CHAPTER TWO

"Ow!" he heard, followed by a muttered curse.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't know anyone else was up here..." Ginny trailed off as she saw Draco Malfoy by the railing and the look of sheer displeasure that was on his face.

"Erm... I just wanted to get to the roof but the door was stuck and I was jiggling it for a bit but it wouldn't budge so I tried putting my weight against it and the door flew open and the handle sort of... fell off," she finished lamely.

Draco simply arched an eyebrow at her rambling and continued to look at her.

She followed Draco's eyes to the mess of broken pottery at her feet and an embarrassed flush came over Ginny's face. "And... I tend to be very clumsy... Don't look at me like that. I'll get it fixed first thing in the morning," she continued. Feeling self-conscious under the intensity of his stare, she snapped, "What, Malfoy?"

"I'm merely wondering why you are still here. Judging by the way you just rudely barged in, I'm not really expecting you to have enough manners to apologise to me… But don't you have something else to break, or someone else's privacy to invade? Or am I just too damned attractive that you can't tear your little weasel eyes away from me?" Draco said smoothly before turning his back to her.

He didn't need this right now. A headache was coming on and all he wanted was to be left alone, without a certain female Weasley talking about some broken door handle he couldn't care less about. He hoped that she would be offended enough to turn around and go back downstairs. But of course, with my luck…

Ginny clenched the door handle in her hand tightly, willing herself not to make an angry reply. Be nice Ginny… I will have to live with him for the next few weeks after all. But oh that boy does make me so mad!

Be nice…

"What?" She exploded. Damn. Too late Gin.

"I was only here because I needed a quiet place to think. But if I had known that an insensitive, bigoted bastard who can't even look past someone's name was here on the roof, I would have never even entertained the idea of coming up here!

"'Too damned attractive'?" she repeated mockingly. "Ha! Still the same old delusional Malfoy aren't you? I knew I could've counted on you to still be the pathetic git you were all those years ago. At least some things never change!"

With that, Ginny spun on her heel and stormed back down the stairs, muttering angrily under her breath.

A sigh escaped Draco's lips. Finally. With his pounding headache, he hadn't even been able to muster up the effort to make his usual scathing remarks and he sneered now, thinking back on what he had said. Or am I just too damned attractive that you can't tear your little weasel eyes away from me? Draco shook his head slightly in disgust. You're getting weak, Malfoy.

Then, as he recalled Ginny's violent reaction, he turned and stared at the wide open door in bewilderment. Wait, what the hell just happened?

. . . . . . . . . .

He's still the same Malfoy he was all those years ago! Arrogant. Conceited. Insulting. She fumed as she made her way back to the flat. She thought that, like Blaise, Malfoy would have changed his attitude towards... Well, towards everyone really. But a very ill-tempered Malfoy had just proved her wrong. Ginny blamed her idealism for having her always assume the best of people, because it always led to disappointment. Now was no exception. Argh! She silently screamed as she opened the door to the flat. That insufferable git!

. . . . . . . . . .

Blaise looked up from a Ministry document he was perusing, an amused expression on his face as he saw Ginny storm into the flat. She paced in front of Blaise gesticulating violently in the air, all the while still grumbling to herself. His eyes got tired of following the redhead and he went back to his work, determinedly ignoring her. Ginny then plopped herself down on the coffee table in front of Blaise, leaning on her elbows, her head in her hands, and glared at him.

His eyes still cast downward, Blaise sighed and said, "What's the matter, Red?" He had called her that the first time they bumped into each other at the Ministry and despite Ginny's half-hearted protests, the nickname had stuck.

"It's your bloody friend Malfoy!" she screamed in frustration.

Draco? Blaise quirked an eyebrow, set aside his work and mirrored Ginny; elbows on knees, head in hands. This was probably much more interesting than Ministry work; besides, only that Granger woman would choose to work at one in the morning over potentially juicy gossip. With his face directly in front of hers, he prompted, "Go on then."

Ginny, satisfied that she had an audience, launched into a furious rant about Malfoy and their confrontation up on the roof. She knew she was probably exaggerating the magnitude of their conflict, but she was an angry Weasley, and angry Weasleys tend to overreact at times. Ron was a very good example of an overreacting Weasley – just show him a photo of Ginny holding hands with a boy.

"...and I didn't even know he was up there! I mean I wasn't intentionally trying to intrude or anything. If he wanted to be left alone he should've stayed in his room! The roof is open to anyone, I shouldn't have to apologise to him!" she growled.

Ginny caught Blaise looking at her hand and she glanced down, realising that she was still clutching the door handle. "Hey it's not my fault that things start to break around me!" she said defensively, then sighed forlornly, "I'm beginning to think I'm a klutz."

Blaise set the handle aside and took Ginny's hands in his own, squeezing them gently. Ginny looked up at him, mentally comparing this sympathetic Slytherin to the moody one upstairs, and waited for Blaise's comforting words that she was sure would placate her frustration.

"How could you even think you're a klutz, Red?" He began, and the corners of Ginny's mouth turned up faintly at the use of his pet name for her. He was a nice Slytherin after all…

A wicked grin spread across Blaise's face. "You should've known by now that you are, undoubtedly, a klutz."

His grin switched to an expression of terror as his words registered in her mind. He then gave a yelp as a snarling Ginny pounced on him and proceeded to hit him.

"Hey! It was a joke! A joke!" he panted, trying to stop her flailing fists from reaching their target. She was small, but she didn't grow up with six brothers without learning something about how to fight – or at least how to physically hurt someone.

Ginny finally stopped, out of breath herself, and fell onto the sofa next to Blaise.

"Damn Ginny… That hurt!" Blaise whined, carefully examining himself for scratches or anything that would have disfigured his perfect skin.

"You asked for it," Ginny huffed in return, folding her arms across her chest.

"You," Blaise indicated, as his index finger touched the tip of her nose, "are mad at Draco. Don't take it out on my delicate self! I'll have you know I bruise like a peach." He pouted as Ginny snorted at his last comment.

Blaise put his arm around Ginny and drew her to him.

"Okay okay, I'm sorry. It's just... You may be making a bigger deal out of this than it really is. Draco's just grumpy because the prat hasn't been getting enough beauty sleep or something like that. I don't know why, but he frequents that roof quite often and probably, just like you, went up to get away from... whatever it is that's been bothering him.

"Then you come along, bumbling like an elephant," he tossed a glance at Ginny and grinned when he saw her bottom lip stick out at his description of her. "And interrupt him when he thought he'd be alone. He responded in typical Malfoy-fashion and you took the bait, Red! And, you did sort of overreact... If you think he was being a bastard, I'd like to see what he thinks of you now."

Ginny bit her lip as she listened to Blaise explain things to her from Malfoy's point of view. Merlin, I've made a fool myself, haven't I? She shouldn't have gotten mad at what Malfoy had said because, like Blaise had so patiently told her, it was a typical Malfoy thing to say. Why couldn't she have just let it go?

She began fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, thinking about how she had been so offended that she hadn't thought before responding. She had just been so infuriated; she hated the way Malfoy had the ability to make her feel so insignificant and inept. She still felt a thin streak of anger course through her as she thought about the incident now and sub-consciously thought of giving Malfoy one of her infamous Bat-Bogey hexes – again.

Stop it, Ginny! She scolded herself. It's been six years since I left Hogwarts and I still haven't matured one bit! Ginny reflected. All her anger was rapidly ebbing away as mortification at her earlier behaviour took over.

Blaise saw regret in her eyes and squeezed her shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Red. Come tomorrow I'm sure he would have forgotten all about it. I mean, sure, now he probably thinks you're completely psychotic and irrational... But who doesn't?"

He managed to draw a small smile from Ginny with that last line and winked.

"C'mon, you must be exhausted. Let's get you to bed now."

Ginny sighed gratefully and trudged off to her bedroom. Soon, she was under her covers and Blaise playfully pinched her cheek before turning off the light.

"G'night, Red. Sweet dreams."

Snuggling into her blankets, Ginny buried her face in her pillow and inhaled the tangy peach scent of her shampoo, hoping that the familiar smell in the midst of her alien surroundings would allow her some much needed rest.

. . . . . . . . . .

Draco still hadn't come back to the flat. While he was still annoyed at Ginny's intrusion, he was more peeved about the fact that she now knew about the roof. No one else in the flat had ever bothered to find out if the roof was accessible to tenants and Draco had enjoyed using the roof as a place to escape to when he got too bogged down by work or his nightmares. Then she had to move in, and on her very first night here, manage to stumble in on his secret hideaway. And on top of disrupting him, she had exploded like one of those Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes' fireworks and had even insulted him!

Sure, he admitted, he might have been part of the reason for her outburst, but he had still been quite shocked at seeing her temper in full glory. 'Too damned attractive'? Ha! Still the same old delusional Malfoy aren't you? He frowned. Since when did the she-Weasel start throwing back insults?

Glancing up, Draco saw a pale circle of light in the midst of the dark velvet of the sky and reluctantly decided to go back to bed.

As he passed through the door that Ginny had earlier burst through, he fingered the space where the door handle should've been, marvelling at how her petite frame so effectively disguised the strength she was clearly capable of unleashing.

Draco silently thanked whatever Gods there were that she hadn't been furious enough to hex him. Rubbing the side of his face gingerly, he winced as he remembered being on the receiving end of one of her Bat-Bogey hexes when they were at school. That embarrassing experience wasn't one he was too fond of and he had threatened to hex Crabbe and Goyle himself if they had ever told anyone about how he had been successfully hexed by the younger Weasley.

Before stepping into his flat, he poked his head cautiously around the door and saw Blaise on the sofa with his back to the door, parchment in one hand, his quill in the other. Every now and then he would mumble distractedly to himself and scratch out something on the parchment. Ginny was nowhere in sight. Draco quietly slipped in and nearly succeeded in trying to creep past Blaise when...

"You're not as stealthy as you think you are, you know."

Draco sighed and turned to see Blaise hanging over the back of the sofa. "Whaat? You're not!" Blaise put his hands up in mock innocence and grinned.

Draco cast his eyes to the ceiling and muttered, "This has not been my night." Then he said curtly to Blaise, "I'm going to bed."

"Wait." Draco raised an eyebrow at Blaise's sudden change of tone. He no longer sounded teasing and he had taken on an unsmiling expression. As much as Draco wanted to ignore his friend, he knew that it had to be something serious for Blaise to look the way he did now. He groaned and made his way to Blaise, fell on the sofa and put one of the cushions on his face, as if suffocating himself was the only way he'd get some peace.

Blaise could just made out a muffled voice grunting, "This had better be good." He smiled grimly.

"It's about Ginny."

Ugh, not her again, Draco groaned inwardly. He picked the cushion off his face and defensively said, "I don't know what she told you but sh-"

"I know," Blaise said, cutting him off. "She blew up in your face and all that." He waved his hand dismissively, not unlike the way Draco had done to Ginny earlier that night. "She was feeling really guilty about it by the way." He added as Draco snorted in incredulity and covered his face with the cushion again.

"I just wanted you to remember that she's still raw from her break-up with Harry. She's vulnerable, Draco, despite how she acted up there," he stated firmly, as Draco had thrown off the cushion and had his mouth open ready to disagree.

She didn't seem vulnerable at all when she looked incensed enough to throw the door handle at my head, Draco retorted to himself.

"Knowing her the way I do, I'm guessing she'll be apologising to you tomorrow, even though the girl absolutely loathes apologising for anything. Proud as a Gryffindor lion she is," Blaise said and smiled fondly at the thought of Ginny having to bite her tongue and reluctantly apologise to Draco.

"Just accept her apology tomorrow. She's already going through a hard time without having to live with an arse like you too."

Draco stared at his flatmate, or one of them anyway, with his mouth slightly open. "You've gone slightly soft in the head I think."

Blaise leant back and smirked. "So this Slytherin learnt to care. Worse things have happened."

At that, Blaise gathered up his work and went to bed, leaving a brooding Draco lying on the sofa.

. . . . . . . . . .

Back in his bedroom Draco was spread out on his bed, still unable to sleep. He furrowed his brow as snatches of Ginny's rant came floating back to him. I knew I could've counted on you to still be the pathetic git you were all those years ago. At least some things never change! Although he tried to push those words from his mind, he couldn't help wondering what she had meant by that. What had changed for Weasley? What exactly happened between her and Harry?

Sighing, Draco folded his arms behind his head and stared at his ceiling, not knowing that on the other side of his bedroom wall, a certain redhead was lying awake in her bed, having as much trouble sleeping as he was.