Chapter 9

The next morning at breakfast, Ginny couldn't stop fidgeting in her seat as she tried to eat her meal. Every few minutes or so, she would turn to look at the Slytherin table, waiting for a certain boy to show up in order to ease her anxiety, but when people had started trickling out of the hall to go to their classes, he still hadn't come in.

It wasn't until nearly everyone was gone that Ginny rose from her seat and walked briskly over to the Slytherin table, stopping behind a blonde boy before sitting down backwards on the bench beside him. With obvious agitation lacing her voice, she asked, "Malfoy, where is he?"

"Where is who?" he responded, the uncaring tone in his voice only rattling her nerves even more.

"You know who I'm talking about," she hissed. "Now, where is he?"

Draco shrugged. "I haven't seen him today." She exhaled softly and leaned back against the table as a look of concern crossed her face.

"But you share a dormitory... You must've seen him."

He glanced over at her as she stared down at her folded hands. His lips curved down slightly at her troubled expression before he mumbled, "I heard him come in last night after I went to bed, and he was already gone by the time I got up. Happy?"

"No," Ginny grumbled, her shoulders slumping. "That still doesn't answer my question."

"I don't know the answer to your question," he snapped back, dropping his fork on his plate and turning to face her. "Why're you so worked up about this anyway?"

"I've gotta talk to him."

"Why?"

She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you're not gonna be useful, then just say it."

"I've already told you I don't know where he is," Draco muttered, but upon seeing her pout, he couldn't help but add, "But if I see him, I'll tell you." This urged a small smile from her despite the melancholy air.

"Thanks..." It was then that she noticed all of the other people at the table — or rather, the not-so-friendly glares they were giving them. "We're receiving a lot of odd looks, aren't we?"

He rolled his eyes. "You just noticed?"

"...Well, you should probably say something insulting so they don't get suspicious," she suggested quietly, her lips quirking at the irony of the situation.

"Now you're asking me to insult you?" he drawled with poorly concealed amusement. "Make up you're mind, Weasley."

Narrowing her eyes, she ordered, "Just do it." A moment later, he caught her off guard by roughly shoving her off the bench.

"Get lost, Weaslette," he stated airily in a louder voice then he'd previously been talking in, effectively drawing the attention of the other Slytherins. "Your presence sickens me."

She raised an eyebrow, wondering if that was the best he could come up with. "Excuse me? You were the one who was coming onto me, Malfoy." She fought back a laugh as his expression abruptly changed from one of false anger to disbelief. He recovered fairly quickly and after a second, a sneer was on his face.

"In your dreams."

Ginny's voice took on a sarcastic quality as she replied, "Of course," before turning away to hide her growing smile.

As Draco opened the boys' dormitory door after dinner, he was a little surprised to find Blaise with his back to the door, dropping his bag on his bed. He continued into the room, closing the door behind him before casually inquiring, "Where've you been all day? It's not like you to skip class."

"The library," the other boy answered simply, still facing away from Draco. The blonde's eyebrows furrowed at this; he reached out to place a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"How come you're-?" He froze as Blaise faced him, his head bowed slightly, but Draco could still see his swollen, bruised eye and the bandage that was placed on his forehead. "...What the bloody hell happened to you?"

Blaise jerked away, bitterly retorting with, "What? Now you decide to talk to me again?"

"Who did this?" he demanded, ignoring his comment.

"I can handle it on my own." Blaise started to walk towards the door, but paused when Draco spoke up.

"Does this have something to do with why Weasley's been looking for you?"

He paused before continuing on his way. "That's none of your business."

"Wait. Where do you think you're going?" When he didn't stop, Draco's hands clenched at his sides. "I wanna know what the hell is going on!"

Blaise turned around in the doorway, his hand on the knob as he said, "Go ask Ginny. I've got detention in a few minutes."

Draco gazed at him with confusion. "You've got deten-?" Before he could finish, the door shut. With a low growl of frustration, he tossed his bag on the floor and flopped down on the bed, silently contemplating why the hell his friend wouldn't trust him.

By some random stroke of luck, Ginny finally spotted Blaise in the hallway the following day as she was making her way back to the Common Room from lunch. It wasn't too hard, since most of the students were taking advantage of the nice weekend weather or working on homework, leaving the hallways almost barren. Catching him by the arm, she pulled him to a stop.

"Blaise, I've been looking everywhere for you." She walked in front of him, her mouth open to continue, but her words faltered as she saw the injuries. "...Oh Merlin," she breathed, guilt written in her expression. "What happened?"

"It's fine," he assured her. When the distress on her face remained, he forced a grin. "Really."

"I-I'm so sorry. This is all my faul-"

"You shouldn't say that," he interjected, but as usual, she just had to argue with him.

"But it is!"

"And I'm not saying it isn't," he responded, "but you didn't tell me to take the blame. I did that on my own, so don't worry about it."

"Don't you dare tell me not to worry about it," she countered, her emotions getting the best of her. "I've been worried sick about you for the past two days. What else do you expect me to do when you don't show up for classes or meals? Especially when those damn people are involved-"

"Gin, you're ranting."

"I know I'm ranting!" she blurted out before a huff escaped her lips. "...Why did you do it?" He locked eyes with her and answered as simply as possibly could.

"Because I wanted to."

An embarrassed flush appeared on her cheeks as she looked away with a frown. "Well... Don't do it again," she murmured.

He grinned. "Then don't do something so stupid again," he teased, causing her to lift her gaze.

"So you're not mad at me?"

"Of course not," he said with a chuckle. "How could I be mad at you?"

Ginny echoed his laughter before hesitantly stepping forward to give him a warm, grateful hug. "...Thanks for what you did. I owe you."

"It was no problem."

She sighed at his response and pulled away, taking his hand in the process. "Come on," she smiled, tugging him down the hall. "I've got something that'll help that bruising..."

With a loud, stretched out yawn, Ginny rest her chin in the palm of her hand as she continued working on her Dark Arts homework. After she'd given Blaise some of her brothers' bruise-remover paste, she'd gone straight to the library and had yet to leave. Now, most of the other students had gone to bed, but she was determined to finish all of her work that night. However, drowsiness was quickly setting in, and she was finding herself growing sleepier by the minute. She was so tired in fact, that she didn't notice the presence of one Draco Malfoy till he shut the book she was staring at with a thud. Her head snapped up almost immediately, and the glare she shot him was fueled by the short-temperedness that usually comes with a lack of sleep.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she scowled, reopening her book. He promptly closed it once again.

"Okay, Weasley, I want to know what's been going on these past two days," he began evenly, but she wasted no time in cutting him off with a terse response.

"You don't need to worry about it."

"I think I do. It was my best friend who ended up with a black eye, and I know you're involved in this too."

"Malfoy, something did happen, but we've worked it out and you don't need to know about it," she informed him with an air of finality, but he wasn't willing to accept that answer.

"You've both been hiding things from me, and I'm tired of it!" Draco bit back through clenched teeth, which only pushed her over the edge.

"You haven't even been talking to him for the past week!" she spat in a hushed tone. The last thing she needed at the moment was for Madam Pince to come over and add to the already problematic situation. Placing her quill down, she grumbled, "You should just be glad he puts up with you sometimes." Draco must've had the same fear of Madam Pince, because a moment later, he was dragging her back to the most secluded corner of the library. Once they were behind a towering shelf of dusty old books, he released his hold on her arm and let out a sigh.

"Weasley, just tell me what's going on," he implored almost wearily. Her anger had subsided a bit and she glanced down at the floor.

"...You know the portable swap that was in Carrow's room the other day?" He caught on quickly and nodded.

"I knew you had something to do with that..."

"Yeah, I did," she confirmed sadly, "but when Carrow came in, Blaise hid me and told her that he did it."

"So that's why he's been in detention?"

"Mm-hmm, but I never thought he would-"

"It's Blaise. What else would you expect him to do," Draco snorted before narrowing his eyes. "You on the other hand need to actually think before you do something," he berated harshly. "If she'd caught you instead, she would've done much worse."

Her nose wrinkled with distain. "I'm old enough to take care of myself," she snapped, making a move to return to her work. "You don't have to tell me what to do." Without a second though, he reached out and pulled her back.

"Clearly I do," he hissed. "At this rate, you're gonna get yourself killed."

"I'm sorry I'm not as apathetic as you are," she shot back icily, trying to pull away from him, but he'd already trapped her against the bookshelf. Realizing that she couldn't get away, she continued her argument. "I can't just let them get away with hurting my friends."

"Oh, and you think I can? I don't like it either, but if you hadn't done something so stupid, Blaise would've never gotten in trouble!"

"I only did it because of what that bitch did to Seamus!" Ginny argued defensively.

"That doesn't mean you have to run off and be a bloody idiot about it!" he snarled, causing her to let out a huff of frustration.

"What would you know? All you've done is hurt people all your life!" He grip slackened on her arm as he stepped back, startled by her comment before his face hardened into the mask that she was used to.

"...Take that back."

"No! I can't believe after everything you've done you have the nerve to tell me not to do anything stupid!"

"I'm only telling you not to be a reckless moron because I don't want to see you get hurt!" Her furious expression disappeared in an instant, replaced by something akin to shock. He also froze when he realized what he'd said. "I mean- I..."

They both stood there, unsure what to say until Ginny took a step forward with a dream-like gaze. Raising her hand, she wove her fingers through his blonde hair before pulling his head down and placing her lips on his. He only briefly registered exactly what was going on as he wrapped an arm around her waist and backed her into the shelves, meeting her kiss with an equal fervor. She rose on her tip-toes, trying desperately to make up for the height difference as she slide her hand down his chest. After a moment, his lips parted from hers only enough to take a breath of air. "Ginny..."

The sound of his voice murmuring her name abruptly woke her from her daze and she tilted her head slightly to stare into his darkened gray eyes, her chest rising and falling as she breathed heavily. Then her eyes slowly widened and, without warning, she jumped away from him, his arm slipping from her waist as he watched her rapidly gather her belonging and dash out of the library.

A/N - Whew... It's two o'clock in the morning, my cake and soda-induced sugar high is starting to fail me, and I just wrote the most awkward snogging scene ever. But hey, they finally kissed! : ) So... Please review and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

-Twilight-Songstress