As the Cookie Crumbles - 08
by VirtualFaerie
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Disclaimer: Do you honestly think I own anything related to Harry Potter? If you do, I can recommend you to my psychiatrist. He's here to help. ;-)
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That next Monday, it was work as usual and so Ginny was at Tasty Treats, sitting on her usual stool behind the counter. Unfortunately work wasn't exactly on her mind. She was too busy trying to bore a hole into the wall by staring at it, as she let her mind wander. Ginny was sitting on a stool, staring off into space in Tasty Treats. She didn't even notice when the door banged open, the bell tinkling, as Colin clomped trying to balance the three large boxes, wavering precariously in his arms. Ginny didn't even look up as all three toppled out of his arms and clattered all around the front of the store, new cooking utensils flying across the room.
"Ginny!" he shouted, frustrated. "You could have at helped!" Exhaling noisily, he leaned down to pick up the boxes with its spilled contents, and stacked them up against a wall. "Gods.... Ginny? Uh…Ginny?" Colin waved his hand in front of her face and didn't even get a blink from her. "Are you okay, Gins? You seem to be a bit…out of it." He snapped his fingers.
"Huh? What?" she said, blinking.
It worked.
"Oh, hi, Colin."
Colin frowned. "Don't you 'Hi, Colin', me. What's wrong with you?"
"There's nothing wrong with me," said Ginny. "I'm perfectly fine."
"Oh right, then what just happened?"
"What are you talking about? Nothing's happened," said Ginny, giving him a reproachful look.
"I just dropped three boxes, Gins. Three boxes, which held all your precious little utensils " Colin said very slowly.
"Did you?"
"Yes…yes, I did." Colin gave her an annoyed look and pointed out the boxes he had stacked up against the wall. "What's wrong with you, Gins? Ever since Valentine's day, you've totally been out of it," he paused and gave her and impish grin. "Or rather ever since I left you and Malfoy at the Candelabra."
Ginny slumped down behind the counter and hid her face in her hands. But Colin could still see the faint pink blush behind her fingers.
"Oh, so what did Mr. Malfoy have to say to you, hm?" Colin pulled Ginny's hands off of her face and wiggled his eyebrows. He put on a high falsetto and put his hands on his cheeks, looking to the ceiling. "Oh Ginny! You like, so, have to tell me, or, I'm like, going to burst."
Ginny sighed loudly and gave Colin a withering look. "Quit clowning around," she said in a peeved tone. A very peeved tone.
Colin's eyebrows shot up, way up. "Something really did happen?"
Ginny blinked slowly and looked up at him. "Yes, something happened."
"Well don't leave me hanging! Tell me," said Colin, waving his hands around excitedly.
Ginny rubbed the bridge of her nose carefully and pulled her stool in closer to the front counter before settling her forehead on it. She sighed loudly and started mumbling something -something which Colin couldn't make a word out of.
"What was that?" he asked gently, lowering his head near hers so that he could better hear her mumbling.
"He asked me out on a date," she said into the counter.
"He did?!" Colin half-shouted.
Ginny clutched at her head and glared at Colin angrily. "Thanks for yelling in my ear you little blond-headed bimbo."
Colin looked rightfully wounded. "I'm not a bimbo."
"Right, and my name is Bobette."
Colin stuck out his hand and said, "Hello Bobette, nice to meet you."
"Ha-ha, very funny," Ginny said, slapping his hand away playfully.
"So, he asked you out on a date. Proceed to tell me exactly what happened," Colin said, slipping behind the counter and pulling out a stool next to hers. He was parked and ready to listen.
"Well," Ginny started. "After you left, we actually got to eat dinner. We talked for a bit - actually talked, it was a bit weird. Mostly we talked about Swink and Seamus, or about Quidditch. Then when it was time to leave, he wouldn't let me pay for my dinner. We walked out together and he just - asked me out on a date."
"How did he ask, and what kind of date?"
"He just said, 'So Weasley, like to try this again sometime?'. Nothing special," said Ginny. "I don't know what kind of date - he said he'd owl me later, or phone." Ginny shrugged.
"You're stressing over it, eh?" Colin said, poking her in the stomach with his elbow.
"Of course!" Ginny burst out. "This is Draco Malfoy we're talking about. How often is it that he asks a Weasley out on a date?"
"Well…" said Colin slowly. "How many times has he asked any of your brothers' out?"
Ginny glared at him. "You know what I mean, Creevey. This is not the time to be a smart ass."
Colin bowed his head. "My humble apologies…." he muttered.
Ginny shook her head, looking through the front glass door of the shop just in time to see Draco Malfoy himself heading towards the shop. She shrieked and toppled off of her stool, landing flat on her butt.
"Ow…" she cried.
Colin smirked. "Shall I stall," he asked, "while you go get pretty in the bathroom?"
Ginny rubbed her bum carefully and glanced up at Colin thankfully. "I would appreciate it…" she started.
Colin waved his hand. "Then consider it done. Now hurry before he gets here."
"Right," Ginny half-squeaked before heaving herself off of the floor and rushing to the bathroom, grabbing her purse as she ran.
Colin looked after her and smiled, leaning back against the counter, watching her disappear into the bathroom. The front door opened, causing the little bell to tinkle. Colin turned around to see Draco Malfoy standing in the front of Tasty Treats, looking extremely out of place in the homey atmosphere in his specially tailored business robes.
Draco blinked and glanced around. "Is Weasley here?" he asked, peering around Colin, as if she'd be hiding behind him. He shoved the fringe of his hair back that kept falling into his eyes and looked at Colin expectantly.
"Ginny, you mean?" Colin said, raising his eyebrow.
"Sure," said Draco. "That Weasley."
Colin tried not to laugh. "She's…busy right now," he said.
Draco raised an eyebrow. "Busy? How?"
"She's preoccupied…." Colin glanced back in the hallway that led into the kitchen and bathroom of the shop. "Maybe I should go see if she's…finished."
Draco lowered his eyebrows and cast Colin and suspicious glance. Colin noticed his fingers tensing around a small bouquet of flowers he was holding. Colin's mouth took on an impish lilt.
"What's she doing?" Draco said evenly.
"Oh you know," Colin said, waving his hand flippantly.
"No, actually, I don't."
"Just a bit of this and that," said Colin.
"Hello!" said Ginny, coming to the front from the back hall. She had applied fresh make-up and ran a brush through her hair. She also had a smile plastered on her face.
Draco's eyebrows immediately un-lowered themselves upon the Ginny sighting, and he held the flowers out. "Weasley," he said.
Ginny smiled graciously and took the flowers from him. "Thank you, Malfoy," she said. She sniffed and instantly started sneezing. "Stupid…allergies," she said in-between sneezes.
Draco snorted quietly.
She blinked back tears and said, "They're really…" sneeze, "pretty."
"I'm glad you like them," Draco said with a hard-to-keep straight face.
Now Colin, he wasn't even trying to hide his laughter, he was doubled over behind the counter. Ginny sniffed and glared at him.
"Shut up, Creevey," she snapped, giving him The Look. "Isn't there a batch of cookies in the back that needs to be taken out?" she hinted blatantly, scrunching up her eyebrows.
Colin raised his eyebrows. "There is?"
"Yes," Ginny gritted out. "There most definitely is."
Colin shrugged and took of towards the back, giving Ginny a suggestive wink as he made his way back. "The cookies and I shall just have bit of fun back here," he said, wiggling his eyebrows.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "You do that, Colin." She turned back to Draco, who had a rather amused expression on his face.
"That was certainly interesting," Draco commented.
"Well," Ginny replied with a shrug. "That's Colin for you."
"Anyway," said Draco. "The reason I came by was to set up a date. If you still want one."
"Of course," Ginny said quickly. A bit too quickly she thought, a blush began rising in her cheeks. "I mean, of course I'd like to go on a date…with you."
"Right then," said Draco, smiling slightly at her blush. "Friday?" he asked. "Seven?"
"Friday?" Ginny said.
Draco blinked for a second and rephrased his question. "Would a date on Friday be alright with you? At seven?"
"Oh! Oh!" Ginny said, putting her hands up in front of her face, rubbing her eyes nervously. "Yes, Friday is fine. Yeah, Friday is good."
Draco chuckled. "Alright then. I'll pick you up at seven." He then turned on his heel and was about to walk out of the shop.
"Wait!" Ginny called out. He turned around and raised an expectant eyebrow at her. "Don't I need to tell you where I live?"
The corner of his mouth quirked up, "I think I remember clearly after that day you fell out of your window on to me."
"What?" Ginny asked, quite puzzled and then it hit her. "Oh my gods… I'm so…oh gods…"
"Right," Draco replied with a smirk, walking out the door and leaving behind a very embarrassed-red-Ginny Weasley.
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A/N: Right, that chapter was a bit shorter than normal, and that's just because I figured I better put out a chapter of something before someone killed me. *sighs* This isn't all that great of a chapter. The next one is Draco and Ginny's date - if I can figure out how I'm going to do it. I think this fic has about 3-4 chapters left, then I'm done. Must move on to bigger and better things.
loves
vf
Thanks to Blaze and Komal for beta-ing.