Summary: When Ginny boarded the Hogwarts Express on the first of September, she was surprised to come face-to-face with the last person she expected to see back in school. He was still the same prat she remembered from years before, but now he has a much higher authority than ever before: he was this year's new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Ginny wished this was all a dream, but to her dismay she was stuck with him for an entire school year!
Disclaimer: Once again I don't want to go through all the mumbo-jumbo of having to write this out, so I'm saying this now: NOT MINE!!! I keep on forgetting to add this on to this one: MAIN HP CHARACTERS AREN'T MINE, those other names you don't recognize are mine as well as the plot, and also other stuff that you don't recognize, kapish?
Setting: Ginny's in her 7th year; Draco graduated the year before
PhoenixRae's Notes: hmm...well I'm on a roll! *lol* how many chapters uploaded in one day? thanks for reviewing & reading this fic. and I think I might throw in some fluff in this chappie...I dunno yet, hehehehe :::winks::: I just write/type whatever comes into mind for a certain chappie, so we'll see if I could actually get some fluffy romance in this one...
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XVIII. Prelude to a Date
Derek hadn't stopped pursuing Ginny since that night he cornered her on her way back to her dormitory from the library. She did her best to avoid him; to tell him to bugger off and leave her alone once and for all, but he wouldn't be deterred. It even came up to the point where she would ask either one of her friends to keep a look out for Derek and warn her immediately if he was any where near her!
"You're losing it, Gin, you're completely losing it!" Colin tsked after Ginny dragged him out of the Great Hall after dinner Thursday night.
"Shut it, Colin. Just keep me company and don't let Derek anywhere near me! That jerk's giving me the creeps," she hissed, darting her eyes here and there to be certain that they weren't being followed by her current stalker.
"As if I'm going to let that prick get anywhere near you, Gin. I haven't gone daft yet. I still remember what he did to you during your first match."
"I don't think anybody would be forgetting about that incident," she said bitterly, turning a corner until they were at the staircases.
"But I still think this is stupid, Gin. You're running scared because your ex-boyfriend suddenly made an about-face and is now stalking you. How pathetic is that?" Colin made the situation sound more ludicrous.
"Very pathetic indeed."
Both friends jumped apart at the sound of Draco's voice who materialized from out of no where. Colin looked like he just had a heart attack when Draco snuck-up on them.
"Good evening, Professor," Colin inclined his head in greeting after he found his voice. "You gave us such a fright sneaking up like that."
Draco stepped up closer to the two Gryffindor seventh years, his hands clasped together behind him. He inclined his head in greeting, addressing both students when he said, "My apologies. I didn't mean to butt-in like that, but I couldn't help it."
"You're entitled to your opinions, Professor, but you should also watch out when you voice them out," advised Ginny.
Draco smiled and nodded his agreement, "Again, my apologies."
"No need, Professor. It's all cool," Colin nodded.
"Great. Uhm, Creevey, would you mind if I talk to Weasley alone?"
"Oh...no, not at all," Colin moved away from Ginny then, "I'll just see you in the common room."
"OK. See you later, Colin," Ginny waved her friend off and waited until he was out of earshot before she turned back look at Draco, "You wanted to talk to me, Professor?"
"Yes, I do. Would you mind walking back with me to my classroom?"
Ginny raised an eyebrow, "O-kay...am I on some sort of impromptu detention here, Professor?" she asked, but her voice lacked the apprehension she was suppose to be feeling at being asked to follow her teacher to his classroom.
"Not really," Draco hid a grin as he led her to his Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, "I just want to discuss a report you handed in."
Ginny fell into step after him. She didn't want to be seen walking side by side with the man rumoured to be her secret lover. She played along with this game he started and followed him to his classroom. There was no report she handed in that he wanted to discuss; he just wanted to talk to her about something and he didn't want the whole school to make a big deal about it, so he had to fabricate a whopper of an excuse just so they could talk.
"Alright Malfoy, what's up?" Ginny demanded as soon as they were inside his classroom.
Draco kept on walking until he reached his table before turning to look at her.
"How are you, Weasley?" he smiled, his face brightening up, making his face look more boyish and innocent (a/n: picture him as Louis in "Anna and the King"--Tom Felton's so adorably cute there!).
Ginny rolled her eyes heavenward and shook her head.
"Jeez, Malfoy! You could've asked me that outside!" she walked down the rows of desk and parked herself on the one across from his table.
His smile turned into one of his heart-melting sexy grin that almost made Ginny fall off the desk for being the recipient of that particular grin. He quickly transformed from being this boyish innocent to sexy as sin Adonis!
"I suppose I could've done that," he relented, "But if we did then people might start talking--again," he pointed out.
Ginny considered what he just said and had to agree with him. They weren't being gossiped about as much now as before, but neither of them shouldn't take any chances.
"Hmm...so what is it you want to talk to me about?" she asked, bracing her hands on either side of her on the desk and let her feet dangle a couple of feet off the floor.
"Stuff. Haven't talked to you alone since I saw you sneaking around the teachers' corridor."
"Hey, I wasn't sneaking around there," she protested, grinning from ear to ear and not the least bit offended.
"Yeah, right. You were hiding in the shadows waiting on some poor, unsuspecting teacher to scare off," he teased, busying himself with the already fixed papers on the upper right corner of his table.
"I had a perfectly good reason that night to be skulking around in the dark down that corridor, Malfoy," she reminded him sternly.
"Oh yeah?" he stopped fixing the papers and lifted an eyebrow at her.
"Yeah. I went down there to personally thank this wonderful teacher who stood up for me and my friends that day."
"Wonderful teacher?" he echoed, "Wow...I never thought I'd hear somebody describe me as such!"
"Who says I was talking about you?" she chided cheekily, "I was referring to Hermione, you nitwit."
"Ouch. You wound me, Weasley. You wound me right here," he pointed to his heart and faked a pained expression on his face.
Ginny chuckled and shook her head, "Yeah, I wound you alright, but it isn't your heart that I wounded but rather your enormous ego."
Draco made a sour face at her comment. He was slowly getting used to this easy camaraderie he happen to have with Ginny when he least expected it. He knew he had to keep up the stoic facade around her when they are out in public to keep the rumours at bay, but once he had the chance to get together with her in private like this, it was just amazing.
"What are you doing tomorrow night?" he asked quite out of the blue.
"What?" Ginny looked at him skeptically, her eyebrow furrowing at the center of her forehead.
Draco didn't know why he asked her that in the first place. It just felt right to ask her what she was doing tomorrow night considering it was already Thursday and this weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend.
"I just asked you what are you doing tomorrow night," he repeated with a slight shrug.
"Why?" Ginny asked suspiciously.
"Because," he shrugged.
"Malfoy..."
"I just asked because it's the next normal thing to ask," he quickly smacked himself at the back of the head after saying something as lame as that.
Ginny's eyebrow rose a fraction of an inch, an amused smile hovering just over her lips as she watched Draco carefully.
"Just the normal thing to ask or is that a lead-in to you asking me out on a date, hm?" she teased, her small mouth curving into a seductive grin (at least she hoped it was seductive for his sake).
Ginny couldn't believe her eyes when she saw two tiny spots of red appear on Draco's cheekbones. She bit on her bottom lip and giggled. Pushing herself off the desk, she slowly walked up to her teacher's table and stood across from him, her hands braced before her on the flat surface of the table, an eyebrow arched and an expression telling her companion that she was waiting for a reply from him.
Draco was very much taken aback but Ginny's bluntness. He knew she was spunky and direct to the point most of the time, but he has yet to get used to her getting directly to the point without giving him any warning!
"Me asking you on a date?" he managed to look incredulous at least when he finally found his voice to speak, "In your dreams, Weasley," he snorted.
Ginny let out a low, slow chuckle and rolled her eyes heavenwards once more. Shaking her mop of shiny red hair, she cocked her head to the side and gave her teacher a quick once-over before saying, "You're a chicken, Malfoy."
Now that insult didn't sit well with Draco. Nobody dared to call a Malfoy 'chicken' and lived to see the next day to brag about it!
"I am not a chicken, Weasley," he denied heatedly.
Ginny huffed and shook her head, "Yeah, yeah, sure. So, why'd you ask me what I'm doing tomorrow night?"
Draco resumed shuffling some papers that were already neatly piled on his desk to stall for some time. Hell, words just came out of his mouth and he had nothing to back it up with. He was rattling his brain for a plausible excuse to give her, and so far the only one he could think of was...
"Let's go for a round of Quidditch tomorrow night at the pitch," he invited.
"What?" she suddenly lost her composure, "You're--you're kidding, right?"
Draco smirked, "Do I look like the type who kids around, hm?"
Ginny straightened up and crossed her arms over her chest, studying his serious face carefully. Did he just invite her for a game of Quidditch in the middle of November? Was he out of his freaking mind?
"Uh...in case the current weather has frozen your brain cells, it's currently cold outside for us to enjoy a good game of Quidditch," she pointed out a matter of factly.
"So?" he gave a careless shrug.
"Uh, hello? A little reality check here, if you don't mind, Professor. Right now it's probably below freezing point out there. Quidditch season is postponed for the winter season--and for very obvious reasons!"
"C'mon, Gin, live a little!" he cajoled.
Gin. He called her 'Gin' again! She was momentarily rendered speechless after hearing one of her nickname slip from his lips so easily. Now why does her name sound so good coming out from that luscious mouth of his?
"Malfoy--"
Draco raised his hand up to stop her from further protesting, "Weasley, I promise you, you won't freeze that cute little tush of yours tomorrow night," he assured her.
Ginny still wasn't convinced.
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A/N: uuuh...tell me what you think of this chapter and please be honest with me! after yesterday's sudden burst of ideas today I found myself crawling just to get this out! *lol* actually I have a perfectly good idea for what's to happen next, but getting to that idea I have in mind is giving me a hard time. anyways, I'll try and get the next chapter out ASAP (maybe by tomorrow night at the latest), but for now please read, review, comment, make some suggestions, and enjoy!
Jenn: yep, Percy's starting to grow a pair! *lol*
Amy: hmm...I'll try and see if I can squeeze in any further more Percy/Twyla action here
mavis: you were surprised with the "Mr. X" chap? why? how?
Xela: *lol* I'll see what I can do about that Percy & Twyla romance...seems like quite a few people are asking for it
Faltering Hues: before we all kill Harry for not being able to keep his big, fat mouth shut, let's hear him out first
Anh D-ao: sorry about that, I know yesterday ff.net was acting up and taking forever for the next chappies to be loaded, hopefully today it won't have the same problem
sassw14: yep, I'm glad I'm done with the whole writer's block phase *lol*
Jade Stellar: yep, Draco's jealous...gotta make him jealous sometimes :::winks:::
izzy: I have my moments. there are days that I can finish up to 4 chappies & have them loaded up real fast, and there are days when I can't even finish one *lol* btw, thanks for that little explanation regarding this little misunderstanding between xela & lama
Surfah: thanks for liking the plot & how this story's written
chiLLz: well Derek's...Derek's a jerk, what can I say? *lol*
Nicole: I am working on it *lol* maybe in the next chappie we'll finally get some snoggin' done! (I hope!)
*karly*: thanks...I'm on a roll here and I better take advantage of it before I get stomped again
Arella Hallo: yep, I got an itch yesterday and...well, I needed to scratch it and tah-dah! *lol*
MelissaAdams: yep, Gin sure did!
hasapi: :::evil laugh::: you're right, :::sings that annoyingly catchy song from Don't Say A Word::: I'LL NEVER TELL... :::giggles:::
Sharlene: are you sure he likes-likes her or is he up to something...uhm...nasty?
txt-eva: so you like the Twyla/Percy goodness, eh?
Redmeadow: well I could have Draco, the twins, Harry, Ron, & Percy beat the snot out of Derek :::winks:::
The Lady of Gondor: that's what I'm aiming for when I first started this fic (regarding Draco's character); I want him to be unpredictable and Derek...well, Derek's an ass who has some issues he needs to sort out--or something
Loves-Kiss: I've been toiling with this chapter since this afternoon, but it took me a while to finally finish it
Redbug: word of advice: TRUST NOBODY *lol*
Yochy: thanks for liking and here's another update
Alexia Croft: you're shocked because you didn't notice it? how? why? anyways, thanks for liking this
SAngel: Derek's still going to be around to cause some havoc one way or the other
Isis: Mione is swinging single, but I'm trying to pair her up with Harry
xangelcrisisx: well this is a D/G fic but with a few sub-romances inserted for...uhm...humour? hehehe
lilikins: that's what I intend it to be (regarding Twyla & Percy's relationship) to make it as hilarious as possible...I dunno why...I just love those Weasley boys! *lol*
Junebug: thanks, and here's the next chap
Ishizu-Sango-Halliwell: thanks
myobgirly: I'm trying to get some D/G action done so that's what I'm going to try and work on in the next chapter
Anyanka: he's up to no good, that's what! *lol*
