Who's Afraid of Virginia Weasley?

3

Minor Annoyances Who Will Remain Nameless (But For the Sake of Argument We'll Call Them Ron)

"Food, glorious food!" Ron exclaimed in a singsong voice as he entered the hall with Harry, Hermione and Ginny.

//My brother is a dumb ass. If he were any stupider, he would be a squirrel. //

"Food in the morning, food in the evening, food at supper time," Ron continued his moronic clatter, as they all sat down. "When food is on a bagel, you can eat food anytime!"

"That is the last time I let you watch Telly when you come over," Hermione muttered at Ron. He'd been on like this about food, since we got to the carriages. The whole ride up, he sang about food to various themes. Even Hermione looked ready to kill him. //He's got to be the most annoying git on the face of the planet. //

"Hello, beautiful!" A voice with a very distinctive Irish accent came from behind Ginny. //No I was wrong. //

"Hello, Seamus," Ginny turned to face one of her many exs, but a friend as while. "Long time no see... so how was your summer?" Ginny forced a smile and tried to make polite conversation. Seamus smiled at her, "Oh same old, same old. A girl here a girl there." As he said this, he took her arm and led her to the Gryffindor table. "But none of them can hold a candle to your charm, of course."

Ginny's forced smile melted into a genuine one. "You're full of it Seamus.

Ginny sat down next Seamus, which happened to put her next to Harry. Seamus immediately turned away and began hitting on Veronica Phelps. //Same old Seamus, always picking the one he's never going to get anywhere with. Everyone already knows she's practically a nun. She turned her attention to the person on the other side of her. God, Harry looks good this year. He looks so much more confident, that is so hot. I wonder if he plays guitar. To bad he doesn't wear leather. I bet Draco wears leather. I bet he'd be a demon in the sack. Eww, no. Malfoy...bad...oh, a bad boy...ahhh...no, stop. //

"Food, food food food," Ron began singing in tune to Beethoven's 9th symphony.

"Ron, for the sake of all things good and decent....shut the hell up!" Hermione yelled. People no longer turned their head when Hermione yelled at Ron. It was 95% of their relationship. In each relationship there is the dominant and the submissive. //I hate to say it but my brother is definitely the bitch. //

"Food?" he whimpered.

"No, sweetie. Not until after the sorting," Hermione said in a stern motherly fashion.

Ron looked sad. To cheer himself, he began to hum.

"Ron, stop!" Hermione snapped.

Ron began to smile cheekily, "I will if you kiss me."

Hermione began to blush, "Ron, we're in public."

Ron looked at his girlfriend confused for a moment. Then a look of realization spread on his face, "I just meant on the cheek."

"Oh." Hermione said and then kissed him on the cheek and then abandoning all thoughts against exhibitionism, went for his mouth.

"Yuck," Harry turned from the grouping couple. "Ahhh! Mental image! Mental Image!"

"So Ginny, how about an intelligent conversation?" Harry asked. //How about head? //

"Ok...How was your summer?" Ginny asked, "Sorry, I haven't actually had an intelligent conversation in a long time. Remember I live with Ron."

Harry smiled. //That smile makes me want to lick his earlobes. No, wait we're "just friends." He doesn't think of me that way. Bastard! //

Harry looked like he was going to say something else but he was interrupted by McGonagall leading the petrified first years to the front of the room.

"So...how have you been since....?" Harry began to ask but was cut off by Ginny's, "I'm fine. Everything is fine."

Harry took the hint and began listening to the sorting.

//Oh, God. It's singing again. Lalala, Ya Gryffindor great; Hufflepuff, little fuckheads; Ravenclaw, they think they're so smart with their brains and their...yeah; Ahh Slytherin, sick little fuckers. They'll try anything once. Poor McGonagall, if she got someone to give her a good snog fest, she wouldn't look so mad all the time. I bet she was a wild cat in her day though. Hmmm...I wonder if her and Dumbledore ever...// *Slam* The great hall's doors opened to reveal Lupin, with an apologetic smile. He rushed up to the staff table.

"Holy Fuck Monkeys! He's back and he's hot!" Ginny said, practically drooling.

"He's not hot! Not too mention he's like twenty years older than you" Harry said in mild disgust.

"Oh yeah, since you are such an expert in what makes men attractive, then who is hot?" Ginny asked in mild amusement, "besides I like a little maturity in my men."

"You should be going for someone your own age like...Neville," Harry said in a big brother tone. "Been there, done that," she mumbled.

"You've done everyone," he joked. "Not everyone," she said with a smile.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and put down his goblet. "I look at you all and I see the future. You are the capable young minds that will be leading the world into tomorrow.

This past year has been a dark time for the Wizarding nation. Many of us have lost family and friends. Now is the time to be strong, we must not let this stop us from carrying on. If we let him stop us, then we have let him beat us.

I know that these are dark times and the worst of it may still be ahead. However, if we remain united and strong we will survive, and become all that we were meant to become."

There was a pause as all the entire school looked up at Dumbledore wide eyed. They finally broke into applause, led by Professor McGonagall. Dumbledore smiled modestly and acknowledged it with a nod of his head before continuing. "On a happier note, some announcements. I would also like to welcome back Professor Lupin, who will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. I know last year there were certain concerns regarding him. You can rest assured that you are all safe and in good hands with Professor Lupin.

Entry to the Forbidden Forest is forbidden, hence the name. As you know, all the Hogsmead visits were canceled. This year you will be going in small groups under close supervision. Without further ado, let's tuck in!"

"Yes, Food!" Ron cried with delight, "Food food food food food," he began to sing, this time to the tune of "We Will Rock You" Before he could get to the refrain, Hermione shoved a drumstick in his mouth and said with an exasperated air,

"Shut up and eat skinny! And no more Muggle radio, either" The banquet ended when everyone had eaten enough to feed a rather large third world country. Hermione turned to Ron and he smiled,

"Show time," she said and smiled with authority. "All right Gryffindors, to the common room. First years follow me!" Hermione led the students out of the Great hall and through the corridors.

"Bloody hell, you're so hot when you're bossing people around," Ron drooled at his girlfriend.

Hermione just smiled and said, "You do realize you're the only person in the world I'd let get away with that."

Harry solemnly turned to Ginny and said with a frown, "It's a sad day when you realize your best friend's turned your other best friend into her bitch."

Ginny grimaced, "Ugh, that's my brother!"

Harry's eyes went wide, "No not like 'unh, take it bitch!' Like 'fetch, fido' the bitch. No wait a minute that's the same thing I mean like-"

"Harry, just stop talking, before I'm anymore psychologically damaged," Ginny snickered.

Ginny dropped to the back of the group. As far away from the pervy S&M couple, that was Hermione and Ron, as she could get.

"Hey, Padma, did you hear about Dumbledore?" Lavender Brown asked.

"No, what about him? Is it scandalous?" Padma asked intrigued.

"My father said that he was nominated for Minister of Magic."

"Well, it's about time they got rid of Minister Fudgepacker," They both began to giggle. Ginny smiled to herself, overhearing their conversation.

"Is he going to accept it, Lavender?" Padma wondered "I don't know but they say the only competition he'd have would be Malfoy's dad," Lavender replied. Ginny turned around and looked at the two hens.

"That pompous bastard! If he gets elected we're all screwed."

"Yeah whatever," Lavender brushed Ginny off. Ginny huffed, turning around, obviously not important enough to talk to. /Lavender is such a bitch. It's not my fault Seamus wouldn't be interested in a fat sow like her./

Padma rolled her eyes at Ginny's back and whispered to Lavender, "Slut!"

"Totally, anyway, speaking of Malfoy," Lavender turned to Padma giggling,

" Did you see Draco at the feast, he is so hot! And he's loaded!"

"Yeah, but Dean's much cuter! I'm sooo going after him this year." Ginny couldn't help but laugh. //Good luck, he's gay. //

Later that week...

"Ufh!"

*Crash* Ginny looked up from her book to see Hermione coming through the portrait hole carrying several heavy books and kicking a few more through. She muttered profanities under her breath and glared towards Ginny,

"A little help here." Ginny sighed, put down her book, and walked over to help Hermione.

"Thanks, you're a life saver Gin," Hermione said as her and Ginny stacked the books at the end of the table by the fire.

"Uh, I'll never get done in time for Ron's Quidditch practice. I promised him and Harry I'd be water girl," she moaned.

"You mean the Quidditch practice they left for five minutes ago?" Ginny asked, plopping back down on the couch. Hermione looked at her books, then at the door, then back at her books, and then at Ginny.

"Say, Ginny, you aren't doing anything, are you?" Hermione asked in a coy manner. Uh-oh.

"As a matter of fact-" "Oh great," Hermione said not listening, "Could you go to Harry and Ron's Quidditch practice, please. It's the first one of the season and I promised I'd be there."

"But-" Ginny began but was cut off again.

"Oh, thanks Ginny, you're the best. And tell Ron I'll make it up to him later." Hermione said delighted. //Oh great, I get to sit on my bum, watching a bunch of sweaty Neanderthals and giving them water. Wait a tick! I get to sit around and watch sweaty boys! Wahoo! //

"Out of the kindness heart, I will gladly sacrifice my time to help my fellow Gryffindors. I only hope I'm not too late to save those poor sweaty boys," she said in mock solemnity.

It was an extremely warm day and by the time Ginny got to the Quidditch pitch, the team members were already flying around, chasing various balls and generally trying to hurt each other. Ginny said a quick spell and conjured up a water cooler. Apparently she was just in time, because shortly after she arrived Ron swooped down for a drink.

"Water," Ron wheezed, pointing at his mouth and nearly collapsing on Ginny. Ginny took her time and poured him a large glass of water.

"What was that Ron? Water?" Ron nodded his head and pointed at the glass,

"Oh! You mean this cool refreshing water? I don't know, I think I kind of like you this speechless." Ron glared and then lunged at her. He drank it all in one gulp and poured himself another and drank it like a shot of whiskey. Ginny turned her attention from Ron for a moment to a bunch of Fifth year boys who were catcalling and making obscene gestures at her. Ginny scanned the crowd and thought a moment, then silently raised her hand and counted. She turned towards Ron with a wide-eyed, horrified look. //I slept with all of them!//

"I'm a slut!" Ginny yelled in shock, "I slept with all of those guys!" Ron spit out his water on Belle Etoile, the Gryffindor keeper.

"What!" Ron yelled.

"I slept with them, all of them and more," Ginny rambled on, "I don't even know how many! I've never counted before." Ginny began to count on her fingers.

"I'm not hearing this! I'm not hearing this! Lalalala! My ears are bleeding!" Ron screamed in disbelief.

"I'm the biggest whore in Britain! I even had on sex on this field!" she exclaimed in amazement.

"Ahhhh, shut up! shut up! shut up!" Ron hollered and ran away. Harry then flew down and landed next to Ginny who had burst into tears. He hugged her clumsily.

"Harry, am I a whore?" Ginny sniffled, looking up at him.

"Uh...well not...um...it's just that you...um...where's Ron?" he stammered. She cried even harder and buried her head in his shoulder.

That night, after Harry had managed to calm Ginny through her hysterics, with a little help from Hermione, she sat in the common room. She was curled up in front of the fire. Ron walked in slowly and sat next to her. Not looking at her, he thrust a piece of parchment and a quill at her.

"Names," he said.

"What?" she asked in confusion.

"I want names of all the people you...um...of all the people I'm going to have to kill," he said.

"I'm not going to give you any names," she said simply.

Ron thought for a moment and then asked, "You do know their names right?"

"Go!" she seethed. Before he could leave, Seamus walked by.

"Hey Gin, looking good tonight," Seamus said with a smile and a wink. Ron looked at Ginny, then at Seamus and back to Ginny again. Then, without warning, he lunged at Seamus and pinned him to the ground.

"RON!" Ginny screamed.

Dean and Harry rushed to pull them apart, while a first year ran to get Professor McGonagall. By the time Dean and Harry were able to pull the two apart, Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore, whom were interrupted from their tea, had shown up.

"Mr. Weasley! Mr. Finnigan! What is the meaning of this?" Professor McGonagall inquired.

"He shagged my sister!" Ron screeched fighting Harry and Dean's grasps.

Ginny's face turned to an amazing shade of scarlet, "Oh dear God!"

"How many of you?" Ron screamed at the assembled Gryffindors.

"Who hasn't?" said some cocky fourth year. Harry let go of Ron and lunged at the boy. Ron broke free of Dean's hold and renewed his attack on Seamus.

"Dear God, make it stop!" Ginny buried her face in her hands, thankful when Hermione grabbed her by the shoulders and steered her out of the room.

//I'm going to kill him, that's all there is to it! There are seven of us, I'm sure mom and dad won't miss one that much. We haven't really got on since I was eight, but at least when I was eight he didn't go around tackling any boy within three feet of me!

He hasn't left me alone since that day at Quidditch practice. I'll admit that this is partly my fault, I really should put into practice the art of thought before speech, but he doesn't have to over react quite so much!

I'm positive he knew of at least some of my exploits before my, now famous, outburst. How could he have not, That time Finch-Fletchley and I were caught in Snape's storage closet was the talk of the school for weeks?

Why can't he just go back to ignoring me like before! Wow, I can't believe I actually want him to ignore me, that can't be right. I've spent five years at this school trying to get the dream team to notice me, and now all I want is for him not to. I need to lie down and think.

What do I want? Is this what a mid-life crisis is like? I'm way too young to have one of those. Oh where is my Placebo CD...Placebo will make things better. Thank god Hermi taught me that spell to safeguard battery powered stuff around magic. I'd die without my CDs; I don't know how I ever got along without those great little muggle inventions. Ah... lalalala come home...come home...Much better.

Now where was I? Mid-life crisis, that's right. I need to do something about this, this whole thing...life in general. I said at the beginning of the year; I promised myself this year would be different. And what have I done about that so far? I freaked out on the Quidditch pitch, in front of several of my housemates, and called myself a slut. What a brilliant start! But if there is a bright side to all this, I am determined to find it. It's that I have accepted the fact that I am a slut, rather a shocking realization on my part. I knew I was kind easy, but I didn't realize how fast those numbers sneak up on you. In realizing this I've decide to make a change.

I, Virginia Abigail Weasley, will no longer sleep with everything that moves. I will develop standards. I will respect myself; and all of that crap Hermi was talking about earlier. Nosy little bitch that she is, she has a point, it a stupid point, but it's there, none the less.

And this whole Harry thing, I feel so god-damn helpless around him. It's like my brain goes to jelly and falls out my ears. But no we talked about this last year; we're friends, just friends.

Bastard! How can he do that, he drooled all over that Cho Chang bitch! I'm right here and he doesn't even glance twice, I'm a sure thing damn it!

God I hate people! They just suck.

But I don't care about people anymore. Cause as of tomorrow morning, I'm starting fresh. I'm gonna get up early, have a run, eat a healthy breakfast, maybe even pay attention in Potions class. Fuck it; I may even do my homework. And no men, no snogging, no sex, none at all. //

//Can one suffer from snog withdrawal? //

~********~

4

Sweat and Confusion

Ginny woke with a start, sweating and gasping for air. She felt like she'd just run a marathon. She sat up and tried to get her breathing under control. When she finally maintained a normal breathing pattern, she glanced at the clock on her bedside table. It read: Entirely too early to be up, and judging by the complete lack of light outside, it was probably right. Reaching over, she clicked a switch on the side of the clock. The face promptly stated: Okay, fine, but I still think it's too early for you to be up, before blinking 5:45 am.

Ginny fought the urge to roll over and just go back to sleep. She had nearly an hour till breakfast and over two till classes began. But she told herself she was going to start exercising in the morning, and she wanted to do it before anyone else was there to bug her.

She shivered as walked to the bathroom, it was the beginning of October, and the mornings were starting to get very cold. After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she had attempted brushing through her hair, but the tangles from thrashing in bed all night made that impossible, she reached for her robes. Thinking twice about it, you really couldn't run in a robe, she pulled on a pair of sweat shorts and an amazingly large shirt she'd stolen from Ron. Putting her hair up in a sloppy pony tail, she made her way out of the dorms.

By the time she reached the grounds the sun had started to come up to warm things at least a little bit. She snuck nervously to the back doors, not entirely sure if students were aloud to be up this early walking around the school. She knew that occasionally Harry would make the Quidditch team get up this early for practice, but she supposed he had gotten some kind of permission to do that. // Oh well, it I get caught, I get caught. It won't be the first detention I've served, and definitely not the last. /

Behind the Quidditch field there was an old beaten path; that ran the edge of the grounds. No one ever used it, it didn't run to any classes, and most people didn't even know about it, not that they'd care if they did. Mostly it was used by the Quidditch players for added exercise and sometimes the Muggle Studies classes would use it when learning about muggle sports, but other than that it was pretty much forgotten about. Ginny only knew about it from Dean, who liked to frequent it with his dates. She hadn't asked why and honestly didn't care, she was just glad he was finally comfortable enough to date.

Reaching the path she began to jog, and soon found herself lost in thought. She'd had a nightmare again, third one this week. She never used to get them this frequently, not since right after the chamber. It had Tom in it, obviously, all of them did in some way or another. He was a constant fixture in the back of her mind. In some dreams he was nice, but this one he'd been cruel. She didn't remember the entire dream, she rarely did. But she did remember she'd been in a hall way. It was painted a dark red color and the walls were decorated with masks, Death Eater's masks, but they were all smiling. They looked positively evil. She'd been scared of them, this stationary masks, and tried to get out of the hall way. But there was no door. She ran to the other end and only saw a small window, barred. Tom was on the other side, laughing at her, as she panicked, trying to get out.

That's when she noticed it, the trap door in the middle of the ceiling. Jumping, she tried to reach the string, to pull it down. She couldn't, she jumped again, a little closer, and finally a third time. She felt the taunt rope in her hand, and as she fell back to her feet, she pulled the door open. A large crumpled mass fell at her feet with a sickening thud.

It was a person, and instantly Ginny knew who it was. Nudging the limp form over with her foot, she started straight into Harry's face. It was covered in blood, the same color as the walls of the room. He was dead. That was when Ginny woke up.

Ginny was so caught up in her thoughts she nearly ran over the figure stopped in the middle of the road. From the ground, where she now found herself, she could just make out the person's features against the rising sun. They were male and judging by the freakishly blonde hair gracing the boy's head; it could only be one person.

"Fuck Malfoy, do you always stop in front of people like that?" she said, squinting slightly in the light.

Draco stood, looking down at her, hands on hips, making no effort whatsoever to help her up. "What are you doing out here?" he said, gazing at her suspiciously.

"Nice to see you too," Ginny said, raising herself to a sitting position, "I happen to be exercising."

"Why were you following me?" Draco asked, still suspicious.

"I didn't even know you where out here," Ginny replied, "Now help me up." She raise her hand, which he took grudgingly.

He pulled her to her feet, turned and started back off on his run again, in one swift movement.

Ginny stared a moment, unconsciously enjoying the view of a sweating Draco in gym shorts, before yelling after him. "Hey wait up," she ran it catch up to him, now several feet in front of her, "I could use the company." //Anything to keep my mind off those dreams.//

Draco kept his pace, not acknowledging Ginny's presence beside him. They ran silently for a few moments before Draco spoke. "Look Weasley, just because I was civil to you on the train doesn't give you permission to talk to me," he said curtly, not looking at her.

"And God forbid, I speak to the great Draco Malfoy without his permission," Ginny spat, lengthening her stride to keep up with him.

"Look, I'll put it in a way your brain came understand," Draco replied, keeping his voice very level, "Fuck. Off. Weasley."

"That's fuck off Ginny and I can't. I have a proposition for you," Ginny spoke as though talking to a preschooler, mocking Draco's previous tone. //You sure about this Gin? Cause he probably hates you, and may very well just be speaking to you out of pity. That is, if Malfoy's have the emotional capacity for pity. //

Draco looked a Ginny and taken by an uncharacteristically civil moment, he seemed to have alot of those around her, decided to play along. "And why should I listen to any sort of inane thing your brain could possibly think of to say?"

"Well," Ginny began, trying to think of some sufficient threat for the boy, "I figure one day, you'd like to procreate."

Draco stared at her, curious to where this conversation was going.

"And that would be rather difficult if you were to be castrated."

Draco had to laugh at this, the thought of this little red-head child attacking him. "Are you threatening me?" he managed in between snickers.

Ginny didn't pay attention to his laughter, "Well, Ron has been after me for the names of boys I've slept with so he can vent his brotherly need for revenge."

"We've never had sex," Draco stated plainly.

"Oh, I know that," Ginny smiled and looked at the blonde boy, "but Ron doesn't."

Draco studied the girl, she was serious. She'd tell the Weasel they'd been together, just to get him to beat up Draco. And she wouldn't feel bad about it either. Draco considered his choices a moment, and decided that though Weasley had a good six inches and probably about forty pounds on him and could subsequently beat the living shit out of him, he was crap at hexes. He could take him.

"I'm not scared of a Weasley," Draco sounded a little surer of himself then he actually was.

Ginny kept her voice calm, "Oh, but Ron's very persistent." Almost as though reading his mind, she continued, "You may be able to out hex him, but I'm sure he'd figure a way to sneak into your room one night. He hates you and has no issues with not fighting fair, especially when it comes to people like you." On an after thought she added, "A boy defending his sister's honor is a scary thing. Think about if you had a sister-"

"I don't," Draco kept his cool, although he realized what she was saying made sense.

Ginny was beginning to lose hers, however, "fine then, your mother-"

"My mother has no honor left to defend."

"Okay, Pansy-"

At this Draco just laughed. True he did occasionally associated with Parkinson, but the thought of him giving a damn about who she slept with, was rather stretching their relationship.

//This was a dumb idea, Virginia. Just leave now, before you make anymore of an ass of yourself.//

"Fine. Never mind." Ginny quickened her pace; she could make out the door to the castle in the distance.

Draco laughed for a moment more, shouted at Ginny, "Wait!" He had to run rather fast to catch her. "Just out of curiosity, what was you proposition?"

Ginny was at the door now. She was torn; the two voices in her head were having a battle. // Don't tell him, he'll laugh. Just go inside and forget it. No. You like being around him, even if he is an ass. Tell him.// Eventually a third, and ultimately more crude voice won out. // Ah, fuck it. Nobody actually takes you seriously anyway. Fuck maybe you'll brighten his day, with the absurdity of it.//

Ginny took a breath and turned towards Draco, who had now reached the door, beside her. "I want to be your friend." //God that sounded lame. //

Draco just looked at her a moment, before busting into laughter.

"Stop laughing!" Ginny felt her face growing red, "I'm serious!"

At this point Draco was bent over, clutching his sides.

Ginny fumed, angry at him, but more anger at herself for thinking this was a good idea.

"Oh.....that's...that's... the funniest.... thing......I've heard...in..." Draco managed in between fits of laughter. After nearly a minute, he managed to regain some kind of composure. He looked up at Ginny from the ground, where he had fallen midway through his outburst. Her face was beet red, and she had her hands on her hips. She looked pissed. Suddenly a thought occurred to him. He stopped laughing. "Oh God your serious."

Ginny glared daggers at him; turned around and went inside, slamming the door behind her.

Draco still on the ground was left with the same thought he'd had after his last encounter with her. //What the fuck...//