Chapter Eight: A Certain Girl

"There's a certain girl I've been in love with a long, long time.
(What's her name?) I can't tell you. (No!)
I can't reveal her name until I've got her.
(What's her name?) I can't tell you. (No!)
Well, I've tried to get her time and time again.
We just end up as nothing but friends.
And there's a certain girl I've been in love with a long, long time.
(What's her name?) I can't tell you. (No!)"

The attendants of Ginny's birthday party grumbled as they cleaned cauldrons. Draco kept mumbling something about "Bloody Snape, my father will hear about this." Ginny was the only one who didn't seem even remotely daunted. After the detention everyone kept pestering her.

"How could you stay so cheerful?" Four voices said.

"I just did." She replied and walked to Gryffindor tower to get ready for Quidditch practice. Draco started walking down there; he wanted to watch her play.

'Man she's pretty.' He thought. All who walked by would have told him to go to the hospital wing, because he suddenly got an extremely gruesome look on his face.

'Why am I thinking that about Ginny?'

He shrugged and continued walking, but he still could not get her out of his mind.

'Do I like her or something?' He stopped to think. 'Nah.' And he went on his way, not giving a second thought to that subject, though in the back of his mind he knew that he was lying to himself.

-----

He watched as Ginny received a backwards pass from Angelina Johnson, then threw it through the hoop and made Ron fall off his broom trying to catch it. Draco turned his head to look down at the stands and he saw the familiar black diary lying there with the rest of Ginny's things; she had put them there while she played Quidditch. He picked up the diary and opened it.

'Let's see what's going on in the mind of Ginny Weasley.' He thought mischievously as he turned to the last page with writing on it.

Dear Diary,

I can't stop thinking about him! He invades my every thought, and yet he doesn't know it. Why did I have to go and fall in love? With him of all people! It's not like he's a bad person or anything, but still. Wait, I have to go, Vider's yelling at me to turn out the light.

Ginny

He was outraged, but he didn't know why. He threw the diary down and walked off to the Slytherin common room. When he got there he was greeted by the usual Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson coming up to him and saying "Draco, let's go out!" This time, however, he wasn't so sure he would say no

Let's see… They're both pretty enough, but Pansy is more annoying so…

"Okay Blaise, I'll go out with you." He said.

"Really?" She said, astonished.

"I said I would, didn't I?" She tried to kiss him, but he pushed her away.

"Whoa, I only said I would go out with you, not be your boyfriend or something." Blaise then took his arm and they walked out of the common room with Pansy glaring at their backs.

-----

Ginny sat in the Gryffindor common room thinking.

'I really should tell him,' she thought. 'But what if he doesn't feel the same way? Why would he ever feel that way for a Weasley?'

He had been on her mind all the time, bothering her. Even while she was sleeping he haunted her dreams.

'Why did I have to fall for him? Why Draco Malfoy? And why isn't it just a little crush?'

She sighed to herself, mad that she couldn't answer any of those questions. She decided to take a short nap and she lay down on the couch, but she couldn't get to sleep so she just lay there, staring up at the intricately carved ceiling of the Gryffindor common room.

-----

Ginny and Draco met in the library as usual, but Draco seemed a little upset. When she asked him what was wrong he refused to tell her. Their time there went as it always did, except for when they were leaving. Ginny got a surge of the bravery that put her in Gryffindor and was finally going to tell Draco. She turned to him and was about to say something when a black-haired supermodel-like girl came into the library. Ginny wouldn't have stopped talking if the girl had just gone on her way, but the girl just had to go up and kiss Draco on the check.

"Draco dear, did you miss me?" Blaise said as she lowered her face away from his.

"Of course." He said, but without enthusiasm. "Ginny, have you met my girlfriend Blaise?"

Ginny felt as if her heart had been ripping out and smeared on the floor.

'Girlfriend…' She thought. 'He has a girlfriend…'

She tried to keep a smile on her face.

"No, I don't think I have. Nice to meet you, Blaise." She said through gritted teeth. Blaise ignored the hand offered to her.

"Ugh, Draco, what are you doing talking to a Gryffindor? A Weasley, no less?" She said, disgusted.

"She is my friend." He replied, looking annoyed.

"Well she bothers me." She said, obviously thinking that she had some authority over Draco.

"Deal with it." He said. "Well Gin, I have got to be going. See you later!" He said and walked off with Blaise grabbing his hand, while Ginny watched. Many of the residents of Hogwarts saw her watching them walk off, but only one noticed the string of tears running down her cheek.

-----

Throughout the next few weeks Draco and Ginny did not speak. Every time he tried to talk to her she brushed him off and went the other way. Her fellow members of Gryffindor house knew something was wrong, but she didn't tell them. The only one who knew why was disgusted; he was ashamed that a student of his house has captured the affections of a Gryffindor. Professor Snape did not treat Ginny any differently than he usually did, but when he was around her he got a look of pity mixed with disgust on his face. Draco kept getting more and more depressed, not only did he not have his best friend to talk to, but his girlfriend Blaise was getting more clingy and refused to let go of his hand except for when he was in the boy's dorms and in the bathroom. He hated it, but he couldn't just break up with her, after all Mr. Zabini was in Voldemort's inner circle; who knows what he would do to Draco if he broke Blaise's heart? He really missed Ginny, the way she laughed, the way she would always be there to talk to you even if she was working on homework due the next day, the way she… The list goes on. In fact, Draco found himself thinking of Miss Ginevra Weasley a lot more often. He would just be sitting in class, staring at the teacher and suddenly the thought of her beautiful chocolate brown eyes entered his mind. He was beginning to think that he did like her. He wanted to tell her, but he had a girlfriend, he couldn't start anything with Ginny, no matter how much he desperately wanted to. Besides, she was in love with Potter, not Draco. He sat on his bed in the Slytherin Boy's Dorms and thought of her, but eventually breaking out of his trance when called by Blaise.

----

Draco and Blaise walked down the hall to the Muggle Studies classroom hand in hand. They got to the door and Draco was about to walk off when Blaise said,

"Don't I get a goodbye kiss?"

"Oh alright." He said and she reached up and pulled him into a kiss that would have been mind-blowing had they had stronger feelings for each other, but as they had nothing more than an infatuation on Blaise's part and a dislike on Draco's part it had no magic whatsoever. While it may have not been very passionate, it still would have made someone very jealous, and that it did, for neither Blaise nor Draco saw the fourteen-year-old redhead standing in the corner with tears dripping down her face. Blaise walked into her class and Draco was about to leave when he finally spotted Ginny leaning against the door. He noticed the look of sadness on her face and went to go see what was wrong, but she ran off. Draco hurried after her. She went into a dimly lit room at the end of the corridor. He followed her in.

"Gin, what's wrong?" He said.

She didn't speak.

"Gin, I'm your friend. Tell me what's wrong." He said forcefully.

"Fine! You want to know what's wrong? I'll tell you. You're an idiot! Couldn't you see that I liked you? Couldn't you see how much it hurt to see you with another girl? Blaise Zabini, no less!"

Draco just stood there shocked. Ginny calmed down a little.

"How could you not see how much I loved you?" She said in almost a whisper.

"Ginny, are you in there?" Called Ron from outside the room. Ginny walked out without saying a word, leaving Draco standing there in shock.