CHAPTER 4

"Ow." was all he said as he rolled off the chair onto his stomach.

"Oh, gods!" Ginny cried starled. "Malfoy? Oh, Draco, are you alright?" she asked him, holding back her laughter until she was sure he was ok. "Are you hurt?"

"A little sore, but I'll live."

"Good." she nodded then allowed herself to release the laughter she had been holding in, replaying the the image of him on the floor.

"I'm glad somebody finds my pain amusing." he tells her getting back into his seat.

"It's not exactly your pain that's funny. What's funny is that you lack the grace to sit in a chair." she calms her residue giggles.

"Hmm." was all that he responded with, whether he was lacking the energy or want to say something more, the answer didn't occur to him.

Draco was back in his chair, while Ginny still stood over him looking at him queerly.

"Why are you looking at me funny? You're the one who ran out on me in the middle of your own explanation."

Ginny looked abashed, "Oh right, sorry about that one."

"Eh." he shrugged. "You ought to be." This would have upset her, if it wasn't for the fact that he had nothing behind his voice, they were just words.

Draco would have gone back to daydreaming about finishing his essay, but he noticed her shadow was still across his parchment and wondered what could she possibly still be there for.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" he asked her.

"Come walk with me?" she asked as she tilted her head.

"What?"

"Come walk with me. I'm really not in the mood for homework, you don't seem to be either, and I think we both need air." Draco looked at her wondering why. Ginny looked at him not really knowing why she'd asked, but at the moment she didn't care. She was in the mood for an evening stroll and he happened to be a person in the vicinity that she was willing to walk with. "Please?"

He closed his essay into his book and stood up, motioning for her to lead the way. They walked out of the library in silence, down the corridors and stairs and out into the night not saying a word. They didn't want to speak, neither wanting to talk about a subject to personal for fear of scaring the other one away, but neither of them wanted to bring up a topic to impersonal either, for fear of sounding plain silly. Instead they walked side by side not saying a word, taking turns guiding each other this way and that, until finally they found they were back where they started, at the steps of the school. How long had they been walking for? A half hour? Two hours? What time did they leave? What time was it now?

Draco sat down on the top step, Ginny followed after a half moment and they both stared out to nowhere or anywhere.

"So how's it feel," Ginny started, "to know that in a small number of months you can go through those gates and know you never have to come back?"

Draco inhaled and threw his head back so he could see the school behind him, upside down.

"Funny, peculiar. Practically seven years of living here and I get kicked out. Of course not in such harsh terms, but you understand. Not that I really mind leaving, this hasn't been the best place. But it definitely hasn't been the worst." He'd held his head back examining the outside of the school, but his eyes saw through the walls. His mind's eye looked inside every corridor and room he'd ever seen inside that school, which didn't account for half. Memories came back to him, not all of them wonderful, and not all of them heart wrenching. A bunch of twists and turns on the roads of happiness and despair. Ginny wanted to ask what the worst place was, but she had that feeling that it wasn't a pest filled hut in some country he went to on some misrepresented paradise vacation, and she didn't want to ask if it wasn't.

"I heard you and Potter got back together." Draco turned to her once he stopped reflecting.

"I figured. Who hasn't?"

"Are you happy now?" he asked. It was an honest question.

"I guess." she shrugged.

"You guess?"

"I guess," she repeated. She didn't elaborate and he wasn't going to make her.

"Something's been bugging me lately." Ginny stated to get off the subject of her and Harry, she didn't like talking about things she didn't understand. "You never did tell me what it was that made you follow me that day and what made you want to talk to me. You never told me why you let me confide in you."

"You never told me why you trusted me to confide in." he responded.

"I was desperate?" more of statement. "I had two of the people I trust the most lie to me I figured it didn't really matter anyway. You don't really know me, so I couldn't have care less what you judged of me."

"And now?"

"What do you mean 'and now'?"

"What do you think now?"

"What makes you think my thoughts have changed?"

"You said 'couldn't have cared' not 'couldn't care', one implies past feelings."

"A slip of the tongue, didn't have to have meant anything."

"But it did. Didn't it?" Draco asked more unsure than he sounded.

"Yes." she whispered.

"And now?"

"Now, I don't know what to think. You aren't such a bad guy. Maybe I do want you to accept me."

"I accept you. If you do me."

Here the corner of her lips turned up. She could have made this more complicated and used words like 'takes acceptance to want to be accepted,' but she didn't know if that was true and she didn't want to make a fool out of herself in front of him just yet.

"Of course, I do." He gave a little smile, as they looked at each other, both trying to decide what should happen next. Luckily, or unluckily, Fate decided to step in for them and the door flew open. Harry almost walked over them. When he looked down he saw Ginny and Malfoy sitting next to each other, looking up at him. His face showed bemusement, but he hadn't said anything.

"Uh," Ginny shot up. "Erm, Malfoy and I were just – sitting. Prefect business, we were discussing. We're done, now, though. Come on. I think I left my books in the library." She told Harry as she grabbed his arm and dragged him inside. Before closing the door she turned back, said, "Bye Malfoy. Glad we worked that out." and mouthed 'sorry' right before closing the door.

Draco waited a moment before going inside himself. Harry and Ginny were on their way up the stairs and Draco could still hear their conversation.

"I don't like you being around Malfoy alone."

"Oh Harry."

"Don't 'oh Harry' me. He's a bad guy, Gin. One of the worst and I don't want my girlfriend to be subjected to his evil ways."

"Harry, you sound ridiculous, and even if what you say is true, he can't to anything to me in Hogwarts."

"That's the kind of attitude that makes everybody worry about, Gin." here she sighs and they turn the corner. Draco decides to wait before going up the stairs behind them to avoid running into them anymore tonight.

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"That's the kind of attitude that makes everybody worry about, Gin." here she sighs and they turn the corner.

"Really. He isn't as bad as you all say he is."

"In what world?"

"In this world. He – oh, never mind."

"What?"

"Nothing. I said never mind."

"I know what you did say I want to know what you didn't say."

"It's just, he's just not as bad as you say he is. He really rather nice." All of a sudden, Ginny feels a hand on her forehead. She stops and turns to Harry.

"You're not sick are you? Did Malfoy hex you? Was there any point when you weren't facing him?"

"Harry. Shut up."

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Later that night, after she had gotten her things from the library and left Harry for the privacy (if you could call sharing a room with four other girls privacy) of her room, she allowed herself thinking time. She contemplated her relationships with Harry and Draco and Hermione. Being back with Harry wasn't all that it was before they split. It wasn't as fun and relaxed, things just didn't flow right. She hadn't exactly expected to pick things right back where they left off, but she hadn't expected it to be this difficult either. Ginny also found Draco was taking up much of her thinking space. He'd been so nice and he seemed to have changed. She had to wonder why. Sure, there could be many reasons. He grew up, his father died, he lost a pet, for whatever the reason she wanted to know but the last thing she would do is pry. Well, at least not yet. Anyways, now he was kind of sweet. It was a bit unnerving, but very nice, so was he, attractive as well, quite attractive.

This wasn't right she shouldn't be thinking about him this way. He was off limits, totally, and so was she. Gryffindors, Slytherins; Weasleys, Malfoys; they didn't mix and weren't supposed to. And she had Harry! She had Harry. She had Harry. Little did Ginny know she would be repeating this mantra for the next week at least. But she had to do something and found she had the perfect plan and she would carry through with it tomorrow.

Patience was not a virtue of Weasley...

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Draco awoke to the sound of snoring in the bed next to his. It was 5:56 a.m. and he did not want to be awoken just yet. Rotten luck for him, the snoring would not cease and he could not fall asleep with the animalized sound constantly reverberating in his ear.

As he began to get ready for this new day, thoughts of the night past came back to him. He remembered walking with Ginny and talking to her afterwards. He remembered Ginny defending him when Potter went on about how bad he was. Was she defending him? Or was she just trying to keep Potter from fretting over her? They were friends now weren't they? Oh, what did it matter? Draco had other people. Er, Crabbe and Goyle and Pansy. Okay, bad examples. Erm, that Zabini character was always good for a few laughs. What about that giddy little guy? Was he even in Slytherin? What was his name? Henry ... Ernie ... oh right, Victor, Victor ... Heckler, or some such name.

Alright, point received, he needed new friends. Although who was to say this Weasley girl was the right one for the job. Ginny seemed a little off when he'd seen her at times. Her background didn't to much to confirm her sanity either, with those twins and that pompous little prefect fellow, then the Muggle-crazed father and worst of all that annoying sidekick brother of hers. She did make some sense when he spoke to her though, the few times he had spoken with her.

By seven, he grabbed his morning classes' books and headed toward the Great Hall for breakfast. As he reached the doors a hand tugged at his arm and he turned to see Ginny Weasley at his elbow.

"Come with me?" she asked looking at him with pleading eyes.

"It's breakfast."

"I know, but I have to talk to you, and I don't think it can wait until later."

He sighed. Why is it that whenever they had to have a talk it was either homework or food that had to be sacrificed. Why couldn't they ever speak when nothing was to be done and they were just lounging around on a lazy afternoon?

"Lead the way." he said and she did surprisingly fast for her height and the weight of her books. She walked knowing exactly where she wanted to take him.

Once she checked to make sure nobody of consequence was inside the library, they entere and proceeded to the back.

"Look familiar?" she asked when they reached a certain spot. It was the same area that Harry and Hermione were caught.

"Why did you want to come here?" Draco asked bemused.

"So you do recall." Ginny turns to look at him. "I suppose I wanted to create a little irony I could call my own."

"What?"

"Draco can I tell you that I'm not a utterly happy being back with Harry as I ought to be?"

"No, but I suppose it doesn't matter much now, does it?"

She takes one hesitant step closer to him, "I want more. Better. I want better than Harry."

"Well, I could say Potter is a great guy and any girl would be lucky to have him; however, I won't. Dump the bastard."

"Do you think you're better than Harry?" she questions and he looks at her curious and suspicious. A blind man could see what was coming. Did he want it? "Of course. I didn't think that I should have to be questioned." she answered for him.

He looks at her as she takes another step closer to him. Her eyes lowered demurely.

"I've been thinking. A lot. About you. I think – I think that I want to try something." She looks up at him and takes one last step, blushing. Now, she moves quickly before he can move and she can change her mind. Their lips crash together. Both feel so good and it's only a bit odd. It's not as if neither of have never kissed anybody before, it was only that they'd never kissed each other. In the back of their minds, under the pleasure of the kiss, they wonder if they should feel guilty or wrong, or if they should push the other away. None of those thoughts are really allowed to surface, though, and Ginny's falling, while Draco is flying. What a way to start the day!

Neither wish to stop, however, someone in the front drops a book and Ginny jumps away. Now the kiss is over and those thoughts in the back are surfaced and must be sorted through.

"Oh gods. I'm so sorry. I'm not quite sure what could have possibly caused me to do this. I have to get to class." Exit, stage left, Ginny.

"Classes don't start for another thirty minutes." He says, maybe she hears maybe she doesn't, he can't tell. "Why is she always the one who has the last word?!"

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