Malfoy Invasion
By Cassandra Sisenta
A/N: Here's the new chappie! D/G interaction here and we finally find out who Ginny's tutor is! Have fun! Review!!
Disclaimer: Colin: I don't ever get the girl!! D/G authors always deprive me!! Guess, who wrote this? It isn't JK Rowling I tell you!
Chapter Eight
Lists of Good Points and Potions Ingredients
"Why were you talking to Ginny Weasley last month?"
Draco grit his teeth and controlled the urge to grab the speaker's neck.
How many times could a question be repeated before it gets totally annoying? For Draco, it only took two times before he had the urge to kill something. That question had been bugging him for some time now and he wanted nothing more but to be left in peace.
After Blaise's annoying prying, Draco had begun questioning himself why it had to be Ginny Weasley he ended up appointing as his spy in Gryffindor and why he had to speak to her in public.
He schooled his features into his usual cool, aloof smirk as he glanced up at a face that could have just been his own if only he were younger. "What, are you going to question me as well about the company I keep, Julian?"
His eleven-year-old cousin wasn't rebuffed by the question as he stood firm before Draco as no first year had ever done before. "They might." Julian said, in reference to the rest of the Slytherins who had become extremely watchful of Draco as of late. "But I don't think it is my business what you do with your free time."
"Really now…" Draco drawled, granting Julian a look as he continued to recline against the green leather couch he had claimed long before in the Slytherin Common Room. "Then why are you asking me why I was talking to Ginny Weasley?"
"Because." Julian looked at him with the same quelled look. Draco and Julian weren't particularly close as could be seen in their distant interaction. "Anything that has to do with Rizza is my business."
Draco wondered briefly how he could have found out about the details of his conversation with the red-haired Weaslette. It was met with the possibility that his little spy had somehow told Rizza. In turn, she told her most trusted twin.
"So you do know what I'm doing. What's the point of seeking me out and asking me about it?"
The smirk on the younger Malfoy's face was secretive and Draco again had the urge to grab his cousin's neck and choke the life out of him.
"Just wanted to see if the 'Slytherin Prince'" Note that this was said with stinging sarcasm. "Is indeed undergoing evolution."
Three days later, Draco was still thinking of his strange exchange with Julian in the Slytherin Common Room.
Evolution? What was Julian talking about? Was he saying that he, Draco Malfoy, so-called Slytherin Prince was changing? It was true. Obviously he wasn't the evil, smarmy git he used to be.
The Draco Malfoy he used to be was irreverent and cruel. Though painstakingly intelligent and more than adept with his magical skills, he had refused to be a good student and be a good example to the rest of his house. He was always the big, bad bully who both jeered at those who came across his path and charmed the ladies with his devilish reputation.
But not anymore, obviously.
Not that anyone outside of Slytherin ever saw the change.
His housemates had been very wary of him ever since he came back and he refused Crabbe and Goyle access to the compartment that he shared with his cousins and Blaise Zabini. It was as if he betrayed his house by doing away with his then faithful boulders of brawn.
He had heard of their whispering when they thought he wasn't listening. They questioned his choice of company, his withdrawal from his usual activities such as picking on the Gryffindor Trio, and his loyalty to the Dark Lord.
He wasn't the only one being talked about. His cousins were ridiculed, particularly Rizza who had ended up in Gryffindor. Julian was thought to be a pale shadow of what Draco was and they hated him for it. Adriana, meanwhile, was feared for some strange reason.
Blaise Zabini had been all but an outcast in the Slytherin House and if it hadn't been for the fact that he was from a very influential pureblood family, they would have done away with him too. The Zabini's neutrality was famed in the Wizarding World and they had despised him for it.
Draco gave them no mind and no answers. He carried on with his business and they left him alone, but were ever watchful. The other Slytherins knew they couldn't win against him. Despite the loss of his father, he still had power.
They knew that Draco and his mother had run from the Dark Lord and they were under strong protection. The power was unknown but every cunning Slytherin knew that it would be stupid to run headlong into battle without at least an idea as to what you're fighting.
Besides, Draco was also quite the duelist.
The wind whipped at his clothes as he stared out a wide window. His classes were done for the day and there was still some time to lounge about or just do anything he wanted before dinner. The weather wasn't the best at the moment. There was a dark cloud hovering over the area and it was very probable that rain would fall any minute.
It fit his mood well for some reason.
Dark and ominous, that was him now.
His thoughts had drifted into nothingness when his eyes fell on a very familiar red head near the lakeside. It was the youngest Weasley and her focus was on the lake, or more specifically the Giant Squid.
For some reason, the squid seemed to realize that it had an audience and was evidently showing off, moving gracefully into a dance in the water.
Her red hair fell long down her back and flew with the wind in a beautiful red symphony of curls and tresses. Tangled and free, Draco was tempted to run his fingers through them.
Her hair had begun fascinating him since he actually looked at her when he made his proposal.
He should be appalled, certainly. This was Virginia Weasley he was ogling here. Okay, maybe just her hair, but that glorious, angelic mass of cherubic red hair was still attached to a Weasley. He was a Malfoy and nature called on him to hate and antagonize every Weasley he came across, particularly targeting that distinctive, brazen color of their hair.
But he liked her hair, dammit.
How it fell just so against her shoulder that night and caught the dim torchlight.
How it shined golden under the sunlight that streamed from the stained glass windows of the Great Hall.
How it twisted and tangled against the wind like silken copper.
"Weasley."
She turned at the sound of her name Funny, he never could remember coming down into the lawn to come by the lakeside.
There was no fear in her eyes when she realized it was him who called her name. She remained sitting casually on the boulder she occupied and connected their gazes.
Her eyes were a warm chocolatey brown, he only then realized.
Wonderful.
Another Virginia Weasley detail to haunt every moment of his consciousness.
"Malfoy." She said his name very much like the way he did: steady and acknowledging. Her gaze didn't waver in the face of his stare and for some reason Draco was somewhat impressed.
"May I join you?" He asked out of courtesy, trying to hide the fact that he didn't know exactly what to say to her. Why did he come to the lakeside anyway? To stare at the red hair that he had fantasized looked wonderful against his green Quidditch robes or more yet the green velveteen of his bed? To drown in the richness of color in her eyes?
Madness, all this.
Since when did he fantasize? And with a Weasley nonetheless!
She was staring at him curiously as she absorbed his inquiry. She allowed him to sit near her after a moment of contemplation.
She was winding a length of her gorgeous red hair into her finger and she wasn't looking at him. Her tiny, pearly teeth bit into the plump redness of her lower lip.
Cute.
Another mental slap.
"Did you come here to ask about Rizza?"
Again, he was thankful to her for diverting his attention from his "What I Adore About Virginia Weasley" List. Her tender, pleasant voice was added to the list.
His father was going to kill him…OR NOT!
"Yes."
"Well, if you should know Malfoy, she's awfully well-liked in Gryffindor. As unlikely as it was at first, people warm up to her easily and they have somewhat forgotten that she's a Malfoy! Even Ron is fond of her somewhat and that is saying a lot."
"I don't care for the opinions of your brother, Weasley." Draco heard himself bite out out of instinct.
She settled her chocolate eyes on him for a moment before she rolled them. Quite amusingly attractive he should add.
And that is saying a lot.
"Of course, couldn't have me mentioning my brother in your presence, Oh great and mighty Malfoy." She murmured sarcastically, her arms crossing over her chest…okay, no comments about the little Weasley's chest, Draco.
Draco's mind was reeling. Look at this:
WHAT I ADORE ABOUT VIRGINIA WEASLEY
By Draco Edward Malfoy
1) Her beautiful red hair…that happens to smell like peaches by the way
2) Her chocolate brown eyes
3) Her sparks of fire underneath that gentle and fragile façade
4) The fact that she can stand up to a Malfoy (namely me)
5) She has a pleasant voice
6) She's the only person who could roll her eyes attractively
7) She has good-sized…ahem…
….more to be added soon?
"Yes Weasley, your brother is no business of mine and I don't need to hear whatever it is about him. If you want to chat about your brother, go find Granger. I bet you'd have a smashing conversation with her." Draco said, standing up from the boulder to leave. He can't stay with Virginia Weasley any longer if he could help it. Who knows up to what number that growing list of his could expand to?
Lucius may be gone, but his teachings live on…damn him.
"Yeah, thanks Ginny!" The Weasley yelled as he got farther and farther away from her and the lake. "Thanks for telling me about Rizza! You're SUCH a great help!"
8) She has the audacity to yell at me
Draco mentally slapped his forehead.
I need help!
The rain was pouring outside and she had a very good view of the lake from the window at the library. At the mention of the lake, Ginny's eyes narrowed.
She frowned and turned away from the window. She sat herself down on a nearby desk and frowned at her Potions textbook.
Damn Malfoy! Ginny cursed as she looked heatedly at the neat rows of Potions ingredients that she had listed just the other day for easier reference.
She didn't really know what to think of Draco Malfoy. Last month, he had been half-way decent. He was civil and he was almost pleasant. Then just a while ago he had to be a prat! He had to mouth off about Ron and he had the nerve to not thank her!
Malfoy was raised from a very aristocratic family right? Where in the world did all those lessons on etiquette and manners go? Ginny asked herself as she looked around for her tutor. Oh yes, he is a Malfoy after all. Thank goodness he isn't my tutor!…He isn't is he?
The same cold dread swept through her like the time when Professor Snape hadn't told her who her tutor for Potions was.
Today was to be her first Potions tutor session and she was early. She had found a somewhat isolated table so that they wouldn't be disturbed and she had neatly arranged her books and parchment. She wanted to make a good impression on whoever her tutor would be. They would be spending so much time together and Ravenclaws had this very tight policy on promptness, she heard.
Ginny felt like hitting herself when she thought it over again.
Of course she figured it would be a Ravenclaw!
Weren't they the intellectual, bookish ones supposedly? The Tutor House of Hogwarts? No offense to Ravenclaws whatsoever…
He couldn't be…Ginny didn't want to continue. She felt sick already.
"Nice list, Weasley." A cold voice called from behind her. "But you got some of the measurements wrong. Professor Snape was right, you do need help."
She almost jumped and with that she turned to find herself staring into the cold, violet eyes of Blaise Zabini.