Ginny had been ready for the last hour. She'd checked herself in the mirror several times before just sitting on the uncomfortable couch in the formal living room and tapping her toe. The skirt was white, simple, and fell to her knees. She'd taken her hair up and off of her neck. The sweater was blue. She'd opted for boots, seeing as it was rather cold outside. Apparating in the sweater would make it so she didn't need a coat, but her feet had always frozen after apparation, no matter how warm it had been at the place she was apparating to.

The clock chimed on the wall and she stood, taking a deep breath. She threw one last look around the house before making her way outside, shivering in the wind. She pulled her wand out of the top of her boot and apparated, unsurprised when her appearance was met with the warble of a peacock. She pushed the wand back into the black boot and stood, looking at the peacock for a long moment. She hadn't been there when the mark had been in the sky, but it'd been followed by a peacock, that much she'd heard.

She shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest as she made her way up the walk. She had her hand poised to knock when the door swung inward. Ginny grinned at the house-elf. "Good evening."

"If Miss Gin will be following Tindy, dinner is being served in Master's rooms. Master changed his clothes five times before miss came. He is also fussing with his hair many times."

Smiling to herself, Ginny followed Tindy up the stairs. She wasn't sure why it made her feel better that he'd been as nervous about this as she was, but it did. It made her feel much better. They made their way to his wing, Tindy bowing before his door with a skinny arm outstretched. "Thank you very much, Tindy."

She hesitated, unsure whether she should knock or not. Deciding against it, she grasped the doorknob and turned, ducking her head into the room. It was dark, but there were candles lighting the room. She grinned. "Hi."

Draco spun around and fidgeted for a moment. He smoothed his slacks down with his hands before rolling his eyes. He was nervous.

"Hungry? Because there's lots. Not that I think you need a lot of food. I just don't want you to be hungry." Salazar, he was acting like a freak, and he could not seem to stop. "It's warming... are you hungry now? Because we can eat now. Or we could... talk or something?"

Ginny stepped further into the room. "Talk... or something?" She smirked at him, feeling better after seeing him fidget. "I'm hungry but it could wait. Was there anything pressing you needed to discuss?" She wanted to take her boots off now. She went barefoot whenever possible, but she didn't think it'd be the best thing to do on a first date. Which are in his bedrooms.

"I don't know," Draco said, frowning. "I'm not sure what to do here. It's been a bit since I actually did anything like this."

He was about two seconds away from pacing.

"Eat," he heard from behind the sofa.

Draco looked to see Tindy peeking around it. He waved her away, hoping Ginny didn't notice.

Smirking, Ginny made her way over to one of the overstuffed chairs and sat in it, smoothing her skirt around her legs. "So you've had dinner in your rooms before? By candlelight?" She didn't mean to be making fun of him, but when she saw nervousness, it made it easier for her to make light of the situation. Try to relieve some of the tension. "Should I be jealous?"

"No," Draco said, moving to sit down. "I've never had a woman up here like this before. I just meant I don't... date... often. There's no one for you to be jealous of. The last woman I dated ended up setting the bed on fire with her wand... with me in it. No envy needed."

"I don't know. That's pretty impressive." She smiled, pulling one leg underneath herself. "Did you mother tell you she owled me?"

"WHAT!" Draco shouted. "Why why why would she do that?"

Ginny smiled, thinking that his reaction just about mirrored her own. "Apparently she's having a party for Blaise this weekend. Wanted to know if I'd like to go." She looked down, playing with the hem of her skirt. "I told her I was busy." She looked up at him through her lashes.

"Oh," Draco looked down. "It wouldn't be a lot of people. Besides, it's a surprise. If... if you weren't busy, might be nice to share the annoyed look on his face with you. He'd like it if you were there, you know. He'd think it was nice."

Draco was playing with the hem of his jumper and not looking at her.

She took a deep breath. "I know. It's just... Hannah will be there. Hannah who lives with Harry. Harry who hates you and will not understand... this." She reached out and touched his knee. "I don't want to share this yet. I'm selfish like that. You'll come to learn."

Draco stared at her hand on his knee for a long time before looking at her face. "You'd be going to a birthday party for your business partner. Nothing so out of the ordinary. I can talk to Hannah. She wouldn't say anything to Harry. Or I could behave. What is it you think that I'll do at the party? Throw you on top of the cake and try to shag you?"

He considered for a moment, grinning. "Though that would make a rather memorable party."

She couldn't help but grin. "I don't look good in chocolate and I highly doubt Blaise would be having a vanilla cake. There is absolutely nothing vanilla about that man." She sat back on the couch, shaking her head. "As I've tried telling you, this isn't really about you. Harry hates you. If he even hears mention that I was at a party that you were at..." Plus your mum scares me.

She looked at the table, smiling at the fact that he'd put this together. "Let's eat. I'm starving."

Draco nodded. He was feeling like the thing that needed to be hidden again. He understood, but he didn't like it. He didn't like that she let Potter dictate what she did. He didn't let anyone dictate what he did. Sure, he worried about what the people he cared for would say, but he usually went ahead with what he wanted to do anyhow.

Draco moved and held Ginny's chair for her before sitting in his own. Tindy appeared quickly to make sure the soups and breads were out. She cast Draco a worried look that told him she had been listening before hiding again.

Ginny smiled at him across the table as she grabbed her napkin and placed it in her lap. She leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table before shaking her head and taking them off. She ripped a piece of bread off and dipped it in the soup. She was about to bite into it before she stopped, raising an eyebrow at him. "So... you didn't cook this, right?"

"No," Draco said laughing. "The only thing I can manage not to ruin is toast. Tindy made this. She's a very good cook."

"Master is too kind to Tindy," came from behind the couch. "Master is being kind and generous to people he is liking. Master is always being what he wants to do and to hell with what anyone thinks, is what Master says."

Draco closed his eyes. "Tindy."

"Master is not thinking he is good enough for peoples. Master is-"

"Tindy, I've got the rest of this... if you want to just go clean something."

"Master is-"

"Yes, that's quite enough," Draco said, pinching the bridge of his nose. He adored Tindy, and she meant well, but he was about to have to hex her.

Ginny looked from Tindy to Draco with a raised eyebrow. "She sure does like you, that's for sure." She took another bite of her soup, nodding as she swallowed. "It's very good Tindy. And this is only the beginning?"

Tindy popped up from behind the couch again, encouraged now.

"Tindy is pleased Miss Gin is liking the soup. There is being three courses. Tindy is hoping Miss Gin is liking them all. Master is a good master. Master doesn't make Tindy hold hot coals when Tindy is being bad. Master never punishes Tindy. Master only makes the loud breathing and pinches his nose."

"Can you go? Please," Draco said, starting to feel a bit embarrassed.

Tindy gave him a bright smile before popping away.

Draco looked at Ginny. "Sorry... she's... a bit mouthy for a house-elf, but I don't have it in me to punish her. Most of the time, she's amusing."

Ginny took another bite of her soup, shaking her head. "She likes you. That's a good thing. I've learned it's not every day a house-elf likes their master. Besides Dobby-" She looked up, choking on the soup she'd just swallowed. Yes. Perfect. Stupid fucking awkward Red, always making thinks worse. "I mean, he's happy. Now. Dobby. He's happy now." She looked down, shaking her head.

Draco grinned. Dobby was still out there, and she saw him? "You want to hear something funny? When I was old enough to know what was what, I was kind of jealous of Dobby actually. I never appreciated how difficult it was to fight what you know, what limits you are taught you have... until I had to do it myself. He's happy now? Father made him iron his hands. A lot. Good that he's happy."

Lucius Malfoy was likely turning in his grave.

She nodded, looking back down at her soup. It probably wasn't best to tell him that he was with Harry. Yeah. Probably not best at all.

It was silent for a bit as they ate their food, comments made about how good it tasted the only real conversation. Ginny felt like an idiot. She was so nervous, she didn't know what to say. She wasn't used to being this awkward around someone. She looked up at him with a small smile before taking a sip of her wine. "So..."

"Yes?"

Draco didn't know what to do. This was very awkward. He didn't mean for it to be. He wished there was something he could do to stop it from being so.

"This is awkward, isn't it? I don't mean for it to be," Draco announced before he could stop himself. "I think you and I should be able to be less formal. This was supposed to be comfortable, and I feel as if I've failed there."

He yanked his jumper over his head and tossed it to the floor. He also removed his shoes and his socks before setting his elbow on the table so hard the china rattled. Draco smirked and set his chin on his hand. Much better.

Ginny laughed. "You Slytherins and your being more comfortable when naked." She shook her head before lifting her leg onto the table. She pulled her skirt up, unzipping one of her boots before moving to the other one. She pulled her wand out of the other and set it on table before pulling off the other boot off as well. She wiggled her toes. "That's much better."

"I'm not naked. I'm wearing my trou. I can remedy that if you like though."

Dessert was a bit less stilted, but only a bit. Draco took what remained of the wine and walked over to Ginny's chair he held a hand out to her.

"Where are we going?"

"Couch," Draco said nodding his head in that direction. "It's terribly comfortable."

She smiled, grabbing her glass, which was only half full, and followed him over to the couch. She let out a 'yip' when the food off the table was cleared instantly. She turned to Draco with wide eyes. "She's good." She collapsed on the couch, pulling her legs under her, spreading her skirt out so she wasn't flashing her knickers at him.

She took a long sip of the wine, holding the glass out for him when it was empty. "If you could choose one thing to take on a deserted island, what would it be and why?" At his look she shrugged. "Hey, awkward talk leads to awkward questions." One of the reasons this was so awkward, she suspected, was because she didn't know him well enough. Yes, she wanted to lick along that hollow point in his chest, but did she know him? No.

"Women's knickers."

Ginny's glass had been halfway to her lips. She lowered it, resting it on her knee. "Women's knickers. You'd want women's knickers?" She blinked at him. "Do you wear them? I mean, don't get me wrong. I think they're fabulous. I happen to wear them myself, believe it or not, but I don't really see the reason in bringing them with you on a deserted island."

"I like them. No, I don't wear them. I just... like them. They're not... they're just comforting. What about you? What would you bring?"

She sat back on the couch, taking a sip of her wine. "I don't know. I honestly don't know what I'd bring. I mean, if I brought my wand, I could just apparate away. If I brought a broom, I'd fly away. If I was stuck on a deserted island, I wouldn't want to be alone, so I'd bring someone else, but that'd be cheating." She shook her head. "It'd have to be an inanimate object, I suppose, and I'd have trouble thinking of just one." She took another sip of her wine, looking over his head thoughtfully. "Maybe one of my mum's sweaters."

Draco smirked. "A person. Now that's an idea." You and me on a deserted island. Yes, that is an idea. Draco sighed. "If you weren't a healer, what would you be?"

"A chaser for the Holyhead Harpies. Or a mum. Or both."

He could strangely see her as a mother... and a chaser. Draco grinned. "My mother sees herself as a grandmother."

Then he bristled. Bloody everlasting hell! What had made him say that?

"Me, personally," he said nervously. "I can barely take care of myself. Another person who depended on me? I can't think of anything more scary."

"That's what my Mum said and then she popped out seven of us." She took another sip. "It's not like you'd be in it alone. I'm almost positive there'd have to be someone else involved for you to have a child, but that could be my healer mind assuming things." She smiled as she drank, ignoring his comments about his mother. She was still terrified of the woman. She'd always looked so... cold... on the arm of Lucius Malfoy.

"What's your favorite candy?"

"Anything chocolate. You?"

"Acid pops. Though, Fred has been known to placate me with chocolate frogs every once in a while." She smiled. "You look like a chocolate type of person. You and Blaise. You both are chocolate people. Him more so than you, no offense." She laughed. "Probably why he went after someone like Hannah Abbott."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco asked, honestly wondering what she meant by that.

"I mean, Hannah is the antithesis of Blaise. He's dark, she's light. She's sweet, he's not. She bakes. He makes potions. He's selfish, she's anything but. He's her balance. Two people who are exactly the same never work out. You need substance. You need something to learn from each other to make things happen. If you're in a relationship with someone exactly like yourself, you learn nothing new about yourself, and you never learn. Hannah'll make Blaise learn things about himself he didn't know." She sipped her wine, normally not feeling so philosophical, specifically about relationships, seeing as all of hers were rubbish.

"Good to know," Draco said smirking. "Though sometimes I don't know how to react to her, you know? She's so cheerful and up about things. What if... if I scare her, you know? Blaise likes her and what if one of us scares her away for being all dark corners and shadows?"

"Everyone has dark corners and shadows. She might not have as many as other people, but she has them. And if you scare her away with them, then she's an idiot who doesn't understand that. Besides, if she's with Blaise, she probably does understand that, which is what you don't understand. You look at her and see light, and don't understand how she can deal with the gray. She probably looks and you and Blaise and sees the dark, but also sees the gray. She's probably more interested in the gray. The fact that she sees the gray means a bit, don't you think?"

She looked down at the empty glass in her hand and shook her head, setting it on the table in front of them. "You should have stopped me long before I started making speeches referring to the light and gray in people."

"I like your speeches, I think," Draco said, grinning.

He wiggled closer to her on the couch and slid an arm along the back of it behind her.

She grinned, looking down at his toes. It was odd, feeling this awkward. The wine was helping, that was sure. She was aware of the fact that most people felt this amount of awkwardness on their first date, but usually that first date didn't involve eating dinner in a wing of a house, not 10 feet from the door to their date's bedroom.

Ginny turned to look at him. "You're warm, though that may be the wine talking."

Draco grinned at her. He slipped his arm from the couch to rest around her shoulders and moved a bit closer. "You should always have wine, I think."

He nuzzled his nose lightly against hers before pressing his lips delicately to hers.

The fleeting idea that she needed to be slightly tipsy to get to this point was driven out of her mind when his lips touched hers. Suddenly she didn't feel awkward, or uncomfortable, or embarrassed. She just felt warm, and tingly, and all the other things that he'd been able to elicit in her since she'd started healing him. She leaned into him, placing her palm against his chest. His arm that had been wrapped around her shoulders pulled her closer, and the lines of their bodies pressed against each other. She could feel the warmth of his chest through her sweater, feel his muscles under her fingers. She sighed, opening her mouth to him.

Draco pressed towards her. Her palm was against his chest and the hand felt hot. Very hot. He liked her hands on him. He had from the beginning. When she opened her mouth, he took full advantage of that. He slipped a hand up under the back edge of her jumper just above the waist of her skirt.

He was distracted by tapping at the window.

Draco turned and glared at the glass. There was an owl tapping. Draco let out a disgruntled sound and stomped over. He opened the window and took the missive, giving the bird some biscuit he kept around for his own owl. He was going to leave it for later until he saw the handwriting.

Linds. Draco grinned and opened the letter. Several pages. She could be so wordy. He did not notice the snap that fluttered to the floor.

Ginny's eyebrows had furrowed when he'd torn himself away. She hadn't heard the tapping, not understanding why his lips were no longer in contact with hers. She had slowly gotten up from the couch and followed him. She'd always loved owls, despite never having one of her own. She'd been admiring the bird when the picture had fallen. She bent down and picked it up, holding it up to look at it, though this was harder to do since the only light in the room was given by the candles.

Draco looked up from the letter to see Ginny holding a snap. He knew it would be a picture of Lindsay. His brow furrowed. If he shared this, it would be sharing a lot.

"That's Lindsay. She's currently filling in for the Muggle Studies professor at the Salem Witch Institute. She's... my friend."

Ginny pulled the picture back and looked at it. "She's pretty." She frowned, holding the picture back out to him. "Meet her on your travels?"

Draco shrugged about the pretty. He didn't think of Linds in those terms any longer. "I suppose she's pretty. Yes. In Berlin. We traveled for a while. She's right smart. She'll be here for the hols. She wants to meet you. I'm not sure if that's such a good idea though."

"You've talked to her about me?" Ginny took a deep breath in, shaking her head. "I suppose you were the one that talked to Snape as well then? He told me to watch out for your mother. That she's not as kind as him." She left him standing there by the window and walked back over to the couch, taking her seat and smoothing her dress over her legs.

"What? Snape? What in the bloody hell does Snape have to do with this? I've only seen the cranky bastard once since I've been back, and we certainly did not talk about you that day. I didn't say a damn thing to him of you. It's not his business. Bloody hell, which one of those mouthy bitches tattled on me? It's not like it was a secret, or anything, but I can see them... 'hey, sir, your golden boy, the Slytherin prince, fancies a Gryffindor.'"

Ginny rose an eyebrow and stared at the table ahead of her. "All I know is he warned me, so it's obvious he knows something." She leaned back against the couch, her arms crossing over her chest. "Bloody Snape knows more about what this is than I do." She was pouting. She knew it, but it didn't stop her from doing so.

"You know, no one probably said a bloody thing to him. He probably just went shifting about in people's heads and found it. He'd do that. And when did you see Snape? Did you think about me when you saw him... because if you did..."

She was glaring.

"I'm not lying to you," Draco said a bit shrilly. "I said I wouldn't do that again, remember? And what do you mean Snape knows more about this? The only ones who have to know anything about it are you and I. To hell with speculation. Everyone else can think they know all they like. We'll be the ones who do know."

"The only thing I know about us so far is that I enjoy kissing you, I get distracted when you're shirtless, and that you like chocolate. He came in to the clinic and yes, I was probably thinking about you because I tend to do that quite often lately." She scowled. That would be just like the bastard, flitting around inside my head. 'S probably how he made Neville so nervous all the time, knowing exactly what to say to get to him.

Draco was grinning about the liking kissing him part, and he was pretty sure he was aware of the shirtless thing, but it was nice to have the confirmation.

"So... you think about me a lot?"

Glaring.

"Right. Look, I could teach you how to make your thoughts a bit more secure if you like."

Ginny looked over at him. Harry had never been able to master Occlumency, so he was never able to teach her any of it, no matter how desperate she was for it. She'd never gotten over the fear of having Him back in her head. The fact that Draco would be able to teach it to her now...

"Would you do it in exchange for your healing?"

"No," Draco said. "I'll just do it. No trade expected or needed. If it'll make you feel better about things, then I'm for it."

What he was not saying was that he had never offered this to anyone. Not even Blaise. Never had he offered to teach anyone what his Aunt Bella had taught him. He ran the risk of her turning it on him and seeing the things he kept hidden. Draco didn't think Ginny would use any of it to harm him. Hell, even Aunt Bella hadn't. What his aunt had seen had made her begin to hate Lucius. Draco was just lucky Bellatrix Lestrange happened to like him because he reminded her of her sister, and there was no one his Aunt Bella adored like she did Narcissa. Draco just flat-out did not want Ginny Weasley seeing some of his thoughts.

She smiled brightly at him. "Thank you." She looked down at her feet before pulling them under herself. "Now I feel like I'm in your debt." She looked back up at him. "Anything you'd like from me?"

Draco smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Ginny rolled her eyes and held out a hand to him. "If that's all you want then this is going to be an easy payment."

Draco allowed her to pull him back to sitting on the couch. "We're not starting this tonight. Tonight is for play... and eating. We've finally moved past the awkward, and are comfortable. Exercises in Occlumency are never comfortable in my experience. I want to keep you comfortable tonight."

She nodded, smiling as she leaned forward. "Play, you say?"

{SUMMARY} Draco and Ginny have their first date. Things start awkward then move to him offering to teach her things. *eye-roll* Occlumency, you perverts.