A/N Thanks blissfulxsin for the note about 'hiding'. I am horrible with spelling, so I would like apologize for anything that I miss.

Disclaimer: My initials are DM, not JR, so I didn't create most of these characters... but Draco and I do have the same initials, how about that? I'm pathetic, I know.

Chapter 2: What Are the Odds?

Ginny stopped, right outside the door, forgetting that she was going to the library. Draco Malfoy could not possibly be here, in this muggle high school. He hates muggles. Everyone knows it. 'No,' Ginny reasoned with herself. 'That boy must have just looked a lot like Malfoy.' Come to think of it, she couldn't remember seeing the pale skin and platinum hair. Nope, couldn't be him. On that reassuring note, she entered the second building of the high school in search of her destination.

Sure enough, the girl, Tevy, had steered her right. She confidently walked into the library, but was not greeted with the sight that she expected. Everything was very bright and new looking. Ginny knew that muggles didn't use parchment, and everything was very compacted into books, but some of these books were so small. She seemed to remember somewhere that muggles didn't write everything down, and that they had some other way to record things.

Ginny was struggling threw all the little differences between the muggle and magic worlds. The people seemed to act the same, but the life styles were completely different. It was hard enough for her to go to the shop and buy the compacted ink-quills muggles called pens, and the odd lead writers, Ginny couldn't remember what those were called, but the skinny parchments known as paper was almost too much. It was so thin, how could anyone actually write on it without ripping it?

Maybe the library wasn't such a good idea. Ginny does love to read, not as much as Hermione, but let's be honest, who does? So she thought the library would be soothing, and comforting when everything else was so strange. She was wrong. Feeling overwhelmed, she decided to go up to the second floor in search of a place where she could just sit down and process.

As she walked off the stairs, she saw an art gallery with chairs spread amongst the display, in a sort of lounge area. The paintings and pictures were all very good, but they didn't seem to have a theme. Some of them were of people, some were of landscapes or other things. Some were paintings and some were drawn. Everything seemed random until Ginny looked at the signature on all of them. It was the same. She couldn't tell what it said, but she liked everything she saw. They were the first pictures that she liked that didn't move of their own accord. The people were drawn in such a way though that they looked like they could be moving. It was incredible. She began admiring the pieces more closely. Walking around one pedestal, she saw Nate, sitting in one of the big comfortable looking chairs and once again with his sketchbook.

"Oh, hi," Ginny said as she sat across from him.

"Hey Red. You free right now?" Nate glanced up at her with a smile, but mostly kept focused on his book.

"Yeah. At my old school, I would come to the library a lot when I had a free period, but it wasn't anything like this one. We didn't have art work like this and I am afraid that it wasn't organized the same. I don't know where anything is."

"The big blue signs on the end of the isles say what each section is and where and you can find it. You can also just walk up to any computer and look for any book to see if we have it. Pretty standard." Nate didn't seem too committed to the conversation since he rarely looked up from his sketchbook, but Ginny didn't know what else to do because she didn't even know what a computer was, and she felt like she should, so she didn't ask. Instead she asked about the art work instead.

"I really like these pictures. Don't you?"

Nate had an amused smile as he kept drawing. "Yeah, they are alright. I have seen better though. And this artist has better ones, but the school didn't want those put up."

"Oh, so you know who drew and painted them?" Ginny was excited. Maybe she could pick this artist for her assignment in Art History.

Nate's smile grew even wider and it took on a knowing feel that Ginny didn't like very much. "Yes. I know the artist." This time he looked up and his eyes were dancing with suppressed laughter.

Ginny didn't know why he was laughing at her, but it was starting to annoy her. What was the matter with this boy. She was just trying to be nice. If she was annoying him, he could just say so and she would go away. No, instead he laughs at her and won't just tell her one simple name.

"Um, do you mind telling me who it is?" She struggled to keep her impatience out of her voice.

He didn't even look up as he said, "sure, I guess. I drew them." This was said so modestly that she couldn't believe that he was being serious. She looked at him skeptically, and then at the art work again.

"Really? I mean, I am not trying to call you a liar or anything, but wow. They are really good."

"And you are saying that I can't draw or paint that well?" Based off of the question, Ginny thought he might be mad, but when his gaze fell on her again, she saw that he was just as amused as ever.

"No! That isn't what I meant at all." Oh no, the only possible friend that Ginny had yet found, and a very cute one at that, and she was very close to alienating him. "I just meant that you were so modest when you said that you did them, and they are so good that I thought..."

"You thought what? What did you want me to say? Gloat and boast about them. Like I said, I like some of my other ones better, but these are the ones that Dean Richardson wanted put up." He seemed a little bitter, but not by too much. This kid doesn't seem to express emotion very well. That is, other than entertainment.

"Oh. Well, I thought that you might be a little more excited about it." A shrug was his only answer to that.

They sat there in silence for a little while longer. Ginny didn't know what else to say, not wanting to unconsciously reveal any ignorance about muggles and Nate didn't even seem to know that she was still there. The silence got too much for Ginny, so she got up and left, looking at some more art work on her way out.

Back by the stairs there was a sign that she had missed before. It read: The Collected Art Works of Cavan McBlythe. 'I thought Nate said he did them,' Ginny thought and was about to go back and ask him when the bell rang again telling students to head to their next class. She had a ways to go and didn't want to be late so she decided to ask him about the sign later.

Her next class was something called Trigonometry. She didn't exactly know what that was, but it was in the this building in room 156. As she walked out of the library, looking to see which ways the numbers went, she felt a presence at her back, and a whisper of "hello Weasley," which sent shivers down her spine for more than one reason. Quickly turning, she stared up into piercing gray eyes that could never be mistaken.

Beside herself with rage and not a little bit of fear, Ginny said through clenched teeth, "Malfoy, I thought I saw your slimly self earlier today. What are you doing here?"

"Glad to see you too, Weasley. I'm getting an education. Father always said that I should be well rounded." He was towering over her in a very uncomfortable way, and he was way too close for comfort.

"I have to get to class. So if you will excuse me," Ginny took her brown eyes off of his steely ones for the first time and realized that his normal blond locks were jet black and his face was tan. Ginny hurried away from him thinking how odd for her to recognize him so well when his obvious physical features were drastically different. Oh well, he wasn't her problem. She had to learn what the heck Trigonometry was.

Ginny ran into the class and sat in an empty seat in the front corner near the door just as the professor was starting class. He handed out the syllabus and began going over it, but Ginny couldn't pay attention. Hard as she fought, she couldn't get Malfoy out of her head. If she didn't know better, she might have thought that he had put a spell on her, but she would have detected that.

Questions ran threw Ginny's head so quickly they almost couldn't register. What was he really doing here? Was it just chance that they were both at this school? Why does he look different? Would Voldemort now know that she was here? Has he seen Lupin and Tonks? Did Snape tell Malfoy she was here?

Unfortunately, she would have to talk to Draco to have any of these questions answered, and that was not something that she wanted to do. But, as time wore on, her curiosity multiplied. By the time the bell rang, signally the end of the period, she needed to have answers so badly she was considering seeking him out on her own, which of course was unacceptable.

Glancing at her schedule, Ginny saw that she had a chuck of time for lunch. She wasn't very hungry, but sitting outside for awhile thinking some more would probably be good for her. Off she went to the courtyard in between the school's two buildings. There she saw the object of her current thoughts...

A/N this seems slightly rushed to me, but I wanted to update before I went to bed. I hope you like it, and I will be putting much more DG stuff in, but I needed to finish setting the stage.