(AN: I am so sorry it took so long to update again, but I hit a serious mental wall. Regardless, here's the next chapter. Thanks for reading!)

"Ginny Weasley," the voice was silky, smooth, slimy. It reminded her distinctly of a snake, as Ginny jumped and whirled around to face the speaker. For half a second, she pictured Malfoy standing behind her again, smiling with fangs that mirrored the basilisk's. But that was insane, of course, and the only person Ginny saw was Blaise Zabini.

Though it was a relief to not see Malfoy's cold gray eyes, seeing Zabini was anxiety-inducing for another reason. She didn't know him, had never even spoken to him. But she did know he was Malfoy's best friend. It made her instantly wary. "Zabini, what do you want?" She couldn't imagine why he would be in the library just after classes.

He frowned, perfect skin crinkling around his mouth. "I see you blood traitors have no manners. It would be disappointing if it was surprising."

"I see you Slytherin scum have no decency," Ginny snapped back, arms folding. Her hand itched to reach for her wand, hidden in her robes, but she did not reach for it. Zabini was never one for physical confrontation, probably afraid of marring that face of his. She had nothing to fear from the known coward.

Zabini eyed her with a perfectly blank expression that could put Malfoy and Snape to shame. He had always been an odd student, Ginny thought, the outsider even in his own house. Ginny had not even been sure he was prejudiced until he called her a blood traitor, he was that ambiguous. His apparent friendship with Malfoy was new this year, the two seen walking and talking on occasion, but no one knew much about it. Zabini still did not affiliate with the Death Eaters, and he was never given duty over detentions. Ginny did not think he was assigned to monitor a class either. He was no Death Eater, but he was a Slytherin, rumored to be the most cunning among them. Ginny did not doubt it, watching the way he evaluated her with narrowed eyes. His eyes were nearly as cold as Malfoy's, even being a rich brown color.

"You've been avoiding Malfoy," he said finally, voice and stance betraying nothing.

Ginny stiffened, her back straightening like she had a metal rod for a spine. "What do you know about that?" Her heart was racing as her mind spun with ideas. She had assumed the notes were Malfoy's game alone, but could the game be more than just his design? The idea of a group of Slytherins lounging in their common room, laughing about her made Ginny's blood boil.

Zabini smiled, his face transforming effortlessly into a friendly mask, his eyes warming. He looked like a kind stranger, offering help. "Enough," he replied archly. "More than you, no doubt."

Ginny wanted to question him, her tongue was nearly burning with the need to demand answers. Zabini was right; she was avoiding Malfoy. She dared not approach him again to get her answers, but here was Zabini, clearly in the know. That smile fixed to his face stopped her cold though. She could not trust a person who could alter their demeanor so convincingly. Ginny tilted her chin up, "I do not trust you, Zabini." She moved past him, keeping her walk stiff as she narrowly passed him in the library aisle. She was damned sick of people cornering her in the library. After this mess, she doubted she would ever find solace in the room again.

Zabini did not move to stop her. He stood as still as stone as she passed him. It was unnatural, just as the change in his facial expression had been. He only spoke once she was past him, on her way out the door. "That may be the second smartest thing you've ever done."

"And what was the first?" Ginny demanded, refusing to look back at him.

"Avoiding Draco Malfoy."

Ginny did not give him the satisfaction of looking confused. She ignored him and continued out the door and into the hall. It was only once she was on her way to the Gryffindor common room that she realized Zabini had never said what he wanted. He had ignored her question and simply stared at her, evaluating. Their conversation had been short, but Zabini had made no effort to stop her leaving. What had he wanted?

And moreover, what had he meant when he said her avoiding Malfoy was the smartest thing she had ever done? Outside of the obvious meaning, it peeved Ginny that Zabini was congratulating her for her cowardice. A true Gryffindor would have confronted Malfoy by now; Harry and Ron would've done. Hermione would have exercised a bit more caution, but the brilliant girl probably would've figured out an answer by now. Ginny had no answers and no desire to confront Malfoy, but it was approaching a month since she had discovered his secret.

Malfoy, for his part, hardly seemed concerned with her. He paid her no mind in Dark Arts, not looking at her anymore. The only change was his anger. Luna reported to Ginny that Malfoy fairly charged through the halls these days, a scowl always present on his face. That was unsettling, along with Zabini's warning. The Slytherin made it sound as though Malfoy was a danger to Ginny, more dangerous than Zabini himself was. He had in essence told her to continue avoiding Malfoy and to not trust him, a bit paradoxical if you asked her. If she wasn't meant to trust Zabini, then why should she head his warning about Malfoy?

But not even Zabini's odd behavior held a candle to the most troubling news. Neville had come sprinting up to Ginny last week, his face flushed and eyes dark, to report that Malfoy was back on detention duty. It had frozen her heart to hear that. She had nearly missed Neville warning her against making trouble. He was rambling on about stopping their contrary behavior for a while, talking about how he needed to warn Luna and the others. Ginny heard him but did not acknowledge it. She was too busy thinking of the way Neville had described Malfoy's detention. The darkness that had seeped from Malfoy's mind. The idea of that being unleashed on anyone was horrifying, and Ginny could not deny that she was desperate to avoid it herself. She had only interrupted Neville to demand how he had known, fearing he had earned a detention, but Neville said Amycus Carrow had told Malfoy in the middle of class that day.

Since the news broke, no one had received a detention. Ginny, Neville, and Luna kept their army in firm silence, hating how weak that made them look but refusing to allow anyone to suffer what Neville had. Keeping their own silence proved harder, especially for Neville, but they had managed so far. Ginny doubted it could last, not with the Carrows grinning like they had won every day.

She was at the Gryffindor entrance by then and the Fat Lady huffed at her as she gave the password but swung open to let her enter. The painting had disliked her since her rude entrance in search of the notes. It hardly bothered Ginny, though it made getting to her bed at night tiresome.

The common room was buzzing with talk when Ginny entered and no one noticed her. She made her way along the outskirts, smiling when she made eye contact with anyone, but her heart was not in it. Ginny was tired. She slumped down in the nearest seat, coincidentally the same spot where she and Neville had discussed her own detention, a month earlier. The memory made her smile slightly, remembering Neville's fear for her, but it felt sour in her stomach when she remembered Malfoy's absence and all that it had unleashed.

Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy. No matter what Ginny did, her thoughts always spun back to him. She wanted to hate him, desperately wanted to, but she didn't. She truly had never hated the Slytherin, not the way Harry and Ron did. Hermione certainly had hated Malfoy after Buckbeak in her third year, but she had been the most reluctant to believe Malfoy was a Death Eater last year. Ginny was not naïve enough to believe that meant Hermione was ambivalent towards him. No doubt the scholarly girl still harbored dislike for Malfoy. It was only natural after their childhood. But hate was a strong reaction, personal.

Malfoy hated Muggles and Muggleborns and blood traitors. Surely that hadn't changed. He also hated Harry, Ron, and Hermione. But had he ever hated her? Ginny couldn't help but wonder. It all came down to that really, whether he had hated her or not. It was the question Ginny was most dying to ask because if he had hated her, then whatever had possessed him to help her had to have been big. Big enough to make him recant his hatred for her and for her blood traitor status. Ginny had no idea if she had done anything worthy of that. She couldn't remember doing anything at all concerning Malfoy.

And there was the crux of why she was avoiding him. She truly feared he had some dark obsession with her, for no logical reason revealed itself. An obsessed Malfoy was a scary Malfoy. Ginny had no idea what the Slytherin was capable of anymore; she did not even know if she had ever known what he was capable of. She would have never thought him capable of what he had done last year.

Ginny sighed and closed her eyes, emptying her mind as the roar of the common room chatter drifted over her. She had been having trouble sleeping at night recently, plagued by her thoughts. The silence was too loud with everyone in the castle asleep. She needed this background noise to relax, and like a soothing lullaby it sent her peacefully to sleep.

She was jostled awake hours later. Automatically her hand whipped out her wand and jabbed it into the person's neck. A familiar squawk greeted her offensive attack, and Ginny blinked the sleep from her eyes to see the surprised face of Neville looking down at her. She relaxed her wand, face almost relaxing into a smile, but then she saw his eyes.

"What is it?" she bolted upright, nearly throwing herself out of the chair. Silence greeted her question; Neville merely gaped at her open-mouthed and horror-struck, true fear in his eyes. In Ginny's experience there were three levels of fear. General fear, reserved for those moments of little shocks and far-off worries; immediate fear, when one was in a situation of immediate danger or peril; and then true fear, reserved for only the darkest moments, when one felt the life leaving them or had to watch helplessly as someone they loved walked into certain death. Ginny had felt true fear once, and she recognized it now in Neville's eyes. "What is it?" she demanded again, voice shooting through an octave.

"Luna has detention in half an hour," Neville's voice shook and Ginny knew what was coming. She childishly thought of throwing her hands over her ears, to protect herself, but Neville continued on in the numb voice of someone paralyzed by true fear. "With Malfoy."

Silence stole over everyone. Neville had not come alone. Seamus Finnigan stood just behind him, looking morose and angry at the same time with a scattering of other seventh years behind him. They all looked down at her with the same mixed expression, half-anger, half-sorrow. It all added up to one thing: helplessness.

"No."

They all looked at Ginny in surprise as she stood up. "No," her voice was resolute.

"Ginny…" Neville's voice nearly broke. "We only just heard about it. How can we-"

"I don't know," Ginny snapped. "But we are not just going to sit here. Luna can't, she can't…" Ginny shuddered, unable to form the words to accurately explain what she felt. Luna was too good, too pure, to come into contact with Malfoy's darkness. She couldn't imagine the airy but smart girl coming away from that unscathed. She couldn't bear to imagine a changed Luna. "She can't do this detention."

Her voice rang with a finality that she often heard in Harry's voice when he was giving commands. "Seamus, Neville I'm going to need your help." The two boys nodded, but Ginny was busy planning. A shoddy plan took form in her head and she doubted it would work, but it was all she had. Her heart thrummed with a beat of fear, whispering Luna, Luna, Luna to her brain. It would have to be enough.

Twenty five minutes later, Ginny stood in the dungeon doorway and a very surprised Luna gaped at her. It was not often anyone surprised Luna Lovegood, and the expression made Ginny chuckle slightly. "Hey Luna," she used a blasé tone, as though they had met in the hallways. Inside, her mind was counting down the seconds until Malfoy would be there.

"Ginny," Luna's voice did not have quite the same musical quality it usually had, but that was the only sign of outward fear Ginny could detect. Love for her friend burned in her chest at the sight of Luna sitting stoically on the ground, legs crossed and arms folded demurely in her lap. "I didn't expect to see you."

"Why are you sitting on the floor?"

"It is a smaller distance to fall, should Malfoy not give me any warning," Luna replied in all seriousness.

Startled laughter erupted from Ginny's mouth and she clamped a hand quickly over it. "Merlin, Luna." She shook her head, wanting to embrace her friend and laugh some more, but she had no time. Neville was waiting at the top of the stairs, and Seamus was hopefully halfway back to Gryffindor tower by now, after waking up Peeves with a tempting offer. Thudding still sounded from a couple floors up, and Ginny did not want to know what the Gryffindor trickster had coerced the king of tricks to do. They had needed a slight distraction, just to ensure that nobody would be patrolling the halls they needed to take down to the dungeon. It was not hard to sneak around the castle, even without an invisibility cloak, but the patrols were not certain and getting caught would earn them all a detention.

"What is that?" Luna cocked her head at the sound of the thudding and narrowed her large eyes at Ginny. "Ginny, what did you do?"
"Wasn't me," Ginny grinned, knowing she probably looked like the twins. Mischief was in her blood thanks to the two of them. "That's Peeves."

Luna was no idiot, and Ginny could see her resolve hardening. Her next words weren't completely unexpected. "Ginny I can't miss detention. I would only have to serve two more."

Ginny knew that of course; everybody did. "I know Luna. That's why I'll be taking your place." It was a terrible plan, Ginny knew. Dangerous to a level of pure stupidity. But it was her plan, and she would see it through.

"No."

Ginny sighed. Luna's voice never changed, even when she firm in her choices, but something in her eyes changed. They flinted like concrete, the blue of her eyes. Usually, nobody argued with Luna when she was like this, but this was not a usual day. Ginny ignored Luna's tone and expression. "Yes. Now Neville is waiting at the top of the stairs to take you back to your tower and Seamus should already be back in Gryffindor by now. I am going to wait here for Malfoy-"

"No!"

"Yes!" Ginny was getting angry now and anxious. She only had a few more minutes until Malfoy would be here, and she didn't have time for this. She blurted out the last part of her plan, "Luna I have polyjuice potion, alright?"

Luna looked doubtful. "Where did you get it?"

"I made it after my last detention."

Luna softened her stance and stood, smiling slightly. "Why didn't you ask me to make it?"

Ginny almost sighed in relief. "I wanted to make sure the Gryffindors had access to this one as soon as it was done. It's hard to smuggle it between us." Luna nodded in agreement, and Ginny hurried on. "Now, I'm going to take your place, and you are not going to argue with me. I can take this Luna, and Neville would have a fit if you had to."

Wisely the blonde girl did not argue again, though she looked troubled. "You should not have to do this in my place, Ginny."

Ginny shrugged. "You're more valuable completely mentally present." That was the truth. They needed Luna to continue making them potions, among other things. Ginny was less of a risk, the torture less likely to harm her. "And seriously, Neville would never allow it. He agreed to this plan, mind you."

That made Luna blush, and Ginny grinned. The growing love between her two friends was tentative but strong. Neville had readily agreed to this plan, hating putting Ginny in danger but willing to do it for Luna. Ginny loved him for it.

"Now, go," Ginny demanded, aware that she had less than two minutes before Malfoy would be there.

Luna still wanted to argue, Ginny could see it in her eyes, but the blonde Ravenclaw was smart enough to realize that Ginny would not leave. There was no point in both of them getting caught down there. It would only cause another punishment. So Luna hurried forward and gave Ginny a quick hug. "Thank you," she whispered, tears in her blue eyes. Ginny smiled and then pushed Luna out the door, toward the stairs. The girl hurried up them, and Ginny could vaguely hear Neville whisper her name. It made her smile again, to hear the relief in his voice.

Ginny shut the door, sealing herself in the main room of the dungeons. It had been a month since she had been down here, but it had not changed. It still smelt like dank wood and mold. It was slightly dusty again, as though Filch had not cleaned it. She wondered if the caretaker had been back since he observed her detention.

Her detention. Ginny recalled the last one, cleaning trophies. It had been a standard detention from the years before, one Ginny was no stranger to. It had hardly required her to focus on the task and her mind had run rampant with questions about Malfoy. Ginny was not naïve enough to believe she would luck out tonight. Malfoy had no idea she would be the one here, for one, and she also didn't believe he would neglect his duties again. It was too dangerous.

But still.

Ginny could not help but wonder what Malfoy's reaction would be when he walked in and saw her standing there instead of Luna. The polyjuice potion had been a lie, though not a bad idea. Perhaps, if Ginny survived this detention with her mind still intact that was, she should actually brew some. It was a frightening thought, the destruction of her mind, but the lie had been necessary. No one would have agreed to this plan.

Ginny, herself, had some doubts, though doubts was too light a word. She did not trust Malfoy, but she needed to believe he would not turn her in for this. Ginny hoped he would merely accept her in Luna's place. Malfoy had been angry with her the last time they spoke and Luna had attested that his anger had only grown since. Ginny hoped he would jump at the chance to torture her instead. She wasn't sure, though, a voice at the back of her mind whispering that Malfoy did not want to hurt her. She didn't know if that was true though.

Regardless, what Ginny really needed to do was convince Malfoy not to report Luna. He had already shown disdain for the Carrows and reluctance to follow their orders. He also had no reason to want to harm Luna personally. Ginny could only hope she was tempting enough bait.

There was no time to back out though. Just as Ginny counted down to zero in her mind, telling her she was out of time, the door behind her creaked. She turned to face the door, straightening her shoulders and fixing a cold mask on her face. She waited for Malfoy.

Draco was irritated. He had not wanted to doll out detentions, had never wanted it. Even in his new anger, caused by Ginny's continued avoidance of him, he did not want to torture his fellow students. Luckily for him, no one had wanted to be tortured by him either. Until tonight.

Draco cursed again to himself. "Stupid Loony," he muttered darkly as he marched down the stairs. "Why couldn't she have kept her mouth shut?" Draco only had a vague idea of what she had said, contradicting one of the Carrows on something they had said. Unsurprisingly, it had not gone over well. Doubtless, whichever Carrow it was did not enjoy being questioned by the questionably sane girl.

He could picture Luna Lovegood in his mind easily. She was a wisp of a girl, almost fey looking with her long white-blonde hair and wide blue eyes. She looked frail. He did not want to hurt her. Hurting a girl like Luna Lovegood was not honorable, no matter what she had done. And yet, here Draco was, marching to do just that. He cursed his position in this damned school. He cursed the Carrow twins. Hell, he even cursed Voldemort. But he would do it. It tasted bitter in his mouth, but Draco had already decided to do whatever it took to be free. If he had to do this then he would. Simple as that.

He paused for a second outside the wooden door and steeled himself. He carved his face into an icy mask, jaw tense and eyes frozen. He knew how he looked when he did this: frightening. He looked like his father. Well, and there was nothing to be done about it. He needed the mask.

With a shove, the door swung open and Draco was strutting into the room. His hand was already on his wand, holding it down by his side. "Alright," he snarled, "let's just…" But his voice trailed off and he froze mid-step, foot dangling in the air like an idiot. Of course. Draco wanted to close his eyes in frustration and anger, but he couldn't. His eyes were glued to Ginny Weasley.

It did not take much thought to figure out why she was there. Loony was her best friend, of course Weasley had thrown herself between him and the girl. Ginny hated and feared him. It was easy to see in her eyes, though her face was smoothed into a mask not dissimilar from his own. She held his eyes as he stood there, frozen on the inside as well this time. It was the first time she had looked at him in a month and Draco nearly had to swallow under the intensity of her gaze.

"Hello, Malfoy," her voice was pleasant, sweet even. She had spoken quietly and it stirred something within Draco. She reminded him of how she had looked her second year when she had returned to school fresh from the Chamber incident. She had been soft-spoken then, hesitant but resolute. Draco had watched her, noting the steel under her porcelain skin. She looked like that now, and Draco knew they were both in for a rough time.

He finally lowered his foot, glaring at Ginny as she stared back at him. In that moment he hated her, but not enough. Not near enough for what he had to do now. "Damn it to hell," he cursed.