Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters.

-Chapter 3-

'Oh fuck,' thought Ginny, 'as if my day couldn't get anymore worse'.

Ginny was still on the ground, her head turned and staring at Malfoy in shock mixed with horror. Draco on the other hand, was glaring fiercely down at Ginny.

He made no indication that he was going to shrug it off and leave or help her up either. Ginny sighed and picked herself up cautiously, as not to slip and fall again. Now that would be embarrassing, especially since Draco was still there, not two feet from her.

Once she was up, Ginny patted her pockets to make sure she had everything, all the while ignoring Draco's presence and relentless glare. Her eyes widened when she felt her now flat pocket. It was official; her day was a complete disaster.

She had lost her money pouch!

Frantically, Ginny whipped her head around in all directions.

'Oh no! It couldn't have gone far! It must be somewhere around here. It must have flown out of my pocket when I bumped into that idiot Malfoy,' Ginny thought.

Draco raised his eyebrows, glare no longer intact. 'What is she doing? She's obviously looking for something she'd lost. How irresponsible can you get? Oh I forgot, she's Weasley,' thought Draco, rolling his eyes.

He took a quick glance around himself. His eyes fell on a small brown leather pouch that was behind his right boot.

Draco took a quick glance in Ginny's direction, noticing with amusement that she still hadn't had the brains to check behind him. She also wasn't facing him which gave Draco a chance to bend down and swiftly pick it up. Draco stared at it for a moment with slight disgust.

'How old is this thing? Not to mention tacky. Ah well, what would one expect from a Weasley,' thought Draco, his nose momentarily scrunching up in distaste.

He held the pouch between his index finger and thumb as if it was contaminated. Almost instantly, an idea occurred to him and he held the pouch out in front of him.

With a smug look in place, he shook it and Ginny immediately spun around at the sound of the money clinking together in the little pouch.

Draco watched with delight as Ginny flushed an ugly shade of red, all the way to the tips of her ears.

"Give that back Malfoy," demanded Ginny. "Oh? This old thing?" Draco said, sounding innocent. Ginny fumed, she wasn't in a good mood to begin with and Draco wasn't helping things either.

"Yes, that old thing," Ginny spat, "It's mine and I want it back now. You stole it from me, I know it."

Draco did something completely unexpected and batted his eyelashes at Ginny. Her jaw opened slightly in shock. She quickly regained her composure and growled at Draco, obviously losing her patience, although one wonders if she had any to begin with.

"I am not in the mood for your asinine games Malfoy. Just give me back my pouch and go away!" Ginny shouted the last word forcefully.

Alas, to no avail, he didn't give it back. He just smirked at her and that infuriated her.

"Why Weasley, I'm hurt. Why would you ever think me to be a thief? All I did was help you find your measly little pouch and you go off on me like a raving banshee," Draco said calmly.

He was curious to know why she hadn't yet pulled her wand out and threatened to hex him yet. Although they weren't allowed to use magic during the summer, Draco believed she was stupid enough to do so anyway. After a moment of silence, It was apparent that she wasn't going to. Not that he was complaining.

He could still feel that damned bat-bogey hex she had given him in his fifth year and it wasn't pretty. Draco watched as Ginny tried desperately to control her temper, her fists clenching and unclenching themselves.

Draco grinned, and oh-so-casually placed the pouch into his robe pocket. This was a bad move and he knew it.

Draco knew it the instant her face turned, although he didn't think it was possible, yet another shade redder and her nostrils flared. He instantly regretted it although didn't show it. Ginny went kapooey.

She erupted, exploded, and everything else that meant 'blew up' could be used to accurately describe Ginny Weasley's current standing. She stomped right up to him and, catching him by surprise, shoved him back. Draco was, for lack of a better word, shocked and stumbled back a foot or two.

Ginny yelled at him fiercely, "Who do you think you are Draco Malfoy! Nobody, that's what! You just couldn't leave well enough alone could you, could you! As if having to deal with all this shit in my life wasn't enough, you just had to grace me with your insufferable presence!"

Draco's mouth had opened somewhere in the middle of her rant and he just stared at her. Ginny paused and took a deep breath. Draco wouldn't have been surprised if her eyes turned red as well as her face. He noticed with a shocked silence that she wasn't finished.

Not at all.

"All I did was ask you for my pouch back. And did you give it back? NO! Why must everyone aggravate me so?" Ginny clearly forgot who she was yelling at as she started gushing about her life to Draco as if he was the cause of all her problems.

"First my mother outright ignores me when I made Prefect, then Ron and Hermione treat me like some porcelain doll," Ginny was starting to shake from her pent up anger, "Then EVERYONE ignores me and acts like I don't exist all because of the bloody boy who lived!"

As if he was hit with some sort of mega stretch charm, Draco's mouth dropped even further.

"I mean honestly! It's like he's more their son than I am their daughter. It's just not bloody fair! Everyone should just sod off and leave me alone! Including you, you stupid, arrogant, self-centered shmuck!" She sucked in a deep breath.

Ginny's face was so flushed; you could no longer see the slight dusting of freckles across her nose and cheekbones. Draco had closed his mouth and stared at Ginny, completely speechless except for the thoughts zooming about in his head.

'Whoa! What an outburst. And I thought Weasley was a hothead. Hey wait a minute, since when did the littlest Weasley hate Potter? Surely she still fancies scar-head? Well, isn't this a shocker, a Gryffindor AND a Weasley who doesn't like Potter. Shocking," thought Draco hastily.

Ginny stared back at Draco, quickly regaining her senses and composure. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers when she realized with alarm as to what she just did. She did the first thing that came to mind, hoping that Draco wouldn't snap out it before she got a chance to bolt.

Ginny ran up to Draco, stuck her hand in his robe pocket, grabbed her pouch and ran off in the other direction, becoming lost among the crowd of witches and wizards. Draco blinked and his head jolted up quickly to look in the direction in which Ginny fled.

'Merlin she's a fast runner, I bet she realized what she said to me and all she could think to do was run away. How pitiful and uninventive. She's probably horrified at the thought of anyone knowing she actually holds some dislike for the bespectacled git," thought Draco, as a smirk formed on his lips.

Draco grinned mischievously.

'Who knows, maybe I can use this to my advantage.' Unaware of the blatant grin on his face, Draco walked off towards the Leaky Cauldron.

Although the Leaky Cauldron had great butterbeer, Draco would never voluntarily admit that he liked going there for some peace in a secluded corner table, not to mention the butterbeer and certain appetizers that he rather enjoyed.

Again, he would rather listen to Sir Cadogan rant and rave about chivalry and jousting. Now that was saying something. As Draco walked, he thought about what had happened. He was highly curious as to why Ginny, although he wasn't one-hundred percent sure that was her name, was so mad, and at Wonder Boy in particular.

'Although, come to think of it, she didn't necessarily say she hated Potter. I highly doubt she does, but one never can tell with bloody Potter. Of course, for me, if I had to be in the same vicinity with Potter for an extended period of time, I'd sure as hell wouldn't be happy myself. I wonder what he did,' Draco thought, scrunching his eyebrows in thought, 'Probably proclaimed his love for the mudblood.'

At this, Draco let out a small laugh. He muttered coldly under his breath, "Yet another thing to investigate. Although I think this one won't be as stressful and nerve-racking."

Draco didn't know how very wrong he was.

He finally made it to the Leaky Cauldron, swiftly entering and walked over to a secluded table over in the corner.

Tom saw him and walked over, "Hello Mr. Malfoy, what can I get you?" He asked in a casual tone. Draco nodded to him, "Just a butterbeer." Tom nodded back to him in affirmative, "One butterbeer coming right up," he said before walking away.

Later Tom came and brought him his butterbeer and Draco paid for it, giving Tom extra for tip. Draco examined the butterbeer mug, a fruitless effort seeing as how the Leaky Cauldron kept their mugs and other various ware spotless.

Draco took to enjoying his butterbeer, pausing every once in a while to just stare into oblivion. He welcomed the voices of people in the Leaky Cauldron as they, oddly, calmed him.

He felt a weird reassurance whenever surrounded by others in public places, this excluding school. Although in reality, he was still very much alone.

Draco took a sip from his butterbeer and leaned his head back, closing his eyes and savoring the moment as well as his butterbeer. His eyes shot open at the sound of a big group bustling into the Leaky Cauldron. Their voices seemed to carry over the customers and others as they came in.

'Surprise, surprise,' Draco thought.

It was the Weasley's….Plus a very bushy headed Granger and an always stupid looking Potter.

He also noted with interest that the youngest Weasley, Ginny, had walked in last, looking very much annoyed, although she tried to hide it.

Draco glanced at the cheery faces of the Weasley Clan and couldn't help but notice that Ginny looked very much out of place with her eyes downcast.

'I guess that's what happens when you have so many lumbering brothers and no sisters,' thought Draco, an amused expression on his face.

Ginny froze when she felt the hairs on the back of her next stand up.

'Someone is staring at me, I can feel it,' Ginny thought, her eyes glancing around suspiciously. She came up with nothing and shrugged.

Hermione tugged on Ginny's sleeve and indicated to the table off to the right, almost completely full from her family's presence. She sauntered over with Hermione and unconsciously took the seat furthest away from Harry.

Hermione sent her an odd look and took the seat in between Harry and Mrs. Weasley. Ginny still felt uneasy, she was certain that someone was staring at her, but who?

There were some obvious spots which were lacking light in the Leaky Cauldron which made it so it would be almost impossible to spot anyone who sits in them.

She narrowed her eyes and peered closely at each and every one of them. Her eyes had passed over another dark spot when she caught a flicker of light coming from the last one.

Ginny looked closely at it and almost gasped but caught herself. Intense, scrutinizing steely gray eyes stared back into hers.

Draco kept his surprise hidden when Ginny had found him out. He was curious to see how long she would hold his gaze before turning away. He wondered if she would blush as she turned away, as most girls tended to do whenever caught in a staring contest with him.

Apparently she didn't when she gave him a look of disgust and turned her head to talk to one of her numerous red-headed brothers.

He watched with mild interest as they all stood as one little or rather large unit and headed out of the Leaky Cauldron.

Ginny was again last, and took that as an opportunity of sorts to glance back over her shoulder at Draco. Draco smirked at her and it only proved to widen when she frowned and looked away.

When she was gone, he looked down towards his watch and noticed that it was almost dinner time. He drank the rest of his butterbeer and walked out, a small smile creeping up on his lips.

'This should be fun.'

Author's Note: And out comes the 3rd chapter. Fun stuff! Finally some D/G action! Hehehe. Hopefully it's not too out of character…or boring. Boring is bad! Anyway, please review if you can! Thanks a bunch )