Musings of a Red Head

It all began in a certain witchcraft and wizarding school I attended as a child. Scratch that, more like it all began on a certain 24th of October at said Witchcraft and wizarding school. I could even tell you the exact time of day that it began, if you really wanted to know. In these circumstances though, it seems irrelevant, the main point is that it began.

Being the only girl, other than my mother, in a houseful of men, who were very much like boys in most respects, isn't as horrible as it may seem. Sure, you hear the odd explosion from upstairs every once in a while and there's always at least one brother on your case about something, but you get used to it. I suppose I even got to a point where I couldn't imagine living any other way. So really, if your friends were constantly feeling sorry for you because you have to go home to such a hectic and crazy place, wouldn't you get a little pissed off having to repeat: "It's not as bad as it seems," more than ten times over?

They really shouldn't have been surprised when I simply got up and left them once they began another conversation about how sorry they were for me, having such horrid brothers and all. It really seemed to be a popular topic lately. Who knows, half of them were probably in love with Ron. Who better to squeeze information out of than his own sister?

It was a Friday night and my sixth year Gryffindor girls' dorm was having our ritual Friday slumber party. These late night parties had begun in our second year, I'm not sure if the others had started in the first, but I really wasn't prepared to ask and get nervous looks from the other girls. They all knew about what happened to me in my first year and by now they knew not to talk about it openly. And that was fine; I'd rather not bring back the memories anyway.

I wasn't being quite myself that night. Usually I would have laughed off the topic of my brothers and changed the subject, but thanks to a certain silver haired Malfoy, my spirits had already been dampened that day and I was a bit on edge.

After lunch, when I had been heading to double Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs, Hermione surprisingly stopped me in the hall. She and I had always been on friendly terms, we weren't the best of friends, but it's not as if I hated her or anything. I suppose I still held on to that jealousy I had for her in my first few years at Hogwarts. Even though I was completely over Harry now, I couldn't seem to get rid of that bitterness I had felt towards Hermione. She had always been so close to Harry. I kind of blocked her out I suppose.

So it's pretty reasonable to say that I was surprised when she stopped me in the hall, her eyes looking pleading. What could Hermione have to say to me? I hadn't talked to her in two or three days, and we never said anything of much importance. I suppose, looking back now, it had seemed as if she wanted to tell me something for some time, but couldn't quite spit it out. I hadn't thought of that then, or it might have saved me a bit of time.

"Ginny," She called to me, running against the traffic and grabbing onto my shoulder for support as she caught her breath. Hermione and I were both about average height, although Hermione was a bit thinner than I was. "Ginny, I've been meaning to ask you about something." She stated, letting go of my shoulder and turning to walk in the same direction I was.

"Okay," I said, and I have to admit I was very confused.

"It's about Ron," Hermione said, I noticed that her cheeks did turn a bit pink when she said this. I smiled; it was about time Hermione noticed Ron. It must have been at least two years since he began sending longing looks her way. "He -, I think he likes me, Ginny." Hermione continued in a sort of quiet, embarrassed tone, I wondered why she was telling me this; I mean she had other closer friends to confide in, didn't she? I decided against bringing this topic up, who knows, maybe she didn't.

"Really," I replied, with a hint of sarcasm. Hermione picked it up and nudged me in the arm. I stopped walking now and turned towards her, smiling. "Well it's about time you noticed, Hermione Granger." Her mouth formed a small “o” shape but no sound came out. She quickly closed it and then turned again and continued walking. I followed.

"So, what do I do about it?" Hermione asked quietly. I really didn't have any experience in this field; so far in my life I had been too busy for relationships of any kind. It wasn't as if I didn't want a boyfriend, it was just the opportunity hadn't presented itself yet. So it was kind of awkward for me to be giving advice to Hermione, especially when the person in question was my brother, but I did my best.

"Why don't you tell him how you feel?" I suggested. I knew this was a lot easier said than done, but it was a start. I looked over at Hermione; she looked uncomfortable. "Well, I guess, first of all how do you feel?"

This made her look even more uncomfortable.

"That's just it, Ginny. I don't know how I feel. I mean I never thought of him as - you know and now that I know, well it makes me look at him differently. You know what I mean? And just now, I don't know what to think." Hermione looked even more confused now and I was shocked.

Hearing the words 'I don't know' coming from Hermione was something I'd never experienced before. It was the kind of thing Draco Malfoy would've paid to hear her say. I could see him now, putting on that evil smirk and making a show of her, 'SIX SICKLES to hear HERMIONE GRANGER say, "I DON’T KNOW." And the sad part was, that people would pay, making a big joke about it.

I didn't know what to say to that, so we walked in silence for a bit, both wandering off into our own thoughts. Then Hermione suddenly stopped and turned around.

"I should go or I'll be late for Herbology. Thanks for the help," she told me and ran down the corridor in the opposite direction. I tried to call after her, but she had already disappeared.

When I turned around I realized that I must've taken a wrong turn somewhere, because I didn't recognize the place. It was dark and there didn't appear to be any windows nearby, or classrooms for that matter. So I tried doubling back my footsteps for a little while, but after about five minutes I still didn't recognize the area. I was beginning to get a bit nervous, not because I was lost, but because of the prospect of showing up for Transfiguration late. McGonagoll was never lenient towards any of her students, and I really didn't want to have to go through detention with her again.

"Where are you going?" I heard a voice ask and somebody came out of the shadows just ahead of me. I studied the profile; tall, broad shoulders, and messy, silvery hair. It was Malfoy. He came closer to me and I could see his cold, gray eyes staring into my hazel ones. I shivered beneath them, but did not cower; he smirked then and walked a bit closer, as if to threaten me.

Composing myself, I lifted my head and narrowed my eyes, still looking up into his.

"Where I came from," I told him and made to move past.

He grabbed my wrist as I came nearer and bent down near to my ear. I could feel his hot breath on my skin as he whispered, "Are they the same place?"

And then he was gone, walking past me and out of sight into the shadows. For some reason, I was unable to move for a couple of seconds. What was that? I asked myself. Another run-in with Malfoy, I suppose. But this time it was different, usually he would just stop me in the corridors and make some nasty comment about my family, I would either yell at him or walk away. He had never done this before. It was as if he was trying to tell me something, like he knew something that I didn't.

Malfoy's question kept me thinking for the rest of the day and was what kept me unnerved. By the time the girls in my dorm began the slumber party, around ten o'clock at night, I was beginning to become annoyed. I mean seriously, what kind of insane person goes around talking in riddles? I began to think that maybe it was just me overreacting, and really all he was trying to do was direct me out of the corridor. But for some reason I knew that was not true and there really was no point in fooling myself.

So when the girls began talking of family again and seemed to come back to the topic of mine, the only thing I could do, to get away from the noise, was to leave.

I ignored the girls' protests as I wandered down the dormitory stairs into the common room. It was around half past eleven at night by that time and the room was empty. Being the 24th of October, the stone stairs were cold on my slippered feet, but I didn't notice, save for the goose bumps on my skin.

After sitting in front of the fireplace for a little while, I decided that I really needed to get out of there to clear my mind. Hopefully by tomorrow I would have no lingering thoughts on Malfoy. Getting up quickly, I went out the portrait door, not knowing exactly where I was going.

It was colder out in the corridor and I wrapped my arms around my breast. My slippers and pajamas made me feel a bit too exposed for my liking. Maybe Mom had been right when she told me my nightshirt was too short. It would have to do for now though, I didn’t want to go back upstairs to change and have to face those girls.

From then on I just walked and I guess it must have been doing me good, because I didn't think about Malfoy once. To tell the truth though, I wasn't really thinking about anything while I was out. I suppose it was just the freedom of being away from everyone else. Free from all the confines and rules of the dormitories, and also free from those curious girls who I didn't have the heart to call my friends at the time.

I had been walking for a while before I started to realize how cold it really was. My legs were bare after all, and looking down at my hands,

I saw that the fingernails were beginning to look blue. I wasn't a small girl, not one of those meek little girls who couldn't hold her own against anything, but I wasn't overly large either and it was pretty cold.

Oddly enough, when I looked up, I realized that I was just near the prefect bathrooms. Not being a prefect myself though, I could not get in to warm up, so I had to do my best by sitting against the wall and feeling the warmth from the other side. I spent a long time sitting there and occasionally dozed off.

I was in one of my dazes when the wall disappearing from behind rudely awakened me. I had been in a sort of ball; all scrunched up to help keep myself warm. So I sort of rolled backwards and then straightened out. My memory is so vivid of this moment, that it still feels like it happened yesterday.

I can remember the feeling of my head gently falling onto what I had thought was a pillow at the time, but was really a pair of bare feet. I can remember opening my eyes slowly and then quickly realizing that I was not in bed, but lying on the floor of the prefects' bathroom, which was very steamy. I remember thinking someone had obviously had a bath recently, and then I can remember looking up.

The first thing I saw was a pair of legs clad in black, baggy pants. When I looked up farther, I saw the fringe of a pair of boxers. Which, when I looked closer, were black with flying pigs on them. I can remember finding this very amusing at the time. Then, I remember slowly looking farther up and noticing how well built this person's chest was. I recall my cheeks feeling hot and my eyes quickly looking farther up, only to realize that this body belonged to Malfoy.

I quickly stood up after this and faced, what apparently was, a half naked Draco Malfoy. I knew my cheeks were probably burning with embarrassment, but I chanced a glance at his face anyway. I caught his eyes raking up and down my body and I became violently aware of how little I was wearing. My whole face was probably a deep shade of red then.

His eyes met mine and, surprisingly enough, he did not look angry.

"You're cold," he said simply and then he came closer and handed me his cloak. Not thinking properly, I took the cloak and wrapped it around myself, instantly grateful for its warmth. It smelled nice, but I couldn't identify the scent.

"Thanks," I said, a bit louder than I intended to.

Malfoy lead me over to the side of the pool saying, "Your lips are blue. You should come and warm yourself up." His voice would have been called very sexy by many of my friends, but since I never seemed to notice those kinds of things, or maybe it was that I wasn't looking, either way though, I was completely oblivious to it.

I guess I was more preoccupied with being extremely nervous and wondering who this was and what they had done with the real Draco Malfoy. Eventually, my nervousness got the better of me and I began to laugh hysterically. Picking a target, I laughed at his boxers. I seem to have this strange way of always giggling or laughing when I'm in serious situations, and I always seem to come off looking very stupid.

So here I was, laughing like an idiot, in front of Draco Malfoy, who was now scowling at me as if I was a dirty dog having a seizure. I suppose this wasn't the reaction he had expected at all. Maybe he had been trying to seduce me. The thought of which quickly sobered me up. But I knew this was not true the instant I looked at him. His eyes were back to the way they had been before: cold and piercingly gray, there was no warmth left there.

"You’re warm now, then?" He asked me without a hint of concern.

"Yes," I nodded. "Thank you," I looked down in embarrassment again. I heard him get up and leave, taking his naked chest and pink pig boxers with him; and for the second time that day, leaving me in a state of shock. So many questions popped into my head at once, that I must've started giggling again, though my memory is fuzzier around this part.

I had never thought that Draco Malfoy was a very interesting and sexy guy, as I had heard many of the older girls in the school describing him. For some odd reason they saw a troubled and mysterious man, but whenever I looked at him all I saw was an evil smirk and a mind so corrupted by the Dark Arts that it was pointless to try and turn him back. My views of him were not changed after the incident on the 24th, even if I did begin to find him very attractive. I am not shallow though, and never went for a guy just on looks alone.

Whether I liked it or not though, Draco Malfoy would hold a place in my mind, however small and hidden, for a long time to come.

And so it began.