A/N: Thanks at the bottom. Please review! And I know that this chapter is a bit short, but I just wanted to get something out because I'm not going to be able to update for a few days. Oh, and please review!?

Chapter Five

Smoother than the LA weather

That's how he holds himself together

He is colder than the winter

- Leona Naess

Ginny hummed to herself as she made her way across the school grounds toward the Quidditch pitch that night. What a great Valentine's Day, she surmised. She had gotten a beautiful rose and a date. Even if it wasn't with Harry (as it usually was in her fantasies) it was still with a perfectly nice, not to mention nice-looking seventh year.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she was even more surprised as she normally would have been when a hand closed over her wrist and with a sharp tug, someone pulled her into the shelter of a clump of topiary trimmed to resemble dragons. She opened her mouth to scream, but cut herself off at just a whimper when she met Draco's gray eyes.

He dropped her wrist and she immediately put her hands on her hips and glared at him in indignation. "What was that all about?," she asked, annoyed.

Draco just rolled his eyes. "I was trying to stop you before you got to the pitch. Ravenclaw is practicing today." Well, that cleared part of it up, Ginny thought. Since Draco was captain of the Slytherin team, he was given access to the practice booking log, where teams signed up to use the Quidditch pitch. Whenever a team had it booked, he had told her the day before and they took the next night off. But that still didn't explain to Ginny why he had bloody grabbed her wrist like that.

"Why didn't you just tell me?," she grumbled, taking her hand off of her hip to inspect her wrist, which was slowly turning red. "That hurt."

Draco rolled his eyes again. "What did you expect? For me to run across the grounds yelling 'Ginny! Ginny! We can't secretly meet tonight!'." He threw his arms up in a silly little sort of dance. She snickered and he quickly crossed his arms over his chest. "Anyway…"

"You say it like it's something sordid," Ginny remarked. "It's just Quidditch practice."

"You think that your brother would see it that way?," Draco asked, raising his silvery eyebrows. She didn't reply. "That's what I thought."

"Stop acting like you know everything," Ginny mumbled. She hated when he got that superior tone with her. Just when she was starting to think that he was maybe not that bad of a person, he always had to get that stupid, smug, self-satisfied look on his face. It was extremely irritating. "Because you don't," she finally added when he didn't say anything. He still didn't say anything and Ginny finally looked up from the ground, which she had been staring at since he had got that expression on his face. He was still standing there, looking calm and obnoxiously relaxed. "Well, aren't you going to say something?," she finally exploded, feeling as though she was talking to herself. She didn't know why he was acting like this. They had been getting on quite well the past few weeks - he was acting like stupid old Malfoy now.

Draco just smirked, seemingly quite content with being irritating. "Something," he finally replied, raising his chin defiantly.

She let out a disgusted snort and threw her hands up in exasperation. "Forget it! I'm going back to the castle. Day after tomorrow?"

At this, his composure seemed to crack a bit. "Why not tomorrow?"

"I have a date, if you must know," she snapped.

Something flashed over Draco's eyes, something that looked oddly enough like disappointment, but it was so momentary that Ginny thought she must have imagined it. "Ah. Did speccy little Potter finally ask you out?," he asked snidely.
"No, as a matter of fact, it wasn't Harry," she replied. "Not that it's any of your business."

"I think we should practice tomorrow," Draco said insistently.

Ginny looked at him in surprise, shocked to see almost a vulnerable expression in his eyes. It quickly faded as he realized that her eyes were on his. "I'm not going to back out of a date with Seamus Finnigan. Besides, missing one practice isn't going to hurt," she said.

"Tryouts are in two weeks, Ginny," Draco pointed out. "I thought making this team was really important to you. You shouldn't be skipping practice for some stupid little date."

"If I recall correctly," Ginny spat out, her eyes shooting daggers, "you skipped practice for a 'stupid little date' with Blaise. So don't even start with me!"

"You need to show some control," Draco muttered. "Your acting like all those other stupid little girls. Letting guys take over your life."

Ginny's brown eyes narrowed as she turned to face him. "You're one to talk about control, Draco Malfoy. Do you even remember why we started this? Because you couldn't 'control' yourself and were doing something completely stupid. So don't you even sit here and preach to me about controlling myself. I won't take it from a complete hypocrite. I won't!," she shouted, stomping her foot like a little child and instantly regretting it, though she tried to hide it.

Draco stared back at her in surprise. He hadn't thought that she had it in her. Had he been less of a man (and he considered himself quite a man, Draco did), he would have been frightened senseless by her diatribe. He shook his head slowly. "Fine, Ginny, fine," he murmured. "Do whatever you want."

He turned on his heel and started back towards the castle. Ginny stood there, watching him retreat and instantly felt another twinge of regret. She had quite possibly just ruined her whole blossoming friendship with Draco, all because of her stupid Weasley temper. And it was all over, what Draco had pointed out with annoying accuracy, a stupid little date. Her anger having subsided, she hurried after him.

"Draco, wait," she said, grabbing his elbow. She had an eerie flashback of almost a month earlier when she had done the same thing to thank him. His response then had been cool distance. Now it was burning anger underneath a cool façade. Ginny could tell that he was trying hard not to explode, and vaguely wondered why he was so hacked off.

"What?," he finally snapped.

"I'm sorry," she said, looking up at him, trying to make his eyes meet hers. "Draco, I am really so grateful for all you've done for me - even if I have had to force it out of you," she added in an undertone. "And," she continued, "if you want me to stay and practice tomorrow, I will. I…value your opinion."

Draco finally looked back down at her. He seemed to be debating something in his head and finally took a deep breath. "No," he finally said. "Have fun. I'll see you the day after tomorrow."

Ginny looked at him carefully. "Are you sure?" Draco only nodded. Ginny squealed happily - happy because she could go on her date with Seamus, and happy because Draco wasn't angry with her anymore - and leapt up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pecking him quickly on the cheek. "Thank you Draco!," she called, her cheeks already tingeing red as she turned and hurried into the castle, leaving a stunned Draco staring after her.

---

Draco chided himself as he made his way down to the dark dungeons, dragging his two broomsticks with him. Stupid, stupid, stupid he muttered repeating this over and over again in his mind.

He had lost control and if there was one thing Draco prided himself on, it was his ability to keep calm in any situation. He had spent a long time cultivating it - ever since his first year when he had cowered and ran away like a baby while in the Forbidden Forest with Potter. That calm, cool exterior was truly the only thing he had ever had to work to achieve and he was damn proud of it.

But tonight when she had said she was going to skip their practice because of The Irish Louse he had felt oddly deflated and slighted. He had sent her a rose, for Merlin's sake! But then, he had to remind himself, he hadn't exactly signed the note. She had no clue it was from him - she probably thought it was from The Irish Louse, as if that scoundrel would go to the trouble of hunting down an exceptionally rare Mystique Rose. As if that Louse could afford it, Draco thought with scorn.

And then there was the matter of that kiss. Granted - it had been just a peck on the cheek, just her being happy. He wasn't sure if he should run to the loo and scrub his cheek with scalding water. It had thrown him completely off guard and he didn't like that - but he couldn't even convince himself that he hadn't liked the feel of her soft lips on his cheek - even if it had just been fleeting.

Overall, the situation upset him greatly.

Draco strode into the common room, pushing all thoughts aside and hoping he looked as cold and unaffected as ever.

"What's wrong, Draco?," was the first thing he heard. He glanced over and saw Blaise peering at him over the top of her Transfiguration text. She had been oddly distant since their quarrel.

Draco just shrugged in reply and simply out of lack for a better plan, walked over and sat at the other end of the sofa she had been studying on. "Nothing."

"Liar," Blaise stated bluntly.

Draco looked at her in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"I know you better than anyone else, Draco," she said and Draco knew that this was the truth. "You're upset over the little Weasley girl." Draco didn't reply, only stared intently into the fireplace. "Just admit it. You're starting to fall for her, aren't you?"

"Please, Blaise," Draco said quietly, his voice eerily sedate. "Don't insult me."

"You're hopeless! You know that, right?"

Draco just sighed and buried his face in his hand. He hated everything just then: hated that Blaise could read him so well, hated Ginny for being someone totally different than he had expected, hated himself for what he was feeling.

"I am not falling for her," Draco said snidely. "She's no one to me, just another runt in that litter of redheads. I'm only tolerating her so that she doesn't get me thrown out of school."

"Oh, so that's why you're constantly sneaking peeks at her at meals. And why you sent her that rose this morning," Blaise said sarcastically. Draco looked over at her, startled. How did she know about that? "As much as you want everyone, including yourself, to believe that you're a cold-hearted bastard, you're not. I can see right through you, Draco Malfoy." Blaise finished her speech with a flourish, tossing a lock of glossy brown hair over her shoulder. "Either get over it or stop moping."

Draco leaned back into the couch, looking over at his friend. "How did you know about the rose?"

A small smile crossed Blaise's lips. "Only you, Draco, would give a girl a rose that changes with your emotions."

Draco couldn't help a tiny smile from creasing his features. "Only me," he agreed, staring into the embers of the fire.

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed Chapter Four:

Karen (Yes, the thing about the roses is true. I meant to link to the page where I got the information, but now I can't find it.), Tuilindo (I can't believe all the reviews either!), Dreammaker128 (Yes, this is going to be D/G…hopefully… unless he makes me mad), Simply Bewitching 1 ( Longer chapters?! Well…I'll try… :/), Dramaqueen ( Blaise has kinda grown on me, so look for her in future chapters!), Jen, grassie, Feira Menina, ice angel, Sarah, Multiple Lilys, Missy, Rainbow Dreamer (Blaise is mentioned briefly in the first book at the sorting ceremony - it's never said whether it's a she or he. All you find out is that "Zabini, Blaise" became a Slytherin. Hope that helped!), Draco's gal, Eleoopy (Draco looks cute not matter WHAT he's doing, of course!), ciNdy, Riauna, Isadora, frananddragon, Molly, KeeperOfTheMoon, Missfizz ( The rose thing is true. And Seamus asked Ginny out now cause it was Valentine's Day and Seamus is just that kind of sweet guy.), Cat, & Crystal.

Like I said up top, I'm not going to be able to update for a few days, but I'm going to be working on the next chapter, so please, please, please let me know what you think! I look soooo forward to your reviews and I CAN'T BELIEVE that I have over 100 reviews already - I am absolutely floored.

So please, as usual, review, review, review, review, review!!!!