A/N: So finally here is chapter 8. I'm sooo sorry that it took so long to get out, like 6 months, but I was having a really bad case of writers block. But hopefully it was worth the wait. Please review so I can know what you think.

-Taryn

Chapter 8

The next evening Ginny sat in her room preparing her things for training. She wasn't quite sure what she was going to need to bring but she just wanted to be ready for anything. She didn't want to give Snape any reason to think of her as incapable of being his assistant.

After packing everything she could think of into her shoulder bag she grabbed her robe, knowing that it would be freezing down in the dungeons, and headed downstairs into the common room. It was basically deserted because everyone was at dinner. She definitely didn't want to cause another scene like yesterday.

So, she decided to wait for everyone to go to dinner before she came down. She would have to grab a bite to eat from the kitchen on her way to the dungeon. She readjusted the strap on her bag before walking out of the portrait hole, not knowing that someone had been sitting in a corner under an invisibility cloak waiting to follow her to her destination.

Ginny walked alone down the corridor, the sounds of her footsteps echoing off the walls of the deserted hall. Before long she was standing outside of the painting of the basket of fruit and tickled the giant pear. After it giggled and squirmed for a second or two the doorway swung open. She quickly stepped inside and eagerly glanced around before she found what she was looking for.

"Dobby!"

"Ms. Weezy! Dobby has not seen you in quite a while. What is you needing?"

"Do you think I could just get some of the food from dinner? I need to go to training and I don't have time to go to dinner myself." She smiled at the house elf.

"Of course! Dobby knows how hard training with Master Snape will be. It will take Dobby just a second."

If the other house elves hadn't been clattering around with their pots and pans then Ginny would have heard the audible gasp coming from behind the slightly ajar painting. But, thankfully for Hermione, she didn't hear anything.

Ginny laughed aloud at Dobby's last remark.

"You're right. Together with Snape and Draco it will be a nightmare. What with two arrogant Slytherins in the same room."

The redhead nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a seductive voice come from behind her.

"Glad to know that you're so eager to see me, luv."

"Merlin Draco! You scared me half to death." Ginny berated him.

"Sorry, you know us arrogant Slytherins. Always out to make everyone else's life a nightmare."

"Ha! Get over yourself! I was only joking. If you're going to get all moody and distant then do it around someone else because I don't want to have to deal with it."

"Whatever."

"Oh Draco that muggle valley girl way of speaking really works for you."

"Huh?"

Ginny couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"What's so funny?" Draco demanded resuming his arrogant demeanor once again.

"Nothing it's just so adorable how you can go from being so arrogant to being so clueless in such a short amount of time."

"What are you talking about? I'm always arrogant. That's one of the many reasons why you love me." He smirked as he pulled her towards him.

Really? I thought it was because I was attracted to extremely self-confident pricks. My bad." She said nonchalantly as once again the clattering pots and pans saved Hermione because she had just burst into a fit of hysterical laughter.

"Fine, I see how it is."

"Aw! Come on Draky-poo! You know I love you!" She said mockingly.

"I'm sure you do."

Ginny stuck out her bottom lip in a pout and turned away harshly.

"I was only joking." She muttered angrily underneath her breath. She turned around when she heard soft laughter coming from behind her and scowled when she saw Draco with amusement twinkling in his silver eyes.

"So was I." He stated with a large smirk on his face.

"Argh!" Ginny growled as she whacked him in the chest.

"Ouch, that hurt!"

"Good. It wasn't nice of you to trick me like that! I thought you didn't like me anymore!"

"I don't like you anymore…I love you."

Ginny smirked before replying, "Oh I already knew that. No one can resist the Weasley charm."

"Oh I could resist it if I wanted to but lucky for you I don't."

"Oh yes lucky me. Well come on then, we need to get to training." Ginny said after Dobby handed her the food she had ordered and she thanked him.

"Of course."

The two of them walked hand in hand down to Professor Snape's office while Ginny finished off her sandwich. Once they reached the door leading to the room they dropped their hands and stepped inside.

The rest of the evening passed by uneventfully for the most part; Ginny learned more of the basics that it took to be a potion's assistant and to anyone who wasn't into potions it would seem boring. But to Ginny, it was an art. It was something that took time, practice, and devotion. Luckily for her though, her skills in this subject came naturally. Actually to tell the truth all her subjects came to her naturally. She'd never had to study as hard as Hermione and she had never done as badly as Ron. She just seemed to have a knack for all things magic.

At the end of the evening the couple walked their separate ways; One to the tower while the other continued to walk in another direction of the dungeon corridors.

"It'll be Saturday tomorrow. I think that we should go into the training room and work on some stuff together. It's a full moon, maybe we can find out our Animagi forms together. It should be interesting. And anyways that way we can work on our powers a bit more and I can show Snape up just like I did last time." Ginny rant ended just as they reached the corridor where they would have to separate.

"Okay, just come up to my room around noon tomorrow. We can figure it all out from there."

"See ya then Draco." Ginny blew a kiss over her shoulder as she walked quickly in the other direction. Draco let out a small smile when he felt the heat of her breathe hit his cheek only a few seconds later. Oh how he longed to feel her warmth like he had the first time they had kissed. There was so much passion that just thinking about it made him shiver. 'Ha!' Thought Draco, 'she must be getting to me. To think an ice and water god shivering.' With that final thought he continued on his way to his destination.

The next morning Ginny woke up to a screech in her ear.

"Merlin Kay, what are you yakking about?"

"There's a Hogsmeade trip today Gin! You need to hurry up and get ready."

"What time is it?"

"A little after ten o'clock."

"I can't go Kay I promised Draco that I would meet him at twelve!"

"Please Ginny! You only need to come for a little while and then you can leave. I just need to get a few new outfits." Kay put on her best puppy dog eyes and Ginny finally gave in.

"Fine, but only for a little while." Came Ginny's exasperated reply. She got up and began rummaging through her closet in order to find a nice outfit. About five minutes later after performing a cleansing spell so she wouldn't need to waste time taking a shower and throwing her auburn hair up into a ponytail she grabbed Kay's arm and dragged her out the door. "We need to get this over with quickly because I don't wanna be late for meeting Draco."

"Don't worry about a thing Gin. I promise that we'll be back in plenty of time."

Draco sat on the end of his bed waiting for Ginny to come. It was quarter of and he knew that she said she was going to be here at twelve but he was anxious for her to come. This was one of the rare occasions when he was glad that his dad had done a good thing and gotten him a separate room from the rest in his year.

Five minutes later Draco stood up and began to pace in front of the hearth; Just looking at the empty fireplace made him think of Ginny even more and remember how warm and passionate her embrace felt. Sighing he looked at the clock once more. He knew that he was getting more worked up than he should be but he was nervous for some reason. He'd never felt this way about a girl before and even though he knew that she liked him, maybe even loved him, too he wanted everything to be just right. As he read the clock he thought, '11:57, god only three more minutes.'

"Draco?" He heard a voice call from the doorway.

"Come on in Ginny the doors unlocked!" He called to her while glancing around one last time to make sure that everything was in order. He had gotten lunch from the kitchens so that the two of them could have eat and spend some time together. They never got to hang out except during training and they had to work hard then. He knew that they would have to go down to the training room at some point today because Ginny wanted to find out her Animagi form, but for now he just wanted to see her.

He turned around when he heard her coming and let out a gasp, as he looked her up and down; It seemed a little out of place for her to be wearing something so revealing but he just figured that she wanted to impress him just as much as he wanted to impress her. She had and off the shoulder top that showed her collarbone and a short skirt that barely covered the bottom of her butt. He looked at her with unbridled lust and walked up to her.

"I figured that we could eat lunch together before we went down to the training room. Is that alright?"

"Of course Drakey it's fine." She replied as he turned his back to her to walk towards the blanket on the floor near the fireplace. Draco flinched inwardly as he heard the nickname. He knew that Ginny called him that sometimes in order to annoy him but she had just sounded completely serious. 'Oh well, maybe it's just a girl thing.' He thought and shrugged it off as the unexplained.

He slid down to sit on one end of the blanket while Ginny sat down on the other end. They ate in silence until Ginny finally stood up. She looked at Draco with wide-eyes and whimpered, "It's cold in here."

Draco looked at her strangely before stating, "Why don't you light a fire?" He was quite confused as to why she would be cold.

"I was actually hoping that you would warm me up." She whispered seductively.

Draco face brightened and he stood up quickly. "Of course." He stood up as well before walking over to her and pulling her into his embrace. He interlaced his hand with hers and leaned in to kiss her before she pulled back a bit in shock.

"Merlin, Draco your hands are cold as death." She said in amazement.

"What did you say?" He asked deceptively soft.

"I said that your hands were freezing." Draco shoved her away.

"Who the fuck are you?" Draco hissed.

"What are you talking about I'm Ginny!" 'Ginny' whirled around as she heard another set of footsteps coming. And Draco stepped back from her while glaring warily.

"So-sorry I'm l-late Draco. I r-ran as fast as I c-could." The person gasped with their hands on their knees and head down as they gasped for breath. And then she looked up. "What's going on here?" She asked warily while taking in her clone looking flustered and an angry looking Draco.

"This, this…I don't know what, came in here pretending to be you!"

"How did you know it wasn't me?" The real Ginny asked.

"She said my hands were cold."

Ginny laughed aloud and gave a nasty look to the girl that looked identical to her.

"You're definitely going to regret this." She said simply as if commenting on the weather. She walked around the intruder and stood next to Draco interlacing her fingers with his. The girl moved to run.

"Feel free to run. I know who you are and I will track you down if I have to."

"You're bluffing." The girl scoffed.

"Am I…Parkinson? Because I certainly don't think so."

"You can't harm me. My father will kill you if you even lay a hand on me."

"No one will touch me. I'm very valuable to the Dark Lord you know?" Ginny stated as if trying to start a polite conversation. "My life is worth much more than yours according to the death eaters so don't even try to play such games with me. You can leave but let me warn you that if I even catch you so much as muttering one word to Draco I'll tear out your tongue and gouge out your eyeballs. Is that clear?"

Pansy only nodded. "You should have definitely been in Slytherin." The girl muttered and as she walked out the door her hair began to turn darker and shorter.

When she was finally out of the room Draco turned to look at Ginny in awe.

"Gouge her eyeballs out?" He asked incredulously.

"I was feeling evil today; besides no one puts the moves on my man."

"A bit possessive are we?"

"Just a bit. So are we going to the training room or what?"

"Yeah we might as well, I think I lost my appetite." He said gesturing to the food behind him.

"Aww, Draco that was really sweet of you."

Ginny almost laughed as she saw how hard Draco was trying not to look completely full of himself.

Hermione hissed while throwing her hands up in exasperation. "Ron, honestly! I spied on them just like you asked me too and I don't think that they're doing anything evil or that Malfoy has Ginny underneath a spell!"

"You can't know that for certain Hermione! And besides you told me that they were…were…."

"Fire Goddess and Water God, Ron. They're destined to be together, or so the legend says. I read about it once – "

"Yeah that's nice Hermione but I really don't think what book you read it in is important right now. I think she might be in danger."

"I agree with Hermione on the one mate." Harry pitched in.

"Ron you didn't let me finish!" Hermione said while silently admonishing Ron with a glare. "Together the two of them are indestructible. I heard them talking about some sort of training that they have. I think they're going again tonight. We can go watch but only if you promise not to interfere."

"Alright, alright, I promise."

"Good, now they made plans for twelve o' clock. We can go and wait for them and then sneak in behind them."

"Ah, it feels so good to be back." Ginny sighed contentedly.

"I know what you mean," Draco replied. "It just feels like we belong in this place. Do you want to get started, then?" He reached behind him to push the door, which had been open since they walked in, shut.

"Yeah sounds good to me. We've got plenty of time to kill before the moon comes out. We can warm up on our own and then we can duel, no wands. Sound good to you?"

"Perfect."

The two went to their respective sides of the room to begin their warm-ups. Ginny lit a fire in the hearth while Draco filled the empty pool with water. Both began shooting fire and water respectively at large targets. Their element began whirling all over the place; Weaving around objects as they directed them to go where they wanted. After ten minutes of this they decided to duel each other.

"Ready?" Draco asked Ginny.

"I think the question is are you ready to get your arse kicked?"

"I'll take that as a yes then, eh luv?"

They took their respective places directly across from each other by standing at opposite ends of the room. Taking three steps towards each other they began to fight.

Ron turned to Hermione. "Bloody hell, are you seeing this?"

"It's kind of hard to miss Ron." She hissed sarcastically while watching Ginny create fire directly out of her palms and tossing it at a target. "You need to keep quiet, otherwise they'll hear you. I think they're starting to duel."

"Like hell they are. Ginny's going to get hurt!"

"Shush Ron! Whether you like it or not Ginny is the most powerful witch alive and Draco is the most powerful wizard! Haven't you ever heard of this legend? Together they're unstoppable. Which ever side they choose to fight for will indefinitely be the side that wins, there's no doubt about it."

"What's the legend Hermione?"

"When the fire goddess and water god and reincarnated they are destined to be together. And together they will be unstoppable. One will be brought up in a house of darkness the other in a house of light and by their love for each other they will choose one side to fight for."

"Well they'd better be fighting for the light side, that all I have to say. I swear I'll wring Malfoy's bloody neck before I –" Ron whispered fiercely.

"Before you what Ron. Malfoy could kill you without batting an eyelash so don't go getting any ideas about heroism."

"I just worry about Ginny is all. I mean no matter what she's still my little sister and I don't know what I'd do without her."

"I understand Ron I just think that – " Hermione looked up with wide eyes. "Look Ron. They're dueling each other. This is going to be amazing!"

The two watched with round eyes as fire battled with water, neither giving way to the other. Every time Draco would throw a ball of water at Ginny she would counter it with fire and it would dissolve in midair. It seemed sudden, almost an instinct for the two to begin firing with as much power as they could muster. While Draco tossed another water sphere at Ginny the flame goddess threw both her hands up palms outward. Without any warning Draco was engulfed with flames on all sides and Hermione's mouth gaped open in horror. She almost stepped forward but Ron held her back.

"Well, well." Ginny drawled in a very good Draco impression. "Looks like I win." She abruptly stopped the flames and lowered her hands smirking the entire time.

Draco glared at her while brushing an imaginary speck of dust off of his immaculate robes. "Yes indeed. But I promise you that it won't happen again."

"Aw, don't be upset just because you let your guard down." Ginny said with large puppy-dog eyes.

"I just didn't want to hurt you is all."

Ginny nearly snorted in her attempt to hold back her mirth. "I'm immortal darling."

"Alright then, let's go another round. I'll take you this time!"

"As much as I'd love to get into a battle of egos with you I think we'd best start to set up for the other part of our training. I didn't go through all the trouble of looking the information up without doing this on the only night of the month its possible. This ritual needs to happen!"

"Take a breath." He said out loud and then mumbled, "Gods I don't know why I bother with women."

"I have exceptional hearing you know and for your information you don't bother with women, you bother with a woman. And a bloody amazing one at that."

"You were worried about a battle of egos? Well there's no need seeing as yours takes up the entire room anyway."

"Yes, yes. Well let's get on with this then. I'm really looking forward to seeing what mine is."

"Yes me too. Especially since I'm sure mine's going to be much better than yours."

Ginny walked over to the table she had placed all of her books on and pulled out the one titled, "Discovering Your Animagus Form: A Guide to Beginners." She flipped to, what looked to Draco, a random page.

"Here it is. We just need to set up the candles in a large circle that can fit the both of us. We need to chant this incantation 5 times and then our forms should show up in front of us respectively."

"Sounds easy enough. I'll set up the candles." Draco smirked and threw up his palm, the candles situated themselves into a fairly large circle.

"You're such a show off. No one's here to witness your amazing abilities so behave." Ginny admonished.

"You're here aren't you?"

"Yes, but it's not very impressive to me because I can do the same exact thing."

Draco let out a pout, "Hanging out with you is really doing a lot of damage to my ego you know."

"Yes, tragic really darling." She drawled in an uncanny imitation of Draco. "But we need to get started on this and frankly with an ego as large as yours it would only get in the way. I just had to shrink it temporarily but don't worry I'll fix it for you later." She winked seductively at him and Draco let out a wolf-like grin.

"What are we waiting for then? Let's get this party started!"

Ginny let out a small scoff before nodding her agreement. All that was left for her to do was draw the symbol from the book in the middle of the circle of candles and then they could start the ritual. Moving into the circle, she got down onto her knees and used her wand to begin drawing the image. After a few minutes she stood back up and clapped her hands together as she surveyed her work.

"Perfect." She and Draco said at the same time.

Both of them moved to the center of the circle and sat with their backs touching together and their legs crossed Indian style.

"You know the incantation right Draco?"

"Are you kidding? Ever since you discovered that book you've been drilling it into my head. I'd have to be pretty stupid to forget it after all of that."

"I know, that's why I was asking." Ginny smirked. "All right, let's get started then."

"You're lucky I'm choosing to ignore that last statement." Draco commented dryly before he straightened his back and put his arms stretched out to either side, his and Ginny's palms touching. Seconds later they were chanting the incantation underneath their breaths, in perfect unison. Soon their chanting became shouts, the power dripping from every word. There was a flash of light and both of them flinched, their eyes snapping shut to avoid the almost ethereal light. After barely a moment had passed they opened their eyes and Ginny let out a shocked gasp. A tiger stood proudly staring back at her, then a small fairy like creature. As she watched different figures seemed to flitter before her eyes: a wolf, a dolphin, a hare, a hawk, and even a phoenix, a nundu and a griffon. Her eyes widened even more as she realized that she could turn into magical beings as well. Her head snapped around to look at Draco behind her and saw that the same exact thing was happening to him.

"That was amazing." She whispered in a voice filled with awe as the last of the animals disappeared. "Imagine the possibilities."

"Wow." Was all Draco managed to get out.

"Do you want to train a bit more or do you just want to call it a day?" The Gryffindor questioned softly.

"I think we should call it a day. After all, we've got a lot of studying to do in order to master this whole shape-shifting thing."

"Shape-shifting?"

"Yeah, we aren't just animagus Gin. After a while we'll be able to turn into any creature we want at will. Maybe after a while we'll even be able to change our own appearances while still in human form. But all of these things are to be worried about on another day. For tonight we should rest."