Chapter 23

The Shrieking Shack

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"So. Let me get this straight. You're on a date with Blaise."

Ginny concurred.

"And you're on a date with me?" Draco gave her a bemused grin as he sat back in the carriage seat. "Aren't you the little vixen."

"Then who am I on a date with?" Colin remarked, chortling softly.

"Because Weasley thinks that Ginny and I are dating," Blaise answered, trying to control his own laughter.

"And what would make him think that?" Draco asked, the look of amusement still plastered to his face.

"It's a long story," Ginny sighed. "But I think that he overheard Blaise and I talking about Hogsmeade yesterday, and I guess he just simply assumed..." she trailed off as the three boys continued with their laughter. She was less than amused by the situation she had put herself into.

"You know, things would be much simpler if you just told everyone that you're with me," Draco said, still laughing, but his voice carried a hint of seriousness.

Ginny simply stared at him. He had no clue what he was doing to her. She was trying so hard to keep her balance and not fall for him, but there'd be strange little moments when she'd see a flicker of something mysterious in his eyes that would almost send her flying over the line that she had drawn. It was completely irrational. She wondered how she made it to this point after having spent years detesting him. How had he done it?

Too much snogging, she thought. But somewhere in the back of her brain a little voice told her that wasn't quite the truth. It was the fact that she was getting to know the real Draco Malfoy. Or she thought it was the real Draco Malfoy. It was still a bit discerning that this was the same person who’d made her life miserable. And it was possible that he could still make her life even more miserable.

She cursed herself over and over again for allowing herself to actually have feelings for him. She had been stupid to believe that she could merely enjoy snogging him and let it go no further. It had already gone far enough the moment she felt jealous of any other girls from his past.

This twisted relationship they had was bound to end badly. He was well known for his short attention span with any one girl. It was a near safe assumption that he would grow bored with her after a few of their snogging sessions, especially when she would refuse if he attempted to take things any further physically. She actually hadn’t expected him to behave himself. And what was worse was the fact that a part of her was slightly disappointed that he hadn’t made an attempt at anything more.

When they arrived at Hogsmeade, the boys had decided that they wanted to stop at Honeydukes to stock up on sweets. Draco bought her a box of imported chocolates just so he could say he purchased something for her with complete innocent intentions, though he grinned wickedly when saying so.

They went to a small costume shop and began browsing through the various masks and outfits that they had available. There was no reason for them to actually be shopping for costumes, but Ginny found it most entertaining. She came across a sword that came with a samurai’s costume and angled it at Draco.

“Surrender, or die!” she said with an evil gleam in her eye. Draco gave her a grin and with unsurprising grace reached behind him where he had been looking at a knight’s outfit and slid the blade from its holder and aimed it in return at her.

“My lady, I am a Malfoy. I will never surrender,” he said proudly. “Yield thy weapon and I shall go easy on you.”

“Surrender yours and perhaps your punishment will not be so severe.” As she spoke she twirled the sword in her hand and repositioned it. She had intended to lay the cool blade against his neck, however he quickly repositioned his own sword to block the movement. She cocked her head giving him another smirk and tried striking again, this time with just a little more force. He blocked it just as easily as she thought he would. She swung a third time aiming lower and he defensively blocked again with predictable gracefulness.

“Fencing lessons?” she commented.

“Of course,” he replied.

“That shouldn’t surprise me. What other lessons does the spoiled, rich heir to the Malfoy fortune take?” she asked good-naturedly. “Surely fencing and bal-”

“-quite a few others. I like to keep my summers busy,” he interrupted quickly, obviously not wanting anyone in the shop to overhear that he had taken ballet lessons as a youngster. Ginny giggled.

He moved his sword to strike playfully at her and she quickly blocked.

“Not bad,” he smiled.

“Yes, well, a Gryffindor girl needs to know how to protect herself against cunningly charming Slytherin.” She took another swipe at Draco, which he blocked easily.

“I see. Perhaps I should give you a few fencing lessons to help you attain your goal. You seem to be susceptible to the Slytherin charms seeing as how you’ve managed to be on a date with two of us at the moment,” he teased. He took another quick shot. She responded just as quickly and their swords clanged together again.

“I may take you up on your offer for lessons,” she quipped playfully and then took another strike, which was again blocked. “But as far as being on a date with two Slytherins, I believe that means I’m still the one who has control of the situation.” Each time she moved the sword, Draco matched her movement.

“A control freak, are you?” he said as she took another swing. “Are you sure you’re the one in control here?” She had raised her arm to take another attempt at swinging the sword, but he stepped forward closing the gap between them and his sword clashed with hers once more. Ginny was suddenly aware of the power he had over her. She gazed into his eyes and faltered slightly, again seeing that flicker in his eyes. She withdrew the sword and took a step back to allow herself some breathing room.

She was on the verge of replying when Colin came bounding in from the back room. “Gin! You have to come see what Blaise and I found. It’s absolutely brilliant!”

Draco elevated his eyebrows a little giving her a look that told her that he was perfectly aware of his effect on her. She felt her resolve weakening.

Fortunately, Colin pulled her away to see the Morphing Masks that he and Blaise had discovered. The masks had been enchanted to adhere to the wearer’s face and change it into one of an endless number of other facial appearances by a simple wave of the wand and short magical phrase followed by the name of the person or thing the wearer wanted to change into.

They had a good laugh as they each put one on. Draco had followed along and joined in the hilarity. They started by changing themselves into various famous witches and wizards then it became all out war when they started giving each other animal faces.

Ginny had granted Draco a bunny face and practically rolled on the floor the moment his nose started twitching. One of the ears that had sprouted from the top of his head flopped over as his black beady eyes narrowed in a look of revenge. He attempted to turn her into a weasel, but she dodged and tapped Colin instead. The transformation didn’t quite hit Colin’s mask correctly, he ended up with a face that was half weasel, half Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic. Colin in turn switched Draco from a blond haired bunny to a blond baboon.

Blaise, feeling the need to get in on the action, at least supported his friend and affably turned Colin’s face into that of a Scottish terrier.

“Are you insinuating I’m a dog?” Colin said with good humor and then gave Blaise the head of a fox.

Blaise looked into the nearby mirror admiring his foxy face and gave a wily smirk. “I think I’ll take that as a compliment!”

Draco, no longer able to take Blaise’s narcissism quickly gave him the head of a goat. “Hey!” he exclaimed as two short bumps formed at his forehead.

Draco laughed, still with a baboon head, “I don't believe this shop carries hay, but if you're that hungry I'm sure we can find you something to chew on. Perhaps the grass hula skirt over there?”

“Mutato Voltus Harry Potter!” Blaise chanted waving his wand at Draco’s head.

Draco looked into the mirror and saw Harry Potter with blond hair looking back. “I don’t see much of a difference, you know.” He waved his wand and tapped his own mask, “Mutato Voltus baboon!” He carefully examined himself holding his baboon chin in his hand as if deep in thought. “No, I think the baboon is actually slightly better looking.”

Ginny laughed in spite of herself. It was something so typically Malfoy to do.

“What are you laughing at?” Draco said noting her unchanged appearance. He flicked his wand in her direction and this time successfully turned her into a weasel. She returned the favor and changed the baboon to a ferret. This time Colin and Blaise were laughing and pointing at them. Draco and Ginny exchanged a look and then Ginny took on Colin and Draco took on Blaise.

“Mutato Voltus platypus!” they both said almost simultaneously.

The fair-haired platypus and the black-haired platypus gave them what appeared to be confounded looks as Ginny and Draco exchanged their own bewildered glances. They had not intended on the synchronized transformation of their two best friends into platypi. The weasel and the ferret began laughing at their two duck-billed companions and failed to notice as they took a moment to plot their own revenge.

“Mutato Voltus Ginny Weasley!”

“Mutato Voltus Draco Malfoy!”

Through her tears of mirth, Ginny glanced over at Draco and saw her own freckled face and brown eyes laughing back at her. It only made her laugh harder. She knew she’d never look good as a blonde.

“I never thought I’d ever see Draco with knockers and red hair!” Blaise said doubling over, his hands wrapped around his midsection, barely containing his merriment.

“What the bloody hell is going on here?”

Ginny looked up to see Harry staring at the four of them with utter, horrified shock on his face.

“Well, well, the baboon has graced us with his presence!” Draco said and the four of them went into another round of hysterics.

“I’m sorry, Harry,” Ginny said, finally pulling the mask off. Her face was flushed red from laughing so much. She was still chortling slightly. “We were just having a good laugh.”

“At your expense,” Draco added, pulling his own mask off. He was still laughing, but Ginny noted a decidedly acidic quality was contained in the laughter. She glared at Draco in warning.

Harry was apparently perplexed at the sight of his fellow Gryffindors and a couple of Slytherin laughing at what appeared to be an inside joke. Ginny was sure that it was even more perplexing to see Draco Malfoy included.

“What are you doing here?” Ginny asked, hoping to distract him. To say he looked a bit irate with Draco was an understatement.

“I was checking on you. Mo said she saw you coming in here and I was just making sure that you were okay,” he said, controlling his obvious distaste for her company.

“I’m fine, Harry. I’ve got Colin with me. Really, you don’t have to do this even if my prat of a brother insists on it. Tell Ron I can handle myself,” she said calmly.

“You hear that? She’s just fine, Potty. Now run along,” Draco interjected with mounting hostility in his voice. Ginny glared at him again. Harry gave him a look of suspicion.

“Go on, Harry, you can go back to enjoying your time with…” then Ginny remembered that Ron and Hermione had a date and it probably didn’t include Harry. She distinctly remembered Hermione dragging Ron with her and Harry had been left behind. She felt suddenly guilty. “You didn’t come alone, did you?”

Harry blushed slightly. “No. I asked Luna to come with me.”

Ginny smiled. “Then you’d better go back on your date.”

“It’s not a date,” Harry informed her quickly, though his blush deepened slightly. “We’re just here as friends, you know.”

“Then you shouldn’t keep your friend waiting. Really, Harry. Don’t worry about me. Don’t make me use my hexing talents against you,” she said giving him another warm smile. He nodded, glared one last time at Draco and then left.

“Bloody Potter. Why don’t you just tell him to mind his own damned business,” Draco said the moment the door to the shop closed behind Harry.

Only a half hour before she was on the verge of telling him that she thought she might actually like him and now he was acting like the pain in the arse that she knew him to be.

“Harry is just concerned,” she explained, the warmth she had shown with Harry was gone.

“He needn’t worry his mangy little head about anything,” Draco replied, his tone decreasing in temperature by the moment.

Sensing the enmity coming from him, Ginny decided that it would be best to continue their conversation elsewhere. She quickly thanked the jovial shopkeeper who had rather enjoyed their mini-war and dragged Draco out the door leaving Blaise and Colin in the shop, not knowing whether to follow or not.

“Aren’t you afraid you’ll be seen with me?” Draco said bitterly the moment they stepped on to the road. Ginny looked around and decided the only direction to go was the Shrieking Shack. She didn’t reply. Instead she grabbed him by the ear and dragged him all the way down the deserted road ignoring the whiney ‘ouch!’ he continuously repeated until she released his ear once inside the allegedly haunted house.

“That was bloody painful!” he said rubbing his tender ear.

“I’ll show you bloody painful!” she retorted, her complete irritation with him now fully apparent. “What is your problem?”

Seeing that he was about to be on the receiving end of another Weasley tantrum Draco revved his own temper into high gear. “Why do you have to treat Potter that way?” he growled, knowing full well that he was entering dangerous territory unleashing his temper on her.

"What way?" she snapped, impatiently. Draco crossed his arms angrily and looked away from her.

“Harry is my friend,” she said as calmly as she could muster at the moment.

“And what the hell am I! Dragon feces!” he exploded.

“You might as well be!” she said, regretting it the instant it had left her mouth, but that didn’t stop her from being brassed off.

“That’s right. I forgot. I’m just someone you want to snog occasionally. Apparently, you feel Potter is the only one worth having any feelings about, since you seem to treat him like he actually matters.” Draco had finally had enough of the disparity in the way Harry was handled and the way he was handled. It was stupid. He believed that she was only in denial about liking him, but maybe he was wrong. Maybe she was telling the truth. Maybe all she wanted was a temporary person to snog until she could get Harry Potter’s attention. Maybe all the dreams were based on her lust and nothing more, though something niggling in his mind told him it couldn’t possibly be true. There was something between them, he was just losing it at the moment over his jealousy of Harry-Bloody-Potter.

“Harry does matter, but that doesn’t mean I have any feelings besides friendship for him,” she said her voice full of venom, but she was attempting to keep herself from completely losing her temper. He was being an ass, but she couldn’t help feeling a bit flattered by his jealousy, though she would never tell him that.

“Then why the hell do you treat him like he’s going to fall apart at any moment! You act as though telling him you’re with me will send him into a damned coma or something!” he yelled.

“Not everything is about you, you prat! There are things you don’t know about Harry,” she said, again trying not to loose all her irritation on him. She knew about the prophecy and Harry’s predicament (she wasn’t told by Harry, but was accidentally eavesdropping at the wrong place at the wrong time over the summer) and was trying everything she could to keep Harry from having to deal with any more stress than he already had. “Besides, who said I was with you anyway. I told you from the beginning that I wanted nothing more than a few snogging sessions to get you out of my system. You act as though I’ve agreed to be your girlfriend.”

He gritted his teeth. He was not prone deal with this overwhelming sense of jealousy. Any other girl he would never have allowed himself to bother with any type of argument on the matter. Not that he’d ever had to argue about whether or not a girl was actually his girlfriend. Normally he would just walk away and not give it another thought. But he couldn’t do that with Ginny. The way he felt about her, he knew he’d spend a good amount of time pining ridiculously over her and that was also not something he was willing to do.

“I think we’ve had more than our share of snogging sessions,” he said with a sudden mix trepidation and ire.

“Your point?” she said impatiently. This was probably the moment she had expected from the beginning. He was now bored and ready to move on. She knew it and had prepared herself for it, but never realized that she’d feel so dreadful about it. She refused to cry at her own foolishness. It was better it ended now if he couldn’t handle one stupid argument. If he was going to be a jealous git then she was better off never having told him that she liked him.

“My point is this,” he said grabbing her. His mouth crashed down on hers and they were lost in the furiousness of their passion for a few moments. She felt her knees weaken and when he pulled away from her with a little roughness she steadied herself against the wall of the shack. “Now tell me how the hell you are going to get me out of your system when I know that every time I kiss you, you have to hold on to something to keep from falling over.”

He leaned heavily against the wall, slightly breathless.

“I do no-” she said in a meek attempt at lying.

“Don’t deny it,” he said, his voice now calmer. The moment his lips were on hers he felt the connection again and all thoughts of Harry dissipated. “I know I’m a good kisser, but this is pure insanity. You can’t tell me that you don’t feel something.”

She wanted to laugh at his arrogance, but was still recovering from the unexpected kiss. She only managed a small smile. “Alright, I admit, I’ve never kissed anyone who could literally make me go weak in the knees.”

“Dammit, Gin. Why are you so stubborn?” he said flatly.

“It’s a Weasley trait,” she replied. “You don’t need to be jealous of Harry.”

“I know. It’s just that he’s such a git.”

“He’s my friend, and that’s not going to change,” she informed him with all seriousness.

“I can accept that, but I wish you’d just admit that you like me. At least then I’d know where I stand instead of second guessing myself.” He finally cracked. She had actually driven him over the edge and he had lost his calm, cool, and collected exterior. He was used to being in control, but she had finally forced him to be truthful about his insecurity. It was very unMalfoyish, and he swore he’d never allow it to happen again, outside of his Headhealer sessions.

Ginny started laughing. The idea that Draco Malfoy was insecure was beyond hilarious. “You’re kidding, right?”

He shot her a humorless look that immediately made Ginny stop laughing. “You want the truth?”

He stared intently at her, “Yes.”

“I’m probably going to want to Obliviate you after this, but fine. I do like you. There. I said it. Feel better, now that I’ve alleviated your fears of not being liked by the girl you’re currently snogging?” She couldn’t help a small snicker after saying so. The thought of Draco needing assurance was comical.

A sly smile slowly spread across his face, “Yes.”

“Good. It’s too bad I haven’t properly learned memory charms otherwise I would use one on you and make this whole situation disappear.”

“I told you, didn’t I?” he said, returning to his usual Malfoy superiority.

“Told me what?” she asked, confused.

“I told you that I’d make you admit you liked me,” he answered, his smirk becoming wider at taking the opportunity to put himself back into control. "And I decided it was time for you to do so."

Ginny’s jaw dropped. “You evil prat!”

“But you still like me,” he said deviously.

“I take it ba-,” she started, but before she could complete her sentence his mouth was on hers again and it was nearly the equivalent of performing an Obliviate charm on her. Whatever thoughts she had about taking back the fact that she really did like him had disappeared into oblivion.

She was relishing the sweet taste of his mouth (they had sampled a few delectable treats in Honeydukes and Ginny swore she was going to figure out what combination of treats he had eaten and make him go back to purchase more) when the door to the Shrieking Shack burst open and sunlight flooded the room.

~*~*~