Love, and Other Things That Hurt

Chapter Six

Ginny spent the rest of the day actively avoiding everyone, particularly Linnéa, Harlow, Kevin Whitby and the Creevey brothers. She half-hoped Draco would be feeling reckless and would corner her in an empty corridor, but she felt only a pang of disappointment every time she turned a bend and found herself alone. Irrationally, she began to get infuriated when she didn't see him for the rest of the morning. Why was he never around when she needed him? Why did Ginny never get what she wanted from the people around her?

Angry and upset, Ginny purposefully slid into every class with the bell, assuring that the only vacant seat for her was isolated and nowhere near any of the people she was trying to avoid. She felt Linnéa's eyes on her all throughout History of Magic but pretended not to notice. Deep down Ginny knew she was being stupid, was being downright mean but she couldn't bring herself to rise above her petty sulkiness. She spent lunchtime holed up in the library with her nose buried in her Herbology book, ignoring the stares of people who weren't used to seeing her alone. The rest of the day passed in a blur and by dinnertime Ginny was so exhausted from trying to evade her best friends that her anger had given way to fatigue.

"Hi, Ginny," Hermione said tentatively as Ginny took a seat beside her at the Gryffindor table and began pulling dishes towards herself. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine," Ginny responded tiredly, tucking a strand of her long fiery hair behind her ears and picking up her spoon. She glanced up at the older girl. "What about you, Mi? How are you doing?"

Hermione looked slightly startled at the question but recovered quickly. "Oh, I'm fine," she said with a slight smile. "Thanks for asking."

Ginny bit her lip, staring down at her mashed potatoes. When was the last time she had talked to Hermione? When was the last time she had come to sit next to her at the dinner table just because she wanted to? When did she last go over to Hermione in the common room just to chat about anything, just because she enjoyed her company? All anyone ever did these days was ask Ginny if she was alright, how she was feeling, if she was ill; everyone noticed Ginny's white face, her weariness, and yet she was so self-centered that the only thing she could think of was how irritating it was that nobody would leave her alone. As she looked back up at Hermione, the girl who had been, for her first few years at Hogwarts, one of her best friends, the girl who was virtually a part of her immediate family, Ginny felt a pang.

"Look, Hermione," Ginny said after a moment's hesitation. "I...I know we haven't spoken for awhile..."

She paused, half-hoping she would interject and rescue her from having to finish her sentence, but Hermione remained silent. She had always been a good listener.

"Anyway," Ginny said hastily, feeling her freckled face flush pink, and she directed her eye s back to her plate. "I just...just wanted you to know that I'm - that I'm glad, you know. To - to have you."

She looked up quickly and saw Hermione's face looking both emotive and taken aback.

"Thanks, Ginny," Hermione said gently a moment later, smiling at her. "That's a really nice thing to say."

Ginny smiled back, and at that moment Ron dropped into the seat on the other side of Hermione. He seized the tray of lamb chops and then spotted Ginny. He stared. "What are you doing here?" he asked blankly. Hermione shot him a reproachful look.

Ginny shrugged and turned back to her plate. This seemed to satisfy Ron who resumed the piling of his plate with renewed vigor as he spotted the spaghetti casserole in front of him.

"Ginny?" a voice said from behind them and Ginny turned to see Harry approaching the table.

"Hi, Harry," Ginny said, smiling to conceal her slight disappointment. "What's up?"

"McGonagall just told me to tell you," Harry said, taking a seat beside her and setting his bag down behind him, "that you should be Snape's dungeon tonight right after dinner to do your detention."

"Right," Ginny said with a sigh. "Thanks."

"You have detention?" Ron demanded in a garbled voice through a mouthful of food. Hermione looked revolted.

"Yeah," Ginny muttered. "It's not a big deal, just for talking in class."

"I got the feeling McGonagall wasn't exactly thrilled with you at the moment," Harry said. "Anyway, maybe she's just in a mood today. I hear she's been giving detentions left, right, and centre."

"What do you mean?" Ginny began asking, but just then she noticed Draco saunter into the Great Hall with Zabini and Nott and she lost track of her question. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice.

When dinner was over, Ginny stood up and hugged Hermione, who seemed surprised but pleased, traipsed up to Gryffindor tower to drop off her schoolbag and resignedly set off for the dungeons.

It was cold and dark down in the lowest level of the school and Ginny wished she had brought a sweater. She reached the dungeon door and knocked twice, then waited as she heard footsteps behind the heavy door.

"Thank you for joining us, Miss Weasley," Professor McGonagall said stiffly, stepping back to allow Ginny entrance into the room.

"Us?" Ginny said blankly. She followed Professor McGonagall in and immediately saw Kevin Whitby sitting at a rectangular table, which was carrying several jars of strange slimy substances and a half dozen corked bottles of a grayish-green liquid.
"Hi, Ginny!" he said brightly as he spotted her. "You have detention too?"

"No talking!" Professor McGonagall barked before Ginny could respond. "Ginevra, take your seat. Now, you will be -"

The dungeon door swung open behind them and a haughty-looking blonde girl walked in, followed closely by Colin Creevey. The girl ignored everyone and dropped into an empty chair at the far end of the table with her arms folded, but Colin caught Ginny's eye before reddening and strutting to the seat next to Kevin.

"As I was saying," McGonagall began, but she was cut off again as there came a knock upon the door and when it opened, Linnéa peeked into the room.

"Ah, Miss Decoulter," McGonagall said, conjuring up a fifth chair with her wand and motioning Linnéa towards it. "Have a seat. And -"

"Excuse me," the blonde girl said in a sugary Australian accent that nevertheless held a bite of impatience. "How long exactly is this going to take?"

"As long as necessary, Ms. Paradis," Professor McGonagall said shortly, pointing her wand at a nearby shelf off of which drifted several jars that all landed in the middle of the table that the students sat at. "Perhaps if you would refrain from putting makeup on during a lesson then detention would not be such an inconvenience to you."

Linnéa lowered herself gingerly into the seat on Ginny's immediate right. "Hi, Ginny," she said in a quietly tentative voice. Ginny murmured "hi" in return but didn't look at her best friend. She was stunned that Linnéa of all people was in detention, but was too embarrassed to inquire into the matter. So much for avoiding her; now they would be in close quarters with each other for several hours.

Professor McGonagall, who had evidently given up on attempting to give instructions, was seated at Snape's desk shuffling stacks of parchment while the five students stared at each other. Kevin was mouthing something to Colin who was shrugging moodily, his arms crossed, staring at the wall above Ginny's head. Linnéa was gazing at her hands, looking uncomfortable. Alyssa Paradis, the seventh year blonde Slytherin, was heaving dramatic sighs and tapping her glossy red fingernails on the table. When Kevin gave up on Colin and started trying to pointedly catch Ginny's eye instead, she ignored him and was relieved to use the opening of the dungeon door again as a distraction.

Neville Longbottom shuffled in, his anxious face illuminating at the sight of Linnéa, and Luna Lovegood, with her usual vague smile, drifted in after him moments later.

"Ah, yes," Professor McGonagall said, standing and conjuring two more chairs out of thin air, eyeing the newcomers sternly. "Well then. That must be just about everybody. Whitby, Creevey, Longbottom, Weasley, Decoulter, Paradis, Lovegood . . . and -"

The door slammed open with such force that everyone jumped and looked round. Alyssa sat up a little straighter in her chair, her hand going to her hair, Linnéa frowned, Kevin looked annoyed, Neville fearful, Luna mildly interested, and Colin awed, and Ginny felt her heart fly into her throat. Draco Malfoy sauntered into the chamber and let the heavy door bang shut behind him, running his fingers through the front of his hair and smirking coolly at Professor McGonagall, who looked as irate as they had ever seen her.

"Late, Mr. Malfoy," she said severely, conjuring an eighth chair that, unlike the others, was uncushioned and straight-backed. "And I will thank you not to make such a - a disturbance when you enter a room in future."

Alyssa giggled. McGonagall ignored her.

"Sure thing, Professor," Draco said dismissively, sliding into the chair that had appeared across from Ginny and leaning back with his arms behind his head. Colin immediately edged his own chair closer to him.

"Now that we are all present and accounted for," Professor McGonagall said with a dirty look at Malfoy, "we can begin. You are all here at a time when you would otherwise be enjoying the pursuit of the leisure activity of your choice. Unfortunately for you, your less than satisfactory behavior in the classes and corridors today has warranted . . . punishment." She paused for effect, and then continued. "As you may have deduced by the contents of the containers in front of you, Professor Snape has some substances that require pickling. For example, we have here -" She grabbed a jar and pried open the lid, "- eel's eyes."

Alyssa looked as though she was about to vomit. The smell that reached Ginny's nose had the similar effect on her and she quickly looked away, squeezing her eyes shut.

"The frogs' brains, pigs' ears and slugs will require extra attention, as they are very delicate," McGonagall continued. "I assume you all know what to do."

She was greeted by seven blank stares, and a serene nod from Luna.

"Excellent," Professor McGonagall said curtly. "I'll leave you to it. I don't want any talking between the lot of you or I shall have to separate you, in which case the work will become considerably more tedious. I shall be supervising at all times to ensure that -"

Yet again, there came a knock on the door and for the fifth time, Ginny turned to see who it was. It was Professor Dumbledore.

"Good evening, Minerva," he said with a smile at the room at large. "I wonder if I may have your assistance with a small problem that has arisen in the Great Hall."

Professor McGonagall looked wary. "Peeves?" she said exasperatedly.

"Quite," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "It shouldn't take a moment. Of course, I did leave Hagrid in charge, so I'm not quite certain of how exponentially the mess will have grown by now."

"Of course," McGonagall said with a sigh. She cast a hawklike glare at the students. "I shall be back in no time at all," she assured them sternly. "I expect to see that progress has been made by such time that I will be able to return."

Ginny nodded along with the others, all the while watching Dumbledore. Surely anything that Peeves had done could be dealt with by him alone. As though he had heard her think this, Dumbledore's bright blue eyes immediately fell on her and, as she met his gaze, she could have sworn that he had winked.

"Lead the way, Headmaster," Professor McGonagall said, and the two adults left the chamber.

There were a few seconds of silence. Ginny turned back to the group feeling wrong-footed and bemused, and as she faced the table, her eyes met Draco's. The sight of his trademark smirk made her heart flutter and she stubbornly clamped her lips together to stop a stupid grin from forming on her face.

"There are quite a lot of us here," Neville said finally.

"It's strange, isn't it?" Linnéa mused in an undertone.

"I am not touching that rubbish," Alyssa declared, wrinkling her nose and pushing the still-open jar of eels' eyes towards Kevin. "What a ghastly detention."

"I don't think we have a choice, really," Luna said solemnly to Alyssa, her protuberant eyes wide.

"Whatever."

"So," piped up Kevin. "What did you all do to get here?"

There was a pause. "I disrupted my Herbology class by tossing One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi out of the greenhouse roof in an attempt to disrupt the flight pattern of a passing Nargle," Luna said cheerfully.

Everyone gave her a strange look.

"Well, I was talking to Dennis in class and accidentally set Jocelyn Greengrass's robes on fire," Kevin said. "What did you do, Neville?"

"Skived off Divination in the astronomy tower," Neville said glumly. "Mrs. Norris caught me."

"I was passing notes to Harmony in Ancient Runes," Linnéa volunteered despondently. Ginny quickly glanced sideways at her and they met each other's gazes for a moment, but before Ginny could smile, Linnéa had looked away.

"I was putting on mascara in Transfiguration," Alyssa said tonelessly, examining her cheekbones in a compact mirror.

"What about you, Weasley?" Draco drawled unexpectedly, making everyone look round at him, including Ginny. He was regarding her with one eyebrow arched, the shadow of amused disdain on his face. "What got you in here? Snogging Potter on McGonagall's desk at break or something?"

Colin turned very pale at this, and then, as though catching himself, forced a sort of hysterical laugh as though Draco's comment was both the funniest and most tragic thing he had ever heard.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Linnéa snapped, surprising everyone. "Nothing comes out of your mouth except ignorance so why don't you just keep it closed?"

Ginny, who was both trying to look angry and not burst out laughing at the same time, chose to ignore the remark about Harry. "What did you do, Malfoy?" she said, her eyes wide and innocent. "We all know it's against the rules to let trolls into the castle, but I had no idea you could be punished just for being seen with Crabbe and Goyle."

"You're wit is almost as staggering as Decoulter's," Draco said with a mock-courteous nod at Linnéa. "For your information, I'm here for something that was completely unintentional. It just so happens that, due to a mere and, of course, accidental mispronunciation, the charm that I was supposed to be using to turn Finnigan's nose hair to ringlets melted one of his ears off instead."

"You melted off one of Seamus's ears?" Luna said interestedly. "No wonder he looked so lopsided at dinner."

"Don't act like you didn't do it on purpose, Malfoy," Linnéa said furiously. "Everyone knows that you can't miss a chance to show off."

"At least some people have a sense of humor," Alyssa Paradis snapped. "I only started here last term and everyone knows that you're too busy following rules to ever have any fun."

"What's wrong with following rules?" Linnéa said, her vehemence faltering momentarily as she looked stung. "At least I don't spend my whole life looking into the mirror."

"Maybe you should once in awhile!" Alyssa shot back.

"Alright, alright!" Ginny said, waving her hands in a peacekeeping gesture. "We should probably get to work, right? If we don't do anything, then nothing is going to get done."

"Let's all applaud Weasley for her ability to state the obvious," Draco said with a contemptuous smile. Colin glanced sideways at him before imitating the expression, though it did not have quite the same effect on Colin's boyish face.

"Does anyone actually know how to pickle eel's eyes?" Kevin asked hesitantly, examining the jars on the table.

"Oh, yes," Luna said brightly, unscrewing the nearest jar to her which, to Ginny, looked like chunks of vomit suspended in a brownish liquid. "Daddy and I need to use pickling for all sorts of things at home."

"Great," Alyssa said, snapping her compact closed and glancing at the door. "You can do that, and I'll just -"

"You can't leave, Paradis!" Linnéa snapped. "What are we going to tell Professor McGonagall when she gets back?"

Alyssa merely glared in response, but Ginny noticed she no longer seemed poised to go.

Eventually everyone drifted into different corners of the dungeon. Kevin was warily listening to Luna's explanation of the lactobacillus plantarum process all the while looking as though he was certain this couldn't possibly work. Alyssa was sitting cross-legged in a corner twisting strands of her flawless blonde hair around her wand and releasing them into perfect ringlets. Linnéa had gone off to examine the shelves that held the rest of the jars of substances they were to pickle and Neville had traipsed eagerly after her. As she noted the remaining occupants of the table, Ginny stared up at the ceiling as though she could not feel Draco's eyes on her.

"So let's hear it, Weasley," he intoned lazily, his foot finding hers under the table. "Disturbing the peace of Gryffindor tower with your shenanigans or what?"

"What are you talking about?" Ginny said snappily, glaring at him. His storm-colored eyes danced and her scowl slipped. Colin was looking from one face to the other, obviously drinking in the show.

"I'm just wondering what you did to get landed in the slammer here with all of us regular delinquents," Draco said, shrugging. With a sort of exasperated amusement Ginny noted that a thrill seemed to go through Colin at his inclusion in the 'us'. "I figured that once your twin brothers flew - literally - out of the school following their display of idiocy in the upstairs corridor a few years back, your kind made a mental note to fly under the radar."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ginny said levelly.

Draco merely smirked. Ginny felt the foot under the table slide slowly up her leg and widened her eyes at him pointedly. He responded with a determinedly innocent look

Ginny immediately looked around the room for something else to focus on.

Linnéa was nodding and smiling vaguely at whatever Neville was saying to her while scanning the assortment of substances in the jars lining the shelves. Kevin and Luna, having pulled on protective gloves McGonagall had supplied, seemed absorbed in the pickling process. Alyssa, however, was watching Draco out of the corner of her eye. Ginny wasn't thrilled about the look on the older girl's face.

"Colin," Ginny said loudly as Draco, leaning forward casually, found her knee with his hand under the table and began tracing his finger up and down her thigh. "What, um, did you do to get here?"

Colin looked momentarily startled and then recovered himself and regarded Ginny in a bored way as though she was a mildly irritating insect. "The usual," he said with an exaggerated yawn. "Some second years cheeked me in the hallway." He glanced fleetingly at Draco. "I fixed them up."

Draco pretended he hadn't heard, and Ginny, trying to unobtrusively remove Draco's hand from her leg, observed Colin's face falling comically as he saw he had failed to impress him.

"Fixed them up?" Kevin called over with a short giggle, looking up at Colin from the rat spleen in his hand. "They stole your Potions book and called you a pansy and you cried!"

Colin turned pink. "They were tears of fury," he snapped at Kevin. "Nothing more. All born of the overwhelming sense of duty I felt to put them in their place."

"You were twenty minutes late to class because you were in hysterics in the bathroom," Kevin pointed out, clearly genuinely under the impression that he was being helpful. "So you didn't really put them in your place, right?"
Ginny immediately shoved her fist in her mouth to prevent a frenzied giggle from escaping her. Draco stared at Colin with on eyebrow raised disdainfully and Colin's color deepened to an unflattering magenta.

"Oh, what do you know, Kevin?" Colin shot fiercely at the younger boy. "Why don't you just shut up?"

"Don't tell me to shut up!" Kevin said, getting to his feet and frowning at Colin. "Why don't you stop being so mean?"

"Maybe I will, when YOU stop being so stupid!"

Linnéa and Neville looked round. Even Alyssa glanced up from examining her symmetrical face from her compact mirror to investigate the confrontation.

"Just admit it, Colin!" Kevin said shrilly, planting his hands on his hips and reminding Ginny strangely of her own mother. "You're just acting like a jerk to make Ginny like you!"

"Kevin," Ginny said evenly, or, as evenly as possible while Draco's hands continued the discreet and yet thorough examination of her lower body beneath the table. "Kevin, just leave it."

"No!" Kevin said, angrily, throwing down his gloves and taking a step towards the table where Colin still sat as though he had been turned into a glaring statue. "Because he's being mean and I won't stand for it anymore!"

"Oh, dear," Linnéa said in a hushed voice.

"You tell him, Kevin," Neville added, nodding vigorously. "You're worth twelve of him!"

"Neville!" Linnéa admonished, and he immediately looked sheepish and regretful.

"Finished with the spleens," Luna put in happily from the floor where she was screwing the lid back on the first jar, in which several slimy things were floating in the grayish-green brine. Nobody responded.

"Is this really what Gryffindors fight about?" Draco said, looking interested. "Fascinating."

"I'm a Ravenclaw!" Kevin growled at him.

"OK, enough," Ginny said, standing up, Draco's hand falling off her lap. "What's this all about?"

"I'll tell you what this is all about!" Colin said suddenly and unexpectedly, leaping up from his chair and turning to glower at Ginny. "You!"

"What?" Ginny said defensively. "What the bleeding hell did I do?"

"If you didn't think you were better than me -"

"Excuse me?" Ginny interrupted, pushing back her chair violently and scowling at Colin.

"This is silly -" Linnéa began, taking a step forward with her hands out.

"Speak for yourself," Alyssa muttered. "This is way more interesting than anything you losers have talked about so far."

Linnéa spun around to face her. "You may not be aware of this, but just because we're Gryffindors and far less petty than the people in your house doesn't mean you can start shooting off your mouth, Miss High-and-Mighty."

"Who's going to stop me?" Alyssa taunted.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Neville said angrily.

"Let's hear it, Colin," Ginny demanded, her jaw set. "What gave you the impression that I think I'm better than you? I'm just dying to know."

"Maybe the fact that you just keep turning me down, and -"

"Yeah," Ginny said with the air of someone explaining that one and one equaled two to an emotional preschooler. "Because I don't like you in that way!"

"She got you there, Creevey," Draco said mildly, and Colin looked slightly deflated.

"Don't make excuses, Colin," Kevin threw at him accusingly, stomping forward until they were almost face to face. "You're not cool enough for a girlfriend!"

Colin gasped and spluttered. "I - I - look who's talking! I don't see you with a girlfriend, Kevin!"

"Yeah," Kevin said, rolling his eyes impatiently. "Because girls are gross."

"I am too cool enough for a girlfriend," Colin said snidely.

Draco snorted so loudly that everyone turned to look at him. He sneered at Colin. "What are you looking at, Creevey? Aren't you trying to defend your honor right now or something?"

"R - r - right," Colin stammered, and Ginny turned on Draco and hissed, "Stop being a bully!"

He grinned.

"You didn't start acting like this until this weekend," Kevin said shrewdly, pointing a finger and Colin. "You're trying to be something you're not and I know why!"

"Everybody pay attention," Draco said authoritatively, glancing around the room. "The Ravenclaw is about to enlighten us."

Kevin drew a deep breath. "You want to be Draco Malfoy!"

There was a very long silence in which everyone seemed to trying to stare each other down.

"I don't know whether to be amused or offended," said Draco finally in a dry voice. "If Creevey is demonstrating how I supposedly act on a daily basis then I should be shunned and exiled immediately."

Alyssa snickered from her corner and Linnéa threw her a dirty look.

"Look, this is ridiculous," Ginny said impatiently. "Why don't we all just agree to get along and finish our detention, OK?"

"Not until he admits it!" Kevin shrieked in rapidly increasing volume and making Neville jump. "He's trying to act like Malfoy because Malfoy gets all the girls."

"He does get around," Luna said thoughtfully, capping the second jar and already reaching for the pigs' ears. "I mean, walk into the girls' bathroom any day of the week and you can hear stories."

"What do you mean stories?" Ginny asked without meaning to.

"Oh, you know," Luna said solicitously, examining the grayish-pink flesh object in her gloved hand with curiosity. "Draco this and Draco that."

Ginny felt her fists clench unintentionally.

"Well of course they say that," Linnéa said scathingly, dropping down on a chair and crossing her arms. "Certain people have appalling standards in men and find loutish arrogance appealing."

Draco made a mocking bow in her direction.

"Some of us like to date men who are actually men," Alyssa shot back sweetly at Linnéa, "as opposed to boys who are actually whiny little babies." Her eyes fell upon Neville and Ginny felt her anger, which had been bubbling beneath the surface since Colin's accusation, boil over rapidly.

"Go to hell, Alyssa," she snarled and the other girl pressed her long fingered hand to her mouth in an imitation of shock.

"Whoa, whoa," Neville said, smiling weakly though pink in the face. "Don't you think this is getting kind of -"

"And Neville and I are not dating!" Linnéa declared heatedly, wiping the feeble grin of Neville's face instantly.

"I know it's beyond the comprehension of a tramp like you, Paradis, but it is possible to be friends with someone without dating them," Ginny added acidly.

"What about dating someone without being friends with them?" Draco said suddenly, and when everyone turned to look at him, Ginny saw that he was looking at her.

"Whatever," Ginny said wearily. She was feeling ill again and didn't like the inflection in Draco's voice. "Kevin, Colin, please take your differences elsewhere. Alyssa, shut your fucking face. Can we just get this done?"

"I thought we were friends," Kevin mumbled to Colin, glowering at him. Colin's color deepened but he didn't answer.

Linnéa looked at Ginny but Ginny was too irritated to care about reconciliation with her right now. She sat down at the table and put her chin in her hands.

It seemed like too much to hope for that everyone would heed her command and shut up for the next few hours but they did. Linnéa began the pickling of the substances in the jars that remained on the table and Neville, still looking injured, was helping her without comment. Kevin had returned to helping Luna and kept shooting furious looks at Colin, who was looking glum, but stubbornly and silently sitting at the table. Even Alyssa had slunk over to watch Luna and Kevin work and Ginny was just thinking that she should probably go and help with the work when Draco sat down next to her.

They didn't speak - anything said besides scathing insults would be suspicious and neither of them seemed in the mood anymore - but after a few moments Draco reached for her hand under the table and wound their fingers together. Ginny slowly turned to look at him and he didn't smile, but she could see a hint of one in his eyes. She turned her eyes back to the scarred tabletop and closed her eyes as his thumb traveled up and down her index finger and for a long time, the room was in near silence except for Luna's murmuring as she pointed her wand at jars and phials in turn.

"You break up with Decoulter?" Draco murmured eventually in a voice too low for anyone else to hear. Ginny bit her lip and lifted her shoulder briefly without comment. Linnéa glanced up at her every once in awhile but looked away before Ginny could catch her eye. Now that her exasperation with the events of detention so far had began ebbing away, she found that her anger with Linnéa and Harlow had completely dissipated. She now just felt a bitter sadness that she may have ruined their entire friendship, forever.

"Draco," Alyssa purred, batting her eyelashes in a nauseatingly flirtatious fashion at him. "Do you have plans after detention?"

"Yeah, my social calendar just bursts into life at around 1 AM on a weeknight," Draco said, regarding her with unconcern. "Why?"

"I just thought we could, you know," she said, with the air of implied illicitness in the plans she was suggesting. "Walk back to the common room together?"

"Hmm," Draco said pensively. "I'll have to let you know if I'm planning on heading in that direction."

Ginny immediately faked a short sneezing fit to conceal her laughter.

"Bless you," said Linnéa automatically.

"Thanks."

"You know what, Colin?" Kevin announced suddenly, standing up again and almost sending the jar or slugs all over Alyssa who shrieked as though she had just been run through with a stake. "I'm not talking to you anymore!"

"Jesus Christ," Draco drawled, rolling his eyes. "I thought we had gotten over this?"

"Yeah?" Colin said, bounding out of his chair and facing Colin, his face a blotchy purple color. "Well, maybe I'm not talking to you anymore!"

"Not if I don't talk to you first!"

"You two are being childish," Linnéa told them sternly, setting down a freshly corked bottle. "You're friends, after all. You'll get past this silliness."

"I don't think we will, Linnéa," Kevin said, heaving a spectacular sigh. "Because when I decided to be friends with Dennis Creevey on September the first in my first year, nobody told me that his brother was Draco Malfoy!"

"OK, enough of this," Ginny said impatiently, dropping Draco's hand under the table and striding over between Kevin and Colin. "Kevin, you have no proof that anybody is attempting to act like Malfoy."

"Oh yeah?" Kevin trilled in a misgiving tone. "Who do you think he's acting like, Ginny?"

"Maybe he's just acting like himself," Ginny said with a sigh, holding out her arms impatiently. "I have no idea. People change, Kevin, either for the worse or the better, it all depends. People make choices. They make either conscious or unconscious decisions to alter their behavior and habits and that's their prerogative."

As she spoke, she was only half aware of Linnéa's eyes boring into her face.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Kevin asked, frustrated. "Stop being friends because he's changed?"

Ginny looked at Colin, whose face was grayish-white. He looked as though he wanted to speak but couldn't settle on what to say.

"If someone changes," Ginny said after a long moment, and she looked steadfastly back to Kevin to avoid meeting anyone else's gaze, "you need to decide whether your love for them and the person they were is important enough to make you want to love the person they've become exactly how they are."

There was silence.

"Finished," Luna said abruptly, breaking through the tension that had filled in the room. She was smiling up at Ginny. "Now, the slugs were slightly more difficult, but I think with the vinegar strength and complexity, it should hold for a good few years. Father always said that Nargle eggs did best with a slightly more potent concentration, but they are, after all, a more complex species with a very rare structural system."

"Ugh, finally," Alyssa said, getting to her feet and slinging her handbag over her arm. "What, do we just leave now?"

"I don't think we should until McGonagall gets back," Neville responded absently. He was looking at Linnéa. "Are - are you alright?"

Ginny, her face pink, had hurried forward to help Luna clear up the empty phials without looking round, but she knew that Linnéa's eyes were on her.

"I'm fine," Linnéa said shortly. After a moment's hesitation, she moved forward to begin helping Ginny carry things to the shelf. Kevin and Colin were standing awkwardly next to each other, neither obviously able to think of anything to say, and Draco had stood up and was stretching out his arms, smirking.

"Well, this has been enriching," he said sardonically, picking up an empty jar and examining it with false interest. "I feel as though all my character flaws have corrected themselves."

"Maybe they would have if you had actually done something," Linnéa pointed out scathingly.

"Fair point, brainbox," Draco said indifferently. "McGonagall obviously got tied up. How goddamn long does it take to wave a wand and clear up some broken dishes?"

"I wanna go," Alyssa whined.

The dungeon door banged open and Professor McGonagall strode in.

"Ah, you're done," she pronounced with satisfaction, noting the sealed jars Luna had just finished arranging on the table. "That's fine. Professor Snape will examine those in the morning and if they are not done to his standard, you will all be back here tomorrow night, so I hope, for your sake, that you did your very best work."

Alyssa turned and gave Luna a death stare that said plainly that she better have done the pickling properly. Luna responded with an oblivious beam.

"Out, out, out," Professor McGonagall said, chivvying Kevin and Neville out the door. "Straight to your dormitories and no dawdling in the hall."

Ginny yawned as the eight students spilled into the corridor. Kevin was already stomping down the hall with Luna traipsing composedly after him. Colin looked after him with a very strange look on his face before sloping down the other corridor that led to the staircase to Gryffindor tower.

"Coming, Draco?" Alyssa crooned, her hand on her hip.

"Yeah," he said, his eyes on Ginny.

Ginny felt herself blush.

"C'mon, Linnéa," Neville said, tugging on her arm. Linnéa gave Ginny a fleeting look, but Ginny was busying herself with the clasp on the charm bracelet on her wrist.

"Draaaaaco!" Alyssa complained, twirling her hair around her finger and eyeing him with a pout. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah," he said, slinging his arm around Alyssa's shoulder and smirking at Ginny. "See you around, Weasley."

Alyssa gave Ginny and Linnéa gloating looks as she and Draco headed down the opposite passage. After another moment of hesitation, Linnéa followed Neville down the hall, leaving Ginny to stand alone outside Snape's office. Ginny stared after her, and only when her best friend's footsteps disappeared from her hearing range did she recover the use of her feet.
The trip back to the common room seemed to take an unusually long time, and Ginny felt as though there was a sort of echoing pang within her heart that reverberated through her with every step she took. It was the absence of truth, she knew. Keeping such a secret from her friends had been wearing at her for months and months, and yet she had no idea what she could do about it. Not tell them, certainly not...that would only serve to make things worse. She couldn't imagine them necessarily condemning her for it, but things would never be the same. How could it be worth it? No matter what happened, somebody would lose.
"Huckleberry pie," Ginny said automatically to the sleepily annoyed portrait of the Fat Lady, and had just climbed into the dark and apparently empty common room when from up ahead she suddenly heard her name.
"Ginny?"
She jumped and nearly tripped on the axe Minster, seizing a nearby ruby-studded urn to steady herself. She turned and, in doing so, was able to see that Hermione was sitting in an overstuffed armchair in her usual quilted pink dressing gown, her concerned face illuminated by the smoldering fire.

"Oh, 'Mi," Ginny said, breathing deeply and pressing her hand to her chest. "You gave me a fright."
"I'm sorry," Hermione said, turning her chair towards Ginny and gently placing a snoozing Crookshanks on the ottoman to her left. "How - how was detention?"

Ginny shrugged, already backing towards the girls' staircase, wanting desperately to slip into bed and get a few solid hours of sleep. "It was alright,' she said with a shrug, feeling behind her with her foot for the first step. "Nothing special."

She was smiling and had just opened her mouth to say goodnight when Hermione interrupted her.

"Ginny, could you come sit for a moment?" she asked, folding her hands in her lap and looking uncomfortable. "I really want to talk to you."

Ginny slid wearily back over to the fireside and into the chair across from Hermione. "About what?" she asked, though she had a feeling she knew.

Hermione just looked at her for a few minutes. Finally, she spoke. "Ginny, I love you."

Ginny opened her mouth to speak, changed her mind, and closed it again, but Hermione wasn't waiting for a response. She heaved a heavy sigh.

"I left you alone when you insisted you were fine," Hermione said slowly, looking as though she was choosing every word carefully. "I told the other two they should as well, but they just couldn't. We knew...I knew you were lying."

Ginny waited, staring at her, and Hermione met her gaze. "I know you are lying," Hermione corrected herself, and in the pit of her stomach, Ginny felt a paroxysm of an emotion she could not identify, but still, she did not speak. She couldn't admit to anything, she didn't want to. Hermione watched her for another moment before standing, watching the south tower window as she paced in front of the fire.

They were silent for a long time. Ginny had watched Hermione's progress up and down the corridor three times before the latter spoke again.

"I know something's wrong," she said, not stopping, which made Ginny grateful as she then didn't have to meet her eye. "Harlow knows. Linnéa knows. Harry knows. Even Ron knows, even though he's more oblivious about it than anyone. Even Neville's told me that there's something off about you these days, Ginny. There's no point lying, and I really don't see how there's any point in keeping it from everyone." She hesitated. "From us."

Ginny didn't know what to say. She didn't know if Hermione was waiting for an answer or not, but when a few more moments passed and it was evident that Ginny was not going to speak, Hermione merely sighed inaudibly.

"You're like a sister to me-" Ginny began, but Hermione cut her off.

"Then why won't you trust me?" she asked hollowly, not looking at Ginny now. "Out of all the people in the world, Gin, I'm one person who will understand. I'm one person who will always want to do anything to help you."

Ginny wanted to believe it. She wanted to be convinced that it was true, that she could spill all the secrets of the past three-quarters of a year to Hermione and she would not be judged, not be shunned. That Hermione would understand and she would hug Ginny and say that it didn't matter, none of it mattered because she loved her. No matter what, she would always love her.

"I wish..." Ginny said in an undertone, but she didn't finish, and Hermione turned sparkling eyes upon her, looking hurt.

"You and I have always been like family, Ginny," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "But not like this. Not like we've been. You've been sneaking around for months and months. One minute you're happy and the next minute you're in tears. We're all confused but we've let you have your run of it, and now you're getting ill and you still won't give in. What is it, Gin? What on earth could possibly be so awful that you have to keep in from everyone who cares so much about you?"

Ginny squeezed her eyes shut tightly, willing the tears not to come. "It's not awful," she said thickly, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. "It's wonderful. It's -"

She realized to late what she had done. She quickly turned away from Hermione, who gave a shaky laugh that Ginny was not expecting.

"Something is making you happy," she said, and it was a statement rather than an inquiry. "Someone."

Ginny only had to meet those brown eyes to understand what she was hearing.

"You already knew," she said. It was not a question.

Hermione nodded.

"Everything?"

"Only what I guessed."

Ginny stared at her. "For how long?"

"Long enough."
There was another long moment in which they stared at each other, Ginny's face blank, Hermione's smiling sadly, and Ginny couldn't understand how she hadn't known. Of course Hermione would guess. Hermione would never miss something that, by now, could have been obvious to those who had cared to look close enough.

"But how - how could you -"

Hermione smiled unhappily and shook her head, her eyes closing, leaving salty tears to cling to her thick eyelashes. "I've watched you, Gin, ever since Harlow began telling me you were disappearing at night. I've listened, I've paid attention. I've followed where your gaze has gone in the Great Hall." She lifted one shoulder. "I've never seen two people look at each other like that before."

There was quiet between them, and in the distance outside in the corridor they could hear a crash from a room of the hall followed by Filch's wheezing bellow and Peeves' cackling laughter. The two girls watched each other in silence.

"It's a long story," Ginny said softly.

"I've got time."

The moon was reflected in the lake outside the nearest window illuminated Hermione's enduring face. Ginny did not speak, but for the first time in a long time, she wanted to. She needed to. Lost in a sea of older brothers since the day she was born, 'family' for Ginny meant chaos. Hermione had been a constant since she was ten years old, that older sister and built-in best friend whom Ginny had stopped appreciating, stopped even noticing. And yet Ginny knew that, to some degree, Hermione would always love her completely and irrevocably, just as any sister would. No matter what happened. No matter - who happened.
"I missed you," Ginny whispered hoarsely, her eyes brimming over and her lip suddenly trembling uncontrollably as she met those eyes that she hadn't really looked into for months.

Hermione reached out for Ginny's hand once more and there was no disgust in her eyes, no hate, no anger, just as Ginny should have known there would never be. There was no trace of anything but sincere relief and empathy behind her words, and it only took a moment for Ginny to burst into silent tears, those bitter tears she had been saving up all this time, and for Hermione to wrap her arms around her and hold her tight as the fire in front of them crackled, hissed, and died in a flurry of singed white ember.