Struggling Through New Beginnings

Chapter 5

From the Previous Chapter…

(Draco) blinked once and then felt the little food he’d taken in about to make a reappearance. No longer caring that no one else had gotten up yet, not caring that his actions would give the gossips more to talk about, Draco lurched to his feet. He just needed to get out. Pushing his chair out of his way he began the walk out of the hall.

His abrupt departure would have been the talk of the night had another eruption not happened a few tables away.

Chapter 5

“Well, we’re sorry for asking!”

All eyes turned from the stalking blonde to the center of the room where a young Gryffindor boy was standing and yelling at the top of his lungs. Draco’s step faltered in his shock as the boy was yelling at Pansy Parkinson.

“And, stop acting so nice all of a sudden. We all know what you are. We know you don’t mean it! You’re just as evil as you’re screwed up boyfriend and his dead Death Eater daddy. You were eager to turn Harry over to your oh-so-great Lord and we would like to know why? It’s not like you ever explained it, is it? And, why did you come back? No one wants you here!”

Silence swept the hall for a moment as everyone tried to figure out what had happened. Pansy seemed to have shrunk into her seat, and most of the people close to her were shocked to see real tears pouring from her eyes. Her mouth worked as she tried to force words past her shaking lips and stared, horrified, at Harry at the next table.

“I…I’m…”

Her tentative voice cut the quiet and several teachers belatedly jumped to their feet. Draco turned to move back toward her, but another voice stopped him in his tracks.

“As a Gryffindor,” Ginny spat as she stood from her chair, her hair moving and crackling as the magic slipped her control in her anger, “I am ashamed to say that I wish we had points already, so that I could take them from my own house! But, as Head Girl, I assure you, Euan Abercrombie, it gives me great pleasure to give you as many detentions as I am allowed! How dare you embarrass yourself and our house like that? How dare you draw blood first!”

The shock of what she said rippled across the room and in their shock no one stopped her from rounding the table on the boy. “How dare you?! You weren’t there, were you?! You don’t know what Pansy was or wasn’t thinking, do you? Yes, maybe she did just want to turn Harry over to Voldemort. Or, maybe, just maybe, she was petrified, just like the rest of us! Maybe she feared for her life, like the rest of us, and just reacted.”

Euan puffed out his chest in indignation, “We have a right…”

“You have no right to call her out like that! You want answers, ask her privately. Only she can tell you why she did what she did. But, you do not have the right to attack her publicly. You do not have the right to embarrass any student in this school over their actions back then. And, you DO NOT have the right to embarrass our house. If a student is here, it is because they fought bravely, wanted to, or have come back for a second chance. How dare you try to take that from her! If Harry can forgive…”

“Ginny, that’s enough,” Harry said quietly from his seat.

Ginny stopped abruptly and turned to see Harry stand and walk over to Pansy. When he reached her, he waited until she looked slowly up at him.

Harry kept his voice low in an effort to not embarrass her further, “Pansy, would you like to take a walk with me?”

xxxxx

Pansy couldn’t breathe. The walls she had been admiring were suddenly closing in on her as the boy spat in her face and started yelling at her. All her fears were laid in front of her, and she didn’t know what to do. She stared at Harry and tried to apologize, but nothing would come out. All she could hear was her own guilt being screamed at her. Then Ginny Weasley started to defend her and the world began to tilt. She didn’t hear what exactly Ginny said, but she felt Ginny’s hand on her shoulder. Someone was touching her, defending her.