Disclaimer: dropped rose, a reviewer, told me I stole from Miss Congeniality, a movie featuring Sandra Bullock (as I found out). I quickly ran towards the nearest video store, rented the DVD, and was shocked to see that, Ginny�s line �If everyone sees what I see in you�then they�re going to love you,� is in fact, said in the movie! I laughed my head off at that. So basically, I apologize for the evident plagiarism, hope you understand. All of this is J.K. Rowling�s and if any of my quotes are stolen, feel free to flame me, thank you.
Chapter Eleven: In Love
It was late at night, and Ginny Weasley was to be found, staring at the lake, her fiery red hair billowing behind her. Her arms were wrapped around her as she tried to warm herself against the cold December wind. She wondered when the snow will start pouring. She always loved the snow, especially the holidays when they stayed at the Hogwarts castle.
Footsteps scrunched the autumn leaves behind her. She turned around and saw Colin running towards her, with a look of concern written on his face.
�What did you call me here for, Gin?� he asked when he caught up with her, his breath coming out in little white fogs, �Something the matter?�
�Yes,� she answered hastily, her eyes reflecting panic and confusion, �I don�t think I like Harry Potter anymore.�
�What?� Colin bellowed, his heart pounding out his chest, �Are you okay? Are you sick?� He then reached out a brotherly hand to her forehead to check her temperature.
�Well? Am I sick or not?� asked Ginny after Colin felt her forehead.
�No, your temperature�s just fine,� Colin answered, his eyebrows furrowing in puzzlement, �it�s as normal as mine. About this Harry thing, Gin, how are you sure that you don�t like him anymore?�
�For one thing, when I closed my eyes a while ago before I called you in panic,� Ginny explained as she wringed her hands in dread, �I didn�t see Harry�s face. You know I always see him when I close my eyes. You know I automatically dream of him as soon as my head hit my pillow. You know��
�Yes, yes I know,� Colin interrupted, �I know that you kiss the photo I gave you for your birthday goodnight just before you fall asleep.�
�Yes, that�s one more thing,� she cried out, �I didn�t kiss his picture�and that�s saying something because I never, ever, in my life forget Harry Potter.�
�When did this start?� asked Colin out of concern.
�Just tonight,� she said, pacing back and forth in front of Colin, �and do you remember when Harry held me this afternoon, right after the Slytherin�s Quidditch match?�
�Yes.�
�If I was in love with Harry Potter, what was supposed to happen after an hour of that momentary interaction between the two of us?�
�You�re supposed to hiccup,� he answered certainly; �you know that you love a person because you hiccup after the hour he touched you or merely talked to you. You know this because every hour after Harry spoke to you, you have a terrible case of hiccups that can last throughout the day, depending on the length of the conversation you just had with him. Judging by how close Harry was this afternoon, heck, he was practically hugging you from behind, you�re still supposed to hiccup right at this moment.�
�Exactly!� Ginny cried out, �And am I hiccupping right now? No, sir, I�m totally fine. I�m not jumping in surprise, I�m not searching for water, and I�m not hiccupping for Merlin�s sake!�
�Maybe you�re just, you know, not feeling yourself,� Colin advised, patting his best friend on the back gently, �or maybe you�re interested to someone else. You said you didn�t see Harry when you closed your eyes.�
�Yes,� Ginny mumbled quietly.
�Who did you see?�
It took Ginny a minute before she answered.
�Draco Malfoy.�
*.*
Ginny woke up and stretched. She just had a nice long talk with Colin, late last night, and he had convinced her that talking to a naked Malfoy yesterday might have affected her mentally since it�s what any normal teenager experience. She was pretty sure Hermione felt the same way every summer, each time Ron announces he�s going to take a shower. Surely Hermione had a difficult time trying to focus her attention on something else rather than Ron in the shower.
Ginny put on her robes and decided to go to the Slytherin�s broom shed in order to do her work properly once more. She didn�t want Hermione wasting her time cleaning it for her, when she can finish her unfinished assignments in the wee hours of the morning.
She was whistling a cheerful tune when she got out of the Portrait of the Fat Lady (�Why, good morning little Miss Weasley. Off to another prank, are you?�) when she bumped into a particular flash of silver hair.
�Ouch,� Ginny murmured, shielding her eyes in exaggeration, �the sight of your extremely shiny hair early in the morning is the perfect way to ruin my eyes, Malfoy.�
�Thank you, Weasley,� he replied, rolling his eyes.
�What are you doing here anyway? Aren�t you supposed to be cooped up in your bed and taking your time doing your beauty sleep?�
�Stop insulting my physical appearance for once, Weasley, will you?� Malfoy snapped angrily, �You have the nerve to insult my face when you won�t have any face at all once the gorilla wants his ass back.�
�Good morning, Malfoy,� Ginny greeted, glad that the old insulting Malfoy was back.
�And good morning to you too,� he responded immediately, �and don�t you dare change the subject when I was winning.�
�So, what are you doing here?� she asked as she began to walk beside him, �Did you come here to pleasantly remind me to clean the shed without any magic so you can sit behind me and insult me all day long?�
�You�ve changed,� Malfoy suddenly commented.
�What do you mean?� Ginny asked, baffled.
�For one thing, when I first met you, you were very inarticulate.�
�When you first met me, I told you off.�
�Oh right, do me a favour and remind me of that one,� Malfoy snorted, running a hand through his silvery blonde hair, �I think you�re confusing real life with the imaginary voices in your head, Weasley.�
�We were in Flourish and Blotts, and you were jealous of Harry because he had his photo taken with Lockhart.�
�Now I remember,� Malfoy smirked, �you were that red-headed git who wouldn�t leave Potter alone for a second, not that you�ve somehow evolved from that.�
�You were wearing a black shirt,� Ginny said softly, remembering suddenly Malfoy�s whole appearance, five years ago, �and you were wearing black pants. You came down the stairs of Flourish and Blotts with that smirk I hated so much.�
�You were wearing a pink cotton blouse,� said Malfoy, putting out a hand in front of her to stop her from pushing the doors to the Quidditch field open, �and the sides of your hair were braided. You walked from behind Harry and stood beside him as you told me with an equally menacing glare, �Leave him alone! He didn�t want all that!��
�How come you remember?� asked Ginny, her eyes sparkling and her cheeks beginning to become a lovely shade of pink. How could Malfoy remember every detail that happened five years ago? Did he play that scene over and over again in his mind, every night before he falls asleep?
Malfoy leaned closer to her, until she can almost smell his fresh morning breath. His hair smelled of the various hair products Percy used whenever his girlfriend, Penelope, would visit him during the holidays. His perfume smelled of the scent of�well�she didn�t know how to describe it, but he definitely didn�t smell like Snape. Why was he bending down? Was he going to kiss her? Right in front of the main entrance? What if somebody sees them and goes berserk? Someone like, Peeves, for an instance. He could be banging in everyone�s rooms, waking them up, shouting to the whole world that a Malfoy and a Weasley were kissing. What would her mum think? Or more importantly, what would Malfoy�s dad think?
But then she thought what the hell.
So she stood there, rooted to the spot, watching Malfoy�s lips dawn on hers, her eyes involuntarily closing as his breath tickled the top of her nose. She didn�t know what was taking Malfoy so long, before she realized that Malfoy had stopped in mid-air, a millimetre away from her lips. She opened her eyes slowly and saw Malfoy�s grey eyes boring on hers, staring at her as if it was the only thing in the world worth doing. And she stared back at him, because she knew, deep in her hearts of hearts, that this is the only thing in the world worth doing.
�I remember because�� he whispered softly, his soft breath tickling Ginny�s cheek.
�You remember because?� she asked, her voice trembling, making her realize that she was absolutely shaking from head to foot.
Malfoy smirked and straightened up, leaving Ginny in a nervous wreck.
�I remember because I have your diary, remember?�
And with that, he opened the doors and disappeared behind it, as Ginny whispered �Jerk,� under her breath.
*.*
As Ginny went out of the castle, following Malfoy, she was met with the sight of the huge spread of white and sparkling snow, all over the field. She stepped into the fresh snow and felt her foot sink softly into the wet mound. Lucky she was wearing thick robes and her scarf in handy, or else she�d be freezing to death. She saw Malfoy steadily walking in front of her, his striped green and white scarf billowing in the wind. She looked at her own and saw that hers was striped yellow and red.
He�s a Slytherin, she reminded herself.
She then plopped down on the snow with a soft �thud� and began to wave her arms and legs as if in flying motion. Out in the corner of her eye, she saw Malfoy stop dead in his tracks and eyed her from a good distance away.
�This is not the best time to make a snow angel, Weasley,� he called out, annoyed.
�Try it, it�s wonderful!� she cried out, motioning for him to come over. Malfoy simply gave her one of his famous smirks and continued walking towards the shed.
The first thing I�m going to do when I�m elected as the president of the Ministry, Ginny thought smugly as she went on with her snow angel, is to decapitate all those who smirks that way�and send off blonde boys to be kissed by Dementors whenever they make a certain red head believe that they�re going to kiss them.
Ginny went on with imagining ten different ways to cut off Malfoy�s head a few more minutes and stopped abruptly when she saw Malfoy (with his head perfectly set atop his shoulders) throw an enormous silver platter in front of her.
�I swear to Merlin, Malfoy!� she screamed angrily, covering her head with her hands, �If that platter went to my head, I�d be dead by now! What were you trying to do, throwing that humungous kitchen plate towards me, honestly! What were you thinking?�
�Instead of lying down there and freezing your ass to death,� explained Malfoy, walking towards the platter, which was perfectly situated just before the ground went downwards towards the Forbidden Forest, �why don�t you sit in this plate and slide down the hill with me?�
�Slide down the hill?� she asked, standing up and walking towards him, �What do you mean?�
He then grabbed her hand and forced her to sit in the platter, while he sat behind her, his arms hugging her waist.
�This is what Crabbe and Goyle played with in our second year.�
�Yes, you told me,� Ginny responded, remembering Malfoy telling her a few days ago about the roast mammoth in their first year and Crabbe and Goyle stealing the silver platter from the table. How they went inside the common room without getting caught by a teacher while holding a plate bigger than both of them, she didn�t know, all she knew was that Malfoy was behind her, hugging her tightly from behind, even more tightly than Harry held her yesterday.
�Ready?� he asked.
�Yes,� she answered.
With a slight kick, Malfoy sent them downhill, Ginny leaning back to Malfoy�s shoulders as she screamed in delight, her red hair mixing with his silver ones. Her hands flew to Malfoy�s arms as she steadied herself from falling. Malfoy�s laughter was combining perfectly with Ginny�s loud giggles and screams. When they stopped unexpectedly, Ginny found herself facing the snow, with Malfoy on top of her. She slowly lifted her face from the cold ground and found out that Malfoy�s legs were intertwined with hers.
�Malfoy, ouch�your leg��
�I�m trying��
�Ouch�ouch�hey, watch that hand!�
�I didn�t mean to touch that��
�You just touched it again.�
�Well, you�re hand is right on top of my��
�No, it�s not!�
��and am I complaining?�
�Eeew, is that what it is?? Why didn�t you say anything then?�
�I didn�t want to embarrass you and besides��
�Malfoy, will you please watch that hand??!!�
It took them a few minutes before they were properly detached from each other. They walked up the hill together, both breathing hard and both red in the cheeks.
�Fancy another ride?� Malfoy asked.
�I think we better start�hic!� Ginny stopped in mid-sentence, her eyes wide open.
No, that can�t be, she thought silently, you must be imagin�
�Hic!� Ginny hiccupped.
�You�re hiccupping,� Malfoy said.
�I�m aware of�hic!�that!� she bellowed.
�You better get water in the Great Hall, besides, it�s almost time for breakfast anyway. We�d better go there together,� he suggested, walking beside her and throwing the platter towards the shed.
All this time, Ginny was in a nervous wreck.
She was hiccupping.
And it didn�t even take an hour before she did!
Maybe it was because Malfoy almost kissed her and hugged her from behind. Or maybe it was because of the fact that she knew what she was wearing, what her hairstyle was, and what she said the first time she met Malfoy wasn�t written in the diary Malfoy had.
It was written in Tom Riddle�s.
She gave a loud hiccup when she realized that Malfoy didn�t read her diary at all.
Not a page of it.
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