38. Chapter 38: Ginny

I'm trying to update this more (not much more, you might say) to make up for the lack of updates for S U R V I V O R. There is a reason why updates for the aforementioned fic is so unoften (is that even a word?), and I think I've probably mentioned this before.

I'm basing S U R V I V O R on a book which I don't own a copy of. Therefore, I have to take it out of the library every time I want to write the next chapter. Obviously, the book isn't just going to be sitting there waiting for me to pick it up, so I usually have to wait for the person who has it to return it to the library so I can take it out. All this means there's a delay of at least 1-2 weeks from when I feel like writing, to when I really start writing. That, plus the fact that I have 2 other fics to maintain, a lot of homework and exams, and writer's block adds up to long overdue updates.

I'm really sorry to blabber on about my woes, but I just thought you might like to know if you're sitting there wondering what the hell I'm doing taking so long to update S U R V I V O R (and I must admit it's been a while).

& here ya go...

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10 Ways to Kill Draco Malfoy

Chapter 38

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GINNY

Well, I'm glad to see that Hermione and Ron have finally made up once and for all. Ron's constant whining and complaining was starting to really annoy me. I mean, really. There's only so much that a little sister can endure before she goes nuts. Good thing I escaped before I reached my limit. Otherwise more than one person would be hurt by the outburst that'd follow.

And no, I'm not a violent, chainsaw-wielding maniac when I get mad. I just... get a little unreined. But it's still not a good idea to test exactly how unreined I get.

"Ginnnnyyyyyyyy," Georgina coos in my ear. "Look which stalker's here!"

I spin around at her words. Sure enough, I spot the familiar cropped head of none other than Elliot. He seems to be looking around for someone. And I might just know who. "Ack," I manage to say, before elbowing my way through the crowd and away. I don't really need an awkward encounter with him of all people right now. "Come on, Georgie. Away!" She follows me, attempting to hide me by standing directly behind me and trying to conceal my vivid red hair by repeatedly bashing me over the head with her parchment - which, I suppose, wasn't her intention. But it still hurt. "OUCH! Georgina, watch what you're doing with that parchment of yours!" I yell, and realize a split second later that, oh, maybe I shouldn't have done that?

Too late, however. I can almost mentally see people staring at us, and see Elliot's head whip around at the sound of my voice. I start sprinting, and when I turn around I see the odd sight of Georgina struggling with Elliot, trying to hold him back by tackling him while telling me to, "Run for your life, Ginny, runnnnn!". I do as she says and reach the girl's bathroom before collapsing over the sink, not quite sure what made me do what I'd just done.

I mean, it's not as if Elliot is really a stalker or anything. But for some reason, I don't feel very comfortable talking to him. He's probably angry about the fight between him and Harry, anyway. I don't really want to hear him yelling at me about what an ass my boyfriend is (because he's not, though he does have a nice one- well that's besides the point).

Half a minute later, Georgina rushes into the bathroom, her hair wild and mussed up but with a huge grin on her face. "Boy, Ginny, that Elliot's a wild one," she said, smirking. "Even I could barely hold him down. He must be really into you, eh?"

I roll my eyes, thinking back on our first meeting. "Um, not really. Really hates me now, yeah probably. But a definite no-no for attraction." Well actually, he probably does like me, but no one needs to know that. Really.

"Riiiiiiiight," Georgina drawls in her famous cowboy accent. "You just keep telling yourself that, honey. If he doesn't like you, then I don't know who does."

"Everyone except him, I suppose," I say darkly. "Enough about me. What about you? What happened out there? You look like something nested in your hair - for days." I laugh as her eyes widen and she frantically searches her bag for a comb. I offer her mine and she plants herself in front of a mirror, brushing her curly blond hair back into shape.

After finishing her tidy-up, she turns back to me. "Hmmm," she says thoughfully, recalling the events. "Well, after you started running, he came up past me and had this weird glint in his eye, so I decided to do the heroic thing and grab him." I roll my eyes at this, but motion for her to continue. "Anyway, he started letting out a string of curses and expletives, so I distracted him with a little lecture about respecting his peers and not uttering such profanities to them. He kinda got annoyed at me, so I had to resort to tackling him to keep him back, and after you escaped into the bathroom he got really irritated and we had a friendly little wrestle. Good thing I managed to come out on top, though. All that quidditch practise really helped."

I can just imagine Georgina beating him up; of all my girlfriends, I'd say she was the roughest and toughest. Of course she doesn't look or act it, but she has that streak in her. Which would have made her a perfect Beater for the Gryffindor team... except she decided to trial out for Chaser instead.

Such a waste. She'd be better than the two guys that are Beaters anyday.

"Ginny?"

I quickly clamp a hand over Georgina's mouth. "It's him," I hiss when she looks at me questioningly.

"I can hear you, you know."

Oops. I'd forgotten that the bathrooms had a tendency to echo - and since there was hardly any soft surfaces, not much sound gets absorbed. Too late now; I shut my eyes and pray that he'll go away, thinking he was hearing things or that I wasn't me.

"Come out, I wanna talk to you."

Georgina mimicks him and puckers up her lips. "Ginny, I've always wanted to tell you... I love you!" she mouths, and I punch her on the arm rather audibly. She yelps in pain, then covers her mouth quickly.

"Just to let you know, I'm not going to profess my undying love to you. So get your mind out of the gutter."

I was so not thinking that. Really.

"But I can't say I never liked you at all."

Sigh. So he's still on this same old track.

"Though your boyfriend beat that out of me a while ago. So no, we're back to square one."

Yay! Looks like that fight seemed to have done its job. Even though it wasn't particularly violent or impressive, it was still effective, judging by Elliot's change of mind.

"So, you gonna come out or what?"

"What about no? Not until you leave, at least," I say after a long pause. Georgina grins at me, and I hear him chuckle.

"Come on, I'm not that repulsive, am I? I mean, even if you're taken there's still probably tons of other girls who are eagerly waiting for me to notice their existance. Why, I could be the next Draco Malfoy, if I tried a little harder!" His tone takes on an admiring air, and I roll my eyes. What is Malfoy, some kind of new teenage idol for all boys to look up to and imitate? Sure, he does happen to have all the right qualities for a guy, and girls chase after him like cats chase after mice (OK, not the best metaphor but it'll do).

But still. He could have chosen a more appropriate idol. Like Harry, maybe. I giggle as I imagine Elliot trying to grow his hair out and draw a scar on his forehead to imitate him. "Seriously, Elliot. What are you trying to achieve by coming here and explaining your unrepulsiveness to me? I know what you're like. I've had personal experiences of that."

Beside me, Georgina boredly picks her nails and starts flipping through her Transfiguration notes. So I guess she'll be tuning out until I'm done. Satisfied, I move towards the exit of the bathroom and lean on the wall.

He stays silent for a while. "Are you trying to make me apologize now?" he says after a while.

I laugh. "If you think you should be apologizing to me, you might as well. I mean, when we first met you were extraordinarily rude to me; then after that you tried to hit on me and then fought with my boyfriend. Gee, I can't say you're the politest and most subtle guy I've ever met."

Another pause. I wait patiently for his next sentence.

"I'm not going to apologize to a girl whose boyfriend gave me multiple bruises and whose best friend tackled me," he declares finally.

Well that was unexpected. Surprised and annoyed, I bang on the wall behind my head. "What are you doing here then? Go away and leave me alone."

He sighs. "But... I do admit I acted rashly," he says sheepishly, then adds quickly, "Not that you didn't deserve it, of course."

Again, I pause, momentarily shocked. Elliot is so full of surprises. I guess that's probably one of the only things I like about him. I start laughing. "That's pretty much an apology, Elliot. Why don't you just say the magic words - 'I'm sorry'? It's a lot easier for your puny brain to process." I imagine him scowling at my words.

"I don't wanna." A pouting tone.

"Don't be childish." A gentle but firm rebuke.

"Why should I?"

"Why not?"

"... Fine." There is a lengthy pause as he deflates his ego enough to pronouce the 3 syllables. "I... I'm sorry, Ginny."

"For what?" I grin.

"For God's sake," he yells. "I said sorry already. Man."

I say nothing.

He sighs again. "Alright, alright. I'm sorry for being rude to you and Potter. I'm sorry for fighting with him. I'm sorry for trying to molest you. Happy now? Huh?"

"Now, that wasn't too hard, was it?" I smile at Georgina, who had looked up in amazement at the apology. I motion for her to get up and she shrugs good-naturedly, following my lead. I take my bag and head outside to where he's standing with a scowl on his face. Just like I'd thought. "Good boy, Elliot! You're learning to become more social. I assure you with those two simple words, you'll get very far. Especially with girls."

"Girls like you?" he said, his smirk back on his face.

I roll my eyes. Some people never change. "No. And you'll never get anywhere with me. I told you already. Now, I hope there won't be any more awkward confrontations like before. Right?"

Elliot smiles. "Sure. I promise." He starts to put an arm around my shoulder, but I duck away. I hear Georgina snickering in the background, but ignore it, knowing that if I turned to look at her I'd lose my calm composure and start blushing like mad. "What's wrong? I'm just being friendly." He looks bemused at my behavior.

I wag a finger at him. "We're friends, but I don't want you getting too touchy-feely. I'm sure you understand."

"Ginny... honestly," he huffs, folding his arms across his chest and looking annoyed. "I wasn't thinking of getting touchy-feely. Of course I wasn't."

"Of course you weren't," I agree, and walk on the other side of Georgina until we reached our next class.

I feel somewhat giddy. There's no word that comes to my brain that can describe exactly how I feel right now. It's a bit like the feeling you get after you... I dunno, score a spectacular goal in Quidditch, and everyone sees it? Or maybe when you slug the person you hate most while they're in a full-body bind. Or... well, the list could go on and get more and more wild, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

Through the next few periods, I get told off by several teachers for things that I didn't intend to happen.

During Potions I do my best to restrain my random giggles in order to not get 50 points shaved off Gryffindor, but end up choking into my cauldron. Thankfully Snape doesn't notice and I carry on stirring my potion, sniggering every half minute as if I were a nutcase. Unfortunately I think my saliva got into my solution and my potion ended up contrasting starkly to everyone else's, and the points I had been fighting to preserve were taken off anyway.

In the middle of Charms, we had a lesson on learning to control Wingardium Leviosa so that we move the object exactly as we want. We practised with cushions and getting them to stack on a small table in a precise way so that it doesn't topple, but one of my friends said something that made me laugh, and my cushion went so wild and out of control that it hit several people hard in the face and toppled more than one person's cushion tower. I was treated to some very nasty glares and a scolding from Flitwick at the end of the lesson. I suppose I deserved it.

And finally, at Care of Magical Creatures, we were studying Slippers, a type of very slippery and ferocious lizards. The professor noticed how some of us didn't seem all that convinced about its 'legendary soaplike slipperiness' tried to prove it to us by asking for a volunteer to try and hold it. That ended up being me. I managed to grab one, but I held it so tightly that it popped out of my fingers and went sailing into the air. Unfortunately the lizard broke its fall by clamping its jaws onto one of the Slytherin boys' groin, and the scream that was uttered was purely bloodcurdling. I'm sure I'll have nightmares about it for days.

So it's probably no surprise that by the end of the day, I am feeling rather dejected by the pain and trauma that I had caused in mere hours. I think about asking Georgina to cast a Cheering Charm on me, but she had gone off with her boyfriend and I don't want to interrupt them just for that. And I don't trust anyone else enough to get it right, except for one person... Hermione. But she is nowhere to be seen either.

I hang around the common room (looking quite a lot like a friendless loser), waiting for the trio to arrive. As people trickle steadily through the portrait hole, I spot Harry and Ron clambering through and run up to them, glad to have company. "Hi Harry, where's Hermione?" I ask.

"Hey, you forgot about me," Ron complains, pulling my hair. I squawk and bat his hand away impatiently. "I feel so unloved... even by my own little sister..." he sighs dramatically. "Oh, woe is me..."

I roll my eyes and Harry laughs, then turns to me. "I have no idea, actually. She might be at the library, but I haven't seen her since dinner."

"Maybe she's off somewhere with Malfoy," says my brother darkly. "I still don't understand what she sees in that git... geez..."

"So much for trying to get rid of him, huh?" I say, grinning. "Looks like that part didn't work out so well. But seriously, I'm amazed that she even did some of the ones she told me about. They were so un-Hermione."

Ron snorts. "You never know what Hermione can do when she puts her mind to it. She's full of surprises, that's for sure."

"I second that," Harry says matter-of-factly.

I laugh at their pretend seriousness. "I'm sure you're both right." Then I brighten, and link my arm through Harry's. "Harry, let's go for a walk! We haven't done that in ages and I feel like talking to you. Some very interesting things happened today..." I say as we slowly walk towards the portrait-hole. Behind us, I hear Ron protesting about us leaving him alone, and then muttering something that sounded like 'gotta get a girlfriend'. I grin and hang onto Harry tighter.

Somehow, I had a funny feeling that Ron is right about where Hermione might be, and running around trying to find her while she's with Draco might not be such a great idea.

Don't as me how I know. It's a girl thing.

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Phew! Done! xD OK, I dunno how long this chapter is, but it seems decent... I was starting to run out of ideas as to how to make this chapter longer so I didn't want to make up lamer dialogue just for the sake of chapter length. -.-;;

Oh, and I'm pleased to say I've made it into the finalist round of the 'He Had It Coming' Dramione awards! If you have ze time, could you please drop off a vote for me? I'd be really happy if you did! The link and info is on my profile. :D -Hugs-