Disclaimer: I don't own anything. It all belongs to J.K. Rowling.
The week went by shorter than Ginny expected. Malfoy behaved himself throughout and was unusually pleasant, if you could call it that. He only smiled at her in the hallways (which was somewhat of a threat since it tended to leave some of the other females in the area in puddles on the floor) or made polite comments about her appearance or manner (too polite in Ginny's opinion). He was even civil to Ron,and Harry too, refraining himself to just snickering when they screwed up royally in Potions.
Her group, in fact, had gained a Colin Creevey, a second-year by the name of Euan Abercrombie, who was content to follow along and listen to them talk, only occassionally scribbling on a piece of parchment. He seemed most interested in Ginny of all three, and Parvati was about ready to "delicately" tell him that Ginny only dated older men.
Ginny settled herself into a chair in the common room. It was the weekend...finally, well, except that she still had detentions in teh dungeons with Snape, Professor Snape, she corrected, for the that very reason. Ron ("Damn him,") had gotten her into the habit of calling him by only his surname, and she had slipped up in class. He not only took five point from Gryffindor for "lack of respect," but also proceeded to glare at her throughout the entire class and was extra vigilant on her potion. The pressure from this had resulted in her adding the wrong ingredient to her potion, though Ginny couldn't tell you which. Instead of a clear liquid, it became a thick glue, and, of course, exploded everywhere.
"What's up, Gin?" Ron asked as his bishop was demolishing Harry's rook. It was raining heavily outside, no wonder they didn't have practice. No doubt they were dry since Harry was the new captain.
"I never want to be called 'radiant', 'stunning', or 'especially brilliant' ever again," Ginny sighed.
"Who's been calling you that?" Harry said taking his eyes off the chessboard. Ginny glared at him and then Ron, who had a look on his face that said he was about to ask the same thing and was quite relieved Harry had slipped up instead of him.
"Sorry, sorry, didn't mean anything by it," Ron said turning back around in his chair. "I'd just like to know who's been hitting on my sister, that's all."
"None of your business, Ronald Weasley," Ginny scolded, "Just like it's non of my business what you were doing looking up Hermione's skirt this morning when she was picking up her book." She made sure she said it just loud enough that Hermione could hear it in the corner who was, sure enough, getting up and glaring daggers at Ron.
"Thanks a lot, Ginny," Ron muttered under his breath as his doom approached him in the form of a frizzy haired sixth year girl. Harry could barely contain his laughter at his friend's predicament.
"No problem," Ginny said with a wink and an artful turn as she headed out to detention. As she stepped out she could barely hear Ron yell, "Shut up, Harry!"
She didn't bother to ask for an escort; it was pretty late for anyone to be out in the castle, especially on a Friday. Luckily, she made it to the Potions classroom unscathed with no sugary meetings with a certain Slytherin.
Miraculously, the floors, walls, and desks were all spotless (or as clean as a dungeon could be), and there were no cleaning supplies.
"Ms. Weasley," Professor Snape started, suddenly appearing from the door to his office. "Since you seem to have such dreadful skill at potion-making I thought it best to curb any future incident and provide you with some assistance." Ginny's heart sank. Extra Potions lessons with him. She, for one, was not above loathing the Potions Master and would like nothing better than to give him a good kick in the shin. Cursing herself, she thought of how nothing could be worse than this. Of course, fate was more than happy to oblige. "Fortunately, one of my most apt pupils was...happy to oblige." He stepped aside to reveal a smiling, not smirking, Draco Malfoy. Although Ginny would never admit that he, in fact, looked handsome without his usual scowl, she did concede to herself in the previous week that it suited his face slightly better. 'It'd look better if the smile wasn't fake like the rest of him.'
"Good evening...Ginny," he said with a slight tinge of a drawl, still flashing her pearly whites worthy of Gilderoy Lockhart himself. Some things never change. There was a definite pause in the greeting though; Ginny wasn't sure whether he was about to say 'Virginia' or 'Weasley,' probably the latter.
"Good evening," she replied tersely with a cold tone. She didn't trust herself not to say 'Malfoy' or 'you stupid prat, you did this on purpose.'
"Well, I will leave you to your tutoring, and if all goes well, perhaps Miss Weasley will be seeing more of you." Ginny grimaced at this. "Draco. Weasley," were is parting words.
"So I hear you made an Aging Potion explode," Draco said in an almost cordial tone. He was well prepared since Abercrombie had indeed given him satisfactory information eve to meet Draco's high standards. Some of it, in fact, Draco had absolutely no desire to know.
"That's what it was?" in her tired state, forgetting who it was she was talking to. He laughed. It was a candied sound, like a Sugar Quill, delicately spun, yet fragile. This was not a laugh she recognized, not warm, and inviting, but tempting. Her shields went up again, and she reminded herself who she was talking to, Malfoy. The laugh hadn't been real, but the mirth was. She'd forgotten who she was for just a second, and he was an inch closer to his goal.
"Chocolate frog?" he asked taking out two small packages from the pocket of his robes and handing one to her. Abercrombie had pulled through on this one. "Loves chocolate," he'd said looking at his notes, "Chocolate frogs. They 'pac-pacify her."
She took it hesitantly. After all candy was better than insults, and she didn't think Fred and George would seel Canary Creams to Malfoy. "Thanks," she said nervously and under her breath, "They're my..."
"...favorite?" Draco finished with confidence, too much confidence. He watched her eyes light up as she unwrapped the package and decided that piece of information had been worth the 20 galleons he had paid the little twit. He kept his eyes on her carefully as she proceeded to bite the head off of the frog first. It wouldn't have been as unnerving if Draco hadn't had the same habit. Though his was a bit more gruesome; better to make sure the thing is dead first, though it didn't apply to Chocolate Frogs.
"Hey," she said looking at the card, not even noticing Draco's presence anymore, "Agrippa. Ron's been looking for it for ages. He'll absolutely die when he finds out I have it." She then started eating the legs, just like he did. If he didn't know better, he'd say he was becoming emotionally involved in this scheme. Luckily, he knew better. "Who'd you get?" noticing him for the first time, and only as another entity. Still a step up. "Oh." Harry Potter. Draco scowled; he couldn't help it. "I didn't even know they made one of him."
"You want it?" he said gruffly, shoving the card towards her. She didn't even twitch a muscle.
"No, not really."
"Let's get on with the potion, shall we?" he said wishing to direct the conversation else where. Ginny just nodded sharply. She'd been affected by his charm; how stupid of her! She couldn't let herself slip again; She wouldn't. Of course, that was nothing more than dooming herself to trip up even more. She had to concentrate on hating him; why was she having trouble doing that? Was it the chocolate? Probably. Hopefully.
They didn't talk much about anything else, just sat in the cold silence with the cauldron bubbling and Draco's instructions. One could say the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife, but it wasn't. Malfoys gave orders naturally, and Weasleys grumbled about it and made stupid comments back. It was the way it should have been, but Draco's plan was the opposite. He sighed. He was going to have to be nice to her. Not seductive, not attractive, nice.
"So...Ginny..." He wasn't good with casual talk. He wasn't quite sure how to talk to her without it seeming like some kind of insult or something. No certainly not, he'd lost too much ground already.
"Yes, Malfoy?" she said coldly.
"You can call me Draco, you know," he shot back. Sure, Crabbe and Goyle called him Malfoy, but it wasn't like he apprecitated it. His name was Draco after all, and Dragon fit him just fine.
"Well, what do you want, Draco?" She made sure to put emphasis on the name. She didn't want to call him that, but what frightened her more was that it rolled off of her tongue better. Draco.
"You know, just because your prat of a brother and that Potter hold me in comtempt," he started, making sure to avoid saying 'along with that Mudblood,' "doesn't mean you have to. After all, aren't you bloody Gryffindors always preaching about judging from the inside." Now he knew how to get her. He could be confident, but better that he wasn't. It would look more natural that way, and if there was one thing Draco knew how to do, it was make a planned think look natural.
"Because I already know you. You're just a little spoiled brat who'll end up just like his father, a filthy Death Eater in Azkaban." She got into his face, close, close enough to kiss, but it wasn't that kind of distance. Her breath was hot on his face, not warm, hot. But there was something else behind all the rage and anger, something he could play on. Fear.
"And I suppose that you're just some poor muggle-loving Weasley who'll get lost amongst the rest of them, huh?" He raised an eyebrow, a perfected art. "I've been good this week, haven't I?" it seemed he was getting closer, though not in reality. "I give you another chance, and I mean you. Not Potter; Not your brother; Not...Granger. Just you."
"And?"
"You give me one." Of course, she really had no choice, though if she had any doubt, Professor Snape's words stopped that. 'and if all goes well, perhaps Miss Weasley will be seeing more of you.'
"Fine." She really didn't like this. If Ron ever found out, well, that was self-explanitory. The common room would be in total disarray if they ever got into an argument.
"So, next Hogsmeade trip? My treat." He held out a Chocolate Frog, which appeared from nowhere, to sweeten the deal.
She glared at him through the corner of her eye, arms crossed. "I suppose." He grinned. A week and a half sooner than expected. "You can lose the fake smile, you know."
"Me? Fake? Never." He picked up her hands and laid them on his face, on the edges of his smile. "See 100% genuine."
"Hardee-har-har. Hmmmm...you're warm," she said taking back her hands. The potion was done and Draco was putting it into a vial to leave for Professor Snape while Ginny did a Scourging Charm.
"What did you expect?" It was cold in the dungeons, obviously a person would feel warm.
"Well, you of all people, I'd expect to be ectothermic," she said finishing up her cleaning.
"Whoa, big word there, Weasley. Definitely didn't learn that from your brother." She snorted. That part was true. She'd learned it from Hermione. She'd have defended her brother, but he did deserve that remark.
"Well," he went towards the door, holding it open for her, "I'll see you then. The next Hogsmeade weekend."
"Next Hogsmead weekend," she yawned walking through the doors, not even bothering to look back. Instead, knowing he was gone by the sound of expensive shoes on hard stone.
It wasn't until the third floor stairs that it hit her. She could have screamed and nearly dropped Agrippa and Morgan Le Fay.She had a date with Malfoy.
A/N: Sorry it took so long to update! I actually had the chapter written on paper for a long time, but never got a chance to type it up because of marching band practice and school. I'm still working on Chapter 6, but hopefully I'll be able to finish it in some of my boring classes. -_- Thanks to all of you that reviewed! I really appreciate it! Also, Euan Abercrombie is a real character in the books. You can find him as one of the new students in the fifth book if you didn't know. Thanks again! ^_^