Restraints

Sleep was incredibly difficult that night. Ginny lay, tossing and turning under her blankets as an un-necessarily boisterous storm buffeted the walls of the dormitory tower. What she wouldn't give to be rid of the disconcerting howling and tucked up nice and warm in a common room located in the dungeons and out of the wind. Much like the one Draco currently inhabited...

She hadn't expected Draco to respond to her. She'd thought he would have just slunk into the background and stayed there like a coward. Instead he had done something a lot more dangerous to him, and turned against his own. She should talk to him, and tell him how dangerous that sort of behaviour could be for him. He would be alienating seven year's worth of friends, companions and allies, and she had no doubt that he would regret doing so. She felt bad for pushing him to it.

Of course she was curious about Draco. He had, as far as she knew, been present, and participatory in the events leading up to and including Dumbledore's death. So why was he back at Hogwarts? What had happened in the time in between that made him worthy? Perhaps it was a story she'd get an answer to eventually. Maybe she'd even be able to get it from the person it chiefly concerned.

Ginny decided she would find out more about what had made Draco intervene earlier, and she would do it as soon as possible.

Even so, the knowledge of his sacrifice for, as she saw it, her and her friends, was unexpected, and worrying. She'd just about managed to make her piece with the idea that he had done it for her, because she had wanted him to. But that opened up a whole new load of wierd feelings for her - she wasn't sure she liked the idea of him liking her enough to do it. He couldn't like her. It wasn't... right. But even as she forced herself to try and find some other explanation for his actions, one that meant he didn't particularly like, didn't particularly interest her, a tiny little squeaky voice in the back of her head kept insisting that the only reason she didn't want to consider Draco liking her, was that she might also have to consider liking him back.

---

Ginny grabbed a stack of toast spread with jam and headed out into the grounds with it wrapped in a napkin on Saturday morning. The sun had reappeared from behind its shroud and was casting a thin light over the lawns, and warming her skin. She watched the crisp surface of the chilly water as a group of ducks landed in the shallows.

"Ginny?"

She turned, and smiled as she saw a slim, dull-blond haired girl approaching her. Luna grinned back, and slipped her arm into Ginny's.

"What's the matter, Gin?" she asked, frowning as they started walking around the edge of the lake, Luna stealing toast.

She shook her head.

"Nothing."

Luna paused, then said,

"I heard about the Entrance Hall."

"Who from?"

"Timmy Cornell. We were planting Cracklebolt Fizzers in the cabbage patch and he told me all about it."

"How much have you heard?" Ginny asked, ignoring Luna's characteristic extraneous information.

"Only that Draco Malfoy was pointing his wand at Pansy Parkinson, and that you were there. Then that someone saw you talking him. You should be careful around him, I think his family was cursed by the Defender of the Terrible Rampaging Pigmy-Puff in the seventeenth century."

Ginny sighed. "Yeah, I had a word," she said at last.

"What about?"

"What's with the Spanish Inquisition, Luna?"

But she just beamed. "You like this guy, don't you? I can tell by the way you wrinkle your nose when you talk about him. You used to do that with Harry. You've got it bad, Gin."

"I have not," she said quickly, before realising that she might as well give in then, and stick a huge 'I have a crush on Draco Malfoy' sign over her head. "Fine," she relented. "I might have a tiny, tiny," - she put her thumb and fore-finger together - "thing for him. But who wouldn't?" she exclaimed, surprising herself. "You can't deny he's... cute."

"Oh yes," Luna said contemplatively. But she shot Ginny a look of strange calculation. "He does have a certain... rebellious charm," she said.

" 'Rebellious charm'... I like it. I think I might use in the future."

"Go ahead. But you do realise what you could be getting yourself into? Rampaging Pigmy-Puffs, Ginny."

"No, I don't, but that's what I like about it. It's... exciting, in its own way."

"Exciting, eh?" Luna echoed. "I wonder what it would take to get Malfoy excited," she added emphatically, raising an eyebrow. Ginny giggled.

"I'm not sure, but I intend to find out. But first," she said, more seriously, "I have to talk to him about the Entrance Hall."

"Why?"

"Because," she replied, scowling, "he's drawing attention to himself, doing that. I mean, don't get me wrong, he was great, and for a change seemed to be actually being helpful, but if he gets on the wrong side of some of the people in that dungeon, he gets on the wrong side of their parents."

Luna nodded. "I think Gregory Goyle might be the missing link between apes and humans, you know."

"Never mind," Ginny said, smiling.

---

Halloween was imminent again. The usual flurry of ambitiously exuberant decorations suddenly sprang up over night, bats appeared spontaneously over head in the Great Hall, Pumpkins littered the corridors and tables, and the external windows were bewitched into permanent darkness.

One afternoon a few days before Halloween itself, Ginny noticed a crowd of people milling around the notice board in the Common Room. She was always a little dubious when she glanced towards the board - it wasn't usually good news these days - more security, earlier curfews, and more homework. Today, though, there was a more up-beat buzz coming from the people around the new orange and black sign.

She craned her neck in curiosity, but didn't need to for very long - Ron, Harry and Hermione came up next to her, and Ron barely needed to move his head at all to be able see from his great height.

"Oh Merlin..." he groaned, seeming distraught.

"What?" the others asked, simultaneously.

"They're-" he swallowed heavily.

"Ron!" she cried. "What is it?"

"They're having another Ball!" he choked. Hermione blinked, and mimicked Ron's swallowing motion. Ginny didn't miss their sly glance, or the deepening blush rising in their faces. She rolled her eyes, but the gesture went un-noticed. Harry was frowning obscurely.

"That's all?" she said, smiling. "Ron, you had me worried then!"

"What's not to worry about?" her brother said croakily. "You remember the fiasco last time-"

Harry cleared his throat loudly. Ron stopped himself. Ginny suppressed a chuckle - when would he learn?

Luna came up on her other side, and the others dissipated. Before following the others, Harry peered fleetingly at her; his bright green eyes oddly clear to her.

"Hey," Luna said as Harry turned away after Ron and Hermione. "Did you know that Harry is still infatuated with you?"

"What? No he isn't-"

"If you say so. But he is."

"He broke up with me, remember?" Ginny huffed. She wasn't sure she wanted Harry to still want her. She'd finally realised that there was someone else she was far more interested in. Harry was a great friend, sure, but more? Somehow, it didn't quite sit right. Still, she thought practically, one thing at a time, eh?

"Yeah, well, that was then." She beamed at Ginny with a look of smug satisfaction. Ginny ignored it - the smallest things were always over exciting Luna.

"Hmm..." she said sceptically. "In the mean time, who're you going to go with?"

"Going where?"

"Never mind."

"What were you thinking for your costume?" Luna asked mildly.

"Costume?" she repeated, spluttering. "It's fancy-dress?"

Luna nodded. "Yes, didn't you know? I think I'm going to go as the Great Purple Fire-Breathing Turtoise of the Alps. It's not themed though, so you could be anything."

Ginny huffed. "Stupid Ron, why didn't he tell me that first?" she was feigning annoyance, but her mind was far too full to actually harbour any resentment. She was seeing costume idea after costume idea flit before her eyes, and she knew she was glazing over. She'd just seen something in her mind's-eye that, if she was not very much mistaken would be both appropriate, and would fit nicely into her 'Make-Malfoy-Excited' plan.

Ginny noticed Professor McGonagall as she was leaving the Common Room, having just pinned up the notice. She thought for a second about going over and speaking to her - there was some unfinished business from the end of Malfoy's Transfiguration class to straighten out. But she thought better of it: it could wait.

---

Ginny was exhausted by the time she started up the last flight of stairs towards the Gryffindor tower that evening. Her day had been filled with nothing bar the excited murmuring and stifled giggling of a whole school excited about the prospect of the Halloween Ball, she very much included. She was just going over her idea once more when she heard her name being called.

"Ginny!"

She froze. She recognised the voice, but she hadn't expected to have to talk to him for a couple more days. But despite her initial surprise, she warmed to the idea of a conversation with him as soon as she saw his face. His quirkily little grin was tucked onto his face, and she could tell he was trying very hard to restrain it.

"You're a long way out of your way, Draco," she said quietly, diverting off her beaten track and walking with him along a disused corridor. He smiled grimly.

"I know. I needed a word."

"Did you now?" she said, raising her eyebrows.

"Yes." He sighed heavily. "Ginny, I've been thinking about the other day, in the Entrance Hall. I-"

"Draco, I think I know what you're going to say," she said sadly. "And I understand. You can't keep talking to me, defending my friends. That was - wonderful, really, but it's not practical for you. How are you going to live if you alienate all the Slytherins?"

"Ginny," he said, halting her. "I don't want to stop talking to you, I don't care about them. That's what I needed to tell you - I want to see more of you, I want-" he paused. "I want you to know that you're the first person, at least at Hogwarts, who's ever really wanted to know me, for me. Not for my parents or power." He grinned shyly. "You're- You might be my only friend."

Ginny was shocked. She'd never expected this. He stood there, looking down on her expectantly from his intimidating height, and she realised that she couldn't say what he wanted to hear. It stung her painfully in the chest.

Casting a furtive glance down the passageway, Ginny did something she'd never, ever have thought about doing in her entire life. She hugged Draco Malfoy.

He seemed shocked, but after a second hugged her back. She felt him clinging strangely to her, burying his nose in her shoulder.

"Draco," she said softly, when he'd straightened up. "I'm honestly, honestly, so happy you could say that to me. But," and she saw the look of pain cross his face, "what I said still stands. You'd be putting yourself into a lot of hot water to associate with me. Maybe into lethally hot water. You could literally be boiled alive."

"I don't care," he said. "I need to know you're- there," he finished lamely.

Ginny smiled warmly. "And I will be. But you've got to keep it... restrained."

Slowly, he nodded.

"So..." he said. "Figured out who you're going with yet?" he asked.

"Nope," she said, knowing he was talking about the Ball. "Maybe Harry..." she teased, knowing it had hit the spot when she saw him involuntarily wrinkle his nose.

"Potter?" he spat, as though it were a personal insult.

"I'm joking," she laughed, hitting him gently on the arm. "Potter wouldn't have me anyway."

"I can't imagine why," he smirked, a trace of his old confidence surfacing. His eyes glazed over with a cloudy sort of fond gaze. "Ginny? Can you do me a favour?"

"Anything," she said, shrugging.

"Meet me tomorrow? There's some stuff I want to show you."

"I'm not that kind of girl, Malfoy," she said playfully, smiling.

He smiled back. "Will you though?"

"Sure," she said, after a pause. "End of Care of Magical Creatures, by the Broom Shed?"

He nodded brusquely, and, with a half grin, strode off, leaving the corridor very cold.

---

Sitting cross-legged on her crimson bedspread, a sketch pad balanced precariously on her knee, she sat that evening trying to drive Draco from her mind, but drawing had often had the opposite effect on her - it seemed to encourage her mind to run away from her.

Thankfully, it was only after three or four repetitions of Malfoy's illicit hug that someone tapped on the dormitory door, and Hermione poked her head in.

"Hey," Ginny said, beaming. "What's up?"

"Not much," Hermione shrugged. But she was beaming smugly.

"C'mon, 'Mione, you're hiding something."

She squealed suddenly, startling Ginny.

"Ron asked me to the Ball!"

Ginny did chuckle this time. "Wow, Herms, when?"

"Right after we left you. He took me aside and just- asked!"

"About time. You really didn't think he'd do a Yule Ball all over again, did you?"

Hermione shrugged again. "Well, you know Ron..."

"Say no more," Ginny said. "I'm happy for you."

Hermione blushed. She peered over to Ginny's project.

"Ginny, that's really good! What is it?"

"An idea for my Halloween costume."

Hermione's brow crinkled. "Ginny, I very much doubt your brother would approve."

"Good job it's not for him then," she said. Hermione laughed.

"Need any help?"

Ginny grinned. "Absolutely."

---

Read and Review Please!

This could be it for a little while, maybe for a couple of weeks, but I promise I'll be back with Chapter Six a.s.a.p.