A/N: don't own don't sue

The lyrics at the beginning are from 'I See You In A Different Light' by Jodeci

I'm very very sorry for my dreadfully late updates but I've had exams and now I've got to research Renaissance architecture for English Literature and Harry Potter (surprise surprise) for an English Language project and start a thousand word essay for Psychology so I've only just managed to squeeze in some writing time. Anyway thanks to all my lovely faithful reviewers all are answered at the end as usual, enjoy.

Chapter Seven – I See You In A Different Light

I see you in a different light
Candlelight
Moonlight
I see you in a different way
Through different eyes
And it's so nice
We were just friends
That's how it started
You told me your secrets
And I told you mine
You were always there
With a shoulder to lean on
Every time
Now something's changed
Nothing's the same
No, no
You're here beside me

And I see you in a different light
Candlelight
Moonlight
I see you in a different way
Through different eyes
And it's so nice
I see you like I've never seen you before
The way I wanna see you much more
Oh, tonight
Tonight
I see you in a different light

You are the one I
I'd always turn to
The one I could talk to, baby
The one I could trust
Who would ever dream
We would be here together
Making love
The sweetest surprise
Has come to my life
That you're here
Beside me

I see you in a different light
Candlight
Moonlight
I see you in a different way
Through different eyes
And it's so nice
I see you like I've never seen you before
The way I wanna see you much more
Oh tonight
Tonight
I see you in a different light

When did your kisses get so sweet, baby
And it's such a sweet surprise to me
To look into your eyes
And see you in a different light
In a different light
Candlight
Moonlight
I see you in a different way
In a different light
It's so nice
I see you like I've never seen you before
The way I wanna see you much more
Baby
Tonight

"You and Draco are spending a lot of time together."

Ginny froze with her hand halfway towards a rack of clothes before shrugging and continuing to rifle through the dresses.

"Malfoy? I suppose, is there something wrong with that?"

Keeping her gaze fixed on a rather ugly brown dress in front of her Ginny ignored the look she knew Vanessa had just sent her from her place on the other side of the rail.

"I guess not, I did always wonder about you two though."

The dress slowly dropped off the hanger Ginny was holding and drooped to the floor. Ginny quickly knelt down to hide her face as she scooped it up and shoved it haphazardly onto the hanger.

"Nothing to wonder about."

Chancing a glance up she found Vanessa watching her curiously over the rail and she hurriedly grabbed a handful of dresses and sauntered over to the dressing rooms to avoid her friend's questions. Ripping the curtain rather viciously along the rail she was rewarded by the whole lot collapsing in front of her. She quickly fixed it with a wave of her wand and set about trying on the dresses, all the while mumbling to herself about ridiculous notions appearing out of nothing in people's heads.

CRACK

Ginny fell backwards against the wooden side of the dressing room clutching her chest as Crystianna appeared in front of her and smoothed over the silk of her skirt as she surveyed Ginny in a pile on the floor gasping for breath coolly.

"You're on the floor."

If Ginny hadn't already noticed she made no inclination that she had heard now as she continued to gape at Crystianna.

"You're here…"

Crystianna raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow and nodded, something like amusement flickering in her cold eyes.

"You've been ignoring my letters." Ginny made a noise at the back of her throat but Crystianna ignored her and continued. "But never mind I haven't got long I just wanted to ensure you had entirely ruined me yet."

Ginny blushed, realising she was only in her French knickers, matching lace bra and a pair of battered old black Converse with a pile of expensive dresses in her lap.

"I'll make contact soon."

And she was gone as quickly as she appeared leaving Ginny staring at the other side of the dressing room before quickly getting to her feet and pulling on the first dress she could lay her hands on. Made of a heavy dark purple velvet material it plunged down at the back with a large slit from her right shoulder to her left hip showing off most of her navel and plenty of smooth freckled cleavage.

Spinning around in front of the mirror just outside her dressing room she glanced at Vanessa to see her opinion and found her chatting to her boyfriend and a tall blond-haired boy in a dark grey shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of low-slung black jeans held up by a heavy leather belt. She hurriedly darted back into the dressing room hoping they hadn't seen her and was already zipping up a charming turquoise dress which only had one strap and exposed her left shoulder when Vanessa ripped back the curtain.

"Gorgeous, now choose one quickly these two here are taking us to dinner."

For some reason Ginny found it impossible to meet Draco's eyes and she slid the curtain shut between them so she could change. Slipping into her jeans and black vest top she was pulling on her dark emerald green top with elbow length sleeves that fell off her shoulders when Vanessa once again pulled open the curtain and hauled her out, grabbing the dresses she marched off, calling over her shoulder which one Ginny wanted.

"The green one."

Ginny avoided Draco's eye as she followed Elijah and Vanessa long the racks of expensive clothes towards the check out desk. As they paused waiting for Vanessa to return the dresses to the rail Draco leaned in towards Ginny, his hand on her bare elbow and his nose pressing against her temple as his breath tickled her ear. Ginny shuddered, wishing she'd washed her hair that morning instead of taking an extra hour in bed and shoving it up in a sloppy bun.

"You looked better in the purple one."

Turning to look at him she found he had already marched over to Elijah and was dragging him out of the shop to wait for the girls while Vanessa gave her a knowing look.

"What did he say?"

Ginny shrugged and held the green and purple dresses up to the light. Resolutely ignoring Vanessa she shoved the green one back onto the rack and slung the purple one over her arm.

"I'm buying it because I like it."

Vanessa shrugged and gave her an innocent look as Ginny handed over the money for the dress and waited for it to be packed neatly into the box and given to her.

"Sure Crys keep telling yourself that." Ginny gave her a filthy look and grabbed the box from the cashier before practically running out of the shop.

Vanessa caught up with her as they reached the waiting boys across the road staring into the window of a Quidditch shop.

"You and I both know, Crystianna Marlow, that if his opinion meant nothing to you… you'd have bought both those dresses not just the one he'd chosen."

Elbowing her sharply in the ribs Ginny plastered a grin to her face as the boys spotted them and made their way through the crowds towards them.

"You know, you've been picking at that food for about half an hour; if you weren't sure it was dead before then it definitely is now darling."

Ginny jumped and looked up at Vanessa who was smirking at her over her own mostly empty plate as Ginny hastily dropped the fork she had been prodding at her food with half-heartedly all night.

"Not really hungry."

Vanessa raised an eyebrow at her and titled her head pointedly towards Draco; Ginny kicked her hard on the ankle under the table and shook her head. Vanessa sighed and placed her knife and fork together, dropping her napkin daintily onto her plate and placing her hand on Elijah's thigh.

"Well we're off, have fun kiddies."

Ginny shot Vanessa a poisonous look as she dragged a thoroughly disgruntled Elijah off as he eyed the remains of his food still on his plate. Ginny turned warily to look at Draco who was signalling a waiter to pay for their food. Once it was taken care of he turned to look at Ginny who was gulping down the rest of her wine and who had propped up her feet on the seat next to him.

"So what do you fancy doing?"

Ginny cocked her head to one side and studied him as a thought curled into her mind and she smirked, expecting him to hate it.

"How about we go into Muggle London and see a movie."

He studied her for a moment with a totally blank face before grinning and getting to his feet, downing the last of his drink and tugging on his jacket leaving a gaping Ginny staring after him as he made his way towards the door. Scrambling to her feet and grabbing her own jacket she darted after him and out of the front doors where he was standing in the rain besides a Muggle cab with the door open waiting for her.

"Come on then let's go see what's on."

Throughout the ride into the centre of Muggle London, where the Muggles that bustled backwards and forwards past the cab were mostly couples or young clubbers, Ginny kept her gaze fixed on the window, enraptured by everything Muggle. Draco found this highly amusing and proceeded to tease her mercilessly about it all the way into the cinema, while they purchased their tickets and popcorn ("How much! I sure hope there's large difference between Muggle money and our money!") and while they found their seats.

"Alright it's not that funny. And if you aren't interested in anything Muggle what about that stack of magazines your mother would definitely not like to see under your bed. I'm pretty sure they're Muggle."

Draco shot her a side-on glance but refrained from answering when the lights went down and the smattering of conversation around the room gradually faded. The adverts blazed onto the screen and Ginny wriggled down in her seat excitedly, propping her feet up on the headrest of the empty seat in front of her and munching happily on a handful of popcorn just that second stolen from the box in Draco's lap.

The film was some kind of sadistic horror/comedy and Ginny spent half the film cowering down with her knees up to her nose and the other half roaring with laughter while Draco watched the entire thing impassively, more interested in Ginny's reactions than the actual film.

When the demon things that were rampaging across the screen were seen up close for the first time Ginny let out a muffled shriek and leapt at Draco, burying her head in his shoulder and wrapping her arms around one of his until he determined it was safe for her to look.

"You picked this film on purpose."

Laughing at her as she once again buried her face in her hands to hide from the screen he shook his head and glanced at his watch, studying the screen for a moment he wondered idly how they had managed the special effects without any magic. It really was amazing how far behind wizards were to Muggles in relation to technology.

When the film eventually ended Ginny was curled into his shoulder with her hands clinging to his arm, which by the way was extremely numb by now, and one of her legs over his nearest knee. Releasing him she stretched and sat up instantly while he wriggled his numb fingers and winced at the pins and needles stabbing at his arm.

Ginny was already dissecting the storyline, characters and settings by the time he had begun to move out of his seat and he grunted and nodded his way through her speech all the way out of the cinema to hail a cab. By now Ginny was starving and sincerely regretting leaving all her food earlier, Draco seemed to pick up on this as he told the driver to stop off at somewhere good to eat.

He pulled up outside a greasy looking kebab shop and Draco was all set to tell him to move on but Ginny was already out of the cab and darting through the rain into the building. Draco stared after her curiously; Crystianna Marlow would never eat at a place like that, before shrugging and paying the driver and following her in.

"No I swear that was the chat up line; 'You know what penguins do when they're cold? They huddle. Wanna be penguins?'."

Draco threw his head back and laughed as Ginny took a sip of her Coca Cola from its polystyrene cup and took another huge mouthful of her kebab. Draco finally stopped laughing and shook his head, taking a bite of his own kebab and leaning back in his seat to watch Ginny. Her face was flushed from laughing and her eyes sparkled with mirth, something he was seeing less and less lately. She had a spot of chilli sauce on her chin and without thinking he reached out a lazy hand and wiped it away with his thumb. Ginny froze and stared at him with her fork piled high halfway to her mouth, she grinned at him and wiped the back of her hand across her mouth in case there was any more.

They finished their meal soon after that, the easy banter flowing between them back to normal now as they chattered the entire cab ride back to the school where they paid the driver and weaved their way rather unsteadily up to the front door. Draco walked Ginny to her room and she turned in the doorway with a mischievous look in her eye; having already performed a spell to clean her mouth and teeth after the kebab just in case she was feeling just tipsy enough to be able to blame the drink tomorrow if anything happened.

"I had a good time."

He grinned at her and leaned sideways against the doorframe as he watched her eyeing him nervously.

"Yeah me too."

His smile had faded now and he seemed to be deep in thought as he watched her, his eyes unmoving and fixed on her own so she couldn't break the contact even if she'd wanted to. It seemed to take an extraordinary amount of time for his lips to meet hers and when they finally touched electricity shot through every inch of her bringing her to life against him as one hand lazily dropped to her lower back to gently but firmly dig his fingers into her flesh and the other held them up against the doorframe.

Pulling away they stared at each other for a moment before Ginny took a hurried step back and, bidding him goodnight, slammed the door in his face. Somewhere among the flurry of emotions and thoughts that had cascaded down on her in the midst of their kiss a realisation had hit her like a forklift truck; he thought she was Crystianna. If anything could have been developing it would all be for her, not for Ginny.

Ginny didn't like to admit to herself how that actually made her feel so she buried it inside and shook away her confusion as she readied herself for bed. Studying herself in her mirror from every angle she tried to discern any differences between herself and Crystianna but there were none; they were exact replicas of each other at least superficially and Ginny collapsed into bed an hour later feeling miserable and thoroughly disheartened.

im no muggle – I'm afraid there isn't really any secret with the hidden stage, but there are plans for it in the future don't you worry. I'm terribly sorry for my late updates but I've had fourteen exams to revise and sit for so I was too mentally drained to write afterwards. But there's only two weeks left of college and then I get eight weeks off so expect more updates sooner. The alarm going off distracted everyone so they weren't noticed by their absence which is lucky for them

Chantal J – here's your update sorry for the long wait

MoonlightPrincess – you've gotta love ruining Draco's clothes, one it means there's more of him showing and two it pisses him off hehehe

Nickel – thanks very much I hope you enjoy it, I'm writing it at midnight watching Cliffhanger after trekking around town all day, now that's dedication for you! Computers are awful when they decide to die on you, I spent two hours on a Law essay and it crashed while saving it so I lost everything. Enjoy