Author's Note: None of the characters or places that I use in this chapter are mine. J.K. Rowling, I envy you for your creative charm.
Enjoy!


Chapter 1: Changes


~:*:~


Walking down the corridor towards charms, her first class of the new school year, Ginny thought back to her summer.

After Harry had broken up with her she had stayed at home most of the week until Fred and George decided that maybe she would be better off helping with their shop.

So she had reluctantly gone with them back to Diagon Alley and stayed the rest of the summer working with them during the day. They spent their nights upstairs, playing wizard's chess or enjoying each others company.

She had almost forgotten about how much Harry had hurt her when the news that the war was over and that Harry had killed Voldemort graced the front page of every wizarding newspaper and magazine (except for the Quibbler, which swore that Voldemort was a ghost all along).

The twins closed the shop that day and kept it closed for the rest of the week in order to join in the celebrations that occured as a result of Harry's accomplishment.

But soon it was back to work. It seemed now that the War was over jokes and pranks were in high demand.

By the end of the summer Ginny was feeling much better about the break-up (the fact that she had seen Harry once in Diagon Alley with four girls all over him had something to do with that); but she was distraught over leaving her brothers. They had become very close over the summer, and she didn't want to leave. In the end they had come to an agreement, if she finished out the year with mostly O's and A's then she could come back to the Shop and have a full-time job. They also agreed that she would be able to stay with them again, above the shop.

Of course, Molly had been upset that her youngest child and only daughter would not be staying at home, but she reluctantly agreed to allow her to stay with the twins. The war was over, and there was no threat to their lives anymore, but there was one condition: Ginny was to visit her mum at least twice a week for lunch and she would stay at the Burrow once every weekend.

"Ginevra Molly Weasley, you are not yet 17, and I will not have you running around completely out of my sight!" her mother had said.

Ginny smiled at the thought. She was going to miss everyone, being back at school for her sixth year, but she was sure to see them at Christmas, so she held her head high and walked into the Charms classroom to Professor Flitwick's smiling face.

"Good Morning Professor!" she called as she plopped into her seat.

Professor Flitwick waved his hand in her direction as a greeting and turned back to the board where he was using his wand to write the day's lesson.

Ginny pulled out her new Charms book and admired her new backpack. All through her life Ginny had only received hand-me-downs, but working for Fred and George had its perks, and a hefty paycheck just happened to be one of them.

She set her book on the desk and pulled out some parchment and her quill and ink. If she was serious about staying with Fred and George again she was going to have to change her study habits, and that started with actually taking notes to study in the first place.

She smiled to herself again and started copying down the day's assignment.

~:*:~
Ginny walked back to her dorm exhausted, apparently her professors were serious about N.E.W.T.S. again after the war because she had more homework than she knew what to do with.

'I think I'll start on all of this before dinner' she thought to herself. 'Maybe I can finish that Defence Against the Dark Arts essay I started in class.' she sighed, I'm glad that Snape didn't make it as long as he used to make Potions essays.'

She dropped the books she didn't need back off at her room and headed to the library to get some more information for her essay.


She stepped out from behind the Fat Lady to see Harry, Ron and Hermione walking towards her. She noticed that Ron and Hermione were holding hands but she pushed that thought aside for later as she kept her head up and walked right past them. She was doing well so far, and didn't want thoughts of Harry to distract her. 'Besides,' she thought to herself as she passed them, 'He isn't thinking about me, now is he?'

She didn't notice Harry turn around to look after her, a sad look in his eyes.

~:*:~

Author's Note: I don't own any of the characters or places or anything! J.K. gets all that credit and glory. :-)

~:Chapter 2:~
Lost


She arrived at the library and found an empty table next to the Restricted Section. She sat her stuff down and enlisted Madame Pince's help to find some books on cursed objects.

An hour later she got up from her seat, stretched, and packed her almost finished essay into her backpack along with several of the books. As she pushed her chair back under the table she had the strangest feeling that someone was watching her.

She did a three-sixty and scanned the library, but everyone else had their heads in books or on the parchment in front of them.

She still couldn't shake the feeling, but she shrugged it off. “It must have been my imagination,” she thought to herself before making her way to the double doors that marked the library entrance.

She didn't notice the pair of grey eyes following her every movement.

~:*:~

Ginny headed back to the Gryffindor common room clearly exhausted. The essay was more trouble than she had originally thought, so she left the rest of it for another time. For now she was going to change into something a bit more comfortable than her school uniform, and head down to eat.

She wasn't all that hungry, but she figured going down to dinner wouldn't be such a bad idea. She could stop in at the Ravenclaw table and say hello to Luna and a couple of her other Ravenclaw friends. She had failed to greet them during the Feast the previous evening.

On her way down, however, she ran into Ron.

"Hey Ginny!" exclaimed Ron, as he gave her a hug that was sure to have bruised a few of her ribs.

"Hey Ron," she replied, rubbing her sides. She was happy to finally see him alone after a summer away from home. "What's up with you and Hermione? I saw you guys holding hands earlier."

His face reddened significantly, "Oh, we're um.... sort of together..."

He looked down at his feet.

"Oh! That's great!" Ginny cried, "I'm so happy for both of you! It's about freakin' time!"

He frowned at her. "What do you mean, about time? Did everyone know about our feelings toward each other except us?"

"Yeah, pretty much." She shrugged and then smiled at her brother's look
of disdain.

"So, how was the Burrow without the youngest Weasley around?"

He gave her a quizzical look. "Oh," he shook his head, as if to clear it. "I didn't stay at home this past summer. I stayed at Grimmauld Place to help Harry. Mum let me move in there after the whole V-V-Voldemort, um.... thing. Why do you ask? You were there weren't you?"

"Oh," she sighed. Apparently her brother had not noticed that she had been missing the whole of the summer. "No, I wasn't. I stayed with Fred and George. I was really upset when Harry broke things off and they were the only two who noticed, besides Mum."

They were the only ones who seemed to care too, she thought to herself. She looked down toward her feet.

Ron seemed taken aback. "Ginny, I'm really sorry! I didn't mean that I didn't care, it's just that.... well, I was with Harry all summer. You know, helping him find the other Horcruxes and such... I guess home just slipped my mind..." He seemed conflicted before continuing.

"You know Harry really missed you all summer. He talked about you all the time. It was very agitating, actually. And he kept wanting to owl you or visit or something, but he didn't want anyone to know that he still cared for you. He was just protecting you."

"Like a brother," she replied, obviously agitated.

"No, that's not what I mean, Ginny, and you know it! He was worried for your safety!"

She looked back up at him, "Enough to go to Diagon Alley after the war with several girls hanging all over him? Come on Ron! Get serious! He just wanted to get rid of me, and used the war as an excuse. It's not like he ever really cared about me anyway."

"But!..."

She put her hand up to stop him from interrupting her.

"In fact, I think he might have just been dating me to make you and Mum and everyone else happy." She slumped her shoulders defeated.

"You know what Ron? It doesn't matter anymore. I'm over Harry, and he's obviously over me, so don't go trying to get us back together. I'm through falling head over heels for the infamous Boy-Who-Lived."

With that, she turned around and left. All plans of heading down to dinner were lost in her conflicted mind.

~:*:~

Who was he to say that Harry still cared about her? He broke-up with her for a lame reason and then showed up in Diagon Alley with a bunch of girls, in broad daylight! And he didn't owl her or anything! Not even after the war had ended. And that, she thought triumphantly, is proof-positive that he doesn't still care about me.

She smiled to herself as she walked down the hallway, which was suddenly unfamiliar territory.

Ginny started to panic. I don't recognize anything! Where am I? ... I couldn't have wandered that far away from where I saw Ron, could I?

She turned around and tried to remember just which way she had turned at every corner, and was soon even more lost than before.

I could really use Fred and George at a moment like this. I'll bet they'd know exactly where to go, she sighed inwardly.

Okay, calm down Ginny, she told herself. It's not like you're in Malfoy Manor, or the Chamber where someone is waiting around the corner to do you harm.

The thought then crossed her mind that being lost in Hogwarts could mean that there just might be something lurking around the next corner.

She slowed her steps and approached it slowly, careful to stay away from the corner itself, then she slowly peered out to see...


Nothing, just more hallway...

As she let out the breath she was holding, she didn't notice the figure creeping up behind her from the other direction.

"Boo!" it cried. Ginny, without looking back, screamed and ran down the hallway in front of her. She could hear someone or something running behind her, trying to catch up.

Oh God, let it be someone, not something she thought desperately to herself.

She turned another corner and was faced with a dead end. She stopped and spun around, only to collide with whoever had been chasing her.

As both bodies tumbled to the floor, Ginny panicked and started flailing her arms and legs about madly. Feeling her fisted hand connect with something that grunted she stopped flailing and screamed again.

"Who are you?! What do you want?!" she cried as she tried to free herself from its grasp.

“I was trying to stop you from running down corridors that you obviously do not know, and getting yourself more lost than you already were, Weasley," a smooth yet nasally voice answered back.

Ginny swallowed hard and thought to herself, That can't be him can it? Didn't he run after Snape after...? she stopped her thoughts there.

"Malfoy?" she asked, no longer pushing to be out from under his weight as he had lifted himself into a sitting position to nurse his nose, which seemed to be bleeding.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" she asked. She remembered having hit something with her fist, and now she knew that it must have been his face.

She sat up next to him and pushed his head back.

He tugged away from her. "What are you doing Weasley? I can manage this myself!"

She scoffed at him. “No you can't. My mum always had to deal with this at home, considering the dangerous stunts the twins always pulled. Just.... let... it.... go!” She struggled with him. "I'll make the bleeding stop!"

"I'd rather bleed to death than let a Muggle-lover fix anything of mine, thanks."

She took in the state of the blood all over his robes, and now hers as well.

"Well, by the looks of it you're about to bleed to death! Now let me help you!"

"Ger-off!" was his reply.

He was being very uncooperative, batting her hands away and while at the same time searching for his wand. It must have rolled away from him when they fell.

Ginny, however, knew where her wand was and whipped it out.

"Stupefy!" she cried, exasperated.

He fell quiet and his body sagged against hers, pushing them both to the ground.

She struggled under his weight but managed to push him into a laying position with his head in her lap so that she could access the damage.

She had made a right mess of his nose, and looking at all of the blood it seemed that he might need a blood potion, although he seemed fine.

Ginny pointed her wand at his nose, but saw that the blood had stopped flowing, so instead of the charm her mother had taught her, she cleaned Draco's face and robes with a quick, "Scourgify," and a flick of the wrist. She then pointed her wand at her own robes and cleansed them as well.

"There," she murmured to herself. "All better. Ennervate."

Draco woke-up and looked about frantically. He was disoriented, probably from the loss of blood, but also partially because of the stupefy spell Ginny had thrown his way a few minutes before.

He realized that he was lying down with his head in someone's lap. He looked up to see Ginny's smiling face. His first thoughts were I must be dreaming, but he shook himself and realized that he wasn't when he saw her wand was at the ready.

He sat up rather quickly.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing, Weasley?!" he practically yelled at her.

The smile she had been wearing quickly disappeared, and a frown and angry brow replaced it.

"Saving your bloody life, but look where that got me!" she huffed as she got to her feet.

"Honestly, you have no manners, what so ever! Here I am fixing your bloody nose, and you don't even have the common courtesy to say thank you?"

She threw a scowl his way that could have rivaled his own and started to turn away.

"I'd like to remind you that it was you who gave it to me in the first place, Ginevra!" he yelled right back at her.

She was a little taken aback that he would use her first name, let alone that he even knew her full first name, but she ignored it and whirled around.

She strode over to him, stopping several inches away from his face and poked a finger into his chest.

"Well, next time I'll just have to be sure that I break it, and then I'll leave you to yourself to bleed to death." She spun around and stalked off away from the dead end.

"Wait!" He ran and caught up with her. "You don't know where to go down here, you're in Slytherin Territory here in the dungeons, and could very well walk into a few of my... friends. And they would be more than happy to do all sorts of nasty things to you." He stopped and took a deep breath, letting his shoulders droop and his eyes fall to the floor. "They also wouldn't offer to bring you back to the Great Hall, as I am."

She glared at him for a moment. Where did this Malfoy come from? He seems to care...

She shook her head as if to rid herself of the thought and pointed a stiff arm down the hallway, still clearly agitated.

"Lead the way, oh ungrateful."

"Follow me, then."

They walked along in silence.

~:*:~

Author's Note: This is my first fanfic, so I'd really appreciate any input
that you might have! I promise to update again as soon as I can! I have
been studying for exams this week and was distracted from writing.
Reviews might help push me along though ;-)

Also a big THANK YOU goes out to the Cabal members for putting up with the multiple submissions, and many mistakes my fic had. :-) I ::heart:: you guys for making dracoandginny.com the best!

And a big thanks also goes out to my good friend Meghan for beta-ing for me for this chapter :-).

Chapter 3 – Found

~*~

Ginny had followed Draco out of the dungeons and into a hall that was connected to the Entrance Hall. She noticed that they were still hidden from the view when Draco turned to her.

“Sorry for scaring you back there,” he sighed for the umpteenth time, “I was only trying to help…”

His voice was cut-off by a shrill high-pitched laugh that was truly more of a squeal.

Draco stiffened visibly and poked his head around the bend in the hall to see Pansy Parkinson and her entourage of friends laughing and making their way from the Great Hall directly towards Ginny and himself.

His demeanor quickly changed from calm and caring to glass-like and cold.

‘Here’s the Draco I know and hate.’ Ginny thankfully sighed to herself. ‘At least now I can go back to hating him.’

At this thought a feeling spread through her chest. The only way Ginny could later describe it to herself was that it was the same feeling she had felt the day Percy had left the family.

Draco turned back to her and roughly grabbed her by the arm. Although it seemed he was trying to convey that he was hurting her he actually wasn’t. Ginny merely felt pressure on her arm as if he was leading her rather than dragging her.

Draco pulled her into the Great Hall and shoved her away from him, as if she were diseased.

He made a show of wiping his hands on his robes before pointing to her shouting loud enough that she was sure everyone in the Entrance Hall heard him.

“Next time, Weasley, think twice before coming into my territory alone. Weasley or not, I’m sure some of my friends wouldn’t mind showing you the way we deal with trespassers.”

Ginny fumed. She knew the reason for this, he was a Malfoy and she a Weasley, but was still upset that he would dare treat her this way in front of her classmates.

“A piece of advice Malfoy ,” she spat back at him, “next time you’re looking for a piece of ass I suggest you stay away from Parkinson." She threw her hand up with the thumb pointing towards Pansy. "I’ve heard that she’s concocted, shall we say, a loose taste in men.”

With that she spun around and headed into the Great Hall to find something to eat.

Draco stared after her, amazed.

‘Such spunk from a Weasley? Unheard of.’ He thought with a smirk, slinking his arm around Pansy’s too skinny waist.

‘If that bint thinks this is over she’s got another thing coming.’ He smirked to himself. ‘Weasley senior was getting boring anyways; perhaps the youngest will present more of a challenge.’

His mind was far away and conniving while Pansy snuggled into his arms chatting about some dress or other that Draco couldn’t care less about.

When they got to the Dungeons once again Draco let go of Pansy.

“Sorry, I’ve forgotten that I was supposed to meet with Snape to discuss my …future.”

He paused before leaving the last word hanging in the air, hoping that Pansy wasn’t too thick to get the hint he was dropping.

He wasn’t disappointed when her eyes lit up for a moment and she nodded her head energetically.

Draco was amazed at her unbidden feelings of love for him and for the power he held. He would have to sic Zabini on her later; perhaps if he could catch her with Blaise it would be enough for his father to drop her from the arranged marriage.

Draco hoped, for his sake that it was. Having Pansy as a wife would be the worst form of torture Draco could think of, and he could think of very many.

He pondered on this as he made his way to the Great Hall, his lie about Professor Snape far from the turmoil that was his mind.

~*~

Ginny sat next to Luna and started to pile food onto the plate that had appeared in front of her. Surprisingly it had a red and gold trim rather than the blue and bronze of Luna’s plate’s trim.

Ginny actually smiled at this causing Luna to raise her eyebrows.

“Okay, who is he?” Luna asked Ginny starting back into her meal.

“Whef ish whef?” Ginny said showing off a mouthful of sweet potatoes.

Luna looked up in time to see this and cringed.

“The boy who’s got you smiling of course” Luna rolled her eyes and once again starting eating.

Ginny looked at Luna quizzically and shook her head, swallowing as she did so.

“I was admiring the prowess of the kitchen elves. They knew I was a Gryffindor even though I’m sitting at the Ravenclaw table.”

Luna just shrugged.

“Whatever you say, Gin.” She paused and looked off into the distance as if contemplating, then shrugged at looked back at Ginny.

“You wanna come with me to the library? I’ve got to finish that Potions essay for Snape.”

Ginny shook her head again.

“No thanks, Luna. I think I’ve had enough of that one for today. I’ll catch you later though.” She said, taking one last bite of food having finished the entire plate and getting up to leave.

“Okay, see ya.” Luna grabbed her bag and walked out of the Great Hall in the direction of the Library.

Ginny couldn’t help but notice the amount of boys at the table that stared after her.

‘Lucky bint.’ She though to herself before walking out of the Great Hall towards Gryffindor tower.

She didn’t see the pair of silver-blue eyes haunting her every step.

~*~