Author's Note: Sorry for the delay...I had final exams and things over the past few weeks so I didn't have much time to write. But now I'm back! Thanks for being patient – here's chapter 2, hope you like it!

Chapter 2: A Welcome Distraction

Ginny looked up at the sky through the pond water, blowing bubbles out of her mouth and waving her arms in great circles to keep herself underwater. It had been three weeks and four days since Harry, Ron, and Hermione's departure from the Burrow. They still hadn't received any news…no Owls with letters…not even a scrap of a note or a token from the trio to let them know that the mission was going well and that they were safe. Ginny exhaled all of her breath and sank even lower into the pond. She missed them…all of them, of course. But she kept thinking about those last few weeks with Harry, the last time she had felt truly and completely happy.

Her vision of the sky was suddenly obscured by a large black shape. She burst out of the water. The first thought of her wartime mind was of how stupid she had been to leave her wand with her clothes and towel on the big log a few feet from the water's edge.

She frantically brushed the water from her eyes, but even before she had fully regained her vision she could tell that there had been no need for alarm. It was Draco.

"Bloody hell! What are you doing here?" she exclaimed.

"I've been walking by this pond every day for the past two weeks," he said calmly, stepping back from the water's edge to avoid being splashed as droplets of water sprayed toward him. "And you," he added wryly, raising his eyebrows ever so slightly, "looked like you were drowning. And you shouldn't swear, Weasley. It's not ladylike."

Ginny shot him a glare. "I wasn't drowning," she grumbled.

"I can see that."

Ginny scowled. She wished she could wipe that smug look right off his face. His hair was as neat and blonde-white as ever, but Ginny noticed that his skin seemed to have lost some of its sickly pallor during the past few weeks. Perhaps it was these supposed walks of his. He certainly seemed to be dressed for a walk…or at least as much as Malfoy was ever dressed for outdoor activity. Jeans and a light linen button-down, rolled up to his elbows.

Suddenly very aware of her own appearance, Ginny sank back into the water until it covered her swimming top and bare shoulders. Again she wished she had left her things closer to the water's edge.

"I didn't know you were taking walks," Ginny said, suddenly aware that she didn't know much at all about how Draco filled his days at the Burrow. She had seen him at meals during the past three weeks; the awkwardness had lessened considerably around the table. Draco wasn't nearly as rowdy as Fred and George, but he was part of the general conversation now. But afterwards he retreated upstairs to Ron's old room and shut the door, and Ginny kept mostly to herself these days anyway. She had started reading some of the books Hermione had given her on Christmases over the years…she'd never touched them before but now they were a welcome distraction.

"I need to get out of your house," Draco said. "It's very…cramped."

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "I'm sure it feels that way," she quipped, "what with your huge ego and all."

Draco smirked appreciatively. "I need to get away from everything," he said finally, and Ginny was rather surprised at the openness of his answer. "It clears my head."

"Well," Ginny said equally, "the pond's a great place for that. The garden gnomes hardly ever bother you here. Sometimes they'll throw pebbles at you while you swim, but it's not so bad." Ginny grinned at Malfoy's skeptical expression. "My brothers and I used to come here all the time," she continued cheerfully. "Bill taught me how to swim here. I nearly drowned once…over there," she pointed to the far side of the pond where the water was deeper.

Seeming to decide that this conversation was going to continue a while longer, Draco cleared a small area of the larger pebbles with his shoe and sat down, cross-legged with his arms extended back to support himself.

"My mum never let me near water," he said. "I have absolutely no idea how to swim."

Ginny's jaw dropped. "You have got to be joking."

Draco grinned at the expression on her face. "Swear to Merlin," he said. "We actually had a big indoor swimming pool at the manor, but Mum absolutely hates water – I think she must have had a drowning scare when she was little and not recovered quite as well as you apparently have – and she had it emptied out and we used to have dancing in there during parties."

Ginny was eyeing him skeptically now. "You're making this up," she said slowly.

"I'm not!" Draco said.

"Well what would you have done if you'd fallen into the lake when we took those boats in first year?" Ginny waded closer to the edge of the pond and rested her forearms on land.

"Drowned," replied Draco matter-of-factly.

Ginny laughed aloud and Draco grinned. "Naw, perfect little Potter would've definitely jumped right in to save me," he said, rolling his eyes.

Ginny sobered at the mention of Harry. "Yes, well, he probably would have," she said, rather defensively. She wasn't really in the mood to joke about Harry's heroics when he was out somewhere, probably in danger. There was an awkward pause.

"Sorry," Draco said finally. Ginny suddenly felt bad for ruining the moment. They'd been having an at least civil conversation.

"Yeah, I guess he was a pretty good swimmer," she replied, because she couldn't think of anything else to say, "I never brought him here, but he did do well during the Tri-Wizard, so I suppose…." She trailed off. What was she going on about?

She looked back at Draco to find that he was staring at her very intently. "Well you really do miss the scarfaced git, don't you?" he said, laughing when Ginny scowled at him. "What? You can't expect me to stop calling him names! It's practically second nature by now."

Ginny shot him her most withering glare, but she smiled a little. "I guess I do," she answered.

Draco rolled his eyes. "You two make me want to retch," he said. "But would he have been your bait, do you think?" he added curiously.

Ginny looked at him quizzically. "Oh, whatever they called them…the people they had to rescue down at the bottom of the lake…the ones they cared for the most."

Ginny shrugged. "Or maybe Ron," she said, "Although he does always steal my broom when we're at home, so…a toss-up, really."

Draco laughed. He looked up at the sky thoughtfully. "Mine would probably have been my mum," he said, "Or maybe Pansy."

"Where is your mum anyway?" Ginny said. "Isn't it going to be dangerous for her…once Voldemort starts looking for you?"

Draco cringed at Voldemort's name. Ginny rolled her eyes. "She's probably going to pretend I've run away. Or that I've come down with a terribly contagious illness. The Dark Lord is pretty squemish about diseases."

Ginny laughed. "So many surprises," she said. Draco smiled weakly, but Ginny could tell that thinking about his mother had brought up a whole host of worries that he had probably been coming on walks to avoid. Nice, Gin, she thought to herself.

"Well I'll teach you," Ginny said suddenly, her face brightening.

"Excuse me?"

"To swim…I'll teach you to swim!"

Draco laughed at her sudden enthusiasm. "No," he said, "I don't need you to take me on as your pet project."

Ginny looked at him seriously. "It's not a project. I need a distraction, you need a distraction and the ability to stay afloat in times of crisis and in the presence of perfectly reasonable bodies of water. It's a bargain."

He considered for a moment, then raised his eyes skyward in resignation. "You're going to be the death of me," he grumbled, but he stood and unbuttoned his shirt and took of his jeans, revealing a pair of black boxers beneath. He carefully folded his clothes and placed them on the log with his wand.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I'm not getting any younger over here!" she said teasingly. Draco flashed her a glare.

He approached the pond and swung down so he was seated on the edge with his legs dangling into the water.

"Well get in!" Ginny said. "It's only about four feet deep here."

Draco seemed to hesitate for a moment, and Ginny abruptly grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him into the water. He fell in with a great splash and surfaced sputtering. "Bloody hell, woman!" he exclaimed.

Ginny smiled at him innocently. "You shouldn't swear, Malfoy. It's not ladylike."

Draco laughed aloud. He wiped the water from his eyes and, in one swift movement, slicked his wet hair back to near-perfect neatness. He looked back at her archly. "There. Now what?"

"Well," Ginny said as Draco righted himself and rested his arms on the pond's edge. "I guess we should head back in soon. It's getting dark."

"I'll say," Draco replied, glancing over at Ginny, who was now floating on her back to look at the last colors of the sunset and the first stars. "Why anyone would want to swim is beyond me."

Ginny snorted. "If your yacht ever overturns you'll thank me."

"What makes you think we own a yacht?" Draco countered.

Ginny didn't look up. "Well. Don't you?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Well yes, actually, we do."

Now Ginny laughed aloud. "Spoiled prat."

"Penniless brat," he responded, not missing a beat.

"Fair enough," Ginny said, grinning.

Draco smiled. "Well my pool may have been empty, but at least I know how to ballroom dance."

"Well I guess you'll have to teach me sometime," Ginny replied.

They were silent for a while as the early night sounds filled the air around them. Finally Draco pushed himself out of the water. Ginny got out after him and wrapped her towel around herself.

"I'll remember to bring a towel next time?" he said, turning to her. Something about the way he said it made Ginny realize that he was asking if these lessons would be continuing.

"Yeah," she said, smiling at him. "Good idea."

He nodded and pulled his jeans on over his wet legs, opting to carry his shirt as they walked back toward the house.

As the Burrow came into view, Ginny could make out a figure – either Fred or George (she couldn't tell at this distance) – pacing on the front porch. Ginny's stomach dropped, and she broke into a run.

"What is it?" she said as she came within speaking distance. Draco came up beside her and she realized that he had been running too. "Have you heard from them?"

"No," George replied, "Nothing like that. Can I talk to you though, Gin? Alone?"

"Thank you for the lesson, Ginny," Draco said, suddenly much more formal than he had been at the pond. He nodded to George and entered the house.

George waited a few moments for Draco to move away from the door and then turned to his sister. "Where in Merlin's name have you been, Ginny!" he exclaimed.

Ginny was taken aback. "At the pond. I'm teaching Malfoy how to swim." She tried to sound calm and matter-of-fact, as if spending an afternoon teaching Draco Malfoy how to stay afloat was the most natural thing in the world.

"Fred and I were about to go looking for you! You and that git both gone for hours! We were beginning to think he'd kidnapped you or something!"

Ginny rolled her eyes and pushed past George into the house. "For Merlin's sake, George, we ran into each other at the pond and I offered to teach him how to swim. We live in the same bloody house…is it all that shocking that we might end up spending time together?"

"Well yeah, actually, Ginny! He hasn't exactly been best friends with any of us, has he?"

"Are we really going to have this argument, George?" Ginny countered, trying hard to keep her voice low. "I'm sorry I didn't Owl you to tell you what time I'd be home," she added sarcastically.

George rolled his eyes heavenward. Then he looked at her, resigned. "Fine, but you really ought to be…on your guard…around him. Okay? Even if he's not going to kidnap you…you don't think twice about befriending people, Gin, and he wouldn't think twice about hurting you."

Ginny put her hand on George's arm. "Okay," she said finally. "I'll be careful."

"That's all I'm asking," George replied.

Ginny sighed and patted her brother on the arm before heading up the stairs. She realized she must have missed dinner, and George's worry suddenly seemed much more reasonable. Well, she would shower and then have something to eat before bed. But anyway, he seemed to be worried that she was going to form some kind of close personal bond with Draco Malfoy.

Ginny snorted and rolled her eyes at her brother's overprotectiveness. Really, what were the chances of that?

Author's Note: So what do you think? Just a lot of Draco/Ginny bonding in this chapter. I'd really love your feedback Please review – I want to know what you think! I'll probably have chapter 3 up this weekend. Love, mugglehugger.