What Do You See?

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Chapter 4 : Excuse Me While I Panic :

It must be 3 in the morning.

A cold, playful breeze had sneaked in the Infirmary through an open window. The prankish air swung the window back and forth, causing piercing noises to Draco's ears. His senses were vigilant in his sleep. He was uncomfortable of the whole situation, and only planned to remain in the Clinic for a while to wait for her to stir, but then, she didn't show any sign of movement. Without knowing it, he had fallen into a nap, a very cozy nap at that, and had forgotten all else. For a moment he had overlooked the rumors that might come dangling his way had some nosy student passed by the clinic during this hour in the morning, and see that he was alone with the Weasley girl. Well, he does have an injured nose, doesn't he? But well, there was always Madame Pomfrey.

The creaking window. It sounded exactly like a chalk scratching against a blackboard: one of Snape's favorite noise breakers. Sensitive Malfoy was awakened by the cacophony. Abruptly, he stood up, searched for the source and found it in the dark. He closed the window with a few unnecessary movements and absently brushed his injured nose as he went back to his covers. Then followed a series of curses fluently recited.

"You okay there?" came a voice from the far end of the room, not really affecting, but leering.

"Who's there?" alarmed, he questioned back.

"Who else's here..stu--?" Ginny asked back, omitting what had been the last word -- stupid.

Draco then remembered, and mouthed, "Weasley."

Questions that might answer Ginny's state streamed in Draco's head. He thought of how convenient it could have been if he asked those questions immediately, so he could contentedly and blamelessly leave the clinic. But now that she was up, now ready to listen, he found himself perplexed and speechless, though why he didn't know. Questions from How've you been to what did you that for? gushed in his thoughts but not out his mouth. And finally, making up his mind, said:

"So.." "I.." Draco and Ginny said simultaneously. There was a sudden silence in the room, as if an invisible Keep Quiet notice had passed between them.

Ginny bit her lip.

Draco, now feeling awkward, shrugged. "Right. Go first."

"I.. I wanted to close the window but I doubt I could stand."

"Oh," he said clumsily, dejected of the girl's lack of appreciation. "Oh."

Ginny reached for her bedside lamp and turned it up. Draco moved to his side to do the same, but as his lamp's fire grew brighter, Ginny threw out a warning, "Don't!"

Draco followed promptly, though deeply, he felt like whining. "What.."

"Don't show me yourself."

"Who are you to tell me what to... fine."

And again, the invisible Silence slogan paved the distance between them.

Deeply, Ginny sighed at the conclusion she had come up with. "I.. I think I've figured it out."

"Figured what out?" Draco snapped in confusion.

If this was Draco's dream, Ginny was his only apparent vision. Everything else that surrounded her was hazy, everything around her, Draco supposed, had defied the rules of time and slowed. The window he previously closed made its song of opening and closing again, passively. But he was jiggled back to reality as she opened her mouth.

"..why I falter when you're around," Ginny mouthed the words softly, carefully. Draco didn't catch the first part. The world, the one that had wavered for a while, went on as if nothing happened. The world in slow motion set on its course again.

"Really. Well I'm around, don't you think you should start fainting again?"

Ginny repositioned in her bed, obviously losing her patience. "You don't understand. It's like this," and with a deep breath, she continued, "I think.."

"You think?" Draco stunned Ginny's soft and construing voice. "I know what. You're going to tell everyone what you think, and it will put me in the hot seat. Am I right, Ginny?"

She couldn't just let him take over her without any explanation. Surely he was thinking this as a plot against him, but he wasn't seeing things clearly. "Jeez, listen first before you fire away!" She thought of every suitable word to put the situation in perspective, yet careful not to sound assuming for if she does, Malfoy would more or less laugh at her. And she never wanted to sound ridiculous. Not in front of anyone. Not in front of him.

"I think when I look at your eyes, I feel weak," Ginny stopped there, unaware what to say next. It better be something less stupid than what she just said. "That's.. That's all I know. It's why I don't want you to light up, I don't want to see you. No, I want to. But.. it sucks to feel weak like that when you're the only one around. You get me? You--you caught me twice and I found I didn't like it like that. Not by anyone-especially not by you."

Draco was never eager to listen to a ranting girl, as he was known to have a 'very high opinion on women'. He thought they were morons. But he found this very interesting. He lowered his head now, torn between laughing and believing. Yet as he listened to Ginny ongoing with her words, both bitter and sweet, the thought of laughing was suddenly diminished. Even the thought of believing was overwhelmed by awe. Every word sounded true, as every word proved Ginny's boldness. He found himself slowly admiring the fearlessness in Ginny as she freely shared her insights. He knew that if he interrupted, she wouldn't mind him and would still go on.

If there was something else Draco didn't have, it was this. He never considered flying over great heights defiant, for flying was his game and passion. The darkness in the dungeons, being alone in his own room down under, never startled him -- until now. How could someone like her be so open and brave despite being alone in this dark, cold place? Or was the darkness eating her, daring her to speak out? And I, I've been alone as well. Funny that I endured it, more funny how I did. He realized that he had always been in the same dark space. But it had never come to him that he was only human, that in any moment, in any place, his cup would overflow, and would incidentally release the hot and bitter coffee he had kept from spilling for so long. Not that he had a difficulty in talking truths, he was simply afraid to stand vulnerable in the middle of nowhere - not in front of anyone, not in front of her.

"I--I was having the best night in my tower," Ginny was eating her words, but Draco couldn't care less. "And then you came and blew it into pieces. And I heard..." she paused, and remembered, "I heard Madame Pomfrey talking to you last night. Did you really charm.."

"You? Go to hell, please," Draco answered coldly. "Look lady, I'm trying to ask nicely here. I don't even know if I did it. Or how I did. For Chrissake, don't put this all on me!"

"Of course, you didn't know it. You were too busy doing it you didn't realize you were already at it!"

"W-wha-t? I didn't quite get that."

Draco, making up his rotten mind, stood up and walked to her. The best way to understand someone is by looking through the eyes, and you'll clearly see what the mind is trying to say.

Ginny, seeing his figure nearing, backed in her bed. She leaned on the steel headboard. "I have my wand, don't think I'm unarmed."

"I'm not going to hurt you." Draco took a few uncertain steps.

"Spent the last five minutes forcing myself to believe that."

Draco stopped, and wheeled back to his bed. "Believe me. Whatever it is that I... have... I didn't use it against you. If I'd hurt you I'd at least warn you."

"You have. You just didn't know it," Ginny had wanted to say. Instead, what came out was, "Forget it. It's not like you'd care if I kept on fainting all over the castle. What do you know? Maybe you'll wake up one day and I won't. Go to sleep."

"That's original, but I don't to hear that again, Weasley," Draco said.

"Why not?"

"It..." a more suitable term, please? Draco mentally implored, and continued, "scares me."

Ginny's mouth was thrown open, as if to laugh, but she resolved, "Scaring you? Oh, now I know what scares the great Malfoy."

Then, she broke into a laugh. Draco was confused, or antagonized, or both.

"The hell's so funny?" asked Draco. "Sharing the infirmary with a dead body is what scares me. But it doesn't necessarily mean your body."

She only laughed harder.

"Stop or I'm opening my light," he threatened as he seized the oil lamp switch.

Deterred by his threat, Ginny stopped her little party at his command. She lay back in her bed and pretended asleep. She suspended her arm at the end of the bed, and made herself look like a listless victim of a horrible nightmare.

The sight of her lying like that only scared Draco more. "Weasley?"

No answer.

"Quit playing." Draco stood up and walked to her, now that the only person who could stop him seemed unconscious again. He looked quite frightened, really. "Shit, don't do this."

When he reached Ginny's bed foot, Ginny suddenly grabbed her pillow and tossed it to him.

"Gotcha!"

But Draco caught the pillow. "Did you?"

He threw it back to her. Ginny shoved it aside, causing her wand and the glass of water to fall out of the side table. Her wand rolled under the next bed, and the glass fell with a clattering sound as it broke into fragments.

After a few seconds, heads turned to the source, footsteps lightly emerged behind the door.

"Pomfrey," Ginny guessed.

Draco quickly ran back to his bed and lay. Flat. Ginny did the same, although now, she didn't have her pillow. What kind of excuse would explain the broken glass and my missing pillow, (and wand, although this has not occurred to her yet), Ginny thought.

The doors opened, and to their delight, closed again after a while.

"That was close," Ginny said.

"Very." Draco sat back up. "You. You threw a pillow at me and you're going to pay."

"And you lost me my wand. You're going to pay as well." Ginny wasn't sure if demanding something from Draco Malfoy was the smartest act of the year, but it was his fault, and Ginny had said it anyway.

"It's just there.. somewhere." He flattened his pillow and lay. "I'll look for it tomorrow."

"Why not now?"

"I'm sleepy. Night." True enough, Draco. You're not really sleepy, you're giving excuses again.

"Night," Ginny replied in the same manner. Not a minute had passed when... "Malfoy?"

"What?" asked Draco, monotonously.

"I didn't know you knew my name."

"I didn't." It was times like this when Draco wished his conscience had a mouth, so he could let it do the talking.

"But you called me by name earlier."

"Did I? I must be..." Draco paused. "I must be good in name-guessing."

"And lying," Ginny dubiously added.

Draco felt the need for an explanation. "I... I guess you'd never know you knew something, unless you actually find a use for it."

"Something like my name?"

"Y-Yes, possibly," Draco said dryly. He felt cornered, and inwardly protested, 'where are thou, wit, when I need thou!?'

"Oh, good then. Because I like it that way."

Draco wasn't keeping up, he had just gotten out of his thoughts. "Pardon, which way?"

"The way you called me Ginny."

"Oh. I liked it too." To this, Draco mentally slapped himself with a huge, invisible tuna. Can I fucking sue my mouth? He kept on slipping with his words, sliding now and then with them.

"Liked what? My name?"

"No, crazy." Good for him he found an immediate excuse. "The way you called me Dr--by my first name."

"Oh. Right. Goodnight then, Draco."

"Night, Ginny."

"Wait."

"What now?"

"You think I'll..." Now Ginny thought again, if it was the smartest thing to do. Come on, she thought, I'd probably be the first in line he'd want dead. But Ginny realized she had meant to ask him that question. She found she was serious. "I'll die?"

Draco wanted to joke around it, but realized the seriousness in Ginny's voice. He sat up on his bed and examined Ginny.

"Far from it."

"How do you know?"

How? Because I just.. know. But I guess I'm not too smart to know anyway. Draco rifled through his mind for a reason, found none. "Because I just know it."

And his voice was the last thing that echoed in the Infirmary.

A cold, playful breeze had sneaked in the Infirmary through an open window. The prankish air swung the window back and forth, causing piercing noises to Draco's mindful ears. His senses were vigilant in his sleep. Now that he was comfortable of the whole situation, he planned to remain in the Clinic until sunrise to wait for her to stir. She hadn't shifted in her bed, or made any movement. Without knowing it, he had fallen into a nap, a very cozy nap at that, and had forgotten all else. For a moment he had overlooked the rumors that might come dangling his way had some nosy student passed by the clinic during this hour in the morning, and see that he was alone with the Weasley girl. Well, he does have an injured nose, doesn't he? But well, there was always Madame Pomfrey. But Draco couldn't care less.

***

Ginny woke up the next morning (LATER that morning, rather) only to find out she was alone. Malfoy's bed had been made. She turned to the table beside her, and found her wand on top of a folded note. She quickly opened it.

"That cow actually thinks I'm blushing?" denying the obvious fact that she was turning red. Ginny folded the parchment, and hid it safely under her pillow. She knew that anytime, Ron, Harry, and Hermione would be bulging in with her breakfast and news about the happenings in Hogwarts. Not that she missed a lot for 2 days, but it's entirely different being in the Infirmary while everyone else is going on with his or her lives.

"No, Professor, there's no way I'm telling her," a voice, Ginny recognized as Hermione's, slightly rose behind the doors.

"No, Professor, don't look at me like that," came another one.

"But you're her brother!"

"The more reason you shouldn't make him do it. I'll do it, Professor."

"Alright then, Potter."

So it was Professor Flitwick, her Charms teacher. Ginny knew who it was even before he pushed the door open with his back, giving way to Harry, Ron and Hermione. Hermione had a tray stuffed with oranges, an apple, and a deep bowl. Flitwick, however, was clutching a thick, blue book under his arm. Ginny reared to her pillow and pushed the letter under it farther from view. She'd only wondered then how a pillow had gotten there, when she could clearly remember sleeping only with her hands to support her head.

"Gin!" Ron hurried to her. "How are you? You know you fainted?" he asked, sounding happy.

"I sort of guessed that," Ginny said as she let herself be squeezed by Ron.

"Ginny," Harry called in a care-worn manner, "we were all worried.. it's the 2nd time around and.."

"Here's your breakfast," Hermione said, smiling as she put the bowl of pumpkin soup on the bedside table, where Draco's letter lay only moments ago.

"Thanks, 'Mione. Harry?" she implored him to continue.

"And we haven't got a clue why," answered Ron, gaining everyone's attention.

"Wasn't asking you, Ron. Wha--what's with the look?" asked Ginny, as her visitors' faces turned pale.

No one answered until Ginny posed and folded her arms in front of her stomach.

"Actually, Gin..." Harry mumbled.

"Actually what, Harry?" insisted Ginny. "What's up? I heard you back there. Sorry for pressing, but there's something you've got to tell me and I believe I have the right to know."

All of them, except Ginny, exchanged cold looks. Even Professor Flitwick was among the guilty.

Professor Flitwick gestured Harry to start, but Harry just won't do it.

"We.. I..." Professor Flitwick was rambling. But, after receiving an accommodating look from Hermione, he found the words he had been meaning to say.

"My nephew, he was mean, I say. He would make rude remarks at people back in the county... and he did this for a long time," recounted the professor.

Ginny wasn't sure where this was going, but she listened patiently.

"Until one day, Edmund Barks, an old, secluded, weird--dark--wizard, went out of his way to simply confront him, but just when the man was approaching my nephew.. my neph..."

"His nephew fainted. And it kept on happening everytime Barks was near him. No, not near him, when Barks would look him in the eyes. Until that day came. Barks hadn't even said a spell or word, Willy, Professor Flitwick's nephew, turned into a wasp," said Hermione, finishing Professor Flitwick's story for him.

Ron was covering his ears. Harry was head-down.

"You're saying, I'm turning into a wasp? After all this?" Ginny found the whole idea inane.

Hermione didn't seem to listen. "Many thought Barks transfigured--or whatever--Willy into a wasp, but they're all wrong. A study by the Ministry proved them so. Barks hadn't meant to turn him into a wasp. A representative from the Ministry even said Willy was lucky. He could have... died."

"What are you trying to say?" Ginny interrupted.

"Hold it. Notes tell me that it was a charm, no, partly a charm and partly a product of an intense emotion such as hatred."

Ginny's beam faded, replaced with a list of questions. "What can stop this, then?"

Hermione didn't answer, and instead, grabbed Professor Flitwick's book and strode out of the Infirmary. There were parchments sticking out between the pages, but Ginny didn't bother looking now.

"Now we do want to catch breakfast," said Flitwick to Ron and Harry. "Off to the Hall. I'll be seeing you later, Ms. Weasley, if time allows it. I think Madame Pomfrey did suggest you remain here, didn't she?"

Ginny only nodded, she didn't know what Pomfrey wanted for her. Flitwick left.

"So." Ginny turned to the remaining people in the room, and sighed. "You'll be late."

Ron threw Ginny a weak smile, then looked at his feet, a gesture practiced by Ron when he knew he couldn't be of any help, and left.

Now Harry was left with Ginny. She looked at him, oblivious what to say. If this had happened some other time in some other dimension, Ginny would've found this thrilling.

"Don't look at me like that."

"Sorry," apologized Ginny, although deep inside she did not really feel the need for that.

"Makes me feel..."

"Uncomfortable?"

"Y-yes."

"I feel just the same."

Harry sat on her bed. Ginny was still. Her hair was swept by a sudden wind, but to this she paid little attention. He sat there for a few good seconds.

"Can I..." said Harry more to himself than to the girl.

When Ginny felt a warm hand touch hers, she pulled back. "No," she said, plumbly. She collected her hair to one side, and clamped it with the same hand.

Harry displayed an alright,-maybe-some-other-time,-anyhoo,-let's-change-the-topic,-shall-we? manner, and asked, "Is it me, or has Malfoy left a lot of spirit in this room?" He appeared to be questioning the ceiling.

Ginny didn't know how to answer to that.

"You--"

"No. I wasn't.. I wasn't sneaking, if that's what you're thinking. I woke up early, worrying about you. So I went here and well, bothered to see Malfoy near--Malfoy in the same room."

"It was his nose.. I think it..."

"Ah, that. So you know what happened to it? I don't think he'd have to spend the night here for a blasted, bleeding nose, and still have the insides to do story-telling..."

"Look, if you think I asked him to stay.."

"Of course not, you were unconscious."

"I was gonna say that."

"Did he hurt you? Oh, no, I don't think he did, with the way you look.."

"I'm feeling fine," snapped Ginny.

"Right you are. Guess I'll have to forgive and thank him instead." Harry smiled forcefully, and stood up to leave. "Later."

"Forgive him? Thank him? For hell what?"

Harry continued to walk away from the stupefied looking Ginny. "You should thank him, too," he said behind his shoulder. "He put that pillow under you."

.TBC.

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