Disclaimer: JK owns them all!
Right I've been trying to upload this chapter for about 2 weeks and Portkey is not cooperating. Basically when I upload it says Uploading to a temporary location... SUCCESSFUL Tidying text... SUCCESSFUL but then no text actually appears so I haven't wanted to confirm the upload in case that just uploads an empty chapter…. But I don't know what else to do so have chopped the chapter in half and am going to see if it can cope with this amount :-S sorry guys! … Upon further testing it still comes up blank so I'm just going to confirm it and see what happens…
My original A/N from ages ago was going to say….: I just wanted to say a special thank you to those reviewers who have stuck with this story the whole way through always letting me know what they think and encouraging me to continue. It's great to hear from anyone who reviews and I value it a lot so thank you all, but those people who have reviewed from the very beginning get an extra special thank you for consistently giving me feedback.
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He had walked her back to the castle in a silence which had seemed at turns both comfortable and awkward. She was glad that he was with her, so glad that he was by her side and that she wasn't alone. When they'd entered the castle they stood awkwardly for a moment, blinking in the bright light, so different from the darkening dusk they had walked back to the castle in.
"Well," she'd said eventually, causing him to finally look up at her. The planes of his face were impassive again, showing no hint of the disturbing story he had told not so long ago. "It seems I have to thank you again."
He didn't smile, but just looked at her seriously for a moment. "What do you say then?" he asked quietly.
"Um… thanks?" Ginny said questioningly, unsure what his prodding was for - she kind of thought she had said thank you, if indirectly. But if Malfoy were trying to drag this out, relish having her thank him and the vulnerable position he had found her in… she felt a spark of indignation rise in her at this thought and as he frowned at her.
"What? No, no." he said shaking his head suddenly seeming to realise her confusion. "You're welcome for that." He said gesturing vaguely outside. "I meant what do you say to talking about it? As an insurance policy for myself of course." He added quickly when he saw her start to close in on herself when he mentioned talking about the cause of her upset.
Really Ginny was squirming out of shame at having thought he was forcing her to thank him again, to grovel somehow, when in reality he didn't even feel he had done anything of note for her, and was only trying to help her further by letting her talk to him. She felt herself blush slightly as she once again realised how wrong her expectations of the boy in front of her were; she kept assuming the worst from him even after everything he had done for her tonight.
"You don't have to. If it makes you uncomfortable. I just thought…" he said, and she realised he had taken her silence to mean something else.
"No!" she nearly shouted, looking at him finally and causing her blush to deepen at her outburst. "I - I mean… it does make me uncomfortable, yes… but… but maybe I… maybe I could. Talk to you." She grimaced slightly at how badly she was doing this, but the truth was Draco had shown her such kindness. He had shared a part of himself, a part of his nightmare with her in order to relieve the pain of her own, to make her feel she wasn't alone, and that it wasn't worth punishing herself for. She wanted to thank him and maybe opening up to him in return was the way to do that. To show him that he wasn't alone either, and that she knew horror and had lived with it too.
"OK." Draco said, face impassive again, so that she couldn't tell if he was pleased by her agreement or not.
"OK." Ginny stated back. There was a pause which seemed to be full of a suffocating silence as neither of them moved or spoke, not quite knowing what to do or say.
"Tomorrow?" they eventually both said at once and then catching eyes they grinned at each other, both amused by their own nervous reaction to the situation.
"Tomorrow." Ginny confirmed. "It's a Hogsmeade weekend…"
"Let's stay here then." Draco said firmly, causing Ginny to raise her eyebrow.
"It'll be quieter," he explained at her look. "Plus hardly anyone has explored the grounds here properly and I bet you'd be astounded."
"Really?" Ginny questioned, her other eyebrow joining the first as she raised them in surprise. The Slytherin merely shrugged, and Ginny sighed knowing she would get nothing further from him. "OK, fine. I'll meet you-"
"By the greenhouses."
"At-"
"1."
There was another beat of silence as Ginny eyed him up again, but he returned nothing in his cool gaze. "Fine." She agreed, breaking eye contact with him as if admitting defeat to a stare off that he had barely seemed to notice he was even participating in. She turned to walk away and heard him do the same, and she took a few steps before turning back to him. "Oh and Draco?" she called, causing him to turn back. "Thank you." She said simply, with a small smile. He nodded, and walked away.
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"Where were you last night, Gin? I was looking out for you but didn't see you come up?"
"Hmm? Oh I was just… caught up. Talking. With a… friend." Ginny answered, rather unconvincingly. Harry didn't seem to mind, or indeed notice, though.
"Oh. Well I was going to ask, um, I wondered if you would come to Hogsmeade with me today?" he asked, not quite rushing all of the words into one and managing to keep his eyes on hers but tingeing a slight shade of pink all the same. Ginny eyed him up wondering what was wrong with him.
"Well I came with you last weekend Harry." She said slightly suspiciously, wondering if her brother had put him up to this.
"Well yeah, but that was with Ron and Hermione." He explained. She frowned, further confused.
"I thought they were going to Hogsmeade today too?"
"They are."
"So what do you mean, Harry?" she asked slightly impatient with him now and trying to figure out what he was on about. She had her mind on other things, other people truth be told, and she wanted Harry to buzz off and leave her alone to get ready in peace.
"I mean, I was hoping you would go to Hogsmeade with me. Alone. Not as a group, or with other people but just the two of us. As a… a kind of-"
"Oh I can't I'm sorry Harry," Ginny said quickly, trying to stop him from saying the word she was rather concerned he was in fact about to use. "I'm staying at the castle you see, meeting a friend, I think we're doing some extra studying you see, you know what sixth year's like! Crazy already and I don't want to get behind, you know what my mum's like - she'd be worrying she had another drop out if I didn't get a decent mark! Thanks for asking though, I'm sure you'll have a great time; I've got to go, need to dig out that homework! Bye!!" and with that garbled speech Ginny sped off back up to her dorm, trying not to notice Harry's slightly deflated look.
Seriously, talk about timing Ginny thought to herself as she practically ran into the girl's bathroom and turned on the shower, stepping in quickly knowing that the magically heated water would already be up to the perfect temperature. Harry decides that today of all days is the day to ask me on a date. The day that I am, in fact spending with Draco, his arch nemesis. Ginny sighed under the stream of the shower, trying to let the warm water soothe her jangled nerves and calm her down. She'd been sad last night as she crawled into her bid bed and curled up, still plagued with unhappy thoughts of her first year now mingled with unhappy thoughts of Draco's home life. She couldn't imagine what it had been like for him being tortured by his own father, and she had a sad, hollow feeling that told her it hadn't been the only time. Sighing again trying to shake the melancholy thoughts Ginny began to soap herself in the shower, but it wasn't long before her thoughts of last night were replaced with thoughts of the afternoon to come. An afternoon alone with Draco… it seemed silly, being nervous when really they spent several hours together every day. But this was different, Ginny told herself. For once, they wouldn't be surrounded by books, a purpose - an excuse to be together. Today they had chosen to come together, to "explore the grounds" as he had said, enjoying the privacy awarded by most of the students flooding to Hogsmeade. They could do whatever they wanted… Ginny's wand suddenly emitted a loud shriek just as Ginny was losing herself in her less than innocent daydreams, causing her to break off suddenly and blush unnecessarily. It was just her alarm to tell her she had an hour before needing to leave to meet Draco. Finishing washing herself quickly in the shower she tried to ignore the desire that was still stoked up inside her, and how sensitive her body suddenly felt as the towel brushed across her most intimate places.
She dressed in simple skinny jeans and pumps with a scoop neck t-shirt and cardigan on top, covering her cleavage but exposing the skin above. Drying her hair with her wand she debated whether to put any make up on or not but decided against it, firmly telling herself this was not a date it was just a… meeting.
Surveying herself once more in the mirror, Ginny's wand gave another squawk, indicating it was 12.45pm, and time to leave. Taking a deep breath, she began to slowly make her way down through the castle to the greenhouses outside, in turns fighting the urge to run towards and away from her destination.
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A/N OK well hopefully this will have worked :-S if it has please review!