Chapter Five

Ginny could barely eat dinner. The food tasted like cardboard. Ron was starting to get very suspicious of Ginny’s behavior. She hadn’t eaten in days. She was moody and silent. The real clue he had, that something was wrong, was all the time she spent staring at the Slytherin’s table. Just like she was doing right now.

“Earth to Ginny,” Ron said waving his hand in front of her face.

“Huh?” Ginny asked, turning vacantly toward Ron’s voice.

“Ginny, what is going on?” Ron asked rather hotly. Hermione was looking over his shoulder with a concerned look. She glanced over at Harry and he was watching her with a furrowed brow.

“What? I just have a lot on my mind. You all don’t have to look at me like I‘ve grown an extra nose”, when they didn’t look convinced she continued, “I am not your ‘baby’ sister anymore, Ron. You and your friends just go back to your very important lives and leave me alone. You should be used to doing that anyway.” With that, she threw down her napkin and stormed out.

The Trio looked at each other in amazement. Who was that and what had she done with sweet little Virginia Weasley? They didn’t notice that Draco had been watching the whole exchange with a wry grin on his handsome features. Maybe Ginny should have been a Slytherin. Maybe she still could be. She was definitely showing potential. He watched as Ron started to get up but Hermione pulled him back down. Looked like the dinner theatre show was over, time to make his exit.

The library was huge at Hogwarts. Huge and quiet. Madam Pince would not have it any other way. At muggle libraries, you would get the little old lady shushing you with a finger to her lips if you got too loud. At wizard libraries you got a silentium spell put on you. It basically stitched your lips together, very unpleasant feeling. Draco entered the library and began a casual search for Ginny. He wandered around, looking at books here and there. He really didn’t think he’d see any of his housemates in the library at this hour. Someone might be trying to sneak into the restricted section for a dark arts spell but other than that he felt reasonably safe from detection. He had made it to the back corner with still no sign of Ginny when someone covered his eyes up from behind.

“Guess who?” a voice whispered in his ear. Draco felt foolish but answered, “Ginny.”

The hands fell from his face and a hostile voice said, “Who???”

Draco groaned and turned around to face Blaise.

“Uh...I was just...uh...joking.” Draco offered lamely.

“Hey Blaise. I’m surprised to see you here.” A voice said as an arm was wound through his. Draco looked down at the freckled face by his side and wondered what he had done to deserve this. Was it because he had turned Neville’s toad into a wallet? Could it be because he’d ‘borrowed’ Potter’s potions homework and made every answer say that Snape‘s Sourpuss was the main ingredient to every spell? Surely it wasn’t because he had Goyle slip some gillyweed juice into Ron’s drink earlier this week. Draco thought that Ron had looked really good green and with gills. Draco gave a mental shrug. Nope, he couldn’t think of anything that he had done to deserve this torture.

Ginny was feeling a rush of exhilaration. She wanted Blaise to say something snide. She wanted to poke out her big amethyst eyes. She also wanted to pull out Draco’s eyelashes, one at a time, to get back at him for pretending that he didn’t like her. But most of all, she wanted him to kiss her pants off right here in front of the Slytherin upperclassman.

Draco felt the tension in Ginny. Her eyes were flashing and she appeared to be waiting for the moment to strike. He knew that there were two paths he could take here. He could toss Ginny’s arm off of his and say something mean to crush her, then walk away with Blaise. There would be hell to pay later in this scenario. Or, he could wrap his arm around Ginny and kiss her right in front of Blaise and the whole library, reputation be damned. There of course would be hell to pay later for this scenario, too. So, what the hey, might as well get a snogging session out of the deal.

Blaise couldn’t believe her eyes when Draco bent down and kissed that dirt poor Weasley girl. It wasn’t just a peck on the cheek either. She saw his tongue probing her mouth. Ugh! Then it really hit her...G.W.; Ginny Weasley. Draco had been seeing Ginny all this time. She’d show him, the bastard. Letting that nasty girl taint the Malfoy name. Blaise turned on her heel and stomped out of the library.

Draco and Ginny didn’t even notice her departure. They were just a little bit preoccupied.

“Excuse me, did you mean to take a left turn and go to the Astronomy Tower?” Ginny quickly stepped away from Draco when she heard Madam Pince’s cold voice. She was glaring at them from over her horn-rimmed glasses, pointing a ratty feather duster at them.

“We were practicing a primitive technique called mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. It is homework for our Muggle studies class.” Draco replied smoothly with his silver tongue. Ginny was impressed and gave him an appreciative look.

“Humph, if I had a knut for every time I’ve heard that lame excuse.” Madame Pince said with a grunt. “Go on, get out of here you two.”

She didn’t have to tell them twice. They hurried out the door, knocking their shoulders into each other the whole way and laughing. A livid pair of violet eyes watched them leave the library. No white trash was going to hurt her chances of becoming Mrs. Blaise Malfoy. Her mother had been grooming her for that role for 16 years and no Weasley was going to overthrow her.

Draco led Ginny into a dark corridor. Ginny couldn’t recall ever being down it before. It didn’t look very used if the cobwebs hanging all over were any indication. There were fewer floating candles lit up than in most of the halls too. There was a flash of green and then Peeves was in front of them.

“Ewww, little snakey-wakey is going to shag the gryffin-dor whor....” Peeves nasty comment was interrupted by Draco’s fist flying through its middle. Peeves just giggled and floated up higher.... “Oh, that really hurt!” The odious ghoul taunted.

“I think I am going to have to call in that favor that the Bloody Baron owes me.” Draco snarled with a steely glint in his gray eyes.

Peeves looked like he didn’t believe Draco but he wasn’t sure. “You are lying little boy....”

“Try me.” Draco said. Peeves looked peeved but didn’t have the nerve to test Draco’s word. As he started to float away down the hall, Draco added, “And don’t let anyone else down here.”

Then, he grabbed up Ginny’s hand and walked briskly to the end of the hallway. It appeared to be a dead end. There wasn’t even a painting that could hide a portrait hole. Ginny looked quizzically at Draco and he smirked. He reached in his pocket and took out a clear, crystal key. He felt around a bit on the unmarked wall and then slipped the key right through the solid stone. He turned the key and the stone’s rearranged themselves into what seemed to be a pitch-black stairway. Draco held out his hand and Ginny trustingly put hers into it. He grinned at her then and she felt like she had won an award or passed some test or something. They entered the stairway and the stones moved back together. Ginny shuddered and moved closer to the safety of Draco’s side. She heard him say “Lumasita” and a soft glow emanated from his wand. The stairway was still very dim and creepy. She was sure she could hear things moving in the darkness. They descended the stairs slowly. Suddenly, Draco stopped and reached out for something along the wall. It must have been a doorknob because a door opened up then. They entered a room that looked to be out of a dream. At least, for someone of her poverty stricken background.

The room was decorated with opulent luxury in mind. There were heavy drapes in dark emerald velvet covering one wall. There was a divan in the same fabric in the middle of the room. A soft looking, furry rug was laying in front of a fireplace. The rug was pitch black, along with everything else in the room that wasn’t dark green. There were dozens of silver candlesticks placed throughout the circular room as well. With another word from Draco the candles and fireplace lit up and gave the room a warm countenance.

“Draco, if you bring slytherin girls down her to snog I am going to kill you.” Ginny said looking at him with a mixture of surprise and rage.

Draco laughed, one of those real McCoys that drove her mad. “You are the only person that I’ve ever brought here. I come down here once in awhile to study or to get away from Pansy. My dad told me about it when I complained about my lack of privacy from sharing the dorm with the others. I don’t know who all knows about it but I’ve never seen any sign of anyone else using it.”

Ginny reached up and kissed him on the cheek. He had the audacity to blush. She smiled up at him and he cupped her face and looked into her eyes.

“How did we come to be here together?” He asked her in hushed tones.

“I don’t know, but I do know that there is no place that I’d rather be.” Ginny answered with her heart shining in her eyes.

“I think that I’m in deep trouble here, Weasley.” Draco continued running a thumb across her chin.

“Me too, and I think that I could get used to it,” Ginny said moving her arms up around his neck.

Draco groaned and moved his hands to her waist. He looked into her eyes with a million questions dancing in his. Then he gave up looking for answers and lowered his mouth to hers. They stood there kissing in the firelight, sharing their feelings in a way that neither one could say aloud. They both knew that there’d be consequences but neither wanted to think about them right now. All they wanted was to touch each other, minds and flesh melding into one. They dropped to their knees onto the rug. Draco slid his hand into the neckline of her robe and groaned into her mouth. She was feeling drugged. Her skin was on fire. She wanted....hell, she didn’t even know what she wanted but she wanted it bad. They lay on the rug, kissing and touching and sharing. Soon, though, Ginny realized that Draco was not trying to....well...move the action to a more southern part of her body. She could feel him pressing against her and knew that his body wanted to.

He seemed to know what she was thinking. He gave her a bittersweet smile, “I’m a real nasty person sometimes, but I do have a conscience. I don’t want you to hate me later.”

Ginny started to protest, but he put a finger on her lips. “I know. I’m on fire and a cold shower isn’t going to put a dent into my problem.” Then he lowered his forehead to hers and closed his eyes. “I just don’t want to blow it with you.”

A tear escaped one of her eyes; she was in love with Draco Malfoy. A son of a Death Eater, a nasty hateful person in his own right, and a saint rolled up into one. Damn. Her mum and dad were going to skin her. She smiled and kissed him on the nose. She didn’t care if they gave her to the giants to be ground into their bread. He was hers and she was going to keep him.

They lay together for a long time. They talked about who it was that could have left the things in their rooms. They thought it could be Blaise, but she had seemed genuinely surprised to find out it was Ginny. Maybe Pansy? No, she didn’t have the brains to hex the rose. In the end, they weren’t closer to solving the mystery, but they were closer to each other.