Chaos

Chaos Chapter 2:

Ginny woke up the next day with a smile on her face, and a song in her head. After talking to Draco last night she had gone down to the library to make her excuses to Hermione, and study what she needed to. Hermione was not all that miffed. She had just gotten there herself actually. She had to calm Ron down after Ginny left the Great Hall.

It seemed that her brother was furious at Malfoy for not insulting Ginny. That was a bit odd, but it worked in Ginny's favor and Malfoy's, really. Ginny wondered what everyone would do or think when Draco started acting nice to all of them. It should be amusing, to say the least.

Then again Ginny was going to be amused on many different levels. She doubted Draco knew just how tedious being nice to people was. He should ask her. Ginny couldn't count the times she wanted to tell someone to shut the hell up, or to go away, or to get a freaking clue. He would soon learn that keeping a civil tongue was a lot of work.

As to that, she should head to breakfast. She got up, changed, and headed down. Ginny barely paid attention to her roommates anymore. They had their own little groups, and she had hers. Ginny had Hermione and Luna to turn to on rare occasions and she could hardly keep from counting Dean as a friend, but she had better friends than them. Ginny had her books.

She read anything that she could get her hands on. She read wizard history, potion ingredient books, Muggle books, books on creatures, but mostly defense books. They all carried her to another world, where she could be herself without fear of recrimination.

The Trio was already in the Great Hall, amazingly enough, and Hermione even looked half-awake today. Ginny sat down next to her, and piled kippers and eggs onto her plate. "Mione pass the coffee would you?" She smiled gratefully when her friend added the needed cream and sugar before handing her the steaming cup.

Dean came over, and pecked her on the cheek as he sat down next to her. She smiled up at him, and patiently ignored the glare Harry sent their way. Hadn't Mione said she and Ron had set the prat straight yesterday? She supposed that some people just never learned.

"Ginny, Seamus and I are practicing tonight after classes, care to come along?" Dean tossed an apple to Seamus as he asked her the question.

"Sure, babes, I'd love too. C'mon Mione, join the team this year. You are a perfectly respectable flier, and we need you," Ginny begged the older girl for the fourth time in two days.

"Absolutely not, I am a horrible flier, and we both know it. My making a spectacle of myself will not do Gryffindor any good," Hermione sniffed. Harry and Ron were no help to Ginny's cause. As soon as she had mentioned the idea they had both hooted with laughter. She chose to ignore them both.

Just then someone cleared their throat, just behind Hermione. "Excuse me, Hermione, may I speak with you for a moment," Draco asked solicitously. Suddenly the whole Hall got so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and it stayed that way. It was all Ginny could do to keep from busting out laughing, and she could see Draco was having a hard time keeping a straight face as well. He was succeeding, but his eyes were damn near twinkling with merriment. Hermione was in utter shock. She recovered quickly, however.

"I would love to speak with you, Malfoy, if we do it right here," Hermione said sweetly. Draco smiled easily, and Ginny knew that he was thinking Hermione was almost making this whole thing too easy for him.

"Alright, I wanted to know if you would be willing to tutor me in Care of Magical Creatures. I know it may be a bit of an inconvenience for you, but I would greatly appreciate it. Hagrid referred you to me, actually. He said you were the best in his class, and I could learn more from you than I could from anyone else, including him." Draco waited patiently for her answer, while the Hall erupted with noise. Ginny was sure that Ron and Harry were going to faint, and it only took a glace to see that malady had swept the Slytherin table as well.

Hermione kept her cool, and looked thoughtfully at Malfoy. "I would be happy to help you, Mal-er, Draco. Meet Ginny and me in the library at 8 o'clock tonight. We will begin then." With that she got up, and motioned for Ginny to join her. Ginny picked up her books, and looked to see that Ron and Harry were still in shock and utterly incapable of movement.

She followed Hermione out of the Great Hall, and into the broom closet they favored for their early morning indulgences. Hermione only smoked on occasion, but Ginny lit up quite frequently. It was a horrible vice, but she could not seem to break herself of this habit. She would never forget the day that she found out Hermione smoked too.

They had all forgotten Hermione's 14^th birthday, and she tried to blow it off. Ginny went looking for her after supper, and try as she might she couldn't find Hermione anywhere. She had remembered at supper that it was the other girl's birthday, and wanted to give her the present Ginny had made last week.

Ginny took to searching the grounds; she was getting a bit worried and desperate. She lit up, and walked toward the lake, doing her best to look all around the grounds. Hermione had to be here somewhere! Suddenly there was a tap on her shoulder, and she turned around to see none other than Hermione standing there holding a clove cigarette. Ginny often wondered where her friend had gotten the clove, but she had never asked.

"Mione, there you are, I've been looking everywhere for you. Happy birthday, I know it isn't much, but I worked very hard on it," Ginny held the perfectly wrapped gift out to her friend and smiled. Hermione's face lit up, and she threw her arms around the younger girl and thanked her profusely. They talked and smoked, Hermione had a small flask of firewhiskey hidden in her robes. The girls learned a lot abut each other that night, and the experience bonded them in a way nothing else could.

It was still hard for Ginny not to see Hermione as the goody-two-shoes that kept Harry and her brother from getting themselves killed. The girl was complicated, and she did have a bit of a dark side; if only she didn't keep it so well hidden. Ginny often wondered what would happen if Hermione ever let her true self come out and play. She doubted she would ever find out. One other thing that had emerged from that evening, whenever Hermione wanted to smoke or drink she would give Ginny this look that said everything she never would in front of the boys.

Hermione had definitely given her one of those looks when she motioned for her to come along after breakfast. Ginny had hardly been surprised. If she hadn't known what was going on she would have been in desperate need of a cigarette after that scene. As it was she was still in need of one. It was pretty damn hard to keep from laughing at what had just taken place, and she deserved a reward for a job well done. As soon as they both lit up Hermione turned to her and said, "So what do you think is going on? Better yet, what do you know that none of the rest of us is privy to?"

Ginny did not let her shock show on her face, but she knew Hermione could read her eyes in a way that no one else could. Her eyes had been all but dancing with merriment the whole time Draco was talking to Hermione, and Ginny didn't know if Hermione had looked her way. If she had she would have seen everything in Ginny's eyes.

Ginny looked at her friend to try and gage how much she knew or suspected. From the look on Hermione's face she only had vague suspicions. Ginny smiled and said, "I can't help that I find it amusing, Mione. You have to admit you found it funny too. All of those people were thrown for such a loop by one little conversation. You know I'd tell you if something were going on. Hell I can barely stop laughing from the look on Ron's face alone."

Hermione grinned and took a long drag. "I have to admit I'm rather amused by the whole thing. Malfoy wants to play nice, and I, for one, am going to let him. I never have thought he was as bad as Harry and Ron made him out to be. For all of the nastiness, he's just a boy. Malfoy isn't Voldemort reincarnated or anything of the like. I think Harry and Ron tend to forget that...a lot."

Hermione was not about to press Ginny further. She knew something was up, and she had her own ways of finding out exactly what was going on. She doubted that Draco had told any of the Slytherins about his little plot. But she was sure that he would let them all in on it very soon. If Malfoy wanted everyone at Hogwarts to believe he had turned over a new leaf he would need the help of his housemates. As soon as the Slytherins knew, she would know, and she would decide nothing until she knew the whole story. In the meantime it would serve her best to act dumb and keep an eye out for suspicious things.

*** ***

A week later the girls huddled in a corner discussing how best to rid themselves of Ron and Harry permanently. Ron was not typically a troublesome person. He was a bit overprotective and he had a fiery temper, but he was reasonable most of the time. Ron was a firm believer in letting people do what they felt was best. He had his limits, of course, but his motto had always been "don't cause any more trouble for yourself than you have to." Lately he had clearly been spending too much time around Harry.

Harry was becoming a control freak, and he was taking Ron down that path with him. Everything had to be as Harry wanted it to be, or needed it to be. Merlin forbid someone act in a way that Harry did not expect them to. If someone did act out of character it threw his whole world out of alignment. Draco had thrown Harry's world out of the galaxy. Ron had gladly gone into outer space with his friend, because no one got under Ron's skin quite like Draco did.

And Draco was certainly acting out of character lately. He had used this last week to become chummy with the Hufflepuffs, trade study tips and word games with the Ravenclaws, fight a mock-duel, with real swords, with the Gryffindors and somehow stay the prince of the Slytherins. He wasn't only nice to people in the other houses; he was nice to people in every house. Ginny still wondered how he did it. This was the boy who prided himself on saying what he thought. How did one go from that to someone who was exactly what everyone wanted him to be?

It really made Ginny wonder if Draco hadn't been playing a role all along. Maybe he started out being the person everyone wanted him to be. After all, every good story needed a villain, didn't it? Ginny had Harry. The wizarding world had Voldemort. The United States had President Bush. Everyone needed a villain in their lives. And Draco took on that role so well that no one noticed he was just playacting. But surely that was ridiculous...wasn't it?

Draco was everyone's new best friend, and it was making Harry and Ron nutters. The Gryffindors were trying to hold onto their suspicions for Harry's sake, but they were having a time of it. Draco was turning on the charm, and the entire population of Hogwarts seemed to be more than willing to fall for it. Ginny wished that Harry and Ron would just accept it, or go along with it. Now that would be funny. The boy-who-lived chums with the prince of Slytherin would be a sight Ginny would pay to see.

To be honest she was slightly annoyed with Draco, despite all of the progress he had made. He hadn't even tried to see her since last Monday. It was a bit insulting. Tryouts for Quidditch were two days away, and Ginny was sure to get a chaser position. After practices started they would have no time to meet, and Ginny desperately wanted to talk to him about some ideas she had. So she decided to take matters into her own hands.

That night Ginny went to the Prefect's bathroom after nagging the password out of Hermione. She decided as long as she was there it wouldn't hurt to take a swim in the tub. After filling the tub with jasmine scented bubbles and hot water Ginny stripped and dove in. She came up for air a few minutes later, and found someone staring at her and looking very annoyed.

"Draco, what a pleasant surprise," Ginny murmured with a small smile already in place. "Care to join me for a dip?" She motioned for him to join her and waited for his face to turn red as a tomato. To her shock and annoyance no such thing happened. Draco grinned and started undressing. Ginny quickly dove back under the water to keep from seeing Draco naked. If she was lucky he would keep his skivvies on when he got in. She came back up when she heard a splash on the other end of the tub, but almost as soon as she surfaced a hand tugged on her ankle, and sent her back under the water.

Ginny took a deep breath before she was pulled under. In the next moment she found herself face-to-face with Draco, who was completely naked. He grinned, she swore that somehow he managed to grin under water, and swam up to the surface. She followed him, trying to keep from blushing, and wondering how you could blush under water. Then again she hadn't thought you could grin under water two minutes ago. She surfaced once again and found Draco facing her with one raised eyebrow and that grin firmly in place.

"So, I take it you wanted to see me, Ginny? You know if your brother and Potter would buy into my nice-guy act you wouldn't have to resort to stalking. By the way, just out of curiosity what would you have done if someone else had showed up tonight?" He was actually drawing closer as he said all of this, she could swear he was. Ginny lost all thought. This wasn't the blind panic she had felt with Tom, nor was it the rage she had been consumed by with Dean. This feeling was new to her, and actually a bit pleasant. Draco slid his hands down to settle on her hips, and waited.

About then Ginny realized he was waiting for her to speak. She was waiting to remember how to breathe. She looked into his silver eyes and took a deep breath. "I wish the gits would fall in line too, it would make my and Hermione's lives a lot easier, trust me. We keep trying to get them to at least play nice, but nothing has worked so far." Ginny was annoyed at how breathless and husky her voice sounded. What was he doing to her?

"You know what they say, don't you Gin? If at first you don't succeed try a little harder," Draco whispered pulling her closer to him, and nuzzling her neck. "Now, you didn't answer my other question. What would you have done Ginny? Would you have blushed and acted surprised?" He ran his index finger across her lower lip. "Would you have tried to seduce them into forgetting about the incident? I can't help but be a bit curious. After all it isn't exactly easy to explain a naked non-prefect in the prefect's bathroom after curfew."

It was after curfew, wasn't it? Damn! How could he be turning her on that much when he was barely touching her? How could he be turning her on at all? This was all very odd. "I would have acted embarrassed and surprised that my little secret had been discovered. Then I would have begged them not to tell a soul. But it really is a moot point because I knew you would be here. I didn't think you would get in the tub, but I knew you would come." She went to bite her lip, and discovered his finger still tracing it. Now how had she not noticed that?

Draco grinned down at her and moved just a bit closer. He was enjoying her discomfort immensely. He was not enjoying his own discomfort nearly as much. "If only you knew how right you were darling," he growled in her ear. By the deep blush that stained her body he could tell she knew what he was talking about. That was certainly interesting. "As for getting in the tub, don't offer unless you mean it." He gentled the admonishment with a kiss. His lips softly brushed against hers once, twice, before he let himself taste her more fully. Draco's tongue traced her lips, as if asking for permission to enter, and she gave it to him. Ginny's hands trembled as she cupped his face, and hesitantly moved closer to him. Much to her surprised, instead of plunging his tongue into her mouth, Draco gentled the kiss once more, then pulled back. She looked so scared, so shaken that he couldn't resist pulling her into his arms and rubbing her back.

"Gin, I know. I can tell someone has hurt you. You don't have to tell me who or how unless you want to. But we aren't all jerks. I'm not a jerk. I want to be your partner and your friend. You don't have to be scared of me, or scared with me. I know you better than you think I do. Your best friends are books, you hate that most people in your life see shades of white, you long for someone to talk to about the dark arts without looking at you as if you just grew a second head that looks remarkably like mine. I am in a very similar situation. I've seen the dark side that your family and friends pretend doesn't exist. You have too, Ginny, and you didn't just see it. You felt it, you got burned by it. I won't burn you. Trust me, and I will trust you. Please believe me, Gin." He pulled her closer to him. She was still shaking, and he didn't even know if she had heard him.

Draco was about to pick her up and carry her over to the floor when she spoke. He had to strain to hear her, but she was talking, that was the important part. "I trust you Draco, with my friendship and my life. Until this moment I didn't know I could trust anyone ever again," she pulled back and smiled at him as she said this. Draco looked very relieved and confused.

"What happened to make you trust me," he asked as he stroked her cheek.

"You pulled back, you held me, completely naked and vulnerable in your arms, and didn't try to take advantage of me. You knew that something was wrong. Do you know that after all of these years no one in my family has figured it out, or asked, not one person? Your right, my books are my best friends. Mione is a lot less pure and sweet than you might think, but she is still a far cry from where I am, from what I am," Ginny said as she looked him straight in the eye.

His gaze never wavered, and he was still stroking her cheek. He did know, somehow he knew what had happened to her, and he didn't think she was dirty or look at her with pity in his eyes. Maybe miracles did happen. Maybe she could let a boy touch her someday; maybe she could let Draco touch her someday. No, she shouldn't think about things like that. It was never going to happen. He would accept that, and they would be friends and partners, just as he had said.

Ginny tried to move away, but Draco put his hands back on her hips to stay her. "And where do you think your going, missy?" She looked up at him with her question in her eyes. He looked back at her with a knowing smile. "I didn't say I would give up trying dear. I said I would agree to go slowly. Oh yes, I forgot, sorry. You never got to the course on body language. I want you, you want me. We are perfectly suited emotionally, and well, the parts fit physically. You want to go slow, and I'm okay with that. But we will be together in every way possible, that I promise you. I excite you, which is something you never even knew was possible until today. Now you know it is, and I happily volunteer to show you just how excited I can make you." He grinned down at her now, and kissed her forehead tenderly.

"I don't want to be in a sexual relationship, Draco. I don't even know if I can be in a sexual relationship. Can't we just be friends?"

"Nope, sorry Ginny can't have you running scared from this. Don't worry, you'll like it, I promise." With that he swept her up in his arms, and carried her out of the tub. Setting her down on the floor, Draco wrapped a towel around her and sweetly offered to dry her off. Ginny actually managed a weak grin when she said no thank you. Once they were both dry and dressed he pulled her up against him, and wrapped his arms around her stomach.

"I want you very, very badly right now. So talking is out of the question darling. How about meeting me tomorrow night in the Room of Requirements at 7:30? We can talk about all of your great ideas, and mine, for as long as we want to. Sound good to you?" He was nuzzling the side of her neck again, and Ginny was fairly certain that if he had just suggested they go to the Astronomy tower and jump she would have nodded.

He walked her to the corridor just before the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. He stopped and pulled her into a dark area where they couldn't be seen. There he lowered his head and kissed her deeply. He didn't stop until she was trembling with desire. Then he pulled back and grinned down at her. "Good night little one," he murmured in her ear, before he prodded her toward the portrait of the Fat Lady. Ginny was fairly certain that she murmured something close to good night in return, but she couldn't be completely sure.

Ginny said the password and entered without even noticing that she was doing it. She then went to the spot where she smoked at night and pulled out a cigarette. She didn't know how her legs were still holding her up. She didn't know how she was still breathing. How long did the affects last, she couldn't help but wonder. Hermione came and joined her. The other girl had her flask with her, and in Ginny's experience that generally did not bode well. But Hermione seemed content to sit quietly with Ginny, sipping from her flask while they stared at the night sky.

"Hey, Mione," Ginny said softly after a while.

"Yeah, Gin?"

"We're in deep trouble aren't we?"

"Oh yes, yes we are." Hermione and Ginny looked at each other knowingly. Ginny didn't know where Hermione had been, or what she'd been up to. But she knew they were in the same boat. Hermione reached for one of Ginny's cigarettes, and Ginny reached for the flask. They went back to looking at the sky, and thinking their own thoughts.