Disclaimer: Blah, Blah, Blah, Not mine, Blah, Blah, Blah, etc. etc. (can you tell I got tired of doing these?)

Chapter 4: A Worthy Adversary

Wanted and adored by attractive women

Bountiful selection at your discretion

I know I'm diving into my own destruction.

So why do we choose the boys that are naughty?

I don't fit in, so why do you want me?

And I know I can't tame you...but I just keep trying

Why do the good girls always want the bad boys?

Draco rolled over in his bed drearily. He had been so exhausted the night before that he had slept like a rock, but upon awakening everything he had been fretting about poured over him like a landslide. "Ugh! Why must fate torture me so?! Hey, I could be a poet myself." Shouts and laughter from outside the window were sufficient enough to remind Draco it was the weekend, a fact he had forgotten in his current turmoil. Maybe a trip to Hogsmeade will clear my mind. Rousing himself and dressing laboriously, Draco dragged himself out to the Main Hall where other late-rising students were preparing for a trip to the village.

"Hi Draco! Oh, you look just awful! Can I help?"

Draco's already sullen face twisted into a disgusted grimace as Pansy Parkinson appeared beside him, simpering, whimpering, and flirting obnoxiously.

"Here, let me take your arm and help you, Oh! My, what big muscled you have! You know, I haven't seen you around much the past few days. Is anything wrong?"

Her pouting lip and pitiful eyes might have been endearing, on a skunk that is.

"Maybe I was just avoiding you." Draco grumbled under his breath at the sad display of affection.

"What was that, Drakie?" Crap, she heard, um... a quick lie would be...

"I said, would you look at that beautiful view!" Draco exclaimed, wrenching his arm from her grip to point out the window into foliage dying before winter came. She really doesn't take hints well but I have to be somewhat civil. She's a real bitch when she's pissed off. And since when am I 'Drakie'? Ugh, gag me! If this statement didn't quite make Draco gag, the next one did.

"Drakie? Would you like to take me to Hogsmeade?" Draco listed all the reasons to say no quietly in his head. 1. no because you're ugly 2. no because you annoy me 3. no because I'd rather go with a dead flobberworm and 4. no because Ginny might see...What! No! No number 4, I only have 3 reasons! 3! Ugly, annoying, dead flobberworm, Ginny has nothing to do with it! Draco, despite the goings on his head, managed a sickly smile and politely declined with, "No, I'm meeting other people" before walking in the opposite direction and mentally berating himself all the way to Hogsmeade.

Draco wandered the streets of the tiny village looking for a place to drown his sorrows. Honeydukes looked a likely place. What better way to feel sorry for yourself than to gorge on sugary sweets? (A/N: I know its how girls deal so I figured it might apply to emotionally distraught guys too. Why not?) After loading up on sugar quills, chocolate frogs and pepper imps. Draco trudged away to find a secluded corner in which to stuff his face. He walked distractedly down the street until his meandering was interrupted by running into the back of another person. As a reflex, Draco snidely commented, "Watch where you're going lowlife" before he looked to see who he was addressing.

"You're the on that ran into me moron!" replied Ginny Weasley. (A/N: What a coincidence!) Draco faltered. Draco Malfoy the bitter, Gryffindor-hating, spoiled Slytherin wanted to reply back but Draco Malfoy the confused, lonely, fan-of-Ginny's-poetry wanted to apologize and prove he was a changed man. Guess who won.

"Well excuse me for exercising my right to walk where you're standing!"

The battle of words had begun.

"Hey ferret-face, there's a whole road here, picking a different cobblestone to curse with your presence wouldn't kill you, but I'd pity the stone."

"So sorry, but your clothes were so old I thought they were part of the street." Draco replied, feigning innocence.

"Oh, that was low Malfoy, but I can deal with old clothes as long as my hair doesn't look like I fell in a lard bucket. You could start a restaurant with all the bacon fat in yours."

"Ah, yes. But I could start the restaurant by myself. I wouldn't need the Golden Trio protecting me from the big, bad world. Do you really need three baby-sitters?"

"Hey, maybe you could borrow them. You act like enough of a child. Oh, but they charge extra for diaper changes."

"Hey I can afford extras unlike you, what have you got in that bag? String, air and a paperclip? Don't strain yourself, that money's got to last you all year."

"At least my money is earned honestly! You're dad is only powerful because he has to pay off everyone beneath him so they take him seriously. I mean, come on. What's with the ponytail? Six year old girls wear ponytails!"

Draco didn't like people insulting his family, no matter who they were.

"Shut up Weaslette! You can't beat me! I am always going to be better than you, better, smarter, richer, and more respected, because my family name is actually worth something. I will be better than you and there is nothing you can ever do to change that!"

Ginny stumbled at the cruelty of this prod. The other insults she had heard before; but no one had ever stooped that low to insult her family honor to her face.

"I, I really hate you sometimes," was all she could get out without letting tears fall. Draco saw her glistening eyes thought and knew he had crossed the line. He backed off and curiously asked,

"only sometimes?"

Ginny paused, contemplating a good response.

"Yeah, the rest of the time I only just hate you instead of really hating you. Or times like this when I hate you so much I can barely describe it."

"Nice save Weaslette."

Ginny turned to walk away and said quietly, dangerously:

"Don't call me Weaslette, ferret."

Draco couldn't let her leave yet, not this mad at him and definitely not with the last word. Before she had gone three steps Draco offered,

"Fine, I won't call you Weaslette if you don't call me ferret." Ginny turned, slowly considering, and a smug grin crossed her face.

"Ok, but what about the amazing bouncing ferret?" Draco snapped.

"You really enjoy pissing me off don't you!" Ginny turned to leave again.

"Well, it's always nice to have a worthy adversary." and she walked off without a backward glance. Draco stared after the retreating figure, her final words echoing in his head.

"A worthy adversary"

A/N: TaaDaah! Ooh, you guys owe me! Two updates in one day!! But it was a fun battle of wits to write and hopefully fun to read too! Please review because it gives me that warm fuzzy feeling inside. Oh, and the poem is a few lyrics from the No Doubt song "Bathwater" off the Return of Saturn cd.