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*******
Draco was bored. Whilst he knew his grades would show the difference after all of the work he had put in, and whilst much of the studies did thoroughly engage him; he really felt like he could do with a break from the library.
At least he could switch sections now, he thought wryly as Ginny entered, and he slipped round the edge of the bookshelf. She had hesitated by the end of it, and he noticed a slightly apprehensive look on her face. Raising his eyebrows minutely he looked away again and as they passed Madam Pince and she waved them on with a "carry on as yesterday" he severely hoped the girl would help him today. He wouldn't admit it, but it would be less boring than continuing alone.
Ginny for her part had felt nervous at approaching Malfoy. She had swept past him the day before without a second glance but after his acceptance of her foul mood yesterday and the joke they had shared at the end of the evening she felt much more kindly disposed to him.
So she hovered awkwardly waiting for him, and smiled a little nervously in greeting before they made their way to the back section of the library.
They took their places opposite each other in silence, and Ginny opened the journal in front of her to the right section.
"Do I take that to mean I get the pleasure of your helping hand today?"
Ginny's eyes shot up to glare at Malfoy, thinking he had finally returned to the slyly bullying git she was used to at last with that sarcastic comment. However, seeing the slightly awkward (and she also noticed, hopeful) expression on his face, she realised he was being sincere in asking her. She lowered her eyes quickly, hoping he hadn't caught the accusation in her glare.
"Yes." She said simply, then realising it was a little blunt she added: "I'm sorry about yesterday. Thanks again for covering for me."
She saw him shrug awkwardly and he seemed to grab for a quill to change the conversation to safer ground.
*******
One hour and several fixed quills later Ginny was furiously punching her stomach under the table, trying to quieten the rumbling of her stomach.
"Can you cover for me for a minute?" Draco suddenly asked.
"Sure!" Ginny replied in a slightly relieved tone, glad of the chance to try and get her stomach under control before he noticed and started teasing her.
As he stood and left quickly, she berated herself for having agreed to give the stupid fad diet a go which was currently popular. She had no interest in such things but when all of the girls around her had tutted and looked scornfully at the roast potatoes she was piling onto her plate earlier she had had a moment of weakness and let their silly jibes get to her. She had reluctantly swapped the potatoes for asparagus, which whilst very tasty, definitely didn't do the same job.
Sighing, she decided to attempt a quill on her own whilst waiting for Malfoy. She was surprised when the quill she grasped quickly wriggled out of her hold and shot away. Her seeker instincts kicked in and she managed to grab the quill again, only for it to shoot out once more. It was like trying to hold onto a wet bar of soap in the bath: it kept flying away from her. Soon she was on her feet trying to snatch it from the air, and then on her chair. As it propelled itself higher, she placed her left foot on the top of the back of her chair, and leaned forward to stretch towards the rogue writing instrument. It was just centimetres from her reach and as she leaned further, she suddenly felt the chair begin to tip forwards under her, before giving a sudden lurch. Her eyes went wide with slight fear as gravity shifted beneath her, but before she could brace herself for the pain that was sure to follow her landing; strong hands gripped her hips and lifted her slightly as the chair clattered to the floor. She was lowered carefully to the floor and whipped round only to be met with the sight of Draco. She flushed bright red, completely embarrassed and yet again awaiting his sniping comments.
Once again, however, he didn't deliver.
"Are you ok?" He asked earnestly, and she saw his hands go out as if reaching towards her before he snatched them back, and stepped back from her slightly.
"Yes," she answered in a quiet voice, and quickly cleared her throat. "Yes. Thank you so much!" she finally gushed, a grin spreading across her face. "You saved me from certain pain and humiliation. Well, I'm not sure I've escaped the humiliation part, but still…" She realised she was gabbling. "You must be pretty strong, lifting me like that, I know I'm not exactly light…" Now she wasn't sure if she sounding like she was flirting and grimaced slightly.
"As if," he snorted. "I think that no eating policy must be working for you. Not sure I'd recommend the ridiculous stomach rumbling though, so I figured I'd try and shut the noise up." He gestured vaguely to the table and she noticed a pile of chocolate brownies spilling out from the few napkins they were wrapped in.
"You - you heard that?"
"It was pretty hard to not hear it to be honest."
"You bought chocolate brownies."
"Yeah…"
"They're my favourite."
"That was kind of the point." He held her gaze for a second as she admired their colour, suddenly coming back to reality when he swiftly turned away and walked back to the table.
Ginny tried to compose herself. Her hair was in disarray, and her skirt and jumper were a bit rumpled from where he had held her. The chair lay abandoned at her feet and her face was flushed from all of the combined excitement and embarrassment. Picking it up slowly she straightened out her uniform, then suddenly realised she still hadn't got the quill which had caused all of the trouble. She turned back away from the table again and started peering around the closest bookshelf, trying to locate the writing implement.
"What are you doing?" Malfoy's confused question reached her, and she turned back to face him.
"I was trying to reach a quill." At his blank look Ginny continued, "When you caught me? The reason I was stood on my chair? One of the quills has some sort of enchantment to slip out of your hand. Anyway, I didn't catch it."
Draco was relieved when Ginny turned back away from him to continue her search, as it gave him chance to school his features. He hadn't even considered why she was stood on her chair, and he hadn't wanted her to question his lack of interest. The truth was he had returned from fetching the brownies only to round the corner and be confronted with the sight of Weasley's pert behind, her skirt riding up and open as one leg was bent up on the back of the chair. He had been taken aback by the pang of desire which shot through him, and when she began to wobble he hastily dispensed of the brownies and put his hands at her hips to guide her safely down. She'd been a comfortable weight in his arms and when she'd whipped round to stand almost nose to nose with him he nearly reached out to touch her again. He'd had to force himself to take a step back, to try and clear himself of the thoughts which ran through his mind when he was in close proximity to her.
When his hands had grasped her hips, he'd had a split second urge to pull her into him, press himself up against her… he closed his eyes, trying to focus on something other than the distracting images.
"Malfoy?"
"What?" He snapped a little harshly, eyes flashing open and looking up at Ginny. Her face coloured a little and her eyes hardened, but she continued:
"I can see the quill but can't reach it. You're taller. You try." She didn't wait for an answer but walked towards him and firmly sat down in the chair opposite him. Angered at having annoyed her, he swept up and moved towards the bookshelf she had been lingering at. Peering amongst the books he saw the quill lurking. As he reached up and gripped it, he was unsurprised to find it slip from his grasp, though he was pleased that it shot itself downwards, and landed softly on the middle of the desk.
Ginny reached towards it and Malfoy quickly grasped her hand, "Don't!" he said quickly, pulling her hand away from it. "Just leave it there and do the counter curse, OK?" Not getting a reply, he followed the girl's line of sight to see she was staring at the hand he still held. He swiftly let go, causing her hand to fall back down to the desk, and stalked around the desk to place himself opposite her again.
He was so frustrated that whilst he was considering the feel of her body, she was stunned into silence at the smallest touch of his hand on hers. It was typical. Her babbling after he caught her before must have been down to nerves, and Draco found himself angered by the way she couldn't just react to him as a normal person. He'd thought she was getting over her natural aversion to him: sharing food, sharing a joke… who was he kidding? She must be repulsed by him.
Unwilling to force his conversation on her he began to swiftly work his way through the quills beside him. Rather than explaining their fault to her and them puzzling it out together as they had previously done, instead Draco wrote a note explaining the issue and place it in the middle of the desk between them, on top of the offending quill. When Ginny had finished with the slippery quill she had looked up as if to ask him for the next one before noticing the one in front of her and its note. Draco tried not to watch, but he saw her eyebrows draw in a little in the middle as she read it. She looked for a moment like she might open her mouth to speak, so Draco ducked his head lower over his test sheet, pretending to be absorbed by the simple colour change quill in front of him.
*******
Ginny was thoroughly confused. She'd found herself flushed after being caught by Draco, the feel of his strong arms on her body. When he'd then reached out and caught her hand it had set her heart beat racing once more. She'd barely even registered what he'd been saying, and suddenly he was gone, opposite her once more. She'd taken the time fixing the rogue quill to try and calm herself down, only to raise her head to talk to him to then find he had started a new "system". One which apparently didn't involve having to speak to her. And this, for some reason, made her heart sink a little. So overall, Ginny was thoroughly confused, causing the pile of quills with their explanatory notes to build up in front of her. So when the note of dismissal came from Madam Pince, and Malfoy left as though the hounds from hell were on his heels, Ginny simply sighed and resigned herself to finishing off the backlog alone.
It was an hour later when she finally packed up, and only then did she notice the untouched brownies still resting on the edge of the table. In all of the confusion they'd completely escaped Ginny's mind, and she groaned slightly as they would have made the time much more bearable. Deciding to indulge herself now, she reached over towards the brownies, and that was when she noticed another note, in the same cursive script that had been succinctly explaining quill problems to her all evening.
They aren't poisoned. It read, and Ginny suddenly realised how much her opinion of Malfoy had changed, as she hadn't ever considered that they would be.