A/N: Eeek! Extreme writers block! Need help! Let me know what you think! Review, review, review! More comments at bottom…

Chapter Nine

Ginny walked out onto the Quidditch pitch that night, still in her robes from class. She hadn't had time to go back to the Common Room before dinner and she was so tired that just the thought of climbing seven flights of stairs to change and then coming right down again had exhausted her so much that she had just decided to go out onto the pitch a bit early. She tossed her bag to the ground and sat next to it, a sheet of crimson parchment clutched in her hand. She focused on it and read it again:

Come and Try Out!

Gryffindor Quidditch Team

Looking for new seeker, chasers, and keeper

Sunday, 1 March 1998

3:00 P.M.

Contact Harry Potter for more information

Her stomach started to twist up into a tiny ball of nervousness. In all the excitement in the last few days, the thoughts of the Quidditch tryouts had been completely voided from her consciousness. Setting the paper aside, she flipped open the top of her bag and pulled out the long, slender box where she had been keeping her rose and placed it in her lap. She had looked at it earlier that morning, but it was still the same color. She started to pull the lid off, just to check it out, when she heard footsteps behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see Draco approaching, his face contorted in a wide yawn. "Wow," Ginny thought, bemused. "He even looks cute when his face is all screwed up." She quickly forced this unusual observation from her head and started to stand to greet him.

"Don't bother," Draco mumbled, collapsing next to her, tossing his broomsticks to the side. "What's that?" She followed his gaze to her lap where the box still sat. "A flobberworm farm?"

She looked at him, mystified. "Why would I want one flobberworm, let alone a whole farm of them?"

Draco just shrugged. "Different strokes," he mumbled. "So, what is it really?"

"A gift I got for Valentine's day," she replied, a slight smile coming to her face even as she inwardly pondered why she was even telling Draco this. She was sure he'd find a way to make a joke out of it. But to her amazement, he only looked mildly surprised.

"What kind of gift?," he asked in a quiet voice.

"A Mystique Rose," she replied. She waited for his response. What would he say? Draco wasn't nearly as snotty as he used to be, but he could still insult with the best of them. Although, she realized, a bit startled, he hadn't really insulted her in a couple of weeks.

"Really? What color is it?," he finally said, surprising Ginny. That was the absolute last thing she had expected.

"Oh!," she exclaimed. "Well, this morning it was yellow with a red tip. That means-".

"Falling in love," Draco said in a low voice.

Ginny looked at him in astonishment. "How do you know so much about rose colors?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "I'm a decent Herbology student," he answered with a shrug. "So...can I see it?"

Ginny hesitated. What if it had changed color? What if it was suddenly dying and black? Then he'd think she was a liar. "Erm...I don't know...," she finally said.

Draco looked confused. "Why not?"

"I just...well, if it's not yellow with a red tip, don't blame me," she said, biting her lip.

Draco snickered quietly and took the box from her and pulled the lid off of it. Ginny couldn't see the rose from where she sat, only Draco's face. He stared into the box for a long moment and then looked back at her then back at the box again. He continued this process for nearly a minute before Ginny finally lost her patience.

"Is there something wrong with it?," she finally exclaimed, straining to get a look.

He held the box away so that she couldn't see. "Nope. But it's not yellow with a red tip."

"It changed color?," Ginny squealed, fighting even harder for the box. Draco laughed at the little red-head's attempts. "It's not funny!," she grumbled, settling down as she realized that he wasn't going to give the box up. "What color is it?"

"Here you go," he finally said, handing it to her. "I just wanted to see you fight for it."

Ginny stuck her tongue out at him and then eagerly looked down into the box. She gasped slightly. The rose, as Draco had said, was no longer the yellow and red of that morning. It was now a pale pink color, so soft and velvety that it hardly looked real. "Well, Mr. Herbology. What does this mean?"

Draco looked down at the rose again and then back up at Ginny and she gasped at the look in his eyes. His gray eyes, which she had always thought were cold and steely, seemed to be endless pools of silver gossamer. She felt as though she was falling into them and suddenly had the enormous urge to kiss him on more than the cheek. She sucked in a deep breath and tried to focus on what Draco was saying.

"Light pink. Hmm...admiration, grace, joy, sweetness...the beginnings of true love," Draco said, his eyes never leaving hers. "It's a very good color."

"Yes...yes, I agree," Ginny stammered, gulping nervously. "Think of the person who gave you this rose, Ginny," the teeny voice in her head commanded. "Don't ruin what could be the beginning of true love by falling for Draco Malfoy." She sucked in a deep breath and then smiled pertly. "Shall we get started? Lots to learn before the first."

"The first?," Draco slurred, looking as though he had just been awoken. "What's the first?"

Ginny laughed nervously, his endless eyes still the focus of her thoughts. "The Quidditch trials. Imagine, you only have to deal with me for two more weeks."

Draco stood up reluctantly and looked around for his brooms. "Yeah," he finally said. "Lucky me."

---

It had been one week since the day that Draco had slipped and let Granger know how he felt about Ginny. One long, agonizing week. He spent most of his meals trying to inconspicuously watch the Gryffindor table and attempting to scare Granger into silence by looking at her. She would sometimes catch his gaze and roll her eyes, but that was the extent of her reaction. He was much more satisfied when Ginny would look over at him. She would always give him a shy smile, granted nobody was looking at her. Which they usually weren't, Draco thought somewhat sorrowfully.

Most of Ginny's friends, it seemed, were her older brother's friends. She seemed to be rather close to Granger. The two were always next to each other at meals and he would occasionally catch glimpses of them between classes. She didn't really talk to Harry, which Draco supposed was the result of Potter's little attempt at seduction. He intermittently saw her walking with a couple of girls who looked like they were in her year, but their conversations seemed to consist of much giggling and such. The only other people she talked to, that he knew of, were the boys in Potter and the elder Weasley's year - Longbottom, Thomas, and of course, The Irish Louse.

"Damn The Irish Louse," Draco thought. It was bad enough that he had found out that Blaise fancied him, but the fact that he was always hanging all over Ginny was enough to make him ill. He could understand that she was friends with so many guys, after all she had grown up that way. But did she really always have to be followed around by The Irish Louse? That smiley little wanker. Draco despised him nearly as much as he despised Potter.

He suddenly felt a slight prickling on the back of his neck, as though someone was watching him. He wearily turned his head and saw Blaise staring at him, her chin resting on her palm.

"What?," he mumbled, preparing himself for her chastising words.

"Nothing," she replied, breaking away her gaze. She picked up her fork and began to eat her dinner. "I was just wondering how long I could stare at you before you realized it."

Draco cocked his brow. "Why would you want to do that?"

She shrugged. "Don't know. Just bored, I guess." There was a moment of quiet before she spoke again. "Actually, Draco, I was wondering something."

"What's that?," Draco asked, yawning, as though he couldn't care less.

"How come," Blaise began, "almost as soon as you started giving Weasley those lessons, you stopped hiding out in corners and coming back smelling like smoke."

Draco stared at her as though she were a complete idiot. "I think the answer to that is quite obvious, Blaise. It's the same reason your income has gone down recently."

Blaise looked a bit annoyed at this statement. "You know what I mean, Draco," she muttered. "I mean, you've had plenty of girlfriends before. None of them made you stop smoking."

Draco shrugged. "None of the girlfriends I've had did anything to calm my nerves."

"And she does?," Blaise questioned.

"I never said that," Draco replied. "I simply said that none of my girlfriends-"

"So, is she your girlfriend?," Blaise interrupted.

Draco let out a slight, aggravated laugh. "Do you realize what an asinine question that was, Blaise? You just asked me if Ginny Weasley was my girlfriend."

"So?"

"So? So that's a stupid question. Even if I…I wanted her to be my girlfriend, it would never happen," Draco replied.

"Why not?"

"Because," Draco answered in an exasperated voice.

"That's not a reason," Blaise countered, shaking her head.

Draco narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice enough so that he was sure that only Blaise could hear him. "It's enough of a reason for me."

"That's stupid," Blaise said in frustration. "You're stupid, Draco! You love her!"

Draco's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "I most certainly do not!," he exclaimed, his mind reeling. He had only told Granger because she had figured out the rose thing already. Plus, he knew that the last thing she would ever do would be tell Ginny. Granger wanted him to seem like an evil bastard, no matter what.

"You most certainly do," Blaise spat back, drawing a few curious stares from those around them. She shot them all a death glare and they returned to their meals. She dropped her voice. "I see the way you look at her. I hear the way your voice changes when you talk about her, even though you try damn hard to hide it. Dammit, Draco, she's definitely not my first choice for you. Definitely not. But I know love when I see it and you are bloody in love with her."

"Oh, like you would know anything about love, Blaise," Draco sneered, suddenly very angry. Who was she to call him out like that? How dare she presume to think that she could possibly know what was going on in his head? It was ridiculous. Absolutely preposterous. "You've never loved anyone."

Blaise's smirk faded from her face. She looked utterly and completely shaken. "That, Draco Malfoy," she said quietly, as she rose from the table, "is just one of the many things that you're wrong about."

---

"Ginny, can I talk to you?"

"What about?," Ginny asked vaguely, tearing her eyes away from the conflict across the room and towards her friend. Hermione looked worried. "Is something wrong?"

Hermione hesitated. "No…well…yes. In a way." She sighed. "Can we go somewhere quiet to talk?"
Ginny was famished, but realized Hermione was dead set on having this conversation, so she nodded and grabbed a roll, following the older girl from the room.

"So, what's wrong?," Ginny asked as they aimlessly wandered the first floor.

"I just wanted to tell you something," Hermione said. "This is none of my business and I hope you don't hate me for interfering, but-"

"Miss Granger, there you are!," a voice suddenly boomed, breaking off Hermione in mid-sentence. McGonagall cam striding down the hall towards them. "Sorry to interrupt, but I really must speak to you. Head Girl business."

Hermione looked between her teacher and her friend in dismay. "It's okay, Hermione," Ginny quickly said. "We can talk later."

Hermione looked slightly appeased, but still worried as she nodded than followed McGonagall down the hall, leaving Ginny alone.

Ginny decided just to head up to Gryffindor Tower. The Slytherin Quidditch team was practicing that evening for their match that coming Saturday, so she didn't have her lessons. In fact, she only had one lesson left with Draco before Sunday.

Ginny rounded the corner just about to go up the steps, when she heard a quiet sobbing from behind a wide column in the corner. She hesitated, then followed the hushed weeping. A girl sat hunched over on the floor, her brown tresses spilling over her face. Despite her facial features being obscured, Ginny recognized her: Blaise Zabini.

The red-head hesitated. What should she do? Go get a professor? Try and comfort the Slytherin girl? For a fleeting second she even considered going to get Draco, but decided against it. Taking a deep breath, she stepped closer to the crying brunette.

"Erm…Blaise? Do you need some help?"

Blaise looked up and fixed Ginny with her red-rimmed green eyes. "Not from you of all people."

Ginny bristled slightly. She was only trying to be polite. "Well…fine," she said in a huff. She turned and started to walk away.

"Wait," Blaise suddenly croaked and Ginny was so surprised that she stopped and turned around. "I'm…I apologize for being rude. Come…talk to me…please?"

Ginny bit her lip, trying to decide what to do. She finally walked over and slid down onto the floor next to Blaise.

--- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---

A/N: *Sigh* I don't know what happened. I'm just having…issues with the story right now. I hope you all liked this chapter though. Let me know.

Much, much, much thanks to all who reviewed Chapter Eight: Sabra (You'll find out soon enough!), Mocha Dream (Thank you for the looooong review and all the sweet comments), Ace Of Spades (I won't let Hermione do the honors…), Silver Essence (You threw a monkey at me?! I feel so…honored…hehe), Imp (No snogging yet…sorry), hpangel (Thanks for the long, extremely encouraging review), BrittishBabe, Sakura1287 (I'm glad you liked that line. It just kind of popped into my head as I was typing…and it fit…yay for sudden revelations of the fanfic type), karly (Thank you for reassuring me that I don't need to have them smooching yet. Yay!), Rubyjuls1722, Jen ( I know what you mean about reading about Draco in the books. It's kind of a downer, isn't it?), Dracos gal (I'm sorry! I'll be more careful next time…this time…every time!), AVLV, opal.star, doublekiss, Miss. Charlet, frananddragon (Eeek! Don't go bald! Everything will be all right! And I've read the first part of the trilogy, but not the sequel and erm…three-quel…lol.), Shyanne, KeeperOfTheMoon, annie, bynkee, Riauna, mary, charismatic, Rebuky, Rainbow Dreamer (I like gushing compliments as much as constructive criticism…it's A-OK with me…haha), Ginny001, Cassandra Sisenta or Krey-Zey, Molly, ferggirl99, Missfizz (the different color thing is true, however the rose is not…as you probably figured out…haha), JeNnSyLvAnIa, Isadora, Eraserhead (Yay for G/D…we will convert you yet!), Melzie, Ruler of the World (just for you…not a single muttering or smirk in the entire chapter…hurrah!), Space Lion, SeZza, gohansfan (I'm glad you like the way I have the characters…it's not just me…whew), Ariadna, Sayo, kitty'89, dreamofTF (Happy Birthday!!!), Kitty, Kitycat87, Katie, seekerpeeker, Red Magic Marker, Kerry, Dragon's Cat, Simply Bewitching 1, Crystal, Annabella Walter, and Eleoopy.

Hmmm…what else did I want to add? Oh yeah, I few things I noticed from your reviews:

1) Seamus is not a fan favorite…should I make him a bit more lovable? Or more annoying? Let me know.

2) Hermione is really nosey. I didn't realize how bad I was making her. Oh well- Hermione is, as Hermione does.

And

3) Draco is yummy.

As always, thanks for reading, and review, review, review!!!