The Kiss
"Draco Malfoy!"
Draco spun around, an evil, angry look in his eyes. He spotted Cho Chang, surrounded by her standard entourage of giggling girls. Draco sighed—at least it wasn't Pansy.
"What do you want?" Draco snapped and narrowed his eyes at the Chinese girl.
"I've heard the rumors—." Cho started and Draco cut her off.
"Wonderful, you here to tell me what a sadistic, evil person I am?"
"No, I already knew that you were a sadistic, evil person." Cho replied flatly and smiled. "I'm here to recommend you go and check out the cork-board just outside the Great Hall."
"Why?" Draco asked curtly and eyed her.
"Someone's gone and posted up a formal apology," Cho started with a tone that was almost as if she were talking about the weather.
"I should care?" Draco stared at her and wondered if she'd lost it.
"They signed your name." Cho finished and Draco immediately broke into a dead run towards the Great Hall. Cho watched him bolt around the corner, and his two cronies jogged behind him. She smirked a bit and whispered something to herself.
"Hook, line, and sinker."
"Did you say something Cho?" One of the giggling girls asked and beamed up at Cho.
"No, nothing." Cho lied and brushed some of her hair back behind her ear.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"There's the signal," Ginny said quietly as she saw a few blue sparks tumble through the window just down the hall from where she was standing. Colin saw Malfoy coming.
Ginny quickly took the apology, cast a spell on it so it glowed, and tacked it up on the random-announcement-board. She smirked and quickly ducked off into the crowd as Malfoy came running around the corner.
"What's this then?" Anthony Goldstein snatched the glowing piece of parchment off the board and started to read it.
"Drop it Hufflepuff."
Anthony looked up and saw the end of Draco Malfoy's wand pointed directly at him. Anthony's eyes widened slightly and Draco took the paper from him. Draco put his wand away and Anthony made a break for it. Draco scanned the crowd of students out in front of the Great Hall for anyone that looked mildly suspicious.
"Where's the fire Ginny?"
Draco snapped his attention over to the stairs where he spotted Ginny Weasley. She was staring down at him like a deer in the headlights and trying frantically to get around Seamus Finnigan.
"Did you get your revenge on that blonde git yet?" Seamus asked and Ginny paled.
"You!" Draco shouted and Ginny finally just shoved Seamus down.
Draco hopped over the banister and took off running after the redhead. He may have been an athlete but Weasley could run. Must have been the fact that she was so very skinny. He chased after her and followed as she tried to lose him around corners and out through courtyards. She finally, in a last ditch effort, ran up a set of moving stairs and made an astonishing leap over to one of the shifting cases.
Funny that she should try to lose him in the air.
In one stride Draco hopped up on the banister. In just one more quick movement he'd leapt into the air and managed to grab Ginny's arm. They landed on the shifting stairs and both of them lost their balance. Had they not been connected they probably would have been fine. However, seeing as Draco refused to let go of her arm, the two of them tumbled down the stairs, into the hall, and halted abruptly as they crashed into a broom closet door.
It took both of them a moment to recover from the incident but once they had they proceeded to glare at each other. Ginny struggled to get her arm free but Draco refused to release her.
"You're the one doing this!" He growled.
"You did this to yourself!" Ginny retorted and frowned.
"You'll stop this at once!" Draco shouted and Ginny scoffed.
"This is only the beginning." Ginny seethed back at him and he narrowed his eyes.
"Is that a threat?"
"…Why no," Ginny's voice fell soft and her features calmed considerably. She was looking at him with something close to compassion for a moment before she spoke again. "It was a fluffy bunny-rabbit."
"You have no idea how acutely depressing it is to realize we're from the same species." Draco snarled and Ginny's expression went back to its standard—at least around Draco—angry position.
"I'm sorry, do I resemble your therapist?" Ginny asked dryly and tried once more to pull her arm back from Draco.
"You're pushing it Weasley." Draco had to resist the urge to draw his wand and curse her.
"You may pretend to dislike me, but deep down, you know you hate me." Ginny egged him on further and pouted a bit. Draco was about to shout some sardonic comeback at her when she pulled on her arm. She pulled as hard as she could, hoping that she'd break free of his grasp, but unlike other people Draco Malfoy didn't release when someone fought back.
Ginny pulled her arm and threw him off balance. He lurched forward unexpectedly. She let out a small shout as he tripped forward and they both fell to the ground. Her shout was quickly muffled as his lips connected with hers. Ginny stared into the cool grey eyes of Draco Malfoy for just a moment. He was just as shocked about this development as she was. He instantly released her arm and jumped off of her. Ginny coughed and wiped her mouth a few times harshly.
"Thank you Mr. Malfoy, now I have to go brush my teeth!" Ginny shouted as she stood up.
"I feel ill." Draco eyed her and shook his head. "Bloody weasel germs, I'll have to see Pomfrey for this."
"I'm not your type; I'm not inflatable." Ginny glared and they both stalked off in opposite directions.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"I can't believe I did that." Draco groaned and leaned back on the couch. Right now he was loathing Ginny Weasley more than ever before—however this statement was pretty hollow considering he'd never really loathed her.
"I can't sympathize with you if you don't tell what you can't believe." Terence said calmly and looked up from his book.
"Really Draco, what did you do?" Blaise eyed him and Draco straightened up a bit.
"I let her go without a proper hex." He muttered and left out the entire kissing issue.
"Well then just go find her and give her the old Slytherin one-two." Terence said with a sort of irritated tone. Draco ignored the way he'd said it—but it was a good piece of advice.
Draco got up, lazily, and closed his book. He stuffed it back into his bag and walked out of the Slytherin common room. As he walked out into the hall he passed Tracey Davis. He shot her a look and must have communicated some silent message to her because she nodded and stepped through the door. Crabbe and Goyle started after him sluggishly but they were stopped by Tracey who seemed intent on getting to know both of them on a personal level.
"If I were a vindictive rodent where would I spend my time?" Draco asked aloud and pondered where he should start looking. He strolled down the hall and passed a pair of girls. He wouldn't have noticed them, normally, but one of them mentioned his name in a loud conversation. Rather brilliant plan, talk loud enough that no one cares what you're talking about.
"Draco Malfoy." Jennifer Moon, a Slytherin girl that Draco never talked to, commented to her friend with a smirk.
"I know," Emma Dobbs smiled and shook her head. "I can't believe it either."
They looked interested, intrigued, and seemed to take some ironic joy as they mused his name in casual conversation.
"Did you hear the rumors they put out?" Jennifer snickered and Emma shook her head while suppressing a laugh.
"I know. Preposterous aren't they?" Emma's voice showed her amusement more than her expression.
Draco smirked and slowed his pace so that he could follow them without their knowledge. It was good to know someone other than Tracey Davis had faith in him—if that was what it could be called.
"You'd think they went and contracted the worst play-write in all of Europe." Jennifer laughed and covered her hand with her mouth. "I wonder what she's planning next?"
"I've no idea, but Megan just called us to another meeting." Emma sighed and put her hands on her hips.
"We didn't show for the first one, what makes her think we're going to show up now?" Jennifer snorted and Emma eyed her.
"Especially now that Malfoy is tracking down all the players. Did you see poor Sarah?" Emma asked and the two turned down an empty corridor.
"Who?" Jennifer furrowed her brow slightly and looked at Emma.
"That new girl—that's right! You're a veteran, you wouldn't know her by name yet." Emma said and the two of them stopped walking.
Draco halted at the corner and listened to the girls' conversation. After all, he was mentioned so it was his business. Not that he really needed to justify any of his actions.
"She was the one who got the Mary-Sue job, wasn't she?" Jennifer asked and Emma nodded solemnly. "Gah! With that psychopath walking around…." Jennifer shook her head and Draco started to get annoyed.
"I know, with that psycho…Draco is going to need some help." Emma sighed and Draco blinked. "Did you hear that both the Weasley twins are out to save the twit?"
"I didn't." Jennifer said incredulously and they started walking again. "How'd they find out?"
"Relative's privilege." Emma answered nonchalantly. "They eavesdropped on one of her meetings in the Library."
Draco walked off, away from the two girls, and headed straight for the Library. Perhaps he could find out just what she was up to before she unleashed it on him.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"Let's try this again, shall we?" Ginny crumpled up a piece of parchment and went back to dictating as her bewitched quill diagramed what she told it. "He spots me. I, like an idiot, run. He chases me. We end up in a jumbled mess. Insults exchanged. All this together should equal what?"
Ginny looked down at the furiously writing quill. It had drawn, in stick figures, the entire situation. The quill finished its last mark and hopped out of the way so Ginny would examine the end result.
"According to this, and the standard laws of the universe, we should have killed each other." Ginny said flatly and crumpled up the picture. "Diagram how this could have possibly ended in me kissing one, Draco Malfoy." Ginny commanded and the quill started drawing a hurried pictorial sequence of events. When it was finished Ginny snatched up the paper and read it aloud with nearly no amusement.
"He spots me. I, like an idiot—you really didn't have to write that—, run. He chases me." Ginny paused on the next panel and shot a curious look at her quill. "You must be broken." She shook her head and read the panel aloud. "Hell freezes over. Draco and I start snogging like a bad romance novel." Ginny groaned and crumpled up the paper. She tossed it into the trash with the rest of her used parchments. A small pile was forming—she'd soon need both a new trashcan and more parchment.
The quill scratched on the paper and Ginny glanced at it.
"No more today, just get back in the bag." Ginny grumbled and the quill obeyed. "Home Stenographer, my eye."
"Just why didn't he want to let go of my arm?" Ginny asked herself and slouched down in one of the chairs. "Probably because he wanted to cut it off." Ginny convinced herself of that and pulled out a book. Ginny was so caught up in her book that she didn't notice as Harry walked up behind her and unfolded one of the many crumpled up pieces of paper.
"Merlin Gin, you didn't kill Malfoy did you?" Harry asked and Ginny nearly fell out of her seat she was so startled.
"W-what?" She asked and quickly regained her composure. Harry just held up one of the diagrams her quill had drawn and smiled at her. "Oh, that…" Ginny laughed nervously and Harry sat down at her table.
"Say Ginny," Harry started and took on an expression that told Ginny he wasn't comfortable with what he was about to say. "I know you don't want to go with…Malfoy…to the Yule Ball. Would you like to go with me?" Harry asked sounding a little pained.
Ginny blanched and her mind reeled. Harry Potter had just asked her to go to a ball with him. It was her greatest hope materialized right before her. She sat there lamely for a moment and then something terrible entered her mind. Ginny frowned and Harry looked more than mildly surprised.
"Sorry Harry," Ginny grumbled through clenched teeth and Harry looked like he was going to faint dead away.
"What?" Harry asked and Ginny folded her arms across her chest. She was livid.
"I lost a bet to stupid cheating Malfoy, and he asked me first." Ginny gritted her teeth and glared at the table. "I have to go with him. Weasley honor."
"Why?" Harry was stunned and could only manage monosyllable words.
"Harry, as much as I hate to say it, there has never been a Weasley female that has actually canceled on a date." Ginny muttered. "Don't ask me why. But I'm not breaking the line now."
"Oh." Harry said and blinked.
Meanwhile Malfoy, who was stationed behind the bookcase trying not to laugh audibly, smirked.
'So the little Weasley can't drop me before the dance…that's why she's been trying to piss me off!' Malfoy thought to himself and a few brilliant ideas formulated in his mind. 'This is just too good to waste fighting.' Malfoy snickered manically and sat down at a nearby table.
Author's Notes: Goodness! I'm running out of canonical names for unimportant students! This means I'll actually have to start thinking…dang. I do hope you all enjoyed this chapter. The argument seemed a little lame to me…but that must just be the lack of sleep talking.
I really liked this chapter….
Care to review and tell me just how disillusioned I am?
You can't see the below….
Disclaimer: Still not British…darn.