She's there, again. I should hate her. She stands for everything that the name Malfoy hates. She is pure, will use magic for good causes, is sweet, innocent. She smiles at everyone that she meets while walking in the halls. They all smile back, knowing that this is Ginny Weasley. One must be nice when dealing with Ginny Weasley.
One must not be rude, mean, blunt when talking to Ginny Weasley. One must not hurt her in any way, hurt the innocence nearly brimming from her sweet voice, the big brown eyes, the way she twirls a strand of red hair carelessly around a finger as she studies. She is entirely different than anyone that I know, anyone that I willingly associate with.
So completely different.
Different from me.
She knows enough not to smile at me in the halls. She looks at me, looks at my pale face, my silvery blond hair, my calculating gray eyes, and looks away. Not one word is exchanged between us unless I start it, in order to hear a word, any word come out from between those red lips of hers.
I insult her, mock her, berate her.
It is the only way that I know how to show my affection for her.
She takes it in a completely different way than I want her to.
I frighten her.
She always hangs around Potter, Granger, and her brothers. I never see her with any other witch or wizard her own age. I am sure that it is not that she doesn't fit in, but that she does not want to.
She yearns for the Potter boy. I watch her, I see the looks she gives him. The looks that he does not return. He is even more foolish than I believed him to be. This beautiful girl is near him always, asking silently with her eyes for his affection, to know that he cares about her.
He cares about her, that's certain. He saved her from the Chamber of Secrets, after all. But he does not care for her in the way that she wishes him to.
He is just a friend to her.
Perhaps...
There is a chance for me.
I am not hungry.
Fruit salad was served for breakfast today.
Strawberries, plump and juicy.
Red.
The color of her hair.
The color of her lips.
I get up abruptly and leave the hall.
I have no appetite.