Draco awoke with a start the next morning. His first thought was, I actually fell asleep? I was sure that I would be up all night. Just like every other night… Secondly, he noticed that there were still others in his room. That is unusual. He stretched and rubbed his hands over his eyes, but he removed them instantly with a shard intake of breath. That hurt! He heard the other boys snickering and looked up to see Crabbe and Goyle watching him intently.
"Is there a problem, boys?" Draco asked.
"Yeah, what happened to your face?" Goyle snickered as Crabbe made an undignified attempt to withhold a snort.
"What do you mean?" Draco asked in irritation.
Crabbe stepped forward, "Looks like someone beat the hell out of you." Then he turned to Goyle, "We should find him and give him a pat on the back."
Draco's eyes widened, and he quickly stood. "Excuse me?" he asked angrily. Crabbe and Goyle's tough boy acts fell through instantly as they fled from the room.
Draco grumbled as he moved into the bathroom and toward a mirror. The sight that greeted him was not at all welcome. A BLACK EYE! I, Draco Malfoy, cannot have a black eye. I will lose all of my fellow peers' respect… Well, I'll lose more of their respect anyway. He grimaced as he leaned closer and poked at it.
"Ouch! That bloody hurt!" he shouted at no one in particular.
"Oh, you poor dear. That is a right nasty shiner you have there. You best get up to the hospital wing immediately." The mirrors always talk when you want them to shut up and won't say a bloody thing when you could really use it.
"No, thank you. Besides the fact that I do not take advice from inanimate objects, I cannot go to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey will know I have been fighting, and if I get one more detention I am liable to go crazy." Detention, he thought. Of course! It was that little Weasley bint. SHE did this to me.
Draco quickly ran through his morning motions, but a great ugly bruise around his eye marred his usually impeccable appearance. He let out a frustrated sigh as he checked the mirror one last time before heading out of the dormitory toward the kitchens. There is no way that I am going to the Great Hall looking like this and letting that little blood traitor brag to all of her mudblood friends. I am not subjecting myself to that.
As he rounded the corner, however, he found that he did not have much say in the matter. Professor Slughorn stood blocking his path.
"Mr. Malfoy, my boy," the robust man said, "What have you been doing? You haven't been fighting again, have you? After than incident with Miss Weasley, I should have thought that you had learned your lesson."
Draco gritted his teeth, "No sir," he replied, "I've just had an accident. Anyway, if you'll excuse me…"
"No, no, boy. Where are you going? You are meant to be in the Great Hall for breakfast. You are late as it is, and I will not stand idly by while you get up to more mischief." With that, Slughorn motioned for Draco to move forward with him in the direction of the Great Hall.
By the time he arrived at the door, Draco was seething. Nothing could have made his morning worse. Except one thing, and the little girl herself walked up at that moment.
As she approached Draco noted her frowning at her. She should be bloody proud at what she has done to me, he thought bitterly. Well, I shouldn't give her any time to gloat. He made to enter the Great Hall quickly, but she was close on his tail.
"Draco!" she called out just as he stepped inside the Great Hall. That showed her, he thought as he moved toward the Slytherin table taking in the faces of his peers. Some looked confused, but most looked absolutely joyous.
Once he had finally steeled up the courage to take his seat, he heard someone behind him say, "Looks like Malfoy finally got what was coming to him."
Draco whirled on the younger student, and was about to pull out his wand when Professor McGonagall rushed over.
"Put your wand away, Mr. Malfoy. Have you been fighting again? Will you never learn? Twenty points from Slytherin. Next time I won't be so forgiving. Now leave. If you won't eat, you have no reason to stay," and she ushered him into the entrance hall away from the student population.
"At least now I can go down to the kitchens like I had planned," Draco muttered under his breath.
"Are you in the habit of talking to yourself Draco?" asked a knowing voice. He looked up to see a redhead leaning against the wall.
"Go torment someone else, Weasley."
Ginny raised her eyebrow. "Weasley, is it? Then I suppose I will have to save my healing salve for someone who deserves it."
Draco turned to see her putting a small jar into her bag. "Wait. You have some? Give it here."
Ginny looked up incredulously. "Does that work on other people?" she asked.
"…yes," Draco replied. Well, maybe not, but I can't back down now.
Ginny shook her head, but pulled the jar back out of her bag. "You are one misguided boy. Next time remember it helps to say please. Come on, lets get out of the corridor if you don't want everyone in school talking about your black eye."
"It is your fault, you know!" Draco replied angrily.
"Yes, and I am sorry. That happened before we started talking. I felt bad, which is why I tried to give you this before you went in and faced the whole school, but you ignored me."
That is why she was trying to get my attention? Bloody hell. It is my own fault then, isn't it?
Once they found an unused classroom, Draco and Ginny put down their things. Draco perched atop a desk and opened the jar, taking a big clump of the salve onto his fingers.
"Oh honestly, Draco." Ginny stepped forward and stopped his attempt to smear the stuff all over his eye. "Firstly, you only need half of that amount, and secondly, if you get it in your eye you will be crying until next week."
"Malfoys do not cry."
"Fine, then your eye will be watering until next week, which looks strangely like crying, so stop. Give me that." Ginny scooped about half of the cream off his fingers and motioned for him to put the rest back into the jar. She scooted onto the desk facing Draco and leaned in so that she could see that she didn't manage to get any cream into his eye.
"You know if you had let me go to a bathroom I would have done this myself."
"Yes, and that would have been a disaster, and I'm sure you would have blamed me for your continuing pain," she said while dabbing the salve gently around his eye.
"Probably. Ow. Don't push so hard," Draco said flinching away.
"Sorry, don't move. Come back here," she said moving closer again.
Moments later Ginny had finished rubbing the salve in and cocked her head to the side admiring her handiwork. "All better," she said hopping off the table.
"I am not a child. Don't speak to me like one."
"Trust me, I know you are not a child. I doubt you even had a normal childhood. It was all rules and no nonsense at your house, wasn't it?"
"Maybe, but I grew up civilized unlike you. I don't hit decent blokes. I use my hands for sophisticated things. I can play the piano, you know."
Ginny tried to hold a serious face, but the corners of her mouth curved up. "Can you, Draco? Well, now I know what I have missed out on."
"Are you mocking me?" he asked seriously.
"No, Draco. And since when have we ever been able to talk to each other for this long without threatening bodily harm once?"
"I think you've done enough bodily harm for the next century," Draco said while lifting his hand to his eye. He was pleased to notice that it was no longer swollen and there was no pain. "Thanks."
Surprise flicked across Ginny's face before she controlled it and said, "You're welcome."
"Now I am off to potions." Ginny grabbed her bag and started to make her way to the door, but was stopped when she felt Draco's hand grab her arm.
Ginny looked down at the hand then up to his face, confusion evident in her features.
Finally Draco said, "I'll see you tonight?"
"Well, unless detention is suddenly an elective, yes, you will see me."
"And you'll tell me about your potion?"
Ginny frowned slightly. "Yeah, I'll see you tonight. Bye." And she rushed out the door.
Draco hated to admit it, but he was really curious about what Ginny could possibly be working on. He had no idea that other students worked on private potions projects. He also had no idea that Ginny had any skill in potions until she had pointed it out to him.
For the better portion of the day, Draco thought about what Ginny's potion could be. He was convinced that it was some silly girl potion for hair or faces by the time detention rolled around.
When Draco arrived, he found Ginny already working on a box of books in the corner. He cleared his throat as he entered waiting for her to greet him, but she made no move. Draco frowned. Maybe she hasn't noticed yet, he thought, so he cleared his throat a bit louder. Still no response.
Finally he said, "Hello, We- Ginevra."
Ginny turned around and smiled halfheartedly. "Hello," she replied.
"What is wrong with you?" Draco asked. Nice and subtle, he thought sarcastically. Good work.
"Long day," she replied simply.
Draco furrowed his brow. "Okay."
Draco worked in silence for almost an hour before he was tired of being confused. "Why won't you talk to me? You were fine this morning, and now you are ignoring me."
"I'm not ignoring you," Ginny replied, not looking him in the eye.
"What happened?" he growled in frustration.
"I told you. It was a long, irritating day."
"Well, don't linger on it. Let's think about something else. Tell me about your potion."
Ginny frowned again.
"Come on. You said you would tell me."
"You tell me yours first," Ginny replied.
Draco made a strangled sound of frustration before finally saying, "Okay fine. A shield potion. I want something that you don't have to do before every spell. I got the idea from a hat I saw at Diagon Alley. It shields whoever is wearing it. But a hat can fall off. A shield potion can last for a set period of time no matter what is going on around them."
Ginny looked at him thoughtfully. "That's easy. My brothers invented those hats."
Draco scoffed. "What those moronic twins?" He stopped when he saw the look on Ginny's face. "I mean. That is a really good charm."
Ginny had to laugh at the boy's attempts not to anger her. No doubt it was because she had successfully given him a black eye the last time the two had fought.
"How far have you gotten, then?" Ginny asked after she caught her breath.
"Well, your hellebore suggestion helped to stabilize it, but it shortens the lifespan of the potion, so I need to find something to lengthen it again. Or another stabilizing element that won't shorten it in the first place."
Ginny nodded thoughtfully. "I'll give it some thought," she said.
"So now it is your turn."
After a few moments Ginny said, "How do I know I can trust you. I mean mine isn't exactly a shield potion." She emphasized the word, shield, as if his potion was so much less important than hers. Draco was about to respond when she continued. "I mean if mine was completed and was put into the wrong hands, it could be horrible. In the right hands, it would save so many lives."
"And who is to decide whose hands are the right and wrong ones? Potter? The boy doesn't have any sense. Gryffindors are too stubborn and pigheaded to listen to anyone else's advice."
Ginny shook her head in frustration. "We already discussed this. I don't support him anymore. Maybe we both support the same cause, but that doesn't mean that I support his methods. I think people put too much faith in him and soon he is going to get power hungry."
"Really?" Draco asked.
Ginny only nodded.
"Well then you should remember that I told you that while I do not support the Dark Lord and his methods, I do support his cause. So no need to fear me running off to tell him all of your little secrets."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "I still can't believe that you defend all of that pureblood stuff."
"You should too. You come from an ancient magical pureblood line. It isn't your fault that your parents are muggle lovers."
"Is that some roundabout way of saying that I am not half bad?"
"No," Draco replied too quickly to be believed.
"I thought not," Ginny replied with a smile.
"You almost changed the subject, but no such luck. Tell me your potion. You have my word as a Malfoy that I will tell no one." He put his hand out for her to shake. Ginny looked at him suspiciously before giving in and shaking it.
"Fine," she said and leaned against a box of books on the floor. "I am trying to make a protection potion against dark magic within the body. My brother was attacked by a werewolf last year, so he has some of the dark magic within him. I want to create something that will purge the body of it, and protect it from further dark magic. Like the unforgivable curses."
"How do you even begin to make something like that?" Draco asked in amazement. This kid doesn't play around, he thought in awe.
"I actually got the idea from Harry. His mum used some ancient love magic to protect him, and I thought I could somehow incorporate that into my potion. It has been hard finding any resources though."
"Wow," said Draco, at a loss of what to say. "I can understand why you wouldn't want some people to have it. They would have access to dishing out the dark magic without ever having to receive it."
Ginny nodded and pulled the book from the night before out of the corner. "Here, it is your turn to look through this. I didn't really find much useful except stuff for the basic protection part."
"You know, our projects are kind of similar. Maybe we could help each other out?"
Ginny looked at him a moment before saying, "I'll think about it. For now, though, I will keep doing this while you have a look through that book. I'm sure you'll find something in there that will work, then you won't need my help."