A/N: I'm sooooo sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. If it's any consolation, I've been really busy and not really had a chance. This is going up without my beta reading it, so if there are any mistakes, let me know! (She's on vacation for the holidays, but I wanted to get this up for all of you as soon as possible!) Thanks to everyone who reads this! (please review)
Love ya!
Yvonne

Disclaimer: All Harry Potter-ness belongs to J.K.Rowling. The only person who is mine is Sam.

Chapter 4

I was just finishing up my Charms essay when I felt like I was forgetting something. I checked to make sure that all of my homework was finished, and it was, including some that wasn't due for a few days. I got up to look out the window, an anonymous forgotten something still tugging at my sleeve.

I glanced out across the lake. The sun was just beginning to set and the reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows played across the lake. The trees in the Forbidden Forest were black silhouettes on the horizon and the scenery soothed my worries.

I had a lot on my mind, what with Draco, I mean, Malfoy, I mean… Honestly, I didn't know what to call him anymore. I settled on Draco, seeing as we were dating now.

I almost laughed at the thought. I, Ginny Weasley, was dating a Malfoy. The idea tickled me something awful, and a smile spread across my face. I opened up the bay window and felt the breeze blow across my face. I had the sudden urge to fly, and debated summoning my broomstick up and flying out the window. It was an amusing thought, and I realized that it was possible. The windows had no screens, and opened easily enough.

Had I been paying attention, I would have seen a black shape coming closer to my window at an alarming speed, but I was lost in thoughts. I didn't realize that something was coming at me until it was almost on top of me. Something, or rather someone, pulled up on a broomstick, right outside the window, surprising me out of my thoughts.

It was Draco.

"Want to go for a spin? It's a great day for a fly, and it'll be dark soon." I heard him say, the usual drawl absent from his voice.

"You read my mind…" I started to say, then realized it was entirely possible that he had. It was possible, even probable, that he was an accomplished Legilimens.

I climbed slowly over the window seat and to the window. He held his hand out for me to steady myself on and I looked in his eyes. This was going to be difficult.

"I've got you…" I heard him whisper into the wind, still holding my gaze. Did I trust him enough? Could this just be a ploy to get me killed? I didn't think so, and I readied myself for my enormous leap of faith. I grabbed his hand and jumped to the broom, landing lightly behind him, and exhaled the breath I didn't realize I had been holding.

He kicked off from the side of the tower and I wrapped my hands around his waist instinctively. He was a great flyer, with the speed and agility gained from years of playing Quidditch and being a Seeker. We flew above the lake, and I watched with glee as our reflection slid over the calm water. I realized as I watched that we looked good together; we were a surprisingly cute couple. The thought gave me an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I unconsciously hugged him closer, soothing myself.

He flew us over the forest, getting so close to the treetops that when my feet first touched them, I laughed out of surprise. I turned around and looked at me and I saw a smile spread across his face. Not a smirk, but a true smile, reaching his eyes and lighting the gray up into a shining silver. I returned his grin before he turned back to face forward, slipping his hand into one of my own still wrapped around his stomach.

He doubled back and we landed softly on the far side of the lake. We got off of the broom and he leaned it up against an oak tree. I looked out across the lake at the castle, by now almost completely bathed in darkness. I felt his arms around my stomach for a moment, then the feeling disappeared. I flipped around quickly to see him climbing the oak tree. I ran over and scrambled up the tree to sit next to him on a massive branch.

"You're cold." He spoke to me. And I was; he must have noticed the gooseflesh covering my arms. I was after all only wearing a tee shirt and jeans, and it was October. He plucked a leaf off of the tree surrounding us and transfigured it into a blanket for me. He pulled me close to him with an arm around my shoulders and wrapped the blanket around us both.

We sat in the tree for a time, in a companionable silence, broken only by the sound of our breathing, the movement of the blanket, the wind in the trees, and birds chirping lightly. My head was on his shoulder, my eyes were almost closed, and I was falling asleep when he broke the silence.

"Why did you stand up for me today at lunch?" He spoke so softly, at first I thought that the wind was playing a trick on my ears.

"What do you mean?" I was shocked by his question. I hadn't honestly thought much about it, previously absorbed in my homework.

"Today, at lunch. Your brother came over and started screaming random mumbo-jumbo at me. You came over and started yelling at him. Why?" I wasn't sure if I trusted myself to answer.

"Er… I didn't want you two getting in a fight in front of the teachers…" I spoke quickly, naming the easiest reason that came to my mind. I didn't want to try to explain all of my emotions to him.

The truth was, I was insanely happy when we started dating. It was not only an excuse to make my brother and his friends angry, but it also let me know that maybe, just maybe, somebody, even if it wasn't Harry, cared about me, or could in the future. It just so happened that it was Draco Malfoy, an unlikely choice, I suppose, but it was someone. I knew that he was most likely using me just to get at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but at the moment I didn't really care.

"Oh," I thought I heard a twinge of resignation in his voice, as if… No Ginny! He couldn't possibly like you for any other reason than the fact that he can get to his enemies through you. I reprimanded myself, but I still felt my heart leap at the possibility. But it wasn't a possibility, I told myself. It couldn't happen…could it?

"You didn't meet me here after lunch today." I knew he wanted to ask why, so I told him.

"I know, I'm sorry. I was angry at Ron, and just had to get away. I honestly forgot, and just ran upstairs to do my homework…I'm sorry." I spoke with sincerity.

"You're turning into a positive miniature of Granger, you know that?" He laughed quietly.

"What do you mean?" I wasn't nearly as bad as she was, always harping on about grades, classes, homework, so on and so forth. And I certainly wouldn't steal my supposed friend's love of her life for my own sick and twisted happiness.

"Whenever I see you, you're always studying, or doing homework, or something like that…" He trailed off.

"I'm not nearly as bad as she is, I just do homework when I don't want to think about something. And I've had a lot that I don't want to think about recently." I spoke the truth, vaguely confiding in him.

"Oh, for me, I can't do homework when I have something else on my mind. I get distracted and irritable and grumpy…"

"And that is different from other times…?" I joked at him. He laughed with me and nodded his head.

"True, true." He had a real smile on his face when I glanced at him. He was staring across the grounds at something, or rather someone, getting closer. It took me a moment to realize it was Snape.

"Draco, we should get going, like, now…" I felt him start at his name. I supposed that I had surprised him out of his thoughts.

"My thoughts exactly." He summoned the broom, folded the blanket up and left it hanging on a branch of the tree. By then, it was dark enough that we could get out without getting caught, or so we hoped. We both slipped onto the broom, and he kicked off lightly from the tree, doing his best not to shake it. He flew quickly to my still-open window, and in a reverse of our previous jump, helped me into the room.

"Thanks, for everything." I looked at his eyes, still the shining silver they had become when he first smiled at me.

"Anything for you, Gin." He leaned in for a quick kiss, and flew off. I stood there for a moment, surprised by the other side of Draco Malfoy I had never known before, with a silly little grin on my face, before one of roommates came in.

"Hey, Gin! It's almost time for dinner, you coming or what?" My closest friend in my year, Sam, called for me.

"Oh, right! Yea, I'll be there in a sec. You go on ahead. I'll catch you up." She glanced at my face and slowly agreed.

"Oy, Gin, why's the window open? It's positively frigid out there!"

"Oh, just, err…wanted a bit of fresh air. The room was getting a bit stuffy, don't you think?" I smiled and slammed the window shut.

"Oh, err…right…I'll see you at dinner." And with that she walked out the door. I quickly ran to my bed, pulled the hangings around me, grabbed a pillow and shrieked with happiness into it. With that out of my system, I quickly replaced the pillow, opened my hangings and practically skipped down to the Great Hall.