Recipient:
rubber_glue Title: Boyfriend material
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Ginny/Draco
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Blind dates don't usually work for Ginny, especially not when she knows who it is and doesn't like him.
Author's Notes: Thanks to
cefyr for beta! Written for
rubber_glue who bought this in
qldfloodauction I hope you like it!
She had realized she needed a boyfriend about three weeks into the pre-season. Not that she couldn’t manage on her own, she was a Quidditch star, and she was strong, so of course she could, but it just took so much time, fending off all the unwanted attention. Sure, it’s nice to be adored and all that, but when she’s been asked out five times just on the way home it gets too much. Catherine tells her that having a boyfriend and talking about him to the press makes all the difference in the world. Ginny is not sure about all the difference in the world, her brother is after all in a relationship with the boy who lived (and if that’s not enough Hermione is part of their weird, but strangely functional, relationship) but she supposes it can’t hurt. But where to find one?
She goes on a few dates with some guys who ask her out, but they’re mostly starstruck fanboys, and it’s boring. Really, someone who gets tongue tied at the mere sight of you is not a very good date. So she stops.
She’s not quite sure how that leads to a date with Draco Malfoy, who she’s not even sure she likes. It was supposed to be a blind date, set up by some friend of a friend of Catherine and she’s still not convinced it’s not a joke on her part. At least Catherine had told her, so she could back out, but for some reason she’s sitting in a fancy restaurant wearing her best suit and trying not to feel stood up when he’s three minutes late. She decides to give him three more minutes before she leaves, because this is a joke. This entire thing.
“Miss Weasley,” she hears a voice behind her, and she finds herself hoping it’s Malfoy and not another fan looking for an autograph. She turns around, and it is Malfoy, wearing some kind of suit that is probably very expensive, his hair gelled back in a way that doesn’t really suit him.
“Mr Malfoy,” she replies coolly, as he takes a seat.
“Please, call me Draco,” he says, and she thinks she sees a bit of nervousness there.
“Ginny,” she says and inclines her head. She hopes she doesn’t have to keep up this ice queen persona the whole dinner, because she’s not sure she could, and anyway, it’s somewhat boring.
*
Despite everything, Draco is actually quite good company. She knew he was brought up well, but she could never have imagined that he’d change so much from his school self, make such an effort for her. It’s no secret that they hated each other. Still, by the time dessert arrives she’s even laughing at a joke he told. He pays for dinner, which is silly, but it’s a nice gesture, and then they leave.
She doesn’t even get a chance at suggesting they go to a bar for a drink before there are reporters surrounding them. She is taken by surprise, because she didn’t think anyone knew she was there, but of course someone in the restaurant had seen them both and called. She wonders idly how much that person got, how much it’s worth interrupting her evening, but she can’t find the energy to get upset about it.
“Miss Weasley, is this really appropriate company?” “Miss Weasley, does this mean that the well known animosity between your family and the Malfoys is over?” “Ginny, have you broken up with Nelly?”
“Who is Nelly?” is all Ginny manages to say before Draco grips her around the waist and disapparates them.
When she is steady on her feet again she turns to him and pokes him hard in the chest.
“What the hell, Malfoy,” she says. He backs up a step.
“I just...”
“You just abducted me!”
“I wanted to get us out of there! Or did you want to stay and answer questions?” he says, and she can see some of his old arrogance, but it’s very much dampened by the fact that he looks honest too.
“Still, you can’t just do that,” she says, not sure if being secretly pleased is such a good thing, but sure that she won’t tell him that. He is known for his ego, after all. “Where are we?”
“My apartment,” he says, and she raises her eyebrows. “I wasn’t planning on taking you here on the first date, but I couldn’t think of anywhere else on such short notice.” She thinks she sees him blush a bit, but it might be her imagination. It looks good on him though.
“Oh, well,” she says. It’s a nice place, very muted and not at all like she’d imagine a Malfoy would live. “You might as well show me around, now that I’m here.”
It’s also smaller than she imagined, living room, bedroom and kitchen. He offers her coffee, and she accepts. She doesn’t want the night to end already, and they sit in his sofa and talk until it’s very late. There is something there, some kind of spark. It’s not love, it’s not even infatuation, but it could be. It has potential.
When she gets to bed later that evening she smiles to herself. She might have found someone she actually wants to date, no matter the benefits. As long as she can get him to change his hairstyle.