CHAPTER 2

Next to my footprints in the snow are Charles' larger ones. I know what you're thinking: Ginny, you spilled Butterbeer on this poor Hufflepuff, and now you're going on a walk with him? Well, he is a Hufflepuff...

"Again, I'm really sorry about spilling my drink on you, Charles," I say, cringing as he wipes napkins across his pants and sweater.

"Charlie. And it's no trouble, really. Gives me an excuse to talk to you, at least." He grins, and I can feel my cheeks going red.

I can see the napkins that he's been using are already soaked, so I take out my wand and dry his clothes myself. Charlie looks up at me, his eyes alight, as though I'm a highly skilled sorceress and my mystical drying powers are far beyond his. Which, judging by what Kennedy's told me about how he is in charms class, might be true.

"Woah, what spell was that?"

"Exaresco. Drying spell."

He takes out his own wand from his pocket, before flicking it harshly at the end of his tie. "Exaresco!" To his surprise, the small wet spots fade away instantly. He grins, looking at me happily. "You, Ginny Weasley, are a genius!" I laugh, and he begins to shout it for all of Hogsmeade to hear.

"GINNY WEASLEY IS A GENIUS! GINNY WEASLEY IS A GENIUS!"

I'm about to tell him to quiet down before he gets us sent back to the castle, when I hear none other than Draco Malfoy scoff at Charlie's announcement. His eyes flick to Charlie, never once moving to look at me, to meet my gaze. Then he continues to talk to Audrina, ignoring our presence completely. I watch Audrina, with her arms wrapped around his waist as she leans up to whisper in his ear, and I imagine the two of them together, clothed under nothing but sheets. I can feel the blood rising to my face, know from that familiar heat that I'm becoming bright red like my hair. And suddenly, I can't take it. I lean up and plant a kiss against Charlie's smiling lips, and he kisses back only for a second before I pull away.

Charlie's eyes are wide with shock, but his smile is even wider as he looks at me.

"Gin, what was that all about?"

I look over at Draco and Audrina. She's nibbling on the edge of his ear, giggling and running her hands through his hair. He looks bored, unamused with her, but he still hasn't noticed Charlie and me.

"What do you say, Charlie? Wanna go out on a date sometime? A real date, I mean, one where I don't spill my drink on you or anything…"

He laughs. "Gin, I was about to ask you that too. Sure." His blue eyes are bright as he takes my hand, and I have to admit that even though I'm still low-key obsessed with Draco, it's nice to feel the warmth of his hand as his fingers intertwine with mine.

xxx

Charlie and I wander the streets of Hogsmeade, going into shops just for the sake of it. It's fun, and takes my mind off of Draco.

Charlie leads me into a shop, one with bright orange paint and a crowd of teens pushing in through the door: Hogsmeade's newest addition.

"Charlie, are you sure you wanna stay in here?" I glance around nervously, eyeing the swarm of people for a flash of orange hair, the Weasley trademark.

"Yeah, I love this place! It's your brothers' shop, isn't it?" I wince at the loud crack I hear at my side.

"Yep all ours!" Fred is standing next to me with his elbow resting on my shoulder, grinning at Charlie. George stands at Charlie's side, sandwiching the two of us between the two of them.

"Hey. Fred and George, right?" Charlie points at them respectively, holding out his hand like the perfect Hufflepuff.

"I'm not Fred, he is!" Fred says, acting hurt, placing his hand on his chest in offense rather than shaking Charlie's. If I hadn't lived with them for all my sixteen years, I wouldn't see right through their joke either.

Charlie apologizes, a pale pink hue spreading across his cheeks.

"I'm only joking, mate. I'm Fred, he's George."

Charlie looks relieved as the two shake his hand, and grins nervously.

"Take a look around. We've got Skiving Snackboxes over there, on sale too! And here's the witch's products, love potions and the sort. Doesn't look like you need any of them though, do you Gin-Gin?" George grins, and I can see a plan blooming behind his eyes, alight with mischief.

"Yeah Gin, looks like you're covered as far as love goes." Fred wiggles his eyebrows, grinning like a maniac. "All products right now are ten percent off, though, for you and your boyfriend..." Him and George slink away, chuckling to themselves as my cheeks flood with heat. I look up to see Charlie's face is pink too, for the second time today.

xxx

Charlie walks out of the shop with a small sack filled with Peruvian Darkness powder. I'm carrying a package of bright orange and green gum, with giant white lettering that says GLUE GUM. George told me that it was to glue enemies' mouths shut without them suspecting a thing.

Charlie and I walk towards the Shrieking Shack, looking at the dark, decaying wooden building from behind the safety of the fence.

"Weird place... Gives me the creeps..." I nod in agreement, shivering from the snow and the aura the building gives off. And suddenly, everything goes black.

"Charlie?" I reach out for his hand in the darkness surrounding us.

"I'm sorry, Ginny, I just really wanted to kiss you again. Figured this stuff- Peruvian Darkness Powder, I think they called it- might give us some privacy, unless you don't-"

And that's when I hear Draco's voice, loud and arrogant like always. "What the hell? Why's it so dark? Bet it's all Potter's fault…"

Listening to his drawling voice sets my teeth on edge. Perfect, stupid Draco Malfoy... I lean up towards the sound of Charlie's voice in the dark, pressing my lips against his angrily, making sure our kissing lasts long enough for the darkness to fade away into the bright light of the snowy landscape.

I pull back, only to see Draco's eyes on me rather than Charlie's. And just as quickly as they connected, his gray eyes flick away, and he turns back to Audrina like nothing happened.

Charlie looks at me with shock, his cheeks pink. Out of the corner of my eye, I see his smile fall slightly when he sees the way I'm staring at Draco, yet I don't care. No wonder I'm not in Hufflepuff…

He puts his hand on my shoulder, and I turn to face him, my ears burning bright red.

"Ginny, you okay?"

"Yeah, Charlie, I just… I don't know if I'm ready to be your girlfriend, at least in the way that I just was… I'm not, I'm not really ready to be kissing anybody right now." My cheeks burn at the lie, and I think about Draco's lips against my own only moments ago.

I see the way his eyes get a bit darker, the way his shoulders sink a little with disappointment. "I'm really sorry, Charlie…" He brushes off my apology, putting on a forced smile. Damned Hufflepuffs…

"It's okay, Ginny. Let me know when you're ready, if you ever are." He looks past me, at Draco, before his eyes shift back to me. He gives me a light pat on the shoulder before wrapping his yellow and black scarf a little tighter around his neck and walking away, leaving me standing on my own in the snow, where Draco and Audrina have begun snogging nearby.

xxx

I walk through the bitter snow, the wind's greedy fingers ripping into my cheeks and pulling at my scarf, trying to tear my robes open. I walk past Draco and Audrina, trying to block out the noise of her high pitched giggles and sloppy kisses.

I walk back to the castle, my feet frozen in my boots and my heart shattered in my chest. Just as I open the large oak doors of the castle, I feel a light touch on my arm, and look down to find five pale, slender fingers resting in the crook of my elbow. I look up to find the one and only Draco Malfoy looking down at me, his eyes barred and his mouth set in a straight line.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" I ask him, sure to fill my voice with as much venom as possible.

"Shut up and come with me, Weasel." The way he says it, it's as though both kisses never happened.

"Where are you taking me, Ferret?" I see him shiver, and I'm unsure whether it's from the cold or from the memory of Mad-Eye's fun in the courtyard in my third year. Whichever it is, I see the way his eyes grow darker, more caged, and decide to follow him into the castle.

"Why the hell are we in the girls' bathroom, Malfoy? You come in here often?" I smirk at the way his jaw clenches. I may be harboring a crush on him, but it sure is fun to see how angry I can get him.

"Oh, would you stop talking for once, Weasley?" He doesn't look at me, instead focusing on the vent as he attempts to unfasten the bolts keeping it in place. He pries it off the wall, placing it gently on the ground with a soft clanging noise. Then he gestures to the hole in the wall. "Ladies, first."

"What the- you expect me to go in there? Gee, Malfoy, if you're going to try and trap someone in the wall, at least do it properly." He snorts.

"Fine, I'll go first." And with that, he slips into the hole he's created in the wall and disappears into the darkness. I crawl in after him, propping the vent plate back into place before I continue. It's wider in the small tunnel than I had previously thought, but my head still scrapes against the ceiling as I crawl in Draco's wake.

Finally, we exit the walls, and I find myself standing in a dusty room, with wooden walls and a tattered purple tapestry hung up on the wall. The room is cluttered with junk, and I even see an old piano, its keys like crooked, yellow teeth in the mouth of the dead. I shiver. "Where are we, Malfoy?"

"Shrieking Shack," he says, his hands on his hips like a male model in a catalog. His usually flawless hair is sticking up, brushed into strange angles by the top of the tunnel.

"How did you find this place?"

He smiles then, looking excited and proud of his accomplishment. "Elizabeth showed me this place. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Elizabeth?" Yet another girl to compete with for the attention of Draco fucking Malfoy, I suppose.

"I'm civilized enough to call Moaning Myrtle by her real name." He says it coolly, but I can see right through him. Draco's cheeks go red, but he's skilled enough to cover his mistake with grace. So we've both slipped up with names today...

"Alright, so why'd you bring me here?"

"Jeez, you ask a lot of questions, Weasley. If you really wanted to know, though, it's because I really wanted to show you something." He turns and walks away from me, and I think he's going to lay down on the dusty bed until he reaches a tall object cloaked in a dark maroon cloth. He pulls it away with the same flourish he reserves for every activity he does. Dust skirts through the air, small particles drifting through the beam of sunlight coming from the poorly covered window.

It's a mirror, tall and elegant, with an engraving across the top of the silver, tarnished frame. "Why… Why are you showing me this?"

"Just… Stand here, and look into it."

"What, Malfoy, did you only just figure out how mirrors work? I thought you were sm-"

And suddenly, Draco is standing mere inches in front of me. I have to hold in a gasp as his hands wrap around my waist, his fingers pushing into my midsection as he picks me up and carries me to the mirror. He plops me down, and I huff as I look at myself. My bright red hair is a wind-swept mess, and my cheeks are bright red. But that's not all. Next to me is Draco Malfoy. I watch as he puts his arms around my neck and kisses me, the me in the mirror. The real Draco is a few steps behind me, unaware of the fact that the me in the mirror is twisting her hands through his silky platinum hair while he kisses at her neck, just above the collar of her shirt.

"Well, what do you see?" I whirl around at the sound of his voice, flustered.

"I see…" Think, Ginny, think! "I see myself as quidditch captain..."

His smile falters only for a moment, before he checks his watch.

"I've got to go. Audrina is probably waiting for me." His voice is cold, and just as he crouches down to crawl out of the shrieking shack, I call after him.

"Why, Malfoy?" He gets up and turns to face me.

"Why what?"

"Why would you just kiss me and then go back to being my enemy?" I know that I'm close to tears and my face is probably an even brighter shade of red than Madam Rosmerta's lipstick, but I can't help it.

"Last I checked, you were the one who kissed me not even an hour ago." And without another word, he leaves me standing in the room alone in front of the mirror.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey! That was chapter 2 of my fic, hope you guys enjoyed it! It was really difficult to write Fred and George, so I hope it turned out well enough. Let me know what you guys think- review please!