I do not own Harry Potter or any characters in the books. Sadly I also do not own Tom Felton, if I did though I would shrink him and keep him in my pocket.

Chapter 5: Red Head Temper

"Glad to see you found the place." Draco said in his drawling voice.

Ginny looked around the room Snape had set up for them to use and gasped. It was filled with all types of ingredients. Body parts were floating in jars, and there were book cases filled with books on many types of potions.

"Wow this place is awesome." Ginny said looking around.

"I guess if you don't have any rooms like this at home." Draco said. "Oh wait I forgot you wouldn't, would you Weasely?"

"You're right I wouldn't." Ginny said tersely. "So what are you teaching me tonight Malfoy?"

"Professor Snape wants me to show you how to make a memory potion." Draco replied. "If made correctly when taken people have strong vivid memories of things that never happened."

"That's interesting." Ginny replied trying her best to be nice. "Is it hard?"

"It's easy, well at least for me." Draco egotistically proclaimed. "Here chop these ingredients up and I'll start measuring out the rest."

They worked in silence for a few minutes. Draco was off in his own world thinking as he measured out unicorn hairs and beetle shells and various other ingredients. This was one of his favorite potions to make, to think that people could have memories of things that never happened was interesting. Sometimes he thought of making it so he could take it, maybe then he could have some happy memories but always decided against it.

"What now?" Ginny asked as she finished chopping up the last ingredient.

"Add the sliced slugs and gnome tears and let it simmer for five minutes." Draco replied.

They sat there in silence neither of them speaking. Ginny becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the silence. Silence when she is alone is okay, but around someone it tended to freak her out.

"So Malfoy, why did you agree to help me?" Ginny asked quietly.

"I didn't really have a choice considering Professor Snape ordered me to." Draco replied harshly.

"Oh, I didn't know that." Ginny replied looking at the potion that was starting to bubble.

"It's time to add the unicorn hair." Draco said looking in the cauldron.

As Ginny started to add the unicorn hair Draco pulled out some books.

"What are you doing?" Ginny asked curiously.

"Homework, what does it look like?" Draco replied rudely.

"Why do you have to be so rude?" Ginny asked quickly losing her patience.

"Why shouldn't I." Draco asked in return.

"Because it gets you no where. That's why." Ginny replied angrily. "People would like you more if you were nicer."

"People like me just fine, and the ones who don't are jealous." Draco said haughtily.

"Jealous, of what?" Ginny asked in a tone that implied that he just said the stupidest thing anyone could ever say.

"I'm smart, I have good looks, I have money." Draco rattled off.

"Right, I'm sure that's it." Ginny said sarcastically. "Forget I even asked. What do I add next."

"Nothing you have to stir it now." Draco replied turning back to his books.

Ginny sat there stirring the potion, bored out of her skull. She had no one to talk to and nothing to do except watch the stupid potion bubble and froth.

"Add the troll toenail now." Draco said after a couple of minutes not looking up from his book. "And you can stop stirring."

Ginny added the toenail and walked over to see what Draco was doing.

"That's wrong." she said pointing at a problem on his page.

"How would you know this is 7 year Arthimancy." Draco said pushing her hand away.

"Don't believe me, I don't care." Ginny said sitting down beside him. "Maybe you should check it and see if I'm wrong. Unless you are afraid that a Weasley is smarter than you."

"Don't kid yourself Weasel." Draco replied looking at the problem she pointed at.

He quickly worked the problem and saw that she was right. Draco looked up to see her smirking across from him.

"Told you."

"Lucky guess." Draco muttered scratching out his first answer and putting the new one down.

"It's called skill, not luck." Ginny replied sulkily.

"So you were right, what do you want a gold medal." Draco replied looking up. "At least then you would have a little gold."

"What is your problem?" Ginny asked getting angry. "I was just trying to help you out with a stupid problem and all you do is degrade me. How long are you going to laugh over the same poor Weasley jokes. I'm poor I get it. Amazingly it doesn't seem to bother me half as much as it bothers you."

"I just don't understand how someone could live with such ratty things." Draco replied rudely.

"Unlike you Malfoy, I have things that are more important to me than material possessions." Ginny replied. "The fact that you put so much importance in money makes me sad for you."

"Sad for me? How is that Weasel?" Malfoy asked his eyes flashing. "You're the one who doesn't realize that without money you're nothing.

"Do you want to know what your problem is Malfoy?" Ginny asked angrily, her blood boiling.

"Sure what?" Malfoy asked getting up from his seat. "What is my problem?"

"You don't know what love is. You don't know what it is like to have a parent love you. You don't know what it's like to have siblings who love you. If you knew what love was like you wouldn't be so cold and cruel." Ginny shouted at him.

Draco sat down truly shocked.

'How did she know?' he thought.

"Further more, if you had ever experienced love then you would realize that money matters very little when you are surrounded by love. You may be smart but you don't know what love is, so don't ever look down on me because I am poor. I would rather be poor with people that I love around me than be you with all your expensive things but no one to love me." Ginny continued not noticing that Malfoy had sat down.

Ginny sad down and took a big breath. She hadn't expected to blow up like that but it seemed that all her frustrations from over the summer had been channeled into yelling at him.

"Shutting out everyone isn't the way to be a whole person." Ginny said quietly. "You will always be empty if you don't have someone to love. Because with out that you are only a piece of what you can be."

Ginny didn't know what had gotten into her, she didn't know why she had just said what she did. She was throughly confused as to why these words were popping out of her mouth, especially since she was with Malfoy.

"Well, Weasel, I trust you can follow the directions and finish the potion." Draco said as he regained his composure. "I'll see you in two days."

Ginny sat there and sighed. She didn't know why she had said that. She had been trying to be nice.

"Bloody hell." she said quietly to herself. She had just let Malfoy have it and he didn't even say anything back just left.

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"How did she know?" Draco muttered to himself as he walked back to his room. "How did she know."

Draco didn't know what to do. He hadn't expected the Weasel to actually be that smart, to know that much, to be able to analyze him so well as to know what he was missing.

"How did she know?" Draco yelled at his mirror.

He was Draco Malfoy, he wasn't suppose to need anything from anybody and no one was suppose to be able to know him so well. Then she just yelled it at him.

Draco went to bed that night angry, not at Ginny, but at himself.