Whelllllllll look who's back!

ME!

yes well you all got that. Fat chapter for you. More to come because I quit school and have decided to roam about the mundane British countryside looking for Horcruxes.

Well no, I'm actually in taper for swimming and a head on all my work so there ya go!

disclaimer

Ginny was tired. Tired from her ordeal with Snape and from nerves about the plan and thinking about what Blaise had told her wasn't helping anything. I can tell why he likes you. The tall boy's words echoed in her mind.

Good Merlin, Ginny thought, closing her book. She had been trying to read for a couple of hours, trying to do at least some homework while she was stuck in the hospital wing but she was preoccupied and had only managed to get through one chapter and take a few measly notes.

This can't be happening. Ginny, frustrated, closed her Trasnfiguration text with a snap and sat on the edge of her bed, head bowed so her hair fell in a curtain around her face. She liked the way the ends tickled the tops of her thighs peeking out from underneath her Hogwarts uniform skirt. Allowing herself to be distracted for a moment, Ginny found her thoughts wandering to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

What were they doing right now? She wondered. At this very moment? Were they in trouble? She gulped. Were they still alive?

Her heart clenched as she thought of never being able to see Ron again. She had already almost lost Bill and that was horrible enough, she couldn't imagine losing a brother completely. Even Percy, she admitted.

She missed the trio, sorely. They were always a wonderful source of mystery and adventure and pride that she was connected with them.

But her heart sank when she thought of what they would say with her associating with Slytherins. And Malfoy.

She lay down on her bed, folding her hands behind her head, thinking. Hermione wouldn't be so bad, Ginny reasoned. The bushy haired witch was always accepting of others who were different, and her sensible and supremely smart nature would allow her to see the reason in this union.

However, that didn't mean she would see the light in another sort of union…Ginny quickly put it out of her mind. But Ron and Harry's faces popped into view, with looks of disgust and betrayal painted on.

"How could you do this to us?" They would ask. Ginny imagined their voices in her mind, a ghostly version of the real thing. "Betray us by befriending a Malfoy?" Ginny groaned quietly in ironic despair within her imaginary melodrama.

"Why, Ginny, why?" She snorted, feeling only slightly better with feeling sorry for herself. Well at least they were far away and she wouldn't have to deal with them for a while.

GINNY?

It wasn't a ghostly voice in her mind but floating purple letters. Ginny didn't acknowledge them right away, she was thinking about how much she was really coming to detest the color when she realized he had written her first name.

The voice coughed and she sat up to see Draco standing in his doorframe, beckoning to her. I MEAN, WEASLEY.

Ginny just looked at him. "What do you want?" She asked, genuinely interested. They had only just parted ways two hours ago, after all.

JUST COME HERE. He turned and went deeper into his room. Ginny rolled her eyes, but followed him. She hated being ordered around but her curiosity got the better of her, as it usually did.

She shut the door behind her; careful to not let any other occupants in the hospital wing see her entrance into the tiny room. "What? Is it something about the plan?"

Draco just shook his blonde head. NO. Ginny didn't say anything, expecting more. When it became clear that he wasn't going to say anything, Ginny plopped herself down on his bed. The chair she had sat in before wasn't as comfortable as she had originally thought, and there was nowhere else to sit.

"Well," she sighed heavily, trying to make him feel less awkward to enable him to spit out what he clearly needed to say. "I'm not going to guess, if that's what you want." She hoped that maybe her relaxed posture and attitude would ease his tension.

Draco gave her an odd look. NO I'M NOT GOING TO HAVE YOU GUESS. Finally he sighed and sat on his chair. By the look of his face, Ginny was glad that she had chosen the bed. YOU SAID YOU'D HELP ME TALK AGAIN

What was this all about? "Yes, I did. Why?" Ginny said, simply. Draco paused for a bit and Ginny was reminded of him asking for her help in the first place, up in the sky not just a week ago. Merlin, this is hard for him. Ginny thought, suppressing a grin.

It hadn't been this much of an effort for him to ask her to be his tutor. But then again, Ginny thought, watching him struggle. He wrote to me in a letter, he didn't have to ask me face to face. As the pause lengthened, Ginny found it harder not to grin.

DO YOU, I MEAN, IF YOU WANT, COULD YOU START? NOW? PLEASE?

His choppy sentence and tightness in his jaw almost cracked the girl up, but she held her ground for the sake of his dignity and hers, and did not burst out laughing. She did, however, offer him the brightest of her smiles, unaware of the effect it had on him.

"Sure, why not? I have nothing else to do for the rest of the evening."

Good Merlin, her smile is like sunlight. Draco thought before calling him self a weirdo for saying shit like that, even to himself.

Honestly, Draco couldn't believe it had been that simple. Asking for something politely and humbly had never been one of his strong points, and it was a habit that he certainly never exercised at school and never had to at home with a house elf always around.

He did feel slightly annoyed that he had had to 'bend his knees' a bit. Or at least, that's how he felt. He almost hadn't asked her at all, not after he had seen the look on her face when he struggled to find the words. It looked like she had enjoyed watching him struggle.

But, he thought, somewhat morosely as he got out his word cards, I've seen people enjoy pain before and that wasn't it. Not quite.

As he moved the table between her and his chair and spread out the cards he realized with a jolt that she had just liked watching him for the sake of watching him. Like how he enjoyed watching Blaise struggle to talk about what to do with his mother, or Theo about a new magical theory he hadn't quite worked out.

He liked watching those things because he cared about his friends and he knew that at those moments, he was watching them truly be themselves and develop around new obstacles in their lives.

Draco's hands shook as he laid out the last of the cards. Does she care about me? His heart thundered in his chest as he sat on the chair and looked at the girl across from him who was now studying the cards in earnest. He calmed his aching heart and tried to prepare for concentration.

"These look like the same cards I used when I was little," Ginny said, picking up the W is for Wand card.

YOU? Draco wrote. WITH YOUR MUM?

"Yeah," Ginny said slowly as she gingerly replaced the card like it was a delicate memory. "Charlie had a terrible lisp when he was young and mum was determined that none of the rest of her children would have one so she made us practice with these for hours." She smiled faintly, still lost in her memory.

She laughed quietly, more of a chuckle. "Once, Fred got so annoyed that he and George set fire to them from the fireplace in the kitchen. They were so surprised when the cards rejuvenated themselves and shuffled endlessly above their heads for the rest of the day! All mum's doing of course…" She trailed off

Draco didn't know what to say. He had never heard childhood stories from anyone, including his friends, and he hadn't really thought about the fact that everyone had one, not just him. He knew it was a stupid thing to think, of course he knew in theory that everyone once had a childhood, but he hadn't really realized it consciously until now.

"So where are you right now in your progress," Ginny said, startling him out of reverie. He frowned, thinking. He was also thinking about how he wanted to be the one to snap her out of her thoughts, gain the upper hand if you will…

I CAN BASICALLY SAY ALL THESE WORDS AND MY NAME AND OTHER BASIC OBJECTS LIKE THE ONES ON THESE CARDS. IT'S JUST THE SOUNDS I HAVE TROUBLE WITH, NOT THE VOCABULARY.

"Say your name," Ginny said, unexpectedly. Her green eyes looked at him wide and expressionless, but Draco read it as a challenge.

He cleared his throat. "Draco Malfoy," he said clearly, without stuttering, but in his new, deeper, scratchy voice.

He smirked when Ginny raised her eyebrows in appreciation. "Well that was really good."

I'VE PRACTICED THAT ONE.

Ginny nodded, looking amused, and slightly condescending. "Mm, I imagine. So," she continued before he could comment on her tone. "No problems with the 'dr' sound, the 'm' or the 'f' sound. That's good."

Draco was amused at her business like manner. ONLY A HUNDRED MORE SOUNDS TO GO. He wrote, joking.

"We'll start with 's then, because it's the hardest and you're at your best now, then we'll continue from there. What do you say?" She asked, picking out the 's' sound cards deftly from the pile.

WELL, I DON'T SAY MUCH BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN. He smiled, wryly, knowing that he had sounded self-deprecating the last two times he had written. Ginny hadn't said anything, but he was sure she had noticed. Even though she was taking the role of his teacher, Draco didn't want her to have the upper hand. He decided to stop whining.

"Let's start with 'snake'." Ginny grinned.

Draco groaned. This was going to thuck big time.

"You're free to go, Ms. Weasley, as soon as you like." Madam Pomfrey said, straightening up some laundry the next morning.

Ginny immediately leapt out of her hospital bed and tugged her shoes on. She was about to leave when she heard the quiet click of a door behind her.

She turned to see Draco standing just behind the threshold. He looked as if he wanted to talk and Ginny sighed before heaving herself up to go and see what he wanted. "You know," Ginny said, entering his tiny room. "You look really creepy always lurking in the doorway like that."

Draco didn't smile. Ginny wondered briefly if he had a sense of humor.

YOU'RE LEAVING? Draco scrawled in the air.

"Looks like," Ginny said, her itch to go creeping into her voice. She had assignments to catch up with.

But she didn't leave. She stood there, staring at the blonde boy before her. As her eyes began to wander downward to his defined chest muscles pressing gently against his form-fitting grey Hogwarts tee shirt, Ginny amended her thought. Blonde man. She tried not to giggle, reminded of the way Hermione and their other girlfriends had once talked of boys in school.

She realized that she was smiling slightly and wiped the grin off her face and snapped her eyes back up to meet Draco's gaze, to check to see if he had noticed. The odd look in his eyes told her he had.

The distance between them wasn't great originally and Draco taking two steps to close the gap left Ginny slightly dizzy with his scent. She couldn't help herself from feeling lightheaded even more when she saw his stone grey eyes darken with desire.

For me? Ginny thought, amazed, but too breathless to argue that this couldn't possibly be true.

Instead, Draco leaned closer, distracting her. She felt the warmth of his body and her cheeks colored. "W-what are you doing?" she asked, surprised that she had almost no air in her lungs.

He just gave her a half smile before cupping his hands gently on either side of her chin and tilting her head upward. "This." She heard him say clearly and without stuttering before covering her mouth with his.

Ginny's mind exploded into fuzz and she could feel nothing but the tingles of connection where he touched her mouth and face. Dear Merlin was all she could think before her legs caused her body to lean into his.

His tongue gently passed over her tingling lips in question and she readily opened her mouth to his, allowing him access to her fully. The tingling sensation flowed deeper into her mouth and over her tongue causing her to let a tiny gasp escape.

She felt and heard Draco growl deeply in the back of his throat in an answer to her sound of enjoyment and she liked it. In response to his carnal noise Ginny took a chance and lowered her mouth to let her teeth nibble gently on his lower lip.

Clearly liking her idea, Draco playfully nipped back and she felt his hand move to cup her cheek and rub a thumb gently in a sensual line tracing her jaw. The sensation caused her to sag further into him, initially throwing her off balance.

Breaking the kiss, Draco deftly caught her in his arms and held her close. He looked down at her as if surprised that she was acting this way and not running from him screaming. Which I should be doing, she pointed out to herself. Ginny soon lost that train of thought when his eyes left her lips and connected with hers.

Flip-flop wasn't the right word; it wasn't a powerful enough action to describe what Ginny's stomach did when she looked into those grey pools. Heaved was more like it, but it left her feeling like she'd done something clever rather than nauseous.

She smiled crazily at this internal monologue and Draco raised an eyebrow in question. That brought Ginny back to the present.

Startled into standing upright, Ginny broke Draco's embrace and she held her arms out, pushing him back. "What am I doing?" she asked herself aloud.

"K-kissssing me," Draco said, the s sound still hard for him. Ginny glared up at him. He looked too pleased with himself. Too satisfied, a voice in Ginny's head informed her.

She gulped. "I-I-I…" she paused. Think Ginny! She commanded herself. There had to be something she was supposed to be doing. "I have to…uh…go to the library!" She yelled up at him triumphantly and then blushed when she realized how loud she had spoken.

They stared at each other for a moment then Ginny turned abruptly on her heel and left the tiny room.

Practically running out of the Hospital wing, Ginny tried to stop her hands from shaking. Good Merlin, Ginny thought to herself as she climbed the staircase that would take her back to her room in Gryffindor tower.

Passing a mirror she glanced at her reflection and was shocked. She was blushing so furiously that it embarrassed her even more and her lips were red with… It's not desire. Don't think desire. Don't even think about the word. Ginny chanted to herself as she turned from the mirror and hurried the rest of the way to her dormitory. She didn't really need to go to the library at all. Instead she made her way back to her room as inconspicuously as possible.

Neville blocked her from successfully trying to sneak into her room. "Come here," he whispered to her, beckoning from the boy's staircase balcony. Ginny looked about and there was no one in the common room but Neville looked serious.

"What?" Ginny asked in a small voice, ascending the staircase to the seventh year boy's dorm. "Is something wrong?"

Neville waited until she was in his room before shutting the door quickly and turning to close her in a hug. "Are you alright? What happened? When you never came back, I-we all thought the worst."

Ginny hugged him back, grateful for platonic contact that was so different from what she had just experienced. It brought her back down to reality. "I'm fine," she stated as Neville released her. "Honestly, I am."

When Neville didn't look convinced, Ginny told him the whole story, about Snape and the tiny group meeting she had been a part of in Draco's room. "And to think, I actually started thinking Blaise, I mean Zabini, was a friend. Really, I felt pretty stupid about that one. But then Theo, I mean Nott, totally yelled at all of us but that's not really the point."

Neville chuckled. "No?"

Ginny exhaled roughly, glaring at him with a smile. "I know I'm rambling, but I'm just excited." Neville nodded and she went on. "We decided to meet, your idea was a hit, in the Room of Requirement next Saturday, the fourth. Do you think that will work for all of us? I mean, with the galleons and all…"

"It will work, Ginny," Neville said heavily. "At least, I'm hoping to Merlin it will."

Ginny nodded, mouth twisting in thought. Neville stood up and rummaged through his bag. "I'll set the galleon now, to give everyone enough time to get the word out." A bunch of papers fell out of his bag. "Oh, I almost forgot. Here are your homework assignments from the past couple of weeks."

She took the papers gingerly, frowning. "What?" She looked through them slowly; all had precise, neat answers to all the questions in different handwriting. "What the hell is this?"

"You don't want it? I can take it back?" Neville teased, reaching his hand out for them.

Ginny snatched them closer to her chest. "No, I want them, but what is it for?" She was startled by Neville's conspiratorial look. Ginny laughed, uncertainly.

"It's a thing we have going. Those students, in all grades and houses, who can't join our rebellion outright or who can't know what's going on, have pitched in to help in this way. It's the only way they can, really. But it does help. With all those people going to the hospital wing all the time, we'd all fail out of school, so this is everyone's way at giving back."

Ginny held up a potion's essay that she should have turned in yesterday but hadn't the time to even read the chapter yet. "They're all in different handwriting."

"Well, yeah," Neville huffed, fiddling with the Galleon. "It's not like one person is assigned to you. If someone's really good at cheering charms, they'll write a whole load of essays for whomever needs one, and so on."

The red head grinned broadly. "This is just what I needed. Where do I sign up for someone to do my work all the time?"

Neville jolted a little, setting the coin down on his bedside table. "Do you need someone to do your work for the rest of the year?"

"No, but who wants to do work when rebellion's a foot?"

Neville snorted. "When you start talking like that, you can leave. Go study or something. Maybe one of our first years can use your help in hexes."

"I'll hex you if you're not nice," she joked, leaving his room. But Neville was already occupied again with the enchanted galleon.

Flipping through the papers, Ginny crossed down to her own dormitory, shaking her head in amazement as she read a Transfiguration worksheet. These answers were all right.

"Sleeping in the boy's dormitory are we?" A voice came from the doorway to the girl's rooms. "Please don't tell me you've worked your way through the Slytherins and are now coming back home to work your magic?"

Ginny stifled a sigh when she saw Nora blocking her way. "Oh hey Whoreno," she shot back. "Didn't know you were still here."

Nora's eyes narrowed. "Yes I'm still here, and unlike some, I am continuing to be a real Hogwarts student by doing my own homework and not gallivanting around with a Slytherin traitor."

Ginny wasn't in the mood. "Listen, I'm really tired right now and I don't want to deal with you. But first off, a real Hogwarts student wouldn't just be going along like nothing is happening, they would be helping to fight back, in anyway they could, just like the teachers and the castle is doing. And second, if you really knew what was going on, you'd know that he isn't a traitor."

Nora folded her arms, hip leaning against the doorframe, still blocking Ginny's progress. "So you're saying that I should cheat, rebel against my teachers and associate with murders?"

"Yeah, sure, that's exactly what I'm saying," Ginny sighed. "Will you let me through now?" Nora moved ever so slightly to the side, allowing Ginny to pass. "Thanks," the redhead mumbled.

Nora grabbed her arm before she could make it all the way through. Dragging her close she whispered in a frightened, hysterical tone. "Listen, Ginny, they have my dad and mum," Nora's voice was hot in Ginny's ear but she tried not to squirm. "Please, I thought that maybe cooperation with the Carrow's was enough, but if I turn Malfoy over to them…"

Ginny pulled away from the girl's mouth. "You disgust me." She said, trying to wrench her arm away but Nora grabbed afresh with both hands.

"Ginny, I couldn't think of anything else to do. Please forgive me; please let me join your group. Please…we were friends once."

"That was before you cursed me and threatened my friends." Ginny looked coolly down at the dark haired girl whose eyes were now filling with tears. Ginny reconsidered. She wasn't heartless. "Let my arm go, and I'll think about it."

Nora dropped her arm immediately, regaining her composure, a wiping tears away. "Thanks," she said, voice still quivering slightly. "You won't regret it," Nora added before disappearing down the stairs.

Ginny plunked down onto her bed, books and papers spilling out of her bag unchecked but she didn't care. Closing her eyes she tried to process what had happened over the past two days. Feeling a piece of parchment near her right hand she picked it up and cracked one eye open to look at it. Charms essay, due tomorrow. She grinned and then sat up, both eyes wide open as she remembered a gift from Fred and George sitting at the bottom of her trunk: A wind up mouse with a little message compartment.

Since she didn't have an owl, they had given this to her as compensation. It didn't travel very far, but then again, Fred and George hadn't wanted to give her any temptation to write home.

Quickly, she scrawled a note.

Tomorrow? I expect S's and A through K all done by then.

G.

She didn't think she needed to sign her name. This would give her a leg up, she decided as she shoved the note into the slot on the mouse's back. She wouldn't be as embarrassed to see him again if she just acted like nothing happened and she wasn't affected. Plus she wouldn't have to worry about guessing the time for their next session since they hadn't decided on one before she had run out of the hospital wing.

Like a child, Ginny added to herself, embarrassed anyway, even with no one around. She grabbed the mouse and turned the key it had instead of a tail. The creature shuddered to life and squeaked amiably, blinking up at the girl. "Draco Malfoy," she said quietly but clearly. "Hospital wing, and make sure no one sees you. I'm expecting a note back, so wait for his reply."

The mouse squeaked again and took off, jumping down from her hand and sliding down a rouge bed sheet to the ground before disappearing out the door.

It arrived back twenty minutes later, squeaking impatiently at the foot of Ginny's bed. She grabbed it and unrolled the new note it carried.

See you then.

P.S. Your handwriting is terrible and I don't like the mouse.

Ginny rolled her eyes.

Love you all but I'm off to write moreeeee...