There was only one way they could have ended up together and even that had been destroyed the first moment she learned his name. Draco/Ginny.

Repute

Ginny's mother's obsession with Gilderoy Lockhart was rather embarrassing. Molly Weasley kept fighting for her place in line so Lockhart would sign her books first. Ginny rolled her eyes. How her Dad didn't get ticked off in the least about this, she did not know.

Ginny extricated herself from her mother's tight grip and wandered back to the front of the store where Ron and Harry were. Harry, she sighed. True he hadn't ever really spoken to her, but that didn't mean she couldn't harbor a crush on him, right?

They were talking with some boy, she realized quickly. She crept up behind Harry's right shoulder, joining the conversation and observing the newcomer.

He was a very pretty boy, almost as pretty as Harry, in 11-year-old Ginny's mind. His hair was the palest of yellow, so barely blonde she suspected he might be albino. His skin was pale, the flesh unmarked. His eyes were a pale, piercing grey, borderline cruel. He was smirking, but not at her.

At Harry.

If only he would smile, she remembered thinking just then. If he'd smile, he'd be so much prettier.

And then Ginny put two and two together, and realized his smirk meant he was being mean to Harry. Impulse drove her to step in front of Harry—her Harry—protectively and defend him. "Leave him alone," she blurted. "He didn't want any of that!"

Famous first meeting. His gray eyes slid over lazily from Harry to her, and then back again. The ridiculous smirk was still there. "Ooh!" he taunted. "Got yourself a little girlfriend, Potter?"

And then another man, the spitting image of the boy showed up. He was horrible, even more than the boy, Ginny could tell. Loathing churned in her heart.

She looked at the boy, standing proudly next to his father. He really was beautiful, in a graceful sort of way. She knew at once that he would grow into a very handsome man, the one girls would fall over themselves for. She hated that. In a split second, Ginny imagined herself next to him, much older.

She shook her head, casting the foolish thought away. She had Harry.

But, she found herself musing, if Harry wasn't there, she would definitely find herself fancying this boy. He really was beautiful.

And then the man was telling Harry his name: "Lucius Malfoy," he hissed.

Alarm bells rang inside Ginny's head. She had eavesdropped on enough of her parents' conversations to know the name Malfoy was bad. Off-limits.

Malfoy—the boy— grinned maliciously at Harry. Ginny felt bile rise in her throat. She found herself having a million more things to say, each one of them mean and spiteful to this boy, although there was no right time or place for them. She held them in.

Dad showed up and then the whole thing went to pieces. Well, maybe not pieces quite literally as no wizard took out his wand for a duel, but tension was still high in the air as both Malfoys left, sticking their proud noses in the air. The boy sneered at Harry and offered him one more jab, but soon left.

It was only when her father released his breath in a big whoosh that she knew it was safe to speak again. "Who was he?" she asked Ron later.

Fred and George swooped into their conversation, having been born with ears of hawks and eyes for mischief. "The foulest Malfoy you'll ever meet," started one—Fred, she thought.

"And hopefully, the only one," finished the other—presumably George.

"Why was he so mean to Harry?" she wondered.

This time Ron answered. "Because he's a smug git," he said with a considerable amount of contempt.

"And he's jealous," pointed out George.

"Of Harry," added Fred.

"Why?" she asked.

Fred and George smiled at her, and then turned to look at each other. "Well, why not?" they asked in unison.

And that was that. He was a Malfoy, not to be trusted and she was a Weasley. It didn't matter how pretty he was; he could never be with her. And, she found herself adding repulsively, she didn't think she wanted to.

At least not when the great Harry Potter was staying at her house.

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