As the red head looked up from her book to glance at her watch she heaved a great sigh. Ugh, time for detention, again! She slammed her book shut and heaved her bag to her shoulder, standing, and exiting the library. As she headed toward the professor's class room she contemplated what hellish punishment was in store.
"Ah, Miss Weasley, glad to see you are on time for once," said professor MacGonagal barely looking up from the book in front of her, "maybe if you were so more often, you would not be frequenting my room for detention. You will be cleaning out Filch's store room on the 4th floor. There is already another student there; I will be along shortly to check your progress."
As Ginny went up to the 4th floor, she wondered who else had detention and hoped they would be bearable. She opened the door to the storeroom and let out an exasperated sigh as she saw a head of white blonde hair atop a tall, thin frame.
Hearing the door open behind him, Draco Malfoy turned around to see who he had to spend the next four hours sorting through contraband items with. Seeing that it was the youngest Weasley, he simply sighed and turned back to the items in front of him.
"No biting remark or degrading comment Malfoy? I'm surprised." Ginny asked the boy who was, basically, her nemesis. Shockingly, she still got no reply. Hmm, that's odd, there must be something wrong with him. She shrugged and walked toward him, shutting the door as she went. "Alright, so what do we do?"
"We're meant to sort through all this stuff, group it by level of danger or whatever, but since it seems that this is the first time since Filch has started banning things that anyone has even tried to organize it, it will probably take all night."
Ginny looked around at the room taking in its size. "Great," she said as she began.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
After thirty minutes of silence, Ginny was about to burst and decided to ask the question that had been plaguing her mind all evening. "Um, Malfoy? Are you alright? I mean, you haven't said one mean thing so far, actually you haven't said anything at all. That's very unlike you."
He didn't reply just continued his work and after a minute or two of looking at him curiously, Ginny returned to hers as well.
Five minutes later, Ginny once again broke the silence. "So what did you do to get in here?"
Finally, she got a reply from the stoic Slytherin. "Slept in, was late for class. Really late."
"Hah, same here. Bloody MacGonnagal jumped down my throat. But I mean, once you actually get to sleep you sleep as much as you can."
"You don't sleep much?"
Ginny felt the color rush to her cheeks as she looked down. "Uh, yeah, I don't sleep to well…" She trailed off.
As their work continued, so did their conversation. Quidditch, NEWTs and OWLs, the things they discovered. If it weren't for their opposite appearances, you would never know they were the youngest members of two feuding families. The conversed like old friends. To both of theirs surprise, they were soon interrupted by the sound of the clock striking ten.
"Wow, that went by fast, but we aren't even close to being done," Malfoy observed sounding somewhat surprised.
"Yeah, it did."
"Okay, well, I'll see you around then Weasley."
"Right, see ya, Malfoy."
And with that the blonde boy walked away from a very puzzled redhead.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I'm telling you Luna! It was the weirdest thing! Not only did he not insult me or my family, but we actually had a conversation!" Ginny was sitting in her friends room relaying to the details of last night's crazy encounter with the Slytherin Prince.
"Well, maybe he's not the person you thought he was or you who the trio's stories has made him out to be." The girl said, while putting in her trademark radish earrings. Despite her quirks, Ginny loved Luna like the sister she never had growing up in a house full of boys. She was one of the few people who knew about her experience first year, yet she never shunned her or treated her differently. In her words, everyone had baggage; it makes them who they are. To most people Luna was crazy, loony, but to Ginny, she was the most unique, trusting and understanding person she knew. She actually had saved Ginny from herself after the Tom Riddle ordeal. Ginny owed her everything.
Throughout the next few weeks, it was as if the Slytherin Prince was haunting her. She saw him everywhere she went, not only at meals and between classes, but also in her dreams. Or nightmares, as most people would consider them. Not as the main character, but he was always there in the background, watching her. She couldn't figure why.
She knew they had been civil and become more than enemies during their detention, but she didn't think he would want that relationship be noticed by anyone else. She spent much of her time wondering over how the boy she spent four hours with could be the same boy who had teased and tormented her brother and his friends for their entire adolescent life. It didn't seem plausible. He had been so nice, and many times they had found themselves laughing together!
Ginny noticed that, whenever their eyes happened to meet throughout the day there was nothing but a blank stare, not a cold death glare, just, blank. But at the same time he was obviously very guarded. He was hiding something. She was very curious to just what exactly he was hiding.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Three weeks after the detention, Ginny was wandering the grounds enjoying her Saturday. She eventually came to rest under a tree by the lake where she pulled out her potions book to finish an essay due the following Monday. She had just finished the essay and had laid back to enjoy the sunlight with a smile on her face when a shadow fell across her blocking out the warm rays. The voice connected to the shadow was one she recognized and had been thinking about for almost a month.
"I see you like my spot, aye?"
Ginny opened her eyes and looked into the eyes of a very amused Draco Malfoy.