A/N: Just thought it was about time I revamped some of my older fics, get rid of typos, etc.

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Rating: K+

September, Ginny's 5th year…

Ginny took off out of the castle at a run. Finally she collapsed at the base of a large oak tree near the lake and burst into tears.

"Do you mind?" a voice drawled from nearby. Ginny had been so caught up in her anguish that she hadn't noticed there was already someone leaning against the base of the oak tree. She looked up to find herself inches away from Draco Malfoy.

"This whole crying thing is rather annoying." He continued. "I came out here for some peace and quiet, I don't want some Weasley mucking up my tree!"

Ginny's feelings of intrusion turned to annoyance at his last comment.

"Your tree?" she repeated.

"I was here first, wasn't I?" Draco snarled. "So you can just take your little blubbering Gryffindor self back up to Gryffindor tower and leave me in peace."

At this point Ginny was so angry she'd quite forgotten her earlier sadness.

"I'm not going anywhere!" She informed Draco hotly. "I've got as much right to sit under this tree as you do."

Draco sighed. "There, at least you've stopped blubbering."

"I wasn't –" Ginny started indignantly, but she stopped herself. In a backhanded way, Draco had almost helped her. She had gotten so upset with him, she was hardly feeling sorry for herself anymore. So instead of commenting she just leaned farther into the tree's roots and closed her eyes. The night was fairly quiet and the cool air was helping to calm her down. She almost felt like she could go back inside and face Harry… almost.

"So, what happened?" Draco asked in an irritated tone, obviously the silence was too much for him. "Did the wonderful Potter break your wittle Weasley heart?"

Ginny was starting to feel so serene that she decided not to let Draco get to her.

"Something like that Malfoy." She answered simply.

She let her mind drift back to what had happened earlier. She could see Harry clearly, his face getting redder and redder as she stumbled on, and then Lavender coming up and wrapping her arms around him. Ginny could feel the tears in her eyes again.

"What do you call a person who keeps going after something she'll never get?" Ginny asked, almost to herself, forgetting for a moment who she was with.

"A fool." Came Draco's answer from beside her. "There's nothing you can't get if you want it badly enough."

That last part had surprised Ginny out of her planned reply. Once again, her next question came without thought.

"Even love?" she asked.

Draco scowled. "I wouldn't be the person to ask."

"So you've never been in love?" Ginny prodded.

"And I suppose you think you're in love with the almighty Potter, then?" Draco asked, sidestepping her question.

"Why do you hate him so much?" She asked back.

"Why do you like him so much?" Draco retorted. "What has he ever done for you?"

"He saved my life." Ginny answered in a whisper, remembering back to that terrible day.

Draco snorted, unimpressed. "That's just what he does. He always has to play the hero. It doesn't make you special or anything."

Ginny's eyes welled up with tears. The truth in what Draco had just said hurt.

"You know," She said, her voice filled with emotion, "you don't have to be so mean."

"I'm just helping you see the truth, Weasley." Draco replied, unaffected by her tone.

"So what about you then, huh?" Ginny shot back. "Why're you sitting out here all by yourself?"

Draco was silent for a minute.

"My business is my own." He answered finally.

"Did you have a fight with your precious Pansy or something?" Ginny pushed.

"No," came the answer, "and even if I had, you'd be the last person I'd tell."

"The last?" she repeated, her voice joking. "You mean you'd even tell Harry before me?"

She could've sworn for a moment she almost thought Draco smiled.

"Fine," he corrected, "second to last."

"See," she said, falsely sweet, "you're warming up to me already."

After that the conversation was discontinued. They each just sat in their own thoughts, Ginny looking up at the stars and Draco looking down into his own palms. Eventually Draco stood.

"Where're you going?" Ginny asked, surprised at his sudden departure.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "I'm going back inside if that's okay with you, Weasley."

He started back towards the castle.

"My name is Ginny!" She called at his retreating back.

He gave her a quizzical look and kept on walking.

2 months later, in early November…

"Now," said Prof. Snape, passing out assignments, "Since this is a particularly hard assignment I've paired you all up with a student from my advanced Potions class. I expect you to pay attention to what they have to say, and I expect the assignment to be finished, properly, by tomorrow."

Ginny looked down as her parchment and cringed. She knew the chances of her getting paired with a Slytherin were high (since Snape hand picked the students for his advanced potions class), but she couldn't believe she had to get stuck with this particular Slytherin.

"Malfoy." She muttered crossly, as she made her way out of the classroom. "Of all people…"

So, much to her dismay, after dinner that night she made her way to the library where Draco was waiting.

"Just what I wanted to do, spend my night with a Weasley." He said sarcastically as she approached.

"Hello, Malfoy." She returned, sitting down.

They spent most of the night working on the complicated potion, trading insults, and just generally bickering. Although he was driving her insane, Ginny had to admit Draco was excellent at potions.

"How did you get so good at this?" Ginny finally asked, despite her fear of further inflating Draco's massive ego.

"This is a school," Draco answered sarcastically. "Occasionally you learn things here."

"Can't you even take a compliment?" Ginny snapped.

Draco scowled and snatched the parchment out of Ginny's hands. He looked at it briefly and threw it away.

"Hey!" Ginny shouted in indignation. "I've been working on that for the last half hour!"

"Then it's a good thing I didn't let you waste any more time on it," Draco informed her, "because you were doing it completely wrong."

Ginny took a deep breath and tried really hard not to scream.

"Well then, Draco," she asked, trying to keep her voice calm, "could you show me how to do it the right way?"

Draco smirked. He got up from his side of the table and came around so he was standing behind her. He turned the page in her potions book as she got out a new sheet of parchment.

"It's a quarter-turn potion." He explained it a patronizing tone. "The ingredients are in sets, you know, eight beetle eyes for every two frog legs, that sort of thing."

Ginny turned her head to ask Draco a question and found her face inches from his. For a second they just sort of held that way, too startled to move. Ginny couldn't help but notice how handsome he was, even for a Slytherin. She could've sworn she saw his gaze flicker on her mouth for a moment.

Draco quickly backed up with a scowl. He moved back over to the other side of the table.

"I don't have cooties, Malfoy." Ginny said, trying to cover the awkward moment.

"Yeah, well, let's just get this done." He snapped.

"Believe me, I want to get done with this just as much as you do." She replied.

"So then do it." Draco said.

"Fine!" Ginny replied hotly.

"Fine." He repeated.

They managed to finish the rest of the assignment in relative silence and then they both stormed off to their respective dorms.

"Malfoy is insufferable!" Ginny muttered darkly on her way back to her room. "I'm so glad that's over."

Ginny took off down the hall at a sprint. She was so excited she just about accidentally mauled Draco.

"Watch where you're going, Weasley!" He said sourly, straightening his things.

"Please, it's Ginny." Ginny reminded him sweetly. She was in too good of a mood for Draco to get to her.

"What's with you?" Draco asked, eyebrow raised.

"We're going away for the holiday!" She squealed excitedly, not particularly caring who she was talking to. "We haven't taken a family holiday since Egypt!"

Draco scowled at Ginny's good mood.

"So what, did your parents sell your shack to raise the money?" He asked sarcastically.

"Of course not!" Ginny said, her mood still above Draco's taunts. "We just sold all of Ron's stuff, that's all."

For a moment, Ginny almost thought she saw Draco smile. Her mind flashed on their chat by the lake at the beginning of the year.

"Well, you really are in a good mood." Draco spat, his face twisted back into a scowl.

"Just call it the holiday spirit!" Ginny replied brightly. "Speaking of holiday spirit…"

Before Draco knew what had happened, Ginny had leaned in and kissed him. It was a friendly kiss, but still, completely out of the blue. Draco pulled away from her quickly, his face an amusing combination of disgust, surprise, confusion, and something else Ginny couldn't quite place.

"What the bloody hell did you do that for?" He cried, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Ginny laughed, and pointed up. Sure enough, some mistletoe hung above their heads, part of the Christmas decorations. Draco glanced at it and then back into Ginny's laughing face. He was obviously at a loss for words.

"Merry Christmas!" She said, still laughing at the look on his face.

He brought his fingers to his lips as he watched her walk off.

"I was just kissed by a Weasley." He muttered sullenly, shaking his head it disbelief. It was not an experience he intended to repeat.

February 14th, Valentine's Day…

Ginny Weasley sat in a far corner of the library, sulking. Valentine's day was probably her least favorite holiday of the year, and the fact that Ron had been singing, "His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad…" all day had not made things any better.

"Well, well, well." A now familiar voice drawled from behind her. "What's eating you today, Weasley?"

If her unexpected mistletoe kiss had thrown Draco off-balance for a while, it seemed to Ginny that he had definitely recovered. His normal smirking self plopped down on the seat next to her, waiting for a response.

"None of your business, that's what." Ginny snapped sharply. This was exactly what she didn't need on a day like this one.

"Ooh, what's the matter?" Draco mocked, ignoring the fact he was obviously unwelcome. "Did you not get any valentines? Or just not one from your precious Potter?"

Now he'd hit a nerve. She'd been trying so hard over the past few months to convince everyone that she was over Harry and they just didn't seem to buy it. Then today with that stupid song…

"I do not like Harry Potter!" Ginny practically screamed, drawing some odd stares from various other students in the library.

Draco looked taken aback. It took him a minute to recover.

"So I see you've taken my advice then." He said smugly.

"Your advice?" Ginny repeated.

"Don't you remember our heart to heart at the beginning of the year Weasley?" Draco asked. "I told you Potter wasn't worth it."

"Whatever." Ginny answered intelligently. She opened one of her books and pretended to study, hoping Draco would get the hint and leave.

"You know, you don't have to get so defensive." Draco commented. He obviously wasn't done torturing her yet.

"I'm not defensive!" Ginny said, again practically shouting.

Draco just smirked.

"Okay, fine!" Ginny admitted. "Maybe I'm a little defensive, but it's your fault. You always know what to say to get people upset… it's like a sick hobby of yours."

This thought seemed to please Draco.

"Upsetting Gryffindors is just so damn easy, that's all." He replied. "We Slytherins just have tougher skin."

"So you're saying it's impossible to upset a Slytherin?" Ginny asked.

"Exactly." Draco answered.

Now it was Ginny's turn to smirk.

"What about our kiss?" She asked quietly. "You seemed pretty upset by that."

Draco's smug look instantly vanished and was replaced with a scowl.

"I don't like surprises." He said.

Ginny was thrown by his answer. She'd expected something like, "Well, anyone would get upset kissing a Weasley." She didn't know what to make of his response.

"I don't either, really." She heard herself say, scrambling for a way to change the subject. "But do you know what I really don't like? People bothering me when I'm trying to study."

Draco seemed relieved at the subject change, but he still didn't take the hint and leave.

"What's got you so worked up today Weasley?" He asked.

"I thought we'd already decided it was your presence." She retorted.

"I'm flattered, really." Draco told her. "But I think it has more to do with the date."

"I just don't like Valentine's day." Ginny replied shortly.

"Me either." Draco agreed, stretching out in his chair as though he intended to be there was a good while. "Everyone gets so lovey-dovey. Especially Gryffindors. It's disgusting."

"But you don't have to worry about that, right?" Ginny returned, remembering their first conversation. "Because you've never been in love."

"Love is a wasted emotion." Draco spat somewhat bitterly.

"You know what I think?" Ginny asked. "I think you're scared. You put on this big bad boy Slytherin image so that no one can ever get close to you. That way you're safe. No one can ever get close enough to hurt you."

"Well, that's a wonderful theory," Draco replied sarcastically. He got up and stalked off, leaving his bag behind.

Ginny sighed and returned to her work reluctantly. She'd thought she wanted him to leave, so why was she sad that he had?

Later that night Draco returned to the library to retrieve his bag when he was sure Ginny would be gone. When he got back to his room he noticed something sticking out of one of the pockets. It was a valentine.

Happy Valentine's Day, Draco.

(Even if you don't believe in love)

Ginny

Draco threw the valentine in the trash and lay back on his bed. He couldn't believe what was happening. A fifteen year old, Gryffindor, girl was actually starting to get to him.

The next day, in the halls…

Ginny glanced at her watch and hurried on. This short cut was turning out to be longer than her usual route. If she didn't hurry she'd find herself late for Charms.

As she rushed along she tripped and scattered her books across the stone floor. She cursed and bent to pick them up, but a hand reached out in front of her.

"Here, let me help you." Draco said, gathering the fallen books.

Ginny received the books suspiciously, trying to decide if Draco had an ulterior motive.

"So, did you get your bag back?" Ginny finally asked, without thanking him. "You left it in the library when you stormed off."

"I did." Draco answered. "I guess you expect me to thank you for the valentine?"

"I've learned not to expect anything from you, Draco." Ginny replied. "I really have to go though, I'm late for Charms."

She started to make her way past him but he stopped her.

"Why did you even leave it for me, Weasley?" he asked.

"You seemed like you could use a valentine." She told him. "You were being so cynical about love."

"What is it with you?" He demanded, almost as if he were thinking aloud rather than speaking to Ginny. "Why can't you just be a normal Gryffindor and trade insults with me? Instead you're hanging around leaving me valentines. Do you think you can change me or something? That you can save me? Well, I don't want to be saved."

For a moment Ginny simply stared, surprised by his outburst. Then she took a step closer to him.

"I don't think you need saving." She said softly, taking another step closer so that they were almost touching. "I think you just need someone to listen."

Draco's face twisted into anger, but quickly dissolved into something else. He was looking at Ginny as though he were trying to figure her out.

Before she knew what was happening, he'd closed the distance between them and captured her mouth with his. It wasn't the kind of kiss she'd given him under the mistletoe either. It was a fiercely passionate kiss that made Ginny forget everything else in the world besides the feeling of Draco's lips on hers.

When they finally broke apart, Draco had a look on his face as though he couldn't believe what he'd just done. Suddenly, all the thoughts that the kiss had pushed out of Ginny's mind came rushing back. Not only was she now extremely late for charms but she'd also just willfully kissed a Slytherin.

She was trying to muster up a complete sentence when Draco started to turn away.

"I have to go." He muttered and then positively fled.

Ginny sunk to the ground right in the middle of the hallway and touched her fingers to her lips. She was actually falling for Draco Malfoy.

Later that night, around 9:30…

Ginny walked towards the library slowly, not really wanting to get there. The impossible potions assignment Prof. Snape had assigned weighed heavily on her mind, well, that, and her earlier encounter with Draco.

As she rounded a corner, she saw Draco approaching her from the opposite direction. He scowled half-heartedly when he saw her and tried to brush past her without saying anything. Ginny wouldn't have it. She grabbed his arm and forced him to spin back around.

"What?" He demanded.

Ginny glanced around. They were closed enough to the library that every once and awhile a student or two would pass by. Still clutching Draco's arm she dragged him into a nearby classroom. They were all empty at this time of night.

"What do you want, Ginny?" Draco spat, once they were inside with the door shut.

Ginny was about to explode at him, when she realized it was the first time he'd called her by her proper name. She looked him over more closely; he wasn't angry, he was confused.

"Maybe you have a short memory," she said finally, "but I don't. I want to know why you kissed me this morning."

Draco scowled sincerely.

"You'd better not tell anyone about that." He growled.

Ginny couldn't help herself, she burst out laughing. Draco looked rather startled.

"I'm sorry," she said between giggles, "but could you picture the look on Ron's face if I told him you'd kissed me?"

She broke off into another fit of giggles and noticed that Draco was also smiling. A real, genuine smile.

"He probably wouldn't believe you anyway." Draco said, trying to shake off his ridiculous grin.

"It is rather unbelievable." Ginny replied, no longer laughing. "And you never answered my question. Why'd you do it?"

Draco turned away so his back was to her.

"I can't figure you out." He said slowly. "I mean, this isn't the way things are supposed to be. You drive me crazy!"

With his last sentence he turned back around to find himself face to face with Ginny and just like that he was kissing her again, even longer than the first time. Ginny felt like her body was on fire. All she could think about was getting closer to him.

When they finally pulled apart a soft moan escaped Ginny's lips. She didn't want to let go.

"This is crazy." Draco whispered, his mouth still inches from hers.

"I know." Ginny said softly. "But I don't want to stop."

The end. Please Review!