Disclaimer: The usual drill. I don't own any of it. The characters I just like to borrow and bend to my will on occasion. The setting is part of the marvellous world someone else created. And even some of the plot points never belonged to me, but are borrowed, and worked around.

Ice

I had been looking around for a while, to find the best place to put the poison so that Dumbledore would actually drink it. I didn't want it to go to the wrong person again, after all. Since it was nearly Christmas, I had decided that the best way to give him the poison was as a gift. There was no way I could risk giving it to him from me. That would be the stupidest thing I could think of. No, I had to find a wine, or pumpkin juice, or something, that someone else was planning to give to him, and slip the poison in that. I'd practised doing it already, with different bottles, and water. Just to make sure I was able to get the lid on right so there was no way someone could tell it was tampered with.

It was the last day of school by the time I had my plan sorted. Madame Rosmerta informed me of Slughorn buying a special and expensive bottle of mead, with the intent to give it to Dumbledore. That sounded perfect. If there was one person I could trust to try and ingratiate himself on Dumbledore with splendid gifts, it was Slughorn. And if he was blamed for the poison, so much the better. He was hardly my favourite Professor, after all, and he certainly was no Snape.

I was staying at Hogwarts for the holidays, though a lot of people weren't. People including Ginny. Ever since the kiss we'd shared, she'd been even harder to get out of my mind than she had been previously. It was utterly impossible. My resolve had stayed with me, and I'd managed not to take Pansy, or any other girl to my bed. I'd had to give myself relief a few times, drawing on memories of the kiss, but for the first time since I'd started thinking about her, I was hopeful. After all, she had kissed me. Even if it had been the other way around, she had kissed me passionately. She'd been trying to get deeper into the kiss, just as I had. There was no way she'd be able to deny that.

She had been avoiding me a lot since the kiss, but that didn't get me down. The fact that she'd kissed me at all was a miracle. And I was determined that I was going to get a lot more than that one kiss out of her before I was done. For, finally, I had given in. I loved her. It didn't matter how, or how much she may detest me at times, or all the reasons I had for disliking her. Somehow, I loved her. And I was going to do everything I could to make her love me too.

I'd been eager to watch the second Quidditch match. It was Ravenclaw vs Gryffindor, so I didn't have to take part. I was in the stands, watching the Gryffindor door closely as they came out of the changing rooms. My heart sunk when I saw the broom that Ginny had been holding. It was the old Sweeper that she'd had since the beginning of the year. What had happened to the Lightning? That was when I realised the problem. She'd said that apparently Voldemort was targeting her again, even though there was no way that he could get into her dreams. She must have thought that he had sent her the broom. I wish I could tell her that it had been me, but I knew she wouldn't trust it any better.

Father had been outraged when I'd purchased that broom.. All he'd seen was a sizeable chunk of our fortune missing from Gringotts. Thankfully Mother stepped in, and claimed that she'd purchased a series of new dresses. She was always good for me. She had stepped in, in the past, and taken a lot of the beatings that had been meant for me. They'd worked more effectively than they ever had when Father had just beat me. Mother would hire a healer to fix me up when he healed me, and I'd just continue to do whatever it had been that had annoyed him in the first place. When he beat Mother, however, I would heal her when he was finished with her. Sometimes he'd left her on the brink of death. But still she never left him.

I could easily have been packed, and ready to spend my Christmas break with her. After all, it wasn't like my Father was ever going to interrupt much. He was always far to busy kissing Voldemort's arse, lately, to pay any attention to me. Though if I'd had news as bad as me flunking my OWLs, there was no chance I would have been able to get away without a beating. More likely, he would beat both of us. Perhaps, as the last time I had angered him, he would even break my wand before beating my Mother. So I had no way to heal her when he was finished wit her. He had bought me a new wand soon after, but Mother had still had to live with broken ribs, a black eye, and other injuries, besides, until then. That had been after I'd refused to kill Dumbledore, and get my mark.

But I was a coward. I couldn't bear to see the marks that Father had said he'd left on her, after my failed attempt. I knew that if I healed those marks, he would do worse to her, until finally I gave up on healing her. Instead of going home, and being faced with that heartbreaking choice, I stayed at Hogwarts, where I wouldn't have to see my Mother beaten and cowed, again.

It was the night of Slughorn's party when I put my plan into action. It seemed like the best time. The only time that he'd definitely be out of his room, and there would be almost no chance that anyone could catch me. Anyone who was anyone was going to be at the party, after all. Well, everyone but me. I hadn't been invited. I could have asked Blaise to invite me, but that would have been detrimental to my plan. I would have had to show up at the party, and then it would have been difficult to go missing. Well, I assumed that was the case. I was probably going to be so much of a nobody there, since I wasn't a part of the Slug Club, that I could easily slip out and back in, having done my task. But I couldn't risk it. Better no one know I was anywhere near there.

I judged that the party should have been in full swing before I made my move. I found his room easily, and then it wasn't hard to cast a summoning charm. I took a sip of the mead, so it would look the exact same as it had before. Careful to pour in only as much poison as I had sipped mead, I redid the cork, and the seal, perfectly, before returning the bottle.

With that load off of my chest, I quickly slipped out of Slughorn's room, only to bump into Filch. Thankfully, I had bumped into his back, and he had no idea of what room I'd just come out of. He gripped me by the back of my neck in a way that was oddly cruel, and he dragged me to the party. There I was made a spectacle of, as he informed everyone that I had been trying to sneak in. There was nowhere for me to hide, everyone's eyes were on me. For the most part I met them with a challenge, until I saw a soft brown set.

I couldn't help but stare. Her freckles were gone, most likely spelled for the night. Her skin shone radiantly, and seemed to glow against the silver of the dress she was wearing. There was no way she could have afforded such a designer looking dress. No, she must have spelled it. Mother liked to design dresses when she could. It was what she had done before she had married, and sometimes she still liked to design them, even if she couldn't make and sell them. It looked just like something she would design.

Her body had filled out over the past couple of months. It made me really appreciate just how much she must have been starving herself before. Starving herself, or unable to eat. I couldn't blame her. Being face to face with Voldemort had churned my stomach, and still did. If she had been confronted by him every night, no wonder she hadn't been eating much.

Somehow the most shocking thing was that she wasn't wearing her glasses. But no, she must have contacts, or something. That had to be it. Come tomorrow when she was on her way home, surely, she'd be wearing her glasses again. For now, though, I was glad that she wasn't. They would have taken away from the magnificent, stylish, look that she presented.

"Oh, well, if he was that desperate to attend, I can't see why we should kick him out." I tore my eyes away from the flamehaired beauty for long enough to glower at Slughorn. I didn't need his pity.

"Let go of me." I demanded, shrugging my shoulders to get rid of Filch's filthy hand. "Thanks, but I'd rather, oh, anything else." With that, I turned around and stormed out. No doubt I would soon be the topic of conversation within those walls. For now, I didn't care. I got to see her in all her splendour. That was something I would have given anything for.

Even if she weren't in my arms, that was a sight that I would be able to take with me.

"Hey, wait up." I turned around, and was surprised that she must have followed me. She was teetering on heels that she was obviously not comfortable with, and I was sure she must have borrowed them from someone like Lavender Brown. There was no way she'd own a pair. Not that she needed them. I was tall, at 6'4, and she was only slightly shorter than me. Those four inch heels brought her so that she was even taller than me. Or, would have, if she didn't trip over her hem. I lunged and caught her before she fell on her front, and helped her up.

"Stupid heels." She said, and kicked them off, right there. I don't know what I had been expecting her to say or do, but that certainly wasn't it. "Come with me." She grabbed my hand, and, leaving the obviously borrowed heels behind, using her free hand to lift her skirt so she wouldn't trip over it, she started marching in the same direction I'd been going.

The feeling of her warm hand in mine was peculiar, and somehow the simple touch made my heart flutter. She marched down a few different corridors, before she found what she must have been looking for, a bench. She sat down, no care for the delicate fabric that was her dress which made me wince. She let go of my hand, and left me standing. After a moment of silence between us she groaned.

"Sit down, Draco." It was the first time I had heard her call me Draco. Usually she stuck with calling me Ferret, or even simply Malfoy, and somehow it struck me in an odd way. I sat down next to her, but remained silent, having no idea what she wanted. Any other girl I would have known. After an amazing kiss like the one we had shared, most girls would be asking for more. But with Ginny... I know she had left Dean. It had only been after that fact that we'd kissed. But I doubted she was going to say anything like that. No, most likely with Ginny, she'd demand to know why I had been staring at her the way I had. I mentally prepared myself for her onslaught.

A/N: I'm a horrible person. Such a horrible person. It's okay, you can tell me. It's been over a year since I last posted. I can't guarantee that it won't happen again. And with my track record, it probably will. But here's another chapter for you, I hope you can forgive me. And if I get any new readers, I hope you guys like it :3 Milk and cookies for everyone who reviews.