An Unexpected Gift

An Unexpected Gift

~ Chapter 05 ~

"I can't believe Dean's still with Ginny. I would've went for someone else because... you just can't have sex with a pregnant woman."

"It's not even his kid," Ron said. "She went off and cheated on him with someone. I heard her talking to Hermione about it."

"Did she say who it was?" Seamus asked interestedly.

"Nah," Ron said. "Wish she woulda, though."

"How come?" Seamus asked.

"Just... cuz...."

"Does Dean know it's not his?" Harry asked, speaking up for the first time since the conversation had started.

"Yeah, he knows," Ron said. "He was talking to me about it the other day. One of the reasons I can't believe they're still together. But I'll tell you one thing: if he had been the one to get her pregnant, I swear I would've beat his ass."

"If it were me, I woulda dropped the little whore when she told me." This came from Harry.

"Hey, mate," Ron said, "watch your mouth. I may be pissed at her, but she's still my little sister."

"Sorry. I'm just saying, if I were him, I woulda gone for Sunset McKinley, that foreign girl that just transferred here from that wizarding school over in Russia," said Harry. "I mean, she really likes him."

"He should go for it," said Seamus. "She's hot."

"You got that right," said Ron

"Mmhm," said Ron.

"He's nuts to stay with that bitch," said Seamus.

"You guys better quit insulting my sister."

"Why?" asked Seamus. "You do it every day."

"Good point," Ron said, cracking a small smile.

At this point, Dean was tired of listening to all the words that were coming from who he had thought were his best friends. He stepped out of the shadows, glared at them, and took off down the hall at a fast-paced walk. Their surprised faces watched his retreating back until he disappeared around the corner.

Dean continued on his way to the Great Hall. He got halfway there when Ginny came out of a classroom.

"Hey, sweetie," Ginny said. "What's up?"

Dean didn't say anything.

"Have you had a good day so far?"

Still nothing. She looked up at him. He had a glare fixed on his face and he wouldn't look at her.

They walked for a few more minutes before Ginny stopped in the middle of the hallway and said, "Are you gonna tell me what's wrong?"

He stopped as well and turned to face her. "You don't get it, do you?" The small crowd of people that were in the corridor, stopped in their tracks in order to check out what was going on.

"Get what?" Ginny asked.

"I can't take it anymore! Everywhere I go I get snickers, comments, and whatever else, and now I'm getting them from my best friends! It's just getting to be too much."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Are you really that stupid that you don't know what I'm talking about?" They were both silent for a moment. "It's over!!"

"What?!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Dean saw Ron, Seamus, and Harry come into the corridor, but he didn't acknowledge them. They stopped when they saw Ginny and Dean.

"I said it's over! We're through! I can't take it anymore!"

"What do you mean, you can't take it anymore?! If you think you've got it that bad, it's nothing compared to how I've had it!"
"What if I don't care?!"

"Then you're just a selfish bastard! I can't believe you're breaking up with me! You said you'd help me! I thought we could stay together! I thought you were gonna help me take care of this baby!"

"Well... you thought wrong! It's your own damn fault you fucked whoever the hell you fucked! That baby is not my responsibility, and it never was! Why don't you and your bastard child take yourselves out of my face, cuz it's making me sick to look at you." He turned around as if to walk back down the corridor, but turned back. "You know what, I don't know why I ever forgave you. That was a big mistake on my part. I never should've forgave you for what you did."

"You cannot do this to me, Dean! You promised you would take care of me! You're just an asshole and a liar!"

The look of anger on Dean's face increased, if that was possible. He took two steps closer to her, closing most of the gap between them, and slapped her as hard as he could across the face. With a squeal of pain, she stumbled and fell hard against the wall. Already, her cheek was beginning to bruise.

"Mr. Thomas!!" a voice yelled from not very far away. McGonagall had emerged from her office just in time to see the slap occur. "How dare you!! You have no right to do something like that! Detention for a month! Now apologize and be on your way!"

Without apologizing, Dean glared at Ginny once more before stalking away down the corridor.

"Make that two months, Mr. Thomas!" McGonagall yelled after him. "Everyone clear out of hear and go to lunch immediately! There's nothing to see here." She then walked over to Ginny, who had slid down on the floor and was crying into her hands. "Come on, Ginny," McGonagall said. It was the first time she had called Ginny by her first name. "Come to my office; you can have a cup of tea. I think it'll calm you down."

Still crying, Ginny accepted McGonagall's outstretched hand. McGonagall helped her to her feet, put her arm around her shoulder, and walked her to her office.

~*~

Draco Malfoy was walking down a corridor. He was lost in his thoughts, thinking about his latest Potions homework, which he'd most definitely received an 'O' on. Suddenly, a loud yell jerked out of his thoughts.

"I can't take it anymore!"

He stopped in his tracks and looked around until he saw the scene unfolding between Dean and Ginny. He couldn't take his eyes off Ginny's angry and crestfallen face, and he had to work really hard to control himself when Dean slapped her across the face. Her long-time relationship with Dean Thomas was over. He looked down at the floor.

'Poor girl,' he thought to himself. 'I got her into this mess and she's paying the consequences for it. Now everyone's going to expect me to ridicule her. But I'm not sure I want to. I feel too responsible for this whole thing.'

As the small battle raged in his mind, not noticing anything else around him, McGonagall walked past Malfoy and gave him a funny look - she had never seen him look concerned before, and now he had the emotion written horribly all over his face.

Draco knew that if he didn't pick on Ginny, people would know that something was wrong, which would lead to questions, and questions would most definitely not be good. A Malfoy and a Weasley?! That was something he would do almost anything to keep a secret as long as possible.

'It's not gonna be a secret when she has it,' he thought, 'depending on what it looks like. Gosh, what've I got myself into?' He got up off the wall and headed silently down the corridor, hands in his pockets and head down.

~*~

"Seen your baby's daddy lately?"

"Who'd you do it with this week?"

Comments followed Ginny around for the next few weeks, comments that caused her to cry herself to sleep every night.

"Life of a cheating bitch suits you well, Weasley." A few people in the hall laughed at the remark Pansy Parkinson had made. She was standing against the wall next to Malfoy and a few other Slytherins.

"Shove off, Parkinson. I don't have time to deal with you."

"Oh, by all means, go on your way. I just wondered what it feels like to be a slut."

"You should know. You are one. Word gets around fast in this school."

"Oooh, great comeback," she said sarcastically. "Since intelligence is the only thing you have going for you - I mean, you don't have hardly any money. I thought you'd be able to come up with something better than that."

"Yeah, well if you can stand there and make fun of me and tease me, you must lead a very boring life."

"Quoting teachers now, are you?"

"You make me sick," Ginny said, an intense glare fixed on her face.

"I have that effect on some people. You know, I never figured you'd be the talk of the school one day. But that day has come. Gosh, you're such a slut."

"Leave my sister alone, Parkinson," Ron said, all of a sudden emerging from the crowd of people who were watching the scene unfold.

"What's the matter, Weasley?" Pansy said, looking over to Ron. "What do you care what I call your sister? I heard you call her a slut the other day yourself." She laughed then, a short evil laugh, and took her position back against the wall.

Ginny looked angrily over at Ron for a minute, then her face fell. A tear came to her eye and she headed off in the direction of Gryffindor Tower.

~*~

After Ginny departed off down the hall, the crowd of people dispersed, leaving only the Slytherins to populate the corridor. Pansy turned to Malfoy and, after backhanding him on the shoulder, said, "What was that?"

"What was what?" Malfoy said, annoyance in his voice at being slapped.

"What do you mean, 'What was what'? You know perfectly well what." She paused for a moment. "What's wrong with you? Since when have you passed up an opportunity to rag on a Weasley?"

"You seemed like you had it pretty well handled by yourself."
"That's not the point and you know it. I don't know what's wrong with you lately. You just... you just aren't the same anymore."

"Yeah, whatever," he said. He pushed himself off the wall and headed off down the hallway.

"Draco!" Pansy yelled at him.

He ignored her and just kept on going down the hall, not looking back.