FicWad

“COME ON GINNY!!! HURRY UP NOW!” Mrs. Weasley's voice rang throughout the train station.

Ginny was practically dragging her bags rather than rolling her luggage or carrying anything. She was too busy with her thoughts at the moment to put any effort into carefully transporting her things. She noticed platform 9 3/4 was a lot less crowded than normal, in fact, to use the word crowd at all would be unfitting. Half the train carts weren't even open to students, she figured it must be because of how much smaller the group of students was attending Hogwarts this year. Where was everyone? She thought to herself was this really all the students that would be attending this year? There were only a few carts full of students most of which were returning students rather than first years. She expected the amount of students attending this year would be a lot less but didn't expect this. She gave another careless tug on her luggage and quickened her pace when she heard Hermione addressing the train conductor.

“What do you mean assigned compartments?” She asked, sounding confused.

“Yes young lady, this year you're being assigned to certain compartments due to limited seating, there is no need to open the other train cars up with such a small group of students this year, there is just enough seats available on these few designated train carts so all students were randomly assigned to a compartment to avoid fighting or overfilling of each one.” He said with a big smile.

“Oh, I see”

“Here is your ticket, Miss,” he said, handing over her ticket and then turned to the rest of them to hand them their tickets.

“This is such crap,” said Ron; pushing past them to get on the train.

“RONALD!!! GET OVER HERE AND GIVE YOUR PARENTS A HUG GOODBYE” called Mrs. Weasley; meeting him half way.

They all said their goodbyes; Ginny had noticed her mom and dad holding onto her a little longer than necessary. She gave George a hug and he gave her a knowing look, she gave a small smile back knowing he was referring to their talk last night. She couldn't help but get annoyed at him for acting like nothing was wrong, but she knew he had his reasons and it was helping him cope, but it wasn't the same way for her, yeah, she was tired of the sadness that seemed to fall upon their entire family, but at the same time she didn't want to be told how to deal with things, sometimes she just wanted to be left to her thoughts hoping that she would come to a conclusion about how to move forward on her own. Did she though? She didn't know, she was becoming frustrated, she really didn't know how to feel after all, so she wasn't even sure if she knew what she was thinking was real or not or just......”Ugh” was all she could voice while she stepped onto the train.

“You ok Gin?” Harry asked, walking behind her onto the train

“Oh, uh, yeah, just these silly assigned seats, seems so juvenile” she lied. She really didn't care where she sat she was going to get lost in her thoughts anyway, or a book hopefully if her mind would allow it.

“Yeah, I guess it is but hopefully we get a compartment full of good company,” he said arriving at his compartment

“Yeah, hopefully; well, see you in a bit,” she said, dragging her carry-on bag behind her.

“Sweet, we get to sit together” Ginny heard Ron say to Harry as they both disappeared behind the compartment door. Hermione was fortunate enough to get a compartment with Luna Lovegood which Ginny was glad, for she knew Hermione needed a girlfriend to talk to about girl things and she knew she wasn't that much of a talker these past few months and she felt guilty about being such a distant friend to Hermione but she just couldn't help her feelings as of lately.

Finally arriving at her compartment at the very end she whipped open the door and dragged her bag carelessly inside behind her. When she turned around to see get a better look at who she would be sharing this long train ride with her stomach twisted into a knot when her eyes fell on Draco Malfoy. Her mind raced with so many thoughts and so many different emotions were starting to surface and she tried so hard to not let any of them show, but one thing she did know that was plain as day on her face was her look of surprise. She wasn't sure if he even noticed it or not, in fact, she didn't even know if he realized she was there at all as he didn't even spare a glance at her when she came in. Obviously he knows she's there he heard her being so loud with her barbaric door opening and luggage handling. She couldn't help but smirk to herself as she thought about how she somewhat was hoping to get a compartment with someone she knew, she just didn't think that someone would be Malfoy.

She quickly shook all thoughts from her head and continued to turn to put her luggage on the top rack above her seat. Again she went full barbarian on her carry-on as she pushed with all her might, then her frustration coming to the surface when it got stuck on something and she had a hard time getting it up there. She could barely reach the top shelf to put it up there, but eventually, after a few curse words under her breath, she managed to punch and push it enough to get it up there. As soon as the she finished with that the train started to pull away as she was standing and the initial rocking of the train starting up caused her to lose balance and start to tumble backwards. She quickly found her balance again and was so grateful for not falling right into Malfoy's lap, but she noticed she didn't find leverage on her own, she finally realized it was Malfoy's hand on her back that kept her from falling over on him.

“Watch it Weasley” he said with a slight snarl and then quickly turned back to the window.

“Sorry,” she barely whispered and then quickly sat down and opened her book to cover the apparent red in her face. Of fucking course she almost fell right into Malfoy's lap, of course she was stuck in this compartment with him for the whole damn train ride. Of course her mind was racing and her emotions were overtaking her again. She chanced a glance at Malfoy over her book and quickly looked him over. Something was different, something was off. Well of course something was different; look at what happened a few short months ago. He wasn't in his normal pressed black suit, just some jeans, sneakers and a T-shirt and sweater. His hair was out of place and hung around his face rather than slicked back or plastered in place. He had dark circles under his eyes like he hadn't slept in days and a blank look on his face, well from what Ginny could see from where she sat. She soon realized her quick glance turned into an all out stare down and quickly brought the book back up over her face as he turned to see her staring at him.

Draco felt her studying him from head to toe; he knew she hadn't realized how long she had been staring. He couldn't help but take notice of the youngest Weasley either as soon as she walked in. She wasn't so young anymore, she had curves now, her chest filled out, and when she turned to put her luggage up he noticed her back-end had to. Her hair was like a raging fire, so vibrantly red and orange, hanging all around her face and lying on her shoulders and trailing down her back. It had more volume to it; more layers; not the straight hair he had noticed before.

His thoughts on the Weasley before him quickly disappeared and were replaced with where his mind always fell on...........his father. After the final battle and they returned home all of his father's anger and embarrassment he took out on Draco. It wasn't anything he wasn't use to before the final battle, but this time was ten times worse than any abuse his father put upon him, anything from the Cruciatus curse to physical abuse. His father was absolutely livid at Draco's choice to switch sides and especially right in front of the Dark Lord himself. Draco knew the only reason he agreed to rejoin his father was because he was a coward, he was too afraid to stand up to him, especially now that Lucius was getting just as powerful as Voldemort himself. He cringed a bit at the thought of being the offspring of a man such as Lucius. He was still expected to help his father carry out his plans to eliminate all Muggles, Mudbloods and blood traitors, but Draco knew he would never be a part of it.

He was surprised to be accepted back to Hogwarts by the Headmistress herself. He figured she wasn't blind to his situation, but he couldn't stand anyone having any pity on him, he deserved to be in this dark place in his life. He agreed to go back to Hogwarts to get away from his father and so he could start to clear his mind and make a plan for himself to be free of his father's wrath. He felt so worthless he thought the least he could do was accomplish the fact of graduating from school. His mother decided to pretend she didn't know what was going on and locked herself in her room most of the time or occupied herself with shopping. Lucius made it plain and clear to her that Draco was his for the taking and he had plans for him and she better not interfere. Narcissa was scared of Lucius and didn't dare question him on anything so Draco couldn't even rely on his mother to protect him or back him up, but he couldn't blame her, he was a young man now and it was time for him to start protecting himself, after all he couldn't depend on anyone, he had nobody to talk to, to trust, he had to learn to just rely on himself and even that sometimes was a letdown.

He felt the youngest Weasley's eyes still on him and he quickly glanced at her, he noticed her look away as soon as their eyes met and she pulled her book back up to cover her face. He wondered what she was thinking; he knew she hated him and his family with a passion, especially now that his father was probably the world's biggest threat. His father was merciless; he's been killing innocent people and slowly wiping out all those who he didn't see fit to live in his world. He knew everyone thought Draco was his right-hand man, but he never participated in any of his father's plans of attack which is why he always found himself unconscious from pain from one of his father's abuse episodes. Then Draco realized why did he care what she was thinking at all? He didn't care, but he knew what everyone thought of him and became used to it.

Ginny kept holding the book in front of her face, she had been holding it there for about a half hour, turning a page every so often so it appeared she was reading, but she couldn't focus, her thoughts were all over the place and unfortunately on the blonde Slytherin that sat across from her. Not only did she almost fall on top of him, but then he caught her staring at him. To say she was feeling a bit awkward was the understatement of the year. She decided to try and actually read her book so she could try and shake off this uncomfortable feeling surrounding her and she soon dozed off with her book on her lap.

Ginny's eyes flew open at the sound of the compartment door sliding open and hearing the conductor stick his head in “30 minutes until we arrive at Hogwarts folks” he said cheerfully then sliding the door closed and walked away.

Ginny took a quick glance over at Malfoy to see that he too looked as if he was just ripped from his nap by the conductor's announcement. She wondered if Malfoy had fallen asleep before she did and if she said anything stupid during her weird dreams she had or occasion nightmares that sometimes disturbed her slumber. She shook any other thoughts out of her head and stood up to grab her robe to throw on over her shirt and jeans and noticed Malfoy also made a move to grab his. They were facing away from each other and Ginny quickly took off her cardigan and threw her robes on over her T-shirt and then sat back down with her book over her face. She peeked over the top of her book to see Malfoy pulling off his pullover sweater revealing his T-shirt underneath. As he pulled his sweatshirt over his head, his shirt rolled up a bit revealing his midriff, which Ginny noticed was considerably toned and immediately got red in the face. Her eyes then noticed a very noticeable bruise on his ribs and caught herself staring once again at Malfoy.

“You know you really need to stop staring at me Weasley” he said, pulling his shirt down and sliding on his robe.

Ginny was so fricken embarrassed at this point she was sure her face matched her hair color. She cleared her throat to try and find her voice, “oh I-I uh......sorry,” she whispered and put her book back into place over her face sliding down a bit in her seat.

“And you can stop pretending to read this book,” he said, leaning forward and grabbing the book from her and tossing it on the seat beside her.

She didn't know what to think or what to say, she was just shocked that Malfoy grabbed her book from her and that he saw straight through her. She tried to regain herself and grabbed the book back off the seat and said the only thing she could think of, “I'm not pretending, I really am reading it" she said opening it up to a random page.

“Oh yeah? Then why is it upside down?” He nodded towards the book

She wasn't sure if she was growing angrier at this point or embarrassed all she knew was that she wanted this damn train to arrive already so she can get out of this awkward moment. She rolled her eyes and turned the book right side up. Her thoughts started to flood her mind again and she finally decided to put down her book and just let her mouth have free reign and immediately regretted it when the words came tumbling out, “so what happened?” She asked, gesturing to the bruise on his ribs.

He glared at her, why was she asking? To be nosy? To get info? To have a good laugh? Malfoy immediately got up from his seat and took a step toward her. Leaning over her he bent down until he was face to face with her, their faces only a few inches apart. Ginny felt the hairs on her neck stand up and goose bumps cover her body. She felt a huge lump in her throat and time seemed to have completely stopped as the words he spoke slapped her in the face with such venom and malice she thought she might break down and cry right there.

“Mind your own fucking business Weasley!” He snarled at her then grabbed his bag down from above his seat also grabbing Ginny's luggage down and placing it on her seat before he ripped the compartment door open and was out of sight.

Ginny let out a long breath that she seemed to be holding in the whole ride followed by tears, why would she ask something so stupid, why was she getting upset over Malfoy, why was she always over thinking everything. She felt the train come to a stop and quickly dried the tears on her face and grabbed her luggage and made her way to find Harry, Ron and Hermione.

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬______________________________________________________________

Ginny walked down to the Great Hall and spotted Harry, Ron and Hermione walking ahead and she ran up to catch up with them. She was annoyed at this point because she'd been trying to spot them since she got off the damn train.

“Hey Ginny, we tried waiting for you at the train, but they started leading us up to the castle so we had to go” Hermione said giving her an apologetic look.

“It's fine, don't worry about it, ” she mumbled back

“What's wrong Gin was your ride that bad?” came Ron's voice, as he entwined his hand with Hermione's.

They reached the Great Hall at this point and took their seats at the table, Ginny sat next to Harry and across from Ron and Hermione. She gave a frustrated groan as she saw Malfoy take his seat across the room and was immediately reminded of the horrible train ride she had to endure. Not that it was horrible, really just awkward and embarrassing.

“Well, you tell me, I had to share a compartment with Malfoy and it was just us” she growled

“WHAT? Are you kidding Gin? You should have come and got me and I would've traded places with you,” Ron said slamming his hands on the table. Only a few people around them took notice, but went about their conversations.

“Yeah, right Ron so you both could have gotten into a huge argument and some stupid, petty fight, no thanks” she said rolling her eyes. “Besides, he didn't do anything or say anything, it was just awkward, I practically tripped and fell into his lap”

“HAHAHA, I'm sorry Ginny, I don't mean to laugh, it's just the image I have in my head is making it impossible” came Harry's voice and then Ron and Hermione joined in.

It wasn't long before Ginny gave in as well and laughed about the whole thing. She decided not to say anything about how the ride ended, she wasn't sure she was over that embarrassing moment yet, or that it was any kind of info she wanted to share with the trio. She tried so hard not to glance up over at the Slytherin table, but she couldn't help it, it was like her eyes moved involuntarily up and fell directly on Malfoy. He just sat there, not talking to anyone; he just seemed lost in his thoughts. She looked at the Slytherin table and there were about 10 students sitting there, she couldn't believe how the Slytherin house seemed to completely diminish. Her eyes darted back to Malfoy to find his eyes locked with hers, she tried to look away but her eyes weren't moving. Why weren't they moving? “Stop staring at him you fool, you must look like a complete ass right now” her mind screamed to her. He looked annoyed, or was it hurt? She couldn't tell. She did know he was probably wondering why she was ogling him like a giddy school girl. Finally, she was able to snap her eyes from his when she heard the Headmistress start her speech.

“Good evening everyone it is so nice to see Hogwarts full of life again. We have so much to discuss before the sorting ceremony begins. Firstly, as you all may have noticed the school has a new Headmistress and that is me, Professor McGonagall. I have only the schools and the students' best interest at heart and am so pleased to see the school up and running again. We also have new staff this year, I myself will continue teaching Transfiguration, but will have a fill in at my side and her name is Professor Talca” said McGonagall, gesturing her hand out to where the new teacher stood up and gave a few nods and a small wave.

She was a lot younger then McGonagall almost looked like they could have been mom and daughter. She was tall with long light brown hair held together in a loose braid and she was very thin and wore a pair of thick squared glasses. She sat down and McGonagall continued with her speech.

“Thank you Professor Talca, we also have a new Defense against the Dark Arts Teacher, Professor Warren”

The man didn't stand up, he just gave a small smile and waved hello to the crowd of students.

“Also, we are pleased to inform you that Professor Slughorn will be teaching potions again this year, please make all of our new Professors feel welcomed” said McGonagall. She then went into all the normal rules of the school like curfew and areas that were off limits. Shortly after she finished her speech the sorting hat ceremony began. There were only about 30 or so first years that needed to be housed and the ceremony quickly ended. Ginny noticed only a small handful of first years had been sorted into Slytherin.

Before her mind could pull her into a pool of thoughts the feast appeared before and everyone dug in. She ate a bit but pushed most of it around to make it look like she ate more than she actually did. Students started clearing out of the Great Hall making their way to their dorms so Ginny decided it was time for her to do the same. She said her goodnights to Harry, Ron and Hermione when Hermione spoke up.

“Hey, wait for me Ginny, think I'll head up with you,” she said, getting up and giving Ron and a quick peck on the cheek. She ran up to Ginny and started walking with her.

“I have something to tell you,” she beamed at Ginny

“Oh? What is it?”

“Well, when I was riding with Luna on the train, she basically came out and said she fancies Harry”

“Really” Ginny asked happily.

“YES! And she said she never said anything because you and him were together and even after you guys ended things she felt weird about saying anything because she didn't want to ruin her friendship with you”

“Oh gosh please, I'm so thrilled to hear she likes Harry, I'll talk to her about it and tell her everything is fine, Harry and I thankfully aren't awkward when it comes to stuff like that. How cool would that be if Luna and Harry got together? Does Harry have any clue?”

“No, I don't think, but I will say he noticed her looking at him and he smiled back, so there's definitely an attraction”

“Well, that's a start” Ginny giggled

They talked a bit more about Harry and Luna and then reached the common room and made their way up to get changed. Ginny climbed into bed and let her thoughts take her away. So far everything seemed to be the same, well everything looked the same anyway, although there were less students and a lot of different teachers, but other than that it was as if nothing had happened just a few short months ago, as if death hadn't covered the Hogwarts grounds last year. She thought of all the people in her life she lost in the battle, people she would never see again as long as she lived. Tears swelled up in her eyes and slid down her face. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw their faces; she saw them die all over again. She saw Lupin and Tonks and then there was always Fred. A man who only brought laughs and happiness to people was slain by the people who brought pain and suffering.

Ginny felt herself starting to get nauseous and jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. She emptied the contents of her stomach, and then rinsed out her mouth out. She looked into the mirror at herself, she was pale and sweaty. She had tear stains down her face. She felt so broken, so lost. She folded her hands and leaned her head down on them as she sobbed. Her knuckles turning white and her nails dug into her skin with how much pain she felt. After a few minutes her body started to relax and she unclasped her hands. Her fingers were sore and she drew some blood from where her nails broke skin and she quickly wiped it off and washed off her face. She headed back into her dorm and climbed back into bed, when she glanced at the clock she realized she had been lost in her thoughts for over an hour or so. She sighed and pulled the blankets over her head as she once again, let her thoughts consume her and the tears to flow.