Disclaimer: JK owns everything.
**
Ginny watched Malfoy turn as white as chalk and his complexion turn sweaty and pasty. What was going on? Was he ill?
"Are you ill?" she said contemptuously.
"Shut up Weasley" he bit back.
"Alright Daddy's boy, have it your way" she said, stung.
Before she could even blink, his hands were clutching at the neckline of her robes. Peering down she could see that his knuckles were white with strain.
"DON'T call me that" he seethed.
"Daddy's boy?" she asked, stubbornly.
He pulled her robes tighter, tilting her head back. She got a sudden panicked glimpse of his superior strength. They
were trapped in here together. He could do anything to her and claim it was an accident. She swallowed hard, awkwardly,
forcing the saliva through her constricted throat. Her gaze burned into his.
**
The little Weasel was afraid of him. This time the flickering fear in her eyes sickened him. A gut-wrenching nausea seared through him as he looked deep into her eyes and saw himself reflected in the teary depths. He looked like his father. She was cowering for his mother, that morning's Slytherin girl and every other victim of Malfoy rage.
Defeated, he let go of her robes and pushed her away from him.
"Just keep your mouth shut Weasel and we might both survive this thing."
She was still afraid, he could see, but there was also anger mixing with the fear. The little bitch didn't know when to shut up.
"What's the matter Malfoy? You can give it out but you can't take it?" she said, her chin tilted defiantly. "You can say whatever you want but you hate it when your 'victims' answer back? Well guess what Draco? You're on your own and so am I; this is between you and me. There's no Goyle, Crabbe, Snape or Daddy to stick up for you."
He'd tried to leave it alone. He really had. But he couldn't keep listening to these taunts. He had some pride left. Turning to her, he grabbed both wrists and pushed her over onto her back. Straddling her waist, he pinned her arms to the floor and held down her legs with his feet.
"Don't you get it Weasel? You're the weak one here. Potter and his sidekick aren't here to save you. Now when I tell you to shut up, you had better just SHUT UP."
**
Despite the fact that she was pinned to the floor, despite the fact that Malfoy was confirming every fearful thought that had flitted through her brain since they'd been trapped, Ginny was feeling powerful. She'd seen him unhinged before, but that was controlled in a perverse way. This time he was really losing it. His hair was dishevelled and his eyes were glistening. She'd touched a nerve and this, this Draco, was what she had hoped for from revenge. Making him lose it. Pushing him to the edge and watching him fall over. Making him pay for all the times he'd humiliated her and laughed at her and hurt her. More than that, for all the times he'd hurt her family and friends.
Quite by accident it seemed that she'd found Malfoy's Achilles heel. She wasn't going to surrender that power easily.
"No." she said, without struggling "You don't get it Malfoy." She loaded his name with contempt. "Daddy's little precious can't stop me. You can hit me, hex me, laugh at me but you can't stop me. You can't stop me unless you want to kill me and end this right here. Is that what you want? To cross over those final steps and truly become the Lucius clone you've always pretended to be." Her level gaze met his, unwavering.
**
No, he couldn't kill her. The visions of his father had killed all instinct to extreme violence left in him. The idea of ending someone's life so arbitrarily sickened him. He wanted power yes, but not that way. With a jarring bolt of clarity he found images flashing across his memory. Potter, the Mudblood, and the Weasel eating and laughing together. Potter being cheered at Quidditch. That's what he wanted. He wanted respect. Jealousy and his Malfoy heritage had driven him to persecute most fiercely that which he wanted to be.
The little Weasley was starting again. 'Damn her perception' he cursed. Clearly she'd seen what talk of his father could do to him. He didn't want to be pushed into something he would regret. But she seemed intent on pushing him.
Desperate to shut her up he leaned forward and pressed his mouth to hers firmly. The gesture was neither aggressive nor affectionate. It was a practical way to close her mouth with their limbs engaged elsewhere. He swallowed her opening words but then shock silenced her mouth against his. For that blissful moment, Draco noticed that her lips were soft beneath his, that the soft skin of her face caressed his.
Then she started screaming and cursing, and he pulled back, shocked himself.
**
What the hell was going on? Ginny had been getting into her flow, watching Malfoy teeter on the edge of his control. Then suddenly he was kissing her. No, not kissing her, merely shutting her up. His lips had not moved against hers, nor had they hurt…it was a simple, direct show of masculine strength. She didn't let herself linger on the pleasant smell of his aftershave or the gentleness of his mouth. It was just another way to overpower her she thought furiously.
He was looking down at her, still holding her beneath him, staring with the same confusion she knew was mirrored in her own eyes.
Two can play at this game, she thought grimly. Shaking lose one of his hands - the grip had loosened considerably - she slid her own hand around his neck and pulled him down towards her. Pulling herself up from the floor, she met him mid-way. Her kiss wasn't dispassionate. Far from it. She knew that she didn't have the brute strength to rival Draco, but she could use power a different way. His mouth met hers, abruptly as their faces met, but surprise stopped him from pulling away. He was resistant at first, clearly bewildered. She opened her mouth slightly, gently pulling at his lips. She'd seen this described in Witch Weekly a thousand times and she felt confident she was doing it right. This was confirmed when, as she slowly licked across Draco's bottom lip, he moaned into her mouth.
**
Draco was suffused with feeling. Desire, red hot and throbbing, coursed through him. He was totally lost in the flow of its searing path. Passion, a fiery sensation on the same frequency as rage, took over his body. It was familiar but at the same time so different. He was losing control again, feeling power and strength flood through his limbs, but this was definitely not anger.
She was scattering little butterfly kisses across his mouth. Her lips, moist and swollen, were pressed against his. He forgot who she was, who he was, everything but these feelings. Sliding his hands up her back, he traced the delicate indentation of her spine, before tangling his hands in the hair at the nape of her neck. He pulled her against him more firmly, feeling her torso press into his. He tilted her head against his, sliding his tongue slowly into her mouth.
**
Ginny was being overwhelmed. She felt herself covered and held by Draco, her little body pressed snugly against his firm chest. What had begun as a rebuke, a lesson in power, was swiftly becoming much more. She tried to remind herself that he was an enemy, that this wasn't real, but the feel of Draco against her, kissing her, knocked coherent thought from her head.
His tongue slid into her mouth and she kissed him back, moulding herself around him. She slid her other hand up his torso and around his back. She had never felt so out of control.
**
Pleasure was all Draco could remember. Pleasure and softness. He didn't want this to stop and he kissed her like the world was ending. Which, he would reflect later, it almost was for him.
**
She didn't want to ever stop touching him. She didn't want to face the real world again. Draco could stop her thinking, stop her fearing, and that was all she needed.
**
He slid his hands further into her hair, knotting the long strands around his fingers as he pulled her against him. Then suddenly she jerked away.
**
Ginny pulled away in pain, as Draco slid his hands against the gash in her head. Pain, clarifying pain, shot through her and she broke their embrace.
Falling onto her back, she stared up at him. What the hell had they done?
**
Draco watched pain cloud her face and, as he realized his error, guilt tore through him. He lowered his hands from her shoulders and pulled away, repulsed by the sight of her blood across his fingers. What spell had she cast upon him?
**
Ginny scrambled out from underneath him and tucked herself in a corner of their hole with her knees pulled up to her chest. She had just kissed Draco Malfoy. She had liked it.
**
Draco watched her skitter away from him, and in that instant felt lonelier than he could ever remember. The juxtaposed memories of her passionate and fearful gazes made him hate himself. He pulled away, never taking his eyes from her, and moved to the opposite corner.
**
In another part of the library, Harry gradually came back to consciousness. He registered the pain in his right leg, bruising across his body and, with a resigned sigh, he realized that his glasses were smashed. Blinking repeatedly to clear his vision, he noticed a huddled figure across his chest. Tracing the brown curls he saw Hermione's pale, blood-stained face, and gasped in terror.
**
Another chapter done, a little more D/G progress made! Please review if you liked it, or even if you didn't!