Title: The Only Exception (1/2)
Author: Elle Blessingway (aka, elle_blessing at LiveJournal)
Rating: Any Age
Summary: What if Draco and Ginny had been friends before they knew they weren't supposed to be? What if they were each other's only exception to the rule? The far-reaching consequences of such fateful moments and choices would truly change everything expected of a Malfoy and a Weasley. Wouldn't it?
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is JKR's sandbox. I just like to build sand castles.
Author's Notes: This was written for the 2010 Draco/Ginny Fic Exchange over at LiveJournal's dgficexchange. It won an award for Best Kiss, and lost Best Fic Overall by one vote. It was also nominated for Best Angst, Best Portrayal of Draco Malfoy, Best Portrayal of Ginny Weasley, Favorite Line and Snarkiest Conversation. To everyone that nominated and voted for me, thank you SO much! *smooshes!*
Thanks: Profuse thanks go to all the women who helped me put this together; it took a team to make this happen. Thank you,mugglechump, for being such a great sounding board and holding my hand every step of the way. Thank you, fiery_flamingo, for your grammar picking and for telling me when something sucked and needed to be fixed. And as always, thanks go to amazonmink and silvestardance, both of who check everything I write before it sees the light of day.

.

.

11 February 1987, 12:32 P.M.
Draco Malfoy - Age 6 | Ginny Weasley - Age 5

.

"Papa, are we lunching yet?" Ginny tugged on Arthur Weasley's faded jacket insistently. Her tummy was grumbling and the shop they were in smelled of musty books. The ones her papa was looking at only had words, though, and so she was Not Interested at all. Pictures were best. "You said it was lunch time, remember?"

Nose buried deep in Muggle Tub-Stoppers & Other Such Oddities, Arthur's voice was rather distant when he replied. "Not too long now, Ginnybean. Papa needs to know something for work and we can't bring this book with us."

Ginny's nose crinkled. She didn't really understand why they couldn't just take it with them, but her papa always seemed very sad when he said that they couldn't, and that he couldn't get her ice cream, either. She didn't like seeing him sad. It made her sad, too.

Sighing, she wandered off towards another aisle, eyes lighting when she saw a picture book lying open on the floor. Tiny fingers were reverent as she turned the pages, enchanted by the beautiful moving pictures. None of her books at home were nearly so pretty and new, and only a very few had colored pictures.

"What's that you've got?"

Ginny glanced up to see a boy looking between her and the book she was so enraptured by. He looked very different than her brothers, indeed, with his light, light hair. "Ron and Fred and George all have dragonpox and Mummy thought I should go to work with Papa, but he wanted to look at books 'cause its lunch and I like unicorns. Do you like unicorns? See, look here," she said, holding out her picture book, "they're quite pretty, huh?"

Draco didn't much care about unicorns. They were for girls. He'd much rather look at a book about dragons. His expression was turned into one of haughty confusion as he tipped his head at her. "Did you know your shoes are scuffed? Father says only paupers have scuffed shoes. Are you a pauper?"

The book was quite forgotten as Ginny looked down at her shoes. They looked the same as when she'd gotten them. Glancing back up at him, she asked, "What's a pauper?"

Draco made a sound as if she was rather dim even though he wasn't really sure the answer to the question. But Father said it, so it must be true.

"Someone with scuffed shoes," he said as if it was rather obvious. "Come on, pauper. We should fix it," he informed her before snatching the hand not holding a book and tugging her towards the front of shoppe.

Surprised at first, Ginny tried to stop him, but then her curiousness got the better of her and she set the unicorn book down on a table as they passed. "If I'm a pauper, what does that make you?" she asked, little legs trotting a bit to keep up. "A ponce? That's what Fred and George call Percy and he doesn't like scuffs either."

"Certainly not," he informed her imperiously, rather pleased with his word choice. He wasn't entirely sure he'd used it properly, but Father would be proud. He sounded like he knew what he was about. "I'm a Malfoy."

"Are you sure that's not a ponce?"

"Very sure."

"Hmm. Well, then I'm a Weasley."

"Weasley then," he said, mercury gaze darting about as they reached the door. Father wouldn't necessarily want him to leave, but he was a little man, like Mother said, and he was quite sure he was big enough to fix the Weasley scuffs. "Hurry up, before we get caught."

A flashing grin lit Ginny's features. Fred and George said that all the time, and it always meant something fun. Squeezing his hand in excitement, Ginny scurried after him as they snuck out, the bell ringing merrily at Flourish & Blotts as they made their escape.

.

15 March 1987, 3:37 P.M.
Draco Malfoy - Age 6 | Ginny Weasley - Age 5

.

Ginny's legs swung and she hummed quietly to herself. Canny brown eyes watched Arthur's brow begin to knit. Almost there.

The frown that signaled Total Concentration fully overtook her papa's face and Ginny grinned in triumph.

"Hmm?" The ginger man stirred.

Her eyes widened and she started humming again. Only when he ruffled and then settled back into whatever Muggle conundrum was currently holding his attention did she relax again. She knew better. Fred and George had taught her all the right tricks for sneaking.

She hummed for several more minutes that seemed like forever and a day, the sound getting quieter and quieter until it disappeared all-together. She watched him, waiting, but when Arthur didn't stir, triumph filled her and she scooted to the edge of the chair and carefully let herself down.

Ginny kept a wary eye on the open door she'd just snuck out of, taking careful, silent steps backwards.

"You're not at all sneaky, you know."

Ginny's eyes widened as she spun and slapped her hand over Draco's mouth. "Shhh!"

Draco glared at her and pulled her hand from his face. "I'll do what I please, Wealsey."

Ginny glared back at him, but instead of answering grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hall at a run. It was several corners later that they collapsed into a heap. It was hard to tell which hand was pulling at ginger hair and which was throwing a punch as the two children rolled on the floor. The indignant call of "YOU BIT ME!" was shushed, tinkling giggles chasing right after.

"You bit me," Draco said again as he stared incredulously at his hand.

"You pulled my hair," Ginny said as if that explained everything, rather smug indeed.

"Because you hit me."

"Because you're a ponce. Like Percy. You wouldn't shush."

"Malfoy's don't shush." He glared at her, very tempted to wrestle her to the floor again. Part of him was thrilled by this. Pansy didn't like to do anything but 'play tea', and Greg and Vincent were dead boring. They did whatever he said. It was fun sometimes, but only for a little while.

"Well, that's why I bit you. It worked, didn't it? You shushed. Kind of." Ginny's nose crinkled as she really thought about it. "Actually you screamed a bit like a girl."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Not."

"Uh huh. You sounded like Percy when Fred flushes the loo while he's showering."

Draco wasn't sure what to make of this. Ginny talked of her brothers every time they saw each other at the Ministry, but he still wasn't sure which was which. Except that the Percy one was poncy. Percy the Ponce.

He sniffed. "I'm not going to give you what I brought."

Ginny's eyes lit. "What is it, huh? Can I have it now?"

Draco's lips curled into a sly smile. He knew how to play this game. He was very good at having things that others wanted. "Only if you take it back."

"Hmph." Ginny eyed him sourly. Draco wasn't like any of her brothers really, but it was sure fun when he got all prickly about it. "I bet it's not even worth it."

"Is too." Draco glared at her. "It's too good for you, even. Father says Weasleys are not worth anything at all."

"Well, of course we are," Ginny said, confusion tinting her expression moments later. "What does that mean?"

Draco shrugged. "I don't know. Father says it though."

He shifted from his sprawl on the floor then and dug in his trouser pocket. "Here, I brought you something. I found it in Mother's jewelry box. She won't miss it," he said as he held a charm out to her. "Malfoy Mums have way too many things to really miss just one."

This idea of having so many things that you wouldn't miss if one was gone was very foreign to Ginny, but she didn't say anything. Mostly because her eyes were just a little bit wide as she picked up the tiny unicorn charm from Draco's palm.

"It's pretty," she said reverently, little child's fingers very careful as she turned it about, delighted when the jeweled eye sparkled in the light.

Draco was very, very pleased indeed. She would like him best of all now, he was sure of it.

"Draco!"

Two sets eyes widened and they both scrambled up to their feet. They'd played many times in the Ministry since sneaking away from the bookstore, now, but neither had forgotten the pinched look to Lucius' face when he'd found them.

"Draco Abraxas Malfoy!"

"I'vegottago," he said in a rush before racing past her. He didn't want Father to find him with Ginny again. Lucius had said he should never talk to her and that she was 'beneath' them, spawn of a blood traitor. He still wasn't sure what all that meant, but he did know it wasn't good. He liked Ginny though, best of all his friends. She would just have to be his secret friend.

He turned and waved before darting around the corner.

Ginny was still blinking after him, but when he waved, her face lit in a smile and she raised her hand so high in a wave back that she was on her very tip-toes.

She watched the corner for several long moments to see if he'd reappear, but when he didn't, she opened her fisted hand to look at the charm he'd given her. It was too shiny by far not to attract everyone's attention. No one in her family had anything half so nice. She would have to keep it a secret. Just like Draco, she realized. Papa had told her that he wasn't a good person to try to be friends with when she'd told him about their first adventure to fix her scuffs.

But she was good at keeping secrets. Fred and George had made sure of it since they used her to prank Ron. A bright, sudden smile flashed across her face as she recalled their last prank on Ron and the way he'd turned red as turnip.

Giggling to herself, Ginny stuffed the charm into her pocket and raced back towards Arthur's office.

.

5 September 1992, 8:29 P.M.
Draco Malfoy - Age 12 | Ginny Weasley - Age 11

.

Ginny clutched the expensive bit of parchment tightly in her hand as she stalked towards the Astronomy Tower.

She was still so mad. Draco had called her Harry's girlfriend in front of everyone. And he'd mocked her family. Tom had told her to put it from her mind, but Ginny hadn't had any success. She wasn't even sure she should be listening to a book, anyway. She was fairly certain books weren't really supposed to talk back, but it was so novel to have someone who listened that wasn't a brother that she'd rather thought to keep it to herself.

That she had a lovely, suspicious book to rant all her feelings to didn't help that she still had the feelings and that she was still quite angry. And hurt.

"Ginny, over here."

"Don't you 'over here' me, Malfoy," she bit out as she turned sharply, braids swinging, and stalked towards him. "I shouldn't have even come up here. You don't deserve it. Ponce? It's too nice for you. You're a slimy, dung eating git," she spat, little hand swiping so fast at his cheek that both of them were a little surprised when it was all over.

"That ... kind of hurt," he said indignantly as he touched the reddened skin gently with a few fingers.

"Good." She huffed, not at all sorry though she hadn't planned on slapping him. It had just happened. "You deserve to hurt." She didn't add that he deserved what he'd dished out. She didn't want him to know that his words at Flourish & Blotts had hurt.

Draco glared right back at her. It had been a long time since they'd tumbled about in the Ministry having adventures. A lot had happened between then and now. He'd learned what a pauper was, and that she was, in fact, one of them. He'd learned all the varied reasons why her family was beneath his. He'd learned to hate her brother and Harry Potter, both of whom had made a fool of him. He had learned that it was more imperative than ever that Ginny was a secret.

He'd learned that he still liked her best of all because she slapped him and wrestled him and told him exactly what she thought. No one else did that.

"You know we're supposed to hate each other now."

"I know. Ron and Harry both loathe you. Even the twins think you're a bit of a git." She sighed. It was easy when they were little, just not saying anything about Draco, but listening to her brothers and Harry spit words out about him had made her upset. They didn't know him like she did. But then, she couldn't really say that she knew him at all. She wasn't supposed to.

She frowned and looked at the floor, kicking at the stone. "You make it pretty easy to hate you when you say such horrid things."

"You're the one that called me a slimy, dung-eating git," he pointed out, lips turning up slightly even as he said it. "That was rather good, actually. Creative. You might even have the run on Pansy. She's pretty inventive too."

"Pansy?" Ginny's gaze rose and something else inside, something a little darker and slightly uncomfortable.

"Oh, just a girl in my house." He shrugged. "Look, I've got something for you, but then I have to go. Curfew's anytime now and I don't want to lose points." Draco glowered slightly as his thoughts turned to the Golden Three and how they never had House Points taken away for breaking the rules. Not like everyone else.

Ginny watched him dig in his pocket and her brows rose when he held out a linked bracelet. "Why do you always get me things?" she asked, genuinely curious though she took the bracelet anyway and turned it about, eye catching at something dangling from one of the links.

"Because I can." It was true enough, but he didn't add that it was also because he liked to.

Her lips twitched into a tiny smile as she studied the paw print charm. It was bejeweled in gold and red.

"I thought you'd be in Gryffindor. Turned out I was right. Usually am," he said, more pleased than he would ever say at the unguarded happy look on her face.

"Ponce."

"Pauper."

She grinned and then pulled a leather necklace from beneath her shirt. "Here, help me put this one on?" she asked as she held out the unicorn charm tied on the leather twine.

Draco was just a little bit appalled that the silver and diamond charm was on such a ghastly piece of string, but didn't say anything as he carefully untied it and then said the spell he'd used to put the other charm on her bracelet. When it was all said and done, the charms chimed as they hit each other when he handed it back to her.

"This still has to be a secret," he said as he watched her clip it on her wrist.

"I know." She took a moment to admire the silver, sparkly thing on her wrist before pulling her sleeve down over it and looking back up at him. "I'm ashamed of you anyway. It's better this way."

She couldn't quite hold in the grin wanting out at his peeved expression and moments later caught his arm with hers and pulled him back towards the stairwell leading down. "Thanks," she whispered.

.

6 June 1994, 5:22 P.M.
Draco Malfoy - Age 14 | Ginny Weasley - Age 12

.

He already knew he wasn't going to like what she had to say, but Draco didn't tell her to leave him. "Just spit it out already, Weasley."

Ginny eyed him. "Come on then, you know my first name. Just like you know you ought not have said what you did."

Silence stretched between them in the Hospital Wing and Ginny crossed her arms, quite willing to wait him out. It was a bit difficult not to smile though, as the slab of meat Madam Pomphrey had given him looked rather comical pressed to the side of his face.

Draco glared.

Ginny glared back.

"You're an evil bint, you know that?"

"It's one of my better qualities."

"That's the truth." He was buoyed by the pique that lit her eyes at his agreement. "Ginny."

"Hmph."

"No matter what you say, or try to make me say, or want to hear, that bushy haired harpy is still a Mudblood. Just on principle. She's violent," he said, as if that explained everything. He even pulled the meat from his face to show her the vivid bruise high on his cheek as evidence.

"Next time you say that word, I'm giving you a matching one on the other side," she informed him. "And Madam Pomphrey isn't going to give you anything but a piece of meat for that, either."

"I hate you."

"I know." She patted him gently on the knee, her charm bracelet tinkling merrily. "It'll pass."

"I'm sorry," he said sullenly. A sly smirk curled his lips moments later though. "I'll make sure to never say it to her face again."

"I don't know how we ever became friends." Ginny's nose crinkled at him. He might not say it to her face, but he would use that filth of a name out of earshot. She knew he was what he was, just as she was what she was. A Malfoy and a Weasley. Still, for a human being, he was appallingly rude.

"Because I'm benevolent and give you nice things, and you've greedy, grabby hands." Draco grinned then, not really able to help himself.

"Oomph." He frowned. "Ow."

"Ponce."

"That was uncalled for." He rubbed at the shoulder she'd punched. "I was only pointing out the obvious."

"And I was quite unable to help myself. You inspire violence." Ginny grinned at him sweetly before sliding off the chair across from his. She needed to go. Dinner was soon, and if she wasn't there she'd be missed.

"Don't say that again, okay?" she said, serious and solemn for the first time. "It makes her sad and then it makes me sad. She's my friend, you know."

"I'm your friend," he said, glowering. He was her first friend, not some little buck-tooth mongrel.

"And I'm yours. Just try to be less of a git. It'll make it easier on everyone." She gave him a cheeky smile before slipping out of the room.

Draco glared at the now-empty doorway and slapped the meat back on his face. It was such a demeaning thing - meat - but it did feel better.

She popped her head back in the room and flashed a brilliant smile. "Oh, and happy birthday."

Everyone else had lavished him with gifts. He'd thought Ginny had forgotten, and in the end, all she had for him was well wishes. "Weasley pauper," he grumbled to himself as he adjusted the meat against the bruise on his face.

He was rather pleased despite, though.

.

25 December 1994, 10:36 P.M.
Draco Malfoy - Age 14 | Ginny Weasley - Age 13

.

"Longbottom's a blundering idiot."

The voice was bodiless, but Ginny would know the bored drawl anywhere. "And Pansy's a vapid, insipid, foul excuse for a human being," she shot back, ginger curls whipping against her cheek as she spun and stalked back towards Draco. She'd claimed fatigue as an excuse to leave the festivities after she'd noticed Draco and Pansy had disappeared from the Great Hall, but right this moment, Ginny was just angry.

She wasn't entirely sure why she was so very cross. There was absolutely no reason to be. She'd been one of the only Third Years present at the Yule Ball, Neville had been fun and actually getting to see the Weird Sisters play live was something she'd always secretly hoped for, but never expected in a million and one years.

Despite it all, she was uncomfortable and restless and she didn't really know why. All she did know was that glaring at Draco was viscerally very satisfying. She imagined slapping him would be too, but she didn't have any reason just yet. "Her dress was horrid, she sounds like a whiny crup and I don't know how you can stand to be around her."

"I don't know how you can stand that idiotic oaf. Do you know how many times he's blown himself up in Potions?" Draco glared right back at her. He wanted to shake her. She was so infuriating. Sometimes he didn't know why even he bothered with her. Perhaps it was the fact that not bothering was the worse of the two options and that only served to irritate Draco further. "You're lucky you made it through tonight in one piece."

Ginny's eyes narrowed, flicking to his mouth when something caught the meager moonlight in the empty hall. "Ah, that's why you put up with the bloody bint," she said, finger swiping at the glittered gloss coating his bottom lip. "She's easy."

Draco felt the flush warm his skin and was glad for the darkness to cover it up. Whether it was from anger or embarrassment, he wasn't sure. "Nothing more than what you gave Longbottom. Is that how you got him to ask you? So desperate to be there to see your precious Potter, hmm? I bet you'd be even easier for him."

Angry tears pricked at Ginny and her fists clenched at her sides. "I haven't snogged anyone you loathsome fool, ever." It was more than she'd meant to say and the embarrassment of her unwitting admission, of him knowing she hadn't ever snogged anyone, made the tears spill. "I don't know why you even care. What does any of this matter?" she asked, angrily wiping at the tears. "We shouldn't even be having this conversation. I'm supposed to hate you and you're supposed to hate me."

Remorse was a foreign feeling for Draco, but a lot of things he felt and said and did around Ginny since he'd met her when they were too young to know better, was foreign. That she doubted them ... he'd gone too far. He'd known even as the spiteful words had fallen from his lips that those things weren't something you said to someone who mattered. He just didn't ... he didn't have very many people that mattered.

Ginny did, though, and it'd made him tetchy watching her with Neville, watching someone else make her laugh. He'd not missed the idiot's hand on her waist, and Blaise's comments about how she wasn't half bad looking had only made him prickle further. Her dress was horrid, obviously used and several seasons out of date. No one should see her looking anything other than ... he didn't know what. He just didn't like it.

That Pansy had proved a fleeting distraction was beside the point.

"Here," he said, voice sullen as he handed her a green silk kerchief. "Stop talking nonsense. We've never much been about what we're supposed to do. It's not as if we're to start now despite your questionable choices in company."

"Neville's a perfect gentleman," she said, the words surly, but lacking the bite of several moments before as she snatched the embroidered silk from him.

Draco just raised a brow.

"I wanted to go the ball. He asked me, and he was a lovely dancer." She sniffed and glared at him again. "At least I didn't choose a frilly pink poodle for my date."

Draco's lips twitched. "She was something of an overdressed lapdog."

Ginny's mouth turned up slightly despite herself. And then she remembered that Draco had snogged Pansy and her features shuttered. That shouldn't matter, and yet for some reason it made her skin crawl. "I need to go."

Frustration thrummed through him. She was being such a ... girl. Draco knew she was one, of course, but she wasn't at all like Pansy or Daphne. Or Millicent, though whether she was a girl was still up for debate.

Internally sighing, Draco began to dig in his robes. "I have to go as well. I came to give you this, though" he said, pulling a small pouch from his robes and offering it to her. "Happy Christmas."

Warmth touched Ginny's cheeks. "I didn't get you anything. But ..." Part of her had never minded Draco's propensity to add charms to her bracelet, or his random gifts now and then, but just now she didn't quite know how to take it. She rarely got him anything, but she felt like perhaps she should have. It was Christmas.

Reaching up, Ginny undid the silk ribbon from her hair. The dress had been used and old, but somehow her mum had managed to find an almost-new bit of silk for her. It was the prettiest ribbon she'd ever had and it's what she'd most been looking forward to wearing. The green looked really pretty in her hair.

"Give me your hand."

Draco eyed her warily. She'd been rather put out with him and she was just as likely to bite him as do something nice.

"Just give me your hand, ponce. I'm not going to bite."

"You have before."

"I was five."

"You were vicious."

"Haven't changed much. Now, give me your hand."

He gave her his hand and his head tipped slightly as he watched her tie the green ribbon she'd pulled from her hair around his wrist. It was soft. Maybe her hair was that soft too?

"There." Several wraps and a nice bow. Ginny nodded her head and glanced up at him. "Merry Christmas, Draco."

"It's a ribbon."

"Very observant." Ginny clutched the pouch in her hand. She was curious as to what he'd gotten her this time, but she really did have to go now. The clock was chiming the hour and even though it was a special night, if they were caught, it'd not go well.

Tipping up on her toes, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Don't be a git or a ponce. Have a nice time with your foul parents. Don't kiss poodles anymore. You'll get diseases." Ginny could almost feel his frown and squeezed him once more. "Thank you," she whispered before pulling away and darting down the hall and around the corner.

Draco didn't move for a long time. Not until the scent of rose and strawberries disappeared. It's what she smelled like, he realized, and lifting his wrist, he breathed in. The silk ribbon had been in her hair and still held the scent.

Roses and strawberries. His lips curled slightly. Crooked.

He heard a shuffle down the hall though and straightening, Draco pulled his sleeve down and a smirk slid comfortably into place. Malfoy's didn't smile. That's what everyone else would see. A Malfoy.

Ginny; she got to see Draco.

.

16 June 1996, 2:42 A.M.
Draco Malfoy - Age 16 | Ginny Weasley - Age 14

.

His tie was askew, his hair mussed, there were scratches all over his face yet, but Draco's full attention was on Ginny as she slept soundly. It was finally quiet in the Hospital Wing, the horde that was her family having finally left. Longbottom and Loony Lovegood were in beds down the way.

All were wounded to varying degrees from their time at the Department of Mysteries.

The Golden Three were somewhere else. Too good for the hospital everyone else used. Or out breaking rules again. Draco would have scowled, but he couldn't find the energy to.

His father would be in Azkaban by sunrise.

oOo

"She's so horrid," Ginny bit out, pacing back and forth. "Toad faced, barmy bint."

"Tell us how you really feel," Draco drawled, eyes still fixed on the text in his lap. He wasn't reading though. It was impossible to do anything but focus on Ginny when she was near, especially when she was working her way into a fit. His lips curled slightly.

"I can't believe Dumbledore brought her in as a bloody professor. She's obviously senile. She tried to sentence Harry for protecting himself from Dementors," Ginny hissed, kicking at the door.

Draco's eyes narrowed. "Potter deserves everything he gets."

Ginny spun on him. "He doesn't deserve to have his soul sucked out no matter the stupid schoolboy feud you have with him and my brother. This is bigger than that. Don't you get it? He's back." Her voice broke on the last, fear flashing in her eyes before she spun away again.

She meant Tom, of course. Voldemort. Were she anyone else, had the topic been any other - Draco would have torn her apart. "Go away, Ginny."

"You know," she said, accusation her voice. "You know he's back. Draco you have to tell-"

"Go away, Ginny." She was a Gryffindor. She didn't get how dangerous information was.

She glared at him, but not moments later he heard the door slam.

oOo

Once upon a time he'd just been a boy and she'd just been a girl. They weren't supposed to be friends. That had been half the fun, of course, but then Draco actually liked Ginny. She had always been first. It was wrong, but he was a Malfoy; he got what he wanted when he wanted it.

Or he had.

Everything was different now. Somehow it had all spiraled out of control.

Stirring into movement, Draco brushed her hair back, fingers lightly tucking the ginger strands behind her ear. In the moonlit darkness it was only a neutral dark color. Perhaps if her hair had always been something neutral and dark, they might not be here.

oOo

"Michael Corner. Dean Thomas. You do get around. Will I get a taste then, Ginny?" Her latest had been scared off. Thomas. And he called himself a Gryffindor. "Or are you giving away your favors to riff-raff only? Is Potter next?"

"It's none of your bloody damn business." She missed him, desperately, but somehow it was beyond them now, beyond even their silly family feud. "None of it is your bloody damn business. You're not going to tell me about Him, then I'm not going to tell you a thing."

It was an old argument, or it seemed that way. "You know what is my business, Ginny? It's my business that you're out after curfew. Ten points from Gryffindor." His eyes narrowed. Roses and Strawberries. Her lips were swollen. "It's also my business that your tie is askew and that your skirt is too short. Twenty points from Gryffindor."

"You're nothing," she spat, tears welling. Ginny hated that he could make her cry. "You mean nothing."

"Then why are you crying, Ginevra?" It was satisfying that she was crying. She cared enough still, but a part of him knew this was not how it was supposed to be.

But she'd chosen her side and he'd chosen his.

oOo

"I hate you." It was nothing more than a whisper, but the next breath was caught, broken, and the tears spilled down her cheeks. "Don't get in my way, Draco. If you want to go down with Tom, then that's your choice. I'm not going to give up without a fight." She glared at him through the moisture in her eyes.

She didn't realize. She didn't understand. Blood and family, legacy and heritage - it was all. Tomorrow's papers would have his father on the front page. The dawn would see his family in shame.

But they would all know. They would all pay for their foolishness.

Draco would see that they did. He was the head of the House of Malfoy now. It was his duty to see glory for their name again, to see his father and mother restored.

Ginny didn't fit there, with him, and never had. His father had warned him all those years ago. Weasleys were paupers, blood traitors.

But he'd kept her for himself. A secret.

His thumb traced over her bottom lip and it was soft beneath the pad of his finger.

oOo

"What, Malfoy? Too much of a coward to handle us on your own? Or maybe you just haven't got the stones? For much of anything, I'd wager. I bet you need Crabbe to wank you off, hmm?" It had the desired effect. Ginny watched him flush, watched the true spark of anger light his eyes.

Her words also had Warrington twisting her arms harder behind her back, but the pain was ignored. Harry and Hermione were on their own with Umbridge, Sirius was in danger and this was the only way. Warrington was older, but Draco was in charge here. He had all their wands.

Draco stalked across the room and ripped her out of the muscled boy's grasp, man-handling her towards the door. "Crabbe, no, but you'll do just fine," he said, sneer snaking across his features before he shoved her out and slammed the door behind them, the laughter of his housemates and Ron's indignant, angry swearing cut-off abruptly.

"Draco, give me my wand. I have to go. I can't tell you why, but this is the most important thing I've ever asked you." Ginny didn't take a step near him. There was still anger in his gaze, his wand in hand, and it'd been so long since they'd talked. Really talked. She wasn't sure of him anymore. "Someone could die tonight."

"I thought I was going down, hmm? Now you're ready to beg for my help." The anger that flashed through her eyes made him feel better. Good. He wanted her to know how it felt. "I'm not going to help you, Ginny. You think I don't know how important everything is? I know. It's you who's too foolish to just keep your damn nose out of things. You're going to get yourself killed. Can't you just stop following bloody damn Potter around? You might survive this."

It was more than he'd meant to say, but it didn't matter. She was the only one to hear and she was the only one that had ever really mattered. "Ginny, just stay here. With me."

"You know I can't." It wasn't more than a whisper, but he could feel the words. The anger was gone from her eyes and all that was there was something bright and desperate. "I can't just let Tom win. You know that."

He did. It didn't mean he would just let her go marching to her death. "And you know I can't give you your wand."

"I know," she whispered, hands hesitant as she slowly lifted them. Her heart was fluttering, everything inside of her a mayhem of butterflies, adrenalin making her sure and shaky all at once. She had to do this. She ignored the part of her that said she wanted to do this.

It wasn't until that moment that Draco fully realized how close she'd come, that she was completely inside his guard. But then her hands were resting lightly on his chest and she was looking up at him, lips parted, breathing just a bit fast and Draco was having a very hard time recalling why having her so close was a bad thing.

Ginny was sure her heart would beat right out of her chest and into his. Before she could think about it longer - she didn't have time - before she could doubt herself, Ginny tip-toed up and pressed her lips to his.

He wasn't entirely sure what to think, but then he wasn't really thinking at all, not when she nipped at his lip. No, Draco's thoughts weren't of anything but the gasp that escaped her when he wound a hand into her hair - soft as the silky ribbon she'd once given him, his mind supplied - and tugged her closer, slanted his lips over hers. Part of him had expected it, but another part of him was awed when she opened for him, when she pressed into him, pressed him against the door and kissed him back.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be. The kisses they should have had were supposed to be forbidden, but not because there was a life on the line. It was supposed to be wrong because their parents didn't like each other, not because there were the inklings of a war on the horizon.

Ginny kissed him with everything it was supposed to be, with everything this kiss that had always been theirs should have been.

And then she ripped away from him, her wand pointed in his face. "Let me by, Draco," she said, voice coming in soft pants.

He should have known. He did know, had known all along.

Face smoothing out, he straightened. "No."

Their eyes met. This was the beginning, and it was the end.

The hex slipped her lips and the world exploded.

oOo

The horizon was pink, the light in the Hospital Wing beginning to glow as the sun rose. Madam Pomphrey would be up soon to administer potions to her patients. A night fighting Death Eaters - his father - in the Department of Mysteries had left the students worse for wear.

But alive.

His fingers traced over her freckles, lighter now than they'd been when they were children. Her skin was warm beneath his touch. He'd watched her sleep through the night, had made sure she saw the dawn. Ginny lived.

And that was all that was left for them. It was more than being a Malfoy and a Weasley now.

Sighing, Draco's shoulders drooped. No one was there to see the weight he wasn't sure he could carry.

"Pauper," he said, voice soft. There was no response, no 'ponce' in flippant return.

And that's the way it would be now. They had each chosen their sides. They were children no more and the world had become something unsafe for anyone but those cunning enough to pick their way through it.

Squaring his shoulders, Malfoy stood and turned to go.

There'd been the kiss, though. That had nothing to do with the children they'd once been.

Turning back, he looked at her face. Peaceful in sleep; beautiful as the morning sun touched her hair, brought colors to it that were unique to her. "Goodbye, Ginny."

His dark robes swished softly as he turned and strode from the room. If something deep inside ached, it was ignored, pushed far and deep. This new world, his new role in it, didn't have room for anything but what must be done.