Malfoy Invasion
By Cassandra Sisenta
A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Now, there is no D/G interaction in this one because I am still trying to lay out the characters that would be involved in this little fic of mine. I'll get to that on the next chapter, but don't hope too much. I'm not sure myself. I'm still planning and planning and planning… A note on the Dream Team (or Harry, Ron and Hermione) they wouldn't be around in this fic too much so rest assured. This will focus mostly on the twins and Adriana, Ginny and Draco and these two who are featured in this chapter. Just read on to find out who.
Read and Review everyone! See ya!
DISCLAIMER: Blaise: In this I am a boy but no one can be too sure. Ask J.K. Rowling for the facts.
Chapter VI
Best Friends…Well sort of
Blaise Zabini was the closest thing to a friend Draco Malfoy ever had.
The two had known each other since they were very young. They were both from prestigious families with ancient roots and old money. They moved within the same elite circles and were considered the cream of the crop of the next generation.
Their parents delighted in making them compete with one another for everything: grades, etiquette, Quidditch and finally Slytherin Supremacy. It was obvious that it was Malfoy who won out in the end. Not only did Draco have the money and the charm, he also had the slyness and the drive that defined the ultimate Slytherin.
It wasn't that Blaise lacked the slyness it was the drive that he refused to employ. He saw no point in competing with Draco for the title of Slytherin Prince if it meant living behind the mask of Slytherin prejudice and discrimination. He was taught to be proud of who he was and he knew he wasn't enough to be deemed Slytherin Prince.
He and Draco Malfoy had been in civil terms since he had withdrawn from the race for the Slytherin throne and one could almost say they were particularly close friends. Both of them knew the other extremely well after all the years of observing the so-called enemy.
By a single gesture or word, they would both know what was going on with the other.
But at that moment, as he read through his Charms textbook, he noted that Draco's peculiar behavior could be well noted if only people observed things well enough.
Draco must have noticed everyone's preoccupation and decided to take full advantage of it. His eyes were blatantly fixed on the Ravenclaw table where his cousin Adriana sat, but she was not the subject of his scrutiny. It was the girl that Adriana was talking to: Ginny Weasley.
On anyone else, the look Draco was giving Ginny Weasley would have been seen as adoration in all its purity, but this is Draco Malfoy we're talking about so one must dig deeper. His gray eyes, though hard and icy as ever, held an additional amount of calculation as he sat easily yet alert in his place.
Draco was contemplating Ginny Weasley.
But evidently that was not all.
Knowing Draco, he would never be caught dead eyeing a Gryffindor, much less a Weasley, with nothing but dislike in his eyes and obviously, there was none now as he looked at Ginny Weasley. No one would even catch him eyeing a Weasley for Merlin's sake!
But the summer that past had changed Draco in many ways. Blaise himself had seen it when he visited Draco in the McLeod Palace. Draco had been more open, actually somewhat vulnerable like nothing before. He had slipped on the usual mask when he returned to Hogwarts but that was to be expected. He would be eaten like a lamb served to a pack of wolves if he let his guard down, but Blaise knew that somehow the change was there. It just waited to be seen by those he deemed worthy.
Could Ginny Weasley be one of those worthy ones?
Blaise decided to pry a little bit.
"She has grown up hasn't she?" The dark-haired Slytherin spoke up, not even glancing up from his book as he spoke. He knew his question would catch Draco's attention since he barely talked to anyone else anyway.
"Pardon?" The Slytherin Prince was rarely caught unawares and Blaise took immense pleasure in witnessing it out of old habit.
"Little Red Riding Hood. Two o' clock." Blaise murmured under his breath as he slid on a sly grin.
He heard the blond beside him sniff arrogantly.
Malfoys never snort. The world would have been a scary place if they did.
"Interested Zabini? Thought I'd never see the day." Draco was smirking, as was usual. "I bid you luck against her Weasley insanity and her batallion of red-haired brothers."
Blaise had finally abandoned his book for the wonderful sport of Dig at the Ferret. It was Blaise's favorite game, an equivalent to Draco's Blaze Blaise (where Draco tries to make Blaise lose his legendary self-control) and it was always worth letting go of his precious books for some time. Everybody says the Slytherins could only have fun when it was at the expense of others and they were right to some extent.
"Come now Malfoy. You can't be a pouf as everyone is saying." Blaise pointed out. "Any chap with eyes couldn't deny that Ginny Weasley has done some growing up through the summer."
And he wasn't exaggerating. Gone was the mousy, pale-faced girl who followed Harry Potter wherever he went and could barely string a sentence together in his presence. In her place was a vivacious, confident young lady that had many boys eyeing her without her knowing.
"Admit it. You were watching her."
"Zabini, you've gone mental." Draco answered, watching Blaise warily as the latter flashed a slight teasing grin at his direction. The gray-eyed blond shook his head in wonder. "And good Merlin you're smiling. Is Voldemort Potter's lovesick puppy now?"
Blaise shrugged easily, elegantly with a grace that was born with and not taught. He was still sporting that grin. Oh is the Zabini in a good mood! "Draco Malfoy was ogling a Weasley. I think everyone now has the permission to act out of character."
"Right, and Professor Snape is going to show up for class prancing around in a pink tutu, spreading good will to all wizardkind while giving flowers to each and everyone of us."
Blaise shivered at the mental image. Snape wasn't exactly pleasant to look at and the picture of the sour-faced Potion Master in a tutu was just revolting. He respected his Head of House more than anything, but Blaise would be one of the first to turn away at such a spectacle. "Thank you so much for making me look forward even more to Potions today, Malfoy."
"Pleasure." Draco smiled devilishly as he sipped from his goblet juice, half oblivious to the girls who watched his every move as they sighed in absolute rapture.
The grand pryer decided to use another tactic as he called on the information he had just heard that morning as he passed by a bunch of fourth years on the way to Transfiguration.
"So then, if you're not taking any interest in her—"
"Oh, so just because I was paying particular attention on her I already have feelings for her?" Draco parried, obviously wanting to end the interrogation.
Blaise grinned at this, somehow pleased at Draco's reaction. His game seemed to be going well today. The Ferret never did ferret out of conversations like this and he never went into defensive. He was right. Something was definitely up.
"Putting words in my mouth now eh?" He asked, raising an amused eyebrow as his violet eyes twinkled at his sort-of best friend. "Do you have feelings for her Malfoy? Is that why you cornered her last night after dinner?"
Draco eyed him bleakly, not allowing any emotion come to being in his handsome face. Then, as if disgusted, he began to gather up his books to leave.
"It's still twenty minutes 'til Potions. A little excited aren't we?" Blaise queried, watching him closely.
"Not for Potions, Zabini. Unlike you, I happen to have other motivations for going to Potions aside from imagining our dear Head of House in a pink tutu." Draco responded nonchalantly as he pushed his books into the bag that fell just so on his side. His gray eyes looked pointedly at him without any clear reason. "I'm excited to get away from you and your curiosity. This is the end of this discussion."
Blaise was looking thoughtfully at the other Slytherin as he said quietly, "You are acting very strange, Malfoy." His violet eyes slowly began to twinkle as his smile turned somewhat sly and evil. A plan was forming in the dark-haired Slytherin's head. "And I'll find out what your business is with Ginny Weasley."
Draco leaned toward Blaise, connecting their gazes and smirking challengingly into the other's face. It was a challenge and one Blaise wasn't backing out on.
"I bid you luck on finding out, Blaise." Draco hissed, his smirk on without faltering before rising gracefully and making his way out of the Great Hall in his usual way: walking off without acknowledging the stare of his admirers as the girls held their breath.
When the chatter once more returned to normal in the Great Hall, Blaise returned to his Charms textbook with a sigh.
"Nice game." He muttered to himself, smiling slightly at his success.
It was a good day for playing Dig at the Ferret.
Colin Creevey wasn't stupid.
Very far from it, most assuredly.
It was true that sometimes he acted all goofy and obsessive when someone talked to him about his photos and when he had his camera strapped around his neck like a precious diamond that he treasured with his life. There had been a time when he was a pest to Harry Potter, but that had been two years ago. He'd stopped stalking and running after the Boy Who Lived after his fourth year, but no one aside from Ginny noticed. Everyone still thought him the crazy shutterbug who lived to worship the ground Harry Potter walked on.
No one can just grow out of what people thought of them, especially here at Hogwarts where you were easily defined by your house or the purity of your blood. He was never really seen as Colin Creevey, the person. It was always Colin Creevey, Harry Potter's Number One Fan (Merlin knew Harry still edged away from him sometimes) or Colin Creevey, the Muggle-born.
That was stupid, but who was he to change how people thought? He was used to it anyway and he hadn't learned to care for other's opinions. All he knew was that he wasn't stupid, probably even smarter than some of those with magical blood in them. Look at Crabbe and Goyle, for example.
Colin was undoubtedly observant. He should be if he was to be the kind of photographer he always wanted to be. He should know from which angles to shoot to get the full effect of a subject and he had somehow perfected the skill. It even became handy in looking at everything around him in general even without the intention of shooting them with his camera. With his skill, he was able to know things about certain subjects at a glance.
Speaking of subjects, Colin particularly liked observing Ginny Weasley.
He had heard somewhere that falling in love with your subject could cloud your perspective and interpretation of it, but Colin would beg to differ. For him, falling in love with his subject showed him more of his subject than anything possible. Maybe because it not only included the senses but also the heart that feels.
Yes, Colin Creevey was in love with Ginny Weasley. Had been for a year now and she had no clue.
Well, he never really did tell her so she didn't know.
Okay, this was probably the part where Colin is stupid. He can't bring up the courage to tell her that he loved her.
And so, now as he sat in the Gryffindor Table, watching her with no ounce of discretion, he wondered just how he was going to go about telling her. She had returned some minutes earlier from the Ravenclaw Table after talking to that gorgeous Malfoy girl (do they have veela blood? All that white blond hair…) and was now talking away about her day, as usual.
"Have you started on that essay Snape assigned us today? Merlin, talk about a slave driver! Two rolls of parchment and due first thing in the morning? Honestly, does the man have no sympathy at all?"
Ginny Weasley looked most beautiful when she was being intense. The red of her hair suddenly came alive as if fueled by her rage. Her brown eyes turned molten gold and no one could have remained oblivious of her for long. Well, at least that was the effect on him, he who watched her often. He was the only boy who really saw her like this, but he was sure that if a boy ever saw her he would fall for her too.
"I cannot fail in Potions this year, Colin! I just can't!"
Hidden underneath all that so-called shyness and discretion that she was usually associated with, there was all that fire, all that passion. Ginny Weasley was capable of a lot of things, people just didn't notice.
For one thing, she was a whiz at Charms and if she hadn't pleaded with Professor Flitwick back in third year never to reveal her grades to anyone but her parents, she would have been known for that. But Ginny wanted a low profile. She didn't want to be recognized for some reason.
Don't ask him why.
Some mysteries about Ginny Weasley were still lost in him too.
"Colin, are you all right?"
She was also very caring. She was very nice to anyone who bothered to interact with her (except for Malfoy but then again he is an exception to everything nice anyway). Animals had immediate affinity for her and she usually assisted Hagrid with them, of course with a smile on her face. Another thing that was so adorable with Ginny Weasley, she was absolutely in love with animals too.
"Colin?"
When Ginny was nervous, you would know right ahead that she was because she would suddenly take a lock of her hair and begin twisting it around her index finger.
"Colin can you hear me?"
Then she would bite her lower lip as she thought of what to say next. Yes, her Harry Potter days were still fresh in his mind.
Adorable isn't she?
"COLIN CREEVEY!!"
Colin blinked when she yelled out his name and he was snapped out of his musings about her. He looked at her.
Her pixie face was flushed with worry and embarrassment. Her eyes were wide, filled with concern and questions.
Just…perfect.
It was only then that he realized that the Great Hall had paused to look at them.
"Colin are you all right?" She whispered in a voice that was easily heard anyway above the silence.
"Uh, yeah." He nodded, still a little out of it. Must be the fact that she was staring so closely at him that did it.
Beautiful, radiant Ginny.
The stares dispersed and everyone carried on as if nothing happened.
Ginny sighed in relief, her whole body visibly sagging with it. She had always been pretty easy to read, people just had to pay attention.
She looked back at him with her usual concern that melted him every time.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah."
She continued to eye him skeptically and Colin was positive that if she ddin't stop he would melt right there, right then.
"You look out of it. What were you thinking about?"
You. What else is there to think about?
But of course being brilliant as he was, he didn't dare tell her that.
"It's nothing Ginny. Forget about it." He urged her, smiling winningly at her to set her at ease.
"If you say so." Ginny still looked unconvinced.
Colin nodded as he smiled.
Maybe he was stupid after all.