Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to the incredibly brilliant JK Rowling, not me. I'm just dabbling in the world she created for a while... So, without further ado...

A Not So Unpleasant Conversation

Ginny peered outside the doors of the Great Hall before slipping through them, careful to remain in the shadows as she snuck down to the edge of the lake. "That stupid prat..." she grumbled, pulling her robe tighter around herself in order to keep out the chill of the spring breeze. When she reached the base of a large oak tree beside the murky lake, Ginny stood on a rock near the trunk so she could reach a low branch and used it to hoist herself up into the tree. Once she was a few branches high, she plopped down on one of the branches and rested her back against the wide trunk.

"What the hell did Dean think he was doing? I can get out of the Common Room by myself... he doesn't have to shove me through the Portrait Hole..." Ginny muttered to herself, narrowing her eyes at the recent memory. "Should've broken up with him weeks ago..."

"Would you mind keeping your incessant chattering down? Some of us are trying to think in peace," a male voice snapped from behind her. She jumped at the noise before leaning over to see if she could catch a glimpse of who it was, as she was unable to recognize the voice. Unfortunately, the only thing she could see without falling off her branch was a small sliver of a black cloak.

"You shouldn't even be out here in the first place," Ginny retorted, keeping her voice low in case Filch or a professor happened to be out on the grounds.

"Neither should you."

She frowned. "I'm a prefect."

"Is that supposed to make me care? Besides, you're probably lying." She cursed under her breath, annoyed that he had called her bluff.

"Whatever... I guess it's not much of a threat considering prefects are usually gits like my brother or Malfoy anyway..." Ginny mused until she heard a muffled cry followed by the rustle of leaves as the tree shook gently. "You didn't fall, did you?"

"No, I caught myself," the boy responded haughtily as he tried to find a more stable position on the branch.

"Good, I'd appreciate it if you kept your arse in the tree. I don't particularly feel like dragging you up to the Hospital Wing at this time of night," she mentioned in a seething tone.

"What's got your knickers in a twist?" he inquired casually.

"An idiotic, now ex-boyfriend and an annoyingly overprotective fool of a brother are what have my 'knickers in a twist', as you so eloquently phrased it," she answered, her voice laced with venom.

"Thomas break-up with you?"

Her eyes widened at his question. "How did you-?"

"Everyone's seen it coming for weeks," the boy noted as if it were obvious.

"No. How did you know who I was?" she wondered suspiciously.

He chuckled. "An over protective fool of a brother who also happens to be a prefect? It doesn't take much to put two and two together, eh, Weasley?"

"Wonderful... It's nice to know Ron has made such a fool of himself..." Ginny sighed. "And people've really been predicting my break-up with Dean for weeks?" she asked almost sadly.

"Yeah, but you don't need that Mu-" He caught himself before continuing. "I mean, you don't need Thomas anyway. You could do better than that," he stated, immediately questioning his words after they left his mouth.

"Oh... Thanks..." Ginny mumbled, surprised by his kind words.

"You're welcome..." On the other side of the tree, the boy was mentally berating himself as he softly banged his head on the trunk. A few minutes of silence elapsed before the red-head spoke again.

"Well, now that you know why I'm out here, would you like to enlighten me as to why you're in this tree as well?"

"Like I said, I'm thinking."

"About...?"

He grinned. "Stuff."

"Oh, that's very descriptive," Ginny replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"It's not like I'd tell you."

"Why not?" she frowned, glancing over to see him shift uneasily.

"...It doesn't concern you."

She rolled her eyes. "And who I break-up with is no concern of yours."

"You told me that willingly though," he noted. Ginny paused, unable to come up with a logical response to that.

"...So what if I did? Maybe I can help you with whatever you're thinking about," she suggested.

"I doubt you could," the boy murmured, though there was a hint of bitterness in his words.

"Why? What is it?" She was genuinely curious by this point, and his one sentence answers were just making her even more so.

"I'm having a few... issues with something."

"Hmm... So, we're back to the vague answers, are we?" she huffed, tilting her head so she could see a few spots of black sky through the leaves. His silence left her to believe that she wasn't getting anything remotely close to that subject out of him. "Fine. Maybe I can help you get your mind off of it then."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" he drawled as he absentmindedly played with a leaf.

"You know who I am, but I don't know who you are. Fancy a game of twenty questions?"

"...I have nothing better to do."

Ginny smiled, as she had thought he would blow her off as he had been for the past five minutes. "Okay, first of all, are you in my year?"

"No."

"Hmm... Are you in Gryffindor?"

The boy rolled his eyes at the sheer thought of it. "No."

"Ravenclaw?"

"Nope."

"...Hufflepuff?" she inquired hopefully. Ginny heard a quiet laugh from where he was sitting.

"No."

She groaned, the fact that she had been have a fairly pleasant talk with a Slytherin weighing heavily on her mind. Just then, realization struck her as she remembered just what she had said before the boy almost fell out of the tree.

"...You don't have blonde hair, do you?" She sat for a moment, praying he'd answer no.

His lips formed their usual smirk once he heard her question. "I'm afraid I do."

"Damn it..."

"Disappointed?"

"Quite," Ginny mumbled, brushing some of her hair out of her face before crossing her arms with frustration. "A Malfoy is not the first person I'd choose to talk to."

"I could say the same about you, Weaslette," Draco Malfoy sneered.

A thought dawned on her as he said this. "...Why am I even still talking to you?"

"Like I would know how your Muggle-loving mind works..." he quipped, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, so now you're insulting me? I was wondering where your 'holier than thou' attitude had been..." she bit back, sending a glare around the trunk of the tree.

"I didn't feel like it before," Draco stated simply.

She snickered. "Because of your... issues?"

"Do you have to say it like that?" he scowled.

"Yes."

It was his turn to ask the question that had been hovering at the back of their minds. "...Why am I still talking to you?"

"Because I'm so wonderfully easy to talk to?" Ginny grinned.

"Oh yes. I'm sure that's it," he remarked sarcastically. "Is that how you've seduced half the guys in school?"

"Excuse me? I have not seduced any guy in this school," Ginny hissed, suddenly getting the urge to hurl something at Malfoy's head. "Now you're worse than Ron..."

"Please, don't compare me to him," he grimaced. "It sullies my reputation."

"And talking to me doesn't?" she smirked. When he didn't respond, Ginny moved from her seat on the branch and made her away around the trunk until she was on another branch that was beside Malfoy's. He sent her a questioning look. "What?"

"Nothing," the teenager shrugged. She took a moment to survey his appearance, immediately noticing that his face seemed paler than it usually was in the dim moonlight and the hair that was hanging in his mercurial grey eyes had grown slightly longer than she was used to seeing it. "What are you doing?" His voice broke through her thoughts and she flushed when she realized she had been staring.

"Nothing... You just look different," Ginny observed, avoiding his eyes.

"Oh, how so?"

"You just look kind of worn out... Like you haven't been sleeping or something," she reasoned. "Not to mention there must be something wrong with you since you're having a conversation with a Weasley." He glanced at her to see a friendly smile on her face.

"It's not my fault you can hold a decent conversation better than half of the people in my House."
"Oh, you're complementing me?" she teased, raising an eyebrow. "I'm honored."

"Believe me, it's not much of a complement. Most Slytherins are either a complete idiot or a nutter. It's not hard to be more intelligent than them," Draco explained nonchalantly.

"Oh, which category do you fit in then?"

"Probably with the ones stricken with insanity since I'm still talking to you," he replied, flashing her a grin as he relaxed against the tree trunk. "Of course, this whole conversation will have never existed tomorrow, right?"

"Of course. I wouldn't want to remember a conversation as horribly unpleasant as this. Especially with a Malfoy!" Ginny exclaimed dramatically, her voice bubbling with laughter. "I mean, just the thought of it might make me die of shock."

"Oh, very funny," Draco mumbled, though he still sounded amused.

"Glad you think so." She paused for a moment, checking her watch. It was nearly ten o'clock and she still had homework that needed to be done. So, with an air of disappointment, Ginny slid off of the branch and placed her feet on another while holding on to the one she had been sitting on for support. "Well, I'm sad to say that I've gotta go finish an essay for Slughorn." He gave her a slight nod in understanding as she began to make her way down the tree.

When she reached the bottom, she began to head in the direction of the castle before she stopped and looked up through the leaves to see Malfoy still leaning back against the trunk. "...It was nice talking to you Malfoy."

Draco looked down, meeting her eyes. "You too, Weaslette," he called down, a genuine smile forming on his lips. Ginny immediately returned his smile and waved up at him before heading back inside.

A/N - Yeah, I know it's completely pointless and they're both pretty OoC, but I had the random urge to write this at two in the morning... Anyway, please review!