The End Of The World

Author - Lee Velviet

Chapter Six - Practicing

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"So…the littlest Weasley wants to be bad, now? Will wonders never cease?" Malfoy looked at her sharply, and then began walking around her, circling her like a vulture with its prey.

"What exactly do you think you're going to do, Weasel? Run around and kick people in the shin?" He stopped in front of her and tugged her chin up. "You're certainly short enough to do that." He was head and shoulders taller than her, and seemed determined to point out every bit of dominance he had over her.

"You're playing at this…you don't just 'learn' how to be bad, or evil…you're just born that way."

Ginny sighed impatiently. "I'm going gray, here…well? Yes, or no?"

"No. No way. Forget it…find someone else."

"Malfoy, there is no one else…" Ginny crossed her arms and bit her lip. A sly look crossed her face, and he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Unless, of course, you think one of your housemates might be willing to - "

"No…" he snarled, his face darkening.

"And you're telling me that this idea holds absolutely 'no' interest for you?"

"Absolutely none."

Ginny shrugged and turned away.

His voice stopped her. "Do you love Potter?"

"What?" Ginny turned back on him, her brows lowering.

"You heard me."

She sighed angrily. "You have to find every nerve and just shred it to bits, don't you? Yes…I love Harry...but I don't want to."

"That's the problem, Weasley." He shook his head and turned away to look out the dark windows. "That's 'your' problem. You 'love'. You love your family, love Potter, love Granger - I bet you even love that aggravating wanker you call your brother. You can't be 'bad', Weasel, if you love…you feel too much."

"Don't you love anyone, Malfoy?" asked Ginny quietly.

"No."

"You don't even love your parents? Your family?"

He snorted. "No, especially not my 'family'."

"Why?"

Cold, colorless eyes looked back at her over his shoulder, full of contempt. "You can't understand, Weasley…there's nothing there to love."

"Not in me, and certainly not in them."

The library was silent for a long moment, before Ginny wet her lips and took a step nearer to him. In the golden light from several lit candles, she could make out his and her reflection in the tall, darkened windows. She stopped near his shoulder, and looked at their hazy reflection. It was surreal…she'd never have thought she'd ever see herself standing – willingly – next to Draco Malfoy.

"It hurts."

He looked down at her, his eyes hooded.

Ginny looked up at him, biting her lip. "I don't want it to hurt anymore. I don't care what you think - call me a coward, call me a fool, I don't care. I'd rather be seen as an unfeeling bitch than be pitied by everyone - especially Harry."

"I don't like you, you know," said Malfoy finally.

"I wouldn't be here if you did – I could care less if anyone ever 'likes' me again."

After a long moment, he turned to her, and looked her over insultingly. "All right…it might prove to be amusing. You might even make yourself useful…I could use you to get Pansy off my back."

Ginny grinned and started to speak – but he waved his hand.

"First of all…we have to do something about your look." His lips twisted. "If you're going to be hanging out around me, you need to tame that, that, 'mass' on top of your head…I don't suppose you'd consider changing the color? No? Well…do something. If you don't look good, I don't look good…what am I saying? I always look good."

"Nice to see you've retained a bit of humility, Malfoy." Ginny said dryly.

"It's Draco. And therein lies your first lesson, 'Ginny' my sweet." He tugged one of her curls and smirked. "The bad guys don't have to practice humility."

"What do 'bad guys' practice, then?"

"What do you think? Sarcasm…looks of disdain…playing dirty, making infuriating remarks, playing dirty, pulling underhanded tricks, playing dirty, self-control-"

"I'll be learning that from someone else then," Ginny said in a mocking tone, reminding him of his obvious lack of it where she was concerned.

"Hmmm…all right, that made me angry, yes…but I'm not going to let myself fall prey to such a shallow emotion." His no longer flat eyes said otherwise.

"You mean, again?" She laughed at his black expression. "Oh, I was just 'practicing', Mal-ferret. Don't get your thong in a bunch."

"I do not wear 'thongs'...and stop calling me by that horribly unoriginal name. It happened two years ago - get over it."

"So, what do you wear? No, wait, I know. Green boxers with little snitches all over them? I bet you have them starched too."

His eyes narrowed and he wrapped his hands around her waist and tugged her close. "The state of my boxers is none of your business."

"Ah–ha! So you do wear boxers!" She felt his hands clench threateningly.

"How did we get on this subject?" His eyes had gone liquid silver, and Ginny felt her throat tighten.

Nervous suddenly, she blurted, "How about we go to bed?"

His eyes widened in disbelief. She rolled hers. "I meant, go to our 'separate' beds. To sleep."

He cleared his throat and dropped his hands. "Right…meet me for breakfast in the morning; at my table. We may as well start traumatizing the rest of the school."

Ginny nodded. She took a step away.

"Ginny?"

"Yes?" She looked at him questioningly.

"You can't have regrets."

"What?"

"If they start in on you about all this, you have to stay detached. Tell them to bloody shove off, and you can't feel guilty about it. You can't be considerate - there's no kind way to go about this. You have to separate yourself, if not physically, then emotionally. Love is a weakness, and it will screw you rotten every chance it gets. Remember that, whenever you chance to resurrect your 'fluffy bunny feelings' for Potter." He said this last with absolute loathing.

"Right…no 'fluffy bunny feelings'."

"Oh…and don't forget to try to look as if I'd actually be interested in you, 'Ginny'." His gaze raked her hair insultingly.

Her temper flared and she pushed it down with difficulty. He was testing her. "Don't forget to try to act as if 'I'd' actually be interested in 'you', Draco," she said softly as she left. "Oh, and you might want to wash some of that stuff out of your hair - combing it straight back like that makes you look like a greased ferret – did you know?"

All she heard from behind her was a disgruntled sounding snort.

Ginny examined herself in the mirror after she got out of the shower the next morning. She scowled at the sprinkling of freckles on her nose and cheeks and prodded them with her finger. She tugged and pushed and pulled at her tangled red curls to no avail - nothing could be done - without some kind of charm, or potion anyway.

She padded into her dorm in her robe and yanked out a stack of her roommates Witch Weekly magazines.

Fifteen minutes later, Ginny again stood before the mirror, and looked at her hair skeptically.

She'd found a charm that faded the freckles almost completely out, and had wandered up to a very sleepy, very confused Hermione to beg for her bottle of Sleek Easy potion.

Maybe she'd used too much…Ginny turned her head from side to side and finally felt somewhat satisfied. She wasn't sure if the soft, smooth, brushed back waves suited her, but her mane had been tamed, and Malfoy would have to be happy with it, unless he was secretly thinking of becoming a hair dresser.

She dressed, pulled on her shoes, and then paused by the small vanity before she left to apply a touch of lip-gloss and a soft dusting of blush along her cheekbones.

Ginny was careful to keep her face expressionless as she swept into the hall.

She walked very deliberately right past her usual spot at the Gryffindor table to walk around and sit next to Malfoy.

She looked at him cautiously, only to find him staring at her. "What?" Had he changed his mind?

"You look – different." His eyes moved across her face, and her hair.

"Well…that's what you wanted, wasn't it?" His scrutiny was making her uncomfortable.

Draco just kept staring.

"Do I look all right?" She barely restrained herself from lifting a hand to her head.

"Er…better, at least. Passable." He dropped his eyes and made a dismissive gesture with his hand.

"Ah, look – you've gotten some attention." He smirked across the tables to where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were staring at them in shock and dismay.

"Look at them, the stupid gits," he said sneeringly, "they're absolutely lost."

Ginny tried not to feel guilty as she met her friends' eyes. Harry and Ron looked positively betrayed.

"Not having second thoughts, are you?"

She frowned at his question. Before she could answer, she noticed everyone seated down the entire length of the Slytherin table was either staring at her, or shooting her incredibly dirty looks.

"It doesn't look as if I'm going to be very much liked over here," she murmured.

"They'll like whomever I tell them to like," he said arrogantly.

She watched him for a moment, and then smiled wryly. "I see you took my advice."

His usually sleek, slicked back hairstyle was noticeably absent that morning. His hair was brushed back, looking slightly longer, and tucked behind his ears. Long strands of the soft, shiny looking platinum hair fell forward over his forehead and into his silvery eyes.

He ignored her and very properly laid his napkin in his lap. "Eat up, Ginny. We still have the rest of the day to get through."

Ginny tugged her eyes from him with a concentrated effort and looked right into the pinched, pudgy face of Pansy Parkinson. The girl's small eyes were blazing with hatred, and Ginny smiled at her.

The girl's face twisted and her expression became, if it were even possible, even more hateful.

"Er, Draco?" She kept her eyes on Pansy and leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"Hm?"

"I think someone forgot to give your girlfriend over there her distemper shots."

Draco shot her a dirty look before stating, "She's not my 'girlfriend' – she just wishes she was."

"That's not what it looked like to me the other night, when you came dragging out of those bushes with her," Ginny jabbed with a smirk.

"Quit stealing my smirk, brat - it's most unbecoming on you. And I won't even bother coming up with a comeback for that ridiculous statement – I'd rather go out with Fang." He blew a strand of hair out of his eyes and picked up his juice.

"Fang probably wouldn't need a rabies shot," said Ginny agreeably.

"Such a dry wit – I never would have expected it from you, Weasel."

" 'Ginny'," she corrected as she picked up a warm strawberry scone and began slathering it with fresh butter.

"Sorry – old habits die hard," he shrugged.

Ron caught up with her right after breakfast.

Ginny looked at her brother coolly as he laid his hand on her arm. "What do you want?"

"What do I – Ginny, what has gotten into you? What were you doing with Malfoy? You slugged the rat yesterday, and now you're sitting next to him at breakfast? Everyone's talking about it! Tell me you're not going out with him."

She pushed down a twinge of guilt and regret, and pushed his hand off her arm. "What if I am? It's not any of your business. If I'm such a bloody embarrassment, Ron, you should be glad to be rid of me. Rest assured, I won't bother you anymore this year."

"Ginny, you've been through a lot, I know – I'm sorry I've been hard on you, but just think of what you're doing, think about what Mum and Dad will think, how they'll feel – "

"Is he bothering you, Ginny?"

Ginny looked past Ron's shoulder to see Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle towering over them. It was Crabbe who had spoken. The large boy glared down at Ron with beady eyes beneath his heavy brow.

Her brother's eyes widened as he turned and caught sight of the two boys.

Ginny at last found her voice. Malfoy had obviously told them to watch out for her…as weird as it was, she felt comforted.

"I'm fine…I was just headed to D.A.D.A. Thanks." Ginny tried out her new smirk on Ron, and was rewarded with a furious red flush before she slipped past him and walked away.

She tried not to feel guilty, but the memory of the hurt look hiding within the anger in her brother's eyes stayed with her through her next class.

"So…how has your first day of being public enemy number one been going?"

Ginny looked over at Draco tiredly as he sat down next to her. "I wouldn't want to steal that privilege from you, but…it's been…amusing. I don't think I've actually ever seen so many people look at me as if I were dirt before, it was oddly refreshing. Then of course, there were the people who looked at me as if I were the devil himself…I didn't think about it that way before, but it was actually kind of funny, seeing them cringe or go out of their way to keep out of 'my' way." She leaned on her elbow on the desk she shared with him and dropped her head onto her hand. She watched as she twirled a quill between her fingers and then smiled at him. "Thanks for setting Crabbe and Goyle on me, they kept Ron and Harry off my back today."

Draco shrugged. "The less contact you have with them the better. Besides, they're annoying as hell."

"They weren't very happy," she sighed.

"Who cares?" He reached into her bag, which was lying near her feet, and pulled out her potions text. "Did you do the home work?"

Ginny gnawed on her thumbnail, nervous. "No, I was going to, then everything happened last night, and I got tired so I figured, 'screw it.'

Draco chuckled slightly, and opened her book, laying it out on the table. "Well, nice try at being rebellious, but Snape isn't the type to let you get away with not doing your homework…at least, if you're not in Slytherin." He looked over at her and smirked. "He still makes us make it up, though. He just loves to infuriate the Gryffindor's by pretending to 'not' take away points from us in class."

Ginny shrugged and began setting up her cauldron. "It doesn't matter if he gives me detention, anyway…I've still got to come down here tonight because I socked you yesterday. McGonagall said it would do me good to spend time with you," she snickered and pulled out a roll of parchment to take notes on.

Draco smiled thinly. "Funny. Snape said the same thing to me about you. I have to be here at eight to clean his storeroom and reset the ingredients - he wants them in alphabetical order - by their Latin names, of course."

Ginny groaned. "This is what we get stuck with just for that?"

"You seemed to think 'that' was rather a big deal, yesterday."

"Yesterday was yesterday," she sighed, and flipped open her book.

When it came time to hand in their assignments, Ginny very coolly looked Snape right in the eye and told him she didn't have hers.

He snapped at her, but not nearly as severely as usual, when he saw Draco's hand reach to cover hers on the desk in a very discreet manner that spoke volumes.

"I expect you to have it by this evening when you return to serve your detention."

Ginny didn't miss the looks of disbelief she received from her classmates as Snape simply turned away, without taking any points or giving her more detention.

She winked at Draco out of the corner of her eye and he tightened his hand on hers before pulling away.

Ginny watched Professor Snape snarl at a fellow Gryffindor in his sudden fit of temper and covered her grin with the back of her hand. The whole being 'bad' thing did have its perks.

Harry was waiting for her after she left dinner that night to go do some homework in the library before her detention.

She rolled her eyes and walked past him where he leaned against the wall on the way out of the great hall.

"Ginny, wait…"

She shook off his hand as it touched her shoulder, and kept walking. "What is it with you guys today? First Ron, now you - maybe I don't 'like' being grabbed you know…"

"Ginny - "

"Leave me alone, Harry." She reached the stairs and started up them, only to feel him grab her arm and turn her roughly to face him. She glared at him and yanked her arm away.

He stopped on the step below her, and their faces were level with each other.

Ginny didn't think she'd ever seen him so angry. "What do you want?" she sighed impatiently.

"I want you to stop acting like a four year old," he snapped, his eyes glittering fiercely. "You're acting like a complete brat."

"What do you care? What do any of you care?"

"You're making Ron sick, acting like this!"

"What about you, Harry? Am I making you sick, going out with Malfoy? Is it just bugging the hell out of you?"

"Are you doing this just to get back at me? Is that it?" He looked at her solemnly; his voice more serious than she'd ever heard it. "Did I hurt you that badly, Ginny?"

The softness of his voice made her want to cry. The hard expression on her face faltered. "It wasn't you, Harry. Y-You didn't do anything. It was me, but I can't get past it. I've tried, and I can't - "

"Ginny, I'm so sorry…"

She closed her eyes when he reached up to touch her cheek-

"Better watch those hands, Potter."

Ginny's eyes flew wide open and she looked over Harry's shoulder to see Draco standing below them on the floor, his arms crossed.

She stepped guiltily away from Harry, and watched him turn on the steps to look at Draco.

"You shouldn't go around touching other people's property," the blonde boy said coldly, his pale eyes narrowed.

"Sod off, Malfoy. She's not a bloody possession."

"She doesn't want anything to do with you. For your own well being, I suggest you forget she ever existed."

"Maybe she doesn't want me to forget, Malfoy!"

"No? Looks that way to me..." Draco smirked.

Harry turned his head to see Ginny already at the landing, and disappearing up the next flight of steps without a glance back.

"What did you do to her?"

Draco laughed evilly. "What didn't I do to her?"

Harry walked away before he pulled out his wand and ended up murdering the boy right there in Hogwarts.

"Don't worry about it, Potter - she's in good hands."

Harry fisted his hands and kept walking.

Ginny looked up from her books reluctantly when Draco stopped by her table.

He met her eyes with a cold smile. "It's time to go - detention and all."

Ginny signed her parchment with a flourishing scrawl and dusted it before rolling it up and tucking it into her bag.

"Is it eight o' clock already?" Ginny cleared her throat nervously. She was waiting for him to call her on the incident on the stairs, but he didn't say a word.

"Very nearly," he said as he watched her gather her things.

"Oh." Ginny slung her bag over her shoulder and walked with him to the tapestry opening.

He was so quiet on the walk down to the dungeons that she wanted to scream.

Stay calm, she told herself, he's just testing you again. Don't give him the satisfaction of knowing he's getting to you. Stay detached…

They walked in silence for a few minutes, and then she mangled it.

"So – what did Harry say?"

She watched his eyes darken and drew in a frustrated breath. That had definitely been the wrong thing to say…

"You should really stop calling him 'Harry'. It suggests a certain familiarity…and," he stopped to look her in the eye, "it's irritating me beyond the telling of it."

"Oh, all right, I won't call him 'Harry' anymore. What do you want me to do – run around trying to look down my nose at him and calling him 'Potter'?" It seemed ridiculous to her.

Draco raised a hand and wrapped it around the ape of her neck, tilting her head up to his. "I want you not to have anything to do with him, ever. Ignore him. Just cut him completely dead. He's just a distraction to you, Ginny, nothing more. Remember?"

She nodded slowly. "I remember. He's not the sort you can easily ignore, though. And I 'am' in the same house with him. What am I supposed to do during the Quidditch matches? Sit with the Slytherins?"

"Why not? You'll be cheering 'me' on when we play, anyway, not him." His lips curled and he dropped his hand, brushing her arm with the backs of his fingers. "Won't you?"

"I g-guess…" she shook her head and started walking again. "We're going to be late."

"Gasp, late for detention? Horror!"

Ginny arched a brow. "Malfoy – did you just make a joke?"

"It's Draco," he reminded her.

"Sorry – old habits and all."

"I do have a sense of humor you know."

"A nasty, deprecating, twisted, 'evil' sense of humor, yes,"

"See, Weasley, you're catching on – didn't take long, did it?"

"It's 'Ginny'," she pointed out again as they came to the dungeons at last.

"Right…first dibs on the dragon hide gloves." He held the door open for her and she walked through.

"What? Why would we need to wear – you mean he only has one pair? If I had known we'd needed them, I would've brought my own." She set her bag down on a desk and glared at him. "You could have told me."

He smiled at her disarmingly. "I could have done – but it wouldn't have been an 'evil' thing to do, would it?"

"Thanks for reminding me of just how much I don't like you, Draco," she growled.

"Always my pleasure, my sweet..."

-

TBC