Tempting Innocence

Ginny walked the halls of Hogwarts surrounded by her closest friends, namely Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They were all laughing and talking together as the walked towards the Great Hall for dinner. Ginny laughed and talked with them, every once in a while taking a glance at Harry who would give her a secret smile in return. While no one was looking though, she would glance around her, looking to see if I he was there, lurking behind a corner, just waiting for her to be alone. Well she wasn't going to be alone anymore. She learned now that being alone and secluding herself from her friends wasn't going to help her avoid Draco, just attract his attention even more. So from now on she went everywhere with a group of people. When she looked this time she could not spot him anywhere in the hallways. She let out the breath she had been holding in.

Hermione watched Ginny out of the corner of her eye. She was starting to worry about her. Her behavior lately had been quite strange. Ginny wasn't the type to sneak around behind people's backs and openly lie to people. She knew Ginny had been lying to them, but she wasn't sure what she was hiding. Ginny was the levelheaded one; Mrs. Weasley always said Ginny had a good head on her shoulders, but Ron on the other hand... That's why Hermione loved both of the younger Weasleys. Ginny for her stable, constant predictability and Ron for his... capriciousness. Looking at Ginny, she knew something was wrong. She knew Harry suspected something too, but he was too caught up his own happiness to admit it to himself. She looked at Ginny again and wondered exactly what was going on in the young girl's mind.

They walked into the Great Hall together and sat in their typical seats at the Gryffindor table. The hall filled with the chattering of the students as food appeared before them. The sky above them was already dark even though it was only just after seven. Ginny loved to watch the ceiling change above them as they ate. The best was when it was storming outside and you could see the lightning crash on the ceiling. It was beautiful in a way. She noticed details like this because she was always watching what was going on around her. She being quieter and shyer than most people usually had her observing things rather than taking part in them. This trait being second nature to her made her more aware of people and what they were doing around her, making it painfully obvious when Draco Malfoy had his eyes focused on her.

She could feel there heated gaze boring into her, but she refused to look into their stormy depths, afraid of what she would find there. She knew she was making him angrier by the day, because with her group of friends with her he couldn't approach her. When she finally felt his gaze shift elsewhere she looked up and chanced a glance at him. He was talking to another Slytherin, his name was Blaise she thought. He was beautiful, she could not deny that. His aristocratic features, outlined with his platinum hair, and those eyes that could dig into the very depths of your soul with their gaze. Lost in her thoughts she was pulled out of them by a hand waving in front of her face.

"Earth to Ginny," her brother said, still shaking his hand wildly in front of her face.

Ginny startled looked at Ron and yelled, "What do you want?"

Ron, taken aback, said, "I just wanted to know what you were looking at. Your eyes were bugging out of your head."

"Were not!" Ginny said, peeved at being caught ogling Draco, though they didn't know that was what she was specifically doing.

"Okay, okay, geez, sorry for bothering you," Ron went back to eating and talking to Harry about the last Quidditch game that Gryffindor had won.

Ginny decided that she better just stick to eating her meal now and not risk any more glances at the Slytherin table. She got that feeling again of being watched and she looked up to see Hermione watching her. She quickly averted her gaze back to her food. She needed Hermione getting involved with her problems like she needed a hole in the head.

Hermione saw the Ginny she knew slowly slipping away, and watched as the walls started forming around the girl. Ginny was pushing her away, and Hermione knew better than to push back.

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Draco paced angrily back and forth across the Slytherin common room floor, causing all in the vicinity to find safer ground. Blaise sat on the couch and lazily watched Draco work himself into a fury.

"Why is she making things so difficult for me?" Draco asked Blaise, but before he could get an answer Draco continued, "I mean I thought I had her, I should be breaking the news to Potter by now, this is taking way too long."

Blaise laughed out loud at this causing Draco stop his mad pacing. "You're too impatient, you always have to have what you want when you want it."

"Ya, and your point is?" Draco said crossing his arms over his chest in defiance.

Blaise sighed and stood up walking over to stand in front of Draco. "Ginny is not like the girls you're used to, Draco. She's not one for a one night stand; she wants something more real."

"And how come you suddenly know what Ginny Weasley wants?"

"I don't," Blaise replied, "but it is obvious enough from the way she has solely devoted herself to Potter for the past couple of year. You remember how she was always mooning after him, and only had eyes for the Boy Wonder. She devoted herself to him, and now she wants devotion in return."

Draco cocked his eyebrow up at Blaise. "You scare me sometimes you know?"

Blaise just smiled and said, "I think you have been approaching this situation wrong with Ginny. I think you're just going to scare her away if you keep on doing what you are doing with her."

Draco nodded his head. "I think you have a point there, but there's still one problem. I can't get close enough to her to do anything."

"That is the main problem it seems," Blaise said.

Draco resumed his pacing while Blaise became deep in thought.

"I got it!" Draco shouted.

Blaise looked up, "Well?"

Draco walked over to Blaise and sat down next to him. "Well, you see, all we need to do is...."

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Ginny sat in the common room by herself tonight. Harry and Ron had Quidditch practice and Hermione went to watch them. Ginny declined their offer to come, because she had a lot of work to catch up on. She was fine though, because she felt completely safe in the common room. Draco couldn't get in, and even if he somehow made it in he couldn't do anything to her without alerting the whole of Gryffindor. She was working on her Potions essay. Count on Snape to give more homework out than all of her of teachers combined. She tried hard to remember what he had said about the effects unicorn blood, but the thoughts kept slipping out of her grasp, and were instead replaced by thoughts of a certain Slytherin.

She slammed her hand on the desk out of frustration. This was so wrong; it seemed like Draco had now made a permanent home inside of her brain and refused to move elsewhere. She knew trying to complete her essay would be pointless and she began packing up her stuff. The picture guarding the entrance swung open and in walked a bunch of second years. Ginny continued packing and didn't notice one of the girls walk up to her.

"Hmm hmm." Ginny looked and saw one of the second years standing in front of her. "I have a letter for you."

Ginny, surprised, took the letter from the girls hand. "Who's it from?"

The girl shrugged her shoulders and walked away, heading back to her second year friends. Ginny looked at the front of the letter. It just said Ginny Weasley written plainly in black ink. Curiosity finally getting to her, she opened the letter and read its contents.

Ginny,

Hey Gin, I was wondering if you could meet me at the entrance hallway. I want to talk to you about something that's really important. Meet me there at 9:00. Don't be late.

Harry

Ginny read the letter over and wondered at what Harry needed to talk to her about that was really important. Was he going to break up with her? She didn't think that was it, he hadn't been showing the typical warning signs of breaking up. She placed the letter in her bag with all her things and glanced at the clock. It was 8:30, so she had a little bit of time left before she needed to be down there. She headed back to her room and put her stuff away, and then left the common room headed for the entrance hallway.

The halls were mostly deserted considering it was getting close to curfew time. She was still trying to figure out what was so important that Harry needed to tell her about. No ideas popped into her head, but whatever it was it better be good to make her chance getting caught out past curfew. She was almost there and was starting to get a little nervous now. What if he knew about what happened between her and Draco? Now she was almost afraid of what Harry was going to say to her. Realizing she had reached her destination she stopped and looked around for Harry, but there was no sign of him.

"Harry, are you there?" she said quietly. She saw a something move slightly in the corner. "Is that you Harry?" She was starting to get a little scared now.

The person stepped out of the shadows and there stood Draco Malfoy.

"Hello Gin, I've been waiting for you here."

Ginny realized then what a fool she had been. The letter hadn't been from Harry, it had been from Draco. Before she could do anything Draco pulled out his wand and pointed it at her.

Ginny shocked said, "Draco what are you doing?"

He smirked. "Well, I am preparing myself."

"For what?" Ginny squeaked.

"Our duel of course," Draco said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

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Everything was going as planned. Blaise had announced to the whole common room about the upcoming duel between Ginny and Draco. Everyone of course was excited; there hadn't been a good Slytherin and Gryffindor head to head in a long time. As Blaise figured, the majority of Slytherin would be going to watch the match, and as he also figured would happen, one of the students would go tell Snape. This was perfect, Draco and Ginny would be about to go at it, but Snape would come and stop them from fighting, giving them a detention. During this detention Draco would get all the alone time he would need with Ginny. He looked at the clock and decided to head down to the entrance hall and get ready to watch the fun.

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Ginny stood there gaping at Draco. What in hell did he think he was doing? She had never asked to duel with him. She heard lots of footsteps coming down the hall and turned around to see the majority of Slytherin walking towards them. She looked at Draco in horror; he was going to humiliate her in front of the whole Slytherin class.

"Draco, please don't do this to me," she pleaded with him.

Draco refused to listen to her pleas, and Ginny gave up trying to beg. She started trying to remember anything she could about dueling from her lessons. It seemed as if all her memories of those lessons drifted out of her mind. She stood there trembling as the Slytherins formed a circle around the two. They were yelling and jeering, and Ginny was getting flustered.

Draco raised his wand getting ready to attack even though he knew that he wasn't going to do anything of the sort. Ginny raised her wand in her shaking hand, and tried to remember anything at all, but she didn't have to think for too long, because they were interrupted by a furious looking Professor Snape. He walked through the group of students and stood between Ginny and Draco.

"Would one of you like to explain to me why you are dueling in the halls when you should be in your common rooms working on the assignments I gave you?" Snape said icily.

Ginny stammered but Draco replied, "Sir, Ginny Weasley challenged me to a duel tonight, and I tried to reason with her but she would not give in."

"Is this true Miss Weasley?" Ginny stood there opening and closing her mouth, but no sound came out. Snape was starting to get angrier, then another voice spoke up.

"It's true Professor, I was with Draco at the time," said Blaise with a look of sincerity.

Professor Snape thought for a moment and said, "Fine Mr. Malfoy, Miss Weasley, you will both serve detention with me this Saturday, instead of going to Hogsmeade with the rest of the school. Miss Weasley, you will also be writing me a two foot essay on why it is wrong to challenge other students to duels. As for the rest of you get back to the common room, and don't dare think of doing anything else this evening to disturb me.

The students all moaned about not being able to see a good duel while heading back to the classroom. Blaise winked to Draco as he walked by him. Ginny stood there completely dumbfounded. She didn't know what to say or think. Draco was standing there watching her, and she looked up and met his eyes.

He just smiled and turned around walking away from her, but not before shouting over his shoulder, "See you on Saturday, Gin."

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