Author's Note: It was really tough to find a good word that started with 'G' for this chapter. Oh well. Thanks to everybody who has written reviews—they're very enjoyable to read. I'd write responses to them, but it's kind of late and I have classes tomorrow (they started a week ago, which is my excuse for long waits for updates).

Angst, Animosity, and Alliteration—Argh!

Chapter 4: Ginny's Genius

Ginny gave several furtive glances in both directions as she stepped out of her Potions class. Good, he wasn't there. For the past month, Draco Malfoy had been seeking her out—and taunting her mercilessly. She didn't know what had caused the sudden increase in childish teasing, but whatever it was had begun to irritate her. Especially because he had been so persistent. Ginny had practiced several hexes on him, yet he still didn't let up.

"Hey, Weasley!" a voice said behind her.

Damn! "What do you want, Malfoy?" she asked, glaring at him.

"Nothing, Weasel!"

"Ferret!"

"Ooh, now that's clever," he said sarcastically.

"It's more clever than 'weasel'!" Ginny yelled back at him. The two of them traded insults back and forth for a few minutes. Finally Ginny yelled, "you're so immature!"

"No, you are!" Draco yelled at her.

"You are!" Ginny practically screamed.

"You both are," an annoyed voice behind them said. Ginny turned to see Professor Snape standing behind them. "Thirty points from Gryffindor and a detention for both of you for arguing in the corridors. Be in my office at 8pm tonight."

After he left, Draco pointed at her and laughed. "Ha ha, you have detention! And you lost points!" He then started making uncreative comments about how poor she was, how filthy she was, etc. She ignored him.

Ginny walked away in silence, a frown on her face. He was so annoying! So was Professor Snape, the most unfair teacher in the entire school.

All through dinner, Ginny felt herself dreading her detention. She arrived at the door to Professor Snape's office right before her detention was about to start. Draco Malfoy was standing outside, peering into a crack in the door.

"What are you doing, Malfoy?" she demanded.

"Shh…" He pointed inside. Ginny nearly giggled at the scene that met her eyes. Serena Malfoy was sitting atop Professor Snape's desk, wearing a very revealing top, a miniskirt, and—of course—fishnet stockings. Snape looked extremely angry, and also quite uncomfortable.

"Miss Malfoy, I insist that you stop this immediately." He was backed against the wall. "Two weeks of detention for you!"

"With you, Professor?" she asked innocently.

"No! With Professor McGonagall!"

Serena pouted. "That's not fair! Can you at least make it with a boy?"

"Absolutely not! Now get out of my office!"

"You know my father's one of the most powerful men in all of Britain. I'm gonna tell him about this!"

Draco turned to Ginny and whispered, "Father hates it when she acknowledges that he's related to her." Serena rushed by them. Draco raised his voice to normal. "Hey, I thought that you were after Sirius Black! Why are you trying to seduce Professor Snape?"

Serena looked at him, sulking. "Professor Black doesn't know that he's my true love yet. I need to find somebody else to make him jealous! That's what I was using Snape for."

She left and Ginny muttered, "Wow, she makes Loony Lovegood seem normal."

Draco suddenly slipped into tortured soul mode. "I know! Why is my life so unfair?! Why can't I have an ordinary family? I have a Death Eater for a dad, and a Mary Sue for a sister! My mother's the most normal one, even though she belongs in St. Mungo's psychiatric ward!"

This was followed by an introspective silence. Ginny suddenly realized that she was seeing a new side of Draco. He's not so bad after all, she thought.

"Malfoy! Weasley! Are you two going to spend all night loitering in the hall? Get in my office!" Professor Snape said. He didn't look happy. Ginny tried not to snicker at the thought of Malfoy's sister trying to seduce him.

Finally, Snape was gone, leaving the two of them to wash cauldrons. He had taken away their wands so that they couldn't use magic. Draco spent the next few minutes whining about cleaning while doing no real work. Ginny had already begun trying to clean. "Are you just going to let me do everything myself?" she asked. He nodded. "You're such a bastard, Malfoy!" Ginny scowled. Just when she thought that he was actually a decent person…

"Well, you have a lot experience with doing house-elf work and I don't," he told her.

"Why you—"

"Draco!" a shrill voice called.

Draco groaned. "Pansy, what are you doing here?"

She put her hands on her hips. "I have no purpose except to act like a simpering fool who hates seeing you with any girl besides me! What do you think I'm doing here?" He shrugged. "I'm supervising you. It's my duty to make sure this girl doesn't try to make any moves on you."

Ginny sniggered. What an idiot. "Don't worry, Parkinson. I'm not interested in stealing your man. In fact, why don't you just take him away? I'm rather serve my detention alone."

"NO!" Draco said. "I want to do detention! I'll clean out the cauldrons!" He began furiously scrubbing. Pansy Parkinson left angrily. Ginny grinned to herself. Not only had she gotten rid of Parkinson, but she had also gotten Draco to do some work.

After he had finished two cauldrons (in the time it took for her to do five), Ginny realized that he wasn't working, but was staring at her instead. "Why are you looking at me?"

"Because it's fun to watch you work," he said in his infamous lazy, drawling voice.

"I should hex you again," she murmured.

"I'd like to see you try," he retorted. He walked closer to her, causing her to back up against the wall behind her. Ginny reached into her pocket for her wand, only then realizing that Professor Snape had it.

Suddenly Draco was so close to her that they were practically touching. And she couldn't move any further back. "Malfoy, what—" He cut her off with a kiss. Ginny eagerly pulled him closer to her, kissing him back. Why was she doing this? It wasn't like they had actually gotten to know each other or anything.

Who cares, she thought. He was a good kisser. The two of them began fervently kissing until Snape came back into the room. "I see that the two of you have had a productive detention," he remarked snidely. Half of the cauldrons were still not cleaned. "Another night of detention for you both and another fifty points from Gryffindor," he said sharply, then forced them to finish washing.

After they were done, Snape dismissed them. "Hey Draco," Ginny said. "I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's detention." She smirked at him, then turned to walk away.

"Ginny!" he said. She turned. "Would you go to the Halloween Ball with me?"

Ginny smiled at him. "Sure, I'd love to." Then she skipped back to her dorm.

Hermione, Harry and Ron were all waiting for her in the Gryffindor common room.

"How was your detention?" Hermione asked her.

"It was good," she answered.

"Good? How can detention with Snape be good?" Ron demanded.

Ginny mumbled something unintelligibly. They all looked confused. "What did you say?" Harry asked.

She sighed. "I'm going to the Halloween Ball with Draco Malfoy."

"You have a date? You're so lucky!" Hermione told her, looking envious.

Ron shrugged then turned back to Harry. After a few moments Harry gave him a strange look. "Er, Ron…"

"What?"

"Um, shouldn't you be having an outburst right now?" Harry asked him.

"Oh, I had almost forgotten," Ron answered. "Thanks for the reminder, Harry." Then he turned to Ginny, his eyes blazing with anger. "How can you go to the dance with Malfoy? He's always treated us so terribly! He constantly calls Hermione a mudblood. Are you insane?"

Ginny realized that this was her cue to run out of the room crying, so she did just that. Hermione followed her. "Are you okay?" she asked Ginny.

Ginny nodded. "Ron can be such a git sometimes, though."

"I know," Hermione told her, "but it's only because he cares about you. And at least you have somebody to go with."

"Don't worry, Hermione," Ginny said. "I'll help you get a date!" Then she stood up, practically jumping up and down. "I'm going to give you a makeover!"

"A makeover? I don't know if that's such a good idea, Ginny…"

"Of course it's a good idea!"

Ginny decided to execute her plan the next day. She went through Hermione's room to search for suitable clothes for Hermione to wear for her "new look". Who cared about the school dress code? This was serious!

Ginny spent the next two hours putting makeup on Hermione, and finding outfits for her. She was lucky that her Transfiguration skills were good enough to change Hermione's conservative wardrobe into one that would make the boys' heads turn.

Finally they finished. Hermione was wearing a miniskirt and a tube top that had a push-up bra underneath. She was showing a lot of skin. Ginny had put a heavy amount of makeup on her face.

"Ginny, I look like a cheap hooker," Hermione told her.

"You do not. Now all we need is a guy for you! But who…?" Ginny decided to ask Draco about it. She waited for him outside of his last class, Defense Against the Dark Arts, to ask him about it.

"Draco, we need to find a date for Hermione for the Halloween Ball." He pondered it for awhile.

After a few moments, he spoke. "All of the seventh-year boys are intimidated by her, and the younger ones are even worse. So it would have to be somebody a little older…"

"I've got it!" Ginny suddenly said.

The two of them looked at each other and smiled. Then, at the exact same time, they said, "Professor Snape!"

This was followed by a long and passionate makeout session. "Now I know why Harry and Ron are like this all the time," Ginny said with a grin. After a few more minutes of kissing, they stopped.

"Okay, onto our plan. We need to somehow get Snape to see 'The New Hermione' and realize that they're meant to be together. How should we do that?" Ginny asked.

"We can somehow trick her into coming to our detention!" Draco said with a grin. "And while we're doing our work, he'll ask her to the dance."

"Are you sure he'll be interested in her?" Ginny asked.

"Of course. He's desperate for an intelligent woman since the only ones who ever go after him are idiots." He smiled at her. They both knew that their plan was excellent.

"Draco, I just have one more question for you." Ginny paused. "Are you a Death Eater?"

"I was going to become one. But now that I've realized my feelings for you, I will not only disobey my father, but will also alienate myself from my peers and swear off evil forever!"

"Oh Draco, you're so romantic!" Ginny said with a grin. Hand in hand, they walked down the corridor, excited about their detention that evening.