Draco raised his eyes and the expression in them was searing enough to make Hermione wince. She wanted to reach out and restrain Ginny, tell her that this wasn't the way, that Draco would despise this kind of behavior as common and childish. But she couldn't. 'Jealous?' he said in a very soft voice. 'Of Finnigan?'
'You know you are,' Ginny said. 'You don't want me, oh no, but you don't want anyone else to come anywhere near me either because — because what? Because I'm your property? You want me to wait around for you forever? You hate Seamus because he's all the things you aren't — kind, and gentle, and truthful — '
'And stupid,' Draco added. 'Don't forget stupid.'
'At least he knows how to treat people he loves,' Ginny said harshly. 'All you do is hurt them and cause them pain.'
'I'm not exactly sure how you'd know that,' Draco said in the same soft voice, 'seeing as how you aren't one of them.'
Ginny whitened. For a moment everyone in the room simply stared at her
— Harry, Hermione and Seamus with anxiety, and Draco with a cool indifference. It was Seamus who reached out to her first.
'Ginny — ' he began.
But she jerked away from his touch, and fled to the portrait hole. She ducked through it and was gone. The Fat Lady could be heard calling after her in concern, 'Where are you running to, love? It's Christmas!'
Seamus spun back around. His handsome face was twisted into a look of such fury that Hermione was astonished… Seamus was always so even-tempered and level-headed. He took a step towards Draco, who raised an eyebrow but did not otherwise respond to Seamus' advance, despite the fact that Seamus' hands were balled into fists at his sides.
'Malfoy,' Seamus snarled. 'I don't care how ill you are — get up — '
Harry sprang lightly to his feet, putting himself between Seamus and the couch where Draco lay. Seamus recoiled, and stared at Harry in astonishment.
'Seamus,' Harry said evenly. 'Go after Ginny.'
He looked levelly at Seamus, and Seamus, white-faced and murderous, glared back. Seamus and Harry had never been terribly close, but they had shared a bedroom since they were eleven years old. Seamus had been Chaser to Harry's Seeker for nearly three years. They had always been on good terms. Seamus was, in this situation, entirely in the right. And Hermione knew that if Seamus took one more step towards Draco, Harry would knock him down without thinking about it.
Seamus' eyes dropped to Draco, who had raised himself into a sitting position on the couch. His face was entirely enigmatic. He could have been reading a railway timetable for all the expression he showed.
'And look at you,' said Seamus in a tone of voice Hermione had never heard him use before. He kept his eyes on Draco while he spoke. 'Hiding behind Harry Potter, like you always wanted. Taking advantage of the fact that he's a good kind person and you've weaseled yourself into his good graces. He'll protect you even though you aren't worth it, because he's better than you are, Malfoy, you sniveling malicious little sadist. He's worth ten of you.'
Draco's expression didn't change; only his eyes widened slightly as he looked up at Seamus. Next to Seamus' eyes, his no longer looked blue.
'I know that,' Draco said.
Seamus blinked, as if startled. Then his expression rearranged itself. His mouth curved into an expression of disgust. 'So you're a coward, too. If you — '
Harry reached out a hand. 'Seamus — '
But Seamus flinched away from him. 'Leave it, Potter,' he said. 'If Malfoy's that important to you, then I won't — ' He raised his chin, and looked levelly at them both. There was an odd kind of dignity about that look that Hermione could not help but like. 'I feel sorry for you both,' he said, turned around, and walked to the portrait hole. He ducked out of it, and it closed behind him with a final-sounding click.
Harry sank down on the couch next to Draco and put his head in his hands. 'Bugger,' he said in a muffled tone.
Hermione, getting up from her place by the fire, came over and put her hand on Harry's shoulder. 'Bugger indeed,' she said mournfully. 'Draco, you idiot. What possessed you?'
'No idea,' Draco said, cocking his head to the side and giving the silver dragon in his lap a considering glance. 'But now that I've had a chance to think about it, I actually rather like this paperweight. Do I have to give it back?'
'YES,' said Harry and Hermione, in unison.
'Drat,' said Draco.
Ginny was halfway to the library when Seamus caught up with her. She heard him behind her before he called out her name and almost didn't turn around when he did, but he called her again, and she paused. She didn't turn, but she paused.
'Ginny,' he said. 'Wait.'
'I don't want to talk to you right now, Seamus,' she said, as evenly as she could. She kept her eyes fixed on the wall at the end of the corridor ahead. 'I'm sorry.'
She heard him expel an exasperated breath. 'Ginny…'
'Please don't apologize,' she said in a small voice. 'I don't — '
'I'm not going to apologize,' Seamus said, sounding incredulous. In fact, there was a note in his voice she had never heard before; she turned around finally and stared at him in surprise.
'I am sorry,' he said, and she flinched a little under the level blue of his gaze. He had his hands in his pockets and his shoulders were tensed. He was a little hunched over — she had always thought of him as rather big, but he wasn't really. He was bigger than Draco, certainly, but then Draco was built like a dancer or a swimmer, fine-boned and lightly muscled.
Seamus was slender too, but his frame was larger, his shoulders broader.
Right now, however, he looked suddenly…small. 'I am sorry,' he said again, ' but not for anything I've done.'
Thoughtlessly, her hand went to touch the bracelet around her wrist. It had become a nervous gesture. 'Seamus…'
'All I've done,' he said, in the same steady voice, 'is care about you, and try to be there for you. I'm here because of you. Otherwise I'd be home with my family. And I told myself that maybe you didn't show it, but you did appreciate it. I told myself that you had a lot on your mind and were wrapped up in events I couldn't possibly understand, and that if I just stayed here and was there for you, eventually you'd notice. I thought it would matter if I was patient. I thought it might matter if I was understanding. I thought I should try to be kind. But now I realize that all that matters is that I'm not Draco Malfoy and I never will be.'
Ginny did not know what to say. This was not what she had expected.
Surely he was exaggerating. Surely she hadn't been so unkind to him. She reached inside herself for that passion she had felt in the common room, that urge to defend and protect Seamus. But she could not find it. It had vanished along with the wreck of her secret hopes in Draco's stormy gray eyes.
'And I've wondered,' Seamus went on. 'If I tried to be more like him, would that make any difference? Is it that you want someone who'll treat you badly, who doesn't really love you, who wants to hurt and humiliate you? Who lies to you? Who treats you like you're a stupid little girl?
Where did you learn that that was what you wanted?'
'No!' Ginny wasn't sure what she meant by this strong negative, but she knew she didn't want to hear any more. 'Don't- listen, I-'
'I'm leaving,' he said.
She stared. 'Leaving?'
'Leaving,' he repeated. His expression was utterly serious. 'I'm going home. None of you want me here. I'm just in the way. I'm tired of it, Ginny. I'd take a lot to be with you, but not — ' he broke off, and for the first time,
