"That was a good thing you did." Ginny stepped out of the shelter of the tree she had been hiding behind. A Malfoy is not supposed to do something so undignified as jump, but Draco was still young and so he flinched slightly from the surprise.

"If it isn't the girl Weasel... Shouldn't you be off somewhere, holding your mummy's hand or mooning after Potter?"

She grimaced slightly, but stepped forward bravely. Ginny wasn't sure what had kept her quiet when she saw Ron and his friends, but she had watched them talk to Malfoy and seen something they hadn't. "I wanted to thank you."

Draco snorted, and she had to bite down on her tongue to keep her temper in check. "For what, showing you what a real wizard looks like? You're welcome, just make sure you admire me from afar, like the rest of the peasants."

"You warned Hermione. They would've gone down there, that's how they are--"

"Stupid? I agree completely." He smirked. "Now, go away before someone sees me talking to you and it affects my social standing."

Ginny took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You don't have to be hateful, you know. You're allowed to be nice."

"Don't I?" He turned his back on her, but something about the gesture gave her hope.

She took hold of his arm, her hand wrapped loosely around his elbow and her eyes sparkling. "Yes, don't you see? Once I explain to Harry and--"

Her words were cut off by a blur of movement that ended with Ginny being pressed face-first into the trunk of a tree. He had twisted her arm behind her and the pain made her whimper. She could see his face, barely, from the corner of eyes wide with fright, and with something else she couldn't identify.

"Listen." His voice was a hiss, a breath of air crawling into her and making her think of him as potentially dangerous, not a boy like her brothers, like Colin or Neville, like any boy she had met except for a single memory. "If you've never believed in anything but your damned fairy tales before, believe this now."

She could feel the bark digging into her cheek, her world reduced to the tree in front of her and the boy pressing her into it. He was leaning on her now, his whole body pressing into hers until she thought she might burst, from the weight of him, from the fear, and from that alien something fluttering in her stomach.

When he spoke, his voice was low and his breath ragged. "If you talk about this, about your ridiculous fantasy that I give a damn about Granger or any other mudblood, make no mistake, you will die."

Ginny had never been more terrified in her life, but something suppressed inside of her that was the driving force in Fred and George seized her tongue while her brain was gibbering with fear, and so she said, "Who's going to kill me, Malfoy? You? Or will you run to your daddy again?" His hand tightened spasmodically around her wrist when she mentioned his father, and she took the opportunity to wriggle against him, trying to get free. He jerked her hand up savagely and pressed against her harder, so that her lungs burned from being too compressed to take in enough air.

"Does it matter how you die, once you're dead?" His lips brushed against her ear as he spoke and she closed her eyes, trying to block out all her senses, block out the feeling of being completely overwhelmed and overtaken by him, no, by the fear of him. He was too close, and it felt strange, the back of her body completely pressed against a boy not related to her for the first time, and it was harsh and painful and strange. She didn't think she wanted to feel this confusion again. All she wanted was for him to let up, because she needed space, before she was absorbed and became part of the tree, or part of him.

Then he was gone, the release of the pressure making her feel dizzy, and almost cold. Her hand and wrist burned and tingled where he'd held them, surely because of how viciously he'd twisted it, and nothing else. She turned and saw him walking away, his black cloak making it seem like he was becoming part of the darkness around him.

"Gin! Come on, we're going back to the tent now." Fred's voice was worried, but seemed as cheerful as a butter-yellow sunbeam after how frightened she'd been.

Each twin took one of her hands, and she smiled at them, a bit shaky still. George frowned a bit and squeezed her hand. "All right, Ginny-bean?"

"Yeah. I just... I ran into Malfoy." Ginny shrugged, the fear and strangeness of the encounter melting away in the presence of her beloved brothers.

"Do we need to beat him? We could, couldn't we, Fred?"

"We most certainly could, George, and it would be our pleasure."

"Completely our pleasure, dearest sister."

"Fair maiden! Let us slay this dragon for you!"

They would have gone on, but Ginny giggled and hugged each of them in turn, and then they were back at the campsite and it was time to be serious again, for little Ginny to be put away safely, like a beloved and treasured porcelain doll, so that her red-haired army of big, strong boys and men could handle things beyond her supposedly delicate capabilities.

She had the thought, as she settled into her blankets that night, that at least being threatened by Malfoy had felt like she was a person, capable of accomplishing something. She stifled the thought, telling herself firmly that she should be grateful to have family and friends who cared so much for her. She yawned and pushed the whole incident from her mind before drifting into sleep.