Most Potente Potions of Fate

Draco turned around abruptly as the door swung open. He found himself face to face with a rather angry-looking pair of eyes that would be Lucius.

He swallowed loudly. It wasn't that he was afraid of the man who called himself his father, in fact, he begged to differ, and thought himself quite the opposite. But if you were faced with those eyes, or at least that expression, then you must likely would be terrified. Even if said man was your father, and so Draco was.

But when Draco thought of it later, and ridiculed the very idea he had ever been afraid. The only conclusion he could come up with was that he was feeling guilty, and this was connected to Ginny. But he had no reason to feel guilty, at least not in that way. Of that he was completely certain.

He tried to stop an irritating, un-called for blush, from creeping up his cheeks as his father started to walk around him suspiciously. He couldn't let his father intimidate him. Draco knew that Lucius would say something soon, but he also knew that he was trying to make him nervous, and force him to slip up. That wasn't happening, no way. But he couldn't help thinking about Ginny, as the image of her on the flowerbed flashed across his eyes. One or both of them would be in considerable trouble come the morning.

He just hoped it wasn't him.

He straightened his back stood as tall as he could, and turned to look at his father again.

Lucius spoke, "Draco, I think you would find it best in your situation to tell me what you were doing at once, and if you do, I think the punishment will be less weight on you. It would be wise to co-operate."

Draco thought he could feel his eyes extending out of his head, on stalks. Fathers weren't meant to talk to their sons like that! He wasn't a bloody prisoner...was he?

"Father, I wasn't doing anything wrong. I-I was just, uh, taking a stroll around my room!"

Lucius raised his eyebrow; "at three o' clock in the morning? Are you trying to be humorous?"

"Of course not, father. I'm telling the truth. I just couldn't sleep," he said. But he thought; oh, but of course, you wouldn't recognise an attempt at humour if it came up and tugged on your long precious hair. Idiot

Lucius walked over to the window and looked out into the darkness. He whispered something and his wand instantly came to light. He glanced down to the garden beneath the window, and Draco's heart started to beat very fast.

What if he sees her? Oh Merlin, he'll go ballistic. Most likely, he'll self-combust with anger! ...Hang on, is that a bad thing?

Concentrate Draco! Think about what you're going to say to him, and stop acting like a dim Hufflepuff, he told himself. But he didn't have time for any more inner-conflicts because Lucius turned back to look at him.

He was glaring at Draco, and he that; 'I-know-you're-up-to-something-and-you-can-bet-your-lucky-stars-I'll-find-out' look. But he didn't seem to know what had happened, which Draco thought was very odd. Surely he had seen her.

"Don't think you can get away with fooling me Draco, I'm not a half-wit. I will find out what you were doing," said Lucius.

And without another word (but he didn't stop glaring) he turned away from Draco and strode towards the door.

When he had shut the door behind his father; who surreptitiously seemed to have left it open, he let out a long breath. It really was bad for the health if you were a Malfoy who disagreed with his father.

With a start he remembered why he was feeling so nervous in the first place and ran to the window. He leaned right out of it, clutching tightly to the stone ledge as he did so. He didn't even notice his fingers turning slightly blue with the effort.

In the dim light that was beginning to appear he could just see the flowerbed, with a Ginny-shaped mess squarely in the middle of it. She was gone.

He leapt away from the window in shock and cursed quietly, or as quietly as he could make himself. The last thing he needed was his father hearing.

He didn't what was worst, thinking she might have died from the fall, or realising that she was running around the Malfoy grounds without a Malfoy. Except, he reminded himself, she probably wasn't running around, maybe crawling if she was lucky. Oh bugger, why did he feel so bad about all this? Since he had never felt anxious about someone else in his life, except maybe his mother, he couldn't answer that question.

He ran back to his bed and snatched up wand from the bedside table. He ran over to the window again and then ran over to his enormous, walk-in wardrobe, wrenched it open, and pulled out his trusty broomstick.

He knew he didn't care if Ginny was caught or lost on Malfoy grounds and he kept telling himself so repeatedly. But she was in a very dangerous place, full of hexes and curses to stop trespassers, and she would be unlikely to survive the night. And she would, no doubt, make even more of a mess of the place and he was certain he would be blamed, he always was.

He had now mounted his broom, and was soaring over the dark grounds. For a minute or two he just flew around in wide, sweeping circles, glad to finally be in the air again. He almost considered flying off for good. But then he swooped down so that he was a few metres from the ground, and began to squint ahead of him. It was quite like searching for the snitch, only in the dark, and he was quite sure Ginny's head was as bright, if not more, than the snitch so he shouldn't have a problem.

He caught sight of some sort of pile ahead of him, on closer inspection, it turned over to be Ginny lying on the wet grass, folded up in her robes.

His stomach did a tiny flip, but he attributed it to the way he dived towards her on his broom. In a second he was on the ground, looking down at her cautiously. Was she alright? She wasn't trying to scare him, was she? Because he wasn't scared in the slightest.

He reached out a finger and prodded her, harder than he intended. She rolled over quickly and glared up at him.

"About time too," she said. "I was beginning to think you did that on purpose!" her eyes narrowed. "You didn't did you?"

Draco laughed somewhat nervously. "What me?"

She glared even harder. "I don't see any other Mal-co-ordinated Malfoys around here. Yes you!"

That was possibly not the wisest thing to say. Draco straightened up to his full height of six foot and looked down on her angrily. She was getting on his nerves. "Look woman. You should be grateful I came to help you at all. You've only got me into trouble by coming here, so think yourself lucky."

Ginny squinted up at him from the grass; she still hadn't got up. "You threw me out of your window! Why should I be grateful? Are you even going to help me at all?"

"I only threw you out of the window, because you were so damned heavy," he retorted.

Her eyes bulged unbelievingly, and she tried to stand up. "For a start Malfoy, I'm not even heavy, so it must be your fault."

As she stood up, Draco noticed that she was leaning heavily on one leg, and that almost her entire left shin was dripping with blood. He tried not to look too shocked; his father said it was a sign of weakness to show any emotion. But then he remembered he didn't listen to what his father said.

"Wow, Weasley! How the hell did you do that?"

Ginny stroked her chin in mock pondering. "Hmm, I wonder. How the fuck do you think I did it? Being dropped from your window of course!"

"Well there's no need to get in such a strop just because I missed my aim, and why did you have to go running off? It would have been much easier if you had stayed were I put you," he said defiantly, even if that wasn't the case.

"Malfoy," she said unbelievingly, for the second time that night. "You threw me out the window. Did you just expect me to lie around and admire the rhododendrons in your flowerbed?"

He couldn't resist it. "Yes."

She snorted, in a sort of disgust and annoyance. "Wanker," she said, louder than she had meant to.

His reaction only served to aggravate her further, he grabbed her wrist sharply; he seemed to have forgotten about her injured leg, and brought his face up to hers.

"Weasley, have you forgotten who you are talking to?" he hissed at her. He didn't care if he sounded stupid or arrogant, he just wanted her to shut up and if he had a chance of making her do so by intimidating her, then he would.

"Oh piss off, Malfoy. You don't scare me."

He had, of course, momentarily forgotten she had six brothers. Oops.

She tugged her wrist out of his grasp and looked down at it carefully, she glanced back up at him and gave him an offended sort of look. "Do you think that was that really necessary?"

"I don't really care, Ginny. Now will you just be quiet for one minute, I'm trying to think," he said.

She gasped loudly. He sighed. "What have I done now?"

"You just called me Ginny!" she said accusingly, pointing a finger at him.

"Of course I didn't. Why would I want to do that?"

"You did, you did, you did!" she crowed, not really caring that she sounded like a five year old, there was definitely something about him that brought out the worst in her. She smirked at him, in a manner Draco was frequently guilty of.

Draco was about to reply when he suddenly stopped. An unusual thought had occurred to him. She was right! He didn't like to admit it of course, it was a foreign concept for him to admit that anyone else but him was right; but he had been thinking of her as Ginny for a while now. And he wasn't sure he liked that.

Still, that wasn't reason to let her know she was right, he had learnt at an early age that you should never tell a female when she was right.

Unfortunately for him, his pause was enough time for Ginny to realise she was right anyhow.

"See, you know it, you know I'm right!"

Draco glared at her. "So bloody what, I called you by your name, does it really matter?"

That shut her up for a bit. But then; "Well, if it matters so little, why didn't you before?" she said quietly, as if she realised she was irritating him and was somehow afraid of his reaction.

He didn't answer her. But why should he? It was only a stupid name for crying out loud.

She grinned unexpectedly then. "Does that mean I get to call you Draco now?" she asked gleefully, and it was obvious she didn't think much of the name.

Again he didn't answer her; he wished she would stop teasing him like that. It made it seem like they were friends, and lightened the atmosphere, and he didn't like the idea of that.

He bent down to look at her injured leg. The bleeding had stopped, but she was holding herself strangely, and it was obviously causing her pain. Hmm, and didn't she say she was the one coming to help him? Well it looked like that plan had been foiled!

"So what are we going to do now?" she said unsurely. "Because, uh, things aren't exactly going to plan!"

He smirked. "You mean you actually had a plan? I was under the impression you just felt like dropping in for a visit!"

She looked down at her feet sheepishly. She wasn't exactly proud of the fact she had travelled half the country to help someone she didn't even like. And she really didn't know what had happened to make her do so in the first place, it was very disconcerting. The fact that she had no idea what to do now she was here, only added to the embarrassment. It was possibly the worst idea she had ever had.

She sighed loudly. "Well it looks like we aren't going anywhere soon anyway," she said.

Before he could ask what she meant by 'we' or why he couldn't just leave her here, she took a few steps backwards, and was halfway through the process of sitting down, when she suddenly screamed and landed flat on her face.

He blinked a few times, wondering whether she was playing dead or something, when he noticed a rope-like substance had wrapped itself firmly round her left ankle.

She turned herself onto her front and gingerly sat up. "What was that?" she said, grimacing.

It was then he got a good look at what the offending item really was. "That, Ginny is one of many useful precautions around Malfoy Manor. It is an enchanted vine that will ensnare anyone who is not meant to be here, should they step into it." He grinned nastily at her. "It's very good for stopping intruders."

"Oh ha, ha," she said irritably. "So come on, get me out now."

He didn't move.

"Malfoy, what are you waiting for? Get me out!" she said, beginning to panic. Oh no, what if it had all been an evil plan of his and he didn't mean to rescue her at all?

Draco didn't seem to notice her unease. He sat down on the wet grass and chewed his lip absentmindedly.

After a space of worrying silence, he finally spoke. "The enchantment will finish in the morning; as there are too many people around for it to be safe. But when the groundsman checks the grounds in the morning, due to the spell, he will know you were here."

He looked at her carefully, trying to gage her reaction. Her eyes widened fearfully and she looked back at him.

"You mean they will be able to follow me?"

"Exactly. But as a Malfoy I know the releasing spell-"

"Well what're you waiting for, lemme out!" she cut him off, screeching hysterically.

"It's not that simple I'm afraid. I may be able to do the spell, but if I do, the groundsman will know it was me, and there will be hell from my father."

"So wha-what are you going to do?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly.

He smiled mirthlessly. "Say the spell of course."

She looked horrified. "No, no, you mustn't do that!"

He really would never understand women, why was she so distressed for crying out loud? H e was freeing her! He had made up his mind anyway, he wasn't staying here another night. And if he pissed his dad off even further before he did so by releasing Ginny, then so be it!

He smirked at her. "So what do you suggest that we stay here until morning? Great plan Ginny!"

"Well, yes! You can't free me, that defeats the whole bloody object of me coming here. Besides, I don't think I would like being indebted to you."

He looked at her oddly. "So you want to stay here all night?"

She raised her chin defiantly; aware of how stupid it must seem to him. Truth was, yes she didn't want to be indebted to him, but she couldn't bear the idea of him being caught when it was his supposed helper who had caused his capture. That would make her feel really idiotic.

"Yes, that's my plan. Are you staying or not?"-Her voice turned bashful-"And if you do, can you heal my leg?"

He looked at scornfully. "Obviously."

She rolled her eyes. "All right then, will you heal my leg?"

He looked at her leg for a moment. Shrugging slightly, he bent over it, muttering an incantation. He looked back upto her face and gave her a superior look. "There."

She suppressed the many insults floating around her head and thanked him as graciously as she could.

He lay back on the grass and yawned loudly. "You're welcome."

She followed him and fell back on the grass with a sigh. She then noticed the close proximity this placed her in to Draco, and moved a few inches away from him.

He seemed to find this amusing. "I won't leap on you and ravish you, you know. There's no need to be scared."

She flushed red briefly, then turned her head to look at his profile and grinned slightly. "Yeah, well I'm not taking any chances. So have you thought about what to do next?"

"I'm going to fly away on my broomstick of course, and I presume you're coming too."

It took her a few seconds to realise he wasn't joking. "Oh, you're being serious. Uh, well my broomstick's still in your room."

He raised his eyebrow. "Harry's broomstick you mean. I suppose you will have to share then."

"How did you know- oh, I see," she trailed off.

He nodded.

Of course he would know it was Harry's broomstick, he had played against it many times. Come to think of it, he had even played against her broomstick. It was funny to think of Draco actually sharing a passion for anything with her, it didn't seem right.

"Why is it you came here on Harry's broom in the first place?" he asked curiously.

"Oh," she said, caught off her guard. "Well he had lent it to me for that day, so I could do some extra practice on a better broom, because he said I ought to."

"How generous of him," said Draco. She couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

"And why is it that you even came here at all? Surely Harry didn't tell you to as well?"

He laughed at his own joke and she smiled faintly, but didn't answer.

She was just thinking about what Dumbledore had said to her the day before and why she had actually come here. Her eyes slid shut.

"...Because you care about Draco Malfoy."

"WHAT? Are you mad? ...I don't care that he has this soft blond hair, and silver eyes, or, or..."

It had really unnerved her when he had said that.

"...Because you care about Draco Malfoy."

She shuddered. What a horrible thought, imagine caring for a person like him! Then why was it this whole evening had made a funny hole in her stomach that squirmed whenever he spoke? And it was by no means, a nice feeling.

She heard a rustling next to her and when she opened her eyes again she was looking into his cold grey ones.

She gulped.

His face was coming nearer and nearer and his eyes were looking at her mouth, completely devoid of any emotion, as if he didn't know what he was doing and it was somehow automatic.

She should have pushed him away, the moment it became clear what he was doing. But she didn't. She slowly shut her eyes, and waited.

His lips touched hers, lightly at first, and she gasped at the feeling. He was so cold! She reached up a hand and touched the soft hairs at the back of his neck. That was her undoing, it seemed to encourage him further and he ran his tongue along her lips, sliding them open. Her head was screaming at her. What was she doing? Her mother would never speak to her again! But it only served to make her kiss him back.

She could feel his hands skimming over her arms and chest and she shivered at the sensations it was causing her. She had never felt anything quite like this before. It felt like she was sinking deeper and deeper, and she wasn't even sure she was still lying on the wet grass. But she didn't care. She wanted to stop the more she thought about it, but she couldn't stop her fingers from winding around his hair, and stroking his neck.

The wet grass was soaking her back and her hair was damp. She pushed up at him so that he was lying on the grass and she was half-lying on him.

She felt a sharp tug on her ankle and it sounded through her head like a whip crack. It was the enchanted vine.

She jerked away from him and sat up quickly, scrabbling on the grass. He leapt away from her and stood up. He pretended to look away from her but watched her out of the corner of his eye. She looked completely shocked. Come to think of that, so was he. He almost considered wiping his mouth on his sleeve, but even he could see that was rude. Truth was, it was one of the best kisses he had ever had, which he found hard to believe, considering it came from a supposedly innocent sixth-year.

To prevent him from thinking any further, he looked around him for the first time that night and noticed that it was hardly dark anymore. It must be nearly six o'clock in the morning by now, he thought.

Right on cue he heard a snapping sound behind him and he whipped around to see Ginny standing up. The spell had finished, which meant it was morning, time to go.

He walked over to his discarded broomstick and wand and picked them up. Ginny was determinedly not meeting his eye, and he really didn't know what to say. So he didn't say anything and neither did she. He simply mounted his broom and motioned for Ginny to do the same. She looked like she'd rather die than share a broom with him, but nevertheless she climbed on behind him, and, after a moments hesitation, put her arms around his waist for safety.

He kicked off, and circled through the air a few times. He had no idea where to go, but he was hoping that they would decide that after they were away from the Manor and the wrath of his father, which seemed a very real threat at present. Ginny hadn't said anything as to the fact they didn't know where they were going, but he had the feeling she would prefer to remain silent.

As they flew over the enormous Manor, Draco allowed his thoughts to stray back to what had just happened. He couldn't think why this time was different, he had kissed more girls than he cared to remember, but this was the first time he had ever been tongue-tied.

He supposed that was because he hadn't kissed many archenemies before. Come to think of it, he had many archenemies, but none of them were quite like her.