That One Summer

Chapter Two

Dean attempted to close the door unnoticed, but, apparently, did not possess any form of good luck.

"Din," the twins greeted with what could only be described as evil smiles. "How lovely of you to drop in," George said as he stood to properly 'greet' their guest.

"Yes," Fred echoed, "lovely indeed."

Dean looked longingly towards the hallway of freedom. "I was on my way to the…bathroom," he attempted desperately.

"Well you guessed wrong, kid," Fred slapped a hand on Dean's back and forced him into the middle of the room. "It was hell of good shot though. For future reference though, you see that door directly across from here? That's Ginny's room."

Dean cursed silently; his foolproof methods of decision had failed him. Eni meni mini moe had not worked, it seemed as though his entire life had now been a lie…

"Since you're here though," George said graciously, "we are more than willing to be the hosts that our dear little sister expects of us. After all, we are perfect gentlemen, aren't we, Gred?"

"Of course we are, Forge. Have a seat, Din. Would you care for something to drink?"

Dean swallowed noticeably as he stared at the concoction that would most likely lead him to a slow and painful death. "No…no thanks."

"Come on, Din," Fred coerced, "do you really think that we would trick you? Why, you're practically family. And I will be personally insulted if you do not accept our hospitality."

"Fred," George reprimanded, "don't force things upon our friend here. You are being rude. Obviously, Din doesn't want the drink that you went to such great lengths and costs to make for him. As the guest, that is his purgative to just waste our drink."

Sensible to the fact that he was being made a fool of, Dean nevertheless accepted the drink, if for no other reason than to silence the tag team for a few minutes. He gave a good long glare to both of them before tipping the drink up, and 'accidentally' dropping it to the floor.

"Oh, no," he said with far more grievance than he felt, "how horrible. There you two went to all that trouble to get me something to drink and my clumsy ways have gone and ruined it. I do hope that you can find it in your hearts to forgive me." He lowered his voice and mumbled, "If you do indeed have hearts," under his breath.

"No worries," Fred responded cheekily, "we always have more on stock." He quickly grabbed another glass for Dean and filled it with a smile before handing it over.

Dean stared at the drink in contempt. The clumsy trick wouldn't work more than once…

He sighed heavily, muttered, "What the hell," and downed the drink in hopes that it was some sort of alcohol.

Safe to say, it was not alcohol or anything else that could derive pleasure from anyone other than the twins. Unfortunately, this fact was not known for Dean who was denied the act of observing himself.

Not feeling any different, Dean found a courage that surprised even him. "May I be excused then?"

"Of course," Fred said immediately.

"No one is keeping you," George added.

Dean shrugged and headed for the door. He walked swiftly across the hall where he had been promised to find Ginny. At last, someone who did not want to kill him.

As he lifted his hand out to open Ginny's door he noticed for the first time that his skin was…pale? No, no, this was not right at all, he couldn't be pale...he must be hallucinating. Dean promptly pinched himself, determined that it was real, and gazed upon his disgustingly pasty colored skin. What in the bloody hell had the twins done to him?

He burst through the door, praying that he would find a mirror on the other side. Unfortunately, he was met by a very appalled Ginny.

She stared at him with an incredulous expression for a good minute before speaking. "What the hell are you doing here?" Regaining her senses, she whipped out her wand and had it on him in two seconds. "You better crawl back into the ferret hole that you came from before I give you another taste of my Bat Boogey Hex."

"Ginny, it's me! I…your brothers…" He finally saw himself in her mirror and placed his hands disbelievingly over his face, they had turned him into Draco Sodding Malfoy! This was unforgivable.

"I mean it, Malfoy," she continued to threaten, "you have two seconds to get your rat face out of my house before I scream and let Ron and Harry beat you up."

"Ginny," he cried out desperately, "it's me, Dean! I swear that I am not Malfoy, Fred and George gave me this drink…"

She regarded him suspiciously. "You really expect me to buy that?"

"Why would I lie? Please, Ginny, you have to help me! I cannot go through life looking like Malfoy, that's a fate worse than death!"

Ginny bit back a laugh, "Well, vain as the ferret is, I don't think that he would say that about himself…but how--" She stopped suddenly and an expression beyond anger came across her features. "Fred!" she snapped loudly, "George! The two of you had better pray to whoever it is that you pray to that I do not get my hands around your scheming, scrawny necks!"

Before Dean even had opportunity to process what she was talking about, she had taken off across the hallway and into Fred and George's room. As he tip-toed over to take a peek at what was going on, he saw her take a running tackle at one of them--as if he could tell which one--and knock him to the floor.

An unconscious grimace came across him as he saw the tall boy fall hardly. "Ginny!" the other yelled out, "What's the big idea?"

She took enough time out to leap off of the one twin, and punch the other in the arm. "What's the big idea?" she repeated mockingly, "the big idea is that the two of you used your vile potion on my boyfriend. You turned him into Malfoy for crying out loud!"

They snickered, but quickly stopped. "It was just a joke, Gin." Fred said innocently.

"Yeah," George piqued in, "only for laughs. It'll wear off in an hour or so."

"Laughs? Dad already told you that your little…transformation potion was bloody illegal. Do you have any idea how much trouble the two of you are going to get into when he finds out that you brewed another and used it?"

"Finds out?" they repeated simultaneously.

"Whaddya mean," George said, "you aren't going to tell him or anything, are you, Gin?"

"That would be cruel. And unfair."

"Whereas it wasn't cruel for you to use it on Dean? I am telling you this, you leave him alone for the rest of the time that he is here, or I will do everything in my power to make your lives hell."

She gave a final glare before stalking out of the room, and dragging Malfoy-Dean back into her room.

"You had better stay in here until the potion wears off," she advised. "If Ron or Harry saw you like this…well, sufficient to say that they have been looking for a way to beat Malfoy into a pulp without getting expelled for years now."

He gulped and sat down upon the bed.

Ginny appeared pensive for a moment, before springing up and rummaging through her closet for something. After throwing a fair amount of things around the room, she victoriously pulled out a camera.

"I know that this is probably not a very polite thing to ask…but would you mind if I took a few pictures?"

He stared at her hardly. "Are you serious? Why would you want them?"

"Well…you do look like Malfoy's clone, and if I could just get some photos of you in some precarious positions…it would make for terrific blackmail! I have something to settle with Malfoy, you understand."

"Umm…yeah, I guess that would be okay. What do you want me to do?"

Her eyes light up, "Great! Hmm, for starters lets just have one of you smiling. Like a really big happy-to-be-alive smile; you know, one that would get Malfoy disowned."

Dean laughed and complied. She clicked several pictures before lowering the camera. "Oh, I have an excellent idea…Hold on just a second." She fiddled around with the device before setting it upon her nightstand and joining him on the bed. "It's set to go off automatically now."

Without warning, she thrust herself upon him, and kissed him full on the mouth. He heard the picture take and saw a triumphant smile on her face. "I think that I might owl that one to Azkaban for dear Father Malfoy…as a Christmas gift, you understand."

He smiled, and leaned down to kiss her again. She returned it for a second before gently pushing him away.

"I'm sorry," she said while looking away. "I like you, Dean, I mean, I really like you…but kissing you like this is…weird."

He nodded and pulled away. "So…what should we do then?"

"I don't know. Crazy as it sounds, we could talk."

"Talk. Right." An awkward moment of silence ensued. "What should we talk about then?"

Ginny promptly rolled her eyes. "Gee, I don't know, how 'bout the weather?"

Dean failed to pick up on the sarcasm in her statement. "Well, personally, I think that it's been simply ghastly lately. The rain…what's up with that?"

"It's England, Dean."

"I know, but does it have to rain every bloody day?"

She shrugged. "Interesting as this is, could we talk about something else?"

"But you brought it up--"

"I wasn't serious."

He laughed uneasily, "Oh, yeah…me neither."

"Right, sure you weren't."

As things were finally becoming normal--or normal as can be--between boyfriend and girlfriend, it was only logical that something would disrupt it. This particular disruption came in the form of Ron…a most unpleasant one indeed.

"Hey, Gin, I wanted to talk to you about--Malfoy?!"

"What about Malfoy, Ron?" Ginny asked sweetly.

"You…he…ferret!"

"Mmm, yes, Ron dear, that does make a great deal of sense."

Dean snorted with laughter and Ron's incoherency switched to anger. As he saw Ron all but shake with fury he took first notice that his temporary body was lacking the height and muscle that he had been preparing to rely on in dealings with indignant Weasley siblings.

"Damn," Dean whispered to himself as he flexed a muscle. "Doesn't Malfoy ever work out?"

Sensing that he would be no match for Ron's gangly-turned-muscular form, he did what anyone with the least amount of wisdom would do…he ran.

Ron cracked his knuckles and took a sharp breath before taking up pursuit. "Oh you better run, Ferret!"

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A/N- Another chapter completed…hopefully you found something in here that made you laugh. Something other than bad grammar/spelling/writing that is, lol. Otherwise, my efforts have been for naught. You don't want me to be sad, do you? Course not, so leave a pleasant review.