Lucky in Fate

by Lucky Th13rteen

NOW COMPLETE. Somehow, through the will of fate and her own sheer luck, Ginny is allowed a choice that could change her life. But with Voldemort looming around every corner, and Draco Malfoy waiting for her at every turn, will she be able to make it through her Fifth year without losing her sanity or her morals? SECONDARY, SEVERITUS PLOT INCLUDED. MATURE CHAPTERS LABELED AS SUCH.

38. Wait, What?

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the content and material of Harry Potter. This story takes place in Harry's Sixth Year, with NO horcruxes involved, therefore the events from HBP and DH will not interfere with this plot.

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Chapter Thirty-Seven - Wait, What?

Not a noise could be heard inside the dark room. There was but a single person stretched comfortably across a long sofa with a ghostly pale arm draped along the back and a glass of whiskey in hand. He wasn't sure when he had become this much of a lush but the life of luxury never hurt anyone's chances of forming bad habits.

He drank to ease the ache in his chest. He drank to calm his ever increasing nerves. But mostly he drank to forget.

Draco had been a spoiled child growing up, Narcissa doting on him and Lucius showering him with gifts. Then suddenly he got older and he saw more of what his parents hid from him. He saw the darkness of the world and how evil people could be. When he came across a wounded deer one day when he was hunting with Lucius in the woods behind the Manor, the young boy of nine took pity on the animal and begged his father to help the beast to survive.

Lucius scoffed at the idea and literally had to drag his son away so that he would quit covering the dying carcass with his small body in protection. Narcissa had chastised the elder wizard for blatantly ignoring their child's wishes by removing him from a situation that showed his caring side. She grew furious at Lucius after he made a remark about not wanting his son to be weak and that was only a moment before Draco gasped in fear as the father he adored smacked his loving mother, sending her toppling backwards up against a book shelf.

From that day forward Lucius handled all of Draco's scheduling and activities, removing him almost completely from Narcissa's care. With the boy still at an impressionable age, he drilled his own morals and values into his soft mind. By the time he arrived at Hogwarts he was often spouting off about blood purity and mudbloods as if they were everyday words and his learned arrogance drew him enemies, even at a young age.

But the over-indulgence from his youth remained and his cockiness became a facade to hide behind the insecurities his father had instilled in him. Draco wanted everything done his way and with his natural charisma, he was often able to persuade or emptily threaten his way out of most situations. Then Harry bleeding Potter came around and made his life that much more difficult.

He couldn't make friends with the Boy Wonder. Lucius punished him with a lashing over Christmas break for the failure.

He was unable to keep constant tabs on Harry's whereabouts and activities. Lucius tortured him with a medieval device similar to what Professor Umbridge used that transferred the user's blood as ink.

And then - to top it all off, and it wasn't even the end of their seven school years yet - the damned Boy Who Lived found solace in the one witch that he couldn't have. That was the worst punishment of all - to see Harry with Ginny Weasley and know that she would never think twice about secretively being in cahoots with the rumored Slytherin Sex God. Any other witch in the castle would oblige him the privilege - but not the little Weaslette.

That irked him more than anything and as if fate wanted to tell him that he shouldn't give into his doubts, Draco caught her roaming the hallways after hours. He wanted to write her up just for having developed so well but the situation became his perfect solution for getting what he wasn't supposed to have.

He was given the chance to uncover one of Potter's biggest secrets while driving a wedge between the Boy Who Lived and his sexy and mouthy girlfriend. And all would have worked out perfectly if he had just kept his temper instead of physically exploding with rage when Ginny moaned out the wrong name. At the time Draco had justified his actions by telling himself that he had put a lot of effort into that night only for her to ruin the perfect moment.

But in the end he saw that that night was the beginning of his downward spiral.

At first it was just a teasing infatuation that became a ploy for forgiveness when Ginny dared not allow herself close to him. Then it became a game to see how far he could push her before she pushed back. And before he knew it, Draco was spending his spare time planning out intricate run-ins where he could almost casually see her.

And now - his rash and unfocused decision to metaphorically throw her away just when things were heating up was coming back to bite him in the ass as Draco finally realized that he wanted the challenge of having everything he desired at once. He wanted to have to fight for what was his - he wanted to earn Ginny's trust and win her back.

But so many things had gone wrong since he had allowed his inner narcissistic and headstrong, childish ego to emerge. If he had only talked out everything concerning his Dark Mark with Ginny - if he had only thought to think of the fact that she wouldn't run away from his branding. How different could everything be now if he had only listened?

He knew he wouldn't be sitting alone in the dark of his living room while he stewed over Blaise's scheme. Draco was certain that he wouldn't have the past month to look over and regret if he had only overcome his own pride to discuss his problems with Ginny. He wouldn't be slowly drinking himself into a dire state of alcoholism if he had just listened to her when she said she would help.

The what-if's frustrated Draco more than the lack of progress with Blaise's romantic ploys and he raised the crystal goblet to his tender lips as the burning Firewhiskey washed over his dulled taste buds. The room was chilly with an empty fireplace but he felt rather warm even with his white button down shirt opened to expose part of his porcelain skinned chest. His suave best friend was due to be strutting through the doorway at any moment but the dark skinned wizard's company was not exactly what Draco wanted when he was feeling so riled up with disparaging self-pity. Not when he was feeling so morose and ridiculously indulgent in his own false sense of hopelessness.

He could already picture the look of disappointed semi-surprise on Blaise's face if he were to ramble off his list of "issues" with his life and in a moment of uncaring pause, Draco mimicked the would-be expression to the empty room with half a chuckle before his grin disappeared and his sudden thirst was quenched by the amber liquor as his face took on a grim aspect. With a brief bout of clear headedness, he raised his wand to flick it accordingly so a strong locking charm was placed on the oak door leading to the Slytherin common room. Now he didn't have to wait around for Blaise to come by - he could wallow in his misery by his lonesome.

And that is exactly what Draco did for the better part of the evening. As per Blaise's suggestion he had not been attending meals regularly in the Great Hall so that Ginny could regain a sense of comfortability. He had not been allowed to be at breakfast for the past two mornings when she had received the first two poems, both of which he had approved beforehand, more than likely because Blaise knew that Draco would have his eyes glued to Ginny for her reaction, thus giving away their anonymity.

He had begrudged him that reasoning but the fact that he had missed out on witnessing her response to opening the letters had become a sore spot in his conversations with Blaise. Draco justified his argument by screaming until he was red in the face that his prolonged absence would only make Ginny suspicious. But Blaise still would not listen - he still wanted the blonde wizard to keep to his private quarters when at all possible so that he would not be tempted to follow her every move and ruin the barely thought out plan.

Their continued disagreement on the matter during lunch that day had sent one wizard storming out through the portrait and the other grumbling into his bedroom. He knew he had forfeited the rights to creating a reasonable solution and scheme for his Ginny problem many months ago, and that Blaise was only attempting to help his best friend while working through his own issues, and yet Draco was quite discontent with how someone else's ideas were panning out. Neither thought that the other was able to see reason and both wizards knew how to push the other's buttons to keep the disagreements lively.

Which is why Draco ended up securing himself in his own chambers whilst successfully draining the remaining half quart of Firewhiskey in the large glass bottle. He was sulking like a petulant five year old, he knew it, but he still felt a pang of satisfaction in knowing that there were small things he could do to irk Blaise.

So what if he was acting like a bratty, immature child? Wasn't it a law somewhere that all Malfoys had to get what they wanted?

And all he wanted was to attend a morning meal in the Great Hall so that he could gauge Ginny's reaction. That was all.

Doesn't seem like too much, he thought as he sluggishly waved his wand for a fire to light, bringing shadows to life across the dim room and causing his hard grey eyes to squint with the burst of heated brightness. Why shouldn't I be able to eat with my fellow Housemates and students? And who the bloody hell is Blaise to stop me from doing something - he's never stopped me before.

The alcohol was working over his impressionable mind while Draco's sheer and fleeting courage was gaining momentum. Thirty minutes later he was dead set determined that he was going to be at breakfast in the morning. He wanted to see Ginny's response with his own two eyes so that he could feel secure in knowing that their plan was working. One meal wasn't going to hurt his chances of her realizing he was the pseudo sender - right?

But it didn't matter because Draco was passed out with a line of drool hanging from his mouth within the hour, his cavernous snores sounding more like a slumbering, congested dragon than an arrogant, teenaged boy. He missed his alarm clock going off that next morning because he was not in his bedroom to hear it and by the time he was startled awake, he had three and a half minutes to get dressed and hurry down the hallway to the Potions lab.

Professor Snape was sure to show a slight of preferential treatment by allowing his tardiness to slide but Draco still rushed to get ready with the inclination that his classmates would cause a stink over his special treatment, a matter that he did not want to deal with when his head was already pounding at an unbearable rate. His day had begun abruptly and this meddlesome hangover was only going to make things that much more irksome without the time to ingest a relieving draft to clear his head. If he had thought his circumstantial issues with Ginny were bad - this mind numbing headache blew those problems out of the water with its severe strain and tightened muscles around the circumference of his blonde head.

He was not sure how but Draco managed to push himself over the threshold of the dungeon classroom just as the bell was ringing, his platinum locks disheveled but his uniform and robes on the correct way and both of his socks matching. Professor Snape raised a silent and curious, thin eyebrow at the sudden, rushing entrance of one of his best students and the hint of an inclination of his raven head was the only noticeable movement that belied his blank and disinterested stare. Tossing his leather book bag across the abused countertop, Draco noisily pulled out his wooden stool and sat down with an annoyed sigh as all of the other occupant's of the dark room seemed to be watching his every movement.

"Are you quite comfortable now, Mr. Malfoy?" Snape asked, his oily voice dripping with falsely pleasant sarcasm. "May I begin my lecture now that you are present and accounted for?"

Draco only heard his last name, the single word jerking his attention as he distractedly looked up, swiveling his head around until he found the so called Dungeon Bat.

"Yes, sir," he responded automatically upon meeting the less than amused chestnut gaze of the Potions Master.

"Well then - if Mr. Malfoy says that we can begin class, then we shall," Snape replied, his sharp glare implying to Draco that his punishment was the verbal taunting instead of a useless detention. "And since you are so keen on directing today's actions, why don't you begin for us, Mr. Malfoy. Turn to page two hundred and nine and begin reading with the first paragraph."

Draco sighed with irritation, he could hear a brave few Gryffindors snickering across the room and his cheeks were ready to flush with haste as his fingers grabbed every textbook in his bag, each and every one not bearing the title of Advanced Potions Making. Blaise discretely pushed his open book across the counter to his friend and the blonde huffed in agitation just a moment before Snape dryly commented again.

"Any day now, Mr. Malfoy."

Allowing his grey eyes to swipe across the room to meet the Potions Master's level and near taunting stare, Draco narrowed his gaze but looked down before his deep voice rang throughout the room, his words scratchy and rough from disuse.

"The Arachnid Antidote is a simple but intricate potion that requires a sharp eye while brewing. First drafted by Francis Jaakobsen in 1319, the antidote is known to cure the infected person from the bite of any poisonous arachnid. Because the potion is universal, the main ingredient is valerian sprigs, which can be potent if prepared wrong. . ."

His rich voice droned on, becoming smoother with each sentence until he turned the page and Professor Snape called out for Pavarti Patil to pick up where he had stopped. Draco immediately silenced his speaking and leaned backwards in his rickety lab stool with a weary sigh. He had to squeeze his eyes shut to keep the sudden dizziness that had accompanied his finite concentration on the small print at bay and he silently heard Blaise pull his text back as the dark skinned wizard took notes and followed along and Draco tiredly rested his forehead on his crossed forearms on the countertop.

Blaise waited until Professor Snape began a monotone lecture, his lean frame turned away from the students as he wrote on the chalkboard, and then he quickly jotted down a note, roughly but cautiously ripping the bottom half of the paper from his notebook. With his eagle feather quill posed in one hand he pushed the once folded piece of paper towards Draco with near imperceptible motion. He slid the note in the space between his bicep and the counter and with a sudden tap to Draco's elbow, he nodded his dark head towards the half hidden paper. The blonde looked confused, as if he had been awoken suddenly or startled from a deep reverie, but blinked slowly as he sluggishly lifted his left arm a few inches and stared blankly at the square of cream parchment under his tingling appendage.

Go on, Blaise wordlessly encouraged him, nodding once more to the yellowed note before he twisted his slender neck back to pretend to follow the lecture being given at the front of the shadowed classroom. Draco withheld a snarl from escaping his parted lips, his forehead coming to rest in his open palm as he bent his blonde head and acted as if he were reading from the wrong textbook that was open before him.

G generous

I intelligent

N nice

N naughty

Y youthful

.

W witty

E enticing

A accepting

S self-assured

L loyal

E elegant

Y you're truly amazing

Draco's first thought was that he had given the commanding role in his plan to win Ginny over to an adolescent. Seriously - who still wrote poems like this except for young children? But he was too miserable with his own hangover and mental suffering to give much thought to the third days poem that had been delivered that morning.

Suddenly he felt a strange sense of guilt for not having asked about Ginny, about how breakfast went in general, and one sideways look at Blaise told him that something had gone right. Whether she had immediately jumped up and down with giddiness or she had simply not exploded with unreasonable rage, he did not ask. The questions were searing in his brain but at that moment, Draco could only mutely nod before he shoved the paper across the counter and put his head back down. He was in no mood to begin his worrying for the day and Potions class, with the Gryffindors no less, was no place for him to mysteriously blow a gasket over his own insecurities.

Blaise did not force the answers on him and instead talked merrily about anything but Ginny and the poems for the rest of the day. By the time the bell was ringing for their last class of horridly boring Transfigurations to end, Draco had perked up enough that he had gone from seeming like the walking dead to acting like his more normal brusque self. He was snapping at over-eager Second year Hufflepuffs in the hallway and giving rude responses for questions asked from anyone.

Draco's regular personality had returned from its hangover coma and it had brought with it a caustic and irritated bite. Feigning tiredness from being around so much stupidity, the blonde wizard sulked back down into the dungeons with Blaise trailing behind, just talking to himself at this point as Draco only offered grunts and eye rolls instead of a reasonable conversation or near pleasant company.

He felt his swarthy friend's incessant chattering was grounds enough to take a drink and he was quick to hurry over to the half bar in the corner of his living room as soon as they stepped through the portrait of his private quarters. Blaise was sporting a stern look of disapproval when Draco turned back around with a half glass of whiskey in his hand but he only frowned, ignoring the direct expression as he moved towards the long sofa facing his miniature library, his free hand loosening his emerald and silver tie as he walked.

Once he had taken a few prolonged sips and the liquor had seeped over the remnants of his mind numbing headache, Draco felt his eyelids droop heavily and he turned to emptily gaze at Blaise under a relaxed brow for the first time that day.

"Did you really send that rudimentary poem with this morning's post? Was that really what you said for the third days note?" His tone was flat but his words reflected the questioning lilt that he was too tired to express.

Blaise, sitting across from him on the opposite black couch with one arm draped over the back, cocked his head and silently assessed what he was being asked. Draco appeared lax and almost disinterested despite his approach to the conversation but he knew better than anyone that his angry, sleeping dragon could spring to life at any moment to verbally chew someone out or threaten them to within an inch of their life. Blaise could tell that he was itching to know the answers now that he had remembered what else he was supposed to be involved with - but would Draco suddenly explode without warning if he exposed the simpleness, and sheer genius, of his, and Luna's, plan?

"Yea," he finally responded with a nonchalant shake of his head, his mocha eyes watching for any indication that his friend was going to start yelling nonsensically at the less than agreeable idea.

He had somehow known that Draco would find this poetry form most aggravating, and more aptly - insulting. Blaise could read his mind like only a lifelong best friend could do and he knew that the arrogant Malfoy was not going to like having his name associated with such a basic form of romancing communication.

"I told you yesterday, if I am going to put my name on this little charade then I want you to write something longer - something wordy and smooth," Draco stated with an underlying hint of condescension as he leaned back comfortably, one leg lifting and bending at the knee so his ankle was resting against his thigh.

Blaise sat silently, his eyes following every movement as he raised the glass of whiskey to his pale lips and impatiently waited for barely a moment before his ashen eyebrows rose questioningly and his mouth tightened into a line.

"Hmm? Did I not tell you to make the missives more meaningful?" Draco inquired with growing irritation and a patronizing voice that was bordering on strictly strained.

"You also said to make sure they did not sound like they were sent from you," Blaise reminded him with a snide grin, his leg crossing over his thigh as well as he mimicked the blonde's posture.

"I didn't mean for you to make me sound like a bloody buffoon," Draco responded with exasperation, a dollop of amber liquor spilling over the grasp of his hand as he waved his arm and gestured agitatedly.

"Alright," Blaise sighed with a falsely reluctant exhalation as if he were about to divulge a long kept secret. "Listen - if we use these different poems, ones that may seem simple but are considered 'cute' by women, she'll never think its you. She thinks this isn't your style and that you don't have it in you to be this. . . romantic. We have an advantage and we can run with this now - you can tell her that you want her and get her all hot and bothered without her knowing it's you."

"So you think these - simple poems, lines of single words that children compose for their mothers, will turn Ginny all willy nilly for me?"

"We can expose your feelings for her without her realizing she's getting all mushy gushy for you. These easy one liners make the witches swoon, you should know that, and by the time Valentine's Day comes around, Ginny Weasley will be jello in your hand."

His mind was beginning the quick process of slowing down so it took Draco a moment to fully comprehend the meaning of what Blaise had just said. It sounded good - but was it something that Ginny would fall for? Could they truly lead her to believe that the whimsical poems were from another wizard at Hogwarts?

"Fine - but on one condition," Draco ground out, his crystal glass raising once more as he drained the burning contents like a man deprived of water.

"I have to secretly spell out your name somewhere in the lines?" Blaise guessed seriously.

Draco grinned, contemplating if Ginny would go through so much trouble as to unjumble the letters of the poems to find a hidden message.

"I mean it when I say that I want final approval before you send them. I want to see the next one tonight before you get an owl for delivery," he reiterated his largest argument for allowing these shenanigans to occur. "And I'm going to breakfast tomorrow morning. Don't tell me no -" he interrupted as Blaise opened his mouth to protest. "If I stay away from school meals any longer I'm going to get detentions and Ginny will grow suspicious of my absence when these letters are being sent."

"See?" Blaise queried with a wide smile as he tossed one hand up to emphasize his point. "That wasn't so hard. We can both compromise a little bit."

Draco rolled his eyes as he flicked his wrist at the crystal decanter behind his back and the heavy object floated towards him, uncorking itself as it tipped over to refill his glass with Ogden's finest. As the whiskey container drifted back to the mini bar Blaise furrowed his dark brows, a frown turning down the corners of his thick lips as he uncrossed his legs and leaned forward to place his elbows just above his knees, his eyes focused on Draco swallowing the amber liquid with a vigor.

"Don't you think you've been drinking a bit much for school nights?" He questioned with slight disapproval.

Draco snorted. "I don't think I'm drinking enough."

"Maybe you should slow it down for the night. You weren't in the best shape this morning."

"'Slow it down?' I have every reason to drink myself into oblivion every night," Draco roared with sudden, vicious anger. "I've been Marked by the Dark Lord and he wants to send me on some glorious mission to save my family. The witch that I - I can't get Ginny out of my head! - but she won't give me the time of day because I treated her so poorly before. And now - I have youand Loony Lovegood writing her poems on my behalf. I think that short list is reason enough for me to enjoy the mind numbing qualities of some whiskey every hour or so."

Blaise sighed, agitated nerves crawling along his skin, across his neck and down to his toes, and he looked up to the blonde's mercury gaze with a dour but nonplussed stare.

"You asked for my help - so don't blame me if the immediate results are not what you wanted. This will take time, especially since we cannot reveal your identity or else Ginny will probably incinerate the letters without opening them," Blaise retorted with a stern tone that gave Draco no room to argue, not in his increasingly inebriated state at least. "And if you want to give excuses for becoming an alcoholic -" he said the word with disdain and paused, pushing his hands against his knees as he stood suddenly. "Then go ahead. But that's not going to solve anything and you're only going to keep making stupid decisions if you let the bottle control your life."

Blaise was walking around the edge of the couch when Draco spoke in response, his silver eyes downcast as he begrudgingly admitted what he hated to say.

"If anyone can fix my problems, it's you. I wouldn't trust this matter to anyone else," he said, his neck bending to look up as Blaise slowed his pace, nodding once as he approached the oak door leading to the Slytherin common room.

"I'll be by later with the next poem," he replied instead, his long fingers wrapping around the brass knob as he pulled open the wooden door and hastily slipped through the darkened space.

"It better be more than twelve words," Draco ungratefully muttered to the empty living room, his lips smacking together as he gulped down the remaining liquor in his glass.

He was impatiently unhappy with the nearly two week time frame that he had to wait through before he could announce to Ginny his secret identity. He was seeing no progress while being confined to his quarters for some ungodly reason and as he sat there, alone with just his thoughts for company, Draco formed a quick plan. He was going to find a way to get a better ear on the situation and to gauge Ginny's reaction more precisely and with a plotting smirk, he realized he knew just what to do.

Draco skipped dinner in the Great Hall that night, opting to keep his absence going until the morning when he could make a grand reappearance. He entertained the same glass of whiskey for a handful of hours more wherein Blaise came by in that time frame, tutting with disapproval as he gave the blonde a copy of the fourth day's poetry.

"Does that suit your liking, sir?" He asked with obviously false subordination.

Draco grinned like a Cheshire cat as his quicksilver orbs danced over the words. "Now that - that is what I meant. That is what I want you to say to get her all worked up."

"I aim to please," Blaise retorted with a mocking low bow.

"If we're going to go for her weak spot - this is it. This will have her sweating and wet between the sheets - her memory jogged by the one orgasmic night of passion that we shared. Her cries filling this room - ooooohhhhh Draaaaco, please fuck me. Aaahhh fuck me pleeeeaaaassssseeee," he mimicked Ginny's moans of ecstasy and his stomach clenching laugh that followed Blaise's look of horror persuaded Draco to add gentle thrusting motions as his friend looked appalled that he would share such details.

"You're incorrigible," Blaise commented with a good natured rolling of his almond shaped, mocha eyes, a forced chuckle trailing behind his words as he held his plump lips in a structured expression.

"Ha!" Draco barked, sipping from his glass around a toothy grin, the alcohol having already worked to soothe his many irritations. "You wouldn't have me any other way," he responded, slouching slightly on the leather couch.

Shaking his head, Blaise made it appear as if he was hiding a smile as he absently fiddled with the rolled up cuff of his white shirt. This short sighted plan to keep Draco on his side was working exceptionally well and now all he had left to do was maintain that mindset in his friend - and live through his arrogant and brash tendencies.

"Like I said - you're pretty much hopeless," he replied with an eyebrow cocked smirk and he tilted his dark head just a hair before abruptly turning on his heel to walk out. "I'll meet you here at eight thirty before breakfast in the morning," Blaise called over his shoulder and he chuckled as Draco groaned at the mention of the early time.

With the less than enthusiastic determination of a man on a mission, the blonde wizard stared unseeing into the roaring fire until the grandfather clock in the living room chimed eleven. With a sinking gait and an invisible, heavy weight on his frame, Draco slowly arranged the specialty item he had sent for immediately for this special occasion tomorrow. Satisfied that he had everything set in place for his spying scheme, he heaved his exhausted and slightly inebriated body into bed and easily fell into a mindless slumber that seemed to be over in the blink of an eye.

The next thing he knew he heard the increasingly louder ringing of his alarm and as soon as he peeled open one grey eye from atop his emerald pillow, Draco saw a faint light coming from the oblong window in the roof of his bedroom. The water of the Black Lake was reflecting the scant sunlight above but it was enough to signal to him that it was the beginning of another day. Friday at that and yet the looming possibilities of what could happen during breakfast caused his shoulders to tense up and a nervous chill to run across every hair on his supple body.

He was grateful that through all of his years at Hogwarts he had only maintained one true friend because now it was only Blaise who knew that he was off in another world thinking about Ginny when he was staring off or not paying full attention. Draco only had the tall, swarthy wizard to worry about revealing his weaker, more emotional side and Achilles' heel in the youngest Weasley and he prayed to Merlin that his friend could come through for him when he himself could not accomplish his own ends.

The air was crisp, cool with the stale stillness of the dungeon and it brought a sheen of goose bumps to his alabaster skin when he pulled the thick covers back and threw his legs over the side of the king bed. Draco had the foresight to know Blaise well enough that he bet on his friend arriving earlier than his mentioned eight thirty. Never one to leave a guest waiting, whether at the Manor or in his private chamber, he executed his mental plan and was stepping into a quick, but vigorous, shower by eight o'clock sharp.

Sure enough Blaise was just stepping through the doorway with his messenger bag strapped over his chest as Draco strode out of his bedroom just a few seconds before ten after eight. He had thought about leaving a note for him saying that he had already gone down to the Great Hall but since he was exceptionally early, Draco put on the mask of an agreeable smile and acted as if he wasn't slightly peeved that he wouldn't have some time to himself.

The long, pale fingers of his left hand adjusted the sleeves of his black sweater and the white cuff of his button down underneath and then brushed through his damp tresses, his pink lips pursing before delicately parting.

"Good morning," Draco greeted amicably with a nod of his blonde head.

Blaise forced a false startled reaction as one hand leapt to his chest in feigned shock.

"Sleeping beauty is already awake? Imagine my surprise," he cheekily replied with a roguish grin, his broad palms clasping together as his dark eyebrows rose and his words rushed together in his early morning hyperactivity. "I figured I would have to get you out of bed but this is so much easier. You must be ready for this - for breakfast and Ginny and the poem and such. Did you sleep at all last night?"

Draco's passably pleasant smile disappeared as his silver eyes flattened and he stared at Blaise with a blank face, clearly already annoyed with his rambling and cheery morning personality.

"You're insufferable. And I'm not that predictable," he sneered with the hint of arrogance exaggerated to his friend's ear.

"Please -" Blaise retorted with a snort, his playful nature working to get the blonde wizard into a more relaxed so he wouldn't be all wound up during the meal. If that meant letting him vent his nerves through arguing then he would give in so that they could move on quicker. "Do you remember that time I spent the night when we were eight? And you insisted that we stay up all night because your father had said there was going to be a meteor shower - so we did but it didn't come until three o'clock. And you were long asleep by then. Lucius was sitting there with us and when you woke up the next morning and realized that you had missed out on something your father had planned, you became a nervous wreck - just waiting for punishment or reprimanding or someone telling you that you mucked up."

Draco rolled his eyes, his back turning to Blaise as he stuffed the necessary textbooks into his book bag off the large wooden table nearest the wall of books.

"You're always waiting for the other shoe to drop," Blaise continued, one hand gesturing with his now adrenaline filled words as the other held onto the strap across his sweater clad chest. "But good things aren't like that - you don't have to walk on pins and needles waiting for something bad to happen to muck it up. If Ginny feels for you as you obviously care for her then you'll have no problem getting her back - as long as you can put her first and not always think about yourself."

"If I don't think about me - who will?" Draco reasoned unblinking once he took a silent step to face his friend, his serious expression causing Blaise to lose his composure and fall into a blip of a hysteria of giggles.

"The first thing I'm getting you when we finish school is an assistant," he chuckled, his brown eyes crinkling with mirth at Draco's oblivious but innate self-preservation. "You're going to need someone to keep your head on straight once I'm not there to baby you every day."

He cocked his blonde head, his expression indignant as he slipped the strap of his book bag over his shoulder and adjusted his wand at his hip.

"Malfoy's are self-sufficient," Draco stated, his tone somewhere near appalled that Blaise would suggest that he needed someone waiting for his every command.

Come to think of it -

He shook his platinum locks to finish that thought trail but a smirk pulled up at the mental images he had quickly conjured of a faceless, buxom witch leaning forward to hand him a stack of mail over an expensive looking desk.

"Yea." Blaise said dead tone, his eyes and lips having gone flat to emphasize his disbelief in Draco's words. "So that's why you're pissing and moaning about 'oh I don't have Ginny in my life anymore - waaahhh'. We can stop this charade then - if you don't need anyone else?"

Not missing a beat, Draco waited two seconds before raising one eyebrow as the left crevice of his lips turned upwards into his handsome face. "Every man has his desires," he argued with a touch of humor and Blaise released his light anger in favor of his ire having put the blonde in a better mood. When Draco let a prideful chuckle slip through his mouth, he knew his friend's nerves were out of mind for the moment and he hoped this ease would follow them to the Great Hall. "Come on - let's get some breakfast. I'm starved for some tasty morsels," Draco suggested with a leering glint in his mercury eyes that gave Blaise the peace of mind to know that he was getting closer to his old, slightly more carefree self.

"I'm waiting on you," he goaded with a smirk and he was barely to the dungeon exit when the blonde pushed him out of the way to open the door.

"Ladies first," Blaise chimed as Draco stepped over the threshold and the portrait nearly came back to hit him in the face as the tall, silvery haired shadow disappeared into the depths of the hallway.

The Slytherin duo walked in sync, their footfalls matching as they paused in the entrance to the Great Hall and surveyed the sparsely vacated tables. There was a trio of Hufflepuffs nearest to the empty staff table that quickly looked away when they glanced down at the Sixth years. Blaise, and undoubtedly Draco too, spotted Luna halfway down the Ravenclaw table, sitting with a fresh edition of the Quibbler but once she felt his heated gaze, she glanced up at the green and silver pair, imperceptibly nodded and almost immediately stood to turn around and sit on the opposite bench of the Gryffindor table on the other side of the aisle, her instincts knowing that the Malfoy's presence at breakfast would warrant her closeness to Ginny.

If he noticed her premeditated actions, Draco did not comment and Blaise dutifully followed as the blonde walked down the row between the Slytherin and the Ravenclaw tables, his right hand fishing in the pocket of his robe for a palm sized parcel. He thought it near remarkable that he didn't have to tell the blonde to sit facing away from the Gryffindor table but he did it anyways and then he felt that something wasn't right when Draco absently sat down and began tinkering with something in his lap.

"What is that? What are you doing?" Blaise asked with rushed curiosity, his chocolate brown gaze falling over the Great Hall to watch who was arriving.

"Always with the questions," Draco dryly said without looking up, his tongue clucking in mock disapproval. "Just give me a minute here," he added as both hands fumbled in his lap, his broad shoulders curled in to block anyone from seeing what he was doing.

Blaise didn't say another word but attempted to peek around the fold of his arm to see what he was so frantically adjusting. He saw the flap of a small lavender and pastel green domed box before Draco's large palm obstructed his view. Then a cream colored jelly rope. His neck extended and he pushed against the blonde's shoulder as he finally saw what was in his lap.

"What are you going to do with that? Please don't tell me you're going to do what I think you're going to do," Blaise commented with pronounced dread.

Draco grinned, his right hand discretely flicking the tip of his wand at the flesh colored Extendable Ear in his lap. Silently the object became invisible as he mouthed a Concealment charm and his fingers pinched the transparent and magicked item, holding it up, as he turned to Blaise with a devious smirk.

"Would you mind?" He asked without a hint of what he meant and Blaise raised his eyebrows questioningly at the nondescriptive request. "Take it over to the Gryff's table and stick it underneath somewhere."

"You make it sound so easy and inconspicuous," Blaise replied flatly.

"Just go act like you're talking to Loony and stick it on the table," Draco commanded with exasperation, his fingers pushing the invisible object towards the dark skinned wizard. "It would be a lot more suspicious if I went over there," he added with impatience, his blonde head nodding behind him to the table two aisles away.

"Thank you," he stated falsely sweet when Blaise grabbed the item from his grasp a moment later, his wide hand immediately covering the undetectable Ear as he unfolded his legs and stood, his full lips silently moving to a string of nonverbal grumblings.

Draco smirked to himself, thinking that his little plan was working out quite well so far, and reached for a golden plate as he uncharacteristically hummed an offbeat tune while he placed an assortment of fruit on the flatware, his hand grabbing a bottle of honey to drizzle a sparse amount over the entire spread. He was chewing on a cut up piece of banana a few minutes later when Blaise appeared on the other side of the bench, his dark features poorly attempting to hide a widening and foolish grin as he sat down facing Draco and fixed a plate as if he hadn't been disgruntled when asked to complete the small task.

"Well?"

He looked up, startled to have been interrupted from his musings.

"What?" Blaise asked guiltily as if he had been caught doing something inappropriate.

"I'm guessing that you left the Ear at the table along with your ability to speak coherently," Draco said blandly, his fork lifting to carry another piece of ripened banana to his lips.

"Yea - yea," Blaise rushed, his own ears only hearing the first part of the statement. "Lovegood is going to keep Ginny talking so that you can see how well our idea is working."

"Oh so it's our idea now," Draco commented sardonically, his grey eyes flickering to his friend across the table with an amused glint. "You and Loony are in cahoots now?" He rhetorically inquired with a sneerful chuckle.

"We need someone on the inside," Blaise replied tersely, his words defending the silent inference that Luna's help was admirable. "Merlin knows you can't string two words together to woo the Weasley's heart."

Draco openly laughed, his blonde head dipping as he swirled a grape through a stream of honey. "Let's not put all of our eggs in the Loon's basket just yet."

Blaise muttered something about integrity and acceptance but that just furthered Draco's guffaws as the pair tucked into their separate meals and laid the conversation to rest for a moment.

The Great Hall was receiving a steady flow of sleepy teenagers through the wide double doors and by the scheduled feeding time of eight thirty rolled around, at least half of all of the tables were occupied by students. With his back still towards the Gryffindor table, Draco could not see if Ginny had sat down yet and he forced his neck to remain straight forward so he would not keep twisting to look for her entering with her Housemates. Blaise cleared his throat pointedly when he first made his intentions of seeking out the redheaded witch obvious by clearly staring at the doorway for a solid ninety seconds. The blonde wizard frowned, irritated that he was being told what not to do while he felt like all he was good for was sitting there holding the other end of the Extendable Ear.

His shoulders curling in as he slouched down, Draco wrapped his hand with the Ear in it around the top of his plate as the other pushed a fork around. He didn't realize he was lost in his own self-pitying thoughts until Blaise kicked him under the table half a minute later.

Everything seemed to happen in a flurry as the swooping of owls with the post drowned out a small piece of the roaring chatter and he too quickly picked up his posture and rotated his flaxen head only to turn back around when he saw Ginny striding down the main aisle with an almost eager pep in her step, a garnet and gold scarf falling loosely over her shoulders with its garish hues bright and flaunted. Before his tightening grip could squeeze the Ear into a mushy piece, Draco unfurled his fingers and set the device in an empty space between two serving dishes. Blaise's eyes were glued to the in-motion redhead and his gaze followed her every move as she tentatively sat down in front of a small hawk with ashy red wings, Luna sitting just to her left.

"Sweet Merlin - not another one," Draco suddenly heard Ginny's voice come through the small speaker of the Ear. Blaise leaned forward to get a better listen but paused to turn and glare sideways at Nott and Goyle as they attempted to sit down on either side of the two Slytherins who were already deeply focused.

He glanced over Draco's head to catch a glimpse of the Gryffindor table and he stared intently as Ginny reached for the outstretched leg of the waiting bird, his eyes darting to Luna's luminescent outline as she watched with detachment.

"Go ahead and read it," her airy voice encouraged.

He was on the literal edge of his seat waiting to hear Ginny's reaction but she only seemed to prolong the process as Draco lowly growled with agitation.

"Just - give me a minute," she said loud and clear.

Blaise ducked his head to avoid being caught by Scarhead or Granger and corralled a spoonful of eggs into his mouth as he pretended to stare at the staff table with his ear still turned toward the device.

Draco heard the rustling of paper and an anxious sigh, the noise of small fingers smoothing out the curling edges before the other end grew silent for a few long minutes. He knew what she was reading - he had memorized it himself last night in his anticipation for how she would respond. The words replayed in his mind as he inhaled and exhaled slowly in the hopes that he could speed up her reaction.

Like a smattering of twinkling stars

Or a handful of glittering diamonds

A skyline dotted with lit windows

And a winking of tea leaves

My love, you have them everywhere

Do they trail beneath your sweater?

Do they run along your spine?

Tell me - where else are they?

Do they line your curvy hip?

Or scatter across your creamy thighs?

Do they color your dainty shoulders?

I long to find that breathless path

Surely it leads to heaven

Freckles, freckles I see them everywhere

But wherelse, Ginny Weasley, are you hiding them?

There was a crinkling of paper as the parchment exchanged hands and Luna's light voice could slightly be heard reading the stanzas under her breath.

"He certainly is showing you his range," the Ravenclaw stated neutrally after her read-a-long was finished.

"Ha!" Ginny barked rather loudly. "We both know that means that it could never be. . . you-know-who. The only thing that directs that bastard is the cock in his pants," she finished with a biting edge and even through the static Draco could hear a lilt of aroused, and fearful, nervousness in her throaty voice.

Despite his knowledge beforehand that he might hear something that he didn't want to, he had surged forward with the idea to use her own brother's invention against her. But now that his prideful anger was crawling to life, he wanted to throw the damned Ear across the Hall so he wouldn't have to listen to Ginny berate his womanizing ways and lack of general romance.

"Everybody has their hidden talents," Luna chimed soothingly, the slight attempt to defend Draco ringing in his ears as he furrowed his brows at the notion of the blonde witch truly helping him.

The scratching of utensils echoed. There was a silence so heavy for so many minutes that Blaise lifted his head as if to stretch when really he was looking to see that Ginny had not disappeared because of her lack of retort.

" I know it can't be Draco now -" she whispered softly, turning towards Luna as she stared at the yellowed paper, but the Ear picked up her words easily, transmitting them across the Hall to the Slytherins. "The words - they sound like him - but this really isn't his normal plan of attack. He couldn't write a poem with that much depth if he tried," she finished with a light chuckle.

"This does seem quite strange for him to be approaching you in this form," Luna added and Draco's palms opened up in a silent gesture of exasperation. "But the wording does seem very much like a Slytherin."

"It sounds like any bloke, Lun," Ginny amended her statement with a motherly but patronizing tone. "I just know he wouldn't think of something this detailed. Hell - he's probably just waiting to ruin my Valentine's Day."

The witches' conversation was in full swing as Draco clenched his fists in frustration for their mockery of him.

"Do you think this mystery man will ask you to be his Valentine? That's just so romantic," Luna gushed and Blaise perked up at the shifting watery tone.

Ginny snorted again. "I think I'm ruined for any holiday to seem romantic," she chortled and Draco felt wrinkles form around his lips as he pressed them into a steely line.

"Oh come on - he couldn't have been that bad," Luna teased to keep the discussion going, her fork scraping loudly as her muffled eating was distinctly heard.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Ginny taunted with a smirk in her voice. "Some of the just - utterly mind boggling things that wanker did - I don't know -"

Blaise's eyes were wide with agitation as he looked up to Draco's suppressed rage filled gaze. His two fingers were pinched so the pads were white with pressure and he scrunched his lips as he realized what his friend was holding. More than likely the snapped ends of the Ear cord were lying in his palm with some of his temper abated by the act of destroying the nuisance of a device and their transmitter for the private conversation at the Gryffindor table.

"What'd you do that for?" Blaise roared, his voice rising to a rough whisper as he glanced over Draco's shoulder to the redheaded witch across the room. "I thought you wanted to get her reaction," he amended with an excuse to not seem overeager to fix the connection to the two witches.

"I told you this plan wasn't going to work," Draco hissed across the table, his hands stuffing the concealed item into a pocket of his robe as he glared at his Housemate. "I am not going to listen to them belittle me for their own amusement. Not when Ginny is spreading lies about my behavior. And not when Lovegood is supposed to be aiding our cause but just sits there and goads Ginny on."

There was still ten minutes left in the allotted time for breakfast but Draco climbed out from between the wooden bench and table to hastily pick up his book bag and momentarily look to Blaise. A scowl was impressed deeply on his handsomely angular face and his mercury eyes were hardened with resolve.

"I'm finishing this my way. Forget about those bloody poems - I'll fix this myself and get her back," the haughty and irritated blonde wizard proclaimed with full confidence and Blaise barely had a second to hurry to his feet before Draco was taking off down the aisle.

Casting one last glance at the Weaslette and the Loony bird, Blaise sighed with frustration for his friend's rash tendencies. Whenever something went the slightest bit off plan, Draco freaked out and demanded an alternative route. It had been the same way when they were children and Blaise was constantly getting them lost in the sprawling maze in his estate's backyard. The irrational habit was still with the blonde and it was all he could do to suppress his irked behavior and follow his friendship's windy road.

Once he arrived in Ancient Runes, Draco had an entire hour and forty-five minutes to stew over his less than sympathetic thoughts. He pretended to take notes and pay attention when he was really fighting an internal battle in which he repeatedly blamed himself for Ginny's not-quite accepting reaction to that day's poem. He felt he should have caught some unseen error in the wording that would have tripped her temper. He thought he should have foreseen her bitterness towards him - that he should have been able to already turn that around for his own advantage.

But these poems seemed to only make things worse for him - now Ginny saw that there was the possibility of a lovely, romantic but confident wizard who wished to capture her heart. She saw new opportunities that he had allowed Blaise to create and he wanted to kick himself for permitting such an innocent tactic to turn into a larger chance for her to deny their mutual feelings.

By the time the bell rang for the end of the first class, Draco could literally feel the coils of anxiety and tension spiraling in his gut and the sudden rush of pent up energy left him more irritable than before. Blaise had tried to talk to him the entire class, passing notes or sneaking a poorly concealed whisper, and he continued to pester Draco with concerned questions and statements as he hurried to catch up to the swiftly moving blonde who was unapologetically bypassing the other students out of the classroom.

"Where are you going?" Blaise yelled once he realized that Draco was intentionally putting distance between them so that he couldn't be followed.

"I'll see you at lunch!" Draco replied instead, his platinum head ducking and disappearing into the ocean of teenagers in the wide hallway.

Blaise tossed up his hands, his rich caramel eyes rolling dramatically as he exhaled rather pointedly. He took the wild assumption that his tricky friend was not going to be attending their next class and bit his plump bottom lip, his dark head shaking slowly to reign in his discontentment with Draco's rude behavior. It was no wonder that he wasn't able to keep a decent witch around.

Hoping that Professor Sinistra wouldn't notice or ask about the blonde's absence, Blaise dutifully went to the Astronomy Tower for class without his partner in crime.

Draco needed time to think without a teacher droning on in the background or Blaise begging for his attention. Running a hand through his abnormally messy blonde locks, he turned his gaze to the stone floor as he walked, his gait more of a saunter even though he was far from being in an amicable mood. He wasn't watching where he was going but his feet took him down random passageways and corridors on the second floor without a problem as his mind was trapped in a vicious cycle of self-loathing. He barely heard the bell ring for the beginning of the next class he was so far into his own head and he certainly was not aware of the rushing of footsteps coming closer until too late he saw someone's shadow moving around the corner in front of him.

He didn't think to stop walking and when that person came barreling into his chest with a frenzied momentum, Draco didn't care who it was - he extended his arms and pushed them off balance. They reacted with athletic speed, bracing one hand on the rough stone wall to steady their uncertain footing and look up with a fierce glare in place.

Their eyes met at the same time and as Ginny's orbs widened with breathless panic, Draco narrowed his ashy gaze with a tick of his square jaw.

"Watch where you're going, Weasley," he sneered with open contempt, all niceties gone as his anger at her words earlier still remained.

"You ran into me!" Ginny screeched in an outburst of irritated defense. "Are you following me now?" She questioned with an edge of flirty aggression, her shoulders straightening and her chin lifting defiantly as he ground his teeth into powder.

"I would only be following you if I was looking to find the source of the foul odor in these hallways," he spat, his upper lip curling distastefully as the brief and small smile disappeared from Ginny's freckled face.

Her expression of surprise was evident and Draco purposefully sneered in that brief moment of wordless silence, his tall frame swaying forward as she seemed to shrink backwards.

"Wait - what?" She stated, dumbfounded. "Draco -" she tried with a stern but pleading tone, her eyes having wrinkled with concern. "What's wrong?"

"What do you care?" He replied in a rich growl, fury etched into every word. "If I were you, Weasley, I would be worrying about my pathetic Quidditch team and how you're going to have to cart your teammates off the field tomorrow once we bury your sorry asses into the pitch."

That was near the last response she had expected, what with his recent declarations of carnal attainment and all, and again Ginny's eyebrows rose and her eyes widened slightly in conveyance of her tempered shock.

"You sure have been changing your mind a lot recently," she commented haughtily, her pink tongue darting out to wet her lips as a test to see if he was look. He did. "Maybe tomorrow you'll decide you don't want to win any more matches or catch the Snitch again - or was that what you just decided when you challenged my team's capability to kick your pathetic players' asses?"

Draco always made her feisty - constantly testing her patience and temperament. Up until now she thought that was a bad thing. But now Ginny saw a positive angle to his uncanny ability to take her out of a funk or get her out of her shell when she was being reclusive. He created a natural desire in her to shine bigger and brighter to win his approval and admiration - something that had most definitely been missing from her other relationships.

"Watch your back out there tomorrow, Red," Draco ominously threatened with what she knew were empty words. "We'll be keeping an eye on you." His phrasing was odd and Ginny scrunched her brow to nonverbally express her confusion with the statement, her neck drawing backwards as he took half a step away from her.

With a flourishing of black robes similar to his Head of House, Draco moved around her and down the hallway, away from her potent scent and arousing, fiery personality.

Ginny twisted at the waist to watch his shrinking outline, her mind beyond confused by the short conversation. Although she had told him that she didn't want to see him, and even though she kept insisting that he could not be her anonymous poet, she was utterly perplexed by his sudden change of heart. This is what she had wanted - for them to part ways and never speak openly again because it would be too painful and reminiscent.

Right?

So why was she so torn by Draco's impulsive decision to scorn her and act as if he hadn't been begging to shag her a week ago?