Learning to Breathe

When the girls finally appear at the meeting point, Draco and Blaise are shivering from the cold. Susan instantly wraps her arms around her boyfriend, trying to warm him up. Ginny gives Draco a look of concern.

"Are you cold, underneath that big cloak?"

"You're late," he says, his teeth chattering. "You were supposed to be here almost thirty minutes ago."

"I'm sorry," she says. "I kept her in Gladrags longer than she meant to be there." She moves forward and opens his cloak, maneuvering her way beneath it. He arches an eyebrow at her.

"Feeling naughty, are we, pet?"

"No, I'm just trying to get you warm," she says, smiling. She turns to look at Blaise and Susan. "Are we ready to go back?"

"I think we're going to stay a bit longer," Blaise says, his arms wrapped around Susan. "We'll see you later - maybe at dinner?"

"All right," Draco agrees, nodding. "We'll see you later. Thanks for lunch."

"No problem," Blaise says, smiling at his friend before turning away with Susan beside him.

"I hope you know that I have no intentions of going to dinner with them," Draco says candidly, as they begin the trek back to Hogwarts.

"Why not?" she asks, almost tripping on his feet in an effort to stay beneath his cloak as they move.

"I've had quite enough of the goo-goo eyes to last me a lifetime, thank you very much." She laughs at this.

"They're not that bad, once you get used to them."

"Good to know someone can stomach them without wanting to vomit," he comments wryly.

As soon as they arrive back at Hogwarts, they head to his tower. He is surprised at this, but pleasantly so. He had thought that she might decide to take her leave of him until after dinner.

Once they are inside his room, she kicks off her shoes and stands in front of the blazing fire with her hands outstretched. "Why don't we ring for the house elves and have them bring us some chocolate?"

"Excellent idea - I'm actually upset that I didn't think of it first," he says, tugging the gilt rope. Minutes later, they have steaming mugs of cocoa in their hands as they sit on the rug in front of the fireplace.

"So what did you two do while Susan and I were off shopping? Any deep male bonding?"

"As if I'd tell you," he laughs.

"I'll tell you what we talked about if you tell me what you talked about," she wheedles, smiling.

"I think I'll pass, thanks. You probably only talked about girly things like clothes and makeup anyway."

"Suit yourself," she says, shrugging. They are quiet for a moment as she stares into the fire and he looks down into his mug. "Draco?"

"Yes?"

"Would it be all right if I stayed with you tonight?"

If he didn't feel the painful thumping of his heart inside his chest, he would think he'd died and gone to heaven. "Tired of Granger?"

"No," she says, giving him a somewhat shy look. "I just - I miss you."

"You do?"

"Yeah," she admits, smiling softly. Her cheeks are rosy from being so close to the heat, and it reminds him of another night when they sat close to his fire. "We spent a week together, and I've missed spending time with you since then. This is nice. Besides, it's not like we have to be somewhere tomorrow, or anything. It's Sunday."

"Won't you have to go and get clothes to change into? Pyjamas, or something?"

"I don't really feel like going back there," she says, frowning slightly. "Could I maybe borrow some of your pyjamas? Just for tonight, I mean?"

The thought of her sleeping in his clothes is erotic and sweet at the same time. He nods at her. "Sure, that's not a problem."

"Thanks," she says, visibly relieved. She drains the rest of her chocolate and pushes the mug away. "Want to play chess?"

"Sure." He gets his chess board out and sets it up. They remain locked in their game until Ginny realizes that her stomach is growling. He laughs at the noise it makes, and she gives him an embarrassed smile.

"It must be time for dinner." He glances at the clock on his desk and nods.

"You're right. Want me to go get something and bring it up here?"

"Why don't we go down there together?" she suggests, rising from the floor.

"You know," he says, pausing by the bed, where his shoes are on the floor. "I don't much fancy going to the trouble of putting my shoes on to go downstairs."

"Then don't," she says, smiling. "I'll go down in my socks if you will."

"You're on, then," he says, grinning. They make their way down to the kitchens and get a basket full of food from the house elves. When they are on their way out of the kitchen, they run into Ron, who stands in the corridor and stares openly at them.

"Ron, will you move?" Ginny asks, frowning. "We can't get by with you standing in the middle of the hallway."

Draco and Ron have locked eyes, and Ginny isn't entirely sure that she's comfortable with this, considering that Ron has inherited the same Weasley temper that she has. When he inclines his head toward Draco and moves out of the way, she is too surprised to react.

Draco escorts her back to his room with a gentle hand on her elbow, and when they are back upstairs, she turns to him. "Was he actually just civil to you?"

"Wonder of wonders, yes," he says, removing food from the basket and placing it on the floor in front of the fire.

"No whispered threats that I didn't hear? No dirty looks?"

"Nothing of the sort."

"What do you think it means?"

"I think it means that even though he may not like it, your brother is accepting your decision to be my friend."

"That's very mature, but it doesn't sound like something Ron would do."

"People change, you said it yourself," he reminds her, arranging the food just so. She sits down.

They eat in silence, as Ginny turns several things over in her mind at once. If Ron has already accepted Draco as her friend, wouldn't that predispose him to accepting Draco as something more? Did that mean that she was free to pursue a relationship with Draco, without worrying about incurring her brother's wrath?

Not that that was the reason that she hadn't revealed her feelings to Draco yet, she reasoned. No, she hadn't told him yet because she wasn't sure how he would react. She doesn't want him to think that she's just telling him because he said it first, and besides that, she is still frightened that revealing the depth of her feelings will frighten him away.

When the meal is finished and the dishes and leftover food has been cleared away, he rises from the floor and goes to his closet to find her something to wear. She watches silently, wondering if tonight he will simply hold her, or if he will allow her something more.

He rummages through his closet and finds nothing suitable for her, so he turns to his dresser and digs through a drawer. He pulls out an old t-shirt and a pair of his pyjama pants. When he turns to hand them to her, she smiles.

"Thanks," she says, taking them from him. He watches in amazement as she begins to change in front of him, and he clears his throat.

"I think maybe you'd better change in the bathroom."

"Why?" she asks, ignoring him and pulling her jeans off.

"Because of what we discussed earlier." He can feel the blood rushing away from his head as she turns to him wearing only her long-sleeved shirt and knickers, which, he notes, are scandalously low cut.

"Draco, you've seen it all before."

"And? Before when I saw it, I was touching it."

"Point taken," she says, shaking her head. She takes her clothes into the bathroom and changes, and when she emerges, he thinks that she looks almost edible in his pyjamas. "So," she says, smiling at him as she dumps her own clothes on the floor beside the bed. "What did you and Blaise do today while you were alone?"

"You're incorrigible," he laughs, pulling the covers back on his side of the bed, then climbing beneath them. She giggles and slides beneath the covers next to him. "I'm not telling you."

"Even if I beg?"

"Hm," he says, considering. "I don't know. I think I like the sound of you begging."

"You would, prat."

"Wench."

"Draco?"

"Hmm?" he asks, moving his arm to allow her room as she cuddles up next to him.

"What was it like to live with your father?" His eyes fly open in the darkness.

"What?"

"It's just that I remember all of the rumors about how he abused you, and I want to know what he was really like."

He hugs her closer for this. He has heard the rumors as well; has been hearing them since he was almost twelve years old. "I loved my father. He may have been a hard man, but he never raised a wand to me once. Not ever."

"I always suspected that there was no substance to those rumors."

"Ginny?"

"What?"

"Why did you let me kiss you earlier?"

"I didn't let you. I kissed you too, remember?"

"We never finished what we started earlier."

"Do you want to finish it now?" she asks softly. He shakes his head.

"No, I'm too tired." It is a half-truth at best; he does want to finish what they started, but he doesn't want to give up holding her in order to do it. She drapes a possessive arm over his chest and rests her cheek on his shoulder.

"Goodnight, Ferret."

"Goodnight, Weasel."

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Before he opens his eyes, he is conscious of her voice. His side is cold, so he's aware that she's not lying next to him.

"He's still asleep," her soft voice carries over to him from the door to his room.

"What are you even doing up here, Ginny?" He groans silently. Why is Granger looking for him?

"It's none of your business," Ginny replies heatedly.

"Look, Dumbledore wanted me to talk to him about doing some of his old Prefect duties."

"So you wait until Sunday morning to come and talk to him?" she asks, her voice saturated with disbelief.

"I was busy," Hermione protested. "I could report the two of you, you know. Students aren't allowed to spend the night in the opposite sex's room!"

"Threats are really beneath you, Hermione," Ginny snaps. "If you're jealous, why don't you just come out and say it?"

"Jealous?" Hermione snorts. "Of Malfoy?"

"Look, we didn't do anything last night," Ginny hisses, her eyes narrowing. "So you can leave. I will give him the message that you stopped by, although it would be my guess that he won't look for you until tomorrow when he has some free time."

"Are you in love with him?" Hermione asks suddenly. Over on the bed, Draco tenses.

"Why are you asking me that?" Ginny's voice sounds tired all of a sudden.

"I just - all of us would like to know if you're happy or not. You shouldn't sneak around with him, Ginny."

"I'm not sneaking around. We've done nothing wrong by getting close to each other - if we have, then you'd be guilty of the same thing, wouldn't you?" Hermione's cheeks flush scarlet at the accusation.

"That's different. I love Harry and Ron."

"And I love Draco, so there's not a damned bit of difference." Draco sits up slowly, the sheet falling to his waist and exposing his bare chest. Hermione see him move and averts her eyes quickly.

"I'm still available, if you ever need to talk to someone," she offers weakly, turning to head towards the stairs. "Please tell Malfoy that I was here."

Ginny watches Hermione leave, her arms folded across her chest. She stands there until Hermione is out of sight and the sound of her footsteps have faded on the stairs, and then she turns around. The blood rushes away from her face when she sees Draco sitting up, staring at her.

She walks slowly to the bed and sits down, tucking her legs beneath her as she faces him. "How long have you been awake?" she asks softly, not meeting his eyes.

"Long enough." She nods slowly. "Why didn't you say anything to me, if that's how you feel?"

"I didn't know what to say," she admits. "I didn't want you to think I was saying it just because you said it."

"So you stayed silent and just let me think that you didn't care at all?"

"It wasn't like that," she protests weakly. "I just didn't know how to say it."

"It's pretty simple," he says, frowning. "You just say 'I love you.'"

"It wasn't that easy for you," she points out. "You said it on accident. How was I to know if you really meant it, or if you just said it because of the sex?"

"I told you then that I don't say things that I don't mean. Why was it so easy to tell Granger how you felt, and not me?"

"I didn't even know if you'd want to hear it anymore - with us being friends, and all."

"Sweet Salazar," he swears, shaking his head. "Don't you think that I want more than that, especially after the way we kissed yesterday?"

"What do you want from me?"

"If you really meant it, I want you to say it again - this time to my face."

"And if I can't?"

"You can," he asserts. She takes a deep breath and looks up, her eyes locking with his.

"I love you, Draco." No sooner are the words out of her mouth than she's on her back, being kissed into oblivion. His hands are everywhere, and his intense kissing makes her feel as though he's trying to consume her. She gives herself over to it and kisses him back with just as much passion.

When they finally come up for air, he pulls away just enough to caress her cheek with his hand. Their noses are still touching and their breaths are mingling. "I never thought to hear you say it, even though I hoped I would."

"I'm sorry I didn't say it when you did."

"Hearing it now makes up for it - sort of," he says wryly. "Although I would rather that we hadn't spent that time apart. You do realize that now that you've said it, I really do own you?"

She laughs at this. "But you're my pet Slytherin, remember? I own you."

"We own each other, then," he concedes, kissing the tip of her nose. "And today, we're not getting out of this bed for all the gold in Gringott's."

"Is that so?"

"Wait, I lied," he says, sitting up. He gets off of the bed and goes to his desk, then rummages through the bottom leftmost drawer. When he turns around, she blushes. His eyebrows shoot up. "You were ogling my bum, weren't you?"

"Absolutely not," she denies, the red on her cheeks deepening. He sits back down on the bed and waggles his eyebrows suggestively at her.

"It's all right if you were - you just can't help yourself." She laughs.

"You really are conceited, do you know that?" He shrugs at this.

"It's not like I don't watch your bum shake when you walk," he admits. She giggles until he holds out a black velvet box, and her expression turns sober.

"What is this?"

"This is what I did yesterday while you were babysitting Zabini's pet Hufflepuff. Go on, it won't bite. I promise."

She hesitates before lifting the lid of the box, and then she starts to shake so badly that she's afraid she might drop it. Her eyes dart up to meet his. "What is it?"

"I should think you can tell that it's a ring," he remarks, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, yes, I can see that it's a ring," she says, rolling her eyes. "But why are you giving it to me?"

"I wasn't going to give it to you," he admits. "I mean, I bought it for you, but then I had second thoughts, and I was going to return it today."

"Why?"

"I didn't think it would be appropriate to give to someone who was just a friend," he explains. "But in light of this morning's revelations - well, now I know that you should have it."

She glances back down at the ring that's glittering up at her. It is a simple gold band with a medium-sized emerald in the middle, flanked on either side by two triangle-shaped diamonds. He removes it from the box and slides it onto her left ring finger with trembling hands.

"I know that we're still young yet, and either of us could change our minds about this," he begins, still holding her hand. "But I know that right now, I love you more than anything, and I want to be with you - and I'd love it if you said you want to be with me, too."

"Is this a proposal?" she asks breathlessly.

"Not yet - it's more like a promise."

"A promise of marriage?"

"A promise that when the time comes, if we're still committed, then we will talk about marriage."

"Do you really feel that strongly about me?"

"I do," he says, nodding. "I love you, Ginny, and I'm willing to do whatever I have to in order to keep you."

"You don't have to do this, then," she says breathlessly, reaching her hand out to stroke his cheek. "I'm yours. You own me, remember?"

With this, he pulls her close and catches her lips up in several dizzying kisses. "That does it. We really are staying in this bed all day. Sod the rest of the world."

She giggles. "So should I take the ring off when classes start back up?"

"Bloody hell, no!" he says emphatically. "I want the entire school to know that you're taken."

"What about my brother?" she asks, her cheeks flushing with pleasure at his words.

"What about him? If you hid it from him, he'd just find out in a few months anyway."

"What? Why?" she asks, her brow furrowing in confusion.

"Because I don't intend on going even a single day this summer without seeing you," he murmurs, pressing several light kisses to the side of her neck.

"What about my parents and my other brothers?"

"What of them?"

"It's entirely possible that they'll want to kill you the moment they lay eyes on you."

"And it's entirely possible that I couldn't care less," he whispers, touching his lips to her collarbone. She shivers. "So now that that's settled, tell me again how much you worship me." She snorts softly at this.

"I worship you," she breathes, as his hand drifts down to her hip. "I adore you. And I will kill you if you don't kiss me again soon."