Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the idea (which I think is original, but ya never know). Anywho, the whole kitten-caboodle belongs to J. K. Rowling.

Chapter 7: Angry Kisses

Draco sat at the kitchen table, eating a piece of toast with one hand and holding up the Daily Prophet with the other. He was scanning the front page for news on the war, but, of course, it only gave very vague details, nothing that was of importance to Draco.

He placed the newspaper back on the table with annoyance, only to find a small creature, still in her pajamas, staring straight at him. She looked away too quickly for him to see what emotion was on her face—hate or loathing. After last night, he guessed it'd be the latter.

"Morning Irish," he said, watching her with a small smile as she headed toward the refrigerator. "Is it eleven o'clock already?"

"Back to 'Irish' again, are we?" Ginny asked casually, searching the fridge for food.

"What d'you mean?"

"Well, during the fight last night it was all, 'Ginny' this and 'Ginny' that." She said over her shoulder, nearly climbing inside of the refrigerator as she looked for something appetizing.

"Well, it didn't seem like the appropriate place for a pet name," Draco said, offhand. Hoping to warm up her cold shoulder, he added, "Which, by the way, you still have none for me."

"Well," Ginny said thoughtfully, finally pulling her head out of the fridge to look at him. "I've spent many frivolous hours searching for one, but 'Lucifer' was already taken and 'annoying little prick' just didn't seem creative enough."

"Well, I'm sure all of your hard work will pay off soon enough," Draco said, finally succeeding in making her grin.

"By the way, are you aware that there is no fruit located anywhere in this house?" Ginny asked suddenly, seeming to deem the pet-name subject closed.

"No, actually, I wasn't." Draco said, watching with a smirk as she walked over, snatched the half-eaten piece of toast out of his hand and began to chew on it smugly. "Silly me, I must have been too busy fighting the biggest war in wizard history to pop by the store and pick up a few apples." He said sarcastically. "My deepest apologies."

"No need to apologize, just make sure it doesn't happen again." Ginny said properly, not being able to help the grin that was sneaking onto her lips. Finally dropping the act, she said, "Anyway, I'll pick up some groceries when I go out later today. Want to come?"

"And destroy my reputation as a hermit? Never." Draco said, deciding it wouldn't exactly be appropriate to bring up the fact that he couldn't go gallivanting around because a number of dark wizard were out to kill him just then. No, he'd save that conversation for another day.

So, abandoning the seemingly useless Daily Prophet, Draco began to walk back upstairs to take a shower. But not before calling over his shoulder, "Besides, I have better things to do."

"Like what?" Ginny called after him, smiling.

"I donno, but I'll think of something!" He called back from the top of the stairs.

Ginny returned home less then a half hour later, her arms full of groceries. She dumped them on the kitchen counter and looked around briefly for Draco. He was no where in site and, at the sound of water running upstairs, was probably still taking a shower.

Ginny began to put the groceries away, her stomach rumbling quietly. Finally, picking up a container of strawberries, she decided to have a quick snack. Bringing a handful of strawberries over to the sink, she began to wash and cut them in half.

Letting her mind wander, Ginny started thinking about why exactly she was still staying with Draco. She'd intentionally had the fairy tale idea that she'd find him, and they'd live happily ever after. This, of course, was completely juvenile and she had no idea why she ever thought that was a realistic idea.

Her heart dropping a little, Ginny realized that, ever since she'd arrived at the cottage, it had been like the kiss in the hospital never happened. They acted like friends, which was quite a step from her days at Hogwarts, but nothing more. It broke her heart to admit it, but maybe Draco just didn't feel the same way she—

"Ow!" Ginny yelled out in pain as the knife she was using to cut the strawberries sliced into her hand. Letting out a little whimper, she dropped the knife and hugged her injured hand close to her chest, trying to stop the bleeding. She sat down against the wall, feeling a little dizzy, and cursed herself for not paying better attention.

"Gin?" came Draco's voice. Ginny looked up and saw him standing on the stairs, leaning against the banister to get a better look at her. It seemed that he had been in the middle of getting dressed, wearing just an undershirt and a towel around his waist, his hair still wet.

"Merlin, Irish, what'd you do?" he asked, walking over and kneeling down next to her. He gently grabbed her wrist and forced her to open her hand so he could get a better look at the cut.

"It's nothing, just clumsiness." Ginny said, blushing slightly, watching Draco with his face inches from the cut, examining it closer.

"We need something to stop the bleeding." He said to himself, looking quickly around for a cloth. Finding none, his eyes slowly traveled down to what was wrapped around his waist.

There was a slight pause where they both looked at the towel, then Ginny's hand, and then back at the towel again.

"You could use your shirt!" Ginny said quickly, relieved to find a blood-stopping alternative.

Draco glanced at his shirt before looking up at Ginny with a hesitant expression.

"But..." he said, blushing slightly. "I like this shirt..."

Ginny sighed, rolling her eyes. "Do you want me to see your junk?" she asked wildly, motioning toward said junk with her uninjured hand.

"Right," Draco said quickly, taking off his shirt with one swift motion.

Ginny tried not to let her eyes wander, and instead focused intently on her hand as Draco ripped his shirt into strips and wrapped them around it tightly. Once it was secured, Ginny tried to pull her hand away, but he kept a strong grip on it. She looked up, shocked to find Draco's face inches from hers with a determined look in his eyes. Ginny stared back, looking scared.

She quickly looked away, glancing back at her bandaged, where his hand still was. Trying to start a conversation so he'd stop looking at her like that, Ginny said, "I never knew you were into muggle remedies."

"...what?" Draco asked, seeming to have just been shaken out of a dream.

"I mean, most wizards would just fix it with a healing spell. Especially a wizard from your family." She said lightly.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Draco asked, looking hurt. Ginny refused to look at him.

"Well the Malfoy's aren't exactly famous for being muggle-lovers." Ginny said coldly.

"You're right—that'd be the Weasleys." He said, angered more by her sudden found animosity towards him then the insult to his family.

"You say it like it's a bad thing." She said with offence, finally looking at him to glare.

"Maybe because it is." Draco said stubbornly, not really meaning the words. Ever since he'd given up on being his father's clone, he began to realize how Mudbloods and half-bloods really weren't that different. And Draco found it almost laughable that so many dark purebloods hated half-bloods when they were following the orders of one. As for muggles, Draco couldn't really care less about them. He didn't hate them, but they didn't interest him either.

"I can't believe you'd say that!" Ginny said, standing up with rage and beginning to pace. "Just because muggles aren't magical doesn't mean that they're completely worthless. Wizards have no right to treat them differently, and furthermore—"

Unintentionally, Draco tuned her out. He already knew these things, and didn't need to be lectured about them. He would have interrupted her, telling her exactly that, but something stopped him. It was the look on her face. She looked so passionate about this silly little issue—like if she couldn't change his opinion on this subject, she'd die trying. She must have caught the muggle-bug from her father, Draco thought.

He watched her carefully, standing up to get a better look. She was pacing furiously, her arms flailing this way and that, trying frantically to prove her point. Draco tried desperately to hide a smile as he looked at her features. A flush of rage was tinting her face and creeping down her neck. With a dreamy smirk, Draco remembered a similar flush covering her chest just last night.

Good thing she looked beautiful angry, Draco thought randomly, because she seemed to get annoyed a lot. Or maybe that was just his imagination. She could be a bitch at times, but always a wonderful bitch.

Draco's eyes traveled back to her face and he noticed a kind of fire in her eyes. Curly pieces of her flaming mane were being shaken out of her ponytail by the force of her hand motions.

Forgetting what they were fighting about in the first place, Draco was entranced by the passion Ginny was exuding. He completely forgot about the rule he'd set for himself about not getting too close to her, and started walking toward her, determination in his eyes once again.

Ginny stopped her lecture and looked at Draco's approaching figure with wide eyes. She backed into the wall, cautiously saying, "What are you doing?"

"Have you ever been pissed kissed?" He asked, trapping her between him and the wall.

"Excuse me?" Ginny said, looking slightly disgusted. His eyes had turned a dark gray, clouded with lust.

"It's when you kiss someone when you're both about ready to rip each others heads off. It's like the first step to angry sex." Draco said hastily, grabbing her face with both hands. "Believe me, you'll like it."

Ginny mustered up enough strength to push Draco away, sending him stumbling backwards with a surprised look on his face.

"I don't understand you sometimes!" she yelled, growling with anger.

"Gin—" Draco began, looking apologetic. He knew he should have tried to control himself.

"First," Ginny interrupted angrily, beginning to pace. "You kiss me. Then you act like it never even happened, and now you want me again? You're so infuriating! Why can't you just make up your mind?!" she screamed, glaring at him. "I dumped Harry because of you, did you know that? Because I felt something that night we kissed that I'd never felt before. I thought you felt the same way, but then I find out that you'd left..." Ginny sighed, her voice just above a whisper as she looked up at him. "Why did you leave without telling me?"

Draco wanted so badly to tell her everything. About how he was a double agent and had to keep moving because Voldemort was trying to kill him (as melodramatic as it sounds). He wanted her to know everything, because it was all just about crushing him. He wanted her to understand why everything was happening the way it was. Having her think that he left to get away from her was killing him, but deep down Draco knew he couldn't tell a soul about his position because it would be risking that soul's life, as well as his own. Things would just be better if she thought he was just a heartless ass. Besides, she had enough to worry about without him dumping his problems on her.

So, with his mind made up, he decided to turn the tables on her and said something that had been bothering him since he met her.

"If you care about me so much, why do you keep picking fights with me?" Draco asked suddenly, making Ginny's expression change from sadness to surprise.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, sounding almost panicky.

"You're always so cross with me. Once I start to get close to you, you suddenly find a reason to fight." He said, sadness creeping into his eyes.

Ginny became very silent, sinking down into a nearby chair and looking at her feet.

"Ginny," Draco said softly. "Look at me."

"Do you know how hard it is to go against everything your family ever told you?" she asked harshly, looking up at him and glaring. "My parents use to go days without eating, did you know that? They'd go hungry so that me and my brothers wouldn't." she brushed a stray tear angrily away. "And this is how I repay them? By dumping the guy they practically hand picked for me and leaving without a word to pursue a non-existent relationship with the enemy." Ginny placed her head in hands, trying desperately to control her emotions.

Draco stood there, still stinging from being called the 'enemy'. He knew exactly how she felt—he'd gone against his parents wishes too. The only difference was, he relished in making his parents angry, and he could tell that it killed Ginny to disobey hers.

Not knowing what to say, Draco mustered up enough courage to kneel down beside her, awkwardly putting his hand on her knee.

With a shaky breath, Ginny looked up at Draco, her face still glistening with a few tears.

"The reason I always pick a fight with you when I feel like we're getting too close is because I'm scared of getting my heart broken." She said, looking away in embarrassment. "I don't want to betray my family just to have things not work out, so I tried to act like my feelings for you are just a stupid crush."

"Ginny," Draco said quietly, making her look up in surprise. "I promise never to break your heart. I would never want to cause you that kind of pain." He said honestly, hoping with all of his heart that he could keep this promise.

Alas, angst.

And here's some more angst—there will be no thank yous to my loverly reviewers today. I'm swamped with homework and homecoming and driving classes, and I keep going, "Gr!" and time is limited and my mom's all, "You have too much to do. You'll have to just not post your chapter tonight." And I tried to explain to her about the riots and the hate mail and the toilet paper that would cover our house the next day, but she didn't listen. So, in order to post today, I can't write thank yous. ::tear::

But I do lover you all to itty bitty microscopic pieces, and I can't believe how many reviews I've gotten. You are all the coolest of cool and my socks are so totally rocked, and to make up for my incompetence (and also because I love the next chapter with an unending passion), I promise to post the next chapter on Wednesday. So I hope that makes up for it, and if it doesn't, feel free to though your assortment of fruit at me.

Loving you all to itty-bitty-microscopic-pieces,

Nicole

If you want me to e-mail you when I update, just give me you e-mail address in the review and I'd be happy to do it :)