"No! No, no, no!" It was Ginny Weasley speaking, shaking her head, and waving her arms as though to ward off the unwanted. "I can't believe you would do this to me! First, you send me to a muggle school, where I have precious little chance of fitting in to their social structure, and away from any chance of establishing a normal social life in the wizarding world, and now you do this?" She had been sent to a muggle school since she was twelve. All of the adults in her life seemed to think that was the wisest thing for her safety after the diary incident. So…she went to school during the day and was tutored in magic at home two evenings a week and on weekends. Now, apparently, those same adults who thought they had a right to reorganize her life without her input had informed her that she would be joined by another in need of protection and they expected her to help him make the adjustment.
She stormed out of the house. She knew didn't have a choice but do what they wanted, but that didn't mean she had to sit around and listen to their lectures. They hadn't even given her any warning. They had waited until the day before school began to tell her what was going on. That really didn't surprise her; they always avoided telling her anything until they absolutely had no choice whatsoever.
The next morning she sat on the top rail of an old fence where the long lane that eventually passed their house met something barely large enough to be called a road. She looked at her watch and let out a strangled scream. If he didn't show up soon they'd miss the bus.
Not a second later a loud crack sounded behind her. "You're late," she said without turning around. She got up and started down the road. "We'll be lucky to make the bus now."
"Wait," he whined as he followed her, "they said the bus came at 6:30."
"Yeah, but they also told you to be here at 6. We have to walk half a mile to get to the bus stop." She still hadn't looked at him.
"I thought this was the bus stop." He was still whining.
"Right, they'd let you apparate in where anyone can see. Now stop shuffling your feet and keep up." She sped up their pace as she spoke.
She could almost hear him roll his eyes. "Look," he said, "I'm not exactly happy with this arrangement myself."
"Is that your attempt at a 'let's be friends' speech?" she asked in disbelief. It was almost amusing.
He growled. "The least you could do is be civil."
She stopped, spun, and stared at him. "This is me being civil. You're so bloody arrogant. You think you can do whatever you want. You were told to be here at a certain time and you're twenty minutes late. Then you whine like a little kid because your spoiled little feet have to walk a bit. You at least had a choice whether or not to accept their protection and therefore their arrangements. I, on the other hand, have no choice. I was told last night that I would be babysitting you and holding your hand around the muggle world." She brought her hands up like she wanted to strangle him and was fighting the impulse. "Do I have to remind you that you are the one who made my life miserable, not the other way around? Maybe we should start with you giving me a reason to be civil." They heard the sound of an approaching automobile down the road a bit.
He smirked. "We're going to miss the bus." She was cute when she got riled up. His only memories of her were of a little brat that followed her brother around. He decided he'd have fun teasing her.
She reached up and his eyes went wide as she grabbed the front of his shirt and just took off running toward the bus. It was pulling away as they reached the intersection with the main road and were barely able to call it back.
He smoothed the wrinkles out of his shirt as they climbed on board. She found a seat halfway back and grabbed his sleeve, dragging him toward it and down beside her. He shook his arm after she released him and turned toward the window. "Merlin, woman, warn me next time you plan on dragging me somewhere; give me a chance to catch my balance."
She rolled her eyes. "Bloody hell, if you're going to curse, do so in a manner that normal people will understand."
"Normal?" he couldn't believe she was referring to muggles as normal.
She grabbed his collar and pulled him toward her. "Listen to me, you moron," her voice was as low as she could make it, "I was instructed to help you adjust. Your first lesson is language. Don't use words like 'muggle' or 'squib.' People won't understand you if you insult them with names like 'blood traitor' or 'mudblood.' If you're going to curse, 'bloody,' 'hell,' a combination of the two, 'damn,' 'shit,' 'ass,' etc. are all acceptable. Hell, you might even learn a few new ones. Ever heard 'fuck off?' I'm pretty sure that's one you'll hear a lot. Just don't swear by long dead wizards no one here even believes existed, yeah?"
He reached up and pried her fingers off his shirt. "Yeah," he said sarcastically, "I can tell we're going to get along great."
When they got to the school, she led him to the office where he had to meet with his guidance counselor to finish his registration. He was a year older than Ginny, but they were putting him in her year so it would be easier for her to help him out. Both of them knew that meant keep an eye on him. He was given the same schedule she had and the morning progressed without too much trouble.
Their second hour of the day was study hall and as they made their way toward the classroom he shoved his hands into his pockets insolently. "This is ridiculous. We have every single class every single day? None of them last more than hour? How the hell does anything ever get done? And who the hell heard of giving class time over to homework. Isn't it called home work for a reason?"
She laughed mischievously. "I guarantee you that by the end of the fortnight you will behind on your work and lost in most of you classes, with or without a study hall."
"Oh?" he clearly thought she was being absurd. "You don't think I can handle the workload?"
"It isn't that," she said innocently as she opened the door for him, "I'm sure you could handle the work load. I just don't think you'll understand how to do it." They entered the room. Two of the walls were lined with computers while desks and tables took up the open space. "You see, most of our work here is done on computers."
He hesitated for a moment and had to hurry a few steps to catch up with her. "On what?" There was a slight note of panic in his voice. Whether he let people know it or not, he took pride in his school work, in maintaining good marks. He strove for excellence in everything he did for his own satisfaction and not for anyone else's, that's why he never saw the need to correct the mass belief in his apathy.
She looked back at him curiously. "Computers. Don't worry," she slung her bag down on one of the tables, "you can come over some time and I'll teach you how to use them. It really isn't that difficult." For some reason she couldn't bring herself to revel in his ignorance as she had intended.
He put his bag down next to hers. "Tonight?" He decided to forego a sarcastic and disbelieving response to her offer of help.
She shrugged. "Sure, why not."
Just then she was almost doubled over as someone slammed into her back and wrapped her in an overzealous hug. "Hello Katrine," Ginny managed in a hoarse whisper despite the pressure on her diaghram.
"Katrine, let her breathe," a young man said as he pulled the girl off. "Hey Gin. Who's the blond?" he asked.
"Oh, that. That's Draco Malfoy." Ginny answered as though she'd rather forget there was anyone else present.
Draco glared at Ginny.
"What?" she asked innocently, "no one told me to introduce you otherwise and you did register under your own name so…"
He rolled his eyes. It had been her tone that had upset him, not the use of his name, but the reaction had been involuntary and he would rather die that admit her displeasure at his presence had irritated him.
"Anyway," she said with a sigh, "this is Katrine and her brother Khaile. You might as well know now that they believe in magic."
Draco looked at her in confusion.
Khaile raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Is really that dense or, well, I can't come up with an alternative."
Ginny plopped into one of the chairs around the table. "Oh, he's sharp, and as subtle as a snake when he wants to be. He just hasn't quite grasped the necessity for maintaining the facade of mental health."
"You know, guys," Katrine chimed in as she sat next to Ginny, "the poor bloke really does look lost, maybe we should explain?"
"Sure, whatever," Ginny looked over at Draco, "being thought weird is one thing, but drawing attention to yourself for being too weird will land you in therapy, and the last thing you want is a bunch of morons trying to fix the way your brain works. 'Believing' in magic and claiming to be capable of producing it are two entirely different things. The first one marks you as an eccentric or romantic, the second marks you as maladjusted and possibly psychotic. Really, Malfoy, first the lesson on language, and now I have to explain this? I really am going to have to hold your hand, aren't I?"
Khaile laughed, "Vocabulary? You had to correct his vocabulary? I would have thought that much would have been common sense." He leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out under the table.
Before Draco could find a suitable remark he saw Ginny's shoulders tense and eyes freeze over, harder than his had ever been. Just before he turned to see where her gaze was directed he heard Khaile swear softly under his breath before laconically stretching his arm out around Ginny's shoulders and adopting a blank, detached look. He also saw Katrine lower her face to her hands in exasperation before turning around to face the new comer.
"Still with this wank?" Draco was duly impressed by the sickeningly silky arrogance that was so strong it almost over powered the words. "Let me know when you're done playing around and want to get serious."
"Seriously ill," Ginny mumbled under her breath.
"Look," Khaile began as though he really didn't care, "why don't you just recognize where you're not wanted and scamper off?"
Khaile got a rather nasty glare for his trouble. "Why don't you recognize when it's safer to keep your mouth shut?"
Draco shook his head and placed his fists on the table before him, slowly standing, leaning forward just enough to be menacing without being threatening. "He told you once, and I'll do the same. Fuck. Off."
The withering glare was turned on him and he actually sniffed with suppressed laughter. "Who the hell are you?"
Draco raised his eyebrows as though he was impressed by the gall behind the question. "Not that it's any of your damn business, but I'm her brother. Now, are you going to make me repeat myself?" He cocked his head to one side as though daring the boy to push him and elicited a nervous shuffle from the unwanted.
"Her brother?" Draco smirked, he was getting his wish. "She's been here four years, where have you been?"
Draco looked down and back up, his smirk now a wicked grin, "I've been elsewhere, but we heard that she was having trouble with an asshole, I can only assume that's you, and decided that I'd give her a hand."
The other boy tried to sneer but only succeeding in looking slightly sick to his stomache before turning away.
Draco sat back down with an expression on his face that somehow combined satisfaction with disappointment.
"My brother?" Ginny turned to stare at him. He just shrugged and pulled out a book. She rolled her eyes and made her way over to one of the computers and Khaile followed her example while Katrine copied Draco.
A few minutes later Katrine rolled her eyes. There, superimposed on her book, was a note from Draco. "So, are they really together?"
She reached into her bag on the seat next to her and closed her hand around her wand.
Draco read her response over the words of his own book. "You shouldn't be doing magic in here, and I don't know."
She clenched her jaw when he replied. "How can you not know? He is your brother and she is your best friend, right? No one will notice the magic, you know, unless you react to it."
He smirked at her next words. "She can sense magic so cut it out. I can't know if they're together or not unless they do, now can I?"
"Have they kissed yet?" he asked, ignoring her comment about Ginny's sensitivity to magic.
Katrine failed to respond so he tried again. "So, you're just going to ignore me now?"
He watched her as she moved her wand and then withdrew her hand from her bag, pulling out an electronic device he didn't recognize. He looked down at his book to read her last statement. "When you're only point for prolonging the conversation anymore is to get her attention and annoy her, yes."
Meanwhile, Khaile's game was interrupted by an instant message. "We have got to teach him how to use computers and cell phones."
He chuckled softly. "So he can text his questions to Kat?"
Her answer to his question was "rolls eyes Are you that dense or…you know, I can't come up with any alternative."
"lol," was his only response.
"So," she asked after a minute or two, "what is the answer to his question?"
"You mean are we together or not?" he asked for clarification.
"No," he could read the sarcasm in her words, "what time's lunch?"
He typed, "shrugs I don't know. We've never really had a reason to figure that out before. Is there an immediate reason to do so now?"
"You mean other than a desire for something in my life to make sense for once? I just want to be able to answer questions when people ask." It wasn't like anyone did ask whether or not they were really together, at least until Draco came along. Everyone just accepted that they were, except possibly Kat, but she knew her brother's aversion to defining relationships and her best friends reluctance let people get too close.
"Who's been asking? Are you worried Malfoy's going to develop a fancy for you unless he's discouraged?" He liked things the way they were. There wasn't any pressure. When you started defining things with people they either moved faster than you wanted them to or they stopped moving altogether. He liked her; he'd even admit, to himself if to no one else, that he loved her. He just didn't want decide arbitrarily in what way he cared for her. He preferred to let things happen as they would. He figured that if they ever found themselves in a position where they were drawn together to kiss…well, that would answer the question, but they hadn't yet, neither had they been in a position where they should if they felt that way about each other and not.
"Malfoy? Fancy me? Have you seen any flying pigs lately?" That possibility had never crossed her mind and now that it had been suggested she honestly found it ridiculous. Malfoy was, after all, an elitist and she, after all, was common. At least that what she thought of herself. "Why? Does the possibility make you jealous?" She was teasing Khaile, but only in the direct manner of her question. She really wanted to know because that would give insight into how he felt. She found him rather attractive and knew that if she let herself she could fall in love with him. They got along great, he knew her better than anyone, even Kat, and he was always there for her. There were just two obstacles in her way. The first was that, other than sexual attraction, she felt the same way about her brothers Bill and the twins which meant that should she choose not to let herself fall in love with him she could easily find in him another brother. The second was that her self-defenses would not allow her to get any closer to him until she knew it would be safe, until she knew how she would be received.
He took quite a while in answering her question. He really didn't know the answer and he didn't want to decide on the spot. What he did know was that the idea of her with anyone else raised his hackles and put him in the ridiculous mood to threaten the bloke off. The reason he couldn't automatically recognize that as jealously was because he felt the same way when someone looked at his sister with interest. He knew that he wanted to keep Ginny from being hurt or used by anyone, he just wasn't sure whether he would be okay with her being happy with someone other than himself the way he would be if Kat found a guy worthy of her.
Finally he answered her. "I just don't trust him." It was the only answer he could trust at the moment.
Her reply was immediate. "sigh Neither do I."
He smiled to himself until he got a second message from her almost on the heels of the first. "…entirely." She didn't know why she had added the qualifier. She just knew that something about his eyes was different than it had been the last time they had met…and they way he had stood up for her…
Khaile, on the other hand, though unable to sort out his own feelings or trust his interpretations of anyone else's feelings toward him, he was fairly certain that her unexpected reluctance to discount him added to the look on her face when he had defended her and the absurd annoyance that she expressed for everything he did marked the defensive beginnings of attraction. Well, if he was correct, at least it gave him some insight into his own feelings toward her. Maybe he wasn't jealous after all. Maybe he'd give the guy a chance to get through her impenetrable defenses and only kill him if he hurt her.