A/N: Well, this was a random idea I had, that I'm sure has already been done many times before, so I set my fingers to keyboard and started typing.
Disclaimer: It is all J.K. Rowling's invention that I am merely playing with.
The cobbled streets of Diagon Alley were exceptionally congested late in August. Infinite amounts of wired students were chattering incessantly amongst each other of the upcoming school year at Hogwarts. There were mobs of children with their noses pressed firmly against the storefront glass of Broomstix, overloading on sugars in Florean Fortescue's and Sugerplum's Sweets, or stocking up on fireworks and love potions at Gambol and Japes'. Exhausted parents hauled around their youngest while fighting through lines and crowds to check off each item on their child's school materials list. Confrontations were occasionally triggered by accidental toe-stepping or line-cutting or one person grabbing the last of an item while another person clearly had their eyes on it first.
It was the usual madness Diagon Alley received the week before the start of school. Nearly every family scrambled to grab "just one last thing," at the last minute before being pulled into the reality that there may have been just a few more things on their shopping lists.
Every family, that is, except for one little pale-faced boy and his mother.
Draco Malfoy clung to his mother as if his life depended on it, instantly wondering why his parents had picked today, of all days, to run a couple of errands in Diagon Alley. Growing up in an outrageously enormous manor with only three residents, he didn't care for masses of people or a lack of personal space.
"Why did we have to come today, Mother?" he queried, glancing up to see an equally disgusted expression fixed upon the woman's face.
"Your father had to meet with a few colleagues," she replied through gritted teeth. "And he wanted me to pick up a few things in our vault for him."
Draco sighed dramatically as he and his mother shuffled awkwardly through the crowd. He spotted a rather large group of children gathered around Broomstix and was instantly reminded of the Nimbus Company's new broom his father had been telling him about. "It's the Nimbus 1700! Mother, can I go look?"
Narcissa, unconcerned with all things related to quidditch, spotted her favorite clothing store and decided to spoil herself. "Well, there is a new dress I have been waiting to try on in Twilfitts and Tatting's. I'll be over to get you in ten minutes, Draco, and you'd better not wander off."
Draco nodded excitedly and rushed off to join the chattering crowd of delighted children. As he squeezed through the mob to the front of the glass, he paused and glanced around very nervously. At age seven, he realized, he was a very calm and reserved boy compared to the rest of the children surrounding him. As far as Draco was concerned, excitement was merely the exercising of a few muscles in his face; he didn't need to jump up and down in such a silly fashion, nor did he see the need to shout out to the heavens that, by Merlin's beard, the Nimbus Company has produced a new broomstick!
He also realized, suddenly feeling very small and inconsequential while surrounded by all of these older Hogwarts students and their friends merrily chatting about the upcoming school year, that he was very much alone.
Friends was not a term that Draco Malfoy had ever used in his seven years. His mother and father were his family; Crabbe and Goyle were his lackeys. He would have deemed them friends if it weren't for the fact that all he ever did, when their mothers brought them over to the Manor, was order them do things he didn't feel like doing himself. Draco also decided that friends were supposed to be around the same level of intelligence and competence as each other so as not to get bored or irritated, which he often found himself doing around Crabbe and Goyle.
So Draco found himself surrounded by many friends, in all of their friendly conversations, and started to feel a bit excluded. He turned his attention to the Nimbus 1700 and realized that he had absolutely nothing to say about it or, more importantly, absolutely no one to say anything to. The boy had a sudden desire to squeeze back through this group of friendly people, rush to Twilfitts and Tatting's, grab his mother's hand, and suffer through the many outfits she would force him into.
He was just about to surrender and back out of the group entirely, when he felt a little tug on his robes. Draco turned about ninety degrees before stopping his eyes on a little girl, with wild red hair, who looked to be about his age. "Wh – wh – what can I do for you?" he inquired, attempting to deepen his voice and puff out his chest to appear more intimidating.
This only prompted a giggle from the girl, whose entire face seemed to light up as she did so. Draco noticed it was particularly her chocolate eyes that glistened as she laughed at him. "I was just wondering if you were ever going to take your big foot off of my shoe!"
The blonde boy was absolutely stunned. Not only had his attempt at bravado gone entirely unnoticed, but this little freckle-faced girl had insulted him! Before the formal introductions were made! Not only this, but Draco was quite positive that he had always had rather small feet, at least compared to the great oafs that were Crabbe and Goyle. "I do not have big feet!" was all he had managed to say, at least a full minute later.
"Well, it was only a metaphere, and I didn't actually mean it. But besides, you still haven't taken your foot off mine."
"Do you mean 'metaphor'?" he clarified, glancing down at their feet as he slid his away from hers.
"Oh, right, metaphor," she stamped her foot angrily. "I'm always getting those wrong, but Percy always tells me I need to use bigger words. He says I'm not very smart."
Well maybe he has a point, Draco wanted to counter, but thought against it. He had already earned points with "metaphor", plus he hadn't quite decided why he was still talking to this rambling little girl. Or who on earth she was talking about. "Who is Percy?"
"Oh, he's just my scrawny, know-it-all brother," she continued, completely unaware of how awkwardly the blonde was shifting in front of her. "He thinks he's so brilliant now because he got his letter this year, but I think he won't make any friends because he's too busy trying to make himself sound smarter than everyone else."
Draco realized that he had done just that only thirty seconds prior when correcting her. He also felt slightly defensive of this Percy person who was in Draco's same boat with the "no friends" situation. Draco was also fairly certain that whoever this girl was, that she wasn't supposed to be talking about family that way to random strangers. If there was one thing that Draco had learned from his mother and father, it was that one never reveals any Malfoy weaknesses to anyone, especially random strangers. Not that the Malfoys have any weaknesses, mind you.
"I really don't think you should talk about your brother that way," Draco mumbled.
"Oh, he doesn't care. I bet you he's too busy reading a book right now at Flourish and Blott's. If you knew him, you would understand I think—Oh, gods, I've completely forgotten!" she slapped her hands against her cheeks so suddenly that it made Draco jump a little, and then she took her right hand and extended it toward him. "I'm Ginny! Ginny Weasley!"
Draco was too distracted by her hyper energy that he hadn't the chance to calm down and shake her hand. Ginny shook it anyway.
"Well, what's your name?"
"M—Malfoy," he stammered. "Draco Malfoy." Good one, Draco, way to appear fierce like Father's always telling you.
The redhead suddenly burst into a fit of giggles, grabbing her side as she feigned pain. She looked up and into his stony grey eyes and realized that he didn't think it quite as funny as she. "Er—sorry," she looked down suddenly. "Draco is kind of a funny name."
Draco considered this and realized she was probably right. Of all the stories he had heard, the Malfoys had always had the silliest of names. Lucius, Narcissa, Abraxas, Brutus… but still, the nerve!
"Well, it's not like you have such a clever name," he replied defensively. "Ginny? How common."
"Well, excuse me if my parents didn't decide to pick my name out of the stone ages!" she huffed, folding her arms petulantly. "Besides, that's not even my real name. It's a nickname!"
"Well, what is your real name?"
Ginny reddened deeply, her entire face flushing the same garnet color. "It's—er—my name is… Ginevra."
Draco's lips curled into a tight smile. "Your name sounds sillier than my name," he sing-songed.
"Does not!"
"Does too," he teased. "In fact, I think I heard it in one of those books my mother read when I was younger… a book from the stone ages!"
Ginny shook her head in defiance. "You're making that up. You're just jealous that my name is better." She stuck her tongue out at him.
Draco froze, taken aback completely. This entire exchange just felt so… bizarre. He hadn't been checking himself completely this entire time. In fact, Draco Malfoy had even let loose quite a bit while conversing with this little freckle-faced girl—Ginny Weasley—whom he hardly knew. Yet it gave him a slightly warm and sunny feeling in his gut that he hadn't quite experienced before. It made him feel quite a bit more comfortable in this group feel of people, conversing with someone as friendly as Ginny Weasley.
The blonde boy looked around him, suddenly brought back to the reality of before. The group of students surrounding the Nimbus 1700 had dispersed as he was talking to the redhead.
"Oh, I guess everyone's left," he noted dumbly, suddenly not knowing what to say.
"I think it's getting close to dinner time," Ginny realized, glancing around for her family, whom she couldn't find anywhere in sight. "And boy, I'm hungry," she added after hearing her stomach grumble at her.
Draco's grumbled in agreement. "Me too."
"Oh, I have an idea!" Ginny's face suddenly brightened as her idea formed in her mind. Draco noticed again how it was her eyes that seemed to sparkle when she did this. "We should go get ice cream!"
"Oh," Draco deadpanned. "But I haven't any money with me."
"I do!" she exclaimed, reaching into her tattered robes and pulling out a handful of bronze Knuts. "I've saved up my allowance this summer and I have ten whole Knuts my mum said I could spend today!"
She was grinning ear-to-ear, obviously so excited to share her treasure with a complete stranger, that Draco didn't have the heart to bring up the fact that he was sure his allowance tripled that in only a few days. He suddenly got the feeling that taking this girl's money wasn't such a good idea. Yet, she persisted, and so Draco Malfoy found himself being escorted to Florean Fortescue's by a rambling, redheaded, freckle-faced stranger named Ginny Weasley. He was so enthralled that he had completely forgotten his mother was due to retrieve him from Broomstix at that exact moment.
Draco was fairly certain he had never even let Crabbe and Goyle hook their harms so determinedly around his before, and he had known them since infancy. Yet he couldn't seem to bring himself to cast this cheerful girl aside; propriety be damned. He just allowed her to lead him exactly where she wanted to, not willing to admit that he had completely forgotten where the ice cream parlor was.
As they neared the large corner shop, he seemed to remember it a bit more. Loads of children were still pouring in and out, licking their ice cream cones with satisfied smiles.
It was the brightest and most open of all the shops he had seen. Florean's had wide, open glass windows with bars lining every window and wall in the shop, every stool occupied with overjoyed kids and their ice cream cones. The line to get inside was dying down as Draco and Ginny approached excitedly. He glanced at Ginny who ran a pink tongue over her bottom lip. Draco knew, his mother's voice in the back of his mind, that the Malfoy Mannerisms Manual did not permit a tongue to be anywhere outside of the mouth, but he seemed to think it a very cute and childish gesture.
Perhaps it was the fact that this was the first girl who had spoken to Draco without being forced by their mothers, Narcissa's friends, or the fact that she was so unlike any other child that he had ever spent time with that made him warm up to her so easily. He actually got the feeling that she wanted to be spending time with him, and that really made him smile.
"Your skin is so—so pale," she commented, interrupting him from his thoughts.
He followed her glance to where their arms were still linked and noted the differences. Her skin, while freckled and slightly bruised—he imagined from picking a fight with an older boy and winning—was very pale, so he didn't see how she could talk. But her skin had a pinkish tint to its olive complexion. Perhaps she had been out in the sun too much the day before and she had gotten a slight burn, he mused. He noticed his arm next to hers had a very blue, almost translucent, tint. He lacked freckles and had few white-blonde hairs, so he did indeed sit very pale in comparison to her. Draco realized he needed to get out into the sun more.
"Don't you play quidditch?" she pressed further, obviously untroubled by his silence. "You were looking at that Nimbus 1700 like you play quidditch."
Draco slid his arm away and stuck both hands into his pockets self-consciously. "I do play quidditch," he muttered. "We all just look different, alright?"
"Okay, okay," she teased, sensing a bit of agitation. "No need to get so huffy. At least I know you aren't a vampire or anything!"
"Oh yes, because you know so much about me," he voice dripped with sarcasm. Even at so young an age, Draco was the master of sarcasm.
"Well, you're in the sunlight with me, for one thing," Ginny continued, ignoring him. "I'm not stupid, Draco, even if Percy seems to think so. I do know that vampires can't live in the sunlight at all, so you cannot be a vampire."
Draco chuckled, for it seemed to be the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. Ginny only beamed at him, thinking herself brilliant or something.
"I think you're a lot smarter than Percy thinks," Draco offered.
"Really? Oh, but he tells me I'm stupid all the time! But I guess Bill always punches him for it. Bill thinks I'm going to grow up and be the greatest in the family!" she boasted.
Draco only gave her a confused stare. "Who is Bill?"
"Oh, he's my brother, silly!" she giggled, as though Draco should have guessed.
"Right, and how many brothers do you have?"
"Six older brothers, and no sisters," she added sadly. "I'm the only girl."
"That explains a lot," Draco mumbled, only to receive a punch in the side. "Ow! What was that for?"
"I dunno, it just seemed like you were being mean. What did you mean by that?"
"Well, I dunno," he chose his words carefully, so as not to receive another blow to the side. Ginny hit a lot harder than he would have assumed. He blamed it on the six brothers. "You just don't seem like other girls I've known."
"Oh," she softened, then giggled, hitting Draco's arm for good measure. "I'm going to pretend that's a good thing."
"How old are you, anyway?" Draco realized that he had assumed this girl was the exact same age as him, for she seemed it, but he had truly never asked. For all he knew, she could have been a lot older and just a bit small for her age. Draco was a bit small for his age.
"Six," she proclaimed proudly. "And you are?"
"Seven," he smirked, able to have one more thing over this girl. Draco Malfoy was a competitive boy by nature, but it seemed as though Ginny Weasley could hold her own, too. Her shoulders dropped in defeat, realizing he had beaten her.
"You get to go to Hogwarts before me," Ginny muttered, but shook it off when she realized they were almost next in line to order. "What kind of ice cream do you want to get?" she suddenly changed the subject.
"I dunno, what do they—"
"—Draco, darling, who is this?" the cool and collected voice of Narcissa Malfoy cut into his last question, and both Draco and Ginny turned around to face the stunning blonde before them. Narcissa's eyes scanned the redhead immediately, searching for a sign of someone she knew. The pale skin, freckles, ratty hand-me-down clothes, vibrant red hair…
"Her name's Ginny, Mother," he whispered, realizing he was in very big trouble for not upholding their prior agreement. Narcissa's eyes were narrowed, but he noticed that they were not directed at him.
"A Weasley?" she inquired accusingly, obvious dislike flickering in her pale blue eyes. "Really, Draco, this is who you have been gallivanting around with?"
Ginny's ears tinged a pinkish-red, and she folded her arms in defiance of this so obviously rude older woman. She could tell by the tone in her voice that a Weasley consorting with her son was not going to go over well, and she didn't like that one bit. It made her eyes sting something fierce and her cheeks color.
Narcissa grabbed hold of Draco's hand and started to pull him away from the Weasley girl, who was about to shout out in protest, when a very familiar frantic voice could be heard calling over the crowd as a rather robust woman began pushing her way through the crowd towards them.
"Ginny! Ginny, oh thank heavens, you're alright. I can't believe you slipped out of—oh," she turned, and immediately made eye contact with Narcissa. Draco and Ginny glanced at each other with worried expressions as both of their mothers ceased speaking to glare at each other. Amber colored eyes met cold, blue steel and the silent battle commenced.
"Molly," the blonde was the first to break the ice, coolly.
"Narcissa," the redhead spat back, a raging fire behind her words.
"My son and I were just leaving."
"And so were we."
Draco and Ginny exchanged confused glances before they were finally separated by their mothers. Ginny whispered a quick "goodbye," as she glanced solemnly at Draco's retreating figure. He managed to whisper a parting word before she was completely out of earshot.
He turned to look up at his mother, who appeared as calm and collected as before they had parted ways in front of Twilfitt and Tatting's. The fierce grip on his wrist, as she wrenched him through the last of the crowd, was enough for Draco to sense that she was not calm.
"Draco, this is unbelievable," she finally spat through gritted teeth as she continued to pull him roughly forward.
He glanced down at his feet in shame, knowing that he was in the wrong. "Mother, I'm sorry," he offered softly. "I should have been in front of Broomstix like I promised. I shouldn't have gotten distracted."
Suddenly, the fierce blonde woman rounded on him as though she would strike. Luckily, Narcissa had never hit Draco, and in front of all these people she wouldn't cause to great of a spectacle. "It's not where you were, Draco, it's who you were with!"
"Mother, wha—?"
"—We do not associate with their kind, Draco. That filthy, pathetic excuse of a family does not run in our same circles." Narcissa's tone was now rising, and she pulled her son into a small nook between two stores to avoid anyone overhearing. "The Weasley's, though they share the same purity of blood, do not have our purity of mind, Draco. And I will never catch you consorting with one of them again, do you understand?"
"Yes, M-Mother," Draco sighed, tears somehow finding a way into his eyes. He cast his eyes downward to avoid his mother's notice. It worked, for Narcissa merely grabbed him by the wrist and began to pull him, once again, towards the large bank in the center of Diagon Alley.
"Your father and I will be having a very important talk with you over dinner tonight, dear."
A/N – Well, there it is. I'm planning on making this into a series, though we'll see how quickly it progresses. Obviously it's lacking a lot of the romance and such that people love to see unraveling in the first chapter, but I think this is going to move a lot slower. It is, after all, a very unlikely combination, however delicious!
Also, I know that in the first few books, Ginny is very shy and quiet as a younger girl. That just didn't seem very much like her character to me. A lot of it had to do with her being shy around Harry, I think. Honestly, this is exactly how I've always imagined Ginny first meeting a random stranger: wild, talkative, extroverted, beyond her years. I think I may not have quite captured the child in both Ginny and Draco, though I did try. Oh, well, this was all a random idea and done in one fell swoop, so let me know what you think!
Reviews are always lovely! Let me know… do you think I should take this further? Or if it's best left alone?