An Acceptable Risk

An Acceptable Risk

Chapter Four - Ginny Baits a Trap

The next morning, Ginny rose early, and made her way down to the nearly empty Great Hall for breakfast. Luck was against her, however. Sitting at the Gryffindor table was Harry, looking angrier than she could ever recall seeing him.

Well, good luck Ginny, she said to herself. You´re going to need it if you are going to manage to do this successfully.

"Hi Harry," she said as she sat in her seat. "Pass the toast please, and the tomatoes. I´m starving this morning."

"What," said Harry ignoring her request. "Did you work up an appetite saying rude and hateful things to your best friend in front of the whole school?"

"Look Harry," Ginny said, her voice trembling slightly. "Hermione´s getting to be a bit to bossy. All she has to do is leave me alone, and we´ll both be fine. Now, I really don´t want to discuss this with you. I don´t see how it´s any of your business," she concluded, her voice growing more and more snippy with each word.

The two ate in silence as the Great Hall filled with hungry students. Harry looked up to see Ron and Hermione making their way to the table, Hermione carrying a stack of papers.

"Here are the class timetables for this term," she said as she them out to the Gryffindors. "Honestly Ron, why do you and Harry persist with Divinations. That old fraud Trelawney has predicted Harry´s death every year and been wrong. Ginny, here´s your schedule. You´re taking Divinations too? Really, I thought you would have learned something from Ron and Harry´s experiences with that charlatan," Hermione groused in her most condescending voice.

"Well, pardon me Miss Know-it-all. Forgive me for not consulting with you about every last subject I was considering. Do you know what Hermione? Maybe Madam Trelawney was right. Maybe you dislike divination so much because you aren´t truly open to magical ways. Sure you can do all the things that are in the book, but the real magic, the intuitive magic, you can´t do it." Ginny paused to catch her breath. This is it, she thought to herself. This is my chance to make them all think I hate Hermione. Taking a deep breath; she stood up from the table and glared at Hermione. "Do you know why you can´t do things like divination Hermione? It´s because you´re not a real witch. You´re power hasn´t been handed down from generation to generation. It´s not in your blood. You´re just some kind of mudblood freak, that´s what you are."

A gasp went up from the Gryffindor table as Ginny grabbed her satchel and walked across the great hall, her head held high, but inwardly, her heart was pounding, and she felt as if she could barely breath. Though their confrontation hadn´t been as loud as the one they had last night, the school had been braced for another, and they hadn´t been disappointed.

"Well, well, it appears as though the mighty Gryffindor´s are falling," drawled Draco Malfoy. "At least there´s one Weasley who has some sense." Draco pushed himself away from the table and followed Ginny out the door, under the watchful eye of Dumbledore. He walked slowly down the hall, trying to catch a glimpse of Ginny when he spied her sitting in an empty classroom.

"Bravo Weasley. That was a superb performance. I´mimpressed," he said as he pulled a chair and sat beside her.

"Th-thanks," she sniffed. "But it wasn´t a performance. It´s been building up for a long, long time. Everyone thinks Hermione is so great, but she isn´t you know. She isn´t a real witch. Sure, she can do the stuff in the books, but any stupid Muggle can do that. That´s why the Ministry of Magic works so hard to keep all our books and things hidden from the muggle world. But she can´t do the real magic, like you and I can."

She gave Draco a watery smile. "I´m sorry, I didn´t mean to go off on you like that, but like I said, that´s been building for quite some time." She gave a small self-conscious laugh and wiped her eyes. "And now that I´ve acted like a complete watering pot and made a fool of myself, would you excuse me please? I need to go make myself presentable before class."

Draco placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her from leaving. "Did you really mean what you said Ginny?"

"What! No, I just made a two huge scenes in the Great Hall and alienated myself from all my friends just for the bloody hell of it," she raged at Malfoy.

"Ok, ok, relax," he said patting her on the arm. "Listen, why don´t you meet me in the library tonight after dinner. I have a few things I´d like to tell you about."

"Sure Draco," she said, flashing him a beaming smile. "I´d like that very much."

There was a loud roar, and something pushed past Ginny, and knocked Malfoy to the ground.

"Keep your hand off of her you filthy piece of trash," shouted Harry as he pounded his fist into Draco´s stomach. "You stay away from Ginny, she doesn´t want anything to do with the likes of you!"

"Harry, you stop it this instant!" Ginny shouted. At the same time, a voice from the door shouted "Seperatus." The two boys flew apart against their own volition and stood gasping for breath. In the doorway stood Professors Snape and McGonagall.

"Potter, I expect better from you. Brawling like some common hooligan. That will be ten points from Gryffindor, and a detention for you tonight. I´ll expect you in my office at 7:00 p.m. is that clear?"

"Yes Professor McGonagall," answered Harry, still glaring at Malfoy.

"Good now I believe you have a class in five minutes. Mine to be exact. Come along, I´ll walk with you just to make sure you don´t get lost along the way. Professor Snape, I trust you´ll deal with Mr. Malfoy?"

Professor McGonagall swept Harry out of the room as Snape looked disdainfully down on Ginny and Draco.

"Really Malfoy, I´d expect you to be a bit more careful in choosing your battles. That will be five points from Slytherin, and you´d better get yourself to class before you get waylaid by Miss Weasley´s brother as well. Miss Weasley, do not forget you have detention with me tonight precisely at 7:00 p.m.," Snape said. With a swish of his robes, he walked out of the classroom and down the hall.

"Oh dear," sighed Ginny. "I´d forgotten about my detention. Could we possibly meet tomorrow evening instead? Ginny gazed at Malfoy and tried to look wistful and disappointed, when inside she was both angry and excited. It´s working, she thought to herself. I can´t believe Harry rushed to defend me like that. I also can´t believe how bloody unfair that bugger Snape was. He didn´t punish Malfoy at all. She shook her head aware that Draco had been speaking, but had no idea of what he had said.

"I´m sorry Draco," she said softly. I´m just so upset about the way Harry attacked you like that. Are you alright?"

"I´m just fine," he said strutting around like a bantam rooster. "I said I´ll wait for you in the library until 10:00. If you get out of detention before then, come on up. In fact, I´ll have a word with Snape and see if he´ll go easy on you."

"Oh Draco, will you," she said looking at him with admiration. "You´d do that for me? Thank you so much."

"Of course I will. See you tonight then," he said moving towards the door.

"Bye," she said, as he walked out the door. Ginny collapsed in the nearest chair. Harry came to my rescue, she thought to herself. That was the most alive I´ve seen him in so long!

Grabbing her bag, she walked through the door and climbed the stairs to her History of Magic class. She walked through the door and faltered a bit when she was greeted with stares of hatred from her classmates. Holding her head high, a blaze of color on her cheeks, she sat down and grabbed a piece of parchment from her bag. She muttered a charm under her breath, and began to write, in disappearing ink.

Hermione,

I think it worked. Malfoy is such a stupid self-absorbed git. He actually thinks I could be interested in him! He wants to meet me in the library tonight after my detention with Snape.

I am so sorry about the horrible things I said to you. I can´t believe those words even came from my mouth, but Hermione, I think it´s starting to work. Harry attacked Malfoy, and was beating him to a bloody pulp. I haven´t seen him so alive since Cedric was killed. We need to keep him like that; he needs to live. He can´t just wait for Voldemort to kill him. I´m dreading meeting with Draco tonight, but if I can get information about the death eaters and Voldemort, I´ll do it. I´ll do whatever it takes to save Harry!

Ginny

Folding the parchment, she slipped it into her robes until she can figure out a way to slip it to Hermione. Pulling another piece of parchment from her bag, she tried to focus her attention on Professor Binns, droning on about the uprising of Fenris the Filthy in 1468.