Normality

Ginny finally gave up struggling against the curse, and eventually sat with crossed arms and a very huffy attitude. Draco grinned at her sweetly, before looking up at a neon sign posted next to the road and grinning broadly.

"Looks like we're here Ginny-kins!"

Ginny mouthed something that might have sounded like...

"Shutup-you-obnoxious-prat-I-wish-you-would-eat-a-blast-ended...GAH-die-die-die-take-this-OFF-of-me-right-now-you-RUDE..."

Of course, she was silenced, so we will never really know...

After Draco had parked his car in the rather empty car park, he turned to Ginny and rather lazily removed the silencing charm with a swift flick of his wand.

Almost immediately a torrent of furious words came forward, and Draco was practically forced back in his chair by the absolute power of it all. Fortunately for Draco, Ginny was so loud, and so angry that the words were pretty much unintelligible. This tirade continued for another five minutes and eventually Draco found himself tapping his fingernails on the leather seat and humming tunelessly to himself.

"And...and!"

Finally Ginny had run out of things to say.

"And what?" Draco prompted lazily, unloading himself from the car and slamming his door before Ginny had a chance to answer. Ginny followed suit, glaring resentfully at Draco's broad and rather attractive back. Not for the first time she found herself entertaining thoughts about leaping onto him and ripping off all his clothes and...

Wait a second!

Ginny stopped her mind with resolve and scampered after Draco who was heading for a dingy looking office. She also tried to stop her mind from considering Draco's back, instead focusing on how much she hated him. Yes. Hate.

"Are you all right?" Draco called back over his shoulder after seeing how much Ginny was lagging behind.

"Fine," muttered Ginny sulkily, after having another 'back emergency' (i.e. the phobia of longing to jump Draco). Jogging slightly, she managed to catch up and she was right beside him when he swung open the brass plated door.

Now, as the entire motel had looked rather dingy and dirty, Ginny had fully expected the interior of the office to reflect the outside. Bracing herself for dirty desks and rotting pot plants, Ginny let out an amazed gasp. Instead of the tatty place that she had been expecting, she found a large circular room with a high ceiling and red carpeting. Gold plated polished wood adorned every possible surface and large tropical plants with glittering lights stood in every corner. In fact, the room was very similar to the five star hotels that they had last stayed in...

"What is this place?" Ginny asked in awe. "I can't believe that this is the two star dump that the sign was advertising!"

Draco smirked in a very infuriating sort of way. Ginny suspected that he most definitely knew something important.

"What?" she asked suspiciously, glaring at him in a way she hoped reflected her mother.

"It's just that I find you incredibly stupid."

"WHAT!"

"Settle petal," Draco chuckled, glancing around. "I just meant, I can't believe you haven't figured it out yet!"

"Figured what out?" Ginny answered curiously, glancing fugitively about.

"Look around you Ginny-kins. Look at the fairies in the trees, the obvious illusion charms and the roof with its moving pictures. We're in wizards' land now, Dorothy and Kansas is far behind."

Ginny looked around and a sudden realization hit her. She WAS stupid! However, she wasn't going to let Draco know this, so she turned to him with a blank look and tried to change the subject.

"Who the hell is Dorothy? And where the hell is Kansas?"

Draco sighed a huge heaving sigh, like he couldn't believe how dumb she was.

"Ever take Muggle studies?"

"No?"

"Shut your dainty little mouth then."

Ginny glared at him furiously, but decided not to answer. He was WAY too frustrating.

"We'd better go book in then."

"One step ahead of you," Draco answered, pulling out his passport and his documents.

It didn't take long to check in and Apparate up to their room following a complicated Apparation chart. The witches and wizards of the Australian community seemed nice enough as they waved merrily as Ginny and Draco strolled down their corridor.

"Is this our room?" Ginny asked when they had finally reached the cream colored door with the wide wand scanner.

" 'Tis it," Draco responded lazily, brushing his wand through to check his identity. The door opened with a click.

The inside of the room was much the same as any other hotel room, aside from a few added magical touches. Apparation maps lay scattered about, as well as a beginner Portkey packet. Ginny also noticed the absence of the typical hotel room bible, and television set.

Two doors were set on either side of the room and Ginny eagerly hurried towards them, hoping to find a satisfactory second bedroom on the other side. The first door contained a bathroom, with a large sunken in bath that reminded Ginny of being a prefect. Leaving the bathroom, she tried the other door and found a cupboard.

"Malfoy?" she called wearily from inside the cupboard.

"You called?" he answered, lugging some luggage (A/N no pun intended!) past Ginny and into the cupboard. Ginny watched him suspiciously for a while and then remembered the original question.

"Did the Hotel give us the wrong room? Maybe it's my imagination, but why the hell is their only one bed?"

Draco seemed suddenly very interested in one of the magically strengthened coat hangers.

"Hem, hem." Ginny coughed to capture his attention (A/N ugh...don't we all hate Umbridge).

Draco sighed and slowly recovered himself from the cupboard and into the light.

"No, they didn't give us the wrong room. They were all booked out and this was the only place I could get."

Ginny stared at him in disbelief, before launching into a furious tirade that pretty much told Draco how she felt about sharing a room with him. To cut a long speech short, let's just conclude that the words she used were not nice. Not nice at all!

"Look," replied Draco once he could get a word in edgewise, "I'm sorry, but there was nothing else. We were lucky even to get this room. From the way the receptionist was behaving, I thought we would be holed up in a broom closet. Would that have been better for you?"

"I refuse to share a bed with you. You know that, don't you?"

"Yes, I figured out as much. Don't worry, the hotel is providing a mattress."

Ginny narrowed her eyes and poked a finger into Draco's chest. "If you think that I'm going to sleep on a mattress, you have another thing coming..."

"Don't look at me that way!" replied Draco. "I'm a Malfoy!"

"So?"

"Malfoys never have, and never will, sleep four inches away from the floor. It's just not a done thing...maybe I could pay you?" He smiled at her hopefully, and in her silence, he reached for his money pouch.

"Don't even think about it!" Ginny growled, snatching away his hand before it could even get close. "No amount of money will compensate for the tragically sore back that will strike if I sleep on that...thing! And besides, I have an even better idea..."

"And what might that be?" Draco asked as he studied his nails intently. "Surely a Weasley isn't the best at creating life-saving ideas."

"This won't save someone's life...In fact, it will probably make one of ours worse."

"Care to share?"

"See this Galleon?" asked Ginny, holding out the coin with a victorious smile present on her face.

"Well done, Ginny! You've learnt what money is! Bravo! This is an accomplishment, especially when one takes into account the origins of your childhood."

"Look," said Ginny, "if you're going to be snide, this thing is never going to get done."

Malfoy glared like a sullen child and shut his mouth.

"What I'm going to do," added Ginny, "is chuck this coin into the air."

"Better hold onto it...Weasleys seem to have a repelling affect on gold..."

Ginny silenced him with a glare that would've done her mother proud, and turned back to the task at hand. "Anyway, I will flip this coin and you're going to yell out 'Heads' or 'Tails' before it hits the ground."

Malfoy looked as if he might want to say something, but Ginny soon quenched the need with another stifling glare.

"This side of the coin - i.e. the side with the face of Fudge, is heads. This side, the one with the Newt, is tails. Depending on what you call, we decide who gets the bed. Any questions?"

"Can we have a practice round?" Draco asked timidly, looking as if he wanted to avoid any mean looking faces.

"For sure," replied Ginny as she tossed the coin high into the air.

It took another four goes for Draco to get the trick perfectly, and finally they were ready to start.

"Heads!" hailed Malfoy.

"Tails!" screamed Ginny.

The coin landed innocently next to the Persian rug that decorated the floor, and both Draco and Ginny craned their necks forward to see who had won.

"No!" cried Malfoy dejectedly.

"Yes!" cried Ginny victoriously.

And so it was decided that for the first time in Malfoy history, a member of the family would be sleeping exactly four inches away from the floor.

*

Harry paced around his flat, nervously checking to see if the kettle had boiled. It was now three days since Ginny had left for Australia, and the suspense was driving him insane.

"I should've stopped him. Why did she have to go!" he cried to himself as steam started to rise from the kitchen.

Over and over he had thought about Ginny. About how she was thousands of miles away with only the most arrogant prat to keep her company...how she was probably feeling alone...how she was so defenseless...

"Shit!" Harry cursed as he crunched his toe into the bathroom door. This wasn't the first time he had managed to hurt himself while patrolling his unit. Every bit of furniture he owned was now becoming an occupational hazard. His broomstick included.

With the Quidditch season over, Harry had nothing to distract him from Ginny's absence...it was made even worse by the fact that her family had no idea of her troubles. Twice now, Harry had been made to think of fake stories to satisfy Mrs. Weasley's curiosity over her littlest daughter, and Ron was even worse. Harry had never really kept anything important away from Ron, and now it seemed everything was coming crashing down.

All because of Ginny.

He wasn't she where this fascination with the youngest Weasley child had sprung. He had always known Ginny as a friend, or as the girl with the colorful collection of boyfriends. Truthfully, he had been so busy with Cho, and then Hannah Abbot and then...well, he had never really noticed her in that way.

Until now.

Her laugh...her smile...her face...they were all intoxicating, and like the slowest poison, Harry was surely drowning.

A sudden knock brought him back to reality, away from the thoughts of his red headed nymph. Harry walked quickly across his sea of blue/green carpet and swung open the door.

"Hi, Harry," murmured Hermione and she pushed past him into the living room.

"Hermione..." replied Harry, at a loss for words, "this is a surprise...what can I do for you?"

"What can't you do," muttered Hermione, tumbling down into her favorite of Harry's chairs, a large leather armchair. For the first time Harry noticed she was crying. He quickly strode over to the chair and gently pulled her into a hug.

"What's up Herm?" Harry asked gently, using his own special nickname for her. Ron often called her 'Mione, but changed it with a romantic twist, so it sounded as if he was calling her 'my own.'

"Nothing..."

Harry raised an eyebrow at her and waited until she finally decided to spill.

"It's just..."

"Yes?"

"It's just Ron is mad at me and I don't know what to do..." words tumbled from Hermione's mouth like an enthusiastic fountain as she finally revealed the source of her anxiety.

Harry muttered something about Ron being a complete berk, and then wrapped his arms around Hermione again, trying his hardest to think of something to say.

"Why is he mad?" he finally asked.

"It's about Ginny..."

*

Draco rolled around on the uncomfortable straw mattress, trying to find an angle that suited his shape. It seemed pretty much impossible to find a satisfactory position, and the little lumps covering his makeshift bed were driving him crazy. Ginny wasn't exactly helping either, what with her little contented noises and her deep sleep.

Stupid little Weasel...should've never listened to her stupid, fucking coin game. Thinks she's so smart...

But thinking negative thoughts weren't really helping matters in the slightest, and Draco had a horrible feeling that the situation would only get worse before it got better.

Ginny rolled over in slumber, and Draco distinctly heard a happy sounding murmur...and that just pushed him over the edge.

He had been lying on the bumpy mattress for almost four hours. Nothing he could think about was distracting him from the discomfort, and fury was pumping through his veins at the unfairness of the situation.

How he wanted to chuck that little red head out of her sleepy haven...how he wanted to...but he wouldn't.

Glancing over at Ginny again, he was discontented to note that she barely took up a quarter of the king sized bed. There was certainly room for one more...

Rolling over, he hit his hip on a random piece of metal spring. And that was the last straw.

Standing up quietly, Draco tiptoed towards the bed. Ginny let out a little murmur and he froze...but she slept on. Carefully, Draco lifted up the edge of the bed linen and quick as a flash he slipped under the covers.

Ginny barely moved.

Settling in, Draco let out a tremendous sigh. This was the life...a big bed, cozy covers...what more could he ask for?

Ginny muttered something in her sleep then almost as if she sensed Draco, she rolled over, right up close to him. Draco barely moved, terrified that she would wake up and kick him out. The bed was so warm and she was so warm...she smelt so good when she was this close to him...like a strange mixture of Vanilla essence and fresh cinnamon. She smelt safe. Movement tilted the bed again and Draco snuggled in ready for a good night's sleep...

Ginny rolled over and flung her leg around him, murmuring something unintelligible and extremely sexy under her breath.

Ok, maybe not.

*

Draco got up early the next morning, exhausted from a complete lack of sleep. Ginny had barely budged the entire night, except from when she snuggled into him and...

But Draco was hungry, and breakfast was the only option.

Ginny soon joined him and they walked down to the large and airy breakfast room. The food was a buffet, and both chose to take their selections outside to sit at a cute table next the large, aquamarine pool.

Soon the morning owls came flooding in, and Draco was amazed when a large barn owl landed next to his plate. No one he knew would be owling him now...maybe there was something wrong with Spellbound. Ripping open the letter he carefully scanned the page, then without a word jumped up and sped from the room like a bat out of hell.

Curious, Ginny picked up the page and let her eyes wander...

My dearest Mr. Malfoy,

Bet you weren't expecting to hear from me anytime soon. The thing is darling, I've decided that what I did was wrong...very wrong, and my love for you is creating so many new emotions each day. Please give me a second chance, baby; I know our love can withstand the most vicious storms.

I'm coming to find you,

Be prepared.

Kitty.