Ginny looked up at Malfoy - he was so much taller than she was - and she smiled. He smiled back down at her, and they looked out across the lake. The peace would only last a second, though, because Ron just couldn't control himself anymore...
"Get your filthy rotten hands off my sister!" He screamed, as he emerged from his hiding spot, just yards away, wand at ready. This was the first visitor the two had ever seen at their spot, and they were startled beyond belief. They both jumped up and whipped out their wands, and instinctively Draco stepped in front of Ginny to protect her. This was not exactly what Ginny had expected, and before she even realized it was her brother who'd so lovingly interrputed, she gave Draco a look that simply said, 'What the heck did you do that for!' and put her wand at her side.
"What are you doing here!" Draco shouted, not noticing Ginny's look of death that was penetrating his back. Ron looked almost as surprised as Draco,
"What am I doing here! What are You doing here! And with MY SISTER! You stay away from her, Malfoy or I swear to God --"
"Will you both just shut up! Honestly, you'd think I was mute!" She stepped out into the clearing between the two enemies, and stared down her older brother. "What do you think you're doing here!"
"Looking out for you!" He replied, shocked as ever. "Ginny - do you know who that is!"
"No, Ron. Would you enlighten me?" she said sarcastically.
"That's...that's...That's Draco Malfoy! A Malfoy! A Death-Eating Malfoy! And he had his hands on you! He - you...what in the bloody hell were you thinking!" Ron was nearly screaming by the end of his rant. Ginny simply looked at him, obviously unimpressed.
"You're pathetic." Ron couldn't believe what was going on around him. What was happening to his younger sister? She didn't really believe Malfoy's 'I promise I'm good now' story...did she? "Ronald Weasley, are you even listening to me!"
"No." he looked past his sister, "If you ever touch her again, I swear I'll have your head." he spat.
"I'm really scared now, Weasley. You couldn't hurt me if you tried." Draco spat back.
Ginny, realizing this was the only way to get anyone to shut up and listen to her, hexed her brother's mouth shut. Draco laughed, but as soon as Ginny shot him a look of death, he stopped. Ginny slowly walked over to her overprotective older brother, seething.
"You may want to protect me, but if you haven't noticed, I'm sixteen years old. I can hex people better than anyone our age. I've fought with the Order just as many times as you have and I will not be treated as a child! I can handle myself. Especially around someone as harmless as Malfoy." She wasn't finished ranting at him, but she didn't know what else to say. So she walked over to another tree, screamed, and came back. "That's better. Now, you have two choices. Choice one, you nod and promise not to tell anyone where you were, that you found me, or what I was doing, and I'll lift the hex. Choice two, you shake your head 'no', and I just won't lift it." Obviously, there was only one choice. Ron knew she was right about one thing - she could hex someone into oblivion if she wanted, so he nodded. "Good choice." she simply said. She lifted the hex, and Ron could speak again...which he didn't hesitate to do.
"I know all that Ginny, but seriously - do you know what you're doing? What you're asking ME to do! I'm not leaving. I won't." Ginny rolled her eyes, she knew this would happen.
"Yes you will. You will leave right now because I haven't lectured Draco yet." For the first time, Draco's eyes widened, instead of the evil smirk that had been inhabiting his face while Ginny lectured her brother.
"Lecutre me! What did I do?"
"I'll talk to you later," she said, obviously mad at him.
"No." Ron interrupted again, "I'm not leaving you here alone, with him." Ron sneered.
"Yes. You will, and you are. Right. Now." Ginny walked over to her brother, took his arm and escorted him towards the castle. "If you do not leave right now I will tell everyone about your little incident a few weeks ago with Hermoine." his eyes widened in fear,
"You wouldn't..."
"You wanna bet? I can have an owl to Fred and George by dinner." They stared each other down, and finally Ginny broke it with a shove. As she pushed him towards the castle, he reluctantly left her. He looked back a few times, to see his sister re-enter the trees.
Ginny walked back to their tree, and glared at her new friend.
"What in the bloody world were you thinking? Being so mean to him, and shoving me behind you like a fragile object that needs your protection!" She wasn't too mad at him, but she had thought he was different than everyone else - thought he knew she could handle herself. That she WANTED to handle herself. "Well you listen up, Draco Malfoy, and you listen good. If you EVER do that EVER again, I will stop coming here, I will stop talking to you and you'll be lucky if any of them talk to you, too." He was shocked at her response, it rendered him speechless.
"Ginny, whoa...calm down!"
"No! I will not be told to calm down! I am NOT a child!" she screamed, "I thought you knew that!"
"I DO know that!" she stopped, and he took his chance to change the tone of the conversation. Much more calmly, he began "I do know that, Ginny. Take a breath, calm down. I know you're not a child. ...Believe me, I know. And I know you can take care of yourself, I've seen you hex enough people to know you don't need my protection. Please, I probably need yours." he was joking, but she was utterly confused.
"If you know all that, why would you shove me behind your back like that? When Ron showed up." she clarified.
"Ginny," he mused, "Can you honestly blame me?"
"Yes." he laughed, but she was not amused.
"Seriously, you need to breathe. Is it such a crime to want to protect you?"
"Yes." Still not amused, Draco moved on.
"Look, I'm sorry, ok? I won't ever want to protect you or keep you safe ever again. Next time some bad thing comes along, I'll just let it happen to you, and once it does, I'll remind you of what you said here, today. That I should never - under any circumstances - protect you or keep you safe." It wasn't until the end of Draco's speech that Ginny realized how silly she had sounded. Her face dropped, and she looked at her feet.
"I have plenty of people who want to protect me, I just want someone to trust me to do the right thing. Is that so bad? I can do it, I know I can. I just need a chance." She was on the verge of tears, and Draco felt bad for her. He scooped her up into a hug, and just held her for a moment.
"I know you can do it. You're one of the toughest girls I know. Its just that we all care about you so much, we...well, I guess just get carried away." He smiled at her, and she looked up at him, for the first time she really saw something in his eyes. They were deep and almost grey - she could see real care in them. He noticed her day-dreamy expression, "You're not going to do something crazy like kiss me now, are you? I can't be caught kissing a Weasley." he said mockingly.
"Now why would I do something as stupid as that. I'd have to go brush my teeth for an hour, and I don't have that kind of time." she stated, and he looked mildly offended. They laughed and started back towards the castle, his arm still around her waist. When they got back to the gates, they parted.
A few days passed, and Ginny and Draco hadn't met up since the incident with Ron. Ron hadn't spoken to Ginny about it, and Ginny wasn't about to bring it up. She had told Hermoine, who was none too happy about her threat to Ron, but had gotten over it quickly. The days passed, but Ginny and Draco couldn't stop thinking about that morning - she had almost kissed him, and him, her. Ginny decided to make sure everything was ok, so she sent him an owl that night.
Hey, just me. I know you probably shouldn't be seen with a blood traitor and all, and I know you're not happy with me about the other day, but I didn't mean to be so...well...mean. I'm sorry - meet me at the tree again, sometime, ok?
She was hoping for a reply that night, but none came. Little did she know what Draco was up to. He had never known penning a reply could be so difficult. He'd begun a reply in his head, but he couldn't decide what he wanted to say, so the next morning at breakfast, he caught her worried glance, and smiled warmly at her. After a few minutes, he caught her glance again, and looked at her as he got up and walked out, an action she took to imply he wanted her to follow. So she excused herself, and made her way to the tree they'd met at so many times before.
"Draco?" she asked to the air, she didn't see him come up behind her, but she felt him touch her arm, turn her around, and bring her into a deep kiss.