Chapter 16- Friends
*****Draco*****
When Ginny had first asked him to mock duel, it had sounded alluring and thrilling. He hadn't anticipated being innervated and helped from the ground quite so many times.
"You're getting better already," Ginny commented easily. "Way better than the first week. I've had a lot more practice, and I'm really trying hard to keep up."
Ginny did have more practice, from that group, Potter's Army, for all that it had held the headmaster's name. Draco had known that, and still hadn't thought she would get the better of him- with her being a year younger, and the Weasleys being the law-abiding sort so that she wouldn't have even practiced much over the summers.
But he would be mature about losing, as much as he wanted to scowl and use something somewhat stronger than a stunner to try to win. That would be wrong and ruin everything.
"What else did you learn in your… club?" he hesitated over the word.
Ginny smiled, "My favourite spell." She closed her eyes and was still for a few moments of concentration, so whatever it was wasn't very practical. "Expecto Patronum!" she shouted.
That was impressive, Draco would admit.
It was a horse, a wispy but clearly shaped mare.
"It's pretty," Draco said, ready to duel again. He still needed to work on silent casting too, that would really give him an edge. But he could also help Ginny with it after he had mastered it himself.
*****Ginny*****
"Hey, Ginny?" Neville walked up to her. They had bonded during the DA and being at the Ministry. Until then there had been that weird lingering from having attended the Yule Ball with the boy, and wondering what that meant. She had never wanted to date Neville- but that had been childish of her, because Neville was great and deserved to date someone great. She just hoped he didn't like her like that.
"Yeah, Neville?" Ginny asked back, cheerfully.
"Harry- and Hermione and Ron don't plan on continuing the DA, but I thought some of us might still want to practice. Luna wants to as well. Though I know you'll be busy with your OWL year and... things," he said.
Was Draco the 'things?' And quidditch. Ginny thought more about quidditch than classes. Did she really have a chance at professional quidditch? But defending herself and others was more important than school or quidditch or her relationship. But did she really have time with…
"I've been practicing defence with Draco, but if you all could get along…" Ginny offered. "It would be good to keep an even number," Ginny suggested. "You, me, Luna, and Draco," she said. Was it ludicrous? Luna had suggested that Ginny tell Draco last year, so she was certain the other girl wouldn't mind, but she knew that Draco and Neville had some history.
Neville clenched his jaw for a moment. When did Neville Longbottom get such a defined jawline? He'd grown in more than just confidence in the last year. He wasn't the round-faced little boy who'd taken her to the ball. "Sounds like a good idea," he said, and turned around quickly.
They could figure out a time later, Ginny supposed. It wouldn't be secret exactly, but she wasn't about to post a public notice.
*****Draco*****
Refusing to practice with Ginny's friends seemed like the best way to distance himself from her, which wasn't what he wanted. So, if he accepted them and they rejected him, then they would be in the wrong in Ginny's eyes. So, Draco could make it through one uncomfortable evening. He had shared a dinner with- Tom Riddle and lived- a memory he did not like to think back on. But it had brought him closer to Ginny, who now made him happy- usually.
And she'd kissed him enthusiastically when he agreed to the little venture.
When the second evening from that day came, Ginny looked nervous, as was reasonable as they stood in the Come and Go Room- or as they called it, the Room of Requirement. Draco thought that Lovegood looked pleased, but who could tell with Lovegood unless she chose to spout off what she was thinking? Not that Draco actually knew almost anything about the girl.
Longbottom looked… not the way he looked in their classes together.
"So, we've just been dueling, stunners and lighter hexes only. So, maybe you could do that too, Luna and Neville, but we could switch up sometime, maybe," Ginny suggested, darting a look at him. He didn't want to hex Longbottom, though it wouldn't be the first time.
"Did you see her this summer? Bellatrix Lestrange?" Longbottom asked, staring right at him.
That was what was different about him. Neville Longbottom looked every bit the pureblood son, last of one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, like Draco was himself. Longbottom was proud and angry.
"I didn't," Draco said.
"You didn't see her at Malfoy Manor?" Longbottom pressed again. "But you probably know where she is," he said, chin unusually high.
"She might be at Malfoy Manor," Draco decided to say. "But I wasn't there. I've never met the woman."
"You didn't see your parents?" the other boy asked, more of a boy again and surprised now, confused.
Draco didn't wish to answer that one, but said instead, "I saw my mother once. And you can cut straight to asking to see my forearm if you wish," he offered. But he'd make Longbottom ask for it. He'd almost wanted to say that anyone sane would seek alternative living space after the previous summer sharing a dining table with Tom Riddle, and that if he'd gone 'home', his forearm would not be bare.
Longbottom thrust out his own right hand instead, for a handshake.
Draco couldn't object with Ginny watching. And maybe it would be interesting.
*****Draco*****
Crabbe and Goyle spoke with Nott or Zabibi more often than they did him. There would be others around Draco at meals, but none of them talked to him. Maybe they never had, unless Draco started the conversation. Draco had previously talked too much.
Draco quit the quidditch team two weeks into term when Urquhart, their unpromising new captain, still hadn't scheduled a practice. The boy didn't seem too surprised. Draco had already said he didn't want to be captain.
He would always love to fly, but he wasn't sure that seeker was ever meant to be the position for him. He'd gotten it because he was a small twelve year old, his father bought everyone brooms, and that was the most open place on the team. And he'd wanted to beat Potter, so it had all lined up well. And now? For her future, for their future, he wanted Ginny to win, preferably in long games where she got to show her abilities. And if he didn't even truly want to win the game against Gryffindor, what was the point? It wasn't fun to defeat Hufflepuff. Especially because it made him remember Diggory. Death, Death Eaters, his father, Tom. Not an enjoyable thought-path.
Sometimes he ate breakfast earlier, so he would be less conspicuously alone, or possibly more so.
"Hey," a small voice said, as the person sat down.
Astoria Greengrass. They had never spoken before, strange for two people who could have been married eventually.
"Hello," Draco answered. The two other Slytherins far down the table were pretending not to notice them, Draco thought.
"So, if you weren't engaged to Ginny Weasley, we might be betrothed right now. Is it weird that we never talked about that?" she asked.
"We probably could have had a few more years before papers were signed. I doubt we would have talked about it much before then," Draco acknowledged.
"That would have been stupid," Astoria said. She fixed her tea. Draco had taken to morning coffee. Terrible drink.
"Yes," Draco agreed.
"Do you think you would have been a good husband for me?" Astoria asked next. Were her parents in talks with someone else, was that what she was worried about?
"I intend to be a good husband to Ginny," Draco worded, which wasn't the safest thing to say in his position. What did being a good husband to a Weasley look like to many of his classmates?
"Yes, but you love her," the girl pointed out plainly.
"I do," Draco said, unsure what else to say.
"Do you think we would have fallen in love?" the girl asked. Would they have? What had made him fall in love with Ginny? When did that happen? Was it just time together and common experience, common bond? Was it gratitude or fear? Passion? They were both emotional people. Could he have had that with someone else, and if so, did that make what he had with Ginny less precious?
"I don't know," he answered honestly. "I would hope so with time." It seemed a sad life to live otherwise, but he wouldn't tell that to the girl who was doubtless still facing an arranged marriage, or 'encouraged,' 'introduced,' whatever they wanted to call it, to a boy or man she didn't really know.
"Yeah, maybe," Astoria shrugged. She was only a year younger than Ginny. Less, because Ginny was one of the youngest in her year- though so was Draco in his.
"You or your parents are in talks with another family then?" Draco questioned neutrally. He would doubtless already know the answer if he had spent the summer with Narcissa Malfoy.
"With a few families, yeah," the witch shrugged again. "They believe I'm old enough to give input now. Which is insulting that I wasn't consulted before, for a decision I would live with for the rest of my life. But look at you, maybe choice isn't always best."
"You should appreciate your influence over the decision," Draco said to the ungrateful girl. Not that her position was fair.
"But you wouldn't have chosen Ginny," the witch prodded.
"Yes, but neither would my parents."
"No, they picked me," the younger witch said. Teasing now. The first emotion he'd seen.
"You were what, ten years old at the time? They picked your family."
"Pass the toast. Prat," she said.
*****Draco*****
Draco was learning more in his sixth year than and of his previous years, despite the decline in quality of Potions class. Slughorn didn't have the right type of flare. He was all talk. And Draco was not jealous of his stupid special meetings.
Defence class. Draco wondered how far his year was behind an objective standard- with their parade of incompetent teachers, none worse than Umbridge. And yet, everyone in their little... defence practice group had been ahead, and Draco had to catch up.
Two weeks in, the Creevey boy and the even younger Creevey boy joined their… gatherings. And the eager boys weren't even hopeless. And Longbottom was especially good at working with them, and they beamed when they improved in any way. And Longbottom was good. He learned silent casting and was better at conveying the intent-based casting concepts to the younger boys. Draco was excelling in silent casting as well, of course. Better than Longbottom… probably.
But if Draco didn't hurry, Colin Creevey was going to have a corporeal patronus before Draco. It was bad enough that Longbottom was already proficient at it, as was Lovegood. It was just one spell that didn't really matter. It was just these Gryffindors who treated it as the epitome of goodness thwarting all evil, when really, he intended to stay far from dementors and anything else that the spell was good for.
"So, are we still Dumbledore's Army?" Longbottom asked, another two weeks after their number grew to six. He sounded hopeful, which was strange with Draco present. A Slytherin, a Malfoy.
"I am not part of any army, and definitely not one for Dumbledore," Draco objected.
"We don't have to have a name. We're just- friends practicing together, sound close enough?" Ginny said calmly. Because she was the leader, he supposed. Or maybe they didn't have a leader. But everyone else was looking around and nodding, and they didn't even avoid Draco's gaze, even the littlest Creevey. Longbottom nodded solemnly.
"I have been thinking that our group has been becoming very Gryffindor," Longbottom observed.
No. Perhaps Lovegood was fine with it, because she was an odd sort, but Draco Malfoy was not some honorary Gryffindor, for all that he no longer… fit with his Slytherin dormmates.
"There are a few students who I wanted to ask to join us, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott- from Hufflepuff," he announced. "Susan had lost as much or more to… Him as anyone, and now her aunt this past summer. Both Hannah and Susan were in the DA," Longbottom said, which would have been for Draco's benefit, as if Draco hadn't already known everything the other sixth year boy was saying. "Not that that is needed to be one of us now," he said firmly, which was alright of him. They had been very neutral to each other in the last month. "And Hannah is very nice, and Susan's closest friend. And it would be good to keep an even number. And Hannah asked me about practicing. Is that alright?" Longbottom asked them all.
"That sounds fine with me," Ginny said. The younger boys agreed easily.
"They are both rather nice," Lovegood added.
"Draco?" Longbottom asked when Draco hadn't said anything. They both felt uncomfortable with the use of his first name. He couldn't recall if Longbottom had used it before.
"I'm surprised the room isn't already crawling with Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws," Draco said off-handedly.
"Neville doesn't like the Ravenclaws in your year, or mine, or the seventh years, because they have not been very kind to me," Lovegood said. "Though I've told him I don't mind," she shrugged. No one could like being called Looney Luna Lovegood. Her house should have stood beside her and not let that happen without retaliation. They might have even started it.
"Abbott and Bones are fine," Draco said to fill the silence. He'd had Ancient Runes with both girls, and Bones was one who could have taken the class at the NEWT level if she wished, though Draco had no idea if she had, as he had dropped the course himself, as quickly as he could.
*****Ginny*****
Being a chaser was her favourite thing in the world. She liked working with the other women on the team. Katie a seventh year, and Demelza a fourth year, but much bigger than Ginny already, probably older looking too. Female chasers were a tradition in Gryffindor by that point, and Ginny hoped they could groom another girl- woman- to take Katie's place by the end of the year.
"Boys, get out of the room," Katie announced at the end of their practice.
Harry, their captain, gaped for a bit before turning and being the first one out the door. Ron was just behind him.
"He asked you to Hogsmeade?" Ginny guessed as the door was closing behind Jimmy Peakes.
"He was pretty cute when he asked, stammering," Katie said with a smile.
"Potter? And you said...?" Demelza asked, laughing. Ginny had never seen her so girlish.
"I said that I needed to consider the impact on our lives and the quidditch team, and that I'd tell him tomorrow. And then I hurried away rather quickly," Katie laughed. "He is the captain."
"Angelina was a way more controlling captain, and she dated George," Ginny pointed out.
Another thing arranged by Ginny... She was uncannily good at this. Or she needed to stop now while she was ahead.
"Would it be weird?" Katie asked, looking at Ginny. "I mean I know you were- would it be weird?"
"Only if you think it's weird that I suggested to Harry that the two of you might be a good pair?" Ginny smiled. Best not for them to have that secret.
"Really?" the older girl asked. "So you're over him?" Katie asked. Demelza's head whipped between them. It made Ginny feel quite grown, which didn't mean she thought any less of the younger girl. "Really over him, not just trying to be?" she pressed.
"I don't want to date Harry, no. We have a lot of history, and he's family, but- I know it doesn't make sense to many Gryffindors, but I really do like Draco. I love him," she admitted. "I wouldn't want to date anyone else. And with him, I- sometimes I just want to- just get married already," she said. Their snogging had gotten more intense lately. Why not have fun with it?
"Weasley!" Katie said shocked. "If you start popping out kids you'll miss your early years on development rosters."
"Hey!" Ginny protested. "I believe we were discussing your love life, not mine. Just tell the poor boy you'll go with him, and that he had best be a proper gentleman. Anything you want, anywhere you want to go. Demelza, do we need to solve your problems now?" Ginny offered.
"I'm taller than most of the boys in my year," Demelza complained. "And they're such children."
"I don't think they really grow up," Katie said. "They just learn to hide it better. But, perhaps you should go for a sixth year boy. I think it's working for us," she laughed again.
*****Ginny*****
"And what was that about?" Ron asked Ginny at the portrait hole after Katie hurried towards the girl's staircase. They had chatted for a while. And not about boys the whole time. Only most of it. It probably wasn't very empowered of them, but it was fun.
"See you later, Ginny," Demelza said.
"You could have asked Katie if you're so curious, Ginny pointed out. You've been on the same team for two years, and the same house for six."
"And I've been your big brother for fifteen," Ron answered. Predictably.
"You'll know soon enough anyway. She's going to say yes to Harry taking her to Hogsmeade next trip. Which will leave you with Hermione, how do you feel about that?" Ginny asked.
"I- how do you feel about Harry dating Katie?" he asked instead of answering.
"I thought they'd be good together, as you probably already know. And I'm in love- with Draco," Ginny got out even with Ron's comically shocked face. "Come on, Ron, it can't be that much of a surprise."
"I- it's a nice broomstick he gave you, but love?" Ron muttered.
"Ron!" Ron spent too much time thinking about quidditch, and that was coming from her.
"Don't try to say he's not a git, I've known him longer," Ron groused.
"Yes, well, I haven't met a teenage boy yet who wasn't a git, and I've lived with six of them. Seven if you count Harry. Charlie and Bill mostly grew out of it, so I'd say there's hope for the rest of you."
"They were just nicer to you because you were the girl," Ron complained.
"Hey, I have lots of brothers. Do you know who's my favourite?" she asked.
"Bill," Ron said easily.
"Maybe," Ginny said. "I idolized him. But you are the only one who I've ever felt was my friend."
That had Ron smiling, and his face in danger of turning unreasonably red.
"He's still a git," Ron maintained. "Don't have to like your friend's boyfriend. Especially not when the friend is your sister."
"Yeah, you don't. Could be worse though, yeah?"
"Could have been Cormac McLaggen," Ron shuddered.
Ginny's laugh was heard by the whole common room.