a/n: This one got its origins from The Year of the Cat, by Al again, but somewhere along the way, it found its own original plot.

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowlings owns Hogwart’s, Draco, and Ginny, and all things attached to them.

Draco walks the corridors of Hogwart’s, looking for first years who've lost their way to scare or snogging students to intimidate. He pauses at a window, thinking how it is such a waste for him to have Prefect duty on a Saturday of sunshine. He’d much prefer to be on the pitch, practicing for the upcoming Quidditch game against Ravenclaw. But no, the bloody Mudblood had insisted that Head girl and boy take patrol duty like the other Prefects do. He’d protested that, but Dumbledore had agreed with her, so it was either patrol or lose his position, which is unthinkable. His father would be irate with him, not to mention he’d lose the private quarters that being Head boy afforded. No, that wouldn’t do at all.

As he passes by a side entrance from a small courtyard on the far side of the castle, the door flies open and in runs a small lanky girl in a sundress. As she skids to a halt when she sees Draco, he notices that she is barefoot. He takes a moment to register that this is Ginny Weasley, the youngest and only girl of the Weasel’s clan. She’d hexed him in his fifth year and it had taken him three days to recover. He’s alternately harassed and ignored her existence since then, but this is the first time he’s seen her this year, his seventh, her sixth.

She looks back at him steadily as he stares at her as if she is something utterly alien and mildly distasteful to him. Suddenly she smiles at him and he can’t stop himself from thinking that it has to be the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. She comes closer and his heart begins to beat at the rate of a speeding car as she tangles her fingers in his and begins to pull him along the corridor.

Draco barely has time to wonder vaguely what he is doing following Ginny Weasley along the corridors, much less holding her hand. He fights to regain his composure, and makes to pull his hand away, but she turns that magnificent smile on him once more, and all reason and sanity seems to fly out of his head.

Draco is beginning to feel as though they’ve been walking forever when she stops. He looks around and realizes he had no clue where he is, which he supposes isn’t that unusual for a place like Hogwart’s, which changes daily, but what is surprising is that a slip of a Gryffindor like Ginny Weasley could get him lost.

They are standing before a painting of a castle entrance. The gate seems to be closed. Draco watches with fascination as Ginny leans towards the painting and gently thumps three times on the gate. Inside the painting, a window in the gate swings open and a little man sticks his head out to look at the two of them. Ginny smiles at him and he gives her a quick once over that has Draco surprising himself by wanting to pour turpentine on the fellow’s head.

As he shakes his head, thinking he has clearly gone insane, the whole painting suddenly swings open and a dark entrance is revealed, Ginny steps over into it and turns to tug at Draco’s hand when he doesn’t follow.

“What’s in there?” he asks her.

“Come and see,” she says, tugging on his hand once more, then releasing it to walk into the darkness, leaving him standing there. He peers into the entrance once again, and taking a deep breath, he enters. It has occurred to him that she could be leading him into some sort of a trap, set by her brother and Potter, but he is too intrigued by her to let it stop him.

Once he gets past the entrance, torches light magically and he can see a flight of stairs leading up and around in a spiral. He follows the stairs and comes out in a small round room. It seems to be a tower. The moonlight streams in an open window and he wonders how it could turn from mid afternoon to night so quickly. She sits on a mattress laden with pillows and her eyes glow as they catch a sliver of silver moonbeam. She smiles and holds out her hand to him.

He inhales deeply as he takes a step forward to take it, and notices the scent of vanilla. She smells like vanilla. He wonders what she might taste like. In the next moment, she is running her hands up his chest to his shoulders and he can’t stand it anymore. He buries his hands in her hair and kisses her. When she kisses him back he likens the feeling to drowning and wonders if death could be as peaceful and lovely as this.

He draws away momentarily to look at her. She opens her eyes and regards him with the same steady gaze.

“Why?” he feels compelled to ask.

She shrugs. “You know about the darkness…In here,” she says, touching her heart. I need to share my soul with someone who knows about it too.”

Strange as this answer may sound to others, Draco understands it. He wants to ask her how someone like her could know about the darkness but he pushes that aside for now, allowing the knowledge that he’s not alone with the silent creeping void that lives inside him. Pushing her back onto the mattress, he begins to show her his soul, and to seek her’s as well.

The next morning, the sun wakes him by shining directly into his left eye. He turns his head to see her curled up next to him. He reaches out to trace a pattern on the freckles on her shoulder.

His father would kill him if he knew what Draco had done with a Weasley. Draco considers this for a moment, then dismisses it as something to worry about later. The choice had been made last night and he finds himself not in the least sorry for it.

She stretches next to him, like a cat waking from a nap and opens her eyes. Seeing him lying beside her seems to make her happy and when she smiles at him again, he feels himself remembering the rhythm they found with each other the night before, and reaches for her.

As she moves into his outstretched arms, he realizes this can’t possibly last. He knows he’s bound for heartbreak if he grows too attached to her. And yet, for now, he thinks he’ll stay, and worry about leaving her behind on another day.

And as he kisses her again, he realizes she tastes like peppermint.