She always looked so sad. He really wasn't sure why he kept watching her, but he did. It had started just because she usually sat at the exact spot which was directly across from the seat that was universally acknowledged as his, and his eyes had to rest somewhere while he was eating. At some point, though, he'd started noticing her, the way she tilted her head when she was listening, the way that she held herself so compactly and managed to eat rather a lot of food in a short amount of time but still be inconspicuous about it, the red jumper that clashed hideously with her orange hair, but she still wore regularly. He found himself wanting to know more about her, and he had no interest in beginning to deny himself what he wanted at this point in his life.

Still, it would be odd to show interest directly, and Malfoys were never anything as déclassé as odd; discretion was called for. He grew expert at matching his pace to hers, so that he casually walked behind or in front of her, always close enough to hear what she said but never so close that it would be noticed that he seemed to be pulled into her orbit, always around, but never touching.

He'd listen to her talk to her friends, or more often listen, as she alone didn't have perpetual stories of lovelorn misadventures. He found that at first he wanted to sneer at her friends for being immensely silly, and then eventually he just wanted to tell them the truth about what they were doing wrong and what boys were thinking, so they would finally stop the cycle of getting their hearts broken and crying on his girl's shoulder. She might not know she was his, but she was.

The other girls, of course, also did not know she was his, and they would occasionally try to get Ginny to show an interest in boys. "But you're so pretty!" they would squeal, and "If only you'd fix yourself up a bit, you'd have loads of boys!" Perhaps that was true, although Draco didn't think she needed fixing up, or loads of boys. She would, however, be a lot prettier if she'd smile once in a while. He rather thought that he wanted to see her happy.



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As a reviewer pointed out, this is based off a line in Shawn Mullins' song, Lullaby. Shame on me for not including the information sooner.