When Ginny entered the Great Hall her eyes fixed on the Slytherin table immediately. All of the Slytherins were sitting, huddled together. But there was no sign of Draco's silver hair.

'Oh no' she thought 'where is he?'

Ginny didn't eat anything at dinner. She just sat there, pushing her food around with her fork. 'Is it my fault he isn't here now?' she thought 'the letter, is that why he isn't here? Is he avoiding me?'

Ginny couldn't take it.

She absentmindly told her friends that she wasn't hungry and would head up early to study. Sally looked at her worried. Ginny didn't have any more homework. Her eyes followed Ginny as she left the Great Hall, she couldn't help noticing the flicker of eyes and the deep sigh when she obviously didn't find what she was looking for at the Slytherin table. Maybe she shouldn't have told him… well it was too late now.

~*~

Draco woke up in a far to familiar room. His father's study. He was plopped on the chair he usually sat on when was in there receiving the usual lecture.

He shook his head slightly trying to clear his vision. How had he gotten there? He didn't remember a thing since the letter from his father. His brow furrowed trying desperately to remember what had happened since then. 'Oh… right storming of, telling Pansy to fuck potions, although that was kind of fun, and then that place. That weird place.'

The door opened loudly making him turn his head to fast. He winced at the pain that shot up the back of his head. 'Oh right, someone hit me in the head.'

His father strode in, looking extremely sour. More then usually. And that was bad, really bad. Without even thinking Draco put up his usual cold mask, that he used around everyone. It was about time he stopped letting his father control him, or at least try.

Lucius dropped a letter on the table in front of Draco, looking at him with burning eyes.

"Well aren't you going to read it?" he asked.

Draco took up the letter, opened it and read it through his eyes widening at the content. Why that little... He quickly regained his composure and looked up at his father calmly.

"And this affects me, how?" he said, thanking whatever God up there for his great lying skills.

Lucius was getting more and more furious by the second; Draco could see that if he weren't careful, he would end up in the infirmary. 'Oh well there goes the plan about trying to get a life'

"She's just another pretty girl who disserves a lay. That's it."

The older Malfoy calmed down a bit after that. So his son did have a little sense after all, but he still scowled.

"That doesn't change the fact that she is a Weasley, and we stay as far away from them as we can. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir" Draco muttered looking away. God he hated being ordered around. It was so humiliating.

"You are dismissed. You can use the port key to get back to Hogwarts. It will lead you to Snape's office."

His father took out a small vial out of his drawer.

"Drink this before you leave." Draco looked at it. Those things were always bad news.

"Well, what are you waiting for boy? Take it. I have other things to do then wait for you to get going."

Swallowing the lump in his throat Draco took the vial, swapped of the lid, and gulped the foul smelling potion down in one go. He threw the empty bottle into the fire where it shattered, and left the study. He made his way through the huge mansion, to the travelling room.

That was where his family kept their travelling brooms (They had a more valuable collection of every type of broom ever made), portkeys, the floopowder and the fireplace connected to the Malfoy Mansion. But half way there he had to stop, the world was spinning and he had to hold on to the wall for support. He was seething. He was so mad he just wanted to scream. But at the same time he wanted to crawl into a tiny hole. He thought about going back to his father and yell at him, but that would only make it worse.

'What did he give me this time' he wondered, and started to walk again.

By the time he reached the travelling room his feelings were rambling. His feet were extremely sore and his eyes were tired. His sick father always gave him some potion whenever he did something wrong. He had to find the potion himself, then the cure. All of it while feeling dreadfully ill. He stumbled the last steps and almost crashed into the door. How could he find that potion if he couldn't read? He concentrated as he looked over the portkeys in front of him. Quickly he skipped to the H's and went over the tags, Haleworn's office, the Himalayas, Hogwarts, there. Wait, was he just seeing double of was there two… No there was defenantly two. One was an old rusted key, the other a muggle pen. It was the rusted old key that was the right one, he had taken that one before, but where did the other one lead? He shrugged, might as well take the pen. He reached over and grabbed it.

The world went into a blur. He felt the familiar tug behind his navel, and immediately felt like he was going to throw up. The potion seemed to intensify everything he felt. Both physical and psychological. He had a pretty good idea what potion it was.

The world around him cleared and he gasped at what he saw.

~*~

Ginny looked over her transfiguration book. Well she tried to read it, but she couldn't concentrate. What if Draco didn't want to see her? What if it had all been an act? What if it was some stupid bet so she could look stupid? There were to many what ifs, and the fact that Draco hadn't shown himself only intensified them.

Harry sat down next to her. He was worried. Very worried. According to Ginny's best friend, Ginny had been very upset about something Malfoy had done to her. When Sally had told him he hadn't really gotten past the point that Draco Malfoy had something to do with the fact that Ginny was a bit weird these past days. Something with Draco dancing with Ginny at the Masquerade… he had told Hermione too and she thought that maybe Ginny had used Malfoy to get his, Harry's, attention. He didn't like the idea, but he rationalised and agreed to talk to Ginny about it. So here he was, feeling extremely uncomfortable and nervous. He cleared his throat and started.

"Err Ginny… I was wondering, would you like to talk or something?" he asked

Ginny started, she hadn't noticed Harry there. " Oh! Harry, I didn't notice you. Sure we can talk but what do you want to talk about." She was a bit worried, Harry only came to her when there was something wrong and, well, Harry didn't look extremely comfortable at the moment.

"Well you see," Harry scratched his head, and Ginny was reminded of one of those gorillas at the muggle zoo, "I was wondering, are you ok? I mean you've been a bit off lately, actually ever since the Masquerade, and I thought you wanted to talk about it? Maybe?"

Ginny looked at him amused. Harry was looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here; even feeding Fluffy probably wouldn't have made him look like this.

"No Harry I'm quite alright. Thank you for your concern. But I'm ok. I don't really see why you're here anyway, it's not your problem even if I did have a problem." She put her transfiguration book in her bag and left for the library. Apparently you couldn't even get enough privacy to think over your own troubles.

Ok, I've had this story on the hold for quite a while, but I suddenly felt like writing ;O) Hope you enjoy!! And don't forget to review.