Lay Me Softly Down

Draco merely nodded, then opened the door of his compartment, gesturing that she should enter first.

Surprisingly, they both found talking much easier. Especially Draco. They talked for what seemed like hours about trivial things, while they ate sweets, and lazily flicked the wrappers at each other.

Finally, they both could think of nothing more to say, and Draco knew that if he was going to tell her, it was now or never. With a grunt, he moved from his comfortable, relaxed position, into a more formal sitting one.

Noticing this, Hermione also sat up. She looked sad, but also ready to listen. "Hermione.... This is really hard for me, I've never told anyone about this, and.... You're the first. This is just between me and you. Swear?"

And she looked at him with understanding in her eyes. "Yes. I swear. Just like what I told you about Harry and Ron. Cross my heart." And he found that he believed her. For perhaps the first time in his life, he felt that this was someone he could trust. Someone he would share anything with, and someone who would share everything with him in return.

They both made the motion with their hands, and another long pause went over them, when there was nothing but the sound of the train rumbling it's way along the tracks, steadily closing the distance between them and Hogwarts.

Then Draco spoke. Hardly taking the time to pause for breath, and staring at the floor with a steadfast look of concentration upon his face. As if he wanted to get it all out as fast as possible, with no lingering bad taste, and nothing left unsaid.

"It started a couple years ago.... You probably know this, hell; I don't think there's a single person at Hogwarts who hasn't at least suspected it. My father was...is one of Lord Voldemort's most loyal and powerful Death Eaters. Ever since I was a little kid it was always, “Spread the word of our Lord, take an interest, praise the Dark Lord. He will need as many faithful servants as He can get once He returns. I want Him to be proud of my son."

Until a couple years ago, I was neutral on the subject, then I...I found one of his books in the library. I always wondered why the whole thing was so special to him, he always treated the whole subject like, Good Times With The Boys, Whooping It Up, practising some Dark Magic. That sort of thing.

Well anyway, I found his book, and it was full of old Daily Prophet clippings from the last time that Voldemort rose. Stuff like, MUGGLE FAMILY BRUTALLY TORTURED AND SLAIN, and DARK MARK SPOTTED IN LAVIDIUS WOODS. Behind all that stuff, there was like...."

Draco's face now twisted with what was unmistakably hurt and disgust, and Hermione got up and sat down beside him. She slipped her hand over his, and held it. She felt it's near feverish warmth, and she said, "What? What was it? "In barely more than a whisper. She found it disgusting, but, at the same time, found that she couldn't not know.

She also knew that what he said next was going to be most important. He looked up at her, and thought. * Why am I telling her this? She doesn't need to know this. * Then he decided to tell her.

"Hermione, you realize that if I tell you this.... There's no going back. You know how they says that some things are better left unanswered....this is one of those things. Last chance. If you want to leave...the door's open, if you know what I mean."

After he said it, he immediately felt like a complete idiot. He didn't want her to leave. He found that now, he needed her to stay more than ever. If only to tell her. He found that he had to.

He looked at her for a moment, waiting for her to get up and leave, but she merely stayed where she was. "Draco, if you want to get to know me, you better learn that I don't just walk out." She said with a firm conviction in her voice, her gaze never leaving his.

"Especially not on somebody that I care about," she finished, her voice scarcely more than a whisper. She looked at the floor, now unsure what to do next. * If I lose you, my heart will be broken......*

Draco lifted his head, and said, "I would never do that to anyone I care about either. I just wanted to make sure that you felt the same way…And.... I think.... I'm going to kiss you now," he said.

He barely had time to get the words out of his mouth, before her lips enclosed his, and he felt the world around him begin to dissolve. This was as unlike their first kiss as possible.

Hermione's lips, tender and pressing against his, her hands, encircling around his waist. Him, leaning into the utter sweetness of it, * If I could melt your heart......*

Neither of them bothering to come up for air, just drowning in the moment, feeling each other's very minds, moving as if one, not daring to stop. They stopped.

Their lips parted, and they looked into each other's faces, Hermione's clear, lucid eyes and frizzy unkempt hair. Draco's chiselled good looks, his hair spraying out in a plume around his angel-like face, his deep, sea-blue eyes looking into hers.

* I could drown in those eyes. * Hermione thought in a dizzying rapture of feeling. "Draco.... I think I'm falling in love with you," she whispered into his right ear. She felt him shiver against her, which felt extremely enticing.

"I wonder how we're going to hide this from Snape?" Draco asked in a delirious kind of way. Then he laughed. Hermione joined him, laughing quietly into the palm of her hand. * Wow. He even has a good laugh. * She thought. It was soft, and teasing. Like an angel's kiss. Draco leaned against her, and she felt the maddening sensation of his body pressing against hers, and he whispered.

"Hermione....I think that I'm falling in love with you to." And that was all he had time to say.

The train lurched violently, and a horrific sounding explosion echoed from the front of the train. Due to his position, Draco was thrown into the window with impressive force.
He screamed.

Hermione lost her balance, and fell to the floor. The horrible wrenching sound of the train coming to a stop drifted to their ears, and then there was an audible popping sound, as the lights in the corridor exploded one after the other, plunging the train into total darkness.

Then there was silence. The only sound either of them could hear was each other's ragged breathing. Hermione was about to say something when Draco began to slink over to the window, crawling on his belly to get there.

He made a zip-your lips motion with his hands, which Hermione could barely see due to the complete and utter darkness that had engulfed them. "What was that?" Hermione asked after a moment.

She looked into Draco's eyes, and saw the look of clear, panicked fear on them. Before either of them could speak again, they heard what had to be a first year's voice screaming a short distance down the corridor. "DEATH EATERS!!! EVERYBODY-" Which was cut off by a sound like death coming on swift wings. The sound of the killing curse. Then a cacophony of screams filled the corridor, and the sounds of terror filled the air.

Draco got up and kicked the window with all his might. Nothing. Only a thin crack line blossomed on the window's surface. "Hermione - Some help here!" he muttered in a panicked voice.

Hermione turned, and saw the sweat standing out clearly on Draco's forehead. She leaned to look out the door. "Hermione, No!" He yelled. She looked anyway. And what she saw made all the blood in her body run cold.

A throng of Death Eaters, in double file, slowly gliding along the hall, and coming their way.

Meanwhile...

In Harry and Ron's compartment, Ron had attempted to run after Hermione when she had bolted out of their compartment, but Harry had jumped up, and held his friend's arm firmly. "Hermione's a big girl. She'll get over it." Then his eyes clouded over with a thoughtful expression.

"Besides…I get the feeling that whatever's wrong, that she has to deal with it herself." Ron looked at Harry for a moment, uncomprehending, and then he saw the logic in Harry's words. Whatever had been wrong, they hadn't caused it, and they were both well aware of Hermione's sometimes-solitary nature.

They both took their seats again. They talked about trivial things a bit longer, Quidditch teams, scores and the like. Then Harry told Ron about what had happened in the car on the way to the station with Aunt Petunia.

"To be honest, I really don't know what I did. I just concentrated on it for a moment, wanting it to happen, and then it did. What's even weirder is what she did just before she left. Gave me a hug right in front of everyone. I think your dad almost died with the shock of it."

Ron laughed, unable to help himself. The thought of the sour looking woman that he knew to be Harry's Aunt, giving him a hug in front of everyone, made for a pretty funny picture.

Harry frowned. A sight that looked so comical, that it only made Ron laugh harder. "Ron! It's not funny! Stop laughing! Ron-" Then he saw the look on Ron's face. It was slowly turning an ugly puce colour, like the way Uncle Vernon's face got when he was mad.

Harry looked at him for a moment, puzzled. "Ron are you-" He didn't finish the question, because by that time, he knew what was wrong. Ron was choking on one of his beloved sugar quills.

He quickly got behind him, and administered the Heimlich manoeuvre. It didn't work. Ron's face was now beginning to turn blue. Harry felt panic start to well up within himself, * Stay cool Harry, stay cool. * He tried it again. It worked.

Ron let out an extremely basso belch, which was followed by a small, white and powdery chunk of sugar quill that shot out of the window with lightening quick speed. * Thank God for Muggle first aid. * Thought Harry, shaking with relief.

Ron stood there for a moment, leaning on Harry for support, gasping loudly. Trying to fill his deprived lungs with oxygen. When he was reasonably sure that he could speak again, he opened his eyes and said, "Thanks Harry. That was close. Too close if you ask me." Harry gave him a modest smile.

What Ron did not find too close for comfort at that particular moment, was Harry. He enjoyed the feeling of Harry's warm, clean, soap-smelling body pressing against his in the semi-confined quarters of the compartment.

It felt almost sinfully good. Apparently, Harry didn't mind it either. Ron was just beginning to feel awkward, when the train shuddered violently, and both of them lost their balance.

They tumbled down, unable to maintain their balance, and fell onto one of the heavily padded benches, Harry on top of Ron. For a moment, there was no sound at all, except the heavy, raspy sound of air being inhaled and exhaled. Neither of them moved.

Harry spoke first. "You know Ron......you never did finish that thought last year." Ron looked at Harry, part of him unbelieving, and the other part almost drowning in the excitement that came with being in this close proximity to Harry.

He smiled dumbly, unable to think of anything to say. He felt Harry's hands moving slowly up his neck, and begin to bury themselves in his red, thick locks, lazily curling them around his fingers.

Ron spoke. "Gee......I guess I didn't. I was going to wait till later, but somehow...…I don't think that you're really in the mood to wait." Harry's lips were now closing the distance between themselves and Ron's, with a sly, stealthy speed.

Ron could now smell Harry more strongly then ever. The strong soap, the faint smell of his shampoo and cologne, * All my men wear English Leather or they wear nothing at all.* and even, the shallow vanilla smell of fabric softener that hung in his shirt.

By now, their noses were almost touching. Ron vaguely wondered how it would look if Hermione chose this particular moment to come back. * Probably not very good.* He thought, as his brow wrinkled mildly.

Being as close in proximity as they were, Harry immediately picked up on the look in Ron's eyes. He smiled lazily. * Ah poor Ron, you worry too much. * What came out was, "Don't worry Ron. So......Are you going to tell me? Or do I just have to find out for myself?......"

Another silence hung for perhaps a minute, both of them now very excited, and both of them feeling the extreme tension in the room. Tension that was threatening to break at any moment. Like a storm, just waiting for the Tempest's cue.

Ron leaned close to Harry's ear, his cheek pressing against Harry's, and as he began to nibble on it lightly, he murmured, "If I were you, ...…I'd go with the latter," he said, pulling back to look into Harry's eyes. "But......" he said, deliberately teasing now. "You might want to take these off."

And in one smooth, fluidic motion, he plucked Harry's glasses lazily off his face and set them down on the floor. Harry's full, moist lips were now just brushing his, then Harry pulled back a short distance, apparently wanting to do some teasing of his own.

“Then I guess you won't be needing this......" he said as he slowly undid Ron's silk, red and gold striped Gryffindor tie. It fell to the floor with hardly a whisper, as Harry let it glide through his fingers.

Ron could take it no longer. He leaned forward, and passionately kissed Harry full on the lips. One hand wrapped around Harry's waist, and the other now undoing Harry's tie, and letting it drop to the floor.

Once he finished this, he wrapped his other arm around Harry, and as he did this, Harry ran both of his arms down to Ron's neck, and gently eased him deeper into the kiss. Ron felt Harry's smooth, wet tongue move between his lips, and let it happen, his own tongue rushing to meet Harry's.

Ron's right hand fell from Harry's back, and crept up to the top button of Harry's robes, which he unbuttoned. Harry's hands, now wandering down to Ron's waist as he pulled him closer into the embrace.

Ron undid the second, third, and fourth buttons in quick succession, now leaving a good amount of Harry's clean, unblemished skin showing through the stark red of the Gryffindor under-shirt.

Their lips parted, still just barely brushing each other. "I think I just got my answer......" Harry murmured, right before Ron's hungry lips descended on his again. Now Harry started to undo Ron's buttons, pressing against him with a feeling so full of need, that it was almost savage.

By now, Ron had finished unbuttoning Harry's shirt, which fell lazily to the floor. He ran his hands up and down Harry's back, feeling the strong, rippling muscles that resided there. He pulled him closer still.

Then Harry pulled back once again, to Ron's immense displeasure, and whispered the words that Ron had dreamt of hearing all summer into his ear. His warm, shapely body pressed against his, the stomach rising and falling with every deep, yet shallow breath. The words falling off his lips like honey from the Gods.

"Ron, ......I love you."

Then before Ron had time to answer, a very loud, violent explosion sounded from up at the front of the train. Harry was thrown off Ron, and into the compartment door. Ron felt his head slam against the wall with a dull THOCK! sound, like a golf ball hitting a wood roof. Then his world fell into blackness.

Harry's right arm smashed into the compartment door, and he yelled a curse. The train slowed down, and he was thrown into the window. He yelled again. Then the train came to a stop.

One after another, all the light bulbs in the corridor exploded, plunging the train into darkness that was utter and complete. Then there was silence.

Harry heard his own, ragged, heaving gasps, but he couldn't hear Ron at all. He felt a cold, icy finger trace its way up his bare backside. "Ron? You okay?" he breathed, waiting for a response. He got none. He began to feel real terror. "Ron? Ron? RON! "He yelled, as he got up and ran to Ron's slouched shape, leaning against the wall.

He leaned close, and he heard Ron's shallow, measured breaths rising and falling in his ear. He squinted, and saw a nasty looking red bruise on Ron's forehead. He let out a long sigh of relief. Another close call.

He quickly laid Ron flat on the floor, and listened for any sounds. For a moment, all was silent, then he heard a panicked voice screaming far down the corridor. "DEATH EATER'S!!! EVERYBODY-"Then there was no more. Harry didn't need anybody to tell him what had happened.

They were in serious trouble. Very serious trouble.