I wrote this as part of my 1980s song prompt series on tumblr. Littleplebe prompted this, and the song is (Don't You) Forget About Me by Simple Minds (1985).

I went with detention as the setting for this because of the song being the theme for the Breakfast Club. *wink* (I like to think I'm clever, indulge me)

This is cross posted to tumblr and ao3. I'm Dresupi everywhere.

Enjoy!

Ginny heard Draco's loud harrumph before she even saw him.

Her eyes wanted to roll, but given her past experience with Malfoy, she knew she'd better rest the muscles. Save the rolling for the truly ridiculous.

She'd been late one too many times to Professor Flitwick's class and had been assigned detention. Apparently, Draco had suffered from the same punctuality problem and had also been assigned detention.

There was a stack of parchment on the table in the front. Two quills. Ink for both.

Their professor was waiting up near the blackboard. A simple assignment written upon it.

Tell me what you have learned.

It was simple, she supposed, only in its sentence structure. It was, in and of itself, a rather loaded request.

Her chair scraped as she pulled it out, politely leaving one chair between Draco and herself. She didn't really want to intrude on his personal space and she didn't really want him intruding on hers.

He'd never been guilty of doing such things before. But without any other people in this room - not counting the Professor- she was the only warm body to whom Draco could lob his insults towards.

Not that she wasn't capable of handling such things. Her tongue was sharp. She spent most of her time sharpening it for just such an occasion. But a master fighter never hopes to have to brandish her weapon.

Draco's head snapped towards her, his grey eyes narrowing as he took her in. "Wonderful. Not only do I have to complete this rubbish assignment, but I have to do it in close proximity to a Weasley ."

"Better than being stuck by yourself, I'd wager. I know I'm less than chuffed to be in the same room as you."

His loud grumbling was cut short by the professor, who after looking at the two of time, instructed them to move closer. "I'm not about to stay here watching you for the whole of the afternoon. You'll sit in those chairs, quill in hand, until these assignments are finished. You may work together. Place them upon my desk when you are finished. Consider your detention served once you do."

Draco didn't budge, so Ginny was the one to scoot over into the chair beside his.

"What exactly are you looking for in the way of answers, Professor Flitwick?" Ginny asked. She was bright enough, but she was no Hermione Granger, there had to be a trick to this, other than just vomiting facts up onto the parchment.

His response was to point at the board. He climbed the stairs to his chambers, the door closing behind him.

"How in Merlin's name are we supposed to work together?" she wondered aloud. "We're in different years."

Unless it wasn't about classwork.

Draco's reply was simply a huff of air. A rather loud exhale. But she thought she detected a bit of agreement.

"It's not about what we've learned in class," he finally said, voicing the very thing Ginny had been thinking. "It's about what we've learned… about… being late, I suppose?"

He picked up a quill and pulled a piece of parchment towards him. He scribbled a sentence at the top, presumably 'I've learned not to be late.'

He stood, or attempted to stand, the chair had affixed itself to his backside and he very quickly sat back down with a grunt. "Bugger it all. He's charmed the chairs."

"Quills too…" Ginny waved her open palm around, the quill stuck fast to her skin.

"How wonderful. We're stuck here until we can figure out a bloody Charms' Professor's riddle." Draco attempted to throw down his quill and didn't succeed in doing anything other than looking silly and making Ginny laugh. "You think this is funny, do you?"

"A little. It seems a waste of time to think it anything but funny."

He groaned, leaning back in his chair. "Why couldn't it have been Granger?"

"Because Hermione would never be late for class and you know it."

He chuckled and shook his head. "When you're right, you're right."

"And I might not be Hermione Granger, but I'm certainly not stupid."

"That's…" he began, but trailed off.

"That's not what you meant? Really?" Ginny laughed dryly. "Don't delude yourself into thinking you know me, Malfoy. Because I believe in our acquaintanceship, you've spent bugger-all time in my presence."

"Don't perceive to know me , Weasley," was his weak retort.

"Don't worry, I don't."

He grumbled something under his breath and scratched his quill against a new sheet of parchment.

She caught sight of what he'd written and snorted a laugh. "I, Draco Malfoy, have learned that the She-Weasel is a barmy bat." Ginny quickly scribbled on her own parchment, reading aloud as she did. " I've learned that Malfoy is the most priggish prig to have ever prigged."

"You didn't learn that, you already knew it," Draco accused. "At least adhere to the assignment, Weasley."

"And you didn't already know I was a barmy bat? I'm starting to doubt your purported intelligence, Ferret."

"Weasel," he sneered.

"I thought I was a bat."

He exhaled loudly and tapped his quill on the paper. "What does he want from us? Do you think it's a timed spell? Perhaps we need to write for a certain amount of time before the charm releases us?"

She shook her head. "No, it's likely nothing of that sort. I'm sure it's a rather simple answer, and it pertains to the two of us. So, why are we here?"

"Because we were late."

" Because we were late… right. So what have we learned about being late?"

"Not to be."

"Talking to you is an utter waste of time."

"This whole detention is an utter waste of time," Draco fumed, again attempting to throw his quill and being unable to. "For me, for you...for the professor! For everyone involved."

Ginny quickly grabbed a new piece of parchment. "The whole detention is a waste of time…" she wrote. "For both of us, and for the professor. Likewise, our being late disrupted class and wasted the time of everyone involved."

The quill fell from her hand and Draco quickly copied down the words onto his parchment, dropping the quill from his hand and rising from the chair.

They both dropped their parchments on the desk and turned to leave.

Draco hung back to allow her to leave first, a courtesy that didn't go unnoticed by Ginny.

"Thank you," she mumbled.

"Y'welcome…" Draco replied, casting his eyes down to the stone floor as they walked. "So, do you have… plans?"

She laughed. "Thought I was going to be in detention all day, so no."

"Can we go get lunch or something?"

"I dunno… can we?"

He nodded once. "I think we can. I mean, if you can stomach eating with a ferret."

"Sure. If a ferret can eat with either a barmy bat or a weasel, I suppose anything's possible."

If you liked this, leave me some sugar in the comments, please? *hearts*