A/N - This is my first fanfic, so please R & R, any comments at all would be greatly appreciated. Also want to say sorry for the overly-long Harry introduction, please bear with it, as it's setting up the story & we don't have to see him too much after this, if you're eager for the Ginny/Draco part to begin; it will! Now here follows a disclaimer for the entire story as i'm not writing this out every chapter: Disclaimer- I don't own any of these characters, i'm just borrowing them for my story.

Chapter One - Encounter

Harry woke up to the sound of a loud pop somewhere close to his left ear. Blearily, he registered the bright sunshine slanting from high up through the long thin windows signaling that it had been light for some time. He became aware also of a tugging at his left arm's pajama sleeve. Slowly he realized that it was Kreacher that had popped into his bedroom and was now insisting that he woke up.

Sluggishly his senses were returning to him. He realized with growing moroseness that Ginny was absent from the crisp, unused sheets across the bed, as she had been all week, and he begrudgingly recalled bits and pieces of the argument they had had. Unable to properly register Kreacher's vain reproaches just yet, he replayed the bitter scene over in his head despite himself, for what seemed like the millionth time. He tried not to picture her and to tune instead into Kreacher's incessant mumbling and tugging.

"Master, if you please, you must come and have breakfast now before Mistress Andromeda arrives with young master Teddy," he pressed, now a distant echo of the house elf he had become in the lonely years of solitude in No 12, Grimmauld Place. So that was why Kreacher had resorted once again to popping into the bedroom to literally drag him awake and into misery, huh.

"Oh," Harry exclaimed as this statement sank in remembering the day, "Teddy!" Suddenly the day did not seem so bad. His fight with Ginny; the dark cloud presently hanging over their relationship; all of it was pushed from the forefront of his mind for the first time since ithad happened as thoughts of his godson temporarily lightened the load.

With signs that Harry was listening and indeed getting up, Kreacher disappeared with another loud pop and Harry stood up, rubbing his eyes. Finding his glasses, he shoved them clumsily onto his face. It was true. Now that he could see the time on the muggle alarm clock he knew that Andromeda Tonks would be here in little under an hour. The thought of seeing Teddy gave him a little bubble of happiness in his chest that didn't seem likely to burst at all soon.

Harry dressed unceremoniously, yanking on the first robes that he could find without really looking at them. He picked up his wand, slipping it into his pocket, and made his way down the first flight of stairs from the room that used to be Sirius's. Fortunately, in three years of occupying his late godfather's house Harry had managed to turn it into a warm and friendly home. He had at first balked at the idea of living in the old house that had held so many dark and painful memories for Sirius. It had held him like a prison in those final years. But when he had come here that first time after the defeat, he had realized that so many of his own memories of Sirius were tied up in the house. Whenever he left for long periods of time he found that he missed Sirius more, and the place where he could feel close to him. So he stayed, and tried to make it a place that Sirius would have liked. The furnishings were all red and gold now, in homage to Sirius's own decorating style from his teenage years.

By the time Harry reached the basement kitchen where the warm, wafting smells were almost overpowering, his thoughts had begun to stray back to Ginny. He supposed vaguely that this was because the smells of cooking bacon and sausages reminded him of the burrow. It was inevitable. Everything reminded him of Ginny, and Ginny reminded him of the terrible argument that they had had just over a week ago which had effectively caused them to cease talking ever since. He'd tried to go over to the Burrow and see her, but Ginny refused to see him, despite Molly practically dragging him in and insisting he stay for dinner. Truth be told, he was still a little flabbergasted by the whole thing. After some inconsequential thing he couldn't even remember, Ginny had suddenly blown up in a temper and accused him of not taking their relationship seriously, and caring about his job and his 'responsibilities' - she had said it like that; scornfully; more than her. Apparently they wanted different things, and she just hadn't realized until now. As far as he was concerned, this was all coming out of the blue, and he had stared at her uncomprehendingly until she had stormed out. Unsurprisingly, when he had staggered over to see Hermione and Ron afterwards with a pleaful, helpless kind of look on his face, Ron had been the sympathetic one, and Hermione had looked at him calculatingly, and demanded to know each and every detail of what had been said so she could analyse what he'd done wrong,

"Well, you have been unbelievably busy recently, what with all your Anti Dark Force League stuff, and all those letters from the damned Minister every week. It's as bad as if you were Dumbledore; no; worse, in fact. I wish people would leave you alone, already; it's been three years, for crying out loud," Hermione ranted a bit, then remembered what they were talking about with one look at Harry's dejected face. "But Ginny understands all the media attention, she gets it bad enough herself," she backtracked quickly, "I'm sure it's just her temper Harry, and all the stress of it; she'll calm down," she finished, reassuringly. Ron just gave her a look as if he wasn't sure whether he wanted to defend his sister and her temper, and then turned back to Harry,

"Never mind, mate," then, with a shifty look at Hermione, he added, in a whisper, "Girls. Hormones." with a shake of his head that said 'we'll never understand.'

That was last Sunday evening. He hadn't been coping well since; today's episode was the third time this week that Kreacher had resorted to popping into his bedroom to wake him up when Harry hadn't surfaced by midday. He'd been skipping out on his auror training, too; and to top it all off he had Hermione popping round at all hours of the day with annoying frequency to check that he was alright, asking pertinent questions about his 'feelings' and insisting that he eat something. If he wasn't careful she'd have Molly on him next, and that was something he was as keen to avoid as any of her sons, knowing full well how she would react if she knew he wasn't looking after himself properly.

In the long galley-like kitchen he found Kreacher laying his breakfast promptly at the head of the long wooden table dominating the room. With the transformation of the house, so Kreacher's new personality had continued to blossom.

"Hello, Kreacher," Harry intoned glumly.

"Morning, Master." Kreacher promptly replied. "Breakfast is served."

"Kreacher, do you think you could get the floo powder out and the fire started for after breakfast?" Harry asked casually between mouthfuls of sausage. "I need to make a floo call to Ron before Teddy gets here."

"Certainly sir, right away," Kreacher beamed, happy at being given another task. He liked being busy. Harry watched him as he sauntered off to the fireplace, then sighed mentally. He knew that he'd been exasperating Ron this week by asking him for news of Ginny, but when they'd seen each other yesterday Ron had expressly promised to check in at the burrow and see what he could find out, and then relay anything helpful to Harry.

He ate quickly so he could make the call to Ron & Hermione's. Appearing in the hearth of their living room he immediately spotted Hermione and groaned inwardly, thinking that she'd keep him for at least five minutes with more talk about his feelings. He'd been hoping to avoid her this once.

He cleared his throat. "Hermione?"

"Harry!," she exclaimed, noticing his head swimming in the flames, "How nice to see you!" Her face seemed to imply concern rather than pleasure, though; how annoying it was how soon she always clicked onto her concerned look. "How are you feeling? Fancy popping over properly and we can talk about um... things..." she trailed off lamely, looking nervous, not really sure if she should mention it, obviously.

"Um, I'm ok; is Ron here, Hermione? Only i was hoping he'd have some news for me and i really need to talk to him, if that's ok," he quickly avoided the subject of himself.

"Yes, you're lucky, he's not left for work yet, he had a late start this morning," Hermione had a look on her face that said that she knew exactly what news they needed to talk about, but he chose not to elaborate further anyway. "I'll just go and fetch him for you, shall i?"

"Thanks Hermione, you're the best." Harry waited while Hermione disappeared. A minute later she returned suddenly with her fiancéé Ron in tow.

"Harry! I wasn't expecting to see you this morning. You only just caught me, mate." Ron said lightly as he strode in and took up a seat opposite the hearth, pulling the chair round a bit. "What's up? Everything ok?"

"Oh, you know, alright," Harry tried to sound cheerful for his two best friends, but he knew immediately that he wasn't fooling anybody. He ploughed on. "I just wanted to ask you, well, have you had a chance to have that chat with Gin yet, 'cos, i erm, well, i was just wondering." he trailed off.

Ron and Hermione exchanged glances, much to the annoyance of their friend sitting in the fire who didn't fail to notice. He tried to keep his face from showing annoyance; he was eager for Ron's answer. Blowing up at them wouldn't help his cause.

"Look, mate," Ron began after a pause, "i did see her last night before i came home, and, well, she's still pretty upset, i'd say. Frankly we're all a bit surprised that she's stayed angry this long, she usually calms down a lot quicker, stubborn woman- but it's alright-" he hastened to add on the end, as Harry's face visibly fell, "i've got a plan." At this Hermione could distinctly be heard clearing her throat and Ron clarified, "well, ok, Hermione's idea, really, but anyway; we have a plan to help you out a bit; you know; get her to at least see you so you can try and talk it out with her."

"What is this plan, then?" Harry asked, looking dubious.

"Well, since both of you are involved with our wedding, what with you being my best man and Ginny being Hermione's maid of honour, we thought that wedding plans would be an ideal excuse to get you together in the same room, what do you think?" Ron looked pleased with himself as he explained this, and Harry raised an eyebrow.

"We'll invite Ginny over tomorrow night," Hermione continued, "but we won't tell her that you're coming, just that i need her help with plans and would she stay for dinner, and when she gets here she might be surprised to see you here too, but it won't matter because we'll have a perfectly viable excuse to need both of your presences for the whole evening." she finished. She was watching Harry's face closely, trying to gauge his reaction. He looked dubious, but when he spoke he seemed pleased by the idea,

"Thanks, guys, you have no idea; i really need to talk this out and apologise," he began. Ron quickly stifled any further praise with a hand gesture that suggested that Harry could forget about it, because Harry was his best mate. Despite the fact that they were talking about his sister, here, he accepted that they were made for each other.

"Well, i'd better be off if that's ok, Harry. George said he'd be ok in the shop this morning until midday but then he'd probably need my help," Ron stood up as he explained. "Either Hermione or myself will owl you with the arrangements for tomorrow evening as soon as we've contacted Ginny and made sure that it's on."

"Oh, it's alright, i've got to get out of the fire myself, Andromeda will be here any minute with Teddy," Harry grinned back good-naturedly with anticipation of the afternoon.

"Oh, you have Teddy today, of course!" Hermione exclaimed, beaming. "Give him our love, won't you? Enjoy your afternoon together," she said sincerely.

"Give him a big kiss from Auntie Hermione and Uncle Ron," Ron added, fondly, showing a rare affection, "now get your head out the fire so i can floo to the shop, will you?"

Harry smiled at their enthusiasm as he disappeared back through the emerald flames. He really was happy now that he could focus on having the entire afternoon with the three and a half year old Teddy, his beautiful godson.

All thoughts of his earlier unhappiness disappeared as Harry played with the toddler that afternoon; his heart had been significantly lightened by the prospect of clearing up the mess he was in with Ginny. True to her word, Andromeda had turned up just after midday with Teddy in tow, sporting his favourite shade of turquoise-blue hair and a big grin just for his godfather, and he was now happily zooming around the floor of the drawing room on the toy broomstick Harry had bought him for his previous birthday. Harry had been almost unable to wait to buy one for him. He was watching Teddy slightly nervously from the old threadbare armchair in the corner, smiling as the little boy's hair slowly began to turn a mousy brown colour; Harry had noticed that when his godson seemed to be particularly absorbed or concentrated on something, his hair would always revert to mousy brown, forcibly reminding Harry of his father, Remus. This wasn't without pain for Harry but he was glad that there would always be reminders of his father's best friends around; in Teddy, and in Grimmauld Place itself.

"Wheeee!" Teddy squealed as he zoomed past Harry again, bursting into delighted laughter, his light-blue ocean like eyes sparkling.

Ginny ran through the rain with her cloak held up over her head sheltering her, into the relief of the nearest shop doorway. It was a moment before she got her bearings and realised that it was Flourish and Blotts that she had taken shelter at. Well that was ok; she'd just browse the new books section for a while until the rain was less torrential. She pushed open the door, setting the bell ringing madly, and stepped inside. Quickly using a hot air charm on her clothes she was dry again, and moved over to the nearest stand of colourful tomes to browse. She started to skim the titles, mind only half on the books. Cusper's Complete Compendium of Charms for Cooking, Runes & Dubloons: Discover your own Buried Treasure, Basic Dragon Breeding: A Guide... she tutted audibly as she read that one; one to keep away from Charlie and Hagrid and their insane dragon obsessions...

"Oooh, that's more like it," she muttered to herself, reaching for a shiny new copy of Essential Quidditch, but before she had put her hand on it, a shuffling and stifled throat clearing caught her attention from the other side of the bookshelf. She had thought that she was alone; the bookstore seemed deserted apart from the bored-looking saleswitch on the other side of the store, staring glumly out the window from behind the sales desk. Whoever it was, they must have been deliberately standing very still, trying not to draw attention. This made her immediately suspicious.

She grabbed Essential Quidditch out from the shelf and caught a glimpse of platinum blonde hair streaking upward quickly, as if the someone on the other side had been watching her. Right. That was it. Furiously, she strode around the bookshelf to the other side to confront the mystery onlooker; and froze.

The first thing he noticed as the bell rang shrilly signalling a new arrival into the bookstore was her scent. He hadn't bothered to look up, too absorbed in the book he was skimming through, but as the scent wafted lazily towards him in the secluded space he had found between two book stacks, his attention was caught and he paused. Floral, but intense. Honey and Cinnamon too. He couldn't quite place where he might have smelt it before. He looked up, intrigued, and caught a rich mane of long, dark red hair swish past the end of the bookshelf, into the stack next to the one in which he was concealed. He could only catch snatches of her face through the books, but it was intense too, and beautiful; flushed slightly, maybe from a run through the rain into the bookstore, & now completely focused on the books in front of her as she searched, seemingly oblivious to his presence. So he stayed stock still, frozen in the same position as when he had looked up, just watching intently. A hazel brown eye, the curve of the edge of her mouth, red full lips. Who was this beautiful creature that had walked into the bookshop, disturbing everything? He didn't remember ever seeing anyone like her before. She muttered to herself; beautiful, soft tones. Her hand moved to pick up the book directly in front of him. Panicking, he snapped out of it suddenly, shutting the book and straightening up again, clearing his throat with embarrassment. Then all of a sudden she was right in front of him. Beautiful and dangerous, eyes sparkling like knives. And he knew her.

Draco Malfoy had changed. To look at, he was very similar to what he had always been; tall, slender, a more muscular chest than she remembered, certainly; sharp angular jaw with fine, chiseled cheekbones, extremely pale with beautiful light grey eyes. But most striking in his appearance as ever was his beautiful white-blond hair, sweeping long over his eyes, so that he had to flick it aside occasionally. It was and had always been a dazzling colour. Yes; she had always found him handsome in the extreme, although in his case it was stupidly easy to ignore his looks based on his attitude. So, much the same as ever, in appearance. It was his manner that was so different, his air. He looked embarrassed. Ashamed. Ginny didn't think that she had ever seen the arrogant, self-absorbed Draco Malfoy have the decency to look ashamed before. For some reason this only served to make her even more incensed.

"Draco Malfoy." she hurled his name at him like an accusation. He didn't look away- in fact, he was staring at her a bit, like he'd never met her before. It was irritating. Ginny made sure she scowled right back at him.

"Ginevra Weasley." He greeted her in return, surprising her by politely using her full name. No one called her Ginevra. He seemed nervous, of all things. Ginny allowed herself to feel slightly smug; she had made her mood abundantly clear, then.

"What do you think you are doing? Were you watching me?" she hissed, threateningly.

"I, er, I, that is, sorry. I didn't mean to, i was just startled when you came in," he fumbled through the sentence, the most abashed Malfoy she had ever seen. He was acting most unlike himself. Fortunately she hadn't had cause to have seen him in over 2 years, though, so who knew what was normal for him these days.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you it was rude to stare?" she said, venomously.

Draco tried to look away, upset by her manner, but she was somehow mesmerizing, an angel of fury fiercely staring him down. Instead he did the thing that came naturally to him; he regained some of his legendary cool and replied,

"Of course, what was i thinking, staring at a Weasley? You don't warrant the time of day," he spat at her, smirking.

'No, wait, what am i thinking,' his brain was screaming at him a moment later, ' the most beautiful woman in walks up to you and you insult her?' But then the unimaginable happened for Draco Malfoy; the worst thing that he could possibly have been confronted with. Her confident, cold air had seemed to falter and snap in a single moment. She burst into tears. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

"Aww, hell," he muttered, incredulous. She had been looking daggers at him a second before, and now she had totally broken down. He was fairly sure he had said much worse to her back in the day, and she'd never lost her cool before, so what the hell was this about? He had already regretted saying the harsh hurtful words the moment that they had left his mouth. It was just a defence reaction, not that he had actually wanted to hurt her.

Ginny hazarded a look up at him through tears and quickly looked away again, ashamed of her reaction. Draco's hard demeanour had melted in the second it took to take in Ginny's sudden transformation to the weeping, shuddering form in front of him. He looked at her with a mortified, guilty expression on his face, uncertain and, what was that, worry? Ginny wished he would stop gaping at her and just walk away; she couldn't believe she had just broken down in front of him like this. Out of all the people she would have chosen to witness a meltdown of these proportions coming from her, the calm does-not-cry sister of six brothers; he was the Worst. Person. Ever.

Suddenly, his arms were around her, encircling her, and she didn't have a clue what had happened. As quickly as the tears had come, the sudden surprise shocked her enough that they stopped. "Wha..." she started to say, and realized that he was attempting some kind of awkward patting of her shoulder in a pacifying manner. He was comforting her? Draco Malfoy? What had happened to the world? She tried to wriggle away from him, amazed, to see his face, but his warm arms were firm, locked tightly in a vice grip so that she couldn't escape. She squirmed and cleared her throat, "Um, Draco..." she started tentatively.

Draco, uncertain of what to do with the crying witch, had started towards her awkwardly and uncertainly bundled her into his arms, but then he'd smelt her sweet smelling hair as it brushed his face, and became suddenly, confusingly aware of her slim, curving frame much too close, in the circle of his arms, and the tension in his frame had started to melt, melting into her, his focus slipped…

"Oh, sorry," he loosened his arms, setting her free, and she repositioned herself to gaze up at him, puzzled and curious, but no longer mad as hell at him or crying insanely. This was definitely better. But before he could register much else she was kissing him, and his brain ceased to function.

Ginny kissed him slowly but firmly at first, like she was unsure, but then sensing his responsiveness to her she drew closer, arched tightly in his arms, and kissed him more fiercely, till they were both lost in the tangle of each other. Draco had stopped thinking. He didn't know what he was doing, just that he was liking it. His lips were busy exploring her mouth passionately when suddenly she drew her mouth away in protest, gasping, and was gone, pushing herself away bodily, looking down and not at him, shaking her head slightly. He gaped at her, dazed, not being able to process what had just happened or why it had stopped.

"G…"

"I'm sorry; I shouldn't have done that… I can't do this. I'm a mess, I'm a complete disaster zone, ever since last week when it…" she broke off, clearly not wanting to tell him whatever had happened last week. She still wasn't looking at him. This was particularly irritating, when she had just snogged him.

"Deep breath, Draco," he muttered to himself, trying to steady his racing heartbeat. He closed his eyes in case it helped. She was right about one thing, anyway. She was an clearly an inexplicable emotional wreck right now.

Why had she just done that? She was trying to ruin her own life. Ginny's thoughts were a cringing whirl of regret and guilt for what she had just done. With Draco Malfoy, of all people. Ginny lifted her head and cautiously looked at him again. He had closed his eyes and seemed to be taking great pains to focus on expelling each breath. So she was watching as his face changed. Slowly, his brow furrowed into a frown, and then his face took on an expression of horror, as something obviously dawned on him. No doubt he was suddenly horrifically aware of the fact that he had just kissed the Weasley girl. She scowled. He had seemed to be enjoying it well enough the moment before. He had opened his eyes and was staring at her again now, with a sort of worried, devastated look plain across his features. "Don't worry," she said, "I can forget all about it if you can, no need to beat yourself up over what a disgusting thing you just had to do," she ground out. The two books that they had each been holding had long since fallen to the floor, where they lay forgotten.

Draco was shaken up by this comment. Was she that dense? Was it possible she could think that he hadn't just enjoyed that? He thought he'd been making his feelings clear. He was torn, because all he wanted to tell her was exactly that; that he wanted her now, amazingly, like he'd never wanted anyone before (and as he thought this he realized with a jolt that it was true,) but he couldn't do anything about it, because she was with Potter. Harry Potter. Everyone knew that. And it had just dawned on him, after the best kiss he had ever had, that he couldn't have her, the only girl he really wanted.

"It's not like that," what was he settled for, after grappling for a few more seconds. "I can't do this either, whatever…this is." He paused, watching her. "Go back to Potter, and I will forget it ever happened. " He ended, starting to turn away from her gaze.

"I kind of… broke up with him." She said in a flat voice, but it wasn't fooling him. This was the real reason she was an emotional wreck, the reason she had burst into tears with hardly a whisper of an insult being thrown at her. "Well, not really; I'm not sure… we had a huge fight… we're not talking." Why was she telling him this? Wasn't it bad enough that she had just snogged him?

Draco struggled with this revelation for a minute before replying. "I don't think that kissing you was disgusting," he began, clearly grinding out the words. He paused, clearly struggling with his thoughts. He carried on in a softer tone. "You don't know what it's like for me now, Ginny- since the Defeat, I mean- I've tried to change, to become a better person…" he sighed and closed his eyes again. "Going through that last year, having to be around him, do his bidding; I changed, I hated myself. Harry is one of the only people to have stuck up for me since, he vouched for me, when many would have locked me up and thrown away the key, along with my father…" he paused, to check she was listening. Her eyes were wide. "Even if there was a chance of this…going anywhere, I couldn't. I couldn't do that to Harry."

She stared at him. He was definitely not the same person. That glaring, insult-slinging shadow she had seen earlier was a façade, it wasn't the real him. At least, not anymore. He would put Harry's feelings before his own. This was the kind of behaviour she expected from the always-noble Harry, but not from his rival. She stopped thinking about Harry, quickly, before the tears came back. And then she started pitying Draco. "You don't know what it's like for me now…" she repeated. " What is it like for you now?"

"It's… uh, well, it's different." He said evasively. Ugh. Why was he going to tell her this? Her eyes were intent and imploring, not satisfied with his refusal to explain. He sighed. "It's hard to clear your reputation when it's linked to the darkest wizard of all existence, but I'm getting by." He said quietly, like he didn't really want her to hear. Ginny suspected that he would like to gloss over his less than desirable background with her, like he was afraid of how he would look in her eyes. Like she didn't already know what he had been like.

She was silent. She didn't know what to say to him. He cleared his throat again, and made to pick up the books they had long ago abandoned on the floor. He put his own copy of Vulchanov's Verses I back on the shelf and then silently handed her Essential Quidditch, after briefly glancing at the title on the book.

"I should leave you, get back to the Leaky Cauldron, or something. That is, if you're not going to burst into tears again any time soon, at least," he said, running a hand through his sleek silvery-blond hair. "You will be alright?"

Ginny nodded in assent. She might have left it there, only curiosity got the better of her, and she blurted out to his turning form, "Back to the Leaky Cauldron? Why are you going back there?"

He hesitated. "I'm kind of living there, at the moment."

"At the Leaky Cauldron?" she asked. "Why? What happened to the Manor?"

"Nothing happened to it, it's just that i…" he sighed. "My father is in jail still, as I'm sure you know, but I still felt that I could no longer live under his roof, if you can understand. He was scared of the Dark Lord, just like all of us, but he's still not exactly a wonderful person. He liked hurting those people. I was brought face to face with it, and I couldn't do it. Any of it. But he's different. I can't be like that, I had to get out." Heaving, like it had been difficult to get that all off of his chest, he gave her the briefest of small smiles and then turned, stalking off to the door and away. The bell still jangled above the door, as Ginny Weasley watched Draco Malfoy stalk away down Diagon Alley through the rain, the end to their brief encounter.

Draco had reached the sanctuary of his own room in the Leaky Cauldron. He ignored the mirror as it began to protest at his appearance and crossed to the bed, sinking down into it and burying his head in his hands. That had been an experience. He couldn't get Ginny out of his head, enough to logically process everything that had happened between them. The feel of her in his hands, her scent, the taste of her mouth, her creamy brown eyes, penetrating right down into him, her breath on his neck, the way she had said 'Draco'… when she hadn't been mad at him, that was. This was all totally irrational. He'd get over her in no time; it was just a stupid kiss, after all, the heat of the moment. If she hadn't started crying… that was Potter's fault, not his. Potter. Also the reason that he couldn't let this go any further. Not that he thought Ginny was at all that way inclined. No, she was in love with Potter. He felt a twinge of pain at that thought, and crushed it, immediately. He wondered what Potter had done to upset her this much to the point that they weren't even talking…

"No, stop that, Draco, don't let your thoughts chase her. It doesn't matter why they're arguing." He berated himself quietly, head still in his hands. This was no good. What he needed was a walk, movement. Sitting still like this was only going to let his thoughts fester and linger on it. So he got back up and wasted no time in swiftly exiting the pub back into the Alley behind, where he strolled back down the shop-lined street, not really looking at much but just wandering aimlessly. It had stopped raining, so he didn't feel the need to go back in any of the shops. Once he had passed Fortescues, he thought he might go back; the light was fading already with all the cloudcover, and he had cleared his head.

Bounding through the bar he gave Tom the bartender a nod and jumped the stairs two at a time, feeling more himself. He got to the door and unlocked it with a tap of his wand, breezing in once more. This time however he noticed a rich-chestnut brown tawny owl perched on the end of the bed, regarding him balefully. It wasn't one he recognized, so he immediately went over and untied the letter bound to its foot to see who it was from. The owl didn't go anywhere, so he presumed it might be waiting for a response. He read the letter;

Dear Draco,

I'm sorry about earlier. I wanted a chance to apologize for just flinging myself at you like that; it's all my fault, I'm the one that's a complete mess and I'm sorry it had to affect you. I don't bear you any ill will, and to prove this point I wanted to invite you to accompany me to dinner at Ron & Hermione's this evening, so we could clear the air. We won't be alone, so nothing else can happen; but maybe we can be friends, if nothing else? I know that you are having a rough time of it lately. I have an ulterior motive for this; I don't think I can face them alone & I thought you might be the only person who would understand and might be able to save me from that prospect. Somehow I think you do understand. So you would be doing me a massive favour, and they wouldn't dare interrogate me with you there. Don't feel obliged to accept this invitation, but if you feel you can then please send a reply with Aquila & I will meet you at seven in the bar of the Leaky Cauldron.

Ginevra.

"Ginevra…" he read her name aloud, lingering on the way that she had written it. He stared at the owl, what had she called it- Aquila- as if she could give him the answers. He pictured her face again, as she had come leaning towards him, about to kiss him. He ran his hand through his hair again and let out a big breath. Slowly, he reached for the pen on the desk.

More soon- please review! Thanks a lot :)