Disclaimer: I only own the plot

Detention

Draco ran a hand through his hair in frustration. It had been a few weeks since he had seen the Weasley girl on her Firebolt and he had just about convinced himself that he was being paranoid. After all, how could he possibly be writing someone from Hogwarts? His quill pal was supposed to either be from Beauxbatons or Durmstrang. This was what Draco had told himself, until he had gotten V's latest letter.

Dear D,

Argh! Potions is quickly becoming my least favorite subject. Professor Snape seems to be getting crankier as the year progresses! I honestly can't stand that man. He gave me detention for the dumbest reason! I was just . . .

There was no point in reading the rest of the letter. Draco had read it a dozen times already. What bothered him was that he was absolutely sure there were no other Professor Snapes teaching potions at either of the other schools. As far as he knew, Snape wasn't that common of a name. The only solution he could come up with was that his quill pal attended Hogwarts. And everything pointed to Ginny Weasley. Draco gulped. A Hogwarts quill pal he could handle, but if it was Ginny . . . that meant he had fallen for a Weasley!

Ginny sighed with relief as she finished labeling the last bottle of beetle eyes. Just because she had accidentally added fluxweed to her cauldron and caused the potion to explode, Professor Snape had given her detention. It wasn't her fault! It was Malfoy's! The prat had been on her mind ever since he had dragged her into that room. She couldn't stop wondering why he had wanted to know D's name.

Ginny's punishment had been to clean the potions room. She had not begrudged that duty seeing as it was her potion that had caused the mess, but on top of that Snape had made her re-label all the ingredients in his stores. She had arrived for her detention at six o'clock. It was now midnight.

"I'm finished professor," she said peeking into his office. Snape was at his desk correcting papers. No wonder he was so pale if he stayed up this late every night.

"Very well," he said not looking up, "get to your common room."

Ginny felt a rush of relief at being excused. For a moment she had been afraid he would tell her she had screwed up and needed to start over. With a yawn she began to walk to her common room. She was almost to Gryffindor tower when she heard voices ahead of her.Squinting her eyes in an attempt to see better she saw . . . nothing. According to her eyes the corridor was empty. Ginny shrugged her shoulders. I should be use to it by now in this castle. Hearing voices but not seeing the owners is probably a normal occurrence.

"Ginny?!" she heard a voice say.

"Ron?" Ginny asked. This was getting beyond weird.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione appeared out of thin air.

"What are you doing out of the common room?" Ron asked somewhat angrily.

"I should ask you the same question," Ginny shot back. That seemed to shut Ron up for a moment. "And for your information, not that it's your business, I just finished detention with Snape."

Ron opened his mouth to say something but was cut off be Hermione. "Just barely? What on earth did he have you do? Re-label all the potions ingredients?"

"That and clean the classroom," Ginny said smiling at Hermione's surprised face. Obviously she had meant it as a joke. "Ron, answer my question," Ginny said turning to her brother.

Ron cast a questioning glance at his two companions. "Well you see," he began slowly.

"Ginny, we can't tell you," Harry broke in. "You need to trust us. Just please don't tell anyone you saw us alright?" Without waiting for a reply, Harry threw what looked like a cloak over himself and his friends and they disappeared.

Probably going to fight You-Know-Who, she thought angrily, and of course they don't invite me. After all, it's not like I fought in the Department of Mysteries with them last year. Having now reached the portrait of the Fat Lady she spat out the password and crawled inside.

"Are you alright, Professor Snape?" Draco asked. He had come to the potion professor's office to find out if a certain Ginny Weasley had served detention. What he had found was a paler than usual Snape who looked on the verge of falling over.

"I'll be fine," Snape replied through a yawn, waving Draco away with his hand. But Draco wasn't about to give up that easily.

"Late night?"

Snape glanced at him impatiently before returning to whatever he had been doing when Draco walked in. Both were silent for a few moments. Snape looked up from his desk and seemed surprised to see Draco still there.

"Still here are you?" he snapped.

"Yes sir," Draco replied. Deciding that hinting around the topic would get him nowhere Draco plunged ahead. "I just wanted to know if you gave Ginny Weasley detention for making her potion explode."

Snape gave Draco a long glare before turning back to his work. "How, who, and why I punish students is no concern of your Mr. Malfoy. Now please leave my office before I take points from Slytherin."

Draco sighed and left. So much for that plan. Why did he want to know if it was the little weasel anyway? Did he want his quill pal to be her? Absolutely not! In this case ignorance was bliss. So why not remain ignorant? His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of the redheaded girl herself.

"Merlin Malfoy!" she exclaimed when he nearly knocked her over, "don't you ever watch where you're going? Or does that overly large nose interrupt your view?"

Draco absent-mindedly brought a hand to his nose. What did she mean overly large? As far as he knew it fit his face perfectly, or so he was told. Ginny's laughter brought him back to earth. He couldn't help but notice that it was a lovely, musical laugh. Stop thinking like that!

"And exactly what do you think you are laughing at Weasel?"

"The same thing I always laugh at when I'm around you, Malfoy," she replied after her giggles had died down, "I'll give you three guesses as to what, or should I say who, it is. And the first two don't count."

Draco glared at her. "Perhaps you laugh to hide your discomfort in being near such a powerful wizard."

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked looking truly confused, "Did you say powerful wizard? Well, I see a wizard, but I can't necessarily say he's powerful. After all, he hardly goes anywhere without his two lumps of fat. By the way, where are Crabbe and Goyle?" Ginny looked past him as though searching for someone.

"I had business to take care of that I couldn't very well have done with them around."

"Oh, a deatheater meeting?" Ginny said through a yawn.

Normally Malfoy would have hexed Ginny into oblivion for that comment but he was distracted by her yawn. It gave the perfect opening for what he wanted to ask her.

"Late night, Weasley?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes," she replied. Just then they were interrupted by her mudblood friend calling out to Ginny. "Well, I'd better go. It's been swell chatting with you, Malfoy." With a flip of her red hair, she walked past him and joined her friend.

"Ginny!" Chloe exclaimed upon seeing Ginny's face, "you look dead tired."

"That's because I am dead tired," Ginny replied through a yawn. Why did she have to keep yawning? Why? It made her eyes water and then she had to worry about her make-up. So this is why I waited so long to wear it. "Professor Snape had me in detention until midnight!" she told Chloe.

"Oh, that horrible man! What did he have you do?"

"I had to clean the mess from my fluxweed accident and re-label nearly everything in his stores. I would have been later but I didn't bother with any of the still legible labels. Luckily Professor Snape didn't check on my work." Ginny stopped as she realized that Malfoy was behind them. Turning, she glared at him.

"Sod off Malfoy!"

"Certainly," he said with a small smile before turning around. He left a very confused Ginny Weasley.

"That was odd," Ginny said aloud.

"What?" Chloe asked.

"Malfoy didn't even retort. He just left when I told him to."

"Maybe he's tired of getting insulted by you all the time," Chloe suggested.

"Hmm, you might be right," Ginny said although she highly doubted it. Malfoy was up to something, she was sure of it.

Draco sat in his common room sorting through all the letters he had ever gotten from V. After overhearing the little weasel's conversation with her friend he had come down here to write to V. He still needed to reply to her letter. After all, he wasn't completely sure it was Ginny, just mostly sure.

Dear V,

That's too bad about your detention. What did he make you do?

So the bully wanted my name, did he? Next time he bothers you tell him your quill pal will beat him up if he doesn't leave you alone.

I wish we knew each other in person so you could answer a question for me. It being: do I have an unsightly nose? The same girl who pulled her wand on me told me it is overly large today. Ah well, who cares what she thinks, right? So how are you? . . .

Ginny stared at the letter in her hand. This was definitely getting too weird. It was just too ironic that, not only had she pulled a wand on Malfoy on the same day or near the same day that her quill pal had gotten a wand pulled on him, but the same girl had told D that his nose was huge. Hadn't Ginny said the same thing to Malfoy? And wasn't Ginny the same girl who had hexed Malfoy in the Three Broomsticks? Stop thinking about this Ginny! It couldn't possibly be Malfoy. Didn't Dumbledore say the quill pals were from different schools? How could you possibly end up with someone from Hogwarts? These thoughts helped to dissuade Ginny's suspicion, however, in the back of her mind, she still wondered.