NOTE: I`m sorry I took so long to get this chapter posted! I`ve been sooo busy with studying for our final exams (I sound like Hermione, don`t I?)....

Grey Gaze

*Chapter Five*

by Ashley (Hype)



Lavender looked at her clock which read 11:53 p.m. She groaned, not wanting to leave her bed but still wanting to hear what Fred had to tell her. Exasperated, she flung the covers off herself...



I looked down at my feet, which were hung over the side of my four-poster bed. The shimmery lavender nail polish was starting to peel off my toe nails, but it didn`t matter. I planned on painting them red to match my new dress for the Hearts Ball. Sighing, I let my feet touch the stone floor. I almost let out a yelp of surprise due to the coldness. I stood there for a few moments, letting my feet adjust.

Walking across the room carefully (trying not to wake anyone), I grabbed the silvery material that I had hidden under one of the floor boards. It was an Invisibility Cloak- Parvati`s to be exact. It was how we got all the gossip on people. I pulled the cloak around me and walked out into the hall, whose floors were equally as cold.

Turning around the corner and heading down the familiar staircase, I saw Fred Weasley lying spread-eagle on one of the red sofas by the fire, his eyes closed. No one was in the common room. I giggled quietly, realizing that he probably had chased them all away. I slowly walked towards him, Invisibility Cloak still tight around me, planning to give him a scare. However, by the time I reached the side of the sofa, he said, "Lavender Marie Brown, take that confounded cloak off!"

I laughed and pulled the cloak away, folding it in my arms. He repositioned himself so he was facing me, and made a gesture for me to sit down. Seeing that he was not smiling, I began to feel uneasy. He was always smiling. But currently, he wasn`t. It didn`t suit him. His face seemed longer and serious, more lifeless without it`s brilliant happiness. It wasn`t just his smile, either. His hair-matching eyebrows were knitted together, his face pale, making his red freckles stand out. Something was wrong.

"Fred, what`s wrong? You`re not acting like yourself..."

He frowned, which didn`t help. It only made me more nervous. "There`s a reason for that," he said quietly, glancing at the fire for a few brief moments before his blue eyes came back to see mine. "Lav, things aren`t looking good..."

"I can see that!"

"No, you can`t. I`m just going to have to tell it to you straight. I`m sorry. There`s really no other way to tell you."

I frowned. My heart was pumping fast. In a minute, my pulse rate seemed to have raised ten degrees. "Well, say it then," came out of my mouth, though I wasn`t sure if I wanted him to say it.

"Draco doesn`t love you."

Whatever I was expecting, it wasn`t that. "What?! How do you.. What did you... HOW?" I sputtered miserably. I loved Draco. He said he had loved me, too!

Fred cleared his throat. "Cho told me. Look, Lav, I know you don`t trust her... But-"

"Like hell I trust her! That demon- wench!" I cried.

"LAVENDER! Control yourself!"

It seemed impossible. How could I control myself?! "FRED WEASLEY! How could you trust her?!"



He launched at me and clamped his hand over my mouth. "Lav," he whispered, "I know it`s not what you want to hear. Cho... Well, Cho has an Invisibility Cloak, too. She was walking around and saw that the Slytherins were having a little party. Draco was all strung out on vodka and he was singing about you. About how stupid you were for believing him. About how he doesn`t love you. About how easy he could manipulate you. He had Pansy Parkinson sitting on his lap and laughing as he sang...Lav, tell me if I`m wrong, but it sure doesn`t sound as if he loves you." He sighed miserably and released my mouth. He looked like he was about to say something else, but his mouth closed.

As soon as he let me go, I began to cry. I couldn`t help it...It was all too devastating for me. I leaned over and let my head rest on Fred`s strong and broad shoulder and cried. I must have been there crying for an hour just crying as Fred put a comforting arm around me. He didn`t say a word the whole time. He just let me cry.

After that long hour, when I had no tears left to cry, I pulled away from him. The shoulder of his robes were soaked in my tears. He looked at me cautiosly, as if I were an explosion waiting to happen. Perhaps I was, but it didn`t matter. I didn`t really love Draco. He had manipulated me to do so. I had come up with an idea. "Fred, will you do me a favor?"

He looked relieved. "Anything, Lav. Anything."

"Who are you going to the Hearts Ball with?"

His jaw dropped and his mouth began to open and close, making him look like a goldfish. Finally, he stopped. "Er... Nobody."

"Will you go with me?"

"Uh...Yeah..."

I giggled at his dumbfounded expression. "Fred, I need your help. We need to make everyone in Hogwarts jealous and stupid- especially the Slytherins. Especially Draco Malfoy."

His familiar goofy grin spread across his face. "I`m all for it!"

I grinned back. This was going to be fun....





The Hearts Ball was two days away. I had to be an actress until then. I had to play my part. I had to fake being in love with Draco. It wasn`t too hard. I just had to look and see what Pansy would do, then I would do it. Well, not all of it. At the moment, Pansy was shooting eye-daggers at me. I don`t think that if I shot eye-daggers at Draco that it would seem as if I were in love with him.

We were in Divination. This year, the Gryffindors had Potions, Divination, and Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins. I would make sure to sit far away from Draco. I was going to play hard to get, for it seemed as though Draco liked objects out of his reach. Draco and I had switched roles, though he didn`t know it. I was going it manipulate him. He was going to fall in love with me.

Of course, this added about an hour to my morning rituals. I couldn`t have him fall in love with me if I wasn`t beautiful. I made sure to lay out all my best clothes for the following days. I made everything match. I even wore muggle makeup. The wizarding world may have adapted a few useful traits, but they were far behind the muggles when it came to looking good. In my experience (and I had a great deal of it), shimmery lipstick made wizards go wild. As well as short muggle skirts...

Draco would be rendered helpless when he saw me. Most of the Slytherins had not entered the Divination room yet, Malfoy was one of them. Pansy, on the other had, was sitting across from me in the circle Professor Trawleny had insisted on forming staring at me angrily, a disgusting frown plastered upon her face. I smirked, knowing Pansy was not good at making herself look good. She had dark red lipstick, purple eye gunk, and a flourescent pink swiped across her face. None of it went well with her dull blonde hair. Parvati seemed to know what I was thinking, for when she spotted Pansy`s terrible choice of apparel, she pointed her long index finger at her and sniggered. I didn`t have time to comment, for at that moment the rest of the Slytherins came in.

I was right. Draco took one look at me and his jaw dropped. I was wearing a short red Gucci leather skirt, a tight-fitting black shirt, and black, strappy high-heeled shoes. I thought, Ha! Feel the wrath of Gucci! when I looked at his face. It was oddly satisfying to see him not collected. He stared me up and down, looking particularly at my short, red leather skirt and my long legs. I had always prided myself on my legs and kept them in excellent care, tanned golden brown and always shaven. It had paid off several times, but never such as this.

I turned my head and smiled at Draco`s worst enemy- Harry Potter- sweetly. Draco scowled when he saw this, which was only more encouraging to me. Poor Harry`s knees almost buckled under him at the look I was giving him. He turned to Ron, who was looking at me in a very dazed state. Harry had to snap his fingers in Ron`s face before they began their muffled conversation. I listened carefully, trying to catch their words. It sounded somewhat like this:

"Did you see the way she looked at me?"

"What?"

"Did you-"

"-very lucky wizard, Har-"

"-but, Parvati-"

"-still lucky."

They rambled on like this for about five minutes. Somewhere along the line the conversation turned to Ron and Hermione going to the ball together. I smiled. Ron and Hermione were made for each other, even though they didn`t really know it. I was happy when I found Ron had asked Hermione to the dance instead of me.

My attention wandered elsewhere... To Draco. His grey gaze locked onto my blue one and he mouthed something I didn`t understand. I turned away to Parvati and started whispering about the plan. Her eyes grew wide and she giggled, glancing at Draco. He raised an eyebrow. I looked at him, giving him the sexiest look I could send and licked my lips devishly. He blushed furiously and looked outside the window. I had never seen him blush before. It looked immensely strange against his deathly pale skin. The Divination Professor cleared her throat and began class...



The whole day went like that. It was nice turning every wizard`s head as I passed them. Finally, just before our last class, I caught up to Fred and gave him a note that read:

It`s going as planned.

He smiled before shoving the note into his robe`s pocket and walking away. I knew he would talk to me at dinner. That was only an hour and a half away.



The time passed quickly. I got special attention from every male in the class. I paid special attention back to everyone of them, except Draco. I flirted continuously with Harry (which really seemed to strike Draco`s nerves), Dean, Neville, and even Crabbe and Goyle (which throughly disgusted me. But hey, I had to go to the extremes, right? Well, Crabbe and Goyle certainly seemed to enjoy it. Yech...) Anyway, time passed quickly, and dinner soon came...

I was immensely thankful for the fact that Draco did not sit with me during dinner thins time. He was very confused, I could tell but the way he looked at me from across the room at the Slytherin`s table. It was working. Instead, Fred sat next to me. We were at the very end of the long Gryffindor table, sitting alone. For once, I wasn`t surrounded by people. It was just Fred, and that was perfectly alright with me.

He pulled out the note I had given him in the corridor and grinned mischievously. "No wonder it`s going as planned. Lav, I didn`t expect you to pull off something like this...You look great."

I smiled. "I know...It`s all part of the plan, remember?"

"Do I ever... Jesus, Lav, the whole school is talking about you. You`ve gotten Lee and Fred in a whirl...Ron seems to be stoned at the mention of your name! Neville...Well, look at him. He`s drooling at you now- literally! You`re even driving poor Harry bonkers!" He said it as though it were serious, but he was grinning from ear to ear. "Not to mention the Slytherin`s devil child..."

"Who, Draco? Oh, silly, silly me..." I teased.

"He`s going nuts!" he laughed. "Malfoy... Oh, you should have seen him, Lav... It was great!"

I froze. "What was great?"

Fred`s eyes seemed to have popped out of his head when he looked at me. It took him awhile to pop them back in. "Er... Didn`t you hear?"

"Obviously not..."

"Well, he started yelling at Parvati."

"WHY?!" I screamed, causing the lot of the Gryffindor table to look at me. I glared at them and they went back to their food. When it came to my absolute best friend, I was a little protective, as she was with me.

Fred went on as if I hadn`t shouted. He always did; I guess he was just used to it now. "He started yelling, asking her what you were up to and all. She laughed in his face and walked away. He just stood there, staring after her like an idiot."

"He is an idiot."

"Well, yes, but that`s what happened."

"I wish I could`ve seen the look on his face!"

Fred grinned slyly. "You can. Ask the Creevy boy. He got it all on camera. The whole bloody argument!"

"NO WAY!"

"Yeah. He already got the pictures developed. He posted them in the Gryffindor commons."

"He posted them?" I asked. It just seemed too good to be true.

"Yes. They`re up there now." He laughed, sensing my anxiousness. "You want to leave now, don`t you?"

I grinned. "You know me too well. Come with me, Fred?"

He nodded at stood up, extending his arm for me to take. I took it and was escorted from the Great Hall by one of Hogwarts`s greatest pranksters to ever walk the halls. Every person`s eyes followed us as we walked with pride through the tall doors as if we were two famous people walking into an award show.



The pictures were excellent. No, more than excellent. I couldn`t think of a word to describe them. I stood there next to Fred and looked at Draco`s red face as he yelled at a smiling Parvati. Yes, yelled. Hermione had enchanted them to talk, or in Draco`s case, scream at the top of his lungs. The next picture showed Parvati laughing at him. It was a very hearty laugh, which caused Draco to blush. The third and final picture was a photograph of Draco, blown up to an eight by ten size. I laughed, making Fred laugh. My laugh (or so people told me) was contagious- Fred was no exception. I stared at Draco`s face, whose grey eyes were wide, his mouth hanging open in an unattractive way, his face pale. Suddenly, he closed his mouth and turned red. I MEAN RED. Red like the Weasleys` hair red (which did not go well with his white-blond hair, I mentally noted). Then he threw up his hand`s in the air, apparently exasperated, and said, "Well! That was just no good!" and stormed off, the Slytherins following in his angry wake.

I couldn`t wait for the Heart`s Ball. It was only one day away. Just one day.... Then we could finish the plan.



DISCLAIMER: I own the plot. All characters and names mentioned belong to J. K. Rowling, her publishers, and her sponsors. Yada yada yada....



NOTE: So, what do you think? Is Draco really a nice guy? Or is he a bad one? Exactly what is this plan Fred and Lav are creating? Well, it`s all in the next chapter (the FINAL chapter)!!! The Hearts Ball is coming up... What will happen? Stay tuned and find out next time one Grey Gaze. LOL... I sound like a commercial. By the way, I decided I LOVE long reviews (hint hint :) Also, who do you think Lavender should be with? I haven`t decided yet. I wanna know who you think she should end up with.



SO DON`T BE A CHICKEN! BE A MAN (OR WOMAN:) AND FILL OUT A REVIEW!!!!!