The Island Chapter 5
Having worked their way through the entire series of ‘Friends’, Draco, Susan and Ginny had now taken to watching movies. There was an entire bookshelf full, so it wasn’t as if they were going to run out anytime soon. Some were new, while others were classics. The girl’s favourite was one called ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’, while Draco’s was ‘The Wizard of Oz’, which the Ginny found very amusing. One evening they were watching a modern movie, one about gay cowboys, when Snape emerged from his room. They were all quite surprised as they’d only seen him maybe half a dozen times so far, even though they’d been on the island for a month or so. He looked grumpy and pale; clearly he wasn’t enjoying the sunlight as much as they were.
“Hello Professor” Susan said, venturing at civility. Snape merely grunted, walked over to the kitchen, and began making himself a drink in silence. The movie continued to play. It was unfortunate timing that at that moment one of the gay cowboys began kissing the other. Ginny looked from Snape to the television, noting the look of complete disgust on his face. She, Draco and Susan all shared a glance of ‘Oh fuck’, as they knew he was about to blow.
“What is this muggle -filth- that you’re watching!” he demanded angrily. Neither Ginny nor Susan dared answer, but Draco said;
“It’s called Brokeback Mountain” in a cheery, helpful voice that managed broke then tension that had been brewing ever since Snape had walked into the room. The girls collapsed in fits of giggles. Draco asked them what was so funny.
“Honestly Draco, I expected more from you.” Snape said angrily, picking up his cup of coffee and heading for the door “Indulging in such immoral behaviour. Those two men are clearly buggers!” this description of gay men caused another burst of laughter from the girls. Eventually Susan had recovered enough to say in a deadly serious voice;
“But Professor Snape, surely you noticed, Ginny and I are lovers” she placed her hand over Ginny’s and looked intensely up at Snape
“What, is this true Weasley?” Snape asked dumbfounded. Ginny decided to join in the fun.
“Oh yeah, definitely; we’re very much in love” Ginny said, placing her space arm around Susan. If it weren’t for Draco falling into a fit of laughter, Snape would have brought the whole thing, hook, line and sinker. Realising they were taking the piss of him; he turned on heel and promptly left, slamming the hall door shut behind him.
“Oh guys, that was classic” Draco said laughing “He totally believed you there for a second”
“Yeah you could tell eh. We should always act really lesbian around him when he comes out of his room. It’ll be hilarious” Susan said. They skipped back to the scene that Snape had interrupted and proceeded to watch the rest of the movie.
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The next morning they were at the beach yet again. Ginny was feeling bloated from all the junk food she’d eaten the previous night. She reckoned she could just about see where each cauldron cake and liquorish wand was sitting inside her stomach. Draco had eaten more then her though, and he was rake thin as usual. Ginny turned to look at Susan. She felt something strange tug at her mind as she looked ‘Jealousy probably,’ she concluded to herself ‘Damn Susan and her prefect flat stomach’. Though she wasn’t quite sure was she was jealous, when normally she couldn’t of cared less how she shaped up compared to other girls.
That evening they made cocktails, as per usual, but decided to spice things up by making it a toga cocktail party. There were spare sheets in the hall cupboard that they could use for togas. Draco had gotten the idea after watching ‘Gladiator’.
Draco stayed in the kitchen tying his toga, while the girls went into their bedroom. Ginny couldn’t help noticing once again how Susan looked as she stripped into just her underwear to put on her toga. Suddenly the thought, ‘Well, she is pretty hot’ sprung, completely unbidden into Ginny’s mind. She was startled. ‘You’re only meant to think that about guys Ginny!’ she told herself sternly, and she quickly turned back to face the wall. Ginny decided not to pay Susan too much attention during the rest of the evening, which was rather a difficult task considering she was confided to the society of two people only. She couldn’t keep it up long, and soon she was laughing and joking with Susan as she always did. She tried not to think about those weird thoughts that had come into her mind earlier.
However in bed that night she could hardly think of anything else. She analysed it for a good hour or so. Why had that thought come into her mind? She concluded that the server lack of boys on the island (excluding Draco Malfoy, who she could never ever fancy in that way) had lead her to let out her sexual frustrations in another way. It probably didn’t mean anything, and now she knew it was there, she could keep it in check. ‘Oh if only Draco was a bit better looking. And a bit more mature. And a bit more tanned. Then I could fancy him and I wouldn’t even have this problem!’ Ginny thought as she rolled onto her back. Not that it was a problem. Now she knew, she had nothing to worry about and it would go away as fast as it had come.
But it didn’t go away. Over the next few days in fact, it got worse if anything. Ginny went from deciding it was nothing at all, to deciding it was simply a girl-crush; the kind of crush you got on another girl when you admired and wanted to be like her (nothing sexual at all). But the trouble was Ginny didn’t want to be like Susan; she wanted to be with her, laughing or talking. Ginny thought about Harry. That was a lot simpler. Ginny knew for sure that she fancied boys, she was 100% sure of that.
Then there were the girls. At first Ginny decided she couldn’t fancy girls, because if she did, she would have already done so before now. And of course she hadn’t, had she? Remembering back she realised this wasn’t entirely true. She’d been so busy with Harry the past year; she’d not had eyes for anyone else. But before that, she realised, she had looked at girls in a different way occasionally. There was that girl from Beaubatons, who’d been at the Yule Ball in her third year. She remembered looking at her dancing so gracefully and whishing she was with her, not Neville. At the time though, she’d put that down to Neville’s bad dancing; enough to make anyone wish they were with a better partner. And there was that pretty waitress who worked at Madam Puddifoots. Ginny had been in there with Dean once and she was angry when she caught him staring at her, but after she’d turned around and seen the girl for herself, her anger vanished and she thought that it was understandable really, she was awfully good looking after all. In fact the more Ginny thought about it the more she realised that she’d thought girls were hot before now. But she’d just never realised what it meant, because one could appreciate when someone of their gender was pretty without it being anything weird. Ginny often thought that Hermione looked pretty if she tired her hair up or that her friends looked pretty. But that was different somehow to how she’d looked at the girl in Madam Puddifoots. It was so much more platonic. More like appraising a pretty piece of furniture or a nice dress. The other way was similar to how she looked at boys.
What made things worse was that as there were only the three of them, so Ginny could never really escape Susan’s company, unless she went for a solitary walk. If they’d been at Hogwarts she would have been able to be distracted by the hundreds of other students, and doubtlessly would have been over this little -she hardly wanted to call it a crush, but she supposed that’s what it was- in no time at all. She had to see Susan every second of the day, always laughing, lively and engaging. Ginny wondered if Susan really even had any faults, or whether she was just blind to them. She supposed they must be there. Perhaps she was insecure or depressed on the inside, though she didn’t look it at all.
One day Ginny was walking up the beach, in a rare Susan free moment. It was just her and Draco, Susan having decided to clean the pantry out (it was a something different to do at least). Ginny wondered if Draco knew any of her thoughts about Susan. She didn’t think he possibly could; she hardly knew them herself.
“Draco” Ginny asked as they walked “Do you think Dumbledore sent me and Susan here for a reason too? Like, other then to keep us safe?”
Draco pondered his answer while dragging a long stick behind him in the sand “I don’t know. Perhaps to help me become a better person”. Despite being less of a prat, Draco was thing quite egocentric, it was therefore unsurprising he’d relate the reason back to himself. Ginny sighed, her question still unanswered.
“What, do you think he sent you here for a certain purpose too?” Draco asked as he prodded a scuttling crab with his stick. Ginny took a moment to reply before she said;
“No, I suppose not”
When they arrived back at the house Susan was still cleaning. She had her hair pulled up in a messy bun on her head, tank top and a loose skirt on. She looked casual and messy, but she couldn’t have looked better if she tried. Ginny remembered something she had to do in her room and went off.
“What have you done to piss her off Draco?” Susan asked after Ginny’s hasty departure.
“Nothing!” said Draco defensively. “We were just talking about why she got sent here and she got all emotional on it. Probably her time of the month or something. Maybe she’s pissed off with you, ever consider that?”
Susan however continued to think Draco must have done something to piss her off, while Draco thought the same about Susan.