So he couldn't stop staring at the pearly smooth curve of her neck; it didn't mean anything. So he couldn't stop following the sweep of her flame red hair with his eyes; it didn't change anything. So he couldn't help the heat creeping up his neck as she caught his eye and jerked her chin up defiantly.
He kept his gaze steady and his face impassive; let her guess what was going through his mind. And Merlin, don't let her guess correctly. Pansy's laugh, shrill and piercing, penetrated the fog in his mind.
"Draco? Draco, why are you staring at that filthy Weasley? What are you planning?" Her voice was silky and seductive, trying to push all the right buttons. It was like thick, sticky honey; sickly. Her fingers found their way onto his thigh, the warm crease of his waist. He said nothing, only transferred his cool, calculating gaze to Pansy.
Her lip curled in distaste as she acknowledged his silent warning; she removed her hand from his thigh. She turned full bodily to face Zabini, blocking him out.
Draco, his face still impassive, turned to his dinner. The chicken, skin golden and crisp, its aroma wafting throughout the hall, held no appeal. Neither did the roast potatoes, vegetables and the other array of deliciously assorted food. His appetite had never returned since that day.
They had never come in contact beforehand, never met to do anything but sneer at each other; basically show each other their distaste. That was until the day the death eaters attacked. They came in hoards that swarmed in between the trees and the students panicked, the teachers tried to calm them, but it was only the two of them, Ginny Weasley and Draco, who managed to calm them. It took a while; the famous trinity would have been able to do it in a matter of moments, but they were on their quest, having not been sighted in almost a year.
Ginny, flushed with anger, stood on the Gryffindor table and, flame coloured hair fanning out behind her, put her fingers in her mouth and whistled, at the same moment Draco did the exact same thing.
"Shut up!" They shouted simultaneously. Draco, standing on a chair rather than the Slytherin table, looked over at Ginny and saw for the first time something more than just a snivelling red headed Weasley mudblood. He saw a strong willed girl desperately trying to control a rabble of a crowd before the entire lot of them erupted into a riot.
"Is this how we're going to repay those fighting to defend us right now?" She placed her hands on her hips and flipped her hair away from her face "Honestly. Hey, Hey! Shut up! Our teachers our defending us right now and what are they going to think when they come in from fighting to find a bunch of screaming, squabbling children? Now, are we going to let them defend a bunch of spineless children or are we going to make sure that when they come in they will be tended to, and defended in return if necessary, by young witches and wizards. Now, you lot, yeah you, organise a group of you to prepare the infirmary. You, yes you..."
And that was it. Ginny Weasley had caught Draco's attention like no one beforehand ever had. Despite the fact she was known to be, and proud to be, the hero's sweetheart, she had shown something Draco had never seen in any other girl before... he just didn't know what it was.
So Draco had stood there on his chair the day the Death eaters had tried to breach Hogwarts and gave out his own orders, some to the children of Death eaters, some to other houses, but together, with Ginny Weasley, he had managed to carve order out of chaos.
All was well as students before him shifted chairs and tables to the side, set up emergency first aid units in the main hall and generally did what they were told. Sounds of fighting that earlier were loud enough to be in the next room, were now distant and muffled.
Draco breathed a sigh of relief as the first pocket of teachers returned, battered and bloody but certainly alive, safe in the knowledge that he wouldn't have to fill this role for much longer. It was then that he noticed the silence. Amongst the bustling students, shoving past each other to join their group or greet their favourite teacher, only one other person heard the silence.
Standing to the side, leaning against the wall, was Ginny Weasley, brooding internally, only to surface when a student came up to ask her something. Draco was watching her intently for something when her head snapped up, brow furrowed. He heard it a heart beat later; the eternal, oppressive silence.
It's so hard to hear, to recognise, because you hardly ever notice something that's not there. It's only when something fills its gap, loud and garishly obvious, that you understand what you should have seen, should have noticed.
But Draco did notice, and apparently, so did Ginny Weasley. His body rigidly straight, Draco made his way through the crowd, weaving in and out of the wriggling mass of bodies until he came to the large oak doors of the main hall. Slightly out of breath was Ginny Weasley, who had made what seemed to be quite an effort to join him there.
"What is it?" She asked, her deep brown eyes scanning the cold stone corridors, searching for something that wasn't there.
"Whatever could you mean?" Draco replied, keeping his voice cynically dry to prevent the turmoil of emotions inside of him, which this stupid girl had only just recently started to provoke, from boiling out.
She was having none of it. She turned to him, a snarky comment most definitely on the tip of her tongue, but she never got to say what she wanted to. That was the moment the Death Eaters made their entrance.
A group of about twelve of them apparated with loud several loud cracks into the previously empty space in front of them. Draco had been careful not to pledge his allegiance to either Harry or Voldemort, good or bad, in case he needed to worm his way out of a tight spot. He hadn't, contrary to popular belief, even gotten the Dark mark, although that was more to do with his mother's manipulative and persuasive ways than his.
At that moment, it didn't seem to matter whose side he was on. Draco watched as the lead Death Eater, clad with the traditional mask, raise his wand and point it at Ginny. He flung himself forward, pushing Ginny off balance and consequently out the way, and raised his own wand. Draco cast the quickest, strongest shield he could think of.
It was his magic that blocked the first blow, and his body that blocked the next. He felt the first curse catch him in the shoulder, pulling him round, and then the next directly in the stomach. After that the world filled with shouts and lights and screams, but Draco took no notice as he crumbled to the ground.
He remembered the pain that burnt through his innards and the scent. Her hair fell across his face, cool and distinct. She smelt like meadows of freshly cut grass after the rain; fresh and unearthly.
Looking back on that memory had Draco self consciously probing his stomach with the tips of his fingers. He looked up, a cursory glance, at Ginny Weasley, only to find her dark brown eyes staring steadily at him. He saw his blush from earlier reflected in Ginny's own reddening cheeks.
Emotions, thick and poignant, pressed at him. He stood suddenly, saying nothing, and walked briskly from the room, feeling every single pair of Slytherin eyes, and possibly the rest of the student populace too, boring into his back.
"Why does Draco keep looking at you?" Neville leant across the sofa, the fire casting shadows across his face that was creased with worry lines "I mean, it must have been going on for at least a month now, at least since the attack and then he was doing it again tonight at dinner. So come on Gin, why is it?" His voice was barely a whisper above the hubbub of the common room, but at Neville's question the entire room seemed to still.
Collin, camera still in his hand like a comfort item, made his way over.
"It's true Ginny, we've all seen it. We think he's planning something, I mean his father..."
"Oh please!" Ginny interrupted, more scared of Colin voicing her deepest thoughts than anything else "Honestly, all of you, it's nice to know you care" Ginny stood, her nerves jangling "But do remember who you are talking about. This is Draco Malfoy. He's hardly going to do anything public and he's got too much of a stiff upper lip to get his hands dirty. Anyway, he wouldn't dare face me on his own; I'd pummel him into the ground" Ginny grinned as her fellow Gryfindor's cheered at her speech but her heart was uneasy.
Ginny threw Neville one last glance, to find him studying her quietly. She sighed. She had known Neville since she was eleven and first came here, befriending him almost instantly. He knew when she was lying; knew she was lying then and there.
He didn't pick up on it though so instead of sitting back down and continuing the conversation Ginny made her way up to her bed. She tried to keep her back straight, her head held high until she was enveloped in the shadows of her dorm.
The room was blissfully silent and still; she was the only one in the room and she was loath to turn on a light. She squeezed her eyes shut.
The images that came to the forefront of her mind were those of the night of the attack. The school was weakening, day by day. The longer Harry Potter is away, the more control the teachers lose over the school. It was only a matter of time before the Death Eaters took over. Then who would stop Draco Malfoy doing those things that naive Colin Creevey had been suggesting? That Ginny herself feared he was planning on doing?
Ginny forced her stiff limbs to move. She shuffled over to her bed and collapsed. She was so tired. Tomorrow she had quidditch practice, two essays to hand in and a defensive charm to master. She didn't think she could do it. It all seemed like so much...
She rubbed her eyes, trying to rid herself of the invading images of a rage stricken Draco Malfoy shoving her out of the line of fire before being hit, twice, by the curses intended for her. He had done it to save her.
Did he mean for her to pay him back? Surely, as a Slytherin, he would expect something in return? Ginny played it over in her mind.
"What is it?" She asked, looking over at Draco's striking features. It was a shame that someone so beautiful was so cold.
"Whatever could you mean?" He said acerbically. Anger fused in her blood and Ginny turned to face him, some snide comment ready to burst free. Everything happened so quickly. The sharp crack that Ginny recognised as someone apparating sounded. She caught an array of emotions that flitted across Draco's face in a matter of nanoseconds before she herself turned to the noise, so slow, her wand hand only just rising to meet the Death Eaters.
Draco barrelled into her side and she fell, pain exploding in her shoulder for one sickening second before it dulled, by which point, curses were flying to and from the Death Eaters.
The sensation of seeing Draco, a pathetic crumpled heap on the floor, was different to seeing Harry getting hurt. With Harry, Ginny felt the anger like a fire igniting inside her stomach, fuelling her to be stronger, faster, and harder.
When she saw Draco there, so vulnerable, his mop of light blonde hair falling over his lifeless face, Ginny felt a gut wrenching, stomach plummeting, heart jerking pain that she just couldn't understand. Even when she was next to Draco, turning his head this way and that to see those big blue eyes looking up at her in disdain, her hair falling around her face, she still couldn't place it.
It wasn't until later, when she jolted awake, her back throbbing in pain from the uncomfortable infirmary chair, that she realised what she had done.
She had stayed with him. Stayed beside Draco Malfoy as he slept in a dazed state, his injuries still fresh and violent.
Ginny had run then, all the way to her bed, trying not to look too closely at Draco's face, youthful in his slumber.
Once more Ginny wanted to run. Run from the Gryffindor common room to... to where? Where? Ginny needed to fly. Needed to feel the sharp wind on her face.
As she made up her mind, the rest of her year burst in, giggling, and Ginny was swept up in the demand to show she was fine, she needed to be seen with a strong front; no one could know, or even guess at her inner turmoil.
"So, Ginny, saw Draco checking you out again today" A voice behind her perked up, Ginny was too exhausted to work out who it was.
"Not this again! Honestly guys..." Ginny started, fatigue making her drop off mid sentence.
"We're serious! We think he's planning something for you" This was followed by another round of giggling.
Ginny wished people would stop saying that or she might just start believing it.