A/N: Whoo hoo, I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack! ~Carlee, aka SilverDragonsFlame

Disclaimer: If I was JK Rowling, and I owned Draco, well, I wouldn't spend so much time on FF.net, getting my D/G fix from all the other wonderful authors on here, who also, coincidentally, don't own Harry Potter...Wow, I fit in!

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Mischief Mistletoe – Chapter Eight

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Draco believed he finally had the secret to the Mistletoe figured out—the reining charm on the damn twig.  As far as he could tell, its main purpose was to create scandals.

He and Ginny weren't the only odd couple to be found underneath the Mistletoe.  That, at least, relieved the worry about his father finding out.  There seemed to be an unspoken agreement among the Hogwarts students to keep the Mistletoe scandals within the school. 

At least, the two mouths he most had to worry about telling tales had been rather…occupied over the last few days since he'd talked to Ginny, to say the least.  The only two people in Slytherin that he might actually label as friends had also been caught by the Mistletoe.  Although, the phrase, Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, might more aptly describe their "friendship."  He was friends of a sort with Pansy and Blaise, but didn't trust either of them as far as he could throw them.

Which was why he was relieved that both of them had been trapped underneath the Mistletoe, though not together.  That, of course, wouldn't cause enough of a scandal to keep their mouths shut.  It was who they had been caught with.  Which had led Draco to his first inklings that the Mistletoe had been created for scandal.  Pansy had been stuck in the Mistletoe for a full night with a Hufflepuff 4th year boy.  And Blaise…well, he had gotten stuck with Colin.

Which was another reason the Mistletoe scandals were being kept within the school.  Among the students there seemed to be a school-wide fear of being caught by the Mistletoe.  And at the same time, a school-wide excitement.

Draco shook his head as he walked towards his Double Potions class.  It wasn't at all surprising anymore to open a closet somewhere within Hogwarts only to have the twig of Mistletoe come darting at you and to find two students snogging each other senseless, neither of them having noticed the opening of the door, nor the escape of the Mistletoe.

As Draco readied his cauldron and the ingredients he would need for the day's potion, he couldn't help but wish the damn Mistletoe would come and find him and Ginny again.  Hell, he half contemplated stalking the blasted twig.  From what he could tell by the last experience, only Ginny would be allowed near him.

He spent most of his last class of the term figuring out how to go about tracking down the charmed piece of firewood.  Of the charming piece of firewood.  He was finding himself rather indebted to it.  One, it had brought him and Ginny together, a step that neither one of them would have taken, though it seems they had both wanted it.  Or at least he hadn't minded.  Based on his and Ginny's post-Mistletoe interaction, he assumed Ginny hadn't exactly minded either. 

Which was why he now contemplated how to find the Mistletoe. 

Being alone in the Slytherin Common Room allowed ample time for thought, he mused as he sat in one of the comfortable green leather loungers.  It was nearing dinner time in the Great Hall and pretty much everyone had left for the winter holidays.  Word around the school was that it wasn't safe for Ginny or the Scooby Gang to travel home for the holidays which meant they were some of the few students left in the school.  For a good two weeks.  Making sure no one was around to see him, Draco smiled.

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It was Christmas Eve and Ginny was frustrated as all hell.  They had been stuck at the school, practically alone for almost a week now, and she still had yet to find any time to talk to Draco alone.  The only time she knew she would run into him, Ron seemed to standing guard over her.  And if it wasn't Ron, it was Harry, or God forbid, Hermione.  She had hoped to talk some sense into her two lesser watch dogs, only there was no sense to be had when it came to the name of Malfoy.  The trio seemed to believe that the Mistletoe had deranged her brain or something.  They wouldn't even let her try to convince them that Draco might not be the spawn of Satan.  Satan's right hand man maybe, but still not the spawn of Satan.

Ginny had tried everything to run into him aside from meals in the Great Hall where she was always under watchful eyes.  She had stalked every goddamned empty, desolate corridor in the freaking school, and had yet to run into Draco.  Even on innocent trips to the library (accompanied, of course, by Hermione), she couldn't seem to find a chance to talk to him alone.

If it weren't for their eye contact across the Great Hall, Ginny would have believed her traversing cold and lonely corridors to be in vain.  But she KNEW that he wanted to talk to her.  Their unspoken communication in the Great Hall revealed that much.  It was just a matter of escaping watchful eyes and finding her chance.

The chance came late on Christmas Eve.  Shockingly enough, the entire trio accompanied her to the library this time, though she suspected their reasoning had more to do with their latest Scooby plot than her.  Her suspicions proved correct when they kept ducking away, two at a time, and coming back with loads of books, none of whose titles she was allowed to see.

Whatever they were planning, and she honestly didn't care anymore as long as it continued to keep them distracted, they hit a break after being in the library for two hours.  So excited were they, the three of them dashed off to either have a private conference or to search the stacks of books for something to do with their lead, and she was finally left alone.

There was no way in hell she was going to waste this chance.  Gathering her books together as quickly as she could, she almost groaned in disappointment when Hermione came almost immediately back to the table the four of them had been studying at.  Seeing as her nose was so buried in the book, it could have been attached (and when it came to Hermione and her books, who knew), Ginny took a chance.  "Hey Hermione, I'm gonna head back to the Common Room."

"Uh huh," was Hermione's noncommittal answer.

"I left some books there that I need to write the Potions essay that Snape assigned for the Holidays."

"Uh huh."

"I think he wants us to create a holiday love potion," Ginny stated, grinning and beginning to enjoy this game.

"Okay."

"And on the way, I'm gonna run off with the Spawn of Satan and create grandchildren for the dark lord."

"Have fun."

Ginny contemplated pressing her luck, but the chance to talk with Draco was too great to waste by tormenting Hermione.  With any luck, Hermione might remember what she had just endorsed…after Ginny was long gone, of course.

Now it became a matter of where to find Draco.  There had been times since the rest of the students left that he would be in the library at the same time as she, but the glares from Hermione and the unspoken threat of summoning Ron kept him at bay.  Why he cared if Harry or Hermione ran to Ron, Ginny didn't have a clue.  She thought it might have something to do with not wanting to upset her by getting into it with her brother, based on the way he had actually felt guilty after saying that stuff about her.  Then again, that may have been only wishful thinking on her part.

How did one go about finding the Spawn of Satan's Right Hand Man, anyway?  Ginny contemplated the question while trying not to giggle over her revised version of Ron's belief about Draco's parentage.  Did one go about looking under slimy rocks?  Was she supposed to wander about the dungeons until she accidentally came across the Slytherin Common Room?  She hoped not—the dungeons gave her the chills, and it had little to do with the damned drafty nature of the castle.

Ginny was wandering down the hallway where she had last run into him, almost a week ago now and had left him confused and questioning, when she finally came across him.  Or stumbled across him.

The stupid git was actually sitting on the floor, studying, in the middle of the damn hallway!  It was his own blasted fault that Ginny had rounded the corner, tripped over him, and sent them both sprawling onto the stone floor.  Well, he fell backward onto the hard stone.  She was lucky enough to land on the hard muscle of his chest.

Ginny took a deep breath.  Lucky indeed.  Ginny wondered what Draco would say if he could read her thoughts at the moment, how she contemplated pushing his robes out of the way so she could see his spectacular naked chest in all its glory.  Pale glory, but hey, still glory!

Draco was the one who came to his senses first.  "Enough eye candy to last you there for awhile?" Draco asked.  Asked in his usual ego-boosting mode, Ginny still couldn't find offense in it, seeing as how he had left out the sneer and disdain. 

She smiled at him.

And obviously, she still had yet to come to her senses… "It's enough, but I wouldn't mind having a bit more.  Well, a lot more."

Ginny's eyes widened, and the fact that she had just said THAT to him was enough to bring her back to the present and to the fact that one simply did not run around talking about Draco as eye candy.  Well, to his face.  It just wasn't done.  Whispered about in the girls dormitories, yes, but his ego was big enough without it being said to his face!

Scrambling to her feet, she could feel her face flushing like there was no tomorrow.  She tried to think of a way to do some damage control, but came up empty.  "Bloody hell."

Draco also stood, brushing off his robes.  Thankfully, this time it was from the dust on the stone floor, and not from his having touched a Weasley.  Ginny smiled at the change.  Yay, the Spawn of Satan's Right Hand Man COULD change!  This was good news indeed, considering what she had wanted to say to him for a week now.

And before she could lose her courage, and before he said something in that oh-so-sexy voice, she blurted it out, "DoyouwannacometotheGryffindorCommonRoomforChristmasEve?"

Ginny cringed, hearing the jumble of words rush from her mouth and from Draco's replying expression.  Resisting the urge to check if she had just sprouted Devil's Snare from her ears and nose, which was how he was looking at her, she smiled at him.  Well, she hoped it was a smile, and not the desperate, I'm-so-embarrassed grimace it felt like to her.

"Have you been sniffing Potions again?"  He was looking at her suspiciously, as though he really did believe that to be the cause of her invitation.

Ginny blinked.  Then smiled.  At least he hadn't tried to commit her to Mungo's or flat out refused.  This was a good thing, right?  Which is how she found the courage to add, "And for Christmas Day?  The Trio from hell and I are planning on a Christmas Eve slumber-party-like deal in the Common Room tonight, so we can all open presents in the morning."

Based on Draco's expression, she might just have invited him to dine in hell with Voldemort.  But she had worked too hard and long to get him alone, and had worked too hard on gathering the courage to invite him in the first place, for this to fail.  And worked too hard on a backup plan, should he refuse.

Which he did.  "You're bloody mad, you know, if you think I might actually agree to spend Christmas with those blasted do-gooders.  You, I can tolerate, and I'll admit to that.  But me, spending Christmas with the Boy Who Is Merely Lucky Beyond Belief and his faithful following puppies is too much to expect."  He gave her a disbelieving look, as though fearing she may have actually gone mad, when he finished with, "It has a snowball's chance in hell of actually happening."

Ginny smiled.  "Aw, did you just admit to being able to tolerate me, a slimy, little, disgusting Weasley."  She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, continuing to smile, of which he continued to be wary.  As well he should.  She was Fred and George Weasley's little sister, wasn't she?

"And Draco, I think hell just froze over."  With that little piece of warning, she released the Mischief Mistletoe from her bookbag.

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A/N: Hopefully, it won't be too long of a wait to see what Ginny's got up her sleeve—or in her bookbag, whatever!  Enjoy this chapter :) ~Carlee, aka SilverDragonsFlame