Chapter 11

She put on a robe and grabbed a lamp slipping on her slippers. She ran down the spiral staircase and crawled out of the portrait hole. She went down a few more flights of stairs and into the library. She held up her lamp to find her way to the 'T' section. She ran down to the end of the aisle looking through the 'Ti's, but it wasn't there. "Darn it," Ginny cursed, loudly.

Just then she heard something crash. "W-who's there?" came an uneasy voice. Ginny stayed silent. A light came from around the corner. Then there stood Severus with his wand at hand. "Oh, sorry Whinny," he said, putting his wand away and rubbing the back of his forehead. "I just got a little scared," he said quickly. Ginny laughed a little.

"What are you doing here so late?" she asked him.

"Doing some studying," he said.

"Oh," she replied.

"Are you looking for something?" he asked. "I know my way around here very well."

"Oh, no. No thanks," she said quickly. "I was – er just leaving. "

"All right," he said. "Well I'll see you later."

Ginny turned on her heel and walked out. The book wasn't there. She didn't know what to do now. She'd have to get into the restricted section. She didn't know how she'd do it. She shook her head and decided to go back to the common room. When she got there she decided to sit in a chair by the fire.

She stayed there for a while, watching the flames.

"How's it going with Snape?"

Ginny jumped and saw James standing behind her. She rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said briefly. He brought up a chair next to her. She looked at him then looked away quickly. He stared at her. "What do you want?" she asked tiredly.

"I want you to go out with me," he said. She rolled her eyes once more.

"No."

"No one says no to James Potter," he said cockily.

"Well, there's a first time for everything," she said. He laughed.

"Snape's heart is made of ice. Do you really think you can 'melt' it away?" he laughed. Once more she rolled her eyes.

"James, I'm not in the mood for this," she said. He scooted his chair closer to her. She looked at him. Suddenly, nothing mattered to her anymore. She couldn't stop herself. She found herself leaning towards James. Their lips met and every single one of Ginny's cares disappeared. All accept one, James.

The next day, Ginny woke up with a pain in her heart. She couldn't do this. James needed to be with Lily. She liked James so much, but she knew that leaving was for the best. It pained her to leave James, but she just had to do it.

But once she found a way to get back. Until then, she thought, it wouldn't matter would it?

Ginny got up and made her way to the common room. James was sitting by the fire, where they had been last night. "Hey," he said as she took a seat in the chair next to him.

"Hi," she said smiling. "What are we gonna do today?" she asked smiling.

He smiled back at her. 'Well, actually Sirius and I have some stuff to do."

"Oh, yeah?" she asked. "Like what?"

"Business," he said. "We won't be gone long," he said. "Just a couple of hours." She looked curiously at him. "Oh, there's Sirius. I'll see you later babe," he said kissing her on the cheek. And he left her sitting in a chair by the fireplace.

"Ok," she said to herself. She decided she'd go for a walk and go look in the library again. The wind was chilly, outside. She took a seat on a frozen bench. She put a hand to her head thinking what she should do. That was the one thing nagging at the back of her brain.

How would she get back to her own time? Did she want to go back? Did she have to? She rubbed her hand on her forehead.

"Hey," came an icy voice sliding next to her. It was Lucius.

She looked at him. "Hi," she said quietly.

"You looked puzzled," he said.

She chuckled. "Just tired, I guess."

"I hate being tired," he said. She laughed. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing. That was just so… random," she said.

"Well I do. Because then all I want to do is sleep. And I think of all the things I can be doing instead of sleeping. Then thinking of that makes me not be able to sleep so in the end I'm just even more tired."

She laughed again. "O-okay." He laughed at himself.

"You know, to tell you the truth, I never thought a Gryffindor could be as cool as you," Lucius said. She looked at him, confused, wondering what she had said to please him. "I almost like you better than Narcissa…" he said letting his voice trail off. "But.." he said shrugging.

"But, what?" she asked.

"But she's good for me. Too good for me, but I guess I can't complain," he said.

"Yeah," Ginny said awkwardly.

They talked a little bit more. Ginny couldn't believe a Malfoy could be as down to earth as Lucius seemed. She figured something must have happened to him to make him become what he was now. But she kept her guard up… After all, he was still a Malfoy. She didn't say much, let him do most of the talking. She couldn't let herself feel anything. This is a Malfoy… she repeated to herself. He's a Malfoy. Think about James, she said to herself trying to look away from Lucius. Trying to push away all that she was feeling.

But in the end she couldn't.

"Well, shall we go in? It's getting cold," he finally suggeusted. Ginny nodded. She giggled as he held his arm out to her. She took it gently. He was warm, compared to her, cold in the icy breeze. He walked her to the Great Hall where they were to part.

"Well Miss Whinny," he said politely, "it was wonderful talking to you, this evening." He took her hand brought it to his lips, not taking his eyes off her. She smiled, blushing.

"It was wonderful talking to you, too," she smiled. He winked at her and turned on his heel, and walked in the opposite direction.

Ginny walked back to her dormitory, her heart pounding against her chest. She washed her face, and fell onto her bed, giving out a long moan of frustration.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. J.K. Rowling owns the characters, and I did not make up the plot. It's been done like a thousand times before.

A/N: Whoo. Long awaited chapter, huh? This story is getting a bit awkward, but I'm trying my best to keep it interesting, if any of you all are even reading it. Well, I hope you enjoyed that chapter, although it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. A bit short, as well. I will try and get another chapter up as soon as I can. Again, thank you so much to all my reviewers.