Chapter One: Just How To Get The Girl…

Draco stared at her from across the Great Hall as he did at every meal time. He knew he wanted her, but he didn’t know if it was lust or something more. He was scared to even try. She was a Weasley. She was forbidden. He was mean and cruel and just didn’t fit in her life. Her brothers would try to kill him. Potter probably would too. His father would die of a heart attack. His mother would cry. How could he even think of doing something like this? He wanted to go talk to her, but even if he was happy it would make everyone else miserable. His friend Blaise sighed next to him.

“If you’re too chicken shit to go talk to her, I can do it for you, mate. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you happy.”

Draco scowled at him. “Nonsense,” he said. “I am perfectly happy, and I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“You’re in love with the Weasley girl,” Blaise said with a smirk. “Why don’t you just admit it so we can all get on with our lives?”

“I’ll admit nothing of the sort. You know better than that.”

“What if I could get you two together?” Blaise said with mischief etched on his features. “What if I could get you in a relationship with her? It’s a sure thing.”

Draco’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “A sure thing?” he asked with a smirk.

“Now, we all know that while you are good with schoolwork, I am good with the ladies,” Blaise said waggling his eyebrows.

“I always wondered how you keep your relationship with Daphne going,” Draco said. “She fucking hates you.”

“Yet she loves me oh so much.” A broad grin adorned his friend’s face when his current girlfriend’s name came up. “What if I was to give you one piece of advice a day for, I don’t know, let’s say 40 days. If at the end of those 40 days you have a good relationship started with her, you owe me. I’ll figure out a favor later. If you don’t then you don’t owe me anything.”

“If I don’t will you owe me a favor?” Draco asked.

“It’s you I’m doing the favor for in the first place, dumbass.”

“Well then, what’s my first bit of advice?”

“When she walks away from you mad, follow her.” Then Blaise made a shooing motion, and Draco assumed their conversation was over.

Later that day, Draco got his chance to speak to her alone. Ginny was sitting on the fountain wall alone, reading a novel. The sun shone off her red hair, letting gold accents shine through it. The chilly fall air that implied winter was fast approaching didn’t seem to bother her one bit. She tucked a strand of her long red tresses that had escaped her pony tail behind her ear and turned a page. He was nearly content to just sit there and watch her, but Blaise’s comments about him being a coward were still fresh in his mind. Why didn’t he have the right to be happy like everyone else?

He approached the fountain and sat next to her, tossing a sickle in the water for good luck.

An annoyed expression crossed her face when she looked up at him. “What?” she snapped, realizing he was staring at her.

“Nothing,” he said nonchalantly, giving her a half smile. “Can’t I just sit and admire the view?”

“Am I ruining the view for you? Did you come over to ask me to move?” she sighed, already aggravated.

“No,” he said, and left it at that. Apparently she didn’t realize that she was the view.

“Well, good,” she said, huffing. “I wouldn’t have moved anyway. And if you’re happy enough to sit here next to Weasley filth then I am happy to sit next to a yucky Malfoy.”

At that Draco let out a bark of laughter. “Yucky?” he said, wiping his eyes.

She glared at him and his laughter died in his throat. “I’m sorry my insults are not up to par with your usual standard of callousness, but I find that cutting people down until they feel like nothing is bad karma.”

“I didn’t mean..." he began.

But she was up and storming off before he had a chance to explain himself. He was going to let her go until Blaise’s words popped into his head. Follow her. So he hauled himself off of the fountain ledge and caught up to her.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said, grabbing her elbow to stop her from walking. “I only meant that yucky is a funny sounding word.”

“So?” she said. “That doesn’t change the fact that you’ve been mean to me since we met. Why are you changing your tune now?”

He shrugged, secretly cursing inside. Blaise hadn’t prepared him for the conversation that would come after he followed her. “I just realize now that it’s pointless to be mean to someone who doesn’t deserve it.”

The anger faded from her features slightly. “Well, as long as this isn’t a trick and you’re done being an idiot. I suppose I can be nice to you. But I need to go to class now. I recommend you do so as well.”

He let go of her elbow and watched her walk back to the castle with a smile on his face. Blaise’s idea might just work after all.

Draco replayed his conversation with Ginny over and over in his head throughout the day. She was going to give him a chance to be nice to her. He couldn’t help but be in a good mood, but at the same time he was a nervous wreck.

He didn’t entirely know how to be nice. That wasn’t how he was raised. He supposed his mother was nice, but his father was a rude asshole with anger issues. Draco had inherited said anger issues.

If Ginny were to snap at him, he would certainly snap back. He was going to have to practice being nice to people. He wasn’t sure if he could handle that. On a good day, everyone annoyed him. He was just going to have to suck it up.

Chapter Two: Nightmares

The next morning, Draco looked around for Blaise, but couldn’t find him to tell him the good news. He sat staring moodily at his breakfast, stabbing it with a fork. By the time owl post arrived, Draco was ready to leave since it was painfully obvious that Blaise wasn’t showing up. As he rose from his seat, a letter fell on the remains of his toast. He snatched it up and read it on his way out, recognizing Blaise’s elegant script.

Draco,

I planned to have a bit of a lie in with Daphne this morning. I’ll see you in classes later. Don’t worry; I know what happened with your girl. I was watching, and not in the creepy way. Congratulations on step one.


Be seeing you,
Blaise
P.S. When she’s quiet, ask her what’s wrong.

Draco tucked the letter in his robes’ pocket. He wasn’t sure he would be able to use that piece of advice from Blaise anytime soon. Ginny was laughing and smiling all through breakfast with Granger. Nothing seemed to ever be wrong with the girl unless she was fighting with someone. He smirked and simply stored the advice in his brain for later. With her temper she was sure to fight with someone, and he would try to comfort her when that happened.

***

Ginny decided to skip lunch that day. She needed a break from faking smiles and laughter. She’d been having nightmares about the Chamber of Secrets. She hadn’t had those since last year. They always seemed to come back when she was here at Hogwarts. She supposed it was only that way because the castle was where those terrible things had happened; where she had done those terrible things. Hermione, Ron, and Harry would never understand because they had never done something so evil.

She sighed and headed down to the fountain. Soon in would be turned off, but for now the sound of the bubbling water tended to relax her. She had to figure out if she could learn how to brew a Dreamless Sleeping Draught on her own. Professor Snape would ask too many questions, everyone would. She sat quietly on the edge of the fountain and yanked out her Potions text book, scrolling through until she found what she was looking for.

***

Draco looked around for her at lunch. She wasn’t there. He wondered why. He would’ve asked The Wonder Trio, but that would arouse suspicions. He doubted they would tell him anyway. He heard someone clear their throat to his left. Glancing up he saw Blaise.

“Did you know,” Blaise said with a smirk, “that the fountain is lovely. You should go look at it before they shut the water off tomorrow.”

For a moment, Draco looked at Blaise as if he were mad. Then he caught on and gathered his things, standing to leave. Blaise wrapped two sandwiches in a napkin and shoved them into Draco’s hands. Draco smiled a real smile at his best friend and left.

When he got to the fountain, Ginny was staring into space, book open on her lap and a small frown on her face. She tugged at a strand of her hair and looked as if she was trying not to cry. How does Blaise know that something is up with her before everyone else? Draco shrugged the thought off. Blaise had been that way since they were children. He approached Ginny as if approaching a wounded animal. He didn’t want to frighten her. He sat next to her, watching her for a moment.

Her eyes flickered over to him, but that was the only indication that she had registered his presence. She tucked the ever errant strand of hair behind her ear again and put her book back in her bag. He noticed briefly that it was her potions text.

“Care to talk about what’s bothering you?” he asked quietly.

Her face scrunched up in irritation. “How would you know something was bothering me?”

“You wear your heart on your sleeve,” he said shrugging. “It’s fairly obvious that you’re not happy. What’s wrong?”

“If it’s so obvious,” she snapped at him, “then why can’t my brother tell? Or Hermione and Harry for that matter?”

He snorted inelegantly. “They are a close knit little bunch. They don’t really see anything outside of themselves. Besides,” he added, “you hide it well when you’re around them.”

“It’s not fair!” she shouted suddenly, jumping to her feet. “Why should you see? Why should you know something’s wrong with me when two days ago you hated my guts? They are supposed to love and care about me and they see absolutely nothing! And I-” she said the last part so quietly that he almost didn’t hear it, “I am beginning to hate them for it.” Tears began to flow freely down her cheeks.

He stared at her for a moment in horror. He hadn’t had much experience with crying women in his life. He gathered himself though and stood, gathering her in a hug and patting her back as he had seen Blaise do when Daphne was upset.

“Sometimes,” he whispered to the top her head, “the ones we love can hurt us the most. And the worst part is that they don’t even know they’re doing it.” This brought back memories of his father, pushing his mother away emotionally and physically before each mission he went on for the Dark Lord. He would pick fights with her on purpose just so she wouldn’t miss him when he left, just in case he never came back.

“It’s nightmares,” she said, her voice muffled by his chest. “I have nightmares every night, memories really. I can’t stop them without a Dreamless Sleep potion. My supply is out and I can’t exactly ask Professor Snape. He would ask too many questions.” She shuddered before she spoke. “I won’t go back to St. Mungo’s Insanity Ward. I won’t!” she shouted, shoving him away, suddenly very angry. “I won’t, and no one will make me. That’s exactly what will happen if they find out!”

He stared at her in shock. She had been institutionalized? He had never known that, but then there were probably a lot of things they didn’t know about each other. He snapped out of his shock, grabbed her by her shoulders and gave her a little shake to quiet her.

“It’s all right, Weasley,” he said calmly. “I won’t tell anyone. No one will do anything to hurt you anymore. I will get you the ingredients for the potion and help you brew it. No one will do anything you don’t want them to do. Now tell me about your nightmares.”

She put a hand to her mouth, her tears refreshing themselves. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you, Malfoy. I can’t thank you enough, but - but I’m just not ready to tell anyone yet. I couldn’t bear it if you were to look at me as disgusting and tainted again. I feel like you’re the only one here for me right now. I couldn’t stand to lose my only friend.”

His eyebrows shot up when she said that. He was about to reply when the tolling bells from the castle signified that lunch was over and classes were to begin again. He let her go, and she gathered up her things.

“I have to go,” she muttered without looking at him. She shocked him again by grabbing his hand and giving it a tight squeeze before rushing off to class. He stared after her in amazement. She had called him friend. No one except Blaise had ever called him that.