A/N: Here is the next chapter. I'm having a lot of trouble getting Ginny's 5 year old character down right. It's hard to write from her point of view because I know she can only think like a 5 year old does, and yet, at the same time, she has all of the repressed memories from the rest of her life floating somewhere in the back of her head. Plus, originally I had her be a very feminine girly character and now I'm starting to realize that even as a child she was a tomboy who wanted to be more like her brothers. Anyway, please bare with me and any horrible contradictions I may accidentally make to her character development.
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Gin hopped merrily down the stairs, headed to her next class, when she heard a throat clear behind her and turned, hoping to see Draco. Instead she came face to face with an unfamiliar boy. He was tall, almost as tall as Draco, and had short black hair and dark skin. His slanted eyes danced and his lips curled into a smirk.
"Well, would you look at what we have here. The littlest Weasle."
Gin frowned. She did not recognize the boy but he seemed to know her pretty well to call her Weasle without expecting to be punched in the guts. She tried to remember the boy, kept trying to place her finger on it. She knew she had seen him before, she just couldn't figure out who he was or how he knew her. He was obviously a student but she had met so many in the past few weeks she could hardly recall them all. Not to mention keep track of her classes and which to go to at what time. Draco finally had to write a list out for her with times and the professor's names and the rooms and then draw her a map too. It was all so confusing and hard to remember that sometimes she felt like breaking down crying but Draco told her to be a big girl and she wanted to make him proud.
"What are you doing out all by yourself Weasley?"
"I'm going to the Great Hall for breakfast," she stated simply. "I'm Gin by the way, but you already seem to know that. What is your name again?"
The boy looked slightly startled, and then sneered. "Trying to act like you don't know me Weaselette? Now that's not very nice. I thought we were friends?" He placed his arm around her, his hand on her waist, and looked down at her. The boy lifted and eyebrow and smiled at her. "Well, doesn't somebody look rather different today? Why the sudden change of heart?" He pulled at her curly ponytails playfully. She was still wearing the boring clothes that must have been given to both her and Draco now that they were bigger, but at least she had found some hair ties. Gin was confused at the way he talked like he knew her, but continued to walk. He was acting rather oddly, but at least he was being nice. Maybe this was his idea of a hug?
"Ummm, thank you, I guess. But you never did tell me your-"
"Zabini!" a voice yelled out, one Gin recognized. She turned and smiled, waving Draco over. He was running and appeared to be panting.
"Ginny? What are you doing here? With him?" he asked, out of breath.
"I don't know," she shrugged. "He just came up and started talking to me. I think he likes my hair. Do you like my hair Draco? See, I put it in ponytails. They're not as good as when my mom does them though. I never did get your na-"
A hand clamped on Gin's shoulder, and Draco wheeled her away from the boy. What had he called him? Zabini?
"Hey, what's going on?" the boy asked, confused.
"Ginny, why don't you run to the Great Hall, I'll be there in a minute. I'll give you candy if you can make it in less than five minutes."
Ginny jumped happily, forgetting all about the strange boy, and ran off in the direction of the Great Hall.
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Draco watched her go and rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. He could feel Blaise staring at him in shock, and wondered what he would say to his friend.
"Hey, what's going on?" Blaise asked him, evidently bewildered. He could see why the boy would be confused. He had put his arm around Ginny Weasley, Ginny Weasley, and still managed to not be killed by one of her nasty bat bogey hexes, and yet Draco had pulled her away from him. Draco opened his mouth, ready to tell the boy everything, when he spotted the look in his eyes.
The boy's eyes were shining as he stared at the corner that Ginevra had just turned. Draco could recognize the look he was giving her. Lust. Passion. Greed. Curiosity. And suddenly, Draco snapped his mouth shut. He couldn't tell Blaise. For the life of him he couldn't tell his friend anything about her.
Her smile. Her innocent eyes and lovely smile. He hadn't seen such a lovely smile since…since ever. And he had never realized until now just how much he needed that innocent smile and those trusting eyes. She could never, would never, understand lust. And if he were to tell Blaise Zabini about her sudden change…The boy would chase her down like a wolf after its prey. Draco had never cared about her, but suddenly he couldn't let Blaise do that to such an innocent pretty trusting girl. He just…couldn't.
"Well? What was that? She was acting so differently. And she pretended she didn't know me. I think she's trying to tease me…"
"Pepper up potion," Draco quickly lied. "Some rumor is spreading around that she likes a boy at school. She suddenly started acting weird a few weeks ago, dressing up more and smiling at everyone. Maybe she likes you…" Draco spoke quickly, the words, the lies, spilling out so easily. He found that lying once to his friend had made every lie after that one easier.
"Ya think?" the boy lifted and eyebrow. "Why in the world would she want me now? She hates my guts. Maybe someone put her under a love spell or imperious. Either way, it looks like I'm going to have competition with this new boy, whoever he is." Zabini smirked. "It shouldn't be too hard. Nobody can resist my charm for that long. She is bound to snap eventually. And when she does…"
Draco's heart sped up, much to his surprise, and his mouth went dry. "And when she does…?" he asked.
"Well, y'know." The boy grinned nonchalantly, letting his vague words linger. Draco clenched his fists and looked away, more to prevent him from hitting his friend than for any other reason. He had to remember that Zabini didn't know the truth, didn't know just how disgusting those words sounded to him.
"I'm going to the Great Hall, see ya around Zabini." Draco walked off, sighing to himself. Arriving at the Great Hall he found Ginny sitting at her house table and saving a spot for him. She waved him over with a happy grin, and Draco felt his stomach clench at her innocent smile. He sat next to her, smiling weakly in return, and took a deep breath.
"Be careful around that boy, Blaise Zabini, okay?"
"Why?" she asked innocently. "He seemed really nice."
"Well…well he's not, alright? He's really really mean. And you should avoid him."
She tilted her head to the side in confusion. "But shouldn't we be nice to people who are mean to us? Maybe he just wants a friend."
Damnit! Draco wanted to slam his fist on the table and yell at the girl but he knew it wouldn't be right, would probably make her cry if nothing else. He breathed in slowly and deeply, glaring at the Gryffindor across from him who looked ready to flee at any moment. "Please. For me, okay?"
"Okay!" She nodded cheerfully before stuffing a pastry in her mouth. Draco had done the right thing. Yet, why did he suddenly feel so terrible?
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Ginny stared at the clothes spread out around her on the floor. This just wouldn't do. All of them were baggy or uncomfortable and stiff. She was used to clothes being a bit long on her or worn because most of them were her brothers' hand-me-downs, but not this boring. At least her brothers had dragons or color on their shirts and the dresses her mom bought for her were loose and flowy and comfortable. But none of those clothes were here because she was too big for them now, and whoever picked out these clothes was just so bland.
Most of them were grey, black, or some other dark and depressing color. Where were the pinks and greens and yellows? Were you supposed to wear such boring clothes as an adult? She didn't think so. If she had to wear nothing but black every day she didn't think she wanted all that much to be an adult.
"No, no, no, no no! This just won't do!" In all of her clothes she had managed to find one pretty plaid skirt and a red sweater with a G on it that her mother had made her, but everything else was so ugly. She missed her flowy skirts and her dirty overalls and her brothers' comfy shirts. And now that she had boobs, she had to wear a bra too! It had taken her forever to figure out how to put it on and it was so uncomfortable and tight, making it hard for her to breathe. She dreaded wearing it and had even taken to avoiding it altogether, pretending that she forgot about it, and since nobody seemed to mind, she buried all of the bras at the bottom of her trunk and ignored them.
She dug again into her trunk. There were big books, too heavy for her even to try to lift, scrolls of paper, ink bottles, organized notebooks full of assignments, but nothing nice or pretty. No jewelry or make up, like she had always seen her mum putting on before a party, no pretty dresses or hats, no toy brooms or dolls or any of her brother's experiments, no colorful posters for her walls like the other girls had, there was nothing fun at all in here. She pulled out a bundle of socks and threw it to the floor.
It jingled lightly. Ginny stared at it, picking it up and unwrapping the socks. A sack of…something…fell to the floor. Pulling the drawstrings, she gasped. It was money. A large bundle of golden galleons shimmered in the sunlight.
"I guess as an adult you get a bigger allowance," she whispered, before squealing and running out of her room in search of Draco.
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Draco sat in the library working on an especially grueling Potion's essay assigned to him by the new professor, now that Snape had been fired. He had, thankfully, not seen the little Weaselette yet today. After following her around the castle for weeks, he was getting pretty damn tired of answering all of her questions and explaining things to her over and over again.
He heard a soft patter of feet and a voice call out in a stage whisper, "Draco? Are you in here?"
He cringed. It was her. Did she hear him thinking about her or something? Now what did she want? He turned and waved a hand in the air, catching her attention. Her face lit up and she dashed towards him, carrying a small, red velvet drawstring bag that jingled as she ran. "Guess what, guess what, guess what?!"
"What?" he muttered in a monotonous voice. Any hopes he had that she would perhaps, even in the slightest, somehow be her normal seventeen year old self again were long gone.
"Well…." she took a deep breath, and he already knew to shut her out, as she certainly was going to talk for a long time on a breath that deep. "I was looking for some clothes this morning in my trunk and all I could find were ugly. And then I went through my trunk again and I found this bundle of socks. Well the bundle of socks was jingling, and so I decided to look in the bundle of socks and I found this pretty bag. Well, obviously it wasn't the socks that were jingling but just the bag, and isn't it a pretty bag-"
Draco put a hand to her lips, unconsciously noting how soft they felt, before shrugging the thought off, and gritted out, "Get to the point Weasley."
"Weasley?" she looked stunned for a second before sitting down in the chair next to him. "Are you mad at me? You only ever call me Weasley if you're mad at me! Oh, what did I do…I can't remember doing anything. Well, I might have flung peas at you yesterday at dinner when you weren't looking, but that's all I swear! Well I did-"
"Wea-Ginny! I am not mad at you!" Didn't the girl ever shut up? "Maybe going mad. Now would you please get to the point?!"
"Well I found this big sack full of money!" she exclaimed, holding it up. Her eyes lit up as she grinned at him. "Count it for me, please?"
Draco took the bag and emptied it out on the table, counting through the coins. "Twenty galleons, fourteen nuts, and forty sickles. Congratulations, you have pocket change."
She jumped for joy, waving her hands in the air, her breasts bouncing every which way. More than one person turned to stare at them and Draco wanted to bury his head and disappear in embarrassment. What was she so excited about? That was chump change and nothing else. He had spent more money than that on quills before. "What," he gritted out, grabbing her arm and pulling her into a seat, "are you dancing around for?"
"I can go buy new clothes!" she exclaimed happily. "And you can come with me! We can go today! I heard there's a place called Hogsmeade where you can go shopping for whatever you want. Won't you take me shopping Draco, please?" She looked at him, her eyes wide and pleading and her hands folded, the perfect picture of innocence.
"No, absolutely not. I will not follow you around Hogsmeade all day looking at dresses." Draco hated shopping. Well, maybe for himself, that was okay, but shopping for girly dresses and shoes and….underwear. That was not part of the deal.
"Please please please please please please please please please?!" Draco stared into those large, begging brown eyes. She looked so distraught and wistful, and he had to admit, her clothes could be nicer. She did after all have a figure under all of those layers, it would be a sight for sore eyes to see a little of it. It wouldn't hurt, right?
Absolutely not, he would not do it. He wouldn't. He was going to tell her no, right now. He couldn't let some little kid boss him around. A very cute little kid, one that happened to be quite attractive…But no! He wouldn't. He refused.
"Well?" she asked, her lips pouting very seductively, though she probably had no idea how uncomfortable she was making him feel.
"I…Sure," he said, deflating. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck, sitting in his lap in the process. He could feel his face heating up as her chest pressed against him. Resisting his male urges, he grabbed her arms and pushed her away, rather roughly, afraid if he didn't get her chest away from him sooner he might just be obliged to do something completely inappropriate.
She was only five! But she certainly didn't look just five, and he was not sure his mind could outweigh his body in that matter. Thankfully, she didn't seem to notice his internal battle, for she hopped off of his lap and grabbed her money off of the table, putting it back in her bag. She looked at him, the happy smile not leaving her face. Was she completely oblivious to his sudden dirty thoughts? He supposed so, for she seemed perfectly comfortable around him, though the feeling was far from mutual.
"Let's go!" she yelled, grabbing his hand and dragging him along, his book tucked under his arm.
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Hogsmeade was so beautiful! It reminded Ginny of a fairytale. All the shops looked like little gingerbread houses. She could see Hogwarts from here and it reminded her of the castles in all of the books her mother read to her. But those castles were always bright pink with lots of flowers and towers and glitter. Hogwarts looked more like the evil character's castle with its dark spires and gargoyles and stone and stained glass, and Ginny was beginning to think she liked it better than the ones in the stories.
Ginny walked around the streets, looking into shop windows, tugging Draco along after her. The place was swarming with people, some students from the school, some teachers having coffee, others people that lived around the little town, and even a few couples making googly eyes and walking hand in hand. The dark rain clouds blocking out the sunshine made it seem even more magical because all of the buildings seemed to light up even brighter. She looked into a shop full of robes, fancy party dresses, and regular clothes.
"Let's go in this store!" she exclaimed, pulling the boy in after her. Once inside a woman walked up to her, her face lighting up happily.
"Hello children! Are you looking for new clothes doll face?" she asked, grinning at Gin happily.
The girl nodded her head and looked around the large store, slightly intimidated.
"Why don't I help you?" the shopkeeper asked, introducing herself as Melanie DuBoir, though they could call her Melanie, or just Mel. "So cutie, what exactly are you looking for?"
"New clothes! I need new shirts and skirts and a new robe. I have…" Ginny looked over at Draco for help.
"Twenty galleons, fourteen nuts, and forty sickles," Draco repeated.
"That much money! And I want something new!"
"Well, then, let me take your measurements. Step right up here, sweetie." The woman proceeded to measure Ginny's height, waist, shoulders, and, making Draco blush deeply, chest. Draco walked around the store, glancing at the price tags. Five galleons here, three there. He was thankful this place wasn't too expensive; at least Ginny could buy what she wanted. He suddenly wondered why he cared. If she wanted something and couldn't afford it, it was not his problem. Draco tries to convince himself so, though he knew it would be a lost cause. He was afraid the girl was starting to grow on him.
Ginny turned out to be almost as picky a shopper as Draco. The shopkeeper kept bringing her fancy blouses and short skirts, all with lace or frills or ridiculously revealing, but Ginny turned them down, not seeming to feel comfortable with them. The woman was patient though and brought out more things. A simple brown and pink dress with a paisley design, skirts and pants that were ridiculous colors like purple or green or yellow, a bright scarf that shimmered with all different colors, three different silly hats, and lots and lots of green. Ginny seemed to love the color green, and Draco smirked to himself, thinking just how Slytherin that was of her.
Melanie DuBoir seemed to like Ginny, because she kept cooing over her, pinching her cheeks and grabbing different clothes off of racks, exclaiming that they would go well with her hair, or that her blonde friend would probably find them quite appealing. Draco became increasingly uncomfortable as the hour ticked by and Ginny showed off more clothes for him. The woman claimed Ginny would also need new bras because she couldn't go wearing sports bras around everywhere, but the girl stood up on a table and lifted her fist in the air defiantly, claiming she would never ever wear a bra again, that they were the stupidest invention ever! At least everything the woman brought out to her was fairly modest, compared to other girls her age anyway.
Gin was giving her purchases to the woman when she looked over at the dress robes. She had already spent almost all of her money, knowing she would only have enough left to buy some treats at the chocolate store she had passed earlier, but continued to stare at them. They were all so beautiful and elegant. They were made to fit a woman's curves, which she now had, she remembered with a giggle. She would never have enough money to pay for one of them but…One dress suddenly caught her attention. Grabbing it off of the shelf, she asked Miss Mel if she could try it on.
Draco groaned as Ginny picked out something else. He had thought they would finally be able to leave, but he supposed he was wrong. He sat back down in the chair he'd been occupying for the past hour and leaned his head on his hand. When Ginny came out of the dressing room he straightened up suddenly with a gasp.
It was a dress, and even a girly dress at that, with lace and all. But it was a dress that made him feel as if all of the breath had suddenly been knocked out of his lungs. It was stark white, the only other color being blue laces up the front. The top was cut straight across and only showed her cleavage if she leaned over, but it revealed just enough to tease a guy. And tease Draco it did. The skirt flowed off of her hips and to her knees, where it puffed out with a white lace petticoat underneath. She twirled in a circle and it danced around her like the petals of a flower around the stem. She looked absolutely…dazzling. It fit her so perfectly, white and innocent, yet teasing, and it made Draco's jaw drop. She looked like the innocent virginal victim about to be bitten by a vampire.
"Well…what do you think?" she asked, her large eyes wide and innocent.
"It's… it's gorgeous."
She clapped her hands and jumped up happily. Picking the price tag off of the skirt she stared at it, her face immediately turning sour and her eyes losing their glimmer. Draco could not help it, but he wanted to see that happiness in her eyes again, as just seeing it his heart had somehow beat faster and he felt content. "What is it? What is wrong?"
She glanced up, her eyes watering with tears. "It's Fifty-two galleons!" she exclaimed, and turned back to the dressing room deflated.
"I'll buy it for you." The words burst out of his mouth without thought. He wasn't really sure what made him say them, but that shine in her eyes and the happiness on her face when she heard him say she looked lovely in the dress made him want to do anything for her. He was starting to grow fond of her. There was no denying it, something about the five year old Ginny Weasley made him feel ecstatic, warm, and tingly. Perhaps it was physical attraction or something else, he wasn't sure.
As the saleswoman wrapped the dress in a fancy box, she smiled at him and winked, leaning closely to whisper in his ear. "It's pretty obvious to everyone in this room except the girl herself that you like her. Don't let a catch like that go."
Draco did not answer as he glanced at Ginny, who was preoccupied with watching the people outside running down the street as rain started to pour down. She turned to him and smiled, and Draco knew he was in trouble.
"Why don't we go get some hot chocolate?" he asked, and she grinned before running out into the streets, Draco chasing after her in case she got lost. Maybe this keeper thing wouldn't be so bad. Maybe.
