Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
As Ginny emerged from the portrait hole, she went down the first flight of stairs she came to. Even though the object of the game was to find everyone, She knew there was really only one person that she wanted to find.
Ignoring her rules, as she knew the others probably would, she headed down to the Great Hall.
When Ginny arrived at the Great Hall, the only sound she heard was the crackling of one fire that was still burning from dinner that evening.
As she walked along the house tables she peered under them, searching for anyone who might be hiding there. After she looked under all the tables, including the head table, she double checked the house tables as she headed for the door.
Ginny was a few feet away from the doors, she could hear something that sounded like footsteps in the Entrance Hall. She hurried over to the doors, turned the corner, and yelled, "Ah-ha! Found you!" But to her disappointment, it was not the person she wan planning on finding.
"Ah, Ms Weasley, I had no idea you were looking for me, but rest assured I am found." came the soft voice of their headmaster.
"Oh, Professor Dumbledore, I wasn't, I mean," she stumbled on words then decided on, "How are you?"
"I am doing quite well, thank you. But, I must ask, why are you still here talking to an old man like me, when clearly, you are seeking to find someone else?"
Ginny looked a bit confused, but Dumbledore just inclined his head and said with a soft voice, "I would go up the Astronomy Tower if I were you." Ginny seemed to understand what he was saying, he then added, "the stars should be breathtaking this evening, good night."
As Dumbledore walked away, down the corridor, Ginny thought for a moment, then ran for the Grand Staircase.
Meanwhile in a different part of the castle . . .
Ron was walking slowly down a dark corridor going over what had happened at the start of the game.
Flashback
As she turned, Ron saw the sweetest smile curl on her lips. She looked so innocent. But maybe not as innocent as Ron had thought.
End Flashback
Ron had been wandering about the castle aimlessly for a while now, wondering whether he should hide or maybe, just maybe he should be playing seeker.
In the library . . .
Hermione was sitting on a desk, she sighed and said to herself, "Come on Ron, it can't be that hard to put two and two together."
Though Hermione sat still, her eyes wandered the shelves that held the many books that reside at Hogwarts. She thought of all the books they had been assigned to read over the years, and wondered how many of them Ron had even touched. Hermione gave a small chuckle at the thought.
Meanwhile, Ginny was running down a corridor. She found her way to the stairs leading up to the Astronomy Tower. She started to climb the winding stairs, but when she came around a corner she collided with something, knocking her back, she stumbled but regained her footing. She pushed her hair away from her face to find that she hadn't collided with something, but someone. That someone was definitely not someone she had planned on running into, literally. But this someone was staring at her with piercing gray eyes, white-blonde hair covering them slightly.
A couple of floors below . . .
Ron was walking down yet another corridor. As he was walking, he realized where this hallway led to... the library. He made his way to the door, opened it, and found a book lying on the floor in front of him. He picked it up and saw the title; Hogwarts: A History. Ron knew this could mean only one thing: he had found Hermione. It seemed so simple, the library, of course that's where Hermione would hide, where else?
Ron wandered around the library in search of Hermione. He found a trail of books on the floor. He noticed each book was a book they had been assigned to read. Once he saw the table they were headed to, he realized there was someone laying on the table. That someone just happened to have bushy brown hair.
Back in the Astronomy Tower stairwell . . .
Everyone knew about how Draco and Pansy had broken up, and how Draco had been desperately trying to find someone else. The problem was, no one else would take him, and he didn't accept that very well. Everyone knew how controlling he could be and how forceful he could get. This is exactly why Ginny was not very exited about this little 'run-in'.
As Ginny stood up to her full height, which wasn't even tall enough for her to look him straight in his face, she ask, "What are you doing here? I thought you would have gone home for the holidays."
"If you must know, Weasley, I was supposed to stay with Pansy this Christmas." He was talking in a very quiet cool voice, none like Ginny had ever heard him use before. He continued, "I thought I'd come up here and have a look at the grounds, what's a little Gryffindor like you doing out at this time of night?"
"Nothing," Ginny said quietly, "just playing a little game."
"Hmm, you want to play a 'little game' with me?"
He bit his lip as he took a step closer to her. She looked around, taking a step back only to find the wall was right behind her.
He took another step towards her.
There was no way out, she could try to run away, but that wouldn't do any good, he would easily be able to out-run her.
He took another step. His eye began to fill with lust.
She tried to draw her wand, but he was too quick and shouted the disarming charm, Expelliamus.
Another step.
He was right in front of her now. Her back, up against the wall, cornered with no where to go.
She tried to move out of the way, it didn't work, he put his hands on the wall on either side of her.
She tried to push him away with her hands on his chest, bad idea. He took her wrists in each of his hands and gripped them tightly.
He now had her pinned up against the wall. An evil grin spread across his mouth as his face came nearer to hers.
She turned her head, only to have him start kissing her neck. He started at her jaw line, moving his lips down the side of her neck.
He found a spot on her collar bone he seemed to like. He began to suck and kiss that one spot.
She moaned, it was a moan of distress, but he mistook it for a moan of pleasure. He bit down on her neck, making her squeal.
She knew magic wasn't going to help her, so she did the only thing she could think of.
She lifted her knee and hit him where she knew it would count. He stumbled backward as Ginny tried to run down the stairs. He got up and came after her saying, "Well, if that's how you want to play, we'll play rough."
Ginny was almost at the bottom of the stairs, she could see the door that led to an open corridor. She could hear his footsteps behind her, she was so close, but then she felt a hand close around her wrist, pulling her back.
She was shoved against the wall and was sure she wouldn't be able to get away this time.
She closed her eyes, waiting for what she could only imagine was about to happen.
Nothing happened.
She opened her eyes slowly, only to see Malfoy up against the wall. It appeared as though someone was punching him, but there was no one there, unless.
Back in the Library . . .
As Ron walked toward Hermione, he could see she was sleeping. She must have gotten tired of waiting alone. He looked at her head, it was propped up on a book.
His eyes began to wander, her chest was moving slowly, up and down with deep breathing. She was wearing her school clothes, but her robe was draped over a chair.
One of her legs was straight, but the other was bent, revealing more leg than Ron had ever seen of her.
He stood next to her, and thought.
Should I wake her up, or should I just let her sleep?
He whispered a spell and all the books on the floor flew back to their right places on the shelves. He sat on the table, and looked around.
Just then, he felt a hand try to grab him around his waist. He jumped and fell off the table.
"Oh, Ron, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." came Hermione's voice from on top of the table.
Hermione peered over the edge of the table, and saw Ron sitting on the floor, rubbing his head.
"Ahh, bloody hell, Hermione."
Hermione hopped off the table and sat on the floor next to Ron.
"Oh, Ron, what happened?" Hermione asked.
"Well, lets see, I fell off the table and hit my head on that bloody chair!" Ron groaned as he pointed his finger at a wooden chair by the table.
"Is that all?" Hermione laughed.
Ron looked at her confused, "Why the bloody hell are you laughing?" He said still rubbing his head, "My head really hurts!"
"Oh come here, let me see." Hermione scooted closer to Ron, she put her hand on the spot where Ron's head had hit the chair.
At the first touch, Ron flinched and let out an, "Ow." Which Hermione replied to with, "Oh, don't be such a baby, now hold still."
She put one hand on the side of his neck to hold him still and with her other hand she started rubbing his head again. He leaned into the hand on his neck and uttered a soft, "mmm." sound which he quickly covered up with a fake cough.
Hermione pulled her hands away with a slight look of accomplishment on her face, and said, "There, now isn't that better?"
Ron rose his eyebrows and then said, "Yeah, I guess my head does feel better." Hermione smiled.
Ron turned to face Hermione, and asked, "Um, Hermione, earlier, -er, at the start of the game, when you, -er, smiled at me,"
Ron seemed hesitant to speak. Until he got started, then he was talking very fast.
"When you smiled at me did you mean anything by it? Because if you did you should really just be straight out with your signs, I mean I'm a guy and guys aren't always that great at reading signs that girls give and-"
"Ron."
"-Even if you didn't mean anything by it you should let me know, I mean first I asked you where you were hiding and you were all: 'If you really want to know you'll figure it out'-"
"Ron."
"And then I find a trail of books leading to you lying on a table and I have no idea what these signs mean or even if they are signs-"
"RON!"
"WHAT!"
"Is this sign clear enough for you?"
She put her hands on either side of his face, pulled him closer and their lips met.
All Ron could say after that was, "Well, I, um, yeah I would have to say that sign was pretty clear," He cleared his throat, "yeah."
"I thought so."
In the Astronomy Tower . . .
Ginny inched toward the place where Malfoy was on the floor. She reached out and felt the familiar silky fabric, she pulled away the invisibility cloak to reveal
A/N: CLIFFHANGER! Naw just kidding, ha ha ha, oh you should have seen the look on your face, but no really, here's the rest of the story.
"Neville?" Ginny was shocked. As was Malfoy.
"Longbottom!" Malfoy couldn't believe his eyes, he fumbled to his feet, then ran out into the corridor and fast as he could.
"Hi Ginny." Neville said, sounding a little unsure of himself, considering what he'd just done.
"Uh, hi Neville, um, wh-what are you doing here?" Ginny asked, "I thought you went to your gran's."
"Well, I was, but there was a last minute change of plans. My gran had to go to some kind of meeting, so she wouldn't be home for the first two weeks, she didn't want me at her house alone, so I got to stay here."
"Okay, so how did you get Harry's cloak?"
"Oh, I was in the boy's dorm when you all were down in the common room. Harry came up to the dorm and told my what you guys were doing and asked if I wanted to help him out."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, after I said I'd help, I put on the cloak and snuck out of the portrait whole behind Harry, it was my job to wait outside of the Astronomy Tower, and, oh yeah." Neville started running up the stairs, suddenly remembering something. "I was supposed to knock on the door if I saw you coming." He stopped at the door, raised his fist, then knocked.
A/N: Okay that's it, that's the end of this story. But, if you want to know what's gonna happen next you'll just have to wait for my sequel: "Seek and . . ." Please, Please, PLEASE, Review! ;- )