Ginny Weasley was not a morning person. There was not a chance in hell that Ginny would ever wake up before ten o'clock with a smile on her face, ready for a new day of school. It just wasn't going to happen. Not now, and not ever.

So it was somewhat surprising when she did.

"Morning Amy!" Ginny pulled back her curtains happily, smiling broadly as she sat down at the little vanity in the dorm to brush her hair. Amy pulled her hangings back a crack, frowning at the ridiculously cheery tone to her friend's voice and scrutinising Ginny suspiciously through bleary eyes.

"You." Amy pointed a finger through the hangings at Ginny, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Different. What?"

Amy was not at her most eloquent in the mornings. Nor her most tactful. Fortunately, Ginny just smiled and padded off to the bathroom, leaving Amy to sort out her head.

Ginny left the bathroom a few minutes later, still smiling, when she was suddenly aware of movement to her left before she was tackled to the floor. Too completely shocked to respond, she quickly found herself lying flat on the floor. She twisted her head around to see Amy who for some incomprehensible reason was now straddling her.

"Right," said Amy in an unusually business-like tone. "You are telling me what the fuck has been up lately. Now."
"Amy what the fuck?" Spluttered Ginny in incredulous confusion, wondering why on earth her friend had seen this as a good way to have a chat.
"Shit's been going weird with you for a while now, and every time we bring it up you just deny it or walk off, and we haven't pushed it cause you've looked liable to kill us lately. That is not happening now, so I want an explanation. I'm waiting."

Ginny sighed and tried to shift into a more comfortable position. "Fine." She thought for a moment, trying to work out a way to translate everything that had happened into something that wouldn't cause Amy to flip out.
"Come on, we haven't got all day, and your skinny-arse self isn't particularly comfortable to sit on." She prodded Ginny's hip bone then stared at her accusingly, as though Ginny was forcing her to pin her to the floor.
"Okay, okay fine." Ginny sighed. "You know my potions tutor?" Amy smirked. "Yeah, well he got pissed off with me a while back and he refused to tutor me anymore."
Amy's bright eyes widened with sympathy, though Ginny detected a spark of annoyance. Amy wasn't happy with the way that Ginny refused to tell her who this mystery man was, but thankfully she was a lot smarter than she looked and accepted Ginny's desire for privacy. "Oh Gin!" She began, but Ginny cut her off, continuing the story.
"Anyway, last night he sent me a letter and told me everything was okay and he's tutoring me again now." Ginny couldn't stop the smile creeping onto her face. Amy gave a small happy squeal, ecstatic and delighted for her friend, and leant down to give her a hug, not caring in the slightest that she was now squishing her completely.

"There." Amy jumped off Ginny and beamed. "All problems solved. Now get your beautiful behind into a skirt and we can go eat."
Ginny rolled her eyes, though she was still smiling, and got up of the floor, grumbling slightly as she was now rather dusty and she suspected to find bruises on her knees from being knocked to the floor. She did as she was told and got dressed quickly, quicker than usual as she was sure she could hear Amy's stomach rumbling.

They got down to the common room to find a rather irritated looking Colin who was not pleased at having to wait so long for his breakfast. "Hey Col, sorry we're down late." Apologised Amy.
"What the hell were you doing up there?" He asked, then paused, "Do I even want to know? But still, do it after breakfast next time."
"Oh cheer up Colin." Replied Amy bluntly, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug then kissing him on the cheek, leaving a small, sticky patch of clear lip gloss behind. She linked arms with the two of them and proceeded to half drag them through the portrait hole. Colin had looked in the mood to remain irritated, though after that he couldn't stop a small smile twisting his lips, even as he rolled his eyes and tried to wipe the gloss off his face.

Today was a potions-free day, something which Ginny was sorry for for the first time. Making arrangements to meet up with Draco (something which she absolutely had to do, it had been far too fucking long) was now a lot harder, especially as he wasn't even at breakfast. While she was scanning the Slytherin table for him she caught Blaise's eye and couldn't help but smile. He grinned back at her and sent her a wink, evidently almost as pleased as her by her decision to make up with Draco.

"Where's Draco?" She mouthed across the hall at him.
He rolled his eyes and jerked a thumb towards the entrance hall mouthing the words "Lazy shit." She smiled and restrained herself from laughing, rolling her eyes also and turning her attention back to her bacon.

Just because she didn't sit next to Draco, it didn't mean that she was alone in her lessons. No one else there was in her year, but Ginny prided herself on her ability to talk to people, no matter how difficult they were to converse with, so making friends with the nice Hufflepuff girl who she sat next to in transfiguration was only too easy. She had heard little of Hannah Abbot from her brother, only that she had succeeded in conjuring a flock of flamingos in their OWL practical and that this seemed to be a recurring talent of hers, so she wasn't entirely sure what to expect. But Hannah was a nice, sweet, girl, and, despite the occasional incident, one of the cleverer Hufflepuffs in her year.

Thank god her intelligence didn't come with overly much intuition or social awareness or it would've been much harder for Draco and Ginny to communicate. While McGonagall was writing something up on the board, Draco caught Ginny's attention and gave her the almost-true smile he used in public and began to signal her a message. He pointed at his eyes, then at her, then held up six fingers while mouthing "see you at six". She grinned and gave him a thumbs-up before quickly copying down what had just been written on the board.

As they left the lesson half an hour later, Ginny noticed a small scrap of paper left on Draco's desk and took care to walk past and pick it up on her way to the door. It had no names, times or directions, just in case she didn't pick it up, just the meeting place, "RoR".

Fffffffffffffffffffffffff

Blaise was bored. Again. He didn't begrudge Draco happiness, merlin knew he needed some, and nor would he ever have dreamed to suggest that Draco and Ginny shouldn't be together, but Draco being with Ginny generally meant not being with Blaise, and it was for that reason that Blaise was bored.

Still, he guessed there was no point wasting time, it had been a while since he had renewed his database of secrets. He was currently lying pretty much flat out on the best sofa in front of the fire, but with this in mind he sat up and leaned back against the armrest, cross-legged on the sofa, and listened. "Ausculto." He thought, casting the non-verbal spell to improve his hearing. Instantly, even the darkest and shadiest of the common room's corners were no longer out of earshot, and he spent a while dipping in and out of various different, and immensely private, conversations. His findings were nothing out of the ordinary, just some cheating girlfriends, a blackmailer or two (but, alas, not their secrets) and a one-night stand that had not stood very well. Nothing particularly useful, just enough to play with that people would know he wasn't losing his grip.
He soon tired of all those conversations, and after listening in to every single one happening in the room, and being thoroughly bored by all of them, he settled on the least dull one, a couple of third years discussing the quidditch scores.

And then, thanks to his amplified hearing, Blaise heard the sound of a pair of heels more than a little higher than the uniform code allowed making their way across the carpet towards him. Oh god. "Surdus," he muttered the counter-charm, not wanting his hearing increased for this conversation.

"Argh what do you want Pansy?" Blaise groaned, lying back flat against the sofa and covering his eyes with his hands. "If I have to say it again then I will, I'm still not interested!"
Pansy rolled her eyes and sighed in apparent amusement, perching on the sofa's arm rest. "Oh no Blaise, I gave up on you long ago sweetie," she said with a small, mocking smile, her voice low and smooth, a far cry from her usual wail. (It should be noted that the term 'sweetie' was not affectionate or an endearment, but merely habit on Pansy's part. She was so used to sweetening people up and using, ah, less-than-conventional methods to achieve her goals that her speech was now permanently peppered with such terms.) "And don't worry darling, I don't take it offensively," she ignored Blaise's comment of 'shame' and continued, "It's not like you've chosen anyone else instead of me,"
"Or maybe you just put me off." She ignored that too.
"Because now I come to think of it," She said in an imitation of complex thought, "I don't think anyone has actually seen you with a girl, ever." Blaise stiffened imperceptibly, and although she couldn't have noticed she seemed to be smirking at him. "Don't worry sweetie," she almost whispered softly, leaning in a little, "It's still Draco I want so you're all safe." Her lips curved upwards in a slightly sardonic smirk.

Blaise didn't want to consider the implications of that last statement. He had always been sure there was more to Pansy than she let on, that she was smarter than anyone thought, and already he was now entirely sure he was correct. This Pansy was not the usual one, this one was not the spoiled little girl who clung to arms like a besotted little kneazle. This one was strong, this one was powerful, this one was a force to be reckoned with and an opponent you couldn't hope to beat. Blaise knew Pansy and he knew power, and never before had the two been so similar. But even so, she couldn't know. No one knew. 'No, you're being stupid,' he thought, 'she doesn't have a clue, stop being so paranoid.'

There was a pause, far longer than Blaise was comfortable with and he kicked himself for allowing it to go on for so long. "So what are you talking to me for?" He asked, immensely thankful that he managed to sound entirely unfazed.
"Because Draco's not playing ball sweetie, and I want to know why."
"And you think I have something to do with it?" He asked with a sceptically raised brow.
She laughed, and despite her less-than-attractive appearance, the sound managed to be somehow alluring and surprisingly beautiful. "No silly," She said, almost playfully, her voice still soft and low, "I think, no scratch that, I know you know why."

Blaise raised an eyebrow again. "And what makes you think that? As far as I know Draco is just continuing to be disgusted by you."
She gave that laugh again, tilting her head back a little to allow that sound to crash softly across the common room. "You can't fool me Blaise darling, you're the guy with the dirt, you know everything about everyone. You know this."

"Oh yeah," Blaise said slowly, perking up, un-sprawling and sitting up properly, twisting to face the fire and turning to her, a smile spreading across his face, "I do know everything about everyone, including you and the fact that you..."
In one swift, fluid motion she slipped off the arm of the sofa and slid onto his lap, pressing a finger softly to his lips and silencing him with a small smirk. Looking at her now, Blaise was beginning to understand how anyone had ever thought her attractive. True, her face was damn near hideous, but there was just... something about her, something that that Blaise was only seeing for the first time now. Sure, she had devoted much time to him in the past (much to his disgust) but never before had he been the focus of her undivided attention so only now was he realising the fully powerful and almost hypnotic effect she had.

Fortunately he was pulled out of his reverie as she began to talk again. "I know I'm a girl of many secrets, but that doesn't mean they have to become common knowledge." She said reproachfully in a tone of mock hurt. "Besides," her voice dropped to a whisper, "They'd lose their value if you started spreading them around." A slow, alluring smile spread across her face.

"You know," replied Blaise, matching her tone, "For a girl who says she's not trying to seduce me, you seem to be trying awfully hard to do just that." He gave her a small smirk, one which she returned coyly as she slid off his lap.
"You may have a point there darling." She conceded with a smile, "But that still doesn't change a thing. I want to know what's up with Draco and you better come up with some answers." She leaned up to kiss his cheek softly as she left, leaving a large dark scarlet lipstick mark behind. Despite the obvious threat, her voice had retained the slightly playful tone it had held throughout their conversation, though with a slightly dangerous edge which Blaise did not want to invoke.