Title: Impossible Reality

Pairing: D/G

Genre: Romance

Rating: M

Disclaimer: The characters in this story belong to Joanne Rowling, along with the setting etc, I have merely used the characters and a little plot of my own to create a short story and no money is being made on my behalf. 

Author's note: this fic is not a PWP but it does have themes in it which may offend some readers. If you do not wish to read a Draco/Ginny M rated fic, then don't carry on. Please leave a review, and if you have a criticism, make it constructive and leave advice for how I can improve my writing. Thanks and enjoy.

Chapter 1: forbidden forest.

Cold. Unbearable cold. That was all little Ginevra Weasley could think as she sat outside greenhouse three, wondering when Professor Sprout would decide to calm down and let her back into the lesson.

'No', she thought, 'I'm not little anymore. I'm sixteen years old and I shouldn't be sent out of the lesson into the freezing cold snow just because I accidentally threw a blister pod at that idiot Jenny Newcombe! I mean seriously, she shouldn't be allowed to say those things about pe-'

Her thoughts were cut short as she caught sight of Draco Malfoy walking towards greenhouse two through the unrelenting iciness of the pure white snow. Her eyes followed his footsteps back down the snow-covered grass and she suddenly forgot that her legs were numb and her fingers felt as though she had frostbite.

"The forbidden forest!"

"Miss Weasley?" Came a voice from behind her, making her jump. She snapped her head round and felt her hair flick into her eyes. She hastily brushed it away.

"Erm, yes Professor?"

Professor Sprout had finally opened the door to consider letting Ginny back in (after a good five minutes lecturing her that is), just when she had found something interesting to concentrate on. She really couldn't have bothered to come any earlier when Ginny's fingers had begun to feel as though they were going to fall off could she?

'Well, after all it is still cold enough to freeze the entire lake, so I can't exactly complain if she wants to let me back in can I?' She thought.

But even before the professor had completed her little chat, Ginny once again caught sight of the boy she had been taught to hate, his emerald green cloak just floating above the crisp, clean snow, his stride obviously arrogant as if he were thought of as the greatest man in the world and rightly so, walking up to Hogwarts with some kind of…well I supposed it looked a bi-

"Miss Weasley! Are you even listening to me?"

Ginny jumped, and even though she thought she hadn't turned around that much to watch Malfoy's progress she found herself spinning around to stare into her annoyed professor's face.

"Yes of course I am professor I erm, I got distracted."

"Got distracted! That's twice you've blatantly ignored me in the last twenty minutes! Obviously you think that Herbology is some kind of silly subject you don't need and you can just fritter away your time in! Well then if that's the case I think you should go straight back up to your common room and I shall inform your head of house of your behaviour. Professor McGonagall is it not?"

"Yes, professor" Ginny sighed.

"Good. She shall decide whether or not you deserve further punishment. Distracted indeed!"

With that, she turned around and walked straight back into the greenhouse, leaving Ginny outside in the freezing cold.

'Further punishment! For watching a student walk across the grounds! Anyway if I thought Herbology was a silly subject, I wouldn't have taken it would I?' Ginny thought angrily to herself as she swept her red hair out of her eyes again and picked up her heavy bag. A scary possibility penetrated her train of thought and she stopped dead in her tracks. 'Oh no, I hope I don't get detention! If Ron gets wind of that mum will want to know how it happened (not that anything did anyway) and it'll all get blown out of proportion! Oh God.'

Ginevra Weasley was by no means the perfect student. But usually the professors just let her mind her own business, seeing that her first and second year school records were spotless. If she ever got into trouble, she would find a way to wiggle out of it. Growing up with a house full of boys playing pranks on each other and trying to blame it on you, you kind of got used to making up excuses and clever white lies on the spot. In total she had only had two detentions, both of which she had managed to keep away from her brother's attention, but also both of which she had been worried sick about him finding out. She didn't even want to think about what the Christmas holidays would be like if she did get detention.

'If anyone could hear my thoughts they would think I was mad!' Ginny mused as she trudged past the lake and another set of footprints, the origin of which was completely forgotten, and all thoughts of Malfoy pushed to the back of her mind. 'It seems silly to worry so much about something so trivial, but mum would worry if I… actually she'd worry if she found out about what happened just now with me being sent out of a lesson. She'd think I was going to be chucked out of Hogwarts just for that, so a detention would be a million times worse!'

Ginny continued to worry whilst her small frame shivered against the bitingly icy wind and the sky once again split letting snowflakes fall gracefully to the floor in swirls of pure whiteness. Or at least that's what the warm students of Hogwarts thought of the new snowfall. Ginny didn't think there was anything at all graceful about trying a drag a heavy bag along whilst not being able to see as snow was falling in your eyes and your feet are sinking a foot every step and you can hardly breathe because it's so cold an-

"Excuse me." a cold voice came from in front of her.

Ginny gasped as the noise shocked her out of her anti-winter reverie and she started suddenly and fell backwards. Unfortunately her arm decided that it would grab hold of anything it could reach in an attempt to halt her sharp progress to the floor, and that something happened to be the front of Draco Malfoy's robes.

The scene that ensued was nothing short of spectacular.

Draco's eyes were a screen of shock as he stumbled forwards into the snow and fell in a heap face-first next to an extremely astonished Ginny, who was trying to sort out her confused thoughts from shocked reality when she stood up…and fell back over again. Although this time she managed to kick a very annoyed Draco in the back as she did so. In return he gasped in shock and proceeded to cough heavily as the cold air penetrated his lungs. He managed to get to his knees but couldn't get any further as Ginny's leg was on top of his own and she was, for some strange reason, laughing hysterically about the whole thing. Draco didn't find the funny side; he was just relieved that no-one had been there to witness it. He turned around to try and shake her leg off his when he suddenly heard a dismayed cry from his left. He turned round to look and saw a now sobered Ginny looking extremely anxious. His eyes travelled to her hand and he suddenly understood why.

"My wand!" Ginny cried "It's almost snapped in half!"

"Well you deserve it you stupid weasel" Draco muttered as he tried once again to get to his feet. Unluckily for him, Ginny heard this last remark, and by the look on her face she wasn't the happiest person in the world.

"Excuse me? Did I just hear you say that I deserved this to happen? I wasn't the one who scared someone so much by sneaking up in front of them, and making them fall ov-"

"Sneaking! May I remind you I was, and still am, in full view of the castle when I was walking today, and you walked straight into my path! All I said was excuse me and you decided to drag me to the floor! I would hardly take that to be my fault." Draco interrupted.

"Well, aren't you supposed to be in lessons Malfoy, not walking in 'full view of the castle'?" Ginny snapped.

"I could ask the same about you, but I saw you being sent out so that would be a waste of breath. Honestly you weasels should learn to control your temper; it'll get you in big trouble one day. Now would you kindly move your leg so I can carry on my business?"

"What do you mean 'control our temper'! I've been in a lot less arguments and fights in this school than you have, so you can hardly talk!" Ginny shouted.

"It wasn't just aimed at you Weasley, your pathetic brother gets a tad cross at times too wouldn't you agree? Now let me up, I have business to attend to."

He didn't really know what he was expecting. A sparkling blaze of fury, a long shouting match, at the very worst physical violence, but he certainly wasn't expecting the youngest Weasley to give him a scathing look and move out of his way. That couldn't be it surely? He had just called her brother pathetic and she shouts at him less than when she realised he should be in a lesson. Oh wait, she's opening her mouth. Here come the shouts, the screams, the counter insults:

"Don't – you – ever – dare – call my brother pathetic" Ginny said slowly and deliberately. She didn't even sound angry, just weary. "He has done nothing to hurt you except defend himself and Harry when you have been nasty to them. Now I have to get my wand fixed. If you leave my brother alone and never mention him like that to me again, I won't tell Professor McGonagall that you've been in the forbidden forest."

With that, she walked away, leaving a shocked Draco with a whirlwind of questions and confused thoughts. Why wasn't she angry? Why did she look so exhausted all of a sudden? But then the biggest shock entered the whirl, and stopped his other thoughts entirely.

She knew he had been in the forest.

He realised with a start that as he thought no one would be out in this cold weather, (or sent out of lessons) and no one would bother to watch near the edge of the forest, as they would either be in a lesson or next to a fire somewhere in the castle, he had thought it was a waste of time and energy covering up his tracks until he went back and did it later, and that is why he was retracing his steps. That had been completely forgotten as soon as he had seen a struggling Weasley fighting the cold to get back to the castle, and he didn't even think that she might have followed his footsteps to his prior whereabouts.

"Damnit!" He shouted to the frosty winter air. 'She'll tell someone I know she will! Why shouldn't she? She does hate me after all' he thought furiously, straightening down his robes angrily and making sure he had his composure perfect as he took the first stride back to towards the forest. He took out his wand as he muttered to himself:

'I might as well make sure no-one else knows about me being in the forest, or I should have just put flashing lights all around myself and the new Weird Sisters hit single bursting from my ears to make sure people knew exactly what I was doing.'

It was not until he had walked past the lake and was close to the fringes of the forest that a thought occurred to him that had nothing to do with footprints, snow or how much he disliked the Weird Sisters. Ginny had threatened him. He stopped dead in his tracks and now ignored the strands of hair blowing into his eyes as he realised it had taken him this long to notice. He had been so occupied with thinking that the weasel had seen him in the forest; he hadn't given a thought to her threatening parting words. He had thought she wouldn't tell Professor McGonagall that he had been in the forest because she didn't know why he was in there, so couldn't prove a thing. But when he cast his mind back…yes, she had threatened him! A Malfoy! With the indignation burning hot on his cheeks, he quickly obliterated the few remaining footprints and cast a spell he had learnt from his father on his feet to make sure no more would be made. He strode swiftly up to the castle, posture perfect, with a plan forming quickly in his mind.