All talk, no fight

"Ginny, you cried for so long. You must be hungry. Want to go to the Great Hall?"

The boy stood with his back to the sunlight, a halo outlining his body. He held out a hand and smiled, and for a moment, Ginny thought his smile was brighter than the midday sun.

Her heart beat wildly, without any rhythm, just as it had when she first met her idol, Harry Potter.

"Th... thank you. I... I can... manage!"

Bracing herself against the wall, she stubbornly shuffled forward. The L-shaped route was only five meters long, yet she took a full three minutes to cover it, suffering through every second.

It felt like being a fish tossed into a frying pan without being gutted. The scalding oil made its skin sizzle and curl. It wanted to leap out of the pan or turn over, but a spatula pinned its body firmly in place.

Once Ginny made it through the doorway, she bent over and gulped down air!

"You stink. Is the Weasley family so poor you have to crawl into the Chicken Coop and steal eggs to fill your stomach?"

Draco stood far away, even covering his nose and mouth with his hand. There was no way he could smell anything strange. He only said it to disgust Ginny.

"Malfoy, Norbert's very kind, and he understands people. He won't like a nasty big brother!"

At Hagrid's muttered remark, Draco immediately fell silent. He turned his head away, neither stepping forward to help nor continuing to... spew insults!

"Oh, poor Little Ginny. Something awful must've happened, or you wouldn't have cried so hard. Would you like me to fetch Percy?"

At the beginning of the school year, Ginny had been much more willing to seek out Percy than Ron, Fred, or George.