Sideways

Ginny couldn’t explain why she found herself back in the second-floor girl’s bathroom again and again. Her lack of memory about the events that transpired there was frustrating, but she still preferred being close to the Chamber. It held so much mystery for her. And despite it being a place where she almost died, Ginny felt almost safe there. While sometimes she had the company of a ghost whom she didn’t fully understand, for the most part the bathroom was left empty. Ginny tried to speak to Myrtle on several occasions; originally trying to get information about the past and what she’d done in there and why Myrtle never told anyone, but it never got her very far. She even tried to get Myrtle to talk about herself, but as soon as she questioned why Myrtle remained or why she lived in the plumbing, the ghost let out an offended scream and took off into the toilet.

By the age of fourteen, Ginny came to realize that Myrtle didn’t like other girls, she held onto resentment from being bullied in her youth. Ginny was a pretty girl and relatively popular, not to mention having a boy like Harry Potter in her life and Myrtle held it all against her. And by fifteen, Ginny confirmed that Myrtle would speak much nicer with a guy than she ever would with her.

Ginny sat on the floor around the backside of the circular sinks. She needed a quiet place to work on her History of Magic essay and the common room was filled with bickering and annoyances that drove her out. She didn’t notice anyone else enter right away, it wasn’t until she heard Myrtle speaking sweetly that it all became clear. The reply however is what got Ginny’s attention, it was a boy...in the girl’s loo. Ginny didn’t move at first, listening to Myrtle trying to comfort a very upset boy, but as her curiosity grew, she had to peek out and see who Myrtle spoke so kindly to.

His white blonde hair stood out against the dark stone. Draco Malfoy. Ginny didn’t cover her mouth quickly enough to hide the gasp and Draco and Myrtle both turned quickly. “Sneak!” Myrtle screeched, and Ginny scrambled to grab her things and leave quickly. Draco was quicker than she was and as soon as she stood up, he was before her with his wand in hand. He towered over her, staring down at her with cold grey eyes and threatening body language. Ginny could feel the end of his was against her sweater.

Ginny took in a deep breath, hating herself for being scared of him of all people. Something about the way he sped at her had caught her off guard, but she regrouped quickly enough and shoved him backwards. “Don’t point that thing at me like you’re actually going to use it.” She snapped, knowing he could very well use it, and likely would. He had been so shocked in seeing her there at all, that he didn’t react immediately to her shoving him back. “You know this is a girl’s toilet, don’t you?” She snapped her only means of defense to take attention away from her own eavesdropping.

Draco froze as he looked into her fierce eyes, he knew those eyes from somewhere; they felt familiar and safe. He felt a pang in his chest at being the one to put a look of fear in those eyes. Why had he done that? He stopped questioning himself as she shoved him, his chance to stun her was gone but he didn’t care. With his wand at his side, he couldn’t stop looking at her eyes, how had he not noticed them before now? Draco sighed, shook his head a bit as if trying to shake her out. He didn’t answer her, only turned quickly and was out the door before she could stop him. “Now look what you’ve done!” Screeched Myrtle but Ginny wasn’t listening as she stared with intrigue at Draco.

As Ginny walked away from the bathroom she couldn’t shake the strange feeling she had in her stomach. The fact that he was in the girl’s toilet wasn’t the part that stuck with her, it was how he’d looked at her and backed down that she couldn’t get off her mind. He stood so close those cool eyes right on her and just walked away. Maybe Harry was right about Draco being up to something...either way, she found herself frequenting the second-floor loo even more often now, subconsciously hoping to see him again. And perhaps it was along the same thinking that made Draco return as well.

Ginny was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall when he walked in. He hesitated at the door when he saw her, his eyes darting around for Myrtle. “I asked her if she liked to watch people piss, and she took off screaming.” Ginny told him simply, not shying away from looking at him.

“You shouldn’t be mean to her.” He muttered, stepping inside but leaning against the wall near the door. “It’s not her fault she died in here.” Ginny just stared at him for a moment – he was not as she expected, not when he spoke like that. She couldn’t help but wonder how someone could be so cruel to classmates but care about a ghost. Ginny pushed herself up to her feet and the two of them just looked at one another for a long moment like two predators trying to figure one another out. Neither seemed to want to be the first to speak or show weakness. They were both curious about the other, and while Draco would never admit it, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. “Why are you here?” He finally asked her, arms crossing across his chest.

Ginny cocked her brow and eyed him. “Why are you here?” She asked back with a scoff. “It’s a girl’s toilet, Malfoy.” He just shrugged as if that didn’t exactly matter. He wanted his safe place back, he’d wanted to confront her, scare her and make sure she never came back. But once he was standing there looking at her, he couldn’t find the words he’d planned to use. Her eyes drew him in in a way he couldn’t explain and looking at her, even with that annoyed expression on her face, made him feel better. The stress he felt, the fear and the realization that he was likely going to die before the year was up...all of it seemed to roll off him. “What?!” She snapped as he continued to stare at her.

Her eyes were like a dose of Veritaserum, in lieu of biting remarks, honest words came out without his really thinking about it. “If I told you I was going to die, would you still hate me so much?” Ginny blinked several times, even more shocked at his soft words than his eyes on her. She shook her head, ready to tell him that she didn’t hate him, he was the one who hated people…but he spoke before she could even get the words out. “Yes, you do. You all do.” He told her, sure of his words. “You, Potter, Weasel.” She glared at him. “Your brother.” He corrected. “And the mu-” he stopped, instinctually her hand reached for her wand. “Granger.”

Ginny had gone right for her wand, knowing the word ‘mudblood’ was coming out before he even spoke a syllable of it. “Why do you do that?” She asked him, fingers grazing the wood slightly but not pulling out the wand from her pocket. “You know how awful it is to call someone that, but it’s the first thing to come out of your mouth. You say it without even thinking about it.” He had the decency to look away from her as she practically scolded him, but when he looked back he was so drawn in by her eyes that he couldn’t look away again. “Don’t you think they have reason to hate you when you talk about them like that? Talk about all of us like that?” Ginny was so bluntly honest that it shocked him a little. She didn’t hesitate to call him on things, to glare at him with those hauntingly beautiful eyes.

“I…” He sighed, she couldn’t possibly understand anything he was feeling. Draco shook his head and turned away from her, his hands on the sink, the sink that had opened in the past and drew Ginny Weasley in. He looked at himself in the mirror, pale, thin and breaking from the inside out. “Can you just go?” His behavior confused Ginny, she couldn’t help but look at him and how he seemed to hunch over the sink and hold onto it like it was all that was holding him up. But she didn’t leave, instead she just took a step back from him, leaning against a stall. It was clear she wasn’t going to leave, but he didn’t understand why – nor did he have the energy to try and force her out. Instead he just watched her in the mirror as he spoke again, his voice almost a whisper. “Tell me something, Weasley. Would you die to protect your family?” He watched as she bit at her bottom lip a little, thinking about it for no more than a few seconds before she nodded…but the curiosity remained in her eyes. “So would I.” He took in a deep breath. “Guess we have something in common.” His demeanor changed almost instantly as he stood straight with his usual confidence and strength.

Ginny didn’t understand what was happening, he had such changes in his mood and personality so quickly that it threw her off. But he wasn’t taunting her, he wasn’t throwing insults at her like he would in the past so she tried to brush it off. The silence between them made the tension grow and she knew she had to break it before it made them both turn as ugly as she knew they could be. “That’s the opening.” She told him, pointing to the sink he’d been leaning on. “To the Chamber of Secrets.” She continued in such a casual way it was hard to think she’d been taken there. His eyes shot back to the sink and he looked at it in a different way now. “Didn’t Myrtle tell you?”

Draco shook his head a little. “N-no, she said she died here, she said people were cruel to her. She mostly listens to me…” He felt strange then as he thought about what was under there had killed Myrtle as well as almost killed Ginny.

He looked to her, curiosity written all over his face, but something held him back from asking outright like many had in the past. “I don’t remember all of it, I was, um, possessed by…you know.” And he nodded, he knew, and unlike Ginny, he’d faced the man and not the memory. He swallowed hard at the mention of his Lord and his hand clenched a little under the robes, the tattoo still fresh on his pale skin. “I know I did bad things but…I don’t remember any of it, I don’t even remember going down there. Only that when Harry woke me up I was there and it was cold.”

“Harry…” He practically huffed out the name with resentment as he rolled his eyes.

“What? What is it with you and Harry?” When he shook his head she continued to snap at him. “Don’t you see that when you are so against someone who is known as the epitome of good and trying to save everything that it just makes you look like you’re against saving it?”

Draco’s brow furrowed some and he shook his head again. “You’re the one who doesn’t get it. It has nothing to do with what he stands for, despite my entire family being at risk because of him. It’s just who he is. You don’t see it, you will never see it.”

“What are you talking about?” She asked, Harry had been in her life for years, it was hard to see him as anything but the good guy. But she had also never tried to see it from another side. Draco shook his head at her question and turned his back on her again. She knew any moment he could walk out, he could choose not to come back in there if he wanted. And something inside her didn’t want him to go. She was captivated, there was more there, the way he looked at her was like no one else. But despite her silent wants, he took one last look at her and was out the door quickly.