Disclaimer: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…
Placing:Mid of fourthyear.
Just another idea I had thanks to FawkesyLady's review and PM.
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THE SLYTHERIN WAY
PART III: Gryffindor Girls
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"H… hey, M…Malfoy!" A voice called Draco Malfoy when he left the Great Hall. It was the weekend, two days after Malfoy had been pulled aside by Nott to learn how a Slytherin got a girl to date him.
He frowned and then turned around, just to find himself face to face with one Neville Longbottom.
"Did you want something, Longbottom?" He asked the other boy sneering. Longbottom flushed, but then resolve returned to his face.
"Actually, I did," he said sincerely, looking Malfoy right in the eye.
"What?" Malfoy sneered. "Do you want me jinx you again, looser?"
To Malfoy's surprise, Longbottom just raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him.
"I… I guess in this case, you're the actual looser, Malfoy," the other boy said while looking Malfoy up and down. "F… from what I heard, you desperately need some lessons how to woo a girl."
Malfoy's eyes widened.
"I don't need any lessons to woo a girl!" He interrupted instantly. "Especially not from the likes of you, Longbottom!"
The other boy just scratched his head thoughtfully.
"The wh… whole school knows that you tried to ask out Hermione," Longbottom pointed out, clearly unimpressed with Malfoy's objection. "I… I think it's clear that you do need some help."
"Even if I needed some help, I never would need the help of a failure and near-squib like you, Longbottom!" Malfoy objected instantly. "Believe me, whatever you can do, I can do it ten times better!"
The other boy frowned at that.
"And yet you failed to secure your date," he pointed out logically, before taking a deep breath. "You know, Malfoy, I don't like you," he said. "And I don't think that you're good enough for Hermione, but I also know how it is to be trapped in the expectations of others, expectations you obviously haven't broken before and now have a hard time trying to break them. So, even if I don't like you, I think I should at least try to help you now when you finally found enough courage to go against everything you ever learned to ask out a girl you normally shouldn't even consider."
"Exactly," Malfoy screeched. "I shouldn't even consider her – so why does everybody suddenly try to push me towards her?"
Longbottom took a deep breath and then patted Malfoy's arm.
"Because obviously people either genuinely want you to be happy, or they want Hermione to be happy and think that you're good for her," he said. "Or they might be like me. They might be people who don't like you but think that you have earned a chance after showing that much courage."
"But I wasn't even trying to show courage," Malfoy whined. "I just –"
"I know," the Longbottom Heir consoled him. "Nevertheless, you showed quite a bit courage by trying to ask her out, even if you truly chose the wrong way to go about it."
"I didn't choose any way," Malfoy whined at that.
"Ah!" Longbottom said at that, suddenly looking at Malfoy as if he had found the answer to the universe. "And there's the reason why it went so pear-shaped in the end! No plan is not a good way to go about it if you aren't used to extemporise."
"But I didn't even want to ask her out!" Malfoy howled. "I just called after her!"
Longbottom just nodded at that and patted the other boy's arm consolingly.
"So it was a spur of the moment thing," Longbottom said wisely, then he frowned. "I guess you really have to work on your preparation then, if you are a guy who might end up asking out a girl the moment he sees her."
Malfoy's eyes widened.
"I don't need to work on anything!" He growled before walking away briskly. "I know exactly what I have to do and how I have to do things like that!"
Longbottom didn't object to Malfoy's brisk walk away from the entrance of the Great Hall. He simply followed the Malfoy Heir until they reached one of the abandoned classrooms in the lower levels and then pulled the other boy inside.
"Even if you know what to do and how to do it," Longbottom said as if their debate hadn't been interrupted at all. "It's always different in the practice, you know?"
"Why by Merlin are you all suddenly after me, anyway!" Malfoy cried frustrated. "I have always done it like that and until now nobody ever said something or tried to tell me what to do or not to do when it comes to Granger!"
At that, an understanding look appeared on Longbottom's face.
"Of course," he said, shaking his head slightly as if Malfoy was an idiot. "And there's the problem, Malfoy! Maybe Slytherin girls like something like that, being wooed by pointing out their ancestry and some such, but a Gryffindor girl… well, let's say they're different."
Malfoy's eyes bulged out at that.
"Different?" He screeched. "Of course the most of them are different! Slytherin girls would think twice about interacting with mudbloods!"
"Not that, Malfoy," Longbottom said, pityingly. "Not that."
Malfoy opened his mouth but Longbottom shushed him before he could say anything.
"Gryffindor girls mostly don't care for blood-purity, that's right, Malfoy," Longbottom explained. "But that's not the only difference. I'm not too sure about Slytherin girls, but the direct approach is mostly the best approach when it comes to Gryffindor girls. You have to be truthful to them. You can used flowery language, if you want to, that is, but you don't have to. Most of the Gryffindor girls are quite willing to go out with you if you just ask them nicely."
"Ask them nicely," Malfoy repeated, a little bit green in the face while picturing himself and Granger conversing 'nicely'.
Longbottom nodded.
"You know, what?" He finally said thoughtfully. "Maybe showing you is the best idea, so that you can get a feeling for the differences."
"Showing…?" Malfoy squeaked.
Longbottom just nodded severely.
"Let's go, Malfoy," he said. "I'll show you, since I haven't ask a girl, yet. Believe me, when you have seen it once, you will notice that it isn't as complicated as you think that it is."
And with that, Longbottom grabbed Malfoy's arm and pulled him along, outside of the classroom and up a few stairs.
"Hmm…" Longbottom contemplated. "I guess we try the library first. If she isn't there then I will have to ask her to follow me out of the common room, because there's no way I'm letting you inside our common room. My commiseration only goes that far, you know?"
"But I don't need any lessons in how to approach a Gryffindor girl!" Malfoy protested horror-stricken.
Longbottom sighed at that.
"But you do, Malfoy," he said sighing. "I know that you might have been taught how to approach a Slytherin girl, but that doesn't help you at all in your case. Let me show you how it's really done when you want to ask out a Gryffindor girl!"
"But I don't want to ask out a Gryffindor girl!" Malfoy complained while trying to free himself from Longbottom's grip fruitlessly. For such a timid boy, Longbottom sure had quite a strong grip.
"I understand that you think that Hermione isn't like any other Gryffindor girl," Longbottom said patiently. "She sure is a lot more Ravenclaw in some of her characteristics. Nevertheless, she's quite Gryffindor as well, and she won't mind it at all when you come at her like any other boy in Gryffindor would. I think it even might flatter her if you tried to act a little bit like her house in this regard. But then, I guess you figured that out already since you tried to ask her somewhat openly."
"I didn't –"
"Nevertheless, for all the mantra of direct approach, you shouldn't neglect the most basic part in all this," Longbottom continued as if Malfoy hadn't tried to protest at all. "The first thing is always to ask if she's still single, or if you know that if she's still without a date for the Yule Ball. Just start with that question and everything should fall into place naturally."
"I wouldn't even think about asking a girl that!" Malfoy complained. "Besides, Nott said that I had to find that out before approaching a girl!"
Longbottom thought that over.
"Well," he said. "I guess that's the Slytherin way. I don't think a Gryffindor girl would mind if you inquired about her before, but just so that you know: Gryffindor girls don't expect you to know if they're single or without a date. Asking is always an option with them."
"But I don't want to ask!"
"Then don't and do it the Slytherin way," Longbottom sighed. "Just don't do it like you did with Hermione. That was really pathetic, you know? Even we Gryffindors know that we have to know if a girl is single first before asking – well, at least the most of us do."
Malfoy opened his mouth to protest some more, when Longbottom held up his hand, stopping the Malfoy Heir before he could start to talk again.
"Here she is," Longbottom said, pulling Malfoy closer to one of the girls working in the library. She was a red-head, but it took Malfoy a moment or two to place her as the youngest Weasley.
"Just stand here and listen," Longbottom instructed Malfoy in that moment. "You should be close enough to hear us from here."
Malfoy was actually too stunned to react or to do anything but what he had been instructed to do, when he noticed that the looser Longbottom strode up to the Weaslette with a confidence in his stride he hadn't shown anywhere before.
"Ginny," Longbottom said the moment he was about two feet away from the girl.
The Weaslette looked up.
"Neville," she greeted him smiling.
The other boy smiled back.
"Tell me, Ginny," he said. "Do you have a date for the Yule Ball, yet?"
Ginny looked at him in surprise.
"The ball is for fourth year up," she reminded him. "I'm a third year."
Longbottom smile grew a little at that.
"So you don't?" He clarified.
"Yes," she said, looking at him a little confused. "Why do you ask?"
"Ah… well, because I still need one, and since we're good friends, I thought that maybe you would do me the honour and go to the Yule Ball with me?" Longbottom replied, sounding oddly sure of himself considering that he was such a timid boy, normally.
Malfoy wondered how Longbottom could even muster enough courage to approach a girl, nevertheless asking her out to the ball!
He had always thought of the Longbottom Heir as a spineless idiot. Malfoy guessed that he would have to think over the spineless bit a bit more in the future.
The girl on the other hand smiled at Longbottom's question.
"Oh, I'd love to!" She replied smiling. "Thank you for inviting me, Neville! I had hoped to be allowed to go and I was crushed that I couldn't because I was a third year! Thank you for giving me a way to come along nevertheless!"
"Hey, that's what friends are for!" Longbottom answered. "Of course, the whole thing goes both ways: You get to go to the ball and I have the honour of accompanying one of the most beautiful girls in Hogwarts!"
The Weaslette laughed at that and for a moment Malfoy felt an odd twinge of jealousy. That idiotic squib had managed to ask a girl out without even showing a hint of nervousness – every Slytherin would feel a little bit jealous of a poker-face like that!
"So… I'll see you later?" Weaslette asked Longbottom shyly.
The other boy nodded.
"I'll have to go to the greenhouses a bit, since I'm helping Professor Sprout," he said to her. "But I'll be back in the common room at seven. We can talk about matching colours and all that then, alright?"
Weaslette nodded and Longbottom turned around, grabbed Malfoy's arm and went on to leave the library.
It was when they had reached the halls again that Malfoy became aware that he could have left while Longbottom was busy asking out the Weaslette.
Longbottom meanwhile just looked at him severely.
"And that's how you ask out a Gryffindor girl," he said. "Like I said, if you know the principles, it's quite easy."
Malfoy looked a little bit green.
"I'm definitely never doing it that way!" He complained.
Longbottom just sighed at that.
"Hermione is a Gryffindor, Malfoy," he explained patiently. "If you want to ask her out, you should at least know how it's done correctly."
"But I don't want to ask out the mudblood!" Malfoy whined.
Longbottom just looked at him pityingly.
"Don't worry, Malfoy," he said. "I understand that the rejection hurt and that you need some time to accept it. If you want to live in denial until you're hurting less, be my guest. Just know that I think that you were very brave back then. Don't give up now, maybe she will at least say 'yes' to a date if you ask her nicely."
And with a last pat he left Malfoy standing in the hallway.
"But I don't want to go out with Granger at all!" Malfoy complained to the empty air.
Regretfully, nobody heard or believed him.
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Just a little idea
Hope you liked it
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