Disclaimer: Don't own anything here at all except maybe the plot but nothing else is mine at all in the least!!
Here we are after Draco stole the very important book Ginny needed…
Ginny stomped back to the common room and threw herself on the sofa next to Hermione who was now sitting all alone. Hermione looked up from her book when she heard the door thrust angrily open.
"Hey. Something wrong? Was the book checked out?" Hermione asked when she saw the look of annoyance on her friends face.
"No." Ginny spat.
"Well…why don't you have it then?" Hermione asked hesitantly, not sure why Ginny was mad.
"Malfoy."
"Malfoy what?" Hermione prodded.
"Malfoy took the book from me." Ginny sat down next to Hermione and crossed her arms across her chest angrily.
"Why did he do that?" Hermione turned, sitting to face Ginny.
"How should I know why he does anything? He's a stupid jerk." Ginny was so mad. She wasn't sure who she was madder at though; herself, for wanting Malfoy, or Malfoy for taking the book.
"Yeah he is. Why does he need that book? He's soooo good at potions it makes me sick." Hermione turned thoughtful and a look of irritation crossed her face when she thought of Malfoy. He was as good if not better than her at potions. That really annoyed her. "Who knows what goes on in the mind of Malfoy. He doesn't do any thing without a reason though."
Coming through the door, Ron and Harry interrupted their conversation. Harry looked over and smiled at Ginny.
"You two ready for dinner. I was getting ready to go down." Harry asked shyly.
Ron shot Harry a look and rolled his eyes, "I'm going too, did you forget that? You ready Mione?" Ron directed his attention to his girlfriend. They all sat down to eat together at the table and Harry and Ron were totally enthralled in a conversation with Dean about some Quidditch match. Ginny just sat there thinking about everyone at the table around her. Mostly Ron and Hermione though, She yearned for a love like theirs. They were young but everyone knew they would end up together because they were totally committed. They were also so obviously soul mates.
Draco watched Ginny. She looked lost at the moment. Sitting at the table filled with all sorts of people, she didn't look like she was very interested in them or their conversations. She sat there solitarily in her own world oblivious to the outside world. He wanted to talk to her, but he didn't trust himself to. He was hurt by her comments the other day in the library. He craved her attention, good or bad, that was why he always said such mean things to her. He felt somewhat frustrated about the whole situation with her. He liked her a lot bordering possibility of love. Well whatever kind of love a Malfoy was capable of anyway, it killed him to know he would never have her. He hated seeing Potter blushing around her and paying attention to her, it almost physically made him hurt to see that. The only reason he was ok about it was because Ginny didn't appear to return his feelings. Besides, Potter was too soft of a guy for Ginny. She needed someone who could be with her and protect her obviously, but she also needed someone to joke with her and---what was Draco thinking?? These were way too cheesy thoughts for Draco to be having. Draco pulled his eyes from Ginny and looked around the room. He scanned all the tables, looking from face to face. Nobody here really knew him; they all just assumed he was his father, only younger. Nobody even wanted to try to get to know him so he just acted like he was expected to which was fine. He knew he was not a very nice person. He saw Dumbledore sitting there at the table and his heart lifted slightly at the sight.
Dumbledore was the only person that seemed to believe he might not be like his father. He never actually told Draco that, but he knew. Draco got privileges and responsibilities that most people didn't. Dumbledore never convicted him without any evidence of things like most of the other staff and students. He was getting depressed watching all the various things going on around the room.
Ginny watched Draco, his mask had fallen for a brief time. He seemed to be battling something inside and trying to figure something out. He actually looked human to her. He looked up to find her staring and his eyes were still slightly bewildered. Something was wrong. She could feel it.
Draco broke the contact and got up and left the room.
++++
Later that week in potions Ginny was nervously making a potion that would cause temporary blindness. She knew exactly how to make the antidote but could never make the blindness potion itself. Throwing ingredients she thought were right into her cauldron she caught the attention of Professor Snape.
"Miss Weasley, are you trying to kill everyone in the school or just yourself?" He asked in his usual Snape manner.
Ginny looked from his face to her cauldron and back. "What do you mean Professor?"
"What you just added to the cauldron is lethal when mixed with that rats tail in your hand. Were you planning on throwing that in the mix also?"
"I-I…"
"Quick, think of a good excuse Miss Weasley and I do mean good." He rudely interrupted her. "Nothing?"
Ginny continued to stare at him like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Two detentions Miss Weasley, you can serve your first tonight after Dinner." Snape turned around and began to walk away. He stopped and turned back around, "Oh and by the way, don't even think of adding anything else to that cauldron before you clean it! 100 points from Gryffindor. " When he had finally walked away Ginny's shoulders sank with defeat and she carried her cauldron off to clean it.
Later that night at dinner she sat at the table with her fellow students. She couldn't believe she had detention with Snape. Well she could but it still sucked. She hated it; he would probably make her clean cauldrons or his storage closet or something equally as horrible. He usually assigned her those kinds of stupid jobs. Would she really have blown up the school? She wished she could doubt it but she was so clueless when it came to potions. She really needed the book that Malfoy had but that was wanting something that was unattainable. For whatever reason he stole that book from her, he wouldn't give it back until he was ready. Harry got her attention by tugging on her robes.
"Sorry to hear about your detention. That really stinks, I mean of all the teachers too it had to be Snape. He's the worst" He smiled. Ginny knew he was trying to make conversation but she didn't want to talk that much, the sooner she was done the sooner she could get detention over with.
"I know, and I have two detentions! He also took 100 points from Gryffindor. I feel so guilty, if I weren't such and idiot maybe we wouldn't be behind Slytherin." Ginny shook her head.
"You're not an idiot Ginny, you really aren't." Harry smiled and patted her on the back.
"Thanks Harry. I should go now though; I don't want to lose even more points for the house. Bye." She got up and waved to Harry.
When she finally reached the potions room she was surprised to see a cauldron and a table full of ingredients sitting on a table. Snape looked up as she entered.
"I want you to work on the potion you couldn't get right today. You can't leave the room until you do it correctly." Snape informed her.
"Uhm. Ok" Ginny was shocked and went over to the table with all the equipment. She was actually doing really well until she couldn't find the leech juice. She continued to look around, not to find it when she heard an all too familiar voice talking with Snape. What was Malfoy doing here? That's just great, add a little more humiliation to the experience please! She thought. She listened to their conversation while looking for the leech juice. She was merrily searching until she heard Snape ask Malfoy to stay and watch Ginny while he went to go run some errands. Good Lord Please NO. She thought. After Snape had left the room Malfoy walked over to Ginny to find her still searching for the leech juice.
"Missing something Weasley?" He asked.
"Of course not." She lied, snapping at him.
He smirked at her indignant expression, "Yes you are actually. It's over here." Malfoy walked over the cabinet and pulled out some leech juice. He handed the bottle to her.
"Why didn't he give it to me. I knew I needed it, I just didn't know where to look!" She was staring at the bottle in her hand, hating Snape's maliciousness.
"He meant it as a test. He figured you would remember the potion, now that you had almost blown up the school, so he would make it a little harder." Malfoy told her matter-of-factly.
"That's cruel." She said distractedly as she put them in the cauldron. The potion turned to a bright blue, the right color. She just stood there staring at it stunned. "I did it. I actually got it right." She was completely surprised.
"I know, isn't it amazing what you can do when you learn from a mistake? You should have learned a lot more by now though if that's the standard used." He commented rudely.
That caught Ginny's attention and she looked up at him genuinely hurt by his comment. "I know I'm an idiot Malfoy but you don't have to be so obvious about it."
Draco looked at her and realized he had hurt her feelings. Good, he thought, now she knows how it feels. Too bad he felt horrible about making her sad. "You're not an idiot Ginny, you're just forgetful about Potions. They are really confusing so you shouldn't feel like an idiot. Besides you got this one right didn't you?" He was trying to reassure her and strangely it was working. When she'd told Harry she was an idiot he couldn't alleviate the feeling and Draco managed to with a few sentences.
"I better go sit over by Snape's desk, he'd be upset if he thought I had helped you at all." Draco told Ginny.
"You did help me."
"No, you knew what you needed, just not where it was. That's not anything Snape wouldn't have done." He told her as he walked back to the desk and sat down.
Snape walked in about two minutes and Draco left without saying another word to Ginny. Snape who was very surprised and secretly delighted Ginny had gotten the potion right told her that her next detention would be in the morning the day after tomorrow.
A/N: Hopefully this chapter was better I really appreciate people still reading this. The next Chapter is one of my favorites I have ever written!! Seriously I like it, Draco shows a softer side! Gasp!! Yeah so anyway review please!! Thanks. Can I just tell you I almost cried at some of my reviews?!?!?! Happy tears happy tears!!! Ok not cry but I was almost there guys!! Thanks so much!! By the way Harry won't be psycho however, he will possibly be upset that Ginny would get with Draco…is that ok? I promise not psycho.
