here we go again:

Ginny couldn't understand herself. She had always hated everything about Malfoy. Yet, here she was, getting all excited just touching him. Maybe it was just because he was a boy and boys have that effect on girls. Right? Right.

Draco didn't understand himself. He had asked her to help him, hadn't he? Why was he suddenly regretting his decision? It wasn't fair. He was getting worked up over a girl he didn't even like.

Valentine was not at all happy with Draco's public display of affection with the dumb Weasley girl. What was Ginny compared to herself? Ginny had dull brown eyes, nothing like the crystal blue of Valentine's. And, seeing how Ginny was only in sixth year, she was as flat as a washboard. Valentine had always been proud of her womanly figure, but it seemed that Draco wasn't taking any notice of these things.

Valentine decided that this crap wasn't going to happen if there was anything she could do about it.

Sunday was the only day of the week when absolutely everyone was doing homework. No one did it on Saturday, of course. After Ginny finished her own stack, she went out to sit by the lake and watch a few second-years play a silly muggle sport. It was hard to believe that she had for once finished all of her homework before it was time to go to Hogsmeade. It was only noon.

Hermione had told her that she would be out soon enough. Ginny hadn't been sitting at the lake for more than ten minutes when she heard someone sit down next to her.

"Hey Hermione," she said without tuning.

"Where?" said a voice that definitely didn't belong to Hermione.

Ginny jumped and turned. It was Draco.

"Oh, I thought you were Hermione," she admitted.

"I don't see the resemblance," Draco stated.

"Neither do I," agreed Ginny, "So what do you want?"

"Just to talk…" implied Draco.

"On that note, I was wondering how long we were to keep this dumb you-and-me thing going…"

"That's just what I came to talk about. I'm pretty sure I've got the girl, but just to avoid losing the jealousy effect, I think we should go to Hogsmeade together. If you don't mind terribly," He finished.

"No, it's fine, but I'm not sure how much more of this I'm going to put up with. So don't expect my help for too much longer."

Draco nodded.

"Well, I have to go take a shower," Ginny lied. She had taken a shower first thing this morning.

"Have fun," Draco called as she walked away.

As Ginny walked up the many staircases back to Gryffindor Tower, her mind kept wandering onto the subject of what she was going to wear. She thought she should wear something impressive. Maybe it would make Draco look better. That's what the whole thing was about, right? Making Draco look impressive so that some girl would admit that she liked him. That was totally the reason.

But what to wear? Something pretty or something sexy? Oh, did it really matter? No, Ginny supposed it didn't matter. Who was she trying to impress anyway?

Ginny decided on simply jeans and a shirt. Some part of her wanted to impress Draco for some reason, maybe just the whole he's a guy, she's a girl thing again, so the jeans and shirt were both tight and flattering. She spent ten minutes trying to get her hair into a perfect pony-tail, then took it out and spent even longer trying to put it in a pony-tail that didn't look like she had spent ten minutes making it perfect. She liked the way she looked with a few hairs falling from her pony-tail. It made her abnormally tight clothes look more casual, which gives the impression of being beautiful without putting actual effort into looking good.

Then came make-up. Or not. She spent a few minutes deciding to wear some but not enough to ruin the whole effortlessly beautiful thing. She looked pretty dang good, but something was missing. Of course! Jewelry!

She wore a thin silver chain around her neck and right wrist. In her ears she put small silver balls. Not enough to make people notice that she was wearing jewelry, but just the right amount to give a small scent of rebellious elegance.

Amazingly, all of this happened within an hour, so by the time it was one o' clock and time for the carriages to start their trips, she was ready to go. She slipped some plain whit flip-flops on and hurried down the long staircase.

Draco was standing alone among the people meeting their friends in the entrance hall. Ginny hesitated at the top of the small set of stairs across from the front doors. She got this strange feeling that if she were really his girlfriend, she would walk right up to him and give him a kiss of greeting. Should she do it? She wasn't sure.

She decided to wait until the very last second to decide. She confidently walked down the stairs and walked over to him. As she was walking, she noticed him looking at a girl named Valentine. She was the same girl who had harassed him after the small scene in the great hall. It suddenly dawned on her that she must be the girl he was interested in. She wasn't standing far away from him. The space between Ginny and Draco was diminishing rapidly.

Ginny wasn't entirely sure why, maybe because Valentine was so close and couldn't miss it, or maybe just for the thrill, but Ginny walked right up to Draco and gave him a sweet kiss on the lips.

He was way too quick on the uptake to react in a surprised way. Ginny marveled at how calmly he smiled and said "'Ello, love."

It was as if he'd expected it.

Ginny tried to keep up with his smoothness.

She smiled and said, "Hey, baby."

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"Sure," Ginny said, wrapping her arm around his.

They went looking for a carriage and were surprisingly able to find an empty one. As soon as they sat down, they detached from each other and sighed in relief.

"Bloody good job!" said Draco.

"Thanks… so then you didn't mind? I mean I know it was kind of out of no where, but Valentine was right there, so…"

"Of course it's okay! Good thinking on your part. Valentine couldn't have missed it. It was the most natural feeling…"

He paused.

"I mean…"

He stopped again.

"I know what you mean," Ginny interjected.

They were interrupted by someone growling in frustration because they couldn't find a carriage that wasn't full. It was Valentine.

Draco and Ginny shared a glance and immediately moved closer to one another. Draco put his arm around Ginny's neck and Ginny crossed her legs so that she was practically leaning into Draco and wrapped her arm around his again. She stared into his eyes and brought her face dangerously close to his.

Valentine poked her head hopefully into the carriage.

Draco acted startled and exaggeratedly took his arms off of Ginny's shoulders.

"Hey, Valentine," he said, shifting uncomfortably.

"Is there room enough for us in here?" she said, pointedly staring at the empty bench on the side of the carriage from Ginny as her friend Sarah, or maybe it was 'Susan', appeared next to her.

Draco looked at Ginny, pretending to leave it up to her.

She turned to Valentine and Shannon (or was it Sierra?) and, with a slightly exaggerated disappointed tone said, "Umm… sure, that's fine!"

She smiled, covering up her 'disappointment'.

They rode into Hogsmeade in an uncomfortable silence. Well, not really. Valentine and her friend (whose name DEFINITLEY began with an 's') were talking quite loudly and animatedly.

When they reached Hogsmeade, the four of them got out of the carriage and stood around, waiting for someone to sat 'bye' or something. Draco stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Well, Samantha and I have things to do. See you ladies later," said Valentine importantly.

They turned and continued talking to each other as they walked through the gateway into Hogsmeade.

"What now?" asked Ginny.

"Let's go sit somewhere where we can be spied upon in peace," he suggested.

They headed for Honeydukes. They got a table there and ordered butterbeers. Ginny pretended to laugh all too loudly at the jokes Draco was telling and smiled and batted her eyelashes at him every so often.

After a while, there was the sound of breaking glass a few tables away. When Draco and Ginny turned, they saw that the table was inhabited by Valentine and Samantha.

They were probably following Draco and Ginny.

Draco had to use the restroom, but he would have to walk right Valentine to get there, so he waited until she left before heading over. As he was passing the mess of butterbeer and glass, someone bumped him from behind and he stepped right into the butterbeer. It was slippery and he slid forward onto his hands and knees. Right into the glass.

Ginny looked up from her butterbeer just in time to see Samantha pushing Draco from behind. He fell forward into the glass.

Ginny leaped out of her seat and rushed over to him. He didn't cry out as the glass cut into both his hands and both of his knees, but it did hurt. Ginny shoved Samantha out of her way and squatted next to Draco and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Oh jeez, are you alright?" she asked gently, watching a small circle of blood form around Draco's hands.

She leaned behind him and lifted him by hooking her arms under his. She set him down on the nearest chair and looked at his knees. His pants were ripped open and slowly absorbing the blood from his knees. Ginny ripped the pant below his knees completely off and began picking the glass out of them. When she finished, she got the glass out of one of his hands and he began digging the glass out of the other.

Ginny marched up to Samantha.

"What the hell is your problem?" she half-yelled.

Samantha looked afraid and said nothing.

"Draco's hands and knees are full of glass and you have nothing to say about it? He may not have seen you push him, but I did, and I'll tell you now, you are not going to get away with this!"

"That was great," said Draco.

Draco was on Ginny's back and they were walking back up to the castle.

"Thanks," said Ginny, "It just really makes me mad when people think they can get away with doing crap like that!"

Draco smiled to himself. He didn't know why, but he did.

"Hey, did you hear about Malfoy falling into a pile of glass in Hogsmeade?" Harry said to Ron in the Gryffindor common room.

"Sure did," said Ron, "Serves the damn git right if you ask me!"

"Indeed."

"Hey, I don't know why you guys get such a kick out of people getting hurt, but I don't share the same ideals of what's funny. Could you please have this conversation somewhere else?" Ginny snapped.

They stared.

"Oh, and the poor girl tried to accessorize herself with this tacky silver matching necklace and bracelet. Disgusting, right?" Valentine said to Blaise in the Slytherin common room.

"Yeah," replied Blaise, completely ignoring her. He was too busy attempting to undress Valentine with his eyes. Hey, mind over matter, right?

"And did you see her make-up? I could tell she—"

"Would you shut up?" Draco snapped.

"Oh, I forgot that you like the little bitch. I'll be more careful next time." Valentine lied.

Draco didn't respond. Valentine tilted her head at him. What was he thinking about? She wondered.

bwah.reveiw.