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*******
An absent smile spread across Ginny's face at breakfast the next morning as she played with her porridge.
"Gin? Ginny?" Harry's voice caught her attention. She looked up at him quickly, apologising for not paying attention.
"Sorry, Harry. What's up?"
"Nothing… you were just sat there smiling to yourself… What were you thinking about?" he questioned her curiously.
Ginny blushed. She'd been smiling to herself? She nearly grimaced as she realised. She had been thinking about Dra-Malfoy last night, and the joke about her making the gnomes ferocious… she brought her attention back to Harry, feeling the heat in her cheeks.
"Oh… nothing. Um, just a stupid dream I had!" she smiled brightly, trying to deflect his attention. It seemed to work, as he returned her smile with one of his own, and turned back to talk to Hermione and Ron.
Merlin knows what his reaction would have been to the truth. Oh I was just thinking about this joke me and Malfoy shared last night, in one of the sessions we spend together in a confined corner of the library, alone. Ginny blushed again at the thought, and her eyes were inadvertently drawn to the Slytherin in question. She was pretty sure that it wasn't right that when she caught sight of him, sat at the Slytherin table hunched over a book, her stomach did a little flip. She abruptly left the table, suddenly dreading seeing the blond boy again that night.
*******
Draco's attention was pulled from his morning read at breakfast by catching a flash of red out of the corner of his eye. He glanced up to watch Ginny stalk out of the hall, and frowned as he wondered why she looked like she was running from something. Maybe he could ask her tonight… Yeah right, Draco, like she'd talk to you about it, he admonished himself. He was just a Slytherin, and a Malfoy, even if she had said goodbye to him last night. She could talk to Potter about her problems. His gaze slipped to the raven haired boy. The Griffindor had no idea how lucky he was.
*******
Draco was getting anxious. She was cutting it a bit fine wasn't she? She was going to come wasn't she? He frowned at his thoughts, and tried to block out the part of him that was insisting he cared whether she was there or not. Just because she had acted like she might accept he was a human being there was no need to think she enjoyed spending this time with him.
Just then the door opened, and he was relieved to see her slip in. He almost smiled at her, as she hesitated, looking at him. He quickly took a step toward her, before leading the way to the desk.
Madam Pince hailed them over as she saw them approaching. "I'm afraid there is a different task for today," she began. "In an effort to decrease the number of quills which are constantly being ordered for the school, I have proposed to the Headmaster that all of the school quills be gathered up and tested and then made available for re-use. Professor Dumbledore has seen the wisdom in this plan and all of the teachers have been instructed to search or summon all of the quills in their classroom. This evening you will need to visit each of the classrooms to collect them, in preparation for your work testing them next week." Draco could only imagine how fun that would be, and he sensed Ginny's deflation next to him too. At least they didn't have to start that until Monday though. "You can deposit them in the area beyond the rope behind where you have been working; you will see there is a clear space there for them. I suggest you work out a system to save time, but ultimately it is up to you. As many as possible need to be gathered this evening, although I don't expect you to reach all of the rooms. I caution you to NOT summon or banish them - injuries have been caused in the past by a cloud of flying quills, as I'm sure you can imagine." With that wince-worthy image and a stern look the librarian left them.
Draco turned to Ginny, seeing him looking at her, as he offered: "Do you want to start at the top and work your way down?"
"What?" she asked, startled, and Draco looked at her oddly before clarifying.
"I mean, I could start at the bottom and work my way up. And you could work your way down." Seeing her befuddled expression he slowly continued: "The top classrooms? And I'll start in the dungeons?"
"Oh," comprehension flooded her face, "oh right. Yes. Yes. Fine. I'll start from the top then. And work my way… down." She said, blushing for some reason the Slytherin couldn't fathom.
"Right then…" he gave her one last confused look before heading off to start in the dungeons.
*******
What the hell is wrong with you?! Ginny thought to herself furiously as she headed up to the top levels of the castle. She'd been in a world of her own and those words… she came to a sudden halt in the corridor and then ducked behind a tapestry into a hidden alcove she knew was there from her "lessons" with Fred and George from previous years. She rested her forehead against the cool stone and willed herself to cool down. She could barely admit it to herself, but she'd been looking at Draco, at his lips… thinking about his voice telling her stories, his smile as he joked with her… his words "do you want to start at the top and work your way down…" had brought images flashing into her mind of her working her way down his body…
"Get a grip, Weasley." She told herself furiously, and ducked out of the alcove to gather quills.
Reaching the highest classrooms (that she knew of at least - she was certain there were more but Madam Pince had said she didn't expect them to get to them all after all) she opened the first door she came to and saw that there was indeed a small pile of rather battered looking quills lying on the desk. Casting a levitating charm on them, Ginny manipulated them to all point downwards - heedful of the librarians warning - and controlled them to travel slowly out of the door next to her, and on to the next classroom, where she magicked the next set of quills to join them.
*******
Meanwhile Draco was in the dungeons, collecting quills from the Potions classroom. As he levitated them, he added a complex spell to keep the quills floating in an invisible force field, wary of not wanting to be stabbed in the back. At least this meant he couldn't act on his impulse to question Ginny about her abrupt departure from the Great Hall this morning. It meant he wouldn't be trying to think of ways to accidentally brush against her, to see if her reaction would be different from how it had been earlier in the week. He suspected it would be, considering the casual way she had touched him, albeit briefly, in their session the previous night. He wondered if she had thought about it, or just reached out to touch him instinctively… he thought back to her confused look earlier, he could have sworn he'd caught her looking at his lips…
He slammed into the next room angrily trying to dismiss his thoughts. And so what if she had been? What was he trying to read into that, exactly? That she wanted to kiss him? He huffed in wry amusement at the thought as he levitated the next set of quills and enchanted them to join his growing collection. As if she'd let him.
Wait - what? Draco stopped his steps as he headed towards the classroom door. Did he… Fuck. He did. He wanted to kiss her.
*******
It was quite some time later that the two assistants found themselves walking towards each other - to meet outside the library.
"Nice magic," Draco commented with a smirk as he saw Ginny's floating quills all neatly pointing to the floor.
She smiled a little, "you too." She replied, watching the quills float around, gently bouncing off an invisible edge to his magic. She opened the door to the library and led the way through the labyrinth of shelves to their area, and stepped into it to weave around the bookshelves, and walk further into the space than she had before, past their desk. True to her word, the librarian had cleared a wide area between some shelves, and another desk sat at one end of it, separate from the shelves. Ginny deposited her quills neatly on the ground, as Draco did the same with his. She smirked at the way hers lay in neat rows, as his fell from their floating in a disruptive heap. He obviously heard her smirk, and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Seeing her satisfaction, he quickly flicked his wand, causing his collection to suddenly arrange themselves in neat rows, all stood balancing on the point of their nib. Ginny smiled and huffed good naturedly, causing the Slytherin to smile, and with another flick, her quills jumped to attention too. She smiled coyly at the magic, looking up at Draco. His own smile remained on his face as he looked at her smugly.
Ginny's eyes fell onto the smile that adorned his lips, and her own smile gradually fell as she found herself licking her lips and delicately dragging her teeth over her bottom lip. She looked away suddenly and cleared her throat before looking back at Draco. His eyes betrayed him - she knew he had noticed her behaviour. She quickly looked away from the fire in his eyes and tried to catch her breath as she swept quickly past him, and out of the library.