Dog Days

. . .

"They're insane," the flushed, bushy haired witch declared, closing the large book she'd been reading with a loud thud.

"Who?" the young boy next to her absentmindedly asked while flicking his wand voraciously in an attempt to replicate a cooling charm.

"The professors! Who else?" she answered, obviously annoyed at his lack of attention, before mimicking a soft breeze with her wand. "You have to move your hand counter-clock wise".

He nodded gratefully. She exhaled, rubbing her forehead. "It's unbearably hot. I can't believe they won't cancel classes. Instead everyone believes that Snape will fix it like he promised weeks ago. How can you fix the weather? He'll probably break it." She sighed before finishing. "The heat probably drove them insane too. I mean, I saw Snape giving McGonagall goo-goo eyes." The girl waved her hands exasperatedly. "How can that be normal?"

"You did not see such a thing," the boy uttered, disgusted. He was lying down facing the breeze his study partner had conjured moments before. "Snape doesn't give goo-goo eyes. No Slytherin does."

She clicked her tongue aggravatedly. "That's generalising."

"Which is done for a reason," he assured. "I don't know why you think we're all insane. You're just upset your paramour decided to declare his undying devotion to Pansy."

"He's not my paramour. The fact he is going for her and barely anyone blinks, except poor Ron, is just proof that Hogwarts is going a-cuckoo!" She rummaged her bag searching for water and yelped when she found empty bottles. "Why?" she asked, turning towards the sun, as if asking Merlin – or some other divine deity – the reason for the horrid heat wave that had been plaguing the castle lately.

"Personally I just think he grew a pair of functioning eyes. I would dare say a brain, but the way he keeps embarrassing himself stops me." He snickered, daring the young witch to correct or scold him, but she was rolling around in the grass, trying to hide from the sun, tangling her hair in leaves that had fallen from the dying trees. He laughed at her before throwing his own bottle of water at her. "Honestly, you could have asked."

After drinking greedily, she said, "Because my body language was difficult to read: girl searches for water, yells and then proceeds to wiggle from the horrid heat must mean she wants a biscuit."

"A girl wiggling can be interpreted in many ways." He wiggled his own eyebrows, only making the younger witch huff impatiently.

"You've turned insane yourself, you know," she explained, revolted. "Weeks ago you would not have wiggled your eyebrows let alone agree to let me tutor you in Charms. You hated us!"

He shrugged. "I never hated you, don't delude yourself." His voice dripped in some unnatural form of friendly sarcasm. "I didn't even know you."

"Fine," she conceded, trying to pin her hair up in a ponytail. "You never liked my brother and recently I've seen you giving both him and his friends love advice."

"I was messing with them," the blond assured her, gesturing his hand for the water bottle. She tossed it back, almost managing to hit him in the head. He winked, making her wave her hands desperately, pointing towards him, as proof of his insanity. He thought she was adorable when she did that. He took a gulp before smiling, pleased. "I never thought suggesting that your brother kill a miniscule spider in front of the bushy-haired-female would grant him the snog of his life." He stopped, laughing at the memory. "We must admit she's rather . . . thorough."

"Her name is Hermione," the girl stressed, stealing the water bottle from his thin fingers, and ignoring the protests, took another sip. "Granger if you must."

"Hey, I hadn't finished with that!" he exclaimed indignantly, waving his wand to summon the water back. "You're right. Your hair is a terrible disaster too. People might get confused if I don't distinguish the both of you." He paused, feigning thought. "Oh, wait!" He clapped his hands together, smiling hugely. "You can be the bushy-haired-ginger. Genius, huh?"

The girl in front of him doubled in forged laugher. "Really? That's the best you got? Pathetic. . ."

"Oh, bugger off," he said, ignoring her growing laughter as he pretended to re-read Chapter Eight of his Charms book. He had to pass his Charms OWL this year. Leaving subjects behind was something for a Flint, not for a Malfoy. But this heat . . .

"Anyway, I can't really wash my hair properly, " she said, wondering why she felt the need to clarify. "Our tower's showers are always full nowadays so I don't have time to apply any conditioner and I'm too tired to brush off my hair with special potions."

The blond shook his head, amused. "Firstly, that's disgusting. Secondly- "

He stopped, turning his head to face her directly before adding with a leering smile, "I do have my own bathing quarters, which you're welcome to visit any time."

"Urgh, stop with the flirting." She moved away from him. "You're terrible at it. No wonder Parkinson ditched you. Besides, Blaise already offered."

He scowled. "For the hundredth time, she did not dump me, we decided we wanted different things. And you do not want to date Zabini."

"Why is that?" She brought her face right up to his, attempting a glare, so close he could almost count every freckle on her nose.

"Because of… " He trailed off, trying to find the right words. "Because of how he is. You know what he's like."

"Oh, yes, I certainly do." She licked her lips jokingly. "A tall, lean, sexy beast."

The blond looked as if he was going to enter a cardiac arrest. She laughed next to him. "Relax, I know what you mean. Try not to act so jealous of him just because he is sex on legs."

"That's just wrong." He clutched his hand to his chest. "Haven't they told you I'm the Slytherin Sex God?"

She snorted, spitting the water she'd just sipped. "Yes, yes, Myrtle has been spreading that rumour for years, though I've only ever seen you holding hands with Parkinson."

"One day… " he started, falling down on the grass tiredly. "I'm just better than Zabini –" the name was etched with venom " –in every possible way."

"Ha, which is why you still have to complete your Charms OWL and he passed his." She smiled at her next conclusion " That's probably why you and Parkinson went separate ways too. After all, she wants to write her final Hogwarts thesis on the Morphology of Charms, or so Harry tells me." She wondered if she should've bit her tongue, but he didn't even seem vaguely annoyed.

"Charms is a lowly OWL, " he proclaimed in a superior tone. "You don't need to know the incantation to fold clothes to be an excellent wizard. Even Aurors don't bother with it, only Longbottom would. In my father's time you did not even need to take that OWL."

"And look at him now, she quipped before she had time to think the words through and realise what she'd just said. His back was turned to her, but she caught a glimpse of the icy glare. He was bloody sensitive when it came to his father. She bit her lip. These silent battles could last forever once she started insulting Lucius and she needed to tutor him further. The extra-credit was helpful.

"I'm sorry," she responded feeling surprisingly honest. "I don't take what I said back, but I'm sorry it upset you."

He turned back to her and simply nodded. Relieved, she retrieved the book she'd closed minutes before and opened it again. "Now, we were trying out intermediate clearing charms . . ."

He cringed. "Must we really go back to this? Can't we call it a day? Let's go for a swim."

"There?" She pointed her hand towards the saturated lake filled with screeching students.

He shrugged, trying to hide his own aversion. "Potter and Pansy seem to be enjoying themselves." The two young students were indeed glued together, snogging as if the world was ending – the way the sun was shining, it probably was.

"What advice did you give him?" the girl asked curiously, staring at the gaudy couple.

"Go for it, " he answered, pulling her up. "I wasn't aware Pansy fancied him."

She blinked, surprised. "They're mad, but at least they're enjoying themselves." She began picking up her stuff. "We'll continue tomorrow. I think I'm going to find Luna."

"Already?" the boy asked, feigning hurt pretending to be hurt, pouting exaggeratedly.

"What did you want us to do if I'm not tutoring you?" she enquired, sighing at the answer that would come from his snobby mouth. She was growing used to it.

"We could find a secluded broom cupboard and snog, though we might as well kiss in broad daylight. In this scorching temperature a cupboard might kill. I'm really not much of a prude." He threw her a dazzling smile. "Come on. It's hot, we're young and we're both gorgeous."

She scrunched her nose. "I'm not attracted to idiots," she declared, adding, "All my lovers are required to pass at Charms." She winked and tried to repress a laugh at his phony horror-struck expression. The boy was not a bad sort once you got to know him or were forced to know him in order to receive good recommendations for a St. Mungo's internship. He was actually quite lovely, though she would never admit those horrid thoughts out loud.

"You wound me, Ginevra!"

She flinched at the use of her full name, which he only knew because her blundering brother accidentally revealed it.

"Live with it!"

She waved, moving towards the castle. Then, literally out of the blue, a drop of water fell right on top of her nose. She wiped it off, annoyed, dismissing it for a trickle of sweat, until she noticed more drops followed. It was raining.

Really raining! Silence overcame the castle; everyone was shocked, looking at each other, marvelling at the sight and feeling of the cold raindrops. Soon, though, people started cheering, laughing and behaving like an orgy was about to start. She sniggered as she saw Ron clasp Pansy, ending his tantrum over Harry's new love interest.

Then, someone pulled her – she slipped, spun, shrieked – and she found herself in his arms.

"Really?" she asked, barely making out the contours of his face due to the rain falling over them "You intend to use my sudden induced happiness by rain to make me snog you?"

He smirked. "Am I that transparent?"

"Yes," she grinned. "I guess the insanity finally got to me too because I've kind of been thinking you look like a tall, lean sexy beast."

The boy moved away, horrified. "You did not just use the same adjectives you used for Zabini on me."

"I might have," she giggled. "Oh, does the pretty boy not want to kiss me any-"

Her sentence, however, was never finished since the blond boy's lips connected with hers and the rest was History.

Some may say what overcome the both of them that day was, indeed, insanity, but the truth is that in June, beneath the rain, a girl and a boy – a Malfoy and a Weasley – decided they would start to date.

(Of course that was after the girl decided to hex him for actually daring to kiss her and before she decided she didn't care because the boy was just, in her words,' a bloody amazing kisser'.)

-x-

"Draco and Ginny sitting on a tree

K-I-S-S-I-N-"

"Honestly, Minerva, that's just childish," the Potions Master said interrupting his colleague's humming. The Transfiguration Teacher kept staring outside, only stopping to smugly declare, "Told you I'd fix the problem first! Now you must go out for a drink with me . . . And Rubeus!"

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This one-shot was written as a response to the Short Challenge – "Hogwarts: A Hot, Hot, Hot Summer" -back at the DG Forum.

Guidelines were as followed:

Hogwarts is having a particularly hot summer, and students and teachers deal with the heat. Must have Draco/Ginny as the main pairing, and AT LEAST one other Slytherin/Gryffindor side pairing.

Bonus Points (not mandatory):

- Anyone drugging anyone else's drink

- Luna or Snape making an appearance

- Someone saying, "I'm not attracted to idiots!"

Length: 500 - 2000 words.

Rating: Any.

-x-

Also, if you're curious, Draco is in his seventh year and wants to pass Charms because Malfoys never fail. He can't have his T at Charms tarnish his reputation as perfect. I'm positive in canon characters can't retake their OWLs, but that's how I see it working. ^_~

Finally, thank you to Kiley – bathtubblogger – for beeing an awesome and patient Beta.

. . .

Thoughts? Opinions?

Reviews are welcome. :)