A/N: Chapter 5! Bare with me, the good parts are coming! Review!
Disclaimer: Me? JKR? Pssh.. please!
The room was far too quiet. The small redhead turned over to her side, readjusting her pillow. After several minutes lying still, she flopped back on to her back with a huff. It was no use. She could not sleep.
She had always been one of those people who could not shut their brains off at night. She kept thinking of lectures she was doing poorly in, homework she hadn't completed, new Quidditch maneuvers she wanted to try, and a bunch of other random thoughts that she could not silence.
She sat up, abruptly. She drew the hangings of her four-poster and glanced around the room in the darkness.
5 beds, 4 heaters, 3 windows, 2 birthday cards on Sandy's desk, 1… far too boring room.
Falling back onto her pillow, she sighed. Counting things used to always get her to fall asleep.
Guess things change, she thought crossly.
All evening she had been relaxing in the Common Room. She read a bit of a novel Hermione had lent her, played a quick game of chess with Ron, (quick because she lost within the first 10 minutes), and spent the rest of her night happily talking to Joanne.
Joanne was the first person she had confided in about her plot to get back at Malfoy. She knew the brunette had her own personal vendetta against the Slytherin.
During his 5th year, Malfoy had "dated" her sister Genevieve. Needless to say, it ended with none to pleasant an outcome. Joanne had told Ginny that Gen found out Malfoy was sleeping around on her, so she confronted him, and of course he had the bullocks admit it. Ginny remembered Gen was heart-broken, but she honestly could not understand why.
Everyone knew Draco Malfoy was scum. In fact, he was the scummiest scum there was. Jo and Ginny came to the conclusion that you only "dated" Draco Malfoy if you wanted no-strings attached sex. Any other hopes were soon laid to waste by his arrogance and outrageously inflated ego.
Jo excitedly agreed that something had to be done. So for weeks, they had been spying on the Slytherin's best friend, Blaise Zabini.
They determined the best way to get to Draco was through his ego, and what better ego hit is there than to watch his best mate get a girl he can't?
Now there were two problems with their idea. These two problems had kept Ginny up many a night prior.
One, Ginny was not sure she could even get Zabini to take the bait.
Two, She was not sure that Draco would actually get jealous, angry, offended, or any other range of emotions that would thoroughly satisfy Ginny. She figured he had to be attracted to her. She was always catching him watching her. He seemed to be everywhere she was anymore. It could be coincidence but she highly doubted it. But did that mean he wanted her?
Of course it doesn't. Ginny rolled her eyes.
She knew this was the best, if not only, shot she had. She convinced herself to have faith in his arrogance, and that if Zabini showed interest in her, that he would too, if only out of his competitive spirit.
This brought her back to her four-poster. She stared up at the canopy.
Would Zabini go for it? Could she flirt her way within range of her target?
The plan started to formulate in her head. Blaise was smart. Too smart, she thought to herself. He would notice right away if she was fake. She needed this to be real. She needed him to trust her, believe her sincerity. But how?
She rifled through her knowledge of the striking Italian. It would not be hard for her to act interested in him because, save for Malfoy himself, Zabini was the best looking boy at Hogwarts. Though that was where the similarities ended.
Zabini was relatively kind, for a Slytherin. He did not make fun of others like most his cronies did. He actually seemed to smile quite a bit more than his friends.
Gorgeous smile, Ginny thought with one of her own slowly creeping up her lips.
The boy was charming, witty, and unapologetically straightforward. He was smart; Ginny believed even rivaling Hermione's status of 'smartest person ever'. He enjoyed reading and spent most his time in the library lounging with his novels. Ginny noticed he did enjoy sports, though, religiously attending every Slytherin Quidditch match. She remembered seeing him practice with Malfoy and Flint a few years back, playing Beater for them. But he seemed none too interested in actually playing fulltime for his House.
Curiously, Jo had found out that Zabini had no previous girlfriends. Both girls had stealthy tried to find out about his love life, but as it turned out, he did not have one.
Ginny did not understand this, at all. He was handsome, smart, funny, honest… what else could a girl ask for? She concluded that perhaps he was single by choice. He seemed, to her, the type with high standards and low tolerance for immature twats.
Ginny was sure Joanne had started to fancy the olive-skinned boy after she told her that theory. The girl could not keep her eyes off him in The Great Hall since.
Maybe I shouldn't tell Jo anymore about my plan. I don't want distractions or complications. She nodded her head resolutely.
Zabini was a curious creature indeed. But she figured all she had to do was be genuine and his natural goodness would propel him into her arms. Well, into her plan anyway.
Now the question is… how does she get in?