You Left Me a Mixed Up Girl

A Door Closes

Draco Malfoy was scowling at Harry Potter. Or rather, Draco's picture was. It seemed Draco had left the country and the Ministry of Magic was searching for him. The Daily Prophet had reported the story and had included a picture of Draco that was on a wanted poster. Harry chewed his food slowly, staring at the picture of Draco. He was overjoyed that Draco had fled the country. Ginny would be unable to see Draco anymore. Harry happily buttered his toast and chewed on it, thinking of how he should broach the subject with Ginny.

As in an answer to his thoughts, the Great Hall's doors opened and Ginny walked through. Her red hair was bound away from her face in a bun. She wore a dark green dress this morning and her cloak was casually thrown over her shoulders. Harry watched as Ginny smiled and greeted her students. Harry noticed that Ginny looked happy this morning and wondered if he should show her the Daily Prophet article. He didn't want to ruin her good mood (well, yes he did), but he wanted her to know that she would be unable to see Draco anymore.

Harry had purposely placed his bag in the seat next to him so no one could sit by him. Now there were no seats available at the teacher's table, except the one his bag now occupied. While her students distracted Ginny, Harry lowered his bag below the table out of the chair. Harry watched while Ginny fruitlessly searched for a seat next to anyone but him. Ginny gave up and sat next to him, causing a wave of her perfume to settle in next to Harry. A warm vanilla smell filled his nostrils and Harry sighed. She hadn't smelled this good when they were dating, he was sure.

"Good morning, Gin," Harry said pleasantly.

"Harry," Ginny said in response to his greeting. Sitting this close to Harry was driving Ginny crazy. She wondered if it was possible to hate someone and still love them.

"I'm finished with the paper. Would you like to see it?" Harry tried to say this innocently, so Ginny wouldn't suspect he was up to anything.

Ginny looked at Harry strangely. "Okay. Is there anything you wanted me to see?"

"No, no. Just thought you might like to see the news." Harry sat back in his chair and rubbed his stomach thoughtfully. He watched as Ginny took the paper and began to read the article about Draco. Ginny scanned the article and then flipped the page to look at her horoscope. Dismayed by a lack of a reaction from Ginny, Harry decided to ask Ginny as question. "Can I see the paper a minute?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Here you go." Ginny pushed the paper back at him. She knew Harry wanted her to see that article about Draco. She was deliberately ignoring his repeated attempts to engage her in a conversation about it.

Harry flipped the paper to the front page again. He glanced at Ginny. "Sorry, I thought there was an ad for a new broomstick here. Where could it be?" Harry pretended to scan the page. "What's this? Draco Malfoy in trouble? Wanted by the Ministry?" Harry shoved the paper back at Ginny. "Did you see this article?"

Ginny began laughing. "You are such a prat, Harry. Of course I saw the article. I can't believe you spent all this time plotting to get me to see that article. It's pathetic really." Ginny buttered a scone and ripped off a large piece to eat. "How long have you been waiting to show me that article?"

"About an hour. I dawdled over breakfast so I could make sure you saw it. I'm sorry if it upsets you Gin." Harry honestly tried to sound sincere, but found he lacked the ability to be unhappy about this new turn of events.

Ginny shook her head and took a long sip of her tea. "I'm not upset. He's been asking to be arrested for ages. I'm surprised he escaped. He does deserve it." Ginny's eyes took on a faraway look. "Do you know, he had the dark mark?"

Harry laughed bitterly. "I'm not surprised. He was a horrible bastard in school." Harry looked over at her. "Will you be seeing him again?"

Ginny smiled as she sipped her tea. "He and I already said our goodbyes. I knew it wouldn't last. Don't worry Harry, I have no plans to join Draco in his flight from the ministry."

Harry felt like a weight had suddenly lifted off his chest. "That's good, because I'd miss you, Gin."

A shadow passed over them causing both Harry and Ginny to look up. Severus Snape glowered down at them. His dark hair swung in his face, obscuring his large nose from view.

"There's a staff meeting today. We'll be meeting in our staff room at four o'clock. Dumbledore has some news he wants to share with us." Snape walked away from them, in an unusually bad mood this morning.

"What crawled up his ass?" Harry asked as he watched Snape walk away.

"Draco was Snape's favorite, Harry. He's probably upset that Draco is in trouble. Merlin, Harry! Don't you ever think of others?" Ginny stood up from the table and looked at Harry. "I'll see you later on. Try not to smile too much today." Ginny walked away from Harry slowly, gathering up her things and pulling her cloak on. She hoped Harry would try and apologize for being an ass, but that seemed like too much of a miracle to expect. Meanwhile, Harry watched as Ginny walked away. He unsure if Ginny wanted him to catch up with her and apologize or if she wanted him to leave her alone. Harry decided to leave Ginny alone and hope she felt better later on. At least his competition was out of the picture. Harry's path to getting Ginny back seemed clear.