Disclamer: I do NOT own Harry Potter... but I wish I did

One.

It was evening at Hogwarts and Ginny Weasley, the Gryffindor beauty, was sat in the library writing notes for homework she had been set previously that day. Only a few bodies occupied the room at that time, one of Madam Pince, as always, another of a sixth year Hufflepuff boy who had been in the library long before Ginny had got there. Occasionally he would mutter word aloud to himself, clearly too indulged in the book he was reading to notice how late it had gotten. There was a quiet bang when the large wooden door to the library shut, as another person entered. Ginny heard the footsteps approaching her, but she continued reading, determined to finish before she went to bed, she flicked the page of the book she was reading, twirling her quill between her fingers as she read. She reached half way down the page before a figure stood before her, casting a shadow onto the book before her, blocking the light and making it difficult to read the words set on the page.

"Oi, move your-" she cut of mid-sentence as she looked up, recognising the figure looming over her.

"Weaslette." a deep, scornful voice came from the body before her.

It was Draco Malfoy, his blonde hair seemingly glowing as the light he had blocked from Ginny shone through the delicate strands of almost white hair. Where his hair was usually perfectly preened, today it was tousled, mostly from the amount of times he had run his hands through his hair. There was something about Draco that did not seem right, Ginny could not tell what is was but, he just seemed different, his eyes were slightly drooped with faint dark bags beneath them; clearly he had tried using a glamour charm to cover them, but it was now fading.

Ginny would never admit it, but she had always had a slight crush on the blonde Slytherin, ever since they met that day in her first year at Flourish and Blotts, she would never act on it, she knew she couldn't. The Malfoy's had always thought ill of her family and they always will, they saw them as blood traitors, this had been going on long before she eventually met the Malfoy's. Ginny didn't see the problem with befriending muggles or muggle-borns, but apparently it was some kind of sin for a pureblood to even be associated with them. Of course, another thing stopping Ginny from acting on her crush was Harry. Ginny had liked Harry, long before they had even met and she was much closer to him than she could ever be to Draco. Besides, her family wouldn't approve of her lusting after young Malfoy; Ron would probably take it the worst. Ginny knew exactly how Ron felt about him; he had made it very clear that he despised the bloke.

Ginny ignored the fact that Draco seemed different, as well as her hidden lustful feelings, and continued on as she usually would. She folded her arms in front of her waiting for him to show his usual self, despite how he looked.

"What is it, Malfoy?"

Draco glared at her impudent attitude, "I need that book."

"Oh, do you?" she raised a single eyebrow, almost challenging him to start insulting her

"Clearly, that's why I said it."

Ginny shrugged, "I'm reading it. You can have it when I'm finished."

At this point, Draco reached across the table in an attempt to snatch the book away from the red haired girl, only for Ginny to slam her hands down against the open pages of the book to hold it in place.

"Give me the book, Weasel." Draco snarled, looking down at the girl.

Ginny rose from her seat, her hands still pressed firmly against the book, preventing it from moving. She was determined she wouldn't back down, she'd spent a lot of her life having to prove herself to everyone, to show them that she wasn't the weak little girl they all thought she was. Quite frankly, she was tired of having to prove herself, but she wasn't going to let herself get walked all over, especially not by Draco Malfoy.

"Why do you need this book so urgently anyway, Malfoy?"

"It's none of your business, Weasel." he practically spat at her.

"Well then, you shan't get the book."

"Fine, I need it for my… transfiguration homework" he stumbled across the words, almost like he was uncertain of what he was saying.

Ginny shrugged and slowly sat back down, "You can have it when I'm finished… Now, move, you're blocking the light"

Draco was perplexed by all this, not only was the girl a year younger than him, but she was also a Weasley. As far as Draco had been taught, the Weasleys were a disgrace to the pureblood name and that they should be treated as inferiors. Of course, they never acted as if the Malfoys were superior to them, but Draco never thought Ginny, the youngest and only girl, would act the way she did. He had always thought Ginny would be the girl who would give into such stereotypes, that she would accept his superiority, but he was so very wrong and this aggravated him.

"The library is now closed! Any students wishing to check out a book will have to wait until tomorrow." The sharp, elderly voice of Madam Pince came from behind her desk.

Ginny smirked, rising from out of her seat, "I guess you'll have to wait 'til tomorrow"

Draco managed nothing but to sneer at the girl, frowning at her as she cleared away her papers and closed the book. As she shut the book, Ginny glanced over the gold writing on the cover, "Hogwarts: A history"

She frowned, still looking down at the cover, "I thought you said it was for transfiguration homework? This has nothing about-"

As she looked up to confront Malfoy, he had already gone as if he had never been there in the first place. Ginny would've thought it had all been an illusion, if it wasn't for the obvious masculine scent he left in his wake. She picked up her school bag and hauled it over her shoulder; she placed the book on the shelf, before leaving the library.

The whole journey back to the common room, Ginny couldn't help but think about what had happened. He just left… no words… no insults. Gone.

Draco slumped down into the chair in the common and ran his hand through his hair, for what felt like the thousandth time today, he had to find more information about vanishing cabinets. Stupid Weaslette, stopping him from getting on with his task, clearly she'd been hanging around with Potter too much.

"Draaaaakiiieeee!" came a whiny, high pitched voice from behind him.

Draco sank down in his chair, rubbing his hands over his face; he really wasn't in the mood to deal with Pansy right now. He had to figure out how to fix this vanishing cabinet, he had to complete the Dark Lord's task.

Pansy jumped down on the seat beside him, causing groan in annoyance.

"Where have you been, Drakie? We've been looking for you."

"We? Who's-"

"Me and Blaise."

"Then where-"

"He went to bed."

Draco frowned at his inability to finish a sentence. "Shouldn't you be in bed too?"

"I wanted to stay up and wait for you"

Draco sighed, standing and made his way towards the boy's dorms, "I'm going to sleep."

Pansy frowned and stood to follow him, "But I stayed up for you… I waited"

Draco shrugged and continued into the boy's dorm, without another word. Pansy whined and stormed into her own dorm.