A/N: The next part will be out eventually. Thanks for all the brilliant reviews. Review again?
Disclaimer : I would say that I owned Coy Connie and Fickle Fran, but they only came into existence as pertains to Harry Potter and Co, so I relinquish all moral, intellectual and physical rights to JK Rowling. And muse.
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"I think Ginny's brother is looking at you again." Connie informed Fran.
Fran glanced at Ginny. "Don't worry." She told her, smiling and tossing her hair back in one uncongealed, liquid motion. It was a move she and Connie had agreed was one of the most basic motions every girl should know. They had a million such moves. They were planning to list them all down and write a book on it. They had asked Ginny to join them, but Ginny couldn't think of any such moves. She tried them out though. They didn't seem to work very well. Privately she thought that you probably needed to be born with the knowledge of how to execute them. Or born Connie or Fran.
"I'm not going to put the moves on your brother." Fran assured Ginny. She chuckled. "Although he is one cute wizard."
Connie giggled. "If they weren't your brothers we could double date with Fred and George." She speculated. "I wonder if they both kiss the same."
Ginny was glad her shock of red hair hid her rapidly reddening cheeks. "Would you stop talking about my brothers like some kind of s-s-sex toys?"
Fran laughed louder. "Shut up, Con, we're embarrassing Ginny."
Ginny hastily stood up. "It's okay. I've got a date with Draco now anyway." She shook back her hair and debated taking a comb to it. No, it wouldn't make any difference, and she'd end up with a broken comb in her hair.
"I still wish you would tell us about Draco's kisses." Fran complained sulkily.
"I told you he was a nine-and-a-half, didn't I? What more do you want?"
"Fran wants details, like how his to-" Connie broke off at Ginny's look. "All right, all right. Toddle along. We won't do anything to entice your brothers while you're away."
"Not all of them, anyway." Fran added wickedly.
Ginny decided to go before her face turned any redder.
Draco lounged against the wall outside the Slytherin common room. He glanced up at the clock against the opposite wall and frowned. Ginny was ten minutes late. How long did it take to come from Gryffindor? He sighed and settled back into his position. Well, girls were always late. All except for Pansy. Pansy had never been late for a date in all the time they'd been dating.
Well speak of the brown haired devil and there she was, hurrying up the corridor, her head almost inside the bag she was holding, rummaging around for one of those infinitesimal small things girls always carried around, like lipstick or a toenail cutter. Well, except for Ginny. She didn't use make-up, and she definitely didn't carry around a toenail cutter.
Draco smiled lazily. Pansy had been the ideal girlfriend, obedient, eager to please and madly in love with him. Three very desirable qualities in a girlfriend. Draco frowned briefly when he thought of Ginny. She liked him very much, he knew, but he also knew that she still cared - however little - for that jackass Potter. That irritated him, and it also hurt. A lot. He pushed the thought away and focused on Pansy. She still hadn't seen him, and her head was still in her bag as she kept on hurrying up the corridor. It was a very long corridor.
When Pansy finally reached him, he stopped her with a "Hello."
Pansy looked up and blushed. She wasn't exactly pretty, but she wasn't ugly either. She was just plain looking, the kind of girl guys would take out as a last resort. It hadn't been that way with them, though. He had liked her, somewhat. It was impossible for anyone - or at least him - to like Pansy fully. There was really nothing to like. She was so eager to please that she agreed with him on every issue. That, combined with the fact that she dressed impeccably at school functions and was quite good in bed - as well as being enthusiastic and willing - had deemed her worthy enough to be his escort. He had also known that his parents would like - or at least approve of her. She was suitably wallpaperish. They had broken up because he had gotten bored. Wallpaper didn't entertain you for very long. He'd been fixing his sights on Sera Sanderson when he'd gotten involved with Ginny.
"Hello." Pansy squeaked, her face turning a deep shade of red.
"Where are you hurrying off to?" Draco drawled, lifting an eyebrow.
Pansy shrugged awkwardly in an attempt to look casual. Draco found her efforts clumsily pathetic. "Nowhere. I was going to um- study with Jacker Drew."
"Jacker Drew." Draco sneered. "What a stimulating companion he is." Draco had always loathed him. He seemed to be a Gryffindor sympathizer. He had been one of the few Slytherins who had stood up for Cedric Whatever's death.
Pansy blushed furiously. "He's just tutoring me in Potions."
Draco smirked, running a finger up her arm, drawing up her robe sleeve. "Why don't you just talk to me for a while." He kept on smirking when Pansy trembled. Not that he had any interest in Pansy, he just took a spiteful pleasure in making Jacker - who would name their son Jacker, for God's sake - wait for a girl who would clean his shoes if he asked her to. He didn't even have to ask politely.
"Um- all right." Pansy whispered. She looked around nervously. "Who are you waiting for -?"
Draco stiffened. He'd almost forgotten. He looked down the corridor. Ginny was coming up it, her pretty face as stiff as her movements. Draco took his hand away from Pansy's arm abruptly. "She's here." He said curtly. Without another word he moved down the hall as gracefully as a cat, taking Ginny's arm, which she pointedly took away.
She didn't speak until they were out in the sunshine. When you were at Hogwarts, there wasn't a lot of places you could go for privacy, unless you liked hanging around cold, dark dungeons. Draco settled for a tree. "You didn't see anything." He said, before she could say anything. He looked hard at her. "Nothing."
"Really." Ginny asked, her voice cold, so unlike it's usual happy warmth that Draco almost flinched. "And what would you have seen if you had seen me with Harry, with his finger running up and down my arm?"
Draco really did not want to picture that.
"Pansy and I are not the same as Potter and you." Draco said, just as coldly. "You didn't see anything. There is no reason for you to be jealous." But that was what she was, he realized dawningly. Ginny was jealous. She actually liked him enough to be jealous. Oh, more than liked. You had to have feelings slightly stronger than like to be jealous. Draco felt like italicizing the word for the rest of his life. A smile crept on his face and he took Ginny's hand teasingly. "Were you jealous, Ginny?" he breathed seductively, gently but strongly pulling her hand towards him. "Were you jealous when you saw me doing this to Pansy -" He ran his finger up her robes, exactly as he had done with Pansy, but this time he did it with feeling. This time he did it with the intention to make her shiver. This time he did it trying. His smile grew wider when Ginny shivered in the hot - well, lukewarm at least - sunshine.
"You stupid git!" Ginny said angrily, but her resolution was fading away. "Yes, I was jealous. Happy now?"
"Very much so." Draco assured her. "Now you know how I feel every time you sneak glances at Potter."
"I don't sneak glances at him - not so much anymore, anyway." Ginny muttered. "And you know it, Draco Malfoy."
"Do I?" Draco asked, his face suddenly grim. "I wish -" I wish you wouldn't sneak glances at him at all. I wish all your glances were at me. I wish you loved me like I love you. His voice broke off and the expression on his face faded to a teasing smirk. He said, "Want to do something I didn't do to Pansy? While you were watching, anyway."
"Jerk." Ginny said laughingly, but she melted into his arms. Draco would have said she felt a lot better - a lot - better in his arms than Pansy had ever done; would have, that is, if he hadn't been doing something that left no energy for making comparisons.
Draco frowned briefly as he walked moodily back to the Slytherin common room. He adored kissing Ginny, it was rapidly becoming his favourite activity, right after looking at Ginny, thinking of Ginny, and holding Ginny. However, it did have some unfortunate side effects. Side effects that made him feel thankful that he didn't wear the ridiculous Muggle clothing trousers. Side effects that he couldn't satisfy because he loved Ginny - even if he hadn't admitted it to anyone - and didn't want to risk scaring her off by asking too much too soon.
Draco made it back to the Slytherin common room and muttered the password - Mudblood Junior - and climbed deftly in. He slouched towards his favourite chair, his hands in his robe pockets, and slumped in it, not looking at Crabbe and Goyle, who were both struggling through a mound of homework. He should probably be doing some of that homework himself. Probably.
Pansy Parkinson simpered over, her eyes annoyingly eager and her lower lip trembling, ever so slightly. She probably thought that their encounter in the corridor earlier meant that he was about to take her back. Draco didn't really want to deal with an overenthusiastic ex-girlfriend right now. He didn't have the mood or the inclination.
"Hey." Pansy said softly. She smiled waveringly. "Um - you finished your homework?"
Draco smirked. "No."
"You want me to help you with it?" Pansy volunteered happily. Oh goodie. He had just given her an opportunity to insinuate herself into his life again. Draco felt an inner smirk build up inside him. It was incurably cynical and mocking. Well, all right. He didn't mind. If she wanted to do his frigging homework for him, she bloody well could. He got up and gave her a slow, heavy look.
"It's upstairs in my dorm." He said, still slouched over. "I'll go get it."
"I'll come with you." Pansy practically bounded up the stairs behind him.
Draco flung open his dorm door. He shared with Crabbe, Goyle, and another guy whose name he had never bothered to learn. He went over to his desk and rummaged around the mess of papers on it, all the while uncomfortably aware of the tightness in the region below his waist. Put bluntly, he was as horny as hell. He really needed a cold shower.
Finally. He extracted a few scraps of parchment and turned around to Pansy. His eyes widened, ever so slightly. Pansy was standing in the middle of the room, her robes unbuttoned to her waist. Her eyes were still annoyingly eager, but her smile was somewhat provocative. Only somewhat. "What the hell are you doing, Pansy?"
"I know that look you get when you're horny, Draco."
Draco eyed her. Ginny would never find out. No one in Slytherin House would tell her. She certainly wouldn't see it herself. He really, really loved Ginny, and he really, really didn't want to scare her off by demanding too much, too soon. And the way he was feeling right now, it was either take Pansy, or run all the way to the Gryffindor common room and rape Ginny.
With a weary sigh, he nodded at the bed. "Take off your clothes and get in the bed."
Ginny hovered outside the Slytherin common room, feeling unsure of herself. She'd been sitting with Fran and Connie when Harry - who finally seemed to be out of his staring-into-space phase, came and sat with them. Ginny had been about to sneak glances at him when it hit her that she wasn't feeling anything. Well, anything other than surprise that he was there. Her heart wasn't beating faster. Her pupils weren't dilated. Her cheeks weren't red. She was finally over Harry Potter. He meant nothing. He was nothing. She thought of Draco. Her heart beat faster. Her pupils, she was sure, were dilated. Her cheeks reddened - she fervently hoped Harry didn't get the wrong idea. There it was then. It was staring at her right in her dilated - allegedly - pupils. She liked Draco. More than that. She was probably in love with Draco. She was in love with Draco. She knew him. Well, mostly, anyway. She knew the parts of him that mattered. She knew what mattered to him and what didn't. That's when she had gotten up, still staring, surprisedly, at Harry, and excused herself, walking dazedly out the Gryffindor common room. Well, she would have, straightaway, if she hadn't had to wait for someone to come in.
And here she was, waiting outside the Slytherin common room, for someone to come along, so she could go inside and tell Draco that she was over Harry Potter.
Fifteen minutes later, a Slytherin came along. Ginny vaguely recognized him. His name was Jack, or something. He looked at her hair. "Aren't you in Gryffindor?" he asked.
Ginny's hand flew up to her. The problem with it wasn't something that could be felt, though. It was the colour. The redness. Everyone knew the Weasleys were redhaired. Everyone knew the Weasleys were in Gryffindor. Since she was a redhead, she was a Weasley. Since she was a Weasley, she was in Gryffindor.
"Please let me in." she begged. "It's important. Or you could ask Draco to come out. It's important."
Jack - was that his name? - looked at her curiously. She realized who he was. Jacker Somebody. He was the kind of guy who you didn't think should have been put in Slytherin, but he had been, so obviously there was something Slytherinny about him. After a moment he nodded reluctantly. "All right. But if anybody asks, I don't know anything. Mudblood Junior."
At first Ginny thought he was calling her a name, and she crimsoned furiously, but the painting slid open with a curse, and she realized it was the password.
Ginny followed him in. She walked over to Crabbe and Goyle. "Where's Draco?" she asked.
Crabbe eyed her but he wasn't smart enough to link Weasley redheadedness to Weasley Gryffindoriness. "He's in his dorm." He said in a remarkably deep, scratchy voice. He pointed. "Up through there."
Ginny skipped up the stairs before anyone else caught sight of her red hair. Jacker, she saw, was giving her wary looks and keeping the painting open. All right. She'd just drag Draco out and tell him outside. He wouldn't show it - for all he was her boyfriend, her wizard, he was still an arse - but he would be pleased.
Ginny knocked on the door. Draco's lazy drawl floated out. "What the hell do you want?"
Ginny smiled at that typically hostile Draco greeting. "Can we talk?" she asked, pushing the door open. She kept on smiling, sure Draco would smile back at her. He was probably doing his homework. Or maybe he was changing robes. Or maybe he was just lying on his bed staring at the ceiling. Or maybe he was lying on his bed staring out the window.
She went in.
Maybe he was lying on the bed with his arm around a naked Pansy Parkinson.
Ginny froze.
Draco's eyes flew fully open.
Oh God. Oh God. Tears were already flowing out her eyes. I thought he loved me.
I thought I loved him.
Ginny backed away, feeling her way out the door, fiercely swiping at the tears in her eyes. She should have felt angry. She should have felt furious.
All she felt was pain.
Ginny ran. She ran out the Slytherin wing and into the corridors. She ran blindly until she got to the Gryffindor common room. And then she ran up to her bedroom. And then she stopped running and started crying. As she knew with a sickening certainty that she would be doing for a long time.