Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from the HP universe. I humbly bow down to the characters that JKR has created.

Chapter Six

Ginny cautiously made her way down to the dungeons, trying to hurry as quietly as possible, so as not to attract any attention, to her very first Animagi lesson. She hoped she wasn't late, she was worried that Malfoy would call it off, despite the blackmail, if she failed miserably as his student.

She creaked the door open and saw Malfoy casually sitting at a table flipping through his own notebook. He looked up at her as she entered, his face showing a hint of annoyance at her tardiness.

"You're late." He snapped.

"I am not." Ginny retorted, hoping to sound convincing.

"Yes, you are, Weasel," he drawled at her. "My patience is not infinite."

"Fine!" she gave up. "I'm late. I admit it. Are you happy, now? You try sneaking out of the common room with Ron and 'Mione snogging on the couch."

Malfoy's face drew into a look of utter disgust at the mental image of those.. two.. locked in a passionate embrace. He chuckled inwardly at her bravado, she sure knew how to change the subject to her advantage.

"Congratulations, Little One," Malfoy said with a hint of amusement in his voice. "You have now officially scarred me for life."

Ginny grinned at him triumphantly. "You? I was the one that saw them." She wrinkled up her nose at the thought. Yuck!

"You are far more cruel then you previously led me to believe." Malfoy continued, shaking his head, trying to escape the image she had put there.

"Enough. Now, are you ready to commence?"

She nodded excitedly, and with a curt nod himself, he began to lecture her about the mechanics and biology of their Animagi. From reading his notebook, Ginny had learned that knowing your Animagus form inside and out, literally, was the key to proper transformation. One can't just run headlong into trying to transform without proper previous study, painful and often irreversible side effects occurred, in fact, she had heard that there was a special room in St. Mungo's for all the unfortunate dunderheads that had blundered into Animagi transformation without the proper background. Which made it all the more amazing that Malfoy, on his own, had gotten so far without hurting himself.

Ginny listened rapt attention as Malfoy lectured, taking reams of notes in her replicate notebook. The time flew by and Ginny, glancing at her watch was surprised to discover how late it had gotten.

"Sweet Proserpina!" she exclaimed, interrupting Malfoy, who as quickly snapped out of his lecture mode.

"It's past midnight, Malfoy, I should really get back to the tower before Loverboy discovers I'm missing."

Malfoy merely nodded in response. He hadn't meant to talk for so long, in fact, he probably hadn't talked this much to anyone for this length of time in ages, if ever. But once he had gotten into the topic, and with her hanging on his every word, his excitement for the subject carried him along and he was just as surprised as she was when they discovered they'd been working for hours.

Ginny gathered up her notebook, her ink and quills and got up to go. Before she left though she looked over at Malfoy, who was studiously making a note in his own notebook.

"For a teacher, you're not so bad, you know?" she grinned, the excitement caused by all the new knowledge swimming around in her head.

"Owl me soon about when the next lesson will be. G'night." And without waiting for a reply, she snuck out the door and crept quietly back up to Gryffindor Tower.

After three weeks and fifteen lessons of intensive lectures and training Draco was suitably impressed by Weasley's progress. Sure it had helped that he had done all the previous research for it but he grudgingly had to admit that she was doing really well, not that he would ever admit that to her of course, ruin his image really.

A strange camaraderie had developed between them over the past weeks. They would casually banter back and forth when they met to practice, usually it was creative insults that were understood as veiled greetings and small talk, both knew by now not to take anything personally. There were subjects that were acknowledged as 'off topic' for insults, including anything to do with the Dark Lord/Tom Riddle or his father.

They had come to a truce about this after a particularly unproductive lesson when Weasley had joked about his father being proud of him now. The lesson had ended abruptly with Draco going quiet and cold then storming out of the classroom. Draco had refused to continue until Ginny had pleaded and threatened him in the back of the library the day afterwards. He had accepted her apology and continued lessons, but at times, there was tension between the two when either's banter would graze the limits they had set for each other.

However, despite the odd bit of tension they worked together rather well, both keen on succeeding.

One cool night in early November found them progressing well. Draco was carefully reading a text on thermal geometry in the empty classroom in the deep dungeon that had become their regular practice room, when he glanced up at the little red head across the room. She was attempting to transform into her Animagus, but couldn't hold the concentration long enough. As soon as she'd start to get smaller and feathered she pop back out into her human form. Worse still, she was getting very frustrated with it all.

When Draco looked at his silver pocket watch he realized why, she'd been at it for two hours, just popping back and forth, back and forth, it'd be enough to make anyone tense. As he continued watching her become more and more riled up, with her face pinking up and her fists starting to clench, he found the corners of his lips twitching up into an unaccustomed smile, laughter starting to bubble up within him. She just looked so .. cute.. trying and trying to no avail.

Finally, he could no longer hold it in and let out a small chuckle. Weasley turned quickly to stare at him.

"What? Do you think this is funny Mister Malfoy? Do you think I like failing miserably at this? Hmm?"

He continued to chuckle, shaking his head at her in answer to questions, but not saying a word.

She threw her hands up, exasperated.

"Fine, laugh, I know I'm no ruddy good at this." And she promptly threw herself in a chair opposite him and slumped defeated. The dejection on her face brought Draco out of his amusement. And prompted him to say something that rarely came from his lips. A compliment.

"Weasley, for Merlin's sake, lighten up, it's not that you're not good at this, it just takes time." He appraised her sitting there across from him, his words surprising gentle and surprising lacking sarcasm.

"I'd say, as your professor, of course, you've done a brill job in the, what, month you've been working on this."

She looked up at his statement, unbelieving, raising her eyes to his.

"You really think so?" she pondered, chewing on her lower lip.

Draco was unsure of how to answer this. This wasn't the spitfire Weasley who bantered and blackmailed, nor was this the studious Weasley he lectured to about aerodynamics. This.. this.. this was a lonely little girl who looked so innocent and honest and trusting...

Damn you Draco snap out of it! He gave her a curt nod, then stood and placed a hand on her shoulder in what he thought would be a reassuring gesture. What would Snape do? No, wait bad example, Gryffs never responded well to his teaching methods.. er, okay Dumbledore, what would he say.

"You can do it, little one, just try to relax a little more, push everything from your mind except what you're concentrating on, it'll work, trust me." And with that he gathered his bag and swirled out of the room, leaving a slightly more hopeful Ginny behind.

Draco, on the other hand, was trying to figure out what in all of Hades realms had just happened.

'I'm really getting soft now that Lucius isn't around to rough me up any more.' He thought as he threw himself down on his bed, staring at the dark canopy above.

Malfoys don't show weakness, Malfoys aren't nice, Malfoys demand respect, Malfoys don't show weakness, Malfoys aren't nice, Malfoys demand res....

And so continued his mantra until he drifted off to sleep. At the back of his mind though he knew it was hopeless, 'Shit' the little voice taunted him 'You know it's hopeless Draco, you want someone to trust you, you want someone to see the real you, you want a friend...'

As Ginny returned to the common room that night, she noticed a new memo pinned up on the message board. 'Looks like Quidditch practice got changed from tomorrow morning to tomorrow night, yah! I can sleep in' she thought. 'Wait, bloody hell, I'm supposed go to the dungeons tomorrow night and practice with Malfoy.' She looked at her watch. 'And now it's too late to owl him, well maybe I can catch him tomorrow morning before breakfast and let him know.'

Ginny found herself skulking around the empty dungeons the next morning, hoping that Malfoy was an early-riser so she could catch him by himself on his way to breakfast. She saw him just as he turned into corridor where his secret entrance opened onto, though of course she didn't know where it led at the time. At first she didn't recognize him, he wasn't in his robes, nor was his hair all slicked back, but mussed and rumpled instead. He was wearing shorts, trainers, a t-shirt? He had just pulled off his swacket and Ginny could see well-defined arms as he walked by. His casual dress had momentarily stunned Ginny but she quickly snapped out of it and jogged to catch up with him.

"Oi, Malfoy." She called. He just continued walking. It appeared that he hadn't heard her, so she tried again.

"Malfoy, wait up." She didn't think he was purposely ignoring her. She actually thought that they were starting to overcome that whole childish silence and name-calling thing.

'Ah well' she shrugged and reached out as she caught up with him and grabbed his left upper arm to get his attention.

"What the fu.." Malfoy said, turning around. In fact, he hadn't heard Weasley at all, he had been too immersed in his own thoughts as he often was after a morning run. He was tired and wanted nothing more than to stand in a hot shower and let the water course over him. Weasley had surprised him. Her touch jolted him around to face her.

Ginny, who had been on the verge of speech, stopped suddenly as Malfoy faced her, her hand still rested on his arm. Her eyes widened slightly as she took in this different Malfoy; this sweaty, rumpled, Oh Sweet Proserpina!, she could even see his bare arms, she was still touching his toned bicep! Eep!

She took in all the details quickly and even grimaced at the sentence written across the chest on his black t-shirt "Hi. I don't care. Thanks." When her eyes finally hit his face, she took in Malfoy's raised eyebrows, questioning her appraisal of him. He had a faint smirk of his face. He could tell from the look on her face that she approved.

Ginny blushed profusely and looked down, embarrassed with her reaction to this different man. Her hand came slowly off his arm. As she did this her eyes flicked to the smooth skin of his inner forearm. Her eyes only briefly rested there but Malfoy wasn't the second best Seeker in the school for nothing, his sharp eyes noticed her glance and he reacted with fury. He thought she, especially after all the time they had spent together practicing their Animagi, would have given him the benefit of the doubt when it came to that. But no, she was just like everyone else...

"Have a good look, Weasel." He spat at her, offering his arm to her. Ginny noted it's smooth, unmarred surface. No tattoo, no Dark Mark, making him at the beck and call of his Lord. She began to stutter an apology but decided instead to bravely raise her gaze to meet his. She wasn't scared of him anymore, she knew his secret, and she had power too.

Malfoy realized this as well as he held her gaze. He could no longer boss this little pixie around as he used to do. He let out a small breath and leaned up against the wall of the empty corridor. He needed to explain, she deserved to know, so he spoke plainly to her.

"Do you honestly think that I would be stupid enough to get something like that carved into my flesh?"

"Well.." Ginny answered quickly, unsure. "Everyone just always figured that since your father.. and well..the company you've been keeping the past few years.. everyone just supposed..." she trailed off staring into his cold, stormy grey eyes.

"That I was a mindless follower? You have got to be joking Weasley. Even you, who may I add, are the only company I've been keeping this year," he continued, "know me enough to know that I was never quite cut out to be an incipient follower. I found it better to leave the groveling to my dear father, and we all know where that got him, hmm?"

"Now," he crossed his arms and looked at her evenly, with neither malice nor kindness in his eyes, only guarded indifference.

"Was there a reason for this impromptu meeting or did you just come to admire the scenery?" He smirked.

Ginny hadn't expected the long speech, and she had stood there rooted to the floor as he spoke, but the smirk on his face now snapped her out of it.

"Er..yes, just wanted to let you know that my Quidditch practice has been moved so I can't make it until ten tonight, okay? Thought I'd be nice and let you know." She finished, shifting back and forth on her feet, unsure of herself under his watchful gaze again.

Malfoy gave her a curt nod.

"Now, if you'll excuse me." And with that he turned down the corridor and walked away towards his suite entrance. Ginny turned in the opposite direction and headed towards the Great Hall and breakfast, pretending to mirror Malfoy's confidant stride as she went.

Both Draco and Ginny tried to brush off this strange encounter as they left. They each tried to justify the meeting, as no different and certainly less significant than the hours upon hours they had spent together working on their Animagi, but somehow, they couldn't quite shake it off.

Draco, as he gratefully stripped away his sweaty clothes and stepped into the hot shower found himself absently rubbing his arm where her hand had been. It had caused a strange prickle in him, almost like a crackle of raw magic and he couldn't explain it.

Ginny was just happy if she could keep the image of the toned and unkempt Malfoy out of her head. She had noticed the crackle too, and the surprising warmth of his smooth skin. She shook her head to clear it and chuckled to herself, what was she thinking, this was Draco Malfoy, only her means to an end, right?.

Author's etc.: More chapters soon, hopefully by tomorrow! Yay! Xxoo's to all my reviewers, and to you, who is reading this, right this very second, you know you want to review, it would make me smile! Cheers! -sweetproserp