A/N: *Sigh* I was so annoyed with myself for the last, extremely LAME chapter that I stayed up till 2 in the morning to finish this one. And I know I promised the Quidditch Try Outs this chapter, but…next chapter, I swear. Let me know what y'all think! Review, review, review!

Chapter Fourteen

"Dammit Pritchard, pay attention!"

The fourth-year Keeper looked up at Draco, his face extremely apologetic. He had just missed his third consecutive Quaffle. The game had only been going on for ten minutes and the score was already thirty to zero in favor of the Ravenclaw team. Draco was starting to feel a bit panicked.

The Quidditch Cup race was extremely close. Gryffindor, of course, was in the lead. Ravenclaw was only ten points ahead of Slytherin, who were holding up third place. Hufflepuff, the bunch of duffers, were obviously in fourth.

Draco saw a flash of gold out of the corner of his eye and whipped around, looking down. His heartbeat fell back down from his excited state when he realized that it was only the glint off of someone's prefect badge. Draco squinted and realized that it was coming from Mudblood Granger and her bloody enormous Head Girl brooch. He allowed himself to sneak a short glance around her and to his elation saw Ginny sitting by her. Potter was next to her, but she wasn't paying any attention to him. To Draco's satisfaction, she was staring up at him, though she didn't realize that he was staring right back.

He suddenly realized that he wasn't paying any attention to the game around him and forced himself to turn his Accelerina Maxima around and focus on the match. He watched in satisfaction as his chasers finally scored a goal past the Ravenclaw Keeper. He could hear the Ravenclaw supporters boo wildly, but he just zoned them out.

The game seemed to go on and on. The mid-morning sun that had been slanting onto the cold pitch was now a full-blast shock of light. Even in the coldness that was customary to the last day of February, such as today was, Draco was starting to feel extremely warm with the sun beating on him. He wanted this game over with as soon as possible. Draco hated to sweat. Another boo came from the crowd. The Slytherin chasers scored four more goals in quick succession, making the score fifty to twenty, in favor of Slytherin. If he were to catch the Snitch now, Slytherin would be in the finals. He started to fly around more swiftly, his eagle eyes scanning the pitch. He could feel the gaze of Cornfoot, the Ravenclaw seeker, on him, shadowing his every movement.

A few moments later he saw it! Glimmering near the center hoop on the other end of the pitch was the elusive Golden Snitch. He thought for such a second about trying to divert Cornfoot, but decided against it. He knew that against his broom and flying skills, Cornfoot had no chance in a race.

He leaned forward on his broom and zoomed forward, keeping the winged-ball in his line of vision. The cheers of the crowd started to ring in his ears as he neared the snitch, which suddenly shot away, causing Draco to turn sharply. Cornfoot, to Draco's complete surprise was directly behind him. In the course of all of his lessons with Ginny, he had failed to check out the other teams as thoroughly as he had in previous years. Cornfoot had obvious gotten much better

Draco urged his broom forward. The snitch was drawing closer and closer and Draco stretched his arm out…further…and further until - finally - it closed around the tiny gold ball. He could hear the cries of disappointment from the stands, but they were nearly overshadowed by the ecstatic screams of victory from the green and silver clad Slytherin supporters. Draco held the Snitch above him triumphantly and looked down as he soared around the stadium.

He could see Pansy and Blaise jumping up and down, nearly beside themselves with ecstasy. Malcolm Baddock, for once, didn't look scared or paranoid as landed on the ground and jumped around excitedly. Draco's eyes drifted back over to where Ginny had been sitting. He grinned. She wasn't moping about like the rest of the students around her. She was standing up on the bleacher, clapping her hands admiringly and staring up at him. He met her eyes and dropped one eyelid in a wink, sure that she couldn't even see him. To his surprise, her grin grew even wider and she winked back at him.

Draco could see Harry next to her, shooting her a confused glance and then glaring up at him, but Draco didn't care. He simply soared around the stadium again, doing a prolonged victory lap before landing on the ground.

---

Ginny sighed impatiently and glanced down at her wristwatch, a plain silver faceplate attached to a thin string of brown leather tied around her wrist. The Quidditch match had ended nearly an hour ago. For someone who had made it a point to include 'Don't be late' in his note, Draco was certainly not punctual, at least not today.

She grinned as she remembered Draco winking at her during the Quidditch match. The look on his face had been classic; he had been so shocked that she had winked back. The thought made her giggle.

To occupy herself, Ginny pulled out the note Draco had sent her. It still hadn't occurred to her why the handwriting and parchment looked so familiar. She knew it shouldn't be a big deal - but for some reason she felt it was important.

She suddenly heard the soft sound of footsteps in the room and she listened closely, hoping that it was Draco and not just some random first-year lost in the confusing maze of hallways. A moment later though, the tapestry was pushed aside to reveal Draco. He was still dressed in his Quidditch uniform. His broom was clutched in his hands and he slid onto the seat, leaning his back against the wall opposite her and just stared at her for a moment as he set the broom down next to him.

Ginny didn't know what to say to him, since he was staring at her so intently, so she just stared back. She had never really paid attention to him when he was in full Quidditch gear and she couldn't believe how utterly sexy he looked. The green robes, lined in silvery-gray, complemented his fair coloring and the dragon hide boots and gloves added the impression of toughness. She could see the familiar smirk he customarily wore pulling at the edges of his cheeks as she stared at him and she quickly moved her gaze away from him to the ceiling.

"So…," she began, starting to feel a bit awkward since he wasn't saying anything, "what did you want to see me about?"

She glanced over at him and was not at all surprised to find that he still had his gaze set on her. He didn't say anything for a moment, merely ran his tongue over his lips in a very subtle manner and laughed as Ginny's eyes widened. "Don't go having wicked thoughts now, Weasley," he drawled in typical Malfoy-manner.

She bit her lip, a bit hurt. "I thought you weren't going to call me that," she said quietly.

Draco looked a bit disappointed, than shrugged. "Well, in all honesty, I wanted you to blow up so I could kiss you again to get you quiet."

Ginny felt her cheeks growing a bit red at this admission. "You…what I mean is…erm…well, you know-," she began, but quickly fell silent when she realized she couldn't string together a coherent sentence. She took a deep breath and finally forced the words out. "I don't have to be yelling for you to kiss me," she finally said.

Draco raised his eyebrows. "You don't?" Ginny rolled her eyes. He knew that, the little wanker. He was toying with her.

"Of course not, stupid," she mumbled. She glared at him. "You're trying to get me mad again aren't you?" He didn't answer, only stared at her some more, a lazy grin on his face. She knew exactly what he was doing - but she couldn't help it as her temper took over. She tried very hard to keep her face blank, to keep the flush from rushing to her cheeks, to keep the angry sparks from flying from her eyes. She wanted him to bloody kiss her without pretense; she wanted him to kiss her simply because he wanted to.

"It's hard, isn't it, Weasley?," Draco said indolently, leaning forward on his knees until his face was only a few centimeters away from hers. One of his hands was on the wall behind her, the other was on the side of her face, his leather-bound fingers gently stroking her hairline.

Ginny knew that she shouldn't give in to him, but this was pure torture. He seemed so different from one night to the next. Last night he had been all sweet, proclaiming that he liked her and tonight…well, tonight he was practically killing her with his sexy aloofness. Damn Malfoys and their bloody charm.

"Stop it!," she roared. "If you're going to-," she was cut off as he lightly brushed his lips against hers. He pulled back and leaned back against the wall again, his eyes heavy-lidded as he stared at her. She pouted and leaned back. "You suck," she finally mumbled under her breath.

Draco shrugged. "I have a present for you," he said.

"A present? For what?," she asked, quite surprised, immediately forgetting about his cocky behavior.

He just shook his head. "Do I have to have a reason?
"Hmm…a reason for Draco Malfoy to give Ginny Weasley a present? Yeah, I think that just may warrant an explanation," she said sarcastically.

"I already told you I liked you," Draco said dismissively.

"Yeah, so?"
"So, isn't that reason enough? Can't I give people presents to people simply because I like them?"

Ginny was silenced for a moment by this bit of logic. "I suppose."

"I suppose," Draco mimicked in a squeaky voice. He picked up the broomstick beside him and held it out towards her. "Here."

Ginny stared from the broomstick jutting out in front of her face back towards the blonde boy holding it out to her and back again. "Excuse me?"

Draco sighed impatiently. "Here! This is for you."

Ginny looked at it more closely and realized that it was the Nimbus 2001 that she had been practicing on for the last few weeks. "Draco…I can't take this!"

Draco looked perplexed. "Why not?"

"I just…can't! I mean…this is yours!," she tried to explain.

Draco shook his head. "No, it's yours. I didn't spend all that time turning you into an incredible Quidditch player just so you can waste it using that damn Shooting Star. Besides, I have three other broomsticks at home. And I'll probably get another one when I graduate."

Ginny didn't know what to say. He was giving her a bloody broomstick. And not just any broomstick, one that cost more Galleons than she had probably ever seen in her life.

"I don't know what to say," she murmured

Draco raised his eyebrows. "Thank you is customary," he said airily.

Ginny felt extremely foolish. "Oh…yes…thank you, Draco," she muttered. "Thank you so much."

"Well," Draco said, stretching out and sliding his feet to the floor. "I need to get back to the common room. We have a bit of a celebration going on and I don't want to miss all the praise I'm going to get."

Ginny smiled slightly. "That was a great catch you made, you know. Good job."
Draco just shrugged as though it was nothing. "Yeah, well, maybe if Potter doesn't cheat as always I'll be able to edge him out in the Quidditch finals."

Ginny wanted to argue that Harry didn't cheat and that there was no way that Slytherin, no matter how gorgeous their captain was, could beat Gryffindor, but she couldn't. She was too mesmerized by Draco, who was slowly leaning down towards her.

His lips grazed hers again, just barely and then he straightened again and, giving her one last, devilish grin, pushed the tapestry aside and strode out of the room.

Ginny just sat there for a moment, trying to absorb what had just happened. Draco was back to his old tricks, it seemed. He was being sly and cunning and aloof - but at the same time, he was being unnervingly nice. He must be a Gemini, Ginny though, smiling slightly.

A few minutes later she made her way back up to Gryffindor tower. She had the broomstick with her and was trying to think of the best way to smuggle it into the common room, when the portrait hole opened and Parvati and Lavender Brown came spilling out, acting silly as always.

"Hey Ginny," Parvati said, waving at the younger girl. "What are you doing in the hallway with a broomstick?"
Ginny just shrugged and started towards the portrait hole, which had already closed back up while Parvati had been talking. "Hey, I heard you got a Mystique Rose," Lavender said suddenly, a note of innocent envy in her voice.

Ginny turned around and looked at her. "Where'd you hear that from?"

"Oh, Hermione," Lavender said with a shrug. "She just mentioned that you got one."

"Yeah, it's so romantic," Parvati said with a starry-eyed look in her eyes.

Lavender suddenly erupted into giggles again. "Hey, Parvati, remember when we were in Hogsmeade right before Valentine's Day and we saw Malfoy buying a Mystique Rose?" Parvati nodded and she burst into sniggers along with her friend.

Ginny turned around to stare at the girls, opened mouthed. Draco had bought a Mystique Rose?

The girls continued to laugh and looked at Ginny's face. Parvati tried to explain: "We just thought it was funny, you know. Malfoy buying a rose for someone. I'd imagine the thing's gone black and turned to ash by now. I feel sorry for whatever poor girl got it."

Lavender smiled sheepishly. "Not completely sorry. Malfoy is rather hot."

Parvati sneered. "Yeah, but he's still a stinking Slytherin." The two girls shared yet another loud laugh. "Well, anyway," Parvati said. "See you later, Ginny."

"Later," Lavender echoed as the two girls made their way down the hall, oblivious to the look of shock on the petite red-head's face.

It was all coming together now in Ginny's head - the rose, the handwriting, Draco's feelings…Draco had sent her the Mystique Rose…Draco was in love with her.

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Much thanks to wonderful people who reviewed in the short time between chapters:

Chocolat Elf, Tuilindo, angel, karly, Cassandra Sistenta or Krey-Zey, missfizz, Aurora North, Crystal, Sakura1287, and gohansfan.

Next Chapter: The Quidditch Try Outs (for really this time, y'all…haha) and everything comes out in the open.

So…what did y'all think? What should Ginny do? Bwahahaha…

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