Match Me~ Drinny

Nerves

"I can't do this!"

"Yes, you can."

Ginny groaned, plopping herself down on the bed, burying her face in a sensible cotton pillow.

Hermione flipped through the dresses hanging in Ginny's closet, picking out ones she thought were suitable. "Gin, look at these – which ones do you want to wear?"

When Ginny didn't respond, Hermione tore the pillow off her face, shoving a few dresses in her arms and pointed toward the bathroom, looking shockingly like Professor McGonagall every single time she was giving someone a detention.

In the bathroom, Ginny stared at the clothes, not seeing them, but thinking about Narcissa Malfoy. It wasn't much that Draco asked her to meet his mother, was it? It wasn't like she had done the same. She smiled weakly as she remembered his reaction.

"Draco?"

"Yeah?" he said, turning her around within the circle of his arms. Ginny swallowed, she hated shattering the peace between them, especially after all the chaos of the day before.

"My, um, parents want, um, you to – they want us, um, " She took a deep breath and finished quickly, "us-to-have-dinner-with-them-on Saturday."

"And your brothers?"

Ginny looked at him strangely. Why on earth was he so calm? "Yeah, they're going to be there."

Draco stomach lurched at the thought of her brothers. "Do I have to?"

"Yeah."

"Can't this wait?" Draco ran a hand through his hair. Ginny sprang out of Draco's lap. "That's what I said to you that one day when you practically coerced me to go to your mother's palace!" She placed her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. She wasn't really that mad at Draco. "What do you say about that?"

Draco drawled, "I would have to say that you look absolutely beautiful when you're mad," and ducked when Ginny swung at him, laughing.

"Ginny?"

"GINNY!"

Ginny looked at the door, which Hermione was pounding on. "Yeah?"

"Gin, you only have three more hours till he's coming to pick you up." For some strange reason, Hermione thought it would actually take that long to get ready. "For Heaven's sakes, just put on a dress and let me see it."

"Alright, be out in a minute." She grabbed one of the dresses and looked at it. It was one that Seamus had liked. Some taste he had. Now that she looked at it again, it seemed stiff and overly formal, its high neckline contrasting obscenely with the fluttery sleeves.

Tossing it somewhere behind her, she picked up the next dress, something gauzy and light. She tugged it on anyway, and opened the door.

Hermione stood there, a bag clutched in her hand. She scrutinized Ginny.

"It looks good, but it's winter. Why did I give you that anyway? It looks like something you'd wear to a summer picnic."

She pushed Ginny back inside with instructions to 'change into one of those nice evening gowns'. Ginny looked at the two gowns. They were nice, made out of some kind of glimmering material, perhaps silk. One was a brilliant crimson, the other, a deep green.

Ginny remembered this gown, the dark green one. She had just been passing by a store a day about a week after Seamus had left her, not even noting where she was going. At that time, she was dead to the world, living on ice cream and soap operas in her frightfully messy flat. But the gown had caught her eye, and on a whim, she tried it on and bought it. She had never worn it, and it was basically a dust collector in her closet.