Sorry I'm late updating. I've been soooo busy at work and I also found it really hard to write this chapter… I'm still not 100 happy with it but I've decided to post it as it is and hope the next is better.

There's not too much Ginny/Draco in this one I'm afraid. There is a fair bit about Harry though which will hopefully make up for it. (I just can't make Harry a bad guy so I have to do something nice for him...)

Anyway, next chapter they should be heading back to the house and you might get a bit of D/G romping (unless I chicken out and smooth over it with fluffiness!)

"How could I forget my baby's sweet sixteenth? Happy birthday my love."

Ginny couldn't believe it… She'd forgotten her own birthday - her sixteenth as well! Although the wizarding world tended to celebrate 17th birthdays as a coming of age, many also made a big thing about their 16th - especially those with mixed parents or, as with Ginny's family, an obsession with muggle ways.

Her close family that were still there all came and gave her big cuddles which she received thankfully - and slightly warily from George and Fred… She felt it was better safe than sorry where those two were concerned, especially as they had been so well behaved for the wedding...

Then she was presented with an absolutely huge birthday cake with sixteen candles and lots of presents. Ginny got plenty of dragon themed gifts including a tiny dragon's tooth earring from Charlie who whispered in her ear while giving her a kiss on the cheek… "Bill says he and Fleur are going to get the top of your ear pierced as their present as they know you want it done… but they figured they'd wait until they could sneak you away from mum!"

Fred and George had bought her a beautiful dragon sculpture, they laughed when it shot flames out and scared everyone but as it turned out the fire was completely harmless. Her mother and father had saved up and they gave her a broomstick all of her own, some new clothes and quite a few rare ingredients for her medical potions.

Ginny smiled when she got to Hermione, Ron and Harry's gift; it was bound to be something useful rather than pretty. When she opened the first present she was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful wooden jewellery box, the top of which was engraved with a picture of two dragons swooping gracefully through the sky, almost as if they were dancing together. All the rest of her gifts from the three were books on all the subjects she was supposed to be studying that year at school; Hermione kept saying that she should keep up with her studies even if Hogwarts didn't re-open.

"They're all perfect!" Ginny gushed. "Thank you all so much – this is the best birthday yet. I'm so glad that I get to celebrate with everyone I care about." Nobody mentioned the fact that Percy had still not regained contact with the family; it was too painful for Molly to think about and brought too much anger for everyone else.

The cake was cut and handed out to the many people still left partying, celebrations like this tended to go on until the early hours of the morning. Draco pulled Ginny to the side for a moment. "Ginny, I'm really sorry but I didn't know it was your birthday until an hour or so ago. I haven't got a gift for you."

Draco looked so disappointed that Ginny wanted to kiss him but she knew it wasn't a good idea. "Draco, you've already given me so much – you took me on a whole shopping spree! Plus look at this gorgeous jewellery. Don't be silly."

Draco shook his head. "I want to give you something special for your birthday… It's not as if there are any shops around though so I guess I will have to improvise… Lend me your wand and turn around."

Ginny looked dubiously at him but did as she was asked. Draco concentrated hard and with a quick swish of Ginny's wand an enormous iridescent pair of wings sprouted from the back of her dress. Ginny laughed with glee when she turned her head and saw them. "You've made me fairy wings! What a shame Fleur missed it!"

"If you want to wear the dress another time they will come off." Draco told her but she wasn't listening. Ginny was twirling around watching the way the light caught the wings and grinning to herself. Draco wanted so badly to hold her and kiss her senseless but he could tell from the looks he'd been getting from Potter it would cause more trouble than it was worth.

He decided that for now he would just take great satisfaction in the fact that he'd beaten scar-head to the girl – Draco smirked and raised his glass at Harry who scowled and then turned his back to them and stomped off.

Harry was sulking... He knew it was childish and he was meant to be grown up now that he had turned 17, but it felt good. No one was listening to him about Malfoy, and Ginny had even gone so far as to let the evil git use her wand. Harry shuddered to think of the damage that could have been caused. Maybe Malfoy knew there were too many people here for him to risk doing something bad…

Hermione had told him to drop it and Ron said, slightly fearfully, that Ginny would go nuts if Harry ruined her birthday. So Harry had slunk off into a quiet corner and was gradually getting a little drunk. It wasn't a great idea as he had decided to be constantly vigilant in case of Death Eater attacks but he supposed they were protected by quite a few hefty wards at the moment and over half the order were here celebrating with them. In fact he thought he could see Mad-Eye Moody sitting with someone.

Deciding he'd had enough of being on his own he pushed off from the tree he'd been leaning against and made his way over to Mad-Eye; figuring at least there was someone who was more untrusting and doubtful of others than he was…

When he got a little closer he was taken aback by who he saw. Harry was tempted to take his glasses off and clean them but no, he was seeing correctly.

"Harry!" bellowed Alistor, slapping the empty seat to his right meaning for Harry to join him.

Harry stood stock still for a moment before finding his voice. "What is this? A bloody Slytherin reunion party?" He still couldn't quite get his head round the fact that sitting on Alistor's left was none other than Pansy Parkinson.

"Well someone had to add a bit of class to the occasion." Pansy smirked; quite annoyed with that she hadn't been able to come up with anything wittier. Obviously being cooped up with the absolutely paranoid psychopath that was Moody had affected her judgement. That or the fact that Harry looked absolutely stunning and she'd been without any eye-candy, as she called it, for quite some time now. While Moody was a definite improvement on Voldemort's hideous visage he was still no oil painting.

She let her eyes wander over Harry for a moment, he'd obviously been working out since she'd seen him at school but what was she found interesting was a certain hardness he'd developed in his eyes. He didn't look like the happy go lucky 'boy wonder' anymore; he looked like a man who meant business.

Moody interrupted her thoughts. "Harry, could you watch this one for a moment or two? There's something I have to take care of and I daren't leave her alone." Harry looked a little annoyed at having to play babysitter but nodded once. Alistor clapped him heartily on the back. "Watch her carefully though. I've got a couple of spells on her so she can't escape but she's a handful."

He hobbled off towards a group of Order members leaving Harry no other choice but to sit next to Pansy. He took a big swig from his drink and noticed Pansy looking at him expectantly. He gave her an annoyed look but it just caused her to smirk at him.

"What?" Harry snapped at her. "Why are you staring at me?"

Pansy smiled again. "Partly as I have nothing better to do but I mainly I think messing with your head might be fun…" Pansy had often found the best way to confuse a man was to be honest about things like that.

Harry looked a little startled. "What do you mean messing? What are you going to do? Stop it!" Pansy threw her head back and laughed; Harry caught himself staring at her lithe neck and stopped himself from looking any lower. He felt a little nervous so he took another swig from his drink.

"What's in there then?" Pansy asked reaching over and plucking the cup from Harry's hand before he had the chance to react. She took a sniff of the cup. "Firewhisky eh? So you're drinking with the big boys now then…" Pansy tipped the cup back and drained it. Harry's eyes nearly popped out of his head… He'd been nursing the same cup for about 20 minutes because it was so strong, and she'd just finished it as if it were pumpkin juice.

The dark haired witch let out a satisfied sigh and smiled. "Do close your mouth Potter. It's not very attractive you know - it quite ruins your current brooding good looks." Harry just realised that she had said he was good looking before she carried on.

"I've always been able to take my drink, probably comes from having a drunken mother who used to get a little confused and give me her gin instead of my juice. Why don't you accompany me to get a little more? Although I suggest you stick to butterbeer."

Pansy had stood up and was walking towards the refreshments table before Harry could even blink. He hurriedly followed her, he wasn't going to let her out of his sight or Moody would kill him! When he caught up with her she was already holding a very large firewhisky. Not to be outdone Harry also got one for himself although he was already feeling a little light headed. While Pansy drank her spirit very quickly Harry continued to sip his muttering something about savouring the taste.

After a couple more drinks and many comments about his poor drinking ability from Pansy, Harry was getting seriously annoyed. "Why do you Slytherins have to be such pains in the arses all the time? You're so aggravating. I wish you would just bugger off and leave us in peace."

"You sound like the Dark Lord." Pansy stated matter-of-factly.

"What?" Harry said, completely dumbfounded.

Pansy smirked. "Well, he's a lot more eloquent than you obviously but it's the same general theme..." She put on a dry menacing voice… "Why are these blood traitors and Muggle lovers such a thorn in my side? They are an irksome problem I am burdened with. How I wish I could just be rid of them... So on and so forth. You're not so different from him, you just hate different people."

"But I'm good and he's bad." Harry protested.

Pansy looked at him as if he were a child. "So you're a definite black and white guy then… No room for shades of grey? While I will agree The Dark Lord is 'bad', 'evil' whatever you want to say - I probably wouldn't say you were a goody two shoes type of guy. I mean you're the one who sent Malfoy to the hospital wing with bloody gashes all over his body aren't you? You nearly killed him."

"It didn't know that would happen... Anyway, he nearly killed Ron and Katie - he deserved it." Harry protested hotly.

Pansy let out a noise of disbelief. "Oh, so violence is ok when you decide to use it but bad when it's anyone else. Why do you have such a problem with Malfoy anyway? Over any other Slytherin I mean."

It was Harry's turn to look as though his companion was being infantile. "Because he's him. He's prejudiced and mean and goes out of his way to make my life hell. He's Malfoy I don't think I need to say more than that."

"Actually Potter I happen to know that he tried to befriend you twice and the second time you threw it back in his face to stick with your little friend 'Ronniekins'. Who by the way belittled Draco's name even before Draco had spoken a word to him. Draco does have his faults, one of which is pride, so I'm not surprised he didn't like you after that. I don't see how you can act all high and mighty when you and your friends treated him exactly the same way that he acted towards you. You are all too prejudiced against our house to see anything but badness there. Why do you think we act mean when that name is constantly thrust upon us? Sometimes it's easier to just be what everyone expects from you, especially your parents - the people you looked up to as a child and thought could do no wrong."

Harry tried to deny everything she was saying but found himself looking at his first few encounters with Draco in a different light. Ok, Malfoy had been a conceited little prick in their first meeting at Madam Malkin's but he had spoken to Harry without even questioning who he was and had seemed to be attempting to be friendly.

Pansy stood there with an annoyingly superior look on her face. "So, what were you saying about us Slytherins?"

Harry blinked a few times and attempted to say something in his defence. Lots of things went through his head but they all seemed a little shallow after her outburst. Finally, although he couldn't believe he was doing it, Harry held out his hand. "Can we start over? I'm Harry Potter."

Eep, ok so there may be a tiny bit more in this setting... but not much... I hope you don't mind!