You can't always get what you want.  But if you try sometimes, you might just find you get what you need.—The Rolling Stones (You Can't Always Get What You Want)

            Love will enter cloaked in friendship's name.—Ovid (43BC-17AD)

            Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.—Charles M. Schultz (1922-2000) Charlie Brown in Peanuts

Ginny Weasley looked nervously from the crumpled letter in her hand to the tall blond young man standing before her.  The letter had come at breakfast and, at the time, Ginny couldn't help letting out a little squeal of delight.  That had been three hours ago.  Now the hot cereal with cream and honey she'd eaten was uneasily sloshing around with the specially brewed coffee she'd drunk just a bit ago.  Her stomach was churning, and it was all due to the haughty, amused look that Draco Malfoy was giving her right now. 

            "So the berk finally wrote you?  It only took, what?  Four months?  And you wrote right back to tell him to bugger off, right, brat?"

            Despite her nervousness, Ginny refused to look away.  Instead, she shook her head firmly, causing the long braid to slide off her shoulder and dangle down her back. 

            "I didn't do anything like," she said, trying to stifle the quiver in her voice.  "I sent him a note saying I'd love to meet him.  Today.  In Hogsmeade."

            Draco's lips quirked up.  "Yeah, sure you did," he said lightly.  Chuckling, he reached out and tugged the braid, flipping it onto her shoulder again.  "No, really, Weasley.  What did you tell him, exactly?  I'd like to know what the customary Gryffindor kiss-off sounds like."

            "Stop that!" Ginny snapped, impatiently tossing the plait back again and moving away from the young man who flustered her so badly lately.  "I told him that after I run some errands, I'd meet him for at that new coffee house.  Maybe get some lunch.  What's the big deal, any way?"

            Ginny flopped herself down in the window seat she usually occupied, stuffing the letter into her ever-present novel.  Part of her didn't want to be here, since their friendship had never been the same after the second Pansy incident.  The other part of her wanted desperately to just stay with this young man, previously her enemy and now much more than a friend.  But she'd never admit it to him.  She already knew that he wasn't interested in her that way.  Hadn't he made that clear on numerous occasions?  Striving for something like her former ease with him, she opened her romance novel and said, "So, any big plans for today?"

Draco stared at her, disbelief plain on his face.  She couldn't possibly be serious.  Stepping nearer to where she was casually lounging on the window seat, he said, "I don't believe it!" Even to himself he sounded too loud, but he continued anyway.  "I mean, you said he never bothered to answer the notes you sent him, then suddenly, out of nowhere, he says he wants to meet you.  And you agree?  Not only agree, but you squeak like a girl when you get the damned thing!  Are you out of your mind?"

            What was his problem?  Why did he have to chose today of all days to be such a git?  Ginny knew it wasn't anything like jealousy that was prompting this sudden interest in her activities, so he was probably just being ornery.  Huffing, she said, "I don't know what you're on about, Malfoy!  What business is it of yours, anyway?  I wouldn't have said anything if you didn't start badgering me about the stupid letter!"

            Draco pounced on that.  "Stupid letter?  See!?" he demanded.  "Even you think he's a stupid git!  Where's your pride?  Why on earth would you go to meet some prat who thinks he can just show up out of nowhere and have you come running when he snaps his fingers?"

            "Okay, Malfoy, that's it!"

            Ginny jumped up from the seat and stalked to him.  Shoving at his chest, she gritted out, "It's none of your damn business, but he didn't demand that I meet him, he just asked."  She shoved again, causing him to rock back on his heels and retreat a step.  "He didn't write back because he thought he'd be out of the country for the summer, but now he won't."  Another shove had Draco moving backward again, gaping at her.  "I liked him and I want to see him again.   So if I feel like going to lunch with him, or even snogging his brains out, I will!  Get it?"

            Closing his gaping mouth, Draco shook his head.  "No, brat," he growled finally.  "I don't get it!  You're going to meet some ugly berk who you haven't even seen in months!  He didn't have the decency to write back, and who is years older than you.  He probably doesn't have two sickles to rub together, and he works in a coffee house, for God's sake!  What do you see in him?  Don't you think you can do better?"

            "Oh, I can't believe you!" Ginny said, astounded.  "You—you—oh, there just isn't a word bad enough!  I never said Bob was ugly.  I just said he didn't happen to have the kind of looks that made people stare.  But you wouldn't understand that, would you, Mr.-I'm-So-Good-Looking?  And in the time I spent with him, he was always a gentleman, and very nice to me!  And I don't give a damn how old he is.  I'm going and I don't need your bloody permission to do it!"

            She made to shove him once more, but Draco grabbed her wrists and forced her to look at him.  Scowling, he opened his mouth to make some retort, but she snatched her hands away and cut him off.

            "Besides, Malfoy," she said with a sneer, "It's not like you give a damn, except that you might have to actually amuse yourself without me here hanging on your every word!  Well, sorry, but I'm not going to be one of the masses any more!"

            She pushed past him and hurried to the library, but turned back once more.  "Oh, and for your info, having money is a liability in my books.  For us simple poor folks, it makes it easy to know when someone likes us for ourselves."

She spun away, her braid flying, and stomped out the door, but not before Draco saw the tears that had filled her eyes. 

"Ginny!"  He took a few steps to follow her, but stopped abruptly as the import of her words hit him.  What had she meant by saying she wouldn't be 'one of the masses'?  Did she really like him?  Despite her sarcastic tone and the angry words, Draco felt a silly grin cover his face. 

            Then realization of another kind hit him.  Sinking into the nearest available chair, he covered his face with his hands and sighed.  "Oh, crap," he muttered.  "I just bollixed everything up!"