Chapter Three: Not a Bad Beginning

Monday came sooner than Ginny would have liked. Dreadful Monday. Her first Advanced Potions class. But she is strong and no Malfoy could spoil her work or make her lose her temper. Yes, she will go and get him right now. But why were her knees trembling? Of course she was scared of the Slytherin Prince, who wasn't? The centre of the Dark Magic of Hogwarts, no less. And her experience with Dark Magic was far from pleasant.

Still, in two minutes to six she was near the doors which lead to the laboratory. Malfoy was already there looking through some papers. When she opened the door he said with his usual malice, "Hello, Weasy-sissy, how was your day?"

"What did you called me?" Her Weasley temper began to boil inside and concentrate on the tip of her tongue.

"A sissy. Why shouldn't I call you anything but your real name? "

"I. Am. Not. A. Sissy."

"You definitely are."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not," Ginny was already shouting at him, but his voice was as cold as it was in the beginning.

"Then prove it."

This was a little unexpected for Ginny, but she didn't loose her dignity in letting him surprise her. She liked challenges and this one was more then interesting. She stepped closely to him; their bodies were not more then three inches apart.

'She is going to kiss me, that's rich.'

'If he is thinking that I am gonna kiss him, he is more then mistaken.' Then there was a sonorous sound of a SLAP.

'She slapped me. How dared she!' His face was expressionless, but a volcano was beginning to erupt inside him.

'I slapped him. A very good idea. He will hex me right away.'

"You slapped me," Draco's voice was trembling with anger. "How dared you!"

"You wanted the proof of my right to name myself a gryffindor and I did it." Ginny's words were very bold and griffindoric, but also she wasn't all sure that she would get out of this mess safely.

"Nobody dares to slap a Malfoy and gets away with it," he paused for a second, "but I agree that by proving your bravery you can use drastic measures, so I won't hex you senseless."

This speech was said in a calm tone with all the dignity he could master at that time. Now Ginny was really surprised. No punishment? Ok, don't do anything that will make him change his mind.

"So I am not a sissy anymore?"

"No, you are not."

"A pleasure to know. What were you looking at when I came in?" she asked conversationally.

"Our first assignment from Snape. We are to brew ten potions today."

"Ten potions! Is he crazy! It takes two hours to brew only one! We will do it all night! And I don't see any instructions here!"

"You are right, there are no instructions, and we must find them ourselves."

"Merlin," Ginny groaned and fell on the nearby chair.

"I don't know why you are so surprised, Weasley. You knew what you have been choosing."

"Ok, ok. Give me the list," she stretched out a hand, asking to put it there.

"Take it yourself."

"You are not making it easy, are you?"

"Why should I?"

"Because we are to work together and as I understood, for a long time. So can't you at least tolerate my presence? We are grown ups, so let's not behave like children and pick on each other all the time."

Draco looked at her appreciatively. She was right, but he is a Malfoy, he cannot just agree with a Weasley. He needs to find a way to have an upper had, the only way, which came to his mind was:

"All right. Then let's begin this all over again. How about beginning with the formal introductions?"

"You know, Malfoy, there is some brain in that head of yours." Ginny stood up and went to the clearance in the centre of the room. "Formal, hah? Virginia Annabel Weasley," she said in a formal tone, making a curtsy.

"Sir Draco Markonius de Malfoy," he said with a bow.

"Sir? What do you mean "sir"? "

"What do people usually mean when they attach "sir" to their names?"

"Uh, that they are lords or something," she said not really understanding.

"Oh, Weasley, Weasley, you answered your own question, didn't you?"

"But that means you are...a Lord?"

"Exactly. I am full of surprises, aren't I?" his smirk was where it belonged.

"You don't know me yet," her eyes were twinkling with laughter. "Now let's work, or we won't finish it till the morning also."

Draco gave her the list. "Let's split it up in two halves. What can you do by yourself?"

Ginny snorted, giving him do-you-think-I-am-so-stupid look, but after looking at the list, she understood that she could make only two potions out of ten. "Well, I can make this and this," she said pointing at the potion's names.

"Holly Slytherin, this will be a looong night. I know how to make six including yours, so there are four left. You will do the research on them to find the instructions. Let's get to work. "

"Why are you commanding? I am not your assistant, I am your PARTNER!"

"But you know only two potions, so be quiet and do your research, I need to concentrate."

There was nothing else to do except begin to look through the books on the endless shelves on the right wall. There was a table near the bookshelves, so she began to take books from the shelves and put them on the table then look through them. After finding information about one of the listed potions she thought that she couldn't be ignored all the time and raised her head from behind a very big volume to say something and opened mouth to speak, but words never left her throat because she was shocked at what she saw. Maybe there was nothing so surprising, but still nothing common to her eyes.

She saw Draco working; just that. Simple and ordinary. A student brewing some potions, but it wasn't all that simple with Draco Malfoy, he really knew what he was doing. His hands with long, pail fingers gracefully flew above the working table, measuring ingredients with sharp exactness and putting them into the cauldron without splashing the content onto his robes.

Now Ginny understood why Snape called him his best student. Draco really had the right to have this name. Six of ten, this is saying a lot. The worst part of this realization for Ginny was that she needed to learn a lot to reach somewhere near Draco's level in Potions and she really wanted to, because despite the hate of her friends towards Potions, she liked the subject. Why? She didn't know herself.

After staring at Draco for a few moments, she finally decided to ask the question that was tickling the back of her mind. "What was the robe stuff between you and professor Snape the other day?" Silence was the answer to her question. "What? You know everything about potions, but can't answer a simple question, Malfoy?"

"What are you talking about?" Draco said without even turning face to her.

"Don't pretend that you don't understand. You asked, "These? Already?" What were you talking about?"

"I don't see how this is your business," he snapped.

"I think I have a guess, but you must confirm it with your own words," she said with a tone that said that she wasn't going to leave him alone. He understood it.

"I thought they were Death Eater's. Satisfied?"

"And you are so eager to be a Death Eater that you see something in a simple black robe. Somehow, I am not surprised by this, Malfoy," she crossed her arms on her chest, research completely forgotten.

"If I am not out of my mind, and I am sure I am not, then I remember that I said that is none of your business, and I wouldn't talk about other people's business if I were you."

"But you are not me, so spill, or I'll ask you all the time until you'll go mad," she smirked at him.

"What will I not do to shut you up? Ok, but I don't how you don't know this already. I am to be initiated into the ranks of the Dark Lord on Christmas. Is your curiosity fulfilled?"

"No."

"What now?" he sounded very irritated.

"You weren't all happy. As if you were scared, or not sure about all this."

"What are you babbling about? This is my destiny, how can't I be sure about it?"

"But you didn't say that you are not scared."

"Shut the Hell up and do your work!" She really pissed him off.

"Touchy, touchy. I am sure your slimy git of a father will be so happy, but I don't think that he has such feelings as happiness in him, or pride in his one and only son, when he will become his clone and will serve another mad ugly slimy git. "

She didn't noticed when he came close to her. "Never insult my father or you'll be six foot under, this I will take care about," he hissed into her face.

She was startled almost to death by his voice, so cold and unmerciful, promising torture if she didn't obey.

"And I don't think," he continued, "that filthy father of yours, brrrrrrr, I can't even say his name, will be glad to have you on his neck, when you graduate. Or I better say if you graduate, with a tiny brain such as yours your chances are limited. He doesn't have money for another hopeless brat in his house, or a wreck sounds more like it."

He turned and stormed off to his table. Ginny was angry, no, she was murderous. Her face was redder than her hair, and that was a bad sign. "If you ever say anything bad about my family, I'll smash you into pieces then throw them into mud, where you belong."

Draco's reaction to her outburst was far too uncommon – he began to chuckle. Ginny looked at him as if he had gone insane. "Don't ask me what's so funny, because the question is written all over your face. The reason of my laugh is that we have something in common, don't you think?"

"You mean, insulting each others families?" The color of her face turned to a normal color, and she wasn't all that explosive.

"Exactly. We must do something about it."

"What do you mean?"

"As you said earlier we are not children, so we must behave as adults and don't waste each others time arguing. So maybe we can promise each other not to insult our families or something like that, because it really messes with the work."

"You really listened to me, what a miracle. I don't think promising will be enough, may be if we swear it will be more suitable. "

"Swear, Weasley? This is a serious step, but I agree. On what should I swear then?"

"What is the most precious to you?"

"I don't have anything of this kind, but I have an idea, I'll give you my word."

"Your word? It is no value to me. "

"But for me it is. I'll never break a Malfoy word."

"Ok with me."

He stood straight and looked right into her eyes. "I am giving you a word of a Malfoy that I'll never insult the Weasley family or everything connected to it in Virginia Weasley's presence."

Then he took a knife, which lay on the worktable, and made a small cut on his right wrist. The cut was no more then an inch, but the scar was forming right in front of her eyes. "I told you, that I am very serious about such things. The scar will always remind me of a word given to you. Now it is your turn. "

Ginny was a little bewildered by the seriousness of Draco about the ordeal, but she too, didn't want to lose her face. "I, Virginia Weasley, swear on the love of my family, that I'll never insult the Malfoy family or everything connected to it in front of Draco Malfoy." After saying that, she too took the knife and mirrored Draco's actions. "The deal is a deal." Ginny and Draco nodded to each other.

He went to the left corner of the room, where a green carpet was and, so to say, a small living room with two deep green couches and a small tea table situated.

"I don't know about you, but I want some rest." He pointed at the table with his wand. "Tea for two? Sit yourself."

"Are you crazy? There is no time for tea! We need to finish our assignment and not chitchat."

"So? I almost finished. I need a little break," he said calmly, as if saying that would make her wait for him.

"Already? I am only on the second potion," she was a little embarrassed by her incapability to work as fast as Draco.

"It is your first assignment, so don't be upset. I've been working with Snape for a long time, that's why I do this so quickly. Sit, tea will increase your spirits."

She sat on the couch opposite him and took a sip of her tea. "So you decided to tolerate me?"

"What else could I do? You are my partner after all."

They finished at two in the morning, but were both satisfied with their work. All ten potions were bottled and labelled in Ginny's cursive handwriting. Snape wouldn't say a word, they hoped.