A/N: *sniffles* You all had many problems with my Harry/Lavender pairing! Understandable.  Hey, maybe he's not with her for all the right reasons, anyway. Plus this isn't about H/L! It's about D/G!  Anyway, here is chapter 2, I hope you like it! By the way the chapter is titled Day 2, even though it starts out with the ending of day 1.  Don't worry.  That was just me.  Screwing up.  Because I suck. *lol*

Thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter 1...

Picklegal, Lourdes, mutsumi, Magic Girl2 (read and see!), OliverPhelpsLover (*l* You're welcome!), KuTiExAzNxAnGeL, goobersprinkle (*ducks bullet* Erm...soon enough? *lol*), shelly2, Kristen Michelle (Yes.  I do know you are serious about that. *shudders* hehehe!), Lawwwren (Oooh, I hope you are!), Mariel4, Plaidly Lush (:-)),the-girl-named-kittie (hehe! You never fail to make me happy! Thanks!!)

...You guys rock!

Disclaimer: Don't read this! Read chapter 2.  Then read chapter one.  For the disclaimer, I mean! ;)

***

"You missed some dirt over there."

Ginny stomped the dirty mop down on the miniscule spec. "Better?" she snapped.

Draco didn't reply.  He just stared back and forth between their ends of the hallway. They had been working for four hours on opposite ends of the hall and now had finally met up in the middle. "Well, Weasley," he said. "At least you now have a career picked out for you."

An insult tied into a compliment, Ginny mused. Maybe vice versa.  Either way, it made her want to slap him.

"I think you might just make as much money doing this as your father does now. You can set up a nice little family in a quaintly furnished bin, much like the humble abode you live in NOW-- YOU STUPID B--"

Ginny breathed hard, shaking out her stinging hand, as Malfoy cursed her off. "Don't mess with a Weasley temper," she snapped. "I'm tired, I've had the worst day ever, and I despise you."

He took his hand away from his left cheek.  There were still the remains of a splotchy red hand mark. "You couldn't hate me as much as I hate you and the filth you drag with you. Stamp 'dirt poor' across your face and still it wouldn't be any more obvious than it is now." His eyes were blazing, and Ginny's ears were ringing. "Screw this, I'm outta here."

"We're not supposed to leave until 10:30!" As soon as the words were out of her mouth she wanted to suck them back in.  She sounded like Hermione.

"So leave at 10:30."

Ginny sank to the sparkling floor as Malfoy left, and put her head in her hands.  He was right. It couldn't be more obvious how poor she was.  Her books were always being spellotaped together, and her cauldrons were faded black with residue of past potions that never went away even with the most powerful scouring charms. She hated it.  Maybe more than Ron did, and she knew she shouldn't have slapped Malfoy...but the rage that washed over her was so uncontrollable.

Detention was already murder.

And it was only day one.

***

"Ugh, I can't believe you have detention with him!"

That was Lavender's response when Ginny dropped the bomb at breakfast the next morning.

Ron looked slightly uncomfortable. "I can't believe this! I'm going to hunt Filch down! Malfoy won't ever leave you alone from his stupid remarks! That shouldn't be allowed! Everyone knows he hates Weasleys," Ron breathed in and out quite hard. "Plus, he could totally take advantage of you alone in that room--"

"Ron!" Ginny shrieked, horrified. "Please! If you must know, I gave that Slytherin scum a piece of my mind last night. And it wasn't pretty."

Ron's eyes traveled towards the Slytherin table.

"Is that a..." he began.

"Bruise?" Harry asked.

"On his cheek..." Hermione mused, turning around and looking too.

But it was Parvati and Lavender who put it together best. "You bitch-slapped him!" They squealed together.

Ginny nodded proudly. "I did indeed."

"All right!" Harry, Ron, and Ginny exchanged high fives.

Ginny swelled with pride. "It was nothing." Her hand tingled after she touched Harry's.

And that was something.  It was definitely something.

***

"Ow!" Ginny slammed into the wall, as she was walking back from her last class of the day. She looked up at the figure that had so brutally knocked into her that it couldn't have been a mistake.

She should have known.

"Malfoy, what the hell is your problem?!"

He looked at her blankly. "I didn't see you there."

"So you're sorry?" she looked at him expectantly, massaging her shoulder.

"Uh, no, I said I didn't see you there, Weasley."

She wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, as she watched him continue down the hall. "I didn't ask what you said!" she yelled after him, only earning her some strange glances from passersby.

She trudged up to Gryffindor tower dropping off her books in her dorm, and then went into the common room.

"Oh my God," she muttered, her teeth gritted, her hands shielding her eyes from the sight that she found on one of the arm chairs.

Ron.  Hermione.  Tongue.  A lot of tongue.

"Get a room!" she kicked at the chair for a while to no avail, before finally hitting Ron atop the head.

"Ow! What!? Ergh, Ginny! Go away, can't you see I'm busy?"

Hermione straightened out her shirt, and flattened down her hair, getting up quickly. "No! It's all right. We shouldn't have been doing that."

"No. And it was bad enough with you 'doing that' all summer."

"Shut up, Ginny," Ron snapped.

"It's all right, Ron!" Hermione stated. "We really should be getting down to dinner anyway."

Ron mumbled something about how he was perfectly content without dinner as long as they were still doing what they were doing, which only caused him glares from both Hermione and Ginny.

Ginny wondered why Harry hadn't been there to stop that make-out fest from happening, but then remembered that when Hermione and Ron had gotten together over the summer, Harry was no longer with them all the time.

Maybe, Ginny thought, that was why he got a girlfriend to begin with.  To even out the odds. It would be hard to all of a sudden be a third wheel, she decided. And she liked the idea of him only being with Lavender for the sake of not being left out.

In fact, as Ginny sat down for dinner she very happily noted the two people who weren't making out.

***

"You're late," Ginny snapped, inside the trophy room.

"Gonna tell on me, Weasel?" Malfoy smirked as he sauntered in fifteen minutes late.

"Did I say I was?" she snarled.

Filch has sent them an owl notifying them that their detention for tonight was polishing trophies.  It would be hard to steer clear of Malfoy in this scenario. The hall was big enough to stay on opposite ends for a while, but eventually they would be working on the same trophy case.

And that was exactly what happened. Because two hours later they were both sitting side by side with a huge pile of trophies in front of them.

It was silent for a long while, the only sound being the occasional squeaking of the polish to metal, and the sighing from both Malfoy and Ginny as the clock seemed to be continually letting them down as they looked at it.

When just an hour was left, and Ginny thought maybe she could make it out unscathed, her focus was drawn to a trophy that was in Malfoy's hands.

She glanced at the name engraved to the metal, before sucking in a sharp intake of air, and looking away.  She thought she just might throw up when she heard Malfoy chuckle next to her.  Ginny wasn't sure if it was disgustedly, or laughing at her.

"Not too fond of this one?" Malfoy held it out in front of her face so she couldn't look away from the name inscribed in it.

"No," she said struggling with a mix of emotions. "Tom Riddle isn't my favorite person these days."

He took it back to him. "Yeah.  I remember that day."

"Shut up."

"Snape announced the sad news to Slytherin Tower."

"Malfoy, shut up," her voice was trembling from both anger and the sadness of memories that she had so forcefully pushed out.

"Yes, Ginny Weasley was taken down into the Chamber of Secrets." His eyes were cold still staring down at the trophy. "And we rejoiced..."

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Ginny wiped her eyes, leapt up, and grabbed the trophy in his hands, hurling it across the room.

Malfoy's eyes widened. "...When Potter saved the day."

She felt like laughing and crying all at the same time.  He wasn't really going to say that, was he?

Slowly, Ginny sat back down. "I shouldn't have done that."

Malfoy shrugged. "Never liked him."

Ginny looked up startled. "Harry?"

"Well disliking Harry goes without saying," he spat out his name sarcastically. "What I meant was I never liked Riddle."

"Well you're father sure does."

Malfoy didn't say anything for a second. "Weasley you aren't scared of me."

"I wasn't aware that I should be," she said honestly.

"Most Gryffindors are."

"I'm not most Gryffindors." She stood up and began placing the polished trophies back in the cabinet

"Well most Gryffindors, Weasley, are idiots.  They think they're so brave to get sorted into that house, but the real reason they did is because they don't have what it takes to get into Slytherin, the house that matters. They're not rich and they are all in love with Potter. So it's pretty thick of you to say that you aren't most Gryffindors because you see, Weasel, you fit all of those qualifications."

Ginny wasn't sure what to say.  For a second she and Malfoy had forgotten the barrier between houses, and now he was building it back up again.

But, she thought as she gathered up the broken shards of what once was an award for Tom Riddle, who knew what day three would bring.