In Which These Two Smiles Meet

Part III

“You seemed to enjoy your first ball,” Alicia said to Ginny the next morning.

“I did,” Ginny said, collapsing onto the sofa next to Alicia, and taking a large gulp of tea. “I just wish it hadn’t ended quite so late!”

“You’ll get used to it.”

“I certainly hope so.” Ginny paused. “Do we really have to go to these every week?”

“I’m afraid so,” Alicia answered. “At least until we make names for ourselves.”

“Ugh,” Ginny said. “I’m more likely to make a name for myself by doing something stupid at one of the balls out of sheer ignorance!”

“That’s not true at all!” Alicia said. “You seemed to do quite well last night.”

“I was a nervous wreck.”

“It didn’t show,” Alicia said. “Not to me, anyway.”

“Draco Malfoy noticed.”

“Malfoy?” Alicia asked. “How did you end up talking to him?”

“It was all your fault, really,” Ginny said with a grin. “You left me with Mr. Elliot, who grabbed him and made him dance with me.”

“I’m sorry about that,” Alicia said sheepishly. “But you seemed to be doing well with Mr. Elliot, and I really did want to see Reggie.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ginny said. “It wasn’t so bad. Malfoy was actually polite.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Alicia said. “Etiquette is very important in polite society.”

“But he never worried about insulting me at Hogwarts,” Ginny said.

“I know. It’s strange. All the Slytherins seem different now,” Alicia said thoughtfully. “I don’t know if it was because of the war, or because they just grew up. Or it could be that by being worthy of attending their parties, we are suddenly worthy of their respect. I really have no idea.”

The two women sat quietly for a few minutes.

“Well, enough about Draco Malfoy and his Slytherin cronies,” Alicia said, breaking the silence. “Did my eyes deceive me, or did I see you dancing with the delectable Oliver Wood?”

Ginny blushed. “I did dance with him. He was very nice.”

“And very nice looking!”

“Yes, that too,” Ginny mumbled.

Ginny was saved from further teasing by Isabella’s head appearing in the fire.

“Ginny! Alicia! Oh, I’m so glad you’re here! You’ll never guess who I danced with last night!”

“Why don’t you come on through and tell us?” Alicia asked, holding her hand out to the other woman.

When Isabella had come through the fire, brushed the soot off of herself, and settled in an armchair, she asked, “So, are you going to guess?”

“No,” Alicia said firmly.

Isabella pouted briefly, then her face lit up in a huge grin. “Roger Davies!”

“Really?” Alicia asked. “You’ve been trying to get his attention for ages!”

“And it finally worked,” Isabella said with satisfaction. “I just hope he’ll dance with me again at the Bertrams’ ball next week.”

“We’ll just have to make sure you are so breathtakingly gorgeous that he has no choice,” Alicia said with a smile. “I think this calls for a visit to Adela Allen’s boutique.”

Isabella squealed in happiness.

“Ginny should buy robes there too,” Alica said, turning to Ginny, who had been watching the exchange silently. “Guess who she danced with last night?”

“Who?” Isabella asked breathlessly.

“Oliver Wood!” Alicia said.

“Really?” Isabella asked.

Ginny nodded, then absently said, “And Draco Malfoy.”

Alicia raised an eyebrow at Ginny, but neither she nor Isabella noticed, because Isabella gushed, “Oh my gosh! He is so fit!”

Ginny blushed. She hadn’t really thought about it the night before, but Draco Malfoy really was a very good-looking man, with his aristocratic features and those dancing gray eyes. She sighed.

“I would love to dance with him too,” Isabella said with a far-away look on her face. “It’s too bad that his family is so dodgy.”

“Well, if we’re going to Adela Allen’s, we had best go soon,” Alicia said, effectively distracting Isabella, but not Ginny, who couldn’t keep her mind off a certain blond man, no matter how hard she tried.

***

Over the next week, Ginny trained hard. She practically lived and breathed Quidditch. By Saturday, she was ready for a break. She found that when she put on her new dress robes, she was more excited than nervous about the impending ball.

Alicia had received an urgent owl from her mother just before she and Ginny were to leave, so Ginny Apparated on her own. She had barely finished greeting the Bertrams when she heard a voice say in her ear, “Good evening, Miss Weasley.”

Ginny turned to see Draco Malfoy in front of her. “Mr. Malfoy,” she said as calmly as she could, considering her racing heart.

“I see that you survived your first big society event and still came back for more,” Draco said.

“I did,” Ginny said with a smile. “You didn’t manage to intimidate me!”

“I’m glad,” Draco said, looking Ginny up and down. “You don’t look half bad. Is that an Adela Allen?”

Ginny turned a bright shade of pink, and looked down at her hands. “Thank you, and yes, it is,” she said quietly.

“My, my, my. Who are you trying to impress?”

Ginny took a deep breath for courage, and then said, “Well, there was one person I danced with last week.”

“Oh, really?” Draco asked smoothly, one eyebrow raised. “And who might that be?”

Ginny looked up at Draco with a small smile. “Yes, indeed. It was so nice to catch up with Oliver Wood again, after all.”

Draco stiffened. Ginny laughed, and he relaxed. “So it’s going to be that way, is it?” he asked.

“What way is that?” Ginny asked innocently, but with a small smile.

“I see it is,” Draco said with a smile that made Ginny’s knees weak. “Would you care to dance?”

“I don’t suppose I have anything better to do,” Ginny said.

“Well, we can’t have you spending the whole evening bored, can we?” Draco asked, taking Ginny’s arm and steering her toward the ballroom.

Draco was silent for the first few minutes after they began to dance.

“I thought it was customary to converse while dancing,” Ginny said quietly after a while.

“It is,” Draco said, looking down at her with a serious expression on his face. “It just seems that the usual topics of conversation seem so mundane when it comes to you. I’ve been trying to think of something new and different.”

“Hm,” Ginny said contemplatively. “You could start by explaining how you knew the designer of my dress.”

Draco laughed. “With the amount of shopping I’ve done with my mother, I would have had to be very thick indeed not to learn something.”

“I guess that explains it,” Ginny said dubiously.

“When you meet my mother, you will understand better,” Draco said, sending Ginny’s mind racing. When she met his mother?

“Perhaps,” Ginny managed to say. She searched her mind for a less dangerous topic. “You seem to know a lot about the people at these events. Tell me about some of them.”

“Very well,” Draco said. “Do you want just the facts, or shall I embellish them with catty comments as well?”

“Oh, by all means include the catty comments,” Ginny said with a smile. “How will I ever learn if I don’t have all the information available to me?”

Draco looked around him, then smiled. “Do you see that dark-haired woman over there, in the green dress?”

Draco turned Ginny so she could see who he was talking about without turning her head. She nodded. “The one dancing with the rather elderly looking man?”

“Yes,” Draco said. “That’s Blaise Zabini’s mother.”

“I’ve heard she’s been married seven times,” Ginny said.

“Eight now,” Draco said. “And there’s speculation that the man she’s dancing with—his name is Willoughby—will be number nine.”

“That’s a lot of husbands.”

“It is. And they’ve all died mysteriously, and left her all their gold.”

Ginny looked at Draco with wide eyes. “She must be very rich by now.”

“Quite rich. And that’s what will lead to her downfall.”

“How so?” Ginny asked.

“John Willoughby is stone broke. He’s planning to marry her for her money, while she thinks she is marrying him for his.”

“Oh!” Ginny said. “That’s horrible!”

Draco shrugged. “I thought you wanted to know about people,” he said.

“I did,” Ginny said with a bit of a shudder. “But tell me something happier next.”

Draco obliged, telling Ginny all about three of the other couples on the floor before he led her off. “I’m parched after all of this dancing,” he said. “Shall we get something to drink?”

Ginny nodded. “I’m really tired for one dance.”

“One dance?” Draco asked with amusement. “We’ve been dancing for well over an hour.”

“We have?” Ginny asked, dumbfounded.

“We have,” Draco confirmed, guiding Ginny out of the room with a hand on the small of her back. She shivered slightly at the contact.

“What would you like?” Draco asked as they stepped into the dining room, where a spread of canapés was displayed.

“I don’t suppose there’s any Butterbeer at fancy events like this, is there?” Ginny asked with a wry smile.

“No, I’m afraid not,” Draco said. “There’s wine, or punch if you would prefer not to have any alcohol. And if you are really daring, I know where the men keep the Firewhisky.”

“White wine would be fine,” Ginny said primly. She’d never had wine before, but she didn’t want to seem unsophisticated, and Firewhisky was completely out of the question.

“As you wish,” Draco said, slipping away to retrieve their drinks.

When Draco returned, Ginny quietly sipped her wine, trying to look as if the flavor wasn’t new to her. She turned away to hide a grimace. Ginny was certain that Draco understood, but she was grateful that he was polite enough not to mention it.

After a few quiet moments, Draco and Ginny were joined by the last person Ginny wanted to see.

“Ah, Draco,” Lucius Malfoy said. “Are you going to introduce me to your friend?” He turned expectantly towards Ginny, and she fought to keep from shuddering. Although they had never formally met, Ginny associated Lucius Malfoy with two of her least pleasant memories.

“Of course, Father,” Draco said. “This is Ginevra Weasley. Miss Weasley, this is my father, Lucius Malfoy.”

In an effort to be polite, Ginny held her hand out to shake. Instead, Lucius took it and kissed the back of her knuckles.

Ginny unconsciously took a step closer to Draco as Lucius released her hand.

“I’m delighted to meet you, Miss Weasley,” Lucius said. “I hope my son has kept you properly entertained this evening.”

“Yes,” Ginny forced out. “I have had a wonderful time.”

“Splendid,” Lucius said with a smile that Ginny found extremely disconcerting. “Might I persuade you to join my wife and me at our table for supper?”

“I…” Ginny began, searching desperately for a polite way to demur.

“I’m sorry, Father, but Miss Weasley has promised to eat with one of her friends tonight,” Draco said firmly, returning his hand to the small of Ginny’s back.

“That’s too bad,” Lucius responded. “Perhaps another time, then.”

“Yes, another time,” Ginny said quietly.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Lucius said, and Ginny forced a smile. “But for now I will leave you two to yourselves. I expect you will want to dance a little more before supper.”

Ginny stood very still until Lucius had disappeared into the crowd, then turned to Draco. “Thank you,” she said. “I just froze.” She stopped to take a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know he’s your father, but…”

“But he can be extremely overbearing at times,” Draco said. “There’s no need for you to apologize.”

Ginny smiled. “Thank you anyway,” she said. “You got me out of a tight spot. Of course, I don’t have any plans to eat with a friend, so it might be a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire.”

“Not to worry,” Draco said confidently, looking about the room. “We just need to find one of your friends and make plans accordingly.”

Ginny laughed. “That’s easier said than done! Do you know how hard it is to find someone at one of these events? Last time, I wandered for ages without finding them.”

“Ah, but you weren’t with me,” Draco said. “Who do you know?”

“Well enough to have made plans to eat supper with?” Ginny asked. “Alicia Spinnet or Isabella Thierry. There might be other people I know here, but if so, I haven’t seen them.”

“You doubt me?” Draco asked with a smile. “Two people is one more than we need. Watch and learn.” He offered his arm to Ginny and swept her out of the room and into the ballroom.

Draco glanced briefly around the room, then immediately turned to the left. Ginny saw that they were moving towards corner where a number of sofas and armchairs had been arranged to give their occupants a view of the dance floor. As they approached, Ginny saw Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson sitting next to one another on a loveseat.

“Hello, Pansy, Blaise,” Draco said as he pulled Ginny to a stop in front of them. Pansy looked up at them, but Blaise hardly took his eyes off the dancing couples.

“Hello, Draco,” Pansy said, one corner of her mouth turning up slightly. “Having a pleasant evening?”

“The best one in a long time,” Draco answered smoothly. “Do you remember Ginevra Weasley?”

“Of course,” Pansy said.

“It’s good to see you again, Weasley,” Blaise said, looking at her briefly as he spoke.

“You too,” Ginny said quietly. She couldn’t quite remember, but she thought that was more words than Blaise had ever said to her in their whole acquaintanceship.

“We’re looking for Alicia Spinnet or Isabella Thierry,” Draco said. “Do you know where they might be?”

“Thierry is probably a better bet,” Pansy said. “Daphne mentioned that she was trying to chat up Roger Davies in the blue salon about ten minutes ago. Last time I saw Spinnet, she and Reggie Macmillan were headed for the gardens, so I wouldn’t go looking for her unless you want to catch them mid-snog.”

“Thank you,” Draco said. “The blue salon it is.” With a nod, he swept Ginny away. She looked back in time to see a highly amused expression on Pansy’s face.

When they arrived in the blue salon, Isabella was indeed there, but there was no sign of Roger Davies. Ginny thought this just as well. Otherwise, she would have to compete for her friend’s attention.

“Miss Thierry,” Draco said, approaching Isabella.

Isabella turned towards Draco and smiled widely. “Mr. Malfoy!” she said. “It’s lovely to see you again!”

“I have a favor to ask you,” Draco said conspiratorially.

“Yes?” Isabella asked a little breathlessly.

Ginny frowned. For some reason, she didn’t like the way her friend was responding to Draco. But before she could think too much about it, Draco was speaking again.

“I’m afraid I told someone that Miss Weasley was having supper with you tonight, but she tells me you hadn’t actually made any plans.”

Isabella seemed to notice Ginny for the first time. She smiled brightly after her initial look of surprise faded.

“If you could make sure there is a seat for her at your table,” Draco continued, “it would save me from being called a liar.”

“Of course! I’m happy to help you,” Isabella said brightly. “And Ginny, of course,” she added. “There’s nothing easier.”

“Thank you,” Draco and Ginny said at the same time. They looked at each other, Draco raising an eyebrow and Ginny smiling shyly.

“Will you join us, Mr. Malfoy?” Isabella asked, interrupting Draco and Ginny’s moment.

Draco turned back to her and said, “I’m afraid not. I have a previous engagement. Business, you know?”

Ginny’s heart sank at Draco’s words, and Isabella said disappointedly, “I guess you must put business before pleasure.”

“I must,” Draco said quietly, his eyes on Ginny. Looking back at Isabella, he said, “Thank you again, Miss Thierry. I’m sure I will see you again soon.”

“I hope so!” Isabella said with a smile, as Draco began to lead Ginny back to the ballroom.

“Would you care to dance again before supper?” Draco asked.

Ginny nodded. Soon they were swirling around the dance floor once more.

“Tell me about Parkinson and Zabini,” Ginny said after they had been dancing for a few minutes.

“They both live for gossip,” Draco said. “They know everything that goes on at these events. They watch the goings-on like hawks, even when they appear to be doing something else. They also have spies everywhere—people who will report interesting details to them in exchange for the latest news on someone else.”

“That’s kind of creepy,” Ginny said with a shudder.

“Perhaps, but I got used to it years ago,” Draco answered. “And they’re quite useful when you want information.”

“I guess so!” Ginny said.

The pair fell silent again until the music ended. “I’ll escort you to the supper room,” Draco said.

“Thank you,” Ginny said, not knowing where to go.

They stepped through an archway into a room filled with round tables. Ginny saw Isabella on the opposite side of the room, and began to move in that direction, but Draco stopped her with a hand on her arm.

“Before we part for the rest of the evening,” Draco said quietly, “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Of course,” Ginny said with a smile. “What is it?”

“Miss Weasley… Ginevra, would you have dinner with me one night this week? Maybe on Thursday?”

Ginny blushed, but her smile grew wider. “I’d love to... Draco,” she said.

“Wonderful,” Draco said with a smile. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

***

“Excuse us for a moment, please.” Isabella grabbed Ginny’s arm, dragging her away from the table and into a small room that opened into the supper room.

“Ginny, you’ve got to snap out of it!” Isabella said.

“Hm?” Ginny said vaguely.

“I said that you need to return to earth and start paying some attention to the people and things around you,” Isabella said with a smile. “I’m not sure your water glass could stand being knocked over again!”

Ginny blushed. “I just didn’t see it,” she said sheepishly.

“Yes, I know,” Isabella said, amused. “Twice. What has you so distracted anyway?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Ginny said, looking away.

“It’s certainly not nothing!” Isabella said. “Oliver Wood—one of the most sought-after men in the country—has been trying desperately to have a conversation with you, and you can’t even manage that!”

“I know,” Ginny said. “I’m sorry. I’ll do better, I promise. I just…”

Ginny looked back toward the supper room, where she caught a flash of silver blond hair. She sighed. Isabella followed her gaze and her eyes widened.

“It’s Draco Malfoy, isn’t it?” she asked. “You’re mooning over Draco Malfoy!”

“No, I’m not!” Ginny said just a little too quickly.

“You are!” Isabella said. After a pause, she added, “I can’t say I blame you!”

“It’s just that he’s so different than he was in school—he’s been so nice to me, and he’s funny and I lose track of time when I talk to him and—”

“And he’s devilishly good looking?” Isabella interrupted.

“Yes,” Ginny admitted with a whoosh of air.

“Thank you. Admitting you have a problem is the first step towards fixing it.”

Ginny groaned. She wasn’t sure she wanted to fix it, and that had her very worried indeed.

“Now,” Isabella said. “Take a deep breath. In a minute, we are going to go back into that room, and you are going to put all thoughts of Draco Malfoy out of your mind. You are going to be the charming supper companion I know you can be. Afterwards, you are going to dance with Oliver Wood and anybody else who asks. You only need to last another hour or two, and then you can go home and indulge in all the naughty thoughts you want. Do you think you can handle that?”

“I think so,” Ginny answered meekly. “Thanks for your help.”

“Any time, my dear,” Isabella said.

Ginny straightened her posture, plastered a smile on her face, and braced herself for the rest of the evening.