A/N: Well, here's the next chapter. Sorry for the delay but my sister was visiting and I was in Paris. Luckily, I have some more time in the next few weeks so expect more chapters soon. Enjoy!

Chapter 3

"What are you doing here?" she asked the man in the doorway of her bedroom.

"You were thinking about me so I came to see you," he answered as he sauntered into the room. She was standing next to the window looking out at the sunset.

"How did you know I was thinking about you? I wasn't thinking about you," she answered shaking her head. She had a strange foggy feeling in her head like things were moving too fast and slow at the same time.

"Are you sure?" he asked now standing inches from her body. She could feel the heat radiating off of him and a blush rose to her cheeks. He grabbed her waist with one of his hands and with the other one he traced her cheek. "Because I think you can't stop thinking about me."

Somewhere in the back of her mind a voice was screaming that this was wrong but the larger part of her didn't care because she wanted this.

He bent down to kiss her and she looked up into his grey smoky eyes when...

"GINNY! Wakey wakey!" yelled the little boy as he came running into the room and jumped on her bed.

Ginny woke with a start and could feel her pulse racing as she looked around disoriented. There sat Teddy on her bed bouncing up and down. It had only been a dream. But it had felt so real.

Then she realized who she had been dreaming about and gasped. What the hell? She was definitely not supposed to be having dreams about cheating on her boyfriend and especially not with him of all people.

"Ginny, are you awake?" asked the little boy tugging on her arm.

"Yes, yes, I'm awake," she answered before flopping over and putting her head in the pillow. "I'll be downstairs in a minute."

"Okay," he said taking one final bounce off her bed and running out the door.

Once she heard him thundering down the stairs she turned over. Looking out the window she could see it was another beautiful day but she couldn't feel as excited as she had yesterday. The dream still hung over her head and she couldn't shake the feeling that she wanted to return to it, and also the extreme guilt she felt over having the dream at all. Frustrated, she got out of bed and quickly tied up her hair and headed downstairs.

She found her mother in the kitchen working away furiously.

"Hey mum," she said to draw her mother's attention.

"Ginny, finally! You know, you could do better things with your life than sleep in all day. I could really use some help. Ron and Harry are coming for dinner tonight and they're bringing some others from the ministry. And of course he only just sent me an owl so now I have to prepare for a dinner party in a few hours. I need you to watch Teddy and clean up the house while I go out to the store and get the food," she said as she grabbed a grocery list off the table.

"But mum, I was really hoping to go to Diagon Alley and write some more today," Ginny replied trying not to sound too annoyed.

"Well, I'm sorry dear but we have more important things to do today. Besides you just went yesterday and you have responsibilities here. If you want to go tomorrow maybe you should get up earlier," her mother replied. Ginny looked at the clock and realized it was noon. "Now please, just have the house ready for guests when I get home. And don't forget to give Teddy his nap at 2 sharp or he'll be cranky. Thank you, dear."

With that her mother walked out the front door. Ginny looked after her feeling frustrated and angry. She didn't ask for this life. She didn't ask for these responsibilities. And no one seemed to understand that writing wasn't just some fun activity for her. It was something she really wanted to do.

However, she couldn't blame her mother entirely. She was still living at home of her own free will and it wasn't like her parents charged her rent or anything so it wasn't unfair for them to expect her to help out. And it wasn't that she didn't enjoy helping out with the house or Teddy. It was more about the fact that they still treated her like a child who had chores to do and was just being lazy by wanting to go write all day.

She sighed and realized there was nothing that could be changed about it now so she should just get it done and hope to do some writing while Teddy was taking his nap. She quickly set about charming the kitchen to clean itself. Luckily, cleaning spells came as easily to her as they did her mother otherwise she would be much more annoyed about the situation. Once everything was working away she went off to find Teddy playing in his room.

A few hours later she had successfully cleaned the downstairs, fed Teddy and put him down for his nap and was about to start writing. But what to write about? Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of inspiration here, just memories.

She thought for a minute about what Draco had said yesterday about writers writing about what they knew best and decided to write about herself. She normally strayed away from writing about herself after the diary incident in her first year at Hogwarts. She feared the idea of writing down her inner most feelings and thoughts again just to have them used against her. In fact, that's what had caused her to start writing stories in the first place.

The summer after the Tom Riddle incident Ginny was having some problems dealing with what had happened. Luckily that was also the summer her father had won some money and took them to Egypt. They also had some money to send Ginny to a psychologist so she could talk about her problems.

While talking helped a little, what really helped was when the psychologist suggested that she start writing stories to cope with her pain and fear. While Ginny couldn't bring herself to write about her own life, there was something soothing about writing about other people's lives and so for years she would come up with stories based on people she knew. She had a ton of stories about Harry that she kept hidden and had never shown him from when she had had a crush on him all those years ago.

While mulling this over, she started to write without even knowing what she was writing about. For at least 30 minutes she sat there writing non-stop without even really considering the direction of what she was writing. When she finally finished she reread it and realized that she had written about what happened after the war. But it wasn't just about the facts; it was more about her feelings. In fact, it seemed more like a diary entry than anything else she had written in years.

Reading it, however, was harder for her. While reading it, she felt like she was reliving all the fear. The nights afterwards where she still had nightmares about Voldemort being alive and that he had won. She remembered waking up in a cold sweat, screaming, because she had just dreamed that her whole family was murdered. Then there was the realization after she woke that some of her family had been killed and wouldn't be there when she walked around the house checking that everyone was safe in their beds.

With tears in her eyes, she hastily moved the papers away and tried to shake the memories. She had tried so hard to forget everything, yet it was still there in the back of her mind, always waiting. Luckily, her mother shook her from her thoughts as she entered in the house with her grocery bags floating in front of her. Ginny shoved the papers in one of her books she had next to her and got up to help with the food.

"Ginny, the place looks great. You're such a good girl for helping me all the time. Thank you," she said as she put the groceries on the table. Ginny smiled accepting the praise. She knew that her mother appreciated the help and loved her for it.

"Of course mum. So, what are we making?" she asked rolling up her sleeves.

By six the dinner was mostly ready and the table was all set.

"Mum, do you know who Ron is bringing?" Ginny asked as she filled up water pitchers. She was pretty familiar with most of the people Ron worked with mostly because they had been in her year or a few years before. She was always happy to see them, but also felt a little weird being around them when they all had jobs and she still lived at home.

"Well, let's see. I think he said Dean and Seamus, Parvarti, Justin, Draco, and Hermione of course," she answered while stirring the soup.

"Draco's coming?" Ginny asked surprised as she nearly dropped the water pitcher she was holding.

Her mother turned to her and gave her a funny look. "Why yes, I think so. I'm pretty sure that Ronald said he was. Why dear? Is something the matter?"

"No, no, I was just surprised is all. He normally doesn't come to these things," she said fighting to keep her voice casual.

"Yes, I know. But I guess he's had a change of heart. And it's good for him too. He shouldn't be alone so much. Make sure to make him feel welcomed, alright dear?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course," she replied as she walked out the bag door with the water pitchers in hand. She put them down on the set table and then ran a hand through her hair, tugging on the end.

"Ughhhh!" she yelled a little looking up at the sky and setting sun. Draco was the last person she wanted to be around right now, especially with Harry there.

"What's wrong babe?" said a voice as a hand enclosed her waist pulling her into a hug. She jumped a little before realizing who it was.

"Oh, Harry, you scared me!" she said giving him a little glare.

"Sorry Gin. What's the matter?" he said leaning in to give her a kiss.

"Nothing," she replied turning her head so he kissed her cheek. "It's nothing, really, just some stuff. Um, I should go and finish helping mum."

Before Harry could reply she ran off towards the house. It was stupid for her to be acting like this but all she could think about was the encounter with Draco yesterday and then her dream last night. She felt like Harry would know just by looking at her about the thoughts she had been having. She ran into the kitchen and collided with the person walking out the door.

"Owww," she said from the ground, rubbing her bottom that had broken her fall. She looked up to see who she had run into and saw none other than the man she had been thinking about, Draco Malfoy.

"Draco!"

"Hey red. Training for the 100 meter dash? A little hint, you don't want to hit the hurdles, you go over them" he teased smirking at her. She stuck her tongue out at him and pushed herself off the ground.

"Funny," she replied pushing past him into the kitchen. She looked over to find her mom and realized she wasn't there.

"You're right. Are you okay? Even though you were the one who hit into me so it's probably you who should be apologizing to me," said Draco cocking his head at her.

"Sorry, I didn't see you there. Must have been blinded by the sun reflecting off your white old-man hair," she quipped.

"I like to think of it as a very light blonde, thank you. And it probably had more to do with you being blinded by that mop of red on your head you call hair."

She glared at him but self-consciously brushed it back, hoping it didn't look too bad. She hadn't really had time to fix it today. Then she shook herself realizing that she shouldn't care what Draco thought of her hair. He was Draco-freaking-Malfoy for Christ's sake!

"And besides, shouldn't you be thanking me?" he asked condescendingly.

"Thank you?" she said incredulously. "For what?"

"The quill," he answered raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah," she blushed remembering the gift she had received last night. It had almost slipped her mind. "Err, umm, thank you, it was really nice. But you didn't have to."

He shrugged and said, "It was nothing."

She knew it meant nothing to him and it meant a lot more to her. How pathetic, she thought.

"I'm glad you liked it though," he said giving her that intense look again. She could barely meet his eyes but when she did she could barely look away.

"Well anyways, if you'll excuse me," she said, quickly grabbing her books off the table and turning on her heals. Without a backward glance she hurried out of the kitchen and upstairs.

As he watched her leave, Draco noticed some papers that had fallen out of her books and fluttered to the floor. He was about to call out to her when he realized that they were written in her handwriting. He looked around to see if anyone was around and then quickly tucked them into his pocket, planning to read them later. At the very least it would give him an excuse to tease the little witch again. And he did so enjoy teasing her.