Heroes, Damsels, and Dragons

Pairing: Draco/Ginny

Rating: K+

Summary: A late night meeting in amongst the library stacks. Neville's POV.

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Spoilers: Set during DH.

Author's Notes: jandjsalmon. I promised her a little something after the last round of the D/G fic exchange. I've only just gotten round to doing this. Seriously unbeta'd. One-shot.

It was as Neville was preparing to leave the library that he heard the noise.

Curious, and feeling brave despite the fact that curfew fast approaching, he headed towards the source with his book bag slung over one shoulder. It would probably turn out to be nothing, but with the Carrows and their minions continuing their reign of terror, there was always a chance that it might turn out to be something. Neville knew that he would never be able to forgive himself if he was to find out later that he had ignored someone who had been hurt, or, worse still, was being hurt. Considering the nature of the sound he had heard, he thought that there was a distinct possibility that his initial impression might turn out to be right.

As he approached the end of the aisle, however, he was shocked hear a pair of familiar voices speaking in muffled tones. Ginny, he thought, and Malfoy. He frowned, feeling his stomach tighten uncomfortably. From the tone of what he could hear, they were having an argument. He nearly groaned. Lately, Ginny seemed to have been going out of her way to anger Malfoy.

He stepped around the end of the bookcase, and felt his eyes go wide at the sight that greeted him. Positioned approximately halfway down the dark aisle, Malfoy had Ginny pinned up against one of the shelves, his arms on either side of her, blocking off her escape routes. In one hand, he clutched two wands: his and hers. Ginny's eyes were wide, and even in the gloom, Neville could tell that they were flashing angrily.

"You shouldn't even be here, you little idiot," he heard Malfoy growl. His face was barely inches from Ginny's.

Neville drew his wand and advanced. "Let her go, Malfoy," he said, his voice barely shaking.

The pair jumped, looking at him sharply. To Neville's satisfaction, Malfoy immediately stepped away from the girl he had trapped, almost as if she had hexed him.

"You okay, Ginny?" the Gyrffindor boy asked, holding his position. Keeping his wand up, he continued to watch Malfoy with a wary eye. The look the blond was giving him was almost enough to make him shrink back.

"I… yes," she said, her voice betraying her. There was no denying the distinct tremble as she had spoken. Neville realised that she was close to tears. She abruptly stepped away from the bookcase and stuck out her hand. "My wand," she demanded.

Malfoy opened his mouth, as if about to say something, and then slammed it shut again. He slapped his hand down onto hers, and when he pulled away again, Ginny had possession of her wand again. With one last look towards Malfoy, she grabbed her bag from the floor where it had fallen, and hurried over to where Neville was standing. She grabbed his arm.

"Come on," she said. "Let's go."

Neville stared at her in astonishment.

"But what about him?" he asked, gesturing towards the other, decidedly angry looking boy. Malfoy's cheeks were flushed, and he was glaring at them. His eyes, Neville noticed, seemed to be continuously drawn back to Ginny. The stiffness in her shoulders made it obvious that she was perfectly aware of the attention she was receiving.

She tugged on his arm again. "He doesn't matter. We'll only get in trouble with the Snape, or the Carrows. You know what happened last time."

With a shudder, Neville cast one more look towards Malfoy. "Okay," he said reluctantly, and turned to follow Ginny as she began to march away.

"Don't bother," Draco said with a snarl. "I'm leaving anyway. This place has taken on a distinct air of cat piss." He pushed past them, barging into Neville as he did so. Neville went to lift his wand again and promptly felt Ginny's restraining hand land on his arm.

"The Carrows, remember?" she said.

They followed the path Malfoy had taken, though at a more sedate pace. Neville had no desire to run into him again, though he dearly wished that Ginny had allowed him to fire off one hex at least. They were nearly at the library doors when Ginny stopped suddenly.

"My purse," she said. "It slipped out when I was arguing with him. I've got to go back and get it. You go on without me. I'll see you in the common room."

Neville opened his mouth to protest but Ginny was already jogging away, her steps silent on the thick carpet. He hesitated, and then followed her. Once again, though, he was stopped at the end of the aisle by a strange sight.

Ginny was standing in the middle of aisle, her head tilted back so that her hair fell down her back in a long red wave. As he watched, she levitated a book down from the top shelf, and opened it. A noticeable look of disappointment drifted over her features as she inspected the contents. For a moment, she appeared to hesitate, and then she reached into her bag and pulled out a scrap of parchment, along with a pencil. She scribbled something on the parchment before slipping it inside the book. This was then levitated up to the top shelf.

Puzzled, but knowing instinctively that he did not want to be caught, Neville ducked into the next aisle. He peered through a gap in the books as she hurried by again. Her expression was torn, almost pained. It was almost as confusing as her behaviour.

Once he was sure that she had gone, he stepped around the end of the aisle, and walked down toward where she had been standing. It took a few minutes, but he eventually located the book that she had been looking at. It was thick, and old, and it was obvious that it had once been covered in a layer of dust. As he opened it, Neville was astonished to find that a neat rectangle had been cut into the pages within. Sat in the middle of that, was the parchment that she had written on.

He picked it up, and feeling more than a little guilt, opened it. His confusion only deepened as he saw what was written within.

It was a message, that much was obvious, but it had been written in some sort of code.

Making a snap decision, he shoved the parchment into his bag and quickly returned the book to the shelf.

"Ginny wrote this," Luna said later, when he showed her what he had found.

"It's in code, isn't it?" Neville asked after agreeing. "What do you think it says?"

"No, not a code. Not really a code, anyway. It's a cipher." She drew out a quill from where it had been tucked behind her ear, and leaned over the parchment. An inkpot appeared from somewhere beneath her school robes. Neville watched, fascinated, as she wrote out the alphabet, humming a little under her breath. She sat back for a moment, obviously thinking, and then began to write again. He frowned as he watched her write the alphabet again, directly underneath the original. This time, however, she started with the letter 'e'.

"The letters all get shifted to one side," she explained. "This one has been moved so that e represents a, f is b, and so on. The letters on the bottom row now correspond to the ones in the top. Now we can see what the note says."

Neville sucked in a deep, excited breath. "Well?" he asked. He hated the idea that he might be prying into Ginny's private life, but he was worried. It was obvious that there was something bothering her. The note was somehow connected to whatever that something was.

"Just a minute," Luna told him, her quill moving over the parchment. After a moment, she simply said, "Oh dear," and handed the note back to him again. There was a worried look in her large grey eyes.

Neville quickly scanned what she had written, and felt his eyes widened. His heart fell through the floor of his stomach as he read.

Draco,

Meet me tonight, at the top of the astronomy tower. I'm sorry. Forgive me? I just needed to see you. I didn't mean what I said. Please don't be angry.

I love you, G.