The Gifted Amissio

Chapter 2

The Train

Slamming the compartment door behind her, releasing a long breath and congratulating herself on not blowing up, Ginny smiled satisfactorily at the empty corridor before her. Her high sprits were immediately dampened by the realization that she now had nowhere to sit. Luna was arriving at Hogwarts the next day, due to extended vacation in Russia, and although Ginny was often the center of attention at parties, she had very few friends that she could actually talk to unless drunk and therefore more social.

She was walking along the corridor when she bumped into Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, who were laughing and sauntering back over to their compartment, which, by the looks of things, also held a very distraught Neville.

"Erm...Seamus?"

Seamus turned his electric blue eyes towards Ginny. She could have sworn she heard him mutter a deep "whoa" of what apparently was approval.

"Yeah?"

"Uh...could I sit with you guys? That is, if it's ok, I don't want to intrude or anything-"

"It's fine, come in." he smiled and motioned for her to follow him into the compartment, which already seated Dean and Neville.

"Thanks."

The train ride was much more entertaining than train rides ever were with the golden trio. She discovered that despite being unfortunately clumsy with potions, Neville was quite brilliant otherwise; Dean actually spent his summer taming unicorns in a pasture that was just next to his Grandmother's French cottage, and was top of the class in Care of Magical Creatures. And Seamus was turning out to be one of the kindest, most interesting guys she had ever spoken to.

Being mostly composed of men, however, the conversation soon drifted into sex.

Ginny kept her mouth shut. Ron was right, she hadn't had any boyfriends, but she was far more experienced sex wise that her older brother. She wasn't a slut, heavens no, but she didn't much feel like sharing the information about her state of non-virginity with the boys.

Besides, it had been a drunken mistake.

The second time wasn't, her head scolded her; no, it wasn't. But having sex twice did not make her a tramp, she reasoned to herself, and she had never waved around her sexual adventures for the whole world to see. At least she had actually liked him.

No.

It could never have worked.

Stop thinking about him.

* * *

Slobbery kisses, apparently meant to be sexy but not quite working out that way, made their way down his neck to the collar of his black shirt.

"Pansy. Stop it."

"Don't kid yourself, Draco. You know you like it," she replied, a hungry look in her eyes.

It struck Draco how remarkable her resemblance was to a rabid beaver was just then. Gross.

"Pansy. I've said this before, I -" he stopped. "Is that drool?" he asked, looking appalled by the fact that her rabid beaver-spit was now on his clothing.

"I don't like you. So bugger off," he finished, temporarily ignoring the disgusting glob that was glistening just below his collar.

"I knew it. It's that Blaise, isn't it? Always clinging onto her, you pathetic, insufferable..."

Draco phased out and stopped listening to whatever mindless dribble that was coming out of her mouth, which, Draco noted, carried the most unappealing stench of onion. After all, it wasn't his fault that he didn't feel like listening to what that drama queen had to say the time.

"I loved you!" she shrieked, giving a slap across the face.

Now that was uncalled for.

God, could she be more melodramatic?

"Yes, Pansy, it's true," he said, "Blaise and I are having a wild affair. Just last week I took her to the zoo and the sight of seeing the elephants mating made us go crazy and do it like dogs right there."

Pansy appeared to have missed the settle sarcasm.

Idiot.

She tramped out of the compartment just as Blaise slipped in; it was one of those times in life that the right person comes at the right time, as this, for Pansy, confirmed her worst fear that Draco wasn't lying and ran crying to the bathroom.

Once she had disappeared from sight, Blaise turned to him.

"Quite a performance there. Personally I would have gone for 'you told me I was the only one!' and thrown a cup of water on your face, but hey, everyone does it differently."

Draco made a fancy bow.

"Yes, thank you, I know my brilliant acting is capable of making women faint world-wide..."

"Uh huh. Listen," she took a step towards Draco, her voice lowering to a faint whisper, "I've got to tell you something. It'll have to wait until we get to school, but we have to go up to Dumbledore's office as soon as we arrive, ok?"

"Ok, sure," Draco answered, a small pang forming in his stomach. He hated it when people told him they had something to tell him; especially when those people told him he'd have to wait to hear it until he was in front of high-authority figures, which always meant the news was something bad.

But Blaise was his best friend, and the only person he trusted. She didn't know all his secrets, as he was as tight-lipped about his personal affairs as a human being could possibly be, but their friendship remained a strong one and he valued it more than any other he had ever had.

"Alright," she breathed, her voice back to normal level and speaking as though she hadn't just warned him about possible mortal peril very near ahead of him, "I'm going to the loo."

"Ok. Don't forget your tampons."

She gave him a quizzed look.

"I noticed your amount of chocolate consumption had increased in the past week. Plus it was about a month since the last time you threw a hissy fit at me for no reason, so I put it together."

She continued to look confused, but there was also a certain deflation to her expression that told him he was correct about his assumption that she was experiencing her monthly woman time.

"Clever one, aren't I?"

She gave him a playful glare, and walked out of the room with a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.