A Stroll in Your Shoes

Disclaimer: I did not create any of the Harry Potter characters, etc.

A/n: Well it’s nice to know you all didn’t find my poem too bad, haha. Don’t stress about Draco being with Pansy, and Ginny being with Blaise. I do know what I’m doing (crazily enough).

Sorry for the long wait. I’ve been swamped with assignments and had to get those done first before I tried to write anything. Technically I should be working on my assignments right now as well, but meh.

Big ups to Usha for helping me with this chapter!

Plots and More Plots

It’s a strange thing that when someone finds love they immediately feel like everyone else has to as well. This was true for Ginny Weasley, who having found a happy relationship with her boyfriend Blaise Zabini, decided it also befell on her to find love for her two good friends, Harry and Hermione. She thought she was quite the genius for making the whole situation simpler by putting them together, and after seeing them so cosy on the couch together, thought it was the perfect match anyway.

“Now I just need to find Draco,” she muttered, while scoring the hallways for a sign of his luminescent head.

Why was she looking for Draco exactly? Well, Ginny had the brilliant idea to get him to help her bring the happy (or maybe not so happy) couple together. It didn’t even occur to her to ask her boyfriend, who was far more likely to agree to the scheme, but then Ginny never had been a particularly practical girl. In her mind Draco was the only logical person to ask, but ask her why this was the case and she would be unable to answer. Call it natural instinct… or perhaps an unconscious desire to annoy the blond-haired Slytherin in any means possible- in any case he was the only one for the job, and she wouldn’t give him a choice about it.

 

After an hour of walking about the castle fruitlessly, Ginny decided to search the grounds. She spotted Crabbe and Goyle and hailed them over with a wave, hoping that they perhaps would know of her friend’s whereabouts.

“Have either of you seen Draco?”

“He was practising quidditch last time I saw him,” said Crabbe while gesturing towards the pitch. Goyle picked his nose rather unsubtly and gave her a trollish smile.

Removing her eyes from the offending sight, Ginny looked at the quidditch pitch and wondered vaguely to herself why she had not thought of that sooner. Of course he would be there practising. He did like quidditch after all.

Sighing at her stupidity, Ginny thanked the two boys and walked to the pitch. She couldn’t see Draco anywhere, and so made her way to the changing rooms to see if he was in there.

“Draco!” she called out, bursting through the door. She got a brief glimpse of Draco pulling on his pants before he spun around to look at her in shock. His hair was still wet and clinging to his face, and there were beads of water trickling down his bare chest, creating a rather tantalising picture. Ginny idly wondered why it was his body looked so much sexier when she was staring at him from her own. She also wondered why it was she couldn’t stop staring, or why she had the mad desire to lick her lips.

“Can I help you?” he asked with mild amusement, his brow furrowed still in confusion as he did up the buttons on his pants.

Shaken from the trance his body had created, Ginny blinked and looked at him slightly dazed. “Huh?”

He laughed and towel-dried his hair, his grey eyes still watching her in amusement. Clearly he had realised she had been staring, much to her embarrassment. She always did manage to make a fool of herself around him, and it seemed to be worse now that she was back in her body.

“Well you did just barge into the Slytherin changing rooms calling my name. I assume then that there is something you want to ask me?”

“Oh yeah.” Ginny nodded and tried to not stare at his chest as he threw on a loose shirt. “I, um, wanted to ask a favour of you.”

He started doing up the buttons on his shirt, his eyebrows faintly creased as he pondered over her words. Ginny herself was finding it rather hard to think at all, though why this was the case she was unsure. Draco was just Draco, and he was with Pansy anyway. He was off limits, and she should not be thinking of him like that.

She suddenly remembered Blaise and almost felt like slapping herself. How was it even possible that she could forget him? It was all Draco’s fault. Him and that damn, fine body of his that made all thoughts of any other boys fly out the window…

Curse you Draco and your stupid, sexy body.

Draco stared at her oddly, his mouth slightly hanging open and his eyes gazing at her with what looked like amusement and confusion all mixed into one. She felt a sickly jolt of foreboding go through her stomach and her cheeks started heating horribly.

“I didn’t say that out loud did I?”

Draco nodded his head, a small smile fastening on his lips. “Yeah you did.”

If Ginny’s cheeks had been red before, they were flaming now. She would have done anything to go back in time to change what she had just said, or maybe she should just run away and not talk to him for a while. It would be too much to hope that someone as egotistical as Draco Malfoy would let this opportunity pass up.

“I didn’t mean to say that,” Ginny mumbled, while staring down at her feet in embarrassment.

“But you were thinking it.”

She chanced a glance up at him and saw the smirk gracing his handsome face. That was the icing on the cake, and by the hot feeling spreading over her body she was sure she must look positively beetroot by now.

“Well…” she trailed off, not really sure what excuse she could make. Really there was nothing she could do about it. He now knew she thought he was sexy, and she had been stupid enough to admit it after she had just been transfixed by his body completely.

He walked languidly towards her, invading her personal space as his tall figure towered over her, causing her to instinctively step back. She gazed up into his face, taking mini, backwards steps as he continued to walk, not quite sure what it was he wanted from her. There was a secretive gleam in his silver eyes that was making her feel rather uncomfortable.

Her back hit the wall, and her heart started thudding hard in her chest. She felt oddly paralysed, her legs gluing to the ground as she idly noted the smirk growing on his mouth. Warning bells echoed in her mind for her to move, but she found she could not, and as her brown eyes locked onto his silvery grey ones, she found her breath becoming suddenly short and fast; her chest rising and falling rapidly in a strange sense of exhilaration and fear.

Draco smiled lazily down at her and placed an arm against the wall above her head, leaning down so he could meet her gaze more easily. Their proximity was a little too close for comfort, and her eyes flickered down from his to stare at his chest where his smooth, marble-like skin peeped out from the open shirt. That view was no better for her uneasy mind, and feeling even more nervous and uncomfortable, Ginny once more lifted her eyes to his face.

“W-what are you doing?”

It bothered her that she had stuttered, but she had never had to deal with Draco Malfoy like this. There was no taunting sneer, no argumentative words or scowls; he was just watching her in a way that reminded her of a cat with a pot of cream. The half smile in his eyes and lazy smirk on his face made her body rush with unknown feelings that even Blaise had never been able to inspire in her.

“Does it bother you?” he murmured softly, his warm breath brushing against her ear and sending tingling shocks through her spine.

“I…” She swallowed hard and turned her eyes to his, her blood pounding in her ears. Merlin, he was so handsome. Why had she not noticed before? Even when in his body she had never noticed how damn attractive he was. That lazy smile was enough to make her weak at the knees, and the burning intensity in his amazingly grey eyes seemed to sear right into her skin as they flickered over her.

“Yes?” he prompted, his free hand gliding gently up her arm. She almost shivered in pleasure at the contact and met his eyes wildly, surprise and confusion passing over her face. Why was she feeling so out of control? It was just Draco! Draco who was acting sexily seductive and giving her thoughts that her mother and her boyfriend would be very unhappy to know about. She had to stop this before it got out of hand, but her teenage hormones were making that very difficult right now. Dammit, she had not come here to be seduced by her friend; she had come here to make him help her match-make Harry and Hermione together. What the hell was he playing at?

“Don’t…” Ginny said in a voice far more sternly than she felt. This was not right; it wasn’t even fair. He was with Pansy and she was with Blaise. She didn’t understand why he was doing this to her.

He laughed suddenly and pulled back, mocking amusement glinting in his grey eyes. “You didn’t think I’d actually kiss you did you?”

She stared at him in stunned silence for a moment, and then her hands clenched into fists, humiliation and fury like none other raging inside her. “YOU JERK!” she screeched, kicking him hard in the leg, and giving her the distinct satisfaction of seeing him let out a yelp of pain and rub the now sore limb.

He scowled at her dreadfully, still rubbing his leg where her shoe had connected. “Why’d you do that you crazy wench?”

“Because-” she hit him in the chest angrily- “It”-hit- “was” -hit- “not” -hit- “funny!”

“Stop hitting me!” he growled in annoyance, grabbing her tight against him so that her arms were locked against her sides.

She struggled for a moment, and finding she was unable to break from his grasp, glared at him furiously while panting for breath. “I can’t believe you Draco Malfoy! I can’t believe you would play such a dirty trick!!”

“Oh stop being so morally righteous,” Draco retorted exasperatedly. “You’re not hurt, and I only did it to get you back for perving on me before. Honestly Weasley, did you really think that I would try to seduce you? You’re dating my best friend!”

She just scowled. “Do you mind letting me go?”

Draco obliged, and Ginny quickly stepped back from him. It may have been nothing to him, but to her it was painfully humiliating. She could not forget the feelings he had aroused in her, and that confusion only made her all the more irritable- even to the point where she forgot all about her scheme to make him help her match-make Harry and Hermione.

“I’m leaving!” She declared haughtily, turning her nose up at him in an attempt at being dignified, but only looked childish and sulky. Draco merely gestured to the door, saying nothing. Harrumphing at his lack of retort, Ginny swept out of the changing rooms and slammed the door shut with a loud bang.

“That didn’t go too well,” Draco commented to himself, but a small smile was playing on his lips. He had not been blind to Ginny’s reaction to his behaviour, and was feeling rather smug at the knowledge that she was not so against him after all. The idea to play with her feelings like that had come to him through sheer inspiration. She obviously found him attractive, and now he just needed to figure out if she truly liked him. Of course she had fallen in love with his poem, but Draco didn’t like the idea of relying on that to see whether she liked him or not. Words were just words, no matter how deep they had stemmed from his heart. He wanted her to love him for all his faults and failings, as well as his goodness too. Loving him because he could turn words into pretty phrases was not enough.

There was the problem of her going out with Blaise, and even more so because he was the one who had helped them come together, but Draco was not a Slytherin for nothing. There was only so long he could sit back and let the girl he loved go with his friend. Pansy was good for distraction, but she was not the girl he loved. Ginny was the one he wanted, and she was the one he would make sure he had by his side. He just had to break her and Blaise up without making it look suspicious on him.

“But first I need to know if she likes me,” Draco mumbled to himself, his lips pulling into a severe frown. This would take all of his genius to figure out, but he needed to know.

An idea drifted into his head- an evil, manipulative idea that was truly Slytherin. The frown on his lips faded, becoming more of a smirk by the minute, and that same half-smile crept into his eyes. He knew what he had to do now, and while he did feel slightly bad for using Pansy, all was fair in love and war, and right now he wanted the girl he loved at any cost.

OOO

After Ginny had left the changing room, she had gone for a very long walk around the lake to help her cool down. She was still furious with Draco, and even more so at herself. How could she have let him humiliate her like that? That arrogant, stuck-up jerk was asking for a bat-bogey-hex- that is if she could bring herself to face him again.

She was so embarrassed, so furious! He had become one of her closest friends during these past weeks, but now she found herself unable to even look at him the same way she had used to. The easy comradeship she had with him seemed to be slipping right through her fingers. How could she possibly joke with him like she used to? How could she even think to start their friendly bantering without remembering the way his mere proximity had made her belly do somersaults as good as a world gymnast? It was impossible; it was impossible to even look at him the same way now.

Ginny let out an angry growl and flomped on the ground in a huff. Tugging at the grass, she scowled at the lake where the giant squid could be seen lounging in the shallows. It was just like Draco to do something like this. He’d have thought it was a real good joke to play with her emotions that way, but she had not found it funny at all. It had all been a little too much for her to take lightly, and now she could get no peace of mind.

“This is just ridiculous,” she muttered exasperatedly to herself. “You don’t like him; it was just your hormones playing tricks on you. It’s only ‘cause he’s handsome. Blaise is far better anyway, and he’s not so annoying and arrogant…”

Blaise was the one who wrote her the letter. He loved her, and Draco had just been toying with her. Draco didn’t even care about her, so why was she even bothering to waste her breath or her time thinking about him?

“Oh, who am I kidding? I have no idea what I want and I never have…”

She placed her head in her hands and leant against her knees, mentally berating herself for every thought of a certain blond-haired Slytherin.

“You know, talking to yourself is the first sign of madness.”

Ginny jumped and looked around in fright. She spotted Blaise walking towards her, and sighed. “Yeah, well sometimes I like to rage to myself.”

He smiled slightly and took a seat next to her on the grass. “What’s wrong?”

Inwardly sighing again to herself, Ginny fell back against the grass and stared up at the bright blue sky, watching the fluffy clouds chug past like marshmallow trains. It was just her luck to have Blaise come to her now and demand to know what was wrong. Life really was very unfair sometimes.

“It’s nothing. I’m just having a bad day that’s all.”

Blaise’s eyes filled with concern as he gazed down at her, his normally smiling lips descending into a frown. “You’re lying. I know something is upsetting you.”

Ginny shook her head and lay there in silence. She could never tell Blaise what had happened. To tell him would be to admit that her feelings had been thrown into doubt, and that Draco had tried to seduce her- even if it was as a joke.

He leaned over her, his amber eyes meeting hers searchingly. She felt like he was trying to read her mind and ridiculously felt like closing her eyes so he could not see the truth of her confusion shining through.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked softly.

She nodded and leaned up to kiss him softly on the lips. “I’m fine.”

OOOO

It had taken every bit of self-persuasion and humbling to make Draco look for the person he was looking for right now. She was the only one who could help him, and while experiences had allowed them to have at least some semblance of a friendship, he was quite serious when he said that nothing could prevail him to ever truly be friends with Hermione Granger.

He spotted what looked like bushy brown hair sticking up over a pile of books, and slowly made his way over, thinking it was just like her to be in the library. She really was so very predictable.

“Granger, I want a word.”

Honey brown eyes peeped up over the books and glared at him. “Don’t you have any manners, Malfoy? I’m not going to talk to you at all if you’re going to be so demanding.”

Rolling his eyes, Draco sat down at her table and moved some of the stacks of books aside so he could see her face. She looked tired and stressed, and no doubt had been studying for hours.

“Well you look like you’re in need of a break, so you might as well listen to what I’ve got to say. I think it might interest you anyway.”

Hermione raised an eyebrow slightly. “Really? And what could you have to say that could possibly interest me?”

Draco played with a corner of one of the books, his expression stoic. “You remember at the Weasleys home when you asked me if I liked Ginny?”

He thought he saw her expression flicker with surprise, but she admirably kept her face bland from emotion. He was satisfied that he had caught her attention though, and now knew all he had to do was play his cards right to get her to help him.

“I do, but what has that got to do with anything?”

“You were right,” he stated bluntly.

She really did look surprised then, with her eyes widening to saucers, and her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. “You what? But-”

“Listen,” Draco said firmly, cutting short her spluttering and exclamations. “I came to you because I need your help. Ginny is dating Blaise and thinks she’s in love with him because of the love poem, but he wasn’t even the one that wrote that poem.”

“What are you talking about?” Hermione asked rather dazed. Her mind was frantically trying to take in everything being said, but it seemed she was still stuck on the, ‘I like Ginny’ part.

“I’m saying that I was the one who wrote that poem on behalf of Blaise, and it was then that I realised I liked her. But now I’m in a bit of a fix, aren’t I? Because I helped my friend get Ginny, and now it would pretty bad on my part to turn around and break them up just because I like her too.”

“What do you want me to do about it? I can’t break them up either, and how do you know Ginny doesn’t really like Blaise?”

Draco sighed and ran an exasperated hand through his hair- something he never did. “That’s what I need your help with. I need you to help me figure out who it is she actually likes. You’re her friend, aren’t you? Surely you can get her to confide in you?”

Hermione frowned and rubbed her eyes tiredly. “I suppose I could, but Malfoy, why don’t you just tell her that you wrote the poem? I’m sure she’d believe you.”

“I doubt it,” Draco muttered sceptically. “And besides, I don’t want her to like me because of that poem. Words on a paper don’t make people fall in love, and they shouldn’t. It’s just a clichéd ideal otherwise.”

“You really like her then?”

He nodded his head. “Yeah I do, and it’s driving me nuts. I still don’t know how I can like her. She really is so annoying half the time.”

Hermione laughed at that. “I suppose love really is blind, but I guess I can help you. I may not like you that much, Malfoy, and I know you can be a complete idiot sometimes, but I have to admit I trust you more than Blaise. I have a feeling he will break her heart if this continues.”

“Gee thanks,” Draco said in some amusement. “You’re a queen of compliments, Granger.”

She only smiled and shrugged. “You should know more than anyone else that you’re not exactly the ideal boy for a girl like Ginny Weasley.”

“Now there you are wrong,” Draco answered with his own smirk. “I’m the only boy that could handle Ginny Weasley.”

“We’ll see.”

Draco stood up again and stretched slightly, smothering a yawn as he glanced once more at the pile of books. “Don’t push yourself too hard, Granger. We all know you’re going get first place in the year anyway.”

Hermione’s eyes bugged open, her mouth going slack at the odd compliment, but Draco was already leaving the library. She frowned as she watched him go and wondered just what would come of all this. It was clear that he liked Ginny, but she did know that Blaise also liked Ginny.

“How odd that both of them should come to me,” she mumbled to herself with a small smile.

“Was that Malfoy just then?”

Hermione turned her face, her lips relaxing into a warm smile as she spotted Harry. They had been spending more time with each other ever since he and Ginny had broken up, for Ron was often with Luna.

“Yes, he was just asking me a favour.”

Harry laughed slightly, “It seems miracles will never cease. Things sure have changed since Ginny and Malfoy switched bodies.”

“I know.” She stared at her hands, realising just how much things had changed. So many new romances and friendships had blossomed, but it was with a heavy heart that she realised she was still alone. Love seemed like such a far away thing to her- like something that could only be found in the fairy tales.

“What are you thinking about?” Harry asked, as he sat down in Draco’s now unoccupied seat.

Hermione raised her eyes to his face, meeting those warm, emerald eyes. He always held such gentleness and kindness when he was around her. She had always loved that about him- the way he would just make her feel so comfortable and secure. At one time she had thought she had loved him, but he had gone with Ginny. Her hopes had been dashed and so she had pushed them to a forgotten area of her heart, giving up all hope in ever being with the reluctant hero that was her best friend. Those feelings had never died though- they lingered on inside her as a constant reminder of what she never dared to have.

“It’s just, with everyone finding love, it sort of reminds me what I don’t have, you know? I’ve… I’ve always been alone…”

Harry placed a hand on her arm and smiled gently at her. “You’ll find love someday, Hermione. You deserve it.”

“Thank you.” …I just wish it were with you.