Chapter 22

Draco stood up, towering over Ginny by a good five inches. You would think that the larger and more muscular man in front of her would intimidate her, but she wasn't. One thing about this woman was that it took a lot to scare her, and she had never been terrified of Draco before anyway. Besides, Gryffindors were known to be brave and to them Draco Malfoy was more of a joke and an annoyance then anything else.

Her insult fed to the fire of his anger, causing it to grow to the point that he could no longer contain himself. He was not going to sit back and let Ginny, nay a Weasley, stand there and insult him. Did she have no respect?

Obviously not for him. She hated him. That was blatantly clear to him now, but that didn't mean he would accept it. After all, he did had a right to hate her instead, but didn't. He was only offended and upset that she viewed him in such a light. Why should he stand by as she insulted him in every way imaginable, especially while he had no clue as to why she was so mad at him to begin with?

These questions fluttered in his mind and, to his exasperation, he had no answers for them. She had started this whole thing to begin with, so she could hardly place any blame on his part. So what was this now? Had she felt this way the entire time?

His attention turned from these ponderings back to the redhead in front of him with the temper as bad as the Weasley's were known to have. That's right, her hair was back to her natural red shade now, he hadn't noticed until that minute. The blonde hair had complimented her, but nothing compared to how she looked with her hair red. He decided within seconds that he liked her better this way, even if the hair change came along with a change in attitude as well.

Reminding himself that he was mad at her, he prepared to return some witty form of vituperation her way, but to no avail. He wasn't sure where to start, with all the thoughts that were in his mind. Thinking would have done him no good anyway, because his anger had caused him to lose control over his tongue and soon he lashed back out on the woman with whom he was completely consumed.

"And whose fault is that but your own!" he spat, pointing out a valid point. It was her choice to converse with him in the first place, regardless of her reasons why. "You are nothing more than a typical intolerable and good-for-nothing Weasley with bad taste, bad manners, and complete disrespect for those that are above you."

He didn't mean the words that he said, at least not completely anyway. At one point in time he would have agreed to all of the above earnestly, back when he knew basically nothing about her and spent absolutely no time with her. He was taught to view people in such a way, that no one was as good as him and his family name. To be candid, if he had known who she was before he asked her out then it would have never happened. His life would have stayed the same, he wouldn't have gotten that chance to indirectly attack his father, and he wouldn't have spent so many hours thinking about this woman who had somehow pried her way into his mind.

In all honesty he did not currently view her in such a negative light, and it was only because she saw him as such a vile person that he held any bit of contempt towards her. He was too busy being occupied with pondering her hatred for him and his anger for her that he didn't realize his view on her had changed. He was ignoring the fact that she had such an affect on him. He had yet to come to terms with the reality that he felt something for someone else.

Looking ahead of him, he awaited her response to his hurtful words. How did he want her to react? Draco was not sure what he had wanted and somewhere deep down he knew that these harsh words were not getting either of them anywhere.

Ginny, who had been standing in front of him with frustration pouring out of her, was clenching her fists as she awaited his response to her statement, that is if he decided to give one. When she heard the words he so disdainfully spat at her, each one struck a nerve in her body. She didn't want to cry, although if he had said this to her when she was younger then she probably would have.

No, tears were not her response, but instead she was left feeling incomplete. She was not a stupid witch, and as much as her temper caused many a fight, in the end she knew that this bickering was not going to get solve anything.

What Ginny wanted, and in some way needed, was for an explanation. That is, of course, if Draco had an explanation for anything that he did. Perhaps he did not care about her in any way, which was a likely possibility with someone like him, and if so then he would have no inclination for her feelings and no need for an explanation.

She knew that he was right; it was her fault for all of this. She just had to come up with the idea of using Draco for an article and then resorted to dating him in order to find evidence. Why did she allow herself to do that when she could have found some other means of collecting information? Well, the most apparent reason is that dating him was easier and another was so it would be like a slap in the face for him. She had broken one of the reporters by bringing personal emotions into her job.

Either way, the insults that he was flinging upon her were uncalled for. Plus he hadn't just insulted her, he insulted her family and that was going too far. She never viewed Malfoy as being above her; actually it was quite the opposite. He may be a wealthy member of the wizarding community, but he had no morals or values and his father was a Deatheater. Enough said.

She kept her eyes on his, which happened to be her favorite part of him. She could stare at his eyes for hours, they seemed to tell everything and yet at the same time nothing about Draco. Was he really this cold or was he more then he appeared?

"You are such an insolent bastard, but you are right about one thing," she began, her reply letting out more emotion then she would like him to see. "I do have bad taste. Look what I almost fell for!" The last part she said gesturing to him, and then put her hand over her mouth after realizing what she had just let slip.

That was, in itself, a partial lie. She would not admit to the fact that she had indeed fallen for him, and she fell hard. Hell, she even had to break up with Harry because of the way things were going with him! Luckily though, her words did not sound false to the ear and he would not be able to detect the falsehood with which she spoke.

Draco's ears suddenly perked up. What was that? She just said that she 'almost' fell for him, so that means he did get under her skin. But then why was she being so mean to him? He knew that she meant her remark to offend him, but he took it in another way. That meant that his charms had worked on her, which was quite the compliment.

Although this should make him happy, he was still mad at her. He did not understand why she held so much disdain for him. He watched as she covered her mouth, implying that she had not meant to tell him that. Normally he would let a sly grin creep across his face and use this information to his advantage, but he was too confused for that.

"Well, seeing as I'm such a- what did you call me?" he said, referring back to the list. "Oh right, an arrogant, vain, rude, smug bastard, among other things, I'm surprised that you would waste your precious time pointing out even more insults to fling at me."

He closed his mouth, waiting to see how she would respond. He could careless if she knew that he knew about the list, for all he knew she was the one who sent it to him in the first place.

As Ginny listened to his reply, and wondered what he was talking about. When had she called him those things? Then she remembered, the list. She had written several of those qualities on it, but she crumpled up the list and threw it in the trash. How would he have gotten his hands on it? That was the last time she would ever make a list again.

Then something occurred to her, it had to have been Cho! After all, she knew those two talked and Cho worked at the same newspaper with her, therefore she could have easily went through her office looking for something to use against her- and she found the list. Ginny tried not to put any names on the list, but then without noticing she wrote one of the reasons using Draco's last name.

So that was how Cho was able to figure it out, but the nerve of her going through her stuff. Ginny didn't need any evidence or convincing to prove to her that it was all Cho because she knew that Cho was the type of person to go through someone's office.

She decided to pretend like she had no idea what he was talking about, just in case he didn't know about the list or he never saw it with his own eyes, both of which she was hoping for. After all, you can't put the blame on someone unless you have the proof to back it up. Ok, Ginny was being a hypocrite, but with Cho it was a different story.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Ginny replied solemnly. "But I believe that this is a waste of both of our time."

He knew that she was lying, for it was definitely written by her hand. "I believe that you are aware of exactly what I am talking about. Let me refresh your memory, a list that went by the name of 'Reasons Why I Must Stop Thinking About You Know Who', which happened to be a list of everything you hate about me."

Damn it! He knew about the list, no doubt read it himself, but if that was indeed true then why did he think it was simply a list about things she hated about him? Even she knew that the purpose of the list changed as it went on, and what were once only insults became reasons for why even she could not resist his charms.

It was for this reason that she replied, "Oh, that list. What do you mean it was a list about everything I hate about you? Did you even read the whole thing?"

"I read enough to get the main idea that you held me in contempt and I saw no point in continuing just to read even more insults then necessary," he answered, wondering why she would ask him such a stupid question.

"Well, if you took some time to read down further then you would see that it said I like you," she responded, wanting to hit him over his head for his stupidity. So that was why he was so mad at her! Just because he was too lazy to read the entire thing.

Her comment took him by surprise. Was she telling him the truth? She liked him? Then why was she treating him so? How could a list that was so insulting turn into revealing that she had feelings for him? This was utterly astonishing. "Is that true?"

"No, I just said that to see how you would react," she replied sarcastically and then continued because she knew that he might not realize her sarcastic tone. "Of course it's true."

"Then- then why are you so angry with me?" he asked, not understanding her at all. At one point he thought he did, he thought that he could read her emotions and understand her actions, but now she was an enigma to him. If there even was a reason of why she acted the way she did towards him then he had no idea as to what that reason was.

A/N: Finally the 22nd chapter as you requested. This will be continued into the next chapter, so don't worry. There are still about two chapters to go, or maybe more, this is taking longer then I expected. Thanks for the reviews!

Please review! (and I will update within the next couple days)