Guys...........sniff....I can only apologize...please don't be mad....... I HATE this chapter. You will understand more once you read it. I feel so dirty. I hated writing it. I feel bad. I'll let you into a secret. It WAS going to be worse..but...sniff...I just could do it. Not to Draco and Ginny. They have been through too much.

Any way!!!!! Its ok!!! Nothing toooooooo bad happens!!!! I hopes you all like!!! Thanks for the reviews!! Take care me luvlys!!!!!! Bixxx

Disclaimer!!! I don't own anything!!!

It was the first day back after the Christmas holidays. Draco wasn't feeling up to lessons after his trip away from school, so when his dorm mates had asked him why he wasn't getting ready for school, he simply told them to "Bugger off"

It was Monday, the start of a long week ahead, and also, double potions.

The Gryffindors headed down to the Dungeons after breakfast towards their first potions lesson.

"Why o why do we have to have potions first thing back after Christmas." Ron was caught up in his favorite past time- Complaining. "And DOUBLE potions no less!"

Hermione, who was walking next to him, took his hand. "Oh Ron, do stop complaining. In a few months time you'll be able to Graduate and you'll never have to suffer another potions lesson again."

Ron signed heavily. "Oh...thank God"

Harry, who was walking on the other side of Ron laughed. "Well, atleast you can guarantee you won't be paired with MALFOY. Snape leaves that privilege to me" The three of them laughed together.

As the threesome rounded the corner to get to their lesson before Snape deducted house points from them for being late, Harry bumped into something, or someone.

The person he hit, a girl, was thrown to the floor.

Harry was immediately at her side. "Oh I'm so sorry" Harry couldn't see the girls face; it was covered with her mahogany coloured hair. Beautiful hair. Harry thought.

Harry reached out a hand to help her up. "Here, let me help."

The girl looked up and Harry gasped.

"Parkinson!"

"Potter. Walk much?" She asked, as she ignored his hand and got herself to her feet.

"You ran into me beast!" Was his retort.

Pansy brushed herself off. "Oh sure. Blame the innocent party. Bastard." She muttered the last bit under her breath, but Harry heard her.

"That's rich coming form you, bitch."

Pansy gasped. "Fuck off Golden boy, get back to saving the world and leave me the fuck alone."

Harry was ready, with a sarcastic comment on the end of his tongue, just waiting to be said....but he felt a hand on his arm and turned round to see Hermione's pleading eyes, saying.... 'Please don't start a fight with her.'

Harry smiled sympathetically back at her. He turned round back to Pansy, just to tell her he wasn't going to waste his breath on her, but...she was gone.

In the potions lab, Harry Ron and Hermione took up the empty seats at the back next to Seamus, Dean and Neville.

Harry looked around the lab. There was a group of Slytherins. The usual gang. Pansy, Tanya, Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise....but there was no Malfoy.

'Yes!' Harry mused. 'Maybe I wont be paired with him.' He looked back at the group, and noticed a pair of eyes on him. Blue eyes. Sparkling in the light of the torches on the walls. He then had a closer look at the face. It was Pansy. She was smirking at him. Harry just grunted in annoyance and looked anywhere but at her. As it was, he was sat at the end of the row, and Hermione and Ron- who were sat next to him- were well engrossed in each other. So Harry had no one to talk to. Pansy had noticed this, and started to laugh.

'Poor ickle Hawwy' she thought to herself. 'He has no one to talk to' and she laughed again.

Harry just gritted his teeth and tried to ignore her. But he couldn't. Having no one to talk to limited his things to do, so he just sat and watched her until her giggles subsided.

Suddenly, a thought crept into his mind. 'She's pretty when she laughs' This thought accupied his mind for a while......be fore he realized who he was actually thinking ABOUT. He mentally gagged. 'OH MY GOD'

It wasn't long before Snape entered the room and called for silence. As usual he told every one that they would be working in pairs. Big surprise.

He began to call out the names of the people who would be working together.

"Crabbe...Granger...., Goyle.......Brown......, Zabini......Weasley.. ("DAMN" Ron cursed) .....McGrandals.......Finnigan........"

Harry sat in his seat, dreading it coming. He new it would. Because Malfoy wasn't here, he knew he would be partnered with her...with.....

"Parkinson......Potter......"

"Damn!!"

Pansy looked over at him and smirked. It was almost as if she WANTED to be partnered with him. Almost.

When Snape finished calling out the names of every one, and told them what they were going to be brewing-Veritaserum- every one got up and began to collect their ingredients.

Harry, reluctantly, said good bye to Ron and Hermione ("Good luck mate" Ron had said) and went to sit next to Pansy.

She didn't look up at him as he sat down, instead, she carried on with her slicing of her stewed newt.

He huffed as he set out his things.

"I didn't know I was that bad" Pansy said, still not looking at him.

"Oh trust me....you are" was Harry's sarcy reply.

Pansy dropped her things and looked at him. "Oh come on Potter, if we have to work together we may aswell get on"

Harry looked gob smacked. "Ok....."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I still hate you" She said, as she picked up her things and carried on.

"Well that's good to know" Harry replied, as he picked up a knife and some Squid brains.

The next half an hour went by smoothly. Neither party spoke to one another, which suited them both fine. They simply prepared their ingredients, until all was ready; then, they stood up to place them in the cauldron.

Harry grabbed the first thing he came to, and was about to throw it in, when Pansy grabbed his hand.

"You know, its not surprising you're so BAD at this subject Potter" She said, not in a sarcastic voice at all.

"Oh, and why is that?" Harry replied. He was genuinely interested in the answer.

"Well, you grab the first thing you see and just throw it into the potion. Don't you KNOW how to read? The instructions are right there" she pointed to the table where a piece of parchment lay.

"Oh....."

"Yes. So why don't you READ them" Pansy grabbed the parchment off the table and thrust it into Harry's hand.

Harry looked at them and noticed that the first thing on the list was 'Squid ink'. He then looked down at what he was holding. 'Frog eyes'

"Ah..."

"Yes. 'Ah'" Pansy mimicked Harry's voice. "Now if you don't mind. I don't want to fail this subject Potter, so please be more careful."

Harry saluted. "Yes sir"

Pansy just smirked at him and hit him playfully on the arm.

Finally, they managed to finish the potion, and Harry managed to get EVRYTHING in, in the correct order. Pansy was quite proud of him. He had actually LISTENED to her instructions. When ever Malfoy had been paired with him, she would only hear bad things about him. But she assumed that was because Malfoy was better at trying to drum things into people with is fist rather than by talking to someone. That was never the right way to get what you wanted.

Pansy began to clear everything off her table. Harry began to do the same.

"You know, we make a good team" Pansy piped up. She thought it would do Potter some good to hear that he actually wasn't THAT bad at potions when he listened to instructions.

Harry looked at her and smiled. Genuinely smiled. "Thanks. I guess we do....Pansy"

Pansy smiled at him. "Maybe we can do this again some time.....Harry"

Harry blushed. Yep, it was official. She was pretty when she did that.

Harry was so caught up in her that he nearly dropped the vile holding their potion onto the floor, before Pansy grabbed it.

"Tsk Tsk Potter, you need to be more careful." She teased.

Harry blushed again. "Sorry"

"S'ok" Pansy laughed as she walked over to Snapes desk to put the vile safely into a box where Harry couldn't knock it over.

She came back over, and, seeing that Harry was still blushing, decided to play with him.

While walking behind him to get back to her place at the table, she pinched his bum.

Harry jumped almost 3ft in the air and gasped. He quickly looked around to see if any one was looking. No one had seen it. He then looked back at Pansy, who was humming a tune to herself while she whipped down the table.

"Hey" Harry hissed. "What did you do that for?"

Pansy looked up at him. "Do what?" She feigned innocence.

"You....." Harry blushed as he looked around to make sure no one could hear him. "You pinched my bum"

"No I didn't." Pansy replied, calmly. It was all she could do not to burst out laughing at the outraged look on his face.

"Yes. You. Did" he stressed.

Pansy pretended to look annoyed. "Now come on Harry. Why would I do that? I don't even like you" Well that was a lie.

Harry was silently fuming. "But....you.....I felt...... ARGHHH!"

"Potter, reframe from making stupid animal noises in my class room." Snape drawled form his desk. "10 points form Gryffindor."

Harry was now hysterical. Fine. If that's how she wanted to play.

As Pansy sat down in her place after clearing away her things, Harry sat down next to her, scarily close. He then reached out a hand, and placed it on her thigh.

Pansy did a sort of hic up/ Gasp when she felt his hand on her bare thigh. She looked around the class room. Apart from the usual stares she got from Neville and Dean- she was sure they fancied her- no one else was looking at her.

She looked at Harry side ways. "What are you doing?" She hissed.

Harry tried not to laugh. "Why....me.....I'm not doing anything." Harry was now the one playing innocent. .

"Yes. You. Are. Take your hand away this instant you little perve" She hissed right in his ear.

"But I'm not DOING anything." Harry smiled innocently at her. As if to prove that he wasn't doing 'anything' he dragged his hand further up her thigh, moving her skirt out of the way as he did so, so his hand came to rest just below the joining of the legs to her hip.

Her eyes went comically wide. "Now you don't expect me to believe that's not you're filthy hand making its way up to my nether regions." She squeaked

Harry laughed. "I'll admit its me if you admit it was you who pinched my bum" he laughed silently.

"But...you.....argh fine...yes it was me, not will you get the hell OFF ME"

Harry laughed. "With pleasure my dear." And he did.

Pansy almost laughed. "You know, you should be a Slytherin."

Harry laughed too. "Yeah....I know!"

As it was, Harry and Pansy had finished their potion before everyone else, therefore once they were done clearing everything away, all they had to do was sit and wait for the rest of the class to finish aswell!

Harry was absentmindedly drumming his fingers on the table top, when he snuck a look at Pansy.

She was resting her chin on her hand, and staring off into space.

Harry smiled. She really WAS pretty. How he had never noticed this before he would never know. He just thanked his lucky stars that Hannah wasn't here to see him now. He was pretty sure that she would have hexed his eyebrows off if she caught him looking at another girl the way he was Pansy right now.

A thought suddenly popped into Harry's head as he sat watching Pansy. He casually cleared his throught to catch her attention. It worked. She almost jumped out of her daydream to look at him.

He smiled at her, before asking: "So...erm...Where's Malfoy?"

Pansy smirked at him before giving him an answer. "Why, he's off climbing mount Everest. He wanted to get it done before dinner so that he would have plenty of time to run the London Marathon before bed" She drawled sarcastically.

Harry stared at her. Mouth agape. Pansy just laughed and nudged him with her elbow.

"I'm joking you idiot." Harry shut his mouth and had the decency to look embarrassed. "He's off sick. Where did you think he was?" She laughed again.

Harry laughed too. "I was just wondering. It's not like him to miss a potions lesson. Especially one where he gets to be paired with and put me through hell, pointing out all the mistakes I am making just to piss me off."

Pansy laughed. "Yeah...he does enjoy that. But still. Every person is entitled to a day off school if they are ill. Even wizards."

Harry nodded. "Yeah I guess. Still, I spose he'll be back soon enough. And Snape will grant me my wish and pair me with him...AGAIN."

This time both Pansy and Harry laughed together.

"You know. Snapes not as bad as you think. Sure he hates Gryffindors but that's just because we are Slytherins and we are MEANT to. It'd be a different story if you were in Slytherin. He may actually LIKE you"

Harry feigned a heart attack. "You mean....that Severus Snape, evil Bastard of the Hogwarts faculty may actually have LIKED me at some stage. I never thought I'd see the day."

"And you never will" Pansy laughed. "Because you're not a Slytherin and he hates you because of it. Don't take it to heart though. He hates Ravenclaws and Hufflepuff too"

"Ow.....and here I was thinking it was just me he hated. Now I don't feel special" Harry whined. Pansy just laughed and accidentally kicked him under the table.

"Hey!" He almost yelled, and kicked her back.

"Ouch!" Pansy yelped.

"Potter!" Snape yelled form the head of the class. "Stop abusing Pansy. 20 points from Gryffindor"

Harry grumbled from his place and glared daggers at the back of Snapes head as he began to inspect Neville's potion.

Pansy tried to hide her giggles next to him.

Harry turned to her and glared daggers at her this time. "See I don't even need to give him a reason to deduct points from me" Harry grumbled.

"No but you did that time. You kicked me"

"Yeah coz you kicked me"

"I didn't mean to"

"What ever. I think we should stop arguing before I get into any more trouble."

They went back to sitting in silence. Harry drumming his fingers on the tabletop, and Pansy starring off into space again.

Again, it was Harry who broke the silence with another question.

"So what does this make us now?"

Pansy shook herself from her daydream and looked at him. She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well, here we are, having a civilized conversation, actually, we have been civil to each other all lesson. Are we just gonna go back to slagging each other off in the corridor again or does this change things between us?"

Pansy smiled sweetly at him. "I dunno Potter. Do you WANT things to change between us?"

Harry blushed ever so slightly.

"Well, I know that I kinda like you. I mean you're different from all the other Slytherins. I don't think I want to hate you any more."

"You don't think?"

"Well, yeah...I mean.....no I don't want to hate you. I actually think I may like you now. And maybe we could be friends." Harry continued to blush.

Pansy smiled at his innocence. "Ok Potter, you're on "

Harry looked up at her and grinned stupidly.

"Except." Pansy began to say. Harry's grin faltered slightly. "I think we should keep this between us. I don't think your house, OR mine are going to be too happy about our new found friendship do you?"

Harry nodded, the smile never leaving his face. "Yeah...I agree." He looked over at Ron, who was trying in vain to ignore the insults that Blaise was throwing at him. He then looked at Hermione, who looked extremely pissed off considering she was doing all the work while Crabbe sat at the desk picking dirt out from under his nails. He then turned back to Pansy. "Right. This is our little secret." He smirked.

Pansy smirked back. "Ok Potter, or should I say...Harry."

()

Draco had had a pretty crappy day! He finally decided on getting up at around midday however he wasn't keen on bumping into any one, so when he was sure that everyone would be in their lessons, he went down to the kitchens to grab some food.

While in the kitchens, he accidentally took his frustration out on several of the house elves, threatening to curse them or burn their little feet off if they dared to even LOOK at him. He felt bad afterwards but his anger took over and he had to get out of the castle.

Later he decided to take a walk down by the lake, where he ended up spending most of the afternoon, kicking stones into the lake pretending they were his fathers head, until the classes that were going on inside the castle were finished.

He debated going back to his dorm and see his friends, be he didn't have the strength to talk to them at this precise moment there fore at the last minute he took a turn and headed to the North Tower.

He entered the empty room and instantly felt a chill due to the open window. It relaxed him slightly as the cool breeze swept through his hair, and almost lifted the sickening feeling he was bearing and had been all day!

He walked over to one of the open windows and climbed out onto the balcony outside. He then leant against the railing and looked out over the grounds. As the wind picked up, he pulled the sleeves of his turtleneck further down his arms to keep him warm. He had chosen this particular turtle neck, to hide the ugly mark that was currently resided on his right arm.

It had been an awful couple of days that he had spent at the manor after his initiation. He wasn't allowed to return back to school- his fathers orders that he should rest after his ordeal. He had spent the majority of time in his room, and got the occasional visit from his mother or the house elves as they brought him food. He didn't see his father at all until the night before his return to Hogwarts, when he told him that he would see him soon at his first official Death Eater meeting, and to enjoy his next few months at school. Draco found the irony of the situation funny. His father had put him through that terrible ordeal, even put a Crucio on him, and he was now wishing him well and hoped that he had an enjoyable few months at school. As if that would ever happen. Now that he had been marked, he didn't want to even be around anyone any more. He didn't want anyone to find out that he had this big ugly mark on his arm.

Fortunately, on his return, he had been greeted by Pansy. Normally he would have told her to fuck off and leave him the hell alone, but it was different now. She knew what had been through, and could sympathize with him. She had told him that she hadn't told anyone else of what had happened, and he believed her.

The pair had then taken a walk down to the lake, where Draco had told her everything that had happened. Pansy was mortified.

So here he was now, feeling genuinely crap and at war with the world!

His thoughts suddenly strayed to other things. Things that consisted of a lock of red hair and went by the name of Ginny. He didn't want to see her. Or more importantly, he didn't want her to see him. He couldn't do it to her. If this is what his life was to be; if this was what he would live his life for now, he didn't want her to be a part of it. He had to finish it with her. For her own sake.

It didn't matter how he did it, he just wanted to get her out of his life. Draco felt awful, he was sure of his feelings for her, he was sure that he loved her, but he didn't want to hurt her, and he had come to terms with the fact that the only way to do that, was to stay as far away form her as possible.

As he was just debating weather or not he should return to the common room, he heard the door open behind him, and the awful cackle of a young girl. Upon re-entering the room, he noticed a mesh of white blond hair, the hair that belonged to Tanya McGrandals, as she was being trust up against the nearest wall by some 7th year Hufflepuff that Draco didn't know that name of.

The annoying giggle of Tanya sent his frustration levels souring sky high. He traipsed across the room and grabbed a hold of the scruff of robes that belonged to the 7th year Hufflepuff boy, and hauled him across the room so he went flying into one of the telescopes that was covered by a dust sheet.

The boy let out a yelp as the telescope crumpled and fell on top of him. Tanya, who was frantically trying to cover herself up, was trying to stop a blush from creeping in at being caught by none other than Draco, at it with some random Hufflepuff.

Draco turned to look at her, a mixture of annoyance and disgust on his face. He then turned back to the Hufflepuff boy, who was getting to his feet. Draco decided to help him along a bit, so he grabbed him by the upper arms, dragged him across the room and threw him out of the door and watched him tumble down the stairs.

He then, ignoring the cries coming from the boy as he fell uncomfortably down the stairs, slammed the door shut, and turned back around to face Tanya. She was trying to haul her skirt back down, and wrap her cloak around her at the same time.

Draco took in her current state. She had blood red lips that were slightly swollen from her previous actions, and he skirt was still half way up her thigh. Her hair was slightly wind swept as the breeze continued to sweep into the tower.

Draco couldn't stop was his body was doing, or how it was reacting. With out recognition, Draco was suddenly pinning Tanya against the wall, dropping wet kisses all over her neck and collar bone. Tanya moaned at the actions, as she was suddenly pressed even further into the wall and wrapped her legs around Draco's waist.

'This is it' Draco thought. 'Forget Ginny. She's in the past. This is the REAL Draco Malfoy.'

Draco pushed any thought of Ginny to the back of his mind as he reached in between the two bodies to unzip his trousers.

Tanya, who had processed what was going on, began to giggle. She felt Draco suddenly reach up under her skirt and grab a hold of her underwear, ripping it off and throwing it onto the floor behind him. He began to grunt as he viciously thrust Tanya further against the wall.

But suddenly, a thought crept into Draco's head. He didn't want it to. He willed it away, trying to think of ANYTHING but this particular thought. But it stayed put.

It was of Ginny. At Christmas. The last time he came up here, to the North Tower. It was when he gave her the ring. The look on her face. Like she would never be happy again unless she was with him.

Draco suddenly looked up into the face of Tanya. Except, he didn't see the giggly blond girl, but he saw Ginny. Her sweet innocent face. How would she feel if she knew what Draco was up to know? She would be hurt beyond words. This whole evening Draco had mulled over how he would never want to hurt Ginny, ever. But by doing this, he WAS hurting her.

Before anything happened, Draco took a step back, allowing Tanya to fall to the floor with a THUMP. She looked up at him. Confusion written all over her face. She arched an eyebrow, giving him a look that simply said: 'What was all that about?'

"I'm sorry" He stuttered as he edged towards the door, doing up the zip on his trousers as he went.

He threw the door open and managed to hear a cry of "Draco you get back here!" before he slammed it shut and practically flew down the stairs.

()

Pansy was out walking the corridors, doing her prefect duty, when she took a left turn and bumped into something that emerged from the library. What ever she hit, it was now lying in the middle of the floor, moaning.

She knelt down on the ground and realized that it was none other than...

"Potter!" She hissed. "I-I mean.....Harry?"

Harry looked up into her face, and was momentarily shocked to see her. She was wearing a baby blue T-shirt that complimented her eyes, as well as a pair of ¾ length jeans and a pair of trainers. It was odd for Harry. He had seen Pansy out of uniform many times before, but none of those times had ever made him lose his breathe as it was doing right now.

He steadily got to his feet and began to pick up the books that he had dropped.

Scouting around the corridor to make sure no one was looking, Pansy bent down to help him.

They then both stood up, Harry being a little taller than her maybe by a few inches. She then turned the books the right way up so she could read the title.

"Charms! Doing Professor Flitwicks essay I see" She commented, as she handed the books over to him.

Harry took them and nodded his thanks. "Yeah. It's a toughy. Hermione finished hers last week. I was going to get her to help me but she is no where to be found"

Pansy laughed. "Probably out snogging the face of Weasley no doubt"

Harry arched an eye brow. "Yeah....how did you kn-"

"Oh its SO obvious. You don't have to be in the same house as them to realize that they are going out. Christ they are probably at it every night the way they behave. You wouldn't know Harry, you're not a prefect, but a couldn't even count the amount of times I've caught them together after curfew on my fingers." Pansy almost grimaced as she said this. "I mean, talk about setting a bad example. I hope they don't act like that when THEY are on duty."

Harry laughed. "Yeah...its nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks that way. I mean I love them dearly, they are my best friends, and I'm glad they are together. God knows it took them long enough. But please, we don't need to witness it."

Pansy joined him laughing. "Here here!"

They were suddenly plunged into sudden silence. Harry becoming suddenly interested in a cobweb in the corner of the wall, and Pansy taking the time to inspect her feet.

A thought suddenly came to her. She looked up at the face staring at the cobweb above them. He looked so innocent, with his scruffy hair and glasses. It was a wonder that this boy was going to go on and save the wizarding world. Probably do great things. He stood a much better chance at a good life than she did. Still she pushed this thought aside, and began to talk.

"Are you still having trouble with your essay?"

Harry looked at her. "Huh?"

Pansy pointed at the Charms book. "Your essay. If you want...I can...h-help you" She finished as she began to blush.

Harry's heart skipped a beat. She was offering to help him. "Yes!" He almost yelled. He mentally kicked him self when he saw the smirk form on her face.

"Ok then, shall we....?" She indicated to the library.

"No!" Harry said, a little to hastily.

"Oh?" Pansy arched an eyebrow.

"Yeah...I mean...someone might see us. How about we find an empty class room somewhere?" He smiled.

"Yeah ok"

They began to walk in silence. Fortunately it was near curfew so the corridors were empty of students.

They got as far as the Transfigurations corridor and happened on an empty classroom. Harry pushed the door open and stood aside for Pansy to walk in. She smiled at him, and as she was about to enter stopped abruptly when she heard a loud CRASH coming from the next classroom!

Harry huffed beside her. "It's probably peeves." He sighed. He didn't really want peeves to disrupt his time with Pansy. As he was about to go and inspect, the door to the next classroom was thrown open and a raging Draco Malfoy stomped out.

Pansy's eyes went wide and she pushed Harry into the empty classroom before Draco saw him. She heard Harry cry as he landed on top of a desk, but ignored it as she made her way over to Draco who was heading down the corridor in the opposite direction.

"Draco...Draco wait up" She grabbed his arm from behind and swung him round to face her. She took in his disheveled hair and blood shot eyes. "Draco what-"

"I don't wanna talk about it!" Was all he said as he wrenched his arm free and marched off down the corridor.

There was nothing for it. Pansy had to go after him. She glanced back at the empty classroom and saw Harry emerged, rubbing his back side. She shot him a sympathetic glance, before taking off at top speed after Draco.

Harry sighed heavily. He so wanted to spend time with her. But it wasn't to be, so he turned in the opposite direction, and headed for Gryffindor Tower.

()

Pansy chased Draco all the way down to the Slytherin common room. Upon entering, Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle, who were talking away on the sofa, sat to attention and watched as Draco stomped up the stairs to his dorm with Pansy chasing him. He entered his dorm and slammed the door shut right in her face, casting several locking charms so she couldn't get in. She then went down to the common room, admitting defeat and she flopped down on one of the chairs next to Goyle.

"What was that all about?" Voiced Blaise.

"Huh... o I duuno....he's in one of his moods again" Pansy quickly lied.

Blaise opened his mouth to answer but was stopped when they heard the door to the common room open and in strolled a very disheveled looking Tanya.

Pansy took in her messy hair and swollen lips. She gasped. 'Oh No' she thought.

"Whoa! What happened to you?" Blaise almost laughed.

"Fuck off Blaise" Tanya yelled, as she made her way up to her dorm with out a second glance.

Pansy knew what had happened to her. And she now knew what Draco had been up this evening. She desperately needed to talk to him.