Allstar

"Harry!"

Harry bit his lip and walked faster.

"Harry! Harry, please wait!"

He hesitated, which turned out to be a mistake. Ginny ran up behind him and touched his shoulder. "Harry. Why didn't you wait for me?"

"I...er...that is..." He looked guiltily into her eyes. "Ginny," he pleaded with her, "Please. I thought you understood." She was standing with one hand on her hip. Harry knew he was in trouble.

"You want to hear what I understand, Harry? I understand that my boyfriend hardly ever talks to me. That he always goes off with his friends and won't even tell me what they're doing! I understand, Harry, that I'm not a priority in your life. Now why don't you understand this: I'm not going to put up with that. If I'm not that important to you, then there's no point to any of this, and I need to get on with my life."

Harry stared at his shoes. "You're right, Gin. I've been ignoring you...I'm sorry." He glanced up. "Look, I'll talk to Ron and Hermione, okay? Maybe you can come with us next time." He smiled at her hopefully. Ginny sighed.

"Really?" she asked quietly.

Harry smiled more confidently. "Really, Gin. I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it." Ginny smiled back and his heart lifted. "But...Ginny, I"m sorry, but I really have to go now."

Ginny nodded and stepped back. "I'll be in the Library when you get back." She hesitated, as if about to say more, and looked away. Suddenly, she reached up and kissed him on the cheek. Harry tried to catch her eye, to make her see how he felt, but she was gone. Sighing, he continued on his way.

* * *

Ginny fought the urge to look at Draco Malfoy. She was doing her Charms homework in the Library, where she had a perfect right to be, and she certainly wasn't going to let herself be disturbed by a git like Malfoy. In fact, she was going to ignore him completely. From this moment on, she wasn't even thinking about him. She was doing her Charms homework.

She glanced up. He was still watching her, damn him. Smiling scornfully and shaking his head as if she was some child who didn't even understand her own feelings. She glared at him and he actually laughed. She was going to kill him.

* * *

Draco smirked at the Weasley girl, highly enjoying himself. He knew that angering a Weasley, especially Ginny, was playing with fire, but he couldn't help himself. There was just something about watching her self-restraint erode that he found immensely entertaining.

He'd seen that she couldn't make herself ignore him and was using that knowledge to annoy her further. The look on her face when he'd laughed at her had been priceless. Deciding to see how far he could push his advantage, he got up and sauntered over to her.

"Having trouble with our homework, are we?" he drawled, looking over her shoulder. "Ah, Charms. Well that explains it."

She frowned at him. "Explains what?"

Draco allowed a smile to play about his lips. "Why you can't keep your eyes off me, of course. Fifth year Charms was deathly boring. It's only natural that you'd find me more interesting." Draco was pleased to see that he'd rendered her speechless. "Of course,considering the riffraff you have for a boyfriend, I suppose it doesn't take much to distract you. Tell me, does he pay your family for the privilege of dating you? I can't imagine why you would, otherwise." Ginny had remained very quiet through all that, and it suddenly occurred to Draco that this could be a bad sign. Perhaps he'd gone too far?

Sure enough, Ginny didn't stay quiet very long. Jumping to her feet, she faced Draco with such anger in her eyes that he could almost hear her hair crackling.

"Is that the only way you can get a date, Malfoy?" she hissed. "Are you incapable of imagining why two people might care for eachother? I don't suppose you get many examples at home. Well let me tell you something: Harry is a better person than you could ever hope to be. His life means so much more to everyone than yours, maybe you're jealous, I don't care. Why don't you just grow up and stop all this petty sniping at eachother?" Draco could see Madam Pince glaring in their direction.

"Uh, Weasley--"

"If you can't deal with the fact that you don't matter to anyone, that's your problem. I don't need you coming along and bothering me to improve your own twisted self-esteem--"

"Weasley, you're a little loud--"

"So you'd better leave me alone already, Malfoy. Just leave me alone, or I swear I'll tell my brothers you molested me." Draco frowned, alarmed. That was going a bit far.

Madam Pince was walking over to them now, looking very annoyed.

"Weasley--" But she still wasn't listening.

"Harry and I are perfectly happy and if you don't stop trying to come between us, I will personally see to it that you regret it for the rest of your life."

"Excuse me, young lady, but your behaviour is entirely inappropriate for a library."

Ginny's jaw dropped and she turned to glare at Draco. He shrugged. "I tried to warn you."

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave now, please." Madam Pince was implacable.

The redhead flushed. "I--I'm sorry, I didn't--"

The librarian shook her head. "You can come back when you feel you're capable of controlling your temper, Miss Weasley."

"But Malfoy..."

"Mr Malfoy has done nothing wrong, Miss Weasley. Now if you would please gather your belongings." Draco raised an eyebrow and smirked. Ginny opened her mouth, then seemed to think better of it and closed it again. Muttering to herself, she swept all her books into her bag and stalked out of the library.

Draco shook his head to himself. He really needed to stop doing that.