You Don’t Know Me At All

“I really hope this is important. I was in the middle of something.”

Ginny looked up at him from her spot in the grass. “What were you doing?”

Draco sat down gingerly next to her, wrinkling his nose a bit at the dirt and nature in general. “Something I would rather not have been interrupted from, that’s what. Your bleeding owl wouldn’t stop trying to peck my eyes out, though, so here I am.”

She fixed him with one of her “death stares,” as he had dubbed them some time ago. “What could possibly be more important than your girlfriend’s problems?”

He sniffed self-importantly. “I’ll have you know I was this close to finally beating Zabini at arm wrestling.”

She looked at him in disbelief. “You’re kidding. You couldn’t even go through the trouble of making up an excuse better than that?”

“You want me to start lying to you now?” He smirked.

For a few seconds, she just stared at him incredulously. Draco Malfoy had a way of making her heart melt and her stomach stir in interesting ways, but he could also make her angrier than any other person ever. At the moment, the latter applied, and it took all of her willpower not to slap that infuriating smirk right off his still-pointy face.

“You know what, Malfoy? Never mind. Go and show your muscles off to all your Slytherin pals. I’m fine.”

He sighed in what she considered a very over-dramatic manner. “I’m not going to get shagged tonight, am I?”

Ginny jumped to her feet, already storming away while snapping, “No, Malfoy, you aren’t. But I’m glad to see you’re concerned over what’s important right now.”

It would have been a lovely dramatic exit if he didn’t ruin it by grabbing her ankle, effectively knocking her to the ground. Knowing her face would be glowing with embarrassment, she simply rolled onto her stomach so she could bury her head in her arms.

“Bastard,” she muttered.

There was a slight rustling as he moved closer, and then his hands were sliding up her sides to her shoulders. Ginny felt at least some of the stress ease away when his admittedly skilled hands began to massage her. Stupid git – it wasn’t fair that he could do that.

“Alright, freckles, what was so important that I was forced to forfeit the match?” he asked, his voice actually soft despite the less than caring wording. “You’re really tense, by the way.”

She snorted softly. “You’re kidding.”

“Come now, no need for that un-Gryffindor like sarcasm. I hear it was quite the emergency, so spit it out already.”

“I just feel really terrible. I wanted some comforting from my boyfriend.”

“What got your knickers in a twist?”

Ginny bit back a soft moan as he worked out a particularly taut bunch of muscles near her neck. “I don’t even remember. It’s just one of those girl moments where we get depressed for absolutely no reason whatsoever.”

“So let me get this straight – you sic your crazy owl on me and have me dragged away from my mates so I can cater to your completely irrational female emotional crisis?” It never ceased to amaze her how callous his words could be with his hands treating her so tenderly. “Explain to me at what point you thought this was a good idea.”

With just a touch of remorse, she wriggled out from under his blessed hands and sat back to glare at him. “Oh I don’t know, I guess I was just thinking that my boyfriend should be there for me when something’s wrong.”

“There is nothing wrong!” he cried, throwing his arms over his head in exasperation.

“Yes there is!”

“What?”

“I don’t know!” she yelled, chest heaving with her labored breaths.

He stared for a minute before shaking his head in obvious bafflement. “I will never understand women.”

Ginny sniffed quietly, desperately trying to hold back her tears. Draco hated it when she cried. “Could you just…you know…be here for me?”

He sighed. “I don’t know how to…” he scrunched up his features in distaste, “comfort you if you don’t give me some sort of reason.”

Rolling her eyes, Ginny wondered if he would ever get used to this “serious relationship” thing. It was going on four months now, and he still acted like he was brand new to all of this. “I’m just not feeling well, alright? And like I just said, all you have to do is be here for me.” What seemed like a full minute passed in which neither of them moved. Finally, growing impatient, Ginny demanded, “Well?”

Draco put his hands up defensively. “What? You said be here. I’m here.”

“Well you’ve got to do something!”

“You’re being contradictory, I hope you know.”

“Draco….”

“Alright, alright. Well…I s’pose we could go to my dorm and…you know….”

She scoffed, pulling a look of disgust. “Oh honestly, Draco, I can’t even think about that right now.” Unable to hold back the tears any longer, she wiped at them furiously and stood up. “I’m gonna go.”

He scrambled to his feet and followed after her, grabbing her wrist and spinning her around to face him. “Hey, freckles, c’mon. Seriously, what’s wrong?”

Gazing at him through slightly tear-blurred vision, she whispered, “You don’t know me at all.” She yanked her arm free and kept on in the direction of the castle.

“Ginny!” He caught up to her and matched her quick strides easily. “What do you mean? Is that why you were upset to begin with? Me?”

She came to a sudden halt and spun on him. “No, I already told you, I was just depressed for no reason! I sort of depended on you to lend just a smidgen of comfort, but obviously you have no clue about me and are completely incapable of that kind of caring, so why don’t you just get back to your arm wrestling or whatever the hell it was.”

“What do you mean I don’t know you?” he demanded, once more following after her.

“I mean just what I said! You don’t get me at all!” She took a deep breath, the truth of what she just said sinking in. “So…so maybe we should just forget this whole relationship thing.”

He suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her right up against his chest. “Now you listen here, freckles, I know you better than you think. I know when you’re happy, your eyes get all pale caramel, but when you’re angry like now, they’re more of a milk chocolate, and when you’re turned on they’re practically black. I know that when you bite your lip in the middle you’re nervous, when you bite it to the left you’re embarrassed, but when you bite it to the right you’re thinking about something, usually something dirty.”

“I am n – !”

He cut her off, smirking a little. “I also know you hate it when I catch you thinking about something dirty. I know you secretly love soppy Muggle romance films, but you’d never admit it. I know that right before you fall asleep you make a few little whimpering noises, and I know that when you’re in a bad mood you like to take your anger out on other people. Usually on me.”

“That’s not tru – “

He interrupted her again. “You know it is. In fact, the first time we kissed is because I was just trying to shut up your bloody screeching after Dean dumped you.”

She blushed, biting her lip – on the left – and looked away.

“I know you secretly can’t stand Granger,” he smirked when she faked a look of surprised innocence, “and I know that my massages are your weakness.”

Now she glared at him, the smug, completely correct bastard that he was. “Prat.”

He chuckled and inched just a bit closer, his voice lowering. “I know that you like to threaten to break this off all the time, like it would be just as easy as all that, but I also know you could never walk away unless you had damn good reason to.”

“I could if I had to,” she whispered.

“Like I said, only if you had damn good reason.”

He looked like he was about to say something more when a small, squeaky “Mister Malfoy!” was cried from near his feet. He looked down and grinned, bending over to snatch away the House Elf’s burden without so much as a second glance. Ginny stared quizzically at what Draco now held out to her.

“Brownies?”

He nodded. “I also know that when you’re depressed you want nothing more than a good batch of brownies, and I know that only fresh baked, double fudge chocolate chunk brownies will do.”

She looked up at him and wavered between lingering annoyance and intense love. After a few seconds’ indecision, she decided it really was impossible to stay mad at a guy who could say all that and then offer up a plate of chocolate heaven. Smiling softly, she took the treats from him and quickly gobbled one down.

“How did you get a House Elf to bring these out?”

He shrugged. “I could tell from the note you’d be wanting them, so I put an order in at the kitchen before meeting you.”

She blinked, chewing thoughtfully on her second brownie. “The kitchen doesn’t take orders.”

The look on his face was incredibly smug. “I’m a Malfoy. They made an exception.”

Ginny snorted, but didn’t say anything.

He arched an eyebrow. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”

“The brownies are really yummy.”

Draco rolled his eyes. “I spend the past five minutes spouting Shakespearean crap like some nancy boy and that’s all you can manage?”

A slow, mischievous grin appeared on her face. “Well…I suppose we could go to your dorm after all….” Then she bit her lip – on the right.

Both of his eyebrows went up. “Why, freckles, are you propositioning me?”

“I don’t know. I guess you’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?”

He smirked and pulled her against him with an arm around her waist. “Your eyes are almost black.”

She threw his smirk right back at him. “So are yours.”

“I take it you’re no longer depressed?”

“Nope.”

He regarded her skeptically. “Just like that?”

“Well…” she glanced down at the nearly empty brownie plate. “I have had like five or six of these things already.”

He shook his head. “That has to be some kind of record. No way you’ll ever be up to certain…ah, activities…after all that.”

She laughed and put her arms around his neck. “Oh, Draco, you don’t know me at all.”

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A/N – haha yeahhh kind of different, but it was fun to write. Hope you liked it!  Reviews are always much appreciated, of course.