In Which Ginny's Clumsiness Finally Pays Off

Chapter Seven: In the Process of Forgetting

The inviting rays of sun light warmed Ginny's cheeks, making her wake up entirely. The sour taste from the side of her mouth told her that she fell asleep in the Gryffindor common room--on one of the squashy arm chairs in fact. Colin and Neville were sitting comfortably on either side of her, both munching on something that remarkably looked like chicken sandwiches. She tugged on the robe that she used as a blanket for the night, and found out that it belonged to Ron. She yawned, turned over, attempting to catch sleep once more, since it was an early Saturday morning.

Saturday...it seemed like it was only yesterday since Malfoy had barged into her life. It all began three days ago, Wednesday. What did he say to her?

Of all the people you can bump into, it just had to be me...

She smiled at the thought.

"What did Harry do?" Colin suddenly asked, making her stiffen with surprise. She didn't realize that she woke up into the middle of her friends' conversation. Were they talking about her? She certainly hoped they weren't.

"I don't know, I just heard them," Neville replied lazily. "They didn't even know that I was behind them."

"So, his mother liked apples?"

"Adored them."

"Hmm," said Colin knowingly. Ginny felt him nodding beside her. "So what's with Harry anyway? Why is he researching about his mother all of a sudden?"

"I don't know, stop asking hard questions," Neville grumbled. "Besides, that should be no surprise. I mean, she is his mother."

"You mean it isn't because of the secret journal thing hidden in the castle? You don't suppose the reason why Harry's trying to find out more about Mrs. Potter this year is because he wants to know where her journal is, do you?"

"Why in the name of Merlin would Harry, or anyone for that matter, would be interested in their mother's journal? Colin, get real."

"Well I would be interested if I found out that my mother almost didn't marry my father because of one person..."

"You know about that?" Ginny cried out, throwing away Ron's robes and jumping up to face Colin.

"You're awake!" Neville exclaimed in surprise.

"Next time you jump towards four inches within my nose, do me a favourand warn me, will you?" said Colin derisively, gently pushing Ginny away from him.

"Sorry about that," she uttered, giving Colin an embarrassed grin. "It's just that I woke up to the lovely sound of your voice about Harry and stuff and--yeah..."

"Neville, remind me never to talk about Harry again when Ginny's sleeping."

"Right."

"So," she interrupted, her eyes shining as she got more excited, anticipating for the information Colin held about the latest gossip, "how did you know about the Lily affair?"

"Neville and I knew this for quite a time actually," Colin explained. "We didn't want to tell you since you've been rather cooped up with the whole Shrinking Potions stuff and it was your birthday."

"I forgive you two. Now, go on..."

"Do you remember about the time we told you about us having to sneak into the Owlery to build this cage for your mood plant?"

"Yes..."

"While we were there, we sort of, heard your brother and Harry talking about Mrs. Potter..."

"Harry was talking about how he couldn't believe that his mother actually considered marrying him," Neville continued while looking at Ginny intently. "Especially since he wasn't even in the same house as she was in at that time."

"So who is he?" Ginny asked eagerly. "Who's this big non-Gryffindor guy?"

"We don't know yet," Neville answered, making Ginny sigh in disappointment. "But we promise to find out soon," he added quickly.

"No wonder Professor McGonagall and Harry were always together," Colin commented. "He was probably asking her about his mother."

"Yeah, he most probably was," Ginny agreed, as she remembered the conversation she overheard yesterday. She didn't know why this kept on popping out; it wasn't any of her business anyway. It's too much of a coincidence now--now that it had popped out two times.

"The trip to Hogsmeade begins in an hour," Neville announced as he got to his feet. "You might want to change now, Gin."

"But I have to clean the--"

"Not a thing to worry about," Colin interrupted, grinning. "Hermione already took care of that this morning."

"How about the--" Ginny's voice trailed off as she suddenly lost confidence in telling her friends about the spying she was supposed to do. She wasn't sure if Ron already told them about it for she only vaguely remembered the events last night. She was in a big wreck as she sobbed into her brother's lap non-stop. She was pretty sure she already spilled everything she knew and everything that happened the past three days, but she wasn't that sure to be actually telling them that--just in case they didn't know yet.

"Here," said Colin, shoving into her hands a piece of parchment. "These are Hufflepuff's plans in full colourand graphics."

"How--what?" she stuttered helplessly, not minding the fact that her mouth was opening and closing in front of Colin.

Neville laughed out loud.

"Colin worked hard on that last night," he explained after gaining control of himself, giving Ginny a hearty wink. "After hearing your consistent bawling all over the common room, and after Ron's frantic cursing, we figured out what the problem was and we thought it'd help you."

Smiling, Ginny stuffed the parchment into her pocket's robes, feeling her worries vanish as each second passed.

*.*

"I'm the brown puppy," Colin announced while they were inside Quarterly Galore, a store in Hogsmeade entirely dedicated to different kinds of magazines, from The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle to Gossips, Gossips and Gossips. The three friends were sitting in the staircase at the far end of the store, with Ginny on the lowest step, Neville on the middle and Colin on the highest. They were all clutching in their hands, copies of last week's Teen Witch Weekly, the one that featured Anemology.

"Who's your soul mate, Colin?" Neville asked.

"The white bone," Ginny piped in jokingly as she scanned the results portion to find out what animal she was.

"No, my partner is actually the red-breasted robin," Colin argued, sounding hurt. "Some people just don't appreciate the essence of love. How about you, Neville? What animal are you?"

"Isn't this weird? I'm the brown puppy too!" Neville answered excitedly as he gave Colin a high five.

"The brown puppy is the clumsier male version of the red cat. Amazingly, the brown puppy and the red cat are very much alike. Both are loyal and innocent, smart and willing, but also sly and tactful. As such, these two species get along together. The soul mate of the brown puppy is the red-breasted robin, who will sing wonderful songs to warm their hearts. Aww...isn't that nice?" Ginny gushed mockingly, placing both hands in her cheeks to act glad. "What's my definition of Anemology? It's an enormous evil scheme to trick witches and wizards that they're nothing but mere animals and gain money for it."

"I bet the reason why you hate Anemology so much is because you got something bad," Colin sniffed, sounding offended once more.

"Ha! As if! For your information I got a good one! I'm the--"

Ginny never got to finish her sentence for right then and there,Draco Malfoy appeared in front of her, arms crossed over his chest, saying, "Let me guess...the purple worm perhaps?"

"Get out of here, Malfoy!"

It was the first time Ginny and Neville saw Colin so daringly going against Malfoy. He walked towards Malfoy, a copy of the magazine squeezed inside his fist, and his face set into a menacing growl. He was determined to bring Malfoy down.

"I'm here to talk to her," Malfoy answered spitefully, his greyeyes never leaving Ginny's almond pair alone.

"No, you're not. She's done with you," Neville interrupted as he placed comforting hands on top of Ginny's trembling shoulders. "The shed's clean if you haven't noticed. It would take another week before it needs to be swept again."

"I'm not talking about that," Malfoy argued stubbornly. "It's this other business we agreed about."

"Yes," said Ginny, standing up, motioning for Colin and Neville not to follow. If Malfoy finds out that she had told Ron, Hermione, Harry and her two best friends about their agreement, she was sure he'd rip her head off. She did promise him she won't tell a soul.

She followed him towards the other far end of the room, where it was shadowy and only a few people from their school passed

"The plans?" he asked authoritatively, his left hand outstretched towards her, demanding.

She fumbled for the parchment inside her pockets, wanting it to get over with. She thrust the forged strategies that were cleverly drawn by Colin, in his palms, which he grabbed greedily. All the while his leer never left his face.

"Don't you feel any guilt at all?" she asked heatedly, her cheeks fuming with anger. "You're cheating, aren't you? I don't know much about Quidditch but I feel sure that spying on the other team is against the rules."

"You should know by now the reason why," he answered snottily, eyeing the Teen Witch Weekly clasped in her hand with playfulness. "I'm the silver dragon, I'm supposed to play unfairly, but I guess you wouldn't understand, since you clearly are the red cat."

"This has nothing to do--"

"Malfoy, get away from here, you racist bastard."

Ginny turned around to see Ron, Harry, Hermione, Colin and Neville all standing behind her. A swarm of irritated faces all there just exclusively for Draco Malfoy. She was pretty sure that Colin and Neville ran all over Hogsmeade trying to find help, finding the trio in the process.

"I wonder why it said we're soul mates though? Right now, we can't even understand each other," Malfoy went on, as if he heard nothing, as if he didn't see that he was clearly outnumbered.

"I have never understood you, Malfoy," she snarled forebodingly. "And I must admit that trying to understand you was the biggest mistake I have ever done in my entire clumsy life."

"You know," said Malfoy, his expression suddenly becoming blank as he stuffed the parchments inside his pockets, "I always thought that when you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it."

"Oh yeah, and where did you get that Malfoy? A crappy novel?"Ron's voice floated in Ginny's ears, but try as she may, she didn't hear him. She didn't hear the insults thrown by both Hermione and Harry. She didn't hear the witty comebacks that Malfoy threw back. She didn't hear the fading footsteps of Malfoy as he backed away, leaving her in a dazed trance.

"Come Ginny, let's go..."

Was it Harry who said that? It didn't matter now. The only thing that Ginny heard was the echoes of Malfoy's voice, the way he told her...

When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.

Funny, she thought as she walked beside her friends, her eyes staring fixedly at the ground, slowly thinking things over, how Malfoy can come up with those words when he didn't even mean a single word of it.

Funny, how he knows me so much...

Funny, how he's the silver dragon and I'm the red cat.

I never had a chance to tell him that.

Funny, how I regret it.

*.*

A whole week passed.

It had been one of Ginny's reflexes to hide behind either Colin or Neville, behind a statue or a wall, barge inside any classroom, or simply run whenever Malfoy was seen walking towards her, talking to his friends, or whenever she sees Malfoy at all. It wasn't that hard to avoid him, especially since she wasn't in any of her classes, not in her house, and not even in the same grade. It was actually pretty easy. She only had to duck three times a day. Besides, with two gigantic boulders for friends, it was actually a piece of cake trying to spot Malfoy amidst a crowd. It was no problem at all.

Ginny and Colin were chattering non-stop as they walked down the History of Magic hallway, about to meet Neville in his Charms class. It was then that Draco Malfoy suddenly appeared in a corner, having just exited from the boy's lavatory.

Ginny immediately pulled Colin down a flight of stone steps they both have never seen before. Ginny thought they might end up in the same dark dungeons Snape probably lived in, but instead they entered a bright cheery corridor, with dozens of paintings composed mainly of different kinds of food.

"Wow," whispered Colin, who was behind her, gaping at a particular enormous painting of steak and fries. "Finally something good came out from your running away from Malfoy."

"Where are we?" she asked, her voice trembling with fear. She didn't like the look of this place, though it seemed jolly and--appetizing. She had the feeling that no one had been there before and that no one was allowed to pass through there either.

"Gin, look!" Colin cried out.

Ginny looked at where Colin was staring. At the far end of the corridor, a dim red light was radiating from one of the paintings. Ginny took a few steps forward and squinted hard until she realized that a small figure, not taller than her knee, was standing on top of a pile of books as if reaching for something in front of the red light. His back was at their front, and apparently he didn't realize that he has company.

On instinct, Colin and Ginny both backed up against the wall, the shadows of the torches their only hope of concealment. Colin was breathing hard beside her, each muscle in his body trembling. Ginny swallowed her breath.

It was as if a whole eternity passed before they heard a loud thumping of books being rearranged, the swishing of a cloak and the echoing of light footsteps. The footsteps disappeared fast, as if the bearer ran away, afraid to get caught, and in a hurry to be gone.

The two shaking Gryffindors waited for five minutes before they slowly stepped towards the light, revealing their whole guilty appearance. Out of curiosity, Ginny rushed into the direction of the fading red light, keen to find out what was going on.

Luckily, as if on cue, the light disappeared only after Ginny was right in front of the painting of which it was radiating from.

The light came from a painting of a gigantic silver bowl, filled with different kinds of fruits--grapes, bananas, an apple, an orange and a pear.

"I wonder what Professor Flitwick was doing," Colin whispered behind her, startling her out of her thoughts.

"Professor Flitwick?" she asked, turning around to face him. "You saw him?"

"Not exactly," he answered. "But you saw him yourself. He wasn't any taller than either of our knees. He needed a pile of books to be able to reach something in that painting."

"Are you sure that was Professor Flitwick though?" said Ginny reluctantly, her face filled with worry. "He doesn't seem the kind of person who'd sneak into an empty hallway and try to seep out red light from a painting, is he?"

"Who has to stand on books to be able to teach a class, Ginny?" said Colin surely, his eyes wide with excitement. "Who decorates the Great Hall every time there's an occasion with bright cheery light? Who's the only person in Hogwarts who's as small as the height of our knees to the floor? Professor Flitwick, that's who! And besides, who said he was doing any sneaking? If there's anyone to be blamed of sneaking in this hallway, it'd be us, not him!"

"I guess you're right," said Ginny, finally giving in.

Colin linked his arm in hers as they walked back upstairs slowly, again towards the Charms classroom to meet Neville, which just added to Colin's proof. The Charms classroom was near that hallway. Maybe right after class, Professor Flitwick just dashed to where he was standing where they met him, doing whatever it was he was occupying himself with.

"What can he be doing though?" Ginny asked out loud.

"Maybe he was just--redecorating something in the painting," answered Colin. "You know...same old Flitwick...besides, you shouldn't occupy yourself too much with that midget. It's the Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff match tomorrow; we can't possibly miss Slytherin messing up because they believed some phony plans right?"

"Right..." Ginny mumbled with a sinking feeling at the pit of her stomach.

"I can't wait to see the look on Malfoy's face..." Colin droned on, but Ginny didn't hear him.

If only she didn't have a conscience, then everything will be all right. One thing was for sure though. Malfoy can count Ginny's presence in the crowd tomorrow morning, cheering him on, hoping against hope he didn't believe the fake plans Colin drew.