Thanks again for all the encouragement, guys! I'm glad you're all enjoying so much. As ever, all the thanks in the world to Sarea for beta and moral support.

~

"Stop avoiding the question, you stupid bastard! What the hell are you doing with my sister?!"

That, Ginny decided, was definitely not the best way to start out dinner.

Her classes had been difficult today and Ginny had spent the last few hours in the library trying to gather together the proper research materials for a paper she had due in Muggle Studies on something called 'television.' Because she'd awoken again wrapped around Draco Malfoy, Ginny hadn't really been able to concentrate on anything as well as she'd have liked to. Coupled with how difficult it was to avoid Ron and Harry (who seemed to be everywhere in this damn school) and Ginny was close to having a breakdown of some kind.

Oh, but the past night had been lovely. They'd woken up once before morning and, still moved by the trust Draco had placed in her, Ginny decided to tell him a few of her secrets.

And so she told him about her father having been fired by the Ministry and how she knew it would be up to her to do something to help the family, even though she was the youngest. Bill and Charlie were out living their dreams, and dreams were nice, but they didn't exactly put food on the table. Fred and George would be lucky if they didn't end up getting themselves tossed into Azkaban for one scheme or another and Ron . . . well.

That was why, she'd told him, the Order was so important -- being accepted amongst their ranks was like being born into money. It gave her all the privilege the Malfoy name gave him and it might very well mean the difference between life and death for her family.

Draco was quiet, listening to her speak, and then finally, all he said was, "I'm glad I can help you."


Which was certainly all well and good, but Ginny had been going absolutely mad trying to figure out what it meant.

Dinner had been the only silver lining on the dreary, confusing cloud that was her life. Sitting down and devouring the always-scrumptious food the House Elves had prepared had kept her going through Snape's sneering in Double Potions and Professor Bins' endless droning lecture. If she couldn't have Draco Malfoy loving her back, then by God, she would have half a dozen cream puffs.

This beautiful plan was to be thwarted, however, by the three people she'd been avoiding all day: Ron, Harry, and Draco.

It wasn't that she was really avoiding Draco; it's just that she had no idea what to say to him and was terrified of what he might have to say to her. She'd felt close to him last night, closer than she'd ever felt to anyone before. He'd let her in, let her see a part of himself he kept under tight lock and key normally and she was honored and humbled by the trust he'd placed in her.

At least, that was her first instinct. Having been left alone with her own neurotic thoughts all day, she had to wonder if she was reading more into things than there were. Draco might very well see her as nothing more than a convenient listener, someone who, as his 'slave,' would be a safe person to confide in. Obviously, she wasn't going to go blabbing his secrets and risk him blabbing hers. And as for the snogging -- he was a seventeen-year-old boy.

"I'd say that's between me and your sister, Weasley," Draco said in a low, dangerous voice. Ginny winced a little to hear it. She also winced at the way Ron had Draco pinned to the wall by his neck.

"Ron," Harry was saying calmly, "it's possible you should take a few deep breaths."

"Sod deep breaths," Hermione snapped, "Ron, let go of him before you choke him to death!"

"My sister hasn't been back to the common room two nights in a row now," Ron was saying through gritted teeth, "and the last person she was seen with is this miserable git right here. Now he's going to tell me what he's done to her so that we can help her, or I'm going to kill him."

"I haven't done a bloody thing to her," Draco muttered, trying to reach his wand. Ron's hold prevented it and Ginny was momentarily impressed by her brother's strength. Of course he seemed to be predominantly motivated by insanity and rage, so that might have had something to do with it.

"Ron, stop it!" Ginny cried, cutting through the crowd that had gathered to watch Ron Weasley pummel Draco Malfoy.

"Gin!" Ron cried happily. "There you are. What did he do to you, Gin? Is it some sort of spell that makes you forget to put on all your clothes before you leave the castle?"

"Oh for God's sake," Ginny muttered, walking up to the two boys. She rather effortlessly pried Ron's fingers from around Draco's neck and shoved them apart. Draco was taking grateful lungfuls of air, and Ron seemed ready to run at him again for breathing too loudly. "What started this?"


"Nothing!" Draco choked. "Your idiot brother attacked me with absolutely no provocation--"

"You've done something to my sister!" Ron screeched.

"I assure you, Weasley, anything I've done to your sister has only been because she wanted me to," Draco said nastily.

"Oh, just stop provoking him," Ginny muttered tiredly at Draco.

"But it's so easy," Draco said with a grin.

"If you've touched her, I'll kill you," Ron threatened.

"I'd like to see you try," Draco said dangerously, "when you haven't taken me by surprise, you cowardly pillock."

"Get out of the way, Gin," Ron said angrily.

"No," Ginny said firmly.

Ron looked confused. "No?"

"No," Ginny agreed. "I'm not getting out of the way so that you two can try to kill each other. I--" She stopped herself, because she'd been about to say 'I love you both too much for that' before thinking better of such an admission.

"Get out of the way, Gin," Draco said firmly. "That's an order," he added, only loud enough for her to hear.

"No," Ginny said stubbornly, spinning around to pin Draco with a glare.

"Fine," Draco snapped, "the hard way, then." He pulled out his wand, murmured 'Wingardium Leviosa' and Ginny found herself propelled out of the way and left to hover over the scene.

"Now, Weasley," Draco continued, indicating his wand, "let's try and kill each other like civilized people."

"Oh, enough," Hermione declared, whipping out her own wand. Looking resigned, Harry did the same beside her. "You take your idiot best friend," she instructed, and by her tone, you'd never believe Ron was also Hermione's best friend.

"Oh, fine," Harry muttered to himself, "when he earns the last two hundred points for Gryffindor that wins us the House Cup, he's your best friend; when he's acting stupid, he's my best friend. I don't want to do it this time, he stays mad at me for weeks."

"You two will stay in neutral corners until Professor McGonagall arrives to straighten you out," Hermione said clearly, "or we will be forced to hex you."

"You can't hex us," Ron said, laughing in her face. "It's against school rules."

Hermione hexed him. "Hogwarts: A History, page two thirty-nine, paragraph eight: 'The Head Girl and Boy are excused from all traditional school law provided they are putting the good of the school and its students ahead of all else.'"

"I've really got to read that book one day," Ron mumbled, trying and failing to move his frozen arms.


"Don't have to do anything to you, do I?" Harry asked Draco.

"I'm good," Draco assured him, putting his wand away. "Decent of you, Potter, not to hex me anyway."

"I'm not Head Boy, am I?" Harry said with a grin.

"Oh, Ron," Ginny sighed, staring at her brother from where she was still hovering above him. "You just don't know when to quit."

"He's done something to you, Gin," Ron insisted.

"No, Ron," Ginny said tiredly, "he hasn't."


Something in her voice must have penetrated Ron's brain, because he got a shocked look on his face a second before it closed over entirely and he might as well have been made of stone. It hurt Ginny to see it, but she supposed it was better than Ron railing around the castle, challenging Draco to duels for things he hadn't even done.

Professor McGonagall arrived a few moments later and let out a cry of outrage at the sight before her. She got Ginny down from the ceiling and unfroze Ron, ordering him and Draco to Professor Dumbledore's office for a lecture and detention.

Ginny took this opportunity to flee.

~

It seemed, however, that Ginny's flight from insanity was not as successful as she would have liked, because she hadn't gotten fifty feet away before she heard Draco calling her name.

"What?" she asked wearily, turning toward him.

"You were gone when I woke up this morning," he said, and she could have sworn he sounded hurt.

"I had an early class," Ginny lied. Truthfully, she couldn't bear to lie with him another moment; truthfully, she couldn't bear loving him another moment, but she didn't have much control over that, and she could just get out of the bed.

"I missed you," he said softly, then, realizing what he'd just said, looked down at the floor. "I mean . . . it's nice. Having someone there when you wake up. I've never . . . had that before."

"I haven't either," she confessed just as softly. "And it is. Nice, I mean. Having someone." Stupid, stupid, stupid. "You shouldn't let Ron provoke you like that," she blurted out. "He's just going to get you into trouble and you've been doing such a good job avoiding each other all year, too."

"Yeah, well, your brother doesn't like you spending so much time with me," Draco said ruefully. Then, his expression sobered and he looked her in the eye. "And I can't say that he's entirely wrong."

"What are you talking about?" Ginny asked, though she was starting to suspect.

"God knows how it pains me to say this," Draco said with a sigh, "but your brother has a point. I'm not exactly good for you, Ginny. I'm not even good for myself, but I can't really get away from me."

"Ron doesn't tell me what to do," Ginny declared hotly, "and he certainly doesn't tell me who my friends are."


"Is that what I am?" Draco asked curiously. "Your friend?"

Ginny blushed a little. "Of course you are," she muttered. "What else?"

"'Task Master'?" Draco wondered with a little smile. "'Evil Bastard'? 'Silly Git'?"

Again, Ginny blushed as he brought to mind the sweaters she'd monogrammed. "I was angry--"

"You had a right to be," Draco interrupted. "It was a lousy thing to do, but I couldn't help myself. You so clearly didn't want to have anything to do with me." They both smiled a little at that. "And I'm beginning to think you had the right idea back then. Being friends," he said it slowly, as though he didn't quite believe 'friends' was the right word, "with me is going to cause you problems, with your family, with your other friends--"

"And that's my decision to make," Ginny declared hotly. "I'm perfectly capable of figuring out who to spend time with all by myself, thank you very much."

"Are you?" Draco wondered softly. "Because the way I see it, I have been forcing you to be around me, forcing you to do all the . . . things . . . we've done. Not with a spell, but you can't tell me you're not just as powerless to refuse."

"But you're not, not really," Ginny denied.


"Fine," Draco said, waving a dismissive hand, "some of the time, you must feel sorry for me, as well, but--"


"You're wrong," she insisted, "Draco, that's not it at all!"

"I'm a cold, miserable bastard," Draco continued, undaunted, "always have been, probably always will be. How low must your self esteem be to hang around me so much, sodding Order or no--"

"I haven't got low self esteem," Ginny all but yelled, her voice thick with emotion, "I hang around so much because I'm in love with you, you amazing git!"

There had to be some sort of echo in the hallway, because Ginny was certain her declaration was ringing in her ears, over and over again. Draco was staring at her like she'd gone mad and she wasn't entirely certain she hadn't. What could have possessed her to just tell him like that? His mouth was opening and closing like an extremely confused fish and she wanted to take it back, tried to do so, but couldn't get her vocal chords to work, either. Any moment now, the horror and shock of her admission would fade and he'd tell her how stupid he thought she was. Any moment . . .

"Mr. Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall snapped from the other end of the hallway. Draco didn't look away from Ginny. "Unless you would like to spend the next four hours in detention, you will get moving this instant. Ms. Weasley, I believe you have homework to attend to."

Still, Draco didn't look away from Ginny, and Ginny wasn't any closer to remembering how to speak.

"Draco Malfoy," McGonagall said warningly, "do not make me move you."

Swallowing once, deeply, Draco turned from Ginny and walked away.

~