Give Up?

DISCLAIMER: We own nothing but a tattered blue notebook filled with our hopes and dreams.

A/N: Please R&R… We are very proud of this story, it is our baby! ;) We’ve watched it grow, helped it through difficult times, and hid it from our schoolmates… That’s not selfish, is it? If only they knew… Well, we are showing it to you! So give us a little credit… Oh, gosh… We’re rambling! And so it begins…

CHAPTER ONE

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

As Professor Snape passed out the progress reports, Draco proudly smiled to himself. ((I’ve got this class aced!)) Unfortunately, Draco thought too soon as he stared, mouth open, at the results of his latest potions test. “Professor, I…” Draco started. “Stay after class, Mr. Malfoy. I’d like to have a little talk with you.” Professor Snape said as he left Draco sitting there, speechless, staring at the bright red “F” on his paper.

Draco waited until everybody left the room and headed for the front desk. “Professor Snape? You wanted to see me?” Draco asked politely.

“Yes, Mr. Malfoy. I need to talk to you about the grade you have recently earned,” Professor Snape answered.

“Actually, I’d like to talk to you about that, also.” Draco comfortably sat on top of a desk up front. “Well, how…”

Professor Snape went through rolls of parchments until he came across what he was looking for. “Ah… Here it is.” He handed a roll of parchment to Draco. Draco stared at it. It was the research paper he did on the Nocturnal Nectar potion. He was supposed to list the uses, ingredients, write down the directions, and give a sample of the potion in a mini vial. “What’s this for? Didn’t I do well on it?” Draco asked without looking up. He was trying to find an error in grammar or spelling. ((Nothing. There’s nothing.))

Professor Snape saw Draco’s darting eyes and answered, “There are no errors with your spelling or grammar.” Draco exhaled in relief. He usually double-checked his work and was pretty in debt with his vocabulary. “But, you got everything completely wrong. So, this paper is useless,” the potions master continued. Draco gaped at him. ((Wow. He’s direct, isn’t he?)) “You did worse than Longbottom,” stated Professor Snape as simply as if he were stating that the world was round. Draco’s mouth fell open, he slipped off the desk he was sitting on, and fell hard on the cold dungeon floor. ((OWW!)) Draco’s face screwed up in pain. ((I’ve broken my arse!)) Professor Snape rolled his eyes and stared coldly at Draco. “Mr. Malfoy, you need to shape up. You are an embarrassment to the Slytherin house!”

“I—” Draco started.

“No! I don’t want to bring your father into this, Mr. Malfoy.”

“You don’t—”

“I will, if you don’t get your act together. Now, I will do you a favor by finding you a tutor. You have wasted too much of my time. You may leave.” Professor Snape looked down and Draco knew that there was going to be no more discussion of the matter. “Yes, sir,” He said as he hung his head and left the dungeons.

After dinner Draco had already forgotten about his conversation with Professor Snape as he retreated to his quarters. As he was undressing, an owl tapped on his window. He allowed it inside where it dropped a red envelope indicating its urgency. ((I’ll read it after I brush my teeth.)) He was in his bathroom when his curiosity suddenly got the best of him. He ran out of the bathroom with his mouth still full of toothpaste and read the note.

Mr. Malfoy,

Miss Ginny Weasley will arrive at 8:00 PM tomorrow night in the Slytherin common room. Yes, she will be your tutor this year and no, I will not change her to someone else. Be nice and shape up or you’ll be hearing from your father.
Good Day,

Professor Severus Snape

((WHAT!?))

Draco plopped down into a fluffy armchair next to the blazing fire in the Slytherin common room. ((Damn…)) he thought. ((I can’t believe I have to be stuck with that red-headed Weasel four days a week.)) Draco would have to tutor with Ginny on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. They had weekends and Wednesday’s to themselves. ((I hope nobody finds out.)) Although Draco was Head Boy and had control over everyone in school (minus some select Gryffindors), he knew that nobody would respect him if he was caught associating with a Weasley. All of a sudden his train of thought was broken by a slimy, trying to be sweet voice.

“Hi Draco,” drawled Pansy Parkinson, the biggest slut in school. “There’s a party in the dungeons tonight, care to escort me?”

Draco rolled his eyes. He might have been the only guy in all the 7^th year Slytherins to not get a piece of Pansy, and he knew it was eating her up inside. But, he didn’t like sloppy seconds. “Parkinson, you know it burns my eyes when I see you… So, what will happen to the poor others who will see us together?” Draco said in an annoyed voice.

Pansy pouted. “Now, now Parkinson. You’ve asked me before and I’ve given you an answer. I’ll never touch you. Besides,” he added. “I’m busy tonight.”

Pansy shot him a glare and stalked away to Blaise Zabini. Draco let out a sigh of relief. The Slytherins wouldn’t be here tonight, they were all going to the party. That left him safe to study with the smallest weasel, without any fear that someone might see them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As Ginny started for the entrance of the Slytherin common room, the portrait entrance shot open, knocking her to the floor. She looked up and saw white-blonde hair. “Watch out next time,” Draco said with a scowl. Ginny waited for him to give her a hand but remembered, ((Of course, it’s Malfoy.)) She got up and followed him into the common room. Draco sat down into a chair at the table and Ginny looked at him expectantly. He scowled. “What?” he asked irritably. Ginny rolled her eyes. “Let’s just go and get this over with,” she said.

“Go where?” Draco blinked.

“To your room! And I wondered why you needed tutoring,” she said, annoyed.

He smirked. “To my room? I thought it was agreed that you were just going to tutor me, Weasel. If I wanted a girl in my room I wouldn’t have to hire one. And if I did, it wouldn’t be,” he looked her up and down, “you.”

Ginny blushed furiously and her face turned the color of her hair. “I was suggesting no such thing!” she cried. “Personally, I wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot broomstick, and I wouldn’t be helping you if you weren’t FAILING!”

He raised one eyebrow. “And why would you care if I failed?” he asked, a look of surprise flashing across his face, before returning to a scowl.

Ginny didn’t notice the surprised look. “Well, I for one am not looking forward to seeing your face around school, let alone in my classroom, for another year,” she answered scornfully.

Draco scowled. “Can we just get this over with? I’m wasting money,” he said, looking at the expensive watch on his wrist. When he saw that Ginny looked confused, he rolled his eyes. “I am paying you, weasel. Even though I didn’t want to hire you, I’m not going to let you tutor me without any payment… The Malfoys are professionals,” he added.

Ginny shook her head as if to bring herself back to reality, and sat at the table across from Draco. “So, Malfoy. What is it you were having trouble with?” she asked.

He mumbled something.

“Excuse me?”

He said it a little louder.

“You know, I’m not going to be able to help you if you don’t tell me what you need help with!” Ginny exclaimed, exasperated.

“POTIONS, OKAY!? And I don’t need help, especially from a weasel like you!” He was clearly about to blow his top. He got up and began to walk toward the portrait hole when Ginny stood up so suddenly she even startled herself. “Fine, just fine…” she muttered. “I’m sure Professor Snape would agree with you…” she said, raising one eyebrow as he turned around slowly, stalked back to the table and sat down, a look of disgust on his face.

“Now, tell me what I can help you with,” she said sweetly, batting her eyelashes. Draco scowled and rolled his eyes.

CHAPTER 2

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

The next morning at breakfast, Ginny sat down with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They didn’t notice her until she asked Hermione to pass the orange juice.

“Oh, hello Ginny!” chorused the trio.

“Hello,” replied Ginny with a fake smile on her face. As soon as they turned away, which they always did, her face fell and she picked at her food.

Ginny wasn’t exactly popular, and she didn’t have a lot of friends. Her closest friends were Harry, Hermione, and Ron, but they didn’t know anything about her and usually ignored her, as they were doing now. She looked toward the Slytherin table and saw Draco. ((Slimy git,)) she thought. The night before he had been less than grateful for her help. She would have to see him tonight again. She sighed. ((Why me?)) she wondered. Suddenly she noticed that she was still staring at Draco… and he was staring right back! Someone tapped her on the shoulder. Ginny spun around and saw that Hermione, Ron, and Harry were all staring at her.

“Are you okay?” asked Ron.

“Of course I am!” replied Ginny with a smile on her face.

“You were staring at Malfoy!” yelled Ron.

Ginny’s smile quickly became a frown. “I was not!” she hissed. Ron opened his mouth to say something when the mail came. To Ginny’s surprise, she got a note. She took this as an opportunity to get away from Ron, and left him staring after her with his mouth still open.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Draco looked up from his breakfast. ((I wonder if that girl is still staring at me,)) he thought. But when he looked toward the Gryffindors, he didn’t see her. And then he saw her leaving the table with a piece of paper clutched in her hand. The other Weasley was staring after her with his mouth open as Potty and the Mudblood exchanged similar looks of confusion. Draco smirked, got up from the table, and walked out of the Great Hall to get ready for class.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny unfolded the note and frowned. She didn’t recognize the handwriting. She began to read it.

Weasley,

Meet me in my room at 8:00 PM tonight.

Ginny’s eyes got wider.

No, Weasley. I haven’t changed my mind about having you in my room. I just don’t want my house to see me interacting with the likes of you. Anyway…

Ginny scoffed.

My room is located on the 5^th floor in the 6^th corridor. Second room to the right. Don’t get lost. I have absolutely no desire to spend my night waiting for you to show up.

Draco Malfoy

Ginny rolled her eyes. ((How dare he?!)) she fumed. She started tearing the note into pieces as she ran to her room to get her stuff ready for class, but because she was busy paying attention to the tearing of the note and not where she was going, she smacked into something very solid.

“OOF!” she breathed as she fell to the floor.

“Sorry,” mumbled the person she smacked into. It was a man’s voice.

“No, I wasn’t—,” she looked up and saw Harry Potter staring back at her with startling green eyes. She shook her head to wake herself up. “Anyway… Sorry Harry.”

“Uh, Ginny? Is there something wrong?” he asked. “You’ve been acting… different.”

“You can tell Ron that I am perfectly fine, thank you very much,” she snapped. “And also that he shouldn’t send his friends to check up on his sister, who might I add, is not a baby anymore,” she added as she left Harry looking embarrassed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The morning went as normally as always for Draco. Go to class, please the teachers, harass students not worthy of the titles “witch” or “wizard; that sort of stuff. As he was leaving Potions, Professor Snape asked him how tutoring was going. Draco scowled.

“Mr. Malfoy, I expect you to be able to make that potion by NEWTS. If you can’t, not only will you fail,” the Potions Master lectured, “but you will also embarrass me and become a disgrace to all Slytherins. “I’m sure that being the first Slytherin Head Boy in 7 years, you do have some expectations for yourself. Keep in mind that if you do fail, you have no chance of being Head Boy again next year.”

Draco nodded and left the dungeons.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Before Ginny knew it, dinner was over and she had one hour to do her own homework before going to Draco’s room to tutor him. When she finished, as she was packing up her books, Ron, Hermione, and Harry entered the common room. Ron immediately began scanning the room. Ginny wanted to hide, but knew her red hair would giver her away. Ron stomped over to her. Ginny recoiled as she knew what was coming.

“Ginevra Molly Weasley,” Ron announced. “You have been avoiding me!”

“I have not!” snapped Ginny, but it was a complete lie. Each time she saw Rom that day she ran in the other direction.

“Then where have you been?” Ron demanded. “Snogging Malfoy?!”

Ginny balled her hands into fists. She looked at Harry and Hermione and they began to look at the ceiling. Ginny bit her lip in fury and slapped Ron across the face.

“HOW DARE YOU?!” she spat. “How dare you accuse me of anything? Let alone something so horrid!”

“You—,” Ron started.

“You are not my baby-sitter and I am not a child!” exclaimed Ginny. “Is your life so uneventful that you have to butt into mine?!”

“I—,” Ron stammered.

“Don’t speak!” she hissed as she grabbed her bag, pushed past Harry and Hermione, who had been staring mouths open since she slapped Ron, and stomped out of the portrait hole.

CHAPTER THREE

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

((8:05,)) thought Draco. ((She’s late.)) He heard a crash from outside, followed by a yelp. ((Ah, the weasel has arrived.))

He pushed open the portrait hole and looked at Ginny. She was bent over, hands on her knees, and breathing hard as if she had been running. ((She better have been running, as she made me wait five minutes,)) he thought. She looked up and he saw that she must have indeed been running, since her face was so red. He stepped aside and she walked in. He gave a small cough and when she looked, he tilted his head to a table and two chairs. They walked over and sat down. Ginny pulled out some paper and two quills from her tattered, second-hand bag and set them on the table.

“I can provide my own,” smirked Draco.

Ginny scowled and put the second quill and half of the paper back into her bag. She tapped her wand onto a sheet of paper and words appeared.

“These are the ingredients for the Nocturnal Nectar and all the instructions of how to put them together,” Ginny explained, and then added more forcefully, “Do not lose this.”

Draco rolled his eyes and took the paper. He knew what most of the ingredients were and knew where to find them. When he looked at the instructions, however, his mouth fell open.

- Boil the pig’s blood for three nights, starting on the half moon at 12:10 AM and ending 3 nights later at 12:10 AM.

- Add the eye of newt and stir counter-clockwise 10 times.

- Add the unicorn hair and stir three times clockwise while adding a drop of phoenix tears.

- Let simmer four hours.

And it went on.

“What exactly does this potion do?” Draco scowled.

“Well, the poor soul who drinks this potion will live out his or her true desires in a dream-like state on the first up-coming full moon,” the red-head explained. “When they wake up, well you know. They’ll have no idea what had happened.”

The corners of Draco’s mouth twitched upward. “So it’s like… Getting drunk?”

Ginny stared at him. “You think it’s funny?”

“I think,” he said, “it’s worthless.”

“I’ll have you know that this potion helps those who are so ignorant and spoiled that they don’t know what they want,” she scowled, looking him up and down.

“Yeah, yeah…Let’s just get this over with,” he sneered.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

On the way back to the common room, Ginny reflected on the events of the night. She was so engrossed with her thoughts that she didn’t realize that someone was sitting on the floor, and ended up falling on her face.

“Sorry, Ginny,” a squeaky voice said.

She took the hand offered to her and met the eyes of a very sad Neville. “What’s the matter?” Ginny asked.

“Well,” he stared at his feet, “I forgot the password again.”

“It’s okay, I’m going to go inside anyways, so…” Neville stepped aside and Ginny said the password, “Llama Feathers.”

“Thank you… Again,” Neville choked out.

“No problem. Remember, if you need anything, just ask me and I’ll see what I can do about it.” Ginny answered.

“Thanks, Ginny.”

Ginny walked into the common room and took a seat next to a reading Hermione near the blazing fire. Hermione looked up.

“Hey Ginny,” she said timidly.

“Don’t worry Hermione, I’m not going to slap you,” Ginny sighed. Hermione immediately looked embarrassed and shut her book.

“Uh, Ginny,” she started. “Look, I’m sorry about Ron… Harry and I told him to leave you alone, but he’s just…”

“Ron?” Ginny suggested.

“Yes, he is exactly that,” chuckled Hermione. “But really, sorry we didn’t stop him from embarrassing you. Well, you taught him his lesson, maybe he will listen to us next time!” she laughed.

Ginny smiled. “Thanks, Hermione. Well, I’m exhausted. Off to bed for me! Good night!”

“Good night, Ginny!” called Hermione as Ginny went up the stairs.

When Ginny reached her room she saw an eagle owl tapping on her window. ((There must be some mistake,)) she thought while opening the window. She knew only rich pure-blooded families owned eagle owls, and while she was pure-blooded, she most certainly wasn’t rich. Before she could do anything, the owl dropped a small package at her feet and flew back out the way it came.

“Weasley,” the package was marked. ((Well, no mistake, I guess…)) She opened it and gasped. ((One, two, three…)) she counted. ((Thirty galleons! My goodness! Where did they come from?)) Her question was answered when she saw a piece of folded paper at the bottom of the package. She opened it and read:

Weasley,

Here is your payment. Fifteen galleons for each day you tutored me. Meet me tomorrow in my room at 6:30 PM. Don’t be late.

Draco Malfoy

Ginny rolled her eyes. ((What a freak.)) Then her eyes drifted back to the thirty galleons. She smiled, scooped them up into her almost empty (but not anymore) money pouch, changed into her pajamas, and climbed into bed. She fell asleep once her head hit the pillow and dreamed of dancing galleons all night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Draco’s owl returned within minutes. “Back already?” Draco walked over to his window. He ran his fingers through its silky feathers. He chuckled to himself as a thought flashed through his mind. ((I bet that little weasel doesn’t even know what a galleon is; obviously her family has never had one.)) Draco gave the owl a treat and sent it to the owlery. He brushed his teeth and on the way to bed he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Wearing only his boxers, he admired himself. ((I don’t know why everyone is always going on about how hot and toned and muscular Potty is,)) he frowned. ((I’m ten times better looking, and more muscular.)) He flexed. “What’s cookin’, good lookin’?” whistled the mirror. ((You got that right,)) Draco smirked to himself. He covered the mirror with a cloak, and climbed into bed.

CHAPTER FOUR

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

“Wake up, Ginny! Wake up!!!”

Ginny opened her eyes and saw a frantic-looking Hermione shaking her.

“Wha…What happened?” Ginny yawned.

Hermione shifted from one foot to another and wrung her hands as her eyes darted around the room.

“Hermione?” Ginny stared. She had never thought that cool, collected Hermione would ever act this way. But, when Ginny said her name she seemed to snap back to reality. She sat on the edge of Ginny’s bed.

“I’ve…” she started.

“You’ve…what?”

“I’ve been asked to the Valentine’s Day Ball!” she shrieked.

“Hermione!” Ginny gasped. “Why that’s—”

“By Neville! Neville!” Hermione looked a wreck again.

“Oh,” Ginny looked down. Hermione wasn’t as fond towards Neville as she was towards Harry. Of course, no one knew that (besides Ginny) and Neville was more a friend than anything else.

“What do I do?” Hermione chocked out.

“Uh, tell him…” Ginny searched for an answer. “Tell him you already have a date!”

“Ginny! He knows I wouldn’t have one! I mean, he asked so soon in the year! It’s only October!” Hermione cried.

“Tell him Harry already asked you.”

“Ginny! I couldn’t! He didn’t…He wouldn’t—”

“I’m positive Harry would be happy to take you.”

((Poor Neville,)) Ginny thought. ((Oh, well. I’m sure he will find someone else.)) None the less, it worked out for Harry and Hermione. Ginny knew they liked each other, but both were too shy to admit it to the other. They just needed a push in the right direction, and Ginny’s suggestion of them going to the Ball together was quite a shove. ((I have to do everything,)) she rolled her eyes. She looked over to Neville, who was slumped in his chair picking at his pancakes. She sat down next to him.

“Hey Neville,” she said sympathetically.

He looked up, “Hey Ginny.”

“Look, Neville. I’m sorry about what happened.”

“Oh, it’s okay,” he replied unconvincingly.

“No, it’s not,” she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I know what it’s like to be turned down.” She thought about Harry. ((I’m glad that’s over.)) Don’t worry, you’ll find another date in no time!”

“No, I won’t…Nobody wants to go to the ball with clumsy, chubby Neville.”

Ginny knew that he was feeling horrible, but she really didn’t want him to start crying in front of her! She knew that what he was saying was true; nobody wanted to go with him. But, he had seen her when she was invisible. He took her to the Yule Ball! It was time to return the favor. Ginny took a deep breath.

“Neville,” she began. “Would you like to attend the Ball with me?”

He stared. “Really?”

“Of course! I would be honored if you would be my date.”

“Wow! Thanks, Ginny. Sure, I’ll go with you!”

“Great, then. Now we both don’t have to worry about that for a couple months!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Draco finished off his pancakes and drank a cup of orange juice in one gulp. He looked around and spotted the wee Weasley talking to that squib, Longbottom. ((Aww, look. Her hand is on his shoulder.)) He smirked. ((Makes sense! Geeks like them gotta stick together!)) he thought as he left the Great Hall to go to his morning classes. When he reached the dungeons for Potions, he noticed Potty, the Weasel, and the Mudblood Know-It-All were already there. He “accidentally” knocked over a vial of Potter’s potion onto the floor as he walked by. “Whoops!” he shrugged as Harry glared daggers at him. He walked to his desk and began the class work. ((Potions is boring,)) he thought as he poured purple goo into his cauldron. ((At least tomorrow is Saturday, and it’s also Halloween. Thank Merlin I don’t have to see the small Weasel on weekends.)) She was already getting on his nerves.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny sat in the library, alone at a table. She pretended to read as she held a book in front of her. She skipped lunch because she had too many things running through her mind. She knew exactly why she asked Neville to the dance but didn’t want to admit it. Ginny disliked school events requiring a date or shaking your body. She didn’t see the point in shaking you booty against other dirty booties. For six whole years she struggled to find dates to these specific events, and always ended up going with Harry, Hermione, and Ron. All three would go to the dance floor to rub against each other and leave poor old Ginny by the punch bowl, surrounded by other dorks who didn’t have dates, either. She only had a date to the Yule Ball, and that date was Neville. By asking Neville this time, she bought three whole months of not worrying about whom to ask or bring. Although, the hidden reason why she asked Neville was overall, self-pity. She felt sorry for herself, for she had to ask a boy instead of the other way around. She never got invited by a boy (that is, if you don’t count Neville, a dork, Ron, her brother, or Harry, her brother’s friend who acted more like a brother than anything else). As these thoughts ran through her mind she got angry all of a sudden. She ran out of the library, mad at her thoughts, and began searching high and low for Neville.

After searching the Gryffindor common room (no luck), she tried to reach everybody in the Great Hall before they left for afternoon classes.

“Harry, Ron, Hermione!” Ginny screamed. All three turned around, mostly terrified of what she’d do next. Ginny ran towards them, and they all stepped back one. Ginny didn’t notice this because she was bent over, hands clutching her gut.

“Do you guys know where Neville is?” Ginny managed to say between breaths. Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged looks.

“What are you going to do to him?” asked Ron with a horrified look on his face.

Hermione elbowed him and said, “Didn’t he tell you?” Ginny’s face remained blank, so she continued, “His grandmother made him come home earlier than expected. He’s not here at the moment, but will return after Christmas Break.”

“WHAT?! Why? I need to tell him something really important!” Ginny cried.

“Well, you’ll have to wait…” All four heads turned around and found Draco leaning against the Great Hall entrance. “Weasel,” he smirked.

“Why I oughta…” Ron said through clenched teeth. Harry put a hand on Ron’s shoulder to stop him from tackling Draco.

“Calm down, Weasley. I just need to speak with the small one.” Draco jerked his head toward Ginny.

“What do you want with her?!” Ron shouted.

“It’s none of your business. Now come, weasel.” Draco walked toward the entrance and, though reluctant, Ginny followed. Once they got out of earshot, Draco spoke up. “As you know, tomorrow is Halloween, Slytherins’ favorite holiday, and they will be out of the common room tonight. I bet you noticed that I didn’t give you a note saying where you’ll meet me, so I’m saying it now and don’t forget it. Meet me in the Slytherin common room at 8:00 PM.” He said the last part slowly, like if he said it faster, she wouldn’t understand. Before she could answer, Draco left her and headed towards his next class, which he was already late for. Ginny didn’t have time to think, because she realized her next class was all the way on the other side of the school. ((Shoot! Professor McGonagall is going to kill me!))

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As Draco headed for Potions class in the dungeons, Pansy Parkinson stepped in front of him. He nearly fell on top of her but pulled himself up in time before any part of his body touched hers. Pansy pouted.

“The annual Pre-Halloween Party is tonight, as you know.” She tried to say it as calm as possible, but instead it came out rushed and desperate. “I heard it’s going to be the biggest party since the Yule Ball!”

“No, Parkinson. I’ve said it a million times before,” Draco tried to make this as short as possible because he was late to class as it was. “I’ll never take you to any party in your life or your after-life. I will not participate in something that requires me to touch you in any way, shape, or form. Now, step aside.” Draco tried to get past her, but she blocked his way. Once again, Draco managed to pull himself up, inches away from her large chest. Her face lit up.

“Oh, I see! You won’t touch me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t touch you!” She lifted a perfectly manicured finger and pressed it slightly against his shoulder. He flinched slightly and pushed her finger off roughly.

“DON’T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!” Draco barked menacingly, his wand pointed in between her eyes.

“Malfoy. Parkinson.” Both heads turned and saw a heated Professor Snape. “You are late. Get inside. NOW!” The professor disappeared into the classroom, and Draco and Pansy followed.

A/N: Well, that was exciting. Was it not? *crickets chirp* Eh heh.. Well, the next chapter is positively giddy! PROMISE! ;) Please R&R!

CHAPTER FIVE

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

((I can’t believe I got detention!)) Ginny fumed. ((I’ll probably be a few minutes late tonight to tutor Malfoy.)) She headed towards the Great Hall. She looked around and saw Malfoy chatting away at the Slytherin table. Then she saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione chatting away at the Gryffindor table. She’d absolutely feel out of place, interfering into this friendship, but she had no choice. She skipped lunch and her belly was growling, literally. She sat down beside Hermione, who didn’t notice. ((Good, that way I won’t have to speak—))

“Hello Ginny!” Hermione beamed.

“Hey,” the two boys chimed.

“Erm… Hi.” ((Why are they talking to me?))

“Are you busy tonight, Ginny?” Hermione asked.

“Yeah, I got detention from McGonagall, so I won’t be back till around 10?” Ginny answered. “Why do you want to know?”

“You got detention?! For what?!” Ron bellowed. Hermione ignored him and continued.

“Well…”

It was around 8:30 PM when Ginny left Professor McGonagall’s classroom. ((I can’t believe they would do that.)) After her conversation with Hermione, Ginny felt numb as she left the Great Hall. Hermione was the sole master mind of the so called operation: “Crash Slytherin Party.” Ginny headed for the dungeons. Ginny told Hermione that she wouldn’t be able to participate, but Hermione didn’t seem to mind. Ginny noticed this sudden turn-around in the fun department. Hermione gone bad. Ginny reached the portrait hole and came face to face with Draco. He didn’t look too happy.

“You’re late, weasel.”

“No? Really, Malfoy?” Ginny snapped as she pushed Draco aside and walked into the portrait hole.

“Do I hear a hint of sarcasm in that weasel voice of yours?” Draco said while cupping the back of his ear.

“I don’t know, do you?” Ginny mimicked Draco and chuckled, “Can we please get this over with?”

The corners of Draco’s mouth twitched. He walked inside and sat at a nearby table. Next to it stood a cauldron. Its contents bubbled and changed colors. “So, why are you late?” Draco sat in a stool, “You do know I’m paying for the time?”

“It’s your fault I was late in the first place,” Ginny said matter-of-factly.

Draco puffed out his chest and asked proudly, “How so?”

“Well, that stunt you pulled this afternoon.”

Draco stared at the ceiling and thought loudly, “Oh! That?”

“Yeah. Well, my next class happened to be on the other side of school!” Ginny exclaimed.

“It’s not my fault you can’t run faster,” Draco smirked, “I knew those skinny legs needed building up.” Ginny made a move so that her robes covered her legs.

“Why are you staring at my legs, Malfoy?” Ginny asked innocently.

“I…Err…” Draco stammered, but recovered quickly, “because they are just oh, so cute.” He reached forward and lifted her robes. He slid one long finger down her calf. ((Hm… Smooth.)) Ginny stood up abruptly, knocking her chair over and walked quickly toward the cauldron.

“Can we finish this up, now, please?” she blushed furiously.

“Whatever you say,” Draco smirked and made sure to take his time getting up from his chair. ((Ah, the pleasures of annoying a Weasley.))

“Now drop in the eye of newt,” Ginny directed. ((Half an hour later and we are finally getting somewhere!)) “Okay, now stir it counter-clock— Malfoy, are you listening?” she snapped her fingers but Draco didn’t seem to notice. He stared at the entrance as if he was hypnotized. Ginny looked over and heard a series of footsteps outside in the hall. They became louder and suddenly Ginny remembered her conversation with Hermione. ((“After we crash the party, they’ll be running back to Snape and crying their little eyes out!” She then broke into great peals of laughter. She cackled and chortled. It was not a pretty sight. “We’ll be done crashing around 9 PM. Sorry you can’t make it, Ginny.”)) Draco was now trying to get her attention.

“Huh?” Ginny blinked. She heard voices right outside the portrait hole. She looked over at Draco who was already putting away parchment and quills. He saw her staring at him and pushed her to a couch. “Ow! What was that for?” Ginny rubbed her side.

“Get inside!” Draco hissed.

“How am I supposed to— ah!” Draco picked her up and stuffed her in between the cushions. She could only see a sliver of carpet. She then heard the portrait swing open. A series of shoes filled her field of vision. And then someone sat on her head. “Oof!” ((Whoever that is, I’m gonna kill `em!)) She began to move when someone sat on her back. ((Can’t breathe!)) Someone then sat on her legs. ((Damn Malfoy! Because of him I’ll have to stay here `till they all leave!)) She tried to make herself as comfortable as can be in a couch while pushing aside a dead rat. ((Argghh! Most people have money in between their couch cushions!))

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The entrance opened and in poured the Slytherins. Draco carefully sat on the couch. ((I’m guessing this is her legs. It won’t hurt her that much if I sit on her legs, right?)) Little did he know, he was actually sitting on her head. Pansy headed over to the couch and sat on the middle cushion. ((Her chest, perhaps?))

“Draco!” Pansy whined. “That stupid Mudblood and her stooge Gryffindors ruined my party!”

“Huh?” he stared as someone sat on the end of the couch. It was Crabbe. “Get your fat arse off the couch, Crabbe!” Draco roared. “And no one sit on that end of the couch! No one!” Everyone obeyed. ((Good. That’s the most I can do for the little weasel.)) Pansy’s face lit up and a smile spread across her face.

“You do like me, don’t you?!”

“What are you talking about, Parkinson?” Pansy inched closer.

“I knew it. You’ve liked me all along!”

“Seriously. I don’t have a clue what you’re saying.” Pansy was now so close (but not yet touching) that Draco was completely flat against the couch’s armrest.

“First, you play a little game of hard-to-get which I consider flirting, and now…”

“I’m not playing hard-to-get!” Draco protested.

Pansy wasn’t listening and continued, “And now you ask your best mate to get off the couch and leave us two lovebirds alone together!” She laid a hand flat across his chest.

“You better not get any closer, I’m warning you.” Draco hissed.

“You and your little games. What did I tell you?” Pansy was inches away from Draco’s face. Draco turned his head to the side as he went through a fit of strangled coughs. ((What the heck did this girl eat? A corpse or something?)) His nostrils took one last whiff of Pansy Parkinson’s breath before he pushed her off of him. He was careful enough to have as little contact with her as possible and used only his fingertips to push her. He stormed out of the common room leaving Pansy flat on her bottom and all the Slytherins gaping after him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny could hear muffled voices from her spot in between the couch cushions. From those voices she determined that Malfoy was sitting on her head, Pansy on her back, and Crabbe on her legs, that is before Malfoy screamed at him to get off so he could sit alone with Pansy. Then the couch started moving. ((Oh, Merlin. What are they doing up there? I hope they are not snogging… On top of me!)) Ginny grimaced. Then the weight on top of her head was lifted… ((Oh, thank Merlin…Wait…Where is he going?!))

Hours passed (or so it seemed, Ginny couldn’t exactly whip out her watch to check the time every 5 minutes) and it seemed that Draco wasn’t going to return. When the noise finally died down, Ginny poked her head out to look around. The place was trashed, but the party was over. ((Look at this place,)) thought Ginny as she rolled over and fell out of the couch. ((Ow…)) She tried to get up but found that she had cramps everywhere. ((Well, obviously lying in a couch for a whole night with fat Slytherins jumping and rolling around on top of you isn’t good for your back!)) She pulled out her wand and muttered a spell to ease her pain. It worked, except she still had a kink in her neck. She then found her things. ((Oh, great! Under the couch! Why did I have to go in it when there was room under?! Damn that Malfoy. Those poor house-elves, do they have to clean these kinds of messes every— Oh, my God. I need to get my own friends and stop hanging out with Hermione! She’s brainwashing me!)) Ginny’s stomach rumbled. She looked at the clock and saw that she had 5 minutes to get to breakfast. Good thing it was Saturday and the Slytherins would sleep in, but she wouldn’t stay in their common room anyway. She was starved!

Ginny dashed over to the Great Hall, where at that same moment, Draco walked out.

“Where the heck did you go last night?!” Ginny screamed. “You left me there after you practically crushed my skull with your fat arse!”

“How do you know how much my butt weighs?” Draco asked, dazed. ((Wow, she’s a completely different person when she’s mad… and I think it’s pretty damn sexy! UH, WHAT?! Get your mind out of the gutter Malfoy! This is a Weasley you are thinking about!))

“What are you going on about?” Ginny asked incredulously.

“Um, nothing.” Draco mumbled, still staring Ginny up and down.

“Anyway, what were you doing on the couch that made you too busy to rescue me?!” Ginny shouted… Too loudly. Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked out to see what was going on.

“Malfoy,” Ron acknowledged.

“Weasley, Potter, Granger.” Draco answered back, disgustedly.

“What’s going on? Why do you look like that, Ginny?” Hermione walked over to Ginny’s side and stared at her frizzy hair and wrinkled clothes. Ginny suddenly remembered that being shoved into a couch and being sat on for a whole night wouldn’t exactly give her much sleep, let alone beauty sleep. She pulled a mirror out of her bag and gasped at her disheveled appearance. Hermione, Ron, and Harry’s eyes widened as they stepped back. Ginny’s face was livid and they didn’t want to be the recipients of her revenge. She let out a war yell and tackled Draco to the floor.

“What. Are. You. DOING?!” he managed between the sounds of his head banging on the floor.

“Ginny!” screamed Ron as he and Harry wretched her hands off Draco’s neck and pulled her off the now red-faced Slytherin. He stood up and brushed himself off as calmly as if girls attacked him all the time. Then he looked up and they saw that his face was grim and his eyes were cold with malice.

“I don’t have to deal with you, anymore!” he said, pointing a shaking finger in Ginny’s face. “Snape will hear about this.” He turned on his heel and continued down the hall.

“Happy Halloween!” Ginny called after him with mock sweetness.

A/N: WOW!! Long chapter, huh? See? We promised it would be worth it!! Hope it was satisfactory! Please R&R!

A/N: Wow, guys! Thanks for the reviews! Hopefully we will get some more, eh? Well, here is your chapter six! Enjoy! REVIEW PLZ!!

CHAPTER SIX

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

By the time Draco entered Professor Snape’s room, he had cooled off.

“Professor, where are you?” he called out. Professor Snape came out of the back room with a look of surprise on his face.

“I don’t remember giving you detention today…”

“You didn’t, Professor. I’m just here to discuss my tutoring…” Draco sat on an upturned cauldron.

“Well, well. How is that coming along, Mr. Malfoy? Good?” Professor Snape remembered as he sat behind his desk.

“To tell you the truth, the tutor’s getting on my nerves. She tackled me to the floor like a wild beast!”

“Miss Weasley? I don’t think so. She’s a little skinny for a girl of her age.”

“Yea, but she still tackled me. Attacked me, even!”

“No buts, I told you I won’t change her to someone else.”

“But, Professor… Why not?”

“I said no buts, and because she is surprisingly good at potions. Top, in fact.”

“Alright,” Draco grumbled as he drug his feet out of the room. ((Oh, really? I used to be top. Beating me in something, eh? Makes her even more sexy… DID I JUST SAY “SEXY”?! I think I am losing my mind…))

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

((Wow, I handled that like a man… I mean, wo-man,)) Ginny thought as she headed to her room for a shower. ((I smell like Slytherin!)) She had a strong urge to burn her clothes, but that quickly passed, as she knew she wouldn’t be able to buy new ones any time soon. Her family was having money problems, but then again, when weren’t they? There was nothing she could do about it, for money doesn’t grow on trees, magical or not. She never asked for anything anymore and had to buy all her own things. That was why she took up tutoring. Most thought it was because of the kindness in her heart. ((Yeah, right...)) Ginny thought. ((I just need the money!)) Ginny sighed and headed into her bathroom for a shower.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Draco stayed in his dorm the whole morning and contemplated his attack on the smallest Weasley. He seemed to take this morning’s attack too seriously and wanted revenge. Never, in Malfoy history, had a Weasley attacked one and caught them off guard. He didn’t want to push this matter aside, he wanted to get even! ((Hmm… What would annoy a Weasley, besides stuffing them in a couch?)) He smirked at this memory, but of course he stopped as he realized that this was the reason for his revenge. ((Oh, how can I cause a pout on those sexy lips?)) he wondered. ((WHAT AM I DOING?! No part of a weasel is sexy!)) He banged his head against the wall. ((Why would I even care about her? I have many girls after me! Even more than Potter!)) His mouth fell open. ((That’s it! Potter! The weasel fancies him, doesn’t she? It’s practically common knowledge! Bwahaha! I’ve got it! Where’s that potion…)) he thought as he searched for the polyjuice potion in his trunk. ((Damn… I’ll have to steal some from Snape!)) He threw on his invisibility cloak and ran to the dungeons. “Alohamora!” he whispered. The door swung open. ((It’s a good thing all the teachers have to be at lunch!)) He swung open the cupboard and almost instantly found what he was looking for. “Yes!” he said a little too loudly. He heard footsteps from down the hall. ((Shit!)) He quickly closed the cupboard and ran out of the office, locking the door behind him. He was about to hide around a corner when he remembered that he was wearing and invisibility cloak and didn’t need to worry about being seen. He looked at who was coming down the hall. ((Oh, look… Potty and company…)) He smirked. ((Wonderful, and right when I need him.)) Draco crept up behind Harry as The-Boy-Who-Lived looked down the hall for the source of the noise Draco had caused earlier. ((Investigating, as usual?)) Draco stifled a snort. ((Well, no time like the present!)) He sucked in a breath as he reached up and pulled out a strand of hair from Harry’s head.

“Bloody Hell! Ron!” Harry exclaimed. He whirled around and came face-to-face with Ron, who had been the only one behind him at the moment (or, the only one he could see).

“What?” Ron gasped in an almost frightened tone. “Is there a sp-spider on me? Get it off, Harry! Get it off!” Harry rolled his eyes and the trio continued down the hall with Ron still babbling about the spider that didn’t exist and Hermione trying to assure him that it wasn’t there.

((Well, that was surprisingly easy,)) thought Draco as he walked back to his room. ((Probably because Potty’s hair is so long and matted. It was easy to get a hold of. As for the weasel… Scared of spiders?)) Draco knew that they were disgusting little buggers, and he stepped on them every chance he got, but he wasn’t… scared. ((Well, that’s because a Malfoy’s not scared of anything!)) he thought proudly. ((I wonder if the small one is scared of spiders like her brother.)) he pondered as he began to mix the polyjuice potion with the strand of hair he got from Harry. ((Naw, she’s nothing like him. Something so stupid wouldn’t be a fear of hers. But, what is she afraid of?!)) He pushed his eyebrows together, let the potion simmer for a while, and went to sit down to ponder the thought some more. ((All the years I’ve seen the girl, she’s usually been alone… Unless you call being ignored by Potty and Friends “company”. She’s obviously not afraid of being a social outcast. She’s not even scared of me!)) He walked over to the potion. ((Ah, finished! I’ll just go get something to eat from the kitchens before I put my plan into action.))

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny walked toward the kitchens as quickly as she could, but didn’t run because she was sure that she would collapse if she tried. She hadn’t eaten all day, she’d been so busy fuming that she forgot! But, it was almost time for dinner, and the school was having a big party in the Great Hall for Halloween dinner. Ginny wasn’t in the mood to go, so she figured she would just say she was full. She really wanted to be full anyway!

After she had eaten a hearty meal and dessert that she was sure made up for missing lunch and breakfast, she headed back to her room for a nap. She was so tired. ((Thank Merlin Professor Dumbledore offered me that extra room at the beginning of the year!)) She had never had her own room, and when Professor Dumbledore told her that he thought she should take it because of her wonderful grades and for making prefect, she accepted right away. And, now she was in no mood for screaming girls getting ready for a stupid party. She looked up from the floor and noticed that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were walking towards her.

“Come on, Ginny! Let’s go!” Hermione shrieked with a wide smile on her face.

“Go—go where?” Ginny asked hesitantly.

“To get ready for the party!”

“Hermione, I—”

“Oh, I can’t wait! It’s going to be wonderful! I haven’t had a chance to have fun in so long!” Hermione, Ron, and Harry began discussing it excitedly, while Ginny was still trying to tell them that she didn’t want to go.

“Hermione? Harry? Ron? HERMIONE!” Ginny’s patience was running out.

“Yes, Ginny? What is it?” Hermione asked. The trio looked panicked again.

“I don’t think I’ll go to the party tonight, guys. I’ll just hang out in my room.” And she left them there, exchanging looks of confusion between the three of them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Draco waited until they all left until he stepped out from behind the corner. He was on his way to the kitchens when he noticed Ginny coming out. He made himself scarce and then heard the conversation between her and her so-called “friends”. He now had proof that they totally ignored her. ((Oh, well… That makes my plan all the better. And she’ll be alone tonight…)) he smirked. He had schemed up the perfect plan. He would drink the polyjuice potion to become Harry, go to her room, flirt a bit and let her think she has a chance, kiss her, then came the best part. He would dump her. ((It’s brilliant!)) He thought to himself. ((Maybe she’ll be so depressed that she won’t want to tutor anymore and I’ll be off the hook!)) He smirked as he headed back to his room, forgetting all about grabbing some food from the kitchens.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny sat at her bedside, contemplating today’s events and laughed out load. “Malfoy puts up a front and once it falls apart he can’t handle it!” She laughed more. “I can’t image how he felt getting knocked down by little ol’ me! Oh, wait… I can!” She was already on the floor, clutching her gut, for she had fallen from her bedside from laughing too much. At that moment, someone stepped in through the portrait hole. Ginny stopped laughing immediately and looked up. She saw a blurry figure through her tears of hysteria.

“Hello Ginny,” the figure said seductively. ((Sounds like… Malfoy?)) She used the back of her hand to wipe her tearstained cheek and took the hand offered to her. She locked her vision on sparkling green eyes.

“Harry?”

“Hey. Why were you laughing?” He asked curiously.

“Oh, that. Just thinking about that Malfoy character,” she began giggling. His bright eyes became wide.

“Do you like him, maybe?” He was ready to wait for her answer, but she didn’t miss a beat.

“No way, Jose! I was just laughing at his stupid antics! Did you see him today, when I knocked him down?!” She went through peals of laughter with a hint of an evil snicker. Draco’s… or Harry’s eyes turned hard and cold.

“Malfoy’s keep it professional; they plan their attacks if you know what I mean,” he said darkly.

“What’s the matter, Harry? Are you okay?” she looked up at him and his eyes… Harry’s eyes, softened as he remembered he was disguised as Harry Potter.

“Yes. I’m always alright when your around…Wea—Ginny.” Draco mentally kicked himself as he stumbled with those last words. If he wanted to make this believable, he had to act like a goody-goody, which was very complicated according to Draco.

“Why are you here, anyway? I thought you were at the Halloween party.”

“Oh, about that, um, you know, it’s always the same, um. Yeah.” he didn’t plan or consider this question because he always thought she’d snog Harry once she had him alone. So much for “Malfoy’s are professionals”.

“But, Harry,” Ginny started. “Hermione was so excited. Didn’t you see her; the sparkle in her eyes, the joy in her laughter, I thought surely you would go with her!”

((Hermione?)) Draco thought. ((Who the hell is Hermione?)) The complex clockwork racked up in his head. He didn’t realize the lack of answer he had given till Ginny was up in his face, staring at him expectantly.

“Harry!” Ginny snapped her fingers. “Why aren’t you with Hermione? I thought you liked her.” She looked down, “You spend so much time with her. I just thought you’d be with her.”

((I do? Hermione? Potter likes her… Hermi—oh! Mudblood!)) Draco lifted Ginny’s head and looked deep into her eyes. “I know you like me Ginny, no need to hide.” Her eyes widened. “I’d rather be with you, I—uh, want you, Ginny,” Draco finished huskily. ((Yes, that’s good!)) Ginny stepped back.

“Are you okay, Harry? You’re not acting yourself.” Draco stepped forward.

“I never can, when you’re around.” When Ginny stepped back, he only filled the gap between them by stepping forward. They did this a couple times until Draco had her cornered, pressed against the wall with no escape. Ginny’s eyes darted toward the door. It was on the other side of the room. ((Shit! Can’t get away! Hold the phone! This seems a bit fishy to me, it’s—)) She didn’t get to finish her thought as Draco pressed his… Harry’s, lips ever so slightly upon her own. She didn’t pull away, something held her there. It just felt right. As Draco pulled away, Ginny leaned forward, obviously wanting more. Her eyes fluttered open, locking upon steel grey ones. ((Wait…Grey eyes?!))

“MALFOY?!” Ginny sputtered as she stepped back instinctively, knocking her head on the wall in the process. As she fell to the floor, a lean body before her transformed back into its original form before she blacked out.

A/N: Exciting, huh? If you have any comments or enjoyed it just a little, please PLEASE leave a review. It really motivates us to get the chapters out sooner!

A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed!! And to those who didn’t… GRR!! *Beats chest like Tarzan* Shame on you… Shame… You don’t deserve this! You don’t! Well, here is Chapter Seven, please write reviews!

CHAPTER SEVEN

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

As Ginny opened her eyes, all she saw was white. ((Oh, my God! Am I dead? Is this heaven?)) She lifted her head and found that it was only a pillow before she crashed back down, yelping in pain.

“You shouldn’t try to move, that’s some nasty bump you got there,” drawled a voice somewhere nearby.

She recognized that voice, although she was suffering such a bad headache, she couldn’t place who it belonged to. She rolled over on the bed and faced the ceiling.

She noticed the drop in temperature and the change in scenery. As she clutched the blanket closer, she absorbed her present surroundings. She recognized this room; it was a room she had been in before, tutoring an egotistic git.

“MALFOY?!” Ginny screamed, quickly getting angry. She stood up, ignoring the piercing pain flowing through her head.

“At your service, milady,” Draco sneered.

He was clutching her robe, causing Ginny to look down. She let out a sign of relief when she saw her school shirt and skirt on her body, untouched. She stared back at Draco menacingly, inching closer until she felt his warm short breaths on her face.

“What did you just do?! Tell me what you did!” Ginny screamed.

“Now, now, weasel. Don’t have a hernia!” Draco laughed nervously.

“Don’t have a hernia? What about my head?! What about my FRACTURED SKULL?!”

“Oh, about that. It’s not my fault you don’t have balance. Didn’t I tell you your scrawny legs need building up?” Draco stated matter-of-factly.

“Shut up!” Ginny shouted. “You have no idea how much pain I’m going to put you through! I’M GONNA KILL YOU!”

The corner of Draco’s mouth twitched.

“I’ll have to spend galleons on mouthwash just to get that vile taste of venom in my throat OUT!” Ginny went on, “I don’t think MAGIC can get my mouth clean! I think I’ll have to kill myself to save me from this misery! I’ll kill you first, that’s for sure, then!”

“GO AHEAD!” Draco shouted; he surely had had enough of this weasel, “Go ahead and kill me to save me from my misery that is YOU! Then kill yourself to put others out of their misery!”

Ginny was taken aback from this sudden outburst, but kept her feet planted firmly on the ground.

“Oh, and for your information, you weren’t even a good kisser!” Draco spat.

Ginny’s face grew red from anger and embarrassment.

“Well, n-neither are you!” she managed to stutter.

“Oh, like you broke off?!” Draco shot back.

Ginny felt uncomfortable then, like hearing him say he didn’t enjoy it hurt her somehow. She remembered how she felt it was right.

“Plus, you’re not my kind of girl. Too innocent, in fact,” Draco stated as he gave Ginny a once over.

Ginny gawked and felt violated. She instinctively crossed her arms over her chest and screamed, “I AM NOT INNOCENT!”

“Oh, really?” Draco became interested, “How so?”

Ginny was caught off guard. She opened her mouth to defend herself, but immediately closed her mouth after. Her embarrassment quickly passed and anger replaced it.

“I SHOULD TELL PROFESSOR SNAPE! NO, PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE! IF THISI S WHAT I GET FOR TRYING TO HELP YOU PASS THEN IT WON’T MATTER ANYMORE!” she screamed. “YOU’RE GOING TO GET EXPELLED FOR THIS ONE DRACO MAL—”

Draco winced as he clamped a hand over her mouth and cast a silencing spell on the room so that no outside could hear them, although he strongly doubted that they hadn’t already.

“Shut UP, you BANSHEE! I’d be surprised if all of Hogwarts hasn’t woken up because of your ear-splitting shrieks!” he yelled freely. “Go ahead and tell the professors! You’ll only prove yourself as a weasel! But, you’ll have to explain why you let a boy into your room! And you’ll have to admit that you snogged Draco Malfoy! Although that’s quite an achievement,” he smirked, “whatever reputation you have will be ruined.”

Ginny let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in. She stood up and advanced on him until he could feel her breath on his face.

“I hate you,” she breathed.

“Likewise,” he sneered.

Before he could kick her out, she turned on her heel and stalked out of his room. Draco slowly crept to his bed and only then noticed that he was still clutching her robe. He stared at it with disgust and threw it in his trunk.

“Stupid weasel,” Draco said aloud, “Stupid, stupid… Sexy?” Draco stopped himself. “What am I saying?” His heart twinged. “She seemed angry. Maybe I went overboard. Wait, why should I care? She deserved it! Embarrassing me in front of everyone. And now she doesn’t have to tutor me! Professor Snape can’t make her if she doesn’t want to… But, am I going to fail?”

He suddenly noticed that he was speaking aloud… To no one. He looked around quickly and verified that no one was there and the silencing spell was still intact. He scowled as his mirror chuckled and covered his head with the blanket as tried to go to sleep. After all, it was 1:30 AM.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny ran out of the room and slammed the portrait behind her. She ran down the corridors and just kept running for so long that she didn’t notice she was lost until she tripped over a protruding tile on the floor. She fell and hit her head on the floor.

“Ow…” she whined. She touched her face and felt that it was wet. She was surprised to see that she was crying. She listened to her heaving breaths and noticed that she must have been sobbing all the while she was running.

She sat there for a moment until she noticed that it must have been very late. Standing up and looking around, she noticed that she was lost. She leaned against the wall when suddenly it disappeared and she fell through.

((Huh?!)) thought a frantic Ginny. She moved her hands along the walls around her for a door or an opening. She seemed to be in a small closet.

((Grrr!!))

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

((It’s useless,)) thought Draco. He had been trying to sleep for half an hour. ((I’m taking a walk.))

As he made his way through the castle he was surprised to see that nobody was around. He thought they must have been tired from all the Halloween hoopla.

((Maybe Filch partied a bit, also,)) Draco smirked. That is, until he saw Mrs. Norris, the squib’s mangy cat. ((Merlin.)) Draco rolled his eyes and took off at a run before Filch arrived.

He soon found himself in an unfamiliar corridor. He was walking along, looking around when he suddenly heard it. THUMP! THUMP!

((What the…)) He heard it some more. ((It sounds like it’s coming from... inside the wall?)) He ran his hands along the stone walls, but didn’t find anything.

The sound was growing closer and he could also hear some whimpering. He got frustrated so he leaned against the wall when he suddenly felt it disappear. He fell through the wall onto something soft and squishy. It seemed to be the source of the whimpering.

“GEROFF ME!” it shrieked.

“WEASLEY?! What are you doing here?” Draco wondered.

“Are you going to get off me or not?” Ginny managed.

Draco didn’t budge.

“Are we in a closet?”

“Yes! Now get off me!”

Ginny tried pushing him, both hands flat against his back. He rose a few inches and fell back against Ginny, hard.

“Oof! I’m going to get breast cancer because of you!” she breathed. “That’s two injuries in one day!”

Draco sat up, still sitting on Ginny, and spun around to look at her.

“Three, if you count the hernia,” he chuckled. “And once again, you brought it upon yourself. It’s not my fault.”

Ginny’s face grew red out of anger, embarrassment, or just plain out of lack of air, Draco had no idea.

If she was angry, she would have exploded and shouted at him, but she didn’t. If she was embarrassed she would have probably screamed with all her might, but she didn’t. If she was out of breath she would have done nothing and just stare up at his face, like she was doing right now.

Draco panicked and scrambled up to his feet. He stared at her as she slowly got up, brushing off her clothes. His relief was short lived as Ginny advanced upon him, fists balled up against her chest.

“Now, don’t do anything you’ll regret later,” he chuckled nervously, backing up against a wall.

“Oh, don’t worry, Malfoy,” Ginny literally spat.

Draco flinched at the weasel’s saliva on his bare cheek.

“I won’t do anything I’ll regret.”

Draco’s face scrunched up in confusion. Ginny smirked and hurled her tiny fist against his stomach. Draco doubled over.

((Hm, pretty strong.))

He slowly got up and quickly took hold of both Ginny’s hands. They were still held in tiny fists when Draco carefully unfolded them.

“Now, now Weasley, no need to get excited,” he said patronizingly. “Or, perhaps you can’t help it,” he continued. “Maybe you’re on your period?”

Ginny’s mouth fell open. She had certainly had enough. She wretched her hands out Draco’s grip and grabbed his throat.

((Oh, and again with the choking?)) Draco thought as he started to run of out breath. She was screaming something, but he couldn’t comprehend because of the lack of oxygen to his brain.

His vision was starting to blur, she was killing him!

((Oh, she’ll surely get expelled for this one! When they find us, or… her and my dead body, she’ll be in for—wait! I can’t let her kill me! What were you thinking, Malfoy?!))

His hands moved up and spun her around while his foot tripped her and he held her in a hostage position.

“Weasley, you are trying my patience,” he growled. “You must admit I have been very patient with you, and I don’t think you have appreciated it!” ((Why have I been patient with her?!)) he suddenly wondered.

With him distracted, Ginny took the chance to turn around and look him in the eyes. His attention snapped back to her; he no longer held her in his arms. Then, suddenly, she backed into a corner and sat down, her head in her hands.

Draco’s eyes darted around, but he knew there was no escape. He was stuck in a closet with a weasel. A crying weasel. Draco sighed and sat down next to her.

“What’s the matter, Weasley?” he asked, though not very sympathetically.

“What do you care?” she snapped back without looking at him.

((Well, I’m stuck in here with you,)) he frowned. “Well, maybe… Maybe I can… help?” he struggled, for kindness was totally against his programming.

A surprised Ginny turned and looked at him.

“Well?” he pressed on.

“You really want to know?” she snapped. “Fine, then. First of all, I’m stuck in a closet. Second of all,” she snorted, “look who I’m stuck in it with.”

Before he could make a comeback she continued, “No one’s ever going to find us. Just like that time in first year. They only knew I was missing because the writing on the wall said somebody was. I just happened to be the only one not there. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if nobody found me.”

She seemed to be in her own world, so Draco just listened.

“I would have died, of course. I would have died liking Harry. What a joy,” she snorted again.

((What is she, a pig?)) Draco wondered.

“But, now I know what would have happened. I would have never had to be poor again. Never see my family again. Never be top in potions. Never tutor you, only to be humiliated and tortured and be stuck in this stupid closet with you! Why couldn’t I have just died?” she rolled her eyes.

“Hey!” Draco suddenly found his voice. “Don’t be so negative. You’re lucky to be here with me! Do you know how many girls would kill to be in your position?”

“I don’t see why!” she shot back. “I don’t know why anyone would want to be around you, let alone be alone with you!” she scoffed.

“Well, then why don’t I show you!” he said, frustrated.

And then he kissed her.

Suddenly light filled the dim closet and they broke apart to see…

A/N: MUAHAHA!! WE THOUGHT YOU DESERVED A CLIFFIE!! It wasn’t supposed to be a cliffie, but we were quite annoyed that we had 6 chapters but only 12 reviews… Tsk, Tsk…Come on, people!! *winks*

A/N: Here is the long anticipated Chapter Eight! Drum roll please…. TA DA!!

CHAPTER EIGHT

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

Suddenly light filled the dim closet and they broke apart to see Professor Snape looking down at them.

“Well, well…” he said in a half amused, half disgusted voice. “Looks like I found you, and it looks like you’re getting along… I just hope you haven’t been getting too close,” he scowled as he stepped aside.

They scrambled through the door and ran in separate directions to their rooms. Now that it was light, they recognized the way back.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After their last encounter in the closet, Draco and Ginny did their best to avoid each other. Draco avoided Ginny out of regret. He shouldn’t have kissed her, now she’ll get the wrong idea. Two kisses in one night from The Draco Malfoy are reserved for only the greatest and most worthy.

Ginny avoided Draco out of sheer embarrassment and disgust. She wouldn’t be able to face her family now that she has made contact with their enemy in the most repulsive way imagined.

They succeeded in avoiding each other for over a month until Professor Snape caught them in the act. He asked both of them to meet in his class after dinner one day in December.

Ginny reluctantly peeked through the slit of the open door. She saw Draco sitting on top of one of the front row desks, already deep in discussion with the Potions Master, who was sitting at his desk. Professor Snape spotted Ginny.

“Come in, Miss Weasley,” he said.

Ginny sat in the desk next to Draco while they both stared daggers at each other. Professor Snape cleared his throat and their attention snapped back to him.

“It has come to my attention that neither of you has made any effort in the past month to fulfill the duties assigned to you.”

Draco rolled his eyes and Ginny slouched in her seat.

“I’ve decided that you are to stay at Hogwarts during Christmas break to… make up for lost time,” he continued.

“But, Professor! The manor just got remodeled and Mum wanted me to—” Draco started until Ginny began to giggle.

Draco shot her a death glare and said, “I wouldn’t be laughing, weasel. You have to stay, too!”

Ginny’s mouth fell open. She looked at Professor Snape and he nodded.

Ginny scoffed, “But, Professor, my family is going to Romania to visit my brother Char—”

“Well, looks like we’re both going to have to miss out on things we want to do!” Draco interrupted.

“Well, then here comes the best part,” started Professor Snape. “You two will have to meet every night for tutoring sessions.”

Both Draco and Ginny began to argue with him then, but it was obvious that there was to be no more discussion about it. Professor Snape dismissed them and they both walked out of the classroom.

Outside the door Draco stopped in front of Ginny so abruptly that she ran right into him. Draco spun around and sneered at her. Ginny scoffed and pushed him aside. He stumbled but found his balance in time and was about to fight back or at least glare back when he saw that she wasn’t there. He looked down the corridor and saw her robes billowing after her as she turned a corner, out of sight. Draco shrugged and turned the opposite direction to his own room.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny met up with The Trio in the Gryffindor common room and they all headed to the Great Hall. As Harry and Hermione headed for the portrait hole, Ginny placed her hand on Ron’s shoulder, causing him to stop. He raised a hand to stop Harry and Hermione but Ginny said, “Ron, can we talk for a minute?”

He looked startled, but nodded. Ginny led Ron through the growing crowds of people going the opposite direction.

When they finally found a spot in a dark corner, Ginny took a deep breath.

“Ron, I’ve got to tell you something.”

“Well, obviously! Why the heck else would you bring me here? You know, you’re costing me some valuable quality time I could spend with Harry and Hermione before we leave for Romania,” Ron whined.

((Humph. He’s so ignorant.)) “Well, I’m not coming… to Romania,” Ginny started cautiously, waiting for his reaction. When he continued to stare, she began to talk again.

“You see, Professor Snape said I must stay to make up some work I missed this term,” she said in one hurried breath.

Ron continued to look at her as if waiting for more.

“Ron, that’s all…” she stated, bewildered.

“That’s it, Gin? Okay, whatever…” he said, shaking his head.

“Anyway, I’m going to go now… I’ll ask Harry to come in your place. Take care, Gin. Bye!” Ron said as he quickly kissed her on the cheek and ran back to Harry and Hermione, calling their names, leaving Ginny standing in the same spot, mouth open.

((Shows how much he cares.))

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As Draco made his way to his bedroom, he dwelled on the fact that he would be at Hogwarts during the holidays. He sighed. ((Oh, well… At least there are no classes.))

He couldn’t help but think that he wouldn’t even be in this predicament if it wasn’t for Weasley, and that closet. They would have been tutoring as usual if they hadn’t gotten so uncomfortable since then…

He searched for a way to blame it on her, but knew it was his own fault he kissed her. ((But she was going on and on about how nobody would want to be alone with me! I got frustrated and that was the only way I could shut her up and make her see the reason why so many girls want to be alone with me!))

He wondered if she took it the wrong way. He rolled his eyes. ((Whatever. Of course she didn’t. She knows I would never do that out of… lust…) he shuddered at the thought. ((Oh, well, I better let it go… She’s going to be here soon,)) he thought as he stepped into his room.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny made her way to Draco’s room with only one thought in her head. Okay, maybe two. She was anxious. What was wrong with him, anyway? He kissed her, twice! Unless you don’t count the first time since technically he was Harry. But the second time… Yep, definitely him.

Ginny huffed as she turned to her second thought. She had really wanted to go to Romania to visit Charlie. He was by far her favorite brother, the only one who understood her. And now, because of Draco, she wouldn’t be able to see him.

She suddenly noticed that she was already at the room. She frowned as she threw open the portrait and stomped in. She threw her books down as she took a seat at the table that Draco always had out when Ginny arrived.

Hearing the noise, Draco stepped out of the bathroom and stared at Ginny.

“Who let you in?” he raised one eyebrow.

“I let myself in!” she retaliated.

“Since when have I let you do that?”

“Since when have I needed your permission to do anything?!”

Draco rolled his eyes and sat down.

“What’s buggin’ you?” he inquired.

Ginny was taken aback by his question.

“Wha—what do you care?”

“Well, as we are practically the only two people staying at Hogwarts this Christmas, I’m obviously going to be the target of your anger.”

He tilted his head a bit to examine his cuticles, and then looked up at Ginny again. He leaned closer to her.

“I just want to know what my death will be driven by. You will be the death of me, you know,” he smirked.

“Haven’t you had enough?” Ginny huffed. “You’re always mocking me and playing with my emotions!”

“Well, it’s not like you don’t do it to me. The mocking part, not the playing with emotions crap,” Draco added.

“See, this is exactly why I wonder how the heck people enjoy your company!” Ginny screamed, obviously fed up.

“Now, now little weasel. You don’t want me to prove it once again by kissing your chicken lips. Or, do you?” he mocked.

“Chicken lips?” Ginny retorted disbelievingly, “Your lips are so slimy and slippery, I swear you wear ladies’ fruity lip gloss!”

Draco clamped a long fingered hand on Ginny’s small mouth.

“Keep that to yourself! We wouldn’t want that little bit of information spreading across Hogwarts grounds!” Draco smirked as Ginny struggled to escape from his grip.

When she finally did, she whispered dangerously, “You’re pathetic.”

“Oh, am I?” We’ll see about that.”

He leaned in close enough to hear Ginny’s racing heartbeat.

“Hm,” Draco hummed as he placed an amused grin on his angular face. He pointed directly to her heart and questioned, “Anxious, are you not?”

“You jackass,” Ginny huffed.

Draco smirked and fell back laughing, yet more like snickering.

“That’s it, I’m ending this session, now!” Ginny ran out, tired of Draco’s antics.

“Oh, well. Fine by me,” Draco smirked.

A/N: Well, there you go. Hope you liked it! Any comments, please review. We really appreciate it!

Dolly: Llama has something to say…
Llama: Okay, if any of you read I Just Got Laid Off, kindly erase those 2 minutes from your brain permanently. I was just having a little fun and you didn’t need to freak out! *Sob*

Dolly: *Pats Llama’s back* Keep reading, guys!

A/N: We are sorry that it took really, really long to update. It usually only takes a little while, for us. Sadly, exams are coming up (though we don’t plan to study), and our minds have been elsewhere lately. Thanks for the reviews! Enjoy Chapter Nine.

CHAPTER NINE

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

Snape caught word of what had happened and arranged an emergency meeting in his classroom. When they met there, he spoke up before anyone started with their juvenile ramblings.

“I do not understand,” Professor Snape massaged his temples, “why you children don’t understand that these tutoring sessions are for tutoring! Not for mindless flirting!”

Both Ginny and Draco began to object to that statement at the same time.

Professor Snape stood up and slammed his hand onto his desk. Immediately the students quieted.

“Damn hormones,” he muttered. “I am not going to tolerate anymore of your childish antics! I am taking control now,” he said menacingly.

Ginny and Draco stared at him.

“You will now meet here for tutoring. You have lost the privilege of privacy. You need supervision,” he continued. “Now, get out of my sight!”

It was obvious that there was going to be no more discussing it. Ginny and Draco both hung their heads as they sulked out of the dungeons.

As soon as they were out of Professor Snape’s vision, Ginny tripped Draco and slammed him into the wall.

“Getting frisky, are we? Now I know whose hormones he was talking about. Can’t keep your hands off me?” Draco winked.

Ginny growled and shook her head. She stalked away while Draco shrugged.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As Ginny walked toward the dungeons, she dreaded what she knew was coming. The past few days had been torture for her. The tutoring sessions had been held in Snape’s classroom as planned and he had been watching them from his desk while grading papers and such.

Draco had been the cause of her torture. How was she supposed to teach him with him mocking her and muttering such revolting and stupid taunts under his breath?

Ginny knew it didn’t matter if he muttered them or shouted them from the rooftops, he was the teacher’s pet and Professor Snape simply ignored it. But when Ginny retaliated it was, “Sit down, Ms. Weasley!”, “You’re getting paid to teach, Ms. Weasley!”, or “If you hex him one more time…”

And that was all on the first session. Since then Ginny had to shut her mouth and deal with it. Her own personal Hell would not end when the session did, and it didn’t begin at the start, either.

It seemed that Draco and she were the only students who stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas break. Draco seemed to hold her responsible, so he spent his days following her all around school. From breakfast to bed-time all she saw was white-blonde hair… and red. There was a time that she practically clawed his face off.

Today, she tried to avoid him by skipping breakfast and going for a walk by the lake. She was greeted with a snowball to the side of her head.

“Mal—” she didn’t finish saying his name as another snowball flew to her face and into her mouth.

She grabbed a chunk of snow and threw it with all her might. Unfortunately, her snowball went a few feet into the air and plopped back down onto the ground.

“If you’re thinking of becoming a chaser, don’t you think you should learn how to throw?” Draco chuckled.

Ginny blushed furiously and grabbed a larger clump of snow near the lake. She threw it and it did the same thing, went a couple feet into the air and came flying back to the ground.

Draco laughed some more and headed for the entrance doors. Ginny stared after him in disbelief.

“Well, I’ll see you later for tutor—” Draco began but was stopped short as a snowball knocked into the back of his head.

He tumbled forward into a pile of snow.

“Ow,” came a muffled sound from the snow. Ginny jumped up and punched the air with her fists.

“How do you like that?!” Ginny fell to the floor and clutched her gut, laughing.

Draco sat up. He didn’t look amused as he rubbed the back of his head. He stood up and walked over to the now shaking Ginny. She looked up and went through a new batch of giggles.

Draco’s mouth twitched.

“So you enjoy hurting people? Is that it?” he demanded.

Ginny pointed and laughed, “Can’t you take a joke? Loosen your pants; they’re like, squeezing your brain!”

Draco’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she continued to giggle. When finally her laughter subsided, Ginny tried to stand up without assistance from Draco. She stared up at him, and he stared back.

Then, to her surprise, he tackled her back to the ground. He ran his fingers up and down her sides and became satisfied when she began giggling non-stop once again.

“Dra-co!” she guffawed.

They both froze as their eyes locked. She had just used his first name. Ginny blushed and looked away quickly. Draco let out a breath and laid back down onto the snow and they both stared up at the sky. It was still snowing.

Ginny felt the contrast between the temperatures of the snow underneath her and the heat of Draco’s body beside her. She turned to her right and looked at him. She began to get up.

As she stepped over him, Draco stuck out his foot and Ginny once again met the snow covered ground. She looked up to see a chuckling Draco walking back toward the entrance doors.

“I’ll be waiting for you when you come back inside, Weasley! It’s too cold to stay out here! Brr!” he winked as the doors shut behind him.

Ginny entered the classroom and sat down next to Draco.

After five minutes in Snape’s classroom trying to tutor Draco, Ginny found herself begging for Christmas to come. Snape had announced absolutely no tutoring on Christmas Day. It happened to be Christmas Eve and Draco was being the worst.

He didn’t even try to hide his simultaneous put downs about her outrageous red hair (“Omigod! Your head’s on fire!” –dumps bucket of water over Ginny’s head- “Oh, wait… That’s just your hair.”), her numerous siblings (“Popping one out anytime soon?... Eww! Visual image, Arthur and Molly in bed?” –both of them shuddered at that- ), or other incoherent mumblings.

Ginny just gave up and chose to ignore him while doing her work. Draco seemed confused and Snape just ignored them as usual. He trusted them alone and left for an errand.

“I’ll be back in five minutes,” he announced.

After he left the room Draco said, “Oh, look what you did, Weasley! He’s not coming back! He ran away because your stench of poorness filled the room so quickly!”

Ginny didn’t even bother to answer him.

His mouth opened slightly; he thought she would fight back if Snape wasn’t there, but apparently she had truly given up. He tried again.

“Slytherin got your tongue, Weasley?”

Ginny rolled her eyes.

“I wouldn’t let you anywhere near my tongue, Malfoy. Now, stir counter-clockwise.”

She began to write on her notepad. As Draco stirred, he tried to peek over her shoulder and read what she was writing. He noticed that her handwriting was exceptionally well.

She seemed to be checking names off her Christmas list that she had already sent presents to.

“I’m not on your list, Weasley?” Draco asked.

“Oh, you’re on a list all right. Just not this one,” Ginny answered without looking up.

((Probably her “People to Kill” list,)) Draco thought.

“Oh? You have so many friends you need two Christmas lists?” he tried.

“You’re not on my list, Malfoy.”

“Well,” Draco huffed, “looks like you won’t get anything from me, either!”

“Really?” Ginny looked up. “I think I’ll live.”

Draco was getting annoyed that he couldn’t touch a nerve. He thought back to what he used to do that annoyed her the most. He had insulted her looks, family, social status, and said she smelled.

“Now drop in the unicorn hair,” she ordered.

“Where is it?” Draco asked absentmindedly.

The only other thing that had made her mad was when he kissed her.

“It’s behind me,” Ginny said as she pointed a thumb over her shoulder.

As he leaned forward and reached over her, he gently placed his lips over hers.

He smiled, waiting for her reaction. She stood still and somewhat became stiff for a while, but then she did something that surprised him.

Ginny snaked her arms around his neck and pushed his head harder against her face, deepening the kiss. He was getting lost in her aggressive ways, but snapped back to reality as she bit his bottom lip, demanding to explore his mouth.

He began to part his lips, but thought more of it and broke away from her and stared, obviously confused.

“What is wrong with you today?!” Draco screamed like a girl.

Ginny just smiled. He got even more annoyed and stalked out of the room, like a sissy little girl.

((I knew that would scare him off,)) Ginny smiled as she walked to the doorway, checking off names on her Christmas List as though nothing happened.

A/N: So, how was it? Did you all like it? Hopefully you did!! Please review and stay tuned for Chapter Ten!

CHAPTER TEN

"TALKING" ((THINKING))

A/N: Hey guys, here’s another chapter. This time it didn’t take as long as 2 weeks, it took one week! Sorry, but this week our exams are taking place and er, we need to study…cough, but no, we used our precious study time to entertain and make you guys happy and we hope you appreciate it because -becomes demented and speaks darkly- its never going to happen again. Enjoy!

It was finally Christmas, and Ginny found a pile of presents at the foot of her bed. She lifted the covers and crawled over to her pile of treasure. She sat cross-legged as she read the cards attached to each present. She lifted the first box, which was the largest, and recognized it to be from her parents. After all, they had used the same wrapping paper since… forever (they liked to recycle).

She read the letter and smiled.

Dear Ginny-Honey,

We hope you're doing okay. Our poor baby, all alone in that big castle. This is the first time we aren't together for the Christmas holidays! Sorry about the tear stains, cupcake. That was your mother, as you can guess. We all hope you are doing well. We miss you so much. We love you!

With all the love in our hearts,

Mom & Dad

She opened the present and found a beautiful scarf and a bonnet with dangling fur balls at its ends. ((Phew, finally no more sweaters for me!))

She then reached for a medium-sized box and read the letter. She repeated this until she found a small, unfamiliar silver box. There was no letter or any indication of whom it was from. Of course, she had made the obvious guess that it was probably from the only other occupant in the castle as of now.

Her thoughts were confirmed as she stared at the object inside the box. It looked like… a tongue-scraper. She noticed a small note inside the box under the object.

I wouldn't let you near my tongue, either. At least, not until you clean it.

Ginny huffed and closed the box, but she still placed it with her other presents. ((It could come in handy, right?))

As Ginny turned the corner and was about to step into the Great Hall, she was suddenly blinded by two shiny, grey eyes.

"BOO!" Draco yelled as Ginny jumped backwards, clutching her heart.

((Gosh! How does he pop out of nowhere like that?))

"I was just coming to find you, Ginny." Draco said huskily.

Ginny's mouth fell open and her eyes got wider.

Draco winked, grabbed her hand, and pulled her to the one table in the center of Great Hall. Since there was hardly anyone staying at Hogwarts, the teachers removed all the house tables and insisted that they all sit together.

Draco pulled out a chair and slightly pressed his hand on her shoulder indicating for her to sit down. As soon as she sat down, upon the table appeared heaps of food.

Draco took a seat across from Ginny and bore his steely grey eyes into her head as she scarffed down enough food to feed her over-populated family. He smirked inwardly as he remembered his plan.

The night before, Draco was so distraught that he couldn't sleep. He thought and thought and finally deciphered what the kiss really meant and why she encouraged it-to scare him away.

((Well, two can play at that game,)) he had thought.

It was perfect.

Draco reached over and placed his hand over Ginny’s, which at that moment held a very pointy fork. Ginny's eyes darted towards their hands and, startled, almost fell out of her chair as she looked up to see that his face was much too close for comfort.

She vaguely considered stabbing Draco's hand with her oh, so friendly fork but thought better of it. She frantically looked around and saw that the Great Hall was completely empty other than Draco and herself, and that the entrance was clamped shut.

Draco spoke up.

"I see the teachers aren't here; they probably like to sleep in on Christmas Day," he said huskily, licking his lips.

"I can see that…" Ginny replied cautiously.

She tried retching her hand free from Draco's grip but unfortunately failed, as he was fairly strong. Her eyes narrowed as she figured out what he was trying to do. She dropped her fork and twisted her arm so that she was the one holding his hand.

She pushed her chair back and lifted a foot over it to hoist herself up on top of the table. Pushing her plate aside as she crawled over the table, she began loosening his tie. She pushed his shoulders back and both fell to the floor, Ginny on top of Draco.

Ginny grabbed his collar and, pulling him hard against her, forced herself to kiss him as he had done to her many times before.

He mumbled something against her mouth and Ginny took this as an opportunity to stick her tongue down his throat through his parted lips. They rolled over so that Ginny was now trapped in Draco's embrace.

She broke apart and trailed small kisses toward his ear where she nibbled it affectionately-"Ow," Draco whined-or maybe aggressively. His yelp of pain slowly became a moan. He couldn't believe he was doing this with a redheaded Weasley.

By then he had realized that she knew his plan. ((Oh, so that's how it is? Well, I'm not backing down 'till she backs down!))

Draco snaked an arm around her waist and began playing with the hem of her shirt, slowly lifting it up in the process. Ginny slapped Draco's hand and angrily stared up at him.

He raised an eyebrow in a way that said, "So, you give up, eh?"

Ginny shot a determined look back at him and relaxed, letting her arms fall at her sides.

At that moment both their heads turned to the doors of the Great Hall. They could hear voices.

Thinking fast, Draco took it upon himself to roll the both of them under the table. Ginny tried to speak, but Draco shushed her by clamping a hand on her mouth. From under the table, they could see rows of feet shuffling into the Great Hall.

The teachers seemed drowsy and grumpy; Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall were already at it. (A/N: Dolly thought this had a hidden meaning to it...if you catch my drift. Llama: Get your mind out of the gutter! Jeez...)

"No! Ginny would never do such a thing!" screeched McGonagall.

"Are you suggesting that a Malfoy would touch a Weasley?" Snape shot back with menace.

Ginny fought the urge to laugh out loud.

"Of course! He's a growing boy, isn't he? With those raging hormones, none the less!"

It was Ginny's turn to clamp a hand over Draco's mouth. She shot him a glare that meant business.

She looked through the chairs to find a way out when suddenly a pair of shoes with bells on them appeared. Their owner spoke.

"Oh, I see there have been a few early birds that were here before us."

((I swear that sound exactly like the old hag,)) Draco thought.

Draco gave Ginny a questioning look as she inwardly kicked herself for leaving her food all over the table.

"I guess we'll have to stay here until they leave," Ginny whispered as she saw the pair of feet finding their way to the table.

Draco smirked and turned to look at her.

"Would you like to do something to pass the time away?"

Ginny stared blankly up at him, "What do you have in mind?"

Draco smirked and licked his lips.

"Ugh!" Ginny gagged, pointing a finger in her mouth.

"Whatever," Draco mumbled, obviously disappointed.

Ginny was once again forced atop of Draco as the teachers took their seats. Ginny thought she was going to cry. They laid there for hours (or so it seemed), listening to the mindless ramblings of the Hogwarts teachers.

Finally, they got up and left.

"How much do they eat?" Ginny groaned as she rolled off of Draco.

When he didn't answer, she turned around and saw that he was fast asleep.

((Oh. My. God! How can he sleep when we were almost caught in that position?!))

She crawled back under the table and was about to smack him upside the head, but suddenly changed her mind and kissed him awake.

His eyes fluttered open and as soon as he noticed her, he sat up so abruptly that his head banged on the underside of the table.

Ginny giggled as she crawled out from underneath the table.

"Now we both have fractured skulls," she mumbled.

Draco glared at her backside, rubbing the back of his head. He suddenly noticed he had a clear view of under her skirt. He looked up at Ginny and smirked.

"I see London, I see France…"

Ginny stared at him as he raised an eyebrow, "Aren't you a little too young for those type of knickers?"

Ginny blushed furiously as she tightened her robes around her.

Draco got up and wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Can I get a closer look, perhaps with no robes?" Draco whispered against her ear.

Ginny's face grew pale as Draco nipped at her earlobe.

She yelped and he said, "I'll be gentler next time."

"There isn't going to be a next time!" Ginny screamed

Draco wasted no time.

"So you give up?" he demanded.

"Never," Ginny whispered dangerously.

Draco felt her warm breath tingling against his cold cheek.

"We'll see about that."

He suddenly pushed her forward, guiding her with the small of her back, out of the Great Hall.

"Where are you taking me?!" Ginny shrieked.

"Hush! Someone will hear you, you banshee!" he whispered. "I've got to show you something."

A/N: Yay! So what do you guys think Draco is going to show her? Send in your ideas! Not that it matters now because we already wrote it and we know what’s going to happen! Muahaha…but we just want to know what you guys think! Stay tuned for the next chapter! Yay!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

As they entered Draco’s room, Ginny tripped on the rug. Draco caught her and gently threw her on his bed. He had begun to unbutton his shirt when—

“NO!! AHH!! My virgin eyes! They BURN!” she screamed as she shielded her face with her hands.

Draco scowled.

He tore off his shirt and yelled, “SURPRISE!”

Ginny screamed as she saw Ginevra tattooed over his heart in fancy writing. Draco broke into peals of laughter.

“That’s horrible!” Ginny screamed, jumping up from the bed.

Draco pointed his wand to his chest and it sucked up the ink like a vacuum.

“I was only joking, Weasley,” he smirked. “Don’t have a cow.”

He leaped and landed stomach first into his sea of silk sheets. He rolled over and lifted his head.

“So…” Draco said as he stared at Ginny, who just stood awkwardly at the foot of his bed.

“So…” Ginny repeated.

Draco narrowed his eyes.

“Wanna have some fun?” he smirked.

“What kind of fun?” Ginny asked cautiously.

“Oh, I dunno… Let’s play a little game!”

“What kind of game?”

“You pick,” he winked.

“Okay…Uh…How about truth or dare?” Ginny suggested. ((No harm in that, right?))

“Alright, but let’s add a little twist,” Draco rubbed his hands together (like an idiot). “If you don’t accept the dare, you have to take off an article of clothing!”

“No way, you horny little toad!” Ginny said, giving him the hand. “Uh-uh!”

“Why not, is Miss Weasley insecure about her body?”

“No, I just don’t want to see yours!”

“Fine! I don’t want to show it to you!”

“Well, here’s a better idea. Whoever doesn’t accept the dare must be nice to their tutor for a week.”

Draco thought for a moment.

“Wait a second! You don’t have a tutor!” he pointed out.

“Exactly,” Ginny replied patronizingly.

Draco frowned, still confused, but he accepted anyways.

“Do you have any Veritaserum?” Ginny asked Draco.

“Duh! How else would I be in control of the school?” Draco scoffed.

“Just go get it! Don’t give me your life story!”

Let the game begin.

“Alright, Ginny, darling. Drink up!” Draco said as he handed Ginny a small vile of Veritaserum.

“Cheers,” Ginny replied as they both gulped down the potion. ((No turning back now!))

“Who goes first?” Draco said, coughing from the bitter taste of the truth potion.

“Let’s flip a knut,” Ginny replied.

Draco chuckled to himself. ((Probably the only coin she has!))

“Call it!” Ginny said.

“Tails,” Draco answered.

Ginny caught the coin, looked at it, and pouted.

“Aww, did little Drakie get it right?” Draco laughed. “Okay, Ginny, my sweet. Truth or dare?”

“Uh, truth?” Ginny picked.

“When the Hell are you going to stop Potter from fucking around with you and finally realize that he doesn’t give a fuck about you?!” Draco asked angrily. He seemed to want to know this for a long time, but inwardly kicked himself as he had forgotten that Veritaserum also makes you reveal your true feelings.

Ginny’s mouth fell open, and words begin to fall out.

“I stopped liking Harry years ago, probably second or third year. I only think of him as a friend now, but I don’t think he doesn’t appreciate me! I’m like his little sister.”

Draco seemed satisfied and Ginny seemed embarrassed.

“Why do you care?!” Ginny shrieked.

“I’m ridiculously jealous,” Draco answered immediately. “Hey! That wasn’t fair! You didn’t even give me a choice!”

Ginny said nothing, just simply stared, wide-eyed at Draco.

“Jealous?” she croaked quietly.

Once again Draco began talking.

“I have been jealous of Potter since the day he had the courage to decline my offer of friendship.”

Draco was getting angry.

“Stop doing that!” he whined. “It’s my turn now!”

“Fine,” Ginny rolled her eyes.

“Truth or dare?” he asked maliciously.

“Truth.”

((What should I ask?)) Draco thought as he wished she would have picked dare. ((That would have been more interesting.))

He noticed Ginny staring, so he asked a question.

“Are you sexually attracted to me?”

He leaned forward and nipped at her bottom lip.

Ginny pushed him away and tried to cover her mouth as the truth poured out.

“Of course I am! Everyone is, except maybe Hermione and some of the guys. Mind you, I also know of some guys who do fancy you. I think it’s your hair. Or your eyes, they are just so sad and angry that someone once told me they wanted to ‘tame the wild beast.’ I was laughing for weeks. You really are a slimy git, though,” she finished, her eyes closed and hands over her ears.

((Look at me, Mr. Popular,)) Draco chuckled to himself.

“I don’t want to play anymore,” Draco suddenly said.

Ginny raised an eyebrow, “Why not?”

“Because, I don’t want to!” Draco whined.

“Oh, no. It’s my turn!”

Draco crossed his arms over his chest and pouted.

“Truth or dare?” Ginny asked innocently.

Draco knew he might be risking his life to pick dare, so truth it was.

“I’m on your mind a lot, you probably even dream about me. I know you aren’t just acting when you kiss me,” she recited, walking around the room.

She sat down next to him, looked him in the eye, and asked him, “Does Draco Malfoy, Mighty King of the Slytherins, have a little crush on Ginny Weasley? Part of the family he has always known to hate?”

“Not a little crush,” Draco started solemnly. “A BIG crush. I don’t even know why! You’re not even that pretty! No offense, I didn’t say it to be mean; I would never want to make you sad. Not pretty, Ginny darling, but beautiful. I only try to annoy you because you’re sexy when you’re mad!”

((Damn this game! Damn Veritaserum! Damn that Weasley that’s staring at me like I’ve grown three heads!))

“Uh, Draco…” Ginny started quietly without looking at him. “I was only joking. The Veritaserum wore off two minutes ago. I thought you would notice.”

With that, she got up and walked out of his room.

A/N: Sorry it was so short! We thought that would be a good place to leave off. Stupid Draco! He didn’t know the time limit for the Polyjuice Potion, or the Veritaserum! ROFL! No wonder he’s failing potions!

A/N: WOW! Has it really been a whole month or just a few weeks? Sorry, guys! We kind of lost track of time with school almost ending and all… END OF SCHOOL FEVER! Anyways, here’s the long awaited chapter. Hopefully you guys have stayed with us and haven’t totally given up on our story. We tried making it a bit longer than our usual because it was so overdue, but to no avail. We want to thank everyone who reviewed! We now have 100 reviews!! Portkey reviewers: We do reply to most if not all of your questions that you review, so once in a while check your review to see if you have gotten an answer to any questions or replies to any comments. We read every one of them and they all encourage us to make our story the best it can be! Well, we’re going to stop rambling and let you enjoy the story! Thanks, guys!

CHAPTER TWELVE

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

Ginny walked aimlessly throughout the corridors, playing that night’s recent scene in her mind, “A BIG crush… Not pretty, Ginny darling, but beautiful… I only try to annoy you because you are sexy when you’re mad…”

((He wasn’t even influenced!))

Ginny decided to go to the Great Hall, for it was growing dark outside.

((Must be dinner,)) she thought. ((Time sure flies when you’re having fun, err, damaging-your-brain-with-harmful-information-that-may-traumatize-you-for-the-rest-of-your-life.)) Ginny nodded. ((That’s better.))

She decided then, standing in front of the Great Hall entrance, that Draco might be there, so it’d be better if she just went to the kitchens so she wouldn’t have to face him.

After tickling the pear, she was immediately bombarded by short little elves. Ginny picked a young girl elf and asked for a sandwich. The elf led her to a table, scampered off, and returned not a second later with a plate of sandwiches. Ginny saw that she looked sad, so she invited the elf to eat with her.

“Okay,” squeaked the elf as she pulled out a chair and plopped down into it. She sighed quietly, but Ginny heard.

“What’s wrong?” Ginny asked sympathetically.

“Oh, don’t let Jinxy be ruining your dinner with the small elf problems that she has,” the elf called Jinxy smiled sadly.

“Come on,” Ginny nudged her slightly, “I’m a great listener.”

“Well, alright. Jinxy’s boyfriend Dobby is having more interest in the shopping and the clothing than in the Jinxy!” she cried as two fat tears rolled down her cheeks. She put her face into her hands and sobbed, her small shoulders shaking.

((Dobby? Wasn’t he Draco’s house-elf?)) Ginny cringed at the thought of the blonde-haired boy.

“I know what you can do!” Ginny said suddenly. The elf raised her head slowly and wiped her tears with shaking hands.

“Miss is having some advice for Jinxy?” she asked with hopeful eyes and a quivering bottom lip.

Ginny took Jinxy’s hand and spoke slowly, “Why don’t you go shopping with Dobby? That way you can spend time with him and maybe you’ll like shopping, too!”

Jinxy smiled wide. “Miss is right! Jinxy is having to be doing what Dobby likes, also! Not only what Jinxy likes! Miss is giving wonderful advice!” She hugged Ginny and felt confident enough to get herself a sandwich.

Ginny watched the elf happily munching, acting as if her life was going to be okay. Ginny frowned, obviously jealous and eager to feel the same way.

“Can I ask for advice?” Ginny asked her. The house-elf looked up and dropped her sandwich.

“How may Jinxy be of service?”

“Well, there’s this boy…”

“A Dobby-like boy?”

“Uh… sure, like Dobby, except or the shopping fetish that is. Instead his fetish is possibly himself,” Ginny said as she wondered why she was doing this.

“Jinxy is thinking that a man who enjoys the company of himself more than the company of you is not a man being worth of your love.”

Ginny sighed in relief. ((Good, no more Draco, I’d say.))

“Unless the boy has proclaimed his life for you,” the elf said in a very mature voice. “Jinxy thinks,” she added, voice squeaky again.

Ginny gawked in disbelief. She used a hand to grab under her chin and closed her mouth. The elf stared at her with big, expectant eyes.

“Well, the thing is, he did say that… a few minutes ago,” Ginny heard herself say.

“Hmm… Then miss is a lucky girl, having a boy like that. Jinxy thinks miss shouldn’t be letting him go. He is sounding special.”

Once again, Ginny’s mouth fell open in disbelief, but this time she didn’t bother to close it. She stared at the elf with bulging eyes as Jinxy stood up and walked over to her. She placed a thin hand upon Ginny’s shoulder and said, “Good luck.”

Instead of letting go of Ginny’s shoulder she began shaking it. Ginny opened her mouth to tell her to stop it, but no sound came out. She tried again, louder, and heard her own voice echo in the distance. Then she heard a new voice. It was familiar and it screeched, “Ginny, wake up!”

At that, Ginny opened her eyes and found herself in her dormitory, tangled up in her sheets. She stared up at concerned brown eyes. It was none other than Hermione. Just then, Ginny realized that there were other voices in the room, probably chatting away about the Christmas holidays.

((Guess they’re back,)) she thought miserably.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

All breakfast, Ginny’s eyes were glazed over because she kept thinking about her dream. She had some hope that the whole day had been a dream, but the Veritaserum was still on her breath, so she really did have a problem. Draco was in love with her.

((Gross,)) she thought. But, she was lying to herself. She wanted to think it was gross, but she sort of liked him, too. ((What is WRONG with me? Wait, he said crush… He’s probably over it by now! Yes! My life is back!))

Ginny noticed that she was standing up with a maniac grin on her face.

“Ginny?” Hermione asked with worried eyes.

“Uh…” she began to answer when Ron suddenly stood up.

“What has been going on these past two weeks?!” he demanded. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you here all alone!” he said with his hands on his hips.

“Ronald, please. I can take care of myself. Also, when I told you I wasn’t coming you barely blinked before you asked Harry to replace me! No offense, Harry.” Ginny sighed.

Harry blushed slightly and hung his head.

“You shouldn’t speak that way about Potter, Weasley,” came a drawling voice from behind her.

Ginny’s lungs collapsed as she turned to face Draco.

“He might get too depressed to save the world from the Dark Lord next time. And that would be such a pity,” he sneered.

“Oh, sod off, Malfoy,” Ron spoke. “Kindly remove yourself from our environment.”

“Who are you kidding, Ron? Malfoy doesn’t do anything out of kindness,” huffed Hermione.

Draco simply scowled and turned to Ginny. He opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it and walked off. Ginny sighed in relief. Ron glared at her.

“WHAT?!” she snapped as she turned on her heel and stalked out of the Great Hall.

As the doors shut behind her, someone grabbed her elbow and pulled her behind a statue. Someone blonde.

Ginny struggled to get away, but knew that she couldn’t. She began to whimper.

“I’m not going to kill you, Weasley!” Draco said through clenched teeth.

“That may be, but you might rape me!” she whined.

Draco immediately released her arm.

“Thank you!” she snapped as she rubbed it affectionately.

Draco sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Look, about yesterday—”

When he looked back down, Ginny had already dashed off towards the Gryffindor common room, leaving behind a now apoplectic Draco.

As Ginny turned the last corner to the common room, she tripped over something, or someone, sending her flying to the floor. Suddenly, a pair of strong arms caught her before her face shattered against the stone floor. The person she tripped over had gotten up so quickly to catch her that Ginny was thankful it wasn’t someone else, Neville maybe, or she probably wouldn’t have her nose right now.

That reminded her that Neville was supposed to be back today. She needed to tell him that she couldn’t (wouldn’t, *cough cough*) go to the Valentine’s Day Ball with him.

She then noticed that the person was still struggling to hold her off of the ground, and she was simply thinking about Neville. He must have gotten tired, or maybe she was too heavy, because he suddenly dropped her with a small yelp.

“Sorry, Gin!” she could hear him wince.

She sat up, rubbing her head, and accepted the hand outstretched in front of her.

“Thanks,” she said as she looked up at…

NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM!

“Neville?!” she shrieked. ((Oh, my GOD!)) she thought as she looked him up and down. It seemed that over his “vacation” his body had transformed into Harry’s. Or… Draco’s. ((DRACO’S?! Gross! Bad thoughts! Okay, Gin… Breathe… In… Out… Okay! Whew, that’s better!))

Ginny had to admit it to herself: Neville looked hot. She now noticed that his face wasn’t so bad, either. The only thing she used to notice about his looks was his weight.

“What happened to you, Neville?”

“That bad, huh?” he asked shyly.

“No! You look great!” she beamed.

“Alright, well, don’t tell anyone. Gran took me out of school early and sent me to a Muggle weight loss camp. Guess it worked.”

“That’s wonderful, Neville! I’m so proud of you!” Ginny had forgotten all about breaking their date for the dance, and now that she thought about it…

((Maybe I’ll give Neville a chance…))

(A/N: Dang, that Ginny sure is shallow…)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny awoke the next morning with a smile on her face. She and Neville had spent the whole night talking, and Ginny found that he was actually a really cool guy. Given, a little clumsy from time to time, but still very cool. He was one of the sweetest guys she knew and she was glad that she got to know that side of him. She was ecstatically happy when she remembered part of their conversation.

“Ginny? You remember when you said that if I needed anything, I could ask you?” Neville asked timidly.

“Yes, of course I do! What is it?” the red-headed girl beamed.

“Well, I need help in potions. Professor Snape said that if I get the Nocturnal Nectar absolutely perfect, he will pass me, but just barely. I think he’s just getting tired of me and my messes,” he chuckled.

Ginny sighed a breath of relief. ((Yes! I don’t have to be alone with Malfoy anymore!)) “Of course I’ll help! This is great, Neville! You’ve saved me! For the past three months I have been tutoring Malfoy for the same potion! Now I won’t have to deal with him alone!”

“Malfoy?” Neville squeaked. “Uh, I don’t know, Ginny…”

“Oh, my gosh! Please, Neville! I swear he won’t bother you!” Ginny pleaded.

“Alright,” he gave in.

“Thank you, Neville!” She threw her arms around his neck. “You’re so sweet!”

Neville beamed as Ginny added in an undertone, “I’ll take care of Malfoy.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Draco walked aimlessly throughout the halls. It was New Years Eve, and he missed Ginny. Merlin help him, he missed her.

A big party was going to take place in the Great Hall at 7 o’clock. Draco looked at his watch—6:45. People would be arriving soon. He hadn’t gone to one party since October, and decided that he should treat himself to this one.

Since he didn’t have a date (Which was highly uncommon), he didn’t need to be fashionably late. He sighed. He was in no mood to act cool, anyway. As he turned the corner to face the Great Hall entrance, he froze.

Standing next to the doors was a very stunning Ginny. She was wearing a floor length green dress that shimmered when she moved. It was held up by two thin straps and the neckline dipped slightly enough that people would notice that she wasn’t a small girl. As she turned slightly to talk to someone, Draco saw that the dress was backless.

Her hair shined and fell into soft ringlets around her shoulders. On her neck was a simple chain and on her wrist was a matching bracelet. It looked like she had even put on some make-up.

Draco finally noticed who she was talking to. Another guy.

She was laughing and lightly slapping his arm. He had made her laugh. How Draco wished that he could be the reason for her smiling. He was about to turn around and go back to his room (he suddenly didn’t feel like a party), when Ginny’s eye caught his. Her face fell slightly and she excused herself to leave the guy for a moment. She began to walk toward Draco and his chest filled with hope. She wasn’t mad.

“Malfoy,” Ginny acknowledged as she reached him.

Draco’s heart fell at the use of his surname. ((Guess she’s still mad.))

“Yes?” he asked, hopeful that he still had a chance to get on her good side.

“Listen, Neville’s joining our study group. I came to warn you…” her face was grim, “if you say anything that makes him feel uncomfortable, you’ll have to answer to me!”

“What? But, Ginny—” Draco tried.

“We’ll meet you in Snape’s classroom day after tomorrow at 6:30.” She walked back over to the mystery man and snaked her arm through the crook of his elbow.

He whispered something into her ear and she jerked her head back, laughing. Draco caught a glimpse of the mystery man when he turned to the side, looking down at Ginny, a soft smile forming on his lips.

“Longbottom,” Draco breathed dangerously under his breath.

A/N: Well, there you go!! Hope you all enjoyed it!! We PROMISE to update soon! Probably sooner than you think… *wink wink* Please review! And that was the end of our first notebook! (But, not the end of the story! DON’T WORRY!) Thanks, everyone!

A/N: Hey, Llama here! Told you we would update sooner than you thought! Not that you deserved it, only giving us how many comments on the last chapter? ROFL just keeding! There is an occasion! Today is Dolly’s birthday! Yes! Happy birthday, my dear! Yes! It’s your day of birth, your first day on earth! Happy bir-ir-irth-daaayy! J So, in honor of my best friend’s birthday, I decided to type up this chapter early, as a present for her and a little bonus for all of you! And here’s something special: We’ve decided to have a little… contest, if you will. Our 200^th reviewer will receive one of our chapters a full WEEK before we post it on Portkey.org or Fanfiction.net! So, when you review, be SURE to leave an email address so we can email it to you… IF you win! So, get to reviewing and enjoy Dolly’s birthday bonus!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

Ginny couldn’t believe that she actually had a date for this New Year’s masquerade ball. She stared up at Neville and smiled.

Tonight they were going to surprise everybody. No one had seen Neville since he first left in early October.

((So, at the end of this dance, everybody’ll see me and my handsome date! Finally!))

Neville looked down and caught Ginny staring up at him. Ginny blushed and looked ahead.

“I guess we’re here,” said Neville as he tore his eyes off of her and looked over to the Great Hall entrance. “Are you ready?” he asked nervously.

Ginny nodded and lifted up her sparkly green mask against her face, as well as Neville with his blue one. She tightened her grip on his elbow and opened the double doors to the party of the year.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Draco ran to his dorm room after he took a glimpse of Ginny’s squib date.

“Humph. I can do better than that.”

When he reached his room he immediately ran to his trunk. He rummaged for a moment until he found his most formal, expensive, and sexiest robe he owned. His eyes glinted mischievously and rummaged once more to find a metallic silver mask.

When he was done changing he examined himself in his mirror.

“Not bad. Actually, I look fabulous!” Draco said aloud.

His robe was of a soft fabric, green with a silver lining. His mask covered half of his face, his forehead down until the tip of his pointy nose.

After he gelled his hair back, he left his room and took his time going down to the Great Hall.

((No harm in being late, it’s not like he’ll do anything drastic. Plus, there’s no need to get all sweaty, running,)) Draco thought as he whistled down the hall.

When he finally got to the doors, his hand instinctively patted his hair.

((No need for flyaways,)) he smirked as he secured his mask against his face one last time.

When he entered he was immediately bombarded with murmurs and whispers, seemingly directed towards a group of people, mainly girls, in the middle of the vast room. Draco was grateful for his height at that moment, for he was able to look over all the heads to find a couple in the center of the crowd.

He caught a glimpse of a tinge of red. ((Weasley, no doubt,)) he smirked. He drifted toward the group and gently made his way to the center. It only took him a second or two to confirm his thoughts when he reached over and tapped Ginny on the shoulder.

She tore her eyes off her date and placed them on the stranger.

“Would you like to dance… Ginny?” he asked swiftly.

“Dra—” she whispered as Neville interrupted, “Um, I’m sorry, sir, um, she’s my date and I haven’t danced with her yet.”

Ginny smiled up at him and Neville found the courage to ask, “Would you like to dance with me…my date?” Ginny looked up dreamily into his blue eyes and said, “Uh…”

Draco smirked. “I think she wants to dance with me, after all I asked first.”

“I didn’t say anything of the sort!” Ginny retorted.

But, Draco didn’t pay attention to her and said, “I think I have a right to dance with anyone I want… and right now I want to dance with the weas… the Ginny?”

“The Ginny?” Neville snorted.

“Yes, the Ginny,” Draco answered matter-of-factly.

Ginny jumped in the middle, “Hello? I’m right here!” She waved a hand in each of their faces. “And I also think I have that same right to dance with whom I want!” she said as she stared straight at Draco. He huffed and turned away. She took a deep breath and…

Neville interrupted her. “It’s not like she’s just some kind of rag doll you can throw around! She’s a person, too!”

“Thanks for sticking up for me, Neville, but—”

Draco snorted, “Oh, yeah, and you’re not treating her like one now!”

“Well, you are too, from what I see!”

“Guys—” Ginny started.

“Oh, so now you admit it? You are treating her like a rag doll!”

“Hey, you tricked me! Ginny, I didn’t mean it!”

“Sure, sure. You’re just saying that so you can get some tonight. Ginny, I would never do that to you.”

“Get what? What are you talking abou—”

“STOP IT, YOU GUYS! Would you please just—”

“Why don’t you pick one of us, then?!” both boys snapped as they each grabbed an arm and started to pull.

Ginny screamed when suddenly someone from the audience spoke up.

“Who exactly are you guys?” Show us your faces!” Hermione swayed and Ron and Harry held her by each of her arms. She was obviously wasted.

Harry whispered, “Quiet, Hermione, maybe you had too much to drink, we should probably go…”

“No Haaarry! I’m alllrighty now!”

“Bloody Hell, Hermione. You’re mental!” Ron mused with an impressed grin on his face.

Draco was the first to oblige and reached over and yanked Neville’s mask off.

From the audience came a series of “awws” and “ooohs” and a couple “Neville? Is that Neville?” or “Ohh, Neville! Hey there, Neville!”

“Hey! You were supposed to take off your own mask!” Neville cried.

Draco shrugged and continued to pull on Ginny’s arm. Neville suddenly reached over and yanked Draco’s mask off of his face, causing a few tendrils of flaxen hair to break free from the bucket of gel holding them in place. The audience gasped as his hair fell over his cold eyes. He glared at Neville from under his bands and before he could reach his wand and hex him into oblivion, Hermione spoke up again.

“Pssht! Draco? Is that Draco Malfoy fighting Neville Longbottom for Ginny?” she slurred as she swayed dangerously.

Draco didn’t hear her, all his attention was now on Ginny.

“Pick one of us, Ginny,” he whispered darkly as he tightened his grip on her small arm.

“…” Ginny was at a loss for words. She just stared blankly at Draco.

“Who do you pick, Ginny?” he demanded quietly with a hint of a plea in his voice.

At that moment it seemed that only the three of them were in the room. Neville stared darkly at Draco, but Draco didn’t care.

“Ginny, choose. Now.”

She continued to stare at Draco with no sign of any expression on her face. She turned and looked at Neville. Turning back to face Draco, she sighed.

Before she could say anything, Draco opened his mouth.

“Oh, so it’s like that is it?” he snarled. “Okay, that’s fine. I see.”

He dropped Ginny’s arm, turned on his heel, and stomped out of the Great Hall.

Ginny bit her bottom lip and turned to face Neville, but she couldn’t even see him. All the girls in the Great Hall were crowded around him, oohing and awing, poking and prodding, and smothering him with questions. Even Pansy Parkinson was seemingly interested.

“Ever been to the Slytherin common room?” she batted her eyelashes. Ginny was disgusted.

She took as step back and heard a snap. She lifted her foot and looked at what she had stepped on. It was the stem of a red rose. The petals were strewn all about her feet.

“Draco,” she breathed as she turned to run out of the Great Hall.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ginny didn’t find Draco that night. She looked, mind you, but he was nowhere to be found. For the next two days, she hardly even saw him, but when she did, he either ignored her completely or disappeared before she had the chance to catch up with him and talk.

Lately, though, she’d been surrounded by boys, mainly Slytherin, while Neville was bombarded with girls from various housed. All the girls were crazy about him, so they stole him away from her every chance they got to flirt with him in vain. It was common knowledge that he had had a crush on Ginny for… well, probably forever.

The boys, on the other hand, assumed that Ginny was a special kind of girl, based on the fact that two boys were causing such a big scene over her at the New Years Ball and the fact that one of them was Draco (who was known for his pickiness). In other words, “She’s probably good in bed,” Blaise had once announced.

Ginny couldn’t help but develop feelings for Neville, and why deny it, they were already considered an item.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! Happy birthday, Dolly! WE LOVE YOU!! <33 This is Llama saying I hope it’s a good one! I wish I could give you Draco, Blaise, or even both!, but-they-like-me-better-than-you-so-I-can’t! … Okay, fine. I’ll let you borrow them… But, JUST for today! Happy birthday! *breaks piñata (shaped like Ginny because she gets Draco when WE should)*

A/N: Quick to update, no? Well...Last chapter earned us a bit o' unintended flames [or at least that’s how it sounded to Dolly]

Llama: Stop being so paranoid! Nobody flamed!

…But rest assured, Ginny will end up with...

Llama: What's the matter with you? I know it's a bit obvious, but why the heck blurt it out! *whispers* We might lose a few readers, after all.

Dolly: *whispers* No we won't, they love us and our story...Don't sweat it... *sweatsweat*

Llama: Uh huh. Anywho, here’s a new chapter. ENJOY!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

For the past weekend, Draco had dodged every possible attempt at bumping into the new big thing, or more appropriately, new couple at Hogwarts. Apparently, Ginny and Neville were the hottest topic in everyone’s discussions. Even the teachers were talking about them, for crying out loud.

Every time Draco saw her, she was either beside him in a group or walking arm-in-arm with him in the corridors. He couldn’t get her alone, not that he wanted to, but if he tried he couldn’t; they were like freakin’ connected at the hip!

And to add insult to injury, the only thing that they ever had together, just the two of them, was now tainted with the squib’s presence. Tutoring would never be the same; it would be the three of them once Monday arrived… That is, unless he did something about it and more importantly to Neville.

That’s when everything came into place—the day he saw Harry Potter in a different light. It was Sunday, two days after the New Year’s Ball and Draco was wandering through the corridors with his head down when he literally crashed into a heated Harry Potter.

“What’s your problem, Potter?” Draco sneered, “Aren’t glasses supposed to help you?”

“Shut up, Malfoy!” Harry fumed, “We barely even touched!”

“Hmph, if you call this barely touching,” Draco pushed Harry rather roughly, “Then yes, we barely touched.”

Harry stumbled backwards, but caught himself in time to pull Draco down with him. Harry pinned him down with his knee, alternating to his foot as he pushed himself upright.

Harry was now standing above him with his wand pointed to Draco’s face. Draco rolled his eyes, lifted Harry’s foot, and stood up, brushing himself off.

“Seriously, Potter, we are no longer first years.”

Harry stayed determined, but loosened his grip on his wand. Draco looked up and asked, “Dang, what is your problem?! Your face looks all screwed up, are you constipated or something?”

Harry grew angrier and Draco could’ve sworn he saw smoke coming out of his ears. But, surprisingly, Harry didn’t hex him, instead answered his first question.

“You wouldn’t be happy either if you saw your girlfriend all over another guy,” Harry said through clenched teeth.

“Girlfriend?” Draco snorted. “I’m not the commitment kind of guy. That way you’ll be able to jump from one girl to another as often as you change your underwear.”

“I guess that means you never change your undies,” Harry mumbled.

“What did you say, Potter?” Draco shouted, fist raised.

“Never mind, you wouldn’t understand,” Harry choked out.

Draco thought for a second and came to a realization. “Are you talking about yourself?” He thought some more. “Mudblood?! Are you referring to Mudblood as your girlfriend?!” Draco’s face morphed into disgust.

Don’t call her that!” Harry yelled.

Draco just waved his hand and kept talking.

“Now, who’s this guy?” he narrowed his eyes at Harry.

Harry was taken aback. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, I might have a similar problem, what’s it to you?”

“Tell me!”

“It’s none of your business!”

“Just—” Harry’s face suddenly relaxed, but then tensed up again as he understood. “Is this…Is this about Ginny?!”

Draco scowled and crossed his arms over his chest in answer.

“Malfoy!” Harry shouted.

Draco pushed him to the wall by his neck and pointed his wand to Harry’s lightning shaped scar.

“Do you want another one of those, Potter?” he spat viciously.

Harry scowled and pushed Draco off of him. He brushed off his robes and said, “It’s not like the whole school doesn’t already know, with you behaving like you did at the ball.”

Draco clenched his fists. “I’m warning you, Potter…” he snarled.

“Touchy subject?”

Draco growled.

“Alright, I see,” Harry raised his hands in surrender.

Draco huffed.

“It seems we have similar problems, don’t we?” Harry said.

“I don’t have a problem!” Draco snapped.

“Call it what you like, Malfoy, but it is a problem. I mean, I don’t like the fact that Hermione is all over that…that…guy.”

“Who?” Draco pressed. He wanted to know if it was the same guy who was stealing Ginny. If it was, he might be able to get some help sabotaging things. He knew that not a lot of guys would be happy with one guy taking all the girls.

“Well, if you must know…” Harry began, “It’s my former friend Neville Longbottom.”

“I knew it!” Draco shouted out.

“Excuse me?” Harry raised an eyebrow.

“There’s something about him,” Draco continued. “Something that is attracting all the girls. It must be some kind of a spell!” he shouted, eyes glittering as if he had made a life-saving discovery.

“Are you blind, Malfoy?” Harry waved a hand in front of Draco’s face. Draco quickly smacked it away. Harry rolled his eyes and continued.

“Neville’s changed… looks-wise.”

“I see no difference,” Draco huffed as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“Apparently, all the girls have seen it,” Harry replied, once again rolling his eyes.

“Well, who cares what they think?!” Draco shouted, hands on his hips.

“We do! That’s the problem.”

Draco snorted. “Speak for yourself, Potty. I couldn’t care less!”

“Sure,” Harry’s voice dripped with sarcasm, “It doesn’t bother you one bit that Ginny and Neville are inseparable.”

“No…”

“You know, they go back to the tower awfully early each night, but that doesn’t bother you… Of course, you don’t hear the screams…” Harry trailed off, feeling dirty making up such things about his best friend’s baby sister and hoping that Draco could imagine the rest without him explaining. Luckily, it seemed to do the trick.

Draco growled. “I have to do something about this,” he snarled, clenching his fists and looking toward the ceiling.

“We should work together!” Harry shouted enthusiastically.

Draco’s head snapped back to face Harry.

“Pssht! Work with you? You’ll only bring me down! Tadao!” Draco stated proudly as he dramatically straightened himself so it was obvious that he towered over Harry (because Harry’s an ugly little midget that likes to pick mushrooms).

Harry was obviously disappointed.

“It was just a thought…” he started.

“Wait! I have the best idea! Why not—just this once, of course—we put your scar-head to use for the first time and work together to find a way to bring down that squib, Longbottom?!” Draco stood with his hands on his hips.

“Oh, the cleverness of me!” he beamed (yes, Peter Pan).

“That’s exactly what I just said!” Harry said in his own defense.

“Say what?” Draco raised an eyebrow. Harry just shook his head and patted Draco on the back as the blonde complimented himself.

“Whoa-there, Golden Boy! Hands-off!” Draco suddenly shrieked.

Harry obeyed and Draco continued to praise himself and pat himself on the back where Harry had left off.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Ginny! Wake up! Come on, honey! It’s Monday!” screamed the picture of Mrs. Weasley on Ginny’s nightstand.

“Mum…” Ginny mumbled as she covered her head with the pillow. “Five more minutes!”

“Don’t make me come out of this frame!” Mrs. Weasley threatened as he shook her finger at Ginny.

“Oh, all right!”

In ten minutes Ginny was walking down to the common room.

“He-ey Ginny!” she heard someone call.

She smiled as she turned to face Neville as usual. But, it wasn’t Neville. Nope, it was Harry. Just Harry.

“Morning Harry,” she chimed.

“Can I walk you to breakfast?” he offered her the crook of his elbow.

“Actually, Harry…I was waiting for—”

“Neville?” Ginny thought she saw his eyes flicker.

“He’s already gone with Hermione,” Harry faked a smile.

“Oh, I see. Alright, let’s go then!”

Neville came down the stairs to see his crush walk out of the portrait hole, arm-in-arm with Harry Potter.

“Potter…” Neville breathed dangerously

A/N: There you go folks! So, how'd you like that? Nice touch we had there at the end, eh? I love those parts, don't you Llama? It's like the last chap—

Llama: Yeah, sure *waves arms as if to shoo away her pointless blather*

Dolly: What's her prob? Anywho, I’m sure I’m speaking for both of us when I say, thank you to all the people who have stayed with us...*hears a little shuffling behind her where Llama happened to be situated* What you doing down there, Llama?

Llama: Nothing!

*Dolly creeps over above Llama, who was sitting on the floor, and gasps*

Dolly: Is-is t-that.....THE GINNY PIñATA?

Llama: *irritated, stares up at her with a demented look to her usually pleasant features* What's it to yah?

Dolly: *horrified* What- why-how...

Llama: *waves her arms about, indicating for her to go on*

Dolly: WHY ARE YOU…

A/N: Well, we thought we’d post another chapter before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince comes out! SO EXCITED! Dunno if we’re gonna post another chap before that, but if we don’t… just thought we’d do this one in case! Well, hope you like it!! And don’t forget our 200^th reviewer gets an early chap! So, read, review, and leave an email! Now, enjoy chapter fifteen!

Oh, yes… and by the way, Blaise Zabini is going to become a more celebrated character in this story. Can’t tell yet if he’s gonna be portraying anything important, but we love him, so there!

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

As if on cue, the moment Draco plopped down at his usual spot in the Great Hall (next to Pansy, across from Blaise), Harry and Ginny walked in together.

“Oh, my gosh!” gasped Pansy.

“What is it?” Draco rolled his eyes.

“Weasley’s coming!”

“And…?” Draco looked at Blaise in question. Blaise shook his head.

“You’ll find out soon enough, mate. She’s been talking my ear off about it all weekend. Where’ve you been by the way?” Blaise asked as he raised a perfectly arched (but not plucked) eyebrow.

Lucky for Draco, he didn’t have to answer as Pansy began talking again.

“Weasley’s coming… and that means that Neville will be coming in with her!” she squeaked with excitement as her eyes squinted in the direction of Ginny, obviously trying to look past her to see if Neville was there.

“Neville?!” Draco spit out his orange juice. Blaise began laughing.

“They’re on a first-name basis,” he whispered to Draco.

“Since when?” Draco asked Pansy. She blushed.

“He’s a Gryffindor, Parkinson!” Draco continued. “And a squib, at that!”

“You’re just jealous, Draco! Well, I got news for you!” she cried. “You’ve had your chance! I’ve moved on; I like someone else!” she pouted.

Draco snorted. Blaise was now clutching his gut, whooping with laughter.

“You’re not the one I want, Parkinson,” Draco drawled with disgust.

“It doesn’t matter, Pansy,” Blaise told her through his tears of mirth. “It wasn’t Longbottom anyway. Only Potter came with her today.”

Draco got up from the Slytherin table.

“Where are you off to?” Blaise inquired.

“Oh, you know, to poke fun at Potty and Co.,” Draco said quickly and rushed off to the Gryffindor table.

“Oh, look,” Draco drawled as he neared where Harry was sitting with his friends. “It’s The Little Midget Mushroom Picker!”

Harry, Hermione, and Ron wheeled around.

“What? Who called me?” Harry wondered aloud until he spotted Draco and scowled.

“Shut up, Malfoy!” Hermione said in Harry’s defense.

“Keep your bushy head out of my business, Granger. Go save an elf or something,” Draco sneered.

“Malfoy, what are you doing here?” Harry spoke up.

“I think a better question is: What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be off breaking the rules?” Draco asked. “Oh, I’m sorry. I mean ‘saving the school?’” He used his fingers as quotation marks for those last three words.

((Wow, that was kind of lame,)) Draco thought to himself piteously. ((Think of a better insult next time, Malfoy!))

Ron stood up. “Shove off, Malfoy,” he spat. Everyone said that Ron was pretty tall, but at that moment you could see that Draco was actually the taller of the two.

“Is that a new style, Weasley?” Draco gasped in mock awe.

“What?” Ron asked suspiciously.

“Your pants! The ends don’t even reach your ankles,” he smirked viciously.

A wave of scarlet spread across Ron’s face, from the tip of his nose to the tips of his ears. He stepped back slightly and raised his fist.

When he bumped into the bench behind him, suddenly Ginny’s head snapped toward them. She had been staring at the Great Hall entrance, waiting for Neville to arrive. She figured that Harry had made a mistake when he said that he had already left the common room with Hermione.

“Huh? Draco? What are you doing here?” she cried. She had been so transfixed on the doors that she didn’t even realize he had come over.

Draco’s eyes widened as he turned to her. His cheeks turned slightly pink. He gulped and turned back to Harry.

“Well, Potter… I can’t spend all day pointing out your faults, but to tell the truth, it would take more than one day,” Draco smirked cheekily. “I’m off then.”

Draco winked slightly at Harry, signaling that he still remembered their plan, and turned to leave.

“Wait!” Ginny suddenly ordered. “Did you just wink at him?” she asked, looking from Draco to Harry.

“Well—I—NO! I most certainly did NOT!” Draco roared. He turned around and stomped back to his house table.

Ginny turned to Harry. “Is there something you need to tell me?” she asked as if speaking to a three-year-old.

“No!” Harry answered, a little to fast. “I—I mean… like what?” he fidgeted.

“Nothing…” Ginny replied suspiciously.

“Oh, Hello Neville!” Hermione suddenly cried out as Neville neared their table. “Come sit next to me!”

“Uh, okay. Sure,” Neville answered as he sat down on the bench.

Ginny frowned; Hermione was kind of getting on her nerves. She was constantly flirting with Neville right in front of Ginny. The first couple times Ginny let it go, but Ginny had now developed a theory: Hermione secretly hated her and wanted her to die. But, at that moment, Harry was looking at Neville like he hated him and wanted him to die.

((Well, you learn something new everyday,)) Ginny thought to herself.

Ron squirmed next to her and she saw him trying to magically make his pants longer, but only in vain. He whimpered slightly and gave up.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Draco walked back to the Slytherin table and found Pansy ready to explode. Blaise was trying to quiet her.

“Shh! Pansy, it’s okay!” he cried.

“Stupid Mudblood—kill—argh—hate—die!” she mumbled.

“I think she’s broken or something,” Draco laughed.

“Dracooooo!” she wailed as she latched onto his robes.

“Get off!” he grimaced as he slapped her to bring her back from LaLa Land.

She sniffed, but quieted and let go of him. Blaise shot up from his seat and dragged Draco out of the Great Hall.

“Let’s go before she starts up again,” Blaise said.

“Yeah, class starts in ten minutes, anyway,” Draco replied.

As they walked toward the dungeons, Blaise stopped.

“Alright. I can’t take it anymore, mate,” he sighed.

“What?” Draco asked, confused.

“Where’ve you been? What’s happened to you?”

“What the bloody Hell are you talking about?”

“I have barely talked to you since October! We used to be best mates, man. What happened?”

“I don’t know… I’ve had stuff going on.”

“Stuff that you used to be able to tell me?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know what I mean. What’s with the secrets, Draco?”

“I—”

“And what about that Weasley girl? Ginny?”

Draco snorted. “What about her?”

“That’s what I wanna know! You been holding out on me, man?”

“What?!”

“Yeah! I want in on that action!”

“What action, Zabini?”

“Well, I mean, obviously she’s a great shag if you’re so obsessed with her.”

“I—what?!”

“You are obsessed with her, mate!”

“No, not that! I mean we never shagged!”

There was suddenly a long silence.

“Never?” Blaise gasped in disbelief.

“Never.”

“So, then…why are you obsessed with her?”

“I’m not obsessed with her!”

“Draco! I saw her go into your room every night before vacation!”

“She’s my tutor!”

“Tutor? Draco, don’t lie to me! Just say that you don’t wanna tell me!”

“I told you, she’s my tutor! I’m failing Potions!”

“No way! You are so lucky!”

“Lucky? That I’m not going to graduate?”

“Nah! You got a HOT tutor!”

Draco rolled his eyes. “She is not hot. She’s a Weasley for goodness sake!”

“So, you don’t like her?”

“No, I don’t!”

“Then you don’t mind if I give it a go?”

“What—Yes! I do mind!”

“How come?!”

“Because I said so! She probably won’t like you anway.”

“Not like me? I’m sexy!”

“Sure, Blaise. Just—no.”

“Ugh,” Blaise pouted.

“Get over it!”

“Why?!”

“Because I might want her later and I don’t want your leftovers!”

“You said you don’t like her!”

“I said I might later!”

They suddenly realized it was time for class and they ran to Potions.

After class, Blaise walked up to the front desk.

“Professor?”

“What do you want, Mr. Zabini?” Professor Snape answered irritably without looking up from his desk.

“I’ve noticed a vast improvement in Draco’s potion brewing,” Blaise said as he leaned in close, “I’ve noticed it hasn’t blown up in his face recently.”

Professor Snape waved a hand in front of his face, successfully retrieving his personal space. He nodded, “What’s your point?”

“Well, I’ve actually had a lot of trouble with that dang potion, Nocturnal Nutter, is it?” Blaise mimicked a confused look; one eye squinting and mouth agape.

“Nocturnal Nectar, Mr. Zabini. And please stop making that face, it’ll stay that way.”

Blaise quickly changed his face back to normal, touching it to make sure everything was right.

“Well, I was wondering what Draco did, you know, how did he get better?” Blaise continued.

“He’s being tutored.”

“Oh, really? Well whoever it is, they’re really good… I wish they could tutor me, too…” he said as he left that last thought hanging and anticipated his professor’s answer. When no answer came, Blaise pressed on, “Yeah… because I’m having trouble with that potion, too.”

“I heard you, Mr. Zabini, and yes, I have noticed,” Professor Snape said as he finally looked up, “How about you and Mr. Malfoy attend tutoring sessions together?”

Draco, who during this conversation had been putting away all his parchments and supplies, stopped abruptly. He stalked toward the front desk and slapped his hands atop it. “Say what?!”

Blaise smirked, “Hey tutor buddy!”

Draco waved a hand in his face and turned to his professor. “But, Professor! All he wants is—”

“That’s enough! No more discussion about this! If I hear about this topic one more time, I will fail all of you!”

Draco and Blaise blinked. Professor Snape massaged his temples, “Now, get out of my classroom.”

The boys grabbed their bags and practically sprinted out.

A/N (continued from the A/N at the end of Chapter Fourteen):

Dolly: WHY ARE YOU STUFFING THE GINNY PIÑATA WITH COAL AND STRAW?

Llama: So it burns FASTER! *cackles an evil laugh*

Dolly: Llama! It’s already made of paper.. wait! Did you glue real hair on it?

Llama: It’s Ginny’s… *smiles maliciously*

Dolly: Llama! You’re making a VOODOO doll?

Llama: Just tell the story, Dolly, and stay out of my business!

Dolly: *takes Llama by the shoulders and looks into her eyes* Llama, you CANNOT burn Ginny!

Llama: Would you like to WATCH me do it?!

Dolly: If you burn Ginny, there will be no lead character in our story!

Llama: *snaps fingers like a valley girl* Excuse me? DRACO is the lead character in THIS story!

Dolly: Whatever, Llama! But, we need Ginny!

Llama: *looks away* She can be replaced…

Dolly: NO!

Llama: GOD, FINE! Bossy, bossy!

Dolly: That’s a good girl.. *takes Ginny Piñata*

Llama: What are you going to do with that?

Dolly: *a demented look spreads over her face* None of your BUSINESS! *cackles*

A/N: Commentator: Ladies and Gentlemen, would you please welcome our lovely hosts...DOLLY and LLAMA!

Audience: [consists of Draco&Blaise, DracoandBlaise, Blaise&Draco, and Cow] *applaud* and *moo*

Dolly: *takes a mike handed to her and motions Llama to sit in a large, elaborate and over-stuffed armchair situated above all* Hello everyone! And thank you for stopping by! *more applause* I would personally love to present to you guys our BIRTHDAY GIRL! *Points to Llama, who is pleasantly shocked* Yes, yes it is her b-day and because of this special occasion, we present to you this chapter that we otherwise wouldn't have posted earlier enough! But that is besides the point because we should be celebrating with the most important person in this room as of now!

Cow: *gets up from its spot where it originally laid* Moo! [translation: you got that right! now applaud me NOW!]

Dolly: *turns slightly pink, eyes darting around the audience* Cow! Not YOU! Llama! Llama is the important one today...you could be important...uh tomorrow..i guess...Anyhow, *turns to face Llama* I have a very special gift for you that I hope you really like...cuz I know I would have...Er, yes, uh I'm pleased to present to you....OUR DANCERS! Come on boys!

[Draco&Blaise and DracoandBlaise jump up and arrive at Llama's couch in an instant, ripping off their bathrobes to reveal... BANANA SUITS! (what did you expect readers? There are children reading this fic after all! *laughs thoughtfully* yes...we thought of it too...*sigh*) while Blaise&Draco reluctantly follow, dragging their feet.]

Dolly: Come on Boys! This is an event! You guys should be happy! Come on, it's Llama's party after all!

Blaise&Draco: But we like you better Dolly! We want to dance for YOU! *they unleash their sexiest pout*

Dolly: Aww!

Audience (cow): MOO! [translates: aww!]

Dolly: Don't worry, you guys! You can dance for me anytime you like! Now go along and join the others.

Blaise&Draco: [visibly happy and relieved, they join Draco&Blaise and DracoandBlaise]

Dolly: Now that we have that settled, there are some other things that have come to our attention that we need to point out before we give you this chapter.

Llama: [jumps up from her couch and runs over to snatch a mike, while Draco&Blaise and DracoandBlaise look on, apparently exhausted] I'll say them!!

NUMBER ONE: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!! WHOOTIE-HOO! *does a dance that lasts at least 10 minutes and comes back, out of breath* Okay!

NUMBER TWO: To those of you who have read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (which I am embarrassed to say, does NOT include Dolly, the little traitor), YAY FOR YOU and ME! Let's have a party, just us cool people (again, NOT including Dolly, since she has NOT read the book)! BUT, something has come to my attention that I just HAVE to say. I DON'T CARE WHAT JK ROWLING SAID BLAISE LOOKS LIKE! Here's where you Dolly-like people are lucky, you can just think about our sexy Blaise and not have to re-write something in your mind. BUT, you awesome people who have read the book, thumbs-upski to you, but now I'm gonna describe OUR Blaise to you, and when you read our story, you MUST think of BLAISE as WE describe him, although I don't think that would be a big disappointment-actually it should be a relief, as our Blaise is very hot (not being disrespectful to JK Rowling's Blaise, because she can do whatever she wants to him, as she created him, and we are simply playing very naughty games with him *wink wink*).

OUR BLAISE: Hair - VERY HOT! Jet-black, a bit fuller and about one or two inches longer than Draco's (in HP&thePOA-MOVIE), its kinda emo hair… and longer bangs that cover his eyes, very messy…hothothothothothothot! Am I horribly wrong to say its kinda skater hair? Eyes - again I say, VERY HOT! Violet with specks of bright vivid blue! Skin - He's definitely not as pale as Draco…Let's just say he's kinda tan without being too tan…WELL LET'S JUST SAY HE'S PERFECT CUZ HE IS! YAY! Height - About Draco's height, so around 6', 6'1"… and-

Dolly: Okay, Llama enough!

Llama: It's my birthday, though!

Dolly: Yes, and a very happy birthday, at that! But, the A/N is seriously too long. You've described Blaise perfectly by the way; I'm amazed at your genius! And your beauty-

Llama: Oh, stop… *smirks and waves hand as if it was nothing*

Dolly: Okay… well anyways-

Llama: Keep going!

Dolly: NO! Sorry guys, here's Chapter Sixteen…

Llama: How rude… You guys love me though, right? I mean it's my birthday! Please review, because it is my birthday!

Dolly: Of course, Llama, that's the reason they will review... That and the fact that the 200th reviewer gets an early chapter! So, don't forget to leave an e-mail address!

Llama: Gosh, Dolly… That's low… Using my birthday to advertise... And I was so nice on your birthday… *sniff sniff*

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

Later that night, Ginny and Neville headed toward Draco’s room.

“I don’t like Malfoy. Why can’t you tutor me in our common room?” Neville whined.

Ginny wasn’t listening, but was staring at the curly brown hair that gently framed his long face. His brown eyes peered at her from under the loose tendrils that fell past them.

“Ginny?” Neville waved a hand in front of her face.

“Oh, sorry,” she answered meekly. “I don’t have time to do two tutoring sessions, Neville. It only makes sense that since you both are stuck on the same potion, that I tutor you together.” Neville pouted, but Ginny continued, “Just be thankful that Professor Snape said we tutor in Draco’s room again.”

They entered that particular room and saw him sitting at the study table. Ginny cleared her throat and Draco looked up from his book, taking in the sight of them together. He looked at Ginny, and then quickly looked back to Neville.

“Hello Longbottom,” he acknowledged as he looked back down to his book.

“Malfoy,” Neville answered, intimidated.

Draco looked up again. “So, I guess you’ll be joining us from now on, is that right?”

“Uh, yes.”

“And you and our tutor…are…?”

“Uh, I—”

“Some advice, Longbottom. Don’t get too attached,” Draco said as he shot a dark look at Ginny.

Before she could say anything, the portrait hole flew open.

“Blaise has arrived!” the intruder yelled as he ran over to Draco and draped an arm over his shoulder. “Hey tutor buddy!”

Both Ginny and Neville looked on in shock.

“Wha—what—what are you doing here?” Ginny managed to sputter.

“Didn’t Draco tell you? I’m your new student!” Blaise beamed.

“Malfoy! You can’t just sign people up without asking me first!” Ginny said through clenched teeth.

Draco frowned and said to Blaise, “Tell her she didn’t ask me if she could bring an extra student!”

Blaise turned to Ginny. “He said you didn’t ask if you could bring Longbottom.”

Ginny gaped and Draco said more to Blaise.

“Besides,” he said, “tell her that Snape said you could.”

Blaise looked at Ginny, “He said Professor Snape said I—”

“I heard him!” Ginny yelled. Neville put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down and Draco looked away in disgust.

“Draco, can I borrow a quill and some parchment?” Blaise asked.

“Fine,” Draco growled. He pointed his wand to his trunk and it shot open. “Go get them.”

Blaise left the three of them in an awkward silence in which Draco refused to look at Ginny. The raven-haired boy returned not a minute later with his hands behind his back and looking very smug.

Ginny broke the silence, “What you got there?”

A mischievous grin appeared on Blaise’s handsome face. “What’ve I got where?” he asked innocently.

“Behind your back,” Ginny answered.

“Oh, that? It’s nothing that I think I need to tell you about,” he smirked.

Ginny frowned. “Tell me.”

“Uh, I don’t think I should. Should I? Hm... NO! I don’t think so!” he laughed.

Ginny grabbed her wand. “Accio... Whatever-Zabini’s-Got-Behind-His-Back!”

“Oh, dear teacher,” Blaise laughed. “You know that isn’t going to—HEY!”

The item flew to Ginny’s hands. It looked like a tattered rag. No, scratch that, it was a robe. Her robe.

“Where did you get this? I’ve been looking for it for ages!”

“It’s yours?” Neville asked, confused.

“Wait,” Blaise raised an eyebrow, “It’s yours? Draco, buddy, I thought you said you two didn’t shag!”

Draco, who had been extremely quiet during this whole time, blushed slightly and looked to the ground. “I forgot about that damn thing,” he said quietly.

“WHAT?!” Ginny screamed. “We did NOT shag! Where did you get this, Malfoy?” she practically shrieked, shaking the robe in front of him.

Draco didn’t answer.

“Answer me, Malfoy! This silent treatment isn’t helping anyone!”

When he still didn’t answer her, she turned to Blaise.

“Don’t look at me,” he shrugged, “I just found it in his trunk.”

“His trunk?” Neville spoke up.

“Yes, you useless squib, my trunk!” Draco suddenly snapped. He then turned to Ginny, eyes full of cold malice. She suddenly had the unnerving feeling that whatever their…“friendship”…or…“relationship” (for lack of a better word) had been, that it would never be quite the same as it was before the Christmas Holidays ended.

“Remember Halloween, Weasley?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper. “You left it here, I guess I forgot.”

“Well, of course he forgot! His trunk’s jam packed with clothes, he probably has more than all the Slytherin girls put together!”

“Shut it, Blaise!” Draco growled, and continued without remorse, “Well, now you’ve got your only robe back, Weasel. Enjoy; I know you’ve been freezing without it.”

And there wasn’t another word said about it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After that night of tutoring horror was finally over, to Ginny’s relief, she and Neville headed out, towards the Gryffindor Tower.

As they reached the top of the last staircase, Neville spoke up, “Ginny? That…Halloween wasn’t…Did you do anything with Malfoy?” he blurted out.

Ginny exploded, “Of course not! Why would you think that? I’d never do anything with Draco—I mean—Malfoy! Why would you—” At the face Neville was making now, Ginny toned down her voice, “I’m sorry, Neville…for acting this way, but really…I promise, I didn’t do anything with Malfoy on Halloween Night,” she said, choosing her words carefully.

Neville smiled. Ginny blushed as they continued toward the Tower, all the while clutching her newfound robe that smelled completely like Draco.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Draco stepped out of the shower and wrapped a green towel around his waist. He walked out of the bathroom, drying his ears with a smaller towel when he saw Blaise sitting on his couch in his boxers.

“What the bloody hell are you doing here, Zabini?” Draco yelled, closing his eyes (both in frustration and the desire to not see any more of Blaise than completely necessary).

“I’m staying here tonight, cupcake!” Blaise smiled broadly.

Draco peeked at him through one eye, “Excuse me?”

“Do you have a blanket, Draco? It’s a bit drafty in here…”

“Try some clothes, you stupid prat!”

“Nah, I’ll get the blanket.” Blaise wandered over to Draco’s bed and pulled off one of the many blankets.

“What are you doing here?” Draco asked again.

“I’m sleeping over! If girls can stay up all night gabbing, then so can we!” Blaise smiled, twirling around with the blanket flowing around him.

“Oh, Merlin,” Draco groaned in frustration.

After he changed into his boxers (A/N: YAY FOR DRACO AND BLAISE SLEEPING IN BOXERS! *smile*), Draco climbed into his bed and reached over to click off the lamp.

“Draco?” he heard Blaise whisper into the darkness.

“What do you want?” he replied gruffly.

“Let’s talk.”

“About?”

“Oh, I dunno…”

“What?”

“You pick.”

“No, I sleep.”

“Okay, I know. Tell me what’s been going on, Draco.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, ‘bout Ginevra,” Blaise said, rolling his ‘r’.

“What about her?”

Blaise suddenly sat up and switched on the light. “I know you like her, Draco!” he whined.

“Shut it, Zabini! You’ll wake the whole castle!”

Blaise lowered his voice, “Why don’t you tell me the truth? I don’t get it, she’s just another girl!”

“Not just another girl, Blaise,” Draco sighed quietly.

“What?” Blaise asked.

“Nothing. Now, come off it and go to sleep,” Draco said as he switched off the light, again.

In the middle of the night, Draco got up as quietly as he could as to not wake up the snoring Blaise.

He pulled on silk green pajama bottoms and a plain black shirt. Putting his robe on over that, he headed toward the exit when Blaise began to stir.

“Why did you throw that away?” he mumbled.

Draco abruptly stopped in his tracks. He slowly spun on his heel and was about to speak up when Blaise began snoring once again.

((Hm… Talks in his sleep, eh? Could come in handy, one day…)) Draco shook his head and proceeded to the portrait hole. ((No time for that now. I have business to attend to.))

Once Draco closed the hole, Blaise popped one eye open.

“Where is he going?” he shouted to himself.

“Oh, do shut up!” a portrait of an old man spoke.

“Whatever, you old geezer,” Blaise retorted as he, too, threw on a robe (although he was only wearing boxers under), and tip-toed out of the room.

When Blaise finally spotted Draco near a statue that looked more like his mother than the one-eyed witch was supposed to resemble, he found that the blonde-haired bombshell was not alone. He seemed to be talking to another in hushed voices.

((Obviously whatever they’re talking about has to be important and secret,)) Blaise thought, ((Which means Blaise is allowed to listen in!)) He snickered and Draco quickly spun around.

The torch light that was situated against their neighboring wall fell perfectly upon their faces. When Blaise squinted to get a better look he came to a realization.

((Is that…Potter? Is…are Draco and Potty actually having a civil conversation…? Am I still asleep? Is this my nightmare?))

Blaise was about to come out in the open, now that he was caught, when Draco turned back to Potter. Totally oblivious to their new visitor, they began talking once again.

“It’s not working, Potter!” Draco hissed. “We need a new plan.”

“Why?” Harry wondered. “What happened?”

“Our tutoring sessions have been interrupted.”

“By Neville? Yeah, I know! Remember, and then you exclude Neville and try to get in good with Ginny and make Neville a loner again!” Harry cried, all in one breath.

“Calm yourself, Potter!”

“Sorry.”

“I wasn’t talking about Longbottom. Blaise has also joined our quaint little group.”

“Zabini?! But, why?”

“I have a feeling he likes Ginny.”

“Well, why does he being there interfere with the plan?”

“Potter, do you know him? He requires my constant attention! You never know what will happen if I look away for even a minute!”

“Well, if you look away to talk to Ginny, he can’t do anything to her because you are talking to her…yeah.”

“I didn’t mean he might do something to Ginny, I meant he might blow something up!”

Harry let out a low whistle, “That immature, huh?”

“Hey, it’s none of your business.”

“Well, you gotta admit, he is a bit flaky.”

“Hey! That’s my best friend you’re talking about! So shut the fook up!”

“You mean your only friend?”

Draco was about to tackle Harry when Blaise jumped out from his hiding place.

“You really consider me your best friend?” he said as his voice cracked slightly, his hand clutching his heart.

Harry shrieked with surprise and Draco stomped on his foot.

“Don’t have a cow, Potter, it’s not the Dark Lord!” Draco hissed.

Harry flinched slightly and looked over his shoulder, biting his lip. Blaise crept over to Draco, his eyes welling up with tears.

Draco scowled, “Yes, Zabini. You’re my best friend,” his face turned cold, “Now go away, Potter and I have some business to attend to.”

Draco and Harry began walking away.

“So much for a best friend!” Blaise shouted after them. He turned around and smiled, and walked back to Draco’s room with a little spring in his step.

A/N: YAY! Did you guys like that chapter? It’s Llama’s birthday! Okay, well since the A/N at the top was so gosh dang long, we decided we wouldn’t write such a long A/N at the bottom; bet that makes you happy, eh? *wink* lol If you guys even read the A/N’s at all.. haha well HAPPY BIRTHDAY to LLAMA! Hope u guys liked the chapter! Please review!

A/N: YAY! Congratulations to harryhermione731 for being our 200^th reviewer! Harryhermione731 has also won our EARLY-CHAPTER-CONTEST/GIVE-AWAY! YAY! So, while you all are reading this chapter, keep in mind that harryhermione731 has read it a FULL WEEK before all of you!

Dolly: Makes you jealous, doesn’t it?

Llama: Jealous enough…to kill?

Dolly: Uh—what? No, no, no! Of course, not!

Llama: Well, in any case, the chapter is now posted for you all to see! YAY!

Dolly: Yes. Yay, indeed.

Llama: *looks nervously at Dolly but then regains composure* Yes! Well, enjoy Chapter Seventeen, everyone!

Dolly: Yes. Enjoy it, indeed.

Llama: ……. *cough*

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

“Wal-Mart! Para su familia y todo corazon!” Blaise sang as he burst into Draco’s room for tutoring. He suddenly stopped and struck a pose. “Siempre,” he said seductively to no one in particular.

Ginny, Draco, and Neville all stared at him.

“What was that?” Ginny asked after a moment.

“It’s a slogan for a Muggle store that sells walls!” Blaise replied easily.

“Wal-Mart doesn’t sell walls,” she laughed. (A/N: Don’t ask us how in the world she knows that.)

“Whatever! I just saw the commercial on the tell-all-vision my dad got me for Christmas. I charmed it to work in Hogwarts.” Blaise draped an arm around Ginny’s shoulders. “Maybe sometime we could get together…and see what’s on the tell-all-vision,” he winked.

“You mean the television,” she pushed his arm off, “and no.”

Blaise simply shrugged and began singing again. “Wal-Mart! Para su familia y todo corazon!” He struck the pose again, “Siempre.”

“Do you even know what you’re saying, Zabini?” Draco asked with a hint of laughter in his voice.

“Who cares? As long as we’re best friends!” Blaise beamed as he tackled Draco into a bear hug.

Draco pushed him away and took him by the shoulders. “Did you hear everything?” he asked Blaise seriously.

“I followed you when you left the room.”

“You can’t tell anyone. Not a word. Swear.”

“That we’re best friends?”

“No! I mean about the plan!”

“What plan? Best friends…? Friends…Best! Best friends!”

“Do you have selective hearing or something?”

“Huh?”

“Never mind.” Draco let go of Blaise and remembered that he was wasting time again.

“Hey, uh, Malfoy?” Neville asked timidly.

“What?!” Draco snapped.

“Can I use your bathroom?”

“Fine, just don’t stink it up or clog the loo,” he jerked a thumb over his shoulder to the bathroom. “And use the seat covers!” he yelled after him.

Suddenly an idea struck Draco.

“Hey Blaise! Best pal,” he said as he patted Blaise on the back. “Will you do me a favor?”

“Sure, anything!” Blaise cried happily, clapping his hands.

“Well…” Draco stole a glance at Ginny, who at the moment, had her back to them and was stirring the cauldron’s contents, “Go over there and block the bathroom door, so the squib gets locked in.”

“That’d be fun!” Blaise shrieked with excitement.

Draco nudged him in the ribs and hissed, “Shut up! Now go over there!” And when Draco saw a jittery Blaise full of excitement, he scowled, “And would you just act casually? Gods, you’re like a dog ready to hump someone!”

Blaise smiled brightly and jumped to his feet. He not-so-secretly skipped towards the loo’s entrance, while humming his “Wal-Mart” tune under his breath and dramatically leaned against the door.

When he sighed loudly, Ginny looked over her shoulder at him and rolled her eyes, “You’re so strange, Blaise.”

“Just doin’ me job, ma’am,” he said as he saluted her and began to wink continuously at Draco.

“Is your eye okay? ‘Cuz it’s kind of twitching.” Ginny pointed to her eye and Blaise stopped winking. He laughed nervously and Ginny shook her head. ((Typical Blaise,)) she thought as if she was used to the raven-haired boy’s antics.

Draco slowly crept toward Ginny. He took a deep breath and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Nev—” she turned, “Oh, it’s you, Malfoy.”

“What happened to calling me Draco?” he asked, tilting his head and raising one eyebrow.

“I—uh…” she stumbled with her words.

Suddenly there was a banging noise coming from the bathroom door. Draco and Ginny spun around to see Blaise trying to keep the shaking door closed by pulling on the doorknob.

“Blaise!” Ginny cried.

He turned back at them with a maniacal grin on his face. “‘Ello, ol’ mum!” he cackled.

“What are you doing?!” Ginny shrieked.

“Just me job!” he answered. Draco immediately had a coughing fit.

“Oh, God!” Ginny gasped. “Are you alright, Draco?” She began hitting him on the back, screaming, “Breathe! Breathe!”

“I’m alright!” he coughed.

There was now banging noises coming from inside the bathroom.

Blaise then began screaming. “No way, José! You are not coming out of there! I will not fail my best friend! You will not prevail!” he cackled madly.

There was a muffled voice coming from the other side of the door.

“Neville?!” Ginny ran to the door and pressed her ear against it. “Draco, please! He’s claustrophobic!”

“Oh, please! That bathroom is bigger than your house,” Draco scowled, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Blaise, let go!” Ginny yelled.

“No! I’m obeying orders!”

“LET GO!”

“I MUSTN’T!”

“YES!”

“NO!”

“LET GO!”

“NEVER!”

With a sudden burst of strength, Ginny pushed Blaise off of the door and threw it open. A hysterical Neville fell upon her in an embrace and they wept together.

Blaise hung his head and walked over to Draco.

“I have failed you as a best friend. I do not deserve your love,” he said quietly, not looking up from the floor.

“Well…you tried,” Draco offered.

“I’ll make it up to you, mate. Dunno when, dunno how. But, I will.”

“Sure, Blaise,” Draco said nervously as he awkwardly patted the defeated boy on the back.

Draco stayed up that whole night planning their next tutoring session.

((This time she is going to notice me!))

Before he knew it, it was time for his first class. He grabbed his book bag and ran out the door, totally oblivious to the fact that his eyes were bloodshot, hair disheveled, and only wearing his silk green pajama pants. He was running so fast that when Blaise stepped in front of him he couldn’t stop and toppled right into him.

“Whoa, there!” Blaise cried as they both fell to the floor.

Draco grumbled an apology as they both lifted themselves from the floor.

“It’s alright. I was just coming up to tell you what happened at breakfast,” Blaise grinned maliciously.

Draco’s shoulders fell. “What did you do?” he sighed.

“Oh, you’ll see in a second! Let’s go to Potions!” Blaise grabbed Draco’s arm and began pulling him down the corridor. “By the way, didn’t you want clothes?”

Draco cursed as Blaise suddenly stopped and Draco knocked into him again.

“Accio Draco’s robes!” Blaise yelled.

Suddenly, a pile of clothing that reached the ceiling came hurdling down the hall at them like an angry swarm of bees.

“Great job, Zabini,” Draco rolled his eyes as he picked out an outfit and banished the rest back to his room.

“Thanks!” Blaise replied brightly.

A few moments later, Draco was dressed. He was wearing his black robes with silver lining and a white button-up shirt underneath with simple black pants. He could see his reflection in his black shoes and his “Head Boy” badge sparkled on his front. His tie hung loosely around his neck. He was about to charm his hair back before Blaise stopped him.

“Let it go, Draco. It’s better this way, believe me.”

“No, it isn’t!” Draco stared at him in disbelief.

Blaise seemed to have a slight inner struggle with himself before he looked at Draco and said nervously, “Well, the thing is, Draco… The other way makes you look slightly…gay.”

Draco looked outraged.

“Yes, now hurry!” Blaise rushed him forward before he could say anything, “Or we’re going to be late!”

So, Draco had to go to Potions without his bucket-of-gel-can-only-keep-it-in-place-hair, but his fan-girls-love-it-sexy-cool-hot-hot-superhot!-hair, instead.

Draco and Blaise strut into Potions and took their seats in the back. Draco kept running a hand through his hair, which was gaining him the attention of many girls in the room.

“Ah—Malfoy, Zabini,” came a voice from behind them. “I see you’ve finally decided to join us.”

Draco’s eyes widened as he turned around to face Ginny. “Gin? What the bloody hell are you doing here?!”

She blushed slightly and Draco frowned, mentally kicking himself as he greeted her so commonly in front of everyone. Ron looked especially murderous, and the Slytherins looked slightly confused and betrayed.

Ginny cleared her throat, “I was just asked to watch the class attempt to brew the Nocturnal Nectar potion, as it seems that I’m the only one in this whole school besides Professor Snape who knows how to make it perfectly,” she said. Hermione huffed slightly and crossed her arms.

Ginny ignored her and continued, “There was an…accident at breakfast.”

Draco quickly scanned the room and noticed that Neville was not present. When he caught Harry’s eye, the scar-head simply shrugged, but Draco could tell he looked happier than usual. He looked at Blaise and the silly Slytherin merely winked at him.

Draco turned pale (well, paler than usual) and nervously looked back at Ginny. She looked as if she was trying to keep from ripping his head off.

“I’d like to have a word with you outside, Malfoy,” she said darkly.

Remembering that he was in a room full of Slytherins and Gryffindors, Draco attempted to salvage his stature. “Excuse me, Weasley?” he sneered.

“You heard me, you bloody prat!”

“Now, now…It’s not a question of whether I heard you or not—as I’m sure everyone in Hogwarts has—but, you can’t tell me what to do. You’re only a sub, and a sixth year at that. Besides, I’m Head Boy.”

Ginny was growing angrier, “Get off your bloody arse and come outside!”

“Hmm…sit comfortably, or take orders from a weasel?” Draco frowned in mock thoughtfulness. Seeing the look on Ginny’s face now, though, he decided that it was best he went with her.

“Okay, okay. I’m coming,” he muttered as he got up from his seat.

“Ooh!” Blaise chimed childishly as they walked out the door.

As soon as it shut, Ginny erupted.

“What the bloody hell is your problem?!” she shrieked.

“I had to say something,” Draco said calmly, “If I just went along with you they would all get suspicious.”

“Forget that! You know what I bloody well mean!”

“What are you on about?” Draco asked, slightly uncomfortable.

“Can’t you just leave him alone?!”

“Leave who alone?”

“Give it up, Draco!”

“I never give up! …Even if I knew what you were talking about!”

“I’m telling you one last time, leave Neville alone!”

“I haven’t done anything to him!”

“Oh, so the house elves put the Nocturnal Nectar into his pumpkin juice?”

“Nocturnal Nectar?” Draco asked. “I don’t even know how to make it!”

Ginny ignored him. “How could you do that?!” she screamed.

“I said I don’t know how to make that potion!” Draco shouted just as loud, “Hence, the tutoring!”

“I mean, he’s such a nice boy!” Ginny went on, “What has he ever done to you?”

“I DIDN’T DO IT!” Draco shouted as loud as he could.

Back in the classroom, Blaise shrieked happily, “I wonder what they’re doing out there!” He hummed merrily while the surrounding students whispered animatedly.

Ginny immediately stopped talking. After a moment she raised an eyebrow, “What did you say?”

“I said…I didn’t do whatever you think I did,” Draco massaged his temples, “First of all, I don’t even know how to create that Neutral Neeter—”

“It’s Nocturnal Nectar,” Ginny interrupted.

“Yeah, yeah. Second, I wasn’t even at breakfast today!” he pointed out before mumbling quietly, “Not that you would notice anyway, ‘cuz you’re always hanging on Longbottom’s body!”

“What did you just say?!” Ginny asked angrily.

“Nothing,” Draco held up his hands in surrender, “By the way, why would I do it? Haven’t you ever considered someone else…someone like Blaise?” Draco wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Ginny waved her hand as if to dismiss the option, “Hello! He’s in tutoring; he doesn’t even know how to make it.”

Draco imitated her and waved his hand in front of her face, “Hello! I’m in tutoring! I don’t know how to make it!”

Ginny just shook her head, “But, Blaise is a nice boy. Weird, but nice.”

Draco sighed in frustration, “Haven’t you ever noticed that Blaise came to our tutoring sessions just now?” he used his hands to gesture for emphasis, “Just after the New Year’s Ball? After he saw you with Longbottom, another guy?”

“So?” Ginny blinked.

“Haven’t you ever heard the saying—‘People always want what they can’t have?’”

“What does that have to do with me and Neville?”

The corners of Draco’s mouth twitched, “Don’t you see? People—meaning Blaise—want you because apparently you’re with ‘Neville.’” Draco created quotation marks in the air with his index and middle fingers while saying “Neville.”

“Me and Neville?” Ginny leaned back as if she didn’t care any, but she couldn’t help but smile wide, “Are people talking about us or something?” she asked eagerly as she leaned in close, eyes wide.

Draco jumped back at their close proximity, but felt like cursing something as he watched her getting all excited over the stupid disgrace of a wizard. He rolled his eyes, “That’s not the point, Ginny! The point is that Blaise probably did it.” He waited for Ginny’s reaction, but when none came he continued, “After all, he did trap Neville in that bathroom of mine,” he laughed nervously.

Ginny scoffed. “Whatever,” she sneered as she turned to go back into the classroom.

“Wait!” Draco grabbed her arm. “I’m not done!” ((I’ll make her believe me,)) he thought to himself.

Ginny looked at him expectantly.

“Well, don’t you at least think it’s a little weird that Blaise knew how to make that potion all year, but now he doesn’t? Did he suddenly forget or something?” Draco raised an eyebrow.

It took Ginny a moment, but when her eyes widened in realization, they quickly squinted into thin slits.

“Zabini,” she whispered dangerously under her breath.

Draco laughed. “What happened, anyway? What did the stupid lump do this time?” he asked with a malicious grin on his face.

Ginny looked down, “He hexed Professor Snape,” she mumbled.

“WHAT?!” Draco burst out, “That was his deepest desire?! To hex Snape?!” He was doubled over now, clutching his gut, laughing like someone had put a Cheering Charm on him.

Ginny sniffed and put her hands on her hips. “He wanted to be brave!” she pouted.

“Whoo,” Draco breathed as he placed a hand on her shoulder, “That was a good one, Gin. Thanks for the talk.” He turned and walked back into the classroom. Ginny scoffed and followed.

Ginny searched the room and yelled, “Zabini!”

Blaise stretched his neck from where he was sitting when his ears perked up and he stared intently in Ginny’s direction. She stomped her foot and pointed at a spot in front of her.

“You come here right now!” she barked.

Blaise shrunk in his seat. His eyes briefly glanced at Draco who was now silently backing away from the explosive red-head.

“Did I do something wrong?” Blaise asked innocently at the whole room.

Ginny sighed impatiently, stomped right over to Blaise, and she yanked him by his ear out of the classroom and slammed the door behind her. She knew it probably looked ridiculous—this petite fireball bossing around a nearly grown man over a head taller than her—but it had to be done.

A series of muffled shouts, yelps, and crashes were heard, and then a moment later Blaise came back inside with his head hung low.

He slowly walked to Draco and looked up briefly before returning his gaze to the floor. “I have failed you…once again,” he said quietly.

Draco looked down at him sympathetically and shook his head.

“Class dismissed!” Ginny shouted as she came back in, “Now, get outta here!”

After what they had all just witnessed, the students packed as quickly as they could, terrified at what she might do next.

“Except you two,” Ginny said, standing at a desk up front, bent over some paperwork, “Malfoy, Zabini.” She didn’t look up, “Remember, we have tutoring tonight; I’ll see you at eight o’clock… Now, you’re excused.”

Draco glanced at Blaise who still hung his head. When clear out of earshot he said, “Now for ‘Plan B.’”

A/N: Bwahahaha! Did you like it?

Dolly: For those of you who didn’t get the whole “Plan B” thing, “Plan A” was when he told Blaise to lock Neville in the bathroom…and “Plan B” is the thing he is going to do next! Remember: “Draco stayed up that whole night planning their next tutoring session.”

Llama: Oh, gosh, DOLLY! I just can’t wait till we can post the next chapter! It’s just so cool!

Dolly: Yeah! Remember how much fun we had writing it?

Llama: And then reading it, and re-reading it, and then reading it again!

Dolly: And laughing…

Llama: And loving…

Dolly: Good times, good times.

Llama: And crying…

Dolly: Really? You cried? Which part?

Llama: Well, I couldn’t exactly tell you without ruining it for the readers, could I?

Dolly: But, you seriously cried?

Llama: I don’t really know… If I did at all, then it must have been from laughter!

Dolly: Well, I suppose you could cry at the part that—

Llama: Yes, well I guess you could, yes. Now, no more about it—we might give something away!

Dolly: Yes, you’re right.

Llama: I love The Torch from Fantastic Four.

Dolly: And I love The Thing from Fantastic Four—I mean Mr. Fantastic!

Llama: And I love Draco&Blaise!

Dolly: And I love Blaise&Draco! And DracoandBlaise!

Llama: *in an undertone* Although, they are all the same people, all-in-all…

Dolly: *ferociously* WHAT?!

Llama: Nothing, bloody hell…

A/N: Sorry for the long update! But, we promise we have NOT abandoned this story and do not plan to… ever. Actually, we have a lot more written than we feel up to typing up and posting. So, if you ever feel that it’s been an exceptionally long time, just remember that it will eventually be up, might be up faster if you review a lot *shameless begging now occurs*, and that we’re just stupid and lazy for not typing it.

Dolly: As in, Llama is stupid and lazy for not typing it.

Llama: Yeah, I am. Because Dolly has never typed up a chapter in her life.

Dolly: You never let me!

Llama: Did you ever ask?

Dolly: Yeah! Remember—

Llama: You didn’t even have the notebook, then! Even if it was with you, you still wouldn’t have typed it up.

Dolly: *mumbling angrily* I might have.

Llama: You would just do it wrong. Now, everyone! Here is the best chapter ever! We hope you enjoy it as much as we did and we did… a lot!

Dolly: *still sulking* Yes; and please review.

Llama: We laufff you! *squee*

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

Neville rolled up his sleeves and plunged his hands into the soapy water. As soon as he found the sponge he returned it to the floor and continued scrubbing.

Professor Snape looked at him with disgust as he stepped over the just scrubbed floor with his dirty boots. Neville sighed and moved to clean it again. He thought that Professor Snape was being really unnecessarily harsh on him; it wasn’t his fault someone put the potion into his pumpkin juice!

((Malfoy, no doubt,)) he thought grumpily. ((But, wait… Maybe Harry? He’s been giving me dirty looks lately, and if I’m not mistaken, I think he’s the one who has been sending me those death threats! – “I’ll vanquish you like I vanquished the Dark Lord! I mean… like the Great and Powerful Harry Potter vanquished the Dark Lord!” – Way to be subtle, Potter. But, what have I done to deserve all this?))

“Keep working, Longbottom!” Snape snapped.

“Severus!” came another voice from the door. There stood a stern-looking Professor McGonagall. Her lips were pursed into the fine line she was famous for.

“Yes?” Professor Snape replied lazily.

“What are you doing to the poor boy?!”

“I’m not doing anything to him, Minerva. Not that it’s any of your business.”

“Well, let him well enough alone! He doesn’t deserve to be punished!”

“Yes, he does.”

“No, it’s not his fault someone slipped the potion into his drink! Albus agrees.”

“Be that as it may, he was thinking impure thoughts about his educator, as was proved when the potion made him hex me, and he should be punished for that!” the potions master replied haughtily.

“Well, Severus if that was the case then I’m sorry to say every single person in Hogwarts would have to be punished.”

“Minerva, please. Calm yourself.”

“You may leave, Longbottom.” Professor McGonagall waved Neville away.

“No! This is my detention; I’ll say when he can leave. Longbottom, stay,” Professor Snape snapped.

“I am his Head of House; therefore, it’s my decision. You may leave, Longbottom.”

Neville quickly got up and scrambled out of the room. The two teachers continued to bicker through the closed doors and Neville couldn’t help but see a similarity in the way that Ginny and Malfoy always fought. He then suddenly remembered he was late for tutoring!

Meanwhile, back at eight o’ clock…

Ginny entered Draco’s room in the middle of Blaise and Draco’s conversation, although she was unnoticed at first…

“And then he said,” Blaise laughed and adopted a gruff tone of voice, “‘You know, before I retire, I wanna hire me a hooker. You know, one of those that really know how to… fluff a guy up.’” Both boys burst into laughter. “And then,” Blaise continued through his tears of mirth, “the two girls just looked at each other and started walking faster!”

“You know he said that only because they were walking past!” Draco cackled.

“They’re really hot, though!”

“Yeah, I know!”

“How bout we double-date?” Blaise suddenly suggested.

“Oh, Blaise… I dunno…”

“Come on! There’s one for each of us!” Blaise pouted.

“I’m still trying to work on—”

Ginny cleared her throat loudly, interrupting Draco’s sentence. She didn’t need to hear anymore.

“Oh, hello Ginny!” Blaise chimed.

Draco mumbled a greeting, his cheeks slightly pink from embarrassment at what she was about to hear—“I’m still trying to work on getting Ginny”—it might have ruined everything.

“Where’s Longbottom?” Blaise asked nervously.

“I don’t know. I suspect that Snape gave him detention…thanks to you,” Ginny replied with a certain smite in her tone. Blaise slowly sunk into the shadows.

“Don’t be so hard on him, Ginny,” Draco defended. It was the least he could do, as he was the one who told on Blaise to her. “He was just trying to help.”

“Help whom?” Ginny raised an eyebrow.

“That’s beside the point. You’re just so hostile and tense.” He walked up behind her and began to rub her shoulders.

“Yeah, I am pretty tense,” she admitted.

“Let me help you with that,” Draco said soothingly as he continued to rub her shoulders.

“It’s just—I have a lot going on right now,” Ginny revealed slowly as Draco plopped her down into a vacant chair.

“Sure you do,” Draco said as he signaled Blaise over. “Hey, pal. You can help me out, now,” he whispered.

“Anything!” Blaise answered excitedly.

“Go watch the door and make sure nobody interrupts us,” Draco whispered to him. Blaise nodded and skipped off happily.

Ginny didn’t hear the whispered conversation between the two boys and continued. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately,” she said carefully, “that you haven’t been your usual self these past few days.”

Draco nodded behind her and continued to massage. “Really? How so?”

“Well, you haven’t been killing me lately!”

Draco stopped abruptly and Ginny quickly corrected herself, “I mean, I don’t have to worry about you so much… Actually, it seems that Blaise is the one I have to worry about, now.”

Draco nodded smugly as he glanced at the portrait hole and began massaging again…

Neville made his way down the hall to Draco’s room. At the entrance he found Blaise, hands behind his back, rocking back and forth on his heels, and singing another pointless song.

“So long—farewell to you my friend! Goodbye—for now—until we meet again! I said so long—farewell to you my friend! Goodbye—for now—until we meet again. It’s been great—”

“Blaise,” Neville began, “Move aside, please.”

Blaise blinked at him, and after a moment he continued his song, “It’s been great to play and sing together—in the box—but now it’s time to say good—”

“Move aside, Blaise!” Neville practically screamed as he stomped his foot. The echo bounced off the walls and back into Draco’s room…

Draco’s head jerked up as he heard the sound from outside. Not wanting Ginny to notice it, he massaged harder and encouraged her to keep venting.

“Mm-hmm, yeah, uh-huh,” he nodded his head vigorously.

They were now on the subject of the New Year’s Ball.

“Yeah, and then I just thought I’d go with him, since we both didn’t have dates,” Ginny explained.

((I would have gone with you,)) Draco thought.

“Oh, I see,” he said out loud.

“Yes, and so I hurried out to Hogsmeade to visit my mum’s friend. She’s a tailor, and always lets me borrow dresses, so she hooked Neville and me up with really great outfits.”

((I could have just bought them,)) Draco thought bitterly.

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” he said through clenched teeth.

“The rest of the night was magical and we danced the night away,” Ginny gushed.

((How darling!)) Draco thought merrily.

“After totally dumping me, of course,” he blurted out.

“What?” Ginny spun around to look at him.

((Oh, Merlin. I said that out loud? I mixed up what I say with what I say! Wait, what?))

Ginny continued to stare at him.

((What do I do? Say something…))

She kept staring.

((Anything? Say something! Come on, Draco! You’re the Prince of Slytherin, say something! Break this awkward silence that your babbling mouth has created!))

They just stared at each other.

((THINK!))

Draco’s eyes darted back and forth and he frowned. He took a deep breath and leaned in…

“Move, dammit!” Neville shouted at Blaise.

“Never! I mustn’t disobey my—”

“I don’t care!” Neville pulled out his wand. “Petrificus Totalus!”

Blaise turned stiff as a board and fell to the floor. Neville sighed and put his wand away. “Need to thank Hermione for that one,” he mumbled as he pushed open the portrait hole and saw Ginny and Draco.

He darted behind the wall and decided he would wait and see what would happen. After a few seconds, he was starting to get really bored. They were just…staring at each other! Then, suddenly Draco leaned in and kissed Ginny swiftly on the mouth…

Ginny suddenly pulled away.

((What did you just do?! Of all the things you could have said or done, is that what you chose?!)) Draco thought to himself in panic.

“Listen—I—uh,” Draco tried to explain.

Ginny then surprisingly grabbed his collar and pulled him into another, deeper kiss.

Draco hesitantly put his arms around her and hugged her close to his body. Ginny tangled her hands up in his hair. He cupped one side of her face with one hand as the other trailed down her lower back and played with the hem of her shirt. She smiled against his lips.

Neville was about to jump out, reveal himself, and break up the two’s little snogging session, but someone grabbed him from behind and stuffed something in his mouth. It smelled—and tasted like—a gym sock.

“Thought you could trick me, eh?” Blaise laughed maniacally, “Think you’ve got the skills to pull a fast one on me, eh?”

Neville stared blankly.

“Tried to pull the wool over my eyes, eh?” Blaise emphasized with his hands, “Nothing’s going over my eyes, ‘cept my eyelids! You got that?!” He burst out cackling, dropped down on his knees and raised his arms to the heavens.

Neville spit out the sock and looked down at the seemingly ill boy, “How the heck did you get out of that body-bind?”

“You think that’s the first time I’ve ever been in a body-bind? Well, you thought wrong, partner!”

“Whatever,” Neville said as he turned back to go break up the mosh. Blaise jumped in front of him and stuffed the sock back into his mouth.

“No! You got past me once! Not again! Leave the two lovebirds alone to fondle each other!”

Neville once again spit the sock out and said, “Each other?! He is fondling her! And she doesn’t like it! See her pulling his hair?”

“Longbottom, you are so inexperienced,” Blaise sighed.

Neville was about to retort when he pointed suddenly behind Blaise and screamed, “Oh, no! Draco’s crying!”

This set Blaise off.

“NO! My best friend!” Blaise jumped and ran towards the couple. He wretched Ginny off of Draco and pulled the boy into a hug.

“It’s okay, Draco! I’m here!” he cooed, stroking his flaxen hair.

“I wish you weren’t!” Draco growled as he pushed Blaise off of him. He then spotted Neville and smiled. “Oh, Longbottom. You’re here…okay, well…You’re late! Uh, now we can start!”

“Are you sure you two haven’t already started without me?” Neville grumbled.

Draco simply folded his arms and smirked, looking smug.

“How about Ginny says something?” the formerly-plump boy suggested.

Ginny looked up from the ground. Her face was red and her voice shaky, “Well—I—uh...”

“How about you were snogging Malfoy!” Neville shouted. “How about you totally led me on? At the New Years Ball, when you chose me, it was all an act to conceal your true relationship? What were you thinking, Ginny? He’s a Slytherin, his father is a Death Eater who tried to kill you your first year, your families are sworn enemies, and he’s tortured you and your friends for years!” Neville lectured, only stopping to take a large rasping breath.

Draco clenched and unclenched his fists, his eyes glowering at Neville from under his bangs. Blaise moved quickly to hold him back before he totally crushed Neville.

“Does someone have to watch you all the time so you don’t get into trouble, Ginny? ‘Cuz, I’ll do it!” Neville rambled on.

Ginny raised her hand and slapped him across the face.

“Just who do you think you are talking to me like that? Not even my own brothers are allowed to speak to me like that! You think you’re the shit now, huh? All good-looking and popular? Guess what? I liked you better when you were fat and clumsy! At least your attitude made up for it! Now, your attitude is so bad your looks can’t even make up for it! I thought you were different—”

“Ginny, obviously Malfoy’s got you under the Imperius Curse or something,” Neville said as he grabbed her elbow.

“You are not the boss of me, Neville,” Ginny said as she pulled away from him. “I’m not a porcelain doll and you can’t protect me all the time!”

“Are you trying to say you want to stay here with Malfoy? Ginny, all he wants is a shag—”

“I would advise you not to talk about me the way you have been when I am standing right here!” Draco yelled suddenly as he broke away from Blaise and threw a punch at Neville’s jaw.

A/N: DUN DUN DUNNNNN! Didya like it? DIDYA? Well, that’s all you get for today.. HAHA just kidding here’s the rest…

Neville clamped his hand over his bleeding lip. “Hey! That’s not fair!”

“Oy, Draco!” Blaise spoke up, “Calm down, buddy. Let’s talk it out.”

“He had it coming, with that dirty mouth of his,” Draco growled.

Neville looked at Ginny, who refused to look back, but simply replied, “You did deserve that, Neville.”

Neville gaped at her and Draco let out a short laugh.

Ginny snapped her head in Draco’s direction, “It’s not like you don’t deserve a smack in the face, as well! I’d gladly give you one!”

Draco stared at her for a moment in shock and anger, and then looked away.

“Besides,” she continued, “the only reason I did what I did with you earlier was because I needed comfort…I was sad, okay? It didn’t mean anything.”

He looked back at her, his grey eyes showing something she hadn’t seen before, sadness. The rest of his face though, remained stony cold.

Her heart sank at that moment; she felt it meant something. Not anything she could say in front of Neville, a fellow Gryffindor, whom she recently discovered had a pretty big mouth.

Draco remained uncharacteristically silent and turned his gaze elsewhere.

As if on cue, Blaise broke out singing another song, this one sounding as if it would be horrible even if he was singing on key.

“An awkward pause, then what’s my line? There’s nothing left to say this time; and what do you say to a bad-guy who’s not there?” he sang dramatically. “Bravo!” he cheered as he clapped his hands happily. “We should publish this and sell the rights to WB!”

“Blaise, you have seriously been watching too much television,” Ginny sighed. “I’m really sorry, Draco.”

“I’m fine!” he snapped with what seemed like an internal struggle to keep from looking at her.

“Uh, Ginny? We should go…” Neville said.

For the first time that night, Ginny agreed with him and they left the two Slytherins.

Once they reached the Gryffindor portrait hole, Neville grabbed Ginny by the arm.

“Now see what happened, Gin?” he whispered sympathetically.

“What?”

“You shouldn’t be off kissing other guys—least of all, Malfoy. I really don’t know what you were thinking—”

Ginny scowled and pushed him off of her arm. She ran inside the common room and slammed the portrait hole behind her.

“Damn…” Neville slowly realized, “I forgot the password, again…”

A/N: We tried making it a teensy bit longer than usual to make up for “our” *cough* lack of updating.

Dolly: Hopefully it satisfied the deprivation you experienced during that dry, dry season...

Llama: Dang! You make it sound like they were trapped on an island or something!

Dolly: okay, I have no idea how to make a witty comeback to that, so I will just leave it at this...You know that part where Ginny came into the room to find Blaise and Draco talking about men conversing about fluff and what not??? That actually happened! To us!!!

Llama: Puh-lease Dolly! That is soo totally cliché! Shameless author self insertion? Pssh! We are totally beyond that...'cept...IT DID HAPPEN...TO US!!!

DollyandLlama: BWAHAHA!!!

A/N: Dolly&Llama: *are sheepish*

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

Ginny woke to the sound of Hermione singing. It then suddenly dawned on her that she didn’t share her room with Hermione and after listening closer to the offending sound, she realized it was actually an eagle owl clawing at the glass on her window.

“Go away!” she screamed in terror as she threw her pillow at the window and covered her ears to block out the awful sound, but to no avail.

“No!” she wailed as tears began flowing down her cheeks. This bursting headache was definitely not the best way to start her Saturday. The eagle owl began screeching loudly and pecking at the window, determined to get inside.

“Why me?” Ginny sobbed as she dragged herself out of bed to the window before the persistent bird broke it in its haste. As soon as she threw it open, the now angry swarm of feathers burst in and dropped a letter at her feet and left, careful to flap its wings in her face a couple times before flying back out the way it came in.

Ginny wearily picked up the letter and opened it. Knowing that Draco was the only one in all of Hogwarts to be as rich and stuck-up as to own such an owl, and having snogged the boy and left him out to dry the night before, she was surprised to see him writing to her.

She had expected him to hold a tremendous grudge and ignore her forever, but apparently he wasn’t going to do that. Shaking slightly, she unfolded the parchment and read the letter.

Dear Ginny,

I don’t know why I’m writing you, as it is quite obvious that you don’t want anything to do with me. But, a Malfoy never gives up. I don’t know what it is about you, Ginny, but you’ve got what I want; and I always get what I want.

You should feel lucky, really, to be the girl I’ve chosen to pursue. I know this isn’t exactly the best way to convince you to just let it go and accept the fact that you’re mine, but I’m frankly getting tired of trying to woo you into submission. There’s obviously something or someone that’s holding you back from me, Ginny. I’ve decided it’s time for me to use force.

Meet me at the quidditch pitch. I know you’ll come, so don’t try to convince yourself that you won’t.

I’ll be waiting,

Draco Malfoy

Ginny began to curse colorfully and continued to do so for at least twenty five minutes.

“Who the bloody hell does he think he is!?” she shouted at the room.

The room shrugged back at her.

“I’ll show him,” she mumbled. “Wants me to meet him at the quidditch pitch, does he?”

She grabbed her wand and gave herself a tap on the top of her head. Immediately her hair was pulled into a French braid and her pajamas had turned into a black, long-sleeved turtleneck and dark blue jeans. She pulled on her soft black boots and puffy black jacket and pocketed her wand.

Ginny stormed out of her room and down the stairs, into the common room. Ignoring Ron, Harry, and Hermione’s greetings as they had so many times ignored her, she pushed open the portrait hole and climbed out, once again promptly tripping over Neville.

He had fallen asleep in front of the Fat Lady, not knowing the password to go inside and nobody showing up to let him in.

“Ginny!” he cried out as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stood up. “Thank Merlin someone finally opened the portrait!” he exclaimed, not bothering to help her up as she lifted herself from the cold floor.

“You’ve been out here all night?” she smirked.

Not noticing the smite he answered her, “Yeah! Harry opened it once this morning to come outside, but the moment he saw me he slammed it in my face! I wonder if maybe there’s a surprise in there for me,” he rambled, trying to look over Ginny’s shoulder into the common room.

Ginny scowled, nostrils flaring.

Neville looked her up and down, “Where’re you going?”

“I don’t see how that concerns you, Longbottom.”

“Are you going to see Malfoy?! Ginny, I swear if you are—”

“Butt out; I’m warning you!” the red-headed girl cautioned him.

“Ginny! I can’t let you go!” Neville shook his head and grabbed her arm.

Repulsed by his daring and sudden confidence, Ginny kicked him in the groin and pushed him backwards into the common room. Casting her famous bat-bogey hex for good measure, she slammed the portrait hole closed and brushed herself off.

“Good show, dear,” the Fat Lady smiled. “I quite say he deserved it, but I wish people wouldn’t slam me so often.”

“Sorry,” Ginny said as she stomped off toward the Quidditch pitch.

Once she got there, it took her not one second to spot Draco through the falling snow, close to the goal-posts on her left side. She pointed her wand at him and yelled, “Accio broom!”

The Nimbus 2001 began to race towards her and Draco, being on it, was brought along for the ride. It stopped sharply at her side and he nearly toppled head-first off of it. Regaining his stature and running a hand through his blonde hair, which was slightly damp from the snow, he said, “Took you long enough, Ginny.”

It was remarkable how much he made her want to tear her own arm off and bludgeon him with it with just the first sentence he said to her.

Before she could say anything, he turned the head of his broom toward her.

“Get on,” he said.

“Excuse me?” Ginny snarled. Draco slid back on the handle a bit.

“Get on,” he repeated.

“No!”

“Ginny, get on or I’m going to have to make you get on, and I don’t want to do that.”

“Then you won’t, will you?”

“I said I don’t want to, but that doesn’t mean I won’t.”

Ginny could tell he wasn’t kidding, and she didn’t want him to think he could make her do anything, so after a moment she climbed on the broom in front of him. Draco slid his arms past her and grabbed the broom handle.

They rose a bit, then came back down.

“Ginny, your jacket is huge. I can’t see. Take it off.”

“Are you mad? It’s freezing out here!” she exclaimed.

“I’ll keep you warm,” Draco whispered in her ear softly.

Ginny shuddered as he kissed her softly under her ear beneath the falling snow.

Moments later they were flying around the pitch, the jacket laying discarded on the stands below. After showing off his flying skills with a couple tricks, loops, and turns which caused Ginny’s hair to fly out of its braid and into a mess, Draco slowed their speed and began to fly over the treetops of the forbidden forest.

After about five minutes, they came to a clearing in which Draco touched down into. It seemed as if there was a bubble around the clearing, making everything inside it as if it were spring. There was no snow resting on the green grass and the air held only a light breeze.

Draco flicked his wand and upon the grass appeared a large picnic blanket with a picnic basket in the middle of it. Draco kicked off his shoes, took off his cloak, and sat cross-legged on the blanket. After a moment, Ginny followed suit, taking off her boots and sitting down on the other side of the basket.

Draco opened the basket and took out plates, utensils, and two goblets. Ginny looked inside the basket to see what seemed like a refrigerator full of her favorite food and drinks; the inside of the basket was obviously enlarged.

As Ginny began to pig out immensely, Draco ate very little with very good table manners. While Ginny had food all over her mouth, Draco’s food was only inside his mouth, and every now and then he dabbed the corners with a napkin.

After a while, the pig was the first to speak up.

“I thought you were frightened of the forest,” she said.

“Don’t be silly, Ginevra,” Draco replied, dabbing the corners of his mouth with his napkin, “That was in first year and I was only eleven. People grow out of their fears, you know.”

“Right,” Ginny said, looking away and feeling foolish for bringing it up.

She was still frightened of the girls’ bathroom on the second floor, had never again kept a diary out of fear that it might write back, and still had nightmares in which she was in a trance—ordering around giant snakes, killing roosters, writing messages in blood, and finding out that her first best friend neither cared about her nor wanted her alive.

She looked back and saw Draco studying her with what seemed great interest.

“Why did you bring me here?” she asked him. He shrugged and waved his wand, the leftover food, dishes, and the basket disappeared.

“Dance with me,” he commanded, standing up and pulling her up with him.

“But, there’s no music,” she inquired.

“We’ll make our own,” Draco whispered as he pulled her close to him.

And sure enough, as soon as they began to move, the sounds of nature began to seem more and more like music.

After a moment, Ginny suddenly pulled away from him.

“This is so cliché, Draco! Why did you bring me here?” she squinted her eyes at him.

“You’ve already asked me that, Ginny,” he replied through clenched teeth, trying to keep his cool.

“You didn’t even answer!”

“Because I felt like it,” he said, looking away to the trees unseeingly.

“That is still not an answer!”

Suddenly his head snapped back to her and he snapped, “It’s because I like you, Ginny! I can’t stand to watch you being taken away by that squib, Longbottom! He doesn’t deserve you!”

“Oh, and you do, your highness?” she shot back scathingly.

“More than him, that’s for sure. Don’t you see the way he treats you?”

“As if you treat me any better!”

“Excuse me? Look around you! Did he ever do anything like this for you, Ginny?”

“He hasn’t even had a chance to!”

“Sticking up for him now, are you? Forgotten all the things he said to you last night?”

“Bringing me here doesn’t change anything,” she whispered fiercely, choosing to ignore the question and changing the subject.

“You came along, didn’t you?” Draco pointed out.

“Against my better judgment, yes! I knew I would regret it.”

“Ginny, listen to yourself! You are forcing yourself to regret it! It would’ve been just fine if you didn’t start things all the time!”

“How could you say that?”

“It’s true, Ginny! I don’t know what else to do, anymore. You find something wrong with everything—I just—there’s no pleasing you!” he said, voice slightly panicking. Not knowing what else to do, he then kissed her with such force and passion that she thought her knees would give out.

When they finally broke off, out of breath, Draco looked at her with question in his eyes. Ginny simply glared at him.

“I am not stupid, Draco! You can’t trick me, anymore! I’m out of here!”

She turned to leave when Draco grabbed her upper arm and turned her back to him.

“I’ll never let you go, Gin,” he said, his face set.

She scowled and broke away from him. She ran towards the trees and disappeared into the forest.

Draco rolled his eyes, grabbed his broom, and took off after her.

A/N: Let’s just all say “YAY FOR THE TOTALLY OVERDONE CLICHÉ MOMENTS!”

No?

Alright, then.

Hope you liked it! ..although it was horribly overdue.

Reviews?

Love?

Maybe?

No?

Alright…

A/N: Hmmm.. Well, here's the long awaited Chapter Twenty, I guess…

Dolly: *draws circles with foot sheepishly on the floor* That's an understatement.

Llama: We, er, hope that you aren't too angry with us.. for taking so long that is…

Dolly: You know how exams are... long and… long… and time consuming. *shifts from side to side*

Llama: Although I'm sure none of you have taken the long, two year long exams that we have, er, taken.

Dolly: Now, now. As I'm sure all of you are extremely tempted to throw tomatoes and other gushy food items at us, I ask you to please remember how important education is to the world.

Llama: Oh, shut it, Dolly. This is all your fault.

Dolly: WHAT?! Llama, please, say no more.

Llama: Remember what I told you? REMEMBER?! I always said I wouldn't trust you with the difficult and complicated task of typing a chapter. And the ONE TIME I did, look what happened. TWO YEARS, DOLLY!

Dolly: I thought we were going to keep that one to ourselves, Llama. *glares*

Llama: YEAH, WHATEVER. Our readers deserve to know the truth. And, I don't want tomatoes thrown at me, if it was all your fault. You know how it is. *examines fingernails*

Dolly: It's not MY FAULT, Llama. It's the EXAMS! THE EXAMS! *cries hysterically*

Llama: Sure, Dolly. Accept your fate.

Dolly: *still in tears, holds up a shield with a picture of a tomato on it and a bucket of water is close by to put out oncoming flames (written by angry readers)* Please, please. Readers, remember how much you love me! *screams in terror and is bombarded by tomatoes, other gushy food items, and flaming reviewss*

Llama: Okay, I think she's had enough. Poor thing. *glances over at the broken girl, in a fetal position with her thumb in her mouth, quivering on the floor* Just.. read the chapter, please. SHOW'S OVER! STOP STARING!!!

CHAPTER TWENTY

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

Ginny ran until she was out of breath, then continued at a walk, clutching the stitch in her side. She had no idea why she was running; Draco had been a complete gentlemen. She supposed he was right, something was holding her back. Deep down, she had a frightful feeling that she knew what it was, but didn't want to admit it to herself. She didn't want to believe that she was that weak, young girl from the past. Ginny scowled to herself. Why couldn't she control her temper? What good had running into the forest done?

The numerous trees surrounding her blocked out all visible light, making it seem as if it were night. Not only did she have absolutely no idea where the bloody hell she was, Ginny was freezing now that she was out of the clearing.

((Damn it, Ginny!)) she thought to herself. ((Your famous Weasley temper has gotten you into trouble once again!))

Kicking aside a rock, Ginny sighed as she watched it bounce off of a tree trunk. Leaning against it she wondered what else she could do to ruin her life beyond repair.

"I give up," she grumbled to herself as she slid down to the floor.

"Do you now?" a voice asked from behind.

Ginny jumped as Draco stepped out in front of her.

"No," she said quickly and automatically.

"You just said you did," he stated, raising an eyebrow.

"I didn't mean it."

"Are you sure?" he took one step towards her, "I dare say it would make my job much easier."

"Your job?" Ginny repeated, angrily.

"Yes, darling," Draco smirked, "I've brought it upon myself to set you right."

"You have such a way with words," Ginny scoffed, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I know," Draco winked.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "You haven't won anything, so you can wipe that God-awful smirk off of your face."

"Now, now, Ginevra. You're being rude again."

Ginny snorted and turned away.

"Let's get back to our date," Draco offered through clenched teeth.

"Date?" repeated Ginny with a disbelieving laugh.

Draco's eyebrows furrowed. "Yes, that's usually what they call it when a girl and a guy go out on a romantic afternoon picnic."

"If you call that romantic then you can call me Rubeus Hagrid." Ginny shot back, hands on her hips.

"You are getting on my last nerve, Ginevra Weasley," Draco snarled, taking one last step forward and grabbing her arm.

"Then why don't you just come off it and leave me bloody well alone?!" she snapped, wrenching her arm out of his tight grip.

"I told you Ginny, Malfoys never give up."

"There's a first time for everything, your highness," Ginny smirked, sizing him up.

"Really witty, Gin. I wonder; wherever do you learn all your little jokes?" Draco tilted his head in mock interest.

"What do you want from me, Malfoy?" Ginny demanded.

"Ginny," Draco said huskily as he stepped forward, gently placing his hands on her hips, "I thought it was rather obvious what I wanted."

Ginny flinched and stepped back out of his reach.

"What the bloody hell is with you, Gin? Every time I try to get close to you and we actually do make some progress, you push me away!"

"That's nonsense, Draco. We've snogged a good many times."

"Never further than that though, eh?"

"Fancied a shag, did you?" Ginny snapped at him.

"No, Ginny! I meant us actually having a relationship!" Draco pleaded. "Although, I can't say I wouldn't welcome a healthy shag," he added in an undertone.

"What was that?" Ginny glared at Draco, as if daring him to repeat it.

"Nothing, nothing. Now, please... please just give me a bloody break."

"Draco, why don't you just leave well enough alone?"

"This isn't going well for anyone! There's something holding you back from me and I deserve to know what it is!"

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I care about you, Ginny. I know something's wrong. Tell me why you won't be with me!"

"I—I can't," she stammered.

"Why can't you?" Draco demanded.

"Just—just because, okay?" She mumbled, gaze locked to the ground.

"Oh," Draco sneered. "I suppose I understand. You don't even have a reason. You just want to make me beg, do you? So you can tell all your little friends that Draco Malfoy begged you to get together? But, wait a second, that doesn't make any sense because, oh, I forgot—You don't exactly have any friends, do you? Well, no friends and no reason; one wonders what the smallest Weasley does have," he finished, cruelly.

"I do have a reason," Ginny answered, voice cracking slightly and gaze remaining on the ground.

"You do? Well, obviously it's not a good one, is it?" he snapped back, not missing a beat. He continued to taunt her when she didn't answer, "Well, no, I suppose it isn't. Saving yourself for Potter, are you? You're wasting your time. He's head-over-heels for the Mudblood." Draco snorted. "But, still. Five years is much too long to be pining for one person, isn't it? I mean, I know he saved you and all down in the Chamber of Secrets, but really, how much fight can an old diary put up any—“

"Don't-talk-about-things-you-don't-understand!" Ginny hissed, finally looking up with a quivering bottom lip.

"Oh, but Ginny," he replied scathingly, "I do understand."

"You don't!" she cried, shaking, "You don't know what it's like to love someone—to pour your heart and soul out to someone who pretended to love you back! You don't understand what it's like to trust someone with all your being, only to find that they didn't care about you at all! Can you imagine? Your best friend not caring if you lived or died? Making you do things against your will? I endangered the whole school, Draco! So many people almost died! I—I almost died!" she sobbed, "Don't tell me you understand because you don't! You don't understand! God forbid you ever do...” she trailed off, shaking her head as tears rushed down her face.

Just as Draco was about to step forward, she spoke again, "I'm scared, Draco. I'm scared and that's why I can't be with you."

"What are you talking about, Ginny? When have I ever hurt you? I'm not a monster—“

"You haven't hurt me yet because I haven't let myself get attached. Who's to say you won't hurt me in the future?"

"Ginny, I would never dream of hurting you. You have to trust me."

"I can't trust anyone. I can't even trust myself," she choked out.

"Just give me a chance," Draco said, gathering her in his arms, "Give me a chance and I'll prove it to you. I'd never let anything happen to you."

He gently lifted her chin towards him, her eyes and cheeks shining with tears. He wiped them away with his thumb and leaned in to kiss her softly.

"I promise I won't let anything happen to you," he whispered softly into her ear.

After a moment her eyes softened as she realized he was telling her the truth.

"I know," she whispered back as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Blaise ran aimlessly up and down the corridors, eyes darting left and right for any sign of his blonde buddy. Then, the radar in his brain locked on someone who could possibly help him. It was none other than Harry Potter, alone, standing not 10 steps to Blaise's left. The Slytherin stomped over and poked him in the chest, "Boy!"

Harry stumbled a bit and looked up at him. "What do you want, Zabini?" he asked in a fruitless attempt to act nonchalant.

This was, after all, the first time he had heard the good-looking boy speak to him.

"I'm looking for Draco," the handsome boy said.

Harry held on to his voice, but was not really hearing what he was saying. It was amazing that in all his time at Hogwarts, he hadn't given Blaise a second thought, and hearing him speak was like a luxury that Harry himself had never known.

Blaise poked him in the chest again and repeated, slower this time, "I'm looking for Draco."

"Well, you can search me!" Harry faked a scowl. He wondered vaguely if it was something to worry about that he had a lingering thought that he wouldn't mind Blaise did indeed search him.

"Don't be stupid, Potter. Do you know where he is or not?" Blaise asked, poking him again.

"Well, no," Harry blinked.

Blaise scowled and turned to leave.

"But, I—wait!" Harry cried, frantically.

Blaise turned back to him, "What Potter?"

"I can help you find him," Harry offered. "I need to speak to him also."

"Whatever," muttered Blaise.

"Alright," Harry took the Marauder's Map out of his pocket. A sudden struggle against his better judgment occurred, before he tapped it with his wand and muttered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Blaise's eyes widened as Hogwarts appeared on the parchment before them. "Hot dog, Potter! Where the bloody hell'd you get that?"

Harry was glad the question didn't require an answer. He scanned the map. Draco was not in the Great Hall, the Entrance Hall, the Slytherin common room, the Head Boy room, or in the Potions dungeon. He wasn't anywhere near the Gryffindors, either, but Hermione was right where he left her—tending to Neville's wounds and wiping off bat bogeys. And Ron was still asleep in the dormitory.

"Look!" Blaise shouted suddenly, pointing to a far corner on the map. Sure enough, there was Draco's dot, deep in the Forbidden Forest with none other than Ginny Weasley.

"Ha!" Blaise laughed. "Finally got her, did you old boy?"

A bubble had appeared over the two touching dots, labeled 'snogging'. Harry frowned as he remembered the same bubble appearing the night before, over Snape and McGonagall's dots.

"Bloody hell!" Harry exclaimed. Blaise paid him no mind; instead he was still examining the map. But, Harry was furious. There Draco was, snogging Ginny, when all this time the plan was for them to both bring down Longbottom, and for them to both get their girls. Well, Harry wasn't snogging Hermione just yet, was he?

"Potter!" Blaise hissed, poking him once again. "Let's go then, shall we?"

"What! Into the Forbidden Forest?" gasped Harry.

"No, to the loo," Blaise said sarcastically, "Of course the forest! What the bloody hell is an 'Aragog' anyway?"

Harry's face scrunched up in confusion as he looked at where Blaise was pointing on the map. A new dot labeled 'Aragog' was now heading slowly toward Draco and Ginny.

"No!" cried Harry, as he grabbed Blaise's arm and ran out of the castle towards the Forbidden Forest.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"Wait!" cried Ginny as she broke away from Draco. "This isn't right, we shouldn't be doing this..."

"By Merlin, Ginny! I swear on my father in Azkaban if you still can't go through with this then I'll definitely have to—"

"No," Ginny interrupted him, "I mean we shouldn't be doing this, when we should be—“

She pointed a trembling finger behind him, "—running."

Draco spun around and stepped back at once. There stood the largest spider he had ever seen, with a thousand shiny black eyes, each with what seemed to hold a white fog in them. With eight hairy legs and enormous pinchers that seemed strong enough to break him in half, the spider looked ready to attack.

"Oh, Great Salazar Slytherin," Draco whimpered, "Give me strength."

He gave a small cough and made an attempt to stand upright. "Ginny," he whispered, "Go and run. Take my broom and save yourself. And if this shall be the last time we meet know that..." he searched for the right words to say, "It's entirely your that fault we didn't get together sooner."

"Shut it, you wanna-be ponce," Ginny snarled, "I think I know who this is."

"Know who this is?" Draco snorted, "It seems more appropriate to know what this is first, if you don't mind me saying."

"I heard Harry and Ron telling Hermione years ago! It's Hagrid's...Aragog?" she called out nervously.

"Aragog?" Draco repeated, "It has a name?"

"I may be blind, human, but I can hear you and the insults you say," the giant spider spoke.

Ginny shivered slightly and Draco simply stared, mouth open.

"Forgive me, Aragog, sir," Ginny offered, "Draco here has a mental disorder and can't control what he says."

"Aragog! What are you doing in this part of the forest?" said the voice of Firenze (the centaur who had apparently returned to the forest in which his herd kicked him out during Draco's fifth year, but is in this scene because we chose to include him).

"I was simply roaming around, you know how it is, Firenze," the spider replied, wearily.

Ginny was going to collapse under Draco's weight, as he had so conveniently lost all feeling in his legs and was leaning back on her.

"Aragog?" cried a third voice, "Firenze?"

"Harry," Firenze replied, looking up at the sky.

"Harry?!" Ginny cried.

"Draco!" Blaise yelped as he ran to said Slytherin and picked him up off of Ginny to give him a bear hug.

"Blaise!?" Harry, Ginny, Draco and Blaise all said at once.

"Aragog!" cried Aragog, running around himself.

Harry looked around, "Ha," he said, "Aragog and Firenze, eh? Wow, if only Grawp was here, we could all have a party!"

Then, suddenly, a booming voice shook the trees.

"Hagger!" it cried as it came into view.

"Oh, bloody hell," Draco cried, before promptly fainting.

"You had to say it, didn't you, Potter?!" growled Ginny.

"Yeah," added Blaise, "You're just a short little jinx! You—"

"Shut up, Blaise!" Ginny shot at him.

"—little mushroom picker!" he finished in an undertone.

After a moment in which they all glared at one another, they remembered what was going on.

"I know!" Harry yelled, suddenly. "I'll summon my Firebolt! Ginny, you and Malfoy ride back on his broom, and... Well, I suppose Zabini and I will have to ride on mine," Harry faked a grimace unsuccessfully.

"I'll summon my own broom, thanks very much," Blaise huffed, snottily.

"Well, alright... Sure. Yeah, sure," Harry said, trying hard to hide his disappointment, "Accio Firebolt!"

"Accio Nimbus 2001!" Blaise cried. In seconds they were mounting their brooms.

"Draco! Wake up!" Ginny said as she continuously slapped him.

He opened his eyes, saw Aragog, Firenze and Grawp, and promptly fainted once again.

"I guess we'll have to leave him," Harry muttered.

Blaise shot him a death glare and Harry recoiled. Ginny woke Draco again, but this time covered his eyes. Leading him to his broomstick, she and Draco mounted. They all took off out of the forest, thinking about how lucky they were that Aragog, Firenze and Grawp stood silently for at least 20 minutes while they contemplated their escape. Forget the fact that both Grawp and Aragog have been known to attack, none the less that Firenze shouldn't have been there at all. Oh, well. They would all just pretend that they were extremely clever (especially Draco, although he had been unconscious most of the time). As they all landed on the Quidditch pitch, Harry suddenly remembered that he had a bone to pick with Draco.

"Oy, Malfoy!" he hollered.

One of Draco's arms was snaked around Ginny's waist, while the other was holding his broom. The two were gazing into each other's eyes, making Harry want to puke.

To get his attention, Harry quickly packed a snowball and threw it at the blonde boy's head. Draco let out a shriek and crumpled to the floor, unconscious again. Ginny quickly fell to his side and screamed at Harry, "What! There was a rock in there, Harry! How could you?!" she sobbed.

Harry sheepishly drew circles with his foot onto the snow and muttered an apology under his breath.

Ginny awoke Draco and he scowled at Harry, as he got up from the snow, "What the bloody hell is wrong with you, Potter?!"

Harry remembered his anger and scowled, "You know, Malfoy, it's interesting how when you make a plan, you conveniently forget the parts that benefit other people."

"Actually, Potter," Draco answered without taking his eyes off Ginny, "It's interesting how much I don't care."

"Malfoy, we had a deal!" Harry pressed on.

"You guys had a deal?" Ginny asked, looking from Draco to Harry, "About what?"

Draco finally tore his eyes from Ginny and sighed, "Alright, Potter." He grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him away to the other side of the pitch, leaving Ginny with Blaise, who had been sitting on the snow, arms wrapped around his legs, rocking back and forth throughout the whole conversation between the two. "I'm listening," Draco said, folding his arms.

"Malfoy," Harry whined. "Neville's still in the way! You haven't helped me at all!"

"Potter, our plan wasn't working out. I told you that you'd only bring me down; I had to take matters into my own hands."

"What about me? What the bloody hell am I supposed to do?"

"Beats me, Potter. Looks like I'm the only one who got lucky, eh?" he smirked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Hold it!" Harry said, looking from Draco to Ginny and then back to Draco, "Exactly what are you planning to do now?"

"I don't think that's really any of your business, now is it, Potter?" Draco said, that same smirk unwavering on his face.

"Malfoy, that's my best friend's little sister you got there! If you do anything—"

"Oh, come off it, Potter. Listen, if you shut it, I'll help you get your Mudblood back."

"Don't call her that!"

Draco blinked as if he didn't hear anything and continued, "Where's Granger now?"

"In the common room with Neville," Harry scowled, "Ginny gave him quite the beating and now Hermione's cleaning him up."

"Well, then what the bloody hell are you doing down here? You have left the enemy alone with your trophy! Ginny has just kicked him to the curb, he'll be looking out for a new potential girl and you leave him with yours?" Draco shook his head in mock pity. "Damn, Potter. For the boy who lived you really aren't that clever, are you?"

"Damn it!" Harry muttered under his breath.

"Listen, Potter. It's been recently discovered that the boy's a real hot head, maybe even more than you and your freckled boyfriend. Play on that."

Harry sighed and took off toward the castle.

A/N: Well, hopefully you liked it. Hopefully it wasn't a total waste of your time. Hopefully we deserve some of your forgiveness and HOPEFULLY you still remember why you loved us.

Dolly: I'm REALLY sorrryyyyy. I promise, I'll type more soon, I swear! I've already gotten started on it!

Llama: Yeah, I agree. I feel bad for Dolly. I mean, she just got all four of her wisdom teeth pulled out, and still has managed to type this wonderful story for all of you. BECAUSE SHE LOVES YOU.

Dolly: Yeah, see! I love you!

Llama: *under breath* Although, I don't think her wisdom teeth are an excuse because she did have two years, after all. I would have had it done, readers, if it were me.

Dolly: LLAMA!! You're supposed to be on my side!

Llama: Yeah, well. Please review!

Dolly: IT WAS THE EXAMS!! THE EXAMS!!!! *is carried away by men in white coats, while she continues to scream* EXAMSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Cow: *moos piteously* Moo.

-->

Llama: WOW, fast update, no?

Dolly: Sorry, we don't really have time to do a whole summary. But, basically:

Ginny = Tutor. Tutoring Draco, Blaise, and Neville.

Neville + fat camp = hot + conceited.

Draco = hot! wants Ginny.

Harry wants Hermione.

Hermione + everyone else wants Neville.

Blaise = crazy! hot! wants everyone + Draco.

Ron = sleeping.

Voldemort = M.I.A.?

Llama: And that's really all we have time for. If you want a more thorough summary, uhm, read the story over? Haha it's not that long. I don't think it would really take that long, but hey, to each his own.

Dolly: NOW READ ON!

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

Draco walked back to where Ginny and Blaise were sitting, arms wrapped around their legs, while rocking back and forth.

"Well, there's no tutoring today, guys. What do you wanna do?"

Jumping up, Blaise chimed, "I haven't been to Hogsmeade in forever. What do you say to 3 butterbeers?"

“Sounds good to me; I'm freezing!” Ginny laughed as she pulled on her jacket.

“Alright,” Draco said. “Let's go, then.”

“Wait,” Ginny's face fell, “Hogsmeade weekend isn't until next week…”

“Not a problem!” Blaise said excitedly. Draco and Ginny looked at him. “I know a way! I saw it on Potter's map!”

“Map?” Draco repeated.

“Yes!” Blaise exclaimed. He then proceeded to tell them about how he found Harry, Harry pulled out his map, and how it showed all of Hogwarts and the passage ways out of it.

“You know the one-eyed witch statue with the hump?” Blaise asked Draco.

“The one that looks like your mum?” Draco asked, looking confused.

“Yeah! The hump opens and there's a passage way that leads straight into the Honeydukes cellar!”

“You sure about this, Blaise?” Ginny asked nervously.

“Of course he is!” Draco laughed, slapping his friend on the back. “I say we check it out!”

“Oh, alright. But, we can't let anyone see us!”

“Yippee!” cried Blaise.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

“Hermione!” cried Harry as he rushed into the common room.

“Yes, Harry? What is it?” she replied, looking away from Neville who was sitting on the couch beside her.

Harry immediately ran to them and squeezed himself in between them. He then placed one arm around Hermione's shoulders, and used the other to push Neville. Unfortunately, the former plump boy was still not very graceful and toppled off of the couch onto his bottom.

“Jeez, Harry,” he muttered as he got up and walked away, “You don't have to be so rough.”

Harry frowned at him and turned back to Hermione, who was staring at Neville's retreating back with slight traces of a pout on her face.

“Hermione,” Harry said, getting back her attention. “Would you like to take a walk with me?”

“Sure, I guess,” Hermione sighed, as she now didn't have anything better to do.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Ginny, Draco, and Blaise were on their way to the one-eyed witch statue when a roaming Pansy Parkinson spotted them. She strut over, in her short skirt and low-cut top, and both Draco and Blaise could barely keep their excitement to themselves, though neither was truly interested.

Ginny scowled. ((Boys,)) she thought grumpily.

Pansy opened her mouth to say something, but then suddenly noticed Ginny and frowned. “Why is Weasley walking with you two?”

The boys snapped out of their hypnosis and seemed to just realize Ginny was standing next to them.

“Well, I—uh—we…” they both stuttered helplessly.

“Don't be silly, Parkinson,” Ginny said, scowling at the red-faced boys who were trying to keep their cool, “I was simply walking near them, not with them.”

She then continued on her way. She could make it to Hogsmeade on her own. She had already known about the map and the passageways, anyway. Just because the Golden Trio didn't notice she was there didn't mean she wasn't, and just because they ignored her didn't mean she couldn't hear every single word they said.

Ginny smirked at the thought of them, thinking they were so clever and secretive, when she knew about every single one of their plans to defeat Voldemort, problems finding dates to balls, and even some unresolved sexual tension she was sure they didn't even know about.

“Gits,” she muttered in distaste as she stepped into the witch's hump and strolled down the tunnel to Honeydukes.

A jingle from her pocket reminded her that she hadn't been shopping in a long time. She had a lot of money saved up from tutoring, and now that she had three young minds to mold, the income was pretty damn good. She suddenly remembered her pupils.

((Damn gits can't even learn the name of the potion,)) she thought to herself.

She remembered what a jerk Neville had turned out to be, and also how Draco and Blaise were probably still oogling Pansy's goodies.

((Damn,)) she thought again as she climbed through the trapdoor and into the Honeydukes cellar, ((How am I to keep Draco's eyes away from whores like her?))

A little voice in the back of her mind answered for her to become a whore herself, but she immediately scowled at the idea.

((Draco likes me,)) she thought surely, ((He doesn't care about those other trollops. Their perfectly proportioned bodies don't interest him.))

Then the annoying little voice in her head reminded her of how he had completely forgotten her when Pansy Parkinson strut up to them in her revealing outfit.

Ginny walked out of Honeydukes into the snowing Hogsmeade street.

((Well, a few new outfits couldn't hurt…)) she thought as she stepped into Mistress Mandy's robes for teens.

The shop owner, Mandy, was a teen herself. She looked as if she had barely finished school and insisted that she knew all of the latest trends and hottest styles. She piled clothes into Ginny's arms, and then pushed her into a dressing room.

Since there were no other customers in the shop, Mandy insisted on seeing Ginny in every outfit and, according to her, Ginny looked wonderful in all of them.

Ginny suspected she just wanted to sell, but nonetheless she liked a few of the outfits herself. She picked out a couple pairs of sandals also, but before she paid for everything she realized how silly it was of her to buy all this in the middle of winter, where none of these clothes would most likely keep her warm. She had an internal struggle against her better judgment, and then finally decided stubbornly that if Pansy could do it, surely she could do it better. Worst come to worst, she would just cast a heating charm, right?

She paid for her purchases and left with quite a lot of bags, Mistress Mandy calling after her to come back soon.

Across from Mistress Mandy's there was a hair salon. Ginny cringed, but braced herself and stepped in, promptly collapsing from both the heavy fumes and the weight of her many bags.

“Can I help you?” a woman asked her from behind the counter, where she was filing her nails and looking extremely bored.

After getting up from the floor and straightening herself out, Ginny replied, coughing slightly, “Yes… I've actually… Uhm… Well, I've run out of my styling potion, you know, the one that lets you pick what you want and—“

“Yes, yes,” the woman interrupted, “I'm quite sure I know what you mean.” Without glancing at Ginny, she flicked her wand and from a shelf behind her floated a small bottle onto the counter. The label read: All Purpose Hair Dressing Potion by Val Vavoom.

“That will be ten galleons,” the woman drawled lazily, holding her perfectly manicured hand out for the money.

Ginny, who had been wondering what kind of a name “Val Vavoom” was anyway, plopped the money into the woman's outstretched hand, took the potion, and left with relief that fresh air awaited her. She decided to go to the Three Broomsticks and see if Draco and Blaise had stopped staring at Pansy and come to Hogsmeade.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

It was about ten minutes after Ginny left that Draco had come back to his senses and realized who he was staring at. He managed to bring Blaise back to reality also and they decided to go to the Three Broomsticks and see if Ginny was waiting there for them, which, in their pompous minds, was what she definitely should have done.

When they arrived there, however, she was nowhere to be seen. They ordered butterbeers and figured she would show up eventually.

“So,” Blaise began, “What've you gotten Ginny for Valentine's day?”

“Valentine's—It's not even February!” Draco stammered

Blaise stared at him, “Of course it is! February 4^th, to be exact.”

Draco looked at Blaise in astonishment. Valentine's Day was in ten days and he had absolutely no idea what to get for Ginny, who was now his girlfriend.

Blaise shook his head at the blonde boy, “I can't believe you didn't remember. I bought her present ages ago.”

“You?” Draco was taken aback. “What did you get for her?”

“Knickers,” Blaise answered back with the air of someone commenting on the weather, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to buy for your best friend's girlfriend.

“KNICKERS?!” Draco shouted, angrily shooting up from his seat. “You can't buy knickers for my girlfriend!” he yelled, jabbing a finger into Blaise's chest.

Blaise stood up, too. “Oy!” he replied angrily, “I bought them before she was your girlfriend!”

Draco scoffed. “What—and that makes it all okay?” he sputtered.

“Yes, I'd like to think so,” Blaise crossed his arms and glared at Draco.

“Well, it's not!” Draco replied harshly, “And you're not giving them to her!”

“Excuse me?” Blaise stared.

“I won't allow it,” Draco said, placing his hands on his hips and looking down on Blaise as if he were superior.

“Now you listen,” Blaise shook his finger at Draco, “I paid good money for those knickers, I personalized them and everything!”

“Personalized? What the bloody hell would you have to say on knickers?!” Draco shrieked, throwing his hands in the air and looking thoroughly harassed.

“Why, I believe that's between me, Ginny, and the witches I paid to embroider them.”

“Zabini…” Draco began warningly.

“Hey! At least I got her something! You go on talking about how much you like her and all your silly plans to get her to notice you—using me, might I add—but you didn't even remember to get her something for Valentine's Day!”

Before Draco could jump Blaise and beat him to a pulp, the door opened and Ginny walked in, shaking the snow out of her hair and carrying many shopping bags.

The boys walked over, took some from her, and led her to the table like perfect gentlemen. Although this sudden burst of manners unnerved Ginny a bit, she didn't say anything and decided to enjoy it before they came to their senses.

“So, you finally stopped staring at Parkinson and remembered our plans for today, eh?” Ginny smirked, raising an eyebrow at each of them. The boys shrugged embarrassedly.

“What did you buy?” Draco asked, reaching for one of her bags as if it was Christmas.

“None of your business!” Ginny snapped as she slapped his hand away and pulled her bags closer to herself and charming them shut.

“Oh, I get it,” Blaise said cheerfully, “Our Valentine's presents are in there aren't they?”

Ginny snorted. “No. You thought I'd get you something for Valentine's Day?” she laughed in their faces. “In case you boys didn't notice, it's the boys that give the girls gifts on that certain holiday.” She shook her head. “Honestly.”

After a moment of silence, Ginny spoke up again. “You know, I could really use a butterbeer, in case either of you noticed. I'm absolutely parched,” she snapped angrily.

Both boys jumped up from their seats and went to order more butterbeer. Ginny sighed. When they came back she decided not to be so harsh on them. They spent the rest of the day drinking butterbeer and telling jokes.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Before Harry and Hermione could even reach the portrait hole to go out for their walk, Ron bundled down the stairs, calling out to them.

“Oy, you lot!” he called as he ran to them. “Have either of you seen Ginny?”

“I haven't,” huffed Hermione, not forgetting what Ginny had doe to Neville.

“You?” Ron turned to Harry.

“I—er—no.. No, I haven't” Harry lied. Ron frowned at him and Harry quickly asked, “What do you need her for?”

“I need her to sign this letter for mum that I'm sending on Valentine's Day. I need a while to charm all the special effects, but the writing must be done,” Ron sighed. He stomped over to Neville, who had been lured into conversation by Lavender Brown.

“Neville, have you seen Ginny?”

“Ginny?” Neville replied, frowning. “Yea, I have.”

“When?” Ron asked. “Where is she?”

“I saw her this morning. She bloody well attacked me when I tried to stop her from going to see Ma—“

“Mac—McGonagall?” Harry interrupted.

“McGonagall?” Ron frowned in confusion.

“No, not McGonagall,” Neville corrected, “She was off to see—“

“Snape!” Harry interrupted again. “My mistake, she was going to see Snape, of course.”

“Harry, you just said you haven't seen her. How could you know she was off to see Snape?” Ron asked.

“Well, you see,” Harry walked over to Ron. “The thing is I forgot to tell you that I actually saw Ginny,” he cast a silencing spell behind his back at Neville, “And she said she was actually going to see Snape, to hand in an overdue Potions assignment.”

If Ron had known better, he would have known that Professor Snape didn't accept late work; he would have known that Ginny was far too responsible to not turn in her work on time; he would have noticed the look of silent outrage on Neville's face. But, Ron didn't know better, so he simply believed every word Harry said and left the common room to go find Ginny and have her sign the letter to their mother.

Hermione, however, knew better than Ron and everyone else in their year and did notice all these things. She took the silencing spell off of Neville, but before she could say anything to Harry, Neville was already shouting.

“Bloody hell, Potter!” Neville roared.

Harry and Hermione were both taken aback, the Neville they knew was shy and quiet. Apparently acquiring looks had also acquired him an attitude.

“First, you slam the portrait in my face. Then you shove me off of the couch. Now you put a silencing spell on me so you can lie to Ron!” (Funny that whenever couches are involved, someone ends up angry?)

“Please lower your voice, Neville,” Hermione whispered frantically, looking scandalized. She patted his arm awkwardly.

Harry was disgusted. “I wasn't lying to Ron, I was protecting Ginny.”

“Protecting her?” Neville snorted, “Do you know who she's with right now?”

“Yes, and I'd say it's better him than you, any day of the year,” Harry narrowed his eyes.

“I thought you of all people would understand, Harry! He's your sworn enemy, after all!” Neville shouted in a choked voice.

“Ginny's with V-Voldemort?” Hermione squeaked with her hands covering her face.

Harry ignored her. “Which makes it all the more amazing that I think he's better for her than you are!”

“Better than Neville? Harry, what—“ Hermione stumbled with her words.

Harry shook his head and took off out of the common room.

Hermione stared after him and then walked away from Neville and up to her room.

((Neville, worse than Voldemort?)) she thought. ((No, Harry's just angry; he didn't mean that, of course he didn't.)) She shook her head at these thoughts. She liked Neville; just because he had an argument with Harry she wasn't going to throw the possibility of them out of the window.

((I wish I hadn't turned him down for the Valentine's Day Ball,)) she thought sadly.

Llama: YAY! There it is!

Dolly: Sorry it's short.

Llama: Yeah, we figured it was better to give you at least a little bit of something rather than dragging it on and on.

Dolly: Yeah, so, although it is pretty short, we hope you will still review and we'll try to update really soon.

Llama: Mhm, I think about once more before summer is over.

Dolly: We actually need to work on the story a lot after that next chapter, so if it takes a little longer than usual (forget the whole two years fiasco), bear with us because we're actually doing some writing this time, rather than having it already written out.

Llama: So, yeah. Review, please! And stay tuned for the next chapter!

Dolly: And, sorry we're so bland. It is 2;30 in the morning, afterall.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“TALKING” ((THINKING))

Ginny awoke the next morning with a start. ((No,)) she thought, eyes still closed tightly, ((It was such a good dream…))

When sleep didn't return to her, she opened her eyes and got out of bed, groaning. Her foot caught on something and then she noticed all the clothes sprawled out on the floor of her room. As she untangled her foot from one of her new shirts, she gave a small squeal of happiness.

Yesterday had been real after all; she had all these clothes to prove it. Ginny was Draco Malfoy's girlfriend. Ginny and Draco. Draco and Ginny. Of course, no one would ever know, but the mere fact that it was true was enough for her. She gave another squeal and dashed into her bathroom for a quick shower. Everything today would be perfect, for it was today she was revealing The New Ginny to an unsuspecting Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Ron tapped his foot impatiently in the common room. He hadn't found Ginny the night before, and when he had asked Professor Snape if she had come by to turn in her late work, he was given detention “for even suggesting such an atrocious thing.”

He spent the rest of the night scrubbing cauldrons and re-labeling already perfectly labeled potion ingredients, as he had just re-labeled them the week before. After two hours, Ron finally came to the conclusion that someone had lied.

But, of course, it definitely wasn't, couldn't possibly be Harry Potter. Harry was his best friend, a goody-two-shoes, a hero, the BOY WHO LIVED, for Merlin's sake. He couldn't tell a lie, he was much like those crazy American kings that Hermione kept telling them about: George Washingmachine, and Honest Moley Top Hat Man. It was physically impossible by all natural Muggle or Wizarding laws for Harry Potter to mutter anything but the complete and absolute truth, Ron had reasoned. So, the only thing that could have possibly happened was that Ginny had lied to Harry about seeing Snape and Harry, who was so pure, innocent, and trusting, had believed her and passed the information onto Ron. That Ginny was always stirring up some kind of trouble, after all. Ron pitied Harry; the boy was so honest and trusting that he didn't seem to know it was possible for other people to do anything dishonest. Therefore, he was always being tricked out of his mushrooms.

Taking another moment to feel sorry for Harry, Ron began mentally listing all of the boy's many problems. Realizing happily that this particular list was longer than most, he felt immensely appreciative for his own life. Last night's detention episode gradually disappeared from his mind, and his day was beginning to feel like a good one.

Ron didn't pay any mind to the girl clicking her way downstairs, with obviously no respect for the Hogwarts dress code. She was just another one of those young girls nowadays that didn't have any respect for themselves. He pitied them as he shook his head disbelievingly. He preferred more sensible women, in particular, those who didn't care what people thought of them, maybe were a bit wacky, and enjoyed wearing giant lion hats…

“Ron?” Hermione broke the silence, tugging uncertainly at his sleeve.

“Hermione, you ruined my thought process,” Ron whined as he jerked dumbly towards her and stared at where, or in this case, who she was pointing at.

There, at the foot of the stairs, was… “Is that Ginny?” Neville asked with a hungry look in his eyes, similar to many others who had just noticed the scandalously dressed girl who had just arrived.

“Of course it's not Ginny, Neville!” Ron snapped, eyeing the girl with a suspicious look on his face.

Hermione looked nervously at Ron. “Well,” she explained carefully, “There is no one else in this school with hair like that besides you and Ginny.”

“She must be an imposter!” Ron whispered, spazzing slightly.

“Are you going to dress like that at the ball?” Neville suggested with a goofy grin, as Ginny found her way towards them.

Ron squinted idiotically at her, and continued squinting as she stood beside him.

“What ball?” Ginny snapped, hands on her hips. Her narrowed eyes would have burned a hole in Neville, but she had to learn the incantation from Draco first.

“You know, the Valentine's Day ball, the one you agreed to go with me? Since last October?” Neville replied matter-of-factly.

After pulling Ginny's hair to make sure she was not an imposter, Ron finally realized that this shamefully dressed girl was his baby sister. Instead of continuing to gawk like an idiot, he had now resorted to opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. His eyes bulged as he pointed at her with a shaking finger.

“I am not going to the ball with you!” Ginny snapped in disgust.

“Hell no you're not!” Ron finally bellowed once he found his voice.

“What?” Ginny and Neville both spun towards him in unison.

“Why not?” Neville whined as Ginny squinted angrily at her older brother.

“I don't see how it's any of your business,” she snapped.

“Stuff it, Ginny, if you know what's good for you! You're lucky I don't owl Mum right this instant about this!” Ron scowled with distaste.

“About what?” Ginny shot back.

“Look at what you're wearing!”

“There is nothing wrong—“

“I won't have my baby sister walking around Hogwarts dressed like a… like a…”

“Like a what, Ronald?” Ginny snarled.

“You're not going to the ball, Ginevra, and that's that!” Ron yelled, getting red in the face.

“But, Ron!” Neville cried.

“Shut UP, Neville!” Ginny screamed. “Please, Ron! I really want to go to the ball!”

“You really want to go?” Ron frowned.

Ginny let out a breath of relief. “Yes. Please. I really want to go.”

“Fine,” Ron turned away, “but I'm taking you.”

And there he left Ginny and Neville staring at his retreating back with open mouths. Then suddenly Ginny turned to Neville and screamed, “What the HELL is your problem? Why do you have to ruin EVERYTHING by mentioning the STUPID BALL?!”

“Whatever, Ginny! Who else were you planning to go with anyway?” Neville replied like the snot-faced jerk he was, “Draco?” He laughed pompously.

Ginny didn't answer, just glared at him, wishing once again she knew the incantation to burn holes in people with her eyes.

“Did he even ask you to go with him, Ginny?” Neville asked patronizingly, raising an eyebrow. He then turned around and left Ginny there to ponder the question. After a moment of staring after him, Ginny recomposed herself and stalked off to the Great Hall.

Hermione simply just stood there, feeling lost. She thought she knew everything, and here she had never been so confused before in her life.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Draco strut down to the Great Hall with his head held up slightly higher than usual (and that's pretty high). He had finally accomplished his goal. Ginny had resisted and resisted, but he had finally broke her down. He was the winner once again, as he always should be. Now all he had to do was get her a Valentine's Day gift better than personalized knickers. Damn that Blaise. And at that moment—speak of the devil—the raven-haired boy jumped out from behind a corner, face flushed, holding a piece of parchment in his left hand and a pair a fuzzy blue socks in his right.

“Dra..Dra..Dra..Draco,” he panted. “I've,” pant, “been,” pant, “looking,” pant, “all over,” pant, pant, “for you…” he finally managed to say.

“Why is that?” Draco asked lazily.

When Blaise finally caught his breath, he replied, “Think Harry Potter wants attention! But I don't. But I don't…”

“Excuse me? Have you lost your mind, Zabini?” Draco asked, frightened and backing away.

“Because I wanted to ask you if I could borrow your socks,” Blaise said as if he were repeating something he had already said very clearly. He held up his right hand and smiled brightly.

Draco colored slightly, but was still very pale, of course.

“Those aren't mine!” he hissed.

“Of course they are,” Blaise wrinkled his brow, “look at them!” He then proceeded to shake the horribly fuzzy socks in Draco's face so the silver “DM” on the ankle was visible.

“Get those revolting rags out of my face!” Draco yelled and slapped away the shedding socks.

“Nice alliteration,” Blaise complimented. “Oh! Can I borrow them, please?!” he whined.

“Whatever, take them. Keep them! They aren't mine, I tell you!” Draco cried with his arms crossed in front of his face.

Blaise let out a yell of triumph and threw his arms around his best friend. At that moment, the group of first years that were walking by stopped in their tracks and stared up at the embracing boys.

“That's Draco Malfoy; he's Head Boy!” one tiny girl with extremely frizzy hair whispered to her friend.

“Why is he doing that? I always thought he liked girls, not boys… But perhaps that was just hope,” the second girl piped back.

A small boy behind them could be heard snorting haughtily. “What a disgrace to us Slytherins. You know, he once was the most looked up to in Hogwarts. Now he's snogging boys in the hall! I thought the Malfoys were an esteemed and proper family. These incidents are what shame us pure bloods…” The two larger boys on either side of him guffawed stupidly.

Draco pushed Blaise off of him and turned to the kids, face twitching dangerously.

“GET OUT OF HERE!” he roared, “BEFORE I HEX YOU ALL AND SEND YOU HOME TO YOUR MOTHERS IN MATCH BOXES!”

As they all scattered, the small Slytherin boy could be heard saying, “Merlin, if you wanted some privacy all you had to do was say so.”

Draco let out a growl that could challenge a lion's, and immediately the whole hall was devoid of life, save Draco and Blaise.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Ginny walked into the Great Hall a little later than usual, so everyone (Draco) would notice her when she burst through the doors. Well, EVERYONE did notice her. Everyone except Draco, that is.

When she came in, at first the whole Hall seemed to fall into a deathly silence in which she hoped was awe. But, as soon as she took her first step, came the wolf whistles and cheers. Several Slytherin boys even tried to make swipes at her as she walked past. She could just see the anger radiating off of her brother. Harry looked a bit disturbed, also.

((He had his chance,)) Ginny thought angrily.

Neville looked as though he hadn't eaten for days, and Hermione was tugging on his arm, jealously eyeing Ginny.

But, Draco wasn't at the Slytherin table. He wasn't harassing the Gryffindors. He wasn't in the Great Hall at all.

It took Ginny a moment to realize that Blaise was also absent. Therefore, in her mind, Draco's nonattendance was entirely and exclusively Zabini's fault.

Oh, how he would pay.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Draco and Blaise had decided to skip breakfast and take a stroll around the lake. Well, Blaise had convinced Draco to; Draco thought it was a rather troubling thing to do.

“I don't understand why you want to take a walk! Blaise, only couples do this!” Draco gestured at himself, Blaise, and the lake in which the Giant Squid had just winked knowingly at them.

“What are you talking about? Today is sunny and cool, considering that it is FEBRUARY and—wait… how are we not a couple?” Blaise inquired, “There are two of us, are there not?”

Draco sighed heavily, “I don't mean `couple' as in numbers, but `couple' as in a boyfriend and a girlfriend. Obviously you're not a girl.” Draco looked at Blaise, scrutinizing him, “So you definitely aren't girlfriend material.”

Blaise scoffed. “Well, excuse me,” he snapped three times, “but I couldn't say the same for you! You're so pretty; sometimes I mistake you for a girl!”

“Well, what about you?! With that long hair and violet bloody eyes!” Draco countered. “Who the bloody hell has bloody violet eyes?”

“They also have electric blue specks,” Blaise added smugly, winking at Draco.

“Argh!” Draco slapped his hand to his forehead, frustrated. “Okay, let's just get back to the Great Hall. I've got to be a good boyfriend and walk my real girlfriend to class.”

“What, as if I'm not real?” Blaise sniffed as he trailed after him.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The moment Draco and Blaise stepped into the Great Hall, they were immediately bombarded by a symphony of sound…that sounded like multiple screeching Moaning Myrtles.

“What the fuck?” Draco muttered, looking around.

The whole Hall had gone crazy, nuts, mad!

“What the fuck?” Draco repeated. It seemed that everyone but the teachers, who were staring helplessly from the front table, were crowded around the Gryffindor table. It was a mass of people and every few seconds a ripple would ascend through the crowd as people switched places, pushing a shoving.

Draco and Blaise were suddenly thankful for their heights as they strode toward the mob. After throwing a couple of first years out of the way and tripping a few fourth years, they finally had a slight view of the center.

“Bloody hell!” Blaise gasped at the same moment that Draco screamed similarly to a five year old girl.

Right there, in the middle of the table half-sat, half-laid a cross-legged Ginny Weasley. Several boys were shouting out crude remarks toward her, Blaise being one of them.

“Take if off!” he cried joyfully, punching the air with his fists.

Draco glowered at him.

“Gosh, sorry,” Blaise muttered under his breath.

Draco looked out into the crowd and noticed Ron and Harry trying to fight their way to the center of the swarm. Draco growled slowly and rolled up his sleeves.

It was as if the Red Sea had parted once more; students literally fell to the sides of Draco as he plowed his way to Ginny.

Her eyes widened as he plucked the half eaten cherry out of her hand, grabbed her upper arm, and dragged her out of the Great Hall, everyone staring after them. The doors slammed behind them, and everyone was silent.

Then suddenly, “What the BLOODY FUCK?!” Ron bellowed at the top of his lungs.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Ginny struggled helplessly as Draco pulled her out of the Great Hall and down the corridors toward his room.

“Let me go!” she whined. Draco ignored her and continued to pull. Once they reached his room he threw her in and slammed the door shut. He turned to face her with a look of mangled confusion and anger on his face.

“What's going on?” he asked her calmly.

“I—what do you mean?” Ginny tried to look innocent, which was turning out to be quite difficult considering her outfit.

Draco eyed her cautiously. “What do you think you were doing—performing a strip tease for all of Hogwarts? Where are the rest of your clothes?”

“These,” Ginny gestured her ensemble, “are my clothes.”

“What the bloody hell did you go and dress like that for, and then go dance on your house table?” Draco massaged his temples.

“I did it for you!” Ginny pointed out matter-of-factly.

“Me?” Draco smirked.

“Well, yes,” she continued, “I wanted to look nice for my boyfriend, after all.”

“Well, Ginny darling, I wouldn't describe this as nice,” he looked her up and down with the same smirk on his face.

She playfully smacked his arm. “You weren't even there!” She pouted.

“Was I supposed to be?”

“Oh, well…I just thought…” she looked away.

“Come on,” Draco said as he took her hand, “let's walk you to class.” He gave her a peck on the cheek as they left his room.

“Aren't you cold? Put this on, nobody should see you like this except for me,” Draco said as he handed her his robe and the door closed behind them.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Ron sat in History of Magic, clenching and unclenching his buttocks fists. It was startling to Hermione, for this was the first time he had stayed awake in the class since…well, no, it was actually the very first time. He kept throwing death glares at Draco, who had strut into class ten minutes late smirking and stage-whispering to Blaise about walking his new girlfriend to class.

Ron was ashamed. His own baby sister was fraternizing with the enemy. And the whole school now knew that he had failed her. Oh, the shame. The disgrace. The unimaginable humiliation. The absolute—

“Ron!” Hermione suddenly clouded his vision. He blinked at her.

“Stop crying, Ron, everyone's staring!”

The red-head then noticed that he couldn't catch his breath. He had also flooded his desk with salty tears; his parchment, quill, and ink were ruined. Abruptly Harry let out a loud snore and Ron, grateful to be excused from the class's attention, bolt out of his desk immediately, aiming for the door. But, it seemed luck was not on Ron's side. He slipped on his spilled tears and the whole class stared after him as he gathered his things, got up, and stalked sobbing out of the classroom.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Ginny ran up to her bed and threw herself onto it. “Ouch!” she screamed as she landed on a spike heel. She sighed, got up, and walked out of her room toward the Great Hall for dinner.

A/N:

Llama: Well, there. Chapter Twenty-Two. Did you like it, enjoy it? Was it not posted quickly enough for you? We truly hope so. Because as you know, our lives only consist of serving you, and nothing else. God forbid we ever displease any of you.

Dolly: Okay, Llama. I think they get it. We got a flame from a person complaining about how long it takes us to update in a very rude way. Please don't flame us because you think we're taking too long to update. And do not further insult us by implying that we do not have lives, saying that we should update because we have nothing better to do. We do, in fact, lead lives like normal people outside of the world of Harry Potter, although we appreciate its entertainment value immensely. We actually do have families, friends, jobs, etc.

Llama: And if you're going to flame us, stand by what you say. Sign your reviews; don't post as “Anonymous,” you scaredy cats. Readers, we'd like to take this moment to thank you all, truly, for sticking by our story for this long. We've enjoyed writing it and we hope you've enjoyed reading it. Although we do intend to finish this story, we do not promise that it will be finished soon. If you think our story doesn't deserve to be read because we don't update as quickly as you like, by all means, stop reading it. Nobody is forcing you. For those of you who think we should hurry up and finish our story; it's finished. There. The end. Goodbye.

Dolly: But for those of you who are willing to wait patiently for our creative juices to flow and time to open up in our busy schedules, please stay tuned for the next chapter. But, like Llama said, we don't know when that is going to be. Llama's going out of town in a couple days and when she gets back we both have to go to school. It's tough these days to find time to sit down and actually write a story.

Llama: Please don't get us wrong. We love writing this story and we immensely appreciate and love the fact that many of you have read it and enjoyed it as we have enjoyed writing it. And we do want to write more and finish. But, after everything is said and done, this is meant to be fun for us, and for you. We want this experience to remain a positive one, not one in which we are insulted and told that our story does not deserve good reviews. That's not going to make us want to write more, so it won't help you or us. If you have something criticizing to say, there's no reason to be impolite. Go ahead and say it nicely; don't show off the fact that you know how to be rude, so do we. It's cool that you want us to update soon, it shows you are interested in our story and we like that. But refrain from the attitude and thinking that you know better than us what is good for our story.

Dolly: But again, thank you all for sticking by us and giving us positive reasons to continue our story. Please continue reading and reviewing (politely) and we really will try to write more soon.

Thanks from the both of us, and until next time.

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A/N: Been a while, hasn't it?

Llama: We have not, I repeat, have NOT forgotten this story. We've actually been writing more! Actually!

Dolly: But unfortunately, forces beyond our control—

Llama: Global warming.

Dolly: —have made it difficult for us to sit on our butts and type up the chapters!

Llama: So, if the polar ice caps stop melting and the O-Zone layer stops deteriorating, surely there will be faster updates!

Dolly: Definitely! So, stop using hair spray, start carpooling, buy a hybrid, and ride your bike instead of driving!

Llama: And you, Cow. You need to stop farting.

Cow: Moo. (Translation: *fart*)

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

As Ginny ran towards the Great Hall for lunch, she heard someone call her name from behind her. Turning around, she saw Hermione slowly advancing towards her.

“Hey Hermione,” Ginny said.

“Hello Ginny,” Hermione answered with a tone of suspicion, “Where are you off to?”

“You know, just going to eat lunch…”

“Uh, huh… Ginny, you've been acting very disturbing lately and I wanted to tell you that you can always talk to me; I'd love to hear about what's going on with you.”

“Uh, why would anything be going on?” Ginny asked, her stomach rumbling in protest at the diversion from lunch.

“Your clothes… running off after dinner so many times a week… the list goes on, Ginny, and I don't think Slytherins are the best lot for you to be hanging out with.”

“S-Slytherins? Who said I was hanging out with Slytherins?” Ginny snorted, trying to cover the fact that she was taken aback.

“You're wearing a Slytherin robe!”

“Oh, this old thing? This is just—”

“And everyone saw you being dragged out of the Great Hall by Draco Malfoy this morning!”

“Well that was—” Ginny tried to explain.

“Are you thinking of becoming a Death Eater, Ginny?” Hermione asked suddenly with ferociously squinted eyes.

“Hermione!” Ginny cried, “What are you thinking?”

“I don't understand how Harry can be okay with you hanging around V-Voldemort... But I tell you, Ginny, it's just not right!”

“You-Know-Who? Hermione, what the heck gave you the idea that I would even know how to get in contact with that guy?”

“I heard… I heard Harry telling Neville that he's happy you're with V-Voldemort because at least he's better than Neville!”

“Hermione,” Ginny stepped back, shaking her head, “you're crazy.”

“And you've been hanging out with Malfoy and his weird little friend, surely Death Eaters!”

“Hermione! I am not a Death Eater!” Ginny protested.

“Let me see your forearm,” Hermione instructed.

“Are you joking?” Ginny stared at the formerly sane girl.

“Let me see it, Ginny!”

“You're mad!”

“GINNY, I AM HEAD GIRL AND I DEMAND TO SEE YOUR FOREARM!” Hermione shrieked, looking quite deranged.

Ginny pulled up her sleeves and as soon as Hermione has rubbed her skin to make sure there was no makeup covering the non-existent Dark Mark, she was finally satisfied.

“I don't understand what Harry was saying, though. Ginny, I was sure he said better his worst enemy than Neville!” Hermione frowned, the once so put-together girl completely disturbed beyond her last restraints.

“Okay, Hermione. What Harry meant is…I'm going out with Draco,” Ginny confessed, too hungry and annoyed to stand there and speak to Hermione any longer.

“You're—what? Ginny!” Hermione screamed, looking even more scandalized than she already was.

“Yes, I'm dating Draco Malfoy. Just—Hermione, please don't tell Ron.”

“Well,” Hermione huffed, “I'm sure that after that scene at breakfast he'll be looking for you at any rate. He'll find out what's going on, soon enough.” She then turned on her heel and stalked off to somewhere Ginny didn't know or care. Probably the library to try and look up a way to prove Draco Malfoy was Tom Riddle was Lord Voldemort. Typical Hermione.

Ginny ran to the kitchens, knowing that if she saw Ron in the Great Hall, by the end of lunch, one of them would be dead on the floor.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Sure enough, as Ron burst into the Great Hall he screamed, “WHERE'S GINNY?”

He then proceeded to run laps around each of the house tables looking for her, arms spread like an eagle's wings. After that failed, he found Draco instead and began screaming at the top of his lungs at the annoyed and confused Slytherin.

“WHERE IS SHE? WHERE'D YOU TAKE HER? WHERE'D YOU HIDE HER?” he shrieked, red in the hair and face.

Draco turned in his seat and looked up calmly, “Where's who?”

“MY SISTER!” Ron bellowed.

“Which one?” Draco smirked.

“I ONLY HAVE ONE!” Ron screeched.

“You only have one what?” Draco asked with a tilted head.

“WHERE IS GINNY?” Ron yelled, arms flailing about.

Draco then gave Ron a look that made him crumple to the floor. Stepping over the twitching boy he exited the Great Hall to get ready for his next class.

After twitching on the floor in front of the laughing Slytherins for ten minutes, Ron crawled to the Gryffindor table and heaved himself upon it, lying down in front of Harry and using the turkey as a pillow. Harry stared for a moment and then joined him. They both slept there peacefully as the rest of the Gryffindors continued with their lunch as if nothing had happened.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

After hiding out in the kitchens during both lunch and dinner, Ginny headed towards Draco's room for another tutoring session.

“Hello boys,” she said as she climbed through the portrait hole.

“Hey Gin,” Draco answered.

“Whassap Ginnay?” Blaise called out, bobbing his head and throwing up a peace sign.

“How you like my bling-blingin?” he asked, pointing to a chain on his neck, from which a huge shiny platypus hung next to a banana.

“Uhm… It's great,” she replied, setting her things on the table.

“Word, G Money!” Blaise exclaimed, then instantly changed his wide, manic smile into a facial expression in which his eyebrows furrowed, lips jut out, and he looked as if he was eating something sour.

“So… Yeah. Where's Neville?” Ginny asked quickly, changing the subject.

“Pshhh, who giva care where that fool be?” Blaise said, throwing back his head, the purple bandana he had on falling off of it.

At that moment, Neville came in through the portrait hole apologizing for his lateness.

“Let's just get started,” Ginny said. “I feel like I haven't taught you all anything. We're completely behind schedule.”

”I wonder why that is,” Neville mumbled as he set up his cauldron. Draco, who was quiet this whole time, narrowed his eyes.

An hour later…

“Everything was going just the way I planned, the broccoli was done!” Blaise sang as he stirred the contents of his cauldron.

“Broccoli? You're making broccoli?” Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No, silly! I'm making Naughty Nuffler, of course!”

“Blaise, It's called Nasty Nunga,” Draco corrected him.

“You're both wrong,” Neville piped up, “It's called Nocturn Sector.”

“Oh yeah?” Blaise shot back, clenching his stirring stick in his right fist and twirling his purple bandana in his left.

Ginny rolled her eyes. “You're all idiots; It's called Nocturnal Nector, for the billionth time.”

“Oh yeah?” Blaise yelled, turning toward her and twirling his bandana even faster.

“Yes,” Ginny answered with squinted eyes.

“Okay!” Blaise smiled and turned back to his potion.

“Oops!” Draco chimed as he “accidentally” elbowed powdered beetles into Neville's cauldron, causing it to erupt like a volcano, spewing green and purple goo all over Neville. Blaise shrieked with the giggles.

“That's it!” Neville spat, spraying Draco with the slime.

“Expecto Patronum!” he cried with extreme concentration.

As a faint glow came and left, Ginny, Draco, and Blaise all stared in confusion before the two boys started laughing out of control while Ginny shuffled her feet uncomfortably.

Neville's bottom lip trembled and then all of a sudden he lunged at Draco with all of his might, knocking him off of his feet. In a fury of punches and kicks, they rolled on the floor, knocking cauldrons full of unfinished potion all over the pair of them. Blaise screamed like the virgin of a horror movie, grabbed a cauldron and threw it at the fighting boys before yodeling at the top of his lungs and jumping in to help Draco.

“Stop!” Ginny cried helplessly, fumbling with her wand. “Stop it! Petrificus totalus!”

The boys became stiff as boards and Ginny didn't take the spell off of them until she separated them to different parts of the room. Draco sat on his bead rubbing his bitten arm and scowling with a cut lip, Neville at the table with a blackening eye and some of his hair ripped out, and Blaise sat near the portrait hole with a chunk of hair in his hand and a manic grin on his bruised and scratched face.

“What is the matter with all of you?” Ginny cried, exasperated.

“He started it,” Draco scowled, jerking his head toward Neville.

“I did not!” Neville yelled indignantly.

“He's right!” Blaise called, cackling madly, “I started it!”

“Get out of here! All of you!” Ginny screamed, stomping her foot.

“Oy! This is my room, princess,” Draco pointed out.

“I don't care. You're all going to the Hospital Wing right now. Don't make me drag you there!”

“But Ginny—“ Neville began.

“Out!” She screamed, pointing to the portrait hole.

“Fine,” said Draco as they exited, “but if anything is out of place when I come back there will be trouble. So, don't go through my stuff.”

“Is that so, Draco? Hiding something from your girlfriend, are you?” Ginny asked with narrowed eyes.

“Always, of course,” the blonde boy answered with a smirk as he left.

At any other time Ginny would have torn the room apart looking for anything suspicious, but the boys were so tiring that she threw herself on the bed and fell asleep at once.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

“Ginny…” someone called from far away.

“Ginny dear, wake up,” the voice softly called.

“Wake up, Ginny… Ginny… Ginevra… Wake up…Wake up you bloody bint!”

Ginny awoke to Draco shaking her and calling her name.

“What—what do you want?” she yawned, rubbing her eyes. “What are you doing in my room?” she suddenly shrieked.

“You're in my room, idiot. And you're going to be late for McGonagall.”

“What?! Why am I here? What happened? Nothing happened, right?” Ginny panicked, pulling the covers up to her ears and looking at him suspiciously.

“Calm down, Ginny. We only slept together.”

“Sle… Slept… WHAT?!” Ginny screamed, slapping and punching Draco wherever she could make contact.

“No, no! Ginny, STOP!” Draco said, trying to pry her off of him. “I mean in the same bed, you lunatic!”

“Oh… Oh, gosh. Draco,” Ginny calmed down, “Sorry.”

“Yeah, I bet you are.”

“Oh, God! I'm late!” Ginny ran out.

The moment she left the room, Draco snickered and got into bed. Outside, Ginny was halfway up the stairs toward the North Tower for class, when she noticed that the few dawdlers who were usually running late for their classes were nowhere in sight. She fumed as realization dawned.

Sprinting back to where she came from, she knocked the hell out of Draco's bedroom entrance. After a full three minutes, a groggy looking Draco appeared in front of her, a smug smirk plastered on his face.

“And what are you doing here so late? Do you realize that if Filch catches you at this time of night…” Draco trailed off. “Wait, I get it. You woke up missing me, didn't you? Couldn't control yourself, could you? You just had to—“

Ginny pushed Draco roughly aside and marched into his room. She was seething when she spun around to face him.

“It's midnight! How could you trick me like that?” Ginny screamed, breathing hard, when, “Are you laughing at me, Malfoy?”

“Just a little bit…”

“Draco! I can't believe you would—“

“Relax, red. I just came back from the Hospital Wing to find you in my bed and decided to have some fun… Well, the kind of fun you wouldn't murder me for,” he winked. “After all, you did kick me out of my own room.”

“Are you trying to say—“

“Would you to stop bickering long enough for me to get some beauty sleep?” Blaise spoke up as he crawled out from under Draco's king-sized bed.

“What the f—“ Draco managed to say when Ginny suddenly cut him off.

“How the bloody hell did you get in here?”

“I have my ways…” Blaise answered mysteriously, brushing the imaginary lint off of his Pokémon pajamas.

“Get the hell out of here, you crazy fool!” Draco yelled.

“Fine!” Blaise shot back as he retreated back under the bed.

“Blaise!” Draco warned as he crouched down, intending to pull him out, when he straightened up and said in wonder, “He's gone.”

Ginny shook her head with a mixed sense of awe and hopelessness.

After that awkward moment passed, Draco spoke up.

“I guess you should go back to your room, Gin. That is, unless…” Draco sat on the bed and patted a spot next to him, winking.

“You wish,” Ginny scowled.

“Alas, I do,” Draco sighed,” So, get out of here and stop teasing me.”

“Goodnight then,” Ginny said and turned on her heel to leave.

“No goodnight kiss? Great girlfriend you've turned out to be…” Draco murmured.

“Oh,” Ginny giggled. “Of course. Sorry, I forgot.”

She walked over, gave him a peck on the lips and was about to turn and walk away when he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

“Goodnight Ginny,” he whispered into her hair.

“Goodnight Draco,” Ginny answered with a smile and left.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Blaise chased his platypus and banana necklace around and around the Whomping Willow as he dodged branches and was chased by a giant rabbit wearing sunglasses.

”You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!” he cried as he leaped out of a branch's way and turned into a flying gingerbread boy in midair with a poof of purple smoke.

The Whomping Willow began to sway back and forth and sing “Hopelessly Devoted” from the hit musical Grease. The scene faded into black and a pasty white face with gleaming red eyes stared out from the darkness.

“Draco…” the face hissed.

“Draco, it is almost time…”

“Time for what? Draco's own amplified voice called back.

The face cackled and turned into Blaise.

“Time to buy Ginny's Valentine's Day gift, silly!”

Draco shot up in his bed drenched in a cold sweat. This was not the first time he'd dreamt of that white face, and it wouldn't be the last.

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A/N: Think we've been gone for a long time? Take a Closer Look at this chapter and you'll see that we've been here all along…

Chapter 24! Hollar.

Harry rolled over and clutched his eye. Feeling something squishy and wet, he suddenly screamed, “Ron! Ron! Help me! Look at my eye! Look AT IT!”

Ron slowly got up and screeched abruptly, “OMYGAHD! You have pink eye!” Ron reached into his pajama pocket and pulled out an eye patch, “Here, Harry. Wear this!” With a bright smile he threw it at a questioning Harry.

“…Thanks?”

Making their way down to the common room, they spotted Hermione. When she saw Harry she let out a gruff, “Argh,” holding up a hooked finger.

“Shut up, Hermione,” Harry whined.

“What's wrong with your eye, Harry?” she asked, still giggling about her pirate joke.

“I have pink eye!” The boy screamed, lifting his eye patch to expose his oozing and swelling eyeball. The entire common room stopped in their tracks and stared at the disgusting pink glob protruding from Harry's eye socket.

A cricket chirped.

Someone vomited.

Hermione then rushed Harry to the hospital wing as a screaming Ron trailed after them.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Meanwhile, Draco was hurriedly getting dressed in his dormitory, deciding he would skip his day of classes and shop for Ginny's Valentine's Day present. As horrifying as his nightmare had been, he was thankful that dream-Blaise had reminded him to get the gift. The stupid holiday was, after all, in less than a week. What he would get her, he had no idea. But something was better than nothing.

After heading through the tunnel under the school to Honeydukes, Draco began looking at different types of candy in hopes he could find one suitable for Valentine's Day. He was about to give up and leave the store, when suddenly something next to the door on his way out caught his eye.

“Cockroach clusters!” he yelled happily. “I love these! They're perfect for Valentine's Day, for sure.”

After buying fourteen bags (for February 14^th, duh) of the disgusting candy, Draco happily left the shop, feeling as if he were making progress.

He searched the whole of Hogsmeade and couldn't seem to find the perfect gift. Nothing was special enough for Ginny. And nothing he saw could beat Blaise's gift. How his dim-witted friend had managed that stroke of genius, Draco could not fathom. He guessed that even Blaise could have moments of brilliance.

He was about to leave the town when something shiny sitting in a shop window caught his eye. A closer look said it was the most dazzling antique diamond ring he's ever seen.

“Who the bloody hell are you?” Draco asked, disgustedly. He was taken aback by the close proximity of the strange, homeless man.

“Oh, me? Well, I just happen to be `Closer Look.' It's a pleasure to meet you, child!”

“It's a pleasure to get away from you!” Draco ran quickly into the antique shop, frantically closing the door behind him.

He stopped a moment to catch his breath and turned around to look through the door's window. As he held his hands on either side of the circular window with deranged fear evident on his face, “Closer Look” stared hopelessly back at him. Draco reminded himself why he had come to the shop.

“The perfect gift,” he whispered to the man.

“I just want to understand you…” the man mouthed back at him. But Draco didn't seem to care.

He grabbed the gift and gently set it upon the counter to pay for it.

“Can I help you, son?” an old man who looked curiously similar to the hobo outside asked him from behind the counter.

“Yes, I would like to buy this for my girlfriend,” Draco replied.

The shopkeeper narrowed his eyes. “This is very old, are you sure—” he began in an unusual tone of voice.

“Yes, I'm absolutely sure, and I have the money,” Draco snorted, “Don't bother thinking I can't afford it!”

The old man was taken aback, but complied. Draco left the store.

The man jumped at Draco, crying eagerly, “I just want to understand you!”

Draco, disgusted, kicked the poor old homeless man to the curb where he crumpled helplessly and stalked off to Hogwarts.

Harry suddenly emerged from a bush nearby holding a basket full of mushrooms. Nearly tripping on the old man, he knelt down and lay beside him.

Harry handed him a mushroom, “A gift from me to you, `Closer Look.'”

Closer Look looked at him lovingly and smiled wearily, “Thank you, Harold.”

They both slept soundlessly upon the mushrooms when Closer Look suddenly started, “Aren't you supposed to be in Potions, child?”

“Oh, you know how Snape can be… I chose not to go…”

“Yes,” Closer Look nodded, “A father does know his own son.”

“Snape is your son?” Harry yelled with a start.

“Alas, I have no children,” the man replied solemnly. “Go to sleep now, child,” he mumbled as sleep overtook him.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

After the typical tutoring session, Draco searched his mind for a private place to wrap the perfect gift. He never considered the fact that it'd only take one whole second to wrap it with a spell, but besides this he didn't seem to realize that his own room was password protected, the rest of the school was confined to their beds, or that all of the towers were completely deserted.

“The Forbidden Forest!” Draco whispered aloud to himself.

He grabbed the shopping bag and his wand before setting off into the night. He wasn't caught sneaking out, but that didn't surprise him in the least. Filch and his ridiculous cat were always looking far too closely into corners and back hallways to notice a student strolling through the Great Hall and out the front doors of the castle.

When he found the perfect place to wrap the perfect gift, Draco placed everything gently upon the moss-infested ground. Carefully removing the perfect gift from its shopping bag, he lifted it high into the sky.

He stared lovingly at it and smiled, “You're so beautiful!” As he raised it into the sky, higher and higher, suddenly the sun (although it was night) broke through the trees and cast a ray of light upon the bucket of hair gel. Draco guessed that through all of the dust, the aged miracle was shiny and glittery.

At that moment, a great snake fell straight down from the heavens and landed right in front of Draco's feet. Blinking in utter surprise, Draco's jaw nearly dropped when the face from his nightmares appeared from the open mouth of the snake. Voldemort was inside Nagini as one would be inside of a sleeping bag.

As his upper body emerged from the snake's mouth, he stretched and yawned as if waking up from a long night's sleep. He then propped himself on his elbows, rested his chin in his open palms and blinked blearily up at Draco.

Draco dropped the hair gel and scurried backward on his hands and feet like a crab until a tree trunk stopped him from going any further.

“My-my Lord?” Draco stuttered in disbelief.

“Haven't I told you a million times before, Drakie-poo? Call me Uncle Dark Lord! Anyway, what brings you here in this fine part of the woods where the sun shines only at night?” You-Know-Who replied, giggling.

“The perfect gift,” Draco whispered.

“For me and Nagini? You shouldn't have! How did you know it was our 20^th anniversary? Or was it our 200^th? Oh, well. Give or take a few… Was it your father who told you?” Voldemort's sickening smile turned to a frown when he saw the bucket of hair gel.

“Draco, you know that neither Nagini nor myself can use this concoction, as we are both obviously hairless.” He seemed disappointed. “Don't make me kill you.”

“That's not for you, my Lord—” Draco started.

“Uncle Dark Lord!”

“Alright, Uncle… It's for my girlfriend,” Draco said slowly.

“Aged hair gel?” The Dark Lord sneered, “Don't you realize that the cause of my baldness is using said remedies? Yes, once upon a day, I myself had lustrous and luscious locks of hair like you and you father. I didn't know everything in those days, like I do presently, and I must now pay the price for my most disastrous mistake. Thankfully, Nagini still loves me,” Lord Voldemort said with a smug look at the snake he was lying inside of.

Rendered speechless by both fear and disbelief, Draco found it hard to look away from the odd and chilling sight.

“Nevertheless Draco, I'm pleased to have found you here on my midnight falls through the forest. Why haven't you been returning my dream calls?” he asked angrily.

“Pardon?” Draco choked out, having a hard time finding his voice.

“It is time, Draco... Time to follow in the footsteps of your father and join me.”

“Well, my—I mean, Uncle Dark Lord—school takes up a lot of my time… You know, the extensive exams that never seem to end… I'm sure you'd like me to join you when I can fully devote myself to the cause without the interruption of these said exams?” Draco blabbered on with a hint of pleading in his voice.

“You are of age, Draco, and schooling has never been less important. Anything you need to learn can be learned from me, or my people who will teach you when I am too busy. Nevertheless, I shall give you seven minutes to think about it.” The Dark Lord then retreated back into Nagini, who closed her mouth and curled up for a quick nap.

Draco was unsure of what to do when instantaneously Harry Potter skipped out of the mist swinging his basket full of mushrooms of all sizes. Seeing Draco, he immediately stopped skipping and began stomping towards him, not knowing that the snake was there until he had trodden all over it. It was surely dead.

Harry let out a small “Oh!” of surprise as he looked down at the ground. The horrible mess of blood and guts beneath his football cleats oozed across the forest floor.

“You've killed The D—” Draco began, “My—my pet snake! You've killed my pet snake, Potter!”

“Your pet snake?” Harry asked nervously, shuffling his sticky feet.

“Yes, that was my snake, Ginny.”

“You have a pet snake?” Harry asked.

“Had,” corrected Draco.

“You named it `Ginny?'”

“Is that a problem, Potter?”

“What are you, V-Voldemort-in-training?! Naming your snake after your girlfriend?” Harry burst out.

“What could you possibly be on about this time, Potter?!”

“Didn't you know that the only reason why Voldemort turned evil was because he's a heartbroken fool?!” Harry shuffled toward a nearby stone column and embraced it, sniffing sadly, “His girlfriend dumped him for a midget in glasses and he thought to turn to The Dark Arts to replace her with a pet snake which he named after her! How tragic is that?” By now, Harry was crying so hard that he had to swim very hard to fight the current. Draco looked on disgustedly.

“He was so deeply in love that to this day, one million centuries, ten years, five months, three days, one hour, fifty five minutes, and six seconds…seven seconds…eight seconds later, he is convinced that the snake is his reincarnated girlfriend!” Harry crumpled to the floor, unable to fight the rush of his own tears any longer, and began to drown.

Draco looked down at the bloody, goo-drenched floor, “Well, she's not anymore…”

“What was that?” Harry glanced up, his face tearstained…cupcakes.

“Don't worry your nasty little head. You're right, it all makes sense. Now get out of here so I can mourn the death of my…Bride.” Draco said darkly.

Frightened, Harry ran out of the Forbidden Forest, taking with him his portable stone column and inflatable swimming pool, appropriate objects for story telling.

Draco snickered at how easily The Dark Lord was actually defeated, was this really what all the fuss was about? He then flicked his wand at the bucket of hair gel, intricately wrapping it with the most beautiful papers and ribbons he could think of, held it in his arms, and curled up on a nearby tree stump to fall asleep.

Suddenly a figure popped into the clearing. Lowering his hood, Voldemort sighed with relief, “Whoa, good thing I made six or seven of me! Ew, what a sticky ground under my bare feet!”

Looking down, he screamed, “Nagini!”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” He Who Must Not Be Named screamed with clenched fists towards the sky as a single tear drop fell and simmered upon his fallen girlfriend's remains.

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