Title: Why Mind Games Never Work

Main Characters: Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy, the Golden Trio, an assortment of new charas.

Disclaimer: So there was this one time when this one lady wrote a book. And it so wasn't me.

Summary: People are pairing up right and left and 5th year Ginny Weasley equals booty call to Draco Malfoy, but as she resists his manly charms he finds her more interesting than before. What happens when he falls for his own mind games? Ginny's fifth year.

Chapter One: Mistakes One Should Never Repeat

The bag was heavy, very heavy. And under it was a fragile body trying to hold it up. Ginny Weasley only hoped that her feet wouldn't collapse beneath her as she walked down the long train passageway. After meandering back and forth Hogsmeade about eight times waiting for the train to arrive, Ginny's feet were aching in the worst places.

She had knocked on a few sliding doors, hoping one was vacant. But instead her knocks were returned with obscene words that in short told her to sod off.

She was close to growling, her patience whittled down to nothing and her hope almost wiped out like a flame with no air as she knocked on the next door. There was silence. Had she heard that correctly? Checking, she knocked again and when no reply came she thrust open the door in relief, a huge weight lifting from the pits of her stomach.

At first everything seemed relatively all right, nothing too out of place, maybe a bit messy but all was fine, at that time anything would do.

But that weight soon returned, quickly. In the dim light she was unable to make out the face but there was clearly someone in the bed provided, sleeping. She felt her cheeks light up as Rudolph's nose would have in the old Muggle tales in embarrassment of intruding.

And to make matters worse there was a Slytherin robe tossed over the, also, provided chair.

She quieted her panting though she couldn't quiet the sound of her heart pounding in her ears as turned to leave, her mind racing with the fear of the form awaking. She was halfway through the entry, the finish line so clear in the distance when a hand grasped her shoulder and turned her about, shaking her loose of her hopeful reverie and revealing a very unhappy Draco Malfoy. "What in bloody hell are you doing in here?" He barked.

His silver eyes were stormy and Ginny's breath caught in her throat with fear.

She blinked a few times, first unaware that her feet had stopped moving, and still in shell shock from the abrupt startle. The towering form in front of her was far too sinister for her to ignore and regain composure in front of.

"I….I….I….I…." She tried to explain but failed as her mind quickly noted, drop large bag, insert foot in mouth.

She was getting the undeniable urge to indeed, drop all she held, and then dart for the nearest exit from the train.

Even if it did mean plummeting a good hundred feet before rolling down a mountainside to a painful and terribly bloody death.

"You have no right to be in here you filthy weasel!" He snarled and shoved her out the door, slamming it shut.

Ginny stood there, frozen, for seconds which drug on like hours. Her chest rose and fell spasmodically as she looked about, seeing if anyone had witnessed the incident that had nearly put her into cardiac arrest.

After regaining whatever composure she had left from the scare, she spent minutes more searching for an empty room until finally she found Hermione in one alone.

"Where're Ron and Harry?" Ginny inquired, setting her load down on the bed and settling herself beside Hermione on the small couch.

Her hands were still sweaty as her adrenaline rushed through her body creating another urge, this one to run for cover in case Malfoy had called up his goons to search for and kill her. She looked to Hermione and raised an eyebrow, trying to keep herself calm as her breath was still erratic.

"Merlin only knows." Hermione said with a shrug and a sigh.

It was hard not to see the disappointment in her eyes as her mind obviously pounced upon another subject. "I can't find anyone now-a-days. You know I wrote him over the summer and NOTHING! Not one owl in reply!" Hermione exclaimed, a tinge of pain in her tone. It was evident to Ginny, now, why her friend seemed in such a sour mood.

She and Seamus had been dating since about a month before school ended and she was damn near obsessed with him, not that he was complaining to the public anyways.

Ever since, Hermione had become a devoted pen pal and pined over him being away and all. Truth be told, the two were a very adorable couple to say the least.

In fact, they were now widely known throughout Gryffindor as "one of the cutest couples" out of about three that had lasted longer then about two weeks.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Ginny nodded.

Not wanting to keep Hermione stuck on that situation, she turned to the girl and then added, "I ran into an awkward situation just a minute ago with Malfoy."

Ginny whispered in a quickened voice as she recounted what all had happened to the eagerly listening Hermione. As the story went on it seemed that between regular intervals Hermione would either raise her eyebrows or mutter something incoherently.

"Oh, my." Hermione nodded once Ginny had completed her gruesome tale.

Ginny followed suit in agreement.

It was a very awkward situation, and although Malfoy had been screaming in her face, his ferocity at full blow, it didn't take away from the fact that he had been shirtless. And Ginny had gotten a glimpse of his muscled chest and abs.

"At least he remembered you as a Weasley!" Hermione exclaimed, the optimist she was. Ginny gave her a meek smile and then shook her head.

"So he wouldn't waste his time knocking the wrong person!" Ginny retorted quickly after.

No matter how Hermione tried to lighten the situation, Ginny had been scared witless for seconds on end by Malfoy and it wasn't very nice being there with him yelling at her. If it were up to her she just wouldn't be around him at all.

It was all too embarrassing to be humiliated in front of your sworn enemy. Ginny let out a sigh. "I have a feeling I'm going to hate this year." She muttered as she fell onto the couch, her head on Hermione's shoulder. "What do you think?"

Hermione shrugged lightly, as to not hurtle her friends head off, and began to stroke the red hair in a motherly fashion. "It's not like I can see the future or anything." She said almost regretfully, it was tough for her to admit that she wasn't one of the best tea-leaf readers out of the school. "But while we're on the subject, what major do you want this year, hmm?" Hermione's eyebrows raised and she gave Ginny an interested look.

Ginny thought for a moment.

It was her fifth year as a matter of fact.

She did need to pick something she wanted to major in for the tests and all. She groaned lightly.

It was all too confusing in the end.

Why didn't they just give you the same classes and then decide for themselves what you were best at? It would make things so much easier for those unwilling to sacrifice brain power to ponder on the subject.

"Well, I was thinking potions since I'm one of the best students Professor Snape has ever seen, but Herbology is around there." Hermione nodded in affirmation but shook her head in disbelief afterwards, obviously still stuck on the Seamus subject.

With a smile Ginny looked up to Hermione. "I can't believe he hasn't talked to you yet. How could he not?" Ginny asked. She was glad to see a familiar warm smile come back to Hermione's features.

"Because he's daft that's why!" She exclaimed and they shared a laugh.

Three quarters of an hour passed as they talked about random things.

They would get started on one subject and there would be something to remind them of something else which would lead them to a completely off the topic comment that they ran a completely new conversation off of.

Entirely too entertaining some might say, but for them it was a way to pass the time and worked!

They were almost through a story Ginny was telling about how over the summer Fred and George had almost blown up her mother's garden being utter imbeciles, when the sliding door opened and Harry and Ron stumbled in with a pile of candy in each of their robes.

"Afternoon all, miss us much?" Harry laughed and shoved a jelly bean into his mouth.

His smile which had been stretching from ear to ear it seemed, changed to a fish look as the sourness of the bean took over his taste buds. "Bloody hell!" He exclaimed waving at his mouth frantically and almost spitting the thing out.

The others burst out into laughter as he did this and they all settled down.

Time passed and soon Harry's crown was relinquished to Ron who had made a fool of himself by letting out a chocolate frog then sitting on it whilst searching for the thing.

That left Ginny and Hermione holding their sides as tears welled up in their eyes. "THAT'S HILARIOUS RON!" Ginny exclaimed as she let out a string of laughter.

"Yeah, for you it is!" He retorted, his brow furrowing and his cheeks pinking up in embarrassment.

At this Hermione only laughed harder to the point where she began to choke on not getting enough air in.

At this, Harry joined in the laughter and soon Ron had to give up and admit that his being clumsy was indeed hilarious.

The group later settled down and finished off the candy telling summer stores to each other. Harry's were more or less left to himself since that summer he spent half his time at the Dursley's and half at the OotP headquarters.

Therefore, most of his stories were about Moody and the others. Though he didn't say it aloud at all, it was evident to the other three that he was still shaken by what had happened to Sirius, they all were.

There was a moment of silence once the conversation had died down rather uncomfortably before someone came over the loud speaker announcing their near arrival to Hogwarts.

Hermione and Ron let out long sighs as they stood.

It was their duty to go about and tell people to get their things together, get their robes on, and make sure not to kill one another, that sort of thing.

After they left it was Harry and Ginny in the compartment alone. This made it all the more awkward as both were not entirely accustomed to dead silence, what with being close relation to Ron who talked most of the time about nonsense.

Ginny was searching for topics to converse over, and knowing Sirius was a touchy subject, she didn't even think to consider bringing it up. Instead she looked over at Harry who was gazing out the window with a hurt look in his eyes.

She knew he was thinking about Sirius by the way he sat, his back all straight, like he was trying to make his godfather proud. Ginny felt so bad for him that she stood from her current place and moved to sit beside him.

Harry turned his head toward her in confusion and she let her head rest on his shoulder, her arms somewhat encircling him in a warm, sisterly embrace. "I miss him too." She whispered into his shoulder and looked up to see Harry smile a little.

It was good to see the boy smile once and while. With a sigh he nodded and shifted his arm to wrap about her. Only on rare occasions were they left to bond with each other but all the same, they could already read the other like a book.