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!!! I keep on forgetting to add this on to this one: MAIN HP CHARACTERS AREN'T MINE, those other names you don't recognize are mine as well as the plot, and also other stuff that you don't recognize, kapish?

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

PhoenixRae's Notes: to all those who corrected my mistakes when I tried my hands at "speaking" French...I thank you sooo much! :::hugs each and every one of those who knows French fluently::: I know I shouldn't trust some friggin' online translator, but since I am neither French nor do I speak it fluently, I just rely on some software to provide me with some help. anyways, I didn't mind you guys pointing out my mistakes, I so totally love it! I mean, at least I know what I did wrong, right? hehehe, thank you all for enjoying the last two chapters!

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XXVIII. Back to Hogwarts

Bill and Charlie stayed at the Burrow until the day after New Year's/ Percy and Twyla remained mum about their relationship from the others, enjoying a little game of I-know-something-you-don't-want-to-be-known with the two eldest Weasleys. Bill and Charlie hinted that Percy and Twyla knew about Antionette and Fleur, but they couldn't be certain if their hunch was true or not. Nevertheless it stopped the brothers from teasing the two.

Harry and Hermione were slowly working on how to work on their budding romance. It was driving Ron and Janelle insane trying to get those two together after they caught them making out in the kitchen at Christmas. They just finished their fifth round of wizards chess (Ron lost all five times) and decided to grab something to drink from the kitchen when they saw Harry and Hermione locked in a very passionate kiss that wouldn't have stopped if it hadn't been for Ron clearing his damn throat.

They must've taken those two by surprise because they quickly sprung apart, cheeks flaming from embarrassment and excused themselves. Hermione grabbed her jacket and went outside while Harry went out into the living room, leaving Ron and Janelle grinning like a couple of idiots at having acquired something to use against those two.

"You know you're damn lucky it was Janelle and I who caught you two necking," Ron said to Hermione matter-of-factly as he, Harry, Percy, and the twins took Hermione, Draco, Ginny, Janelle, and Twyla to Kings Cross.

"Ron's right," agreed Janelle, "Imagine if it were one of the twins or Mr. and Mrs. Weasley or even Bill or Charlie that walked in at that precise moment!" Janelle's eyes were wide from shock at just thinking about what their reactions would be.

Harry, who was behind the wheel of the SUV going through the busy streets of London ahead of the mini-van Percy was driving, kept his eyes glued on the cars ahead and his hands firmly gripping the wheel tight. Ron and Janelle wouldn't stop talking about that night almost a week ago! In case they haven't noticed, it was making him and Hermione feel so damn uncomfortable just by thinking about! It was a spur of the moment action that shouldn't have happened, but it did, and he doesn't know why. Hermione hadn't said anything to him after that night. He knew she went out to the backyard to warn Malfoy and Ginny that Ron was in the kitchen and he might catch them necking out there, and like bloody idiot that he was, he went into the living room and took solace in the company of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie; but Ron was relentless!

He kept on badgering Harry about what his best friend would do now that he had taken the first step on wooing Ms. Hermione Granger. Harry had to restrain himself from wringing his other best friend's neck because he just wouldn't shut up about it!

Meanwhile in the other vehicle, Ginny and Draco were at the very back of the van, sitting quietly while holding hands--oblivious to the rest of the occupants of the van of course (Draco covered their entwined hands with his jacket). Fred and George were talking non-stop about all the hilarious hexes they did to Ron while Twyla sat at the very front of the van sitting so damn stiff Ginny wondered if her best friend had a stiff neck or what! Tugging on Draco's hand from underneath the jacket covering their laps, she caught her seatmate's attention and whispered,

"Do you have any idea why Percy and Twyla are acting really strange lately since Christmas?"

Draco frowned and looked at the couple at the front of the van then back at her, "Probably they got some and now they don't know how to deal with it," he gave a casual shrug and turned his attention back to the passing view of London outside the window.

"Draco Malfoy!" Ginny exclaimed, her brown eyes wide from disbelief at what he just said.

Fred and George stopped talking and turned to look at the commotion at the back of the van. Even Twyla whipped her head around and looked at what caused her friend to shriek like that. Ginny was oblivious to the attention she just garnered and started hitting Draco's arm.

"What's going on back there?" Percy questioned, glancing over the rearview mirror to see what his sister was doing to the blond teacher seated beside her. "Ginny, why are you hitting Malfoy?"

"Because...he's...being...a...sick-minded...prick!" Ginny replied in-between hitting Draco's arm.

"Why?" Twyla frowned.

Ginny stopped hitting her professor to address her friend, "Because I asked him why you two were quiet and you know what he said?" she paused and looked at the three faces looking back at her, but neither one of them knew the answer so she continued, "He said that Percy and Twyla did the deed and now they don't know what to do about their relationship!"

The entire van fell into an uneasy silence after what Ginny just said. Surely she wasn't expecting this kind of reaction from the four other occupants of the vehicle! She stopped hitting Draco and turned to look at the other four occupant of the van, her eyes nearly bugging out as she saw the guilty looks on the twins' face and Twyla's red face was a sure sign that something did happen between her and Percy!

"Oh....my...God..." Ginny's jaw fell on her lap as she gaped at her best friend and the back of Percy's head.

Draco smirked and gave the red-faced Twyla a leering look and the back of Percy's head a look that could be translated as malicious.

"So, Weasley got to hit a homer," he chuckled.

"Wee-eell..." Fred began, darting an uncertain look at the couple seated at the front of the van then looked at George. Obviously the twins knew something about Percy and Twyla that none of the others knew.

"Well, what?" Ginny demanded, looking from one twin then to the other.

Fred and George exchanged looks then both looked over their shoulders at Twyla and Percy. Twyla's face looked like it was about to explode and they could only tell that Percy's face was the same shade as well considering how red his neck turned.

"Well, what?" Ginny asked again, "Fred? George?" her brown eyes moved back and forth between the twins once again, waiting for them to say more, but they were somewhat having second thoughts. Very unusual for the twins to act this way.

Draco, who was getting annoyed with the suspense, decided to butt in then.

"Fred and George obviously walked in on your brother and Twyla getting it o--"

"We walked in on them making out in Percy's room," George hastily cut in, looking scandalized at what Draco was about to imply.

"Bill forgot something before he left and asked me to grab it in Percy's room and that was when I saw them sucking each other's face off," Fred explained.

Draco merely raised an eyebrow and looked back at the red-faced couple at the front then smirked. Shaking his head he looked out the window once again while Ginny tried to pick her jaw off her lap.

"Whoa," was the only thing she could say after hearing that shocker of a news.

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Everyone filed out of the SUV and mini-van once they reached Kings Cross. Twyla made sure to stay the hell away from Percy and to avoid the twins as much as possible. Although they showed uncertainty at first when Ginny asked what they knew, Fred and George would find a way of teasing them with just a simple look or by mouthing something that would make Twyla blush like crazy!

Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Janelle knew something was wrong the moment they stepped out of the SUV and caught up with the others. Percy's ears were so damn red, the cold wind whipping about couldn't be blamed for it. Twyla's face was as red as Percy's ears, but she looked a bit more jumpier than Percy himself. The twins...well, the twins were just sniggering amongst themselves whilst they helped Ginny and Draco unload some of their stuff off the back of the van. Ginny looked...well, she looked like she was still reeling from some sort of shock she just received; her eyes kept on darting back and forth between Percy and Twyla. Draco, on the other hand, appeared to act indifferent towards his surroundings. He was busy unloading their stuff off the back of the van and grabbed some trolleys for each and every one of them to use.

Janelle frowned at the weird air surrounding Twyla and Percy that she had to drag Ginny aside and asked, "What happened in the van on your way here?"

"What are you talking about?" Ginny feigned innocence although she couldn't help herself from grinning at what she knows.

"C'mon Gin, you know what I mean. Something's up between Perce and T--and the twins obviously knows something's going on. Now I hate being kept in suspense here."

"You won't get any answer from her, Harris, so don't even bother questioning her," interrupted Draco as he hauled his luggage and Ginny's into one trolley while he left the other one he grabbed for Janelle to use.

Janelle raised an eyebrow at her professor and asked, "And why not?"

"Because we ain't telling, that's why," he winked and with a sly grin maneuvered the trolley containing his stuff and Ginny's towards the platform. "Now go kiss your Weasley boyfriend goodbye. I'm sure he's happily anticipating a parting kiss from you," he teased before pushing the trolley away.

Janelle sent her professor a death glare, creating a hole right through his back as he walked away from them, leaving her and Ginny to load her belongings on to the trolley.

"God, your boyfriend could sure teach your brothers and Harry a few tricks at subtlety," Janelle tsked as she hauled her luggage on to the trolley.

Ginny gave her friend a scandalized look, "Draco Malfoy is not my boyfriend!" she denied heatedly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Janelle muttered and continued to ignore her soon blushing friend.

"And you took a page right off Draco Malfoy's book on being subtle," Ginny hissed and helped her friend load the last of her stuff on to the trolley.

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Hermione and Draco pretty much kept to themselves on the compartment they shared with the three Gryffindor girls. Colin was suppose to join them but he was dragged away by another one of their housemates--and a possible love interest--to join them instead, leaving Janelle, Twyla, and Ginny yakking amongst themselves.

They were almost near the train station at Hogsmeade when four figures lumbered into the compartment the three girls were sharing with the two professors, each one of them looking more menacing than the other. Derek Boones was the leader of the fray and stood between his three goons.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here," Derek sneered, his blue eyes scanning the five occupants of the room, then his gaze stopped when he saw Draco sitting side by side with Hermione and actually having a normal conversation with the Muggle born. "You're a disgrace to all Slytherin students, Malfoy," he spat after a couple of seconds lapsed.

"What the hell are you doing here, Derek?" it was Ginny who spoke, taking Derek's attention from Draco to turn to her.

The corners of Derek's mouth curled into a sly grin, his blue eyes traveling up and down Ginny's body before resting on her face. Hermione had to hold Draco down before he took Derek's eyes out for looking at Ginny suggestively.

"Well Ginny, I came here to talk," he slipped his hands in his trouser pockets, shrugging his shoulders slightly and his grin dropped another notch sexier (or at least that was what Ginny thought when she dated him last year).

"Couldn't this wait until we get to school?"

"I'm afraid not," he shook his head.

"And what is so important about this so-called talk of yours that you wanted to have with Ginny that it couldn't wait?" demanded Twyla who hated being interrupted when she was in the middle of telling her story to her friends.

"It's none of your concern, Isaacs," Derek snapped.

"When it's got something to do with Ginny being alone with a slimeball like you Boones, we make out our concern," Janelle pointed out, jumping into Ginny's defense.

"Look who's talking," Derek snorted, his icy blue gaze moving from the redhead to the blond seated to Ginny's left, "You're no better than Granger over there," he jerked his head towards Hermione, "You're both filthy Mudbloods with--" Derek was cut off his tirade when he felt someone tapped him on the shoulder. Turning to see what one of his goons had to interrupt him for, Derek didn't see the owner of the fist the instantly connected with his nose, sending the blond Slytherin staggering into the compartment groaning and clutching his bleeding (and possibly broken) nose.

"Colin!" Hermione, Ginny, Janelle, and Twyla exclaimed at the same time as soon as the person who punched Derek was revealed.

"Nobody bad-mouths my friend, Boones," Colin spat and walked in to the room to stand over Derek who was doubled-over on the floor of the compartment.

Derek's three bodyguards made a move to pull Colin back out and beat the snot out of him, but a quick flick of Hermione's wand and a piercing glare sent to the three cowardly Slytherins made them think twice about what they were about to do.

"Holy crap, Colin!" exclaimed Janelle when she finally overcome her shock at watching her friend punch somebody, "That was a good right hook there, buddy!"

"Yeah, nice move, Colin!" cheered Twyla who stepped over Derek, giving him a swift kick on the side before throwing herself at Colin for a hug.

Ginny grinned up at Colin and gave him a two thumbs-up while he was locked in a tight hug with Twyla. Hermione couldn't comment on Colin's ability to cause some serious bodily harm to a fellow student, but she was smiling proudly then looked down at the doubled-over Slytherin on the floor. Turning to her companion she said, "I think this compartment needs to be rid of this foul stench, Malfoy. Would you mind doing the honours, Professor?"

Draco snorted and got up from his seat. Bending over he grabbed Derek by the collar of his shirt and pulled him upright, "I hope you learned your lesson this time, Boones," he sneered at the blond boy and escorted him out of the compartment.

Ginny sat back and grinned. Yep, she was definitely going back to Hogwarts, and something tells her this second term would be filled with a whole lot of surprises; one of them was Colin's ability to punch Derek Boones and actually made the latter's eyes tear-up because of the pain!

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A/N: a sucky chapter, I know, but c'mon guys, I'm trying to get as much action done and packed with this one coz...well, coz the end is near for this story--I just thought I'd warn you people. I dunno how many more chapters I'll be posting but the end is coming.

A/N2: okay, this is my shameless plugging of another fic I started dabbling with. It's an Oliver Wood/Katie Bell story which I just recently posted called About That Night--it'll be somewhat connected to this fic (Defense Against You) because some of the characters from here will make an appearance there too. Check it out if you like and let me know what you think, aight?

A/N3: and speaking of some of my characters from this story appearing in another story, I am planning on writing like some sequel-like stories focusing on the love lives of the couples I mentioned in this story. It's going to be like a saga of some sort, but I'll let you know when it's already finalized, alright? But I started it off with my Oliver/Katie story and we'll see how I move on from there

A/N4: finally I'd like to thank all those wonderful reviewers of mine who corrected me on my mistakes in the previous chapter (mostly it was those damn French words). I learned my lesson: NEVER TRUST A PROGRAM THAT AUTOMATICALLY TRANSLATES ENGLISH WORDS TO ANOTHER LANGUAGE!!! *lol* and since I am crunched for time here, I'll make my shout-outs a one-shot here, aight?

PhoenixRae would like to thank the following reviewers:

Cheater531, slytherin-cool, Lia, wowsergirl, Talisa, Angharrad, xangelcrisis, kuro_tsubasa, Alexia Alexandra, Kodomo Cow, Sharlene, kellyanne, Beccs, Nicole, Redbug, fyrechild, Parie, JeRu, Isis The Goddess Of Life, animezebra, Polgara, Karlie Malfoy Dracos lil sis, Vanim, karen, Red Magic Marker, Cactuskitty (the P/T scene was a little sick? awww...are you sure they did the deed, hehehehe :::winks:::), MelissaAdams, Crystal, death, ashes, tigereyes320, purus.flere, SeZzA, Quis, Faltering Hues, JaNx, Jenn, Arella Hallo, hpdancer92 (i'm glad they finally kissed too :::winks:::), *karly* (welcome back! how was your vacation?), Miss Marauder, Jade Stellar, avapouhi, hasapi (harry's never been dense...is he??? hehehehe), Mrs. Felton, Eva (as for making D/G an official couple...well, they're still on the 'courting' stage right now...but before the end they'll make that awesome announcement!), me, Krissy, Dassa Mudruffin (you're so smart! hehehe, of course there's always got to be a catch somewhere :::winks:::), Amy, emily, Butterflysky (that's all right, you can ramble all you want, and to be quite honest, can't stand the r/herm pairing too...they're cute and all, but they're just so darn predictable so i don't particularly enjoy reading much about it), Ladybug, ILOVERICKY!!!, luckyducky6289, The Elfin Child, Rogue Reviewer (obviously you wanted this to end so I'm telling you now, it's going to end soon--maybe after five more chapters then it's over, but who knows?), myobgirly, Loves-Kiss, song*breeze (Becki!!! nice to hear from you again! *lol* been MIA, eh? so how are you liking the d/g ship so far in this story? hehehe), Wizzabee, Starry, Lady Phoenix Feather, Mandy (as a matter of fact I just finished Mission: Capture the Heart of the Resident Bad Boy which was my first finished d/g fic), Anh Da-o, Bluecolouredroses, hpangel, Black Crystal Dragon, omelette du fromage, Ali Lee, kat, Rei-Chan (don't worry, i won't be mad at you :::smiles:::)