Chapter 2 –
It was not until he actually arrived at Hogwarts and encountered what seemed to be an army of other Weasleys who attended the school that Draco really understood why his father had held such strong feelings against the family. His initial impression of them having been focused on the Fire Sprite, he had mentally debated whether or not his father could have been mistaken, at least in part, about how terrible they all were. It became a regular occurrence for Draco, between the meeting with the little Sprite and his departure for Hogwarts, to catch his trail of thought drifting toward her. He noticed that this seemed to happen most often at night as he looked at the fire that glowed low in his room just before nodding off to sleep. He had been thinking that perhaps not all of them were as awful and low as father had described. Then he had the utter misfortune to share the same air as Sprite's oaf of a brother.
His initial interaction with the youngest Weasley boy had come on the train. He had heard him spouting off some vitriolic rubbish to the twins Draco had seen at Diagon Alley, clearly also among the masses of Weasleys. He had been going on and on bragging that as he was neither evil nor a slimy creep he would clearly not be sorted into Slytherin. Weasley, the one in Draco's year, had then continued to add that "only gits who thought they were above everyone else, like the Malfoys and the Blacks, ended up in that house."
Soon after, Weasley wandered off to find a compartment of his own but not before Draco had made up his mind about him. Hearing the kinds of things coming from the idiot's mouth made Draco decide not to doubt his father's judgment in the future. Clearly, the Weasleys really were little better than muggles if they were all as completely stupid as this one sounded. Only in the very back of his mind did Draco decide to wait to see her again before lumping Sprite in with the rest of them.
Almost a full year had passed before Ginevra had seen the Lightning Boy again. While she had heard his father call him by his name, Draco, in the street that day, she still called him by the title she had given him whenever he crossed her mind. It was not a regular occurrence; after all, she had only encountered him that once. But occasionally, when she would see light reflecting off of a bit of silver or when lightning would crack across a swirling grey sky, he would come to mind and she would wonder where he was and what he was doing that day.
It was not until the day that her family returned to Diagon Alley for her own first year supplies that their paths crossed again. In the midst of the mayhem caused by the appearance of two big celebrities in the bookshop Ginevra happened to glance up to the catwalk that comprised the second floor of the store. Her eyes were drawn to a set of stormy silver eyes that stared back at her with a look of recognition and remembrance. Although she was happy to see him there, she was less than pleased by the ensuing interactions between her family and his. It had also irritated her that the only attention he had paid her at all had been as part of his taunting of her brother and his friends.
As they left the overcrowded area and headed towards home, Ginevra remembered the twins' warnings about Malfoys. She decided from then on to try and put the Lightning Boy out of her head. The heat that night which caused a spectacular summer lightning show seemed to defy her resolution from the very start.
Draco had been surprised when he spotted the Fire Sprite in among the tittering masses of adoring fans gathered round to worship the gaudy fool of a Defense teacher and his highness Saint Potter at the bookstore before school had started that year. It sent a bolt of jealousy up his spine and encouraged him to taunt not only Potter but also her brother, and by extension Sprite herself. The rest of the scene at the store, especially the encounter between their fathers, had admittedly gotten out of hand.
He had been nearly shocked by how rashly his father had acted when he was usually so in command of himself. When he had asked his father about his unusual behavior, the only answer he had received had been fairly vague but enough to cause him to be concerned.
"I did what I had to do in order to protect you," his father had answered. He did not think that his father had meant for him to hear the added comment of "if he requires a child at Hogwarts to do his bidding, better anyone than you," that was muttered under his breath.
It was odd for his father to not give a real explanation when Draco asked him a question. One of Draco's favorite things about his father was the way he usually talked to him. He never made Draco feel as if he was talking down to him or as if his son was too young to understand the things he said. If he needed to, his father would explain something in greater detail than he would have to when talking to an adult. But once the explanation was complete, he would discuss things with Draco the same as he did with anyone else he respected. Draco always felt important that someone as smart as his father would take the time to hear his thoughts and discuss things with him. The fact that he had not really answered him made Draco curious. He wondered who the "he" his father had mentioned was and why his father appeared almost sick and worried at the mumbled statement.
It had been unpleasant for Ginevra at the end of the previous year to learn that Lucius Malfoy, the Lightning Boy's father who looked so much like him, had been the one to curse her with the diary. She had learned this before any of the others, from Tom himself in fact. He had told her at the end as he grew stronger and she weakened. He clearly did not see the issue in revealing secrets to someone who would never live to tell. She did live, however, and she even managed to feel some measure of pity towards Mr. Malfoy, despite the horror he had sentenced her to.
He had apparently stumbled upon the diary while ridding his house of some less-than-savory-items, Tom told her, and had begun to be controlled by its power just as she had. When Tom had suggested, in such a way as to not be disobeyed, that the diary should be sent to school along with his son, the man had grasped at any reason not to put the boy in Tom's power. Though he did not know that Tom was actually Voldemort's younger self, he knew that the diary held powerful magic and was loathed to put his son in harm's way. He suggested that Draco would be a target of suspicion from the beginning of whatever dark plan Tom had devised. It would be more prudent, he said, to use a child from a different family – a light family – so that they would be less likely to be detected and stopped. The encounter at the bookstore had been the perfect opportunity to be rid of the diary and its control.
Rather than making her hate the Malfoys as the rest of her family seemed to it had the opposite effect. The boastful and condescending explanation Tom had given her about the man's desperate attempt at protecting his son, which Tom had mocked so harshly, had made her able to relate to them. It had made them seem human, susceptible to attack and protective of their own, much like her own family felt for each other. It only stoked to her ever-repressed interest in the Lightning Boy. She found herself thinking about him once more over the summer and watching him as the new school year began. She noticed that, while he spent plenty of his time finding ways to torment her brother and his friends, he did not bother her unless it was as part of antagonizing Ron. She wondered if there was a reason for this, but shook it off as simple coincidence and tried to get on with her class work.