The Hospital Wing and the Astronomy Tower

The entrance to the Slytherin common room opened to admit Blaise Zabini. Draco looked up to see a smirking Blaise walking toward him. In one very cat-like movement, Blaise sat down close beside Draco. Too close, in Draco's opinion.

"Draco," she said, her voice almost a whisper. "Do you still want me?"

Draco closed his eyes. He knew what she was talking about, but thought it would be best not to answer.

Blaise shifted so that she was sitting even closer to Draco. Something Draco would have thought impossible, but that was Blaise, making even impossible seem possible.

"I know you still feel the same way," she said.

Draco was aware that Blaise was now sitting on him, but he didn't dare open his eyes.

"You always want what you cannot have," Blaise continued. "And then when you have something you do want, you throw it away."

"Y-you're wrong," Draco said. "I don't want you, and I never did."

"You used to be such a good liar, Draco," said Blaise. "But I can see right through you." In one graceful movement, she stood up and began to walk away, leaving Draco staring at her retreating back.

"Wait," said Draco. "Blaise, wait."

"You've really screwed up this time," said Blaise, turning around.

"So there's no way to make Ginny jealous?" Draco asked, crestfallen.

"Only for you," said Blaise. "It'll be easy for me, but what do I care? For you, you'd have to at least like Potter, but seeing as you can't stand him..."

Draco looked down. "But you're Blaise, you can make impossible possible, certainly you have some idea in that great big head of yours."

"Draco dear," said Blaise, impatiently. "I have problems of my own, I can't spend my entire life pulling you out of trouble."

"Come on Blaise," Draco pleaded.

"Do you want to spend some quality time with Potter?" Blaise asked.

Draco shuddered. "I don't swing that way," he said.

"Then I can't help," said Blaise. "But Anna Lestrange and Ginny Weasley never got along. Anna went home for the holidays, so unfortunatly, she missed the short time you were with Ginny, but surely she'll be informed next week when she gets back. All you have to do, is get to know Anna, and see where that gets you, and believe me, you do want to get to know her, you may not know it, but you're always staring at her, drooling, every time she walks by."

"I'm a Malfoy, Malfoys do not drool," said Draco.

"Well," said Blaise. "I've caught her looking your way a few times, she'll be more than happy to, as I put it before, get to know you."

"But how does this help?" Draco asked. "If I can't make Ginny jealous, what's the point of any of it?"

"I say get over Weasley," said Blaise. "Get a life Draco, that's the point of this, for you to realise how easy life can be when you stop moping around!"

"Lestrange?" said Draco. "Sounds familiar... Death eaters, aren't they?"

Blaise nodded.

"So my father would approve," said Draco. "What does she look like?"

"Blonde hair, green eyes," replied Blaise. "And if you were with her, you could be the cold, shallow, selfish son your father always wanted you to be."

"Don't confuse yourself with my father," said Draco. Suddenly he remembered the book Ginny had showed him, and her theory of what was supposed to happen. Just thinking about it made his heart sink, who would help him through the whole sacrifice ordeal if not Ginny?

"Good luck with Anna, Draco," said Blaise. "And get a good night's sleep, because Hell knows you'll need it."

***

Ginny had sat in front of the common room fire with Seamus listening to all his complaints about Lavender. She'd thrown in words of encouragement and agreement every now and then.

"So I've told you everything that's on my mind right now," Seamus had said. "Now you tell me what's wrong."

Ginny sighed. It had been easy to listen to Seamus, but talking to him had seemed a difficult task. "I don't know," she had told him. "Everything's just so stupid."

"Love, who needs it?" Seamus had said.

Ginny smiled. "Since we're both tired of it all, why don't we just hook up, just for the sake of not needing any of it."

Seamus had looked at her. "That makes no sense," he had said. At these words, they had both burst out laughing. There was nothing funny about it, but they just kept laughing. And then it had happened. Neither knew why, or how, all they knew was that it had happened. Ginny didn't know whether she had kissed Seamus first, and Seamus didn't know whether it was he who had kissed Ginny first, all they knew was that it was perfect.

Now Ginny was lying on the common room floor, staring into the fire. Nothing had really happened, they had just talked for a while after the kiss. Seamus had fallen asleep, and Ginny watched him as he slept; his face looked exhausted, but happy, the way it should be. Seamus was really such a good person, and didn't deserve to be hurt.

***

The last week of holidays had past quicker than Draco had anticipated. He was tired of watching Ginny and Seamus Finnigan being all sickly towards each other, so he spent most of his time in the Slytherin common room, avoiding people.

When the Hogwarts pupils who had gone home for the holidays finally returned, Blaise introduced Draco to Anna. Draco had expected to spend the day with Anna, but the return of pupils had brought another surprise: Crabbe and Goyle had returned, both in bad shape, they seemed to have lost some weight.

"Eat something," Draco had said, in way of greeting when he had seen them.

"You won't believe what happened!" Goyle had said. "We were stuck in another dimension!"

Goyle had told Draco all about how they were still at Hogwarts, but trapped in another era, and Draco hadn't believed one word of it, thinking that they had just been wandering around outside the school for the time they were gone.

Now Draco sat in the common room, watching Crabbe and Goyle acting in a disturbing way.

"I always thought they would fall for each other," said a girl's voice behind him. He turned around to see Anna.

"Oh," he said. "Well I never would have thought it."

"I always thought you'd be a good judge of character," said Anna. "But I supposed you aren't."Â

"Now what's that supposed to mean?" Draco asked, starting to dislike Anna already.

"I heard about what happened when I was away," Anna replied. "Weasley? I mean seriously, all those freckles? That red hair?"

"I happen to think the red hair is nice," said Draco.Â

"You really have changed," said Anna. "What the Hell's gotten into you?"

"And how would you know if I've changed?" Draco snapped. "It's not as though you know me."

"I'm sorry I'm wasting my time with you," said Anna, stomping away.

Well now that was pointless, Draco thought to himself. Stupid Blaise, what was she thinking?

***

Ginny sat at the back of the potions dungeon with Colin Creevey. She had once again been paired with him by Professor Snape. Ginny hated potions, and she was terrible at it. She couldn't get anything right, especially when Colin was her partner; all he ever did was take photos, and Ginny always had the urge to smash his camera into a thousand pieces...

"What have you done to Draco?" Ginny was pulled back to Earth by the voice of Anna Lestrange.

"Get lost Lestrange," said Ginny.

"What have you done to him?" Anna shrieked. "I could've had a chance with him, but you turned him into some stupid fool!"

What a drama queen, Ginny thought. Wish I could smash her skull into a thousand pieces, that would solve a lot of problems...

"Is there a problem here?" Professor Snape had glided over the minute he heard Draco's name. It was pure instinct for him to defend his favourite student.

"Anna here was just pointing out how big a fool Draco Malfoy is, sir," said Ginny. It was a stupid thing to tell the professor, but it would get rid of Anna nontheless.

"Is that so?" said the professor, turning on Anna.

"Oh no sir," said Anna. "Weasley's just making it up."

"Back to your seat Lestrange," said Snape, and for a few seconds, Ginny was hopeful that he would take ten points from Slytherin, but he did not.

The professor was back up at the front of the room, eyeing the class with malice. "Shall we test your laughing potions?" he said. "Weasley, Creevey, you first."

Ginny groaned, she and Colin made their way up to the front of the class.

"Now," said Snape. "If you cannot control your laughter, that'll be a detention and twenty points from Gryffindor."

That didn't seem fair at all, the purpose of the potion was to make one laugh. Ginny had always had trouble controlling her laughter, and this was certainly no exception.

Ginny took a swig of the potion, and immediately felt the laughter rising within her. She couldn't stop laughing, and the harder she tried to stop, the worse it got. At the end of it all, the professor was kind enough to let her off with just a detention, but let Gryffindor keep their twenty points.

***

"Mr Malfoy!" shouted Professor Snape. "Will you pay attention?"

Draco looked up at the potions master. He had nothing to worry about, he could stumble into class late and set the room on fire, but Snape wouldn't dare give him a detention.

"Mr Malfoy, I'm afraid you leave me no choice but to give you a detention," said Snape, in an exasperated tone.

"What?" said Draco. "A detention?"

"Yes, Malfoy," said Snape. "A form of punishment by which a student is forced to stay after the usual schooling hours."

"I know what it is," said Draco. "But I just don't understand."

"What is there to not understand, Malfoy?" said Snape. "You were not paying attention, so you will now be aiding me in the re-organization of my office, and it has been three weeks since I last cleaned it, so there will be much for you to do."

***

Ginny hurried to the dungeons, it was five minutes to eight, and she had five minutes to get to Professor Snape's office. She was walking so fast, she almost didn't notice she had walked into somebody. That somebdoy being Draco Malfoy.

"Watch where you're going," said Draco.

"Sorry," said Ginny, in the shyest of voices.

"Where are you headed?" Draco asked.

"I've got a detention," Ginny replied. "It seems I didn't control my laugher well enough."

"Well, have fun," said Draco.

The two of them walked side-by-side for a few minutes, neither of them realising that they were headed to the same destination, untill they both reached for the same door handle.

"You've got a detention with Snape?" Draco asked.

Ginny nodded. "Why, do you have some sort of meeting with him?"

"No, I have a detention," said Draco.

"With Snape?!" said Ginny. "But that's impossible!"

"That's what I thought," said Draco. "But it seems that these days, anything can happen."

These words were followed by a short but awkward silence.

Suddenly, the door whipped open, and Professor Snape stuck his head out to greet his victims. "Seeing as I have three little helpers today, I think I'll take a short break, and leave you to complete the task of organizing my office." With those words, he glided out the door, leaving Draco and Ginny wondering what he meant by 'three' helpers.