A Jar of Spiders, A Picture, And A Sunflower...

A Jar of Spiders, A Picture, and a Sunflower.

    Draco Malfoy, Slytherin fourth year crept around the corner to the Gryffindor Common Room, holding a jar full of spiders. 'Potty and Weasel will sure have fun with this…' he thought as he crept up to the Portrait of the Fat Lady. "Balderdash," he whispered. The fat lady looked hesitant but eventually let him in.

    "AHHHH! Kill it Ron! Kill it!" Ginny Weasley, Gryffindor third year screamed to her older brother, Ron Weasley. Ron took his wand and tried to transfigure the beetle into a button, but it kept moving around.

    "Screw the wand!" He exclaimed as he threw the wand aside and reached for Ginny's shoe.

    "NO! Not that shoe!" Ginny wailed as Ron thrust the shoe to the ground, killing the beetle. "That was my favorite…"

    "Oh, sorry Gin," Ron said to her as they exited the third year girls' dormitory and out of the Common Room and started heading to dinner.

    Malfoy heard voices coming from one of the dormitories. He ran and hid behind the couch to see the two Weasleys exit the Common Room. 'How come Gryffindors get a better Common Room then us? Oh, well, never mind, that must be where Potty and Weasel sleep,' Draco thought as he started going up the stairs where Ron and Ginny just came from.

    Draco opened the door to the dormitory, jar of spiders in hand. He saw four bunks, lots of girl clothes scattered everywhere with cosmetics everywhere you could see. "I always knew something was wrong with Potty and Weasel," Draco murmured to himself as he set the spiders down on the floor. Then, Draco saw something at the corner of his eye. He looked around to see a picture of himself in a little muggle frame, with candles around it.

He went over to that bunk to see the picture more closely. "That has to be the worst picture of me ever taken," he muttered to himself.

    He looked at the bunk once more to see a sign, hanging over the pillow on the wall. It read:

Ginny Weasley

    Draco smiled and said, "I always knew that red haired little fool had a crush on me." He looked back at the picture. "Now, about this picture, he took out his wallet and took a very good looking picture of himself and replaced it with the bad looking one. "I always have to keep a spare." He said into the empty room.

    With that, he picked up the spiders and thought, 'Why did I just do that?' He found the fourth year boys' dormitories to find it locked. "Alohamora!" He whispered, pointing his wand at it. He put his wand away and trying the door handle again. Still locked. "Damnit!" Draco cursed under his breath. With that, he tried a few more spells but none worked. Draco turned around, went down the staircase and exited Gryffindor Tower.

    That night at dinner he kept sneaking peaks at the Gryffindor Table. He saw Ginny, laughing along with her three friends that Draco knew by sight and not by name. Draco had seen Ginny since her first year here at Hogwarts and she had transformed from a scrawny, eleven-year-old girl to a thirteen year old beauty with fiery red hair and the freckles that dotted her nose. She looked almost, well, cute. Draco mentally slapped himself and returned to the conversation with Crabbe and Goyle.

    "No, the mashed potatoes are better lumpy!" Goyle argued with Crabbe.

    "No, they are better smooth!" Crabbe argued back.

    Draco shook his head and continued to stare over at Ginny. He looked up and down the Gryffindor table. He spotted Ron giving him a nasty look. He diverted his attention back to Ginny, now her friends giggling and whispering to her. Draco had the impression that they were whispering about him. 'What's not to whisper about me? I'm drop dead gorgeous!' Draco thought, giving a charming smile over to the Gryffindor table, where Ginny and her three friends started giggling even more.

    "Why did I just do that?" Draco asked no one in particular.

    "Do just what?" Crabbe asked stupidly, putting pot roast into his already full mouth.

    "Never mind you stupid gits," Draco told them sharply.

    Crabbe and Goyle stupidly looked where Draco was gazing and Goyle asked, "What are you looking at?"

    Draco ignored him and kept staring at Ginny, who was now drinking her pumpkin juice.

    After dinner, Draco waited outside of the Great Hall. When Ginny came out, he whispered, "Ginny, come here."

    Ginny looked around, then, she saw Draco in the shadows. "What do you want, Malfoy?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips, but a sound of excitement in her voice. Or maybe he was just imagining it.

    Draco took out an old quill and his wand. He did some sort of transfiguration on it and it became a perfect sunflower. He handed the sunflower over to Ginny.

    Ginny squealed with delight but recovered immediately. "You didn't hex it or something, did you?" she asked, pretending that she didn't care for the flower.

    "No," Draco told her.

    "Why are you giving this flower me? You hate me," Ginny asked, a smile starting to form at her mouth.

    "I don't hate you, it's your brother," Draco saw the look on Ginny's face and said quickly, "who I am sure is a very good person." He finished hastily.

    Ginny smiled, really smiled at him. "Thank you, but I ask again. Why are you giving this to me?"

    "So you can put it by your picture of me," Draco said smoothly.

    Ginny dropped her flower, a look of horror on her face. "How did you-you couldn't-what the hell?" Ginny looked very nervous and was about to turn around when…Draco pulled her arm.

    Ginny looked up into his eyes. Draco said, "Meet me by the lake this Saturday." Ginny continued to stare. "Is that a yes or a no?" Draco smiled a very charming smile.

    Ginny's heart melted as she nodded yes. Draco let her arm go and she walked backwards until the next corridor.

    When she got back up to Gryffindor Tower, she went straight up to the third year girls' dormitories, sunflower in hand. As soon as she entered her dormitory, her three friends pounced on her.

    "What happened?" Erica, a girl with dark brown hair, blue eyes and tanned skin asked.

    "Tell us!" Vanessa, an oriental girl with black hair, and brown eyes demanded.

    "Details!" Allison, a blonde with blue eyes said to Ginny.

    "Do you want to hear something?" Ginny asked them, sitting down on her bed and conjuring up a vase and water to put the sunflower in.

    "Yes!" The said in unison.

    Ginny put the flower in the vase and put the vase by the candles and pictures. Then, she looked up at the anxious faces of her friends and said. "Goodnight!" She got under the covers and pretended to fall asleep. "Kidding!" she exclaimed about five minutes later.

    They all laughed. They climbed on Ginny's bed to hear Ginny's encounter with Draco Malfoy.

    "He really asked you to meet him by the lake?" Erica cried in excitement.

    "Saturday is tomorrow! What are you going to wear?" Allison said excitedly.

    Ginny hadn't thought of any of those things and was suddenly very worried. Yes, she could make herself look good from day to day but it wasn't a day-to-day thing to meet Draco Malfoy, cutest boy in school, by the lake. "I don't know," Ginny whimpered in a scared tone.

    The girls chatted into the night, but, that morning, Ginny was extremely nervous. She got up very early for a Saturday and went off to her closet. She looked through her robes and decided on her periwinkle robes. She put them on and checked in the full-length mirror. 'Okay. That is okay. Blue looks good on me.' Then, she went over to her mirror to find single, red rose. Ginny squealed which woke up the other girls.

    "Why are you up this early Gin?" Allison asked sleepily, getting out of bed to see what Ginny was so excited about. "You guys! Come here!" she said, motioning to Erica and Vanessa.

    They came over, half awake but when they saw the rose, they all squealed. They must have been very loud because a Gryffindor second year came in and yelled, "Will you please be quiet! I'm trying to study!"

    They all stopped. "Sounds like a younger version of Hermione," Ginny told them. Then, she noticed there was a card on the rose. She opened it and read:

Ginny-

Don't forget about our meeting at the lake today. I will be there, waiting for you at twelve noon.

Yours Forever,

Draco

    "Wow," Ginny breathed. She checked her watch and saw it was eleven o'clock. "Oh no! I haven't even done any of my makeup yet!"

    The three girls looked at her and smiled. Erica, who was more of the leader in the group said, "Vanessa-you do lips. Allison-you do cheeks and eyes. I'll do hair."

    They all grabbed cosmetics and started to work on Ginny, who was sitting at her mirror. Vanessa put on this sparkly-shiny lip-gloss that her muggle mother had sent her. She found it quite useful. Allison put on a little bit of blush. On her eyes, she got out this mixture that she had made herself. She had mixed red and gold sparkles. Ginny closed her eyes as Allison dipped the tip of her finger into the sparkles and put some on Ginny's eyes. Erica had found this curling charm and was trying it out on Ginny's hair. It looked great.

    It was eleven-fifteen when they all finished. Ginny looked in the full-length mirror again. "Thank you!" She exclaimed as she hugged all of them.

    "Go Ginny! Don't want to be late for your date with lover boy!" Erica teased.

    Ginny smiled and left the dormitories, exited the Common Room and made her way down to the lake.

    Draco Malfoy, meanwhile, in the Slytherin Common Room was pacing up and down his dormitory. He was dressed, ready to go, and extremely nervous. 'Why am I getting so nervous? It's only a girl, actually, its only Ginny. I've been out with girls before. I've been out with Pansy millions of times. Well, actually, I never really did like her, she just stalks me.' He thought as he exited his dormitory and made his way down to the lake.

    Ginny checked her watch. Ten till…then, she heard someone behind her. "Hi Draco."

    "Hi Ginny," Draco replied. "You look so…nice." Draco, who obviously had never given compliments wasn't sure of what to say.

    "Thank you," Ginny replied. There was a silence. Ginny broke it by asking, "Draco-I have a question…"

    She was cut off by Draco saying, "No I don't bleach it, it's all natural!"

    Ginny started to snicker. "I wasn't going to ask that but thanks for the info." Draco blushed. "Anyway, I was going ask how you found out I had a picture of you.

    Draco explained about the whole spider thing and how he went into the wrong dormitory. Ginny asked, "How did you know where Gryffindor tower was and how did you know our password?"

    "My dad," Draco said quickly.

    "Oh," Ginny said.

    "Ginny, I wanted to ask you something," Draco started nervously. "Ummm…Uhhh….How do I say this?"

    "Of course, Draco! I will be you're girlfriend!" Ginny exclaimed.

    Draco looked up and said, "I wasn't going to ask that." Ginny blushed several shades of red.

    "Oh," Ginny replied, looking down at the ground, shuffling her feet.

    "Just kidding," Draco teased.

    Ginny looked up and said, "Why did you do that?" She whacked him playfully on the head.

    "No! Not the hair!" Draco screamed as he pretended to run in fear away from Ginny.

    Ginny laughed as she sat down on the grass. Draco came up beside her. "Accio blanket." He said, then, from behind the hedge, a blanket zoomed towards them.

    "Why is there a blanket behind the hedge?" Ginny asked as she sat down on it.

    "Because, I always wanted to sit by the lake with you," Draco told her.

    They sat there for a long, long time, until dark came and they headed back up to the castle, hand in hand.