Seven Minutes In Heaven

antidarthani

Rating: PG13
Genres: Romance, Humor
Relationships: Draco & Ginny
Book: Draco & Ginny, Books 1 - 5
Published: 23/12/2004
Last Updated: 25/05/2005
Status: completed

It started as an innocent little game of Seven Minutes in Heaven. But it's grown to be quite a bit more than either Draco or Ginny can handle.

Chapters

1. Seven Minutes In Heaven

2. Mondays

3. Meetings

4. Alone

5. Let The Games Begin

6. Ride

7. Need

8. Going In Circles

9. Deserving

1. Seven Minutes In Heaven

Seven Minutes In Heaven

By Anti Darth Ani

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This is just a one chapter little fan-fic I wrote in my spare time. I don't know where the idea came from, which is the case with most of the fan-fics I write these days. But, I hope you enjoy! I'd love any reviews you could drop out before you leave if you have time. I'm sure you all know what I imply with `Seven Minutes In Heaven' :P

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So soft was the contact of the brush between their lips, the feel of the fabric covering their eyes rubbing against each other. The feel of his breath on her lips and his face stayed only a centimeter away from hers. Her hands wondered blindly up the front of his shirt, finding the buttons and then reaching the bottom of his tie.

The temperature in the little broom closest had risen at least ten degrees since they found themselves in the closet together. Lavender had pulled her to the side after dinner in the Great Hall and talked rapidly about a new Muggle game Hermione told her about. Of course, Ginny would be the Gryffindor guinea pig as always. All the sixth and seventh years in the school were going to play a mass game of this so called `Seven Minutes in Heaven'.

By the time dinner had ended, every sixteen and seventeen year old in the castle knew about the game. In the hallway upon exiting the Great Hall, one of the Ravenclaw prefects had charmed a little wooden box to only be visible to the upper years of the school. As they left from dinner, they were all supposed to drop their name on a small piece of parchment into the box.

As soon as everyone left the Great Hall, the box disappeared and in the Ravenclaw common room it began to spit out names in groups of two, each one consisting of a male and a female, both from different houses.

And so the game began. Students would be in the middle of reading a leisure book, writing their Care of Magical Creatures homework, or playing a game of Exploding Snaps when they felt a sharp tug. Within seconds a blindfold covered their eyes and they were swept away into the little broom closet next to the Room of Requirement. For seven minutes they stayed in the closet, not knowing who else stood with them. The time in the closet was their own and once it was over, they would feel the knot at the back of the blindfold loosen. To take it off or leave it on was up to them. The door unlocked and they were allowed to leave.

She didn't know why she had agreed to the silly little game. It seemed she would never understand the way Muggle minds worked, and she didn't begin to understand why her father wanted to study so much about them. Letting out a small sigh, she leaned back against the wall, consequently pulling him with her. Being locked in the closet should have felt awkward, yet it was almost as if she could see, everything seemed to appear in her mind despite the blindfold. Everything except the boy she clung to almost desperately.

She pulled down on the knot, loosing his tie while he lightly rested his forehead on hers. His body was remarkably cold compared to hers, and yet they both felt like they were almost on fire. Reaching up, she pulled the tie off of his neck. He refused to pull his forehead away from hers, so she felt the silkiness of the fabric against her forehead as she forced it between their heads.

The soft bristle of the fabric of his tie hitting the floor went unheard. His hand came up and reached out to her. On his first attempt of contact his hand found her ear. He managed to trace her ear back to her cheek. Shivering slightly under his cold touch, she couldn't help but let her mind wonder on who was in the little closet with her.

The first person who came to mind was, of course, Dean Thomas. But she knew that Dean didn't drop his name into the box. In fact, he had stood with his arm around her shoulders and she quickly scribbled her name onto a tiny slip of paper and shoved it into the box. He'd said something criticizing to her, she couldn't quite remember as someone else's free hand began to touch her leg.

And Ginny knew for certain that it wasn't Harry Potter. Just the thought of it made her smile and let out a short little giggle. The boy behind the blindfold froze for a moment to listen to the magical sound of her laughter. Laughter was something he had never really understood, something that never came to him. He began to wonder what she could possibly be giggling about, since he was fairly certain it wasn't caused by what he was doing to her. Offended that her entire mind wasn't set on him, he pushed his hand further up her leg. Surely, if she knew who he was, she wouldn't be laughing.

Harry Potter was the last person who would agree to be stranded in the closet with a girl for seven minutes. Partially because the only experience he'd had with a girl was kissing Cho, who'd been crying at the time. Also, Hermione refused to allow either Harry or Ron put their names into the wooden box. “I will not have my friends trumping around the halls of Hogwarts, snogging with girls in closets when they should be studying for exams,” Hermione had hissed at them, sending Ginny a disapproving glance as she had dropped her name into the box and let Dean guide her away.

Ron. That thought itself was enough to make any girl sick. Kissing her own brother in a little broom closet, even if she didn't know it was him. “You're not a Weasley, are you?” she whispered suddenly, not only startling the other person in the closet but herself.

He let out a little breath she felt on her face. His forehead slid down the side of her face until his mouth reached her ear. “Why?” he whispered back.

Ginny's toes curled up underneath themselves and her heart fell a little. His voice sounding so oddly familiar, but she just couldn't place it. She slowly shook her head and then felt his hand slide further up her leg. His other hand reached down to her side and took her hand into his. He pulled it up next to her head and pressed her hand, and arm, into the wall that stood behind her, supporting her up.

He overpowered her so easily, Ginny realized, not sure if this was a good or a bad thing. In her experience, guys loved to be in control. And having more power gained control. “I cannot began to image having to kiss Ronald Weasley,” she finally answered in a soft voice, causing him to chuckle against her ear.

His tongue traced the outside of her ear. Ginny forced back a moan and bit her lip as he nipped on her earlobe and slipped one of his legs between hers. His hand had successfully climbed up her leg and rested on her hip, under her plaid school skirt. “I couldn't imagine kissing him either,” he told her in a deep tone. His tongue left a wet trail down the side of her face to her neck, where he began to kiss and suck softly, yet with urgency.

Ginny found it harder and harder to hold back her moaning. Her back arched off the wall and she felt his chest against hers. She didn't know if what he was doing to her was affecting him at all, but with his mouth running across her bare skin, she really couldn't stop and make her brain function enough to think about it. She wrapped her fingers around his as he pressed her hand harder into the wall. They both seemed to naturally shift a little in the direction of the pinned hands.

His mouth traveled up her neck and to her chin until it finally found her mouth. He busied himself with kissing her, which seemed to take the stress out of everything he'd done in the past week. Dealing with his father hardly even registered in his mind as his tongue roamed over her lower lip before he playfully bit down on it and pulled it into his mouth before sucking on it almost painfully hard.

This time, Ginny couldn't hold back to moan in her lower throat. It rolled up her throat and out through her parted lips into his mouth. The sound pushed him on, causing his hand to grip her waist tighter and his tongue to dive into her mouth. She angled her head as far back as she could and tried not to pass out at the sensations filling her entire body. Reaching out with her hand clumsily, she finally managed to grip his upper arm to keep from falling down the wall.

Using the little muscles she had from Quidditch, she pushed off the wall and turned them around until his back hit the wall. She felt him grin against her mouth, and she moaned softly, pushing into him in response. He released her hand against the wall because his own was beginning to feel numb with all the blood rushing out of it. Moving his hand to her waist, he slid down the wall, pulling her with him.

His ass hit the floor a little faster than he had been prepared for. He grimaced as a sharp pain ran up through his back. The feeling got better as he felt her pull his legs out in front of him and then sat down, one leg on either side of him. Her hands reached forward to slide under his robe and then she found the bottom of his shirt and slid them up the front. Her mouth pulled away from his, her fingers exploring the well defined muscles in his chest. She felt his quick breathing and her hand paused over his pounding heart for a moment.

She leaned a little bit closer to him, inching up on her knees. “Tell me your name,” she whispered as she traced her index finger down his chest, and tracing his washboard abs. She grinned at the little grunted he let out as his hands tightened on her waist. She knew all her movement was killing him, but that only made her squirm more on top of him. Leaning closer, Ginny felt her lips brush against his, “I just want a name.”

“We haven't done this before, have we?” he asked. Ginny stopped her movement, could feel his lips only an inch away from him. She felt him push against the wall to try to close the space between them. I know that voice, the thought horrified her. Oh my God, I know his voice. But that's not possible… She tried to scramble off of him, but his grip tightened on her waist. She knew he could sense something was amiss, but panic began to take over her.

“Draco, let me go,” she half whimpered, half cried. At the mention of his name, he sat straight up. “We have done this before,” he said more to himself than to her.

She wasn't wearing a watch, and even if she was, she knew she wouldn't be able to read it while she was blindfolded. But she knew that the seven minutes were almost up and as soon as they were, those blindfolds were coming off. And that's the last thing in the world Ginny wanted.

He reached behind his head with one hand while he kept a grip on her waist with the other. Finding the knot in his blindfold, he tried in vain to untie it. Meanwhile, Ginny yanked his hand off of her side and scrambled up onto her feet. Reaching out with her hands blindly, Ginny tried to find the door. Instead, she found the broom and she tripped over the bucket.

Hearing the noise, Draco pushed himself up onto his feet. He had a great sense of hearing, which he had worked on in the past three years at Hogwarts and that he used at night to find students to dock points from. “I have snogged you before, haven't I?” he asked aloud, walking calmly in the direction he'd last heard her move in.

Ginny frantically ran her hands against the wall, trying to find the handle of the door. She finally felt the cool metal against the palm of her hand, but as she tried to turn it, it didn't budge. Ginny let out a soft whimper of panic and yanked at it with both hands. She knew, under the blindfold, she was beginning to cry. How had she let this happen? She'd made out with Draco Malfoy in a little broom closet. If any other Gryffindor found out, word would get around to Harry or Hermione; or even worse, Ron.

She screamed when he grabbed her hand and tried to pull it away from the door, “It's not going to open until the seven minutes are up.” Just as he said that, the knots at the back of their blindfolds began to loosen themselves. Ginny began to panic even more. Struggling out of his grip, she reached to open the door and escaped. She had just managed to step out into the hallway to make a run for it when he ripped off his blindfold and hers tumbled off.

Draco snatched her hand and whirled her around to face him. He froze and took a second look at her, “Weasley?”

Tears were falling down her cheeks and Ginny shook her head, trying to pull away from him to escape, but he brought her back up against him. He looked down at her and took a deep breath. “No wonder you don't want to kiss Ickle Ronakins,” he sneered.

Ginny couldn't look him in the eyes. Instead, she glanced down at his open coat and shirt that was half tucked in and half out. “Right now Ron's looking very friendly,” she muttered.

Draco released her and turned away, walking off in the opposite direction.

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I'm not sure if I should add anything after this. I was just going to make it a one chapter fic-let, but it's got the option of going on. Review and tell me if you want me to continue it.

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2. Mondays

Seven Minutes In Heaven

By Anti Darth Ani

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Because everyone liked the first part so much (yeah!!!!!!) I have decided to continue this fan-fic of mine. It is not planned out and I would love plot ideas and suggestions from all my loving readers out there. And let's just see where the imagination can take us with this one (unlike Breaking the Habit, which I had it all planned out since the beginning).

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Ginny stormed into the common room, ignoring the huff of air the Fat Lady spat into the portrait hole after her. As soon as she saw Lavender waiting on the couch, she threw the blindfold at her friend and hit her square in the face. Pointing accusingly at her friend, Ginny began her ranting and raving in a not so quite voice, “You set me up you little wench!!!!” Everyone in the entire room stopped what they were doing to turn to watch the cat fight between the two girls. “That's why you brought up the idea of this game, isn't it? To get me stuck it a bloody broom closet with him for seven minutes so that we would snog without knowing it!”

“Ginny,” Lavender looked around the room and cleared her throat. When everyone continued to stare at the exchange between the two friends, Lavender rolled her eyes, “The show is over people. You got enough drama in your own lives, I'm sure.” Standing up, Lavender grabbed Ginny's arm and pulled her halfway up the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories. She motioned for Ginny to sit down next to her as she took a seat herself.

Putting her arm around her friend, Lavender watched as a few tears slid down Ginny's checks. “Sweetie, who did you end up in the closet with?” she asked softly.

Ginny lifted her head up and glared at Lavender. Her eyes narrowed and she raised an eyebrow while the tears continued to fall. Lavender squinted and sucked in a deep breath. “Oh…. that someone,” she concluded, because she knew the only person who could make a Weasley so upset and angry was non other than a Malfoy. “Well if I'm not mistaken,” she added, trying to cheer up her friend, “the last time something like this happened, you told us what a great kisser Malfoy is.”

Ginny groaned, just the image of him causing her to want to be back in that closet, “You're not helping, Lav,” she grumbled into her lap, her knees drawn up to her chest which were circled by her arms. “I do happen to recall for myself what a great kisser he is, thank you very much. And now, I think I'll just go get my wand and try to curse it away,” she told her friend, starting to stand up.

“Ginny, you're kidding right?” Lavender called after her as her friend began to climb the stairs. Struggling to get to her own feet, Lavender hobbled up the chairs after her friend, “Please tell me you're kidding, Gin!”

Ginny didn't want to answer, didn't want to admit anything to anyone until they had tied her to the stake and were threatening to burn her favorite pillow before they lit up her entire room. Okay, her imagination was running away with what her friends would actually do to get the truth out of her, but Ginny knew it wouldn't be pretty. And it would ruffle up her hair a bit, which was never a good thing for a member of the Weasley clan.

“Ginny,” Lavender managed to wheeze out as she finally reached the landing and stumbled into Ginny's dormitory she shared with three other sixth years. “Was it the kissing thing I said? Because I really meant that as a tool to cheer you up, not make you even more depressed.”

“I'm not depressed,” Ginny spat throw gritted teeth. “But I don't like it when my best friend brings up to my ailing memory something I did while I was piss drunk. Something that we all vowed never to discuss again.” Ginny sat down on the edge of her bed and ran her fingers through her tangled hair. She thought briefly of just ripping all of it out and then she wouldn't have to worry about brushing it later, but decided against it because she knew Hermione would have a kitten.

Lavender raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow at her friend and flopped down on the bed next to Ginny, “I thought we agreed that you were most definitely not completely drunk, Miss Weasley, since you remembered to recall the exact size of his-” she was cut off by Ginny gasp and a quick slap to the back of the head. Lavender giggled at this, “Yes, I thought you might still be embarrassed by that little detail you shared with us while you were snorting up a storm and then turning around to puke your guts out.”

Ginny let her mood instantly brighten. How was it possible that Lavender could make everything better by reminding Ginny of the worst night she could remember? Somehow, Lavender always managed to pull through for her friends, which made Ginny thankful as they sat on the edge of her bed and laughed together. “Do you remember the way Ronald looked when he came in and saw me sprawled out all over the couch, laughing about the way that Malfoy had jinxed himself while trying to hex me as I stumbled down the hall like a true drunk?” Ginny asked, leaning back and resting her pounding head on the sheets.

“You cannot even begin to imagine the discussion I had to take from him for that little adventure you left me out on. I mean, Gin, really, I don't mind taking the heat for you when I actually get to participate in the fun part as well.” Lavender feigned a hurt look. “But pulling something as big as getting drunk at the Yule Ball and snogging with an equally drunk Malfoy without me? Now, that really hit me low while I was trying to explain it to a delirious Ronald.” Rolling her eyes, Lavender pulled Ginny back up into a sitting position.

“We're okay still, aren't we?” Lavender asked seriously. Ginny pretended to think about it for a moment before nodded and giggling. Lavender smiled back and slipped her arm around her friend's shoulder, letting Ginny rest her head on her shoulder. “I am sorry about the whole closet fiasco. I honestly didn't know he was going to put his name into the box. And I would never have put you two into a room by yourselves with the door looked, even if it was for only a moment.” Lavender smirked naughtily, “We wouldn't want any more redheaded kids running around the halls of Hogwarts.”

Ginny gasped and made to hit Lavender, but inside threw her own arm around the other Gryffindor girl. “We've made it through everything together, haven't we, Lav?” Ginny asked, looking straight at the open door that led to the stairs. “I've dealt with Malfoy once before, and I can sure as hell do it again. Right?”

“Of course!” Lavender agreed quickly. “Now, Miss Weasley… share every single detail!”

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Draco Malfoy paced him room faster than usual, his Quidditch robes whooshing around him as he spun around on his heels and stormed away in the opposite direction. “Where does she get off, anyways?” he snapped to his two cronies sitting on the couch. “I mean, once was enough with the little Weasley prat- once too many if you ask me. But then she has to put her bloody name in that box and end up snogging with me in the closet for seven minutes. I want to know how this happened!”

His two cronies nodded in unison, but neither looked up from the chocolate cupcakes they were devouring. Draco hissed under his breath and threw the glass paperweight he had been carrying against the wall. It smashed into a hundred little shards, each bouncing off in a different direction. “This has got to stop happening!” he shouted, but no one took his words to mind. He knew he was walking on thin ice even before he'd ended in that blasted closet with her.

But he really couldn't help. She seemed to pop out of nowhere everywhere around the castle this year. She and her little friends would laugh and pass by him and she'd brush up against him- accidentally of course. She turn around to apologize, then she'd actually get a look at who she was talking to and stop immediately. He would then shoot a quick, snappy comment at her, something about the redheads in her family, how poor they were, yada yada yada. She'd give him that look he loved to hate (or was it hated to love?) and stalk off with her friends, shouting a foul name back at him over her shoulder.

He never returned the remark, just leaned against the wall with his arms crossed across his chest and thought about what it would be like to take her up against the wall like he almost had at the ball that night. And then as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he was forced to smash it out with the closest object available to hand; she was, after all, one of the Weasleys, no matter how tight her skirt was or how she moaned when he slid his hand up the front of her little black dress…

Draco stopped his pacing to groan and force the image of her out of his head. That's all that managed to make its way into his mind lately, he thought as he continued his pattern of walking to each corner of the room in a square. She had a way of sneaking up into his mind, just like she sneaked up out of nowhere each day around the Hogwarts grounds. Sometimes, after a large argument with his father about the Dark Lord, or having to deal with more Transfiguration homework, he would actually entertain the thoughts he had of her. But not often; he had the family name to maintain.

He groaned, thinking about how great it had felt in the closet less than an hour ago, Ginny sitting on his lap and running her hands all over the places a Weasley should never touch a Malfoy. Yeah, it had been even better when he hadn't know it was her and she was just another faceless bimbo that he would never have to think about again. But things weren't like that anymore, he knew who he'd spent that time in the closet with. And now, all he wanted to do was get her back into that closet before his found his mind that he seemed to have lost.

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Ginny Weasley seemed to be having the same thoughts. How had he known they had snogged before? She sure hadn't felt anything special. She'd recognized his voice, but only because he'd spend the past six year shouting foul mouthed names back over his shoulder at her. Now, he'd remembered something she hadn't even convinced herself was true. Lavender was the one to inform Ginny that the guy she'd made out with during the Yule Ball was actually Draco Malfoy.

Ginny, in fact, didn't remember much of that night. She knew that Dean Thomas had just broken up with her, leaving her dateless at the last minute for the dance. So, naturally, Ginny had spent the entire dance draining down as much alcohol she could stomach (and then some). She didn't remember, as Lavender described to her in great detail the next morning, how he had shoved her up a wall and played a mean game of tonsil hockey with her for public display.

Shivering, Ginny pulled her blanket up to cover the rest of her body. The pain in her stomach returned, but Ginny knew she wasn't hungry. She'd already eaten dinner less than two hours ago, so she cast that notion aside. The only thing that made sense was that, somehow, he was making her entire body ache. From withdrawal? Ginny laughed at the idea. Withdraw from what? I've made out with him, what, twice at the most? What could I have to withdraw from? Ginny sighed to no one in particular.

She replayed his shocked expression when he'd seen it was her in the closet with him. And to her surprise, no matter how much she tweaked Malfoy's face in her mind, he never really looked upset or disappointed. Sure, he was surprised, but she had been as well. That was natural. But she'd been on the verge of tears (she wouldn't admit that she'd passed that verge and the crying had started) as soon as she knew it was him. And no, she didn't expect Draco Malfoy to cry, but she did want a real reaction out of him, dammit. Something to go off of. Not just a little petty insult he spat about her brother.

Revenge wasn't her style (especially since she didn't really have anything to revenge for). But Ginny wanted to set the record straight, let Malfoy know he couldn't control her thoughts (whether he tried or not) forever. She needed to let him know that the little incidents between them weren't going to continue. For instance, Ginny wasn't going to be dropping her name in anymore unmarked boxes anytime in the future. And she also didn't plan to drink so much firewhiskey at one time to make her see the floor on the ceiling.

But even as Ginny told herself all of this information, her plan not to be fooled by Malfoy again, she felt the tension in the back of her throat. She knew she could control herself (or she could at least try and pretend she could to the public eye) but she didn't know how Malfoy was going to react. If she ever even got the nerve up to confront him about the accidents at the ball and then again in the broom closet.

What a day, Ginny thought to herself, letting her head rest back against her sole pillow. Not catching the Snitch during Quidditch practice, blowing up the potion in class, not to mention the fact that the potion burned all the hair off of the back of Colin's head (Ginny snickered to herself at the image of it replaying in her head), and now I have to deal with that git, Malfoy. How much worse could this week get? She knew she didn't want the answer to that question, especially when she woke up the next day to an owl pecking on her window.

A pure black owl with a green ribbon tied around its neck.

An owl carrying a note from one Mr. Malfoy, who wrote that they needed to `talk'. In private, so that none of his friends could ever find out.

Well, that's just peachy. It's no wonder why everyone hates Mondays.

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Well, now it is time for me to go eat, so I will leave the chapter at that. PLEASE review and let me know what you want to happen in this story. It's open for just about *anything*, so get those suggestions in before I start writing on my own!!! Hugs and kisses (and lots of love too) to all my wonderful readers and reviews from the first part of my story. I didn't know so many people actually read my stories. That's the most feedback I've ever gotten for just one chapter. Keep it coming :P Cheerio!!!!

Oh, P.S., someone asked for me to include a little Harry/Hermione in the broom closet deal, but I don't think that's going to happen because I noted that they wouldn't put their names in the box. Plus, I write other stories that are Harry/Hermione and this one here is one of my Draco/Ginny stories. So maybe later I'll write a Harry and Hermione in the broom closet deal.

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3. Meetings

Seven Minutes In Heaven

By Anti Darth Ani

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For those of you who ask me to add another ship into the story, I'm sorry, but I can't!! Number one, I myself am not a big Ron/Luna fan and number two, I write other stories for Harry/Hermione and such. So, I might take the idea of seven minutes in heaven and write another fan-fic for Harry/Hermione or Ron/Luna, but I'm afraid it just ain't happening here. Sorry.

Thanks again to all of my wonderful readers and reviewers. I am actually going to try to use some of your suggestions, because some of them are quite good. So keep them coming and I'll keep using them.

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She didn't want to go to breakfast. She also didn't want to face him. But when had anyone listened to the littlest Weasley child? Never. So, at seven thirty Monday morning, Hermione burst into Ginny's bedroom to drag her down to the Great Hall for breakfast. No matter how much Ginny tried to get out of it, no matter how much she whined and complained, Hermione managed to yank her down the stairs. And once the bushy haired girl got Ginny into the common room, Ginny knew she was, in fact, going to breakfast because Harry and Ron were standing there, waiting for the two girls.

Ginny tried to use the excuse that she was going to wait for Lavender and some of her roommates, but that fell through because Hermione, with her nose far too high in the air, informed Ginny that they had already left about ten minutes ago to eat.

“Well, err…. I'm really not feeling that well right now. So maybe I should just head back up to my room and climb in my toasty little bed and sleep a little longer,” Ginny ventured, already taking a step back towards the stairs. But Hermione shook her head and the three of them pushed Ginny out of the portrait hole and into the hall.

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Pansy watched as Draco picked at his food silently. Blaise was trying to tell her something about the upcoming Quidditch game, but then when had she even cared about a stupid game of Quidditch? No, she was far more interested in finding out what was buggering Draco so much, so that she could fix it for him. Because that's what Pansy did, she fixed everything she could for Draco. She was always there for him (even when he didn't want her there).

“So are you going to spill the details about whatever's bugging you or am I just going to have to guess until I get it right?” she asked, peeling off the peel of the orange. “Because, quite frankly, I like it when we play our little guessing games,” Pansy purred at him, right before she tried to pull off a piece of the orange. The only thing she succeed at was to squirt a little sour juice into her eyes. Cursing to herself, Pansy glanced over at Draco to see if he had noticed her mistake, but he was in a daze, staring straight ahead.

Turning her head to follow his sight, Pansy's heart sank. He's staring at that little Gryffindor slut again, she complained to herself. He gets drunk with her, makes out with her once and suddenly she's all he can think about- no matter how tempting the rest of us our. True enough, ever since Draco Malfoy had seemed a little… distracted, all the other girls, especially the ones in Slytherin, had tried extra hard to be flattering in order to gain a seldom glance from the Prince of well, just about everything.

None of them had had much luck with that little plan of theirs. Because he's eyes always glued onto that little freckled toothpick with a red mop for hair. Pansy shifted in her seat to “accidentally” rub up against Draco's side, “Staring at her isn't going to suddenly change the fact that she's a Weasley, you know,” Pansy whispered with her lips only a centimeter away from his ear. Pansy just knew that the little Weasley was staring right back at Draco. Let her see this, Pansy thought to herself. Then we'll see how willing she is to let Draco jump her bones. Pansy almost smiled as she said this to herself silently.

Draco slid down the bench a little ways away from her, causing Pansy to frown. Looking back at the Gryffindor table, she noticed that Weasley was smiling softly over the top of her glass she was drinking out of. When she saw Pansy glaring back at her, her eyes darted back to her friends. Pansy's hands itched by her side, wanting so much to just grab her wand out of the pocket in her robes and kill Ginny with an Unforgivable. I'll give you something to smile about, Pansy threatened in her mind. Oh, don't worry, Weasley, I'll make sure you're staring at him for a long, long time. You just watch. But Pansy knew Ginny wasn't going to enjoy what she was going to do to her. And that made Pansy smile.

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No matter how nervous she was about her undefined meeting with Malfoy later that day, Ginny couldn't shoo away the butterflies welling up in her stomach. Actually, she told herself as she caught his eye from across the room, they're more like that Monster Book of Monsters Ron was telling me about a couple years back. True, it felt as if her stomach was eating itself from the inside out. And no amount of pumpkin juice was going to fix that problem for her. Yet, Ginny felt excited about being alone with him again. For the wrong reason, of course, because she knew he would never go for what she was thinking about.

“Are you alright, Gin?” Hermione's question startled Ginny out of her thoughts. She looked away from where Pansy was glaring at her to look at one of her closest friends. She wasn't sure why Miss Busybody Granger was asking such a question, because it wasn't like Ginny was puking her guts out all over the table. And she wasn't up on the table dancing around in just her knickers either. Nope, Ginny Weasley simply sat on a bench, not enjoying but eating her breakfast, with no thoughts of Draco Malfoy on her mind at all (Ginny wanted to roll her eyes at herself for even adding that part because she knew Hermione couldn't possibly read her mind).

“Of course I'm alright,” Ginny replied easily, not even having to lie (much). “What would make you inclined to think otherwise?” Ginny asked in the same, even tone.

Clearly embarrassed, Hermione just shrugged and went back to eating her food in silence, letting Ginny think. Glancing back up, she noted he was back to staring at her again. Right, like I need to do any more thinking, when all I can think about is him. No more thinking, Ginny, no more thinking. It felt as if he was looking right through her, at someone at the Ravenclaw table behind her. Ginny wasn't a conceited person, but she had the feeling that there was no one of interest at the table directly behind her. And that he was also looking at her. Thinking bad. Very bad. Must… not… think…

Not that it did her any good trying to ignore the fact that he was staring at her. Because that still didn't erase the fact that she was looking right back at him. I'm losing it, she told herself, I'm seriously going mad. I mean, look at me. I'm talking to myself. Well, not out loud because then I'd really be nutters and they would have taken me away to Azkaban already. But I'm getting close to that.

Sighing to herself, Ginny forced herself to look down at her plate. Not that she was embarrassed to be caught staring at him, but she knew if she kept it up, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from whatever was going to happen that she knew she would end up paying for.

-----

Where are the bloody owls? They are never this late, Draco steamed to himself. On the one day when it mattered, (at least to him, which is all that counted to a Malfoy) the freaking furry animals just up and decided to go on strike and not deliver the post before night fell. Or that's what it felt like anyways. Glancing down at his watch, he knew that they really didn't arrive for about another minute or so, but he just needed for them to get here. Before he died.

She's going to be the end of you mate, his inner voice told him. He frowned, stabbing at a random food on his plate and bringing it up to his mouth. Gross, he thought, looking down at the pineapple on his fork before forcing himself to eat it. He was going to eat it, or Pansy was going to try to baby feed it to him. And if she started up with the train noises again, he knew he would murder her. And not by magic, no he would wrap his hands around that fat neck of hers and strangle her to death, or at least until the noises stopped.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Draco heard the fluttering of wings. Taking that as his cue to move into action, Draco slipped off of the bench, ignoring the protests from Pansy and a few of the other Slytherin girls sitting near him. He walked straight out of the double door along with a few other students who, as soon as they saw him, moved to the sides and allowed him to walk right between them.

He would wait for her reaction. He would simply wait where he had specified and pray for the best. And to get out of the entire ordeal without causing a huge scene or loosing his Malfoy pride. Knowing who he was up against, Draco didn't have a good feeling about the latter.

-----

Ginny know who was surprised the most, her friends or herself. But as the same little owl she'd seen that morning flew past and dropped a small little envelop in front of her, barely missing her plate still covered in food, Ginny knew not to open the letter at the table. Not where prying eyes could look over her shoulder (or in Ron's case snatch it out of her hand before she had even read the first line) and easily learn what the envelop contained.

Excusing herself quickly, Ginny hurried out into the large hallway in front of the Great Hall. After looking around to make sure none of her friends had followed her out, Ginny ripped open the envelop and yanked out the slip of paper inside. As she did, a black piece of silk fabric fell out of the envelop. After reaching down to retrieve the piece of material, Ginny read the short line written in the same green ink with the same loopy handwriting:

Met me now; you know where.

Ginny leaned back against the wall and shoved the paper back inside the envelop. She knew if she went to met him before classes, she would have to face the facts of what they had done. She thought she could handle that; it might take all her strength, but she could deal with it. But Ginny didn't know if she would be able to agree that they wouldn't do it anymore. Sure, she'd told herself that she couldn't deal with the feelings that came along the territory of doing these things with Malfoy, but at the same time, she knew she honestly couldn't say it wasn't worth it.

Groaning, Ginny looked down at the blindfold she still held. She ran her hand across the material, loving the way the silk felt as if it melted in her touch. Leave it to Malfoy to give her such a wonderful little thing. Something made of a material Ginny's family would never be able to afford, something Ginny could only dream about being wrapped up in.

Meeting him couldn't hurt, she told herself, although she knew she was kidding herself. It could hurt, a lot; physically and mentally. But she was dieing already, so Ginny figured it couldn't get much worse.

-----

He felt like a bloody fool. Standing in a pitch black little broom closet, waiting for a girl he knew he would never have. And for what? Oh yeah, he remembered what he'd written- to talk. To talk about what, he didn't know. He knew he would be able to make something up when she arrived, if she ever did.

That was the other tiny problem with his plan. For him to actually get around to the talking, in which he didn't know what he was going to say, he needed to have someone to talk to. At least he knew who he wanted to talk to, even if she was a no show. And if she didn't show up, it wouldn't surprise him. She was a Weasley after all, not the bravest bunch of the lot.

Even as he thought about how she might not show up and he would have just wasted ten minutes he could have used with other, more important activities, the door opened almost silently. His thoughts froze in his head and his breath caught in his throat. It was amazing how she could do that to him, just by opening a freaking door.

He saw her red hair and pale skin outlined by the light from the hallway. And as fast as she had opened the door, she closed it after stepping into the little room. Draco noted how she chose to lean against the far wall, as far from him as she could possibly get in the small confinement of the room. “Why am I here?” she whispered.

The first thing he wanted to do was ask her why she was whispering. But, as his eyes readjusted to the darkness, he saw the way one of her legs bent up and her foot was placed on the wall just an inch under her butt. At that angle, her skirt, which was certainly way too short for school guidelines, barely covered anything. The way she crossed her arms across her chest didn't hide the outline of her bra under her plain white t-shirt. He took in all of this in a quick sweep down her body. He could tell she knew he was `checking her out' so to speak, and by the way she didn't shift under his glance, he thought she might just have enjoyed it.

Why are we here? he asked himself. Still no answers came to mind, so he figured he could just keep his mouth shut and let her do the talking, something he knew she was quite capable of doing. But when he didn't answer, he noticed that her calm demeanor seemed to change. “If we're just going to stand here in the dark, I've got better things to do,” she told him, pushing off the wall and placing her foot back onto the ground.

She didn't turn to face the door, but he knew she was thinking about it. When had he been so keen to her thoughts? He didn't want to even think about that fact. “We're here to discuss the certain… events that have happened in the past few weeks,” he finally told her, although he knew that wasn't exactly true. He couldn't care less about those events.

“What about them?” Ginny asked and he watched as she took a step closer to him. His Adam's apple bobbed almost painfully as he forced himself to swallow the lumps in his throat. He shook his head slowly, “I'm not quite sure,” he admitted softly, “but we do need to talk about them.”

The way her eyes were looking at him made him feel almost afraid. She took another step closer and his instincts told him to match her step backwards, but he forced his feet to stay planted in place. “I'm all eyes… err, ears,” she whispered and he noted the correction. Draco's eyes immediately zoomed in on her cherry lips and the little pout that covered him. She bit her lower lip softly, not drawing blood. She took yet another step closer to him and suddenly she was so close that he could smell the strawberry scent of her hair, and possibly her skin.

She reached up with her arms and his head sent out a warning sign that flashed `WTF' in bright, neon letters in front of his face. He felt something slide against the back of his neck, where his hair didn't grow (well, it did grow, but he kept it cut like he was following a religion). Then Ginny Weasley pulled both her hands back away and he saw the ends of the black blindfold in her hands. Draco Malfoy finally understood what was going on, and although he tried not to, he felt himself getting excited.

“Start talking,” she whispered, but he could tell she really didn't care about that at all anymore, for her eyes were glued on his lips. He watched her lick her lips and he felt the fire in the bottom of his stomach light up. Draco closed his eyes and leaned his head back. Taking a deep breath and forcing himself to try to remain calm, he opened his eyes back up and stared up at the plain ceiling.

“What happened before,” he started in an almost shaky voice, “at the Yule Ball… and again yesterday here-” he stopped when she pulled on the ends of her blindfold softly and forced him to look back down at her.

The girl he was staring down at was definitely not the same Weasley he'd met at the book store (the name couldn't come to him at the moment) some years ago. Looking down at her, he could tell she wasn't like Ron; no, she'd matured along with her years at Hogwarts. She had quite a few more natural curves and her legs were much longer. Yet, she didn't appear to have gained much, if any, weight and her face still gave the look as if she was just an innocent little girl. Oh, how he wanted to prove that look soooo wrong.

He tried to remember the last thing he'd just said. Something about something someone had done somewhere. Yeah, that sounded right. Her brown eyes looked up into his own gray ones and he almost whimpered with the urge to just slam her up against the wall. He tried to think of why he couldn't do that, (something to do with his father, he just knew it) but for the life of him it wouldn't come back to his memory.

He looked down the small space there was between their two bodies. He bet that those wonderfully round breasts of hers would fit perfectly in his hands and he had the sudden urge to test his theory. His fingers began to twitch by his sides, but he balled them up in fists to stop them from wandering anywhere they would regret. “What happened before…” she led on softly, trying to jump start his brain to finish the sentence.

Draco just nodded dumbly. “What happened before…” he couldn't bring himself to spit it out, because then he knew if he said `can never happen again' that she would most likely agree and that would be that. And although he knew that the two of them together would be nothing but trouble and that she was a bloody Weasley for God's sake, that didn't matter as he looked up at her with those round, too wide eyes of hers.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered. Draco Malfoy never apologized for anything he did, and that was because he never was sorry for anything he did. If he hurt someone's feelings, well why would he really care anyways? That didn't concern him in the least. But as he said those two little words, he could tell she was confused. Not that it would make any difference, because he wasn't apologizing to her. No, he was actually apologizing to himself for what he was going to do.

Because as soon as he said those two little words, he reached out and gripped her waist, bringing her flush up against him and pressing his lips to hers urgently.

-----

Sorry to leave it there for now, but I promise when I pick it up, we will be looking from Ginny's side and we'll pick up at the exact same moment. So keep those plot suggestions coming. Having Pansy know about Draco/Ginny was an idea from a reader that I'm going to play on some more later. Also, the idea of them getting together and snogging at their little `meeting' also came from a fan (quite a few actually), but I planned on that one from the beginning. Because we all love it when the two of them get in the closet.

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4. Alone

Seven Minutes In Heaven

By Anti Darth Ani

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My god, it took me forever to get this chapter uploaded. And I'm truly sorry about that. But we're back to school now and things are a little rough with all the homework, tests, essays to write, etc. Not to even get into my struggle with writing my Draco POV of Breaking the Habit, Numb, which will be up soon, I promise. But it's up now, is it not? And that is something to smile about. So everyone be happy, no matter how bad your day has been, and read on. And let me know your opinions about what should happen next!

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God, he seemed to become a better kisser each time they ended up together. She was so used to people being gentle with her, as if she was a little piece of porcelain that would break if they didn't wrap her up in her own little bubble that she couldn't escape from by herself. But he wasn't like that, and Ginny was grateful at least for that much. He wasn't afraid to be rough with her, to slam her up against a wall like he had just finished doing, to make her squeak with surprise right before he shoved his tongue into her mouth to find hers.

Ginny found it extremely difficult to breathe. But at the same time, she didn't think she would ever need any oxygen again because she could just live off of his mouth, of his tongue that his was running against hers. It all felt so awkward to her, but at the same time it felt so right that she never wanted it to change. Maybe he's sorry because he almost broke my back slamming me into the wall, she thought to herself as her hands gripped at his shoulders and clung desperately.

She tried to open her mouth to say something, to stop the wrong, wrong, wrong things he was doing with her mouth. But he used that as an invitation to dive further into her mouth, causing Ginny to arch her body into his. She moaned softly and felt his robes gather in her hands as her hands held on even tighter to him. She didn't want to protest, she just wanted to let him have his way with her, at least for a little while. She wanted to know what the other girls felt when they were with him, wanted to pretend that he cared more for her than he ever had for any of the others.

But as his hand began to creep in a leisurely pace up the side of her shirt, Ginny tensed a little. Everything happened so fast when he was around. Sure, she didn't like being treated like glass, but she also didn't want to rush into things blindly only to end up heart broken in the end. She'd done that once or twice already and she wasn't ready to let it happen to her again anytime soon. Pushing on his shoulders softly, Ginny tried to get Draco to relent a little. He was very reluctant to break away from her, which half surprised and half thrilled Ginny.

She gasped for air as his finally pulled his tongue out of her mouth and allowed her a little space to breathe. She could still, however, feel his hot breath tickling the hairs on the side of her neck. Her chest heaved as she tried to return the oxygen to her head and Ginny noted how his eyes followed every movement her chest made. “We really shouldn't…” she tried to explain, but it came out as a whisper and she stopped in mid-sentence when his eyes leveled onto hers and he stared straight back at her.

“Shouldn't what?” he whispered back, leaving her the stumbling fool this time. To add insult to injury, Draco's hands moved away from her waist only to come up and cup her breasts softly. Ginny sucked in a deep breath and closed her eyes, willing herself not to think about how good it felt.

“Can't do this,” she sputtered, turning her head to the side and bringing her hands up to his. She wrapped her long fingers around his wrists and pressed his hands harder against her chest. “What if… caught?” she barely breathed out as his mouth took purchase of her neck. A low humming came from her throat and she felt Draco smirk against her skin. “You have no idea…” she still couldn't manage to form complete sentences.

“…how good it feels?” he asked as he brought his lips up to her ear and blew a soft stream of air against her earlobe. She let out a soft whimper and managed a weak little nod and she tried to force his hands even harder onto her. He took the bottom of her earlobe into his mouth and bit it playfully, scratching it softly with his sharp teeth. At the same time, he gave each one of her breasts a light squeeze.

“Stop.” It wasn't a command, just a soft plea. But all the same, she felt his hands stay still while his head pulled slightly away. He brought one of his hands up to the side of her face while the other remained put. He traced the side of her face with his strong and calloused fingers, forcing Ginny to face him. “And here I thought we were having fun,” he replied it the easiest tone Ginny had ever heard.

“We really need to get to class,” Ginny said, trying to grip the easiest lie she could that sounded responsible. But she could tell he wasn't buying it. That evilly adorable smirk of his covered face as his mouth inched closer to hers and Ginny realized how bad she had it for Malfoy, the one guy she wasn't supposed to feel anything for except for hate. And yet, Ginny couldn't feel any hate for him when he looked at her like that, while he had just held her like that. Hate was the furthest thing from Ginny Weasley's mind.

“Is that so?” he asked in a lazy voice, his hand done with her face and heading into her hair. He latched onto a handful of her head and pulled on it softly, forcing her to look up at him as he pressed her down against the wall, his hand finally moving to her waist. “I know for a fact, Miss Weasley, that you don't have your first class today. You're going to have to try harder than that to get out of this.”

What is this, she wanted to ask, but the words only formed in her head and didn't get out of her numb lips. She didn't want to leave him, yet she knew she needed to. Her brother's voice kept slipping into her mind, threatening to kill her if he ever caught the two of them together. And she wanted to ask him how he knew that she didn't have a class in the morning, but that too seemed like too many words for her to voice. So Ginny just stared into those gray eyes of his and bit her lower lip softly, in the nervous way she always had since she was a little girl.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked softly to break the silence. Ginny's eyes traveled down to his chest, which was level with her eyes. She doubted he actually cared what was on her mind, because everyone knew Malfoys only care about themselves. She simply shrugged and played with the end of his tie. It felt awkward to just be crammed into a small little closet with Malfoy. It didn't feel right to just be talking with him. It only felt right when they were truly together, when they were snogging silly. Otherwise, he felt odd to Ginny, like she didn't know what he was going to say and didn't think she'd like it if he ever spoke. It's because we hate each other, Ginny told herself.

“Thinking about Potter?” His question shocked Ginny because it just seemed to come out of nowhere. She glanced back up into his eyes, which suddenly looked colder than ever. She wanted to know why he cared, why he asked, why he couldn't just shut up and kiss her again already since he clearly wasn't going to let her out of the closet anytime soon. Her hand moved up his tie a little, and she felt the same silky fabric as the blindfold she'd worn the previous day. Everything about he seemed to remind her of something else in her mind, something she should never connect to him but always did.

“No,” she answered softly. “No, I'm not thinking of Potter.” She pulled lightly on his tie, trying to bring him even closer to her. His jealous of Harry, she thought and the thought almost made her smile. How can he possibly be jealous of Harry at a time like this? “If I recall correctly, Harry isn't the one who certainly has me pinned up against a wall.”

Draco took another step closer to her until his body touched every inch of hers. “Then I deduce that you must be thinking solely of me, Miss Weasley.” And he talked in such a low drawl that Ginny wanted to beg him to take her back with him, wherever he was going. She smiled and shrugged to the best of her ability.

“Maybe just a little, Malfoy,” she whispered and pulled on his tie again, bringing his forehead down to touch hers. “You know that once we leave this closet, something like this can never happen again.” She wanted to lie to make herself believe that she'd be able to just forget about everything between them. She wanted to believe that seeing him everyday without being able to touch him wouldn't kill her. She wanted to believe everything but the truth, which was that they'd been doing this for too long now and they both needed to stop it.

“You're the one telling me, Weasley?” he asked, and he sounded shocked. But she knew he understood. What happened in the closet stayed in the closet between them. And it would never go past that, no matter what they wanted from each other.

-----

For the first time in his life, Draco Malfoy wanted something, or someone, to hold onto. And when the littlest Weasley replied, “Yes, I'm the one telling you,” he wanted to stay in the closet forever. She wasn't afraid of him like everyone else. And that annoyed the hell out of him. He wanted to be able to control everything in his life. He wanted to get things his way because people were too afraid to stand up to him. But she wasn't afraid of him anymore and that made him want her even more.

“Go on and kiss me again,” she whispered, pulling him so close he could feel every word that she spoke, “I know you want to, Draco.” The way she said his name frustrated him and turned him on at the same time. She was seducing him- they both knew it- and he was letting her. What had become of his world? Bloody Weasleys. He wanted to ask her if the Weasleys were needy about everything in their lives, but suddenly he couldn't bring himself to slam her family. Because no matter how much he hated Arthur and Molly Weasley, he loved them for bringing the spunky teenager in his arms into the world, even if she was another red headed Weasley.

He finally listened to what she'd said to him, catching her mouth with his. He sucked on her lower lip, biting it softly the same way she'd just been doing. He didn't have to wonder why she did it anymore- it felt wonderful and it made her make the funniest little noises. He felt her hands against his shirt, sliding all over the place and he wished she'd stop moving around so much because all the squirming was making him very excited. Her mouth opened and she let out a little moan. He wanted to dive right into her mouth, to latch onto her tongue and never let go, but he didn't quite yet. He was having far too much fun playing with her lips.

He felt her stiffen against him and then he heard her laugh softly against his mouth. Draco realized she'd finally noticed the bulge in his pants that was pressed up against her thigh. He wanted to be embarrassed, but instead he was simply fascinated by her laughter. Her hands slid up to the sides of his face and she finally stopped moving around so much.

He slowly released her lip and rested his head against hers. Nothing had really happened, and yet he couldn't seem to slow his breathing back down to a normal rate. He was about to remind her again about how this had to stop between them when the closet door suddenly opened and bright white light filled the entire room. He squinted his eyes as the brightness engulfed them, not yet concerned about who had opened the door.

“Ginny Weasley!” a voice hissed from the doorway. “You get out of there right now!”

Draco felt her suddenly slipping away from him, far too soon. His hand held onto her side tighter as she pushed against him to get herself away from the wall. Her head pulled away from his hand and she released his tie and within ten seconds everything was gone between them.

“Lav, what are you doing here?” he heard her whisper softly as he still managed to keep a hand on her.

“I'm saving your ass is what I'm doing here. Your brother and Harry are looking all over the school for you and Hermione's about to go to Dumbledore's office to express their concern about your disappearance,” Lavender Brown responded, reaching for Ginny's hand and trying to pull her away from him.

She looked up at him with a sad smile, her shoulders rising slowly as her eyes lowered. Lavender let out an impatient whine. Draco wanted to beg her to stay, pled her to just forget about everyone else and just focus on him. But he couldn't in front of her friend and his pride would never let him beg a Weasley for anything. So he just released her side and let her slip away from him. Suddenly, he was all alone in the dark broom closet again, feeling as much of a fool as ever.

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5. Let The Games Begin

Seven Minutes In Heaven

By Anti Darth Ani

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A great little chapter I have here for all my loyal and patient readers and reviewers. Just be nice to be for being so slow to update, because I have a lot going on right now (even more than the four fan-fics I'm writing right now at the same time). But hey, this story isn't dead, and that counts for something, right???? @.@ Well, I surely hope that you truly enjoy this chapter. I've now officially used up all my creative juices and am in need of an extremely long nap!!!

Also, I am look for a person to edit this story. If you have some spare time and can edit it quickly (and you want to edit the story), please leave your e-mail in your review and I would love you forever and ever. And I really think it would get me to update faster because then I wouldn't have to edit it myself :P

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“Where in the world have you been, Ginny?” Ron asked as she slipped into the seat next to Ron in the Great Hall for lunch. “You about gave poor Hermione a heart attack when we couldn't find you this morning. How many times do we have to tell you that you need to be extra careful these days? With the war drawing up closer every day, we need to know where you are Ginny. If Mum found out…” Ginny couldn't seem to focus on her brother's extra long lecture as she took a sip of her pumpkin juice. Her brain zoomed out and refocused on something completely different, something she knew her brother would have a fit about if he ever found out. Across the room sat Draco Malfoy, sitting at the Slytherin table, surrounded by his goons and giggling seventh year girls.

Oh, Ginny would have given anything to be one of those girls. She didn't want to be a boneless airhead, but she wanted to be around him like they were. No one cared if those girl crowded around Draco and laughed at every single thing he said. No, none of their brothers would slit their throats if they saw them standing around Draco. In fact, their brothers would want to become one of Draco's lackeys. But not Ron. Ron would ask Ginny if Draco had put a charm on her, and then he would curse her into tomorrow for `going out with that git'.

Sometimes I wish I could trade in my red hair and my family name just to get along with the people I can't now, Ginny thought as she forced herself to look away from Draco's fan club. It isn't healthy to think about him this much, she told herself. I can't even eat right anymore because of him. And why? Because they made out a few times, a few times too many in everyone's opinion except for her own.

Lavender cleared her throat and bumped Ginny with her shoulder. Ginny looked up at her friends, who were sitting silently at the table, staring at her. Ginny glanced at all their faces with a puzzled expression. “What?” she demanded, wondering why they were looking right at her without saying anything.

Hermione shook her head, like she was ashamed, and went back to talking to Harry about her classes. Ginny turned to Lavender and raised an eyebrow but Lavender sent her back a look to say `I'll tell you later'. Frustrated and upset, Ginny let her fork clatter down onto her plate and she stood up and climbed over the seat. She reached for her backpack and managed to grab the strap quickly. As she yanked it up onto her shoulder, it tipped too far back and a few of her books spilled out of the pack.

Many of the heads in the Great Hall turned to Ginny, whose face was glowing a bright red. Nice going, you idiot, she chided herself. Nice, clean getaway, she mocked herself as she silently tried to gather up her books without saying a word to anyone. Before her brother or her friends could say a word to her, Ginny had snatched her books back up and hurried out of the dinning hall without another word.

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Lavender wondered what had suddenly gotten into Ginny. She noted during lunch how Ginny's eyes seemed to drift over to the Slytherin table while she was eating. As Ginny snatched up her books, her backpack slid against the floor and when Ginny stormed out of the hall, Lavender saw a little piece of paper left on the floor. Making sure no one saw her, she quickly leaned back and picked up the paper, sliding it into her pocket, she sat back up and reached for the mashed potatoes.

“What's her problem?” Harry asked as he watched Ginny's retreating form. Ron just shrugged and Hermione mumbled something about hormones as she opened her Muggle Studies book. Lavender thought about the piece of paper in her pocket. Oh, it could be nothing more than her Potions notes, but it could also be some very important, maybe the reason Ginny seemed to be on edge.

Of course, Lavender figured she already knew why Ginny was on edge. And it had to do with the blonde hair god glancing at the seat where Ginny had been sitting only seconds ago. Yes, Draco had a way of pinching one of Ginny's nerves, getting under her skin and just staying there. And Lavender didn't think he even knew what kind of affect he had on her poor friend.

Lavender shook her head to herself and smiled. Teenage relationships never ceased to amaze her sometimes and it was great when things got complicated. Otherwise, where was the fun in watching your friends date and find the wonders of getting lost in the broom closets? Although it felt mean to admit it, Lavender was actually having a little fun watching Ginny struggle with her feelings for Draco. After all, Lavender had a plan to get them together anyways, and it was damn near foolproof. It was just going to take a little time and some effort. Since she was going to help Ginny out in the end, where was the harm in having a little fun watching them struggle with each other first?

No harm in that at all, Lavender answered to herself as she bit into her chicken. As she ate, she listened to Ron and Harry talk about the upcoming Quidditch game against Ravenclaw. She also noticed that Draco had gotten up from his house table and was making his way towards the double doors out into the hallway.

Oh, let the games begin, Lavender grinned and patted her pocket, making sure the piece of paper was still safely tucked away.

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Ginny didn't want to even think about what an idiot she had looked like. Why can't things ever just be simple? she asked herself as she threw her bag against the wall and sighed. Ginny slumped against the wall and just looked down at her bag. I can't let this get to me anymore, Ginny thought, twisting a strand of her hair around her finger. I just need to relax and focus on my schoolwork for now. I'll worry about everything else later. Much later. She looked around, wondering why the hell she'd chosen this hallway to make her `great' escape down. It was deserted, which seemed liked the only plus. Not even the portraits on the walls moved. The statues stood silently without moving and Ginny groaned. Where am I?

She wanted to pick up her bag and try to find her way out of here. She wanted to get back to her dormitory and sleep, forgetting about the rest of her classes for the day. But she couldn't seem to move. I really don't like it here, she discovered as she looked up and down the dark hall. And I don't even know where here is.

Ginny slowly bent down and picked her bag back off the floor. She looked in the direction she'd coming running from and sighed. Might as well start walking. After all, all hallways lead to the Great Hall, Ginny thought as she began her long walk towards the Astronomy Tower for her next class. The only sound she heard was the clicking of the heels of her shoes against the hard ground.

The further Ginny traveled down the hallway, the more hopeless she began to feel. This hall seems to go on forever, she thought after she'd walked down the hall for a good five minutes. I don't remember going this far. Her heartbeat quickened as she began to panic a little and walk faster. What if it's one of those magical hallways? she thought, breaking out into a full run. A hallway that traps me here and has me running forever. She couldn't remember if she'd actually heard of such a thing before, but Ginny figured anything could exist, and Hogwarts was a perfect place to try such a thing out.

The further down the hall Ginny traveled, the more she panicked. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes, but she didn't stop to let herself cry. If she stopped running, she would breakdown and she'd have no chance of escape. Her best bet was to just keep running.

I'm going to die, she thought to herself suddenly. She tried to shake the thought out of her mind, telling herself how stupid she was being, but the more she ran, the more tired she got and the more she wanted to give up. This is stupid, Ginny thought, but she didn't stop running.

Just as Ginny was going to give up, she ran into something solid. Something she couldn't see, something that shouldn't have been in her path. Ginny let out a little “umph!” as she collided with the solid object. She would have landed on her ass, but the object came to life, grabbing her waist and holding her up.

As soon as she caught her balance again, Ginny tried to pull away from the object. But it held onto her tighter and Ginny realized it was a person. She began to push against it and tried to hit it with her backpack, but it didn't let go.

Ginny suddenly stopped and let the bag drop. Why is everything so black? And why can't I see who's in front of me? What the hell is wrong with me lately? “Damn, Weasley,” came a muffled voice and Ginny felt her stomach drop.

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Her hand reached out and he grunted when she touched his face. Well, if he was being honest, he'd have to say that she tried to touch his face but ended up more or less sticking her finger in his nose. “What the hell are you doing?” he hissed, batting her hand away.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, but she didn't really seem to be talking to him. Instead, it was as if she was talking to someone next to him. She wasn't even looking right at him.

“What am I doing here?” he shot back. Good question. “I was following you,” he told her honestly. She raised an eyebrow and reached out again, but this time she reached right over his shoulder. “What is wrong with you, Weasley?” he asked. “Are you trying to be a mime?”

Ginny sighed and let her hands drop. “I can't see anything,” she admitted. Draco didn't know why, but he had to laugh. She managed to hit him well enough, “It's not funny!” she insisted.

“Oh, you have no idea how funny it is. Someone jinxed little Miss Perfect Weasley.” Draco drew his wand out of his pocket, but waited to reverse the charm. He had half a mind to just let her suffer for a while. It proved enough to amuse him for a while.

“Draco,” she hissed, reaching out and managing to grab his tie. “I know you know the anti-jinx.” She pulled him a little closer, “So be a good little Head Boy and take the jinx off of me.”

Draco didn't like being bossed around. He was a Malfoy, after all. But, he had to admit, he liked the way the little Weasley got when she was angry. He felt like shoving her up against a wall and well… doing everything he shouldn't all over again. “And how do I know you didn't curse yourself in order to get me to come to your rescue?”

“Oh, don't be such an ass,” Ginny complained, letting go of Draco and taking a step back, only to somehow hit her back against a solid object, which Ginny took to be a wall.

“But that's what you like, isn't it Weasley?” he asked, stepping closer to the cornered girl. Maybe he'd be able to shove her up against the wall after all…

“Don't go there right now,” she said in a soft voice, sounding a bit detached for a second. Draco guessed he had struck a nerve or something equally as bothering. He took another step, resting his hand on the wall next to her head.

“Go where, Miss Weasley?” he asked, his breath tickling the side of her face. “I'm not going anywhere.” He hated how he couldn't control the way he acted around her. Nothing went the way he wanted it to when it involved Ginny Weasley. It scared and fascinated Draco at the same time.

“Draco, stop,” she whispered, turning her head away from him and trying to control her pacing heart. She couldn't do this anymore. She'd promised herself she wouldn't let it happen again, but her control over the situation was slipping more and more the closer he got to her. “We said we wouldn't do this anymore,” she reminded him, although she knew all too well that he didn't need a reminder.

“What are we doing?” he asked her, slowly pulling his wand out of his robe pocket. Ginny just shrugged and looked down at the floor, still seeing nothing but black. Draco muttered a short charm as the tip of his wand pressed against her stomach. The colors immediately returned to Ginny and she could see his shinny black shoes poking out from the bottom of his robes.

She couldn't give him an answer because she didn't have one. But she didn't want to admit that. Without even a thank-you, Ginny silently picked up her backpack and slid out from between him and the wall, hurrying off without another word.

Fine, Draco thought as he watched her retreating form. Let the games begin.

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6. Ride

Seven Minutes In Heaven

Chapter VI - Ride

By Anti Darth Ani

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Just a little reminder: When you review (which I hope everyone does :P) make sure you include any ideas of where you want my story to go. I love that type of feedback on a story, such as this one, where I really don't know where I want to go with the story.

I'm so sorry it's taking me soooo freaking long to update this story, but I'm trying my hardest, I promise. And for those of you who also like CSI: NY, read my other story, When It Rains In NY, on fanfiction.net because it is what's keeping this story and my others held up. That, and I've been having a case of writer's block.

Anyways, on to the good stuff. There are going to be quite a few twists and turns in this chapter, so sit tight and read through it now. :P

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Lavender rushed quickly up to her dormitory after her finally class. She didn't stop to make polite chit chat to anyone, just climbed the stairs two at a time and flopped down on the bed. Yanking the piece of parchment out of her pocket, she flung it down on the mattress and just stared at it. She felt bad stealing something that belonged to such a good friend of her's. I didn't steal it, Lavender corrected herself. I did Ginny a favor, picking it up off the floor where anyone could walk by and pick it up. She didn't add that she had no right snooping at what was actually written on the parchment, if anything.

Lavender snatched the paper back up and brought it right in front of her face. She was about to open it up when she threw it back onto the bed. It's none of my business, Lavender told herself. But that didn't make her want to know any less. What if Ginny was dying and this letter was telling her that? Lavender was Ginny's best friend. She had a right to know. Like Ginny's really dying, the inner voice in her head snapped back. She knew she was stretching her reasoning, but she just had to figure out who the letter was from and what it was about.

Deciding finally, Lavender almost ripped the piece of parchment as she quickly unfolded it, her hands trembling a little as her eyes darted over the writing confined on the paper.

Lavender had been expecting a letter to Ginny, most likely from Draco. But she didn't think even Draco was sick enough to write such a thing to Ginny. She gasped a little as she read over the letter, letting out a small scream when she reached the end. Lavender dropped the letter immediately and scrambled off of the bed, not caring when her foot got twisted in the bed sheet and dropped her on her ass. She kicked at the sheet and pushed herself as far away from the piece of parchment as she could with her hands and legs.

Who would write such a thing to Ginny? Lavender wondered silently as she watched the parchment suddenly alight itself, engulfed in blue and green flames. Who would want to hurt Ginny? Who would want to... her mind stumbled on the word... kill Ginny?

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Ginny walked down the snow covered ground, heading from the Herbology greenhouses up towards Hogwarts. She was ready for the day to end, ready to just eat quickly and then crawl into her bed. Maybe she'd cast a small heating charm on her bed as well to keep out the frosty air that came with the wonderful white weather. She loved the snow when she was inside, wrapped up in a blanket and looking at it from inside the warmth of the castle. She wasn't too fond of it, though, when she had to stalk through it back to the main doors of the castle.

She'd stayed behind at the end of class to help clean up, because she needed the little extra credit offered in order to raise her grade from a failing grade to a passing grade. It wasn't, after all, she fault Colin had forgotten to take care of their project on the weekend he was assigned to. And so Ginny blamed Colin when the thing blew itself up in the middle of class, severely injuring one of the Ravenclaw sixth years that joined their class.

As the snow began to fall lightly from the sky, Ginny was sorry she'd stayed behind. She didn't like walking by herself, especially when her visibility was cut in half from the snow. She picked up the pace a little, but she still had difficultly walking. For every step she took, her foot sunk into the inches of snow that had collected on the grounds of the school. Almost there, she lied to herself. In fact, she could barely even see the lights from the castle as it began to snow even harder.

Stupid, stupid, Ginny snapped at herself as she walked through the snow. Note to self: never do this again. Ginny could finally see the outline of the school as she got further away from the greenhouse. As she passed by the Quidditch field, Ginny paused to look up at the large three goal hoops on the side closest to her. Oh, she wished she was out there right this instant, playing alongside her brother and the rest of the team. She just wanted to feel free. But Ginny wasn't the best flyer when she had to play in the snow. In fact, her teammates were reluctant to let her play last year in any game in which it rained or snowed, because she was more harm than good.

Ginny screamed and her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach, beating much harder that it should have, as something grabbed her from behind. A hand came up to cover her mouth and keep her silent, which made her panic even more. She began to kick ferociously until her capture spun her around and Ginny came face to face with Draco Malfoy.

Ginny stopped screaming, but she kept kicking until he finally released her. “What the hell is your problem?” she asked, hitting him in the arm with her Herbology book. “You almost gave me a bloody heart attack!” She hated admitting that she was ever afraid, but he owed her an explanation and she wanted one from him.

Instead of telling her way he'd attacked her, Draco turned around and simply told her to follow him as he walked back towards the Quidditch field. Ginny stood rooted to the ground and stared at his retreating form. He must be kidding. He can't honestly expect me to follow him. Not after that stunt. But when Draco realized she wasn't walking after him, he turned back around to face her. “Come on, Ginny, I don't have all day,” he said without taking a step back towards her.

Ginny began to shake her head. “How do I know you won't try to kill me again?” she asked, although she knew her question sounded silly to both of them. Somewhere in her brain, she knew he would never try to kill her. But she still didn't know if she felt comfortable following him where ever he was going. She knew her friends would be waiting back in the Great Hall for her when it was time for dinner.

Draco grunted, walking back towards her and grabbing her arm, pulling her in the direction he wanted to go. “Don't be such a mute. People will think you don't have any brains.” Draco smirked as he said his next sentence, “And we wouldn't want that.”

“Where are we going?” she asked as she let him drag her away. Ginny didn't want to fight him. She wanted to go off with him, no matter where he took her. The thought of it scared her, true enough. But she'd never be able to forgive herself if she fought this, whatever this happened to turn out to be.

“Oh, you'll see,” he responded, pulling her into the tunnel under the field that led to the changing rooms and stairs to the seating on the field.

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Pansy sat on the oversized lounge chair by the fireplace, tapping her finger on the arm of the seat impatiently. Where the hell has be been? She hadn't seen Draco since Potions class after lunch. And she really needed to talk to him about what she'd found out about the littlest Weasley. Or at least what I want him to think I found out, she added to herself. In fact, she'd spent a good whole double class of Astronomy weaving the perfect tale to tell Draco. Oh, I hope he'll be truly heartbroken, Pansy thought as she picked at a loose thread on the armrest.

The portrait hole opened and Pansy twisted quickly in her seat to get a better look at who was entering the room. Blaise strutted his way into the common room and Pansy sank back into the chair. She'd been waiting now for nearly two and a half hours and she still hadn't spotted Draco. He hadn't been at dinner and he missed his last class of the day as well. What irritated her even more was that the Weasley girl had also not been seen.

She found out this little piece of information while she was blackmailing Ginny's best friend, one Mr. Creevey. Pansy didn't have anything personal against Colin, except for the fact that he was an annoying Gryffindor. But she'd needed someone who had a camera in order to perfect her scheme. Colin had been curious when Pansy had asked him to secretly snap two pictures of two very important people for her. He'd been even more surprised with what she'd demanded him to do with the pictures.

Pansy sighed as the clock struck eleven. She had an early class in the morning and a Potions essay she needed to finish writing. She didn't have time to sit around and wait forever. Not when Draco was notorious for staying out late, doing things Pansy didn't even want to think about.

Making up her mind, Pansy took the sealed letter with the picture safely tucked inside and, grabbing her quill, she quickly scribbled his name on the front. Then she handed it to Blaise to take up to the dormitory he shared with Draco and to place on Draco's bed. With one last glance to the portrait hole, which was closed, Pansy headed up to her own room for the night.

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“Draco,” Ginny squealed as he plunged down. She gripped his shoulders and held onto his stick even tighter. “Stop!” she yelled, but the wind and the snow caught her words and swallowed them up. She squeezed her eyes shut against the torrent of snow coming at them. Draco jerked up and pushed them even faster. Ginny felt fearful and excited at the same time. She'd never thought doing this could make her feel this way, but he knew how to make everything more exciting.

His hands slid back and closer to the insides of her thighs as he pushed up again and forced them faster than they'd gone all night. Ginny felt him pressed against her back and she forced herself to open her eyes. She reached her hands out and wrapped them around his, squeezing lightly. She could feel his breath coming in little pants against her ear and she had to hold back a moan.

He leveled them out and they began to slow down as Draco reached the edge. Ginny slowly slipped her right leg onto the other side of the broomstick. Releasing his hands with one of hers, she grabbed his shoulder with that hand. She knew he didn't quite understand what she was doing yet. Ginny picked up her left leg and slipped it onto the other side of the broomstick, her legs crossing over his. She let go of his hands with her other hand and brought it up to clutch his other side. As she squirmed to sit comfortably facing him, Draco jerked the broomstick around and through the highest goal post on the east side of the field.

Ginny debated wrapping her legs around his waist for better balance, but dismissed the idea when she saw the look he was giving her. Instead, she simply let them hang down on the sides of the broomstick. “Faster,” she whispered, and he could barely hear her above the roar of the snow.

Draco kicked back his legs, leaning forward slightly to push them off again. They shot off across the Quidditch field, slightly climbing up higher above the clouds. Ginny loved the way the wind whipped her hair around, except for the fact that she was now facing away from the wind, so it pushed her hair back into both their faces. As Draco pulled the broom up to a sharp angle, Ginny's body slid back until her chest was pressed against him and her head was against the side of his. She was thankful she didn't weigh much and that Draco was strong enough to keep them both from falling off the broom.

When they had climbed higher than the top of the stands, Draco suddenly yanked the handle of the broomstick and leaned back. Ginny let out a scream as they flipped upside down and then began to plunge straight towards the ground upside down. Her scream turned into a laugh as they fell faster and faster. Although she couldn't see his face, Ginny knew Draco was smiling as well. He jerked the broom up and then shot straight up, still hanging upside down. The inverted flying made Ginny a little nauseous, but she was having too much fun to ask him to stop again.

She wrapped her arms around his neck as he began to roll them in corkscrews. Ginny closed her eyes and allowed herself to see through the movements their bodies made. He straightened again and pulled the handle up, rolling them halfway and pushing the broom up towards the sky again. As he continued to roll the broomstick and flip them upside down, Ginny lost sense of when they were right side up and when they were upside down.

The broom jerked quickly to a very slow pace and Ginny opened her eyes. The snow was barely falling anymore and the sun was setting just over the horizon. “How do you feel?” he asked slowly allowing the broom to drift down towards the ground.

“High,” Ginny replied, and laughed. She squeezed her legs against his side intentionally and heard as his let out a small groan. She grinned at him, pressing herself fully against him. “Completely and utterly high,” she whispered.

She didn't know why he'd taken her flying, but it brought a new meaning to `taking someone for a ride'. She'd never thought of flying like that before, didn't know it could make her feel so free. And he'd been the one to share it with her. Suddenly, she wanted to take him for a ride. A completely different type of ride.

“High's good,” he replied as the broom settled and hovered a few inches above the ground.

“I don't want to go back,” Ginny accidentally confided in him. She wanted to be with him, out here and away from where people would judge her. All of the sudden she felt guilty about the way that her brother and his friends treated Draco. It was like when he was flying, he was a completely different person than the one that always put down her family and embarrassed her friends.

She ran a hand through his tangled hair, wind whipped and full of snow. Without thinking, she pulled him closer to her and pressed her mouth against his. He let his feet touch the ground and Ginny instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist as he let the broom drop to the ground. His hands found her butt and he pulled her up against him.

How do we always end up here? Ginny thought to herself as he began to desperately kiss her back. The snow fell around them and onto them, the chill disappearing as the heat from their bodies surrounded them. She wanted to be indifferent when it came to Draco, wanted to tell him and her brother that she wouldn't take sides. But she was caught between the Golden Trio and Malfoy.

His mouth left hers and began to suck, almost painfully, on the side of her neck. Ginny squeezed her eyes shut and titled her head to the side. Her alliance seemed to be shifting without her control. He always managed to pull her away from what she thought was safe, what her family and friends believed was good for her. But all Ginny wanted was to feel happy, to feel free. And he gave that to her. He gave her the ride of her life.

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7. Need

Seven Minutes In Heaven

Chapter VII - Need

By Anti Darth Ani

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Lavender tapped her pen on the top of the table, a quick beat that annoyed not only herself, but all the others sitting in the common room as well. She swallowed and forced herself to stop moving the pen. After all, the movement was making her a little bit nauseous and the last thing she needed was to get sick. She'd managed to stay collected for the past two hours, so long as you disregarded the time she had spent up in the dormitory. As soon as she'd picked herself up off the floor and gathered her thoughts, she had headed straight for the library, where she'd found Colin Creevey sitting at one of the back tables.

She'd seen the picture of Ginny he'd quickly shoved under his folder when he saw her approaching, but she was too bothered to question him about such petty things. She sat down next to him, leaned in and started whispering rapidly about the letter that had lit itself on fire. He was just as surprised as she had been, but he promised not to utter a single word to their friend until they'd talked to Harry and Hermione about it. They didn't want to worry her if she hadn't already read the letter. And if she had, they wanted to know if she'd told Harry and Hermione about it already. But they certainly didn't want to get Ronald mixed up in the whole ordeal, because Lavender knew he tended to have a bit of a temper when it came to affairs dealing with his little sister.

Lavender looked down at the sentence she'd written on the piece of parchment in front of her. She just didn't know how to put into words what she now knew. That someone, someone they weren't aware of yet, wasn't threatening Ginny and planning to kill her. And that sounded quite bad to Lavender. But how could she say that to Harry and Hermione, who were like extended family to Ginny? Surely they would try to intervene, and Lavender didn't know if that was safe at the moment. If they tried to help her, it might make whoever was writing the letter pissed, and that would only make matters worse for Ginny.

She debated with herself whether or not to actually go through with telling Harry and Hermione. Maybe she should just talk it over with Colin again, and make sure it was the right idea. But every second they wasted, another moment closer Ginny could be to her death. Lavender groaned, setting down her pen to prevent herself from making any more noise than she absolutely had to. It would be wrong to keep such a secret to just herself and Colin, but then again she knew very little about what the actual letter meant. Perhaps someone was simply playing a prank on Ginny, trying to get her all worried and upset. Lavender didn't know who would ever want to do that, but Lavender knew that some of the Slytherins would do almost anything to some of the Gryffindors.

Lavender reached forward and snatched up the piece of parchment. She quickly crumpled it up and sighed. Throwing it into the large fireplace, she watched as the flames engulfed the paper and burnt it up until she saw no remainders. Then Lavender quickly shoved all of her books and parchment into her bag. She debated leaving the bag there, but she didn't trust some of the first and second years in Gryffindor quite yet, so she picked up the bag and stood up. She was going to find Ginny and confront her about the letter. Ginny was her best friend and Lavender had the right to know if her friend was in danger. She saw no need to worry Harry or Hermione yet.

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They waited until steam covered the majority of the large room before moving towards the shower. Ginny shivered uncontrollably as her lips chattered while he kissed her shoulder and neck. Why had he insisted on flying in the snow? Quite a ridiculous idea, now that she thought about it. No one ever wanted to fly in the snow. It was how even the best Quidditch players fell ill right before the most important matches of their lives. Playing in the freezing temperatures and then, if they were like Draco and Ginny, making out in the locker room until all the snow melted and froze them half to death.

Draco took a step back under the scalding water, feeling the heat immediately as the water fell on the couple, both fully clad in all their clothes except for their robes, which were pitched over one of the wooden benches on the other side of the Slytherin locker room. Ginny let out a low hiss and closed her eyes as the steamy water cascaded into her face. She leaned her head forward, closer to Draco's, to keep the majority of the water out of her eyes. She knew it hadn't been smart to wear a white shirt under her robes when she got dressed this morning, but for some reason she'd gone ahead and put it on anyway. Now, she knew her shirt was see through and that Draco was seeing a little more than she'd intended for him to see.

She didn't say a word as he turned them around and pushed her back up against the closest wall of the shower. What would she even begin to say? `Oh, sure go ahead, burn us to death to try to rid us of the hypothermia. And, while we're in this shower alone in the locker room, go ahead and shag me silly, I don't mind.' For some reason, Ginny didn't think that saying this to Draco at the time being would be such a smart idea, so she opted to just keep her mouth shut. Well, not literally. Because if she actually shut her mouth, then he wouldn't be able to do that thing with his tongue that he was really good at doing with hers. And preventing that wouldn't be fair to either one of them.

Ginny leaned in against Draco, pushing up onto the tips of her toes in order to find his mouth with hers once again. The water was so hot, it sent a chill down her back, causing her to slightly shiver. Draco must have assumed that she was still cold because he pulled her flush up against him. He nipped her bottom lip, not hard enough to draw blood but enough to make her feel it. Ginny, in turn, moaned against his mouth. His hands gripped at her waist, almost painfully, grinding her hips in an extremely unsubtle way. She could feel how excited he was, even through their layers of clothing. She really couldn't blame him, because she was feeling something of the same way. But she didn't think she'd be able to handle the situation calmly if he continued at the same pace. She was working herself up to an all-time high, and it would only be moments before she came crashing back into reality- that he was Draco Malfoy, said enemy of all she loved and admired.

Reality came sooner than she'd expected, when his hands traveled up the bottom fold of her soaking t-shirt. Except for where his hands were traveling, the shirt clung to every curve of her body, allowing Draco to view just how skinny and well shaped Ginny had become since the last school year. Between the water collecting on her skin and the water collecting on his body, his fingers slid right across her skin, climbing quickly up her sides. His fingers pulled the shirt up with his needy fingers when he was too impatient to try to pull the shirt away from her slick skin. She knew she had to stop him before he managed to pull the shirt off of her body and toss it aside. Her shirt was one of the only boundaries she had from him. Ginny wasn't ready to handle being with him yet, not in this way. Not when she knew that no one would approve when they found out.

“Draco,” she gasped as she pulled her mouth away from his. Opening her eyes, she looked up into his, trying to catch her breath. “Please stop,” she asked softly, barely heard over the sound of the water hitting the confines of the shower walls. She stilled his hands with her own, pulling them back down, along with her shirt. She knew he would be frustrated with her and she didn't blame him, but things were just happening too fast for her to handle and Ginny didn't like not being in control.

“Gin... I can't,” he whispered, his hands reaching again, needing to have some kind of contact with her skin. He had to make sure that she was real, that she wasn't just another hallucination he had made up. “I need you,” his voice pleaded with her, tickling her ear as he rested his lips on the side of her head. He couldn't believe he was begging a Weasley, but if that was what it was going to take, so be it. He hadn't had much pride since he'd discovered that she was the girl he'd been in the broom closet with.

Ginny forced herself to calm her breathing. She wasn't cold anymore. Instead, she was feeling hotter than she wanted to. Yet, he had her pined to the wall, which he seemed to be doing a lot lately, so she couldn't get out of the shower. His fingers were inching back up her sides, against her protest. She knew what he had to be feeling like, but Ginny wouldn't let herself give in. Not now, and not to Draco Malfoy. “We can't do this,” she told him, shifting against him, trying to get him to face her again. “At least not right now. I need to get back to school, or my friends are going to start looking for me.”

Draco ignored what she was saying, dropping his lips to her shoulder to kiss her there. Ginny wanted to cry, knowing that he was just as stubborn as she was. She wasn't going to get anywhere just talking to him. Draco didn't listen to people, especially when they were saying things he didn't want to hear. Pushing him off of her, Ginny quickly slipped out of the shower before he could pull her back to him. She grabbed the first towel that she saw hanging against the wall, wrapping it around herself quickly so that she didn't have time to get cold again.

Draco turned off the water and stepped out of the shower himself, heading straight over to Ginny. She turned around to face him as he was closing in on her. He reached out for her, but Ginny slapped his hand away. “Don't do anything you're going to regret, Malfoy,” she warned him. She didn't want to argue with him, not after the amazing ride he'd given her on his broom. But her voice took on an icy tone as she talked with him now, afraid of caving into him, allowing him to take her in the Quidditch locker room for his house.

“Why are you fighting me, Ginny?” he shot back, pinning her shoulders against the wall. He liked to have her cornered, with no where to run to. He liked knowing that she had to give him the answers he wanted before he'd let her escape. “You and I both know that you want this,” he didn't try to kiss her again because he didn't want to upset her more than he already had. He just wanted some bloody answers was all.

“We can't always have what we want, Draco,” she told him sternly, and he knew that she was implying her statement for other meanings as well. “Now please let me go.” How were they going to work something out between them when they both went from hot to cold in just a matter of seconds? Ginny feared she'd never be able to figure Draco out, and that no matter how much he said he needed her, it was only a matter of time before he found someone else, someone else who wasn't afraid to be with him.

She felt the tears coming and she let out one choked sob, reaching out and running a hand through his hair. “You'll never understand,” she told him, her voice shaking. “You couldn't possibly understand what it's like to want something all your life and never manage to get it.” He wasn't sure what she was talking about, if it had anything to do with him or not. He hated to see girls cry, and watching Ginny fight back her emotions caused a small pain in his stomach.

Before he could reply, she slid under his arm, like she always did, and exited the locker room, heading back for the school. “GINNY!” he called out after her, but she didn't answer. Draco sighed, banging his head once against the wall. She was just so... complicated. Maybe that's why he was so drawn to her. Draco pulled on his robe and picked up her's that she'd left behind, heading out of the locker room behind her, not caring that he was still soaking wet.

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8. Going In Circles

Seven Minutes In Heaven

Chapter VIII - Going In Circles

Written By: Anti Darth Ani

Edited By: Anti Darth Ani

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Author's Note: I realize how serious this fan-fic has become, and I'm not sure I like it that much. I try to write funny stuff, but this fan-fic has a mind of its own. So, I've steered away from the death-of-Ginny and scary stuff like that and tried to add a little more humor, dare I say `comic relief', into this chapter. However, as I wrote it, it sort of became dark humor. *Shrugs* Thanks to all my wonderful readers and reviewers, to whom I owe all my creative juices [which are chugging away at this novel of mine]. You guys keep me rolling!!!! I love every single review I get, even if you don't like me :P Some of you make me smile, some of you make me laugh, and some of you make me wonder just what the hell you're trying to say :P But, like I said, I love you all. And this chapter goes to all of you!

I'm getting close to the end of this fan-fic, I can feel it!!!

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One more kiss could be the best thing

But one more lie could be the worst

And all these thoughts are never resting

And you're not something I deserve

In my head there's only you now

This world falls on me

In this world there's real and make believe

And this seems real to me

You love me, but you don't know who I am

I'm torn between this life I lead and where I stand

You love me, but you don't know who I am

So let me go, let me go

-Let Me Go by 3 Doors Down

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“You need to stop running away!” he called out after her, running as fast as he could in the knee deep snow. As luck would have it, his long legs carried him almost twice as fast as Ginny could move in the mounds of snow. It didn't take him long to catch up with her. As he finally came up close to her, Draco reached out and snatched her arm, pulling her to the side and behind a large cherry tree near the lake. The last thing he wanted was for someone to just happen to look out of one of the hundreds of windows in the school and spot them together.

“Look at me, Ginny,” he demanded, his voice soft but the tone harsh enough to catch her attention. She knew he didn't mess around, that when he said something he really meant it. But she couldn't help but look away, afraid to see what secrets would be revealed in his eyes. Instead of looking directly at him, she focused her gaze on his chest it front of her. His white undershirt was completely see though and he knew she was thinking about him in some way as she didn't tear her eyes away.

Draco reached behind with both arms and brought her robe around her shoulders. He knew she was cold, even if she wasn't trembling from the gusting wind. As he pulled her robe around her, his hands released the robe and traveled up the sides of her neck, barely touching the skin. He watched as her eyes fluttered shut involuntarily, reacting to his warm skin. It amazed him that even the softest touch and the most innocent words could cause such a response from her. And he knew that she wanted him just as much as he needed her. She just had a better way of hiding it.

“I don't want you to love me,” he whispered softly, looking down at the side of her face as she continued to stare directly into his chest, which was just slightly under her eye level. His fingers brushed across her cheeks as his breath tickled the side of her face. “I just want to feel you, Ginny. You don't have to promise me anything, but I want this to be easier between us. I want to quit following you around, having to beg for you just to listen.”

She looked up at him as he said this, and he could tell that she was puzzled by his meaning. The corners of her eyes were wet and she was on the verge of tears again, but she always held them back. She tried to prove that she was stronger than he was, and if he was honest with himself he would have to agree. “I don't know how this started,” he continued, restraining himself from just slamming her up against the tree trunk and taking her whether she wanted it or not. “And I don't know how it'll end,” he told her truthfully. “But, whatever this is between us, I need it.”

She began to pull away from him again, he could already feel her weight shifting away and his fingers losing contact with her skin. How did he always manage to say the wrong thing, to upset her more than she already was? Why couldn't things between them ever be simple for once? WHY, WHY, WHY???? Draco tried to think of something profound to say, something that would stop her in her tracks and make her want him as much as he wanted her.

But while he paused to think about what to say, Ginny began to slide away from him. She's not supposed to leave yet, he said crossly to himself. “You're not supposed to leave yet,” he then repeated out loud for Ginny to hear. Well, that sure as hell wasn't profound, but I did manage to get her to stop in her tracks. He wasn't sure if he should be proud of himself or not.

“I'm not supposed to leave?” Ginny repeated back to him, shocked by what he was saying to her. Is there an echo out here tonight? Must be the wind or the snow... “Who are you to tell me what I am and am not supposed to do, Malfoy?” Draco instinctively pulled his hand away from her face. Better not be touching her right now. She seems a bit pissed. Was that a rhetorical question or not? Draco wondered if she wanted him to answer it or if she was going to keep ranting on about it. “You take us flying in a snow storm, then burn us in the Slytherin locker room, then get mad when I refuse you in said locker room.” Okay, it was a rhetorical question. And she was going to keep beating it with a stick until there was nothing left. “Do you have any idea how mad I am at you? How right you've proven Ron,
Harry, and Hermione by being so self-centered?” Self-centered? Who is she calling self-centered? Certainly not me. He had half the mind to slap her, but that would only egg her on.

“I have a boyfriend, you know.” The statement came out of left field and Draco wondered what had caused her to bring that up. “And I was perfectly fine with my relationship with Tony until you came along and decided that you were going to screw everything up. Her cheeks had turned red, but Draco didn't know if the weather or her anger had caused it. But he was willing to bet that it was anger. He still didn't know what she was so upset about. He'd only been trying to shag her. And... wait a minute. She's got a boyfriend? Since when? And just who the hell is Tony? She's full of shit, she is.

“Will you please say something!” she snapped at him when he let her continue talking. Draco looked down at Ginny until his eyes were level with hers. Oh, so now she wants me to talk. And just what the hell does she expect me to say??

“Something,” Draco finally responded, not knowing what else to do, so he did exactly what she'd told him to do. Word for word. And all he got from it was a shove in the chest. Draco stared at her, shocked that she had the gull to actually push him, of all people. Frisky little bitch, this one. Likes to give it rough, but not to receive it rough. I see how it is.

Ginny let out an impatient little huff. “Why do I even bother trying?” she asked him. Again with the rhetorical questions... he wanted to roll his eyes at her, but that would be far too childish. “Let me spell it out for you, Malfoy, since you don't seem too brilliant at the moment. We... will... not... find... ourselves... in... this... situation... again. Understood?”

He resented her for treating him like a child, even if he had been acting a bit like one lately. She had no superiority over him. If anything, he should have the control over her. He just needed to remind himself that she was a lowly Weasley and that nothing could ever happen between them, even though so much already had. If someone found out, anyone at all, things would get crazy and he didn't think he'd be able to handle that. “Oh, I understand, Weasley. I understand perfectly.” He paused, trying not to show any true emotion. “But there's a little fact you've left out of your decision. We've tried this before and it doesn't work. How many times in the past two days have we told each other that it's the end and that it can't go on any longer? Huh, how many times, Ginny?” his voice was raising at her, whether he meant for it to or not. “Can't count that high mentally, can you?” he asked when she didn't answer him. “We keep going in circles, and we always end up right back here.”

“Under a tree?” Ginny asked, glancing up quickly before facing him again. Under a tree... she must think she's a real hoot. God, he was torn between killing her and shagging her.

“Between fighting and fucking, Weasley. Come on, I know you aren't that slow as the realize what I'm talking about.” He was tired of being nice to her, tired of the whole ordeal. He just wanted the confusion to end, not matter where it quit.

Ginny pulled her robes tighter around her. He could tell she felt awkward, but he didn't make a move to comfort her. This was the way it was going to have to be until
they figured something out. “Between hot and cold, I suppose too,” Ginny added softly, biting her lower lip in her nervous gesture.

“I don't think I can handle this anymore,” he admitted, hating the sound of defeat. But Draco was tired and willing to resign just to have some sort of pride back. Even if it hurt to let her go.

“I know I can't,” Ginny replied, taking a deep breath. Draco ignored the snow gathering in his hair, fearing what he knew, just somehow knew, she was going to say next. “See you around, Draco,” she whispered. Well, it's not exactly what I expected, but it's close enough. Draco nodded, watching as she quickly run the rest of the way back to the school.

As soon as he knew she'd left, he slammed his head against the tree and left it there. He could still smell her around him, damn it, and he didn't think she'd ever completely get off of him, no matter what he tried to do. Stupid hormones, he complained to himself, starting to make his own way back to the school. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

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Ginny made sure she didn't start crying until she'd almost reached her dormitory. Then, as she made her way up the stairs, the tears began to fall. She wasn't even sure why she was crying. She'd wanted it to end as much as he did. So why had it felt as if someone was ripping out her heart when he'd agreed to end it once and for all? You're a wreck, Ginny. You've completely lost your marbles. You let him get too close and look what happened. You got your heart broken, just as you knew you would.

As Ginny made her way into the dormitory, she wiped her tears away. I've got to pull myself together. He's not worth it. He was just using you to fill his lust, to get what he wanted and then dump you like the trash you are. But her thoughts just made her cry more. He told you from the beginning that he needed you, and you knew exactly what he meant. He needed you for sex and nothing more. And when you refused to give it to him, he agreed that it would be better to stop.

“Where the hell have you been?” Lavender hissed as Ginny made her way over to her bed. Ginny ignored her concerned friend, instead trying to just make it to the bed without crumpling onto the floor. “Do you know how worried I've been about you?”

As Ginny sat down, Lavender came closer and noticed Ginny's current state. “Oh, Ginny, what did he do?” she asked, her voice just as hurt as Ginny felt. Lavender sat down next to Ginny, pulling Ginny's robe off of her. “And why are you soaking wet?”

Ginny turned to face her friend, her eyes a light pink shade and her face covered with tear streaks. “I wanted to, Lav. I wanted to sooo bad,” Ginny started, not realizing that Lavender didn't have a clue as to what she was talking about. “He was right there and he wanted me. But I just couldn't do it, and when I told him, he just let me walk away. He always stopped me before, but this time he didn't follow me and stop me. He let me go.” She looked right into Lavender's concerned eyes. “He just let me go and didn't chase me.”

“Well, if you left Ginny, how could you expect him to follow you?” Lavender asked softly. She wrapped an arm around her friend's shoulders. In turn, Ginny rested her head against Lavender's shoulder, sobbing harder.

“What have I done, Lav? What did I do to deserve this? I just wanted to be like them, wanted to know what it would be like to just have him for myself. But I can't, because I'm a Weasley and he's a Malfoy.” Ginny closed her eyes, pulling away from Lavender and leaning back on the bed, curling up in the fetal position.

“What happened, Ginny?” Lavender asked as Ginny continued to cry.

Ginny shook her head, not wanting to answer anymore. Giving up with a sigh, Lavender stood up and walked out of the dormitory quickly. Ginny crawled up to the top of her bed and grabbed her pillow, burying her face into it. How had she come to depend on him so much in the past twenty-four hours? He was only a guy, a guy she wasn't even supposed to like. A guy I can't keep my hands and mouth off of, no matter how hard I try.

Her bed suddenly shifted and she felt a hand come up and grip her shoulder from behind. “I just want to be alone, Lav,” Ginny mumbled into her pillow, too embarrassed to face her friend.

“Ginny, turn around and face me,” a voice commanded softly. When Ginny heard the voice, she wanted to cry even harder. If she thought she'd been done crying, she was only going to start twice as hard this time.

“Dean, you shouldn't be here,” Ginny protested, trying to get away from him without having to pull her face away from the safety of her pillow. “I don't know how you got up into the girls' dormitories, but you need to go back to your's.”

He leaned against her more, reached out and pulling her hair back so that he could see the side of her face. Ginny sobbed so hard, it turned into a hacking cough. Ginny bent as much as she possibly could, pulling away from Dean's touch. “I love you, Ginny, we all do. And it kills us to see you when you're like this.”

Ginny shifted as far away from him as she could, until she ended up leaving her pillow and getting out of her bed. “Then just don't look at me, Dean!” she snapped, trying to get him to leave. He was the last person Ginny wanted to see, because he was the only other guy who could break her heart more than Draco already had.

“Don't do this, Gin. Don't push Lavender away, don't push me away. We want to help you. And we want to know what happened,” Dean told her. She could see the concern in his eyes, but Ginny didn't have the heart to explain. As he got closer to her, he reached out to try to calm her down and pull her to him. But Ginny slapped at his arms, afraid of contact with him since she'd been with Draco only minutes before. No matter how hard Ginny fought against Dean, he finally managed to wrap his arms around her and pulled her up against him.

Weak and defeated, Ginny slumped into his grip, burying her head against his shoulder and letting out the rest of the tears she still had. Her arms found there way behind his back and reached up to grasp his shoulders from behind, her fingers pressing into the fabric of his favorite soccer team t-shirt he wore to bed. Ginny suddenly remembered why she'd loved Dean so much and why she'd been so depressed when he'd suddenly decided he couldn't date her anymore (which she later discovered was all Ron's doing). He knew what she was like when she got down to a disaster like she was currently, because he was the only other guy who'd ever made her feel this way before.

“I love you, Gin,” he whispered against her hair, kissing her temple. “I don't know what he did to make you so upset, but I'm here for you, you understand?” Ginny nodded, her sobs giving way to small hiccups from getting herself so worked up.

Dean rubbed her back, his fingers tracing a large circle on her wet t-shirt. Ginny had the urge to ask him what he was thinking. And she suddenly wanted to know why he'd left her stranded at the Yule Ball. They'd been so happy, or so it had seemed, when he'd suddenly just blown her off. There had been rumors, speculations, about Ron telling Dean off, but she'd never been quite sure. Yet, less than a week later, he'd been by her side again, not as her boyfriend, but just as a friend. For some reason, Ginny doubted her situation with Draco would be the same.

“I've missed you,” Ginny whispered against his shirt, her hands coming down to his back and wrapping around his waist. “I've missed us being together,” she told him, finally looking straight into his face once she'd stopped crying. “I dream about you sometimes, even though I know I shouldn't. I can't help thinking that I did something to make you go away.”

Ginny felt guilt building up inside of her. Guilt for never asking Dean to take her back. Guilt for allowing herself to get mixed up with Draco. Guilt for completely forgetting about him at the prospect of being with Dean again. Guilt all around for being such a low Weasley. “Hey,” Dean told her softly, kissing the tip of her nose, like he'd always done while they were sitting or laying together. “Don't beat yourself up over anything, Ginny. I was stupid for leaving you like that at the Yule Ball, and he was crazy for dumping you like this. You've got no one to blame but us jerks who keep screwing up your life.”

“I could never blame you, Dean,” Ginny told him honestly, her last tear falling from her eye. “I've tried and tried and tried some more, but I've never been able to blame you.” Ginny tightened her grip around his waist, trying to remember everything about him that she'd forgotten in the past few months. “And I want to blame Draco, but I can't seem to do that either.”

“Draco?” Dean asked, although he didn't sound surprised. “Figures it would be him, since he was the one you ended up with at the Yule Ball.” Ginny knew he wasn't insulting her, but for some reason she felt hurt by his comment. “I have no problem at all blaming Draco for this mess,” Dean continued, pulling his hand away from her back and bringing it up to her face. “Just forget him, Ginny,” Dean whispered, bringing her face closer to his. “He doesn't deserve you,” he told her.

But do you deserve me? Ginny wondered as she let him kiss her. It had been so long since the last time he'd really kissed her. Are you any better than Draco, the way you caused me pain just as he's done? He wasn't a better kisser than Draco, but she loved his style more. He wasn't as rough, but he didn't treat her like glass either. He treated her with respect, which was all Ginny had ever wanted. Can I really use you to forget that deep inside, I'm still waiting for Draco to come back and take me in the broom closet, or in the shower, or under a tree? Ginny tried to shut out the thoughts as she let herself be consumed by Dean's kiss.

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9. Deserving

Seven Minutes In Heaven

Chapter VIII - Deserving

Written By: Anti Darth Ani

Edited By: Anti Darth Ani

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Author's Note: Well, this is the last chapter of SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN *single tear* It's such a sad thing for me to say good-bye, but I know it's for the best. This ending is about as far from what I had planned as it could get, but you guys know how those things go. *shrugs* Stay alert to my profile on fanfiction.net for updates and information on new Ginny/Draco Harry Potter fan-fics I'll be writing soon.

ENJOY!!!!!!

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Draco stared at the envelope on his bed. Did he dare to open it? He could tell right away that the writing that addressed it to him was Pansy's. He didn't have the heart for one of Pansy's mushy love letters she liked to write him when she grew tired of her life. Sighing, Draco sat down on the foot of his bed and ripped the wax seal off, opening the envelope. A short letter and a single photo, face down, fell out when he turned it upside down.

Reaching for the letter first, Draco quickly scanned what it said. I know you fancy her, but can you trust her? Wondering what Pansy meant, but having a hunch it had to deal with Ginny, Draco set down the letter and picked up the picture. He flipped it over and stared down at the picture of Ginny and Dean Thomas. Their characters in the photograph smiled as each other before Ginny quickly pulled Dean to her and kissed him. Draco doubted that the picture was real as he tossed it into the roaring fire to clear the image out of his mind. But the idea of her being with Thomas infuriated him, for reasons he couldn't explain.

Can I trust her? Draco asked himself as he laid back in his bed. Of course I can't, he told himself, as if it was the dumbest question he'd ever pondered. She's a Weasley, for Merlin's sake. And she's friends with Potter. The whole lot of them were born to sneak around and lie, to hex people and put funny stuff in their food. The day I trust any of them is the day I sign my own death certificate. Draco rolled over onto his stomach, gathering his pillow under his arms to rest his chin on. But I don't want to trust her. I just want to be with her.

Closing his eyes, Draco begged sleep to take him. He wanted to end this nightmare, wanted to forget about her for the night. He'd worry about trapping her in a closet again tomorrow, but for now he just wanted sleep.

XXXXXXXXXX

Ginny awoke with a major headache and her eyes felt puffy from crying. She shifted in her bed, turning around to face Dean, who hadn't been asleep in almost an hour. She forced herself to smile, to act like everything was alright and like she didn't feel like a massive pile of crap. If she could just get through the day, then she'd make it to the Hogsmeade field trip the following day, where she'd be able to talk to Fred and George and to have them comfort her. They were the two most reliable people she'd ever had in her life, not just in her family. They were the twins and she was the only daughter, and they had some sort of bond Ginny had never been able to explain.

“Sleep well?” he asked her, not moving an inch. Ginny nodded, wanting to ask him the same question, but she kept her mouth shut. What did I do? she asked herself. She hadn't had sex with Dean, but she'd let him back into her bed. She'd begged him to say with her after feeling rejected by Draco Malfoy. What kind of person am I? she began to wonder about herself. Would she really sink low enough to use Dean, just to make herself feel better about things not working out with Draco?

He deserves better than this, Ginny told herself as she watched Dean watch her. And I deserve better than him. And Draco. Ginny sighed, sliding out of the bed. She wanted to get a shower and change into some real clothes, some completely dry clothes. She wanted something to wear that wouldn't reminder her of Dean or Draco. She just wanted something that said `Ginny'.

“I'm going to head back to my dormitory,” Dean called out softly as Ginny rummaged in her trunk for a clean robe to put on over her plaid skirt and black tank top. She glanced up and nodded, giving him a small grin. “I'll see you at breakfast?” he asked, walking over to her and bringing her up to full height. He gave her a quick kiss before walking out.

As he left, Lavender got out of her bed, where she had been pretending to sleep, and flopped down onto Ginny's, facing the foot fo the bed and Ginny's trunk. “So...” Lavender started, raising an eyebrow while she waited for Ginny to tell her just what had happened after she'd gone to retrieve Dean the night before.

Ginny sighed, closing her trunk after she'd found the robe. She sat down on top of it, her legs crossed, facing Lavender. “I was upset last night, alright? I spent almost the whole day running into Draco and snogging with him.” Lavender didn't look surprised. “And everything time we stopped, we admitted that we couldn't do it again.”

“Yet, it seems as if that didn't quite happen,” Lavender responded as she lay on her stomach and watched her friend's face for a change in emotion.

Ginny shook her head, “At least not until after dinner, when I came back crying.” Ginny sighed, knowing that talking about it was only going to remind her more of Draco, something she wasn't sure was safe. She tried to block him out of her head, but she'd dreamt about him last night, dreamt about what it would be like to let him have his way with her. “I just... I don't know, Lav... There's something about him I just can't wrap my mind around and that drives me crazy.” Ginny pulled one leg up to rest her chin on. “He's never acted this way before, and I don't know what to expect from him anymore. Like, how is he going to act at breakfast this morning? Will he completely ignore me while he flirts with other girls? Or will he try to talk to me, make me listen to him?”

“Ginny, don't hate me for saying this, but you seem to be holding on to something that isn't there,” Lavender told her friend softly. “And, sooner or later, you're going to realize it and fall.” Lavender tried to bite her tongue, to prevent herself from
saying something to hurt Ginny's feelings, but she just had to get it out in the open. “I understand where you're coming from, I really do. He's Draco Malfoy, after all. But you also have to understand that things don't always work out the way we want them to. At certain times, you've got to get over it and move on.”

“I'm trying, Lavender, I really am. I want to forget him and have another chance with Dean. But... oh, I don't know. There's something holding me back.” Ginny let out a small yawn, still tired from all the drama in her life.

“I suppose I'm at part to blame for this. And, I must confess, I'm the one who put the hex on you yesterday. You were determined to look the other way, even when he was right in front of you, so I just thought that you needed a little, well, you know... push.” Lavender gave Ginny a weak grin, her way of trying to apologize. “I didn't know things would end up in such a mess.”

“I don't blame you, Lavender. I don't blame anyone. That's my problem.” Ginny got off of the trunk to go shower and change before breakfast. Lavender watched her friend exit, but then spoke up. “Oh, Ginny, I needed to ask you about this letter.”

“What letter?” Ginny asked, turning around to face Lavender.

Lavender got off the bed and went over to her night stand, trying to find the letter. Only after she'd searched for a minute did she remember that it'd burnt itself up. “There was this letter that dropped out of your bag. It looked like it had been opened before, but I'm not completely sure. And it was like a threat to kill you.”

Ginny frowned, a little confused. “I don't know what you're talking about, Lavender. I didn't have a letter in my bag. Never had. Are you sure it was about me?”

Lavender froze. “Well, no... I just assumed since I thought it had fallen from your bag.”

Ginny shrugged. “Well, I'm going to go change. I'll see you later.”

Lavender just nodded, still worried about the letter. Maybe it was just a harmless joke after all. Except the joke wasn't on Ginny. The joke was on her.

As Ginny walked to the Prefects' bathroom, she smiled to herself. Leave it to Lavender to get all worked up over a silly piece of paper. She whispered the password at the door and waited for it to slide open. She hoped a long, hot bath would solve all her problems. After all, water always had a calming affect on her.

Ginny stripped while the huge bathroom in the center of the room began to fill. She thought about how awkward breakfast was going to be while she tried to juggle both her feelings for Draco and her feelings for Dean. Either way, Ginny told herself as she sank into the dark blue water, she wasn't going to be a pawn anymore. She'd do what she felt was right, what she needed herself to believe was the best solution.

Meaning I'm not going to be making out with anymore guys in broom closets anytime soon.

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Author's Note: Okay, I know that some of you are really going to be mad with this ending. But I'm tired and I want this fan-fic to end. And I, personally, have taken a liking to the ending, even if it wasn't what I had planned. So thanks for all the reviews and supports. Sorry if I didn't use your ideas you submitted, but many of them were quite good and they might just show up in anther fan-fic of mine (Currently titled The Muggle Way; more info on my fanfiction.net bio under Anti Darth Ani). I'll give credit, of course :P

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