Ginny's All That

April 25.

It was Sunday, and Ginny had made up her mind that it would be a lazy one.

She stretched her arms high as she climbed from her bed. She pulled out a pair of sweatpants and an old t-shirt that she would wear today. She dressed and made her way to the Great Hall for breakfast.

She sat down at the Gryffindor table and looked across the way at the Slytherin table. Draco was sitting there, of course in the company of Dex and Blaise. He looked up at her for a brief moment, and they locked eyes. He winked at her slyly before returning to his conversation with his friends.

Ginny thought about Draco a lot this past week or so. She did not understand why he was so nice to her, or why he'd ask her to do to the ball, or why he'd buy her that gorgeous and expensive gown that she adored. But she decided to just accept it and be happy.

The ball was to take place on the 15^th of May. It was on the current day that the seventh year prefects would release their nominations for Prince and Princess of the Ball. The picks really aren't all that surprising, though, because generally they just chose each other. Then, after the Prefects selected, the Head Boy and Head Girl would choose three of the four nominations to actually be in the running. Harry and Hermione were in their meeting right now to make a final decision.

Later that day, the nominations had been posted as a bulletin outside the great hall. Out of mere curiosity, Ginny decided to go take a look and glance at the list.

Nominations for Prince -

Draco Malfoy
Harry Potter
Zacharias Smith

Nominations for Princess -

Cho Chang
Parvati Patil
Ginny Weasley

Ginny read her name and raised an eyebrow. Huh, was all she could manage to think.

*****

Pansy rushed up to Draco. "Can I have a word?" she asked irritably.

"I believe you've already had five, but who's counting?" he replied sarcastically.

"This isn't funny, Draco. I am not on the ballot for Princess, but that sixth year weasel is! I thought you were going to nominate me!" she exclaimed.

"Oops."

"Draco Malfoy!" she yelled.

"I'm not deaf," he responded. "Pansy, you broke up with me. I owe you nothing."

With that, he walked away from the Slytherin table and into the Entrance Hall where he knew he'd find Ginny.

"Congratulations, Miss Weasley," Draco whispered into her ear. "Or should I say, Miss Princess?"

She gave him a half smirk. "I don't understand," she said honestly. "I'm not a seventh year, so why am I on the ballot?"

He smirked again. "I nominated you."

Her mouth opened wide. "Why?" she asked.

"Because you're my date, and we are going to be crowned together," he answered. "Come on," he said, "Let's walk."

*****

Ginny and Draco spent the afternoon wandering all over the grounds. It was a beautiful Spring day, and Ginny loved seeing the flowers bloom and hearing the birds sing. Draco, despite himself, just loved spending time with Ginny.

Several people had seen them together, she noticed. Any other time they had met or spoken, only Blaise and Dex had seen them together. Obviously he was not ashamed of being seen with her or else he would not have asked her to be his date. But today was the first time other people had seen them together, casually, just spending time. It was nice, Ginny thought. She didn't know what they were, but she realized that it didn't very well matter at all.

****

Ginny returned to the Gryffindor common room in the early evening. She found that the common room, which was usually filled with students studying or just simply lounging about, was unusually quiet. There was one person in the room.

Harry.

He sat alone by the fire, just staring at it. The flames crackled as he just watched.

"Hello Harry," Ginny said, sitting down the couch near him. "What are you up to? Where are Ron and Hermione?"

Harry smiled at her slightly. "Off snogging, I think," he said. "I hear you've had an interesting day."

She smiled to herself, assuming he was simply referring to her nomination.

"You know, Ginny," Harry began again, before she had a chance to speak, "I know we're broken up, but it still hurts."

"What hurts?" she asked seriously.

"I saw you today with Malfoy."

She bit her lip. "Oh, that..."

He turned toward her, his eyes intently looking into hers. Both of them had lovely green eyes, but hers were just a shade or two darker than his. She suddenly wondered what Ron was going to say when she found out about them. And Hermione, as well. But this was Harry - the person who despised Draco Malfoy the most, with requited feelings. She suddenly realized that even though the pair of them spent little time together anymore, she did not want him to ever be upset with her or disappointed in her.

"Ginny, I don't like him. But, I was watching him with you, even though I knew that the fact that I was watching you would irk you to the bloody end. The point is, though, he was being sweet to you."

Ginny did not expect that from Harry. "Harry..." she began, but he shook his head.

"I never thought in a million years I'd see Malfoy picking daisies in the Hogwarts garden with my ex-girlfriend, or seeing him walk idly around the lake holding her hand, or sit under a tree and play cards with her," he went on. "But today I did, and it really hurt me, Gin. And it isn't your fault, or even Malfoy's."

At that point she was lost. "Harry, I don't want you to feel bad," she said, now realizing that she was simply trying to figure out what he was talking about. She wasn't sure he really knew what he was going on about.

"The point is," he continued, as if reading her thoughts, "is that, even though I don't like him and seeing him with you makes me jealous, I'm happy for you Gin. He really seems to care about you."

She smiled, and leaned forward and gave Harry a hug.

"Thank you."

*****

Draco walked into the Slytherin common room, with a hint of a smile on his face.

As expected, Blaise and Dex were waiting.

The pair of them immediately burst into laughter.

"You - skipped - with - Weasley - through - the - flowers," Blaise managed to choke out in between laughs.

Draco smiled and let out a laugh, but for a different reason. He had actually enjoyed himself, despite generally trying to keep his relationship with Ginny professional, so to speak. But instead, he found himself earlier in the day trying to make her giggle so that he could see her dainty little nose twitch with amusement. He wanted to make her smile so that he could see her green eyes light up like emeralds. He wanted her to look at him and feel like she wanted him.

"Man, if you get her into bed this week, you will be king of everything," Dex said, patting her on the back.

Draco's smile faded. He had forgotten that part.

"Well, I still have three weeks to seal the deal," Draco responded with a twitch of his lips. "If I rush it she might get suspicious."

His friends seemed satisfied at this, but Draco found himself feeling terrible.

It wasn't that he didn't want her - he did. But that was the problem. He liked her, a lot more than he realized, and he wanted to sleep with her because, well, he was a seventeen-year-old boy. But he felt guilty at the thought of sleeping with her just to win a bet.

Draco sat down on a sofa far from the fireplace and continued to think about what he was doing. He realized something at that moment.

Oh man, am I in trouble.

*****

April 26.

Monday morning again, Ginny thought to herself.

She dressed in her school robes and walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast. She was very happy this morning; yesterday had been such a good day. The best day she'd had in a long time, in fact. She ate her breakfast in a hurry and then skipped off to her classes.

Upon leaving the Great Hall, Ginny felt someone's eyes on her - burning into her.

She glanced around and saw that Draco had been watching her. She allowed a smile to grace her lips as she walked over to him deliberately slowly.

She stood in front of him and he grinned at her slightly.

He cut right to the chase. "I want to see you tonight," he blurted out in a very un-Draco-like way.

Her smile turned into a smirk that could rival Draco's. "And do what?"

He whispered something in her ear, kissed her cheek, and walked sauntered away arrogantly.

Oh boy, she thought.