Walking On Broken Glass

"You might swear you'd never touch a lady,
Well, let me say you're not too far from maybe.
Every day you find new ways to hurt me.
But I can't help it if I'm just a fool,
Always having my heart set on you.
'Til the time you start changing the rules,
I'll keep chasing the soles of your shoes.
Fool."

-- Shakira; "Fool"

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Chapter Three

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This year Ginny had a study period before lunch, providing her with some time to rest after Potions. So as soon as Snape raised his arm for dismissal, she was out the door and headed to the library.

Her fingertips grazed the spines of each book that she passed as she made her way down the rows. Pausing at one of her favorite novels, Ginny pulled it from it's place on the shelf. On the cover was the top, right portion of a young girl's face. Just one big, blue, kohl-lined eye and a lock of chocolate hair, concealing behind it the words that had soothed her heart many times before.

She spotted an armchair in a secluded corner of the library, and made her way toward it. The time she spent buried in her novels was swiftly becoming her only pleasure, and she was very much looking forward to a few hours away from her own problems. Able to focus, instead, on the heartache of a different (yet very much the same) teenage girl.

Just as Ginny approached the chair (which she now saw was made of purple velvet), she jerked to a halt. Because not two feet away from her, also stopping suddenly, stood Draco Malfoy with a book under his arm and a smirk on his face.

He wore charcoal gray slacks and a white dress shirt. The top button of his shirt was undone and his Slytherin-green tie hung loose around his neck. But that only seemed to add to his ever present air of casual perfection.

Lately he had taken to wearing his hair without slicking it back, letting it fall so that it brushed the tops of his ears. And at the moment a few strands of hair, so fine that they could have been sunlight, fell across his face.

In that secret silence of her mind, that not even Ginny herself had dared venture to, she realized that before that moment she had never seen a man look so beautiful. She also began devising a way to steal all of his hair products so that this thought might never be entertained again.

"Seems I can't escape you, Weasley." He pulled his wand from his pocket and conjured a chair identical to the one they were both after. "But it does seem pointless to fight it." Sitting in one of the velvet seats he gestured for her to do the same.

Tentatively, Ginny settled into the soft cushions. She opened her book and stared blankly at the jumble of words before her. Damn, him. Now she'd lost her ability to read.

She peered over the edge of her book only to find two gray eyes looking back at her.

"Why are you looking at me?" she asked, realizing too late how horrible it had come out.

He blinked. "I could ask you the same thing."

Ginny felt heat rise in her cheeks. "I can't concentrate," she confessed, setting her book on the small table between them. "You?"

"Potions," he said holding up his textbook. "Looking at you seemed like a somewhat better alternative."

Her eyes narrowed. "I'm flattered."

"You should be," he assured her. "I love Potions."

Ginny still wasn't quite sure how to take that. "Why is it you're dropping these half compliments when you're supposed to despise me?"

Draco's posture was tense but other than that he didn't seem bothered. "Not one for subtleties, are we?"

"Never have been when it comes to people I don't trust," she said flatly.

"And whom don't you trust?"

"Just short of everyone."

Here she got a reaction. One eyebrow raised and that perfectly sculpted mouth of his curled into a sort of smile. "What about that lovely trio that seems to be with you all the time?"

"Family doesn't count," Ginny reached over to where her book was lying and found a hand wrapping itself around her wrist.

Draco's eyes almost beckoned to her and she found herself quite lost in two pools of mercury. "If I'm not mistaken, Weasley, Ron is the only family I was referring to."

She smiled, a little sadly, and put her hand over his. "Family doesn't count," she repeated.

He seemed to understand and opened his mouth to say something but was cut off when a voice from behind her said, "Malfoy, what are you doing with my girlfriend?"

Ginny tensed and Draco let go of her arm as if it were poisonous.

"Harry." She turned to look up at him. His expression was passive and she released the breath she'd been holding. "What are you doing here?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"Meeting Hermione," he explained his eyes not leaving Draco. "You never answered my question, Malfoy."

"She stole my seat," he said coolly. His arrogant tone irritated Ginny but she decided to stay out of it.

"She stole your seat and you thought that gave you a reason to touch her?" His expression was still calm even though his tone was stiff.

"Yeah, I did." His tone left no shadow of doubt that Harry was being threatened. "Did you want to do something about it?"

Harry smiled. "Nope."

Draco looked mildly confused.

"She can handle herself." He leaned over and kissed Ginny so thoroughly she lost her breath, before putting his mouth level to her ear and whispering, "If he bothers you I'll be only too happy to beat the living hell out of him for you." With another quick kiss he walked past them, smiling widely at Draco.

"I really hate it when you bait him like that," Ginny said in a furious whisper. All of the reasons she'd never liked Draco seemed to have arranged themselves in a pile at his feet.

For a moment he almost looked sorry. But only a moment, if that. Because only seconds later he straightened in his seat and gave her a distinct look of indifference. "Yes, well there are plenty of things I hate about you but I'm polite enough not to bring them up, now, aren't I?"

"Polite? You? I'm quite sure you've mistaken yourself for someone with a soul." She grabbed her book angrily before turning her eyes on him.

Draco could never figure out how, but whenever she looked at him with that furious look of hers, he felt horribly guilty. And guilt wasn't something that came easily to a Malfoy. So when the knot of shame grew in his stomach he glared fiercely at her.

"How would you know the whereabouts of my soul anyhow, Weasley?" He spat the name as if it were a particularly nasty berry. "A possible total of three hours in my presence over a span of six years hardly makes you an expert."

Ginny looked taken aback. She hadn't expected an argument. In fact, when she'd decided to sit down, she hadn't expected to talk to him at all. Draco wasn't the sort of person she usually had conversations with. But then, she didn't seem to be having many conversations at all these days.

"I'm sorry."

Draco's lifted his wide eyes to meet hers. "What?"

Ginny sighed and looked down at her hands. "I had no right to insult you like that," she began. "Other than your less than heartwarming display with Harry, you've been... well, you've been civil."

"Really had to rip that one out of you didn't I?" Draco said, grinning.

Ginny laughed. "Well it's hard for me to admit that you've been sweet to me." She looked up at him again, her face having turned serious. "I was brought up to loathe the very dirt you tread on, Malfoy. And I can't help but wonder why you've been so nice."

He thought about it for a moment. He too had been raised to despise her family. His father had taught him that.

"I was taught all of the education I ever valued by one man. One man I looked up to and respected and feared above all others. But that man was taken away to a place he always saw as beneath him." His beautiful, icy eyes held the imagined reflection of a man who had tried to kill her once. Who had killed many before and who was still killing the boy sitting in front of her. "Nobody ever tells you that your father can be wrong."

Ginny had to wrestle the impulse to wrap her arms around him and hug him until everything was okay again. Squeezing the life out of him might not be the best idea right now.

Draco shook his head and looked up at her with a grin. "And I never was one for tradition anyhow."

***

Wednesday morning Ginny left Potions in a hurry, eager to get to the library. The heavy straps of her bag dug into her shoulders, as she rushed down the main corridor.

As she passed a tapestry of a particularly ugly troll, she felt an arm wrap itself around her waist and another clasp over her mouth. She was quickly pulled backward, almost falling to the floor, and her captor helped to steady her.

Turning around, she saw Harry grinning at her.

"What in the hell was that for?" Ginny asked irritably. Glancing around she saw that she was in another room, one she was sure she'd never seen before but was still vaguely familiar. There was a small fireplace in one corner, a sitting area with a couch and chair and a large bed, complete with scarlet curtains, off to her right.

Harry put his arms around her, resting his hands on the small of her back, and pulled her to him. "Well, I thought about what you said and I decided that we do need some time alone." He kissed her gently and rested his head on her forehead. "Thanks to a quick glance at your schedule I noticed you had study period now."

Ginny smiled. Anger wasn't even a fleeting thought anymore. How could she resist that face? And those eyes... And those kisses...

He pulled her hair off her shoulder and softly kissed the base of her neck. Slowly, he trailed his lips up to her ear and back down to her mouth.

Harry's kisses had always been one of her weaknesses. Somehow he knew just how soft, just how slow, and just when to kiss a little harder. So as his tongue traced the curve of her bottom lip, all thoughts of what she'd been doing escaped her.

Within a few blissful minutes his embrace began to sizzle, and she felt her self falling slowly backward until a soft down pillow broke her fall. Before she realized, her shirt was on the floor and his arm was reaching around to unclasp her bra.

"Harry." He kissed her again, sloppily this time.

"Harry, stop." Ginny's voice was louder but no less slurred.

She felt him bury his face in her cleavage. "Harry!"

He finally looked up. "What?" His big green eyes looked so innocent and she almost wanted to tell him to never mind. But the cold air on her skin wouldn't let her.

"I said to stop." She quickly clasped her bra and reached down to where her top was resting.

He stood, running a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry."

He didn't look very sorry, but Ginny felt terrible nonetheless. That was always as far as she ever got with him. It wasn't that she was afraid, or not ready. She'd just never been able to bring herself to do it. Sure, she loved him, it just didn't ever feel right.

A silent tear trickled down her cheek and she made to brush it away, but not before he saw it.

"Ginny." He sat down beside her and scooped her into his arms. "It's alright," he assured her, wiping the tear from her face. "I don't want to do anything you're not comfortable with."

"I know," she said miserably. Taking a deep breath she composed herself. He'd only managed to make her feel worse, unintentionally as it was. Because she really wanted to give herself to him but whenever it came down to it, it always felt so wrong. "I've really got to get some studying done."

She stood up and smoothed her shirt with the palm of her hand.

"You're mad at me." Harry looked up at her with that tussled black hair of his and those profound green eyes and she couldn't help but melt.

"Of course I'm not mad at you," she said. And it was true. Ginny had never been able to stay mad at Harry for longer than a few minutes.

He stood up and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her softly on the forehead. "Go on." His arms fell from her waist. "Study like the little bumble bee I know you are."

Ginny mustered up a giggle and kissed him quickly on the mouth before making her way to the library with a tear still flowing down her face.

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