Six

They lay there, her head in his lap and his hand running through her red hair for what seemed like a life time.

"Why do you think that I like Harry?" Ginny asked eventually, the question having battled its way to her lips, "Why does everyone think that I'm so smitten on Harry?"

Draco snorted, "Come on. Everyone knows that you idolise Potter. You sent him that singing valentine one year remember? And you used to go red whenever you talked to him."

"Ah," Ginny said.

"You don't deny it?"

She shrugged, "I don't know how I feel. Do you remember the first time we kissed?"

"How could I forget?" Draco muttered.

"Well, I was crying, yes? That was because of Harry and Cho, you were right. But since then… I don't know. I haven't felt as bad about it as I did then."

"What do you want me to say?" Draco was way out of his comfort zone here, he was already ridiculously embarrassed about their previous conversation, "Potter is a dick. You could do so much better."

"What? With you?" She sounded doubtful.

He shrugged. "Maybe. Do we have to talk about this now Weasley?"

"I suppose not, Malfoy," she added emphasis to his last name, noting the way that he'd said hers, like it was something to be ashamed of.

He laughed gently at the way she said his name, as if it was something equally disgusting.

"I'm going to miss potions. I should go," he said.

"Oh," she said, "I forgot we had lessons today. We don't really have to go do we?"

He snorted, "You might not. I do. There's no way your Mudblood friend is beating me this term, and Snape will tell my dad if I'm not there."

"Don't call Hermione that. And, you know, for a bully, you're scared a lot."

Draco stood up, his eyes growing cold. "I'd like you to find me someone who isn't afraid of the Dark Lord," he said, leaving the room unceremoniously and slamming the door behind him.

Ginny swore, she hadn't meant to get rid of him, she'd been trying to make him stay. As Draco left the room sensed the change and the hangings faded from green to red, and gold began glittering around the room.

"Where was the red when I wanted it?" Ginny muttered to the room as she left, deciding that she may as well head to transfiguration now.

She rushed along the corridors, in the opposite direction to which Malfoy would've been moving, as fast as she could but still managed to arrive at the transfiguration classroom half an hour late. She burst in through the doors, out of breath, not thinking to catch it first.

Professor McGonogall looked up from some papers on her desk, and everyone else in the room fell quiet, staring at her.

"Miss Weasley, how good of you to join us." Professor McGonogall said, "It would appear that you have gotten the wrong time, however, as this lesson began half an hour ago."

"Sorry Professor, I uh, got distracted."

"Distracted, indeed," McGonagall mused, "Well I do hope you won't find yourself too distracted to come back here tonight for your detention, otherwise there will be consequences, hmm? Take your seat." McGonagall nodded towards Ginny's chair and Ginny moved quickly towards it.

Draco Malfoy arrived down in the cold dungeons just as late as Ginny had arrived to her own class. He was seriously debating cutting his losses and not turning up at all but he couldn't see how that would help and so he pushed open the door and stepped into the potions classroom. The room was alive with people stirring and boiling their cauldrons, smoke clouding the classroom and Draco decided that if he headed over to his spot in the room quickly, he could pretend he'd only been five minutes or so late by pretending to have arrived just after the register.

"Professor, Malfoy's late!" Came a satisfied voice from across the room. Draco turned to glare and found Ginny's brother smirking at him.

"Sit down Draco." Snape snapped, turning to fix an icy look at Ron, "And ten points from Gryffindor for speaking out of turn."

"Bu, I wasn't-"

"I'd shut up now if I was you Weasley. Unless you'd like to make it twenty?"

Ron shut up and it was Draco's turn to smirk.

Granger caught his eye and smiled in a rather sarcastic manor, before addressing Professor Snape, "If you don't mind me saying Professor, isn't there a new school rule that states you have to give anyone who arrives more than ten minutes late a detention?"

"Thank you, Miss Granger, for your enlightening news. However as it is, I am aware of the rule and Draco will be serving detention tonight." Draco's heart sank, stupid Mudblood, Snape might have let it slip otherwise.

"And, take another twenty points from Gryffindor," Snape snarled.

"What? No! Why?" Potter protested.

"Because Miss Granger here seems to presume to know more than I, which suggests that she has a rather high opinion of herself. We should tone that down, don't you think?"

Potter didn't say anything, just glared.

The rest of the lesson passed without much happening, Draco still managed to finish the potion that everyone was working on before the end of the lesson, and when he handed it in he felt sure that he'd achieved good marks. As he was clearing up Snape called him.

"You need to stay behind, Mr Malfoy, so that we can organise your detention."

Draco sighed. He should've known that there was no chance of Snape ever forgetting anything.

"Yes sir," he said.

Draco packed up the last things into his bag and went to stand by Snape's desk, frowning slightly.

"Well, Draco. Why were you late?"

"I wasn't feeling well sir."

"Didn't you think of going to Madam Pomfry?"

"Yes, sir. But she wasn't at the hospital wing."

Draco could tell that Snape didn't believe him, but as hoped, he didn't push it.

"Well then. You will serve detention just the same. I believe Professor McGonagall is holding a detention tonight, I will inform her that you will be joining them."

Draco sighed, flinging his bag over his shoulder, "Yes sir," he said, again, and then stalked out from the room.

Well, at least McGonagall is fair, thought Ginny as she headed for her detention that night, it won't be that bad. Oh, how she wished she could take that sentence back as soon as she walked into the room. It wouldn't be that bad, she thought. And then she saw Draco.

"What's he doing here?" she demanded, rather more forcefully than she'd intended. Both Draco and McGonagall looked rather taken aback. Well, she couldn't help it. How was she supposed to sit there and act like nothing had happened between them for McGonagall's benefit? She was torn between wanting to yell at him for being so frustrating and trying to make him see that she didn't mean to upset him. On seconds thoughts, perhaps acting like nothing had ever happened between them for a while was the safer option.

"Mr Malfoy is here to serve detention just like you are, it appears that he was also late to his lesson. Take a seat. I'll be with you both in a moment." McGonagall continued reading through her papers and Ginny took the seat behind Draco. Draco remained emotionless as she passed and didn't turn to look at her as she sat down. At least he had some sense about him she thought as McGonagall put down her papers and walked over to the two of them, giving them a piece of paper each.

"You are to do lines," she said, "I will be back in an hour to see how you are getting along. Write 'I must not be late'."

Ginny sighed, what had happened to practical detentions? She knew there had been a time when Harry had been to the forbidden forest on a detention, at least that was exciting.

"This is riveting," Draco said sarcastically after McGonogall left the room, "We could be doing much more fun things now. I blame you."

"Me? You're the one who told me to meet you. It's your fault."

"Whatever. You didn't have to come. And if you hadn't we wouldn't be here now."

"You're impossible."

"Not as impossible as you. I can't believe you called me a coward."

Ginny was having a hard time concentrating on writing.

"Yes well. I wanted you to stay, you idiot."

"And I'd rather not risk both our lives. It looks suspicious enough that we were both late."

"McGonogall didn't suspect anything."

"No. But she might if it happens again."

"It won't happen again."

"This is stupid," said Draco, slamming his pen down and turning to face her.

She put her own pen down, looking up at him quizzically, "Oh?"

"Yes. I mean how many times this year are we going to get chance to be alone?"

"Not many," she admitted, and he smiled, running his hand down her cheek.

"Well then, why should we waste it writing stupid sentences that we could magic just as easily?"

Ginny smiled back and leant forward across the desk, planting a kiss on his cheek."Because McGonagall will know if we magic them. Now, write."

He frowned, "Don't order me about. I was being nice."

"You said you didn't want to risk our lives. Act like it."

"Don't order me around," Draco glared.

"Merlin, you're so irritating. Just listen to me."

"Say please then."

"No!"

Draco stood up and placed him piece of paper on Ginny's desk. "Write them for me then. I'm leaving. This is a complete waste of time."

"Oi! Malfoy, don't you fucking dare! Get back here now!"

He walked out of the room, rather calmly, but Ginny was fuming, she picked up her pen and threw it at him but missed. She saw him smirk slightly as her rounded the corner and that was enough to make her get up and run after him. Stupid, arrogant, presumptuous twat.

She threw a spell after him, planning on freezing him but it missed as he dodged to the side and ricocheted off a nearby suit of armour.

"Draco Malfoy you get back here right now or else you'll be lucky if you ever walk again!"

She heard him laugh and aimed another spell after him, this time he ducked behind a wall, sending a jet of blue back which she avoided by ducking.

"Rictusempra!" she yelled and this time her spell hit, sending Malfoy into fits of laughter as invisible hands tickled him. He cursed, managing to send a spell back, and Ginny found that her feet came out of her control and started doing a weird tap dance. It was her turn to swear as she tried to keep her balance well enough to send a bat bogey hex after Malfoy. That'd show him. Unfortunately just as her spell hit Malfoy who let out a loud yell, Professor Dumbledore rounded the corner.

He faltered for a second, and Ginny swore she saw a half amused look on his face before he pulled out his wand and her legs were still and Malfoy stopped yelling. It took Malfoy less than a second to notice Dumbledore stood there and Ginny watched as he rearranged his face so that it portrayed a small smirk. She didn't know why he bothered, it wasn't fooling her and it probably didn't fool Dumbledore either.

"What's going on here?" Professor Dumbledore asked, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that you two were serving detention with Professor McGonagall tonight."

"Yes sir, we were," said Ginny.

"Well then, why is it that you are out on the corridors firing jinxes at each other?"

Neither of them said anything.

"Well?"

As much as she was mad at Malfoy, she didn't want to land him in it, and judging from Malfoy's face he wasn't about to say anything. Professor Dumbledore tilted his head slightly, as if he was trying to solve a rather difficult puzzle.

"You two aren't usually the types to miss a chance to pin the blame on each other. I admire loyalty, but I wasn't expecting it in this situation."

"I'm not loyal to her," Draco snorted, unable to hold himself back, "I was just walking out of the classroom when she followed me and started attacking me. I was trying to defend myself."

"Yes well, I wouldn't have had to attack you if you hadn't wound me up so much, as if I was going to write your lines for you, I'm not your house elf!"

"No, thanks to you getting caught up in the Chamber and saint Potter's rescuing complex I don't have one of those anymore!"

"Oh I do apologise for getting possessed! If I'm not mistaken the Chamber wouldn't have opened in the first place if it wasn't for your father, so perhaps the blame lays closer to home. OR perhaps, you should've been nicer to your damn house elf!"

Ginny was now red in the face and Professor Dumbledore's presence had practically been forgotten, until he chuckled lightly.

"What?" Snapped Malfoy, glaring at him.

"I was merely thinking that you remind me of an old married couple, there is no need for the harsh tone Mr. Malfoy. I think that given the present situation, perhaps you should hold your tongue."

Malfoy's pale cheeks now flushed slightly pink.

"I wouldn't marry him if he was the last person on earth," Ginny muttered quietly. She wasn't sure if Dumbledore had heard but if he had he pretended not to. He continued to look at the pair of them as if they were an interesting puzzle and Ginny deliberately avoided Malfoy's eyes, hoping that Dumbledore wasn't insinuating that there was anything between them. There was silence for quite a while until Dumbledore finally said, "I'll see you both in my office at six pm tomorrow evening. I have been wanting a word with you both for a while as it is anyway. May I suggest that you both head back into the transfiguration classroom and finish your detentions before Professor McGonagall gets back."

"Yes professor," they both sighed.

Ginny was not looking forward to having to go to Dumbledore's office at all. Especially not with Malfoy.