Ginny slowly made her way up the changing staircase towards McGonagall's office. Her heart dropped as she saw Malfoy heading up the stairs too.
She let her feet guide her in through the open door Professor McGonagall showed her to a chair and told her to remain there for a moment.
Ginny looked around and saw a tall willowy brown haired sixth year girl from Ravenclaw and a dirty-blonde handsome seventh year boy from Hufflepuff.
Finally as Draco stepped into the room Professor McGonagall waved her wand and the door closed behind him.
"Now, I have asked you all to come because this year Professor Dumbledore has had an idea; an idea for two students one from Gryffindor and one from Slytherin" she gestured to Ginny and Draco.
"And one student from Hufflepuff and one from Ravenclaw to act together and by this I mean spending time together and assisting each other on your efforts. I shall know if you are or are not because of certain charms placed on the castle."
Malfoy nearly shouted: "But what if we refuse?" McGonagall smiled and replied: "You will simply fail this term" Malfoy looked like he'd been slapped.
As McGonagall continued to smirk she said: "Now you will have a separate common room that the four of you will share, it is on the fifth floor behind the portrait of two witches and two wizards in front of Hogwarts, the password is cooperation."
Now off you go, you may go tell your friends and return to your common room by eight o clock tonight. Ginny ran to catch up to Lila; the sixth year from Ravenclaw.
"So," Lila began, "You and that blonde kid would look pretty cute together if you ask me." Ginny stopped dead in her tracks: "I'm going out with Harry Potter…"
Lila shrugged and continued down the corridor and Ginny turned to go up to the seventh floor where Gryffindor tower awaited. Ginny ran her fingers through her hair.
Why had she actually felt warm when Draco walked into their compartment? Why wasn't she more outraged out the inter-house cooperation project? She smiled until she realized that she wouldn't know the password!
But then Harry jumped out gave the password to the Fat Lady's portrait. She walked into quiet discussions and went to find all her friends.
After visiting both girl and boy dormitories she told all her friends that she would no longer be staying in Gryffindor tower and she explained the project. Her friends seemed disappointed but they wished her words of good luck and left.
