The Dragon Rebels

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

(A/N: Okay, first off – so sorry about the delay – second, there is a bit O' language in this chapter, which my Mom would have called vulgar and offensive, but I'm a big girl now, and can use all the 'vulgar and offensive' words I want. Heh, heh. Anyway, you've been warned m'dears. -)

Chapter Seven -The Reluctant Dragon


"The Opaleye is a native of New Zealand - "

Ginny listened with half an ear as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher droned on, reading from a book.

"- Perhaps the most beautiful type of dragon, it has iridescent, pearly scales and multi – colored, pupil – less eyes, hence it's name."

Opal eyes. Draco had had eyes like that, Ginny thought idly.

"If you ever do get the opportunity to see an Antipodean Opaleye, watch it, study it…appreciate its beauty – but do it from afar. They are fierce, beautiful creatures –"

Ginny barely kept a snort from escaping. Draco had to be related.

The book was giving sound advice.

'It's really too bad I'm too stupid to take it,' she thought to herself, a small smile tugging at her lips, as she raised a hand to touch the flat object that was the pendant laying against her chest beneath her robes…


"Draco Malfoy!"

Draco snapped his head up, doing his best to put a fully awake, cognizant expression on his face. He blinked, and realized he'd fallen asleep during Transfigurations.

Not that he really thought it was any big deal, the class was boring him to death, and if he fell asleep in it, well whose fault was it, really? The teachers'…but he didn't expect Professor McGonagall would see the point in his deductive reasoning.

"Contrary to what you might think, Mr. Malfoy, my class is not your opportunity to catch up on your beauty sleep! Wake up! And five points from Slytherin."

Draco sent a black look at the woman's back, and then his eyes shot over to Potter and Weasley as they snorted into their hands.

He crossed his arms over his chest and slid back down in his seat, consoling himself with the fact that the two boys would be getting a rather nasty shock, soon, no doubt.


"Why is it, whenever I'm having fun, it's considered wrong?" Ginny snapped to herself out loud as she dragged herself off the Quidditch pitch early that evening.

"You know, I was just thinking the exact same thing," came a lazy drawl from nearby.

Ginny turned to face Draco, again feeling a fleeting embarrassment at the state he was seeing her in.

"Why do you keep popping up when I'm looking my absolute worst?" Ginny snapped again, still irritated from the comments her brother had been throwing at her earlier. She'd been so angry, she'd stayed out practicing until the others had all left, fearing her ability to control herself if she managed to get within a five foot radius of her older brother's throat.

"Oh, I don't think this is your absolute worst – in fact, I remember this time when –"

Ginny shot the smirking boy a look and stopped in mid – sentence, looking amused.

She ran her eyes over him, noting the absence of his practice robes. He still wore his school robes, though they were open, and revealed the black t – shirt and ragged blue denims he wore beneath. He had his hands jammed into his pockets, which of course pulled the nearly threadbare cloth tight across his – well, drew her attention down to –

Flustered, Ginny ripped her eyes away, only to hear him laugh softly.

"I have to go – Hagrid is expecting me," she said after a moment, and then asked, "Aren't you practicing tonight?"

The boy shrugged carelessly. "I canceled it – I figured I'd spend some time with you."

Ginny's tongue-tied itself into some pretty impressive knots before she could speak. Her heart had melted, and was lying in a squashy, panting lump somewhere in the pit of her stomach.

"Oh…w – well, I was just going to help him to get some extra credit for Care of Magical Creatures…I'd, er…invite you, but I really don't think you'd care for what I'm supposed to do."

Draco sauntered forward, and she dropped her eyes as she often found herself doing, to stare at the gleaming silver serpent entwined on it's braided leather cord resting against his throat.

"Oh, I don't know…you'd be surprised what I'd do to have an excuse to spend more time around you..."

Ginny's heart was now lying somewhere in the vicinity of his feet. She took a deep breath as his hands left his pockets, and lifted to the now loose, messy braid hanging over her shoulder.

He worked the tie on its end out, and then pulled apart the tangled plaits.

Her head was bent, and she was feeling incredibly sleepy and relaxed by the time he'd finished combing her hair out with his fingers, arranging it across her shoulders and down her back to his satisfaction before pulling his hands away.

"You should always wear your hair down, Ginny…it's beautiful." He whispered near her ear, making her skin tingle.

"A-all right," she managed to croak, ignoring the fact that she'd been threatening to cut off the annoying mass to Hermione not two days before.

She closed her eyes as he lowered his head to hers, and waited expectantly for his kiss.

Ginny wanted nothing more in that moment than for him to pick her up and take her off somewhere private so they could –

"Fuck!"

Her eyes flew open, and she gasped, startled by the harshly voiced word. "What?" She'd been going to think, 'so they could 'be alone'…

Draco took a step back from her, his lips twisted into a wry, albeit frustrated smile. "Sorry – I just couldn't help noticing, we seem to have a bit of a field invasion on our hands."

Ginny blinked, still feeling warm and fuzzy and turned her head to see Ron stalking towards them, a regretful, more than slightly annoyed looking Hermione at his back.

Ginny rolled her eyes, feeling the desperate need to growl. Well, there went the fuzziness.

She narrowed her eyes, and reached out, taking Draco's hand. "Come on – let's go before he gets here. I may be forced to murder the nosy git if he comes close enough to for me to wrap my hands around his throat."


Ginny plunged her gloved hands deep into the soft soil in the small garden near Hagrid's hut, blowing a strand of red hair out of her eyes.

"Ah – ha!"

She wrinkled her nose as she gave a great tug and pulled out a wiggling mass of Flobberworms from the ground, and dropped them into the bucket near her feet.

"Well, I think that's enough," she sighed, and stripped off her gloves, looking into the squirming mass of worms with distaste.

Draco snorted from beside her, and pulled off his own gloves. "Extra credit? Right. Feels more like a bloody detention."

Ginny looked over at him, trying not to laugh. "You've got dirt on your nose."

He made a disgusted noise and lifted his hand to rub at it.

"No, you've missed it – hold still." She used the cuff of her shirt to wipe the smudge of dirt away, and then grinned at him.

"You know, I was expecting to hear you say something cutting about not being surprised to see a Weasley digging in the dirt," she finally said, and turned away to pick up the heavy bucket, and carry it up to the storage area Hagrid had waiting for the worms, behind his hut.

"Well, I could have – but I didn't, did I?"

Draco's fingers brushed hers as he tugged the handle from her grip, and carried it through the door.

He reappeared a moment later, and she was still staring at him.

"What?"

"What did you do with Malfoy?"

"Stop it, " he muttered, actually looking embarrassed.

"I'm only teasing you. It's okay to laugh, you know."

Draco sighed. "Are we done here? It's getting dark."

Ginny tried to push away the disappointment she felt, and started to walk away. "Yes…I guess we'd better get back up to the castle – "

He caught her arm, tugging her back. "You're kidding, right? There's no way I'm letting you go that easily."

She stopped, and frowned up at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

He smiled at her, but not in a nice way.

"C'mon, Gin – you don't really want to go back up there right now, do you?"

She swallowed at the soft, cajoling purr in his voice, and found herself shaking her head.

He took her hand, twining their fingers together, and took a few steps, giving her a gentle tug.

"Come walk down by the lake with me, and then I'll let you go."

Ginny walked after him, stooping to retrieve her discarded Quidditch robes. "Promise?"

She'd meant it as a joke, but she got a nasty chill when he turned to look back at her, his eyes reflecting the fiery colors of the twilight sky.

"Sorry, Gin – I don't make promises."

She wasn't very surprised when they reached the trees near the edge of the lake, to have him suddenly stop and pull her into his arms.

She wanted to tell him to stop, to point out the fact that she positively filthy, and he couldn't possibly have any interest in her, but all she could do was lean into him and hold onto his shirtfront for dear life.

Draco discovered he'd never wanted anything so badly in his entire life as he wanted Ginny Weasley just then.

It wasn't her looks, or even her willingness, really, that was appealing to him so. It was what she always revealed about herself as he kissed her. He'd had plenty of women, so most of the time it was old hat with him – but everything seemed new when it came to Ginny.

He deepened the kiss, suppressing a satisfied smile when she went limp against him, her breath sighing against his cheek.

This was what he loved about her – there was no deceit, no teasing, or pretty show of reluctance…her emotions were real, everything about her was real…

Loved.

Warning bells clashed insanely inside his head, and he tore his mouth from hers to stare down at her beautiful, flushed face, and closed eyes in dismay.

Fate wouldn't be so cruel…

He looked at her again, clenching his jaw against the sudden, unfamiliar roil of emotions in his chest.

She opened her eyes slowly, after a moment, her velvety brown eyes slightly unfocused, and holding an unspoken question.

He tried to reason with himself, tried to remain cold and calm against the fierce surge of longing coursing through him.

"Draco,"

He stared into Ginny's eyes as she flattened her small, warm hands against his chest, and stroked her palms slowly, innocently down his sides to clasp her arms around his slim waist.

Draco swallowed a groan as she pressed her hips against him, innocently. He wanted desperately to take what she was offering, but…

He extracted himself from her slowly, taking a clumsy step back.

She frowned at him, her hands moving to clasp her upper arms.

"Draco? What is it? What's wrong?"

"Go away, Ginny."

She blinked at him, her lips parting slightly. "What?"

"Are you deaf? I told you to go away," he snapped, his words harsher then he intended.

She bit her lip, and shook her head. "No."

"Damn it, Ginny – you have no idea what I'm contemplating right now…you should be running, screaming."

"I'm not going anywhere, Draco."

He stepped back up to her and gave her a hard, deep kiss, venting his frustration on her lips.

"Afraid yet?"

She shook her head. "I think you're the one who's afraid, Draco."

"I'm afraid for you, right now, to be quite honest!" He snarled, his voice raising.

"I'm not scared of you."

"Then you should be." Draco raked a hand through his hair and cut his eyes at her threateningly when she didn't immediately move.

"Go back to the castle, Ginny."

"No!"

"My God, you're a pain in the ass!" He found himself roaring in pure aggravation.

"Stop shouting at me!" She yelled back, her expression fierce, her face flushed. "I get quite enough of that from Ron, already!"

Draco took a deep breath.

"Don't you ever get tired of fighting to stay alone?"

He frowned at her through his hair. "What are you going on about?"

She walked forward and grabbed his hand, shaking her head at him.

"You think you're the only one who's been thrown off by this? What do you think I did when I finally admitted to myself that I loved you? I didn't run about jumping for joy, you know!"

"What – oh, no, I'm not in love with you…you can get that thought right out of your head, Weasel – "

"Reverting to your old ways, I see! It was fine when it was just a game to you, wasn't it? But now, when you start realizing you have feelings for me –"

"Ginny-"

"No, you hate the fact that you just realized that you're just as human as the rest of us, don't you?"

"The only thing I'm feeling for you right would be better described with you preferably on your back, so if you know what's good for you, you'll bloody well lay off!"

Draco fisted his hands, watching some alarm at last cross her pretty features, her hand coming up to touch her throat.

He cursed and stalked past her before he gave into temptation, furious that everything had backfired on him so badly.

"If you walk away from this right now, Draco, I'll hate you forever," she said from behind him.

He paused only long enough to look back at her over his shoulder.

"I think I'll get over it," he replied with a smirk that he knew would infuriate her, and walked away.


(A/N: Thanks for the reviews and e–mails, guys – Sorry about the wait, again. I hope you liked this one! Thanks again! Luv ya! Lee)