Sometimes It Be That Way

Dissension Among the Ranks

*

The floor of the dungeon was cold to her toes and she wished she had been smart enough to remember to bring shoes. Silently, she walked on, shivering in the cold of a November night, following the footsteps of a tall, blonde-haired man up ahead. For the past week, this was her routine: she would scope out the dungeons and stick to the shadows their walls cast on the floor, always following Malfoy while Hermione would follow him in the upstairs corridors. It wasn't a very thought out plan, but it was the best the two could think of on such short notice. If only they had let the boys know what they were doing so they could do this job, but Hermione said the boys would just want to punch Malfoy and then they would never find out what he knew.

Ginny continued on through the shadows, trying her best to keep the noise of her robes swishing along behind her down to a minimum. Malfoy suddenly turned down another corridor, as was his custom, and kept walking. She had already learned where he was going. Just up ahead of him there was a room cordoned off for the prefects where they could sit and relax and talk about the days' activities. She had not been inside that room yet for fear that she would be caught. But Hermione had given her Harry's Invisibility Cloak which she took with her this time and had told her to use it.

"Gin, this is important," Hermione had said. "Draco might say something important about you inside that room, so you have to go in there."

Malfoy stopped in front of a gargoyle in the shape of a lion with its throat surrounded by a snake and spoke the password. Ginny quickly threw the Invisibility Cloak on and braced herself, sneaking in with Malfoy just as the wall was about to close behind him.

They were standing in a large room, decked out with black and green drapery and similarly coloured couches which were assorted throughout the room. Bookshelves lined one wall, stacked with books Ginny assumed were filled with knowledge of the Dark Arts. Against another wall were a line of small desks apparently for the use of the prefects who frequented the room. There was a fire in the grate and a chandelier with green fire for lights on the ceiling. Only a couple other students were sitting on the couches; but other than that, the room was empty.

Draco looked around, scanning the other students for anyone he actually knew and wanted to talk to. Some nodded their heads to him in greeting, but turned back to what they were doing quickly, a sign that they weren't willing to talk to him. Ginny waited for him to do something patiently. Well, 'patiently' might not be the word for it since her feet hurt a lot and she wanted to sit near the fire badly.

Finally, Draco moved towards the bookshelves and pulled an old tome off one of them before taking it to one of the couches. He sat down and started leafing through it, his brow crinkling in feigned interest. Ginny watched this and made her way towards the fire, taking her cue to sit down too and sat with her back to the fire so she could watch him.

Half an hour later, the wall opened again and a bouncy seventh year, who Ginny found was Pansy, ran in, sitting next to Draco. Her high voice filled the room and she ordered the younger prefects sitting in the room to leave. I guess Slytherins even have prejudices against the younger files of their own house, too, Ginny thought, watching closely. As soon as the wall closed behind the last prefect and Draco and Pansy were the only ones in the room together--or so they thought--Pansy was all over him. It was quite disgusting really.

Draco tried to push her away, very annoyed, but she persisted, clambouring on top of him and leaning down to lick his neck. Ginny hid her eyes in disgust and tried not to listen to the sounds coming from Pansy. Thankfully, Draco managed to push her off of him completely and stood up, panting.

"What?" Pansy asked, a little shocked. "I thought you wanted to have sex tonight. Isn't that what you wanted to see me about?"

"No, you idiot!" Draco yelled at her. Ginny uncovered her eyes and watched the pair fight. "I wanted to know-"

"What's up with that Weasley girl?" Pansy shrieked at him, putting her hands on her hips in anger. "God, what's with you? You won't even have sex with me?"

"Oh my God," Draco muttered in frustration, turning away. "Could you be anymore dense?"

"What's with this-this... obsession you have with the little Weasley?" Pansy yelled at him, standing up and walking over to yank him around to face her. "It's not like she's exactly pretty."

"I just want to know-" Draco started, but Pansy cut him off again.

"Yeah, yeah, 'you want to know'," Pansy yelled, mimicking him. "Well, listen to me, pal, that girl is a worthless, penniless, piece of dirt. And if you think that I'm just going to ignore the fact that you keep watching her and not watching me, you will be sorry."

Draco suddenly flew at her and pinned her against a wall, their faces mere centimetres apart. Pansy gulped and waited for his wrath. Ginny got up slowly out of exhaustion and moved closer to the pair at the other end of the room to hear what they were going to say.

Draco's voice was low and husky when he spoke and his face was contorted in pure anger. There may have been some hatred in his expression. "Now, what did you find out?" he asked Pansy.

Pansy closed her mouth, determination showing on her face and shook her head. He shook her and she still said nothing.

"Dammit, Pansy," Draco yelled at her. "If you don't tell me what you found out, I'll-"

"You'll what?" Pansy challenged. "You're not even half the man you say you are. You couldn't hurt me."

"Like hell I could!" Draco yelled.

Pansy laughed, something Ginny would be too freaked out to do if she was in her shoes. "No, you couldn't," she said. "You couldn't even kill me. You wouldn't even be able to-"

He suddenly slammed her against the wall and she gritted her teeth, but her eyes were still challenging. "I don't have time for this, Pansy," he said, spitting out her name like it was poison. "Just tell me what you know and you won't get hurt." When she shook her head, he slammed her against the wall again.

Rolling her eyes as if this was nothing, she finally said, "Alright, I'll play. This girl you want to know about-" Ginny perked up to listen "-rumours are flying around the school that something happened to her. Something bad. Whatever it is, the teachers flock around her like they are birds looking for a meal, except they all seem more concerned for her well-being than picking her apart. Some think that something happened with that diary again, but no one's exaclty sure."

Draco suddenly released her, satisfied with what she told him. He walked towards the middle of the room and she inched away from the wall, a hand touching the back of her head where it had hit the wall. She reorganized herself and smoothed her hair down, waiting for Draco to say something.

He was staring into the fire for awhile before she cleared her throat. As if only noticing that she was still there, he turned and asked, "Anything else?"

"Well, I would be glad to report this to your father," she said. "I'm sure he'll be very interested in the fact that you're looking for information on a lowlife."

"None of your business, Pansy," Draco said calmly. "I can assure you, my father will do nothing about it."

"I wouldn't be so sure of myself, if I were you," Pansy told him, finally starting towards the wall/door. "If I were you, I'd watch my back. This interest in that girl is going to hurt you, and when it does, I'm going to be there. You can be sure of that."

"Don't make threats, Pansy," Draco said. "For someone who is Slytherin, those threats are pretty empty."

"You wanna bet?" she asked him, turning to face him as the wall slid away. He just looked at her and she quirked an eyebrow. She finally walked through the doorway into the dark corridor beyond, and once the door was closed, he threw a glass that had been on the table beside him against the door. Ginny jumped at the noise and wondered how she was going to get out of there with all that glass on the floor.

It was a moment or two before Draco pulled himself together, his expression carefully blank, and walked towards the door. The wall slid open for him and he calmly walked through it as if nothing had happened in that room. The wall closed behind him, leaving Ginny inside alone. She had found out two things: he didn't exactly know that she was pregnant, but he suspected something had happened to her, and also that he wasn't the Dark Prince of Slytherin house anymore from the way Pansy had treated him. She suspected that it might have something to with his father. Perhaps the other Slytherins had gotten sick and tired of Draco buying his way through school.

Ginny sat down on a chair and wondered again how she was going to get out of the room. Her eyes caught sight of the book Draco had been fake-reading as they travelled around, looking for another door. Turning the book over, she caught the title, Macbeth, on it and frowned. So, Draco read Shakespeare. She leafed through it as he did and caught various poetic phrases she only half-understood.

Putting it down, she got up and walked towards the door. The wall automatically slid away as she approached it, but she could see tiny shards of glass. Hoping her socks would keep out most of the glass, she carefully stepped around large piles of glass and tiptoed out, bracing herself on the wall's opening. Once in the corridor, safely away from anymore glass, she tried to get the glass out of her socks. Once they were pretty decent, she jogged through the dungeons up the foyer of the castle, eager to tell Hermione what she found out.