Ecstasy is all you need
Living in the big machine now
Oh, you're so vain
Now your world is way too fast
Nothin's real and nothing lasts
And I'm aware

I'm in love but you don't care
Turn your anger into lust
I'm still here, but you don't trust at all
And I'll be waiting

--Goo Goo Dolls, Big Machine

"So Malfoy, how are we going to get this to work?" I ask him as I grab a tree branch, sort of half-heartedly hanging from it, the Saturday after we agreed to go out. Him being a Slytherin and a year ahead of me meant we didn't see each other very much, so we'd decided to meet by the lake.

He shrugs, watching me as he sits down. "I dunno, how you'd usually do an inter-house relationship, maybe."

"How does one do that?"

"Um… I dunno."

"You should know, you're the big, bad seventh-year here. You've seen more than I have."

"Yeah, but you're in Gryffindor. Slytherins aren't big on inter-house."

I let go of the branch and go to sit next to him on the grass. He studies me again. "So this going out bit, does it include benefits?"

I feel my face go red. "Er. I dunno. What… what kind of benefits?"

He doesn't answer. He just smirks.

"You're amazingly smug."

"You just noticed this?" he asks, leaning back and tilting his head towards the sun. "What an observant little Weasley."

I shove him backwards onto the grass.

"What! We have to make it believable so Potter will get desperately jealous!" He said, sighing happily as if the notion brought a flutter to his heart.

"How believable are you going for?" I ask, biting my nail and avoiding his eyes. I never thought I'd be having this conversation with Malfoy.

"Oh, I dunno…" He thought about this carefully, and then turned on his side to face me. "How do you feel about… slumber parties?"

I gaped. That bastard. "No fucking way!"

"What?" he asked lazily with a smirk. "I thought you were the one Gryffindor who could actually take a joke.

I calmed down slightly. "You think too highly of us," I muttered.

"I know… I shouldn't be so kind, should I?"

I smiled. When someone is your enemy, you really don't realize how funny they are. He watches me carefully, and then he turns to look behind him. "Look, here come the lovebirds and the Weasel now…" he drawled quietly, watching over his shoulder.

"Draco, that's my broth—" But I was quickly cut off; just as Harry, Ron, and Hermione came into my line of vision Draco tackled me. I punched at his chest as he smothered me with his lips. This wasn't exactly romantic. After a while, however, I stopped squirming and let him have his way… only for show of course… He took my right hand in his left and smoothly brought it behind my head on the grass like a scene from a romance novel, and for some reason I started to feel calm as he did that. I didn't bother to think of how utterly absurd this was, for My Crush's Nemesis to be making out with me in the middle of the grounds, with the crush himself less than thirty yards away, I only thought of how… well, comfortable… I felt. As Draco felt me calm under him his kiss became less harsh and I noticed—it was surprising how much those lips— poison to the wrong people— could be so like angel wings when he wished. I don't know why angel wings popped into my mind, but angel wings was the only way to describe them. Well, maybe fallen angel wings.

He'd taken my other hand in his entwining his fingers in mine, and I could feel mine shaking. I had to keep thinking to myself, only for show, only for show, but just as I thought, hell, why not enjoy it… he slowly drew back and looked at me, as if for approval.

No… not for approval… there was something like incredulity… or something in there…  I opened my eyes and breathed him in, wondering so vaguely why I'd ever thought his eyes were cold gray… they were a living, intense quicksilver color… gorgeous…

"Ginny." He whispered in a voice that matched his fallen angel lips. It made me shiver.

"Yes, Draco?" I asked, only then realizing that I hadn't inhaled for the last minute or so.

He rolled off me and my body tingled. "They're gone."

"Did…" I was too drained to stand, but my cells still danced with the aftermaths of… of him, "did they see us?"

"Dunno." He leaned back again nonchalantly.

I couldn't stop staring at him.

"What?" he snapped.

I shrugged without saying anything. Really, there wasn't anything special at all about what happened…

I'd only just seen that Draco Malfoy had a heart.

***

A few minutes after The Kiss, I was disorientedly making my way back to the common room. I didn't see Ron standing by the Fat Lady until he noticed me.

"Guinevere Weasley!" He hollered.

"'Lo, Ron."

"Mind telling me where you've been this afternoon?"

I considered this. "You know, don't you," I thought aloud.

"Of course I know!" He hissed.

I smiled. "Thought as much!"

"Malfoy, eh?"

"Good guess."

"Ginny! Why are you being like this?"

"Hmm? What's the password?"

"What?"

I pointed to the Fat Lady. "The password, Ron!"

"Why are you being like this?"

I turned to the Fat Lady. "Why are you being like this." I stated chipperly.

"Damnit Ginny, are you drunk or something?" Ron yelled.

"Ron, shh!" I said soothingly. "Now if you'll just give me the password, we can go inside and then we can talk."

"Why don't you just go in the bloody Slytherin Common Room?"

"Think I should?"

"Ginny!"

"Ron, honestly!" Hermione suddenly popped through the portrait hole. "You can hear you arguing from miles away… Ginny, come here, we need to talk."

"No we don't."

"Yes we do Ginny, now come on in…"

"Hermione…" I cocked my head to the side. "Don't tell me you're taking their side?"

"Their side?" she asked.

I shook my head. "I need sleep." I said quietly, trying to push past her, but she stopped me.

"What do you mean, their side, Ginny?"

Her eyes searched mine out from the floorboards. She looked at me like a disappointed mother. I hated when she got that look. "I just thought you'd be my friend about it, that's all… I need sleep…" I said quietly and then ducked under her arm. She let me go to my dormitory.

"It's six in the evening!" Ron yelled after me, but I ignored him.

***

"I'm telling you, Harry, she doesn't want us to talk to her."

How totally discreet, they're discussing whether to come in and talk to me… right in front of my door. I'm sitting on my bed playing with the loose threads in my nightshirt and listening to them. At first, I'd thought about switching on Leah's wireless (Of course it's wireless, it runs on magic. Ahahaha.) and jamming the muggle stations Megan had gotten it to play in a particularly techy moment. She can get like that.

Harry starts to talk, quieter than he usually does, which is still very quiet. "I reckon it's my fault… I mean, she did kind of," I pictured him squirming under Hermione's gaze, like he tended to do, "like me, you know…"

"What does that have to do with it?" Ron snapped. I'd thought he'd gone.

There was a pause, and then Harry answered. "Well, you know, Ron… ever since Hermione and I… have been going together…"

"You two are going together?"

I picture much squirming going on in the next pause. Then Hermione speaks. "Well, Ron, I'd thought you knew…"

"But…" a knock on the door. Ron was fidgeting. "But, I…"

Pause.

"Never mind."

"You… what, Ron?"

"Never mind," he mumbled. "How about we just leave Ginny alone?"

Pause.

"What was that?" Harry whispered, I supposed to Hermione. Ron must have left then.

Hermione didn't say anything, but I guess she realized the same time as I did that Ron had had a crush on her.

I lay back on my pillow, trying to keep from smiling. Hermione and Harry really shouldn't have gone out, with all the trouble it was causing. Hehe.