A Stroll in Your Shoes

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

Warning: H/G at beginning, though I wouldn’t really call it anything myself. 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: By the way, I wrote this before book 6, so while some things might be added in now that give spoilers for that book, a lot of things in this story don’t coincide with book 6.

Oh, and a huge thank you to LoVe 95, van twitch, and BrittyBoo32 for your reviews! They really made my day!!

Keeping Up Appearances

Draco and Ginny walked into an empty classroom and sat down, Draco shutting the door behind them and locking it with his wand. Ginny took a seat, wondering how she was ever going to get Draco to act like her so that nothing bad would happen; then again, judging by his less-than-amused expression, (and she would know that expression well) she realised he would try, even if it was just to ensure she did the same for him.

Feeling much more relaxed at having sorted that out, Ginny stared at Draco, patiently waiting for him to start the discussion he had so huffily set up.

“First things first,” He said with a sigh as he sat down opposite her. “You can’t slouch like that.”

“What?” Ginny said confused, not even realising she had been slouching. 

“A Malfoy never slouches.” Draco said in a haughty voice. “You have to sit up straight, and stop gaping at me like that; a Malfoy never shows when he doesn’t understand something.”

Ginny stared at him incredulously for a moment before forcing her body to sit up straight. “Talk about stiff,” she muttered under her breath. She knew he was rich, but did that really make him so uppity and pompous? 

“Excuse me?” Draco asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nothing,” Ginny huffed, knowing full well that he had heard her.

Draco stared at her for a moment but decided to ignore the comment. Ginny was glad, as she didn’t particularly feel like getting into an argument with him already.

“Well she-weasel,” he began, his voice still slightly chilly after her comment. “The main thing you need to know in being me is that you are better than everyone. You do not admit you are wrong, you do not help people, and you do not notice people who are non-Slytherin unless it is Potty, Weasel or the Mudblood, in which case you must insult them- oh and Longbottom too; he makes good target practise.” Draco seemed to contemplate something, but then decided against it. “I guess that’s all for now. I’m sure you can figure out the rest.”

Ginny stared at him, unable to believe that anyone could be so arrogant and cruel. Then again, this was a Malfoy…

“You are so horrible. How can you act like that?” She asked incredulously.

“Because I can.” Draco answered simply. “So what do I need to know to be a good she-weasel?” he asked, his mouth forming a smirk.

Ginny glared at him and then sighed, realising there was no point arguing with him; she needed him to want to help her after all. “I don’t know, Malfoy. It’s kind of hard to explain myself. I guess the only thing I need to say to you is to be the complete opposite of yourself. Be nice to people, accept everyone and don’t insult Harry, Ron, Hermione, or Neville!”

Draco rolled his eyes, “You’re no fun, but I’ll do it.”

“Good.” Ginny said, standing up. She was kind of glad to get away from him since he was such a jerk, but she knew that they couldn’t avoid each other forever. There was also the problem that they would have to work together to get their bodies back.

“I guess we should try meet at lunch in the library to see if we can find anything on what is happening to us.” Ginny mused out loud, feeling rather annoyed at having to spend more time with him.

“Right.” Draco said, as he too stood up. “Oh and Weasley-”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you dare snoop around my stuff or you’ll wish you were dead.” Draco ground out threateningly. The thought actually hadn’t even occurred to her, and she felt slightly offended that he would think she would want to snoop around his things.

“Like I’d really want to,” she muttered rolling her eyes. “But I guess that goes for you too Malfoy. If you dare go through my stuff…” Ginny trailed off leaving it to his imagination to figure out what she’d do to him.

To her surprise Draco only laughed, smirking in an annoying way at her. “Oh and here I was looking so forward to exploring your underwear drawer.”

Ginny made a furious swipe to hit him, but Draco stopped her hand. She glared at him, causing him to smirk even more, and Ginny decided that Draco Malfoy really was nothing more than an annoying prat. 

“Aren’t you forgetting you are in my body?” He said with a laugh. “You could do some serious damage to yourself if you hit me.”

“Oh shutup!” Ginny screamed, as she stalked out of the classroom, deciding in her head that Draco Malfoy was not just an annoying prat; he was a supremely, annoying prat. Why she had to switch bodies with him was beyond her understanding, but every second in his foul body was driving her nuts.

OOOOOOO

“Hey Ginny!” A girl squealed as she ran towards Draco and clung to his arm, her big blue eyes gazing animatedly at him. “Where have you been? I was looking for you after breakfast and I couldn’t find you.”

“I was busy,” Draco said, glaring at the bubbly blonde next to him. She reminded him of a chipmunk on drugs: all high-pitched and over-excited.

“What’s with you?” The blonde asked, cocking her head to the side. Draco reassessed his assessment; she was not a chipmunk, but rather a annoying, twittery bird- maybe a canary…

“Oh, is it that time of the month, Ginny?” The girl asked when Draco said nothing. “Poor you.”

Draco glared at her, realising what she was implying and trying hard not to be revolted by the talk of womanly problems such as that. If this was what he was going to be subjected to in Weasley’s body, he thought he might die.

“No it is not that time of the month, you crazy wench!”

He suddenly remembered he was supposed to be acting like Ginny and quickly bit his tongue to stop any more retorts escaping. Calming himself down, he gave as nice a smile as possible. “I mean I’m sorry, I’m just a little tired.”

The blonde cocked her head again but shrugged, obviously deciding it didn’t really matter. “I guess you did have a rough night last night.” She mused out loud, continuing to walk down the corridor.

Draco nodded his head, not having any clue what she was actually talking about. “That’s right.”

“Well come on, we’ve got potions now!” The twittery blonde said, pulling Draco forcefully into Snape’s dungeon. He wondered how Ginny could possibly be friends with something as annoying and loud as this manhandling wench, but then she was a Weasley, and they had bad taste in everything…

Draco was surprised to find himself sitting in his usual chair. He didn’t like the fact that he shared something in common with Ginny Weasley, even if it was something as simple as a seat in a classroom.

Professor Snape tore into the room, with the same fuming expression he always wore, his greasy hair flapping, his hooked nose flaring like an angry bull. He turned his dark, sinister eyes on the class, a decidedly nasty smile on his face.

“Today we will be making a strengthening solution. The instructions are on the board; you may start now.” Snape said softly, a gleeful expression in his eyes at what failures the students would concoct.

The blonde sighed, no longer looking as animated as normal. “Trust Snape to give us a hard potion straight away.”

Draco looked at her blankly. This was easy stuff compared to what he did in his classes, but then he supposed they were a year older. He was probably going to find it extremely easy in all of Ginny’s classes, which wasn’t such a bad thing when he thought about it…

Deciding he would just get this over and done with, Draco set to work immediately. Snape wandered over and merely sniffed as he stared at Draco’s solution, which was surprising, since Draco was so used to Snape praising his work in Potions. He then turned his eyes to the blonde next to Draco and sneered.

“Tell me Miss Rosedale,” Snape said softly, a cold look in his eyes. “Did you even read the instructions?”

The blonde bit her lip and looked fearfully at the Potions Master. Draco could see her hands trembling in her lap and realised she was obviously terrified of the man.

“I did read them, Sir.” She answered shakily.

“Then how is it that you have failed to add the most important ingredient?”

The blonde hung her head in embarrassment, her cheeks bright red. “I’m sorry Sir; I don’t know how that happened…”

“Your excuses are nothing to me Miss Rosedale. This potion is useless.” Snape said harshly, his lip curling. He waved his wand, which instantly vanished the potion in the blonde’s cauldron and stalked off to breath down other students’ necks.

Draco could only stare at Snape in surprise. “That was totally unfair. You could have easily fixed that.”

The blonde looked up with tears in her eyes, her lips trembling uncontrollably. “He wouldn’t have cared; he only helps the Slytherins. Look.” She said gesturing to Snape who was now helping a weedy Slytherin fix his potion. “It’s just not fair.” She ended dejectedly, throwing her hands over her face as she cried.

Draco frowned slightly. He always found it funny that Snape despised the other houses and only liked the Slytherins, but being on the receiving end was a little different…

The class finished and Draco took his sample up to Snape who merely looked down his nose at the potion.

“Hmph, Weasley, it seems you have somehow managed to create a potion that hasn’t blown up in your face. I’m surprised, but it still doesn’t reach standard.”

Draco glared at Snape, furious that he was doing this to him, when he knew that his potion was perfectly fine having done it before plenty of times. “This would give me an E at least.” Draco said in outrage. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t talk back to me, Weasley.” Snape said icily, his cold, black eyes glaring intensely at him. “That’s twenty points from Gryffindor and anymore from you and you’ll have a detention.”

Draco opened his mouth to retort when a brunette with green eyes suddenly grasped his arm, tugging him away from Snape. Draco didn’t even have time to express his frustration in always being dragged around like a rag doll, for the girl was already talking.

 “C’mon, Ginny, Oricarn is waiting for us.” She said quickly, tugging him even more out of the room.

Draco let himself be lead out and stared at the twittery blonde who he figured must be Oricarn. Well, at least now she wasn’t crying…

“He’s so evil!” The brunette spat angrily, as soon as they were out of earshot from Snape’s classroom. “He took away points just because her potion was good. Speaking of that, how did you get so good suddenly?”

“What are you talking about?” Draco said in confusion, having no idea why it was such a big deal.

“Well that’s the first time you’ve ever concocted a potion that didn’t melt your cauldron or blow up. I must say Ginny, we were all quite surprised,” The brunette said bluntly, a proud smile on her face. 

Draco stared at the brunette perplexed. Weasley must have been dumber than he thought. Smiling slightly that he now had proof for her idiocy, he said, “I guess the studying helped.”

The blonde smiled cheerfully, no longer seeming to be upset by Snape’s rudeness in the class previously. “I guess so. Well, Lyra, Ginny, let’s go; we’ve got to get to Divination.”

Draco followed the two girls as they chatted happily about their next class, feeling just a little worried. He had managed to convince them he was Ginny so far, but another class pretending to be Ginny Weasley could be the end. This was beginning to be more trouble than he thought it would be…

OOOOOOOO

Ginny sat brooding over the mess of Transfiguration notes in front of her on the table, not having a clue what any of them meant. She had no idea NEWT preparation classes would be so hard, and she had only just started on these kind of things in her own fifth year classes. She knew that Draco was at least intelligent, so she could only hope that she could do him justice; the problem was, she had never been particularly studious…

Blaise turned to Ginny with an amused look, whispering in her ear, “Look at McGonagall through these.” he said, handing her a pair of glasses Goyle had just been wearing.

Ginny took the glasses from him and put them on a little apprehensively. She lifted her eyes towards McGonagall who was walking around the desks and immediately tried to stifle a giggle; she was unmistakably wearing tartan underwear.

Ginny took them off and handed them to Blaise, surprised at how he had gotten such glasses to make people’s undergarments show. “Who would’ve thought?” She said still trying not to laugh. “Everything really is tartan with her. She really must have Scottish pride.” Ginny whispered.

Blaise grinned, but promptly changed his expression to one of deep concentration as McGonagall walked towards their table. She peered at the badger that was still stubbornly refusing to vanish on Ginny’s desk, one thin eyebrow rising slightly.

“Mr Malfoy, I would like to talk to you after class.”

Ginny nodded and sighed as McGonagall walked off to tell Crabbe off for falling asleep. She was sure it was because she had been unable to vanish her badger and wondered what she could possibly say to make things better. As much as she hated Draco, she couldn’t make him fail his classes.

Ginny looked at Blaise who was staring blankly at the blackboard, tapping his quill on his desk. She had been pleasantly surprised with Draco’s friends. She hadn’t expected the Slytherins to be so fun, but it seemed they had thrown all her ideas about Slytherins out the window. Blaise was easy-going and always had a friendly word, Crabbe and Goyle, although notoriously stupid, were good for a laugh, and even Pansy wasn’t that bad when she wasn’t clinging on to her with that soppy look in her eyes.

Ginny realised now that really all that stuff about Slytherins was wrong. They weren’t cold or rude all the time. They were friends who cared about each other just like the Gryffindors.

Blaise looked at her, a small smile coming to his lips. “What are you gaping at Draco? I thought Malfoys never gawk at people.”

Ginny collected herself quickly and put a smirk in place, realising her mistake. Out of all of Draco’s friends, Blaise was the one she had to watch out for the most. The tall, tan boy was very perceptive, despite his easy-going ways.

“We don’t,” she said firmly, hoping he would accept it.

Blaise laughed softly. “Honestly Draco,” he said shaking his head.

The bell rung to show the end of class, and Ginny quickly said her goodbyes to the Slytherins who promised to save her a good seat in Charms. Now it was just her and McGonagall alone in the class, and with a sigh, Ginny waited for McGonagall to tell her off for not vanishing the badger. She was still desperately thinking of an excuse, for she couldn’t very well say that she was only a fifth year and could not do this kind of magic yet.

“Mr Malfoy, are you even taking your education seriously?” Professor McGonagall began sternly, turning her hawk-like gaze on Ginny. “You realise that you and Zabini’s antics are not going to help you pass your NEWTS?”

Ginny stared at the floor, not knowing what to say.

“I am giving you extra homework for not vanishing your badger, and I expect you to get your act together, or I will be writing a letter home to your parents. You know your father wants you to get a good eduction, and I am very disappointed to see one of my top students being so lazy. I expected better from you, Draco.”

“I understand,” Ginny said politely.

“Very well. You may leave.”

Ginny nodded and left the room, feeling just somewhat relieved that McGonagall had only wanted to talk to her about that, and maybe just a little embarrassed for Draco…

OOOOOO

Draco looked at his watch, a moody expression on his face. He was so tired of listening to that over-grown beetle spouting on about rubbish that he was ready to die of boredom. Still, there was only five minutes to go of listening to the old bag drone on about dreams. He couldn’t help but hope she would just go drown herself in her stupid, pink teacup and do them all a favour…

Professor Trelawney glided over, glittering from the many beads surrounding her. Her frizzy hair was more static looking than usual, and her magnified eyes were bulging slightly as she stared at him.

“Ah, Ginevra...” She paused suddenly, a frown coming to face. “You seem different, Ginevra; I sense an icy aura behind those fiery eyes of yours.”

Draco stared at her completely nonplussed. She really was deranged, and he contemplated telling her that until he realised Ginny would never say such a thing, and who knew how the freakish old bat would react.

She walked away looking slightly confused, muttering to herself so that Draco could hear, “I could have sworn I’ve felt that presence before…”

Draco wondered if perhaps she realised that he was not really Ginny Weasley, but then that couldn’t be right. Trelawney really was just a fraud that made up depressing predictions to spook people out…

Lyra looked at Draco, a puzzled expression on her face. “What was all that about?”

Draco shrugged, not really knowing what to make of it either. “Who knows? The old bat’s a crazy fraud. I wouldn’t pay any attention to her.”

Lyra and Oricarn laughed appreciatively, and just in that moment the bell rung. Draco stood up, not able to resist the smile that came to his face as he realised he could finally leave the stuffy room.

OOOOOOOOOO

Ginny walked with Blaise down the hallway, pausing suddenly as she realised she was supposed to be meeting Draco now. She gasped slightly and looked at Blaise, hoping he would not think it was too weird that she didn’t want to have lunch with them.

“Um, you go have lunch without me. I have some things I have to do in the library. I thought I’d better start that homework for McGonagall.” Ginny said in a rush.

Blaise gave her a quizzical look but nodded his head all the same. He clearly didn’t see the point in trying to argue with her. “Okay Draco, I’ll see you later then.”

Ginny nodded and watched Blaise enter the Great Hall. She sighed to herself and quickly made her way to the library, hoping that they would find something so she could back to herself. As much as she enjoyed the Slytherins’ company, she would rather not be stuck in Draco’s body.

She walked through the doors of the library to see Madam Pince glaring at her. She seemed to like to glare at anyone who dared disturb her lair, but Ginny was not moved by it.

Peering about the library, Ginny could see no sign of Draco, so made her way slowly to a table at the furthest corner of the library and waited...

Ten minutes later she saw Draco come walking towards her, looking all for the world like he had done nothing wrong.

“Oh you finally decided to turn up.” Ginny said angrily, furious that she had missed her lunch just so she could wait for him to decide when he wanted to turn up.

“Yes, well I was trying to get rid of Lyra and Oricarn.” Draco said unapologetically as he sat down at the table with her.

Ginny huffed and glared at him, not really trusting herself to speak right now. Most of what was running through her head was best left unsaid.

“It was only ten minutes,” Draco snapped. “Now can we please get on with finding a solution to this?”

Ginny sighed and nodded her head, realising there was no point brooding over it. “Fine. Where do we begin?”

“I haven’t a clue but the restricted section seems the most appropriate.” Draco answered, obviously wanting to get this out of the way just as much as she did.

Ginny nodded in agreement and together they stood up, both silently agreeing that the sooner they got their bodies back the better…