Summary: When Ginny boarded the Hogwarts Express on the first of September, she was surprised to come face-to-face with the last person she expected to see back in school. He was still the same prat she remembered from years before, but now he has a much higher authority than ever before: he was this year's new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Ginny wished this was all a dream, but to her dismay she was stuck with him for an entire school year!

Disclaimer: Once again I don't want to go through all the mumbo-jumbo of having to write this out, so I'm saying this now: NOT MINE!!!

Setting: Ginny's in her 7th year; Draco graduated the year before

PhoenixRae's Notes: For my last chapter I didn't get my beta to read and edit it because...well, because she was busy swimming and I just wanted to get it uploaded. Anyways, here's the next chapter, hope you guys enjoy it.

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IV. It's All Your Fault!

Ginny was out for blood the next day. She wasn't looking forward to going into Draco's classroom to meet with him and hear him sentence her to another detention. Damn Derek Boones and his horny pants! she thought irritably over breakfast. She was in a very dark mood all morning. Colin was even too afraid to sit so close to her for fear of having her bite his head off.

Over at the Slytherin table, Derek wasn't at all in a jolly good mood either. He was fuming at the blond haired young man seated over at the staff table talking to--of all people--Hermione Granger! His former Slytherin hero talking to a lowlife Mudblood! What a disgrace for a former Slytherin being friends with a Mudblood like Granger, he thought savagely as he forked his sausage.

Draco, on the other hand, was having the most interesting conversation with--to his utter surprise--Hermione Granger of all people! Since they were the only two people who were of the same age and attended, graduated, and now teaching at their former alma mater, they have a bit of something in common to talk about. And that something turned out to be chattering away with the happenings in the lives of her two cohorts--namely Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley. He wasn't particularly interested in hearing what had become of the Boy Who Lived and the youngest male Weasley offspring, but since he didn't want to indulge in a meaningless conversation with the other new teachers (they were boring as far as he was concerned. All stuffy and way too old fashioned for his taste), he was left with no other choice than to listen to what Hermione was talking about. They never got along back in their school days and they still often get on each other's nerves, but he figured since they were all adults now and teachers to boot, they might as well call a truce to their mutual hatred for each other.

Hermione was chattering away with the latest pranks the famous Weasley twins pulled over the summer to annoy Percy to bits. Draco was only half listening to her ongoing chatter before his eyes rested on the fuming Gryffindor redhead, the last of the famous redheads to attend Hogwarts maybe for a long while. He knew she wasn't too happy about serving another detention with him, and he knew he was being too harsh on her for giving her another detention instead of letting her go without a scratch; it would be unfair to Derek Boones' eyes if he did that.

He had to admit he was taken by surprise when he walked out of his classroom, ready to lock-up after spending three hours in there with Ginny marking essays, then he turned his head when he heard some scuffling and was rooted to the spot when he saw Ginny locked in Derek's arms, her elfin-like face nearly being sucked off by the newest Slytherin 'hottie'. Draco knew he didn't have the right to scold them, after all they were together for a couple of months last year, but as soon as he stepped out of his classroom and saw them snogging his first instinct was to yank the boy from her and punch him senseless! Even now Draco's hand still clenched into a tight fists as he recalled the happenings of the previous evening.

"Seems like a certain redhead has caught your fancy, Malfoy." Hermione wasn't at all oblivious to the fact that the person she was talking to suddenly lost interest in what she was talking about.

Draco quickly snapped out of his sudden reverie and hissed at the dark haired Muggle-born beside him. "Whatever the hell are you talking about, Granger?" he snapped irately.

Hermione chuckled and shook her mop of healthy curly hair, "You're so transparent sometimes, Malfoy, I can't believe I didn't see right through you back in our school days," she teased before returning her attention back to her breakfast. She sliced her sausages into threes, forking one and midway to her mouth she stopped and frowned at the blond seated beside her, "And speaking of Ginny, is what I've heard true, that she's landed yet another detention from you, hm?"

Draco raised an eyebrow and turned his attention from the redhead angrily spearing her breakfast with her fork to the grinning brunette seated beside him with a big, dopey grin plastered on her face. Did he just imagine it or was that a hint of teasing he heard in Granger's voice? Surely she wasn't teasing him to Weasley, was she?

"And what do you care about my giving Ms. Weasley another detention, hm?" he questioned.

"Oh, I don't really give a hoot as to who you give detention to, Professor. As a colleague I just want to warn you though. Ginny wasn't at all pleased with the thought of another detention," Hermione paused and chuckled, her brown eyes roving across the Great Hall to rest on the redhead's fuming face. "In less than a month since the new school year started she managed to get herself into detention twice! I'm sure Fred, George, and Ron would be shocked when they hear about it."

"Why?" Draco was genuinely intrigued. Was there a side to the youngest Weasley offspring that her brothers didn't know about? Surely they must be aware of the little hellion lurking within Ginny Weasley!

"Because it's very un-Ginny-like, that's why," she answered simply.

"Un-Ginny-like?" Draco echoed, somehow he had this gut-feeling none of them knew who the real Ginny was.

"Yeah," Hermione nodded, popping a piece of bacon in her mouth. "Although I know Ginny isn't the little innocent her brothers thought she is. Not anymore anyway."

So Granger knew the youngest Weasley has grown up. And to be honest, he quite like the person she has become. Full of spunk and spirit; nobody would get her spirits down easily.

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Ginny waited patiently in the Defense Against the Dark Arts room right after breakfast to hear her sentence from the teacher she was really disliking now with a passion. She was starting to hate Malfoy more than Snape which came as a surprise to her. Nobody could be as terrible of a teacher as Snape, but then Malfoy showed up and made Snape look like a harmless tabby cat. Of course she couldn't really blame him when he caught her locking lips with Derek outside his classroom--Derek should've been more discreet, not that she wanted to lock lips with him ever again!--but for Draco to give her detention again? Couldn't he have just taken points off Gryffindor instead?

"So I see you're too eager to hear about your detention. Where's your partner in crime?"

Ginny jumped in her seat at the sound of Draco Malfoy's voice. She looked over her shoulder and shot him a piercing glare.

"I didn't commit any crime," she insisted.

Draco couldn't help from grinning at the fire spewing out of the redhead's eyes. He crossed the space between the door to where she sat at the front of the room. Ginny followed his every movement with her blazing brown eyes pinned at him. He stopped right beside where she sat, bracing one hand on the back of her chair while the other was on the smooth surface of the desk. Ginny backed off a bit, but she couldn't really move since she was trapped by a chair on one side and Draco on the other.

Draco noticed that she suddenly became restless in her seat. Does he unsettle her by his mere nearness? Now that was laughable.

"I think snogging in the hallway after hours when students should've been in bed is a crime, Ms. Weasley," he pointed out to her.

"In case you didn't notice, I wasn't a willing participant last night!"

Draco's eyebrow rose at her denial, "Not from where I was standing. You two looked like you couldn't wait to get a room."

Ginny opened her mouth to protest, to tell him he was mistaken. She wanted to tell him that Derek accosted her in the hallway on her way back to her dormitory, but at the very last minute she closed her mouth. Reasoning with Draco would be like reasoning with a brick wall. He already made up his mind about what he saw and there was no altering it.

"Oh, bugger off, Malfoy!" she sulked in her seat, arms crossed firmly across her chest and pursed her lips.

"What? Couldn't stand the heat, Weasley?" he taunted.

"Oh, I could stand the heat all right. It's just you that I couldn't stand," she replied smugly.

Draco's lips curled up on the corners. She was blunt. She was fiery. And she was a Weasley. Nice combinations. He was starting to like this girl already!

Whoa, whoa, whoa there, horsey! You're starting to like this girl, buddy? that annoying voice of conscience of him questioned, Are you out of your noodles?!

"Am I interrupting something?" Derek sneered from the doorway. He had been watching his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher's interaction with his former flame for a good five minutes before he made his presence known. It was really interesting what he found out by just simply watching Malfoy and Ginny together. They were both screaming mutual attraction--Malfoy's body language was the more obvious one--and he knew he will have so much fun with it.

Draco straightened from leaning down on Ginny. He caught something mischievous cross the Slytherin boy's face, a nagging voice at the back of his head warned him to watch out for the workings of Derek Boones' devious mind. He knew Derek when he was still a student here at Hogwarts. If people thought Draco Malfoy was bad, then they would be delighted to know that someone topped him in the bad department. At least that was what the students of Hogwarts thought. Little did they know that Derek Boones was nothing but a damn shrinking sissy!

"You're late, Mr. Boones. Your tardiness will cost you ten points." Draco was so enjoying this. The look on Derek's smug, aristocratic face was priceless.

Ginny, whose back was facing the door, hid her grin. No matter how much of a prat Draco Malfoy was, when he takes points off Slytherin, he ranked high on her list she looked up to--except when he was taking points off Gryffindor and giving her detention.

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Derek was sputtering curse after curse under his breath while polishing the floor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Malfoy told him to clean up the entire classroom the Muggle way with no magic involved. Derek didn't mind it at first knowing that Ginny will be helping him, but Malfoy pulled a fast one on him. He made Ginny pull up a desk and chair beside his desk and put a stack of parchment on it for her to mark.

Derek nearly murdered his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for what he did, but before he could devise a plan on how to execute it, Malfoy told him to get a move on or he'd be spending the rest of the day with him. He could see Ginny grinning like the Chesire cat from where she parked herself beside Malfoy's desk. She was enjoying this.

An hour before lunch, Draco excused himself to attend to the ruckus outside his classroom. Some overzealous students--probably female students--were camped outside the classroom, chattering loudly and annoying the hell out of Draco and Ginny. Derek seized this moment to stop what he was doing and walked up to where Ginny sat marking some essays.

"You think this is funny, Ginny, huh? Me doing a hired housekeeper's work--the Muggle way--while you cozy it up with the teacher," he snarled at her.

Ginny lifted her head from the essay she was reading and curled her nose, "What are you bitching about, Derek? Is it my fault we landed in detention after that stupid stunt you pulled last night?"

"Of course it is!" he bellowed, his nose flaring. "If you hadn't been slow in getting away from me, Malfoy wouldn't have caught us!" he accused.

"Blame it on me, why don't ya? It wasn't me who couldn't stop groping!" she was out of her seat and was standing toe-to-toe and nose-to-nose in front of Derek.

"Groping?" he looked stunned for a moment, "I wasn't groping you!" he denied.

"Oh yes, you were!"

"No, I wasn't!"

"Were so."

"Was not."

"Were so."

"You're pushing it, Ginny. I did not, I repeat, I did not grope you last night!"

Ginny was about to make a rebuttal when Draco's voice from the doorway prevented her from doing so. Both their heads whipped to the direction of the door where Draco stood watching them.

"Could you two argue any more louder? I don't think the creatures lurking in the Forbidden Forest heard you," he was lounging lazily against the doorframe, his head cocked to the side as he watched the two seventh years argue like pre-schoolers. "And there better not be any groping going on right now or you'll both be in detention with me again," he pushed himself off of the doorframe and walked to where the two students stood.

"It's all Derek's fault, Professor," Ginny pointed at the tall Slytherin in front of her.

"Mine?" Derek looked appalled, "You were also--"

Draco stopped Derek's tirade before it resulted in another shouting fest between the two of them.

"Can it, you two. Now get back to your work. You both dilly-dallied and wasted valuable time arguing. We'll have to forego lunch until I'm satisfied with both your work."

A chorus of disappointed groans came from his two stubborn students. Derek begrudgingly went back to polishing the floor while Ginny slumped with a soft thud back in her seat. Draco grinned at the look on both students' faces.

"Oh, and Mr. Boones?" Draco called to Derek who was about to go down on all fours on the floor.

Derek lifted his blond head and met his teacher's gaze, "Yeah?"

"Next time you're in detention, could you kindly let your fan club outside know that points will be taken off your house the next time they cause any disruption, hm?"

Derek's blue eyes shot daggers at Draco right at that very moment. He was being an ass and Ginny couldn't stop siding with their teacher. She slouched down in her seat, a parchment pulled up to cover her face as she struggled so hard not to laugh at the bad luck Derek was having.

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A/N: well, well, well. another chapter finished! phew! I'm on a roll now! *lol* anyways, thanks for your reviews and like before, read, review, and enjoy!!! oh yeah, before I forget, I almost got stumped with this chapter, but thanks to my beta, Blu Misterie, she gave me some insights (as well as edited my fic) as to what write or even add to this chapter. and oh yeah, I forgot to give a shout-out of thanks to karly for helping me do some brainstorming when I got stuck writing the third chapter.

Tuilindo: thanks...and I know it's a bit clichéd, but I wanted to take a stab at it my way, my style and the works :::grins:::

MelissaAdams: well you're in luck 'coz the next one's coming right out right now! *lol* here it is! :::girns:::

Cassandra Sisenta or Krey-Zey: hehehe, well I'm updating as often as I can. and I'm happy that you get inspired to write your D/G fic after reading my fic! good luck with that one

Rebecca Gryffindor: thanks for reading my fic, and for sure I'll send up email updates when I post new chappies up for this story

kellyanne: yep, it's always fun when they forget about that. and I think Draco picking on Ginny is kinda cute...hehehehe