Ginny Weasley was prompt, which Draco appreciated. Too many people didn’t understand that when Draco said 7:30 he did not mean 7:31 or 7:32. He damn well meant 7:30. How difficult a concept was it, really? When you say you will be somewhere by a certain time, you are there at the designated time. You are not there two or even, shock and horror, three minutes later.
‘Good morning,’ she said as they met in the library and started to do work. And it was all she said. She did not gossip. She did not say inane things that he couldn’t have cared less about. She gave him blessed silence. Which he appreciated. A lot.
Draco would have, however, appreciated it more if she didn’t watch him like a mother hawk watching her baby hawk try to fly for the first time. It was unnerving. Her brown eyes, well that wasn’t quite true, they were actually lots of different colours – there was some blue, and a little green, and the edges of her irises were flecked with gold. Well, her lots of colours eyes were watching him attentively. It was unsettling.
She coughed. ‘Do you mind, Draco?’
‘Do I mind what?’
‘Do you mind staring at me? It’s a bit unnerving, you know,’ she said.
Obviously, in his attempt to decide on her eye colour, Draco had forgotten himself. How rude.
Then she giggled. It was the first time that Draco had heard her giggle. It wasn’t the deep laugh from yesterday. It was a different laugh, and then he realized, Ginevra was nervous. She was nervous, scared, had butterflies in her stomach. And all because of him.
That made Draco start to worry. He had agreed to meet her here today because she had asked, but he didn’t want to go on a date with her. He didn’t want her to become like all those other silly girls who giggled and pampered over him. Merlin forbid, she turn into a Pansy. Draco liked girls but they inevitably stuffed up his schedule and messed up his room. They were always late for appointments and didn’t seem to understand the gravity of their mistakes. There had been that one silly girl who had messed up his wardrobe, for goodness sakes. And she hadn’t even apologized. That other girl had turned off his alarm clock, claiming she wanted to sleep in. Draco had never slept in a day in his life. The airheads had had no idea. Draco had seen Ginny’s inquiring looks and she seemed intelligent; he hoped she could understand and appreciate his exactness. Draco wanted a girl who liked him for him, not because he was rich or had good muscles. Maybe, just maybe, that girl might be Ginevra.
He didn’t really care that she was related to the Weasel. She couldn’t be blamed for something she had entirely no control over. After all, he was related to Bellatrix Lestrange. Even the Dark Lord (the man who thought snakes were sexy, had lived without a body –eww- and had been defeated by Potter before Potter could clean his own arse) thought she was cuckoo. Really, Draco couldn’t understand how his father believed, let alone followed, such a megalomaniac. He probably didn’t even wash properly. Draco respected his father’s views (Lucius did have a tendency to demand respect – it was in the walk, something to do with the swagger) but he didn’t agree with them, whatever everyone else thought. Being the son of a Death Eater did not automatically make him a Death Eater. Everyone, including Lucius, had agreed it was probably not in Draco’s best interests to take up with a barmy half-blood who couldn’t even charm himself a proper nose. For Merlin’s sake, the man slept with a snake.
‘Draco, it’s 8:30, do you want to go somewhere or stay here?’ inquired Ginny, breaking into his thoughts.
‘We stay here until 12:30,’ said Draco. ‘Maybe you should know the schedule if you want to spend the day with me.’
‘Okay,’ said Ginny as she leaned back in the chair.
‘Well, we leave here at 12:30 for lunch at 1:00 with Professor Snape. I do this every Saturday without exception. You may eat in the Hall or you can join us. It’s up to you. We eat a bread roll each, followed by soup – this week is French onion – followed by Coq au Vin. I leave there at 3:00 and go play Quidditch for two hours. You may join me, but no interruptions to my schedule will be tolerated. At all. I will simply leave you behind.’
‘I understand. Can I ask why you have lunch with Professor Snape? I realize he is your Head of House but that seems a bit intimate for your relationship.’
‘He’s my godfather, and we happen to enjoy each other’s company.’
‘Will he not like me coming?’
‘Probably.’
‘Then I’ll come.’
Draco smirked.
‘I suggest we finish our assignments,’ said Draco as he turned back to his work.
And work he did. Draco was diligent and disgustingly hardworking. Ginny knew that Hermione was always complaining about how good Draco’s grades were, and Ginny had always assumed it was due to a combination of favoritism, bribing and/or scaring others to write his assignments for him. It wasn’t. Draco was just very smart.
He was also very organized.
His notes were subject, colour and alphabetically coordinated with margins and underlining in red pen. His quills, books and notes were all parallel to the paper he was working on. Any bookmarks were colour-coded according to importance. Ginny had also noticed that he carried a measuring tape in a pocket in his jeans. His quite tight jeans that covered a quite nice arse. The only other person that Ginny had seen this organized was Hermione but Draco seemed to have this level of co-ordination in all aspects of his life. His clothes, of the muggle variety, because it was a Saturday and far too hot for robes, were all perfectly ironed and colour co-ordinated. They looked absolutely impeccable on him. His hair, dead-straight, was flawlessly cut and he sat with ram-rod straight posture. He looked like the poster boy for organisation and order.
At 12:25 Draco glanced down at his watch and started to clear up his books. He nodded his head at Ginny to communicate they needed to leave and then with a flourish of his wand he minimized his books, placed them in his bag and walked out of the library. Luckily, Ginny spoke ‘head-nodding’ and followed quickly. This organization thing seemed to being paying off, mused Ginny as she minimized her books and placed them in her pocket. She had never finished so much work in such a short period of time. Usually gossiping, procrastination or some magical unknown force, which for some weird reason always occurred during Potions homework, got in the way.
Ginny followed Draco into the dungeons, their feet echoing loudly off the floor. Neither spoke, although Draco’s lips were moving. Was he counting something, perhaps?
Although Ginny came down into the dungeons every day for Potions, it seemed slightly more menacing this time. Perhaps the lack of her fellow Gryffindor classmates or the fact that she was going to have lunch with Professor Snape were the reason she was feeling slightly nervous. It could have nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with her being completely alone with Draco. Never before had she felt so aware of his existence. He simply filled the space around him in a way that meant he was impossible to ignore. Before in the library, there had been distractions and other people around. But now his presence was ridiculously strong and he seemed, if possible, even more perfect.
They stopped, suddenly it seemed to Ginny, in front of Snape’s door. Draco glanced at his watch and nodded in satisfaction. Obviously, it was exactly one. He knocked, twice and precise before opening the door and gesturing for Ginny to enter.
‘He knows we’re coming. Well, at least that I am. The knock is just a formality as I’m never late.’
‘Or early,’ said Ginny. It was a statement, not a question but Draco answered anyway.
‘No, I am always on time. Exactly.’
Ginny said nothing and followed Draco to a small room off the larger classroom. The room was far more homey than Ginny had expected. Though as her expectations had run towards creepy, wet torture chamber ideas, anything would have looked homey in comparison. A book shelf ran around the walls of the room and two large armchairs were positioned in the middle of the room around a small table. It looked exactly like an old bachelor’s room. Ginny supposed that was exactly what it was. All it needed was for Snape to smoke a pipe.
Snape stood as they entered. Ginny was almost upset to notice the absence of a pipe. No surprise showed on his face as he watched Ginny enter his room.
‘I believe this is the first time that a heroic Gryffindor has ever ventured into my private rooms. Could I be so rude as to ask why I have the pleasure of your company, Ms Weasley?’ asked Snape, one eyebrow raised.
Draco answered before Ginny could speak. ‘I invited her as we were studying together. I assumed you wouldn’t mind.’
‘Of course not. And if I did, I could hardly raise my opposition with you both here.’
‘Naturally, you would be far too polite to do that, Professor,’ said Draco with a slight smile. ‘Ginny, take a seat.’
Ginny obliged, feeling slightly like a pawn in a chess game. Snape pursed his lips and spelled another armchair with a sniff of disdain and a sharp look at Ginny. Both Draco and Snape sat down. Snape waved his wand without an incantation (which impressed both Draco and Ginny, but neither voiced this appreciation) and a pot of tea, soup and bread rolls appeared on the table. Draco had been right, Ginny decided with a quiet sniff, it was french onion.
‘Are my rooms what you expected, Ms Weasley?’ asked Snape as he begin to pour tea.
‘Not really, though I don’t believe I had any real expectation. I thought they’d be gloomier, more like the Potions classroom. I thought the seats would be harder,’ said Ginny truthfully and with an appreciative wiggle in the soft armchair.
‘I am so pleased you find them satisfactory,’ said Snape dryly. ‘How is your charms work coming along, Draco?’
With that obvious change of topic Snape completely ignored Ginny.
And continued to ignore her through the bread rolls, very yummy french onion soup and coq au vin which was served as dinner. It was a true showing of Snape’s determination that not once did he even glance in Ginny’s direction. From the way that Snape acted, Ginny might as well not have been there.
And it was starting to piss her off just a tiny bit.
But Ginny manfully (or femalely) pushed through her annoyance. If Draco’s godfather wanted to be rude and pretended she wasn’t there that was fine with her. Even if it really wasn’t. Snape and Draco kept up a rather heated conversation about grades, cauldrons and the new Defence Professor. Ginny who had never really formed an opinion on cauldrons (she had tended to ignore Percy when he started to rant) was surprised to learn that Professor Snape and Draco both had very firm opinions on the subject. Apparently, glass ones were the best as you could see the entire potion. When Ginny inquired why then if glass cauldrons were so good were they not used at Hogwarts, Snape looked at her for the first time since she had entered the room.
‘Ms Weasley, do you have any idea of the cost of a glass cauldron, one that has been spelled to prevent the glass from reacting with any potions? To put it in terms you can understand, the cost of a single glass cauldron would be roughly the same as your house,’ said Snape with a faint sneer.
Ginny said nothing; because really it was possible it was true. Not that she cared about her family’s monetary situation but she wished Snape hadn’t brought it up. To her surprise, Ginny heard Draco speaking.
‘There’s no need to be nasty, sir.’
Ginny raised her head to turn to stare at Draco. Snape was doing very much the same thing, his eyes were bulging and he seemed to not know what to say.
‘Perhaps you are right, Draco. That was uncalled for,’ said Snape with a very slight dip of his head.
Ginny was sure her mouth was hanging open. Nobody, nobody had ever chastised - for that was exactly what that slightly ‘correct’ tone in Draco’s voice had done - Professor Severus Tobias Snape, Potions Master of Hogwarts and survived.
Neither Ginny nor Snape spoke to each other throughout the rest of the meal but Ginny could feel Snape’s eyes on her, evaluating her.
Draco stood abruptly at 3:00 after a glance down at his watch. ‘It’s time to go, Ginny.’
Ginny nodded, rising until Snape spoke.
‘Actually, I need to speak to Ms Weasley about her potions Assignment.’
Ginny turned to Draco. ‘You can go. I’ll meet you on the Quidditch field. I don’t want you to be late,’ she said as she noticed his anxious glance at his watch.
He nodded in relief and left quickly. Ginny didn’t Snape’s speculative glance as he watched Draco leave.
‘Professor, I don’t have a potions Assignment currently so…’
‘I do know your curriculum, Ms Weasley, but thank you for reminding me about my own subject. As you have no doubt guessed with your cutting intellect, the Potions Assignment was a ruse so that I can speak to you alone. You see, Ms Weasley, I don’t like you. To be frank, I find you an exasperating, immature student with a terrible disposition who does not respect her elders. But for reasons beyond me, Draco seems to like you. So I cannot allow this game you are playing to continue. Draco is my godson, Ms Weasley, and I like him. He may appear as if nothing can harm him, but Draco has weaknesses and he does not deserve to be hurt simply because you are after his money. So I am warning you, I will not tolerate you hurting him.’
‘Professor Snape, can I be frank?’
‘Have you ever been otherwise? You never seem to stop speaking your mind.’
‘Professor Snape, I don’t like you either. But I don’t really know you. Just like you don’t really know me. That’s why I find it offensive for you to make assumptions. For starters, I am not after Draco. We are not dating. We are simply tentative friends at this point. Secondly, I am not interested in Draco for his money. I may not have a lot of money, Professor, but I can make money by myself. I don’t have to marry a rich husband, and I find it offensive for women everywhere that you immediately assume I’m a gold-digger.’
‘Then you admit you are interested in Draco.’
‘Yes. Yes, I am. I like him. I didn’t intend to when we first met, but I do like him. He’s nice, has good manners and he is, well, rather, good-looking. I am attracted to him. I do not have any attention of hurting him.’
‘I may have misjudged this situation, Ms Weasley. I may not have. Whatever the case, I will be watching you in the future.’
‘If you want to, Professor, but that doesn’t change the fact that I like Draco and that’s none of your business,’ said Ginny as she turned to leave.
‘Ms Weasley, this does not have to go beyond this room. Draco would dislike the idea of my trying to protect him.’
‘Of course, Professor,’ said Ginny with her back still facing Snape. Ginny stomped her way out of the dungeons. How dare he? How could Snape assume that she was some sort of mercenary, out to get her hooks into Draco and marry him, for Merlin’s sake? The damn man had no idea. Marry? Marry? Ginny was sixteen, and she wasn’t after Draco’s money. The thought hadn’t entered her head. Weasleys had more pride. Ginny paused as she left Hogwarts. She could see a small figure flying around the pitch and the anger rushed out of her. She supposed she could understand why Snape was trying to protect Draco. He looked so small and defenseless up in the air, like a single strong wind could knock him to his death. It was rather a nice thought that Snape cared about Draco enough to intervene when he though Ginny was going to hurt him. But not nice enough to get Ginny out of her bad mood.
Ginny hurried down to the pitch. A good game of Quidditch was exactly what she needed after that infuriating talk with Snape. Draco landed as soon as he saw Ginny. His hair was, somehow, still perfectly groomed. Ginny wondered how he’d achieved that. Was there a spell or something?
‘Do you want to play? I play until 5:00,’ Draco said.
‘Sure.’
‘Are you okay?’ asked Draco. ‘You seem rather… annoyed.’
‘It’s just Snape being a bastard as usual. Nothing to worry about.’
‘He’s actually not that bad,’ defended Draco as they walked towards the goal posts where Draco had left a spare broom for her. ‘He’s a good Head of House, makes sure the younger kids are okay.’ Draco paused as if deciding whether or not to continue. He obviously decided in favor of honesty. ‘Lately, he’s been helping seventh years that have Death Eaters as parents to escape and get away.’
Ginny didn’t really know what to say. ‘Umm… I guess there’s a lot of pressure from some parents.’
Draco laughed. ‘That’s an understatement,’ he said bitterly. ‘I’m okay. My parents don’t want me to join, but Goyle’s parents are sending threatening letters. Crabbe’s parents are also pressuring him. None of us want to join, you know. Professor Snape helps.’
‘That’s good of him. I’m glad you felt you could tell me that,’ said Ginny with a small smile towards Draco.
‘You’re trustworthy, Ginevra. I only just decided, but you are. That’s very important to me.’ Draco glanced towards Ginny and their eyes met. Draco smiled. ‘Last to the other posts is a crooked wand,’ said Draco as he jumped on his broom and raced off. Ginny laughed and raced after him.
They practiced, played and (if Ginny was honest with herself) flirted until 5:00.
‘I have to go to dinner now,’ announced Draco as he checked his watch.
‘I know. I’m not really hungry. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,’ said Ginny as they started to head back to the castle.
‘I suppose so. I’ll be in my dorm until 11 tomorrow. I have three hours allotted to spend time with my other housemates. It helps foster house-spirit and lets the younger ones know who I am. But I’ll be in the library and at the Green Houses after that. I guess I’ll see you sometime.’
‘Yes, I can’t see myself invading the Slytherin dorms, so I’ll see you after 11.’
Draco and Ginny paused outside of the Great Hall. ‘Bye, then,’ said Ginny as she left Draco to walk back to Gryffindor tower. She didn’t know he watched her bottom as she walked away.
When Ginny got to her dorm she changed into her pajamas and unpacked her pockets and spelled her books back to their normal size. As soon as Ginny placed them on her bedside table she realized something was wrong. She had a book that obviously wasn’t hers. For starters, it was much cleaner and neat than any of her hand-me-down books, and secondly she didn’t even do its subject, Arithmancy. Draco, however, did. Ginny remembered him doing some number chart thing in the library today. It had looked like utter hogwash to her, but presumably Draco knew what he was doing.
Sure enough, when Ginny opened the front cover there were the words ‘Draco Abraxas Malfoy’ printed in small, orderly letters. He was probably still eating, thought Ginny. She could return it to him now. Then Ginny glanced down at her unicorn covered pajamas (in Ginny's defence - they were warm). Oh, she couldn’t be bothered to get changed. Now was probably not the best time to give it to him anyway. No, she would just have to brave the Slytherin common room tomorrow morning when she could be sure of finding him. And when she would be better dressed.
‘Good morning,’ she said as they met in the library and started to do work. And it was all she said. She did not gossip. She did not say inane things that he couldn’t have cared less about. She gave him blessed silence. Which he appreciated. A lot.
Draco would have, however, appreciated it more if she didn’t watch him like a mother hawk watching her baby hawk try to fly for the first time. It was unnerving. Her brown eyes, well that wasn’t quite true, they were actually lots of different colours – there was some blue, and a little green, and the edges of her irises were flecked with gold. Well, her lots of colours eyes were watching him attentively. It was unsettling.
She coughed. ‘Do you mind, Draco?’
‘Do I mind what?’
‘Do you mind staring at me? It’s a bit unnerving, you know,’ she said.
Obviously, in his attempt to decide on her eye colour, Draco had forgotten himself. How rude.
Then she giggled. It was the first time that Draco had heard her giggle. It wasn’t the deep laugh from yesterday. It was a different laugh, and then he realized, Ginevra was nervous. She was nervous, scared, had butterflies in her stomach. And all because of him.
That made Draco start to worry. He had agreed to meet her here today because she had asked, but he didn’t want to go on a date with her. He didn’t want her to become like all those other silly girls who giggled and pampered over him. Merlin forbid, she turn into a Pansy. Draco liked girls but they inevitably stuffed up his schedule and messed up his room. They were always late for appointments and didn’t seem to understand the gravity of their mistakes. There had been that one silly girl who had messed up his wardrobe, for goodness sakes. And she hadn’t even apologized. That other girl had turned off his alarm clock, claiming she wanted to sleep in. Draco had never slept in a day in his life. The airheads had had no idea. Draco had seen Ginny’s inquiring looks and she seemed intelligent; he hoped she could understand and appreciate his exactness. Draco wanted a girl who liked him for him, not because he was rich or had good muscles. Maybe, just maybe, that girl might be Ginevra.
He didn’t really care that she was related to the Weasel. She couldn’t be blamed for something she had entirely no control over. After all, he was related to Bellatrix Lestrange. Even the Dark Lord (the man who thought snakes were sexy, had lived without a body –eww- and had been defeated by Potter before Potter could clean his own arse) thought she was cuckoo. Really, Draco couldn’t understand how his father believed, let alone followed, such a megalomaniac. He probably didn’t even wash properly. Draco respected his father’s views (Lucius did have a tendency to demand respect – it was in the walk, something to do with the swagger) but he didn’t agree with them, whatever everyone else thought. Being the son of a Death Eater did not automatically make him a Death Eater. Everyone, including Lucius, had agreed it was probably not in Draco’s best interests to take up with a barmy half-blood who couldn’t even charm himself a proper nose. For Merlin’s sake, the man slept with a snake.
‘Draco, it’s 8:30, do you want to go somewhere or stay here?’ inquired Ginny, breaking into his thoughts.
‘We stay here until 12:30,’ said Draco. ‘Maybe you should know the schedule if you want to spend the day with me.’
‘Okay,’ said Ginny as she leaned back in the chair.
‘Well, we leave here at 12:30 for lunch at 1:00 with Professor Snape. I do this every Saturday without exception. You may eat in the Hall or you can join us. It’s up to you. We eat a bread roll each, followed by soup – this week is French onion – followed by Coq au Vin. I leave there at 3:00 and go play Quidditch for two hours. You may join me, but no interruptions to my schedule will be tolerated. At all. I will simply leave you behind.’
‘I understand. Can I ask why you have lunch with Professor Snape? I realize he is your Head of House but that seems a bit intimate for your relationship.’
‘He’s my godfather, and we happen to enjoy each other’s company.’
‘Will he not like me coming?’
‘Probably.’
‘Then I’ll come.’
Draco smirked.
‘I suggest we finish our assignments,’ said Draco as he turned back to his work.
And work he did. Draco was diligent and disgustingly hardworking. Ginny knew that Hermione was always complaining about how good Draco’s grades were, and Ginny had always assumed it was due to a combination of favoritism, bribing and/or scaring others to write his assignments for him. It wasn’t. Draco was just very smart.
He was also very organized.
His notes were subject, colour and alphabetically coordinated with margins and underlining in red pen. His quills, books and notes were all parallel to the paper he was working on. Any bookmarks were colour-coded according to importance. Ginny had also noticed that he carried a measuring tape in a pocket in his jeans. His quite tight jeans that covered a quite nice arse. The only other person that Ginny had seen this organized was Hermione but Draco seemed to have this level of co-ordination in all aspects of his life. His clothes, of the muggle variety, because it was a Saturday and far too hot for robes, were all perfectly ironed and colour co-ordinated. They looked absolutely impeccable on him. His hair, dead-straight, was flawlessly cut and he sat with ram-rod straight posture. He looked like the poster boy for organisation and order.
At 12:25 Draco glanced down at his watch and started to clear up his books. He nodded his head at Ginny to communicate they needed to leave and then with a flourish of his wand he minimized his books, placed them in his bag and walked out of the library. Luckily, Ginny spoke ‘head-nodding’ and followed quickly. This organization thing seemed to being paying off, mused Ginny as she minimized her books and placed them in her pocket. She had never finished so much work in such a short period of time. Usually gossiping, procrastination or some magical unknown force, which for some weird reason always occurred during Potions homework, got in the way.
Ginny followed Draco into the dungeons, their feet echoing loudly off the floor. Neither spoke, although Draco’s lips were moving. Was he counting something, perhaps?
Although Ginny came down into the dungeons every day for Potions, it seemed slightly more menacing this time. Perhaps the lack of her fellow Gryffindor classmates or the fact that she was going to have lunch with Professor Snape were the reason she was feeling slightly nervous. It could have nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with her being completely alone with Draco. Never before had she felt so aware of his existence. He simply filled the space around him in a way that meant he was impossible to ignore. Before in the library, there had been distractions and other people around. But now his presence was ridiculously strong and he seemed, if possible, even more perfect.
They stopped, suddenly it seemed to Ginny, in front of Snape’s door. Draco glanced at his watch and nodded in satisfaction. Obviously, it was exactly one. He knocked, twice and precise before opening the door and gesturing for Ginny to enter.
‘He knows we’re coming. Well, at least that I am. The knock is just a formality as I’m never late.’
‘Or early,’ said Ginny. It was a statement, not a question but Draco answered anyway.
‘No, I am always on time. Exactly.’
Ginny said nothing and followed Draco to a small room off the larger classroom. The room was far more homey than Ginny had expected. Though as her expectations had run towards creepy, wet torture chamber ideas, anything would have looked homey in comparison. A book shelf ran around the walls of the room and two large armchairs were positioned in the middle of the room around a small table. It looked exactly like an old bachelor’s room. Ginny supposed that was exactly what it was. All it needed was for Snape to smoke a pipe.
Snape stood as they entered. Ginny was almost upset to notice the absence of a pipe. No surprise showed on his face as he watched Ginny enter his room.
‘I believe this is the first time that a heroic Gryffindor has ever ventured into my private rooms. Could I be so rude as to ask why I have the pleasure of your company, Ms Weasley?’ asked Snape, one eyebrow raised.
Draco answered before Ginny could speak. ‘I invited her as we were studying together. I assumed you wouldn’t mind.’
‘Of course not. And if I did, I could hardly raise my opposition with you both here.’
‘Naturally, you would be far too polite to do that, Professor,’ said Draco with a slight smile. ‘Ginny, take a seat.’
Ginny obliged, feeling slightly like a pawn in a chess game. Snape pursed his lips and spelled another armchair with a sniff of disdain and a sharp look at Ginny. Both Draco and Snape sat down. Snape waved his wand without an incantation (which impressed both Draco and Ginny, but neither voiced this appreciation) and a pot of tea, soup and bread rolls appeared on the table. Draco had been right, Ginny decided with a quiet sniff, it was french onion.
‘Are my rooms what you expected, Ms Weasley?’ asked Snape as he begin to pour tea.
‘Not really, though I don’t believe I had any real expectation. I thought they’d be gloomier, more like the Potions classroom. I thought the seats would be harder,’ said Ginny truthfully and with an appreciative wiggle in the soft armchair.
‘I am so pleased you find them satisfactory,’ said Snape dryly. ‘How is your charms work coming along, Draco?’
With that obvious change of topic Snape completely ignored Ginny.
And continued to ignore her through the bread rolls, very yummy french onion soup and coq au vin which was served as dinner. It was a true showing of Snape’s determination that not once did he even glance in Ginny’s direction. From the way that Snape acted, Ginny might as well not have been there.
And it was starting to piss her off just a tiny bit.
But Ginny manfully (or femalely) pushed through her annoyance. If Draco’s godfather wanted to be rude and pretended she wasn’t there that was fine with her. Even if it really wasn’t. Snape and Draco kept up a rather heated conversation about grades, cauldrons and the new Defence Professor. Ginny who had never really formed an opinion on cauldrons (she had tended to ignore Percy when he started to rant) was surprised to learn that Professor Snape and Draco both had very firm opinions on the subject. Apparently, glass ones were the best as you could see the entire potion. When Ginny inquired why then if glass cauldrons were so good were they not used at Hogwarts, Snape looked at her for the first time since she had entered the room.
‘Ms Weasley, do you have any idea of the cost of a glass cauldron, one that has been spelled to prevent the glass from reacting with any potions? To put it in terms you can understand, the cost of a single glass cauldron would be roughly the same as your house,’ said Snape with a faint sneer.
Ginny said nothing; because really it was possible it was true. Not that she cared about her family’s monetary situation but she wished Snape hadn’t brought it up. To her surprise, Ginny heard Draco speaking.
‘There’s no need to be nasty, sir.’
Ginny raised her head to turn to stare at Draco. Snape was doing very much the same thing, his eyes were bulging and he seemed to not know what to say.
‘Perhaps you are right, Draco. That was uncalled for,’ said Snape with a very slight dip of his head.
Ginny was sure her mouth was hanging open. Nobody, nobody had ever chastised - for that was exactly what that slightly ‘correct’ tone in Draco’s voice had done - Professor Severus Tobias Snape, Potions Master of Hogwarts and survived.
Neither Ginny nor Snape spoke to each other throughout the rest of the meal but Ginny could feel Snape’s eyes on her, evaluating her.
Draco stood abruptly at 3:00 after a glance down at his watch. ‘It’s time to go, Ginny.’
Ginny nodded, rising until Snape spoke.
‘Actually, I need to speak to Ms Weasley about her potions Assignment.’
Ginny turned to Draco. ‘You can go. I’ll meet you on the Quidditch field. I don’t want you to be late,’ she said as she noticed his anxious glance at his watch.
He nodded in relief and left quickly. Ginny didn’t Snape’s speculative glance as he watched Draco leave.
‘Professor, I don’t have a potions Assignment currently so…’
‘I do know your curriculum, Ms Weasley, but thank you for reminding me about my own subject. As you have no doubt guessed with your cutting intellect, the Potions Assignment was a ruse so that I can speak to you alone. You see, Ms Weasley, I don’t like you. To be frank, I find you an exasperating, immature student with a terrible disposition who does not respect her elders. But for reasons beyond me, Draco seems to like you. So I cannot allow this game you are playing to continue. Draco is my godson, Ms Weasley, and I like him. He may appear as if nothing can harm him, but Draco has weaknesses and he does not deserve to be hurt simply because you are after his money. So I am warning you, I will not tolerate you hurting him.’
‘Professor Snape, can I be frank?’
‘Have you ever been otherwise? You never seem to stop speaking your mind.’
‘Professor Snape, I don’t like you either. But I don’t really know you. Just like you don’t really know me. That’s why I find it offensive for you to make assumptions. For starters, I am not after Draco. We are not dating. We are simply tentative friends at this point. Secondly, I am not interested in Draco for his money. I may not have a lot of money, Professor, but I can make money by myself. I don’t have to marry a rich husband, and I find it offensive for women everywhere that you immediately assume I’m a gold-digger.’
‘Then you admit you are interested in Draco.’
‘Yes. Yes, I am. I like him. I didn’t intend to when we first met, but I do like him. He’s nice, has good manners and he is, well, rather, good-looking. I am attracted to him. I do not have any attention of hurting him.’
‘I may have misjudged this situation, Ms Weasley. I may not have. Whatever the case, I will be watching you in the future.’
‘If you want to, Professor, but that doesn’t change the fact that I like Draco and that’s none of your business,’ said Ginny as she turned to leave.
‘Ms Weasley, this does not have to go beyond this room. Draco would dislike the idea of my trying to protect him.’
‘Of course, Professor,’ said Ginny with her back still facing Snape. Ginny stomped her way out of the dungeons. How dare he? How could Snape assume that she was some sort of mercenary, out to get her hooks into Draco and marry him, for Merlin’s sake? The damn man had no idea. Marry? Marry? Ginny was sixteen, and she wasn’t after Draco’s money. The thought hadn’t entered her head. Weasleys had more pride. Ginny paused as she left Hogwarts. She could see a small figure flying around the pitch and the anger rushed out of her. She supposed she could understand why Snape was trying to protect Draco. He looked so small and defenseless up in the air, like a single strong wind could knock him to his death. It was rather a nice thought that Snape cared about Draco enough to intervene when he though Ginny was going to hurt him. But not nice enough to get Ginny out of her bad mood.
Ginny hurried down to the pitch. A good game of Quidditch was exactly what she needed after that infuriating talk with Snape. Draco landed as soon as he saw Ginny. His hair was, somehow, still perfectly groomed. Ginny wondered how he’d achieved that. Was there a spell or something?
‘Do you want to play? I play until 5:00,’ Draco said.
‘Sure.’
‘Are you okay?’ asked Draco. ‘You seem rather… annoyed.’
‘It’s just Snape being a bastard as usual. Nothing to worry about.’
‘He’s actually not that bad,’ defended Draco as they walked towards the goal posts where Draco had left a spare broom for her. ‘He’s a good Head of House, makes sure the younger kids are okay.’ Draco paused as if deciding whether or not to continue. He obviously decided in favor of honesty. ‘Lately, he’s been helping seventh years that have Death Eaters as parents to escape and get away.’
Ginny didn’t really know what to say. ‘Umm… I guess there’s a lot of pressure from some parents.’
Draco laughed. ‘That’s an understatement,’ he said bitterly. ‘I’m okay. My parents don’t want me to join, but Goyle’s parents are sending threatening letters. Crabbe’s parents are also pressuring him. None of us want to join, you know. Professor Snape helps.’
‘That’s good of him. I’m glad you felt you could tell me that,’ said Ginny with a small smile towards Draco.
‘You’re trustworthy, Ginevra. I only just decided, but you are. That’s very important to me.’ Draco glanced towards Ginny and their eyes met. Draco smiled. ‘Last to the other posts is a crooked wand,’ said Draco as he jumped on his broom and raced off. Ginny laughed and raced after him.
They practiced, played and (if Ginny was honest with herself) flirted until 5:00.
‘I have to go to dinner now,’ announced Draco as he checked his watch.
‘I know. I’m not really hungry. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,’ said Ginny as they started to head back to the castle.
‘I suppose so. I’ll be in my dorm until 11 tomorrow. I have three hours allotted to spend time with my other housemates. It helps foster house-spirit and lets the younger ones know who I am. But I’ll be in the library and at the Green Houses after that. I guess I’ll see you sometime.’
‘Yes, I can’t see myself invading the Slytherin dorms, so I’ll see you after 11.’
Draco and Ginny paused outside of the Great Hall. ‘Bye, then,’ said Ginny as she left Draco to walk back to Gryffindor tower. She didn’t know he watched her bottom as she walked away.
When Ginny got to her dorm she changed into her pajamas and unpacked her pockets and spelled her books back to their normal size. As soon as Ginny placed them on her bedside table she realized something was wrong. She had a book that obviously wasn’t hers. For starters, it was much cleaner and neat than any of her hand-me-down books, and secondly she didn’t even do its subject, Arithmancy. Draco, however, did. Ginny remembered him doing some number chart thing in the library today. It had looked like utter hogwash to her, but presumably Draco knew what he was doing.
Sure enough, when Ginny opened the front cover there were the words ‘Draco Abraxas Malfoy’ printed in small, orderly letters. He was probably still eating, thought Ginny. She could return it to him now. Then Ginny glanced down at her unicorn covered pajamas (in Ginny's defence - they were warm). Oh, she couldn’t be bothered to get changed. Now was probably not the best time to give it to him anyway. No, she would just have to brave the Slytherin common room tomorrow morning when she could be sure of finding him. And when she would be better dressed.
Author notes: I hope you all liked. Thank you to everyone who reviewed last time.
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