Sweet Revenge

And I join you again, my ducklings, for my second ever fanfiction! (Can you say plot bunny? In a major way!)

How exciting! I feel faint with anticipation!

Whoever my editor is, I want them to stop putting in these stupid exclamation points! They really annoy me!

Thanks. Finally.

So anyway, enjoy the ride with Draco and Ginny again (no, this isn't the promised sequel. It's coming later. It will come. I promise. In the meantime, pull up “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not.” It's my first fanfic) and pinky swear to read and review!!!!

So much for no more exclamation points.

Obligatory disclaimer: I don't own Draco or Ginny, or any of their various entourages. I wish I did (heh heh heh heh heh) because then I would have loads of fun…

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Chapter One: So Not the Jealous Type

Ginny woke up in the darkness. Malfoy Manor was still and cool in the predawn chill. She could see through the elaborate window that the sky was streaked with pink clouds heralding the arrival of the sun. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. Maybe she should just go back to sleep…

…but no. That was the only luxury they couldn't afford.

Draco was still asleep. She looked at his snoozing form, propping herself up using her elbow. Despite the fact that it had been years since either one of them had even set foot in Hogwarts, she could still see him as the seventeen-year-old she had fallen in love with, tie loosened, smirking cockily.

She brushed an errant lock of hair from his forehead. Ginny smiled at her husband. “Hey, Mr. Malfoy, wake up,” she whispered in his ear like it was a naughty secret.

“What time is it, Mrs. Malfoy?” he said back groggily, sitting up in bed.

“Who cares?” she replied, brushing her lips against his.

Draco's eyes flew open to gaze at her with his characteristic smirk. “So it's going to be one of those days, is it Mrs. Malfoy?”

She smiled innocently. “I have no idea what you mean.”

Her lips parted as he lowered his face to hers. “I'm sure you don't.”

“Holy crap!”

Ginny's sudden exclamation woke her dormmates. “What's wrong, Ginny?” asked Demelza Robbins concernedly.

“Nothing, 'Melza,” she mumbled, clearing her eyes of gunk. “Just a bad dream.”

Had she really dreamed of Malfoy being her husband? And them kissing? Ick! Ick! That was beyond disgusting! Draco Malfoy had pretty much killed Dumbledore last year, not to mention seriously pissed off her boyfriend.

Her lips curved into a secret smile when she thought of Harry. Yes, that would certainly prevent her little prophetic dream from coming true. Ginny was sure that they would get married someday, despite the fact that she was only sixteen. Then they would have little mini-Harrys and mini-Ginnys and live happily ever after.

She was awoken from her little fantasy of them living in a small, white-picket-fenced house by the sound of her friends thundering down the stairs to go to breakfast. “Shit,” she mumbled as she struggled to pull on her clothes.

Ginny arrived a few minutes late to breakfast. As always, Harry had saved her a seat. Today he was whispering with Hermione, no doubt to plan some sort of Voldemort-overthrowing-scheme thing that he was always working on.

So why was it that he pulled away almost guiltily from his best friend as Ginny sat down on Harry's other side?

Hermione was Harry's best friend. There was no shame in whispering to her. He already had a beautiful, sought-after girlfriend. Besides, Ginny was so not the jealous type.

Right?

“Hey, sexy,” she said, beaming as she sat down. One hand picked up her fork and started spooning kippers into her mouth, and the other reached for Harry's hand under the table.

“Hi, Gin,” Harry said almost guiltily. What was up with that?

“What's wrong, Mr. Undefeated Quidditch Captain?” It was all over the school that they were a win away from clinching the Cup, even though it was early in the season. Slytherin was the only obstacle. Draco had imposed a wicked new schedule on his team this year, and it was showing.

“Oh, nothing,” he said, still sounding slightly weird.

Hermione nudged him. “Harry, you promised,” she hissed in his ear. He blushed a little at the proximity of his “best friend's” mouth to his ear.

“What did he promise?” said Ginny, her mouth still full of food.

“Huh?” Harry said, looking perplexed.

She swallowed and repeated herself. “What did you promise?”

“Oh…I promised 'Mione I'd help her with her Patronus this afternoon in the Room of Requirement,” Harry replied, still pink and sounding slightly odd.

“I can't stand this!” Hermione said shrilly. Her face reddened as she packed the mountain of books that she always carried around into her huge bag. Ginny could see that her eyes were shining with tears. What was going on today?

“Harry, if you're not going to tell her, I am!” Hermione almost shouted, shaking. She stood up, tears, running down her face now. “Ginny, Harry—”

“All right, all right, I'll tell her!” Harry yelled. Hermione crossed her arms.

“I'm waiting,” she said.

“I've got to break it to her gently,” Harry replied uneasily.

“I'm standing RIGHT HERE!” Ginny shouted. The two best friends stared at her for a second.

“Okay, Gin,” Harry said, taking both of her hands. Oh no. This could not be good. “There's really no easy way to tell you this, but—I'mwithHermionenow.”

That last part was said so fast that Ginny couldn't even understand what Harry was talking about. “Um. What?”

“I'm with Hermione now,” Harry said, shamefaced.

It took a few moments to digest the meaning of the words. Ginny watched the scene as if from above, the three teenagers all glaring at one another, Ron trying to inch away to go snog Luna at the Ravenclaw table. “You're breaking up with me?” Her voice quivered.

This could not be happening.

“Look, Ginny, we just never—”

“How long?” she said in a monotone. She was still in shock.

“This isn't—”

“How long?” Ginny repeated.

Hermione butted in. “We knew for a while, but we never acted on our feelings. I promise, Ginny.”

“I'm sure,” she said with a sneer worthy of Draco Malfoy.

“I swear on my parents' graves, Ginny!” Harry said, jumping in to defend his new girlfriend.

“Of course Mr. Famous Harry Potter would go straight for the sympathy vote,” Ginny snarled disgustedly. “Because just because you survive a stupid spell means that you always keep your word. That makes a whole lot of sense.”

She knew she was being unfair, but it was almost involuntarily. In some small, detached part of her mind, Ginny was repulsed by how easily being nasty came to her. But maybe that was what happened to you when you grew up in a house full of brothers.

“—you two faced, no-good, evil BASTARD,” she finished. Then Ginny collected her bag and, with as much dignity as she could muster, flounced out of the Great Hall. She delivered a glare over her shoulder as she left the room, only to see Hermione weeping into Harry's chest.

This made her even more angry. Serves her right, Ginny thought viciously. She stole my freaking boyfriend.

Then her conscience caught up with her and she sighed. It really was nasty, what she had done. Ginny sat in a nearby alcove and buried her head in her arms. She wanted something really badly, but she wasn't entirely sure what.

She raised her head after a while, and was horrified to see that the arms of her sweater were soaked through with tears. “I should go apologize,” the redhead said out loud to herself. Ginny was actually standing up to go back in and say sorry when the bell rang. She sighed, resigned to class, and started for the stairs.

Only to find a couple snogging in the stairwell.

A very familiar couple.

A couple that had just snubbed Ginny publicly and caused her breakdown.

Harry broke away from Hermione's embrace to find Ginny staring at him in horror. “Oh shit,” he said, running his hands through his hair.

“I can't believe you,” Ginny whispered. She turned away and stomped off, parting the crowds of watching students that had witnessed the whole debacle. Angry tears burned in the corners of her eyes.

Harry hadn't even gone through a suitable period of mourning after dumping her! He was snogging his new girlfriend less than five minutes after declaring that their relationship was over! In front of the whole school, no less!

Half-blind with tears and choked by her own sobs, she stumbled into the girls' bathroom to hide in a stall. There was no way that she could face first-period Herbology with the Hufflepuffs like this.

Ginny's sobs and moans of fury echoed around the empty bathroom as she staggered into the first toilet stall she could find. She didn't even stop on the way to wonder why the girls' bathroom suddenly had urinals in it.

How long she sat there, head in hands, sobbing and shaking with rage, she did not know. But after not too long, her hysteria had cooled into a cold, calculating rage. Ugly black jealousy pulsed under the surface of her skin. How dare Hermione steal her man from right under her nose?
Still fuming slightly, Ginny stalked over to the sink. She could see in the mirror that she looked terrible. Her red hair was flying all over the place. Bloodshot eyes peered back at her from a puffy face. Her lip was bleeding from when she had bitten it to keep from screaming.

I can't go to class looking like this, she thought. That was convenient. It gave her more time to plan her revenge on the new cute little couple.

Ginny was smirking like the Cheshire Cat when the door opened. Shit. Company.

She spun around to defend her actions with a snarl and an intense stare only to meet the sarcastic gaze of none other than…

…Draco Malfoy.

The redhead blushed and dropped her eyes, remembering her dream. Wow. This was embarrassing.

“Wow, Weasel, I had no idea that you had transvestite tendencies.” Ginny could hear the smirk in his voice.

“What the hell are you talking about, Malfoy?” she said, still looking unflinchingly at the floor.

“You may want to get out of the boys' bathroom,” Draco said, raising his eyebrows at her.

Ginny looked around her in a panic. She couldn't be…no way. Oh, crap. “Well, what are you doing here?” she said in an attempt to salvage what little dignity she had left. “Aren't you supposed to be in class?”

“As much as you are,” he replied infuriatingly.

She strode out to the corridor, nose in the air. To her annoyance, he followed her. The Chaser whirled around to face him angrily.

“Jesus, Weaselette, what happened to you? Get dumped?”

To the blond boy's surprise, Ginny burst into tears and nodded. Her legs buckled underneath her, and she sat unceremoniously on the floor. He stood there awkwardly for a few seconds, not sure what to do.

Then he squatted down next to her. “Look, I know Potter can be a real dickhead,” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

Ginny raised her face to him; her eyes were full of hatred and fury. “Take your hands off me, you—you—you DEATH EATER!” she hissed.

Draco's face was completely blank with shock for a few moments. Then his façade of calmness returned. “I'd be careful what you call people, Weaselette,” he said with a smooth and impassive face.

“It's your fault that Dumbledore is dead. Now how are we ever going to get out of this mess?” she said, mirroring his typical sneer.

His mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Snape killed Dumbledore. Not me.”

“Snape took the fall for you!” She folded her arms. Privately, Draco thought that she looked like a little kid when she did that.

He stood angrily; she did the same. Then Ginny was surprised when he leaned over to whisper in her ear quickly.

“What if I told you that I didn't want this?”

She looked into his wide, frank blue eyes. His breath smelled like bubble gum. “I don't know what you're talking about,” she breathed. Ginny was disgusted to hear her voice go all girly and flirty on her. Who was she kidding? She was worse than Hermione, the man-eater.

“What if I told you that I didn't want to be a Death Eater?”

She found her eyes locked on his nice-looking man lips. The redhead cleared her throat. “Then maybe I'd be a bit sorry,” she mumbled clumsily.

“Maybe?” He was awfully close to her. And for some reason, it wasn't uncomfortable.

“Probably.” She gulped.

And for one absurd moment, Ginny thought Draco was going to kiss her.

But then he pulled away and it was like she had imagined the moment. She probably had, anyway. Draco Malfoy? Kissing her? Absolutely insane.

Ginny shoved the dream she had had the night before to the back of her mind. It was only a dream, anyway.

“Well then, Ginny, I suppose you should be careful what you say,” he said, smirking at her as if he knew the effect he had just had on her.

He probably did.

Jerk.

Ginny watched him walk away, his hands in his pockets. The sunlight caught his hair whenever he walked past a window, making each strand shine a dazzling white-blond color. He was much taller than Harry. A lot cuter in some ways, too…

She shook herself. Who was she kidding? He was Slytherin. She was Gryffindor. He was a Death Eater. She was practically in the Order of the Phoenix, not to mention being Harry Potter's ex-girlfriend. Even if she was attracted to him (and she refused to admit to herself that there was the slightest possibility that she was attracted to Draco Malfoy) it would never work.

It took her halfway to Herbology to realize that he had called her Ginny.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Draco walked away, silently berating himself. It wasn't as if he expected her to just up and kiss him when she didn't even like him yet. He had gotten awfully close to doing something stupid…

Well. He would just have to build it up slowly. And, he reminded himself, he had to talk to Snape. He needed some Occlumency lessons. Not that the Dark Lord was going to randomly summon him or anything, but it would be good to just do it for safety.

If he had managed to hide it for six years, what were a few more weeks or months?

She would fall for him.

Why wouldn't she?

He was Draco Malfoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You like? You better like.

I'd just like to stop here and say thanks to:

1. My loyal (hopefully) fans (I wish).

2. The Academy Is…for inspiring me with their fake emo songs. Fake emo is a compliment. It's so much better than real emo. I promise. Really.

3. Fall Out Boy for inspiring The Academy Is…to rip them off. Because really, The Academy Is…has a better songwriter.

4. Write REVIEWS! (yes, I realize that that isn't a thank-you, but I just thought I'd pop that in there. You know, as a reminder or something.)

Go get some munchies or something. You are free to go

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Well, well, well! It looks like things are getting sticky for our heroine! And the exclamation points are back to attack and take over my little blurbs!

Dear, dear.

Thank you to my reviewers, and yes, thank you too Ella Mae. Without you I would still not be able to finish anything I wrote because there would be nobody to read it. I LOVE PORTKEY!!!!

Obligatory disclaimer, part 2: I don't own Draco. I don't own Ginny. I don't own Bath and Body Works or any lipgloss from Sephora.

But we can't have everything, now can we?

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Chapter Two: The Official Slytherin Prank Team Captain

Ginny was still seething a couple days later. She hadn't talked to Harry since he had dumped her for Hermione, and she hadn't talked to Hermione for obvious reasons. Neville was off snogging Seamus somewhere (he had come out over the summer. Everybody was really happy for him, including, surprisingly, his grandmother) and Ron was busy with Luna.

Everybody was in love except for Harry Potter's ex.

The youngest Weasley had found herself taking over Hermione's old position as the study-obsessed nerdy Gryffindor. She spent most of her meals and free time in the library, pretending to study. But her mind was teeming with schemes.

How was she going to get Hermione back without hurting Harry?

She didn't blame Harry for dumping her. She blamed Hermione for seducing him. The poor boy! The brunette had probably cornered him during one of their late-night study sessions or something. Teenage boys were totally ruled by their hormones, she knew that. Harry would have to be reaaaaally testosterone-full to snog Hermione.

Seriously. Had she ever heard of conditioner? Not to mention the fact that two of her best friends' brothers owned a shop that sold anti-frizz products that actually worked.

Ginny realized that she had been staring into space for about the last twenty minutes and quickly began to reread the chapter in her Charms book. Flitwick would kill her if she didn't turn his essay in on time. The benches at the library tables were really quite uncomfortable. She didn't know how Hermione had managed to sit there for about half her life without going insane.

Hermione…no, she wasn't thinking about that bitch.

Just as Ginny was drifting off into a daydream in which she was beating Hermione into a pulp and Harry kissed her (multiple times), she felt a hand on her shoulder. A thousand tingles shot up her arm. He had come back to her! She turned around with a huge grin on her face.

It shouldn't have come as a shock after last time. But once again, she was staring into the pale face of Draco Malfoy.

The smile slipped off her face. She turned back to her Charms work with a murderous expression as the older boy slid into the seat next to her, still smiling smugly.

“I suppose you thought that was going to be Mr. Perfect?” Draco said smugly, leaning back.

“It's none of your business if I did,” retorted Ginny, straightening the papers in front of her.

“When will you take that stick out of your ass and relax, Ginevra?” He swept her papers away and she made a noise in protest. “I just want you to hear me out.”

“Why the hell would I even do that, Malfoy?” She tried to pull back her essay, but Draco was stronger than he looked. “You murder the headmaster—”

“I did not murder Dumbledore,” he said, bored. Draco's eyes drilled through her; it was like he was staring into her soul.

She waved her hand, dismissing him. “Semantics. But the fact remains, we hate each other. Our families have hated each other—”

The librarian appeared out of thin air, as she was apt to do. “Ssh!” Madam Pince shushed them furiously.

Ginny continued in a lower voice, “—for generations. You don't just pop up one day and say, oh, guess what, we're going to be best friends now!”

He was still staring. It made her really uncomfortable. “I'm not asking for friendship.”

“Well, I'm not about to go let you screw me in some bloody hallway!” Ginny nearly screamed. The librarian shushed them again.

“You think that's what this is about?” A smile was playing about Draco's lips; Ginny wanted in equal parts to slap him and kiss him within an inch of his life.

“Isn't it?”

“Don't flatter yourself. I want a truce.”

“Why the fu—”

He cut her off. “We have a lot more in common than you realize, Ginevra.”

“Stop calling me Gin—a lot in common?” She was perplexed. They were total opposites.

“For a start, we both hate Harry Potter.” He held up a hand to silence her when she tried to protest. “Think. Really think about it.”

Ginny thought. Did she even like Harry any more, or was this some sort of twisted, revenge kick she was on? Eventually she was forced to admit that she did, in some small way, hate Harry. Draco grinned broadly when she told him this.

“Excellent. I assume you've already made progress with a revenge plan?”

“Are you kidding? That's all I think about. It's rather disgusting.”

He smirked, and for once she didn't feel like punching him when the expression crossed his face. “I knew Ginny Weasley hadn't gone dork.”

For the first time that night, Ginny looked around the library. “Speaking of dorks, where are the real ones? I thought it would be crowded.” It usually was on Fridays after dinner.

Another smirk flitted across Draco's face. “A few words from the Head Boy and the place cleared up pretty quick.”

“Jesus, I totally forgot that you were Head Boy,” Ginny said, smacking herself on the forehead.

“Well, you have been lost in Harry-land ever since the start of school,” Draco pointed out.

“And she's the Head Girl,” Ginny ground out, ignoring his comment about her obsession with her former boyfriend.

“Yes, I have to spend more time than usual with Granger,” the Slytherin said with a sigh. “It's tragic, really.”

“Not for us,” Ginny said with an evil laugh.

“Yes, we should plan our revenge,” he replied. His laugh echoed hers eerily.

She suddenly peered at him oddly. “Why do you want revenge on Harry so badly? It's not like he dumped you,” she pointed out.

“Are you kidding? I've disliked that git from the first time I saw him,” argued the blond boy.

“True.”

“So, let's get planning.”

“I don't really have a plan. And I'm guessing you don't either.”

“You are looking,” said Draco, flourishing his hands ridiculously, “at the Captain of the Slytherin Prank Team.”

“The what?”

“The Slytherin Prank Team. You know us. You just don't know that you know us.”

“Uh—what?”

Draco sighed dramatically. “Remember the snake in Hagrid's shoe?”

The prank had occurred that fall. Even in Ginny's obsession with Harry, she had heard about the legendary trick. Some daring seventh year had snuck a snake in Hagrid's shoe when he took them off to massage his feet after he had taken the N.E.W.T. class for a foray into the forest. Apparently he had jumped so high that the trees shifted a bit.

“That was you?” She gasped. That one had been famous. Nearly Fred-and-George-worthy.

“Me and my team, that is,” corrected Draco.

“Wow.”

“I know.”

“So do you have a plan?”

“No, that's why I needed you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just because he dumped me, you think that I've been plotting his downfall?”

He sighed. “How long has it been?”

Ginny gritted her teeth and looked down at the essay that was lying abandoned on the table. “Two weeks and three days.”

“Exactly,” he said, leaning back again, “I would have thought that you would have at least one or two backups by now. I gave you a long time.”

“You've been planning this since he dumped me?”

“Could a more perfect opportunity turn up?” Draco smirked at her. Perfect opportunity was right… She didn't even know the half of it.

She smirked back, not knowing what was going on inside his head. “I don't know. I'm sure you would have found one.”

He laughed. “I probably would have,” Draco admitted. “The question is—would you?”

Ginny turned serious suddenly. “I don't think so,” she said finally. “I was—I still am—in love with him.”

Draco sighed inwardly. Tough case. “If you're still in love with him, we can't do the prank,” he explained patiently, as if to a two-year-old.

“Well, how do you propose to fix that?” she said stonily.

Then Ginny realized that he was close to her. Really, really close. She hadn't noticed before how hot he looked in his green tie…Slytherin colors really suited him.

“I suppose we could think of something,” he said, eyes lidded. By then both of them had forgotten what the question was.

Their lips had barely brushed each other when—

“SHIT!” Ginny jumped backward and nearly knocked over the bench they had been sitting on. Draco leapt up when she did, looking confused.

“Crap, crap, crap! Freaking crap!” She grabbed fistfuls of her hair, pulling it. The pain in her scalp brought her back from whatever place she had been in. Her? Malfoy? That was wrong. Sick and wrong.

“Calm down, Ginny,” soothed Draco. “What's wrong?”

“You…this…everything,” she panted, still hopping around like a maniac.

“I just wanted to distract you from Potter and his little `study buddy,'” Draco said, putting the table between them. You could never tell when a sixteen-year-old girl could suddenly flip out and hex you.

“Well it worked,” Ginny said sourly, sitting down and sweeping up her scattered and abandoned papers from the tabletop. “I can consider myself distracted.”

“Good,” he said, running his hands through his hair and chuckling. The gesture so reminded her of Harry that she got a little choked up.

“I'm just so pissed off that you would even consider…” She shuddered and did not complete the sentence. The possibilities were too horrible to contemplate. Not to mention that nightmare she had had two and a half weeks ago.

“Pissed off is a start,” he said agreeably, sitting himself beside her. Draco caught her chin and forced her to look at him. “But you can't stay mad at me forever.”

“And why is that?” she snarled, trying to keep from thinking about how sexy he was in his winter sweater.

“We have a revenge plot to attend to, of course,” he stated as though it were obvious.

“At least I'll be distracted,” she pointed out.

“We have a truce,” he reminded her.

“That doesn't give you the right to…” She couldn't even say what she was thinking. Kiss me.

Apparently Draco could. “I know, I know, I shouldn't kiss you.”

She blushed, horrified to feel her heart going all mushy and girly inside of her even at the mention of kissing him. “Exactly,” she mumbled, putting away the unfinished
Charms essay and her already-completed Potions homework.

“But can I call you Ginny?”

Pausing at this unexpectedly gentlemanly question, she turned to consider him. “I suppose if we have a truce, we can be on a first-name basis,” Ginny said grudgingly.

Draco beamed at her, and her heart went all mushy again. She didn't even have the energy to be pissed off at herself again. “And on that note, we end the first ever Gryffindor-Slytherin prank committee,” he said, helping her put her homework away.

“Wow, we got a lot accomplished,” she laughed. “First names, and the fact that I secretly hate Harry. Definitely a lot.”

“It's a lot more than you think,” he said quietly, looking at her. It was one of those intense, stares that Ginny pretended to hate but secretly inside sort of liked.

Then the moment was broken. Ginny looked around. “Where's Madam Pince?”

“Probably off macking with Filch,” Draco grumbled. “Everybody's in love.”

“I know!” said Ginny. “It's a little scary.”

“And I thought only teenagers were horny,” he agreed as they passed a writhing shape in the restricted section that could only be the librarian and the caretaker.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stepping through the portrait hole, Ginny froze when she saw a certain couple glued together in the cushiest armchair.

As the retreating figure of the redhead sprinted up the stairs, Harry broke the kiss. “What's wrong, Harry?” Hermione said, concerned. She touched his face affectionately.

“Poor Ginny,” he murmured.

His girlfriend sighed and sat back on her haunches. “I know,” Hermione said, her eyes sparkling a bit with her tears. “Maybe we should have found another way to break it to her.”

Harry bit his lip. The whole business was just so messy. Girls, he concluded, were a species unto themselves. “She had to know eventually. It had to happen.”

She rested her head against his chest. “I know. I just still feel guilty.”

He stroked her hair, not knowing what else to do. He pitied his ex-girlfriend immensely. How painful it must be for her! Harry and Hermione were the new PDA couple of the year, which didn't make matters any better. It was just that they couldn't help it…

In reality, that wasn't why Ginny was fleeing. The truth was much more frightening (for her at least).

The sixteen-year-old girl flung herself onto her bed, tears streaming down her cheeks. She ignored the inquisitive stares and concerned questions of her dormmates. She couldn't face any of them.

The fact was, she didn't care that Harry and Hermione were down there snogging and God knows what else. Ginny was horrified to find that she was happy for them. As long as they were happy and in love, she could care less.

No, what scared her was that she no longer wanted revenge on Harry.

She wanted another boy.

But the only way to see him in the first place was to get revenge on Harry…

Ginny sighed. She just wanted to sleep and forget everything else. Even though it was early, she pulled on her pajamas quickly and thought of the ocean until she drifted off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Draco trudged into the Slytherin common room, weary and headache-y. Pansy, who had been waiting for him by the green-tinged fire, stood up when he walked into the room. The Slytherin girl waggled her eyebrows. “How did things go with you-know-who?”

Draco stared at her, a little shocked. “What?”

Pansy rolled her eyes at his boy-stupidity. “Not that You-Know-Who. I meant—” she lowered her voice so that the studying first-years couldn't hear them “—Little Miss Gryffindor.”

“Oh. Her. Yeah.” Draco stretched. “Practically shagged on the first date,” he said sarcastically.

“That bad, huh?” Pansy said sympathetically.

“I turned on the whole charming-bad-boy thing…I nearly had her…”

“You know, there are other fish in the sea. Other Slytherin fish. Maybe you shouldn't try to seduce a Gryffindor. Much less Harry Potter's ex.”

Draco narrowed his eyes at her. “I'm not trying to seduce her.”

Pansy laughed derisively. “Of course. You were—what was it?—trying to get her to fall in love with you. Or some such noble crap.”

The boy scowled. Pansy could push his buttons like nothing else. But that was partially why he kept her around him; she didn't put him on a silver platter like the rest of his House, just because of the Mark he had on his arm…

Tearing his thoughts away to less morbid things, he put on a cheerful face. “Well, I've got her pissed off at the Boy-Who-Lived. That's a start, isn't it?”

“Takes a lot to get her to hate her ex…” Pansy agreed.

Draco yawned. He stretched and patted his friend on the back. “Well, Pans, I'm off to bed. Care to join me?”

She slapped his hand away. “You man-whore!”

He shrugged smugly. “As you wish. But you're coming with me next time I see her,” he reminded her.

Pansy sighed sharply. “Do I have to?”

“You do if you value your life,” he replied, only half-joking.

“You've been holding that big-bad-Death-Eater threat over my head for a year and a half,” Pansy pointed out. “You still haven't acted on it.”

He smirked in a characteristic Draco Malfoy way and went up to bed.

After he left, Blaise Zabini leaned over to Pansy. “Does he know that the rest of us don't care that he loves a Weasley?”

She whispered back, “It hasn't gotten through his thick skull yet. He thinks you all are ignoring him and that `Pansy is the only one who understands' or something clichéd like that.” She shook her head. “It's mental, it is.”

Blaise agreed. “He still doesn't get that we don't care who he loves. Do we, Theo?” he said, raising his voice to include the other boy in the conversation.

Theodore Nott nodded. “I don't think we should be defined by our parents. Even if Draco already is a Death Eater.”

“I agree,” said Pansy in a much-louder-than-normal voice. She blushed when Theo stared at her. “What?” she said defensively. “I do.”

She yawned theatrically and punched Blaise on the arm. “I'm turning in. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone. Bye, Theo.”

When she had dragged her feet to the girl's dorm, Blaise turned his scarily intense dark stare on Theo, which made him flinch a little. It was uncomfortable being under Blaise's scrutiny. “Have you asked Pans to Hogsmeade yet?”

Theo blushed. He had thought that his crush was invisible to everyone. “I don't know, I'm sort of waiting for the opportune moment to present itself,” he mumbled abashedly.

Blaise clapped him on the shoulder. “You have to make the opportune moment, Theo. Besides, did you see her back there? She totally loves you.”

A broad grin spread across Theo's face. “You really think so?”

“I saw it. And Blaisy sees all. Blaisy sees all,” said the Slytherin. Together the boys watched the green flames flicker until they grew too tired to keep their eyes open.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many thanks to the following:

1. All those brave reviewers who aren't afraid to put their opinions out there (HINT!).

2. iTunes for that amazing Just for You Beta feature. Otherwise I wouldn't know half as many obscure bands as I do, and they wouldn't have inspired these lovely little fanfics.

3. Whoever discovered the 1990's. (It's a band.) They are TOTALLY AWESOME! So my new favorite band.

4. People who put up with my blather about music and Draco/Ginny fanfics.

5. Glaceau for making Vitamin Water.

I could go on, but I won't bore you with the details. The next chapter will be posted soon. How do I know? By the time I've posted this, I've already written it. (Heh. Self-editing, you know.)

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Bonjour, mes petits croissants!

Sorry, thought I'd shake up the greeting a bit this time.

So, lovelies, enjoy Chapter 3 of Fanfic #2 from Loveedoo!

Obligatory disclaimer the third: No, I don't own JKR (that would be human trafficking, wouldn't it?). And I don't think this is illegal, because if it was, I would be in jail right now. So remind me again why I need a disclaimer? Other than the fact that it's cute.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Three: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day…

Ginny woke up tired. Not good, she thought. I have a Transfiguration test today. Not to mention that essay for Flitwick that I'm going to have to finish during lunch. Then she remembered last night, and realized that failing Transfiguration was the least of her problems. Why had she almost kissed Draco Malfoy?

Much worse, she had forgiven him.

And somewhere along the way, she might have fallen for him.

She fell back on to her pillow with a thud and a groan. Today was already crappy, and she hadn't even gotten out of bed yet. Demelza's head appeared over the railing of Ginny's bunk. Melza slept on the bottom.

“Everything okay, Gin?”

“I just forgot to study for Transfiguration, okay?” Ginny didn't think that she could get into the whole Draco/prank/kiss thing with a fellow Gryffindor. She didn't want to get ostracized.

“Oh, shit. Transfiguration,” Demelza groaned. “I forgot too.”

“And it's first period,” Ginny said, pretending to be much more upset than she actually was. She had learned this trick from Fred and George: play along with what other people are talking about, and you can get some time to think for yourself. This was an easy one for Ginny because she was a natural multitasker.

It couldn't be anything real, the feeling she had felt for Malfoy last night. Draco, she corrected herself mentally. She had promised him that much.

She didn't owe him anything!

Still, Ginny was prepared to be the better person. It wouldn't be hard. Many people were better than Draco Malfoy.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a hand waving in front of her face. She started. How long had she been zoning out?

“Gin? Ginny?” Demelza said cautiously.

“Sorry, 'Melza. I was going over Transfiguration material in my head,” Ginny said, flashing a cheesy smile.

Demelza rolled her eyes at her roommate, and commenced to pull a uniform shirt over her head. The dark-skinned girl knotted her tie quickly and efficiently, gave herself a quick once-over in the communal mirror, and started down for breakfast. Slowly, Ginny dressed herself for the day and started for breakfast.

Luna was sitting on the bottom step when Ginny approached the Great Hall with a hankering for sausages.

“Hello, Luna,” Ginny said, trying to pass the blonde girl to get to the food.

Luna blocked her. “Ginny, you have to talk to him,” she said in her soft, musical voice.

“Er…what?” Ginny said rather too loudly. She couldn't remember mentioning her encounter with Draco to anyone.

“You must talk with Draco.”

“Luna, I want my breakfast,” Ginny groaned, aggravated. “I'm hungry.”

“You must talk to him.”

Ginny sighed, sitting down on the stairs next to her Ravenclaw friend. “All right, you have my attention. Why do I need to talk to Draco?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Goddammit, Draco, if you don't get out of the bed I'll flatten you,” Blaise threatened the Slytherin.

“I'm up, I'm up,” Draco insisted groggily, sitting up in bed. He rubbed his eyes, looking around the green-furnished room blearily. “Aren't you supposed to be ignoring me?” he asked his roommate.

Blaise rolled his eyes. “That's what you think. Now get out of bed, or I'm going to overturn the whole bunk.”

“You couldn't do that,” Draco said, looking for his shirt on the floor, “could you?”

“Very few know what I am capable of.” Blaise glanced at the Dark Mark tattoo on Draco's left arm as he rolled up the sleeve of his uniform shirt. It wasn't as dark as it usually was, meaning that this was going to be a good day. Maybe.

The blond boy brushed his hair quickly (it fell into place neatly, unlike Harry's) and turned around just in time to catch Blaise staring at the Mark.

Misinterpreting the look, Draco made a face and rolled his sleeves down. “I always forget about that stupid thing. Can't make the whole school think I'm a Death Eater, now can I?”

Blaise smirked ironically. “No. Of course not. Because nobody thinks that after you attempt to murder the headmaster and bring in about twelve Death Eaters from Nocturn Alley. Nope, nobody knows you're a Death Eater. Nobody at all.”

“Jesus, Blaise, do you ever shut up?” Draco snapped, tying his tie.

“Only when I'm in love, as you seem to be,” replied the other Slytherin. The Death Eater narrowed his eyes at Blaise.

“I always forget you freaking perceptive you are, Blaise.”

“It's one of my many talents.” The dark-skinned Slytherin leaned against a rough stone wall, still staring pointedly at the now covered-up tattoo.

“So are you going to disown me yet?”

“Give me a little more credit than that, Draco.”

“You haven't earned it yet.”

“Who cares if she's a Gryffindor? You could date the freaking giant squid for all I care. C'mere, you,” Blaise said, pulling Draco into an awkward hug. The blond boy raised his eyebrows when the other pulled away. He shrugged. “I'm working on being a more affectionate and less standoffish as a person.”

“Did you really mean that about the giant squid?” Draco said as they walked up

the many flights of stairs to the Great Hall.

“Of course, you prat. Now hurry up. I'm hungry.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny had just started to the Great Hall and breakfast when he came toward her. She froze like a deer in the headlights. Even though she knew she was going to have to acknowledge him sometime, but she just didn't want to do it so publicly.

So she was half disappointed, half relieved when he brushed past her with a “Stop sitting around and waiting for Potter” and a sneer.

Luna raised her eyebrows at Ginny when he and Blaise had passed through the oak doors.

“I will talk to him, just not so publicly,” the redhead promised as they headed for their House tables.

“I'll hold you to that,” Luna replied distractedly, as Ron walked up to her and planted a good-morning kiss on her lips.

“Morning, Gin,” he greeted his sister without so much as a glance in her direction.

“Hello, Ron,” she said, scanning the table for a seat. Demelza was surrounded by her usual posse of admiring Quidditch wannabes, and there was no way that she could sit with Harry and Hermione.

There was a spot open next to Neville and Seamus. Perfect.

“Hello, boys,” Ginny said breezily as she slid into the open seat next to Neville.

“Hey, Gin, I haven't seen you in forever,” Neville greeted her warmly. He kissed her on the cheek, which made her smile. Neville was so sweet.

“Hi, Ginny!” Seamus called from Neville's other side. Ginny could see that the couple was holding hands discreetly. Aww, how sweet, she thought.

“I've been kind of swamped,” Ginny said, digging into her egg and sausage.

“I remember that. Sixth year is a killer, isn't it Seamus?” said Neville sympathetically. His boyfriend nodded in agreement.

“Is Flitwick still making you do those stupid essays?” Seamus said, looking at her over Neville's plate of food.

“Uh-huh,” Ginny replied, her mouth full of food.

“Ah, to be young again,” Neville said nostalgically. Ginny laughed and whacked him on the shoulder.

“I'm only a year younger than you, you git!”

“Ow,” winced Neville. “You should be a Beater, not a Chaser, Gin.”

“That's what you learn when you grow up in a house of brothers,” Ginny said smugly as she returned to her sausage.

Suddenly, she caught Draco Malfoy's eye over her plate of egg. It looked like he had been staring at her for a while. He held her gaze for a few seconds, but then Pansy Parkinson tugged on his sleeve and he turned his face towards her to continue their animated discussion.

“I wonder what they could be talking about,” Ginny said out loud.

Neville stopped giggling with Seamus to look at her. “Who?”

She pointed and the boys stared at the two Slytherins for a few seconds. They appeared to be arguing. “Since when do you care what goes on with the snake people?” Seamus said, picking at his toast.

“Since never,” mumbled Ginny.

But she really did wonder what they could be talking about.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pansy had been waiting for a while to ask the questions she needed to ask Draco. As he and Blaise sat down, Pansy leaned over and said, “Have you talked to her yet?”

Draco glanced over at the Gryffindor table. Ginny was sitting next to her gay friends. He pulled his gaze away from the redheaded Gryffindor and back to the girl next to him. “N-no. Not yet, anyway.”

The short girl glared at him. “You didn't cop out with one of your oh-so-clever snide comments, did you?”

“Uh…” The pause was all Pansy needed to know.

She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. “What did you say? Exactly. To the letter.”

“I think it was something like `stop sitting around waiting for Potter, he's not coming back.' I couldn't help it, Pans! Six years of dealing with it one way has become an impulse.” He stared down at his plate and said mutinously, “Two eggs, sunny-side up, and four sausages.” The requested food appeared.

Blaise noted that Ginny's food and Draco's food were exactly the same, but tactfully refrained from commenting.

The Headmistress sat down next to Professor Slughorn.

“Are you still keeping an eye on the boy?” Minerva McGonnagle murmured to him.

“Two eyes, actually Minerva,” Slughorn said through a mouthful of muffin.

Draco kept catching himself staring at Ginny. It wasn't a voluntary action. His eyes were drawn to her inexplicably, no matter how many times he tried to stop them from looking.

She was so beautiful as she tilted her head back to laugh, hair shining in the sunlight streaming from the magical ceiling. White teeth flashed in her mouth as she talked to her friends.

Then Ginny caught his eye. Shit. She had seen him staring. She gazed at him weirdly for a minute.

Pansy pulled his sleeve with a force he thought no girl was capable of. “Jesus, Malfoy, she's going to think you're a pervert or something,” she hissed.

“She's fully clothed. I'm not worried.” Pansy rolled her eyes. “Besides, you keep staring at Theo, so we're even.”

“Don't talk so effing loud!” she whispered. Theodore had looked around at the sound of his name, but he shook his head when he realized that nobody had called him.

“He has to realize that you're in love with him by now! Even I could tell!” Draco replied in an undertone.

“Don't you dare change the subject!”

“I didn't even realize we had a subject!”

“What are you going on about?”

“You told me not to do something, and I stopped, and then I started talking about a related topic!” Draco said, almost shouting. Heads turned to see the source of the commotion.

“You are such an idiot,” Pansy mumbled, taking a bite of her croissant and shaking her head.

“I already knew that,” Draco said, sneaking a peek at his redheaded crush. He sighed. “What are the odds of me winning the affections of the lovely Miss Weasley?”

Pansy considered him, tilting her head to one side. “Hmm…I'd say about the same odds of the Chudley Cannons winning the Quidditch World Cup this year,” she said after awhile.

Draco grimaced. “Slim to none, you mean.”

She grinned. “No, it means that it's not likely but that stranger things have happened. And you, my friend, will make it happen. Luck has nothing to do with it.”

A red-faced Theodore Nott approached them from down the table. Draco could see that his hand was shaking a bit, and turned back to his breakfast, smirking. Pansy turned red as he turned to her.

“Er, I was wondering, Pansy, if you would, um, maybe go to Hogsmeade sometime, with, you know, me…” His voice trailed away and he looked embarrassed.

Pansy bit her lip to stop herself from grinning like a mindless simpleton. “Of course I will, Theo. All you had to do was ask.”

The seventh-year boy bent down and kissed her cheek. “I'll see you outside the Great Hall a week from Saturday then.”

Both of them turned a bit pink as he walked away.

“Did you see that?” Pansy squealed once he was out of earshot. “He kissed me! We haven't even been on a date yet!”

Pansy's voice faded into the background as Draco zoned out. Girls could be so incredibly inane. Sometimes he had to wonder why anyone bothered with them anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hmm…that chapter ended up being mostly fluff, didn't it?

Well, it's that time again. Time for thank yous!

My loyal fans (love yas!)

JKR for the idea, which means that I don't have to go through the tedious process of creating a whole world.

I've kind of run out of people to thank.

Keep on reading, tell me if it's crap! You know the drill.

-->

Hellooooo, reader.

You know, I've come to enjoy our little one-sided chats. Gives me a place to vent and all without having the tricky little detail of talking to an actual person.

What's that you say? You are a real person?

Well, dearie, to me you just look like a computer. Okay, I get it. I'll give you the freaking story.

Obligatory disclaimer #4: If you're reading this, you know that I don't own the characters or the copyright to this or any other major thingy. Actually, I don't own any copyrights.

Maybe I should fix that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Four: Grytherin

“Why do you keep showing up around me?” Ginny complained as Draco sat down next to her in the library. Only a few mousy first-years scurried around them, oblivious to the mini-drama occurring right under their noses.

“Nice to see you too, Ginny,” Draco said, grinning at her. For some reason, he was in a really good mood tonight.

“It's never nice to see you,” she grumbled. Because it wasn't. Right?

“Come on, we've got to go,” he said, grabbing her hand. She stared at it like it was a disgusting cockroach. Because those weren't tingles of pleasure shooting up her arm. Right?

She didn't move still staring at his hand. Draco rolled his eyes and let go. “Get up or I'll hex you,” he threatened, pulling out his wand.

Madam Pince materialized behind him suddenly. “NO WANDS IN MY LIBRARY!”

The blond boy smirked at her. “Sorry, Madam Pince. I won't be as careless next time.”

The librarian looked confused for a few seconds, then flapped off to scare some first- and second-years.

“…obviously hasn't seen Filch for a while,” Draco observed in an undertone. Ginny giggled, but stopped herself because she didn't want to be seen happy with Draco Malfoy.

“I'm not coming with you if you're going to be so secretive about it,” Ginny said snottily, trying her best to sound miffed.

Draco sighed. Why did he have to always pick the stubborn ones to fall for? “I promise I'm not going to trap you, attempt to wrangle information out of you, bring you to the Dark Lord, torture your parents, or any of that other Death Eater crap you think I'm probably going to do.”

Ginny knit her eyebrows together, confused. “Well then, where are you taking me?”

“I want you to meet someone. And she's not a Death Eater,” he said when she looked reluctant. “Just a Slytherin.”

“It has to be private, I can't be seen with you people,” Ginny complained.

“Come on.” He grabbed her hand again.

This time she made no move to protest. Tingles of happiness filled her body at his touch. She practically floated away as he pulled her gently out of the library and up three flights of stairs. It didn't just feel nice for him to hold her hand, it felt right. Like it was something they ought to be doing. Like they should have tried it long ago.

Then Ginny realized that they had stopped in front of a tapestry and he was waiting for her to respond. She quickly wiped the goofy smile off of her face, even though it had not gone unnoticed by her companion.

“You wanted me to meet a tapestry?” she snapped, still trying to recover. It was difficult when he was still holding her hand.

“It's not the tapestry, it's what's inside the tapestry,” Draco explained patiently. He had learned to keep his focus while thinking of Ginny many years ago. You never knew what Legilimenses were around, you know?

“A secret room? How very clichéd,” Ginny snorted. She was simply finding a reason to complain. She actually didn't mind very much.

“You said, and I quote, `it has to be private, I can't be seen with you people.'” He gave her A Look.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “Just let go of my hand first.”

“No can do,” he deflected cheerfully.

Ginny didn't complain. She watched him wordlessly as he stretched a hand out to touch the richly embroidered tapestry. A dragon moved through the threaded landscape, cautiously approaching Draco's hand. Its teeth delicately extended and nipped his finger.

He winced. “No matter how many times that damn thing bites me, it still hurts.”

She had to dig her nails into her palm to stop herself from fussing over him like an idiot.

There was a dark-brown stain over near the castle. Draco dabbed at it gently with his finger and then stuck it into his mouth, licking away the blood.

He smirked when he caught her looking at him. “Look,” said the blond boy, pointing at the spot where he had put his finger.

The dark-brown (which Ginny now realized with a certain amount of disgust was blood) was moving across the sky threaded into the tapestry. It started to spell out words.

WELCOME, MASTER.

“And guest,” Draco said sternly. Ginny realized that he was talking to the tapestry. Okay…

AND GUEST.

Then she felt a jerk behind her belly button, almost like a Portkey, and she was pulled into darkness for a couple seconds.

A bright light exploded in her vision, and Ginny had to shield her eyes for a moment. It dimmed, and she lowered her hand to find herself looking at a quaint little room about the size of the interior of Hagrid's hut.

There was a girl sitting on a fluffy armchair in the middle of the room. There were too others just like it. One was red, the other green.

“Pansy Parkinson?” Ginny gasped. He had said that she was going to meet a Slytherin, but she couldn't deal with Pansy. She HATED Pansy. Maybe they could have gotten along, if the older girl had ever interacted with her like she was worth noticing.

To her surprise, the older girl greeted her with a warm grin. “Hi, Ginny. Draco getting to you yet?”

The redhead glared at him. “You could say that.”

Pansy laughed, and the faint trace of awkwardness in the air receded. “So how's sixth year going?”

“Killer,” Ginny groaned. She launched into a long explanation of how her teachers hated her, Professor Slughorn was out to get her, and McGonaggle didn't care anymore since Harry had dumped her. Pansy listened attentively, nodding and making noises of sympathy at all the right moments. Halfway through Ginny's interpretation of Dean making his famously bad Veratiserum, Draco interrupted her.

“Hate to break it up, girls, but we have a meeting to get to,” Draco drawled, staring pointedly at Pansy.

The Slytherin girl rolled her eyes at Ginny. “He sounds like he's all business, but he's really one big softie underneath.”

The blond boy smacked his friend on the arm. “Stop spouting my secrets to the world! The mystery factor is the only thing that keeps the girls rolling in.” He smoothed back his hair, and Pansy groaned.

Ginny watched these goings-on, feeling a bit like an outsider. They obviously had their own thing going on. The redhead suddenly realized how much she had missed having lots of friends around her. There was Neville, and there was Seamus, but they were basically the only ones who talked to her since Harry had dumped her. Demelza was too busy being popular all the time. And sometimes two gay boys weren't enough, no matter how sweet they were.

For about half a second, Ginny almost wished she had been placed into Slytherin.

Then she remembered that she was only there because she had promised not to hex Malfoy into oblivion. That and the fact that, as much as she detested to admit it, she was inexplicably attracted to him.

No! No, she wasn't.

She hated the happy, harmonious couple of Harry and Hermione. That was why she was here. Revenge. Nothing more.

“Aren't we supposed to be planning how to kill Harry and Hermione?” she said, interrupting the bickering Slytherins.

Both of their heads snapped towards her. “Well, Ginny, we weren't going to kill them, just prank them,” Draco said, scratching the back of his head.

“But I thought you'd know loads about killing people, being a Death Eater and everything?” Ginny said. Her hand snuck into her skirt pocket, gripping her wand tightly. Just in case.

The older boy's face contorted into something unrecognizable. His hand twitched to his pocket almost like he was going to draw his wand. Pansy laid a hand on his arm.

Her eyes said: Don't push it. She barely wants to be here anyway.

Draco sighed and pulled his hand out of his pocket. “Sorry, Ginny, I lost my temper.”

She gritted her teeth, but he looked so contrite that it was hard to stay mad at him. “Fine.”

“Just please don't call me that.” He was smirking again; she wanted to slap it off his face.

“Fine,” she repeated, throwing herself moodily into the red armchair. It was even more comfortable than it looked, but Ginny refused to acknowledge anything positive about her surroundings.

“So,” Draco said with the air of a professor starting a lecture, “shall we begin, finally?”

Nobody answered. He seemed to take this as an affirmative.

“Okay then. The first meeting of the Gritherin Prank Team has officially begun.”

Pansy and Ginny burst out laughing at exactly the same time. Tears streamed down their faces as they shrieked with mirth. Draco gazed at them, an expression of faint confusion etched into every line of his face. When they finally slowed down, still gasping from shortness of breath, he asked, “What's so funny?”

Ginny started giggling hysterically again. Pansy explained, while trying not to bust out laughing again. “It sounds like something you pulled out of a whale's butt!”

They all laughed this time. When they had calmed down, Ginny asked, “But if we're not Gritherin, then what are we going to be called?”

“Slythendor?” Pansy suggested.

“I vote for Slythendor,” Ginny said, putting her hand up. “All in favor of Slythendor?”

Pansy and Ginny raised their hands. They both stared at Draco until he grudgingly raised his. “So it's unanimous then,” Pansy said authoritatively. Draco rolled his eyes. She stuck out her tongue at him.

“Calm down, children,” soothed Ginny. “Let's listen to Big Bad Draco tell us exactly what to do,” she said to Pansy.

“Yes, enlighten us,” chimed in the other girl. They both stared at the boy with wide-eyed, innocent expressions.

Draco grinned evilly. “By the time I'm done with you, Ginny, you will know more about pranks than those prat twin brothers of yours.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny stumbled into the dormitory at one o'clock in the morning. A fourth-year girl whose name she couldn't remember was sitting on one of the bunks, obviously alive. The girl gestured for her to come out to the common room with her. Inwardly groaning at the prospect of having to stay up even later, Ginny followed the younger girl.

“What's wrong?” Ginny said, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to wake herself up.

“Demelza asked me to wait for you,” the girl said simply.

Ginny was aghast. “That's horrible!”

“It's okay. I haven't slept since I was five.” In answer to the redhead's questioning look, she said, “Insomniac.”

“Oh. So what did Demelza have to say?”

“She just wanted to know where you had been, stuff like that,” said the fourth-year awkwardly.

“I could have told her in the morning,” Ginny said indignantly. “She didn't have to put you up to it.”

The girl shrugged. “There's really not much to do at night. Plus I think she needed to make sure that you would actually get back.”

Ginny rolled her eyes. Demelza, despite being younger by about 8 months, was annoyingly overprotective sometimes. “So what's your name?” she said politely.

“Alice. And you're Ginny.”

“That's me…” Ginny said, yawning at the end.

The younger girl looked at her with an expression that could only be described as motherly. “Someone's got to get to bed.”

“Yes, Mother,” Ginny singsonged. They giggled in a tired way.

The redheaded girl went upstairs. As soon as she hit the pillow, she fell asleep, not minding that she was still wearing clothes.

All night she dreamed of Draco.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Draco stumbled into the Slytherin common room after the meeting, just as tired as Ginny was. He and Pansy had taken separate routes to derail suspicions, even though it was highly unlikely that even Filch was up at this hour.

Blaise was waiting in the best armchair. The blond boy groaned when he saw him.

“Do you ever sleep?” Draco said, flopping into the second-best armchair. He was prepared for a long chat. Blaise always dragged these things out.

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?”

“I asked first,” said the Malfoy boy. He summoned a flask of butterbeer from his dorm room. Blaise accepted his measure in a conjured glass without a word of thanks.

“Sometimes. Are you out of your mind?” he repeated.

“Sometimes,” Draco replied infuriatingly. He swigged his butterbeer. “Any specific crazyness this time, Blaise?”

“Give her a little time,” Blaise pleaded. “I don't care if you do that angsty Romeo thing in the interim—”

Draco rolled his eyes and cut the other boy off. “Don't compare me to Romeo. He seriously bugs me.”

“How do you live with yourself?”

“No idea. Go on,” he prompted Blaise.

The dark-skinned boy sighed. “Draco, you can't just go accepting her into the whole screwed-up mess that is Slytherin all at once. Her poor little Gryffindor mind probably couldn't take it.”

“Give her a little more credit than that,” Draco pleaded.

Blaise pointed at him. “You see what I mean? Total Romeo thing you just did. `Wasting away for love,' and all that sentimental crap.”

“I'm not looking for an argument. Just get to the point.”

“Look, you can't have her meeting all of us at once—”

“She met Pansy. It's not like I was inducting her or anything! And they got along fine, once Ginny got past her prejudices.”

“You're going to have to explain it to her sooner or later.”

Draco looked up at the suddenly deadened tone of his companion's voice. Blaise was staring into the green flames, his eyes weirdly reflecting the colors of the flickering fire. When he spoke, his voice was impersonal, detached.

“I just don't want you to get hurt. Or her. Take it slow with the whole Death Eater thing, okay? For me.”

Blaise finally turned his gaze on Draco, and his eyes were fevered, intense. “Please don't make the same mistakes that I did. Don't let her slip through your fingers.”

Draco raised his eyebrows. The gesture would have looked slightly ludicrous on someone else, but the blond boy still managed to look coolly handsome. “What the hell are you talking about, Blaise?”

In a trice the strange look was gone from the dark boy's eyes. His face was empty, slack, devoid of emotion. “Nothing,” he replied, his voice sounding odd. “I'm just really tired. Go on up to bed, I'll be up in a few minutes.” Blaise forced a smile as if to say, Hey, I'm fine, everything's just peachy, nothing wrong here.

Once Draco had gone, the fake smile dropped off his face. Blaise rubbed the fine fuzz of hair on his head, as he was apt to do when agitated. He paced around the room, frantically looking for something to keep his mind off the one thing he couldn't think of.

Finally he gave up and flopped into the armchair closest by the fire. “Love is really stupid,” muttered the dark boy, rubbing his long-fingered hands over his face.

Then he waited for the face to appear in the fire, as it always did every night.

She came. He knew she would.

“Alice,” he said fake-chipperly. “How goes the struggle with Mr. Weasley?”

And that, Blaise thought, was irony. Pushing love advice about another man upon the one girl you thought was for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another day, another chapter!

I just realized that this is going to be waaaaay longer than my last fic. I hope that's a good thing.

So, thankies:

Rihanna. Shut Up and Drive is stuck in my head.

JKR. Draco Malfoy is a gorgeous character.

YOU! Aren't you glad you just got thanked?

Remember to read and review, no matter what your mom tells you to do! (I have no idea what that has to do with anything, but bear with me. I'm tired.)

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Chapter 5 is back by popular demand of just about everybody! *Author blows kisses to crowd of adoring fans that only exist in imagination*

Heh…sorry about that…I can get a little wrapped up in my fantasies…

Hrm….it seems like just about everybody at Hogwarts is in love…Blaise included ! And with a girl two years younger! Scandalous. (Note: Alice's birthday is soon after the start of the school year, like mine, so she's always older than everybody else in her year. So in this fic, she's already fifteen.)

Enjoy le fanfiction!

Obligatory disclaimer #5: You know by now I don't own Harry Potter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Five: Choices Are Hard…

It wasn't that the plan was complicated. It was simple really.

Ginny just didn't know if she had the heart to go through with it. The first phase she didn't mind. It was the end result that made her guilty conscious catch up with her.

When she confided in Draco, his response was:

“Come on, Gin. A prankster can't have a conscience. Otherwise how would we do what we do?”

She rolled her eyes at him. He was always all about “a prankster can't…” and “a prankster can…” It really got on her nerves.

But he was so awfully goddamned cute.

Ginny wasn't sure when she started picking up on it. It was like it hadn't been there one day, and then POOF! The next day everything he did was adorable. His smile, his finely blond hair, so different from Harry's…every aspect of Draco Malfoy gave her this warm gooey feeling inside that she didn't particularly trust.

She trusted him. She just wasn't sure if she trusted herself.

Neville and Seamus continued to give her support as she geared up, unbeknownst to them, for the first phase of the plan. Ginny had to continue pretending to hate the Slytherins, which was really difficult because she liked them all so much as people. Once or twice, in the hallway, she caught herself smiling at Pansy or Draco or Blaise. (For the second meeting of the Slythendor Prank Committee, she had met Blaise. She almost liked him better than Draco.)

Since they had set up Phase 1 already, and it required a small amount of waiting beforehand, they really had no reason to meet as a Prank Committee anymore. Occasionally Pansy and Ginny would make plans to go to the Room of Requirement to study together after dinner, or Blaise would tutor her in Potions, but these visits were few and far between.

She tried to distance herself from Draco. Ginny couldn't let it slip how much she was obsessed with him, for fear of being rejected. Also, she was afraid of the whole Death Eater thing.

Ginny wasn't afraid of what he could do to her as Voldemort's servant.

No, she was afraid to find out what Voldemort could do to him if You-Know-Who ever found out that Draco was her friend.

So she tried her hardest not to be his friend.

But it was so hard…especially when he stared at her with those meltingly warm eyes, or smiled his frosty smile, or smirked at her like he knew something she didn't.

It made her go weak at the knees.

She didn't think about Harry or Hermione once in her daydreams. They weren't her main concern. The issue at the forefront of her mind was Draco, always Draco…

Ginny found herself returning increasingly often to the dream she had had over a month ago, the one in which they were married.

And to think it had once horrified her!

Now she was intoxicated by the prospect.

“Ginny…Ginny?” A pale hand waved in front of her face.

The redhead realized with a start that the very person she was trying so hard to avoid was standing right in front of her. And she had been doing such a good job too…if you didn't count daydreams.

All the blood in Ginny's body rushed to her head. She cursed herself for blushing. Could she be any more obvious?

“Are you all right?” Draco Malfoy asked her, concern evident in his face.

She glanced around; the library was deserted. Christmas break had done a number on the population of the school.

“Fine,” Ginny said, forcing a smile to her lips.

He sat down next to her and she made no move to protest. His eyebrows quirked. “Could it be that Ginevra Weasley no longer cares that I choose to hang around her?”

She shrugged. Her face turned even redder, if it was possible.

“Do you want to know what I think?” She didn't really, but she nodded anyway. “I don't think you can stay away.”

“Whatever,” she muttered, choosing to ignore his second comment. “How can I be friends with a Death Eater?”

To his credit, Draco barely flinched. But something in his expression turned steely once the words were hanging in the open. “Do you want me to tell you something?”

“Depends on what it is.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Ginny really hadn't meant to flirt. There was just something about Draco that brought out that side of her.

“My father has been a Death Eater basically since he got out of school,” the blond boy started, settling down in his seat. “All my ancestors before him would have joined up, if the Dark Lord had been in their time.

“I grew up in a house that taught only Dark magic. I learned cruelty from a young age, watching my father perform the Cruciatus Curse on our house-elf and our maid. He made me watch. I never knew anything else.

“So at the tender young age of eleven, I arrived at Platform Nine and Three Quarters armed with an arrangement of Unforgivables and illegal hexes. `Make us proud,' my father said as I got on the train.

“I still don't know who `us' is. He probably meant the family, probably meant him. But to me, `us' was always anyone and everyone watching, from your family at the train station to teachers to friends. So you can imagine my reluctance to accept that Harry Potter would be watching me too, not as a guiding force, but as a peer.

“God,” Draco said, laughing humorlessly. “It sounds incredibly paranoid and self-centered when I say it out loud. But it was all I ever knew. You grew up around people who loved you. You were dirt poor, but at least you had friendship and happiness. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about.”

Ginny said nothing.

“And then second year…you walked into the Great Hall. My world lit up. There was a goal, something to show off to the nameless watchers. You.

“But I soon learned that you were a Weasley, and the Weasley name was mud to my family. I already hated your idiot brother. But I didn't want to hate you too. So I couldn't decide between you or them. Torn by indecision, I watched for five years as you grew into the person you are. I could wait, I decided. I didn't have to choose.”

“Choices are hard,” Ginny murmured, laying a hand on his arm in comfort.

He laughed, but there was no joy in the sound. “Yes…I know that all too well. I could see by the end of your fourth year that it was Harry you loved, never me. I was always the bratty little Slytherin, who got everything except what he truly wanted.

“So you can probably imagine what my response was when the Dark Lord said he could give me anything. Anything! Just for a tattoo and a small task.

“`It's a small thing,' he told me. `One thing and then anything you want and more—it's all yours.'

“He wouldn't tell me what I had to do, but he assured me that it was trivial, that I could do it as well as anyone else. God, I was a fool.

“So he gave me this thing,” he continued, pulling up his sleeve to reveal the Mark. It was a faint gray, like it had faded over time. The green-gray snake was slithering slowly. It made Ginny shiver to look at it. “And tells me I have to kill Dumbledore.

“When I didn't do it…the offer was revoked. Painfully. And Snape got all the power he desired, rising to the side of his beloved Dark Lord.

“And I was left with a tattoo I didn't want and a dream that I could never achieve. I told myself to leave you alone. But it's not possible.” He lifted his face to hers; it was as white as a sheet.

“Anything's possible,” she said quietly, gripping his hand.

Draco smirked, but it wasn't the cocky smirk she knew. It was almost…half-hearted. “You don't get it, do you?”

“Give me a little credit,” Ginny murmured, cupping his cheek in her palm. He flinched. The gesture was a little motherly.

“Ginny, I want you. That's why I've been an angsty lump of wasted humanity ever since you came to school. Ginny—I love you.”

The words hung in the air like a smell that lingers long after whatever has caused it is gone. “I honestly don't know what to say to that,” Ginny said, stunned.

His face turned crimson. It was the first time Ginny had ever seen Draco Malfoy flustered. But then the moment was gone as quickly as it had come. “So you still have to make a decision.”

“About what?” she said. She couldn't remember what he was talking about, what he had just said. All Ginny knew was that his green tee-shirt made him look positively gorgeous, and that she was literally speechless in his presence.

“Me or them. And I thought you might need a little help with that…”

Draco pressed his lips to hers, and her head was suddenly spinning.

Were those really her arms, wrapping around him?

Were those really his hands in her hair?

Was this just a dream?

If it was, it was a really, really good dream.

He pulled away all too soon. “Think about it, will you?” Draco said with a shadow of his old cheeky grin.

Ginny was left alone in an old library, with nothing but the lingering warmth of his arms and the memory of a kiss.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blaise was waiting for Draco when he came out of the library. The blond boy started. “I thought you were going home for Christmas,” he said, feeling weirdly guilty.

“What did you do?” The dark-skinned boy's voice was flat, emotionless. Draco stared at him wordlessly. “What did you do?” Blaise's tone was more forceful this time.

“I—I kissed her,” Draco admitted, staring at his hands. When he looked up, his friend was staring at him with a mix of horror and admiration.

“Come on, you idiot.” Blaise grabbed the collar of his tee-shirt.

“Where the hell are you taking me?” Draco complained as he allowed himself to be dragged down the long corridor. As they turned a corner, he caught a glimpse of Ginny walking back in the general direction of Gryffindor Tower.

“We're going to see McGonagall,” Blaise said grimly, releasing the blond boy as they approached the stone gargoyles. “Cockroach cluster,” he said to the guard.

The gargoyle sprang away from the entrance. The two boys traveled up the moving staircase wordlessly. Inside, Draco's mind was roiling. What had happened? He hadn't done anything bad, had he? It was just a freaking kiss. Only a kiss.

Right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you time!

Vera Bradley, for making those adorably wonderful handbags

God, for insisting that people need the day off on weekends

Things are about to get interesting…Sorry if it seems like I'm deviating from the plot a bit…and in case you're wondering, we never find out what the prank was. Sorry. If you're curious, you can ask Draco Malfoy. *Laugh*

P.S. If it seems like Draco gave the whole spiel all at once, I'm sorry…I know he wouldn't probably do that in “real life” but I'm playing around with character dynamics and stuff…Wow he actually ended up being pretty sappy in the end. Who woulda thought?

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Hello, puppies!

Eww, that sounds kinda gross. Let me try again:

Hello, chickens!

Chapter Six has arrived, and what a chapter it is.

So read on, enjoy, and review!

Disclaimer 6: I DON'T OWN HARRY!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter Six: Decisions, Decisions

Professor McGonagall was waiting for the boys when they finally entered her circular office. She nodded to Blaise, who promptly disappeared, leaving Draco alone with the Headmistress.

“What's going on?” the blond boy asked sharply. His blue-gray eyes drilled holes through Minerva's face. Even though he was many years younger than her, she still felt like a little girl looking at someone in command.

“The arrogance of the young, assuming that everything is about them,” quipped the Scottish woman. She shuffled some papers around on her disorganized desk and gestured towards the chair in front of it. “Please, have a seat.”

He sat. “I'm assuming that you're not calling to congratulate me for being a good little prefect.” Draco smirked. The fight was back in him; the kiss had imbued him with an incredible amount of strength. He felt like he could jump buildings.

“No, as a matter of fact I'm not, Mr. Malfoy.” Professor McGonagall said, folding her hands in front of her on her desk.

“Well then, why the summons?”

“What are you doing with Ginevra Weasley, Malfoy?” she asked bluntly in a cold tone of voice.

Draco colored at the mention of her name. God, it was seriously pathetic the effect Ginny had on him. He had to get a grip. “Nothing,” he lied smoothly. But the blush gave him away.

“Because of the incidences in June—”

“I didn't kill Dumbledore,” Draco droned. “Professor Snape did.”

McGonagall cleared her throat. “I realize that, Mr. Malfoy. But the fact remains that that Mark—” She gestured to the tattoo on his arm. He realized with a plummeting feeling in his stomach that his sleeves were still rolled up from when he had shown it to Ginny. “—makes you, well, a marked man.”

“Look, Professor, I understand your concern. But I have been cast from the Death Eaters. They don't want me around any more than you do.”

The older woman smiled a dry smile. “As much as I would love to believe that, Mr. Malfoy, you pretty much lost my trust a while back.”

Draco bit his lip, exasperated. The old bat couldn't understand. McGonagall probably knew nothing about love. “Professor, I don't know how I can say this without sounding disrespectful. But you probably don't know anything about love, do you?”

He was astounded to see McGonagall's eyes fill with tears at the mention of the word. “I wouldn't say that, Mr. Malfoy,” she said quietly, a blush coloring her face pink.

Draco definitely didn't want to get into a discussion of his headmistress' love life. He hurried on. “Then you'll know what I mean when I say that I love her, and I would give her the world if I could, and I honestly don't care what the Dark Lord can do to me as long as she's safe.”

The Professor's eyebrows knit together. “Really?”

The blond boy was getting angry. “I know you don't believe me! I know! I can see it on your face! And I really don't care if she doesn't love me back, I don't care if she hates me, actually! As long as she's safe, nothing else matters,” he whispered more to himself than her.

A rueful smile flitted across the Headmistress' wrinkly face. “Very well then, Mr. Malfoy. I don't entirely trust you, but I shall have to wait and see how things play out.”

He stood, and she waved him towards the door. Draco was almost out of her office when she called him again. “Mr. Malfoy.”

The blond boy raised his eyebrows. McGonagall pointed at his arm. “You may want to cover that up.”

He looked down at the Dark Mark on his forearm and grimaced, tugging down the sleeves of his shirt until they reached his wrists. “Goodbye, Professor.”

She nodded curtly at him and he stepped onto the moving staircase, eager to meet Blaise and explain.

Once the boy was out of her office, McGonagall sighed. Her dark eyes filled with tears that were threatening to spill down her wrinkly cheeks. The Headmistress of Hogwarts swiveled around in her chair to view the old portraits of the heads of school. The most recent one was snoozing in its picture.

“Oh, Albus,” she sighed, wiping a tear away furiously. “I miss you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny knew that it was stupid. She knew that it would never work in a million years, that everybody would hate her, that she would have less friends than she already did.

She also really didn't care.

About thirty seconds after Draco left the library, she leapt to her feet, suddenly wired. Ginny felt like she could do anything: leap buildings, climb about four mountains, impress Professor Snape. And still have energy to come back and snog Draco with.

First things first. She had to apologize to Hermione. She had been absolutely awful to her, and the fact that Mione had stolen her boyfriend was no excuse. Ginny bounded out of the library. She thought she caught a glimpse of Blaise and Draco rounding a corner, but quickly dismissed it to her overactive imagination.

She practically skipped up the stairs, eager to reach the common room and repent for her meanness. Ginny rounded the corner quickly and—

BANG!

A stack of books, papers, and quills flew into the air as she smacked right into the person she was looking for. “Ooh, I'm sorry,” Hermione said from the floor. “I'm a little distracted these days.” The older girl cringed, waiting for an Oh, really? or I just bet you are.

To her surprise, Ginny smiled. “Happens to me all the time.”

Together, the two girls cleaned up the mess until the corridor no longer looked like the site of a large explosion. Hermione flopped down on the floor, leaning against the wall. “Phew,” she sighed.

The brown-eyed girl glanced up at her companion, half-afraid that Ginny was going to deliver some snotty comment or admonishment. Instead, Hermione was astonished to see the Weasley girl beaming down at her. “Umm…”

Ginny joined her on the floor. “Cat got your tongue?”

“Uh…nooo…well, I was sort of wondering why you were talking to me?” Hermione said, phrasing it as a question.

Ginny smiled benignly. “What, can't two friends converse anymore?”

“You haven't really been talking to me since, well, since Harry and I got together.” It did not escape Ginny's notice that Hermione's eyes lit up when she said the Boy-Who-Lived's name.

Ginny waved a hand dismissively. “I've gotten over it.”

The older girl raised an eyebrow. “Somebody else?”

“No!” But her blush gave her away. Ginny sighed. “Okay, yes, there is someone else,” she admitted, staring at her hands.

“Ah, l'amour,” Hermione sighed melodramatically. They both giggled. Then the brunette's eyes lit up with curiosity. “Who's the lucky guy?”

Ginny groaned. “Oh, Jesus. Can we not get into this?”

Hermione shoved her playfully. “Come on, spill.”

“You're not going to like it,” Ginny warned her.

“I think I can handle it,” Hermione replied seriously. It was true. They had all been through at least one thing together: Dumbledore's death. Having a beloved father figure die gave you some measure of fortitude.

“Oh, crap. Well, let's put it this way,” Ginny started, running a hand through her hair. “What if I was in love with someone you really, really don't like?”

“Like Malfoy?” Ginny cringed and blushed, but Hermione misinterpreted the gestures. “Don't worry, just for an example.”

“Yeah…sure. What would you say about it?”

Hermione sighed, knocking her head back against the stone wall. The light from the torches on the walls made her brown, curly hair seem shiny and lustrous. Ginny felt ashamed that she had ever even thought Hermione ugly for a second. How could she?

“I guess…” Hermione said slowly, “I guess I would try to be happy for you, and get over it. But if I were you—” she was suddenly stern, “—I would definitely make sure that it's not some horrible joke or prank or something.”

They were subdued for a few minutes, watching the torches cast flickering lights on the walls. Then Ginny stood swiftly, fluidly. “I've got to go,” she said, saying the words almost before she said them. Then she took off in the direction of the dungeons.

Hermione shook her head once the younger girl was gone. “She needs to accept the fact that we don't care who she loves.”

Then she gathered her books and left and the corridor was empty.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny was panting when she found Blaise lounging in an empty classroom on the first floor. The dark-skinned boy stared at her, concerned, until she had found her breath again. “Are you okay?” he said when she stopped gasping.

“Just peachy,” she replied, still red-faced. “I have a question.”

“Shoot.” He flicked his wand at the blackboard, turning it blue. Ginny wondered what kind of person did stuff like that in their spare time.

“Does Draco really love me?”

The words had tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them. Blaise looked shocked for a minute, then his face relaxed.

“I assume he gave you the whole expectations spiel?” Ginny nodded, not sure what she felt when she found out that she wasn't the only one who had heard his speech.

“Didn't realize he had told her everything,” Blaise muttered under his breath. How could one person take it when Draco unloaded everything onto them?

“He told me enough,” Ginny said hotly. She bit her lip. “You still haven't answered the question.”

“Ginny, I'm a third-party observer. I watch, I make snide comments, I make sure nobody gets hurt. But something like that, you have to decide for yourself. I would like to say, however, that he does spend a fair amount of time thinking about you.” Blaise lay sprawled across three desks that were shoved together, staring at the ceiling. He looked over at her. “That has to mean something, right?”

“Right,” she said slowly.

“As an observer,” said the seventh-year, warming up to his subject, “I would like to put in a good word for my friend Draco. He's a bastard, he as good as killed the headmaster, but he's genuinely sorry. And that, my friend, is a rare trait.”

Ginny bit her lip, thinking. “Does it really have to be him or them?”

Blaise smirked, stealing Draco's favorite expression. “What do you think?”

“God, I don't know what to think!” Ginny moaned. “That's why I came to you! You're supposed to do the thinking for me!”

Suddenly Blaise was standing above her, eyes blazing, looking down with a disgusted expression. “You think this is any easier for me than it is for you? Do you think it's fun for me, watching her throw herself like an idiot at your moron brother who's too thick to realize what he's throwing away for that loony blond? Do you?” His voice rose in pitch. “I have to tell her how to get him, every day, and now I need to help you too. Shit. This is too much.”

He collapsed into a chair, holding his head in his hands. “Alice…” he moaned faintly. “You're such an idiot, but I love you.”

Ginny laid a hand on his arm; he looked up with hopeless eyes. “You help me, I help you. Fair?”

In an instant Blaise was up again, an expression rather like a begging dog on his long face. “You know her? You can help me?”

“Down, boy,” Ginny laughed. “Not well, but yeah, I know her.”

He smiled and shook her hand. “So, Draco. Do you love him?”

She thought, furrowing her brow. He had kissed her like he did. He acted like he did. But you could never tell…

She shook her head. “I don't know. But I can find out.”

And suddenly, for the first time since she could remember, Ginny knew exactly what to do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

People to thank, people to thank…

Nope. I got nothing. So thanks everybody who reads fanfiction!

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Looks like you're back for more *smirks.*

Wow, I must be channeling Draco today.

So, lovelies, enjoy chapter 7 of Sweet Revenge! *Blubbering and sobbing* it's the last chapter! But I also have a new fanfic, Erased, that should be up within the next couple of days. So yay.

Also, I changed my mind, we do find out what the prank was. It just never gets played : (

Disclaimer: Come on. You know that I don't own Harry Potter by now.

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Chapter 7: Time Stands Still For No Man

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Blaise muttered at Ginny. She nodded.

“Positive. Now shut up and move.” They were almost at the wall that concealed the Slytherin common room. The lights in the torches down here were a sickly green that flickered over the damp walls eerily. Ginny shuddered. She had never liked the dungeons.

They stopped suddenly and unexpectedly. Ginny ran into Blaise. He gritted his teeth to stop from laughing and said, “Mudblood.”

“That's not a very nice password,” Ginny commented quietly.

Blaise shrugged. “I don't make them up.”

They negotiated their way through the common room. Ginny held her breath, but Blaise's Disillusionment Charm seemed to do the trick. A couple times people actually banged into her, but it was so late at night that they just attributed their clumsiness to tiredness. Ginny had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

“Here's the dorm,” Blaise said in an undertone, gesturing at a door to their left. Ginny looked left and right, but nobody else was in the hallway. She entered.

Draco was sitting on the bottom bunk of one of the beds, moodily staring at the slats that kept the top bunk upright. He was still wearing his uniform. When she grew closer, she could tell that he was muttering something.

“—stupid bitch hates me because of Dumbledore, won't even let me tell her—” he mumbled angrily.

“Draco,” Ginny hissed.

He sat up, looking alarmed. “Who's there?”

“It's Ginny,” she replied, sliding onto the bed to sit next to him.

“Where the hell are you?”

“Right here—oh, crap, I forgot about the Disillusionment Charm! And I don't know how to take it off! Shit!” Ginny fumbled in her robes for her wand.

“Hold still.” Draco pointed his own wand at her and said the incantation. Immediately she knew he could see her, because his smile could have lit up an entire city.

“There you are,” he said, putting his arms around her. “I knew you would come back.”

She shrugged him off; his face fell. “Not so fast. We have to talk.”

“Talking is seriously overrated,” Draco muttered. “Besides, we did plenty of talking this afternoon. Enough for a lifetime, in fact.”

Ginny sighed. As badly as she wanted to just grab him and snog him senseless, she knew that she couldn't do that.

Because if he kissed her again, she knew she would be his forever. And she had to say something first, before she couldn't say it.

“You,” she said icily, poking a finger into his chest, “are a two-faced, conniving bastard who idolizes his equally idiotic father. Our families hate each other, my brothers hate you, and none of my friends can stand you. Why would I want to even be near someone like that?”

Draco was motionless, white as a sheet. A weird whistling noise filled his ears. This couldn't be happening. “But—but you came back,” he whispered in an unsteady voice.

She sighed again. This was the hardest part.

“As much as I loathe to admit it, you were right about one thing.”

“What's that?” He knew he was grasping at straws, but there was still some small hope that she could feel even a fraction of what he felt for her.

Ginny drew closer, her face inches away from his. She felt a weird power that she was putting Draco in the position that he had often put her in. “I really just can't stay away.”

There was a fraction of a second where she could see his broad grin, but then he covered her lips with his and she honestly couldn't remember a word of the previous conversation.

She pressed herself up against him, feeling the heat of his body where it touched hers. A pleasant buzzy feeling filled her up wherever he touched her. It was much better than that first, rushed kiss in the library. This kiss, the first of many, was a promise, one that said that they would stay by each other forever.

“Wow,” Draco marveled when they finally broke apart after many minutes. He was flushed, as she undoubtedly was. Ginny felt smug that she could affect him this way.

“I know,” Ginny replied.

Draco looked at his golden watch. It was just like the one her brother had, only nicer-looking. “Shit, it's about three in the morning.” He glanced around. “I know this sounds kind of explicit, but if you want to stay—”

Ginny yawned, suddenly realizing just how tired she was. “I don't think I could make it all the way up to Gryffindor tower without falling asleep,” she admitted.

“Well then, we should catch up on our rest. Don't want you falling down on the job. Thank God tomorrow is Saturday…”

“What if I don't want to sleep?” she whispered naughtily, taking his chin in her hand.

His eyes widened and then closed as she kissed him again. This kiss was more playful, less serious and important than the past few she had shared with him. Ginny ended it by nibbling on Draco's bottom lip.

“Ginny,” he groaned, “we really should sleep.”

But she didn't sleep, even long after his breathing had smoothed out into that of a sleeper's. She was too full of happiness, almost so much that she felt like she could pop like a balloon at any moment. Draco shifted in his sleep, putting his arms around her unconsciously.

She sighed.

Using his shoulder as a cushion, Ginny laid back on the bed, grinning beatifically at the underside of the bunk above them.

This, she thought, was her final, unintentional revenge on Harry and Hermione. Her happiness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You knew the whole time and you didn't care?” Ginny said, her jaw nearly on the ground.

Hermione smiled knowingly and looked at Draco. The three of them were sitting on a bench in Greenhouse 4 usually frequented by second-years. It wasn't quite warm enough out to sit outside. “With you two making eyes at each other with every possible opportunity, it wasn't exactly hard to figure out.”

“I was not making eyes at him,” Ginny said indignantly.

“Who says she was talking about you?” Draco murmured in her ear, giving her a squeeze around the waist. She started to bat his hands away, but then she remembered that they had already come clean to pretty much everybody about their relationship. Seamus and Neville had taken it remarkably well, but Ron still wasn't speaking to her. Luna was trying to get him to come around. Ginny knew he would eventually.

“Get a room,” Hermione said playfully, standing to leave. “Well, lovebirds, I've got to go.”

“Library?” Ginny said inquiringly.

Hermione rubbed her forehead. “Damn Horcruxes,” she muttered under her breath.

Draco looked concerned. “I've already told you what little I know, but if I can help somehow—”

She smiled tiredly at him. “No thanks Draco, you've already more than redeemed yourself in my and Harry's eyes.”

“Just got to convince you're brother that I'm not a traitor nutjob,” Draco whispered to Ginny.

Hermione shrugged. “If I know Ron, and I'm pretty sure that I do, he'll come around. Eventually,” she amended.

“And then he'll act like Draco's his best buddy and pretend he never hated him in the first place,” Ginny added. Hermione laughed.

“He would do that, wouldn't he?”

A pair of hands landed on the brunette's shoulders. She blushed when the Boy-Who-Lived joined them with an impish grin on his face. “If you're talking about me, I've already forgiven him,” Harry reminded them.

“We're talking about Ron,” Ginny told him.

“Luna'll convince him within the next few years.” Harry smiled warmly at his girlfriend. “Want to take a break this evening, 'Mione?”

Hermione bit her lip. “Harry, we're so close to a breakthrough on how to destroy them…” The black-haired boy rubbed her back; she closed her eyes, relaxing for the first time in a few days.

“The Horcruxes aren't going anywhere,” Harry reminded her. “Let's visit Hagrid. Or…we could stay in if you like?”

The couple stared in a lovey-dovey way at each other for a few moments.

Draco made a muted disgusted noise. “Is that what we look like most of the time?”

Ginny shook her head. “I refuse to believe that we are that bad.”

Harry and Hermione glared at her. “Mind your own business, Ginny,” Hermione snapped.

“My fault,” Draco admitted.

The older girl rolled her eyes. “It always is.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Draco looked offended.

“Nothing, nothing,” Hermione replied, giggling when Harry kissed her neck.

“Get a room,” Ginny mocked, and Hermione rolled her eyes.

“I think we'll do just that. Bye, Gin. Bye, Malfoy.” Harry nodded respectfully in Draco's direction.

The two Gryffindors walked off hand-in-hand, disappearing into the misty depths of the greenhouse. Draco looked at Ginny, eyebrows quirked in the gesture she loved.

“I think we could find something more interesting to visit than Hagrid. Tea. Ha.” Draco grabbed her hand as they negotiated the semi-frozen ground. She colored at his touch.

“That's their little code word that they use around fellow Gryffindors when they don't want anyone to walk in on them while they're using the dorms,” Ginny explained, watching the way the tassels on his blue knit hat bounced when he walked.

Draco stopped in his tracks. His mouth fell open in horror. “Potter—Granger—alone in dorm room…oh, that is just wrong. Sick and wrong.”

Ginny shoved him playfully. “It's not that bad, you perverted idiot. I don't think they've gotten past second, anyway.”

In an answer to Draco's questioning (and slightly scared) look, she said, “Don't ask how I know. I can just tell.”

He shook his head. “Girls.”

“What's wrong with girls?” Ginny said, a smirk curling her lips.

His heart beat faster as he looked down at her. “Um…well…”

“Come on, you can say anything to me,” she cajoled, stepping a little closer. Her smirk grew bigger when she saw her swallow hard.

“They're just so…”

“So what?” she repeated, slinging her arms around his neck. Draco swallowed again when she started playing with the hair on his neck.

“Oh…Shit, I don't know.”

Then he kissed her, and their foggy breath spiraled upwards in white swirls in the damp March air. When they finally pulled apart, Ginny rested her head on his chest. He started stroking her hair; she closed her eyes in pleasure.

“I love you,” she murmured into the fabric of his shirt. She looked up, and his face was alight. It was the first time she had said it out loud.

“Me too,” he whispered, smoothing her hair back as he leaned in for a kiss…

“Hello, Mr. Big-Shot Death Eater! Oh, sorry, are we interrupting something?” came a familiar voice from not too far away.

Ginny and Draco groaned in unison as they turned to face Blaise, who was walking hand-in-hand with Alice. “As a matter of fact, you were, Blaisey-Waisey,” Draco said smoothly, smirking a little.

The dark-skinned boy blushed. “Where did you hear that from?”

The couple just smirked like two cats who had swallowed the canary. “No need for you to know, Blaisey,” said Draco, slinging an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders.

“So what's up, Alice?” Ginny said far too loudly as she turned a vaguely pink color.

“Not much, Blaise was just going to help me with my…er…Herbology! Yes, that's it! Herbology!” Alice was also talking much too loud.

Draco sniggered. “I'm sure that's all he's helping you with.”

Both Alice and Blaise glared at him. Ginny shrugged. “He's impossible, but what am I going to do? Off him?”

The tension disappeared when Blaise laughed. “I'll help you with that,” he promised, squeezing Alice's hand. He shot a look at Ginny that plainly said, Thanks for the help.

She gave him an understanding smile and nodded.

Ginny turned her eyes back to her boyfriend staring at her oddly. Blaise noticed the look. “Um…well, we had better get going! Time stands still for no man and all that!”

Once the other couple was gone, Draco chuckled, fiddling with Ginny's hair again. She closed her eyes. She loved it when he did that. “Well, that couldn't have been more awkward.”

“You're telling me.” Ginny exhaled a cloudy breath, staring at the opaque sky.

“What are you thinking about?” Draco asked her curiously as they began walking back towards the school.

She smiled at him; every time she did that, he was dazzled. He still couldn't get used to the fact that she liked him—no, loved him—back.

“The greatest prank that never got played,” Ginny admitted as they entered the gargantuan front doors. A half-smile quirked his lips.

“We still have the plans. And the Polyjuice,” he reminded her. She smirked.

“But there's no arsehole to play it on,” she complained as Pansy walked up to them.

“There's always Slughorn,” Draco suggested.

“He's pretty nice,” Ginny argued.

“But he's awfully good for a laugh.”

“I don't think he has a girlfriend OR a wife, so it would be impossible to go snog him and then change back and watch him scream.” Ginny shuddered. “I cannot believe that I just talked about snogging Slughorn.”

The other girl gave both of them a curious stare in turn. “What the hell are you two talking about?”

“The prank,” they said in unison. Pansy smiled evilly.

“We never got around to that. Pity,” she commented.

“How go things with Theo?” Ginny asked her. The Gryffindor girl was sad that she couldn't see her friend more often.

Pansy's grin broadened. “Unbelievably well.”

Draco laughed. “I can't believe you can stand his afro!”

Ginny was shocked. “Theodore Nott has an afro? When did this happen? God, this I have GOT to see.” She craned her neck to look for the tall Slytherin in the foyer, but no luck.

Pansy was glaring at Draco. “I can't believe she goes out with you. You part your freaking hair!”

“Ladies, ladies,” intoned a familiar voice.

Ginny turned around, beaming. “Nev!”

Neville was standing above them. “Where's your boyfriend?” Pansy asked interestedly. Neville and Seamus were still the only out-of-the-closet gays in the whole school, which was impressive considering the amount of students at Hogwarts.

“Studying,” Neville said with a shrug.

“So's Theo,” Pansy said, smiling up at him. Pansy and Neville had really taken a shine to each other in the past few months. They had discovered a common obsession with their boyfriends and Herbology.

Draco rolled his eyes. “Great, they're never going to stop obsessing now. Come on, Gin.”

They both waved goodbye to their friends, but neither one noticed. They were too busy discussing their boyfriends' personal habits, a conversation neither Ginny nor Draco wanted to be part of.

“I mean, honestly, that's so disgusting, how they talk about how Theo picks his nose or whatever,” Draco said as they mounted the marble staircase. “I can't believe anyone would actually spend time talking about things like that.”

“Draco,” she said softly. He turned around, the remnants of a smile crossing his face. Ginny looked serious, and small, and very afraid.

“What's wrong, Gin?” he said, concerned, as they reached the top of the stairs. She stopped walking, leaning against the wall.

“What are you going to do about—about You-Know-Who, after school? McGonagall can't keep protecting you forever. It just makes me worried, that's all.” She bit her lip, and Draco wanted to find some way to reach out to her, to comfort her, but he didn't know how. “I don't want you hurt.”

“Aw, Ginny,” he said, wrapping her in his arms. She began sobbing into his shirt, and he didn't even complain that she was getting his uniform all wet. “Obviously I can't go home, because my parents aren't too thrilled with me right now, and I can't go with you because Ron wouldn't exactly head up the Welcome Wagon committee. I might stay at the Order Headquarters or something.” Harry had given him the Secret, in case he needed a place to hide from Voldemort.

Ginny wasn't sobbing quite so hard now, but tears were still leaking out onto Draco's shirt. She looked up into his face, and he caught his breath. Even while her face was puffy and red from crying, and there was a smear of blood on her lip from when she had bitten it too hard, Ginny was still beautiful to him.

“I'm sorry,” she said, and there was no trace of a tear in her voice. “I know I'm a bloody idiot.”

“Never say that,” he murmured, taking her chin in his hand. “I wouldn't love an idiot.”
She smiled hopefully, and as he kissed her, she knew everything would turn out all right. Ginny had a sudden flashback to the vision she had had months before, of them in Malfoy Manor. That would happen, someday, somehow. Everything was fine.

She didn't know how she knew.

She just knew.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many tanks to all those who read and reviewed this story!

(And yes, Ella, the afro was for you.)

Hopefully, I'll start working on the sequel to HLM/HLMN pretty soon…so you might as well go read that in your spare time!

Thanks for reading, I love you all! Really!

Kisses,

Your Lovee

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