Harry was sitting in the common room alone Tuesday evening. He twitched his head when he heard a noise coming down the girl's stairway. Small feet tapped on each stair quickly before emerging around the corner and freezing at the sight of him,

"Damn," Jess's voice whispered harshly from beneath her cloak,

"What you doing up so late Jess?" he wasn't really familiar enough with her to use her first name so casually but he was obstinate enough to believe that every girl was in love with him.

"I could ask the same thing of you Potter," she emphasized his name before heading towards the portrait hole,

"Jessica I really must insist," Harry stood up and grabbed her arm,

"Let go of me Potter," her voice lowered dangerously as she reached for her wand, "Where I go at night is none of your business,"

"I think you'll find that it is, one of my best friends is Head Girl," the threat sounded lame coming from him,

"Go ahead, snitch on me to Hermione, I'll explain this to her and she'll get mad at you for trying to stop me," Jess pulled her arm out of his grasp with a huff and stormed towards the exit once more. Harry gave a huff of his own; determined to tell Hermione in the morning just in case Jessica was bluffing. But in the meantime, he smirked to himself as he pulled out his invisibility cloak and followed the goddess of a girl.

She moved ghost like down the corridors. Harry had to admire her stealth; he needed the cloak and years of practice to remain reasonably un-noticed but this girl was no more than a shadow. She went across the length of the school and down every set of stairs they came across until reaching the dungeon room.

"Morality," Harry heard her whisper to the empty piece of wall that he recognized as the entrance to the Slytherin common room, Merlin, what's a good girl like Jessica doing down here? And how does she know the password? Pulling the cloak closer around himself he followed the elusive girl into the dungeon and immediately began hearing voices,

"Thank you for coming Jessica; I truly do appreciate this," Harry recognized Blaise Zabini's silky tone,

"Hey, if I'd refused I would have been curious for the rest of my life,"

"I take it you agree that our friends are making a mistake," he paused on the word friends, as if anyone who made that sort of mistake couldn't possibly be closer than a distance associate,

"I do agree, Ginny and Draco aren't meant for each other, I mean she seems so charmed by all the flowers he keeps sending, not to mention the dress at the Halloween Ball, and all those midnight meetings, but I think that she'll be happier with Terry,"

"Mhmm, not that I particularly care about Weasley's happiness but I do care that Draco is making a mistake, we are in agreement then that they need to be separated?" separated? Since when were they together? And what is this about midnight meetings? Merlin, Malfoy did the rose petals and golden owls yesterday! He had trouble not gasping aloud and alerting the others to his presence.

"I thought you had a plan Zabini and that I wasn't sneaking out of my dorm just to discuss out mutual distaste,"

"I do have a plan; you told me that Ginny wants to keep everything a secret correct? And that's why Draco sent the note yesterday, because he wanted to keep other hands away from his girl," Jessica nodded, "Good, then all I need to do is convince Draco that having their relationship out in the open would be better, you know, get him to tell everyone, naturally Weasley will be…displeased, his brothers and parents will get upset, and all you have to do it make sure that Boot is there to comfort her," Jessica nodded blandly as Blaise spoke. She closed her eyes and debated with herself, was it worth it? Would Ginny be mad at her? No of course she wouldn't be mad, Ginny wouldn't have any idea that she was in on this and besides it wasn't like she was hurting her, she was doing this for Ginny's own good, right?

Harry stood shell-shocked; Ginny's secret boyfriend was Malfoy? That was seriously sick. Oh well, Jessica was doing the right thing and it made him like her even more. He watched the two shake hands, and then kept his eyes on Zabini as Jessica left. The boy put his head in his hands before looking towards a door,

"Are you happy now Malfoy?"

"Not really, but thank you anyway,"

"I still don't get it, how does this benefit you? I mean really, Jessica is just going to go off and try to convince Boot to keep going after little Red, how does that help your stupid little relationship?" Harry head Malfoy sigh,

"Learn to think four steps ahead Blaise, think about it, Ginny doesn't want Boot anymore, of course she's still attracted to him, but if he starts being pushy and suffocates her, it'll stop that attraction, she'll be annoyed by him,"

"And all for the blood-traitor," the sentence was hardly over before Draco punched Blaise,

"Do not call her that, she is the purest person I've ever met," well there was another shocker, it almost seemed like Malfoy actually cared about Ginny. But that couldn't be right; Malfoy was a heartless snake.

Wednesday morning Harry waited to walk with Hermione to the Great Hall for breakfast,

"Hermione, do you know where Jessica was last night?" she gave him a calculating look,

"She told me that she was doing something to help Ginny, I didn't see the harm, Jess is a smart girl, and honestly Harry, how many times do I ignore it when you roam the hallways at night like some kind of perverted predator?" the look she gave him was one of cold amusement, "just let it go Harry,"

"No, because you misunderstood her Hermione," Harry looked over his shoulder to make sure they were alone, "Did you have any idea that Ginny's secret boyfriend is Malfoy?" Hermione nodded and rolled her eyes,

"I found out in Monday's potions class, Terry was getting in Malfoy's face but then Malfoy actually stood up for Ginny, so I've decided to give him a chance,"

"Okay well, anyway, Jessica thought that she was meeting with Blaise to plan out how to get Ginny and Malfoy to break up, but it turns out that was Malfoy's plan because he wants Ginny to get mad at Terry, who was part of the plan, so that way she won't be attracted to anyone but him," Harry said this all very quickly and quietly, if he had been talking to Ron he would have been forced to repeat himself several times, but Hermione was faster than that,

"He's still manipulating her for his own good, he's jealous, well the jealousy is good, it means I was right to give him a chance, I guess he just can't get over his Slytherin ways, hmmm," Hermione stopped talking for a few steps to allow some Hufflepuffs to pass them, "Okay Harry, this is what is going to happen, you are not going to tell anyone, especially not Ronald, Ginny has a right to her privacy and honestly Ronald is far to nosy about her love-life, you are going to start trying to be polite to Malfoy, as am I, then we are going to wait and see how this all plays out, it mightn't be a bad idea for you to get a little closer to Jessica as well, but I don't think you'll mind that will you," Hermione gave him a wink before flouncing ahead of him to speak with a Professor about something that was probably dreadfully boring.

For now, he would do what Hermione said. She was smart after all and she knew Ginny better than anyone.

Ginny adored Wednesdays. Not only was the week half over but she had a free period with Draco; which were proving to be more and more fun the more they got to know each other.

"So, how's Terry?" he asked in a moment of silence, they were in a back corner of the library sharing a window seat.

"Terry is a wonderful as ever, but you needn't worry about him, I promised that I would keep my lips for you and I meant it," she looked away from her book and towards his face, she could feel his body vibrate with laughter,

"Good," he gave her a peck, not risking anything more in such a public place,

"He has been a little more determined lately, you see he knows about you and me and he doesn't think it's such a good idea, he's convinced that you're going to hurt me soon, but I know you better than that, I know that you absolutely adore me," she nuzzled into him and continued reading her book. He was warm, it was a sort of magic that all boys had; an inbuilt warmth than never went away, even on the coldest of days.

After another few minutes of happy silence he spoke again,

"What will you be doing over the holidays?" he was moving his thumb in circles over her leg and it kept her distracted for a while,

"I'll go home to be with my family, we'll bake cookies, make snowmen, I'll read Pride and Prejudice, Lindy will send me another Shakespeare book, I'll play Quidditch with the boys and whip them all soundly, then perhaps Remus and Tonks will come over for Christmas dinner," she sighed happily at the thought of being able to spend so much time with her loved ones. Draco only wished he had that sort of family. A warm family instead of his cold father and scared mother,

"Amidst all of that would you have time to sneak away to a formal party?" he bit his lip as she looked up at him, he couldn't resisted asking, it would be impossible to spend the entire holiday without her warmth and light,

"If I have a good alibi for my family, then I don't see any problem," she smiled at him, "but I don't think I have anything to wear to your sort of formal party," he ticked her at that one,

"I'll find you something new, promise, just say you'll come," she squirmed in his arms but upon further tickling agreed.

"Good, because I think my mother will just adore you,"

"WHAT? No, you can't do that I forbid it, I told you I wasn't going to be ready to tell anyone for a long time, okay, and you said you were okay with that," she stopped when she realized that Draco was laughing at her,

"My mother is different, she'll adore you and fawn over you and help you with your makeup, but she won't tell anyone about you and she won't even remember your name because she doesn't think that I'll manage to keep up a relationship, is that okay? And my father won't be there alright, besides my mother isn't that bad, she can be a little proud sometimes but all in all she's not as bad as my father, she isn't even really fussed with the whole pure-blood thing. Believe it or not she and my father were the product of an arranged marriage, mother wasn't happy at all, she wanted what her sister had, she was in love with a half-blood you see…" he trailed off when he realized that Ginny's nose was back in her book and that she wasn't really listening anymore. He shocked her back into reality with a kiss to the head,

"What was that for," she looked up curiously,

"You weren't listening to me," he said simply, but put a pout on his face,

"Then I didn't deserve the kiss, but for your information I was listening, I've gotten very good at doing two things at once you know, living with six brothers one must learn to both listen and read or else one will never get any reading done, but if you don't listen you'll regret it later when you realize you've promised to do the dishes for them," he laughed good naturedly,

"Fair enough Red, that's the bell, I see you later," with one last kiss they parted ways for the day.

With only a week and half left before holidays Draco had ceased his worrying. Terry had been taken care of and he was falling more for Ginny with every hour they spent together, all he could hope for was that she felt the same.