Prompt: Puzzle

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Earlier Ginny had walked towards Neville's office sing-songing "Neeeeev-illllleeee, I made a pan of laaaaa-sagnnnn-aaaa for dinnnnnn-eeeeer tonight. You bring the wiiiiii-ne and we'll make it a daaaaate." When she actually entered the office, she found Draco there as well, and continued with a blush and a cough, "I'm sorry for interrupting your meeting. Draco, I hope you'll join us."

Which was how Ginny now found herself serving baked pasta to a virtual stranger. Neville she knew, he was one of her lifelong friends, but she thought to herself as she served the salads, what do I really know about Draco Malfoy?

In school he'd been an unrepentant bully. He drove her brother to distraction, and relished every time Ron turned beet red. Sitting around the table that night, he didn't speak ill of anyone, save for himself. It seemed to her that the bully had turned self-depreciating. Malice and spite were gone.

She thought further about the boy she thought she had known in school. He had been very intelligent and extremely quick witted, and that was still present. Quick with a laugh then and now, only now it wasn't mean spirited humor.

The narcissism was as gone as his bullying. While he seemed completely comfortable in his skin, he wasn't styled within an inch of his life. In fact, Ginny noted as he helped her carry plates to the sink, his jeans appeared to be worn and torn, and not just in an stylishly decorative way.

As he poured her a second glass of wine (incredible wine, she thought, he must have picked it) she marveled at how his manners and upbringing provided a polish to him, but again, he wasn't the aggressive society boy she thought she once knew.

By the end of their evening, as she shoved them both through the fireplace, laughing and pleading that it was a work night and she needed her sleep, she realized that everything she thought she knew about him was in question. While getting ready for bed she thought further, who is this new Draco Malfoy,and is he a puzzle I want to solve?

That night marked a turning point for Ginny, as she would later realize the moment she decided to solve the puzzle of Draco Malfoy, would be the moment she found the solution for her own loneliness.

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A/N: 391 words

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