Chapter 4

"Ah, what to do with all of this free time?" Pansy asked with a smile. Harry paused for a minute. The pair had just been let out of Potions after successfully finishing the Draught of Living Death. Just barely actually, had it not been for Pansy the draught probably never would have been finished. Harry was surprised how easily she explained it to him, with such patience. Even Hermione wasn't that patient with him.

"Fancy a walk around the grounds?" Harry suggested.

"Sounds great." The teens headed towards the Entrance Hall in a comfortable silence. Pansy was starting to get to know Harry and she was rather enjoying it. He wasn't as everyone said he was. He was kind and quite cute as well. Opening the doors, the autumn air breezed by them pleasantly. They started to walk towards the Lake still in a comfortable silence. Harry was so lost in his thoughts, that he began to speak aloud,

"You know you're not like everyone says you are."

"Hmm? And what is it that they say?" Pansy asked, raising an eyebrow. Harry blushed,

"Oh, er, you don't want to know really."

"Well, you did bring it up, you're going to have to tell me now." She said, her eyes laughing. He knew he shouldn't have brought it up.

"Oh you know, the things people say about Slytherin's. How they're all evil and plotting to take over the world and that nonsense." He said with a shaky laugh. They came to a large tree and decided to sit down under it.

"And, what else?" She said, nudging his shoulder slightly. He paused for a few moments and then mumbled something inaudible.

"What was that?" Pansy was giggling now.

"They said you looked like a pug." He replied quietly, looking down. Pansy's giggles ceased and her smile dropped. Throwing her hand up to her face by instinct, she forgot her and Harry's hands were attached. Unfortunately due to this, she ended up smacking herself in the forehead with his hand. They were both silent for a minute, looking at each other. Then they burst into peals of laughter. After a few moments of this and a few laughter-tears were shed they finally calmed down and fell back into their comfortable silence. Pansy lifted her head up to the sky, simply enjoying the feel of the wind through her hair.

"You know they were wrong," Harry said softly.

"Hmm?" She murmured turning to face him.

"They were wrong, you're not evil, you kind and patient. And you definitely do not look like a pug." He paused.

"You're beautiful." He said, his voice soft, as if speaking to a child. Pansy's eyes softened. She reached for his hand and clasped it tight, leaning against his shoulder and looking back to the sky. They were definitely wrong, they thought, almost as one.

Draco and Ginny continued to sit in silence, avoiding looking at each other. Ginny was fidgeting with part of her robe while Draco was watching the flames from the fireplace. He didn't understand why she was so angry with him anyways, they made pot shots at each other all the time. He didn't understand what the difference was.

Ginny had calmed quite a by this point, she also didn't realize why she got so cross with him. There was a nagging voice in her mind saying it was because he seemed so much nicer. She shoved this voice to the side and decided she was so angry because she truly loved her family. Yes, that was definitely it.

The silence was killing him. He couldn't deal with it. When he was alone, he enjoyed and actually sought out silence. Since being bound to her, he had gotten used to her voice and enjoyed it. He almost, dare he think it, missed it. He decided it swiftly, he would break it. However, as he was about to open him mouth Dobby and a few other elves scurried back with their dinner.

"Here you are Miss. Wheezy, dinner as requested." He squeaked, placing a plate in front of Ginny.

"And for Mr. Malfoy, here, for you, anything to drink?"

"Whatever you have will be fine Dobby, thank you." She replied politely. The undertone however almost dared Draco to disagree.

"Yes, yes, one minute." He popped away and returned a moment later with some pumpkin juice for the pair, hurrying off after he served them to finish his work. The teens tucked in, Draco unfortunately having to eat with his left hand. Ginny could tell he was having quite a bit of a problem with it. His brow was wrinkled in concentration as he tried to pick up his food. She giggled softly, causing his head to snap up and glare at her.

"Having a bit of a problem there Malfoy?"

"Malfoy's never have problems, I'm merely taking my time." He said, still trying to pick up a carrot. She started laughing a little bit harder now.

"You can use your right hand you know, I'm not using my left right now." He grumbled, and took in the situation. He was starving and he probably wouldn't get very far like this.

"Fine." He grumbled switching hands. He smiled widely when he was finally able to pick up his carrot and chomped on it happily. By this point Ginny was laughing full out.

"What are you laughing at Weasel?" He barked, pointing his fork at her. She laughed even harder at her flapping arm. He took notice at where she was looking and with realization started chuckling to himself.

"So are you going to start talking again?" Draco asked, trying to seem nonchalant.

"Why'd you miss my voice Malfoy?" Ginny retorted, laughter in her eyes. Something like that, he thought.

"So what was Snape talking about back in class?" He asked, changing the subject.

"When?" She asked, scooping up some mashed potatoes. He had to give her credit, she looked, almost graceful, even when eating mashed potatoes.

"When he said he knew he was right about you or something." Draco resumed eating, attempting to make smaller movements so Ginny's hand didn't flap about as much.

"I didn't think you heard that." She looked as though she wasn't going to continue on that, then she let out a breath.

"He was one of the first professors to recommend upping my class levels."

"Really?" Draco looked genuinely surprised,

"Snape helping a Gryffindor?"

"I thought the same thing," She scoffed.

"I actually thought he wanted to see me fail. But he gave me some tests, I passed and then he recommended it to Dumbledore. He was genuinely looking out for my best interests. Of course that doesn't mean he's going to be easy on me or anything. What about you, you seemed to know your way around that cupboard pretty well." Draco took another bit, chewing slowly.

"It's not that hard, it is in alphabetical order you know." He sneered. Ginny rolled her eyes, but let it go. They finished their supper with light conversation, avoiding the topic of their earlier argument. Ginny looked down at her watch, a birthday gift from her father, and gaped,

"It's five to seven, we'd better get going, before we get into more trouble." Draco threw back the rest of his drink and rose with Ginny.

"Thank you Dobby!" Ginny called out before hurrying out of the kitchens with Draco.

They arrived at Filch's office just in time and slightly out of breath. Draco allowed them both a minute to catch their breath before raising his fist to knock on the door. A gruff reply came from inside, indicating for them to enter. The office was small and crammed with a strange smell seeming to emit from the walls. He rose from his desk when they opened the door and headed towards them with his cat at his heels.

"Follow me," He grumbled walking past them. Draco and Ginny shared a look but followed him out anyways, avoiding stomping the cat. Even though, Draco thought with a smirk, that would be amusing. He lifted his foot as if he were going to step on the cat and Ginny started to giggle. He looked over at her waggling his eyebrows.

"Quiet back there," Filch barked, successfully silencing the pair. They turned into a room and Filch faced them. Sneaking a glance around, Ginny came to the conclusion that they were in the Trophy Room. Filch reached into his pockets and held on two toothbrushes and what looked like a small can of shoe polish.

"You'll be cleaning all of these," He gestured to the trophies,

"With these," He finished with a smirk, holding of the toothbrushes and polish. Draco looked horrified and Ginny just laughed at his expression.

"Quiet! No magic, give me your wands. You are to report back to me when you are finished and you will get them back." The teens exchanged their wands for toothbrushes and turned to face their chore as the door slammed behind them. Ginny sighed but headed to the left side of the room to start. She glanced over at Draco, he still looked utterly terrified. She chucked to herself,

"What you've never cleaned before?"

"No!" He called, shocked that she would suggest such a thing. She rolled her eyes,

"Spoiled brat." She stated simply, starting to clean the first trophy.

"Can't you just clean with your left hand and mine will follow?" He suggested. She snorted.

"No princess, come on now, lift up your arm." When he didn't move she threw up her left arm, lifting his as well.

"And scrub." She said, demonstrating.

"Easy for you to say, you've done this before. I haven't so much as had a detention since you came along." He sneered, trying to clean a trophy.

"Right, and back in first year when you had detention with Ron and Harry that was just volunteer work right?" She shot back, smiling. He just grumbled not responding.

By nine thirty the pair had finally finished. Draco eventually got the hang of "cleaning" and got faster as he went along. Wiping her brow, Ginny rose, after finishing the last trophy.

"Let's head back to Filch, I'm dead tired." She breathed, letting her hair down from its tie. Draco nodded his agreement and they headed back to the grimy office. After a bit of time, Filch inspected the trophy room. With a glare he gave them back their wands and ambled away. The teens made their way back up to Draco's room making companionable chatter about this and that. Once they got up to his room it took Ginny mere minutes to finally fall asleep. Draco stayed awake however, lying next to her with his arm behind his head. He turned his head and looked over her face. She didn't look so fierce in her sleep. She didn't look like she could duel him in her sleep. She looked so peaceful. So…innocent. His thoughts were interrupted by a noise in the fireplace. He snapped his head over, trying to move as little as possible, so not to wake Ginny.

"Draco, are you there?" His father barked.

"Yes father, keep it down, the Weasel is sleeping." He said quietly. His father scowled.

"Yes, yes whatever. I was getting a hold of you about Christmas break."

"Did you want Weasley and I to come for break? Because I'm sure-" Draco was interrupted.

"Of course we don't want her in our house. I wanted to let you know, not to come home for the holidays so long as you're still bound to her." Lucius growled.

"But she's-" Lucius' bark cut Draco off yet again.

"What was that boy?" He raised an eyebrow. Draco turned his eyes back to the ceiling,

"Nothing. Give mother my love," he muttered. Lucius' face was gone a moment later. He had no idea why he was trying to defend Ginny to his father. That would do no good for either of them. With a sigh, he rolled over to make himself comfortable and shut his eyes, attempting to get some sleep for the second night they were together. Beside him, Ginny blinked, he had started defending her – to his father no less. Maybe I was wrong about him, she thought drifting off to sleep.

Author's Note:

So I tried to get that up as soon as I could because my laptop needs to go in for work. So it might be a while until I update again. I'm a little disappointed that I haven't gotten very many reviews. Only one actually, thank you Dracoginnylover24. If I don't get very more I might not update! So REVIEW! I'm actually working on another story, so if I don't get much response with this one, I'll just work on the other one. Please review:) Hope you liked. Let me know how I can improve and don't forget REVIEW!

I'm going on strike for updating until I get some REVIEWS! It's not that hard, just press the little button below. Really it is simple.

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