My first fanfic. Pleaaaaaase read+review, don't be scared that I can't take criticism. I can. Trust me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I wish I did. There are changes that need to be made. (MWAHAHA!)
ENJOY!!!!!
Chapter 1
"Oh, why can't I just get over myself?" Ginny Weasley moaned. She was sitting in the first floor bathroom, the stall all the way to the right that had a small window through which one could view the grounds. Her eyes were red and puffy from the many tears she had shed.
She beat her fist against the stone wall, scratching her knuckles. The pain felt good. It was a distraction from her broken heart. "He loves Hermione, not me," she reminded herself. "Harry loves Hermione."
But why, she asked herself, had Harry had this sudden change of heart? Why wasn't she as good as that bushy-haired, bookwormy nerd?
Ginny knew this wasn't fair. Hermione had been her friend for years. Hermione had been the older one, the one to look up to, the one to emulate. Now? Ginny didn't know what to think. It made her head hurt more than the crying had.
A rustling of wings interrupted her thoughts. An owl had landed in the slit window, perching there and cocking its head to the side. There was a message labeled "Ginevra" tied to its left leg. Curious, she opened it.
Meet me by the beech tree in front of the lake. Ten minutes.
It was unsigned. "Outside?" she said aloud, "Who wants to be outside in this weather?" She shrugged and sniffled her way over to the mirror. Her eyes were ringed with red and a little puffy, but otherwise she looked okay. She put on a little lip balm and, taking a deep breath to steady herself, Ginny started for the grounds.
It was a blustery Saturday in the late fall, and none of the students of Hogwarts had chosen to stray outdoors. None, except for two. Ginny rubbed her hands together and tightened her scarf in an effort to stay warm.
As she walked, she pondered the strange looks that Draco Malfoy had been giving her lately. She was used to him looking at her as if she were a bug he had accidentally crushed under his foot, so when she caught him looking at her like she was…beautiful, it creeped her out more than a little. Even worse, she had once or twice caught herself looking at him, and not glaring or grimacing, but like he was…sexy. That was so not right.
The beech tree came into sight, most of its papery bark peeled off absentmindedly by studying students. Ginny tried actively not to remember an afternoon last spring when she and Harry had strayed to that very tree…
She could see a person, definitely a boy, lying under the tree. His face was not yet visible, but she could see that he was obviously blond and that his legs made a 4 perpendicular to the ground. She rounded the corner to find:
Draco Malfoy.
His Slytherin-colors tie was loosened around the collar of his button down. Despite the fact that Ginny hated Malfoy and Malfoy hated Ginny, she had to admit he looked awfully cute under that tree.
When he noticed her staring, he stood fluidly and smirked his characteristic smirk. "Well, well, well, my dear Ginevra. Come to meet someone? A secret admirer perhaps?" He raised his eyebrows as if to say, Who would have thought of that?
"What was with all the cloak and dagger, Malfoy?" she said snappishly.
"Cold, Ginevra? Need some warming up?"
"I'm not a whore, Malfoy! And I never said you could call me Ginevra!" For some reason, he was irritating her more than ever.
"Well, if I were you, I would prefer it to Weaselette," he said, shrugging.
"Why did you call me out here?" she asked peevishly.
"Can't you answer that yourself?" he fired back.
"No. Do you know what I hate?"
"What do you hate?"
"I hate it when people answer questions with questions." She glared at his blue eyes with her chocolate brown ones.
"And do you know what else I hate?" she said, stepping right up to him to glare at a closer range.
He raised his eyebrows in a trademark gesture.
"You."
Draco grabbed her shoulders and swung her around so that her back was to the tree. A knot in the bark poked her back. She thought for a second that the feverish look in his eyes was anger, and she braced herself against his blow.
He gazed into her eyes with an unreadable intensity. "Listen, I didn't get you to come out here to ridicule you."
"Oh? Then why am I standing here with you?"
"I thought you might need a friend, after that whole thing with…him." Ginny knew he was talking about Harry.
She sat down. This day was getting stranger and stranger. First Harry breaks up with her to be with his best friend, then Malfoy offering a truce? She didn't know if she could handle that level of weirdness. "Um…okay."
He smiled at her slyly. The next thing she knew she was rolling down the hill towards the sandy shore of the lake, the sky and grass and clouds rolling into one indistinguishable blur. Ginny and Draco rolled to a stop, laughing. He was on top of her.
She blushed suddenly at the proximity of his lips to hers. No, she wasn't thinking about them kissing…ugh, get that out of her head!
She pushed him away, startling him. The laughter died from his face. "Is something wrong?" he asked her cautiously.
"I just need some time," she replied coolly, sitting back on her haunches to watch the giant squid waving its tentacles around in the air. The Forbidden Forest rustled in the background, the ancient trees creaking as the wind blew them about.
"Okay," she said after a bit, "I'm fine now."
He considered her, tilting his head to one side like a small child. "You really loved him, didn't you?"
Ginny thought. She remembered sun-soaked days with Harry, when they were finally alone. When he was finally hers after years of wanting. "I guess I did-still do, really. Just not in the same way."
"What do you mean, `not in the same way?'" he asked her, curious.
"Well, he's not mine anymore, is he? After I spent so many years chasing after him…I can never love him again like I did. It would destroy me."
"So how do you love him now?" he persisted.
"I don't really know. It's giving me a bit of a headache." She rubbed her temples. He didn't laugh.
"So…what's your favorite color?" he asked, playing with a few stray blades of grass.
"What?" This was a new level of randomness.
"Well, isn't that the second question that any self-respecting little kid asks a potential friend after `will you be my friend?'"
She laughed. Ginny knit her brow. What was her favorite color? Draco's tie fluttered in the breeze, the silver-and-green stripes catching the light. "Green," she said, without really thinking about it.
Her companion's face darkened. "Thinking of his eyes, I suppose."
"Um…not really," she said, watching the tie. He followed her gaze, then grinned.
"Ah, I see we have a little Slytherin wannabe," he said, nudging her with his shoulder. She laughed out loud at that.
"Too late. I'm a Gryffindor through and through," she replied.
"Like him."
"What is your obsession?" she asked him, concerned. He was even more fixated on Harry Potter than she was.
"I just don't like that he hurts you," Draco said, looking at the grass stains on his palms.
"I'll get over it. Eventually," Ginny muttered.
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Maybe half an hour later, they were sitting at the base of the beech tree. They had exhausted pretty much all of the usual new-friend subjects: favorite band, favorite flower, favorite candy, etc.
Ginny lay back with a sigh, staring through the leafy canopy. The gray sky was darkening menacingly, yet she still didn't want to go inside. Draco was sitting cross-legged at her feet, trying (unsuccessfully) to make a daisy chain with the last bunch of wilting dandelions of the season. She giggled at his ineptitude.
"You do it like this," she explained, fixing his mistake.
He threw the dandelions aside and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "You do it then if it's so easy, blood traitor," he teased her.
"Fine then, Death Eater," she shot back.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Never call me that."
Ginny stared at him with open surprise. "I was just teasing," she said, rattled.
"I realize that. I just…I don't want to be like my father," he said with a helpless look on his face. Her heart melted.
"You're nothing like that evil bastard," she said soothingly, putting her arm around his shoulder.
Draco raised an eyebrow at her. "Even if he is an evil bastard, he's still family."
He glanced toward the castle. "It's getting late. Besides, I'm hungry."
She sighed. She didn't want him to leave. "Me too, I guess."
He pulled her into an unexpected, bone-crushing hug. "I'll see you around, then." He kissed her cheek swiftly and loped up to the castle.
Ginny stayed under the tree for a few minutes, holding her blushing cheek and grinning like the idiot that she was. Apparently, getting over Harry Potter was going to be way easier than anticipated.
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