Chapter Two
All through my studying at Hogwarts, my father had wanted me to switch to Durmstrang so that I could get an 'in' with the Dark Lord, because at Hogwarts it was nigh impossible to reach a place of power without seeming suspicious to anyone. But my mother refused the change. It wasn't until one of his nights home during the summer that he came up with the brilliant plan of me becoming Head Boy.
"You can do it! Us Malfoy's always win," he said, his voice tainted with innocent malice. I knew that I'd have to clean up my act in order to make my father happy, because if I didn't you never knew how badly he'd hurt and blame my mother. It was around this time that I knew I had to begin cleaning my act up and raising my marks, and to do that I needed a boy named Blaise Zabini to help me out. Blaise was, by far, one of the most intelligent students in the school. In fact it's safe enough to call him the 'Hermione Granger' of Slytherin house, he did that well. If it wasn't for him I probably would have never become Head Boy. Of course I probably would have avoided all of the trouble that being a Head would get me into.
When I was in my sixth year in school Dumbledore had planned yet another school dance, sort of like the Yule Ball, only it was supposed to be a whole lot better according to the students, as no one under fourth year was allowed to go at all. Everyone, of course, was up in arms about the whole idea. I wasn't.
You see, not too long before the function was announced I had a girlfriend named Pansy Parkinson. She was the kind of girl who knew and gave you exactly what you wanted, and then some. Pretty, but in a harsh, masculine sort of way. She was always twirling her blonde hair between her fingertips and giggling about things like most teenage girls did. Anyway, she dumped me for a real jerk of a Ravenclaw named Michael Corner. I didn't mind much, except for the fact that I was now pretty much dateless to the dance coming up.
Some people don't mind going to dances dateless; you never know who you might end up meeting, but no, not me. I was an arrogant young Malfoy, and Malfoy's, I assure you, are never to appear at a public function without a woman at your side. It simply did not happen. So the thought of going without a date to the dance had brought me to a panic. I quickly went through school records to find a list of all the girls in school who were above fourth year and began to weed through the ones deemed unacceptable by me. I went through the abridged version of the list of acceptable girls and began another process of eliminating the girls who I had known to have dates. I passed by Ginny Weasley's name and stalled a bit, but I quickly turned the page and scolded myself for even contemplating her as a choice. I quickly went through the list of all the other girls left in the school and found myself facing two choices; Weasley or Bulstrode.
She isn't bad looking, I thought to myself as I flipped back to Ginny's name, and she's so nice she'd probably say yes...
I threw the papers to the ground. Ginny Weasley? Sister to the pompous arse Ron Weasley? Hell no. Screw that. The Slytherin's would tear me apart.
But all I could think about was being stuck in public without a date, my father staring at me with disdain and blaming my mother for my being alive, or even, god forbid, Millicent Bulstrode telling me stories about her cats while trying to seduce me, her manlike hands grabbing the back of my neck in an attempt to break it if I was to say no.
I kept debating with myself on the subject, wondering what I could do. Maybe I could order a date from the Witch Weekly personal ads? But no, Dumbledore would never allow it. Surely there was a way around it, if only I could find out what that was. But then I realized something, Harry Potter was probably doing the same thing I was at this exact moment! Thinking of asking Ginny to the dance and leaving me with Manlike Bulstrode! What if he asked Ginny before I did? And she would certainly say yes, with that big heart of hers! And he would be smug about it, too, rubbing it in my face if he found out that I had contemplated asking her only to find out her had gotten to her first!
So there I was, in the Slytherin Common Room, running through my choices and having that silly debate with myself on Ginny, when Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle came sauntering in.
"Got a date yet, Malfoy?" Crabbe, or maybe it was Goyle(honestly, you couldn't tell the two apart sometimes), asked me.
"I'm still deciding. How about you?" I asked smoothly, not wanting to lose my cool in front of my two best mates. I didn't have many, you know, and I had to keep up appearances at all times.
"Oh, yea. Some Hufflepuff fourth years agreed to go with us. Good luck," and with that they left the room. Now, you must understand my complete horror at the words I had heard leaving one of their mouth's. They both had dates, and before I did! It was at that moment that I knew what I must do; ask Ginny Weasley to go with me to the dance in order to salvage my ego.
Waltzing, or rather, walking rather manly towards the Library, I caught glimpse of her pulling a book down from the shelf. She was still in her dowdy Hogwarts uniform, though she looked slightly more comfortable and laid back as usual, as her flaming hair wasn't tied of like normal, but was left wisping around her face like fire. I realized that she might actually be cute if only she knew how to present herself.
Watching her sit at a table, I moved over and took a seat across from her, smirking casually and waiting for her to speak.
"Draco! Well this is a surprise!" Ginny, as I have said before, was generally a happy person, and was usually nice to people, including Slytherin's.
"Yeah. It is, isn't it?" I said, trying not to sound cynical. It was hard' talking to a Weasley without any bitterness involved. "So...I, uh, noticed that you weren't at the Great Hall for any meals today. Did Professor Dumbledore give you another day off to help the old witches at Hogsmeade today?" I asked, still trying to maintain some form of small talk.
"Oh. No. I had to go home and go with my father to the Muggle Doctor's office for something." she replied, a little on the stunned side I'd say.
"Oh, is he okay?" I asked, not caring in the least.
"As good as he ever was!" she answered happily, smile not quavering for a second. I nodded and looked around the room; nobody seemed to be there but the two of us. Still, I shifted uncomfortably and tried to avoid looking directly at her.
"Listen, is there a reason your here, Draco?" she asked finally, seemingly all knowing, as she usually was.
"Uh, yea, actually. I was just curious as to if you were going to the Dance?" I asked, clearing my throat in a very masculine way.
"Oh," she said, as if she hadn't even thought of going to the dance until this minute. What only took minutes for an answer seemed like decades. "I really hadn't thought about it."
"Well, say someone asked you. Then would you go?" I asked, hiding what I was talking about in a very clever way, if I do say so myself., though it did take her a while to answer.
"I really couldn't say. I mean I guess I might, if I had the chance. I'd have to check with my brother first, you know, to make sure he thinks it's alright for me to go, but if he says it's okay, then I guess I could," she answered, her face full of contemplation.
"Well, would you go to the dance...with me?" I asked her finally, this time my voice was in a bit of a whisper in case one of the books held a hidden Quick Quotes Quill and was copying down word for word what we said in order to report back to the masses and put an end to my being as a Malfoy.
I could tell she was surprised at my question, most likely due to my perfectly inconspicuous way of asking her, and even more likely because she thought I was asking her for someone else, as most kids those days did that. Her pause was a long one, and I began to see visions of Millicent sucking on my face after she had broken my back over one of her fat legs. Inwardly, I was gagging. I instantly began regretting the fact that I had treated her friends poorly over the years, and praying to myself that she might find the strength needed to forgive me, and thus save me from a fate worse than death with Millicent Bulstrode. At the minute I thought that I'd never be able to face the world again, she faced me with an awkward smile planted on her face.
"I'd love to," she answered, "on one condition. You have to promise not to fall in love with me." and with that she laughed, making it okay for me to breath a sigh of relief. I had to admit, Ginny was a pretty funny person at times.
Smiling, I gave her my promise and left the Library.