Romance 101

Disclaimer: If Harry Potter were mine, would I be here right now? *ponders*

A/N: I swear, this was one plot bunny that just wouldn’t stop hopping around in my brain. I couldn’t sleep until I finished it!!! I hope you like it, because I slaved over it! I swear I bit five nails down to the bone because of this story!

Romance 101

“Hermione!” Ginny screeched in a singsong voice. Hermione came barreling down her dormitory stairs, her bushy hair lashing wildly.

“What’s wrong? Who’s dead?” she asked frantically.

“Oh, no one,” Ginny answered with nonchalance. “I need to sign up for that tutor program of yours. I am completely failing potions!” Ginny threw up her hands in exasperation. “Damn Snape,” she murmured. Hermione, as Head Girl, had designed a peer-tutoring program for all years who needed help with a certain subject. Students who felt they were excelling in a certain area offered to help kids who needed to catch up. It just so happens Ginny Weasley was one of those kids.

Hermione approached her coffee table where many books and papers were spread about. “Hmm…” she thought for a moment, picking up a piece of parchment, reading it over, and tapping her chin with her index finger. She looked to Ginny. “You desperate?” she asked.

Ginny nodded fervently. “I’ll do anything. I just don’t want to fail potions.”

“Well, the only one left that signed up for Potions tutoring is Draco,” Hermione responded, returning her paper to the neat stack it once came.

“Malfoy?” Ginny asked, stifling a groan. She bit her lip and thought about it for a few moments. Either get tortured and get a good grade, or fail the entire semester, being unable to pursue her career as a magizooligist. “Fine,” she sighed.

“Well, I’ll go tell him,” she responded. She walked up the stairs separating his dormitory from hers, knocked quietly on the door, and waited.

There was a large crash, a yelp, and then a strangled cry of, “who is it?”

“Who in the bloody hell do you think it is?” Hermione snapped, before pressing two fingers to her temple. “Sorry, sorry,” Hermione responded.

Hermione believed since she had to share a common room with the worm, she should be more civil to him. To her surprise, it almost actually worked. Tensions between them had lightened, though they weren’t getting all chummy on each other anytime soon.

“Granger, what do you want?” he asked.

“Just come out here and I’ll tell you,” she said in what Ginny supposed was a fake sweet voice. Ginny heard a loud creak and his blonde head popped out of his door.

“Yea?” he asked, his voice laced with sleepiness.

“I’ve found a tutee for you,” Hermione responded.

“Who is it?” Draco asked. He scratched the back of his head and tried to open his eyes a bit wider.

“Ginny,” Hermione answered, gesturing down towards.

“Oh,” he deadpanned, a hint of disgust in his voice.

“When can you start?” Hermione asked, completely unaware that Draco had just sneered at Ginny.

Draco shrugged. “I don’t care. Doesn’t matter really. How bad are you failing, Red?” he called to Ginny. She looked up when she heard “Red” and, she too, shrugged.

“Well, I do have an exam in two days,” she responded.

“Practical?”

“No…” Ginny trailed off. (A/N: I forgot the word for a non-practical exam)

“Ok, then we’ll start tonight. Meet me in this common room tonight right after dinner. Brink your books, quill and ink, parchment, and anything else you might need,” Draco ordered. Ginny nodded. “Oh, and don’t be late,” he sneered. Ginny rolled her eyes.

“Bloody bastard,” she muttered, just loud enough so he could hear.

“Hey, who’s taking time out of their social life to tutor you, Red?” he asked angrily.

“Obviously not you, seeing you have no social life!” she countered. Her eyes were flashing with anger as Draco pushed past Hermione and started down the staircase.

“Why you ungrateful little bi-” Draco started but was cut off by Hermione.

“Oh will you stop it you two!” she shouted, jogging down the stairs and squeezing herself in the limited space between them. “Ok. Draco, you are tutoring Ginny-” she stressed the name Ginny. “-whether you like it or not! Ginny, he was the last tutor for Potions. Take him or fail. I will notify you both immediately once a new tutor has popped up. Deal?” The corner of Draco’s lip twitched as he eyed Ginny with disgust, before storming back up to his dormitory.

“Well, that went well,” Ginny commented dryly. Hermione made an aggravated noise and stomped back to the couch to finish her homework.

“If you see Harry, tell him to come here,” Hermione called as Ginny was exiting Hermione’s common room. “We have some…work to finish,” she mumbled distractedly.

“Yea, sure,” Ginny said as she exited, and just as she did, she ran right into Harry. “Oh Harry, good thing you’re here. Hermione wants you.”

Harry nodded. “Yea I know…See you later Gin,” he called back to her as he entered the portrait to the Head Common Room, an unusual bounce about his step.

“If I make it to later,” she muttered, making her way back to the Gryffindor common room. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her robes, shuffling along at a snail’s pace. When she did manage to make it to the common room, she climbed in through the portrait hole to find Ron engaged in a furious battle of Wizard’s Chess with Seamus.

“You’re goin’ down, Finnigan,” he joked.

“Yea, right,” Seamus’ only response was. Ginny sighed and plopped down onto the ocuch next to her older brother.

“What’s wrong, Gin?” he asked, never taking his eyes off the game.

Ginny only sighed again. “I need a tutor for Potions and the only one Hermione has left is Malfoy.”

“Well, he IS good at Potions. If I were you I’d be doing a victory dance right now,” Ron replied.

“You’re not mad that I’ll be working with Malfoy?” Ginny asked.

“It’s not like you picked him. I mean, if there’s anyone I trust your grades with more besides Hermione, it’s Malfoy. I hate to admit it, but he’s a bloody genius when it comes to Potions.” That comment made Ginny feel slightly better. Slightly.

“But it’s Malfoy,” Ginny sneered. Ron just shrugged. Ginny sighed. It looks like she wasn’t going to get anything out of Ron as long as he was in chess battle with Seamus.

“HAH!” Ron shouted rather loudly, startling almost everyone in the common room. “Queen to D4! Beat that, Finnigan!”

Seamus thought for a moment, stroking his chin, before smirking. “King to D4. Checkmate.”

Ron’s face fell. He was notorious for winning every game of Wizard’s chess that he ever played. And he just lost: against Seamus Finnigan.

Ginny smiled and laughed. “Way to go Seamus. I think you’re the first person to ever beat my brother.” Seamus just beamed. Ron checked his watch quickly.

“Oh look, time for dinner!” he jumped up and raced out of the common room.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be back to normal after he stuffs his face full of food,” Ginny commented, standing up and brushing herself off.

“I hope so. I have to share a dorm with that boy.” Ginny laughed. She grabbed her book bag, which she had tossed on the couch after she had finished classes that day, and began walking with Seamus down to the Great Hall.

“Yes, Ron is a sore loser, but he’ll get over it. He always does,” Ginny laughed. They walked in silence for a few minutes. Ginny and Seamus weren’t the best of friends, but you could catch them hanging out sometimes. They had a relationship in her fifth year. They had a good run, and it was a mutual break-up, so both were fine with it.

“So what’s been going on with you, Gin?” Seamus asked.

“Not much. I’ve basically been flunking out of Potions, so I had to get a peer-tutor, and I was lucky enough to get Draco Malfoy as my peer-tutor.” Seamus chuckled.

“Hey, I got Pansy Parkinson as my Transfig. Tutor. I mean, she’s no Lavendar but she can transfigure the hell out of anything!” Though that made no sense to Ginny, she just kept nodding.

“I wish I asked Hermione to be my Potions tutor. That would’ve been easier…and less stressful. I’m probably going to sleep with a major Migraine,” Ginny answered quietly shuffling along. She already was rather tired and lessons with Malfoy would only make it worse.

“Well, look at it this way, how bad can it get?”

~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@

Ginny was sitting in Hermione and Draco’s common room. She had left 5 minutes before the end of lunch to get here in time. As luck would have it, Hermione was here to let her in. She and Harry moved all their work up to her room to make space for Ginny and Draco.

Ginny began to unpack her stuff from her bag. She laid the quills and ink bottles on the table, along with a few rolls of parchment, two potions books, and some notes she had taken over the past month on what the exam would be.

“Weasley,” Draco snapped once he entered the common room. “Are you ready?”

“I have been for five minutes,” she replied. He stopped short, unable to think of a comeback.

“Good, then…I guess…” he trailed off. He sat on the couch, examining all of her laid out materials. He took a look at the notes, and then sighed.

“Ok, so what do you not understand?” Draco asked, leaning over the coffee table, still examining the papers. Ginny leaned in next to him, and crossed her arm to the edge of the table, pointing to a certain paper.

“How does the Caxic acid and the tail horn of the Horntail dragon mix? What happens when they mix?” She asked. He thought for a moment.

“Well, first you have to add a drop of Doxy poison to the Caxic acid. Then, after simmering in your cauldron for three minutes, if you add the horn and let it dissolve, it should create a gooey purple liquid. After that, if you add…” Draco went on for a few moments, listing ingredients. “By the end, you should have the elixir of sleep, one of the six elixirs of the wizarding world. This elixir sends the person who drank it into a deep sleep. They sleep for a rather long time, sometimes even up to a week. It used to be used for dark magic purposes.”

“So…” Ginny thought for a moment. “Then what is the reaction of the two?”

“They both form to make a special ingredient that the wizarding world likes to call the Acid of Oren. It is mostly used in potions having to do with sleeping. The Acid of Oren has properties to make people fall asleep, pass out, et cetera, but it all depends on what is added to it,” Draco finished, looking at Ginny. She was still looking at the paper, but you could practically see the gears turning in her head as she tried to figure it out.

“I get it! Then, that is how you make the Serpetius potion? By adding the Acid of Oren, a snake’s eye, and the rattle of a rattlesnake?” Ginny asked

“Yes…amazing a Weasley finally managed to figure something out,” he sneered.

“Amazing a Malfoy finally helped someone out,” she sneered mockingly. “Can we just stop bickering? For the sake of my grades?”

“No, I like the bickering,” Draco responded. Ginny heaved a sigh. “Merlin, if it matters that much I’ll try,” he mumbled.

Ginny rolled her eyes and frowned. “Ok…umm…” she trailed off, looking at the rest of her papers.

“Ok, what chemical does adding the flobberworm guts, the powdered frog brains and the squid tentacle make?” Draco asked.

“Umm…” Ginny racked her brain. “I believe it’s the Recortis? It aids in most love potions.”

“Correct, but it can also be used as…” Draco trailed off, hoping for her to finish. After she sat with the same blank stare for over a minute, he responded, “the most powerful revival potion known to wizard kind.” Ginny nodded and scribbled a note to herself on a piece of paper.

“So then, when you mix Recortis with the entrails of a Warble you get a mixture that…”

~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@

It was nearly midnight and Ginny and Draco were still huddled on that couch, trying to get her to understand some of the finer points of Potions.

“If you add this-“ Draco pointed to a piece of parchment with words scribbled on it-“with this-“ he pointed to another parchment-“you get…?”

Ginny thought for a moment, then sighed. “It’s hopeless. I don’t understand the combination the two make. One is a vile ingredient, and the other is HIGHLY flammable. They would create a fire the instant they mixed!”

“Yes, but that’s good! If you add them in a cauldron, you want it to burn, let it cool down, and then you get…?” Draco asked, exasperated. He looked into her eyes and could see the gears turning in her head.

Then Ginny gasped… “The Feterile potion!”

“Yes!” he exclaimed. “Finally!” Ginny squealed in delight and did something that surprised the both of them: she threw her arms around Draco’s neck. She quickly looked at him in horror, turned away blushing and quickly began stuffing her things back in her bag.

“Uh, thanks, Malfoy,” she said quickly. “It’s getting late. I should get back to my dorm.” Draco grabbed her wrist before she could leave. She looked up, to see he was smirking.

“Afraid of a little physical contact, Weasley?” he laughed.

“No…it’s just you’re Draco Malfoy,” Ginny strung out. He nodded.

“Last time I checked, yea,” he responded.

“Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, and physical contact do NOT belong in the same sentence!” she exclaimed.

“Why not?” he asked in a deep voice, stepping closer, still holding her wrist with a firm grip.

“Because…uh…” all reasoning completely evaded Ginny’s brain as he stepped closer. His breath that was fanning her face smelt like mint vanilla.

“Because what?” he asked, a sly smirk crossing his face, obviously enjoying the effect he had on her.

“I…don’t know,” she responded dazedly. Ginny’s book bag fell to the ground as his lips landed on hers in a soft kiss. His hand left her wrist and cupped her cheek. They both slowly melted into the kiss, as Ginny wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into an embrace.

“Oh my GOD!” a voice said from the top of the stairs, but Ginny and Draco were too busy to notice. “Harry!” Harry soon appeared next to a rather amused Hermione. They both watched on with interest, smirking slightly.

“Oh will Ron be so pissed when he finds out,” Harry laughed softly.

“Oh, I don’t think we need to tell him, do we?” Hermione asked. Harry frowned slightly.

“Fine…” he replied, beaten.

“But this will be fun to blackmail them with,” Hermione commented evilly. Harry smirked.

This was going to be fun, indeed.

A/N: I’m sorry, just a one-shot. I hope you liked it, though! Read and review, and don’t forget to read my other fanfics too!

P.S. The only update I even started was Hating, Dating, and Ginny Weasley, so it might be a while. This was just a plot bunny that just wouldn’t stop hopping around my head!