress she deserved. Her brother watched in awe. Harry Potter sank below her on the social ladder, his scar widening until it swallowed his head whole. Draco laughed but was sucked into his Father's billowing cloak before Hermione lectured him with a book and slammed it over his head, her bushy hair turning into a Barn Owl and taking flight to Dumbledore who seemed to be babbling in a strange language I couldn't quite make out...

"Pansy?" the real life Draco cut in.

"What?" I snapped.

He glared, "You were off somewhere is all. Don't have to be so touchy..."

After Dumbledore finished his beginning of the year speech, I ate my meal speedily. But we had a lot of time before we were dismissed so I tried entertaining myself.

I found a muggle pen in my robe pocket. I used it to write in my notebook. It was rather handy as the ink was already inside of it so I didn't need a bottle of it. I grabbed my napkin and began to doodle. Even if it was made of cloth...

Nobody would care.

I began to draw my daydream from earlier. Ginny was at the top in a dress of flames. Harry's body was accompanied by a scar for a head. He sat at the Gryffindor table with Ron. On the other side was Draco hiding amongst a cloak and Hermione was under Ginny...

I was trying to draw a Barn Owl emerging from her hair but Draco was trying to peer over my shoulder.

"Sod off, would you?" I muttered.

"What's with you?" he asked, "You wouldn't sit with me on the train, you weren't listening to me earlier and now you're doodling...?"

I stuffed the napkin in my robe pocket along with my pen before standing up and leaving. I didn't even care that we hadn't been dismissed yet.

%^%^%^%

Later that night I stared up at the ceiling from my bed. Millicent was unpacking all of her things, humming as she did so.

I felt rather empty and began to empty my pockets so they'd feel the same way before taking off my robe. I had my notebook, some chocolates, a lost key, a picture of my mother, my muggle pen, and the napkin from dinner. I stared at it for a really long time, trying to go into my daydream state again. It didn't work though and so I folded the napkin up into a bookmark and placed it in my notebook.

"'Night Millie," I yawned before climbing into bed.

She paused in her unpacking, surprised I had said anything at all.

"...Goodnight," she replied warily before shutting her trunk and climbing into her own bed as well.

The room was engulfed in darkness and I sighed, knowing that graduation couldn't come soon enough.