Apparently Draco had more pull in the boundary than Ginny did as if she stopped he was able to simply drag her along the floor a few metres behind him. She discovered this when she realised that she was being lead down to Snape's office in the dungeons even deeper than the Slytherin common room. She was not going to go down there if she could help it.

"Why the hell are we going to Snape? We could go to anyone! Anyone! We should go to McGonagall, Flitwick, hell, ANYONE!" But she was completely ignored. She tried to stop him by just not walking but she was just dragged along on the ground. When she managed to finally get up again he was walking ridiculously fast again so she just gave up trying to walk and just sat and was dragged. There was no way she could keep up. If she thought he had been walking fast earlier, it was nothing compared to now, she would've had to run all the way to Snape's office if she'd tried to keep up, and no way was she going to go running anywhere after Draco Malfoy. She just her to out up with being magically dragged.

As soon as Draco reached Snape's office the Potions master knew what had happened. Before then in fact, as the sound of a girl being dragged very quickly down a steep spiral staircase is not hard to identify. When Draco arrived in the dungeon Snape was stood there, smirking at him. "Pansy Parkinson. Not me." He hissed angrily, then noting Snape's raised eyebrow he added, "Sir." He had never really gotten used to addressing a man he had known his entire life as sir, but at school there was no alternative. "Excuse me Draco? Miss Parkinson cast a bonding charm upon you and Miss-?"

"She meant it to hit only me." Interrupting Snape. "But it went wrong, it split in half and half hit each of us. And now she can't remember how to take it off." Snape waved his wand and a beam of light shot towards them. They proceeded to move away from each other, hopeful that it had worked. Ginny hit the edge of her barrier and fell over. Snape shot several more spells but nothing worked.

"Hmm. Unfortunately Mr Malfoy," Said Snape, addressing Malfoy exclusively and completely ignoring Ginny, "It seems that since the spell was divided the normal counter curse will not work. You will simply have to wait until the effects wear off."

"WHAT? No, sir that can't be right! We're just stuck together until it stops working?" Ginny felt on the point of collapse but Draco retained all appearance of being calm and collected.

"How long will that be sir?" he asked. Snape considered him, almost as though he was wondering how much to tell them. Finally he replied,

"It should be about a month or so until the physical effects wear off." Malfoy crossed the room and sat down and Snape's desk, putting his head into his hands again. Ginny just stood there gaping at Snape.

"Obviously your timetables will need altering. I shall speak with the headmistress. Wait here." And Snape left, his black cape billowing behind him giving the slight impression of a large bat.

"Malfoy, you total moron." Announced Ginny, now sitting on the floor. Malfoy looked up at her.

"Excuse me?" he drawled

"You heard me. This is all your fault we're in this mess . If you hadn't-" Malfoy cut across her.

"Honestly Weasley, does your mind simply not work?" He sneered. "We are in this mess because a jealous bitch went and put us into it."

"Yes, and that was your fault! If you hadn't-" But Malfoy interrupted her again.

"If I hadn't tried to find a way to get out of the hell that is my life at the moment!" it was Ginny's turn to interrupt this time,

"Your life, hell? As if! You wouldn't know hell if it hit you in the balls! You have no idea what real life, real hell is like do you Mal-" The look he gave her could've killed. Even Ginny felt herself shrivelling up slightly.

"You think my life is perfect do you Weasley?" He got up from the desk and began to walk slowly towards her, "You think everything around me was perfect and handed to me on a silver platter? You think I find my life hell because I'm just a spoiled little child who doesn't know what life is really like do you?" he hissed all this at her, his eyes flashing fire, advancing slowly. Ginny had honestly not felt this scared since her first year, and never before then. But it wasn't her way to curl up when she was scared, instead she would do and say stupid things to make her seem braver.

"What's wrong Malfoy? Your dark mark not as pretty as you'd like it?" Instantly she knew she'd never said anything more stupid. She suspected that Snape might actually have saved her life by coming back in at this point.

Her new timetable was very simple Actually, it was Malfoy's timetable because he was in a more important year and could not afford to go back a year. Fortunately Ginny was bright enough to keep track of what was going on in most of her new lessons and it turned out that she and Draco were taking the same subjects. Annoyingly, Malfoy had more power in their bond which meant they went where he wanted and she had no choice in it. So they ate at the Slytherin table and slept in the Slytherin dormatories. Although this pleased Draco's roommates very much, strangely enough, Ginny was not happy with this arrangement.

That night she was trying not to stress. She'd just spent her first afternoon ever in the Slytherin dungeons. Fortunately in Malfoy's room (god things were desperate if that was fortunate) and not the common room. When some of the other Slytherin seventh years started to go up for bed Ginny got up from her camp bed beside Draco's and went to the bathroom to change. Naturally her pyjamas, like all the other clothes, were old and too small, and far too young for her.

They were tiny and cute which Ginny intensely disliked them for, but hey, it wasn't exactly like she was planning on sleeping with anyone so who cares. They were white, not-quite-opaque cotton with little white squares embroidered on and a small pink rosebud print. The bottoms barely covered her but just about managed it and the top was a little tighter and lower than it should've been. But she was fin with them, not like she was going to be showing anyone else. Not intentionally anyway.

When Ginny emerged from the bathroom clutching her pile of clothes she could practically hear three necks click as the heads turned towards her and she found herself being ogled by Nott, Crabbe and Goyle. Eurrgh! Ginny tried not to cringe as she hurried over to her bed and pulled the duvet up to her chin.

"Maybe we should come up a little earlier tomorrow night Weasley?" Malfoy's voice reached her quietly through his hangings with a smirk that she couldn't necessarily see but could hear nevertheless.

"Yeah, good idea Malfoy." Ginny was still a little too creeped out from being stared at in very little by three Slytherin pervs.

After she got her brain back she realised that Malfoy, although still an obnoxious, arrogant twat, he wasn't being quite as much of an arse as he could've been. Hell, he'd just done something considerate. He'd just deliberately suggested protecting the modesty of a Weasly.

If all her friends knew exactly who she slept with that night they would be so jealous. Not on the account of the boulders, Vince Crabbe and Greg Goyle, or creepy looking Theo Nott, but because of the two others. She was sharing a room with the two sexiest guys in the whole school. Draco Malfoy was the school's resident Bad Boy who looked like an angel. Gone was the skinny, scrawny ferret with the pointed face. Now he was painfully gorgeous. His face was still long but now it was elegantly so, his features were not so pointed and now he looked almost beautiful with his milk white skin, angelically fair hair and striking silvery eyes. Not to mention that he was a quidditch hero with great muscles and an excellent six pack.

The second sexiest guy in the school was Blaise Zabini. He had dark skin, not African dark, more like a South American colour, and dark hair that he slicked back slightly. He wasn't nearly as muscular as Draco but there was enough muscle to make him fairly hot. He, like Malfoy, had a certain amount of mystery and intrigue about him; no one really knew anything about him. They knew that although he was Slytherin and obviously had Slytherin cunning, he also seemed kind with his dark, caring eyes and he definitely wasn't a womanizer. Unlike Malfoy.

Ginny's small camp bed was right next to Draco's on the floor, thankfully just under five metres from the shower. She hated sleeping in the Slytherin dorm. The room itself was surprisingly nice, it had heavy mahogany furniture and everything was a shimmering emerald green. The whole place gave off an unmistakable air of luxury, even the hangings were velvet for god's sake! Although she liked the furnishings she heartily disliked the place, not only because of its occupants, but because of what they sounded like when they slept.

The great boulders snored incredibly loudly, Nott had light snores, Zabini just breathed deeply and, most disturbingly, Malfoy was silent. There was never any way of telling whether he was awake or asleep. His breathing was just as silent as when he was awake and he woke at the slightest movement, if he slept at all that is, and Ginny knew he did. Some nights she would be awake and would know exactly what time it was because at exactly two in the morning she would hear Malfoy. His breathing would become heavier, he would start to toss and turn and within five minutes he would sit up, panting hard. For some reason she would always hear him ripping the covers off his bed, not entirely so he still couldn't get up, just enough to uncover about half of his top.

Now she thought about it (why was she thinking about it?) she had never seen Malfoy in his pyjamas. When she came out of the bathroom after getting in her pyjamas he was always in bed already with his hangings shut. She wondered what he wore, (bad Ginny, very bad!) knowing him it would probably be some expensive green silk thing, probably with his initials embroidered across the pocket. But then again, did she actually know him? There more time she spent around him, the less sure of this she was.

Whenever he was with most of his fellow Slytherins, or other Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws for that matter, he was a slimy git as usual, but sometimes, just sometimes, he seemed almost okay. He was surprisingly considerate. She expected to have to spend hours sitting uncomfortably in the Slytherin common room while he joked with the rest of his house, the centre of attention as he had always seemed to be, but the reality was quite different.

Draco spent most of his time in the dorms or sat in the shadowy outskirts of the common room on his own (as far as possible since he was bonded to Ginny) or with Zabini who rarely bothered Ginny. Although Malfoy himself was rarely in his throne, it didn't mean anyone else was allowed in it, or even near it. He and his cronies were always very much vigilant about that. Instead of making snide comments about other people and laughing at their expense like Ginny, and everyone else as well, expected of him, Malfoy spent most of his time working or reading. Perhaps he actually worked for his high grades rather than buying them.

Sometimes he would even help her with her Potions homework. Potions had never been Ginny's favourite or best subject, but now she was suddenly in the middle of a seventh year course and Snape refused to make any exceptions for her. She had to do the same work and homework, to the same standard as everyone else in a class that was a whole year ahead of her. Potions seemed to be Malfoy's best subject and when she was about to scream in frustration he would get up and help her.

"Malfoy, what the hell are you doing?" she asked the first time this had happened. He looked up at her, amusement in his eyes. It surprised how easily she was able to read someone who refused to move any feature of his face.

"Well Weasley," he said as though trying to explain something very simple to someone very stupid, "You were about to set the dormitory on fire, so now I'm helping you with your homework so that this room remains green, not red with flames as I'm sure you'd prefer it to be."

Unfortunately for Ginny, Malfoy was much more a morning person than her. On the first weekend they were bonded she tried to rip his head off when he woke her up at "Six! Half past fucking six in the fucking morning! Malfoy you are fucking insane! I'm not getting up at this time on a Saturday, it's fucking Saturday you prick! You're meant to have lie-ins on Saturday you total fucking-!" Ginny's rant was only ended when Malfoy put a silencing charm on her.

"Listen Weasley, I wake up on Saturdays and I do quidditch drills, I would offer you the option of staying here but unfortunately that can't happen. You should at least be thankful I'm giving you the opportunity to get dressed rather than dragging you outside in your miniscule excuse for a pair of pyjamas. Now get up before I make you." Ginny glared at him and gave him the finger, still under the silencing charm, before picking up some clothes and going into the bathroom to get dressed.

Baring in mind what Malfoy had said about quidditch drills she put on some more sport appropriate clothes than usual, black leggings in lycra and a strappy lycra top in a shade of bright scarlet that clashed wonderfully with her red hair.

She emerged from the bathroom and snatched her wand from Malfoy and countered the silencing charm before realised that he was, there was no other word for it, checking her out. "Hey! Stop that you perve!" He smirked at her before leading the way down to the grounds. He had in fact been checking her out, he liked what he saw, there was no denying it. Not many people can get away with lycra, it really isn't flattering, but Ginny looked good in it. She was so skinny that it did not blow her stomach and thighs out of proportion. She wasn't one of those boyish girls either, girls that are so skinny they've got no shape, straight up and down girls. She was hourglass, do doubt. Very nicely shaped hourglass, something the tight fabric did not fail to show off. He appraised her, one eyebrow raised, until she called him back to his senses and they left the dorms.

As they ascended the stairs from the dungeons Draco got the feeling that she was now checking him out. What not to like really. He was not wearing lycra, instead, a pair of black shorts and a black muscle top. At least, it had been a muscle top until he had been forced to charm of sleeves to hide his arm. When they got outside Ginny was quick to point out the flaws of doing quidditch drills; if they accidentally flew too far away from each other they would fall, and if they were a hundred feet off the ground that was not a good idea. Reluctantly Draco moved away from the broom shed. Why could he not even have the one basic, simple pleasure of playing quidditch anymore? Damn Weasley, he may as well just Avada himself now and be done with it.

"So." Said Ginny, bored already. "What are you going to do now?" Malfoy considered this for a moment.

"Well, Weasley, I am going to go for a jog. Coming?" He flashed her a smirk, knowing she had no choice but to follow him.

"Exactly how long do you intend to jog for?" She asked him, keeping up easily.

"Until I have very little energy left. Then I will do ground drills, then I'll take a shower." Ginny rolled her eyes and groaned slightly. How long would it take for him to get tired? At this speed it could be hours. It wasn't hours as all of a sudden Draco got bored and changed speed. With a yelp Ginny sped up too, now finding it a lot harder to keep up with him, but managing nevertheless. More than once he shot a rejuvenating spell at her so she would have enough energy to keep going, his stamina was immensely better than hers.

He would run until he couldn't run anymore, she would just have to keep up until then. Finally and to Ginny's great relief, Malfoy collapsed, elegantly as ever, onto a bench by the lake. The two of them sat there, Ginny sprawled across the floor, Malfoy sat with the same perfect posture as always on the bench in front of her, both panting like dogs for a minute or so before Malfoy got up again. Ginny was very, very glad that she would not have to move again, she liked jogging and was fairly fast, she had a good stamina from all her quidditch, but that was just too much.

Ginny was still having trouble sleeping in the Slytherin dorms, she had never had to put up with the sounds of people sleeping before as she had soundproofed the hangings in her Gryffindor dorm and as the only Weasley girl she had always had her own room. So she just had to put up with listening to everyone sleep.

But, unknown to Ginny, she was not the only one listening to people sleep. Once or twice a week Draco would hear her having nightmares of her own, tossing and turning and muttering in her sleep, always waking with some cry of quickly stifled fear. She hated to show her weaknesses but was nowhere near as good at it as he was.

It was one of those nights where Ginny had had a nightmare. As usual on those nights, she found it impossible to get to sleep again. She was sure when she woke up that Malfoy was awake as well, but she was sure he would just ignore her if she said anything and feign sleep. She knew that Malfoy had managed to get some sleep as a few hours later she heard him wake from his nightmare. Every night the same time. "Swap you." She said suddenly. "My nightmare for yours." He just laughed.
"Oh Weasley. Even if they were of equal exchange, you wouldn't want to be in my head."

Unfortunately it didn't seem that Ginny was going to have a huge amount of choice in that matter.

Draco and Ginny were sat outside on the grounds enjoying the unusually warm weather, doing homework of course, when Draco looked up to see Pansy making her way towards him. Crap. He turned away and tried to ignore her, a hard feat as she was now yelling his name. Ginny looked up, wondering who the hell was yelling for Malfoy that loudly and annoyingly when she saw Pansy. Who else would it have been?

"Can't that stupid bitch leave him alone for just five seconds?" she thought angrily, trying to get back to concentrating on her transfiguration homework. Draco looked up suddenly, aware of Ginny's voice but sure she hadn't spoken. He didn't have time to ponder the matter further however as Pansy was now here.

"There you are Draco darling! I was wondering where you'd gone!"

"Dear god bitch, just get to the point and piss off!" he thought, still trying to ignore her. Ginny laughed, surprised and amused that Malfoy had told Pansy to leave him alone. She looked up, not wanting to miss Pansy's expression at this point, but then noticed that both Malfoy and Pansy were staring at her. It seemed like Malfoy hadn't even said anything. She was sure she'd heard him tell her to piss off! Pansy gave her a weird and slightly disgusted look then turned back to Malfoy and continued.

"Talk to me Draco sweetheart! We never spend any time together anymore!" she wined, sitting down on Draco's lap. Ginny felt she was going to be sick, but not nearly as much as Draco. Trying hard not to retch he pushed Pansy off his lap and got up quickly.

"I may vomit." He thought, turning away to hide his face, he could not prevent himself from retching slightly. Ginny looked over to Pansy so see if she'd heard him this time, surely she must've done? Ginny had heard perfectly clearly. Unfortunately for Ginny she didn't have to look far to find Pansy as Malfoy had shoved her towards Ginny.

"Never mind Malfoy, I think I'm going to be sick." She thought, grimacing as she shuffled backwards away from Pansy.

Draco turned around; ready to laugh at the expression on Pansy's face now Ginny had said that. But judging by the way Pansy was still staring at him rather than Ginny, who was still edging away, she hadn't heard Ginny. He passed a confused look to Ginny before deciding that now was the right time to take control of the situation. He looked down at Pansy who was still on the floor then walked over to Ginny. He grabbed her arm and pulled her up, much to her surprise.

"Parkinson," he said turning back to her, slightly amused at her bewildered expression at his helping up a Weasley, "You disgust, repulse and revolt me. You make me physically sick. Now will you please finally except that I am not interested in you and just fuck off!" He seized Ginny's arm again and walked off with her, putting an arm around her waist as he did so. He was aware that they were probably receiving quite a few looks but completely unperturbed by them as this would hopefully get Pansy off his case, at least for the rest of the day.

"Malfoy, what the hell did you just do?" asked Ginny, as soon as they were up at the castle again. Her confusion had rendered her silent up until now, but now she wanted the situation explained.

"Not entirely sure Weasley." He replied, still with his arm around her waist. "Do you reckon we're out of sight yet?"

"Yes."

"Good." He said, letting go of her. "Sorry about that, I just didn't think I could stand it much longer."

"And here was me thinking that the Slytherin Prince and the Slytherin Slag were meant for one another." Thought Ginny with a grin. To her surprise, Malfoy laughed.

"Hell no, can't stand the stupid bint, unless I get seriously bored of course…" he told her.

"Errm, Malfoy. I didn't say anything." She said, confused.

"What? Yes you did. You said me and Pansy were meant for each other." He told her, bemused.

"Errm, no. I thought it, but I didn't say anything." They stopped and looked at each other. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me." She said in disbelief.

"Weasley!" he said, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her to face him. "How many floors to I have in my house?" He asked, practically yelling at her. He thought the answer and waited for her response.

"Twelve." She said confidently. "Hang on; you have a twelve storey house? That's not a house Malfoy! That's not even a bloody mansion!" Malfoy fell back and leant against the wall with his head in his hands.

"Oh crap, this is not good, this is so not good!" he murmured over and over.

"You have twelve storeys in your house?" He stood up straight again and stared at her.

"Weasley, can we focus here? We can see into each other's heads, surely that is more important that the size of my house?"

"Oh right, right, focus." She muttered distractedly. "Oh shit, this is bad. Shit, shit SHIT!"

"Now you get our problem Weasley."

They decided to pretend that nothing had happened and continue with their normal lives and not bother mentioning it. Fortunately now that they knew about it there were able to open and close it with conscious control which meant they did not simply have unlimited access into the other's mind. They skipped dinner as neither of them was feeling particularly hungry and stayed in the common room instead.

"Draco!" greeted Blaise. Draco got up from where he and Ginny had been sitting and went over to sit with Blaise instead. "Well Draco my friend, the good news is you've shaken off Pansy, temporarily. The bad news is that she's spread it around that you and Weasley are now going out." Blaise smirked, he loved being the first to deliver news like this.

"Well Blaise I've got even worse news for you. Not only are we stuck with each other, we are now in each other's heads." Blaise choked on his bottle of butterbeer. After his coughing fit had subsided he looked back up at Draco, now with slightly watery eyes.

"Shit. That is worse."

"Well aren't you helpful Blaise. Funnily enough I had figured that out on my own. Fortunately it is only a voluntary connection at the moment but this really isn't good." Blaise was no good at emotional stuff so he did the only thing he could think of and offered Draco a drink. Fortunately the butterbeer did seem to help a bit and once he'd finished he looked marginally better.

"Why do people think I'm going out with Weasley?"
"Oh come off it Draco!" said Blaise, exasperated. "You rejected Pansy then walked off the grounds with her with your arm around her waist, what did you expect people to think?"

"Fair point." Said Draco rather vacantly, reaching for another butterbeer. He sat there in silence for a while drinking then drained the bottle and stood up. "As much as I'd like to stay here all night drinking your butterbeer, I think I should probably go to bed. I wouldn't put it past Weasley to deck me if I got drunk. Night Blaise, see you later." He walked off to the dormitory, calling Ginny through their newfound mental connection.

She emerged from the bathroom in her pyjamas to find Draco sitting on the bed facing her. "By the way Weasley, more bad news." He told her as she sat down on her bed.

"More bad news? Merlin, I don't think I can handle more. Can't you tell me tomorrow?" She asked, careful not to plead. Never, ever plead around Slytherins, Malfoy had told her the first time she had done that, after a particularly gruelling run.

"No, I think you really need to know this tonight." He advised her grimly.

"Go on then." She groaned, getting into bed.

"The school thinks we're going out." He said bluntly. No point beating around the bush.

"The school thinks WHAT? Oh, my, god Malfoy! Why the fuck do they think that?" she screamed.

"Calm it Weasley, it's not that bad." He told her, mildly offended at this reaction. "And why do you think?" Ginny decided that she was going to have to kill him. No one else would ever survive doing this to her, unless of course they lost a ball in the process, and for some reason she didn't really feel like doing that to Malfoy.

"Anyway, thought you might want to know before tomorrow." He said simply, turning around and taking off his school shirt. He was already in his pyjama bottoms, a pair of bluey grey silk shorts, so fortunately he only had his top to put on. To her annoyance Ginny found herself staring at his shoulder blades and thinking that even his back was perfectly toned (damn it Ginny, not good). Unfortunately he chose not to put on a top and while he got into bed she found herself staring at his amazingly muscular chest and thinking what it would be like to (no Ginny, just no.)…
Ginny pulled herself out of this reverie just in time, she did not want to be caught staring at him, his ego was one that did not need a boost.

The next morning at breakfast Ginny and Draco were extra careful around each other, neither wanting to add fuel to the theory that they were going out. Draco was receiving daggers from some of Ginny's fellow Gryffindors and a lot of approving looks from his fellow Slytherins while Ginny got rather disgusted looks that suggested she was insane from almost everyone except Pansy and her group who was glaring daggers at her jealously. It seemed that gossip had travelled as fast as ever through the school. Even some of the teachers were looking at them oddly. Both reacted in different ways, Ginny refused to look at anyone, not wanting to meet their horrified glances, and Draco stared coolly at anyone who dared to look at him, challenging them to say anything. Both were determined to have this rumour quashed before too long, hopefully before someone saw fit to notify the Weasleys who Ginny had so far neglected to tell of her bonding.

As soon as Ginny got up from the Slytherin table she was accosted by her best friends, Amy and Colin who grabbed her arm and dragged her, and therefore Malfoy too, outside.

"Please for the love of fuck Ginny!" Yelled the usually mild-mouthed Amy as soon as they were out of earshot of the hall, "Please tell me that you are not seriously dating this, this…" words failed the girl whose fury was quite disproportionate to her appearance. Colin Creevy too looked absolutely speechless with anger and Ginny hastened to reassure them,

"No, no Amy don't worry I'm not dating Malfoy." Malfoy had moved as far away from Ginny and her friends as possible but was, thankfully, allowing her to have this conversation now rather than just dragging her away.

"Colin are you okay?" Ginny asked her friend, very much concerned as Colin's usually pale skin seemed to have gone scarlet. Amy too looked as though she had put on huge amounts of blusher all over her pretty face, her English Rose complexion now rose red.

"I'm fine Gin, better now anyway." He said in a voice of forced calm,

"Merlin, did you seriously think I would actually even consider dating ferret-face?" giggled Ginny, now rather amused by how worked up her friends had gotten over something so hugely unrealistic. Amy forced a smile,

"Of course, this is really stupid Gin, we really shouldn't have believed it for half a second. We're sorry Ginny." She said apologetically. Ginny suddenly realised that she really should be rather offended that even her best friends had thought that she would even for one single second consider the possibility of dating Draco Malfoy, the infamous Deatheater ferret.

Ginny woke from her nightmare with her usual small shriek, but this one had been particularly bad. Usually she dreamed of all the things that Tom had made her do in her first year and that was bad enough, but the worst ones were always of Tom sitting on the end of her bed, telling her that he had a little job for her to do. Those dreams were always so real, as though he really was there again and it was all going to happen again and she was going to be possessed and was going to have to write in blood and do all those things she had had to do.

This one was awful, he just had "one last little favour to ask". It had always been "just one more" and it scared the shit out of her. She lay in bed, going over all the details of her dream, half expecting him to walk in at any moment and sit down at the end of her bed with "one last thing". Just thinking about it made her heart beat faster with a fear she would never admit to feeling.

"Take a shower." She almost screamed. Who the bloody hell was that? Then she remembered. The mind connection. "What?" she sent him. What was he on about now?

"Take a shower. It helps. It clears your mind, wakes you up. Gets you out of the dream." He sent back. She wanted to ask exactly what experience he had with nightmares. She still found it a little hard to believe that his life was anything other than ideal. She got out of bed and went into the bathroom, turning the shower on nice and warm. "Cold showers are better. Warm just makes you drowsy. Cold makes the world more real." With that he withdrew from her mind. She didn't particularly want to take any more of his advice but, with Tom still fresh in her mind, she turned the shower in to its coldest setting.

"Ah shit, holy mother of FUCK that's cold!" but strangely he was right. No dream could make her this cold. She could take no more of a minute of the icy jet however and turned it to warm for a while before going back to bed.

She was having a really nice dream. It was Christmas at the Burrow, and somehow also her birthday and she was just about to blow out the candles on the Christmas cake when the dream changed. She was not longer at home but in a cold thin passage she didn't recognise. It was dark and she was alone. She walked down the passage a little way, fear flooding though her like ice. Somehow she knew that this was not her dream but Draco's. She must have subconsciously reached out and connected to him.

As soon as she realised this the dream seemed to have noticed too and it made her feel that she didn't belong. Instead of really being there and seeing things properly, she just saw flashes. There was a load of dark figures, then a white snake's face and two rings of red fire, then pain, horrible, burning pain and it killed like hell and she was looking at an arm and there was a horrible black splodge on it. Then it was like having a pebble dropped into a pool as a large drop of something fell and a tsunami wave of fizzing spread over the arm and the black was replaced with red, red blood and it was so painful she thought she was going to die. It was excruciating agony and it burned like nothing else in the world and there was still blood pouring down her arm. Then all the blood poured off her arm and she saw a flash of a horrible burn and then everything went black and she felt like she was being called but she didn't want to go, then the black went absolute and she saw a flash of green and someone fell and her arm burned more painfully again and she woke up. So that was Draco's dream.

She tried to pretend she was still asleep was he woke up too. He ripped through his hangings and staggered, half running toward the bathroom.

He woke up panting hard and covered in cold sweat. Just looking at his arm wouldn't be enough to get rid of the feeling of being called by the Dark Lord again. He got out of bed and sprinted to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind him, before getting into the shower and turning it on full blast to the coldest setting. It felt like he had fallen through an ice sheet on a very deep lake. Every inch of him protested against the frozen shower but he ignored it. It still wasn't cold enough to get him out of his dream.

"Glacio!" each individual water droplet turned to ice before hitting him. This was better. Through the mental connection, which Ginny had not been able to turn off, she felt the ice spray hitting Draco and winced.

"Must've been a bad one." She thought. Only too late did she realise that this had accidentally been sent to Draco.

"What did you say?" it was his silkiest whisper, the one that scared the shit out of everyone. It meant he was furious, absolutely livid. Through their connection Ginny felt the anger boiling up inside up but he pushed it down, always keeping it under control. Which made her even more scared. "How long have you been in my head Weasley?" Ginny gulped. She could've lied, but since they were connected mentally he would find out at some point, even if he did believe it now.

"It just wouldn't shut, the connection I mean, it wouldn't go away and I didn't want it open. I was asleep too!"

Draco's anger went cold. Easier to use cold anger. "Get. Your. Arse. Out. Of. My. Head." He hissed, too much anger to say or do anything else. Ginny finally managed to break the connection between them, wondering what on earth that dream had been about.