Trust Me

Chapter Four: Selling the lies

Ginny knew something had changed in Draco. She knew this because ever since she had seen him looking at her in the Great Hall and then later talking with Cho, she had been watching him.

Since when did a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw socialize? At least since when did they socialize of their own free will? Ginny knew Draco. Well, she didn't exactly know him, but she had a pretty good idea of the sort of person he was. And the sort of person he was was not the sort of person who would walk up to Cho Chang and strike up a conversation with her.

Her curiosity had been piqued even more when she had seen them both in the Astronomy Tower. It generally wouldn't surprise Ginny to see Draco in the Astronomy Tower with any girl. Even girls that disliked him had to admit that he was good looking, and most wouldn't mind joining him in the Astronomy Tower for a once off. These girls however, did not include Ginevra Weasley. Because although, along with the rest of her sex she had to admire Draco's ability to look impossibly handsome at every moment of every day, she wouldn't be caught dead with him alone in the Astronomy Tower. Because, unlike the rest of her sex, she didn't only dislike him, she hated him.

Ginny didn't know what it was that made her loathe Draco so fiercely. But she knew that everything about him irked her. From that tell tale smirk he never left home without firmly pasted to his face, to his constant holier-than-thou attitude to any person he considered lower than him - which was everyone. However, the thing that took her anger to a whole new level was the fact that every time he walked in the room she felt a fire burn in her depths of stomach, small enough to ignore but nonetheless still there. She told herself it was hate, but part of her knew different. And she despised him deeply for having any affect on her at all when she wanted only to have the ice cold indifference he was such a master of.

A prickle on the back of Ginny's neck told her that she was not alone and she spun around to see none of than the topic of her thoughts staring coolly back at her. "Draco," she said not knowing what else to do.

"Ginny," he replied in the same tone of voice. Ginny waited for him to continue, to tell her why he had sought her out. She looked in his eyes which, for once were not the crystal grey they normally were. The pupil was larger and the iris slighter darker in hue. He brought a fair hand up to scratch the end of his nose. He looked nervous. This surprised Ginny even more. Why would Draco be nervous? Did he even know how to be nervous? Ginny studied his face carefully, slightly unsettled by this unexpected change to his normal aloof manner.

Draco sighed, breaking off the staring contest. "I've got something I want to show you," he told her.

"Excuse me?" she questioned thoroughly confused. "What makes you think I'd be interested in anything you have to show me?'

"Trust me, Weasley, you're going to be interested in this." His voice was light but Ginny knew there was more going on behind his predominantly calm verbalizations than he was letting on. His eyes betrayed him.

Ginny was silent for a moment. Somehow she knew this wasn't just some joke he was playing on her. Whatever it was, it was serious. Finally she nodded, "Okay, shoot."

Now it was Draco's turn to hesitate. He looked around where they were standing and saw at least twenty other people standing nearby, although not in hearing distance. "Come with me," he said, grabbing her roughly by the arm.

"No way," Ginny drew back, wrenching her arm from his grasp.

He sighed in exasperation. "Look," he explained, "I don't want to tell this to you with all these people around, so you come with me or you miss out."

"Fine, I'll miss out. I doubt it was all that interesting anyway," with this she began to walk off.

He stood still for a second, the sun glinting off his silver-white hair and making it shine even more. He looked indecisive, as though he wasn't sure whether to go after her. Finally his eyes hardened and determination dominated his resolve. "Ginny! Wait,"

Ginny turned back to him, her whole face showing her surprise. She hadn't expected him to call her back.

"Will you come with me?" he asked meeting her eyes directly. Ginny bit her lip, half drawn between wanting to trust the boy she hated more than any other, and wanting to leave and forget about his stupid message. "Please," he added softly.

Something jerked inside Ginny and it was all she could do to stop herself from smiling. A Malfoy with manners? She sighed running a petite hand through her red hair. She was going to regret this later. "Okay,"

Draco led her inside. They walked up the deserted corridors with Draco keeping a watchful eye out for any teachers. What would they say if a teacher found them together? They were hardly the best of friends.

Finally Draco led them into an empty classroom and shut the door firmly behind them. "Look," he said turning to face her, "you might not like what I have to say to you. In fact, I can guarantee you're not going to like what I have to say to you. But you have to believe me when I say I'm not making it up."

Ginny's confusion and apprehension was growing with every word that came out of his mouth. A frown creased her forehead as she begun to wonder what the hell she had gotten herself into. "Okay," she said after a minute.

She perched herself on a desk facing him as he opened his mouth to speak.

*~*~*~*

Draco was nervous. Hell, he wasn't just nervous, he was scared. Scared of what he was about to do. But the question was why? He was used to hurting people. He did it all the time, without even thinking. What was so special about Ginny Weasley that made his insides writhe in agony at the thought of causing her pain?

He thought he knew. It was the same reason why he followed her every move with his cool grey eyes. The reason why he memorized every curve of her soft cheeks, the way her fiery hair fell gently into her eyes, the way she walked, the way she talked, the way she laughed. He told himself that it was his duty to know these things. That it was vital to his plan to know everything he could about Ginny Weasley. But the truth was that it was just an excuse. The more he watched her, the more he enjoyed watching her. The more he learned about her, the more he wanted to know. It was getting to the point, now, where the youngest Weasley child was consuming every aspect of his life.

But the thing that made what he was about to do so unbearably hard was the knowledge that by doing it he would not only hurt her, he would completely destroy her life. By making her think that the one person whom she trusted absolutely was unfaithful to her would make her lose any faith she had in life at all. It might even make what he was trying to do harder. But there was one thing that he did know. And that was that while Harry Potter was in Ginny's life there was no way she would ever trust him.

Flicking a silver strand of hair from his eyes he hardened his resolve. He was a Malfoy and he had been taught from his earliest years that nothing was allowed to get in the way of his masters plans. Not even Ginny Weasley.

He turned to look at her and began to talk, his voice strong and unwavering.

"Well, you see I was just walking down the corridor and I, no -" he stopped. Draco took a deep breath, carefully clenching and unclenching his hands which he held tightly behind his back so she couldn't see how nervous he was. But, even with all his practice there was no way to hide the tension in his eyes. He closed his eyes for a second to regain his poise and started again. "It was just the other day and I was coming down the corridor and I heard something in one of the classrooms and -"

Clenching his teeth he slammed his fist down on a nearby desk. He couldn't do it. After all his preparations - watching her, talking to Cho, the pictures he had in his bag - he couldn't do it. He had been defeated by a Weasley.

"Look," he said to her, "Don't worry about it." The look she had on her face plainly told him that she thought he was crazy. But he had bigger problems now. Like how to stop Voldemort from killing him.

He turned to leave and promptly tripped over his own feet. He threw his hands out in front of him a split second before landing heavily on the floor. It took him a few moments before he realised what he had done. Ginny's laughter brought a blush to his cheeks. "Idiot," he murmured under his breath. How on earth had he managed to do something so humiliating?

He climbed to his feet, carefully brushing the creases from his robe. Looking around he noticed his bag had been jerked open in the fall and its contents scattered across the floor. He bent down and began shoving them hastily back into his bag. Ginny, still laughing amusedly, knelt down beside him. He watched, frozen to the spot, as she reached across him to pick up the photos. The laughter left her face as though it had never been there. Quickly he reached to snatch them from her grip but she pulled back, her eyes never leaving the pictures.

She stood up shakily, horror and disbelief etched across her every feature. "What are these?" she asked her voice barely more than a hoarse whisper.

"Nothing," he replied, trying in vain to repair the damage he hadn't wanted to inflict. "It's just a sick joke, that's all." But he was snatching at straws and she knew it.

His heart sunk as she looked up at him. "Is," she gulped, "is this what you were going to tell me?"

A horrible pain began to eat at his heart as he realised there was no backing out now. "It was," he said quietly and watched as his words took affect.

Her eyes filled with tears but she would not let them fall. She wiped them away roughly and stared back at the photos. Slowly she let them fall to the floor. He heard the gentle 'thwap' as they hit the ground. She looked back up to him, her eyes dry, her mouth a hard line across her face ... a mere hollow of her former self.

He had expected her to cry. To scream, to rage. He had expected her to be distraught, upset and angry. But he hadn't expected this. This nothingness. This despair. At that moment Draco knew, however much he wanted to deny it, that Ginny really had loved Harry with all her heart and all her soul. And he had just destroyed that. It was the worst feeling of his life.

She pushed past him and run out of the room letting it swing shut behind her. She was gone and Draco was alone. Except for the guilt.