Chapter Ten: It all begins with detention

The rest of the holiday had gone smoothly enough. Ginevra and Draco had met at the Room of Requirement Christmas afternoon following lunch. If he had been surprised to see her there he didn't show it. She had nothing better to do as she really didn't feel like hanging out with her brother and gang, watching him play chess with Harry while 'Mi read.

They worked on the cabinet every day until classes began again. They were both frustrated with the absence of progress but Draco was relieved he didn't have to deal with it alone anymore. They still had yet to become friends, but they soon realized that if they left their personalities at the door they worked quite well together. They could even slip in a sly comment here or there without it disrupting their flow. Both were surprised to find themselves amused by the other's wit. Strangely enough, they shared a similar sense of humor and before too long the sly comments were aimed at absent parties rather than each other.

The last two weeks of holidays passed and the other students returned. The Great Hall once again had four tables and Draco and Ginevra were once again on oposite sides of the school. Potions fell on the first day back at classes and both were looking forward to making a scene. All Snape had asked was that they did not damage anything valuable, and as there was nothing valuable in his classroom, they had free reign.

They entered the classroom seperately as always and moved to opposite sides of the room as always. They had opted for pure loathing in this battle. There was time enough in the future to slip in references to things that had never happened betweened them. Class began smoothly enough. Snape slipped back to his office for a moment to "retrieve a parchment" and pandomoneum ensued.

Draco tossed a pea across the room and it landed expertly in her cauldron. Her face grew red and he marveled at her control. She flicked her wand and his cauldron tipped over, spilling the contents onto his robes. Pure fury spread its way across his face and she was impressed. He flicked his wand and her potion exploded, covering everyone at her table. She slowly turned toward him, pale as a ghost, shaking with fury, well, silent laughter, but it looked the same.

"What?" Draco used his most infuriating mocking tone of voice. "The little weasel can't keep her potion in her cauldron?" Hermione tried to say something but failed as Ginevra began to scream. No words, just screaming.

"YOU THINK YOU ARE SO, SO, SO PERFECT!" Snape reentered the classroom. Before she thought, Ginevra flicked her wand and the professor was stunned, unable to move his arms and therefore use his wand. "JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE RICH YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN US! OUR BLOOD IS JUST AS PURE AS YOURS YOU FREAK!" Ginevra threw a hex at Malfoy, who just dodged, causing Parkinson to get a face full of bat bogeys.

"You. dare. raise. your. wand. to. me!" Draco's voice was deathly calm. He sent a blast her way. She dodged. The ingredients cabinet doors shattered.

Ginevra raised her eyebrow. "And why not? It isn't like you can do anything to stop me." Her voice was perfectly calm, taunting even. She laughed. She threw a jelly legs curse at him. He didn't dodge. He fell to the floor as his legs failed to hold him. He didn't say anything. He just aimed his wand.

She didn't dodge either and found herself dancing across the room wildly. By this time Hermione had released Snape from the hex and he preformed the counter curses on Malfoy and Ginevra. He was glaring. He looked fit to kill. All three wanted to laugh hysterically, which, oddly enough, only reinforced the terrifying expressions they were wearing. Wait, Snape and Malfoy wanted to laugh hysterically? That brought them all back to the issue at hand.

"Fifty points from both houses."

"But sir..." Malfoy tried to interrupt.

"NO 'BUTS'! Fifty points from both houses and a month of detention for both of you. Starting tonight! Now leave! I want you out of my classroom now! Zeroes for today's assignment! OUT!" They stormily grabbed their things and looked like they were about to go at again when they reached the door at the same time but somehow managed to leave without causing more damage.

When they were safely away from the classroom they both burst out laughing. "That...was...fun!" Draco somehow managed to gasp out.

"Did...you...see...the...look...on...'Mi?" Ginevra could barely breath.

Draco had sunk to the ground. "Or... Parkinson when...she took that...bat bogey...hex you threw?"

Ginevra bent over double, finally catching her breath. "My brother will...probably try to...kill you later." She ended with a sigh and a giggle.

"Yeah." Draco sighed. "Potter looked like he was about to pass out!"

"Probably was." Ginevra had joined Draco on the floor. She lay on her back, enjoying the feel of the cool stones beneath her. "But 'Mi's face when I pointed out that Weasleys are pureblood was the best."

"Agreed." They sat in silence until movement could be heard around them. "Class must be almost out. Better move it," and they went their seperate ways.

"I don't know! I just snapped!" Ginevra was close to tears. The trio had pulled her aside in the common room and were interrogating her. Hermione had even skipped a class to do so. "He started it. I mean, he threw something into my cauldron so I tipped his and he exploded mine and then he spoke and I exploded."

"We got that part," Harry said wryly.

"I'm sorry, I really am." Ginevra was crying now. It was surprisingly easy for her do so on command. "I don't know what happened. I just couldn't take anymore. I've been trying so hard to ignore him all year. I guess all the anger I've been ignoring just, just..."

"Exploded?" Hermione finished for the poor girl before her. She had apparently forgotten the reference to blood purity at the appearance of Ginny's tears, either that or chalked it up to momentary insanity.

Ginevra just nodded. The trio looked at each other and they all nodded. They agreed she hadn't done anything wrong and it really was all Malfoy's fault for pushing her too far. Ginevra felt sick.

Ron spoke up. "Still, the look on Snape's face when you hexed him, Gin, that was priceless!" They all laughed at the memory, and life was back to normal, or so the trio thought.

Over the next two weeks, Ginevra allowed the trio to comiserate with her on the horrors of a month's detention with Snape. The first week she peppered with tales of Malfoy's unbelievably loathsome behavior. The second week she filled with tales of how utterly annoying the git was. The third week she began to say she didn't want to talk about it, she just wanted to get it over with and think about it as little as possible. Meanwhile, Draco was regailing his own house mates with his exploits in detention. The first week it was all about how pathetic Weasley was and how unbelievably unfair it was for Snape to make him stay in the same room with her. The second week consisted of how easy it was to get the thing ryled up. The third week he was tired of talking about. It was boring now. He wanted to just get it over with and be done with it. The detentions weren't that bad. They did their homework, played chess, and even helped Snape grade essays.

The fourth week they began stopping in the halls when they past each other and engaging in battles of the wit, playing their old name game, and trading clever insults. More than a few students noticed the lack of venom in their words. Some even began to wonder if they were flirting. Rumors started to spread. They denied them all, Draco with a smirk and Ginevra with a blush. He continued to marvell at how easy it was for her to control that which was involuntary in most.

"What's going on in those detentions of your!" Ron demanded, more than asked.

Ginevra looked almost frightened. "Wh...What do you mean?" Confusion was written across her face.

Ron rolled his eyes, Hermione sighed, and Harry shook his head. "I mean, why does half the school think you're flirting with the ferret!"

"I don't know!" Ginevra got indignant. "You tell me!"

"People see you flirting in the hall Gin," Harry sounded as though he honestly thought he being helpful.

She looked aghast. "Flirting! You think... Just because I defend myself when he insults us I'm flirting!"

"It's more the way you defend yourself." Hermione used an infuriatingly 'I know everything' tone.

"What? I don't let him get to me anymore!" Ginevra was getting angry. "After I blew up at him I decided he really wasn't worth it! After a month stuck with the pig in the same room every night I've learned how to face him! I don't ignore him anymore! That doesn't work! I just return what he dishes out! It isn't my fault people have nothing better to do with their time than imagine things that aren't there! You're my family! My friends! I expected you to be on my side! I guess I was wrong!" She burst into to tears and ran up to her room.

The trio exchanged guilty looks. "She's right." Harry broke the silence. "I mean, it's Malfoy. For all we know he started the rumors to embarass her."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Ron sounded tired, "did you see her face? She hates us."

"She has a reason to. We should have been defending her and instead we listen to the rumors. I'll go apologize to her, see if she'll come down and let you guys apologize as well."

Wonderful. Ginevra had been listening on the stairs. They found a way to blame Malfoy for this too? She was impressed, not to mention angry. They really were irrational. She ran up to her bed and hid in the covers. She was sniffling when Hermione got there.

Detention had worked. Half the school thought there was something between Draco and Ginevra and she had the trio just as clueless as ever.