It was beginning to get to him, watching the Weasley girl. He really wanted to walk up to her and shake her. His compassion was becoming anger. His understanding was limited and biased. He saw her lies and ignored his own. He saw her beautiful mask and never thought of his own dark disguise.
He grew impatient though. She wasn't even fighting anymore. She had just accepted it.
He was having a bad day. Weasley and Potter were making it worse. They were breathing. He picked a fight.
Then she showed up.
"Come on, Ron! Just ignore him. Let's go."
Ron was about to say something. It didn't really matter whether he was going to listen to her or not.
"Well, if it isn't Miss Perfect," Malfoy sneered. "You better listen to her, she knows everything."
Ginny just looked at him in disbelief. "What are you talking about?" There was a personal note in his tone that she didn't understand.
"You. You've got everyone fooled, haven't you? I mean, they practically bow down and worship you every time you walk past. I mean, some of these people must have you burnt into their retinas the way they stare." Even he winced. His bitterness whas sharp and his comments more personal than any he had ever made.
Ginny continued to meet his gaze. "I…what?" His comment about having everybody fooled…
"I know the truth, Ginevra," he said her name like an insult, "You're not real. You don't have any flaws, at least, not when you're pretending. Neither does this world you live in. It isn't real. It never will be. Have you no shame?" He took a step closer to her. No one else existed. No one else mattered. "You don't see me. You don't see any of us," he flung his arm behind him to indicated, well, everyone. "You have no idea how you have betrayed us. You had a chance, but you walked away. But now I know the truth. You never were and never will be. Somehow, at the end of it all, you've become everybody's fool. Without your mask, where will you hide? Or have you lost yourself in your lies?" He turned and walked away.
Ron turned to his sister, "What the hell was all of that?"
She shook her head, trying to hold back the tears, "I have no idea."
Up in her tower, Ginny tried to make sense of what he had said. If he knew who she really was, what she really dealt with, how could he think that she had betrayed them? Shouldn't he understand her better than anyone else? Or maybe that was it, maybe he expected her to figure a way out of the darkness and save them all. Was that the chance he was talking about? If it was… What kind of prick was he? What made her any different than him? His life was as much as a lie as hers was. Hell, that piece of shit could just save himself.
Out on the grounds, Malfoy was trying to figure out why he had reacted the way he had, why he had said all of those things. Finally, he decided he was relying on her too much. He had been expecting her to find a way out and to save him. Well, he wouldn't rely on her anymore. He wouldn't love her anymore. Then he stopped. He wouldn't love her anymore? He had never loved her! Bloody hell.