Two grey eyes settled over the furniture in the room. Draco Malfoy's silvery blonde hair had fallen from its place and shaded his features. His jaw had jutted out more over the years as he matured and now covered with stubble he was a bit striking… almost as if he was not meant to have that stubble. As if he was always meant to be cleanly shaven and such. He seemed so… rebellious…

He sat with his back against the headboard of his bed, his legs stretched out and crossed in front of him. He was donned with a slightly form-fitting grey shirt and black sweat pants and his white socks. He frowned. This Ginny Weasley character was beginning to confuse him.

It was his understanding that Potter had shown quite the interest in the girl and if Draco could get her interested in him instead… well then… that could be magnificent! Not only would Potter have his number one fan taken from him and the apple of his eye at that, but Weasel King himself would most certainly throw a fit and on top of that, that Granger girl might get so frustrated her hair might explode.

He chuckled. The idea of riling up the golden trio was entertaining and delicious. The only problem was that Weasley was not responding the way she should to his calls. He might have to try a much more different approach if he were to get through to her. Yes, that's it. He would change his plans. Throw on more of a charm. Maybe do something that would catch her eye more than just flirting maliciously.

He pondered… But how does one go about doing that?

-

Ginny Weasley woke bright and early. Mainly because she had to, not by choice.

Groaning, she rolled over in bed and looked out the window beside it. Snape had given her a whole week's detention and those that she had to perform on the weekends were to be done bright and early at eight o'clock. She had to run around the castle and do odd and end tasks for him. How exciting.

Bemoaning what was to become of her, she rolled out of bed and promptly stepped on the sharp end of one of Diana's shoes, ran her shoulder into the bathroom doorway, cleverly mixed her shampoo and soap, and put her underwear on backwards and was out of the portrait before she noticed it, darted back to the bathroom, changed, and was sprinting down the hall barely making it to the Potions room at seven fifty-five.

"Weasley you're late." Snape was poised ever so creepily against a bookshelf, his back to the doorway, one book open and in his hand. His black hair- ever so greasy, his black cloak- every so… cloak-y, he was a sight to fear.

"Professor? It's only seven fifty-five." Ginny, out of breath, watched as the man turned to stare her in the eyes. She had committed a sin, questioning him like that.

Looking up at the clock in his room it rang true to her word. But with a flick of his wand the minute hand turned ten minutes forward.

"You're late. Now, you are to unload this book shelf and carry each book to the spare classroom on the third floor. We're getting some holes filled in the walls and Professor Dumbledore felt your lives were too important to risk should the ceiling cave in."

Ginny's eyes wandered to the case she was to haul off to the third floor from where she was, the basement practically. It was eight feet tall and five feet long filled side to side with thick and daunting texts. There must have been two hundred books. Nodding to Snape who had already turned his back once more, she slipped a single text off the shelf that looked of relative moderate size.

She nearly dropped to the floor with its weight. Blinking herself out of shock, she lifted it up and rested it on a desk.

"Oh and Weasley," She turned to Snape who had already begun crossing the threshold to his office. "This'll need to be done promptly as they are coming in at ten. Also, without magic. These texts are sensitive to any residue that could come from that." And with that the door to his office was shut and she knew the discussion was over.

Looking back to the bookshelf she was determined not to be daunted. Knowing the professor would be able to sense if she used magic, she knew better not to, and began to first unload all the books from the shelf first. This took her under half an hour if she doubled or tripled up.

By the time she had completed that task she had shed her first layer of clothing (a Gryffindor spirited sweater) and was wearing a dark red button up shirt over an equally dark red tank top. Her pants were something she had gotten from her father to work in… something called jeans that seemed useful in dirty situations and were comfortable and form fitting which dropped down to two black sandals.

Filling her arms with three at a time she began her trek across the castle, as the room was not only four flights of stairs up, but across the school entirely. By the time she had made four or five trips she had begun to heat up and shed her button up shirt.

Now with her seventh (or was it sixth… or eighth possibly) load she turned the corner to the room and walked up the long tunnel-esque staircase to the first floor where she made a left down the hall to the staircase to take her to the third floor. Making it there she turned and began her now familiar route to the other side of the castle.

Turning a corner she was abruptly stopped by someone throwing their arms around her. "Weasley…" A silky voice behind her said.

Oh Merlin, not now… She thought to herself, head down.

"Now what are you doing wandering the halls carrying such heavy books?" Draco turned to be in front of her, hands on her hips as he looked down into her slightly annoyed gaze.

"Malfoy, I really don't have the time for this."

"Time for what? A friendly chat? I thought we were mates, agreed?"

"Agreed but my other mates don't fondle my hips while I'm working." With that she cut around him and continued on.

"Fondle? FONDLE? I was not FONDLING you Weasley; I was merely stabilizing your position under such weight." With that he removed the books from her hands. "Where to be this package destined?"

Blinking, Ginny watched him. This was not the Draco Malfoy she knew. This was far from that. She watched him again for a moment. There was something in his eye, something mischievous and devious and anything else ending in –ious she could think of that would define what that look was… in short, he was up to something.

But she would not feel at all wrong about abusing his offer. "To the temporary Potions room on the third floor. And if you really want to be a mate about it, you'll help me with the rest of the ones I've got to get up there. I've got about a hundred and fifty left and I've only got until ten."

Just as she spoke the time the clock chimed out nine o'clock. "Shit!" She exclaimed as she smacked her forehead. "I've only done about fifty in an hour? I'll never get done…" She moaned, grabbed the books from Draco, and huffed on down the hallway.

Draco, watching her, was thoroughly convinced he had no idea what she was talking about, but this was the perfect excuse to be chivalrous.

Running up alongside her, he took the books from her. "I'll take these. I know the room you speak of. You go back and start more. I'll just leave these in the room and we'll just go back and forth making trips. We should be done by the time you need to be done."

Ginny looked at him a moment. Unsure. Confused. Utterly entranced by his gorgeous, rebellious stubble. "Alright, I trust you." And with that she turned down the hall and began to run. Draco watched a moment as her fiery red hair flipped back and forth in its ponytail hold and for a second he realized how nice her figure looked in motion.

For a second his thoughts turned a little naughty until she turned the corner and he could regain composure.

"Damn Weasley."

Back and forth they went until finally Ginny arrived at the room with the last batch, two books the size of platters. Setting them into the shelves that had been brought in earlier in the week (by none other than herself), she looked at her and Draco's fine work. "Well then, that worked out nicely."

Draco, short of breath himself as he made a mental note to exercise more nodded. "That we did. Hell, I want you on my team."

Ginny smiled as she looked at the books and said almost absentmindedly, "Yeah, so does everyone else."

With a laugh she fell onto one of the desktops in rapturous relaxation. Her feet throbbed with the stress she had put them through and was thankful that when she went to retrieve the last two books Snape had told her that this would be all for today as the room would be closed to all students for the remainder of the weekend.

She didn't know if that meant she didn't have detention the next day or not. But she wasn't going to give him the chance to say yes and so just nodded in acknowledgement and moved out of the room as quickly and quietly as she could.

"Thank you Draco." She said, her voice clear as it cut across the silent room. Draco who was posted against the wall across from where she now sat looked up. She was looking at him with an equating look. He could tell she was somehow trying to evaluate him. Read him. He almost laughed at the thought. "Thank you for helping me today. I really appreciate it you know." She dipped her head so her chin touched her chest.

She couldn't read him. Not yet. There was still something blocking him off from her and she couldn't define it. She couldn't place it. For some reason she felt the room shift and when she looked up she found Draco mere inches away from her. Her eyes widened before him.

His expression was solemn and almost thoughtful as he looked down at her. Her cheeks were blushed with heat and her skin was pale like a china dolls. His as well was pale, but lightly freckled across his cheeks and, as Ginny could only guess, his shoulders from all the Quidditch practice, as she was freckled in the same manner by not only genes, but practice as well.

She was startled into silence as she watched as if in slow motion, his hand raise up to tuck a curl of vibrant red hair, like a tendril of heat and electricity and light bunched up and straightened and then wrapped around something to create the curl, behind her ear. He watched the way it readjusted itself after the pressure of his hand left and noticed that he had left his hand lingering on her knee.

Slowly his eyes moved back to hers and she had never seen them so alive. Instead of the chilly icy silver she had been accustomed to, these had taken on an almost liquid, glimmering form of mercury with a hint of blue. She gasped as she inhaled and couldn't help but hold her breath as she waited for his next move.

By this time Draco was far too drawn to the innocence in front of him to stop himself from doing anything, especially as he was unaware quite what it was he was doing. He was basing his actions off of instinct, off of her reactions and the feel of the mood. It was so unscripted and unfamiliar and uncomfortable for him but so exciting at the same time that his hard pounded like a horse race in his chest.

His hand dropped to her chin where he held it and slowly made his way towards her, hand moving up to her side to pull her back straighter as his lips met hers in a slow but powerful connection that could best be described as two waves crashing on one another and then receding.

As he pulled back he could taste the toothpaste she used and could even remember the texture and smoothness of her plump lips. Wanting more, he closed his eyes as she closed hers and spread his lips to meet hers once more.

Ginny, releasing all inhibitions at this point and let one of her hands curve around his neck to better position herself. He moved closer, in-between her legs, and pressed his warm body against hers. He could feel the curves of her body conform to the flatness of his and felt the urge to let his hand find the dips and grooves and mounds that made up her figure.

Restraining himself, he let his hand move to her lower back and slid her closer to him. For a few more moments they were entangled by pure passion until at last they parted for sake of cooling off. As Ginny's eyelids revealed her honey brown eyes Draco felt his knees weaken slightly.

He saw her analyze the situation, saw her cheeks go red with either embarrassment or being flattered, but knew which one when she quickly jumped to her feet.

"I…I…I'm sorry… I'm… gonna go." And with that she was gone from the room leaving Draco with the lingering memories of how she felt against him and how much he hated how right her lips matched up with his.