Chapter 2

The next few days passed in a blur for the young red-headed Gryffindor. No matter how hard she tried, she could not get that sexy smile out of her head. The way Draco had looked at her…Well, let's just say she had been very tempted to smile back. Was she going crazy? It seemed the most likely conclusion.

The horrid thing was, every time she thought like that she felt her face grow hot, right there in front of everyone. She couldn't begin to count the number of times she'd been asked what was wrong by her friends. Her reply had always been the same though.

"Nothing," she told everyone of them quickly, before excusing herself on some imaginary errand that she'd just made up.

Now, with classes finally over for the week and no homework in sight (at least until Sunday night), she was looking forward to the solitude a long walk out on the grounds would give her.

But first, she had to get her writing book from her dormitory.

The room was empty when she got there, as was only to be expected. Everyone else would be out enjoying the time off by either hanging around with friends or by wondering the grounds out in the warm sunshine themselves. It was already the middle of September, there would be very few more days like these left.

Excited at the prospect of the relaxing time ahead, Ginny grabbed the notepad and practically skipped down the stairs and through the common room. Anything was better than being stuck inside a stuffy old castle for the rest of the day with nothing better to do than think about Draco…

She stopped by the door, frowning as she suddenly realized that she had started calling him by his first name in her thoughts ever since the encounter in the corridor. Well, that wouldn't do.

He was Malfoy, and a Slytherin, and arrogant, and egotistical, and it wasn't like her to suddenly develop a crush on a boy just because he winked at her. Especially that one. It was all wrong!

Just then, the door to the common room swung open, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked in, laughing about something.

Upon seeing her, Hermione grinned. "There you are Gin, we've been looking for you."

They had been?

"What for?" she asked suspiciously, knowing they couldn't possibly suspect anything but fearing it all the same. It would be awful for her if anyone found out…But there wasn't anything to find out, was there? She hadn't done anything wrong, and that was the way it was going to stay.

Unconsciously, she raised her chin in determination.

Hermione didn't seem to notice anything.

"Because," she went on, "there's a new project that the teachers are proposing, and they need students to volunteer."

That caught Ginny's interest. "What kind of project?"

"Well," Ron corrected her, "It's more like a fieldtrip, really."

"To the Himalaya Mountains," Harry put in.

Ginny thought about this. A fieldtrip to the mountains? That could be fun…

Or not so fun, she realized as she saw the superior look on Hermione's face just before the girl opened her mouth.

"Actually," Hermione told them, "it is a project of sorts. The students who are chosen to go, two from each house, will learn facts about the ancient village and it's surrounding areas, and will have to present their findings to the rest of the school when they return. So you see," she finished, casting knowledgeable glances at the two boys standing beside her, "it does require some effort."

Ginny grinned companionably at Harry and Ron, who were both rolling their eyes at Hermione's obvious seriousness over the news.

"In that case Hermione, why don't you sign up? It would be perfect for you," Ginny told the older girl, a gleam of humor in her eyes.

"It would, wouldn't it?" Hermione said with a dreamy look in her eyes. "But I can't." She sighed forcefully, looking more put out than Ginny had seen her in a while.

Ginny looked at her questioningly.

"Someone has to keep these two in check," she explained.

Ginny nodded, immediately realizing that what Hermione really meant was that she wanted to be there to look out for them, or more specifically, for Harry. Times were dangerous, especially since everyone knew that Voldemort had returned.

To be honest, Ginny couldn't believe the school was going to go through with something like this.

But we can't live in fear, she reminded herself. We have to get on with our lives.

Maybe she would volunteer after all.

A/N: Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. The next one will probably be from Draco's point of view, and there should be more D/G interaction. We'll just have to see how it goes. Also, I want to let everyone know that I really haven't got a specific number of chapters planned out for this fic, it's just an idea that I came up with and will probably be fairly short, at least compared with my other story, an 18 chapter epic so far called The Soul Keeper. Check it out if you want a good suspense/drama/romance D/G story. It has plenty of all three. I'm hoping to get a chapter out a day until this thing is finished, we'll have to see how that works out. Guess that's about it, be sure to REVIEW!

Big thanks to those of you who reviewed my first chapter:

Dragonsprincess: Thanks for the review, and I hope this chapter was out soon enough for you! It is a little longer too…

Aidenfire: Well…here's more! Thank you for reviewing.

Marybecca: I hope this chapter got your interest even more! Maybe you'll keep reviewing?

kneh13: Thank you for the review!