Chapter 4: Apparently We Snogged
"Hello, friend…", he sneered.
Draco could tell Weaslette was almost visibly shaking, but he continued on and sat across from her, arms stretched out behind his head in a seemingly cocky but relaxed way. "Before we have any visitors, I wanted to clear things up a bit. We have not started off in the best of circumstances, but I think it would be beneficial if we called a truce".
Weaslette looked at him as if he had grown four heads and stared at him in silence, but Draco was used to that and continued, "We have to watch ourselves. We can despise each other all we want in the privacy of the shack you call a home, but you have to remember that I am no longer the gorgeous, wealthy heir that I once was. I am now Scarhead and the whole wizarding race depends on me pulling this off". Draco debated whether to go forward after this point, but noticing that at least she seemed to be listening, he forged ahead and decided that maybe using honesty would have a decent response from this girl. "Therefore, Weasellete, I need your help".
Ginny could only stare at him. He wanted a truce? After she had just hit him in front of a crowd? ! He was asking for her help in how to be Harry Potter? Well, she thought, at least my years of crushing paid off for something.
"Well, that you need help is pretty obvious to me, so ok" Ginny found herself uttering. What? Did she really just agree to help Malfoy?
Draco simply just smirked.
"I need help trying to act like a Gryffindor. I think I got the speaking and acting before thinking part down, but I don't-"
Before he could even finish, the compartment door slammed open and announced the arrival of Ginny's friends. Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood beamed at Ginny and rushed to her side. There was not many opportunities to see each other since the Ministry and she had sorely missed them. Momentarily, Ginny stood up and completely forgot about "Harry" and quickly hugged her friends. After greeting Ginny, Neville was the first to slowly turn and shyly beam at Harry, not really sure how to approach him since the events at the Ministry and what had happened to Sirius.
" Harry, mate.." Neville began, "glad to see you."
Sticking out his hand in greeting to "Harry" , Draco just stared at Neville, before hesitantly shaking the hand of someone who had been the targets of his jokes for the past few years. Luna, not so hesitantly, bent down and kissed the cheek of the sitting Harry. Ginny almost burst out laughing at how uncomfortable "Harry" looked at the moment.
"Longbottom. Loony—eh, Lovegood," Draco finally greeted them in acknowledgement as they took their seats next to Ginny. If they noticed Draco's misstep in using their last names, they never indicated as Neville and Luna tried to get comfortable.
"Where's Ron and Hermione?" Neville asked. "I could have sworn I saw them get on the train".
Ginny looked over to Draco, to see if he would answer as he should be the one answering where the other two of the Trio would be at this time.
Draco, pausing for a moment, and then as if something clicked in his mind, he smoothly replied, "Well, Ron's being a prick right now. I think he and Hermione went to be alone someplace else".
Good, Ginny thought, might as well start the rumors now about Harry and Ron not speaking to each other. However, apparently Draco was not done speaking.
"…..yeah, uh, Ron caught Ginny and I snogging over the holiday and hasn't spoken to me since".
Ginny quickly nodded her head in agreement as she had been about to jump in and confirm whatever story he was going to tell when she realized what he had said. Turning her attention to him, she glared at him again in shock.
Not fazed at all, Draco kept going as if he were actually almost enjoying talking about how the argument had started. Which, Ginny concluded, he probably is enjoying it, evil git. Although at the same time, she tried to barricade the mental pictures that had just came to her of her and Draco Malfoy snogging and what his lips would feel like against hers. What was more disturbing to her was that it was Draco's pale, blonde face that she had pictured snogging and not Harry's.
"Dr-Harry," she interrupted sweetly, although with a voice that held a false undertone in it," Let's not talk about that now…"
"Love," he purred innocently, "why not? I think Neville and Luna here should be the first ones we should tell about our relationship". While Harry's face looking completely innocent, Ginny recognized the slight warning that Draco was trying to communicate with Harry's eyes. Ginny knew she could not really deny anything this Harry was saying, because the real Harry's life was in danger and she realized then that so was Draco's.
Feeling defeated, Ginny took a moment to brace herself, then turned to her friends with what she hoped was a genuine-looking smile.
"Yes. Harry and I are dating", she choked out. "Ron is pulling the over-protective brother act right now and Hermione is obviously crushing on Ron so she took his side".
"But Ginny," Neville looked a little confused, " what about Dean? Didn't he try confessing to you sometime last year?".
"Oh..uh, no. Dr-Harry is the only one I fancy. He is my boyfriend now anyway".
Still not totally convinced that her crush for the Chosen One had all of a sudden just come back when Ginny had tried for years to show them that she had really gotten over her crush on Harry, her friends just smiled and offered mumbled short words of congratulations.
Feeling slightly embarrassed and convicted that she was lying to her friends, she quickly turned her slightly- reddening face. Observing "Harry's" now gloating and obviously amused face, Ginny was left thinking that only one word could describe that conversation. Awkward.
Neville and Luna then starting talking about their summers and the rumors they had heard about the war. Distracted, she looked out the window at the blurred images of the passing world outside and then recalled that she had punched Draco. Looking again at him, it seemed that Draco was almost hanging onto every word Neville and Luna said and had completely forgotten the punching incident. Those in the Order would not talk about the War when Draco left his room and she realized that a lot of the things that was old news to her was probably new to Draco. Either that, she realized, or he was just probably looking for indications on how Gryffindors actually interact with each other so he would know how to interact. Closing her eyes, her last waking thought before she drifted off to sleep was Draco's blonde figure getting closer and closer to her until their lips were almost touching and her brown eyes were mesmerized by the grayish-blue of his eyes. In this scenario, as they were looking into each other's eyes, Ginny brought her right hand up and landed a hard slap onto Draco's startled head. Needless to say, she fell asleep with a small smile on her face.