Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters.

-Chapter 5-

Two minutes had passed.

Draco and Ginny were still staring at each other, each only having blinked once. Their eyes literally burned with the growing dryness. Ginny's eyes finally twitched and that was all it took for a grin to spread across Draco's face.

"Hah, You lose," said Draco triumphantly, "now get the hell out."

Ginny snapped her head up to look Draco dead in the eye, her eyes glaring. She dashed forward and for what might have been the second time that week, Draco got shoved, and by the same girl no less!

Two pink spots made their way onto Draco's cheeks. He wasn't happy. He came to stand in front of her, his face mere inches from her.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you! Who do you think you are you unkempt savage!" Draco shouted in Ginny's face, making her hair swish back and forth from his breath.

Ginny pressed her lips into a thin line and an ugly shade of red made its way onto her face. She breathed deeply and then, once again, shoved Draco. She then moved away from him and walked over to where the lake stood.

"Just go away Malfoy," she growled out in a whisper. Her hands were clenched tightly at her side and she was shaking. Draco knew, with a small smirk, that he'd hit a nerve. He silently walked up behind her.

"So," Draco whispered, his breath tickling her ear. Ginny instantly froze. "A bit sensitive are we?" Draco stated, more than asked.

Ginny whirled around, forcing Draco take a few steps back.

"Go to hell Malfoy," Ginny spat, "you don't know anything! You don't even have a heart, you," she grinned, "bubbly bouncing ferret." Draco immediately darkened. His gray eyes become clouded and it looked as if there was a lightning storm within his eyes.

"Bitch," Draco hissed, taking a small threatening step forward. Ginny, who was at the edge of the lake, wobbled and tried to veer out of the way. Out of sheer reflex, Ginny latched onto Draco robes, pulling him back with her.

Draco panicked and instead of pushing her off, used the heels of his boots and pulled back. He tugged and twisted his body, as well as hers involuntarily. They both ended up falling onto ground, instead of into the lake. They laid there in a tangled heap, in what would be described as a stupefied shock.

Finally realizing what had just happened and the awkward position they were in, they quickly disentangled themselves and scrambled away from each other as if one had burned the other. Draco had dashed back up against the tree all the way to the right, leaning tiredly against it. Ginny had crawled to hers on the far right, breathing heavily.

'Ok, now, what the HELL just happened?' Ginny thought furiously, glancing at Draco out the corner of her eye. He was breathing heavily as well and kept his gaze on the water.

'Did Malfoy..just..save me from falling in? No, he didn't. He doesn't care for anyone other than himself, probably trying to save his robes from getting ripped. Bastard.' She silently brooded.

'What the fuck was that all about? Shit, did I just save the Weasley from falling in lake?' Draco shook his head lightly, 'No, no, no. I didn't. I was just worried I'd fall in myself and that brain-dead girl just..happened..to-hey, she grabbed onto me! She wanted me to go down with her. Grrr. Vengeful little redhead isn't she,' thought Draco, feeling positively infuriated.

Draco pushed himself off the tree and stalked over to where Ginny was. Seeing him come over, she stood up, sticking her chin in the air defiantly.

"Weasley," he spat her name out like it was poison, "you still didn't answer my question."

Ginny looked Draco directly in the eye, not daring to blink. "And what question was this?" She said sweetly. She could have sworn Draco's nostrils flared when she said this, but shrugged it off.

Draco was pissed. She was deliberately trying to provoke him.

'She's either very brave or incredibly stupid. Of course, I'll take the latter,' thought Draco.

"Hrm? Well? What is it?" Ginny asked, appearing to wait patiently for an answer. Draco growled at her and it made her jump.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Here," Draco demanded slowly. Ginny stared hard at him before saying, "If anything Malfoy, you should be the one explaining why you're here. I was here first and here's my proof!"

Ginny whirled around and pointed to the tree trunk where her initials were carved or rather, burnt into.

"I put my initials here in my first year, signifying that I have a right to be here, as it is my place of Solace. Besides the fact that you don't own anything of Hogwarts',' Ginny stated confidently.

Draco's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

'How the hell? There's just no way..' He turned his head away and then looked back to her, a determined look in his eyes.

"You think you're smart don't you Weasley? How do I know you didn't just put them there today?" Draco donned on a smug look on his face, which died once he saw the smile on Ginny's face.

Ginny took her finger and rubbed it along her initials. "As you can clearly see Malfoy, these marks are old, a few years old. It's obvious I used my wand to burn them in a long time ago and as you can see with your perfect vision, they are abnormally deep," Ginny said evenly and couldn't help grin at the look of disbelief on Draco's face.

"That's impossible," Draco murmured more to himself than her, but Ginny heard it nonetheless and raised her eyebrows.

"Bollocks!" Draco shouted and swiftly reached forward, grabbing Ginny's wrist. Ginny's eyes widened and he yanked her forward. She instinctively tried to pull her wrist out of Draco's death grip, but to no avail.

She gave up struggling with him as he was practically dragging her. She finally relented and decided to just walk with, rather than against him.

Draco stopped and almost dropped her hand when he didn't feel her pulling anymore. He glanced at her, but tugging on her wrist and guiding her wordlessly towards the tree on the far right.

They came to a stop, after an agonizingly long minute, which would have taken not even five seconds if Ginny hadn't struggled against him so strongly.

'Stupid bint,' Draco thought, rolling his eyes. He noticed Ginny was staring at him stupidly.

'Red hair, Vacant expressions…mixed with stupidity.' Draco motioned to the trunk of the tree in front of them with a slight nod of his head.

Ginny's jaw dropped and she took in a sharp breath.

On the trunk, were engraved the initials D.M. 'Oh no! This is impossible! What the hell?' Ginny thought frantically. She turned to gape at Draco, whose lips decidedly curled up into a standard 'I-told-you-so' grin.

Ginny's hand itched with the biggest urge to slap that grin off his face.

'I've never in my life met someone who could look so arrogant and smug. I swear he practices every morning in the mirror,' thought Ginny and grumbled silently to herself.

Draco brushed his fingernails on his robes casually, "So Weasley, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Ginny hmph'd, "When did you first put them in? Today I suspect," and leaned forward to examine the trunk, "or maybe not, these don't look fresh. So tell me Malfoy, when?" She waggled her eyebrows at him and copied his grin.

Draco openly seethed.

Draco glanced at the trunk and said quickly, "Why, my first year of course. You know, a year before you," he said stiffly and that was all Ginny needed to know that he was lying.

"Liar," she hissed. "You responded way to quickly and you look like a tree yourself, so it's obvious that.. you.. are..lying," Ginny said, killing off the urge to spell it out for him.

When he didn't immediately respond, verbally, she knew she was right. His charming display of his middle finger didn't exactly hold anything back either.

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him, "You can't even admit it, can you?" Ginny threw up her hands in exasperation, "No, of course not, not a Malfoy. Bloody hell, if anything, the Malfoy's are going down in history for being the biggest pompous arses this side of whatever!"

Draco glared daggers at her, his apples of his cheeks flushed red, and not from the cold.

"You are infinitely lucky that I was raised not to strike females," Draco shot; he acted as if she should be grateful that he didn't hit girls.

'Jerk,' thought Ginny. He wasn't finished as his voice suddenly became dangerously low, "Even muggle-loving filth like you."

Now, Ginny may have not given in to her hand's itchy urge before, but she was in no way going to not give in this time.

SMACK.

Draco stumbled back a few feet, clutching his cheek.

'Serves you right you bastard,' thought Ginny.

Draco looked as if he wanted to forget what he had just said about not hitting girls and take a whack at her, anything. What bugged him the most was the fact that he couldn't threaten her or hex her. It was too early in the year to get into trouble, especially since he was Head Boy.

"I could get you in trouble for that Weasley," Draco hissed menacingly. Ginny shrugged, not caring in the least.

"Go right ahead Malfoy, it was damn well worth it. Especially the look on your face…priceless. Bet no girl has hit you since your 3rd year, when Hermione got her chance to lay a nice one on you."

Ginny giggled and Draco scowled.

'I swear this bloody Head Boy business is making it real hard for me to abstain from hexing her into oblivion. I can't harm her, well for now anyway, or hex her. So what can I do?" Draco furrowed his brows in deep thought, thinking it over.

Ginny raised an eyebrow and peered at him. 'I wonder what he's thinking about. Probably trying to find a loop whole so he can hex me. Too bad there aren't any unless he erases my memory.'

Ginny grinned and began whistling a tune from the Weird Sisters.

Draco's features brightened considerably, which went unnoticed to the whistling Weasley. He had figured out a way in which he could not, A) Physically or mentally harm her, 'Unless she's as weak as I thought she would be,' and B) Hex her.

Draco rubbed his hands together, grinning mischievously.

'Oh she's going to get a kick out of this. Haha, Draco, you are a genius!' Draco acted fast. He grabbed Ginny's sides, making her yelp and squirm. He pulled her back, turned and shoved with all his might.

Ginny instantly damned herself for being so bloody light as she practically flew towards the lake.

Ginny hit the water with a resounding SPLASH and was instantly submerged within the dark blue depths of the lake. Ginny kicked up to the surface, flailing her arms about her. She swam to the edge and scrambled out, looking very much put out and livid.

'I can't believe he just did that.'

Draco was desperately trying to keep a straight face, for fear he might collapse into hysterically laughing lump on the ground if he didn't.

He clutched his stomach and stood absolutely still, occasionally taking deep breathes. 'Hold it, hold it, hold it!'

Ginny stood there for a moment, slowly counting to ten in her head. She was completely red despite how cold she was and angry beyond comprehension.

She was soaked from head to toe, her uniform sticking to her in a provocative way and her robes were weighing down on her shoulders greatly. Her hair was also sticking out in various directions and all it took was look glance at Draco to make him lose his reserve completely.

Draco burst out laughing, falling to his knees in a fit of uncontrollable snickers and chuckles. His eyes were filled with mirth and were twinkling brightly. Try as he might to smother it with hands, only managed to fuel it. His whole face was a light shade of pink and his cheeks were red.

And all Ginny could do was gawk at him. And all thoughts of screwing her no-detention-on-first-day-rule to hex Malfoy into oblivion, went poof.

She honestly didn't know what to make of this outcome. She had never, ever, ever seen Draco, or a Malfoy for that matter, laugh so freely.

It was..weird.

She didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but she didn't want to know.

Or did she?

Ginny had finally decided, with great difficulty, especially with Mr. Giggles behind her, that it wasn't worth getting worked up all over again. She also didn't think he was going to stop anytime soon. Although the volume of it had lowered considerably.

She'd definitely have to remember this.

'The day a Malfoy actually laughed. Maybe there's more to them then meets the eyes.'

Ginny shot Draco a quick glance, 'then again, maybe not.' And with that, Ginny began to trudge back up towards the castle, the soft chuckling sounds of a certain Malfoy lingering within her mind and ears.

Author's Note: My GoD, I ran into several blocks in my BRAIN when it came to writing this fic. I wasn't sure if I should have had them both fall into the lake the first time or just keep them falling on the ground. A lot of other stuff too, but it's not that important. Again, thanks for the support and all the reviews, they're great and they're what keep me going! Thanks a bunch!

– I also left these review responses, just for the hell of it ) -

Morena Evensong: Yes there is actually going to be a story behind the initials on the tree..for both of them. I think it'll be a real treat, then again, it's not up to me now is it? Hehe. I really was trying to be flexible in terms of how these characters viewed each other. As well as TRYING to keep 'em IC. Although I think they are slowly slipping to OOC. Who knows..anyway, thanks for reviewing!