Chapter Three

Auditorium number seven fell silent and people shuffled into position when they noticed a

middle-aged Ministry official step up to the podium.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tomi and we all know why we are here today," Tomi addressed the audience. He paused for effect and continued "to sort out who is to be partnered with who."

Tomi waited for silence and went on to say "in a few seconds, in your open palm you will receive a piece of parchment with a number. Your partner will be the opposite sex to you and will have the same number, after that could you please proceed to make your way to the number on the side of this hall."

As Tomi waved his wand in an arch and complicatedly flicked it in the air, rows of numbers magically appeared on the walls. At that very moment, a piece of parchment appeared in Ginny and Draco's palm.

162.

Ginny quickly looked across to Colin and was shocked. His number was 163.

"No way! Your joking right? I thought Alvin sorted this out?" said Ginny quickly, rooted to the spot.

"Fuck. Looks like we won't be partners," replied Colin sadly.

Ginny could have cried.

Yet she somehow held it in and gave Colin a big hug and murmured "yeah, well I'll see you after this at the main halls and we can go back to The Burrow together."

"Yeah that'd be good. See you soon," replied Colin and then they both departed looking for their designated number.

Draco shuffled through the crowd after a hasty farewell to Harry. Harry had been assigned the number 125 and was excited about who he would be partnered with.

Draco's breath caught as he saw Ginny standing next to the number 162 looking pretty but sad. Heheh pretty sad. Draco fought down the urge to laugh. She looked upset and moody but Draco kept walking forward.

Ginny noted Draco stepping towards her general direction but started to be slightly disturbed when she realized that all the people in her area except for her had already met their partner.

This could only mean one thing. Draco Malfoy was her partner for the next Merlin knows how long.

"Hello, we meet again Ginny," said Draco in a soft voice.

Ginny couldn't speak, she felt like something was fighting to get up through her throat but was too big and got stuck.

"Ginny, are you okay? Your face is going red," asked Draco in a concerned voice.

Ginny emitted a high pitched scream and everybody looked around in alarm. She couldn't stand being next to him being all smarmy and friendly so she ran, ran away straight out of auditorium number seven kept running into the Ministry's lush courtyard.

She held her head in her hands and muttered "this cannot be happening, this cannot be happening," over and over in her head, as if by repeating this mantra over and over it really could not be happening. But no such thing would happen.

"Ginny? Ginny are you alright?" came the hesitant voice from beside her.

Ginny looked up with wild eyes to the relief of saying Colin standing next to her with a concerned expression on his face.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE I GOT PARTNERED WITH THAT BASTARD FOR FUCK KNOW'S HOW LONG!" screamed Ginny, now going into hysterics.

After some more incoherent screaming Colin grabbed her by the shoulders and hugged her tightly and it was all she needed to calm down.

"C'mon Ginny, you can do this. Malfoy could not have fooled the Ministry, I know you'll hate me for this but I trust him," murmured Colin into Ginny's red hair.

Ginny broke away with watery eyes and simply said "well I don't."

Colin sighed and said "that's okay, you can be entitled to your own opinions but you are now considered an Auror, you will have to deal with it, like how Malfoy is dealing with it with you."

"Yeah okay, okay. Let's just go home eh? I could do with some of mum's cooking."

"Mmm sounds great! I love your mums cooking."

The two friends laughed, the tension in the air gone, but not the pressure throbbing in Ginny's brain.

'Wow, that girl can scream!' thought Draco, rubbing his ears. He saw Harry striding towards him and before he could say anything, Draco defended himself by saying "I didn't do anything! I swear!"

"I know you didn't," Harry simply replied, amusement twinkling in his green eyes.

Draco started to get pissed off.

"It's not funny! Fuck it Harry, I have to work with that girl!" Though in Draco's mind he knew Ginny wasn't a girl anymore, far from it.

Harry just laughed and said "call it supernatural instincts, but I just get this feeling you two will work well together."

Draco just snorted.

"C'mon Drake, you have to help me pack up my crap in the dorm, it's got to be spotless by tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah, let's go."

But Draco wasn't thinking of the next few hours of helping Harry hunt for his dirty socks and underwear, it was on how he and Ginny would cope. Being stuck together in a dangerous forest hunting Voldemort down.

Woot woot, another chapter completed. I really do hope you like it so far. It's the first fanfiction I've come up with that has real plot :D More lyrics from songs to be included later on. ReViEw:P