Whereas Draco's peers had been oblivious to his disappearance into detention every weeknight for weeks on end, Ginny had not been so fortunate. In fact, it had not escaped the hawk-eyed trio for longer than three days.
When they had learned that she would be spending her evenings with Malfoy in a dark corner of the library without supervision, they became frantic. Ginny fought tooth and nail against their mollycoddling for about a week until they just gave up on her. She disregarded their thinly veiled concern, and they tried to pretend that they didn't notice where she went all of the time. That was until she started disappearing even more frequently in the afternoons, and always to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. When Ginny discovered they had been following her ("Hey, Gin, what were you doing in Myrtle's bathroom today?"), she let loose another stream of angry swear words that would have done any sailor proud. The girl could definitely stand up for herself, but she had a way of losing friends by being a bit too fiery. After being torn into one too many times, Harry and Hermione determined that they no longer cared what Ginny and her rude mouth were up to, and Ron followed suit, because that was what he was best at.
That was, until they noticed something that disturbed them beyond all other possibility. First, they found Ginny, looking thoroughly snogged and wearing wet clothes that left little to the imagination, emerge from Myrtle's bathroom with none other than Draco Malfoy himself, who looked more human than he ever had- perhaps it was the trace of a smile on his cheeks or the sparkle in his eyes? At any rate that was bad enough, until they caught more glances of this unusual pair.
While in the library researching her entirely overdone potions essay, Hermione spied Ginny and Draco at the end of a narrow, dark row leaning over a book and whispering conspiratorially.
Ron saw a very well executed note pass in a crowded hallway as Ginny and Draco bumped (angrily?) into each other.
Harry noted that Ginny spent longer and longer at detention, and the longer she was there, the happier she seemed when she returned, which seemed highly counterintuitive.
The final blow, however, came one Saturday afternoon when Ginny and Draco had arranged to test out another version of their potion. So far they had managed to blow up innumerable caldrons and waste vast quantities of ingredients, but three recipes had made it past the blowing up stage. The first two had presented rather uncomfortable occurrences on the taker, with no dark magic detection properties. They hoped that the third time was a charm, and determined to test it as soon as it matured, which happened to be on a sunny weekend afternoon.
Ginny and Draco arranged to meet behind the broom shed near the Quidditch pitch, because the nature of the weather would make an indoor meeting place suspect. However, Ginny's disappearance toward the broom shed, a known snog spot, did not escape the trio, who decided it was time to intervene.
Ginny rounded the corner to find Draco with a frown on his face staring at a vial of putrid purple liquid. "Oh come now, it won't be that bad," she said brightly. "It can't taste as horrible as that brown stuff you made me drink last week, and we solved the wormroot problem, so you won't have to deal with the…" he voice trailed off and she looked down uncomfortably.
"I don't see why I even have to drink this! I am the dark wizard here, therefore you should try this potentially life-threatening potion, and then I can threaten you some more by throwing dark spells at you. That way if you die because the potion didn't work, it would be perfectly normal for a Weasley to die at the hand of a Malfoy. Now vice-versa? That is just wrong."
"You are such a girl, Draco."
"Excuse me, but we fixed that problem already, and for the record, it was your idea to add the wormroot, and I was the one getting the weird looks from Pomfrey."
Ginny giggled, "Ahh, but I always wanted a hermaphrodite for a best friend."
"First of all, ew, and second of all, sworn enemies, remember! I would never let a friend force this torture down my throat."
"Right, right. Get on with it already, I wanted to get some flying in today. Believe it or not, I don't actually enjoy your presence; I just tolerate it." Ginny's smile belied this sentiment.
"Fine, but don't mess up on the spell this time. Remember, say it just as I taught you, dark spells are easy to mess up."
"Yes, mother, now drink!"
Draco grimaced down at the vial, but before he could uncork it, he heard a gasp and looked up.
Peering around the corner of the broom shed was none other than the bushy-haired mudlood, Hermione Granger.
"Who is it?" called a voice from around the corner, and Hermione stuck out her arm in a vain attempt to hold the curious boys back, but once Harry saw the male counterpart to the pair behind the broom shed, he pushed Ron forward and said, "Ron, get control of your sister! She has lost her bloody mind!"
Ginny stepped closer to Draco in an attempt to hide the potion that he was still holding in his hand, but this motion surprised everyone around her, including Draco who stopped sneering at the trio long enough to shoot a glance of confusion at Ginny.
"Harry Potter," Ginny cried fiercely, her face flushing ominously, "don't you even dare to think that my brother has any more control over my actions that you did. I am my own person, I make my own decisions, and I can take care of myself!"
"Obviously not!" Harry shouted back at her. "You have no sense of self-preservation at all!"
"Oh and how do you figure that, Potter? Have you spent more than a few moments in my presence since you were so unceremoniously dumped?"
Harry spluttered for a few moments before replying, "No, but no one in their right mind would willing spend time with the ferret, including his own house, let alone…" He broke off and wildly gestured to the pair in front of him.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Ginny replied with false calm.
Harry's eyes widened and he looked wildly between the blonde and redhead in front of him before turning to Hermione and saying, "You are a girl, you're sensible, you handle it."
"Always letting others fight your battles for you, Potter? It's no wonder she dumped you. This little vixen needs a man!" Draco fuelled Harry's anger, but managed to extinguish Ginny's. She looked at him with a mischievous grin before turning back to Hermione.
"So, Hermione, let's be sensible. We are girls after all," Ginny glared at Harry for good measure. "What exactly do you three think we have been doing behind here that has turned my poor brother into a mute and wonder-boy into a moron?"
Hermione looked distinctly uncomfortable, and glanced at Ron, who was steadily becoming more and more red in the face before she said, "Snogging. You two have been snogging. We've all seen you sneaking around together. And now the broom shed? Honestly, I thought you were smarter than that!"
Ron gagged a little, and Harry choked on his air. Draco looked distinctly ruffled, and Hermione uncomfortable.
"Ah, well if that it all you are worried about," Ginny replied calmly, "let me put the rumors to rest." With that, she closed the gap between herself and Draco, grabbed him by the collar, pulled his face down to hers, and kissed him good and hard.
The surprised gasp that came from one of the offended bystanders caused Ginny to laugh a little into the kiss, and Draco took the opportunity to deepen it. Rather than pull away as he had expected, Ginny tightened her hold on him and rubbed her tongue against his. This unexpected burst of passion was met with the tinkle of shattering glass, as Draco dropped the vial of potion and pulled the fiery little redhead to him. The passionate couple forgot that this was a fake kiss between enemies, and that they were watched by a very angry audience and let loose all of the pent up frustration.
What seemed like ages later, when they finally pulled apart, Draco and Ginny stood alone and ruffled behind the broom shed. Ginny's hand flew up to her swollen lips and her eyes widened at the sight of a thoroughly snogged Draco Malfoy standing in front of her, his silvery eyes darkened with passion and wide with surprise. The pair stared at each other for a few moments before Ginny took a shaky step backwards.
Finally Draco broke the silence. "You made me ruin the potion, you little minx."
Ginny let out a sound somewhere between shock and humor before shaking her head. "We'll just have to make some more, I guess."
"Yeah, and you," Draco pointed a shaky hand at Ginny, "need to be more careful with this stuff. Potions don't grown on trees. And neither do enemies, for that matter!"
Ginny cocked her head at him. "Enemies don't grow on trees?"
"That's right! They don't! Any if you want to keep proper enemies you cannot kiss them like that! That was awful!"
"Awful! I am a great kisser, if I do say so myself!" Ginny retorted.
"Exactly!"
"Exactly? How can it be awful and great?"
"It is awful, because you kissed me like you… liked me."
The look of confusion, horror, and disgust on Draco's face was quite possibly the most attractive unattractive display of emotion Ginny had ever seen, but she remained calm enough to say, "Next time I kiss you, I will just have to make sure I don't try as hard." Then she turned and walked away from him with an evil little smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
Once she had gotten a couple hundred feet away she heard him shout from the distance, "You know they are going to kill me now!"
Without turning Ginny shouted in reply, "I am counting on it! What else are enemies for?" She laughed a little, shook the unwelcome thoughts of a very attractive blonde from her head, and made her way back to the entrance to the school.