You and I got something
But it's all and then it's nothing to me, yeah
And I got my defenses
When it comes through your intentions for me, yeah

And we wake up in the breakdown
With the things we never thought we could be, yeah

I'm not the one who broke you
I'm not the one you should fear
We got to move you darling
I thought I lost you somewhere
But you were never really ever there at all

And I want to get free
Talk to me
I can feel you falling
And I wanted to be
All you need
Somehow here is gone

--Goo Goo Dolls, Here Is Gone

"Asking me why I was sorted into Slytherin is like asking you why you were sorted into Gryffindor… why were you sorted into Gryffindor?"

"I'm brave?"

"No, no, no. Because of your family, that's why you were sorted into Gryffindor."

"How so?"

He smirked over at the window at my stupidity. We were in the library today on a supposed study date the Monday afternoon after the lake incident, mostly talking the entire time. I'd been avoiding Hermione, she kept sending me glances at dinner to come and sit by her, but I tried my best to make it look like I didn't see her. Harry and Ron were trying to avoid me, so they wouldn't have to go through the guilt of not talking me out of Draco when they talked to me. In the dorm room and at classes, Leah kept trying to lean in closer to ask me something, but Megan hits her in the stomach with her elbow.

"Every single Weasley has been a Gryffindor, right?"

I thought about this. "Except mum's second cousin, Raymond."

"Yeah. Raymond, sure. So, what would your parents say if you were put in Slytherin?"

"I dunno what they'd say… there'd be pain, most likely."

"Yes, see. But look at you. You're cunning. You're clever. You can take care of yourself. Definitely Slytherin material, I'd say. The problem is, you've been raised thinking it's all bad to be one. I mean to say, I'd suit any other house just as well as I do Slytherin, but I chose not to, of course."

"You chose not to. So you're saying you could make an excellent Hufflepuff." I said, smirking a little and playing with my quill.

"Hey now, I'm very patient. As long as I get my way eventually."

"That's wonderful."

"Oh look, it's your… friends," he drawled, as he tended to do whenever Gryffindors I knew passed. Leah and Megan were going by in the hall. Leah only noticed me when they were almost out of sight of the library, then ran back to our table. Megan turned back and, now noticing us for the first time too and realizing that Leah was about to do something untactful, as she tended to do, ran after her.

"Geroff, Meg!" Leah said, shaking her and finally coming to a rest in the chair next to Malfoy. "Why, hello, Gin, long time no see, eh?" she asked, rounding some loose hair behind her ears and grinning pointedly at Draco. He gave her a sidewise smirk. I kicked him under the table. Megan, glaring at Leah the whole time, went to the seat across from her and next to me. "I don't believe you've Introduced us to your…" Leah conspicuously looked Draco up and down. How did I come to be friends with such a flirt? "Your… beau. Seventh year, yeah?"

Draco nodded.

"You wouldn't happen to be… Draco Malfoy, would you?"

Megan mumbled something under her breath that sounded more than a lot like, "crazy bint." Draco, however, made no signs of annoyance. "That I am. You've heard of me."

"Yeah! You're almost as popular a topic as The Crimson Wave in the girls' washroom!"

I snorted and put my face in my book at that. Draco turned away from us and tried to keep from laughing. Megan turned red but started giggling too before she realized what a fool Leah was trying (with all her might) to make the both of them look like, and got up and dragged her out of the library. As they left I tried to calm myself down, then Leah turned back and tried to say "G'bye Love!" when Megan punched her in the stomach and she finally ran off, giggling. Madame Pince almost started off after them, but instead glared over at Draco and I, looking quite capable of murder.

"Well, that was different," Draco admitted as he finally turned back to the table, his cheeks a little rosy from trying not to laugh.

"You can't say they aren't more fun than Crabbe and Goyle."

"It's a tough choice," he admitted, scratching his chin. "Am I really as popular as the menstrual cycle? I'm quite proud of myself, now…"

I shook my head and went back to my homework.

"Hey, hey, what're you doing?"

"Homework?"

"Why?"

I blinked. "Because you sort of have to, Draco."

"Oh come on. Come with me…"

He got up and took my hand. We left our books there and walked out of the library, Draco saluting at Madame Pince before turning the corner.

***

"Come on, up you go…"

"Draco, this is the Astronomy Tower."

"Yeah?" He gave me an innocently blank look.

"Draco, I'm not… I can't…" I blushed and looked around. The Astronomy Tower was for couples. Like, real couples.

"Oh come on, I may be a horny bastard, but I'm not… that… horny…" he said conversationally, dragging me up another stair to the door of the classroom on the top of the tower at each of his last words. "We just need some privacy."

"Draco!"

"I don't mean that kind of privacy, my god… crazy paranoid goody-goodies…"

"I am not a goody-goody, Malfoy!"

"Yes, yes you are."

"No I'm not!"

He gave me One of His Looks, this one daring me to prove it. I glared at him. He loved to push people, but I already knew that. "Fine." I said quietly, before grabbing the back of his head and pushing it down towards me.

I got one of the tingles that I had gotten the last time he'd kissed me, two days ago. Part of it may have been the ice-cold cement sinking through my heavy robes to my back, but you know.

I kept my hand on his head and leaned forward, trying to steady myself against the wall behind me with my other hand. I was having to get on my tiptoes to get to him, and somehow he sensed this and, holding either side of my waist, held me up a little higher, which just made me feel even dizzier, but in a good way. I suddenly felt him smirking against my mouth and remembered how we'd gotten to kissing again, then smacked him and jerked my head back.

"What, you're the one who did it, I was the one who didn't want to come up here for that, anyway!"

"Bastard, bastard, bastard." I mumbled quietly to myself. "You tricked me into that, didn't you?"

"Oh, I didn't mean to when we were coming up here, but the opportunity just came up and, what can I say, I'm a Slytherin."

"I noticed. Bastard."

"I love you too."

I was getting rather annoyed. "What did you want to come up here to do… privately?"

"Talk." He said simply as he entered the circular room that was Hogwarts' Astronomy Tower. It was just like any other tower at Hogwarts, you couldn't stand on top of it, because more than a few students have fallen. So instead, they just knocked out the roof and have huge, unbreakable windows fifteen feet high. The walls have five feet of window, five of wall, five of window, wall, so on, all the way around the tower. In the middle of the room is a small mound where the teacher instructs each student where to look. It was one of my favorite rooms at Hogwarts.

"Talk?" I asked, shivering in the late afternoon air, glancing at the sun dipping under the horizon. "We were talking in the library, weren't we?"

"Not in private." He answered, going over the western windows and watching the sun too.

"Talk, what about?"

"I wanted you to ask me something."

My eyebrows twitched in confusion. "You… wanted… what?"

"I want you to ask me to go out with you."

"Wait… let me try to figure out what you're saying. You want me to ask you to go out with me. Yes?"

"Yeah."

"So. It would please you, if I went over there next to you, and asked you to go out with me."

"That's a good girl."

"But, why don't you ask me… aren't we already going out?"

"No, see, in a sense, we are going out. But not really."

"Yes."

"No… I mean, yes, but that's bad."

I stared. "You mean you really want to… really go out with me?"

"No, you do."

"… What?"

"Just fucking ask me already."

"Will you go out with me?" I asked as if I were guessing an answer in a hard class.

He suddenly looked very aristocratic. "Well… I don't know, you are a… Gryffindor…" He said, sneering slightly. "But why not." He ran a hand through his hair and looked at the window again, then back at me. "Okay, there we are."

I blinked.

He stared, leaning against the wall.

"What was that about?"

"I couldn't bloody well ask a Gryffindor to go out with me, could I?"

I thought about this. "So, wait, we're really going out?"

"Yep."

"But… you mean you really wanted to go out with me?"

"You expect me to go with Pansy?"

"You have gone with Pansy."

"Don't make this difficult, Ginny. Say, that isn't your real name, is it?"

"No, it's Guinevere," I said quietly, still thinking through his logic.

"Guinevere?"

"You know, King Arthur's wife?"

"Yeah, I know… but how does one get Ginny from that?"

"Ron couldn't pronounce 'Gwen' when he was young and called me Gin."

"Ugh, I wouldn't liked to be called Ginny all the time…"

I thought about this. "You know, it really isn't that pretty a name, is it. And everyone always spells it Jenny."

"I'll call you Gwen."

I watched him carefully from the center of the room. A lock of pearl-colored hair was almost glittering in the sunset light. "Why don't you ever show anyone this side of you, Draco?"

He pushed the lock back, molding it back into the gelled hair it had come loose from. "I can't. Weakness is one thing a Slytherin can't show." He finally answered quietly.

"Caring isn't a weakness."

"Yes it is." He stated firmly.

I bit my lip. "I suppose… to a certain extent… it could be."

His eyes grew stony. "I shouldn't tell you that, though. I guess there are some things some people need to know and some things other people need to know. It really all depends…"

"What do you mean, some people?"

He turned back to the window. "Do you have to ask, Ginny? Think about… think about where… Potter will be five years from now. Think about where Granger will be, and the Weasel, and your friend with the rack, and the Patil girls. Hell, Gi- Gwen, where will you be?" He paused, looking over his shoulder at me. "Then think about where I'll be. Where will I be, Gwen? Will I be with you, having a dinner party in the Burrow? Will I be playing Quidditch for Britain?" He stepped forward. "Or will I be conducting raids? … Will I be plotting against Potter, Gwen? Will I be hunted until I'm pulled into the Ministry, where your brother Percy will sentence me to life in Azkaban? What do you think, Gwen, what does 'some people' mean?"

I looked down at the floor; I couldn't speak. We stood there in silence again for what seemed like an hour. Finally, I made myself whisper hoarsely, "It doesn't have to be that way, Draco."

"It's life. Of course it has to be that way."

I felt very, very cold. I was crying, and thinking to myself, don't cry, Gi- Gwen. Your tears will freeze.

"Gwen… I… oh… fuck it… I'm… sorry…" he started to walk towards me, but I held my hand up.

"No, it's okay. I know it's true. I just… I'm, going to go downstairs, okay?"

His expression went cold again. He nodded quietly. Slowly, I turned to leave, but before I'd gone two steps I turned back and ran to him. I clung to him like a five-year-old to her father, not wanting to say goodbye. He went stiff, and I smiled a little to myself. Sure, Draco could do with lust-filled power kissing, but he needed a little practice on warm, comforting hugs. I could definitely help him there.

"I'm not the best with emotions, so I can't talk to you about stuff, but if they hurt you, I can at least best them to a pulp for you, okay?" He whispered down at my head. I didn't know what brought that promise on, but it really warmed me up, and I guess him too, because he finally clung back at me, kissing my head like I'd always wished Harry had done. But Harry never would. And now I realized that was a good thing.

***