Prompt: October (fall or spring)

Challenge: Find the beauty or the ugliness in the season.

Pairing: Any, as long as your fic features HP character(s).

Word Count: 800 words (limit)

Deadline: October 31st, 2010; 11:59 PM (forum time)

Ginny glared at the red-and-gold carpet beneath her. It should have been exciting, the leaves changing colour and falling from the trees, but it wasn't. Not this year. In previous years it had excited her, was a magic of a different kind to the one she learnt at school. It was a spell cast by Mother Nature, sending a message that she alone understood. In the years before she started school, it was a symbol of the future, an indication of her House-to-be. In the years since she'd started school, it had reassured her that she had her place in Hogwarts, that everything was as it should be. The leaves turned red-and-gold at the beginning of the school year: when she felt the most nervous, the most unsure. This year, it was different.

The Halloween celebrations that she became to associate with the red-and-gold leaves were absent under the Headmastership of Snape. Instead, Alecto and Amycus Carrow had initiated special Halloween torture for the Gryffindor students. A small part of Ginny's brain blamed the leaves for this; she reasoned that because they had brought so much joy in previous years, this new sorrow must be their doing. However she reasoned it wasn't Gryffindor's fault – oh, no. The leaves were looking browner and more rotten this year, anyway. Not at all like her scarlet-and-gold colours. But not only the leaves, but the members of her House were fading, too. With the Golden trio and various others gone, Gryffindor Tower was a lonely and miserable place, and as a result of this the Gryffindors were losing their vibrancy and the red and gold in their souls died to a brown. Just like the leaves.

Ginny stomped her foot in annoyance, which did nothing but make the damned leaves flutter up and down, reminding her yet again of what they symbolised. She shut her eyes to try and block them out, but the rustling they made was still audible. She looked around her, trying to find a place in the grounds that was void of these damnable leaves. As her eyes moved across the grounds, only two places stood out that were not reddy-brown: the lake, and the Forbidden Forest, whose trees were dressed in a deep green all year round. Ginny did consider jumping in the lake, but discarded that thought as soon as it came. Jumping in the lake in October, when the air was eight bloody degrees, would have made her look like a complete nutter. She really didn't want to attract any attention, so she made her way to the Forbidden Forest.

The first thought that came to Ginny's mind as she entered the Forbidden Forest was how relieved she was to be away from the ubiquitous red-and-gold. The second was her realisation that as her House was rotting, another house was thriving, and ever-dominant, not just in autumns past. Ginny kicked herself for being superstitious; now her only place of solitude would be a reminder of how powerful Slytherin had become, of its current "superiority". At least the green was only visible, and not audible. Unless, of course, it was windy. And it wasn't, so Ginny found a large tree, leaned against it and let herself slide down the trunk until her bottom was resting on the floor, her back against the tree. She closed her eyes and blocked out the world.

A little while later, how much later I cannot say, a voice disturbed Ginny's mind from its exile of the present.

"That's my tree," the voice said.

"I don't care," Ginny said, eyes still closed, not caring who it was. "I'm here now."

"Well you should care," the voice drawled, "because I can easily tell Alecto and Amycus where you are. You're missed at the castle: it's passed curfew."

"And why would you bother?" Ginny asked, head still resting back on the trunk of the tree, eyes still closed. She still hadn't identified the mystery speaker. "You're in forbidden territory outside of curfew, too, aren't you?"

"Let's just say that I'm special," was the arrogant reply, which was probably what made Ginny's eyes snap open.

"Malfoy."

He nodded. It was a slow nod, one of acknowledgement. "Weasley."

He didn't say anything more, and neither did she. She watched him carefully, waiting to see if he moved to go and tell on her.

He didn't, and after a few minutes had passed, he sat down in the space in front of her, still watching her carefully. Five minutes passed between them in silence: him staring at her, and she staring at him, both unblinking, waiting for the other to speak first.

It was Ginny who broke the silence first: "Look, Malfoy, what are you doing here?" She asked, expecting a mean, arrogant reply. This arrogant reply never came: instead he surprised her.

"I like to get away," he said. "I can't stand what Hogwarts has turned into."

Her shock was evident, and she stared at him open-mouthed for a moment before she responded. "You can't stand it? But it's a Slytherin's dream! Dominated by cruelty and pure-blood snobbery! You can't honestly say that you don't like it!"

"But I don't," he said. "Sure, I can't stand you bloody Gryffindors and your noble ways. I especially hate your Muggle-love. But the castle's too cruel. I never thought I'd say this, but we need the balance. Gryffindor and Slytherin. Opposing forces, yet complementary."

"Yeah, well," Ginny said, looking at green grass on the ground. "Hogwarts is out of whack. Slytherin's thriving – green trees, green grass, green banners everywhere. Gryffindor's rotting away from scarlet and gold to brown. Doesn't look much like there'll be a balance again anytime soon. Or ever. It's in the leaves, don't you see?"

Draco half-smiled, and put his hand in his pocket. "See, that's where you're wrong, little Weasley," he said, and put something in her hand before standing up and leaving the forest without saying anything more.

Once he'd gone, Ginny opened her palm and looked down. There, in her hand, were two autumn leaves. Not brown, but red and gold.

A/N: Well, that was my first D/G fic. Been meaning to write one for a while. Dedicated to all at the DG Forum, especially Haz, because I never did write the story that she gave me a prompt for.

And please, if you see something that is wrong, or you don't like with this, don't hesitate to tell me, and tell me how I can make it better in the future.