Disclaimer: This is not mine for all of it belongs to J.K. Rowling, except for Hogwarts Monthly which is mine. If it seems like I stole some quotes from other works, please tell me and I’ll read it in the review section.
Dedicated to: Gracie, who diligently beta-reads my story and continuously gives me encouragement, thanks Gracie!
Chapter Twelve: In a Brother’s Point of View
When Draco and Ginny both entered the Great Hall at the same time, heads turned and spoons dropped as the whole school stared in amazement at the unlikely couple, both very red in the cheeks and both breathing hard. There was a ringing silence that filled the vast room as soon as they appeared in front of the doorway.
Ginny broke the silence with a loud burst of hiccup.
“Mr. Malfoy, Miss Weasley, nice of you to join us,” Professor Dumbledore announced from his seat, as he gave everyone a reassuring smile, “you may take your seats now.”
Ginny was in so much of a trance that for a moment, she didn’t know where to go. She followed Malfoy halfway through the Slytherin table when the headmaster interrupted her ocean deep thoughts with embarrassing words.
“Miss Weasley, I do believe you’re in Gryffindor?”
Only the Slytherin Quidditch team found the incident funny. Their boisterous laughter echoed throughout the stillness inside the room as Ginny turned around and made her way towards Colin and Neville, all flushed. She saw Ron and Harry at the corner of her eye, staring at Malfoy suspiciously, while Hermione was trying hard to stifle her giggles. As soon as Ginny sat down beside Colin, Malfoy had taken his standard seat which is beside Goyle, and the whole school got tired of the Malfoy-Weasley Affair, the usual noise filled the Great Hall once more.
“Hic!” Ginny hiccupped.
Colin’s eyes widened and his frown immediately turned into a smile as soon as he heard his worried friend give a loud hiccup. He gave her a hearty slap on the back as he said, “See, Ginny? Nothing to worry about. You still like Harry, it just took a while before the hiccups took place.”
“What are you talking about?” Neville asked from across the table, as he swallowed chocolate pudding down his throat, his forehead wrinkled in perplexity.
“Don’t you remember how Ginny abnormally reads through her hiccups?” explained Colin, as he took a swig from his pumpkin juice, “Remember last summer, how she wrote to us everyday, about when Harry talked to her, after an hour she hiccupped for days? Oh yeah, you don’t. Stupid me, I’m convincing a guy to remember something, when that guy needs a Remembrall to actually remember things!”
“Hic!” Ginny agreed.
“Oh, so you’re saying that Ginny’s hiccupping right now because Harry hugged her yesterday after the match?” asked Neville, wriggling his eyebrows playfully, “Don’t you think it’s a little bit too late for that? And Colin, I got over the Remembrall ever since fifth year—it’s your turn to get over it.”
“What do you mean?” Colin asked, “What are you trying to say? About the ‘little bit too late’ comment I mean. And no, Neville, I still can’t get over the fact that every year a brown owl drops a humungous parcel in our table just because you’ve forgotten something again.”
“Hic!” Ginny stated.
“About your last comment, I shall choose to ignore it, and about the ‘too late’ thing, well what I was trying to say is that Ginny said so herself that she hiccupped after an hour every time someone she really likes have anything to do with her. For example, talking, holding, touching, etc.”
“Stop—hic!—Neville!” Ginny said angrily.
“Yeah, so what?” said Colin, still not getting Neville’s point, “Her hiccups probably came a little late this time.”
“You—hic!—go, Colin!” Ginny cheered.
“You—hic—hush—hic—your—hic—mouth,” said Colin jokingly, “and Neville, what in Potter’s name are you talking about?”
“Let’s see, shall we?” said Neville, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his thumbs together, trying to display authority over the two, “The theory stated that after an hour of any kind of interaction that happened between Ginny and a particular someone, she would then hiccup.”
“Hic!” Ginny said.
“Ginny Weasley didn’t hiccup after an hour, two hours—heck, three hours, after she was held by Harry. Maybe she doesn’t like Harry now. Maybe she’s interested to someone else. Maybe someone else is making her hiccup right now—right at this very minute—after an hour of being with him.”
“Oh Neville,” Colin gasped, “you’re not saying—?”
“Ginny Weasley is not in love with Harry Potter anymore,” Neville concluded, waving his French fry in the air, acting like Professor McGonagall when she’s saying something very important that will most certainly appear in the test the following day, “Ginny Weasley is now in love with no one else but Draco Malfoy.”
At once, heads turned towards Neville and the whole Gryffindor table became silent. The other houses continued with their happy chatter, oblivious to the fact that a great rumour is about to explode.
“Hic!” Ginny cried out angrily.
Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil started whispering urgently to one another. Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas began to eye Ginny apprehensively and then eyed Malfoy with loathe. Dennis Creevey began taking notes for the school newspaper, with his eyes dancing excitedly while Nathalie McDonald whispered in his ear as she pointed animatedly towards Ginny and Malfoy.
And far, far away, at the front edge of the table, sat her brother, Ron, with a dumbfounded look on his face, while Hermione continuously tried hard to stop herself from giggling. Harry on the other hand, remained impassive.
“Well now—hic!—the whole Gryffindor—freaking—hic!—knows,” Ginny glared at Neville, her looks could kill.
“Here, drink this,” said Neville, shoving his pumpkin juice towards Ginny, “it’ll help stop the hiccups. Besides, they don’t believe me, do they?”
“No, not at all,” Colin agreed, bobbing his head up and down like a parakeet, “you and Malfoy getting together is very unlikely.”
“Besides with the Yule Ball coming up next week, who can possibly focus on your sexy, sexy affair with Malfoy?” Neville said, giving Ginny his ‘I’m sorry’ smile.
Ginny gave him a thumbs up to show him she wasn’t angry as she drank from his cup.
“Hey! Dennis!” Colin called out to his brother, “Is the Hogsmeade trip tomorrow?”
“Yes, and so is the giving out of Hogwarts Monthly, for the month of December,” announced Dennis, beaming, “be sure to get a copy, okay?”
“Sure,” Colin turned to Neville and said excitedly, “you heard him? Hogsmeade tomorrow! Let’s go to Honeydukes, I’m dying for some sugar quills.”
“You coming, Gin?” Neville asked when Ginny was finished getting rid of her hiccups.
“I don’t know,” she said uncertainly, “I reckon I have to clean tomorrow.”
“Why?” asked Colin curiously, “didn’t you clean the shed this morning?”
“Umm…I wasn’t exactly finished,” she lied, glancing around nervously and trying to avoid her friends’ eyes, “I’ll ask him in the hallways, I guess.”
Unless he wants to go tobogganing again, she thought silently, suddenly remembering the fun they had together, and had a hard time afterwards trying to hide her smile from Colin and Neville’s view, in that case, I wouldn’t mind ditching the Hogsmeade trip for him.
And after five seconds of realizing what she had just thought, she made it her business to shake her head vigorously, in hope that she’ll be able to shove those ridiculous thoughts away.
*.*
“Excuse me, excuse me!”
Ron turned around and saw Nathalie McDonald, Dennis Creevey’s best friend, smiling up at him as she held a piece of parchment in her hands.
“What do you want?” he asked brusquely.
“Ron,” Hermione reprimanded him warningly, “stop giving students younger than you a hard time.”
“Can we help you?” Harry asked kindly, giving Nathalie a heartening smile. They were just on their way to Potions and Harry needed every kind of excuse to be late for that subject. Professor Sinistra, the current supplied teacher while Snape was hibernating in the dungeons, seemed to fancy the way her students nodded off towards their bubbling cauldrons, while she babbled on and on about her love life.
“Umm…I’m sorry if you’ll be late for the next class,” Nathalie apologized immediately.
“Oh don’t worry,” said Harry, “Professor Sinistra thinks it’s a sin to take points off generally.”
“Hurry just the same,” Hermione urged Nathalie anxiously, not wanting to be late for Potions as usual.
“It’s actually a question for Ginny’s brother,” Nathalie said shyly.
“The name’s Ron,” Ron corrected sarcastically.
“Yes…err—Mr. Ron, the staff of Hogwarts Monthly just wanted to ask your opinion about the ongoing rumour that concerns your sister, Ginny Weasley, and your arch nemesis, Draco Malfoy.”
“I said it once and I’ll say it twice,” said Ron gruffly, as he began to walk away from Nathalie, “the only way I can see them together is that if they’re stuck in a tiny and dark room, completely void of any human habitation, for one hour, with several piles of dirty broomsticks and a Teen Witch Weekly mag…” Ron stopped abruptly, his eyes extending to the size of the Fat Lady’s waistline as sudden realization hit him.
“So finally, Ron spotted the humour in what he’s saying,” said Hermione, her eyes sparkling mischievously.
“Oh cricket,” Ron uttered, feeling all the energy inside him slowly draining away, “oh holy cricket.”
*.*
“I have a joke.”
Ginny had just survived one agonizing hour of Potions and was walking with Colin leisurely towards Charms. The only thought that cheered her up was that Neville’s next subject was Potions, and that while Ginny and Colin were having a great time watching Professor Flitwick squeak and jump around on top of his books, Neville would be in extreme danger of sleeping and thinking that his Chaser Potion was a soft, feathery bed.
“Fire on,” said Ginny.
“How do you know that Crabbe and Goyle are inside your house?” Colin asked.
“How?”
“When you hear a crash and then, after an hour, someone says ‘Ouch’.”
“Why did Colin Creevey cross the road?” asked a voice behind them lazily, making Ginny jump.
They both turned around surprised, and saw Draco Malfoy smirking that smirk he always has, his arms folded and his eyebrows raised as he asked, “Well?”
“Why?” Colin asked nervously.
“Because he needed a picture of himself in the yearbook, and so decided to take a picture of the chicken’s ass while it was trying to get on the other side of the road.”
Colin and Ginny simply stared at Malfoy disbelievingly, their lips pursed and their arms sticking to their sides.
“Hey, this is the part where you throw your heads back and laugh,” Malfoy reminded them. When they remained gaping up at him like a hawk, not a bit of a laughter or even a snicker coming out of both of them, Malfoy sighed and said, “One advice for me: don’t be a stand-up comedian.”
“Why would I take a picture of a chicken’s ass?” Colin asked, trying to understand the essence of the joke in his puny brain.
“One of life’s biggest mysteries Creevey,” Malfoy said, rolling his eyes, “hey, Weasley, if Parkinson asks, tell her I’m going with you to Hogsmeade tomorrow to buy some Quidditch cleaning supplies.”
“Why?” Ginny asked, perplexed.
“Because she wants to go to the trip with me, and I don’t want her there.”
“I won’t lie for your expense! Lying’s bad!”
“And so is stalking Potter every hour of the day, but who’s complaining?”
“I’m over stalking Harry a year ago Malfoy,” Colin piped in angrily.
“I didn’t mean you, Creevey,” Malfoy sighed loudly, “do me a favour and contemplate about why you wanted a picture of a chicken’s ass, will you?”
“No, I won’t lie Malfoy, and besides, what good will it do to me?”
“Let’s just put it this way,” Malfoy glowered as he waved his closed fist under Ginny’s nose, “if you don’t say that to Parkinson, you’ll find out what Hogwart’s toilet water tastes like.”
“Oh, Weasley!” someone sang out cheerfully.
Ginny looked past Malfoy and saw Pansy Parkinson bouncing towards her with a huge grin on her face. Colin muttered a foul word and hid behind Ginny, for he was generally scared of bouncing girls, especially if that particular girl was an obese, trying-hard Slytherin.
“Are you going to Hogsmeade tomorrow? With who?” asked Pansy breathlessly when she reached their little circle, her fake smile not fading.
Ginny looked at Malfoy uneasily before answering, “Yes, I’m going to Hogsmeade—with Malfoy.”
“Oh…” she said, blinking in astonishment.
“Yes, Parkinson, now off with you,” Malfoy ordered, shoving Pansy out of hearing distance. She walked away in a daze, her eyes glazed and her brain having a confused racket.
“What happened to your lying is bad principle?” asked Malfoy, raising an eyebrow.
“I didn’t lie,” Ginny answered roguishly as she gave Malfoy a toothed grin, “you are going to Hogsmeade with me—or else the two of us going down the hill together and the whole subject about your naughty hand will be all over school tomorrow. Remember, Colin’s brother is the editor of Hogwarts Monthly, and by all means, the issue for December isn’t out yet.”
“Why you little—” Malfoy stopped in mid-sentence when he saw Ginny about to poke Colin on the shoulder, as if it was a signal for him to run to Dennis Creevey and tell him valuable information that was worth being the headlines for the newspaper. Malfoy sighed in defeat.
“Fine, let’s look practically here for a moment and say that if—just if, for the sake of argument—I do go to Hogsmeade with you tomorrow, won’t your brother have a racket once he learns about that?”
“That’s why you’re going to have to ask him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Go ask him now, you have Potions with Ron, am I right? Ask him.”
“And what if he says yes?”
“Then you’ll be picking me up at 2:00 in the afternoon tomorrow, in front of the Great Hall.”
“And what if he says no?”
“Then you’ll be picking me up at 2:00 in the afternoon tomorrow, in front of the Great Hall.”
“You want to be with me this bad?” asked Malfoy, grinning at her.
“No, this is how bad I don’t want to lie,” Ginny said, causing Malfoy’s grin to grow wider for both of them knew she was lying.
*.*
Harry and Ron were silently chopping some balsam fig when Draco Malfoy appeared on their side, a piece of parchment in his hand.
“Go away, Malfoy,” Ron said automatically.
“I have a reason to be here,” Malfoy responded angrily as he shoved the parchment on Harry’s hand, who, as he perceived, had a greater amount of patience compared to the Weasel beside him.
“Dear Ron,” Harry read out loud as soon as Hermione turned up beside Ron, obviously there to restrain him from punching Malfoy in the nose, “I hope you’ll hear Malfoy’s side of the story before hitting him and making him bleed. Tomorrow, I would like to see Malfoy with two eyes, a nose, a mouth, a perfect set of teeth, two ears, two arms, two hands, ten fingers, two legs, two feet, and ten toes, or else I’ll make like a baby and head out first—and you know how mum hates that. Love you lots, Ginny.”
“Well, she didn’t say anything about wanting to see two eyebrows did she?” Ron growled after Harry finished reading the letter.
“Can you please hear me out first?” Malfoy begged, wondering for the hundredth time why he was doing this in the first place.
“After five years of insulting us? I don’t think so,” Hermione retorted stubbornly.
“Shut up, you filthy little mu—” Malfoy gulped when he saw Ron and Harry both point their wands up at him, “Moppet! I was going to say moppet!”
“State your reason and then go away without another word,” Harry said slowly, emphasizing each syllable with a poke of his wand at Malfoy’s eyebrows.
“Weasley’s sister wants me to go to Hogsmeade with her,” Malfoy said in one breath as he avoided Harry’s wand and Ron’s deadly stare, “she wanted me to ask you if it was okay.”
“What?” Hermione asked in amazement.
“If it’s okay, can I go to Hogsmeade with the Weasel’s sister,” Malfoy repeated for the trio’s sake.
“You want to go to Hogsmeade with Ginny?” Ron demanded, his eyes widening.
“That’s what I said.”
“Let me get this straight, Malfoy,” Ron insisted, as he continued to x-ray Malfoy with his eyes, “you’re saying that you want to go to Hogsmeade with my sister, one of the Weasleys, one of the poorest families and as you said, one of the families who have more children than they can afford and the kind of people who you wouldn’t and would never want to associate with.”
“How many days does it take you before you get something? I said I’m asking permission from you to go to Hogsmeade with your sister. Give me a yes or a no.”
After two minutes…
“NO!” Ron bellowed, his ears turning red in rage.
“Can’t say I didn’t try,” Malfoy shrugged before walking away, returning to his cauldron.
“For Malfoy to actually ask you permission in dating your sister,” said Hermione as soon as they were sure Malfoy couldn’t hear a word of what they were saying, “that must prove how much Malfoy changed ever since the Shrinking Potion incident.”
“Have you noticed how long it’s been after the last time he came up to us only to insult us?” Harry commented, carefully watching a fuming Ron beside him.
“Two weeks long to be exact,” Hermione answered smartly.
“Change? Malfoy’s changed?” Ron cried out, throwing up his arms in incredulity, “A person like Malfoy doesn’t change! It would take an alternate universe before he actually changes!”
“Think about it Ron,” said Hermione as she helped him chop his balsam fig properly, for Ron seemed to fancy crushing the fig under his hands, “when I was doing the cleaning spells in the shed last week, Malfoy didn’t even insult me or anything. It would be a great time for him to bombard me with all his racist comments, but he never said a word except when he asked me how Ginny was doing—and he didn’t say it sarcastically either.”
“So what? That doesn’t prove anything!” Ron argued persistently as he moved to the side to let Hermione chop the fig for him.
“Think Ron,” Harry gently urged, “maybe this time, Malfoy means everything of what he’s saying. If his main purpose was to hurt Ginny all this time, then how come he followed Ginny’s orders of coming to you and asking permission? Let’s say he doesn’t love your sister—in this case, aside from Lucius Malfoy, you still can’t deny the fact that Ginny seems like she’s the only person Malfoy listens to.”
Silence ensued between the trio. Except for the constant chopping of fig from Hermione, not a sound was heard from the three friends. Ron clearly was thinking about what Harry said. Maybe he was right. Ron couldn’t contradict the truth that Ginny had changed a lot ever since Malfoy came into her life. She began to have some principles, was ready to prove it, and was ready to stand up for it.
“He said that if we make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes out of it. And if this is the biggest mistake I can ever do in my life, if going against you, my friends and practically the whole Hufflepuff house just because of one person, I’m—I’m sure something good will come out of this…”
Those were her own words that had struck Ron in awe. He was strongly reminded of Harry himself, who knows what he wants and gets it. Maybe Malfoy came to her life for a good cause. Maybe through that ugly frog-like face of his, Ginny sees something vulnerable and gentle that makes her trust him so.
Well if Ginny can trust him, Ron guessed that he can live with it too.
After Potions, Ron came up to Malfoy and told him what he thought.
“Yes,” he said.
“What?” Malfoy asked, bewildered.
“Yes you can go to Hogsmeade with my sister,” Ron clarified, his look displaying authority.
“Fine,” Malfoy responded.
“Fine then,” and with that, Ron walked together with Harry and Hermione, hoping against hope that he had done the right thing.
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