A/N: I am not usually a fan of Ginny with anyone but Harry…but I loved the idea of this challenge so much I just went with it. This is my first Harry Potter story, not counting my Fred and George mini story thing, so please bear with me!
I found the challenge at 'forums . draco and ginny . com / index . php ? board = 5 . 0 - 5 5 k'
Chapter One
Draco Malfoy was running from a burning building. He pushed frantically through the crowds of evacuated people, searching for the one person he needed to see. Forcing his way between the tightly knit groups of people, he was forced to admit she wasn't there. Gulping a huge amount of air, he turned around and ran back into the inferno. His stomach flipped over. He could hear her screaming. He looked into every smoke filled room as he passed, searching for a glimpse. Suddenly, he saw it. One pale, limp arm; thin fingers clawing through the smoke. He ran inside and heaved the girl over his shoulder, and, dodging fallen beams, managed to get them both safely out. It had started raining, and the crowds melted away.
'Oh Draco,' she said, tears running down her sooty face, 'you saved me!'
'You're welcome, baby,' he replied, smiling down at her. He leaned down to kiss her, and just at the moment her perfect lips touched his, his alarm rang shrilly in his ear.
'Bugger…' he sighed, as he forced his eyes open and slammed his palm onto the off button of his alarm clock. He sat up and stretched. Saturday. Well, at least he didn't have any classes, he thought, as he pulled on his weekend clothes. His dormitory mates had already vacated the room, so he headed up to breakfast alone, and reflected on his dream.
Ginny Weasley. It had been the third one that week to feature her. Her beautiful red hair, and her glowing skin, and her brilliant smile…he sighed heavily. If there was one thing he'd learned in his six years at Hogwarts, it was that his type didn't mix with hers. She was beautiful, rich, popular…and most importantly, she was a Gryffindor. Draco was poor, very poor, with only his once proud family name keeping him in his family's house of Slytherin. It was a general rule in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that Gryffindors and Slytherins didn't mix. Rivalries that went back hundreds of years, feuds and wars, some, Draco admitted bitterly, begun by his own family. His ancestors and their proud ways, Pureblood this and Slytherin that. His father was the same, bitter and twisted, but Draco knew differently.
'Hey, Drake,' called a voice from the entrance hall. 'I waited for you.'
Draco looked up to see his friend Blaise Zabini standing against the cold stone wall next to the dungeon entrance of their dormitory. Blaise was in Slytherin like Draco, and although he was considerably wealthier, he didn't fall for most of the Slytherin ideals. He and Draco had been the best of friends ever since their first train ride to Hogwarts, over six years previously.
They headed into the Great Hall, and over to their usual seats at the very end of the Slytherin table. 'So what are we doing today?' Blaise asked Draco.
'Well, I'll be doing the same as usual,' Draco answered.
'Let me guess. Over-analysing another Ginny Weasley dream?' Blaise asked, a hint of a smirk on his features.
'Yeah. This time it was a burning building I saved her from,' Draco said through a mouthful of cereal.
'Ahh. And are we looking it up in the library for possible meaning, or are we just in fantasy mode?'
'Fantasy, I think. I can't really be bothered with the library today,' Draco sighed.
'Oh we'll probably end up there. We always do,' Blaise sighed along with Draco.
They fell into silence, and Draco took the time to gaze at Ginny, all the way across the hall at the Gryffindor table, sitting with her brother, Ron, and their best friend Harry Potter. He felt a ripple of dislike when he saw Harry, although he kept telling himself he had no real reason to. Sixteen years ago, when Harry had just been a baby, a Dark Lord Voldemort had tried to kill him to fulfil a prophecy, but for some reason when he began to curse the one year old, the curse backfired, killing him. Harry became famous for being 'The Boy Who Lived,' and his fame and fortune, not to mention his family name, put him on a par with the Weasley's. The Potters were pureblood, expect for Harry's mother, Lily, who was muggle born. She was a healer at St Mungo's Hospital, and his father was an Auror. He had caught Draco's father, Lucius, who had been a supporter of Voldemort at the time of the war, and had sent him to Azkaban. Draco didn't particularly miss his father, even thought he deserved to be where he was, but there was still the smallest touch of Malfoy pride in him that told him to dislike Harry.
That and the fact that he was always with Ginny. That sucked, too.
He and Blaise both jumped as the post owls swooped into the hall, delivering the day's mail. Draco saw a flock of owls head toward the Gryffindor table, and land in front of Harry, Ron and Ginny.
Blaise was preoccupied with opening a parcel from home, so Draco turned back to the Gryffindor table and watched Ginny open her mail.
A letter from home, he noted, and…two of what looked like love letters. He narrowed his eyes. Ginny was the Gryffindor Princess, he thought. She'd never go out with anyone who'd send her a love letter.
Ron had received a Daily Prophet, which, laughing, he proceeded to show the front page of to Harry, who had just opened a letter from home and one from Bathilda Bagshot, who often wrote to him. She was friends of his parents. Draco shook his head. It was a testament of his obsession with Ginny that he knew so much about Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Something seriously needed to be done.
'C'mon,' Draco said to Blaise. 'I'm not hungry.'
The stood up and ambled back to the entrance hall.
'Get any interesting mail then?' Blaise asked Draco, who laughed bitterly.
'Nothing, Blaise,' he said, smiling wryly. 'You?'
'Letter from mum. She's met another bloke.'
'Think she'll marry this one?'
'Oh probably. Old money, very pure blood.'
'Sounds her type – hey, what's going on?' Draco halted in the middle of the hall. There was a group of students huddled around something next to the stairs. 'Oi!' Draco shouted, elbowing his way in, followed by Blaise. When he got to the middle, his stomach sank.
Just as he'd expected.
'C'mon Hermione,' he said, taking the girl by the arm and leading her up the stairs. They walked in silence, the three of them, until they reached the library, the place Draco knew Hermione felt safest.
'What happened?' Blaise asked, concerned, as they sat down at Hermione's favourite table.
'Oh, the same as usual,' Hermione said, who was attempting to smooth down her bushy hair and straighten her jumper. 'I was, you know. There.'
'Aw, Hermione, don't listen to them, they're just a bunch of useless idiots,' Blaise comforted her.
'Who was it?' Draco asked. 'I didn't get a good look.'
'Crabbe and Goyle again,' she said, reaching into her backpack and pulling out a book. 'So,' she said, trying to change the subject as always. 'What are we doing today?'
Blaise and Draco shared a look. 'Well, Drake had another Ginny dream,' Blaise offered.
'Oh. Shall we look it up again?' Hermione smiled at her friend. He was the first real friend she'd had at Hogwarts. They'd met in their second year when he and Blaise had stopped a group of third years picking on her.
Draco smiled. 'Only if you don't have any other use to put that big Ravenclaw brain to,' he said.
'So what happened,' she said, standing up to go to the dream section.
'I rescued her from a burning building.'
She nodded and wandered off to find their favourite and much used dream book.
When she returned, she sat and opened it at a chapter titled 'Fire.'
'Did you kiss her yet?' Hermione asked, flipping though the pages.
'No. I don't think I'll do that until I actually…you know. Do that,' he said resting his chin in his palm. 'I'm completely pathetic aren't I?' he asked.
'No more than me, Drake. I'm the Ravenclaw Prefect, and the cleverest seventh year in the school. And I get bullied by prepubescent Hufflepuffs,' Hermione said idly, while Blaise chuckled.
'So did you dream about anyone last night?' Blaise asked Hermione.
'Hmm, yes,' she replied, her eyes glazing over. 'I mean, no, of course not!'
Draco and Blaise glanced at each other. 'That's not what I heard!' they said in unison.
'Was it by any chance…Ron Weasley?' Blaise teased her.
'What? How did you – I mean, no,' she stuttered.
Draco raised an eyebrow.
'Okay, fine,' she slammed the book shut. 'It's Ron. Are you happy? How did you even know?' she demanded of Blaise.
'Your History of Magic notes happen to have a little doodle on the page referring to goblin wars. Well,' he backtracked, 'one of the pages referring to goblin wars.'
Draco looked at his shy friend's dull blush creeping over her pale cheeks, and thought about his own crippling shyness when it came to the subject of the Gryffindor Princess. It was utterly shameful.
'That's it, Hermione,' he said, standing up.
'What's that?' she asked, looking up at him.
'We're gonna do something about this. Starting tomorrow, we are going to achieve what we want.'
'Seven outstanding NEWTs?' Hermione asked, eyes wide.
'No, Hermione,' Draco's lip twitched. 'We're going to get our respective Weasley's. You're gonna get Ron, and I'll get Ginny.'
'We will?' Hermione said, standing up to face him.
'We will,' he agreed, shaking her hand as if that confirmed it.
'We will…' Hermione said, almost in wonder.
'Ah, but the question is, my friends…' Blaise stood up to join them.
'How?' they all said in unison.
A/N: Okay, let me know what you think. I know it was short, but it'll speed up. And reviews make my day, by the way.