To love or not to love, that is the question

To love or not to love, that is the question

Chapter 6: Encounters with Gryffindors

***

Draco was startled from his sleep by a grumbling noise. Highly irritated at being disturbed, he wanted to tell off Crabbe or Goyle for their supposed snoring and drew his bed-curtains aside sharply. Only then he realized that it hadn´t been them who had torn him unpleasantly out of his sleep. He heard the rumbling again and understood, not without embarrassment, that it came from his stomach. Apparently, he hadn´t eaten enough at dinner and now his body was protesting. Draco belonged to those people who simply needed to eat great amounts of food because they were almost constantly hungry. Fortunately, it didn´t show itself on his build for which he was eternally grateful.

Draco had found out where the kitchens were in his first year or rather, he had forced Marcus Flint to show him. Now, he slipped quietly into his robes and made his way to the kitchens, cautiously avoiding making possible noise in the corridors and not lighting his wand in order to not draw attention to himself.

Mistake.

Knowing the way to the painting with the fruit bowl by heart, Draco was fairly sure that the next one would be it. Impatient as he now was, he quickened his pace and nearly collided with a person that had come from the opposite end of the corridor, obviously having the same goal and refraining from lighting their wand as well. The person - it was a girl - made a startled noise and scrambled for her wand. A moment later, the space around her and Draco was lit.

Draco eyed the girl with interest. He had the vague impression that he had already seen her - which of course wasn´t a big deal since she was obviously a Hogwarts student, too. With her honey-coloured hair and blue eyes, she was quite pretty and that prevented Draco from being indignant about her having nearly run into him. He flashed a grin.

"Well, hello there. You look familiar. Haven´t I already seen your face somewhere else?"

Regina Castiglione regarded him with her best imitation of Doria´s regal haughtiness.

"Hardly," she replied with light sarcasm. "I always wear it up there."

She expected Malfoy to make an unpleasant retort, but instead, he nodded approvingly.

"Nice comeback, that one," he remarked mildly and gave her a thoughtful glance.

Who was that girl? There were no signs that could tell him which House she belonged to. Probably Ravenclaw, he decided. They were clever enough to match the Slytherins on sarcasm.

"What´s your name?" Draco asked curiously and a moment later, he wished he hadn´t.

"Regina Castiglione," the girl replied wryly as she saw his interest turning to antipathy.

She had volunteered to get some food when her friends had announced their horrible hunger and now she cursed herself for having been so compliant. Malfoy would certainly want to get her in trouble.

Reggie was right. An unpleasant grin began to creep over Draco´s face. So that was one of Weasley´s friends. Interesting.

"I wonder," he drawled, leaning casually against the wall, "what a saintly little Gryffindor is doing here at this time of the night."

Don´t back down, Castiglione, Reggie told herself and faced Malfoy with what should be an unruffled exterior.

"Same thing a slimy git like you is doing," she answered, crossing her arms in front of her.

Draco´s gaze hardened. "Don´t get too cheeky on me, you worthless bit of nothing. I can easily think of a believable excuse to be here and report you to Professor Snape. He certainly won´t be very enthusiastic about being woken up at such an hour and I´m sure that will only serve to enhance your punishment further."

He had to give her credit for not even flinching. Must be the famous Gryffindor bravery, he thought.

Regina played her ace. "In case you´ve forgotten, Malfoy, my brother is a Prefect, and in quite a good position where Snape´s concerned. Plus, he doesn´t like you. When I tell him what you have been here for and he talks to Snape, then you will be in trouble, too," she pointed out.

"And you´re sure your big brother won´t take points from Gryffindor for you being out of bounds in the first place?" Draco said superiorly.

Reggie wasn´t sure at all. "Absolutely."

Draco frowned slightly. He doubted that Castiglione would achieve much by talking to Snape. But he didn´t want to get totally on his wrong side by causing his sister trouble. Giancarlo tended to be rather overprotective and his influence in Slytherin House wasn´t small.

Having this in mind, Draco tried a proposal. "Now listen, let´s not overreact, right? We do our business in the kitchen, I won´t tell on you to Snape and you won´t mention it to your brother. We´ve never met and I don´t know you. Okay?"

Regina seized the opportunity to slip out of this tricky situation unscathed. "Alright."

They got their food as Draco had suggested and then headed out. Regina was just turning away to rush into Gryffindor Tower when suddenly Draco´s voice stopped her.

"Hey," he called out quietly. " I want you to deliver a message to your freckled little Weasley friend. Tell her she´d better watch her back."

"I will not deliver any message to Ginny. If you consider it so important, then tell her yourself," Reggie snapped and fled.

Not having expected anything else, Draco merely shrugged and headed back for the Slytherin common room where he spent an unusually nice night with various cakes and other sweets.

***

The next day, the first one after the holidays when they had classes, passed quite uneventfully. Almost.

Draco slept through History of Magic because he was tired from his nightly expedition and the following private one-man-feast. He spent the following lesson, Divination, bored out of his skull because they were `fooling around with tarot cards´, as Blaise had termed it and it took Draco a great deal of self-control not to hurl his deck of cards into Trelawney´s face and disappear. Finally, lunch came and Draco ate it quickly without even doing so much as to glance at the Gryffindor table. He was proud of himself for succeeding in it. No point in giving Weasley and co. the impression that they were being constantly watched, after all.

Ginny, on the other hand, kept throwing swift glances at the Slytherin table during the whole lunch and felt an odd stab of disappointment as Draco ignored her completely. Okay, she didn´t miss his usual smirk, but he was kind of cute when he winked at her the way he had done on the first day in school...

"Stop it!" Ginny told herself sternly. "You are not supposed to harbour any positive feelings for him. He´s a Malfoy. Not worthy of any emotion whatsoever. Indifference is your battle cry."

Still, she couldn´t push away the thought of how he might look when he was actually smiling.

After his afternoon lesson, which had been double Potions, Draco resolved to go to the library. Under the pretence of wanting to study for his O.W.L.s, he had claimed a permission to access the Restricted Section by Prof. Binns. The literature Draco wanted to read was kind of connected to Binns´ subject, anyway. He wanted to seek inspiration in `The Complete and Uncensored History of Magical Warfare´.

Draco was in that special sort of good mood which he usually tended to display after Potions and he could barely prevent himself from whistling merrily, which was actually quite out of character of him. He had never been the musical type.

His eyes lightened up as he saw a certain red-headed girl exiting the library and he grinned mischievously, abandoning all his war-plans as an unexpected idea struck him.

Let´s go and surprise Weasley, he thought and started towards her, charming a pleasant smile on his face which he knew would unsettle her.

Ginny, who had gone to the library to read some novels after a particularly difficult and frustrating Defence against the Dark Arts lesson, was just about to go down to dinner when she spotted Draco approaching her with a smile on his face. This rocked her for an instant. Draco Malfoy, smiling at her, and especially after what she had thought at lunch...

Ginny tried not to blush and, surprisingly enough, succeeded. This gave her some self-confidence and she attempted to brush past the blond boy, ignoring him completely. However, his voice made her stop dead in her tracks just at an arm-length away from him.

"Hi, Ginny," he said in a tone that couldn´t be termed other than friendly and - oh wonder! - he flashed another of those smiles.

Ginny restrained herself with great effort from letting her jaw drop. Instead, she looked at him with wide eyes, obviously startled.

"Wh-what did you just call me, Malfoy?" she asked tensely and gripped the books she was holding more tightly, as if to defend herself.

Draco made a small, calming motion with his hand, not bothering to hide his amusement. He was actually enjoying this. Very much. Whether or not it was right.

"I called you Ginny. Your name," he replied patiently, as if talking to a two-year old.

Ginny´s eyes hardened at his tone.

"My name is Virginia," she responded coldly. "Only people I like may call me Ginny. And you are certainly not among those."

Draco managed to look vaguely injured. "Lady, you wound me."

Giving her a reproachful glance, he tried to look pitiful at the same time. The effort was wasted. Instead of pity, Ginny felt a grin tugging at the corners of her lips. Malfoy´s expression couldn´t have looked more out of place. But no, she wouldn´t give him the satisfaction of making her laugh.

"Oh, I wounded Ice Prince?" she said, feigning regret and becoming sarcastic all of a sudden. "Now there´s an achievement to be proud of."

Spreading his arms theatrically, Draco raised his eyes to the ceiling and asked a purely rhetoric question. "Just why do you hate me so much?"

"I don´t," Ginny replied serenely.

Draco dropped his arms and his jaw, perplexed. "You don´t?"

"No. You´re not worth it," Ginny said, shaking her head.

She didn´t like Malfoy, but she considered a strong emotion like hate completely wasted on somebody like him. Her hatred wouldn´t hurt him anyway, so why bother?

She continued, now sounding somewhat curious, "And since we´re on this topic... why do you hate me so much?"

Draco was silent. That was a good question. Why, indeed? Two months ago, he would have been able to answer it straight away. Now, however...

He bit his lower lip, wondering what to say. Did he hate her? Sometimes, yes. Some other times... not really. Not at all, in fact.

Quit that! He scolded himself. You are not thinking clearly. This is a Weasley, a poor, Muggle-loving fool without dignity. What would Father say if he knew about your behaviour?

His parents. Maybe that was it.

"Because I was brought up to do so," he finally muttered, not looking at her.

"You what?" Ginny had expected everything but this.

Draco shot her a defiant glare. "Don´t tell me you haven´t been raised the same way. To despise my family, I mean."

Ginny wanted to answer indignantly that she hadn´t been brought up to dislike anyone, but then she had to admit that he did have a point.

"I suppose you are right," she said quietly in response.

At that moment, Draco raised his head and looked at her, really looked at her for the first time she could remember, and he didn´t smirk nor scowl nor show any other unpleasant feelings. He just gazed at her with those pale eyes of his, face unreadable. Slowly, he opened his mouth as if to say something, but then he seemed to decide otherwise and closed it again, shaking his head slightly.

Ginny arched one eyebrow questioningly. "What?"

"Nothing," he muttered, waving a dismissive hand. "You wouldn´t understand, anyway."

"Try me, why don´t you?" she suggested impulsively and immediately regretted having said that for Draco´s eyes got the same glint they had had at the end of their Diagon Alley encounter.

"Actually, that´s not a bad idea," he drawled, misinterpreting her on purpose, of course.

Ginny drew back in disgust. "Cut it out, Malfoy. I´d rather kiss a Blast-Ended Skrewt than let you anywhere near me."

He snorted. "Right. I´ll give you 20 Galleons if you kiss one of those things."

Ginny looked at him thoughtfully and then grinned as mischievously as he had done before having greeted her. "Deal."

She could see that it rocked it.

"What?" he demanded, suspecting that she was mocking him.

"I said `Deal.´. If you give me 20 Galleons, I´ll do it," she repeated, laughing silently at his dumb-founded expression.

Draco found once again that he didn´t understand girls at all. He was so confused that he didn´t even remember to be scornful because she was willing to kiss a Blast-Ended Skrewt for money.

Ginny grinned again. "20 Galleons are twenty Galleons and I´m thinking of buying myself an owl, so I could use them. Now, are you in or not?"

Draco contemplated the idea for a moment. The money wasn´t a problem. And watching her actually kissing a Blast-Ended Skrewt might be fun, which the other Slytherins would certainly appreciate as well.

"Deal," he announced levelly.

"Good. But I´m warning you, Malfoy," Ginny´s voice became threatening. "If you don´t pay me that money afterwards, then I shall spread some not-so-flattering rumours in school about your most precious possession." She smirked.

About my most precious...?

"Oh!" Draco´s eyes widened as it dawned on him. Then he grinned despite himself.

"That´s evil," he told her, not without some admiration in his voice.

"I know. I had a good teacher, after all," she replied pointedly. "Even though he didn´t know about it himself."

Draco pulled a face. "I am honoured."

"As well as you should be. I usually don´t copy anyone," Ginny shot back and brushed past him, heading for the Great Hall, only to pause shortly before a turn to shout over her shoulder,

"Getting hold of a Blast-Ended Skrewt is your business, by the way!"

Draco frowned. "And how exactly am I supposed to do that?" he called, but Ginny didn´t answer.

She kept walking and the last thing he saw before she took the turn were her shoulders shaking with silent laughter. Draco´s frown deepened. So this damned Weasley girl thought she could make fun of him like that?

"Just you wait, Weasley," he murmured with positive anticipation mingled with vengefulness. "I´ll get you such a Blast-Ended Skrewt that will set you on fire. Well, your head already is, so it won´t have so much work to do. Lucky beast."

He made his way back to the dungeon, contemplating ways of how to get such a creature, completely forgetting the library with `The Complete and Uncensored History of Magical Warfare´.

***

Having been rendered in a good mood by the encounter with Malfoy, Ginny arrived in the Great Hall. It was dinner time, but still very early, which explained the fact that there were only a few people sitting at the tables eating.

Ginny´s eyes lightened up at the sight of a certain messy-haired head at the Gryffindor table. Quite uncharacteristically, Harry wasn´t flanked by Ron and Hermione this time and Ginny, feeling lingering after-effects of the self-confidence boost still on her, seized the opportunity and slid into a chair at Harry´s side.

"Hi, Harry," she said cheerfully. "Where are Ron and Hermione?"

He turned his face to her and grinned. "I´m not quite sure. Probably off snogging in some broom closet."

Ginny almost fell off her chair. But then she realized that Harry was joking because he chuckled at her flabbergasted expression.

"Just kidding. You know that Ron has set himself the task of teaching Hermione how to play chess properly, right? Well, they were so enthralled in this game up in the common room that they apparently forgot to be hungry. And I didn´t want to intrude," he said, winking meaningfully.

"But Hermione hates chess. She said it was the most boring game in the world," Ginny murmured, shaking her head.

"Well, I guess she´s rethought her opinion on that topic," Harry replied, waving his fork airily. To Ginny, he seemed to be in a very good mood.

"You like the idea of those two together," she said. It was a statement, not a question.

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, why not? Maybe they will eventually stop their eternal bickering when they´re dating. And by the way, it´s very funny to watch them how they try to sneak glances at each other without letting the other notice."

His eyes gleamed mischievously. "I was tempted to write two love letters and put them on their respective pillows, but then I thought, nah, they are old enough to go through this phase by themselves."

"How very considerate of you," Ginny laughed. "But I´ll bet you only refrained from it because you suck at writing love-letters."

Harry feigned guiltiness. "Uh-oh, you caught me."

She rolled her eyes, grinning. "Well, if you want some advice - next time you plan something like this - look into `Teen Witch Weekly´. There is a column on how to write love-letters."

He raised his eyebrows teasingly. "Reeally? Well, one learns something new every day," he commented and then added, changing the topic, "You seem awfully cheerful, Gin. What´s going on?"

You mean other than me sending Malfoy a dungbomb, humiliating him in front of the whole school and then having a little heart-to-heart with him on why he hates me so much which resulted in me promising to kiss a Blast-Ended Skrewt for money? Ginny thought dryly.

"Nothing in particular," she told Harry nonchalantly. "I´m just feeling positive today."

Harry stretched himself. "Good for you. Because I am feeling tired," he remarked, yawning. "Your darling brother has kept me awake the whole night because he wanted me to judge whether his haircut looked good on him and if he wasn´t too scrawny. Honestly. He is asking me this?" Harry said, shaking his head and then turning a slightly worried look to Ginny. "He must have really fallen in love."

"Um, it certainly seems so," she replied and shook her head as well. "Ron and Hermione? I´ve always rather thought that you and her..." She trailed off, becoming hesitant.

But Harry really didn´t seem troubled by the thought of his two best friend being in love with each other. Quite the contrary.

He grinned again as he answered, "No, I think Hermione wouldn´t want a boyfriend who´s smaller than her. And I don´t go for brunettes anymore. Prefer lighter hair."

"Ah. Well, then you´re lucky. Malfoy´s still single, for example," Ginny supplied helpfully and burst into peals of laughter at Harry´s horrified expression.

"Now you are scaring me," he said, eyeing her mock-suspiciously and pushing his chair away from hers.

But Ginny was warming to the subject. "Oh, c´mon, Harry. You´ve got to give him a chance, at least. I mean, imagine him without this slimy substance in his hair and a bit more civil behaviour. He would be really attractive, now wouldn´t he? You know, silver hair and stormy grey eyes, that sort of stuff?"

Harry gave her a most peculiar look.

"Well," he said dubiously. " Despite your fascinatingly enthusiastic speech, I´m still not falling for Malfoy. But I´m starting to think that you are."

This shut Ginny up.