Out of Sight, But Not Out of Mind
By Miranda Aurelia (Blue Lady)
I know I took really long with the last chapter...don't abandon this fic yet people! I finished this chapter even soon than I expected so hopefully that'll make up for the long time that Chapter 3 Part II took. As always, thank you for all your words of encouragement and ideas. :)
And before I forget: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Brothers, etc. This disclaimer also applies to all previous chapters in this fic.
Chapter 4
Their relationship, ("if it could be called that," thought Ginny wryly) seemed to improve much more after that particular incident.
Instead of being a nuisance, the bond had actually resulted in a comfortable friendship, although Draco would never admit that he liked talking to his "conscience".
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"And they're off!" shouted Dean Thomas as the Ravenclaw and Slytherin teams took off. Meanwhile, Ginny's eyes tracked the progress of a certain blond seeker....
"Draco, tell me a joke."
"Are you crazy?! I'm in the middle of a game here, in case you haven't noticed?!" Draco swerved sharply as he spotted the snitch near the bottom of a Hufflepuff stand.
"Don't kill yourself. I rather like you in one piece..."
"Do you now?" Ginny grimaced - she could almost see the arrogant smirk on his face.
"Nevermind. I forgot about that ego of yours.
"So you still won't tell me who you are?"
"You're a smart boy, you figure it out."
"Well, you sound like a girl, but you obviously can't be one."
"Why not?!" Ginny was indignant.
"Careful there, you almost sounded like this redhead I knew for a moment there. As for my previous comment, face it, girls fall over when I'm around. You haven't even attempted to seduce me yet so therefore you must be a guy, unless..."
"Don't even go there, Malfoy."
"Know what? You really do sound like Weasley, you know?"
Ginny quickly squelched the feeling of panic she could feel rising inside her. "Which one are you talking about?" she asked nonchantly.
"And you're calling me stupid..." Ginny heard Draco give the mental equivalent of a snort, "There's only one Weaselette."
"Hey! Don't call her that!"
"Why not?"
"She's my friend, you prat."
"Are you Lovegood?" Draco demanded, "Because if you are, what the hell are you thinking?! Ronald freaking Weasley?! What on earth could you possibly see in him besides a few vital organs?!"
"I'm not Luna, stupid."
"Thank Merlin."
"She's not that bad," said Ginny crossly, "She's really nice if you get to know her."
Draco snorted, "Well, if she's willing to put up with Weasley, she'd have to be really nice because she hasn't attempted to strangle him yet."
"What do you have against Ron?" wondered Ginny.
"Are you Granger?"
"Malfoy, I'm not going to answer anymore of your questions."
"So you are Granger! So Potter's not good enough for you, eh?"
"Draco," Ginny rolled her eyes, "Shut up."
"But you don't like Potter, right?" Ginny could have sworn that he sounded almost hopeful.
A thought suddenly occurred to her. "You like Hermione?!"
Draco almost fell right off of his broom. "Of course not!" he said indignantly.
Ginny just grinned. Wait until she told Hermione what she had found out! "Now, don't be shy. Having a crush on Hermione isn't such a bad thing."
"I don't like Granger." gritted out Draco.
"What a shame." Ginny cheered as the Ravenclaw keeper managed to block a quaffle from going through the hoop. "If you did, then you and Harry would actually have one thing in common! Now, wouldn't that be something to celebrate about?" she added cheekily.
"That reminds me," Draco looped around the Slytherin goalposts, "You never answered my question."
"Which one?"
"Do you like Potter?"
"Is that jealousy I sense in your voice?" teased Ginny.
Draco snorted, "You wish. I merely wanted to know if my bloody conscience is a Potter fangirl. I mean, if you're going to be in my head 24/7, you might as well do me the courtesy of removing yourself from any Scarhead fanclubs for the time being."
"And let my membership to the Harry Potter fan club lapse? Are you insane?!"
Draco remained silent and she could only watch as he suddenly entered a sharp dive towards the ground a few seconds later.
With the ground fast approaching and Draco showing no indication of changing his course, Ginny could feel herself starting to panic. "What are you doing Malfoy?!" she screamed mentally, "Malfoy! Pull up! I was just joking about Harry! I don't like him, alright?! Draco!"
"Draco!" she screamed as the blond continued on his dive.
With only a few meters left, Draco finally came out of his dive with the snitch in his hands. Ginny slowly released a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and slumped back down onto her seat in relief.
"AND MALFOY'S GOT THE SNITCH! SLYTHERIN WINS 270-120!"
Across in the Slytherin stands, the crowds were cheering as the teams made their way back to the ground.
"Ginny, are you alright?" Hermione placed a hand on her shoulder, "You look a bit pale."
"I'm alright."
"I know. Malfoy must have given you quite a fright."
Ginny's eyes widened. "How-"
"You were yelling his name."
"What was that all about?!" Ron demanded, "Why in Merlin's name are you shrieking about Malfoy?"
Ginny felt like slapping herself. "Um..." She gave Hermione a pleading look, "Help me out here."
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Thankfully, Hermione managed to think up of a plausible explanation and Ginny was able to escape from any further questioning. As the Gryffindor students made their way down the stands, Ginny could feel her ears heating up judging from some of the whispers and raised eyebrows - just how many people had heard her yelling Draco's name? "How could I have been so careless?" she scolded herself mentally.
"Do you know how hard it is to concentrate with you yelling in my head?" asked an irritated, yet familiar voice.
A flood of relief came across Ginny before she screamed through their link so loudly that even Draco winced a bit, "Don't you ever do that again! You scared me so much, you overgrown prat!"
"I never knew you cared so much," drawled Draco a few seconds later.
Ginny stiffened, "Don't count on it."
"Why not? I mean, I seem to recall someone vowing to give up Potter just a few minutes ago, just for me." He smirked. "I'm touched."
"I thought you were mad at me," mumbled Ginny.
"No...I think I've gotten used to having you around, annoying as you are." Draco admitted a bit grudgingly.
"Who are you?" he demanded abruptly.
"Guess."
"Okay...." Draco trailed off for a moment. "Do you have brown hair?"
"No."
"Green eyes?"
"And you think I'm obssessed with Harry," muttered Ginny under her breath.
"You sure?"
"What is it with your obsession with green eyes?" huffed Ginny, "What's wrong with...I don't know, blue eyes?"
"Ah ha!" Draco crowed, "First real clue: the chick has blue eyes."
"Don't call me that."
"Why not?"
"Just...don't. It makes me sound like one of your fangirls."
"Fine babe," drawled Draco, "What do you want me to call you?"
"Urgh," Ginny shook her head, "Scratch that one as well."
"Would you rather have me call you Yapper instead?"
Ginny rolled her eyes, "If you want to name me after your dog."
"So-"
"No."
"Don't be so picky, Blue Eyes."
"I never said I had blue eyes."
Draco rolled his eyes, "Let's stop. This is getting juvenile and I'm getting a headache."
"Aw...does Drackkie want me to send Millicent down to help?" snickered Ginny, "Or perhaps you could get Rana to massage your poor head."
"Don't you dare, Blue Eyes." Draco scowled "That girl has the conversation skills of a lizard. That last thing I need right now is a complete description of that red blouse she saw in Hogsmeade last time."
"And yet you were the one locking lips with her only...a few weeks ago?"
"People aren't expected to conduct intelligent conversations in the middle of a good snogging session," said Draco crossly.
Ginny smirked, "But it would help if said snogging partner also had a few brains as well?"
"Are you offering?"
"Dream on, Malfoy."
"In my dreams, you actually say yes."
Ginny raised an eyebrow, "You dream about me?" she asked incredulously.
"Perhaps," muttered Draco.
"Oh." Ginny's lips curved into a small smile which remained there for the rest of the day.
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"I do believe that you've been staring at me for over five minutes already," Ginny froze as she heard Draco's drawl in her mind, "Your food's going to get cold soon."
A feeling of dread settled over her. So he finally found out.
"So you know who I am?" she asked lightly, mentally measuring the distance from the Gryffindor table to the doors before sneaking a glance at the Slytherin table.
"I can say that I've known for the past three days already." said Draco casually.
"Then why haven't you called me by my real name yet?" Ginny was a bit confused - Draco didn't seem to be looking at her. Instead, it seemed that he was currently looking towards the Ravenclaw table and she relaxed a little bit. He was probably just guessing.
"I thought you preferred Blue Eyes."
Ginny flushed, "That is not true!"
"Uh huh."
"Well, if you know who am I, then why are you still talking to me as though nothing's changed?" demanded Ginny.
"Well, it was surprising to discover that your identity - normally you and your groupies giggle so much when you see me in the hallway that it was really hard to picture you two as one person."
"I do not giggle every time I see you," thought Ginny irritably. Groupies? Now she knew he was guessing...or he thought that she was some other girl!
"But you can't exactly deny that you were staring at me right after the match." Draco smirked, "If I had known merely taking off my shirt was enough to make you swoon-"
"I have never fainted in my entire life," interrupted Ginny, "And unless I'm suffering from a massive loss of blood, I don't plan to either."
"You're still in denial," declared Draco.
"Wait a minute," demanded Ginny, " Are were even talking about me?"
"Of course we're talking about you," Draco rolled his eyes. "So Lydia, do you want to go with me to the next Hogsmeade outing?"
There was a long silence.
"YOU THINK I'M LYDIA BLOODY ROSEN-FOWLER?!" Draco winced as the girl he was bonded to shrieked over the bond. "DO I SOUND LIKE THAT AIRHEADED, ANEMIC, COW-BRAINED SNOB TO YOU?"
"It was just a guess," Draco said cautiously - he could still sense her anger through their bond. However, Ginny remained silent.
"Look, shouldn't you be happy that I guessed wrong?" The blond ran a hand through his hair in frustration, "I mean, I thought that you didn't seem all that relieved when I first brought up the topic."
There was no reply.
"Stop ignoring me already!"
"I was," Ginny finally replied a minute later, "But you ruined it."
Draco didn't know how to reply to this.
"Honestly...of all people....that snob...." Ginny was fuming internally, "How dense can you possibly be, Malfoy?"
"I'm sorry, alright?" Draco said irritably, "It was an honest mistake."
Ginny snorted.
"She does stare at me alot though," said Draco thoughtfully, "And she's always batting her eyelashes at me..."
"So anyone that looks at you and bats their eyelashes at you is automatically me?! What kind of twisted logic is that?" exclaimed Ginny. "The next thing I know, you'll be thinking that I'm Pansy!"
"Are you?"
"I would bang my head against the table, but that might give away my identity."
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"Honestly Draco," Ginny finally said, "If I'd had a huge crush on you, don't you think that things might have started differently?"
"You mean you would have been even more annoying?"
"You're treading on thin ice, Malfoy."
"Okay, fine," Draco gave her the mental equivalent of a shrug, "I can see what you're getting at. What you're trying to say is that you would have thrown yourself at me a long time ago."
"Uh......"
"Or maybe you just subscribe to a really weird form of flirting."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "I have never flirted with you, period."
"It's not too late to start," smirked Draco, "I know you have this huge crush on me."
Ginny gave a mental laugh, "You never give up, don't you?"
"Then why don't you tell me who you are?"
There was another pause following this.
"I can't."
"Why not?"
The girlish voice just sighed. "Because then you'll hate me again and I don't know what I'm suppose to do if that happens."
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