Draco walked through the hallways and sighed. He looked around and scratched his chin. He could see her running towards him out of the corner of his eye. Pansy tackled him and smiled.

“Hi Sexy!” she said and leaned forward to kiss him. It never failed, every time Pansy was around she was all over him, but for the first time, Draco pushed her away.

“Pansy, get off! I’m not in the mood!” he snapped.

“Not in the mood? Why?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“Because, I’m just not.” He sighed wearily.

“Come on Drakie, I want you!” she said, and pounced on him again.

He wrapped his arms around her, picker her up, and moved her to the ground beside him. “NO! I don’t want to fuck you, ok?!”

She looked shocked. “But why? Is there someone else?”

Draco sighed. “You never were a good fuck,” he muttered, avoiding the quest. He walked quickly away and slipped into the head common room. Only the Head Boy and Girl of all the houses were supposed to be able to get inside here. He was the Head Boy while his counterpart was Ms-Harry-Potters-girlfriend, Ginny Weasley. At first the two had hated each other, but now they were getting along very well. He sighed. “I don’t like her…” Even as he said it, he knew he was just lying to himself. He took his shirt off then sat down on the couch and sighed. He leaned back, stretching out to make himself more comfortable. He didn’t expect to see Ginny today, she was supposed to be spending the day with Potter.

Harry and Ginny were in the Gryffindor common room, where they were in the middle of an all-out shouting match. The feisty little redhead’s temper was somewhat legendary among the students of Hogwarts, especially the Gryffindor’s. Pretty much everyone had by now cleared out of the common room except for a worried-looking Hermione, who had made herself as small as possible against one of the walls. She wished Ron was here, but he was getting extra help with a class from one of the teacher’s. Meanwhile, the fight between Harry and Ginny continued.

“You never even thought to ask me did you?!” Ginny shouted at Harry, who surprisingly didn’t look intimated by the little girl with flame-colored hair. Instead, he just looked infuriated.

“No, Ginny, why would I think to ask? We’ve been going steady for awhile now, I just assumed you’d go with me!” he shot back.

“Well, maybe a girl likes to be asked every once in awhile. Ever think of that? Ever heard of romance?! You always assume everything. You assume I’m free to go to a movie, you assume I’ll just be swept off my feet the second you walk through the door. You know what, this is the last straw! Things haven’t been going well for awhile now, and I’m sick of it! This is it Harry, we’re through! We aren’t together anymore. I don’t like you enough to put up with the shit you put me through!”

She turned and stormed out the door. Her feet swerved to carry her almost automatically to the place she sought when she wanted to be alone, the head common room. She thought it would be unoccupied today. She thought Draco had Quidittch Practice.

She was wearing tight stretchy jeans and a white baby-tee with butterflies on it. The print on the shirt read “Beautiful Inside, Gorgeous Outside”. Not that Harry ever looked past her outside. Her hair should have been a mess from the fighter, but instead it was behaving - for once. She stormed through the door to the common room, slamming it open with her head down, unprepared for it to be occupied. When she looked up to see Draco, her mouth worked up and down for a few seconds, trying to find something to say.

When she saw him sitting there, sprawled shirtless out on the couch, she was once again overwhelmed by a powerful attraction to him like nothing she had ever felt for Harry and a blush crept up her cheeks. She had started out hating him but once she got to know him more she really be4gan to enjoy his company. Lately she had been hanging out with him more and more often. In fact, that is what had started the fight with Harry that had led to a rehash of all their grievances, which had eventually led to her cataclysmic breakup with him. He had told her she needed to stop spending as much time with Draco, and she had informed him that he wasn’t in control of her life. She couldn’t remember how they had gone from arguing about that to the fact that her never thought to ask her to the dance, but that didn’t matter. It was over now, she had ended it. So for once she let herself feel the attraction to Draco without feeling guilty.

Meanwhile, Harry was left looking completely stunned. To be perfectly honest, Hermione looked almost as shocked as she crept towards him slowly. “H…Harry…are you…alright?” she asked tentatively.

Harry snapped his mouth shut and grimaced, then snapped, “Yea, I’m okay. Perfectly fine. I just had a fight with Ginny where she broke up with me, but I’m peachy-keen, really.”

Hermione reached out to touch Harry’s shoulder but her turned around abruptly, he Quidditch robe from practice sweeping around him as he stormed up the stairs to his dorm. He wanted to be alone right now. He arrived at his bed and pulled the curtains around it. He lay back and stared at the ceiling of the bed, and he wondered how everything had gone so wrong.

Draco looked up and saw her. “Hey Gin.” That was his nickname for her. He had told her once that he called her that because she was like a good drink that you just couldn’t stay away from. He studied her closely and realized she looked upset. Well, now that he thought about it, the slammed door was probably a clue too. “You ok?” he asked her softly. “What happened? Did Harry get mad again? Cause, I mean, if it’s because of me, I can try to make myself scarce.” He paused, then added, “Though I do enjoy spending time with you.”

She sighed and smiled. She alone had the opportunity to see this side of Draco: the side that cared. He certainly always seemed more concerned about her than Harry ever had been. “No, it wasn’t just you Draco, thought that did start the conversation. But what Harry Potter thinks is no concern of mine, not anymore.” She almost spit his name when she said it she was so frustrated.

“Gin, come and sit.” He stood up and led her to the couch. “Tell me what happened, please.” He shook his head. “Potter is just a wannabe superhero. I mean, sure, he defeated Voldemort. But now he thinks he’s king of the world. God, I hate him sometimes.” He looked at her. “But please, I want you to be happy. Is there anything I can do to help?”

She laughed, and thought that there were many things he could do to help, including lean over and kiss her. Instead, she just said, “We had a big fight. And you’re right. He’s just a stupid idiot,” she said, beginning to shake slightly. “He didn’t treat me proper, he didn’t really care. All he does is just use me; I’m like a nice addition to his claim to fame. It wasn’t until I got to know you better and saw how much you cared for me, even as just a friend, that I knew I had such a pathetic excuse for a boyfriend. I wouldn’t even say he’s treated me well enough to be considered a friend.” She looked up at him, and tried to still the shaking caused by her nerves and the tension she had release at the fight. She was happy about the breakup, she was just sad she hadn’t seen how bad she had it before then. “I ended it, I broke up with him. And I’ve never been happier in my life. I want someone like you to be my boyfriend Draco. You’re nice, you care about me, you listen to me.” She almost laughed. “I bet even if we were dating you would have asked me to the formal in a cute romantic way. Unlike Harry, who just took me for granted.”

He blushed and smiled at her. “Maybe. But, well, now that you’re single…well…uhm…I don’t have a date yet,” he said as he smirked. “But can I get back to you on that one? Because I really really have to shake off Pansy first.” He sighed and shook his head. “She won’t leave me alone again.”

Ginny blinked once, then twice. “Draco Malfoy,” she said, a smile quirking into existence on her face. “Did you just sort of ask me to the ball?”

The she shook her head. “Why do you let her hang around in the first place? You know she’s just around you because your father’s rich and she’s attracted to power.” She smirked. “Maybe she’ll do us both a favor and latch onto Potter?”

He grinned. “We can only hope.” He reached over and put his hand on hers and smiled at her. “You changed me Gin. I have never been this caring and kind to anyone before.” He looked away then looked back at her. “Noone has ever taken away the evil inside of me like you have.”

Ginny blushed and smiled at him, hesitantly raising her other hand to his cheek and brushing it. “I didn’t do anything except treat you like a regular person. I wasn’t as cruel as Harry and Ron and I didn’t treat you specially because you had a rich ‘pureblood’ father. That’s all you needed. The goodness was inside of you all along you just needed the right environment to bring it out.”

He tilted his head to the side and smiled at her. “Thank you Gin,” he said and leaned forward to kiss her. Their lips were about to touch when he flew backwards and hit the wall. He groaned in pain and lay there half out of it. Pansy stood in the doorway. “Ginny get your filthy hands off of him!” she shouted. Her wand was out and aimed straight for Ginny. She glared at Ginny, her free hand holding Ginny’s wand, which she had summoned as she stepped through the door.

Ginny’s heart had been beating fast as he leaned in to kiss her. This was something she had dreamed about, no matter how guilty she had felt about it. But suddenly he was blown backwards and she felt her own wand slide out and fly behind her. She knew that voice! It was Pansy, the little tramp! She had never been angrier with someone before in her life. She stood and turned around to glare at Pnasy. “Funny Pansy, that you should call my hands filthy when yours have touched any guy in school that would let you. You’re so addicted to power! Just leave me and Draco alone, you really don’t want to mess with both of us do you?” She walked slowly towards her as she spoke. “Draco doesn’t want to play with you anymore you little whore! Give up, go find someone else to bother.”

Pansy burst out laughing. “Look what you have done now Ginny! You hurt him. Look at him!! He’s hurt and it’s all your fault!” She took a step closer. “Oooh, Ginny is mad, I’m so scared. You know what? I’m going to take care of you right here and now!” She raised her wand. “CRUCIO!”

Ginny went to punch Pansy when she dared try to blame her for hurting Draco but when the curse hit her it was all she could do to stand against the blinding pain. Even then only a few seconds passed before her knees buckled and she fell to her knees then the floor, screaming at the pain as it swept through her body. Her eyes were shut tight from the pain, and she was curled into a ball. She couldn’t see anything, even if she had tried to open her eyes. Damn, Pansy must’ve meant this curse; she’d never been under a more strenuous one, even during the DA practices before they defeated Voldemort.

Pansy wanted her dead, and she wanted her to die in pain. She laughed maliciously. “You will die here and now!”

Draco, who had regained most of his consciousness while she was distracted, saw what was going on. He bolted to Ginny’s side and pushed her out of the way, taking the brunt of the spell himself while he raised his wand. He managed to recite a stunning spell and Pansy fell to the floor, knocked out. Draco groaned in pain. He swayed and fell to the ground where he passed out himself. Blood trickled from a slice in his head.

Ginny struggled to push herself up and blinked her eyes against the pain she still felt. She raised her hand and murmured, “Accio Wand,” a trick she had learned from Harry - one of the only good things that came out of their relationship. Her wand flew into her hand as she coughed. The pain still felt severe and some blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth. “Damn.” She murmured, “Expecto Partonum,” and something that looked like a serpent with wings flew out of her wand in the direction of the infirmary. She only took a second to ponder this change in the form her patronus took before she heard Draco moan. She edged over to him and grabbed his hand while she tapped lightly on his head wound to make the bleeding stop like her mom had taught her. She lay down on the ground next to him, still holding his head, and whispered “Thank you Draco,” before she faded into unconsciousness.