Chapter 5

Ever since that day in the library, Draco had started hanging around them more often. He would be sitting at a table with Blaise when she arrived for their tutoring sessions or working on his homework while observing their lake-side practice. Usually, his presence would be limited to simply watching, though an occasional comment would escape his mouth just to grate on her nerves. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like he had any intention of dropping that habit.

"Weaslette, you're not casting that spell correctly," he pointed out with amusement. When she turned to glare at him, his gaze was still fixed to the book in his hands, though the slight curve of his lips betrayed his passiveness.

"Oh, really? Well, would you care to demonstrate then, since you're so bloody brilliant at Charms?" she retorted sweetly. Draco lifted his eyes for a second – just long enough to catch a glimpse of her irate expression – before chuckling softly and returning to his reading. "What? No comment, Malfoy?"

"Ginny, let it go," Blaise implored with a sigh. "You know he's just doing it to bother you." The girl frowned before turning back to her temporary student.

"Yeah, I know, but it's just so annoy-" Her words cut off abruptly when her wand suddenly flew out of her hand. Whirling around, she growled, "Malfoy! Stop interfering and give me back my wand!"

He stood up and took a few steps forward, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Stopping a few feet away from her, he asked, "What will you give me for it?"

Blaise let out a mirth-filled laugh as she stared at the blonde boy before lunging for her wand. He held it out of her reach, which only served to increase her frustration.

"Give it back, Malfoy," she muttered slowly, dangerously, her fists clenching at her side. He opened his mouth to respond, but Blaise spoke first.

"Accio Ginny's wand." Said object jerked out of Draco's lose grasp and floated over to the other Slytherin, who in turn returned it to Ginny with a proud smirk.

She mimicked the smile before airily stating, "If Blaise can cast it, I must've been teaching it correctly."

The corners of his lips twitched. "Just keep telling yourself that, Weaslette," he replied nonchalantly. Blaise watched with a knowing grin as his friend turned his back on the sputtering girl and calmly went back to his seat.

Almost a week later, Ginny stifled a yawn as she snuck through the dimly-lit hallways. It was past curfew and the only thing keeping her from curling up with a good book in front of the Common Room fire was the wrinkled note she held in her hand.

"Ginny." The sound of her name caught her attention in the noisy dining area and she shifted in her seat at the table to see Blaise standing beside her. A perfected mask of indifference was on his face as he glanced at the other occupants of the table, most of whom were giving him cold looks, before focusing back on the red-head in front of him. "You forgot your book in the library."

She took the proffered text from him with a small, but gracious smile. "Thanks." He shrugged carelessly, but she noticed the way his lips quirked at the corners before he caught up with Draco at the Great Hall's exit. Placing the book in her lap, Ginny was about to return to her dessert before her eyes were drawn to a piece of parchment barely sticking out of her textbook. Slipping it from beneath the cover, she set it on top of the book before resting her forehead in the palm of her hand and continuing her meal as she read the note inconspicuously.

'You still owe me for that day in the library, remember? Meet me in the kitchens tonight at 10:30.'

Ginny stuck the note back in between the pages and rose from her seat, opting to skip the rest of her desert so she could snack on something else later in the kitchens.

Now she found herself smiling at the painting that served as the kitchens' entrance as the pear giggled after a bit of gentle prodding. The door swung open and she situated herself at one of the many tables after asking one of the house-elves for a bottle of butterbeer. A quick glance at the old, wooden clock hanging perilously on the wall informed her that it was a few minutes before the scheduled meeting time. So she waited, idly sipping on her drink before the door swung open promptly at 10:30 as she expected (Blaise really was quite good at being on time), but the sight that greeted her caught her by surprise.

Swallowing her mouthful of butterbeer, she wondered, "What are you doing here?" Her words came out a little harsher than she intended and Draco Malfoy raised an eyebrow in question.

"I could ask you the same thing. A little late for a drink, don't you think, Weasley?" he quipped with a smirk. She frowned, taking another gulp before placing it down beside her and hopping off the table she was sitting on. Taking a few steps forward, she grabbed his hand and shoved the note inside.

"That'll answer your question," she told him with a dismissive wave of her hand. Picking up her butterbeer, she continued. "Now, since I'm assuming this is Blaise's idea of a joke, I think I'll head back upstairs." When she turned to the door though, Draco spoke up, his voice rich with amusement.

"'You still owe me for that day in the library?'" he quoted, his eyes raising from the note to meet her brown ones, which were currently wide with mortification as she realized how suggestive that line sounded. "I always knew you were that type of girl, but I thought Blaise had better taste," he said mockingly. Her face flooded with a heated blush as she snatched the note from his fingertips and shoved it in her pocket, suddenly feeling very annoyed with Blaise for his word choice.

"Nothing happened, all right?" she insisted. "Now, do whatever the hell you want, but I'm leaving," she announced, briskly heading for the door, but, much to her chagrin, the portrait refused to budge even after she tried slamming into it. In one last desperate attempt, she pounded her fist on the wood before turning and slumping against it with her eyes squeezed shut in frustration as she mumbled, "I'm going to kill him," under her breath.

"Are you done?" Opening her eyes, she saw Draco sitting in a chair with his legs stretched out in front of him, a bottle in his hand that she could only assume was filled with butterbeer. "You might as well take a seat," he suggested, tilting his head towards the other chair at the table. "We're clearly not getting out of here until he wants us too." She grudgingly did as he said and plopped down in the chair beside his, a heavy sigh escaping her lips as she let her head fall onto her folded arms.

"Why?" she moaned, her voice muffled by the fabric of her sleeves. "He knows I wanted to get my homework finished tomorrow morning before everyone else wakes up. Now I'll be lucky to get to bed before then."

"Hey, I'm not too thrilled about this either," Draco muttered, running a hand through his hair in agitation. "He obviously wants us to be on better terms than we are now." She rotated her head slightly so she was looking up at the boy.

"I haven't hexed you yet. I'd say that's an improvement," she reminded him. He chuckled bitterly and took another swig from the bottle.

"Oh yes. Now that we're all buddy-buddy and everything, I'm sure the prat'll let us out of here."

"Well, what d'you suggest we do?" she snapped back as she picked her head up off the table.

"I don't know."

Ginny sighed once more as she rested her chin in her hand and closed her eyes. "Some help you are," she grumbled. She sat there in thought as he finished off the rest of his drink and called over a house-elf. Once the elf returned, he took the two drinks from the tray and placed one in front of the girl beside him. Upon hearing the thud of the bottle meeting wood, her eyes fluttered open and she sent him a curious glance. "You didn't have to get me another one, you know."

He shrugged before simply replying with, "Yours was empty." The Gryffindor held him in a suspicious gaze for a moment longer.

"You're different this year," she mentioned casually, at which point his scoffed.

"Whatever you say, Weaslette..."

"Like that!" she exclaimed, pointing at him. When he responded with a questioning expression, she elaborated. "You don't sneer anymore when you address me, like just now, and when you try to annoy me, it's more teasingly than outright insults."

He stared at her for a few seconds before letting out a snort and looking away. "You're insane."

"Admit it," Ginny persisted, a growing smile on her lips. "I mean, Blaise must've noticed too. He wouldn't risk locking us in here together if he thought we'd kill each other."

The boy exhaled with mild exasperation. "Forget it, okay? If you want, we can just pretend I never gave you that drink." He grabbed the butterbeer from in front of her and placed it out of reach despite her protests. "There, now let's just go back to minding our own business until the stupid door fixes itself."

Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned back in her chair with her mouth forming a pout. "You didn't have to take my butterbeer away. I was just trying to state an observation." When he didn't say anything, she added, "Besides, the door isn't going to 'fix itself.'"

"Just... stop talking to me," he muttered, swirling the liquid around in its container for lack of anything better to do. She bit back a jibe at his level of maturity before leaning her head back against the top of her chair. As the room remained silent, with the exception of the house-elves working a little ways away, she gradually felt her eyes grow heavy until she had dozed off completely in her seat. Absorbed in his own thoughts, Draco failed to notice this fact, but it finally caught his attention when she shifted in her slumber so that her head was comfortably resting on his shoulder. He jerked slightly with surprise before turning to see her sleeping peacefully with her thick red hair draped over the front of his shirt. After briefly debating whether or not he should leave her be, he took another sip of his butterbeer and continued sorting out his thoughts.

So, that was the scene Blaise was greeted by nearly an hour and a half later when he walked through the kitchens' entrance: his fellow Slytherin staring at the blank table-top in contemplation with Ginny Weasley fast asleep on his shoulder. Holding back the urge to burst into a fit of laughter, he cleared his throat, which effectively caught the other boy's attention. Draco's eyes immediately narrowed as he sharply whispered, "Where the hell have you been?"

Blaise sent him an apologetic grin as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Well, you know how competitive I am... And I kinda got into another card game with Nott..."

"Whatever. Just get her off of me," he snapped, irritable from being stuck in the room for so long.

He wasted no time in following the demand, but paused before picking the girl up. "You have to admit, she does looks pretty cute like this," he commented as he tried to maneuver Ginny into his arms. After he successfully lifted her out of her seat, Draco promptly stood and started for the door. "Hey! Aren't you going to help me with her?" Blaise called, following after him.

"No." The boy's shoulders slumped as he prepared himself for the long trek up to the Gryffindor Common Room, silently hoping that his plan hadn't failed completely.

A/N - Please review! Hearing what you guys have to say makes writing this all the more enjoyable for me : ) Hope you liked the chapter!

-Twilight-Songstress