Fledgling

xXx

Draco was sprawled on one of the overstuffed armchairs that adorned the Gryffindor common room. He glanced around, noting for the hundredth time how different it was from his own common room, with its sleek pale green couches and silver tassels, no fireplace, and cold cement floors. The Gryffindors relaxed in typical Gryffindor fashion - way too much leisure time and space. There was a fire roaring in the cosy fireplace, a thick carpet covering the floor, and several tables and chairs as well as the scarlet armchairs. Draco picked idly at the plush armchair, seemingly bored, but tensed for the slightest noise.

The shush of silk on cement alerted him to someone coming down the spiral staircase - the girls' staircase, he determined, pricking his ears. He sat very still.

"You know Ron will try to strangle you the second he sees you in here," someone said. Draco could hear the smile in her voice.

"Well, if it isn't Sleeping Beauty," he drawled, sitting up to peer over the back of the armchair. "Took you long enough. Did you have to read Patil and Brown bedtime stories?"

"Shut up, Draco," Ginny said amiably, flopping down in an armchair across from the Slytherin boy.

"Ooh, I'm hurt," he said, frowning. "One might almost think you didn't want me in here."

"What if I don't?" Ginny shot back.

"Well then I guess I'll just leave, seeing as I'm not wanted here," he huffed.

Ginny waited. Draco didn't move.

"Fine, if you insist, I'll stay," he sighed. Ginny smiled. "I win," she told him.

"And another tally mark for today," Draco announced, mimicking a pencil and making a check mark on an imaginary scoreboard.

"Yikes, you've been keeping track." Ginny flicked her wand at the table and a tray appeared, laden with mini-donuts and glasses of milk. She reached over and picked a coconut-covered donut from the pile. "Yech. I can never get that spell quite right." She grimaced and put the offending donut back.

Draco picked it up and inspected it. "What's wrong with coconut?" he asked, popping it in his mouth and smirking. "I like coconut," he added, spraying coconut bits over the armchair.

Ginny made a face. Draco grinned and took a glass of milk from the tray on the table, continuing to chew. "You know, they have a sweets store down at Hogsmeade."

"Yeah - what's it called?"

"Honeydukes," Draco said, finishing his donut.

"Right," Ginny recalled. "With the Ice Mice, and the Pepper Imps?"

"That's the one," Draco agreed.

"Hmmm." Ginny toyed with her glass of milk.

Draco glanced up at her. "What?"

Ginny looked bemused. "What do you mean, what?"

"You only say 'hmm' like that when you're planning something."

"Do I really?" Ginny looked thoughtful. "Well, now that you mention it-"

"May I also take this opportunity to say that it's usually something that will get either you or I expelled?" Draco interrupted hastily. Ginny smiled. "You don't say?"

"I do say," he announced, leaning back in the armchair. "So what is it?"

"When's the next Hogsmeade weekend?" Ginny asked.

Draco blinked. "What? Hogsmeade? Next week, I think. Oh no, you don't," he warned, catching on. "I come down here at night because Potter and the Dream Team won't see me, you know that. I am not going to Hogsmeade with you. Your brother would kill me. Probably slowly and painfully," he added.

Ginny grinned. "I wasn't thinking of you coming with me next week. Nice speech, though," she said, raising her glass.

"What then?" Draco asked suspiciously.

"I was thinking of you coming with me the day after tomorrow," Ginny told him.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "I did mention that your ideas usually get us expelled, right?"

Ginny sighed, exasperated. "Come on, Draco, it's Saturday. Everyone's here doing homework."

"Exactly," Draco said very clearly, leaning forward. "You'd be missed. I'd be missed. They may be just Gryffindors, but they can put two and two together, Weasley."

"Draco!" Ginny reached over and cuffed Draco around the head. "Cut the 'just Gryffindors', or I'll go Gryffindor on your Transfiguration homework."

"Oww," Draco complained, clapping a hand to the back of his head. "You really like hitting me, don't you?"

"Well?" Ginny asked. "Come on, Draco. Have some fun for once."

"I'm already close to failing Transfiguration," he muttered.

"So are you coming?"

Draco paused. "Saturday, you say?"