Poisoned

Chapter Two

Where Ginny ponders about her life, ends up daydreaming and the Trio discusses Malfoy

Ginny closed her eyes and just hoped the world would stop so she could have some rest.

After two weeks of classes she already wanted to quit school so she would never have to think of exams and homework again. She could work at the twins' joke shop and earn her living until she could find a better job so she could move away from The Burrow; away from the everlasting gloomy face her mother would wear if she actually followed those thoughts.

Her mother's always wanted her to be a healer, because Molly had always wanted to be a healer, but Bill came and she had to choose between the career of her dreams and the family she so long hoped for.

She never gave the impression that she regretted her choice, but healer seemed, to her, the best profession in the world, so she could not expect anything else of her baby girl, especially now that her older sons had chosen careers she hadn't happily approved.

The problem was that Ginny couldn't see herself as a healer. Actually, Ginny didn't know how she wanted to see herself, but she knew she wanted something better than the life her family had given her. She wanted to have money to indulge herself with a comfortable house and new robes, and more importantly, she wanted to have a small family, small enough so her daughter wouldn't have to learn to play dirty with her brothers for survival.

She had decided long ago that if she ever had a daughter, the little girl would learn to play dirty because she felt like it, not out of necessity.

But if she wanted to make her dream come true, her grades would need to take a very drastic turn. So drastic that Snape would look at her and say how impressed he was, and how he could never expect such a great surprise from a Gryffindor.

No one can say Ginny Weasley does not believe in miracles.

But at that moment she was exhausted after having spent the entire morning in the dungeons in Double Potions, enduring Professor Snape talking about her family's history of troublemakers, her difficult brother - Ron, of course -, and her not-excellent grades. So not-excellent that she would never make it to Advanced Potions, something absolutely necessary for any good career she could think of trying for - or so Percy would say. Ginny could remember when he started whining during the holidays before his fifth year, "Transfiguration, Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Charms are absolutely necessary for any decent career one might want to pursue." he had told her, the only person who still cared enough to listen. "Sure, Herbology is helpful, but it is not half as important!" And he went on and on about the importance of having some quiet time to study, but Fred and George couldn't care less and Ginny thought Percy was spending a considerable amount of time complaining for someone who wanted to study so badly.

She held her books like a saving rope, sighing loudly. Everything seemed so hard! Even Charms, a subject she had always excelled at, now seemed difficult and complicated, like Potions had always been.

She opened her eyes and straightened up, hurrying away from the wall she had been leaning on, wondering if she could survive the day when she crashed into something so violently she fell on the floor, her books flying around her, her hands hurting for she had tried to ease the fall.

Careful hands touched her shoulder, and she looked up to meet a pair of grey eyes staring intensely into hers. It seemed like the world had granted her wish and stopped so she could, not rest, but just look at those eyes that seemed familiar, although she was almost certain no one had ever looked at her with such intensity. She wished she had time to name all the feelings she could see in there, a mix of pain, misery and hope among the apparent coldness.

Just one person she knew had such cold eyes, but Malfoy never had anything else in his eyes; he never looked at her in that way that made her feel like the princess of a fairy tale, looking intensely at the prince, in the scene that would decide her fate.

"Gin?" A shy voice coming from beside her took her out of her trance, but it took some time before she realized she was fallen on the dungeon's cold floor, with Draco Malfoy kneeling down before her, handing her the books she had been carrying and with someone beside her watching that potentially embarrassing scene.

She sat up straight and harshly took the books out of his hands, not saying a word, but with humiliation and anger in her eyes. He didn't say anything either and just got up gracefully and left, leaving her once more dumbfounded behind him.

"You know what, that's a very tortured boy."

Ginny blinked, amazed. That was Colin - he could say the most profound thing and it would still sound dull. Maybe it was his voice that hadn't developed, or maybe it was the way he said things. She didn't know.

She didn't even know he had been standing beside her all that time, and she didn't know how she got up and followed Colin to the Great Hall while he blabbered about how awful Potion class was and how awkward that scene with Malfoy had been; she wasn't listening, but sometimes she would nod in agreement because she knew it would be enough for him.

Something in the back of her mind kept telling her that that afternoon would indeed decide her fate. She didn't know how, and she definitely couldn't imagine how Malfoy could play an important part in her fate, but somehow she believed something had just begun there. And as soon as this thought crossed her mind, she hoped she was wrong.

*~~*~~*~~*

Colin didn't seem to get tired of that subject, and Ginny felt like hexing him so he would shut up while she was trying to eat. It was bad enough she couldn't get a hold of her own thoughts, the last thing she needed that instant was a classmate who had witnessed the whole scene asking her if she had paid attention to Malfoy's eyes.

Of course she had paid attention to his eyes. If she hadn't, she wouldn't be feeling so confused.

Since Ginny didn't seem interested in engaging in the conversation, Colin did the worst thing he could: he turned to Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were sitting next to them and asked, "Did any of you notice anything unusual about Malfoy so far?"

Harry shrugged, Ron made a revolted face but Hermione frowned. "I've been wondering that myself. He seems different."

"Mione, why are you paying attention to how Malfoy acts?" Ron asked, clearly disgusted.

"Because of everything that happened last term," she answered, quite matter-of-factly. "I figured we should keep an eye on him, since he is the closest to a Death Eater we have in Hogwarts."

Colin seemed amazed. "Do you really think that?"

Hermione nodded, but Colin looked at Harry to see his reaction, which was none. Ginny smiled while watching that scene. Colin was a wonderful person, intelligent and loyal, who put his friends before anything in the world. But she pitied him, since it was hard to see all his qualities beneath that annoying-shallow-Harry's-lapdog surface. But then again, Ginny thought, look who's talking.

"Well, I suppose he is acting awkwardly," Ron admitted. "He hasn't insulted us once yet."

"Not to mention Crabbe and Goyle are not always orbiting around him anymore." Harry pointed out, and looked at the Slytherin table to see the two boys listening attentively to something Draco was saying and shrugged. "Well, sometimes they are."

"Old habits are hard to break," Ginny joked and smiled. "Who knows, maybe he's changed for the better."

"I wouldn't get my hopes up," Hermione stated, and Ron nodded vigorously, agreeing with her. "I confess I liked his old ways better. I think the quiet and low-profile Malfoy can be more dangerous than the pathetic bully was."

"Now we don't know what he's up to, and that's worse than enduring him through Potions class," Harry said absently, his attention focused on Neville who was trying to take Trevor away from his mashed potatoes.

Ginny knew she should agree, but she couldn't. Somehow his eyes had changed, and neither Hermione nor Harry nor Ron had been in the position to see it.

Or maybe she was a fool, but she didn't think so. Something had changed, but she didn't think it was for the worse. He was turning into a different boy, someone she'd like to get to know better. But of course she would never confess that out loud.