In Which Ginny's Clumsiness Finally Pays Off

Chapter Four: In the Greener Side

"WAKE UP WEASLEY!!"

Ginny sat upright in a bolt, her eyes open with surprise and her eardrums breaking. She found herself staring wide-eyed at the white walls of the hospital wing, with Malfoy standing beside her, grinning.

"Oh, you´re awake," he exclaimed cheerfully.

"What day is it?" she asked, searching desperately for a clock, "How long was I out?"

"You fainted yesterday and so I thought it would be real fun if I just left you in the middle of the Quidditch field, while I run towards Care of Magical Creatures. That Weasel brother of yours will have a fit if he sees you taking a nap alone. Out of all coincidences however, your two idiotic body guards came rescuing you and yeah, that´s pretty much what happened."

"You mean it´s the next day?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Right you are, Weasley! And to be more precise, it´s 6:00 AMthe next day--next day--your first day of being Argus Filch!"

Ginny sighed exasperatedly at Malfoy´s smiling face. It bothered her that the mere thought of her working for the Slytherinsmade Malfoy a happy, bouncing, overjoyed--toad.

"Well then, guess I should change my clothes and follow you in a minute."

She then turned around to search for some clothes in the drawer. She was sure Colin and Neville remembered to bring her something to change into.

She found her usual black robes neatly folded in one of the cubbies. Just as she was about to take off the usual hospital wing pyjamas, she remembered how perverted Malfoy was and turned around to see if he was peeking.

He wasn´t peeking of course.

He was just there, the same silly smile still plastered in his face.

"Malfoy," she began, clearing her throat, feeling very nervous indeed, "I don´t know if this thought already hit you but--I am...about to change my clothes..."

"Oh, you wanted me to go?"

"Actually, yes."

"It wasn´t like I was planning to stay of course," he ranted on as he turned his back on her, about to leave, "I mean, if ever I plan on peeking on a girl´s naked body--why would I peek on a Weasley?"

His laughter was heard even until Ginny had already pulled the curtains close to her, feeling anger boiling inside.

First it was her diary.

Then the official Slytherin team worker.

If she didn´t know any better, she´d think Malfoy was doing every possible way to get them together. If she didn´t know any better, she´d think Malfoy actually liked her. And if she wasn´t too involved with the rants in her head, she would´ve noticed that the laughter Malfoy was supposed to be guffawing out was now non-existent.

*..*

At 6:15 in the morning, two hours before breakfast, Ginny Weasley was to be found standing inside the broom shed with her jaw on the floor while her right hand held a wet sponge and her left hand holding on the wall for support.

At 6:15 in the morning, two hours before breakfast, DracoMalfoy was to be found standing inside the broom shed, with a very smug smile in his face, his arms folded across his arrogant chest, as he continued to mock the Weasley that was standing right beside him.

"Painful isn´t it? All would´ve been fair if only you knew how to clean in magic, but tut, tut--you just have to do it--Muggle Style."

"How do you--how do you know which are which?" she gasped out loud.

In front of her was a pile of dirty unidentified broomsticks, beneath a pile of dark-green robes which was probably their Quidditch robes--after a million of games, that is--and mud, mud, mud everywhere.

"It wasn´t that bad when Filch still cleaned for us," Malfoyuttered defensively as though she had just insulted him, "but when he found out about Argus Jr., he just went berserk. He threw everything in that shed--mind you, it might have chicken dung too."

Ginny´s jaw dropped lower.

"He was rather fond of chickens."

"Oh my--what´s that smell?" Ginny gagged as the waft of rotting-milk-and-meat-combined floated in her nostrils, making her temporarily dizzy.

"Shoes--and socks, I guess. I always told Trent not to leave his socks here but he never listened. Trent has--umm--blisters."

Ginny stared at Malfoy disbelievingly.

"Hey, I don´t fancy Trent--no one does!"

She sighed loudly as she reached out to the pail of water Malfoyhad conjured for her earlier. She carried it towards the pile of dirty broomsticks and set to work.

Silence filled the closet for quite a while. Malfoy had found a nice resting place besides the doorway while Ginny kneeled down and rubbed until her hands were sore. Sweat dripped over her eyebrow as she worked, trying hard to remove all possible mud tracks from the expensive broom.

A Nimbus 2001...

She finally got to hold one!

She laid down the broom beside her and started on cleaning the next one closest to her, wondering excitedly what kind of broom it was next.

"Oh," she murmured out loud when she found out the brand.

"Hmm??" Malfoy asked lazily from his spot, craning a little to look at Ginny´s surprised face.

She was rapidly grabbing one broom after the other, looking at it for a minute and then piling it up with the others. After seven tries, she gazed at Malfoy with a confused face.

"All the broomsticks are Nimbus 2001s."

"Yes."

"Who bought them?" she asked curiously.

"My father."

"Wow," she gasped out loud, as she gazed at the Nimbuses all around her, "he must be rich."

"Richest wizard they always say," He boasted, smiling, "I mean, compared to your father, he must be a king to you."

"Please leave my father out of this," she murmured as she avoided his stare, "I´m not insulting yours."

"Cause there´s nothing to insult. No soft spot--nada."

"My father may be poor but he works hard to support all of us," she said quietly, "I really think he´s nice. I wouldn´t trade him for any father there is."

"Sure, but that´s because you haven´t tried living with my father. You haven´t tried eating gorgeous dinners every night, silky clothes, large private rooms, and warm bubble baths. "

"Not everything´s about money you know."

"The person who came up with that quote was probably poor."

Ginny decided that this was not a good time to tell Malfoythat she made that quote up herself. Instead, she focused on cleaning since, as Malfoy once said, that was the only thing she was good at.

Oh.

Malfoy never said that.

Funny, she thought about it herself.

So there she was, sinking into the realization that she was a poor loser. Thank you very much, Malfoy.

"Crabbe! Goyle!"

Ginny turned around to see Malfoy welcoming his two thugs with a huge grin. The door of the shed closed with a bang as Malfoy left her alone to join his friends. A drift of conversation floated around her ears.

"You can always go to the Great Hall," she heard a friendly voice float inside the small and cramped shack. Was it Malfoy? How come he sounded so--friendly and nice? Was it possible that his mean persona was all--an act?

She shook her head furiously at the mere thought.

Come on, it´s Malfoy. The I´m-a-racist-bastard Malfoy. How could she actually come up with a theory revolving around a Malfoy and nice? A sentence containing the name Malfoy and kind/nice/good is not a sentence at all.

"I mean, you guys must be hungry. No, I´m fine--just go to the kitchens and tell the elves to fetch you some bread, you know where it is. Not actually having a great time, but it beats having to stay in there with Pansy!"

Laughter could be heard.

"Yeah well, but my father shouldn´t know about this--if Archie--what´s-his-face Weasley knows about me being the boss of his youngest daughter, he´ll go nuts. I don´t want him having another fight with my father--my father got a black eye the last time they were in a rumble. Besides, we don´t want Archie dying now, right? How could the Weasleyspossibly live??"

Ginny rolled her eyes as the Slytherins joined in heartless guffaws.

"No."

She looked up at the closed door as Malfoy´s voice suddenly became authoritative and low--as if they were whispering. The nosy side of her taking over, Ginny crawled towards the little crack under the door and strained to hear what the three Slyhterins were talking about.

"No way."

"Come on, Draco--it would be real fun--Greg and I wasted our whole life trying to make this one up!"

Greg?

Ginny strained to think what Crabbe was talking about. Was there a particular Greg in Slytherin she didn´t know about?

"Don´t. Haven´t you ever wondered why I never insulted his parents? The Weasleys are okay, they´re doing well enough--but not them."

Hey, that´s a first, thought Ginny as soon as she heard the words flood out of Malfoy´smouth; he said the Weasleysare doing well. Why, I´m seeing a whole new side of Malfoyby eavesdropping into their conversation! I should do this more often--what do you know, maybe I´ll finally prove the rumour about Malfoy, bubble baths and a feather boa.

"His parents are freaking dead Vincent! Just leave them alone!"

Ginny´s eyes widened as Malfoy´s loud booming voice blasted in her ears. She never thought she could hear him angrier than he was now.

Quickly, she crawled back to her place, away from the door, prepared to act as if she heard nothing at all. She thought about what she just heard. It seemed as though Crabbe and Goyle--or Vincent and Greg--were planning to insult someone about their dead parents, which made Malfoy lose his cool.

It´s probably a Gryffindor, she thought her eyes squinting as the thought made her mad, and those cruel, heartless Slytherins never knows any better. Once they find a soft spot they hit it and they don´t care if it permanently affects their behaviour. They don´t even have any sympathy to someone´s dead parents--as long as it´s a Gryffindor, they´re all go. All of them.

Except for one, of course.

That was probably just an act. He didn´t want Crabbe and Goyle havig all the fame--he wanted it for himself. So he tells them not to do it, because he wants to do it for himself. Yeah, that´s probably it--that incomparable, nasty--Malfoy.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Malfoy entered the shed, with a worried look on his face.

Ginny chose not to notice.

"You--" he began.

She looked up to see Malfoy staring at the ceiling, as though staring at her was a hard thing to do. She also noticed that his voice was shaking.

"--didn´t hear any of that, did you?"

"No," she lied quickly, shaking her head for emphasis, "not a word."

"Good," he said as he returned to his spot.

Nervous? Malfoy´s never nervous. No reason to be nervous--he´s about to be named: Most Pitiless Slytherin of All, so why should he be nervous?

Unless of course, if--just if--just for the sake of argument--he really was trying to protect a Gryffindor--and if he really was trying to project a bad boy persona, he wouldn´t want me, a Gryffindor--his favourite spectator--finding out about him protecting that parent-less housemate, right?

No, that just sounds silly. He knows of course I´m not close to my own house--I have very few friends--so why should he worry about it? If I did know about that Gryffindorhe´s protecting, I wouldn´t be able to tell him or her that since that person probably doesn´t know I exist. He knows the only close friends I have are my brothers, Colin, Neville, Hermione and of course, the whole school knows I have a major crush on--

Ginny stopped abruptly. She turned around to look at the silver-haired boy leaning against the wall, the concerned part of him evident in his grey eyes which were fluttering to every corner in the room.

Could it be? That this--Slytherin--was protecting him from his two friends?

Was he protecting Harry Potter´s parents?

"Bugger off, Weasley. Stop staring at me like that, I feel exposed."

Ginny smiled at the corners of her mouth--the first real smile within the past three days--ever since the first day she bumped into him.

She went back to her scrubbing with a pounding heart.

I´m learning more about Malfoynow. Ron would be enthusiastic if I tell him all about his good side. Why, I´m starting to think that--

She turned around once more to steal a quick glance of Malfoy.

--that my clumsiness is finally paying off.