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**
Ginny looked up fearfully. She hated this waiting around. She was feeling restless; helpless. Draco was nervously tapping his hand against his thigh. Rather than annoying her, she found the repetitious noise somewhat soothing, both for its metronomical regularity and because it illustrated that she wasn't alone.
She shivered at the thought. Being here with Draco was difficult, especially since her clarity of disgust was becoming clouded, but being trapped here alone would be even worse.
Ginny began to chew nervously on a section of hair. It was a habit her mother loathed and repeatedly complained about. Inadvertently, by a mere chain of thoughts, Ginny's mind was suffused with thoughts of home. The warmth and coziness of The Burrow provided a stark contrast to her current surroundings. She sniffed the air wistfully, hoping to disguise the stale mustiness with memories of her mother's cooking; her favourite vegetable pie, Ron's favourite cake, Percy's pompous love of stew (a working man's dinner!)…
She opened her eyes to see Draco staring at her curiously.
"What are thinking about?" he asked, seeming genuinely curious.
"Home" she answered, simply, wistfully.
His face blanked out immediately. The tendrils of interest disappeared in an instant. She wished that she could get that expression back.
He seemed to sense her disappointment as he asked, almost defensively "What?"
"It's nothing."
"Tell me" he insisted.
"I was just-"
"Just what?" he said more aggressively.
"Draco-" she said softly.
"I don't need your pity." He stormed.
"There's a difference between pity and sympathy" Ginny bit back. "When you act like this I'm not sure that you deserve either."
As soon as his anger had flared it seemed to disappear. Draco just looked tired as he said "I hate this place Gin. It feels like a cage."
She felt her spirits lift suddenly and a wild giggle escaped her.
"I'm sorry" she joked "Who were you taking to?"
At first Draco merely looked confused, but as he thought back over his words a sheepish smile crept to his face. "I was talking to you Weasley." He said, but his words lacked any menace.
"I heard 'Gin'"
"Then you're obviously deaf as well as stupid" he said lightly, haughtily raising his chin.
"I don't think so" she smiled.
"My home isn't like yours" he said, rushing his confession into the moment of joviality between them.
**
As Ginny tried to process his words, Draco himself was taken aback. He hadn't meant to say that! It was strange, he reflected. It was a genuine sentiment that had run through his head when she had told him that she was thinking of home. It was a thought that he had wanted to share but had routinely repressed. He had recognized a strange yearning to try and make Ginny understand him, to give out part of himself, but the emotions were too unfamiliar to accept. Instead, it was as if the confession had been relegated to a subconscious buffer somewhere, waiting for a chance to be shared, a moment when Draco's guard was down.
As soon as it was down, he wished it were back up. She was looking at him with the same mix of pity and astonishment. He hated the feeling of weakness that it induced, but the words were out there and he couldn't take them back.
Desperate to claw back some semblance of control he hurried on to say "Never mind."
Silence.
She was just sitting still, waiting. She wasn't even staring at him as such.
"You wouldn't understand". He felt compelled to defend his withdrawal.
"Probably not" she said softly.
In that moment of honesty, Draco felt a sense of- what was it? - perhaps trust spring up between them. In confessing her inability to understand, perversely she had made him feel the exact opposite. In what seemed like the far-distant past his so-called friends nodded and agreed with his every statement, claimed to personally understand every experience and Draco had found their sycophancy stifling.
**
As fascinated as she was by the emerging struggle in Draco, Ginny recognized that she wasn't going to get any further down that particular emotional path. He had called her by her real name and shared a very personal revelation; what more was she looking for?
Why did she even care? She was bewildered by her own interest in him. Part of it, she conceded, came from wanting to know why Draco behaved in such a way. She needed to know that his attitude wasn't her problem. Yet, beyond this, she found him… fascinating. Raised in a world of light, Ginny was fascinated by the dark. Much as she loved her family and their dedicated devotion to a sense of good, she often felt excluded. Her experience with Tom Riddle's diary had left her with a distinct sense of a greying blur between the black and white of morality.
Draco was an enigma and she craved complexity because it made her feel less alone.
"So" she said, aware that he needed a way to back away from emotional wounds "how long do you think it will be before someone finds us?" She found it strangely difficult to speak to him now. They had worked past the comfortable familiarity of insults and anger and were deep in new territory.
Draco looked up and around. "I hope that Dumbledore might be aware that we destroyed a sizeable part of his school" he said dryly.
Ginny thought of their bumbling Headmaster and shook her head "I doubt it!" she giggled.
"Ginny" he said suddenly and quickly, his words tumbling over each other. "Don't panic but I think the beams to your left just moved. Start to move over here. Be quick and for Merlin's sake be quiet".
She froze.
"It's okay" he said. "Just gently move away from those books."
Trying hard not to move her upper body, Ginny began to push herself on.
"Easy" cautioned Draco, his eyes fixed to a spot above her head.
She moved a little faster. Her stomach lurched in fear as she felt the pile collapse beside her. She was aware of dust grazing her ankles and clogging her throat, the rush of air brushing past her head and the firm grip of a hand on her wrist pulling her from harms way.
"That's the second time you've saved me." She gasped tearfully, looking back over at the new pile of rubbish.
"I know." Draco said simply.
She was suddenly, palpably aware of their proximity. She looked down, almost ashamed of the rush of feeling that overwhelmed her. Gratitude, curiosity, lust, relief and fear combined together to leave her lightheaded. Her own attraction to him was a revelation in itself. She had thought that she was in love with Harry. Harry who was so good and sweet and simple. She had never felt the same overpowering need to touch him. She had never wanted to kiss him so badly that her body ached. She had never felt about him the way she was feeling now. His hand was still wrapped around her wrist. She wondered if he could feel her pulse racing, drugging her.
More than ever she wanted to impress him, to overwhelm him. She wanted to be sexy and sophisticated but was struck dumb.
**
Draco saw the flush of her skin. He watched her eyes dilate, her lips part and her skin turn pink. The tip of her tongue darted, entirely unconsciously, to moisten her dry lips and he was transfixed.
In mere hours she had gotten closer to him than he'd ever thought possible…and he'd nearly lost her again. The fragility of their situation merely heightened his response. He wanted her. He couldn't deny it. She had tapped into an emotional side of him that he had never dreamed of. The way she was staring at him didn't hurt either, he acknowledged wildly.
He leaned towards her, determined to seize this moment and give in to his passion before he was stricken with the oddest reluctance. He hesitated. He didn't want this encounter to follow the patterns of old. He wanted more from her.
"Ginny" he said, shaking his head.
**
Arrested mid-daze, Ginny looked at him bewildered.
"I don't-"
Before he could finish she knew what he was going to say. Choked with disappointment and embarrassment, she concluded "…want me". She nodded, with grim determination.
"No". His response was short and accompanied with an incredulous laugh. "This isn't", he seemed to struggle with the words "it isn't the right time or place."
Ginny was stung, her indignation riled by his rejection "Nobility doesn't suit you Draco" she spat. "I should have known better than to even think that there might be-"
**
Draco rolled his eyes in resignation. He reached out with his other hand and grasped the front of her robes. In a short and decisive move her pulled her toward him and kissed her, firmly. His hand that still gripped her wrist guided her arm around his waist, pulling her body against his.
"You can feel how much I want you" he said clearly, staring into her eyes. "But not here."
"Why?" she asked.
"I don't know, just leave it" he snapped.
She was looking at him with the ominous signs of comprehension. Conflicting emotions surged through him. On the one hand, his automatic response was to snap back with a biting retort, to put her in her place and end this pathetic display. His other response was wry amusement at his own sentimentality and a strange happiness at her expression. His indecision gave Ginny the time to intervene.
"You…" she said, faltering, a bewildered smile creeping onto her face.
"I don't want more hassle from Potty and chum" Draco defended half-heartedly.
"You're not half as bad as you pretend to be Draco Malfoy" she smiled. Shaking her wrist free from his grip, she grasped his hand and clasped it in her own. "It's okay though…even if we make it out of here, your secret's safe with me!"
**
Hermione edged out from under the hovering heap of rubbish, wincing as her grazed hands grasped desperately for leverage. She reached Harry's side and watched, incredulous, as his hand lowered and the debris seemed to float serenely to earth.
For a moment she could only stare, transfixed. Then she turned her gaze back to him. Throwing her arms around him she laughed happily.
"Harry you did it!"
"Ow" he winced "Yeah! Ow" he repeated. He shook his head a little and looked for the first time at Hermione. A surge of giddying relief caused him to joke headily "You can hug me again now if you like."
Her expression was suspicious at first, as though she wasn't sure whether he was just joking.
Then she did.
Despite the thorough jarring his already battered ribs and legs received in the process, Harry couldn't stop grinning. Her soft ringlets of hair nestled against his face, her slim body next to his and her arms tight around his neck made him feel secure, safe and …loved.
"Hermione" he said quickly. He had to speak now while his confidence was high (more from the hug than the success of his magic!) and while her face was turned away. "About what happened before…"
He could feel her try to pull back, but he held her tightly against him.
"Harry" she said, half-laughing. "We have more important things to think about now!"
This time Harry let her pull back until she was leaning in the loose circle of his arms.
"No we don't."
She blushed prettily.
"Harry!"
"Hermione" he said evenly.
I-" she said, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly.
"You kissed me." He reminded her.
"I was there!" she retorted.
"So…"
"So, I thought you were dead! I just…I never thought this would happen!"
"What would happen?"
Hermione was wrong-footed by his sudden line of questioning. He could see that it was starting to annoy her. Harry, on the other hand… Harry was loving it! It was nice to see Hermione without answers for once and her look of confusion was adorable.
"This…this-"
"That we'd be trapped in a library?" Harry asked innocently.
"You know what I mean Harry!" she said but her smile persisted.
"I think" he said "I think you might be talking about this". He leaned forward and kissed her softly.
**
Hermione was flooded with a rush of adrenaline.
"Harry!" she said, shocked but almost admiring.
Her smile died as she stared at him, suddenly aware of the magnitude of what she was getting into. The depth of emotion she felt was frightening. At that moment she couldn't think of anything more than loving him, couldn't imagine any other way to be. At the same time, the cloying fear that she might at some point lose him was overwhelming. The pull of emotions seemed to stop her heart for a second.
She reached blindly for the comforting reassurance of his hand.
"Are you alright?" he asked, suddenly concerned by her expression.
"You better not be doing this because you think we're going to die Harry Potter" she chastened, blinking back her tears.
His grin threatened to split his face in two. "You know I'm not."
He leaned in to kiss her again and she gave herself up willingly to his embrace. Their kiss was sustained, heated. Their hands entwined as they pushed themselves closer together.
**
Ginny could feel every millimetre of the skin on her hand, like the nerves had been heightened. Draco's skin was warm and soft, his hand much wider than hers. She could feel her pulse throbbing through her wrist. She thought she could feel Draco's pulsing next to hers and wondered fancifully whether they were pulsing in unison.
When he brought her hand up to his mouth and gently kissed the back, bending his head without breaking his stare into her eyes, she felt suddenly light headed.
"I don't care about the right place or time" she said suddenly, crawling closer to him.
With her free hand, she reached out and traced her finger from brow to jaw. He flinched at first, seeming uncomfortable with the intimacy of her gesture. She regretted her forwardness and sadly made to pull away.
He caught her free hand with his. Lacing their fingers together he kept both hands imprisoned, raising them to between their bodies.
In one slow seamless movement, he pulled his hands back and up, taking hers with him, guiding her arms around his neck. Once free he moved his hands to her back, pulling her against him, kissing her again and again.
**
Suddenly an ominous rumbling pervaded the space around them. Everything began to vibrate, the chink and crash of rubble mingling with the noises until it reached a cacophany of destruction.
Draco held Ginny tightly, trying to shield her from the falling debris. He closed his eyes fearfully. The roar grew louder, flashes of light illuminated their small hole and gradually their surroundings seemed to raise themselves from the floor.
"Ginny" hissed Draco "Do you see that?"
"I see it" she said wonderingly.
The rubble continued to rise, leaving the two of them huddled together on an emptying floor. Over Ginny's shoulder, Draco saw another couple in a similar position to their left.
"Potter!"
"Malfoy!"
Ginny turned her head at the sound.
"Hermione?"
"Ginny!"
The assorted collection of objects above their head suddenly vanished. In the space vacated Professor Dumbledore and assorted members of the school staff hovered, seated sedately on broomsticks, their wands extended.
**
Ginny was suddenly very conscious of her own position. She was practically straddling Draco Malfoy in front of half the school staff! Her arms were still around his neck! She hastily withdrew them, blushed dark red and began to stammer.
"Pr- Pr- Professor Dumbledore…I can explain. It's er" she nervously laughed "not what it looks like."
Draco, damn him, just sat back, folded his arms and smirked. "It's not?" he asked.
She elbowed him sharply. "I'm-"
He raised an eyebrow cockily. She wanted to kiss him again. While that realization was hitting home, Ginny became suddenly aware that to a similar sounding barrage was coming from her left. She pulled away from Draco to see Hermione scrambling desperately aware from Harry, tucking stray strands of hair behind her ears and earnestly protesting the innocence of their appearance.
**
Harry chuckled to himself as Hermione stuttered her way through an explanation to Professor Dumbledore.
Glancing to his right, he caught Draco's eye. They shared a moment of amusement before the shock of agreement set in.
Then the shock really set in.
"Ginny!" he exclaimed, shocked.
Draco's smile widened.
A cough from above reminded Harry of their situation. Looking up he met the twinkling gaze of Professor Dumbledore and the accusing stares of the rest of the staff. They were still hovering behind him, seeming to shocked to move.
As he, Hermione and Ginny opened their mouths to speak, Dumbledore raised a warning hand.
He brought the hand to his face and rested one finger silently against his mouth.
His inclined his head towards the one remaining thing left on what had been the library floor. The sign proclaiming "No Talking" rose slowly into the air and rotated before their eyes.
Harry squeezed Hermione's hand and rolled his eyes at their Headmaster's gesture.
There was a beat.
"Oh you've got be bloody kidding!" came Draco's disgusted comment.
Ginny giggled and then smothered the sound in his robes.
**
THE END
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