Chapter Two

I recruited Neville for my second in command. I wanted him to be first, but he protested that he was planning a few things that were likely to get him in trouble so it was best if we had a different leader, in case he became incarcerated. His words, not mine.

It was a little daunting, that first meeting. We met in the Room of Requirement, but remembering fourth year, I decided to try for some innovations. The meeting had over thirty students and I realized I wasn't going to be able to hide the fact that they were all going to the same hall and disappearing.

A couple of the students were practicing for their apparation tests and that gave me an idea. You could Apparate inside the Room of Requirement but you couldn't Apparate anywhere else in the school. Naturally that wasn't much help, but then I remembered my Charms book. I was always really good at charms and after the first meeting I sat down and began to make Portkeys.

Mostly I used paintings and small knicknacks from around the castle. Neville and Luna helped me try all the Portkeys. All of them took us to the Room of Requirements. It was a pretty nifty idea and Neville was impressed.

At the second meeting I introduced all of the Portkeys. A few girls asked if I could show them how to make those. Since it was a pretty simple spell, I agreed.

The weeks chased each other by. Pretty soon we had almost everyone from Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. The majority of our teachers managed to keep us up to date on our spells and such, but there was so much more to learn. Defense Against the Dark Arts became a joke, with all of our work being paper work.

Quidditch started. Snape couldn't stop it unless students were in danger and the DA was keeping pretty much everyone up on their spells.

Quidditch was a mixed blessing for me. For starters, I was one of the only returning members and since McGonnagall knew about the DA, she appointed me the Team Captain. As If I didn't have enough going on.

Still Quidditch was pretty mindless most of the time for me, so I spent most of that time working out DA problems in my head. The biggest problem was Daphne Greengrass.

Daphne approached me a week after school started.

"Ginny?"

I had been playing Quidditch and was cooling down in the locker room which meant we were both alone.

"Uh.. Hi."

She approached me, wringing her hands nervously. Daphne was also a Quidditch girl, playing beater for Slytherin.

"Um... look, you have to promise not to tell anyone I did this," She said, looking fierce for a moment.

I swallowed hard and nodded. "Um... 'kay."

"I... I want some help with Defense Against the Dark Arts."

I blinked at her, shocked at the turn of events. "Okay... what brought this on?"

Daphne sighed and sat down on the bench beside me. Not for the first time, I saw her as a human and not a Slytherin bitch.

"Snape isn't teaching us anything. And wars have this way of... getting out of control. Sooner or later he's not going be satisfied with just the muggles and muggle borns. Soon it will be the Muggle Lovers. Then anyone who's ever spoken with a Muggle. Sooner or later, Voldemort's going to dig deep enough into all of our closets and find a skeleton. He's not going to be happy until he's better than everyone else. And... I don't want to wait til that decision's been made to wipe me out to start fighting."

"The best defense is a good offense," I muttered.

She caught it and smiled. "So, now you know."

"Indeed."

I paused, thinking things through. "I can't have you come to the official meetings. But I can set up private meetings. We can discuss what you want to cover and go from there. I will warn you, there are some areas I am not the best at, but I can probably convince some of the others to help you out."

She smiled gratefully. "Thanks."

888

I'm sure you have some idea by now what my year was looking like. I accepted what I had on my plate. I wasn't terribly happy with it. I never really liked being the center of attention. I'm like Harry in that regard. But like it or not, I had attention.

Unfortunately, the one person whose attention I really wanted, was preoccupied. Draco Malfoy was busy with Ehnola Gray.

I hated Ehnola.

Daphne and I had decided we would practice her long distance spells this week. I wasn't the best at them either and I saw it as an excuse to practice myself. I had used a few spells Professor McGonnagall had taught me for Quidditch. They were designed to keep others from watching your practice. It worked just as well for any activity.

Daphne stood at one end of the Quidditch field and I stood at the other.

"Try to disarm me, Daphne," I shouted out to her. I saw her nod and brandish her wand.

Long distance casting wasn't anything special. Anyone could cast a spell as far as they could see. The problem was that the spells were easy to see coming. Even the Killing Curse could be dodged if you had enough distance. I had never seen it done myself, but there were reports of it going back centuries.

Daphne threw a spell at me and I dodged it, recognizing the silvery blue glow of the spell. Each spell had a slightly different color. I knew most of them but there were still a few that stumped me. I aimed a tickling spell at Daphne. She managed to dodge it and tried the disarming spell again.

We kept it up for half an hour, drawing closer as the time progressed. Daphne finally misjudged one spell and fell to the ground laughing. I released her and we decided to call it a night.

"Get some sleep. You want to run this again tomorrow?" I asked, slipping into my robe again.

"Yeah, and the Patronis Charm as well."

I nodded. "Alright."

I stretched, gathering the rest of my things. Looking at my watch I decided I had time to take a bath and have the bath to myself. Most of the other prefects would be running drills with Neville and the Slytherin prefects would be down in their own bathroom.

I made my way up to the bathroom on the second floor. I slipped in, undressing and soaking in the bath. It felt great to just relax for a few minutes if nothing else. I rolled my head, letting the stress ease away.

Finally I sighed, getting up out of the bath.

I was reaching for my towel when the door to the bath area opened, admitting Draco Malfoy. He had a towel wrapped around his waist and the steam was already glistening off his fantastic chest and abdomen. I stared at him for a moment before it sunk in that he could probably see me. More importantly, he could see everything from my hips up, everything that was out of the soapy water.

My jaw dropped and I screamed.

"Oh my GOD! Get out get OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!"

He winced and backed out. I grabbed the towel and wrapped it around me before storming out into the main part of the bathroom where Draco stood.

He was trying not to look at me and I couldn't help but wonder what he thought of what he had seen.

"What the fuck are you doing in here?" I snarled.

"Taking a bath, Weasley. Last I checked it wasn't against any rules."

"In the girl's bath?"

He blinked then looked past me to the sign on the door. I knew it said Ladies.

"Shit."

He managed a shamefaced look. I crossed my arms over my now towel covered chest. We were silent for a few minutes and I found myself sneaking glimpses of his legs. He had very fine hair and it looked like he had none. I suddenly wanted to embarrass him. It was just so damn tempting.

"Well?" I demanded.

He looked up at me, crinkling that perfect brow in a rare display of emotion. "Beg pardon Weasley?"

"Well, you saw my goods."

He suddenly got what Charlie described as 'a deer in the headlights' type look. He backed up. "Uh... No I didn't..."

I was having fun. I sidled towards him, swinging my hips seductively.

His eyes went even wider.

"Oh, but I think you did," I purred, placing a hand on his chest.

"I only saw your breasts!" He shouted suddenly.

I took my hand off him, cocking my head. His face relaxed and I figured he had something planned.

"Was that not enough?" I asked calmly.

"Well, you don't have much more to see of me," he drawled. "In order for me to take off my towel, I would have to see the rest of you."

I let my lips curl into a catish smile. "Well then."

I reached down to the edge of my towel, sliding it up my thigh towards my hips. Draco's eyes went wider than I thought possible and he gasped some excuse, running from the room in nothing more than his towel.

Once I was certain he was gone, I fell to the marble floor, laughing my ass off.

(A/N: Yea! I love working on this story. I do love it so.