"Hey, Red. Having a good time?"
His voice was cheerful, but there was an edge to it.
Ginny spun around, her grip on Terry faltering slightly as a bucket caught under her feet.
She knew the voice all right, but she couldn't see him.
Ginny peered out of the closet door, but the light from his wand was pointed directly at her eyes and she couldn't see a thing.
"Come on out, Red. Boot, you too."
She stepped out unsteadily, noticing with a scowl that Terry hadn't once helped her.
As she stepped onto solid stone once more, she looked up at Terry, silently telling him that he was in big trouble for choosing that particular cupboard to pull her into.
He looked uncomfortable and scuffed his foot on the floor like a naughty schoolboy.
Ginny grinned despite herself at that particular thought.
He was, after all, a naughty schoolboy.
Hermione's outraged voice cut through her thoughts like a particularly sharp and poisonous knife.
"Ginny Weasley! What on earth do you think you were doing?"
Ginny scowled. Hermione sounded more and more like Mrs Weasley every day.
Draco's voice was dripping with honey when he spoke.
"I think, Granger, that Miss Weasley may have been snogging Mr Boot. But I'm not sure what she thinks she was doing. For all I know, she might have thought she was snogging me. Not that there's much chance of that happening."
Ginny growled under her breath.
Wait 'til she got her hands on him.
Hermione's voice rose about twenty decibels in the space of two words.
"How could you, Ginny!? You're going to lose us points, you'll get detention, and I'll have to make sure you don't fall behind in school work because of it. And I'll have to contact your mother." She added as an afterthought.
Ginny looked up in shock. Draco was smirking, obviously enjoying the scene.
"You wouldn't dare!" Ginny whispered, fear at her mother's wrath overthrowing all other emotion.
Hermione looked at Ginny as though she were a particularly bothersome fly.
"Ginny, you know I'll have to. If your mother found out that I hadn't told her, I'd be in trouble as well."
"Who's going to tell?" asked Ginny furiously, her hands balled into fists.
"Ginny. You have done the wrong thing, and now you have to be punished."
Ginny glowered at the other girl.
She sounded like Percy.
Draco sighed dramatically.
"Look, as much fun as this all is, and trust me, it is, I need to get to bed. Granger, if you'll take Mr Boot, I'll take Miss Weasley. I need to talk to her about something."
Ginny frowned in his direction.
If he thought…after yesterday…oh, he made her so mad.
Hermione didn't look in the least as though this was strange, in fact, she grinned and shook her head before turning to Terry, all seriousness again, and telling him to follow her.
As they turned the corner and their footsteps faded slowly, Ginny rounded on Draco.
"You told her?" she whispered heatedly.
Draco rolled his eyes.
"Granger's not a bad sort, you know. You don't give her nearly enough credit. We've passed you at least three times tonight, and trust me, we know when someone's in there, it's not as if you're bloody quiet, and she kept pulling me past. Anyway, I had to tell her about us, or there's no way she would have let me take you back."
"And who says I'll let you take me back?" Ginny asked, crossing her arms and glaring at him.
"You owe me, Red." Draco looked at her seriously and Ginny nearly burst out laughing.
"I don't owe you anything!"
"You owe me an apology at least."
His hand was on her shoulder and she shrugged it off.
"For what? I haven't done anything wrong."
He glared at her, his grey eyes glinting furiously.
"You just did something wrong, Ginny. What about Terry?"
Ginny sighed.
"What about him?"
Draco pulled her into an open classroom and pushed her up against the wall roughly.
Ginny let her head fall back against the stones.
"So?" she muttered, her arms around his neck.
Draco's hand slid up her thigh and he kissed her softly on the delicate skin of her exposed throat. He whispered his next words against her neck, making her shiver.
"When you're with me, you don't look at another guy, let alone snog him in a cupboard while I walk past multiple times, having to listen to the things you should be doing to me, but are instead doing to him."
Ginny ran her fingers through his hair, pulling lightly. He moaned quietly and she smiled against his cheek.
"What about yesterday? I wanted to make you hurt like I was hurting."
Draco flicked his tongue against her earlobe and she trembled inadvertently.
"So, what? You know I have to pretend to still be with Pansy."
"And I don't want you to. You know that."
"Well, you don't have any right to go around snogging guys who aren't me, just because you're jealous."
Ginny pulled away, furious.
"What is that supposed to mean? So you can be all lovey-dovey with Parkinson, whose face looks like a pug's arse, let me remind you, and you say I don't have any right to feel jealous?!"
Draco leant in and nibbled her lower lip.
Ginny let out a small groan and pulled back.
"You…you…stop it. I'm still angry with you."
He ran his fingers through her red hair, and she leant into his chest despite herself.
"I am, I am angry with you." she said, speaking into his shirt.
She twisted her hands into his robe, and he kissed her gently before she could react.
"Alright. You have a right to be jealous. You have a right to be angry."
There was a chuckle in his voice as he said this and she shook her head angrily into his robes.
"But I never kissed her. After we got together, I haven't touched her once. Yesterday, I didn't touch her, the day before, I didn't touch her, for months, I haven't touched her and you, you snogged Terry bloody Boot in a cupboard so that you could get even with me for something I didn't even do!"
He ran his hands through her hair and she leant further into him.
"But you have the right to be angry, and because you obviously feel quite serious about this, I'll 'break up' with Pansy tomorrow – if you apologise to me, Ginny."
"Sorry, Draco." she said, but it sounded as though she were making fun of him.
He pulled away for a second and gazed at her, his eyes lingering on her mouth.
"Say it like you mean it."
Ginny sighed as he kissed her softly.
"Sorry, Draco."
"Like you mean it."
His hand moved further up her thigh and she gasped as she breathed; "I'm sorry, Draco."
He kissed her roughly, lifting her leg and placing it around his waist.
"Like you mean it."
"So…so…sorry…"
He pushed her against the stone wall, and the cold immediately began to seep into her skin. But he was searing hot against her front, and she lent her mouth to his ear.
"I'm sorry, Draco."
His mouth was on her jaw line and he was placing quick, hot kisses against it as his hand slid higher.
Ginny grabbed his other hand and placed it on her waist.
"I shouldn't have…done that. It wasn't…I'm sorry."
Draco nodded and picked her up gently, placing her on the edge of a nearby desk as though she were made of porcelain.
He wrapped his arms around her, tightening until she had to gasp "too hard, Draco!" and he rested his head against her shoulder.
He stood like that for lengthening minutes, attuning his breathing to hers, and Ginny closed her eyes, listening to his heartbeat.
These were the times she loved him, when he let down his guard and became just another boy.
She breathed in his sweet scent deeply, letting her hands wander over his body.
Draco's hands drifted over her legs, encircled around his waist as they were, and searched for a way to touch her skin.
His hands found the buttons of her shirt and began to undo them, almost nervously.
Ginny laughed softly into his shoulder and he stiffened at the sound.
"What?"
She kissed him reassuringly and whispered "I feel like I'm in a trashy romance novel."
He smiled onto her lips, and she was surprised, as always, by how soft they were.
"I could always rip off your bodice."
Ginny smirked.
"To reveal my heaving bosoms?"
Draco nodded a little too eagerly and she giggled.
"D'we need to talk about throbbing what-have-you's?"
"So long as we get right into the nitty gritty of flexibility and possible ménage-a-trois, I don't particularly care."
Ginny hit him playfully.
"You'll get no heaving bosoms if you talk like that, mister."
Draco feigned a hurt look, pouting like it was going out of fashion.
"Are you all right there?" asked Ginny, her eyebrow raised.
Draco's wounded look slipped slightly, a smirk replacing it after a few moments.
Ginny smiled and punched him lightly on the arm.
"I knew you couldn't hold that face for long."
Draco slid an arm around her waist and said in a low voice; "Give me a week and a mirror. I'll have it perfect for you."
Ginny smiled up at him.
"I don't doubt that. You have a certain frustrating ability to gain perfection in everything you do."
Draco sighed dramatically, putting a hand to his forehead.
"So true, so true. Bane of my existence, it is."
Ginny took his hand and held it tightly, looking at him with mock seriousness.
"Draco, I know you joke about it, but it can be very difficult to cope with."
Draco looked confused.
"What can?"
Ginny felt her heart skip a beat as she watched his face and pulled him to her as fast as possible, her lips meeting his with ferocious intensity.
She pulled back for a moment and whispered; "how bloody perfect you are. But don't worry; I won't hold it against you."
She kissed him again, and he melted slightly in her arms.
They were silent for a few minutes, apart from laboured breathing and the occasional button popping in one or others haste.
Draco looked at Ginny, her shirt thrown on the floor, and bit his lip.
"Gin, I love you, you know?"
Ginny looked up at him, his blonde hair mussed, his face adorably bewildered and she smiled.
"I know. I love you too."
It was the first time they had ever said it to each other, and Ginny felt herself exploding with something like joy.
She wrapped her arms around him and he kissed her on the tip of her nose.
"Gin, Ginny, I think we should get going. I…I've got to…we've got to get to bed."
She licked her lips and kissed him once more, just left of his mouth.
He smiled, and she felt his cheek curving against her lips.
"Alright. But you're walking me back. I shudder to think what might happen if some terrible boy should see me and shove me into an empty classroom somewhere."
Draco grinned.
"Yes, I can't imagine what might happen."
Ginny struck an all-knowing pose, which was somehow diminished by her lack of clothing.
"I'd say there's a possibility I might be ravished, and there'd be heaving bosoms and throbbing what-have-you's thrown all over the shop. Not that I'd know."
She grinned and he swooped down, kissing her once more, as though he just couldn't help it.
"No, I doubt you would. I think we need to get you up to your room before someone else, namely me, ravishes you right now."
Ginny sighed.
"I guess."
Draco growled against her neck and she laughed.
"Don't play with me, miss. You're bloody lucky I haven't thrown you over the table and had my way with you yet."
"I'm lucky?"
Draco made a snotty sound and then groaned deep in his throat when Ginny raked her teeth over his jaw.
He tried to pull back but she wrapped her arms tightly around him and kissed down his neck and chest. He tried to protest but she had pulled herself off the desk and was silently kissing further down.
"Seriously, seriously, now. Seriously. Yeah. Got to…seriously. Alright. Enough…serious, okay, Gin, serious, enough….no! Oh! No, no, enough, enough…alright. Ooh…"
His hands went to her head without thinking and he played with her hair as she opened his robe, his eyes closed tightly as her fingers played along the delicate skin just above the zipper of his pants.
Ginny looked up at him and he let go of her hair, his expression turning serious again.
"Seriously Ginny, I don't feel right doing that yet. You're too…"
Ginny raised an eyebrow.
"Young? Innocent? Virtuous?"
She cackled evilly and he smiled despite himself.
"We have plenty of time, Ginny. No need to get worried."
"How much time?" she moaned, her hands on his waist.
He bent over and kissed her upturned face, four times, five, and six.
"I love you Ginny. We have forever."