A Stroll in Your Shoes

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter world, characters, etc…

Warning: There are quite a few lewd references, but it’s not really enough to make this story R. If you’re offended by it, I guess you shouldn’t read it. *shrugs*

A/N: Okay, so I do have to apologise if this chapter turns out awful. I’ve spent the whole morning throwing up and have had no proper sleep for weeks, but with nothing else to do but mope in bed I have decided to work on fanfiction, lol. Sorry *ducks head*

(Lol, that was actually an old A/N note, but considering I never got the chapter finished until today when I am not sick (yay) it still fits anyway since most of it was written that day. I hope you do like the chapter though, even if it is a little short.)

The Icing on the Cake

Draco apparated back into Ginny’s room and immediately collapsed on the bed, letting out a loud groan as he brought his hands up over his face. He had gone to the Manor in complete spur of the moment to rant at Ginny and get her to feel guilty for what she had done, but instead he had just felt like a complete fool. Sure he had gotten angry with her, but the things that had come out of his mouth….

“Why did I do it?” he groaned to himself, still with his hands over his face. He had already heard everything from Blaise, so why had he felt so determined to go there? Even more disturbing was the fact that he had felt so pushed to get from her whether she liked Blaise or not. It wasn’t just about the fact that she had kissed his friend in his body, it was about the fact she had kissed Blaise and enjoyed it. It frustrated him- frustrated him because she wasn’t supposed to like Blaise. She wasn’t supposed to like anyone, not even Potter. She was just Ginny Weasley- the feisty little Gryffindor that had somehow become his friend from this ridiculous situation, and he realised all too clearly that he didn’t like to share her with anyone else, but why….

Every time he had seen her with Blaise he had felt a pang of something foreign, and before he had just thought it was because he was being left out and Blaise was his friend, but now he realised it was because she was giving her attention to someone else other than him. He was…. jealous, and realising that was more disturbing than anything else he had learnt that day.

He wasn’t really sure why he felt so jealous, for he didn’t think he had any romantic feelings for her; hell, he didn’t even want to have romantic feelings for her, but he couldn’t deny that the thought of her being with any boy made him unreasonably annoyed, even disturbed him. It just didn’t make sense, and now more than ever he wished that this body switching had not happened…

Draco sighed and rolled over on the bed. Why did things have to become so complicated? Why couldn’t he go back to just hating her like he used to? Why did everything have to change? Why? Why? Why?

The door opened and Draco looked up to see Hermione watching him with a frown. She liked Blaise, or at least that was what Ginny had said, but then Blaise liked Ginny, and Ginny liked Blaise…. The whole thing was a mess…

“What happened? I’ve been waiting for you to come back…” Hermione said worriedly.

Draco just sighed, “It’s no big deal.”

“Tell me,” Hermione said firmly, obviously realising something was wrong. That girl really was too nosy for her own good, and too perceptive as well…

“Blaise snogged Ginny and now my parents think I’m gay….” Draco sighed and leaned back against the bed.

“Blaise kissed…..” Hermione held a hand to her head. “Oh no….”

“What? Upset that it was her and not you?” Draco taunted, finding some release in making someone else as miserable as him.

“What?” Hermione said in surprise. “Why would I want Zabini to kiss me?”

Draco frowned, sitting up again to look at her. “Weasley said you liked Blaise…. I just assumed-”

Hermione’s face flashed with confusion and slight annoyance, but there was no telltale sign that he had hit a nerve. In fact, she seemed genuinely surprised. Draco began to wonder if Ginny had been wrong….

“Blaise is not my type,” Hermione said bluntly. “I don’t know where she would have got that from, but I do not like Blaise Zabini any more than I do the Giant Squid….”

“Oh….” He frowned then, “So why did you look so worried before?”

“Because this could interfere with the spell,” Hermione said with a sigh. “From what I have read about what has happened to you two, it seems like emotions play a big part in these things, and her liking Blaise, or Blaise liking her could potentially effect the durability of the spell.”

“So you think this could make things worse?” Draco asked with a sudden stab of worry. If Blaise had somehow managed to make them more stuck like this because of his damn hormones he would kill him- best friend or not…

“I don’t know,” Hermione said with a shake of her head. “I honestly have no idea, but I do know that Ginny liking Blaise is a risky thing.”

“You think she does like him then?” Draco asked sharply, feeling that same fierce curiosity and need to know how Ginny felt about Blaise.

Hermione shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. She has never told me anything definite- only that she likes him as a friend.”

“Well friends don’t usually snog each other on other people’s beds,” Draco said bitterly, causing Hermione to look at him suspiciously. He just inwardly cringed, knowing as well that his tone had sounded a little too jealous to be normal.

“Y-you….” Hermione held her hand to her head again. “Oh my goodness. Do you like Ginny?”

“What? NO!” Draco exclaimed vehemently. “Why would you say that?”

“You do don’t you?” Hermione persisted, giving a small laugh. “I would never have thought it…”

“Well I don’t, so you can keep not thinking it.” Draco said mutinously, furious that Hermione should say that. He didn’t like that freckled, annoying thing. She was his friend (a reluctant friend at that) and that was it. There was absolutely nothing romantic between them. If he was jealous it was because he liked all the attention on himself that was all…

“If you say so,” Hermione said rather disbelievingly, which only made Draco even more annoyed. He had the sudden desire to yell or throw something…

“Look, if you’re just going to come in here and accuse me of liking Weasley you can sod off,” Draco said tiredly, not wanting to deal with this anymore. He had already suffered enough today without having more horrible conversations.

“I’m sorry,” Hermione said slightly subdued, and then took a seat next to him on the bed. “What are you going to do about your parents?”

Draco just snorted slightly. “About them thinking I am gay? What can I do? Blaise and Ginny were having a merry old time kissing on my bed, which won’t help my case at all… They’ll probably always think I’m gay no matter what I do…”

It was slightly depressing to know.

“I’m sure they’ll forget about it eventually,” Hermione said in an attempt to make him feel better. “After all, you’re not gay, so eventually they will just forget it ever happened…”

“Maybe,” Draco said with a sigh. He hoped so anyway. He hated to think what Lucius thought of him, and his mother; she’d feel so let down…

“DINNER!!”

“There goes our cue,” Hermione said with a smile. “C’mon,” she said, standing up and placing a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s just go enjoy the food Mrs Weasley has made us and forget about what happened for now. It’s Christmas Eve, and you should be happy, not brooding in here.”

Draco just sighed, but at Hermione’s warm expression changing to firm, he just nodded his head. “Alright…”

Standing up, he followed her out of the room and down to the dinner table, hoping that somehow this would all turn out. He took his usual seat next to Bill, only half listening as the loud Weasley family all got rowdy and talked happily as they ate together. His mind though, couldn’t let go of his rather depressing thoughts. Now more than ever he realised just how much things had changed for him, and just how much things would continue to change. Whether Ginny liked Blaise or not, he did know that Blaise liked her and wouldn’t hold back in getting her…. It just made him wonder where that would leave him. Blaise was his friend, and Ginny was- well, he didn’t know what exactly Ginny was to him, but he knew if Blaise and Ginny went together he’d be left in an odd situation…

“Eat,” Hermione commanded in a low voice, her brown eyes staring at him sharply.

Draco sighed and looked at the food, which admittedly did look delicious. He just didn’t have the heart to eat it right now, but with Hermione glaring at him, and Molly looking like she was about to start her force-feeding skills, he just picked up the fork and started eating some of the roast chicken. After a while it started to become more natural, and he realised that he was rather hungry anyway- that was until he realised Ron Weasley, (who was sitting opposite him) was looking at him with an expression akin to complete horror.

“What?” Draco asked, a frown on his lips as he looked around the table at everyone staring at him with identical expressions of shock and horror. “Why is everyone looking at me like that?”

It was then that Draco realised his voice was not the soft, musical one he was used to hearing; instead it was low and deep, and familiarly masculine. He looked down and realised there was no longer anything obstructing his vision. The boobs were gone, and it was with relief that he realised he no longer had anything that resembled anything particularly female, for he was once more in his body…

“WHY THE HELL IS DRACO MALFOY IN MY HOUSE?” Ron bellowed, still looking thunderstruck, but clearly his brain seemed to have finally started working properly.

Ron’s voice seemed to trigger everyone else’s brains to start functioning as well, and soon the whole house was filled with Weasleys yelling at the top of their lungs. At one point Draco found himself tight in a headlock by what he thought was Fred, while George yelled something unintelligible in his ear. In fact, all the shouts were kind of morphed into one giant scream of distorted voices all demanding where Ginny was and what he had done to her.

“ENOUGH!!!” Hermione shouted in an ear-splitting shriek, making everyone look at her with open mouths. She took a deep breath and glared at Fred. “Let go of him.”

Fred obliged, and Draco quickly stood back, massaging his neck where Fred’s arm had been locked tightly around.

“Now would you all just please be quiet and let us explain?” Hermione said in a forced calm voice.

“US?” Ron exclaimed dramatically, arms waving madly. “You mean you were in on this too?”

“Just shutup and listen, Ron,” Bill admonished, and then turned to look at Hermione with a much more calmer look than he had before. “Go on, Hermione.”

Draco just stood back, thinking it was better if he didn’t talk at all. The Weasley’s all looked like they were about to swear bloody murder for him anyway, so he was more than happy to let Hermione deal with this.

“Draco Malfoy is in your home because somehow he and Ginny switched bodies nearly three and a half weeks ago. I and another boy have been helping them research what happened to figure out a way to reverse the effect, but so far we’ve had no luck. It was too dangerous to tell anyone, so we tried to keep it as secret as possible while Ginny lived out Draco Malfoy’s life and Malfoy here lived out Ginny’s.”

Harry had gone rather pale at that. “Do you mean to say that all this time the person we thought was Ginny was actually Malfoy?”

Hermione nodded. “Yes that is exactly what I am saying…”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Harry said in a disgusted voice, and he looked it too, for his face had gone a nasty green colour. He was obviously remembering that kiss, and Draco felt strangely satisfied that he was not the only one who had suffered because of this ordeal.

“Well if you’re here, then where is my Ginny?” Mrs Weasley demanded, looking rather hawk-like for a normally nice woman. Draco gulped and looked at Hermione for help.

“She’s at the Malfoy’s Manor,” Hermione replied, giving a reassuring look at Draco. “They had no choice but to go to each other’s homes over Christmas until things were sorted, but it looks like things sorted themselves.”

Draco suddenly paled then. “Oh no,” he said suddenly, making everyone’s heads swivel back to him.

“What?” Fred and George said in unison, giving him suspicious looks, but Draco ignored them all as turned to look at Hermione.

“Do you think if I changed back that means Weasley changed back too?”

Hermione frowned, “I guess…”

Draco cursed and tore out of the room before anyone could say anything further to him, the sound of their loud exclamations following him up all the way to Ginny’s room as he went to grab her wand. Footsteps followed him, and he turned as the door burst open to see Hermione standing in the doorframe.

“What’s wrong?” she asked anxiously.

Draco just gripped the wand tightly in his hand. “Do you have any idea what my father would do if he found Weasley in my house?”

Hermione paled at that, her mouth dropping open. “He wouldn’t hurt her though, would he?”

“I don’t know,” Draco said with a shake of his head, a sickly feeling of worry creeping around in his stomach. “I honestly have no idea, but I don’t want to wait around to find out. I have to get there, or contact her, or something!”

“Wait…. We can use the Esprit Joindre spell,” Hermione said quickly, pulling out her wand. “That way you can see if she is alright before you go rushing off over there.”

“You think that will work?” Draco asked with a frown. “I thought you had to be holding hands….”

“I think because of the bond you two shared it should work anyway. It’s worth a try, isn’t it?”

“I guess…” Draco agreed, the sickly feeling rising in him with each passing second. He just wanted to make sure she was okay. If anything happened to her it would all be his fault, and after the way they had parted today he didn’t want that to happen at all.

“Alright then, close your eyes,” Hermione said softly, and cast the spell. Draco felt the painful feeling of his soul being ripped out of his body before everything went blank.

OOOO

Ginny, Draco said aloud as he stared around the dizzying darkness before him, the shadowy texture of it seeming to drain his very life. Ginny!!

This wasn’t right… He was supposed to be able to see everything she could see, so why could he see only black? And why wasn’t she responding?

GINNY!!!!!

No…. Draco said softly, feeling sickeningly helpless and scared. He felt a sudden jerk inside himself, and soon he was speeding back to his own body, taking a breath with a gasp as he fell to the ground from the impact of his soul crashing into his body. Coughing slightly, he just stared at the floor, wondering what had just happened.

“What happened? Is she okay?” Hermione asked anxiously, helping him up off the ground. Draco stumbled slightly, feeling strangely winded.

“Something wasn’t right… I couldn’t see anything, and no matter how much I called she didn’t answer.” He clutched his chest slightly, “It was painful just being with her, and something forced me out…”

Hermione stared at him with increasing horror. “Oh no…”

“What?”

“We have a serious problem….”

“Why?” Draco asked with misgiving, the horrible sickly feeling twisting even more in his stomach.

“Because that only happens if the person is unable to think or… dead….” She said in a whisper, her expression of deep horror and sadness.

Draco gasped and clutched the wand tighter in his hand. Taking a deep breath he just nodded, as if agreeing with himself on what he had to do. “Owl Blaise and tell him what happened. I’m going over to visit my dear old father…”

Hermione gripped his arm, stopping him from dissapparating straight away. Draco looked down at her with a curious look.

“Be careful,” she said firmly, letting go of his arm.

He just nodded, giving her the smallest of smiles before vanishing with a loud crack.

Hermione stood there alone in the room, clutching her arms to her body as she wondered what had happened to Ginny, and what Lucius was planning to do to her friend…

“Please help her, Draco,” Hermione whispered to herself, a few tears slipping down her face.