Disclaimer: I don't own any of JKR's characters...however I did come up with the plot, Ezless, Ginny's dorm mates, and Del all by my self :) Everything else isn't mine :(

AN: thank you to all my reviewers! The number of reviews for this fic is a definite record for me...but please don't let that stop you from keeping it up. I'm thrilled that people like my writing and I'll keep the chapters to this story coming as fast as possible, but with school and all...my guess is about once a week (maybe more, maybe less).

Sorry about the lack of D/G so far, but you have to work up to these things! I've read some fics that put them together really quickly, and suddenly BOOM their madly in love...to me this isn't realistic at all. But there isn't much more of a wait, I've got a plan all worked out in my head in order to open Draco's eyes to the fiery red head right in front of him ;)

IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ!!

Also about Del, just in case I forget to clarify this somewhere in the following chapters (I have an awful memory) This is a little bit of Malfoy family history for you: *clears throat dramatically*

Draco's Great Grandfather, The Late Lucius Malfoy (whom Draco's father would later be named after) had two children. One boy, Adrian Malfoy who took greatly after his father (evil with pale blond hair) and one girl, Marcella Malfoy, who much to Lucius' disappointment took after his Late wife Octavia Sustano (it had been an arranged marriage he couldn't get out of.) She had more brown colored hair and didn't carry the vindictive evil streak Malfoys were prided for. Marcella never got on well with her family, they treated her with contempt and loathing. She often associated with muggle born children at Hogwarts, and would do anything to spite her father. In her last year of school she fell in love with a half blood boy from Hufflepuff. They married secretly and Marcella was shunned from the Malfoy family (not that she cared). She had one girl, who she named Willow. Willow then had a girl named Delphinium (short form Del). Del is currently attending Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in her fifth year. Distantly related to the grandson of Adrian Malfoy, Draco.

I hope that made sense...it does to me anyway. That's just a bit of background info to help clarify, I hope it helped and didn;t just make things more confusing.

Oh, well on with the story! :) I think that's quite enough of my blabbering.

CHAPTER FOUR

When Ron finally managed to drag Ginny up the many flights of stairs to Gryffindor Tower, most people were just hanging around, getting ready to settle in for the night. A group of first years looked up startled when they came barging through the portrait hole, both looking at each other threateningly. Harry and Hermione followed meekly behind, still looking scandalized. A hush fell over the occupants of the common room when Ginny started telling Ron off, not too quietly, her words leaving the younger students speechless.

"Ginny! Shut the bloody hell up will you?" Ron forced out with an anxious glance around at everyone watching.

"Should have thought about making a scene before treating me like a ruddy infant!" Ginny shouted, her face contorted with anger. "Do you idiots have fucking trackers put on me? I'm sick of being protected, I can take care of my self! I don't need the Dream Team coming to my rescue!"

"Ginny-" Hermione began soothingly, but Ginny quickly cut her off.

"Why don't you three tell me how the hell you knew where I was? And who I was with?" Ginny asked menacingly, glaring at each one of them until they broke eye contact with her. "Come on, what else are you hiding from me?" Ginny continued, smiling grimly. She knew them too well to think they would give her any answers. Harry spoke up next and confirmed her assumptions

"Ginny that isn't the issue right now! The point is we found you in time to prevent-"

"To prevent what Harry?" Ginny grated. "I'm not in first year anymore. I don't need you to save me from the evil Slytherin nemesis! I've got a wand and I know damn well how to use it! I could have Malfoy rolling on the ground crying like a baby if I fancied it."

This achieved a few guffaws from some of the watching audience. Harry just looked at her doubtfully. "Ginny you don't know what your talking about...Malfoy's father he's-"

Ginny have a loud mirthless laugh cutting Harry off in mid sentence. "What? You think I don't know his dad is a Death Eater?" Ginny heard shocked intakes of breath from the people behind her. She turned around to face her peers for the first time, looking at them disbelievingly. "Oh don't pretend you don't know! You all talk about it in whispers, it's as obvious as the setting sun!" Here a few faced turned red, and people looked down at their feet self consciously. None of them wanted to face the anger of the Malfoys by actually admitting it out loud, for fear of it getting back to him. Ginny shook her head, her red fair falling wildly around her face.

"What makes you think that it's alright for you to constantly interfere in my life? How would you like it if I did the same to you? Followed you around, always making sure I knew where you were, what sort of things you were up to." Here she saw that all three looked suitably uncomfortable. "And what pray tell, makes you think that I wouldn't be able to hold my own if I got into a tricky situation?"

Ron, unlike Ginny, was all too aware of the avid silence of the Gryffindors as they watched this rare spectacle of Ginny freaking out. He glared around the room, before clearing his throat loudly. "I would appreciate it if you would all stop goggling at us and get your arses in bed!" He shouted loudly enough for his voice to reach even the people sitting tucked away in the corners. The younger students started to rush for the spiral stairs, not wanting any older students angry at them. Most people however stayed in there seats smiling broadly.

"C'mon Weasley! Nothing this interesting has happened in a while!"

"Yeah! Let us watch."

A bright flash of light indicated Colin Creevy had captured the moment on film. Ron made a growling sound in his throat, and Colin's head could be seen pushing through the first years trying to get up the stairs to the safety of the dorms. Ginny couldn't help but laugh as she watched the Gryffindors scurry around Ron, while he was shouting and threatening all of them.

"Finnigan! Thomas! I swear if you don't get up to our dorms you won't live through the night!" Ron could be heard yelling.

Ginny took this oppertunity to slip away up the spiral stairs. Only when she reached the fifth year girls dorm did she hear "Where the bloody hell did she go?" She sighed as she crawled into her four poster bed. My brother can be such a git. She smiled gratefully at Circe who was waiting for her, her school bag dropped on the nightstand.

"I wish I could do sssomething more to help missss." Circe hissed regretfully.

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked, her dorm mates were still down stairs watching Ron make an idiotic spectacle of himself.

"I wish I could help, but your brother posssed no real danger to you. The most he can do issss upssset misss. It isss not my place to interfere magically with emotional matterssss."

"Don't worry Circe, just having you here to chat with is help enough."

"Thank you misss." Circe hissed quietly.

"Though it would have been funny if you had turned him into a stuffed bunny. I don't have the transfiguration skills for it."

If Ezless could laugh, Ginny was sure that was what Circe was doing.

"Well Circe, I'm beat. G'night." Ginny said, a sudden wave of drowsiness came over her as the events of the day caught up with her. She didn't even change into her night clothes before she fell into a dreamless sleep.

"Have a good ssssleep misss." Circe hissed affectionately, curling up at the bottom of the bed.

The next morning, Ginny woke up early to avoid any unwanted run-ins with any unwanted people. It seems her out of character actions last night had finally decided to penetrate the shell of untouchable anger she had felt towards Ron, Harry and Hermione. Not really uncharacteristic, Ginny corrected herself. It seems I have finally given Ron a taste of the real Ginny Weasley. Ginny chuckled humorlessly while making her way slowly down to the Great Hall for an early breakfast. And he hated every minute of it.

"Well, serves him right." Ginny muttered out loud.

"Definitely missss." Circe agreed. "He wasss being unfair to you."

"He certainly was!"

Ginny fell quite after this, thinking of what a mess she had made of the whole situation.

Ron will no doubt write her parents about the illicit affair she is supposed to be having with two Slytherins, one being their long time enemy Draco Malfoy. Not to mention the rumors that are bound to spread across school if Ron doesn't keep his mouth shut. She was however, grateful to the fact that Ron will probably be fierce in keeping his sisters embarrassing actions a guarded secret. The other problem was Del and Draco knowing about her being parseltounge. Sure she hadn't admitted it, but her defense had been so weak they were bound to have seen through it. She was scared of what would happen when she entered the Hall, rumors didn't take long to spread through Hogwarts. The whole of Slytherin house was no doubt already aware of it. Hence the reason for her early breakfast. She was guaranteed avoiding most of the Hogwarts population since teenagers were notoriously known for their laziness and love of sleeping in as long as possible.

She was proven right when a quick inspection of the Hall showed no more than five or six people scattered at each respected table. They were either seventh year versions of Hermione, reading and eating without the distraction of hundreds of noisy people surrounding them. Or they were eager first years who didn't want to miss any happenings of the day (or had woken up early in case they got lost on the way to breakfast)

A small group of Gryffindor first years looked at her wide eyed, but no one else in the Hall even noticed her enter. Ginny suspected the reason being her outburst the night before, the first years probably thought she was unstable. Ginny smiled encouragingly at them, but this only achieved their scooting further away from her down the table. Shrugging it off, Ginny grabbed liberal amounts of toast and bacon. A quick look at her schedule for Tuesday told her she had double Potions first thing with the Slytherins. Ginny groaned, much like her brother does at the thought of a whole morning with Snape. Snape however was not what had Ginny groaning (even though she didn't relish the thought), it was the prospect of spending the morning with Delphinium that had her bothered. She had been hoping to avoid contact with Draco and Del for as long as possible, it seems fate had other plans for her. Hopefully she could find a seat as far away as possible and ignore her completely. Yes, Ginny thought confidently, that should work out just fine.

Ginny arrived early to her first Potions class of the year. A few ass-kissing Slytherins were already there helping Snape prepare for the class. Luckily Del wasn't one of them. No one paid her any attention when she took her usual seat at the back of the class. By the time she had finished setting up her cauldron the rest of the class had arrived, save the one person Ginny didn't want to see. Maybe she's sick! Ginny thought excitedly. Gods, I hope she isn't coming.

Ginny didn't mind at all that the seat beside her was unoccupied. The Gryffindor fifth years had an odd number of people, so Ginny was always the one without anyone to sit with. You would think this would bother her, but considering Ginny really didn't like anyone from her house, she was rather relieved. Imagine trying to brew a potion with one of those imbeciles chattering on beside you. Colin could sometimes be tolerable company, but he was hopeless at potions, so Ginny didn't mind that Kayla wouldn't let him associate with her. Gloria would rarely sit with her out of pity, but she was later frowned upon for leaving one of her friends without a partner.

"Alright, I want everyone to hand in the essays I assigned for you to complete over the summer." Snape began. Everyone gathered their rolls of parchment, and headed up to Snapes desk hoping he would accept their work. "Creevy!" Snape barked. "Is this a joke? I specifically said five feet. This can't be more than four, and your letters are about the size of my hand near the bottom." Snape scowled, barely giving the essay a once over before continuing to criticize it. "Do you actually expect me waist my time reading this garbage. For gods sake, you even managed to spell the title wrong!" Snape paused, letting the Slytherins have a quick laugh before continuing. Colin was red in the face, Kayla hanging on his arm glaring at Snape. "Congratulations, you are the first person to lose twenty points from Gryffindor today, you will also be failing this assignment." Snape sneered casually, ripping up the parchment dramatically and throwing it in the trash. Ginny felt a quick pang of sympathy for him, but he should know by now to do his homework properly. She could have sworn that she heard Snape mutter 'worse than Longbottom.' The rest of the essays were accepted, but not without scathing comments to the Gryffindors. Just as Ginny was heading back to her seat, she heard Snape exclaim, "Delphinium, please hand in your assignment and take a seat."

Delphinium had just appeared in the doorway, apologizing profusely about her tardiness. Ginny scowled, cursing her luck. Del sent Ginny a smirk that could have rivaled Malfoy's before handing in her parchment and taking the empty seat next to Ginny. The Slytherin girl she usually sat with sent Del a curious glance, but didn't seem to care that much.

"Why hello there Weasley, I hope you don't mind my company." Del said, overly brightly. "I thought it would be fun if we chatted a little bit."

"We have nothing to talk about, and I really don't care where you sit." Ginny replied, not showing Del any of her discomfort.

Del just smiled at her before turning her attention to Snape who was beginning the lesson.

As Snape droned on and on about how they were all dunderheads, and they would probably be a great disappointment yet again when it came to his class, Ginny was relieved that Del hadn't tried to talk to her again. Despite the teacher, Ginny had always found Potions to be a very interesting subject. Snape even made it more of a challenge for her to succeed, which made it that much more satisfying when she did. She listened avidly when he started to describe the different, more advanced work they would be attempting this year. Even though he was looking at everyone like he doubted any of them would succeed, Ginny was determined to prove him wrong. She had managed high marks in his class before, but this year she wanted to beat even those. She was getting thoroughly fed up with people looking at her as if she couldn't accomplish anything special. Ginny was finally ready to prove them wrong.

Ginny smiled to herself, and Circe, sensing her train of thought, gave her a quiet encouraging hiss.

"You have thirty minutes to complete the shield potions. I will be testing a few of them near the end of class." Snape said, looking pointedly at the Gryffindor side of the room. Colin was looking particularly terrified.

Ginny got right to work, she had read about this particular potion ages ago and had been looking forward to brewing it. If prepared correctly, it would deflect most hexes from you for about thirty minutes. It would of course not stand a chance against truly powerful spells, such as the unforgivables, but would still come in handy during a dual.

This was relatively more difficult than any of the other potions they had brewed, even some of the Slytherins were getting nasty comments from Snape. The ingredients were more delicate, and needed to be added at precise moments, following the order without a hitch. Otherwise the potion would freeze, boil over, turn annoyingly bright shades of pink, or melt the cauldrons completely. Ginny finished her potion, looking up from her table just in time to see Cassandra's potion freeze up and shatter the cauldron into hundreds of tiny pieces. One piece lodged itself into her arm, and she shrieked dramatically. Adam, paled beside her when he saw the blood seeping threw her tight black robes. "P-proffessor!" He shouted.

Snape sighed, as if he had expected nothing less than at least one trip to the hospital wing today. "Someone get her to the hospital wing." He sneered. Waving his wand so the shattered cauldron was cleaned up, the piece lodged in her arm was dislodged along with the spell. Cassandra, feeling a chunk of metal being pulled out of her skin promptly fainted, falling right into Adam. Adam picked her up and raced out of the classroom.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for your classmates incompetence." Snape added before resuming his inspection of the work.

Ginny shook her head, and Cassandra got put into Gryffindor why?... Ginny had often wondered why people such as she were placed in the house that was supposed to be for the brave of heart. There should be a house for useless people who don't think of anything but boys and clothes.

Ginny had lately been coming to the conclusion that Gryffindor was just really for people that had no where else to go. Slytherins were clever, malicious and mostly evil. Ravenclaws were the book worms. Hufflepuffs were nice, but usually dim. That only left Gryffindor for the people who were idiotic, superficial, definitely not kind, but not clever enough to be evil. Yes, Ginny thought, there was no where to put them so the hat chucked them in with me.

She was brought out of her thoughts by Snape towering over her. "Slacking off in class Miss. Weasley?" He asked silkily.

"No sir, I'm finished." Ginny replied, smirking at his disappointed look.

"Well than, you can be the first to test the potion." He demanded, relishing the thought of humiliating a Weasley in front of the class. Ginny shrugged, almost positive that she hadn't made a mistake.

He took a small vial from his robes and ladled her midnight blue potion into it, looking closely for a sigh of mistakes. The whole class had stopped to watch as Ginny gulped down her concoction.

Ginny started to panic when it seemed that nothing was happening. The potion had tasted like ice, sliding down her throat surprisingly easily. She could feel it settle in the pit of her stomach. The class watched in hushed silence, watching Ginny's face very closely for any signs of poisoning. Just as she was about to admit defeat, she felt a mini explosion somewhere in the depths of her body. She felt the icy liquid shoot through her veins, up through her arms, legs, torso and right down to the tips of her fingers and toes. Her body started to let off a faint blue glow that lasted seconds before being absorbed into her skin. Ginny didn't know how to describe the feeling. It was almost as if she was wearing an extra layer of clothes. She actually felt invincible, like nothing would be able to touch her for the time being (even though she knew her shield wasn't completely impenetrable). Snape pressed his lips together, disappointed that Ginny had indeed done the potion correctly.

"It seems you've followed the instructions to a certain degree," Snape growled, "but now we'll see how strong you managed to make it." Snape withdrew his wand, and the Gryffindors backed as far away as they could without knocking over desks. The Slytherins looked like the only thing they were missing was popcorn.

Ginny hadn't expected him to actually hurl curses at her. Circe had jumped up onto the desk and was hissing warningly.

"Now, if miss Weasley has made the potion effectively, she won't feel a thing." Snape drawled, rolling up his sleeves.

"Professor.." Ginny started to protest nervously. "I don't think that is such a good idea..." The Slytherins snickered, thinking that she was scared of getting hexed. Del was looking very amused.

"Nervous Weasley?" Snape suggested.

"No sir, it's not that-" Before Ginny could finish Snape had bellowed "Stupefy!"

A jet of red light shot out of Snapes wand, heading directly for Ginny's chest. Ginny stood, feet rooted to the ground, wondering how much trouble she was bound to be in in a few minutes. The spell seemed to surround Ginny, not even cracking a hole in her shield. However, instead of diminishing like it was supposed to do, the red light seemed to double in intensity. After a few seconds of whirling around Ginny, the now doubly powerful stunning spell shot back at lightning speed toward Snape. It hit him square in the stomach before he had a chance to avoid it. He then fell to the ground with a muffled 'thump'

If someone had thought to drop a pin at that moment, everyone would have jumped at the sudden noise. No one in the class dared to breath, let alone move to help their professor.

The first to break the silence was Delphinium, who could no longer keep in her laughter.

"Stuff it," Ginny mumbled, glaring at her. "Has anyone ever enervated someone before?" Ginny asked the rest of the class. They either didn't hear her, and were still staring disbelievingly at the unconscious Snape, or they were shaking their heads. Ginny, who had never tried this either, was reluctant to accidentally do anymore damage to her professor.

"Colin!" Kayla shrieked, after a bright flash of light illuminated the dungeon.

"Come on, how many times to you get to see something like this?" He whispered excitedly, putting his faithful camera back in his bag.

"Hey," Gloria said, in a hushed whisper, as if afraid Snape could still hear her talking. "If we don't go soon we'll be late for our next class. Since he's not really in any position to dismiss us..."

"Yeah, lets go!" Kayla squeaked, giving Ginny a weary glace, "Who knows what Weasley will do to us with the teacher out of the way." Ginny completely ignored this, thinking instead about what she was supposed to do with an unconscious Snape.

"And I don't want to be hear when he wakes up." Said someone else.

With that, the class filed our of the dungeon, leaving Ginny and a grinning Del standing over the unmoving body of their professor.

"You've really stuck your foot in it haven't you Weasley?" Del asked gleefully.

"If you insist on staying, why don't you at least be helpful and help me find someone to enervate him." Ginny demanded.

"Why don't you just do it?" Del asked, following Ginny out of the dungeon. Ginny locked the door, making sure no one would walk in on him, and make her situation more complicated.

"Because I've never done it before, and I don't want to accidentally scalp him or something. I think I'm in enough trouble to last me the rest of the bloody year." Ginny mumbled miserably.

"What did you do to that potion anyway?" Del asked, almost letting her guard down and sounding impressed.

"I just added a few extra ingredients, I read about the different alterations you could do to that potion. I decided to try out that one. If I had known Snape would decide to shoot hexes at me, I probably wouldn't have."

Del fell into a thoughtful silence, it seemed that everyone had left the dungeons, and their footsteps were the only noise that could be heard.

Thank god Snape doesn't seem to have a class right after ours. Ginny thought relieved. Otherwise the dungeons would have been packed with curious students, making annoying commotions.

Unfortunately for Ginny, the first people they ran into were none other than her head of house, and the headmaster.

"Ah, Miss Weasley!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "Professor McGonagall here was told about some curious happenings in the dungeons." His eyes twinkled. "She was informed by some over excited Gryffindors that you went into a mad rage and killed the Potions Master. We thought this worth our investigations." Dumbledore looked like he was nothing more than amused, probably knowing that she really hadn't done anything harmful McGonagall however was looking at her sternly.

"I didn't kill him!" Ginny shouted horrified. Del snorted, earning her own glare from McGonagall.

"That is very good to hear, but if he isn't dead, what would make the other Gryffindors think this was a possibility?"

Numerous comebacks ran through Ginny's mind, none of them were kind to her fellow housemates. She figured she would keep her opinions to herself and tell them what really happened.

"I tried to warn him." Ginny exploded on her way up from the dungeons.

"What did you expect? Personally I think you got off easy." Del replied, looking at Ginny with a speculative eye.

"Hmmp" Ginny grumbled, "You call one month detention with Snape getting off easy?"

Del just grinned, "he's not so bad if you get on his good side."

"No, he's not so bad if your in his house."

"True," Del said, silently wondering how someone like Ginny could have ended up in Gryffindor. Parselmouth, good at potions, likes to torment the Dream Team, cynical. Four common traits of a true Slytherin.

Ginny looked at Del curiously, she was surprised the girl hadn't brought up the Parselmouth thing yet. No one seemed to know yet, so Del and Draco had kept it to themselves. But why? Ginny asked herself. And why is she being nice to me?

Before she could ponder these things any further, they reached the Entrance Hall and parted ways going to their respective classes.

After looking back on her first Potions class, Ginny couldn't help but smile. She had wanted to prove herself capable, and stand up to Snape. She had definitely accomplished both in a very short period of time. Looking down at Circe, who as perched on her arm, Ginny thought this year was starting out all right after all. (Aside from the next month of detentions) She had those training courses starting tomorrow, but she groaned at the thought of spending even more time with Snape than necessary this year.

There you go, finito! I hope you enjoyed this chappie, I enjoyed writing it. Please, Please PLEASE review, even if you didn't like it review anyway :) If you want me to continue I must be fed, you can't work without food. Reviews being my food, and me having a very large appatite.

I will have the next chapter out soon, it will have Draco in it, never fear! You will get a better look at her extra training course thingy...the Trio will make their overprotective comments heard (even if no one wants to listen) and I will start leading up to the romance bit of the story.

Will Ginny notice Draco first? Or will Draco notice Ginny? What does Harry think of all this imaginary snogging that he's not a part of? How will Snape deal with being humiliated with the youngest Weasley?

thanks for reading this far ;)

cheers!

and Merry December!

Imp