Trademark smirks and Temperamental redheads

Chapter Six - The Weasley temper (Fifth Year)

Ginny had taken a nice long relaxing shower and was drying her copperish curls when Melissa came back into the room, a worried expression on her face.

"I couldn't find her, Gin. You don't think she's gone off and done something rash do you?" Melissa asked, tiredly flopping onto Ginny's bed.

"I don't know Melissa, I've never seen her like this before. But I've decided, if she doesn't want me to stick my nose into her business, I'll keep my nose to myself. Well, at least until she opens her mouth to ask for help," Ginny replied, muttering a drying spell for her hair.

Melissa nodded, going over to Ginny and brushing her hair absently.

"Let's just go to dinner. Maybe she'll be there waiting for us," Ginny suggested.

The two set off to the Great Hall and sure enough, Sara sat at a corner of the Gryffindor table waving her two friends over.

"What took you two so long? I've starving," Sara said enthusiastically, as Ginny and Melissa slide into seats opposite her.

She helped herself to some roast chicken and potatoes, taking a sip of her pumpkin juice as her two friends looked at her in surprise.

"Well, she seems to have gotten over it quickly. I wonder what's got into her?" Melissa asked, more worried than before.

Ginny was about to agree with her when she caught Sara glancing across the Hall toward the Slytherin table. Ginny saw Draco give Sara a slight smirk, before returning to his conversation with the Slytherin Quidditch team.

"I think I know," Ginny said quietly, earning a curious glance from Melissa. "I'll explain later," she said quickly, realizing that she was starving; the steak was looking particularly appetizing.

She never did find out how tasty it was, as she heard a loud screech erupt from the Slytherin table. She turned around to see Pansy Parkinson, who had turned a nasty shade of red, staring at Malfoy with murder in her eyes. Before she had time to wonder what had happened, Pansy Parkinson was marching across the Great Hall toward the Gryffindor table, more accurately, toward Sara.

"How dare you!" Pansy shrieked. "Everyone knows Draco's mine you thieving bitch!"

Sara stood up and was about to give a retort when Pansy launched herself at Sara, knocking them both over in the process. A particularly nasty struggle ensued, Pansy digging her long, manicured nails into the soft flesh on Sara's cheek, leaving five angry red slashes there. Sara herself, was busy trying to tear out all of the Slytherin's hair, clumped bunches of blonde clung to her black robes as the two girls rolled around on the floor knocking into people's feet.

Ginny and Melissa stared at them in horror before rushing forward to pull the two hissing girls apart. Ginny ended up with several scratch marks along her arms as she held onto a struggling Pansy. Melissa received a punch to the jaw from Sara before she realized who it was.

Finally, the Professors arrived, quickly settling the matter with a series of detentions and stern reproach at the two girls. Professor McGonagall in particular, looked like she was in shock that a Gryffindor would have participated in such an unseemly display of violence.

The two girls were sent to the Hospital Wing with Ginny and Melissa following behind, giving each other worried glances.

"Was this what you were planning on explaining to me?" Melissa asked Ginny quietly as they waited outside the Hospital Wing.

Ginny nodded, still in shock at seeing Pansy and Sara's behaviour. Was this love? Ginny felt sick, how could these two girls do this to each other over that slimy git? Before leaving the Great Hall, she had chanced a quick glance at the Slytherin table. Malfoy was sitting there with his two goons laughing hysterically, most of the Slytherins were also snickering amongst themselves.

Ginny couldn't help but feel sorry for Sara and Pansy, being in love with someone who only wanted to use them for his own pleasure. She unconsciously reached her hand to her neck, searching for her necklace.

She paused. Her neck was entirely smooth and bare, no hint of the precious fairy. Ginny could feel herself beginning to panic, where was her necklace? She must've left it in the bathroom when she was taking her shower.

"I left something in the bathroom, Melissa, Ginny said hurriedly, as she leapt to her feet. "I'll be right back."

She raced down the corridor without waiting to hear Melissa's reply. Skidding to a halt outside the bathroom and taking a breath to calm herself. She opened the door and stepped in, eyes scanning the white tiled room for a hint of silver. The bathroom was blinding in it's whiteness, with no sign of Ginny's necklace. 'No, no, no!' Ginny silently screamed in her head, she couldn't lose that necklace. She just couldn't.

~~~

Ginny lay in bed that night, wincing as her arms brushed against the blankets. She had forgotten to get the scratches on her arm healed in her hurry to find her necklace. The scratches burned and stung whenever she touched them, the soft blankets feeling like sandpaper against her arms. She let her mind wander back to the fight, and how Pansy had been hysterical, clawing at everything that got in her way. Her hand had reached toward Ginny's throat, tugging hard at her collar.

Ginny sat up suddenly, that was it. Pansy must've tugged off her necklace during the struggle. Ginny hastily threw off her blankets and grabbed her cloak, hurriedly sliding into it, as her feet flew down the stairs of their own accord.

She quietly slipped into the Hospital Wing, searching for Pansy Parkinson's bed in the darkness. She found her in the bed closest to the window, staring up at the ceiling, her face pale and slightly green in the moonlight.

"What do you want?" Pansy demanded harshly, as she heard footsteps approaching her bed.

"Er, I er, came to see how you were doing," Ginny began uncertainly.

At Pansy's scoff, she cleared her throat, her mind desperately wondering how she should ask.

"During the fight," Ginny tried again, but paused as Pansy stiffed slightly. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to remind you, it's just that I seem to have lost my necklace. And I sort of remember you pulling at my neck..." Ginny trailed off, wondering if Pansy would attack her for bringing up the fight.

"Well don't look at me Weasley. I certainly don't have it," Pansy replied, holding up her hands for Ginny's inspection.

Ginny frowned at the sight of Pansy's hands. Most of her beautifully manicured nails had broken, leaving dried blood around her cuticles. It looked very painful.

"Why didn't you get Madame Pomfrey to heal your hands. That looks -" but Ginny was cut off by Pansy.

"It's none of your business. Look, I don't see why you're making a big fuss about some silly necklace. It's probably some mediocre metal with a few colorful stones on it anyway," Ginny knew she should be insulted by this remark, but looking down at the pale girl, the only thing she felt was pity. "You're disturbing my beauty sleep Weasley, go away."

With that, the blonde turned over on her bed, so that Ginny was presented with a view of her backside. Ginny sighed, and turned away, quietly checking on Sara before leaving the Hospital Wing.

~~~

Ginny was so deep in thought, silently asking herself where the necklace was, that she did not notice Professor McGonagall walking up to her.

"Miss Weasley! What are you doing wandering around the corridors at this time of the night? You know very well students shouldn't be out of bed after curfew. I will have to give you detention for this," Professor McGonagall studied her sternly.

"I'm sorry Professor, I couldn't sleep," Ginny replied, thinking up a plausible reason. "I - I was worried about Sara."

At this, the Professor's face softened slightly.

"I understand. But it's still dangerous for you to be out of bed after hours. You may go and visit Miss Maverick in the morning. I won't take points off Gryffindor for this, although you'll still have to serve a detention with me. Be in my office at 6pm tomorrow night." The Professor told her, giving her a slight pat on the shoulder.

Ginny nodded her head and watched as the Professor walked away down the corridor.

"Ooohh, naughty little Gryffindor aren't you?" came a voice from above her head. Ginny looked up to see Peeves the Poltergeist floating above her with a nasty smile on his face. "Should tell Filch, I should," Peeves whispered with glee.

"No!" Ginny pleaded quietly as Peeves did back flips in the air. She watched as Peeves took in a large breath and proceeded to shout.

"Student out of bed! On the stairs to the Great Hall she is! Come and get her Filch! I've found you a naughty one, I have!" Peeves shouted, before disappearing through the wall.

~~~

Ginny panicked, the only thought on her mind was to get away from this corridor as fast as she could. She fled down the stairs, her foot tripping on a corner of her overly large cloak. She could feel herself losing her balance and falling, she closed her eyes waiting for the impact of the floor against her body. But what her small frame came into contact with was a rather hard chest, and arms that wrapped themselves around her waist as the two bodies fell to the floor.

"Weasley, we really must stop meeting like this," Malfoy's voice drawled from above her head. She was about to make a retort when she heard a 'meow' coming from the top of the stairs; reminding her why she had been running for her life just now. Without thinking about what she was doing, she grabbed Malfoy's arm and pulled him toward her.

"Shut up for a minute Malfoy, Filch is coming, let's find a place to hide," Malfoy just looked at her, a blank expression on his face. Ginny gave an exasperated growl, and pulled him behind a suit of armour beside the stairwell.

"Where is she, my Sweet?" came Filch's voice from above them. The only reply he got was a 'meow' from Mrs Norris, his cat. "Ooohh, that Peeves, playing tricks on me again, I'll get him for this! Come my Sweet," Filch raged to the empty hallway.

Ginny relaxed slightly as she heard Filch's footsteps fading away. Her elbow felt wet and there was something decidedly slimy on the front of her cloak. She stiffened slightly as she felt a movement behind her, remembering Malfoy, she quickly scooted out from behind the suit of armor.

"As I was saying Weasley, I'm going to run out of clothes to wear if you keep colliding with me in the middle of the night like this. And might I mention that you've just ruined my midnight snack," Malfoy drawled, as he appeared from behind the suit of armor as well. Ginny could see the remains of what had been a turkey sandwich sliding off the front of Malfoy's shirt.

Looking down to examine her own clothes, Ginny found the same slimy bits of turkey on the front of her cloak and the wet patch on her elbow dripped white liquid onto the dark floor of the Hall, milk.

~~~

As she attempted a cleaning spell on her cloak, Draco smirked, and sat down on the bottom step of the stairs to watch her. Her attire hadn't improved at all since the first time he had seen her. Her white school shirt was stained yellow with age; with a masculine style cut so that it hung off her lean frame, hiding from view any curves she might've had. The bottom of her skirt barely reached mid-thigh, showing off a pair of somewhat knobby knees, joining pale, slender legs. Her cloak was just the opposite, wide and shapeless, engulfing her body into it's stained and tattered depths. Its length reached all the way down to the floor, and Draco wondered how she had managed not to trip on it and break her neck.

~~~

"It's useless you know. That stain's going to be a permanent addition to your cloak. Though I doubt anyone will notice the difference, they'll all be too busy staring at your skirt, or lack of it rather," Malfoy drawled, a smirk on his face. At the flush in Ginny's cheeks, he continued. "Tell me Weasley, how long has it been since you had new clothing? The length of your skirt would send a blush to any decent boy's face."

"Oh and you would know Malfoy," Ginny replied hotly. "You don't even know the meaning of modesty. Sara and Pansy are lying in the Hospital Wing because of you! Don't you care? Don't you feel the slightest bit of remorse for what you did to them?" Ginny demanded, forgetting all about her cloak.

"Remorse?" Malfoy scoffed. "What exactly should I be feeling remorse for Weasley? If you had just said Pansy I might have given it some consideration, but that Gryffindor slut? She offered herself to me. I'm a normal teenager with needs Weasley, do you honestly expect me to turn down an offer like that?"

"How dare you call Sara that! She didn't offer herself to you! If you hadn't led her on, she'd be perfectly fine right now!" Ginny fumed.

"I led her on? And how, pray tell, did I do that?" Malfoy asked, calmly raising an eyebrow. "As I remember it, she's the one who's been following me around the corridors for the past few months. She even spent a night with Blaise Zabini in return for the chance to get close to me." At this, Malfoy's face took on a disgusted expression.

"You're lying! Sara would never do that!" Ginny half shouted, shaking her head furiously.

"I don't need to, Weasley. If you don't believe me, then go ask her yourself." Malfoy rose from the steps and regarded Ginny's shaking form for a while longer, before slipping past her and making his way down to the dungeons.

Ginny couldn't stop shaking, whether from rage or shock she wasn't sure. Malfoy was lying, he had to be, Sara wouldn't lie to her. 'It was Malfoy that led her on, it's all Malfoy's fault,' she tried to assure herself.

~~~

Ginny stood at the end of Sara's bed, watching Melissa pass Sara a change of clothes. Madame Promfrey had announced Sara fully healed and healthy enough to return to classes early this morning. So Ginny and Melissa had went to get Sara her uniform so she could take a shower and get ready for classes.

Ginny was finding it particularly hard to act normal around Sara. As soon as she had walked into the Hospital Wing, Malfoy's words from the previous night had surfaced in her mind. She desperately wanted to talk to Sara about it, but wasn't really sure if she was in the right state to handle it. Instead, Ginny turned around toward the bed next to the window, wondering how Pansy was doing. To her surprise, the bed stood empty and pristine.

"Ginny." She snapped back to reality as she hard Melissa's voice calling her. "You stay here with Sara and I'll go get her books. Meet up with you two at Transfiguration ok?" Melissa asked, already heading for the door.

"OK," Ginny called to her. She sat down on the white hospital bed, waiting for Sara to come out from the bathroom. She rehearsed different ways of bringing up the topic of Malfoy in her head, but each idea seemed more ridiculous than the previous one.

"I'm ready Ginny, let's go," Sara's voice cut into her thoughts.

"Sara, we need to talk." Ginny took a deep breath, deciding the best course of action was a direct approach. "I talked to Malfoy last night, he told me some...things, about you. He seems to believe that you were the one who made the moves, that he never showed any interest in you at all."

Ginny saw Sara visibly stiffen at the mention of Malfoy.

"Do you believe him, Ginny?" Sara asked instead, at the sight of Ginny's slightly guilty expression, she continued. "Malfoy's a lying bastard, you should know that by now Ginny. I was stupid to fall for him, but if he hadn't made me believe that he wanted me, I wouldn't have..." Here she trailed off, her eyes damp with unshed tears.

Ginny had never felt so guilty in her life, of course Malfoy had been lying. How could she have doubted Sara even for a moment? She hurried over to her friend, giving her a tight hug as her friend wiped away her tears.

"I'm sorry, Sara. I promise, I'll never believe a word Malfoy says, ever again," Ginny vowed.