*Disclaimer – I own nothing. It's still yours J.K

Of Hair Perfume and Ticked Boxes.

It was a plain old Thursday night, but I was excited. Very excited.

I was finishing up in the shower halfway through brushing my teeth, when I heard my door pound seven quick, evenly spaced pounds. I proceeded to counted to ten and sure enough the door was struck a further seven times, identical in its timing as the first lot.

"Cowing!" I gargled, knowing after only a month of striking up this weird friendship with Draco Malfoy, that only he would knock so exactly.

I washed the minty toothpaste residue off my face, then hastily wrapped a towel about myself and continued down the hallway to open the front door.

"Please tell me you were not just brushing your teeth when we will be eating dinner within the hour." The tall blonde drawled out.

I scratched at my wet hair sheepishly. "I can't help it, it's part of my shower routine."

Draco rolled his eyes and looked me up and down.

"Weasley, I know we planned a casual dinner at yours, and I'm definitely not complaining, but I think your overdoing the casual here." He said while pointing to my scantily clad body.

I was about to retort when something caught my scent. I started sniffing around, trying to pinpoint where the lovely musk smell was coming from, ignoring his jab at my lack of clothing.

"What in the world are you doing?"

"I can smell something positively delicious, but I don't know where it's coming from."

"Oh right, well sniff no more I can tell you exactly where it's coming from. It's my hair." He gave me a devilish grin.

I pulled his head down a little an took a big whiff, then ran my hand through his silky locks.

"That's funny, it doesn't feel like you have any gel or mousse in it, and it's not stiff so there's no hairspray, did you use a spell or something?"

"No of course not, it's my own invention. Hair cologne."

I snickered and raised an eyebrow. "You put perfume in your hair?"

"No! I put a specially formulated cologne in my hair."

"What? Why not just put normal perfume in your hair. I mean I know you're a Malfoy and all so you have the high standard thing going on, but surely putting some expensive French perfume in it would be better than creating your own fancy perfume?"

"For your information Weasel, this is a specially formulated perfume designed to stick to the hair follicles of men who have even the shortest of hair or thinnest of strands!"

I sniggered even harder. "You said perfume."

"What?" The obviously irritated blonde demanded.

"Just then. You said, 'It's a specially formulated perfume'."

"I most certainly did not!"

"You most certainly did."

Draco growled. "Honestly woman are you going to stand there, your upper thighs exposed like a harlot, and tell me what I did or did not say, or are you going to let me in and attempt to dress decently?"

"Oh you have to help me figure out what to wear!" I blurted. I suddenly remembered why I was so excited before as I grabbed Dracos' hand and pulled him into my room.

I forced him to sit on the bed and and took out two blouses from my closet, one a rich plum colour and the other a deep midnight blue.

"Okay, which one? I really like the plum colour but for some reason it seems more like a daytime blouse, but maybe it just looks like that in comparison to the midnight blue one, either way the plum seems like a risk. Maybe I should just go with the blue. I don't know. Malfoy, what do you think?"

I held both items up in front of him, fully expecting him to give me the perfect answer. Instead he pushed both my hands down and eyed me suspiciously.

"Pray tell Ginevra, why exactly you're so preoccupied with what you're wearing to our "casual" dinner. What's going on?"

"I uh, don't know what your talking about" I dismissed him, but he continued to glare at me.

"Ginny." He pushed on.

"Oh it's nothing really Draco, I just ran into an old friend and invited them to dine with us. You know what, I'll go with the plum. Yes, definitely plum, this colour suits me." I gave the two blouses a quick, last study before I made for my attached bathroom where the rest of my clothes were waiting, not bothering to close the door behind me.

"Uhh Weasley!" I heard him groan. "You know I like to socialise as much as any other well bred heir but I specifically mentioned how I would like to have a quiet one tonight! Now I have to go and be my impossibly charming, hilariously witty self for company I didn't even invite! And you better be putting on the midnight colour blouse! You look horrible in purple."

I pouted as I immediately took off the plum blouse. Dressed in just my bra and underwear I walked into my bedroom and threw it at his head. "I do not, it suits me just fine! You just don't like it because I bought it without your approval!"

"You know Gin that would've been a reasonable theory if you had thrown the other shirt at me. As it is blue is your only option, as you're not getting this one back. Now, I'm going to go pour us some white wine."

He laughed at my attempted scowl and left the room.

Taylor turned up half an hour later, and like he said he would be, Draco was impossibly charming and polite the whole night. The fact that Taylor looked like a model probably helped, as did the wine, but they were really hitting it off, and my excitement sky rocketed.

"Well I'm in need of a bathroom break, erm Gin, where exactly-?"

"Oh you have to go through my bedroom, which is down the hall to the left, you can't miss it, it's the only room with a bed."

" Except for the guest room you twit." The Slytherin pointed out. "Taylor, please excuse our terrible hostess, she's positively drunk, the bathroom is indeed through the master bedroom, which is the first, and only door on the left." Malfoy managed to drawl without slurring.

I giggled through my smile and waited until my guest was completely out of earshot when I turned to Draco.

"Well Malfoy, what do you think?"

He smirked. "You know what Weasley, I actually approve. I think you've done well."

I squealed in delight. "Oh I knew you would! I mean Taylor ticks all your boxes! Blonde hair, blue eyes, lashes to die for, gorgeous body, well defined facial features, high social standing, intelligent.."

"Wait wait wait, what do you mean all my boxes. Surely you mean all your boxes, and since when did your standards get so high? I thought the morose, goody two shoes with scars on their foreheads were your type."

"My type?" I asked, genuinely confused. "Draco, he obsesses about his wardrobe and changes his hairstyle atleast once a month. He is most definitely your type."

I could see the Slytherin was trying to process what I had just said, he seemed upset, though I don't know why, Taylor was a good match, he had said so himself!

Said handsome guest had just walked back into the room when Draco stood up suddenly and practically shrieked at me.

"Wait, you invited him here not because you wanted my approval on your new potential boyfriend, but because you thought I was gay? You were trying to set us up?" He demanded incredulously. "Ginny, I am NOT gay!"

"But-"

"Ginny love, I'm er, I'm actually not gay either." Taylor piped up timidly, an embarrassed smile on his face.

Tears started to well up in my eyes as the gratitude of my mistake sunk in. I was absolutely mortified and absolutely confused.

"But you," I pointed to Draco. "With the not being bothered at my near nakedness," The memory of how our friendship started popped into my head. "And my nakedness! And your fashion sense, and, and your hair perfume."

"Cologne!"

"And then you!" I directed at Taylor. "You with your wardrobe and your hairstyles! And you ordered an Appletini at the bar where we bumped into each other!"

"I know what I like and I don't compromise." Taylor shrugged, showing no signs of being offended.

Still, I avoided both looking into the eyes of both partys. I stood up, grabbed one of the fuller wine bottles and hugged it to my chest. "And then there's me. The terribly unthoughtful, naive witch who was stupid enough to believe the stereotypes the media portrays. I am so, so very sorry for wasting your time, and jumping to conclusions. I'll just be going now, goodnight." The last line came out more as a sob as I shuffled away, completely ashamed.

My feet had taken me to my bathroom, and as I heard muffled voices and my front door softly close, I figured they had both left me to wallow in self pity and shame. I slipped myself into my bathtub and took a few good swigs of my comfort wine.

A million thoughts were running through my mind, when Draco appeared in the doorway. He made his way over to me and sat on the edge of the bathtub, a small smile on his face. I was suddenly very aware that my skirt had ridden right up. I slowly and deliberately tried to sneak my skirt back down, my eyes never leaving his. When he caught what I was doing he burst out laughing.

"Gin love just because I'm straight as an arrow doesn't mean you have to cover up, I've seen it all before." He said with a light hearted tone.

Instead of feeling better, a new wave of shame came over me as I realised just how carefree I had been when it came to him seeing my body. "Oh I'm such a stupid witch!" I wailed. "You must've thought I was a complete tart prancing around half naked all those times!" I buried my face in my hands and started sobbing.

I heard Draco laugh again an felt as he slid in beside me and put a comforting arm around me, causing me to sob into his chest.

"As a matter of fact I love how carefree you are." He murmered into my hair. "How you are so comfortable in your own skin, never spewing out insecurities or pointing out faults that aren't there. Believe it or not I love having someone who doesn't feel the need to be prim and proper every time they are around me, just because I'm a Malfoy. Don't get me wrong, my presence demands respect and radiates power. I'm very intrigued at how you've never seemed to grasp that concept."

"So you don't hate me?"

"Not at all. I've been completely enthralled with our new found alliance so far. I must say though Ginevra, you certainly know how to keep a friendship fresh. I would love to see how you keep things spicy in the bedroom " He said, wriggling his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

I smacked him lightly on the chest and hiccuped through a giggle. "You prat. What about Taylor?"

"Ahh he told me to tell you it was great catching up and to not feel too bad about thinking he was gay, apparently it's not the first time someone has thought that. He also said that it was too bad that I wasn't a female, as I'd be just his type, and you would then be a master matchmaker."

I giggled again, feeling much better about the situation. "Go me!" I said sarcastically, whirling my finger around in the air.

"Yes well just because this all had a happy ending doesn't mean I'm ever going to let you live it down."

I sighed a long, drawn out sigh. "I figured as much."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Not really." A long, comfortable silence passed between us. "I still have your hair perfume story."

"Cologne!"

Written for Boogums' prompt/challenge.

Basic outline: For whatever reason (be it his job, close friends with another guy, anal attention to his clothes, yadda yadda), Ginny thinks that Draco is gay and so behaves around him in very different way to that of other men who she might consider potential boyfriend material. You can interpret that however you like - maybe she's less conscious about her body (and the showing of it), maybe she just behaves more loosely around him, etc, etc. It's up to you. The point is she thinks he is gay and he most definitely is not, and eventually that is going to become obvious.

Must Haves: Draco demanding incredulously, "You thought I was gay?", Ginny being mortified when she realises her mistake.

No-No's: Ginny can't outrightly ask Draco if he is gay.

Word Length: None.

Bonus points: If Draco and Ginny are somewhat friends. They don't have to be super close, but I think the nature of this prompt calls for them to at least be able to interact regularly with each other anyway.

Deadline: 25 July 2011