Thank you all so much for the reviews. You guys are truly awesome. With that said I give you the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own JKR's brilliance...but please REVIEW

Xx Now you still speak of day old hate

Though your whole world has gone up into flames

And isn't it great to find that you're really worth nothing

And how safe it is to feel safe

So drown me if you can

Or we could just have conversation

And I fall, I fall, I falter.

But I found you before I drift away xX

Chapter 3

Ginny blinked once. She blinked twice. She held his stare for a moment more before quickly shuffling off of him and propping herself up on her knees. On any other normal evening she would have come back with something to really put him in his place. It was an ongoing battle that they had forged years prior to this moment, but an unlikely feeling had settled in her stomach. The same conniving sneer was present on his face, but the glimpse of truth behind his eyes indicated something that Ginny had never been close enough to witness before. Not that she wanted to sit there and get to close to him. It was Malfoy for Merlins sake. There were plenty of other stellar options she could have thrown herself into, but looking into his eyes seemed to be the only available option at his moment. Honestly he wasn't an unattractive bloke. He had the most prominent chiseled features, and if you looked at his eyes in certain light the gray slipped into icy blue.

My Gods what am I thinking? It's Malfoy! Ew!

Her hand jet to the sides of her head and she screamed out in her head. Merlin it was just painful to even think of him without wanting to bat bogey hex him. She felt her eyes widen slightly and she quickly placed her hands on the ground and hoisted herself back up into standing position. He on the other hand just smirked up at her before rising as well.

His hands dropped down to the front of his robes and he brushed at the newly placed dust that appeared along his torso. "So are you going to gawk at me all day then? Cant blame you really… though I doubt precious Potter would be thrilled." His eyes lowered towards his tie and he straightened it with a hint of arrogance.

"Oh get over yourself you raging prat. If you weren't bloody in my way then I wouldn't have fallen over you in the first place." She turned her nose up slightly in the air. "And don't talk about Harry. Your barely even worthy enough to speak his name."

This caused the tips of his ears to turn read slightly, and he scoffed. "Get out of my way, Weaselette." His left arm reached out and he pushed her aside.

"Wait!" Her cry startled even her, and Ginny scrunched her nose slightly. Ginny felt guilty for even calling out his name in worry. He had been the reason Dumbledore was dead. He was part of the reason Harry couldn't return to Hogwarts this term. She fought the urge to just turn right then and there and let him discover it on his own. Her conscious won the battle however and she remained planted.

With the same confused feelings she was struggling with, Draco turned around and quirked a brow. "What?" All he wanted to do was get down to the storeroom and get the punishment over in as little time as possible. Unfortunately the redheaded fireball was making that difficult.

"I just came from that way. Dementors are stationed at that end of the corridor." Looking back at what had just been exchanged between them Ginny couldn't for the life of her figure out what had caused her to tell him. She hated him with every fiber of her being, and yet couldn't send him off to his doom like some heartless nitwit.

Draco stared at her silently and then turned his head towards the next corridor. He certainly did feel an odd chill present in the air, but he had tallied that up to be the stupid chill that plagued the castle on a regular basis. Then again it could have been the beady little glare the Weaselette was throwing him. Wither way his eyebrow remained quizzically arched.

"Why should I believe you?" He narrowed his eyes. "When did you suddenly become a righteous Gryffindor…and to me of all people?" His eyes lit a bit, " is this your way of showing your fancy then? How disgustingly sweet, Weasley. I'm flattered of course, but your filthy Pureblood is only good for one thing…and I'm not much in the mood to paint the walls red."

Spinning wildly on her heel Ginny stormed down the corridor in the opposite direction, and clambered down the staircase.

Draco just stared after her with his usual smirk before waiting a moment and then following suit. He could have tested her warning about the dementors, but an unusual trust of her word had surprised him. By the time he reached the lower landing of the staircase the tiny little redhead was gone, and Draco found himself alone again on his way to the Storeroom.

What he wouldn't give to be back in his dormitory behind the curtains of his four post bed. Sleep had been brief back at the Manor and now that he had returned to school he was hoping that he'd be able to obtain a little bit of rest. Damn Snape for ruining that for him. Which was another thing he still didn't understand. How the hell did Snape manage to convince the Dark Lord to allow him into the school as Headmaster. Draco had figured that the Dark Lord himself would sit rightfully in that chair. After all he had heard the stories from his father about the Dark Lords obsession with the school. He had it right where he wanted, and he gave that privilege to Snape? Draco shook his head and slid down the banister of the last staircase.

He hoped Slughorn wasn't there to watch over him. The overweight git had a tendency to be a pain in Draco's side, and all he wanted to do was get the stupid detention over with so he could get back to his dormitory. Merlin his father would have a fit if he knew what Snape was making him do. Granted he did not want to serve a detention with the Carrow's, but the least Snape could have done was let Draco off the hook. Wasn't he supposed to favor the young Slytherin.

He scoffed, and stepped in front of the door that he had frequented so often last year. Slughorn was an idiot. The amount of Polyjuice Potion he had nicked from the shelves last year was enough to serve to the entire army of the Dark Lord. He reached out and twisted the knob of the door. The small space that was already open peaked his curiosity. So Slughorn had decided to show up and oversee Draco's punishment? "Merlin's beard." Rolling his eyes and huffing quite loudly, Draco pushed the door open causing the heavy wood to bang against the nearest shelf. A box of vials tipped from the very top landing and shattered against the floor with a disturbing bang.

"Are you following me?"

He turned his eyes upward. There on the extended ladder that reached to the ceiling the small frame of the youngest Weasley stood. In the shadows he could barely make out her face, but he was sure she was casting him that foul look that she never seemed to pass up while he was around. Draco merely stepped inside the storeroom and shut the door behind him. Taking out his wand he cleared the mess he had created, and then casually glanced up at her.

"I don't believe I gave you permission to speak to me." He retorted with a cold stare that caused her to descend from the ladder and cross towards him.

"What are you doing in here ferret face?" Her finger thrust harshly in the center of his chest, and Ginny's lip quivered with anger.

He picked up her discarded robe and waited a moment for her to yank it away. "Oh I dunno really…figured I'd take a late night stroll to the potions storeroom cause I cant get enough of the blasted class during the morning hours." His words dripped with humored sarcasm, and he pushed by her. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her grab her shoulder in pain. Draco suppressed a chuckle. "What the hell do you think I'm doing? It's six in the evening…I have a detention to serve." He took a few steps up the ladder she had just been on. "So what are you doing? Gonna make a potion to bring your hero home?" A disgusted noise erupted from the back of his throat.

Tossing her robe on the back of the door, Ginny sighed. "You know its really sad how jealous you are of Harry. Not that I blame you really…I mean when you could choose between being someone heroic or a slimy murderous Death Eater I would be jealous too." She folded her arms in front of her. "I have detention too. Lucky us."

Malfoy snarled and lifted a bottle of the lowest shelf. Basilisk acid. Merlin how he would love to throw it at her feet and watch her skin melt from its bones. He placed it back, and took a few more steps up the staircase. "I don't really give a damn what you think, Weaselette. I'm here to sort this crap out and then I'm getting out of here. One more second spent with you and I might be forced to hang myself from these rafters." He cast a look down at her. "You stay on that side of the room. I don't even want to breathe the same air as you."

Ginny felt her eyebrows arch slightly. He had made no snide comment back at her about the name calling. That was highly unusual. She had expected him to fly off the handle when she called him a Death Eater. Ginny turned her back on him and sat crossed legged on the floor. During her potions class this afternoon Slughorn had told her that the vials needed to be placed in alphabetical order, and by level of strength. "Do you know what we're supposed to be doing." She kept her comments short and to the point. The less she had to speak with him the better.

"Yeah I organize these vials on my side of the room, and you keep your trap shut. I get out of here quickly, and you keep quiet and out of my hair. Sounds like a win-win situation to me."

She bit down on her lip so hard that she drew blood. The bitter taste trickled down the back of her throat, and she began grabbing the vials on the lowest shelf. One by one she began to alphabetize them. Every now and then she moved her gaze up to where Malfoy was working. He seemed busy organizing something along the top shelf and she turned her eyes back to her own work. As if on cue he turned and looked down at her while she was busy organizing the bottle shelf. From an outside perspective it would seem a deliberate game of missed glances, but Ginny knew in the back of her head that he was doing it on purpose. Every time she turned her head away she could feel his cold eyes look down at her.

And then curiosity sparked up inside of her. What could Malfoy possibly be thinking during a moment like this? A moment where he basically had her, Harry Potter's ex-girlfriend, right there at his disposal. He could have offered her up to the Carrow's easily. Could have somehow stunned her and taken her to the Dark Lord himself. Yet the stupid blonde headed git just packed the shelf in silence only stealing glances at her when he knew she wasn't looking. It was maddening.

Then there was the prospect of him mending her wounds. Twice to be exact. The train ride would have obviously been a bit difficult to pull any trickery on, but when she had come across him in the corridor the precious evening she was once again at his mercy. Was it possible for someone as loathsome as Malfoy to go soft? She gazed up at him again and studied the lines in his face. All the poised and refined features that were normally present were replaced with something harder and aged. It seemed as though Draco Malfoy had suffered unimaginable things over the summer break, and Ginny felt her eyebrows knit together.

"You are awfully quiet."

His words caused her to let out a yelp of surprise. The vial that she was holding slipped out of her fingers and crashed in front of her knees. The brownish potion inside seeped down into the cracks of the floor and disappeared before she even had a chance to siphon it back up. Turning the vial over in her hand Ginny squinted slightly to read the label. Slughorn's tiny scrawl on the bottom of the label had blurred a bit, but she was able to make out Blood-Replenishing Potion. Sighing she placed the empty vial down and looked behind it. There was at least another vial of the rancid looking stuff, and she quickly separated half the contents into the other vial. Capping the top of it she turned up to Malfoy and shrugged.

"I thought we settled on the no speaking arrangement?" Shifting slightly on the floor Ginny tossed her chin upwards to get a better look at him on the ladder.

"Yes well I find myself much more comfortable making you miserable then sitting in silence. I feel like I'm wasting my potential." He stepped down two of the steps and hung onto the sides.

"What potential? I've seen first years with more guts in their pinky finger then you have in your entire body." She snorted back a laugh. "You think you are some sort of god with that tattoo branded on your forearm." She was on her feet though didn't recall standing. "Well I know, as well as Harry and everyone else with an ounce of intelligence, that you are nothing but a pathetic attempt to gain glory that you will never sustain. You aren't even your own person…" She was so daringly close to him as she closed the small gap between them, " you are a sodding puppet. Your strings are attached to the fingers of You-Know-Who and that's just a sad reality all together. Must be fun having someone else telling you when to eat, sleep, and breathe. Hell of a -"

His hand reached back and slapped her quickly across the face. It was the wrong thing to do when he thought back to it. Never in all his years of being a prat had he raised his hand to a witch. His father would most likely beat him on his own accord if he learned about it. It didn't even matter that it was a Bloodtraitor he raised his hand to. The fact was he had just hit Ginny, and the furious look on her face spoke a million words.

Draco wasn't surprised when she didn't cry. Yet he was surprised when she just turned around and sat back down to do her work. He had stiffened himself for a blow across the face, but like the incident in the corridor earlier she had done something he never expected.

"Weas- Ginevra look…I'm - well I didn't mean to - Is your face ok?" So he wasn't exactly great with apologies. For Merlin's sake he was a Malfoy. The only person he had ever apologized to was his father, and that was a sodding forced apology.

Ginny remained stoned faced. There was a growing red mark on her cheek, and for a very brief second her eyes had welled with tiny tears. But she would NOT cry in front of Draco Malfoy.

She paused. Had he just called her Ginevra?

With her head bent slightly Ginny glanced at him casually out of the corner of her eye. "Save your half arsed apology Mal-ferret. Look I hate you, and you hate me. I just want to finish this detention, and then leave." She had nothing more to say to him.

Draco merely nodded, and returned to his shelf. " You do know this is going to take longer then one evening, right?" He didn't bother looking down to see if she acknowledged him. He knew that she was listening regardless if she wanted to.

Cursing herself mentally Ginny sat back and stared at half the shelf she had completed. "I know."

"So why don't we just finish the last few vials we have out and do the rest tomorrow?" He had a handful or so more left to finish on the top right shelf. There was absolutely no way he was starting another one.

Ginny on the other hand looked down at the mess she had created on her shelf. Only half the shelf was organized, and she still had a good twenty or so vials in front of her, but she needed more then anything to get away from him. Hell, she'd do the rest of them tomorrow. One more twisted moment of conversation with him and she was going to throw herself into the shelf hoping some nasty potion burned out her eyeballs.

"I'm done." She began shoving the vials to the side so she could pick up where she left off when she returned.

"What do you mean your done? You've got about thirty vials at your feet." He pointed to where she was pushing the vials.

It was the last little kick she needed. Without any prior warning Ginny let out a frustrated scream. Even Malfoy quirked his brow and took a step away from her as she let out a summer's worth of pain, fear, and anger. She wasn't good enough to stay home with the Order, she wasn't good enough to help Harry, she wasn't good enough to stay out of trouble on the train, and now she wasn't even good enough to organize a bloody shelf. Everything in an instant came crashing down to her feet, and the reality of everything burst into flames around her head. She couldn't take it anymore. Her hands flew madly to her face, and she stormed out of the room without another word to the baffled looking Slytherin.

Her feet scurried across the corridor floor, and she wiped furiously at the tears that had managed to surface. When had everything become so overwhelming in her life? It seemed only yesterday that she had seen Harry on the platform of 9 and ¾ when she was ten. It seemed barely a dream ago that she had been rescued by him in the Chamber of Secrets, and it seemed barely minutes before that she had kissed him right there in the Gryffindor common room. Now she was nothing. Everyone was away fighting some damn epic battle and she was stuck in school feeling more alone then ever. Sure there was Neville and Luna, but the tension was growing far too much. Hell even Dean would have been a comforting reminder of the past, but she had been told by Seamus that Dean was on the run from Muggle inquiry.

It just wasn't fair!

And then there was Draco bloody Malfoy with his pompous smirk, and his murderous beady eyes. The only thing he needed to worry about was finding sleeves long enough to cover the stupid Dark Mark on his arm. She shivered at the thought, and automatically made to grab her robe to fight the chill. Her fingers came up empty handed.

"Bloody hell." She could see the portrait of the fat lady merely five feet from where she was standing. Her stupid robe was still hanging on the back of the storeroom door where she had tossed it earlier in the evening.

Her body begged her to forget about it and just get some sleep. There was the very simple task of heading down there in the morning and just getting it then, but the prospect of running into one of the Carrow's in the morning without her school robe on seemed evident. With the luck Ginny was having she'd probably run into both of them at the same time.

"Could you tell me what time it is?" She cleared her throat as the Fat Lady glared down at her. " Please?"

A high pitched snuff passed through the witch's lips, and she looked over to the right of her portrait. Ginny couldn't see a clock but figured the woman was stealing a peak at another portrait. "About eight thirty. You know the new curfew rule is quite strict. Nine in the evening means exactly that." She huffed again but returned to jabbering with another witch who had just entered the painting.

"Thanks much." Ginny rolled her eyes and began the trek back down to the storeroom.

Her glazed eyes were still fitted with tears, but she blinked them away as her feet carried her towards the stupid dungeon. Avoiding the corridor where she had run into the dementors, Ginny took the staircase at the far corner. Her feet landed on the first floor, and she paused for a moment right outside the entrance hall. The colored rubies in the glasses were still pretty much even, but the Slytherin house points seemed to be at a slightly greater advantage. Ginny shook her head and slipped down the next staircase towards the dungeon.

It was quiet. The last few stragglers in the castle had most likely returned to their common rooms to get some needed sleep. Ginny glanced back over her shoulder. Being down in the dark this late at night only caused goose bumps to form on the back of her neck. Was she being watched? Turning over her shoulder again Ginny paused and glanced back into the shadows. She could have sworn she saw someone standing there, but pressed her eyelids shut. When she opened them again the odd feeling was gone and the shadows seemed stilled again. Perhaps it was all just in her silly imagination. With everything she had witnessed lately she wasn't really surprised her mind was going a bit nutters.

Pausing outside the storeroom Ginny pressed her ear to the door. Was Malfoy still in there? When nothing but silence greeted her ears Ginny pushed the door open and stepped into empty storeroom. He was gone. Thank Merlin. It was bad enough she was going to spend the next few nights stuck in the stupid room with him. At least he was gone now. Closing the door partially Ginny reached up for her robe and pulled it down off the hook it was placed on. Wrapping it tightly around her small frame Ginny swing the door open again and took one step outside the door.

She paused.

Her feet moved backwards, and she dropped to her knees in own swift motion. There was no way she was looking at what she thought she was looking at. Her hand reached out and scanned across the row of vials.

"No.."

Her forehead creased in puzzlement as she went over the vials she had left behind mere minutes ago. Every single vial had been placed in it's correct place. Hadn't she left a good thirty vials shoved against the side of the wall? Pushing to her feet she grabbed the sides of the ladder across the way and climbed to the top shelf that Malfoy had been working on. Her eyes scanned the area that he had been working on, and her breathing hitched slightly in her throat. He hadn't finished his. Snapping her neck she looked down at her area again, and then back to his. Had Malfoy finished her area in lieu of finishing his? Her mouth dropped open and hung there. She must have been seeing things. There was no way Malfoy would help out a Bloodtraitor. Not when he had gone out of his way to make her feel completely crappy all evening. What he hell was he playing at?

The again he had been acting funny all this time. Something about him seemed so un-Malfoyish if that was even possible. But he was a Death Eater! A sworn enemy of everything her family stood for! An enemy of everything Harry stood for. Her head spun slightly as she descended the ladder. Yet he had gone out of his way again to do something completely unexpected. And then the most unexpected thing of all happened. Ginny felt the corners of her mouth twitch slightly. A smile formed gracefully on her lips, and she leaned back against the door staring at the area she had been alphabetizing. Shaking her head, Ginny opened up the door and slipped back out into the cool corridor. Curfew would soon be approaching, and her new found mood was far too sensitive to be shattered by any run in with the Carrow's.

The common room was completely emoty when she entered it a few minutes later. She could only assume that everyone else in the Gryffindor house had just as grueling of a day as she had experienced.

Climbing the stairs towards her dormitory, Ginny opened up the door of the sixth year dorm and slipped over towards her bed. Flopping down on her plush mattress, Ginny buried her face into her pillow and sighed. Her mind immediately flew to Harry. What was he doing? Where was he? Was he alright? And then in the same instant her mind flashed over to the pointed face of Malfoy. Pushing herself up on her bed, Ginny lifted her pillow and tucked it comfortably under her chin. Why was she thinking of Malfoy and Harry at the same time?

"Damn you Malfoy." She let out a groan and shoved her face into her pillow. As much as she hated to admit it she was curious as to what he was doing too. What was he thinking? Where was he now? And why did he finish her work? Even though she still despised him she couldn't suppress the smile from filtering to her lips again. His antics…intentions…whatever was going on inside his selfish Slytherin head had managed to save her from drowning in her own misery. If at only for this one single moment she didn't feel quite so alone.

Ok my ladybugs, please review! Its a comfort to my soul to move on.

Lyrics supplied from Day Old Hate by City and Color