Chapter 1

Ginny flopped down on the couch of the Gryffindor Common Room; it felt wonderful to be back at school. This was her third year at Hogwarts and so far it was going fabulously. She had been getting top marks in all her classes as of yet and Oliver Wood's brother, Coby; a fellow third year Gryffindor had taken her to the Halloween Ball two nights ago. Despite the fact that she didn't really like Coby as more than a friend, she still had a good time at the Ball. Hogsmeade had been fun as well, but rather uneventful. She opened her Potions book and started reading up on some growth potion Snape was making them do an essay on.

"Ginny, I need to talk to you." Ginny looked up from her book to see Ron, her brother, standing in front of her. Hermione, Harry, and Mattie were exchanging nervous glances behind him. Mattie was new this year; she had become good friends with the Trio and Ginny didn't mind her either.

"What about Ron? I've got mountains of homework."

"You know what about!" Ron glared at her.

"What in the bloody hell are you talking about Ron? I haven't done anything to upset anyone! I've maintained perfect grades so far, I've done everything you asked me to, within reason of course, I haven't yet had a detention!" Ginny's confusion seemed to anger Ron even more; he clenched and unclenched his fists several times.

"You and that Wood kid! At the ball! What the bloody hell do you think you were doing?"

"Oh god Ron! I went to the ball with a guy, get over it!" Ginny rolled her eyes and turned back to her book.

"Ron! Ginny has the right to go to the ball!"

"Stay out of this Hermione! Did you even think to tell anyone so we could make sure this guy wasn't some sort of a creep? No! You didn't!"

"I didn't because I knew he wasn't a creep! And what kind of idiot do you think I am that I would let you and Fred and George interrogate the poor boy for hours on end?!" Ginny rose and glared at him; she was considerably shorter than him, but her anger seemed to match his. "You're not my keeper Ronald Weasley! Now I would appreciate it if you would stay out of my business from now on! Besides the fact that I didn't do anything! I wasn't snogging in the Common Room like some people!" She threw her book down on Ron's foot and stormed out of the Common Room, slamming the portrait shut behind her. Ron cringed.

"Ron, you can't control her you know that. She's as stubborn as you are; I'm pretty sure that it's genetic." Harry smiled, but Ron just glared at him.

"How would you feel if your baby sister went off snogging with some creep you've never even met before?!"

"Ronald Weasley! She was most certainly not snogging anyone, she told you that! Now it would benefit all of us if you would simply drop the subject! She doesn't even like Coby! Can't you get that through your thick skull?!" Hermione shook her head and stormed off to her Dormitory. Ron looked helplessly after her.

"Brilliant Ron, just brilliant. You've managed to thoroughly piss off two people in the past 2 minutes." Mattie shook her head and sighed. "It might do everyone some good if you didn't try talking to Ginny for a while. I'll talk to Hermione ... g'night Harry." Mattie leaned over and gave Harry a quick kiss on the cheek before heading up to her Dormitory.

"I can't believe him!" Ginny yelled at a tree. She noticed vaguely that she was walking towards the Forbidden Forest. She bent down, picked up a rock, and hurled it at the lake. A few birds scattered as it landed with a splash and sank to the bottom. Pulling her cloak tighter, she walked into the Forest. It was only 2 o'clock, but the Forest was as dark as ever. She started walking around aimlessly; part of her wanted to piss Ron off even more, and part of her just wanted to get away from everything. Either way, she was in the Forbidden Forest.

"Bloody essay!" Draco slammed down his quill, snapping it in half. "Bloody quill!"

"Some thing wrong, Drakey?" Pansy Parkinson came over and sat down next to Draco; she was all over him within seconds. He pushed her arms away and stood up; she looked up at him with a puppy-dog face.

"You disgust me, Parkinson ... I'm going for a walk." Crabbe and Goyle started to get up, but sat back down immediately after receiving a glare from Draco.

He started for the lake; he figured that some time just sitting by himself would release some tension. With everything that was going on within his family, he was liable to injure someone if he didn't get away. As he neared the lake, he had the urge, for one reason or another, to go into the Forest. He hadn't been there since last year with Potter; he wasn't really scared of it anymore. He'd faced worse things at his father's mansion than could possibly be in the Forest. He shrugged and started for the Forbidden Forest.

"God I can't believe that ... that idiot ... ahh!" Draco looked around slightly startled; he knew that voice, but he didn't know where he knew it from.

"Hello?"

"Bugger off!" That was it, Ginny Weasley; she had said that phrase to him more times than he cared to count. He peaked around a tree to find her sitting on a tree root.

"Well if it isn't the littlest Weasel! Isn't it a little dangerous to be out here without your big brother, Ronniekins?" Draco laughed maliciously.

"I'm not in the mood for you today, Malfoy. So unless you'd like me to paralyze you and leave you out here, I suggest you Bugger off!" She turned and glared at him before getting up and stomping off in the opposite direction.

"Awww, running away Weasel? To scared to face a big bad Malfoy?" Draco followed her further into the Forest.

"Expelliarmus!" Draco's wand flew out of his hand, "Accio!" and into Ginny's. She pointed both wands at Draco's neck. "I told you, Malfoy! I'm not in the mood to deal with you today!" She threw his wand on the ground, turned around, and stalked away. Draco bent down and picked it up; for some strange reason he felt guilty about upsetting Ginny.

"Ginny wait! I'm sorry!" What in the bloody hell am I saying?

Ginny whirled around. "What did you call me? Better yet, what did you just say?"

"I ... I umm ... why are you getting so mad? You yell at me when I make fun of you and then when I try to apologize you just get more angry!" Draco blinked several times, trying to comprehend what he had just said. Realizing he had said it aloud, he raised his eyes to Ginny.

"I'm sorry ... Draco." Draco? Since when do I call him Draco?

"That's weird."

"You're telling me." Ginny sat down on a rock. "What are you doing out here anyways?"

"I could ask you the same question." Draco sat down on a tree root, facing Ginny.

"I'm trying to get away from Ron ... he's such a prat."

"Well we all know that Weasley's a prat, a git, etc, etc." Draco smirked and waited for Ginny to retaliate, but she just sighed. "Ginny? What ... what happened? I mean ... you're not acting like ... yourself."

"Oh and you would know right Malfoy?" Ginny sighed again and buried her face in her hands. "Sorry."

"Don't be ... I shouldn't have said that." They sat in silence for a few minutes before Draco tried again. "What did Ron do that has his own sister admitting that he's a prat?" Ginny looked up at Draco; he sounded different. Not mean and malicious, but he sounded like he actually cared about what was bothering Ginny.

"He yelled at me because I went to the Halloween Ball with Coby Wood and didn't tell him." Draco laughed, but stopped immediately seeing Ginny's serious expression.

"What does he expect? A full itinerary of your life?"

"I guess so ... I mean he is my brother ..."

"Ginny, just because he's your brother doesn't mean he can act like a git and get away with it. If you had wanted him to know, you would have told him." Draco was considerably confused as to what, exactly, he was doing. His father would be furious if he found out he was calling a Weasley by their first name, let alone being civil. But somehow, he felt like he could talk to Ginny ... there was just something about her. On the other end of the conversation, Ginny was feeling relatively cheered up. She didn't know what it was about Draco's words; she had said them to herself over and over on the way here, but somehow it was different.

"Thanks ... you're lucky you don't have older siblings."

"Ha! I'd kill for older siblings ... then maybe my father wouldn't ..." He looked up at Ginny to see concern in her eyes; why was he about to tell her something that he couldn't even tell Blaise? He'd known Blaise since they were 2 years old, and yet he could never bring himself to say it openly.

"Draco ... I didn't mean –"

"Of course you didn't, Ginny, don't worry about it." Ginny got up and walked over to Draco. She sat down beside him. "That's why I'm out here ... I guess."

"What do you mean?"

"I was trying to ... clear my head ... never mind Weasley. It's getting dark, I'm heading in." Draco got up quickly and started in the direction he thought was the school.

"What too scared to stay out in the Forbidden Forest at night, Malfoy?" What happened to the sincere, civil conversation I was having with him two seconds ago? Bloody hell that shirt shows off every muscle ... oh my god! Did I just ... eww! Ginerva Weasley get control of yourself! This is the enemy here ... this is Draco Malfoy!

"No, I'll be coming back to hear you scream for you brother when you get lost in here tonight." Malfoy smiled maliciously and started walking backwards, keeping his eyes locked with Ginny's. "Besides I can't miss the expression on Weasley's face when he hears that his precious little sister is lost in the Forbidden Forest." He laughed evilly, but stopped abruptly as he stepped off a ledge. The drop was only a few feet down, but he distinctly heard a crunch as he landed, unevenly, on his right foot. He collapsed to the ground. Now it was Ginny's turn to laugh; she walked up to the ledge and laughed down at him. Draco tried to keep the pain from showing on his face, which wasn't working to well, as his ankle felt like it had been dipped in boiling oil.

"That was graceful."

"Sod off, Weasley!"

"Alright, if you say so." Ginny laughed again and started walking away. Draco tried to lift himself back onto his feet, but fell back down with a cry; all he could think about was how much it hurt.

"Wait ... Ginny please!" Ginny whirled around with a scared look on her face. She walked back over to the ledge and gracefully hopped down. Kneeling beside him, she reached for his ankle, but he glared at her.

"You have to let me look at it."

"No, just get me back to the Hospital Wing."

"Well if you have any idea where that would be, let me know. But I'm not really sure where we are. Besides, you can't walk and I'm not big enough to support you. Let me at least try and dull the pain." With a pained expression, Draco nodded. Ginny would be the person to help him; she was in advanced healing classes. She gingerly slipped off his shoe and rolled up his trousers. "It's broken."

"How do you know?" Ginny giggled and Draco smiled inwardly, she was really cute when she giggled.

"Besides the protruding bone? I dunno, just a hunch. It's too messed up for me to fix it completely, but I can put the bone back in the right place. It's going to hurt ... a lot." Draco sighed and nodded. Ginny reached into her robes and produced her wand as well as a glove. "Here, put this between your teeth, that way you won't do any damage to them when I do it." Draco gave her a scared, confused expression.

"What?"

"It's going to hurt really bloody badly. Just put it between your teeth, here." Ginny held out her free hand, the other one being occupied with her wand, and Draco took it. "One ... Two ... Three." Draco braced himself as Ginny muttered a few incoherent words. A flash of excruciating pain shot up his entire leg, concentrated most intensely at his ankle. He bit into the glove hard and squeezed Ginny's hand. She muttered a few more words and the pain started to slowly subside. Draco let out the breath that he had been unconsciously holding. "Are you okay?" He reached up with his other hand and removed the glove from his mouth.

"No I'm not bloody okay! What in the bloody hell did you just do to my leg?!"

"I put the bone back you git! And then I did a little spell so it wouldn't hurt so much." She was right; instead of the sharp stabbing pain he had felt a few minutes ago, now it was a dull throb.

"Thanks."

"What's that did I just hear Draco Malfoy thank a Weasley?" Ginny smiled; normally she would have smirked at him, but this day was anything but normal.

"Yeah, I guess you did." Draco made a move to stand up, but Ginny put a hand on his chest and pushed him back down.

"You have to wait for the bone to settle before you even try and stand on it, let alone walk." Draco sighed and settled against a rock. Ginny played, absentmindedly, with a strand of hair that had fallen out of her loose ponytail. Draco smiled; how was it that he had gone three entire years without noticing how beautiful she was? Draco was suddenly taken aback by his own thoughts ... what was he thinking?

"Do you have any idea where we are?" Ginny glanced around nervously.

"Umm ... no, not really ... how did you get to be such a good healer?"

"That was a simple spell, Draco. Hermione could have probably managed it. But my mum was a healer ... she was one of the greatest healers ever to hit the wizarding world." Ginny smiled proudly.

"Then what happened? How come she's not off running St. Mungo's?" Draco blushed as he realized he was still holding Ginny's hand.

"Because she met Dad."

"Wait, your mum gave up everything just to marry your dad?"

"Yeah, pretty much ... she wanted a family and they loved, still love, each other very much." Ginny chuckled to herself; her mother was everything she could ever dream of being and more. "So her and dad got married and had all of us."

"I always thought –"

"Yeah, you always thought what the Malfoys always think about the Weasleys. Mum could have made loads of money, but she wanted to raise us instead."

"I wish my mum was like that ..." Draco sighed sadly; his parents' marriage had been arranged. Granted, they did love each other, but Narcissa hadn't stayed home to raise him, she had stayed home because Lucius made enough money to support them comfortably on his own.

"You can't dwell on what you don't have, Draco. I mean look at us; Mum and Dad barely scrape up enough to get us all here with clothes and supplies. But that doesn't really matter, we're happy for the most part." Ginny smiled and crawled over to sit next to Draco, leaning on the rocks. He was about to make a comment about the Weasleys and their hand-me-down robes, but decided against it.

They stared up at the sky for a long time. Draco had slipped his arm around Ginny's shoulders without really realizing what he was doing. Ginny's breathing started to slow and her head slumped onto Draco's shoulder. A few minutes later, Draco too fell asleep.

"Oh my god! Draco! What time is it?!" Ginny was kneeling over Draco, shaking him.

"Ginny, Ginny, calm down!" He yawned and sat up; it was dark. He looked at his watch, but couldn't make out the time in the darkness. He took out his wand and lit the end, seeing that it was 11 o'clock at night. "It's eleven."

"Oh Ron's going to kill me!" Ginny stood up quickly and offered her hand to Draco. He took it and pulled himself onto his feet. He stumbled as he rose, his ankle was still unstable, but caught himself on Ginny's shoulder. His face was inches from hers, before either could realize what was happening, Draco leaned closer and captured her lips with his. She pulled back almost immediately, blushing furiously. "What was that?"

"I don't know ... I guess I ..." He couldn't believe what he was thinking; he had feelings for Ginny Weasley. "I guess I have feelings for you."

"I guess I do too." Ginny leaned towards him and kissed him again, only this time she didn't pull away. He wrapped his arms around her waist; one of her hands found it's way up to his hair and was getting tangled in it and the other was wrapped around his neck. Ginny felt him press his tongue against her lips and she gave allowed him to enter her mouth. They explored every inch of each other's mouth before breaking away for air. "Oh god." Ginny turned away from him and sat down on a rock. He sat down beside her and wrapped his arm around her waist.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't –" Before Ginny could finish her sentence, Draco leaned down and kissed her again. As much as she knew this could never work, something kept her from pulling away. This felt right ... it felt perfect. Ginny finally pulled away and laid her head on Draco's chest. "This won't work ... between us."

"We have to make it work, Ginny. We will make it work." Draco put a finger beneath Ginny's chin and pulled her head up to face him. "We should get back to the school ... Weasley's probably worried." It took them all night to get out of the Forest; they didn't really mind, as it gave them a chance to talk. They decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to put their relationship out in the open just yet.

Ron had been looking for Ginny since dinner; she hadn't shown up and according to her roommates wasn't in her Dormitory. Hermione and Harry were able to convince Ron, Fred, and George to go to sleep around 1 AM. As soon as the sun was up, the three were out searching the castle again. Ron was searching the second floor corridor when he saw a flash of red hair near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He grabbed Fred and George and the three started for the Forest. "Ginny! Oh my god! Ginny!" Ron knew it was Ginny; she was the only girl who had that flaming red hair.

"Draco ... I can't tell him now. We can talk about this later, but for now act like nothing has changed."

"Of course." Draco gave a curt nod and walked off in the opposite direction. Amidst all their yelling, none of Ginny's brother's had noticed the blonde boy walking out of the forest with her. Draco was able to duck behind Hagrid's cabin and walked the long way back to the school.

"Ginny!"

"Yes, Ron, that's me. Ginny Weasley." Ginny rolled her eyes and her brother reached her and hugged her tightly. Fred and George weren't far behind. They both hugged her repeatedly.

"Bloody hell, Mum would have killed us!" Ron ran a hand through his hair.

"Are you okay?" Fred looked his sister over skeptically; she knew the third degree was coming.

"Why did you go into the Forest?"

"What were you doing in there?"

"What happened?"

"Why didn't you tell us where you were going?"

"Are you hurt?"

"Are you hungry?" Ginny sighed and started for the school, the entire way back her three brothers kept bombarding her with questions. When they finally reached the Gryffindor Common Room, Ginny turned to face them.

"I love you guys. I'm fine ... but I am rather tired, so I'll see you at dinner." Ginny hugged and kissed each of them before turning and walking up the stairs to her Dormitory.

A/N: Ok, this is not the original chapter 1. In the original I ended it waaaaaay to hastily; I was trying to get in bed. This one is better (I hope). Please Read and Review!

Diclaimer: I own nothing!