Hmm…I said that I wouldn't do another chapter of this fic…but you all convinced me to do more. I understand that I somewhat cheated you all on the last chapter; it wasn't really romance, after all. So I've decided to supply you all with the sap that I've promised. Boysenberry syrup, anyone?

Porcelain Notes

Chapter Two

Ginny brushed a strand of her fiery red hair out of her face, and securely tucked it behind her ear. She never really liked to leave it down; it got in her face all of the time and it distracted her from concentrating on her work properly, as she had to constantly push it back. She almost regretted not putting it up…almost.

Surprised to see her with her hair not pulled up in a loose ponytail or tied behind the nape of her neck, many people stopped to compliment her. It was strange—it seemed that many had a natural affinity toward red heads. It didn't hurt matters that her hair was sleek and shiny, despite the cheap shampoo that she used, and long. It was a flowing curtain of silk tumbling halfway down a tiny back.

Nearly everybody saw it as a beautiful asset to Ginny's already pretty form, but the petite girl only saw it as a nuisance.

So why had she left it down?

A faint tinge of pale pink colored Ginny's soft cheeks. She pressed too hard with her quill and it bent slightly at the end. Sighing slightly, she picked it up and pinched it carefully, trying to cajole the end back into place.

It was strange. So what if Draco Malfoy had said that her hair looked nice down? His opinion of such matters wasn't important to Ginny—was it?

It had been about two weeks since Ginny first encountered the older boy in a secret room in one of Hogwart's many corridors, and in those two weeks, Draco had been teaching her the fine basics of piano. He had not bothered to hide his approval as the smaller girl proved to be an apt learner, quickly mastering the simple chords that spilled across the music sheets. He had even smiled at her. Small, nearly undetectable, but there and genuine nonetheless.

Ginny had been surprised to see that Draco wasn't a bad teacher. He didn't scold her when she made a mistake, or didn't keep on time. He was distantly patient. Ginny had had much worse for instructors. Draco didn't exactly dish out the compliments, but his nods of approval were worth more than empty words of praise any day.

They hadn't told anybody, of course. Friendships would be broken and rumors would start. And Draco had nearly become a friend. Ginny didn't want to lose that now. Behind cold, gray eyes the color of pale marble, there had been a flicker of decency that Ginny was sure that no-one had seen before.

Sometimes they had talked. It was about anything that crossed their minds, really. Anything from annoyances to irritable teachers, to pestering friends and the latest Quidditch game. Ginny had been pleasantly surprised to discover that Draco had the same love of sushi that she did.

Once Ginny had asked him why he knew so much about music. Draco had shrugged.

"Partly because it's a good social point for guests," he had said. "And partially because I like it." The words were simple, but somehow profound.

And just the day before they had been in the room again playing. Ginny had tossed her head at a light joke Draco had made, and her hair partially fell out of its messy bun. Ginny had taken out the hair band to tie up her hair again when Draco spoke.

"Why don't you ever leave your hair down?" he asked. A hint of curiosity crossed his admittedly handsome features.

Usually when people asked her that, she would shrug and say that she hated having her hair get in her face. The only reason that she hadn't cropped it short was because her Mum would have killed her. But when Draco had said those simple words, she had been at a loss for words. When he asked, it felt like the most logical thing in the world to wear her hair down.

Ginny managed to shrug. "It gets in the way," she said earnestly. However, she wrapped her hair band around her wrist.

Draco tilted his head, a habit that Ginny noticed he seemed to have. "It looks nice down," he remarked laconically. Then he had returned to playing another bar so skillfully that it put Ginny's efforts to shame.

Now, Ginny returned to attempting to finish her homework. She didn't know why the boy's comment had affected her decision. She had never been the type to do something just because a boy complimented her on it. Ginny winced at the thought of what Ron would say.

The next day, Friday, was pretty slow. The normal routine of classes seemed to dramatically stretch. Draco passed Arithmancy drumming his quill lightly on his parchment, occasionally jotting down notes, and trying to ignore the bleating protests of his grumbling stomach, demanding for lunch.

Draco yawned as he walked out of class. Unfortunately, Arithmancy was the only class that Pansy didn't have with him. When he had picked his schedule for the following year, Pansy had somehow memorized it and copied down the exact same choices for herself. But Arithmancy had proved too difficult, and she had been forced to drop out after only a month. For this Draco was glad. Arithmancy class was the only place that his female shadow disappeared. That, and his lessons with Ginny.

At first he thought that it would be miserable teaching her. It had felt somewhat like blackmail at first, but he quickly grew to realize that indeed, the girl really did have an interest in music. An admittedly classy one at that. Soon Draco actually started to enjoy his tri-weekly sessions with her. She was a fast learner and far more quick than dim, slow-witted Pansy, whose only talent derived in tailing Draco until he thought he would go mad.

Draco scowled. There he went, thinking about her again.

Draco paused as a magnificent head of red hair appeared in his line of sight, several people in front of him and to the right. Ginny hadn't seen him.

The boy couldn't fight the slight, sharp intake of breath. That hair sure was pretty.

He frowned. Why had she suddenly decided to wear her hair down? As far as he knew, the girl hated having her locks get in her face. Draco tilted his head again and considered, and arrived at only one possibility: she had taken his comment to heart, and wore her hair down for him.

Draco shivered. For him? Yet he could not suppress a small smile. A knot of girls passed him and saw the rare benign upward curve of his lips, and nearly fell swooning—they thought he was smiling at them. Draco didn't notice.

All his life, people had tried to get on his good side. Presents were unconditionally offered, compliments made. But none had seemed as strangely profound as a small girl wearing her hair down for him.

For him, and him alone.

Draco saw other boys, even fellow Slytherins, eyeing her as she walked by. Apparently her rare style had an affect on others too. But not in the same way. Draco had no doubt that Ginny had been asked to leave her hair down before, and was pretty certain that she had never done so. But she had, and merely because Draco had mentioned something about it. Did Ginny really care about his opinion that much?

Draco's mind was wandering, but his feet responded automatically to the routine trek down to the Great Hall for lunch. Before he knew it, his normal chair was right in front of him, and Pansy's chair, right next to it, was occupied by none other than his shadow herself. Pansy was stuffing herself with food. Draco never figured out how she could eat so much and barely gain a pound.

Pansy stopped long enough to beam at him as he sat down and reached for some food without a single comment directed towards her. Pansy was used to that, but something had changed.

The pug-nosed girl was stupid, but she wasn't…well, yes she was, but even a girl like her could notice the subtle changes in one of the school's most sought-after bachelors (although Pansy consistently claimed that Draco was already spoken for). The sixth-year seemed more tolerant. He didn't snap at her as much, and when he did, there wasn't much heart in his words. Originally Pansy had thought that she was finally winning him over with her overworked charm and fake eyelash batting. But those hopes died when she realized that he often didn't listen to her words and let his mind wander, usually giving him a strange, glazed look in his eyes. If Pansy hadn't known better, she could have sworn that the stiff teenager was daydreaming.

And then there were the times that Draco managed to slip out of her line of sight—which normally was very poor, but eagle-eyed when it came to certain young men—and didn't show up again for another few hours. When he came back, he would seem a bit more pleasant towards everyone in general. Even Pansy. She wasn't about to complain, but…it was strange. Usually, whenever Draco was even slightly sweet, it meant that he had something up his sleeve—something painful.

But two weeks had passed since these strange occurrences started happening, and no-one had blown up yet.

Pansy shrugged. The Christmas spirit must finally be getting to him. Break was starting the next day and homework was at a surprisingly low level. That is, if you didn't have Divination. Professor Trelawney was going into contortions over some celestial arrangement of the heavens, and was predicting gruesome deaths right and left. She was making all of the students make a bunch of their own predictions, complete with complicated figures. Pansy scowled as she took a swig of pumpkin juice. If she had wanted to do math, she'd have stayed in Arithmancy.

And the only homework that Trelawney should have given was to stay alive during the holidays.

The rest of the day passed as slowly as the first. Ginny meandered through the halls absentmindedly. Dinner wouldn't be for another hour, and she had nothing to do. Oh, she could probably work on her Divination—math never bothered her, and predicting horrible things was fun; she could see why Trelawney liked it so much—homework, but she had too much to think about.

Christmas break had essentially started, and she was back in her annual dilemma. Her family was poor, of course, so she always had little money to spend on gifts for others. She had managed to purchase satisfactory things for her family, but friends were another matter. Most of Ginny's money had already been spent.

Her friends had always told her that it was okay—she didn't need to get them anything, and that it was the thought that counted. But it didn't help matters much; Ginny always felt miserable anyway, and this year was even worse.

She supposed she was stupid for even thinking about it, but she really did want to get something for Draco Malfoy. True, she had really only known him for about two weeks, but…well, she didn't know. He had taken time out of his own life to teach her how to master the basics of piano. He hadn't had to. Draco knew that she wouldn't blackmail him for anything, so he was obligation-free. Yet he had still taught her.

Giving him a gift seemed appropriate. But what to give to the richest kid in school? Her whole house probably wasn't worth much more than most of the gifts Draco most likely got every year—anything she bought would pathetically pale in comparison. And Draco wasn't a likely candidate to comfortingly say 'it's the thought that counts'.

So what do you give to the boy that has everything he could possibly want?

Ginny knew he liked music, but the guy had every instrument that he could possibly want. Violins, pianos, even xylophones. And he already knew every symphony composed by major musician.

Something musical would have to do, though. She didn't know much more about him that extended beyond that field, except for his love of sushi. Maybe she'd get a hold of a plate of that from the kitchens or something.

She decided upon that, but something was still missing. There was really nothing to say her gratefulness that he had bothered to teach her anything. He had already given her a wonderful gift—a taste for classical melodies, spiraling whimsically in the air before settling down and catching in the flow again.

Classical…melodies.

Ginny grinned and stopped in the middle of the hall, startling Mrs. Norris, who had been prowling around the corner.

She entered a more crowded hallway, full of bustling students hurrying to change out of their cloaks and into more comfortable wear. Pushing through the crowd, Ginny's face broke into a wide grin.

It froze a little as she spotted a platinum blonde head weaving though the mass of hats, standing out like a star of ivory against a seething sea of black. A few people scattered here and there, allowing Ginny a view of Draco, looking very annoyed as he walked in between Crabbe and Goyle. They were apologizing stupidly for something, and Draco was wringing out his hat in disgust, and a sticky-looking liquid oozed out from the material.

Ginny had no doubt that the two towering lumps of flesh had done something stupid again, and brought her hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle. Draco caught it and looked up to see the source—and found Ginny, discreetly looking sideways at him as she pretending to pick fluff out of her robes, her fiery hair a curtain of flames sharply contrasting with her black cloak. She was laughing at him—no, at his two sidekicks, wrinkling their beady eyes as they attempted to say something intelligent.

Draco couldn't help it; he snorted himself. Ginny saw and winked at him, plainly saying that she felt sorry that he had such awful shadows that followed him. Draco rolled his eyes, but at the same time, a pink tinge graced his features. Ginny had winked at him.

Nevertheless, he nodded slightly to her before wiping all traces of a smile off his face as he turned to face Crabbe and Goyle.

Ginny shook her head. Her mind briefly considered that Draco looked beautiful when he smiled, but she shoved away the thought and continued on her way.

Three hours later, Ginny snuck into the now-familiar hallway where the secret room was hidden. She had never really been in it before her lessons, but now that she was in it frequently, she had reason to believe that this hall led to the Slytherin common room entrance. She wondered what it was like, as the small girl walked along. Was it cozy and warm? Did the students laugh a lot in there?

Ginny, in her musings, paused in front of the door. She hadn't had to look where she was going; her feet automatically carried her along her path. She looked up, expecting to see the same handsome, wooden door, but instead saw…

Nothing.

Ginny blinked and stepped back. Had she turned a wrong corner? She looked around, her red hair shimmering as it moved with her head and caught the light. No, the door should have been there. All of the other familiar entrances were in their places, and the door to the secret room should have been right in front of her. But it wasn't. Ginny retraced her steps and looked more for the wooden door with the brass knob. Several were like it, but none were the same. Their brass knobs were tarnished and grubby, possessing none of the lean elegance of the door she was used to.

Ginny tuned down another corner, and doubled back as she knew it was the wrong way. All of her steps led back to the empty wall, but that couldn't be it…

A small, wild thought entered her mind as she searched through the hall.

The secret rooms always move around here…

It couldn't be true.

But somewhere in the deeper part of her logical mind, she knew it was.

Ginny stopped, the full weight of it sinking down on her. No, no no…she turned to go back and nearly ran into someone right in front of her.

Draco Malfoy. Ginny just barely had time to recognize his face before she teetered, her balance thrown off, about to fall backwards and painfully land on the floor. Ginny squeezed her eyes shut and braced her bottom for impact with the stone floor.

She waited for a few seconds. No stony ground came up to coldly greet her bum. Her eyes were still closed. She had fallen, hadn't she? But no…something strong and warm had prevented her from crashing to the ground.

Ginny opened one eye slowly, and then the other. She hadn't fallen. Draco had leaned forward in time and caught her, saving her from a bruised rear. Something flickered in his eyes—something akin to concern, perhaps?

It was only there for a moment before his face flushed and he set her back on her feet. Ginny looked at the ground sheepishly.

"Sorry," she mumbled. She wasn't really embarrassed about her klutziness…she was a little more thrown-off about her thoughts of how warm Draco was…

Draco shrugged, although his calm demeanor was a little put-off too, and said, "It's not a problem. Why are you in such a hurry?"

Ginny pointed to the blank space of wall where a certain door had occupied it only a day before. "The door's gone." She looked back to Draco and saw him staring at the space, comprehension not yet dawning upon his handsome features. After a minute, he sagged.

"It was really only a matter of time," he mumbled dejectedly. "The rooms never stay in one place for too long." Ginny had to agree; it had been too much to hope that it would stay there just for them. It had had its own agenda.

"Well…" She hesitated slightly. "What do we do now?"

Draco seemed to consider his words carefully. "We do nothing. It's impractical to try and go around searching for it all over the school Hogwarts is huge; we'd never find it." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else. His mind was shouting at him: Go find it, look for it; it can't be gone…

The two stood there for what seemed like forever in silence. Ginny hardly knew what to say. The music they had created had spoken their words for them; had created a peaceful atmosphere between them that no conversation would be able to. The small girl twisted and wrung her hands behind her back. She missed the piano already. She hadn't had much practice on it yet, but she was sure that if she could have had more, she would have been able to be wonderful. And now that it was gone, she wouldn't be able to create a Christmas present for Draco…

While Ginny was swimming in her sea of thoughts, Draco was drowning in his own. No more piano. No more music to smooth his knotted muscles, ease his concerns about his home, his father, his life…no more sessions with Ginny. Draco wasn't sure which he was the most sorry about.

Draco opened his mouth to say something, then stopped. Ginny looked at him expectantly, clearly wanting for him to have the first word. Draco cleared his throat. "I'd better get going," he said gruffly, and lightly turned on his heel to walk away, leaving Ginny to stare at his back.

Her small frame seemed smaller as she saw him walking away, knowing that there was no more reason to see him anymore. No more music. They would never smile at each other in the hallways again, never laugh at jokes. He had almost been a friend.

Ginny couldn't restrain herself, and called out. "That's a rather abrupt way to leave this, isn't it?" she said. Draco's walk slowed. His steady gate reduced drastically, and each foot rolled slowly from heel to toe before taking another step. Yes, it was rather abrupt. But what other way to handle the situation? Cry together? Draco snorted at the thought. But nonetheless, he halted and turned around.

"How would you have us end this, Miss Weasley?" he asked, his voice lined with a touch of mockery. "We weren't having an affair. It was just a piano." Even as he spoke the words, he knew that the latter wasn't true. But he wasn't going to be a pussy about it.

Ginny frowned at him from halfway across the hallway. Funny, how even twenty feet away, Draco could still pick out every freckle on her face.

"And so that's it?" she called again, indignantly. "Why did we waste the past two weeks of our lives, to just go on and pretend it never happened?"

Draco scowled. "To pretend what never happened?"

Ginny let her arms slack at her side. "Draco, don't deny it. Sometime in the past two weeks, something happened. You developed a nicer side." Draco's mouth went dry.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he snapped. "Two weeks doesn't change someone from the way they've been for their entire life." He started to turn again, walking away. Ginny was left standing there, a small little girl once again.

Hmmm, how will this dilemma end?

Well, please read and review, and let me know what you think.