Chapter Five

The next morning when Draco entered the dining hall, he couldn’t help but check out his victim. She really was quite fetching. She had long, coppery hair. It curled at the ends and was thick and bouncy. She had a cute little button nose that was splayed with freckles. Her skin was pale and pristine. She had velvety-soft brown eyes. Hogwarts robes left a lot to the imagination, and he had never really noticed her in muggle clothes before. So, her form was a mystery he was looking forward to solving.

Well, time to get the show on the road. He sauntered over to the Gryffindor table and ignored the stares and whispers. He sauntered right up to Ginny’s chair, and got down on his haunches beside her.

“Babble Pulp.”

Ginny looked down at Draco’s serious face like he had gone mad and repeated, “Babble Pulp?”

Draco just nodded slowly, looking into her eyes.

Ginny suddenly grabbed the lapels of his robe with both hands and pulled him closer to her, “Babble Pulp!”

They just stared at each other with these silly grins, but he could tell her wheels were spinning in her head.

“UH-HMMMM! Maybe you two should get a room.” Ron’s voice broke through their reverie.

Ginny turned her head towards her brother like she was in a daze. He was standing on the other side of the table, leaning on his splayed palms.

Ron continued between clenched teeth, in a dead quiet voice, “Let Malfoy go.” Ginny instantly released Draco’s robe and he almost toppled backwards.

Good thing he had the Malfoy grace and balance of a wild jungle cat, he thought as he got his equilibrium back. It dawned on Ginny then that her brother was making her look like an obedient fool. Draco saw the moment it hit her, her eyes sparked and her brows raised and her soft mouth turned into a hard line that was still completely kissable, in his esteemed opinion, only in the name of the bet though, of course.

Ginny opened her mouth and everyone but Ron could tell that he was getting ready to get an earful, but Draco interrupted her before she got a word out.

“No, Weasley’s right. I shouldn’t have barged in on your breakfast time. I was up all night thinking about you…err your potion, and it hit me this morning. The Babble Pulp might just do the trick. But still, I should have waited for our tutoring time to bring it up. Sorry.” He reached up then and patted her jovially on the shoulder, then said, “See you after dinner and we can hash out the right amount.” He sauntered off then to his own table, walking like he was a Greek god, which most students of the female persuasion would agree with, at least in his mind.

Ron sat down then with a loud that-sure-got-rid-of-that-git-Malfoy-Hrrrmmmppphhh, and returned to shoveling down his breakfast. Harry saw it coming. Harry thought Ron might as well paint a bulls-eye on his robes. He was in double trouble. Ron was getting daggers not only from Ginny, but Hermione as well. Nothing good could come of that. What had he done?

Ron peeked up from his plate long enough to notice that Hermione wasn’t eating her bacon, “Can I have that?” he asked, reaching for it.

Hermione slapped his hand, HARD, and then he noticed the glares coming from the girls, “What?” he said, or at least it was close to that since he had a mouth stuffed full of food.

“He was just doing his job. Snape assigned him to be Ginny’s tutor. He was trying to help her.” Hermione said in an even tone, but it was obvious she was furious.

“He’s a rotter! If he was helping her I’d eat my shorts!”

Ginny handed him a bottle of ketchup, “Here, I think you might need this to get those nasty things down your throat.”

“You’re telling me that Malfoy was over here, bothering Ginny, and stinking up our air out of the goodness of his heart?” Ron looked incredibly from one girl to the next, “HELLO! He is Draco Malfoy, he doesn’t have a heart!” When the girls still looked fit to be tied, he turned to Harry, “Tell them, Harry! Tell them what gullible saps they are!”

Ginny and Hermione both stared Harry down. “Well, umm, it seems like good advice, BUT we all know Malfoy is a pain in the arse. He is probably up to no good. You should just stay away from him, Ginny.”

“Well, I thank you very much for your opinion, but it’s not up to me at this point. Snape said I had to tutor with Draco until Draco told him that I had my potion perfect.”

“Draco? Since when do you call Malfoy ‘Draco’?” Ron sputtered, spitting out particles of food.

“Ugh! Ron, get some manners!” Ginny wiped a speck of something off her cheek that flew out of her brother’s foaming mouth. “And, I am sixteen years old. I will call anyone anything I want. You are not my boss, big brother.” She pushed her plate aside and got up from the table. “I’ve lost my appetite.”

Ron grinned, “Great, more for me!” Then he dived into Ginny’s plate as she left the room disgusted.

That night, after dinner, Ginny rushed to the lab. She was so excited about getting her potion completed. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t thought of the pulp of the babble on her own. It was known for it’s confusing properties when boiled down with some fennel seed. It was a little flaky though, and had to be in the exact amount or it was unpredictable.

Draco was running late she assumed, since he wasn’t there when she arrived. She gathered up her supplies and got the cauldron lit. She pored through the books on the shelves looking for anything about the babble plant. She was reading at her desk, tapping her quill on her cheek when Draco entered. He watched her for a second or two before joining her at her desk. He had figured out how to make her love him. He was going to keep his distance. She loved Potter and he rarely gave her the time of day. He had patted himself on the back so many times throughout the day, he had an aggravated shoulder. He was a bloody genius.

“Hey Ginny, looks like you are hard at it.” He said opening up his personal notebook to a page about the babble plant.

Ginny looked up at him and graced him with a beautiful smile. He thought that he should have paid the Weaselette some attention sooner. She was fine…in a have-fun-with-but-never-marry kind of way, of course.

“Yep, what do you think about three grams?”

He sat down and furrowed his brow, “I’m not sure. We better try two and work our way up.”

They worked side-by-side for a rest of the evening. Every time Ginny thought they had it, something would be off and the potion would fizzle, pop, and sputter, when by her calculations it should have one gaseous green ‘poof’ and then settle into a turquoise solution with no bubbles.

She pushed her book aside, “I’m finished for tonight. I’ll sleep on it and maybe can get a fresh start tomorrow. I really thought we had it the last time.” She looked deflated.

Draco nodded his head in understanding, “Yeah, I bet you will figure it out tomorrow. Maybe Hermione would have some insight on it. She seems to know everything.”

Ginny eyed him warily but he didn’t seem to be being malignant. He wasn’t even looking at her, was just gathering up his items.

“See you tomorrow, Ginny. I’ll try not to ruin your breakfast even.” He flashed her a grin and was out the door.

Just like that? Didn’t walk her to her stairway? Didn’t even wave, or blow her a kiss or anything. She giggled then at the picture of Malfoy blowing kisses. He probably didn’t know how to. She gathered up her things and left the room just as she had found it. She spend the rest of the evening running over what she was doing wrong with her potion. She had no idea, of course, that Draco was putting a few drops of Mrs. Scower’s Magical Mess Remover into each batch.

The next week passed just about exactly the same. Ginny went to classes, dinner, Potions lab. She was starting to feel very, very strange though. Every time their hands would touch, or their legs would brush, or he’d look at her intently, she’d get jelly-legged for some reason. But, he was cool as a cucumber. He was so polite and helpful. He never said an unkind word to her in all that time. No snide remarks about how long it was taking her, no teasing her for being stupid or red-haired. He didn’t even say a bad word about her family or friends. She was pretty sure that he was under a spell, but she didn’t want to break it so left well enough alone. They worked every evening, and she just knew that she was ‘this close’ to perfecting her potion. She was thinking she would really miss him when she was done with her tutoring. That was a very scary thought, and one she kept to herself.

Hermione ducked the hair brush flying past her head. Ginny was in a snit over something. She was saying words that she wasn’t even sure what they meant, but they didn’t sound very ladylike. Ginny was stomping around her dorm room, hurling anything that got in her way.

“Ginny? Are you okay?” then she realized what the problem obviously was, “Malfoy! He’s been a bugger to you, hasn’t he? He better not be getting fresh with you! I’ll turn his undershorts into lice infested woolies!” She started to stomp off to begin her torment, but Ginny stopped her with a simple sentence.

“I wish.”

That stopped Hermione in her tracks. “Excuse me?”

Ginny looked at her, with the most miserable expression, “I said, ‘I wish’ that was the problem.”

Hermione sat on someone’s bed, “Spit it out.”

“Can you keep a secret from Ron and Harry?”

Hermione bit her bottom lip, “I’ll try.”

“I guess I’ll take my chances,” Ginny sat across from her, “I have to talk to someone about this or I’m going to explode.” She gave a big sigh and then began, “He has been very helpful. He compliments my ideas and skills at potion making. He never makes lewd comments or suggestions. He hasn’t even said a word against you three for the whole week and a half we’ve been doing the tutoring sessions.”

Hermione cut in then, “So, what’s the problem? It sounds like he‘s being a perfect gentleman .” She didn’t know he had it in him, but she spared Ginny that comment.

“There lies the problem. I would love for him to be himself. Every time we touch accidentally, I get the goose bumps. There’s this huge tension building up in me and I want it to stop. I want to exchange barbs with him. I want him to tease me and make fun of me so I can come back with something witty and charming. I want him to whisper something naughty in my ear so I can blush and smack him. But, he’s just not doing anything like he’s supposed to.”

Hermione was looking at her like she had grown two heads, “Let me get this straight. You want Malfoy to be mean to you? You want him to hit on you? You want…you…you like him!”

Ginny stood up then like her rear had a rocket on it. “No way!” She walked a few paces away from Hermione and then turned back to her, “NO way!” She sat back on the bed and stared incredulously at Hermione, “Oh my God, I do. I like him…like that even!”

“Don’t tell Ron! For heaven’s sake, don’t tell him! Don’t tell anyone. This is horrible! This is totally irrational. I just can’t believe it. Why? Why on earth would you like Malfoy?”

Ginny got a dreamy look and answered, “He smells so yummy.”