AN: Thanks for all your reading and reviewing. I'm thinking about some other ships/fics, including a continuation of this fic that includes Lucius, a Ron/Hr fic, a Draco/Hr and a Hr/SS fic. I can't post them here, obviously, so if I do they might be on AdultFanFiction.net or possibly RestrictedSection.org, but they rejected this fic at first so I'll have to work hard for them to take this or any other idea I have. I've made mistakes but I will correct them in future iterations. I might post links to new fics as add-on chapters to this one. Feel free to e-mail me your thoughts and suggestions at sunshinefanfics@hotmail.com. If you can't support these fics I mentioned above, please don't write me all angry. I respect that about you, so you should respect my choices as well.
Draco closed his eyes as he half-collapsed upon Ginny, feeling her slender arms arranging him over her like a living blanket. When he dared look upon her, her delicate eyelids were closed, a small, smug smile on her lips. Kissing her eyes, he murmured into her ear.
"I think I've seen that smirk somewhere before." Her soft eyelashes fluttered on his cheeks as she eyed him craftily.
"Fantastic," she breathed into his mouth, kissing him sweetly.
For maybe another quarter hour, they lay joined together, neither wanting to give up the warmth of the other. Finally they met eyes and by unspoken agreement it was time to go. Both groaned audibly when Draco was forced to retreat from her softness. He rolled off her and she began to retrieve her clothes, both laughing quietly when they aimed a scourgify at each other. Silently, they dressed and Draco nudged her off the mat while he transfigured it back into his cloak. With a swift flick of his wand Draco's colourful fire went out. Ginny's lit wand was their only guidance to the castle.
For all their recent intimacy, Ginny was delighted when Draco reached out and caught her hand on the way back through the crunching snow. Without his overpowering presence suffusing her senses, she was able to wrap her mind around the small strange spot they had just occupied.
"Draco, what was that spot back there?" she asked. He was silent for a moment, then sighed.
"Dumbledore sort of bequeathed it to me. Said he thought that this year I might need to get away from everyone. It's bewitched, you know, no snow, no rain, constant temperature; right there in that little space. Dumbledore said the last person he gave it to was Snape."
They reached the stone steps of the castle far too quickly. Draco felt odd sensations skittering through his body. The touch of Ginny's warm hand, the lightness he was experiencing, was almost frightening. It was downright weird not to have any of the hurtful retorts or disdainful sneers ready when they needed to part.
They mounted the steps and Draco muttered the password to enter again. Just inside, Draco paused and held onto Ginny's hand as she began the inevitable break. She looked at him quizzically and he stammered for words that were normally nimbly spoken.
"I-"he began, cut off by her swift reply.
"I know, Malfoy. You don't have to tell me. This never happened. Never allude to it, never think that there's even a chance," she said bitterly, her eyes filled with indignation and inexplicable sadness. Momentarily stunned, he dropped her hand. She took this as her cue to exit, and she began to flee towards Gryffindor Tower.
A few long strides and he caught the back of her cloak, spinning her to face him, slamming her against his chest. Cutting off her escape, he locked his hands behind her.
"Gods but you're a vindictive wench." He eyed the murderous look that crossed her features and plundered her mouth.
She responded like an animal, knowing full well it was the last time she'd ever kiss him. He pulled away and glared at her. She glared right back, hating him for drawing out this encounter.
"I was going to ask you to stay the night with me, Ginny," he said, "before you verbally kicked me in the stones." Uncertainty arced though her. Uncertain if he was telling the truth, then realizing he'd never ask for such a thing unless he meant it, uncertain if they'd get caught. She heard his impatient sigh and looked into his grey eyes, searching them for any sign of farce. She saw nothing but earnest sincerity that never made it to his storm cloud face.
"Okay," she said, surprising both of them. She quashed a giggle when she saw his face brighten before he could rein in his feelings.
"Good," he grumbled. Releasing her, he held out his hand again and he escorted her quickly to the Slytherin dungeons and the nearby dormitories. Draco mentally gave a sign of relief that there'd been no indication that Filch or Mrs. Norris was making rounds in that section of the school.
Draco was glad the paintings were mostly asleep, and he barely whispered his password to his private quarters. Reaching behind her, his hand found the swell of Ginny's behind through her cloak as he guided her into his room. She let out a breathy giggle and allowed him the liberty. One thing he was beginning to like about her was that she had no false modesty. He suspected that he had only viewed one side of her tonight and that she had many more he would be pleased to explore.
He hustled her inside and motioned for her to drop her cloak over the back of his desk chair. He cast off his as well and busied himself with relighting the fire that the house elves had abandoned when they saw he was absent.
Ginny amused herself by looking around his room. It was small (by his standards, she was sure) but richly furnished compliments of Lucius Malfoy. Silver and hunter green twined together in sinuous strands through his silk sheets and comforter. She tried to imagine, though Draco's eyes, what sort of picture all her crimson hair would make against these sheets. The thought of it made her knees weak. She trailed her fingers along the smooth dark wood of the bedstead and traced patterns in the mangled blankets.
He would have given her all his sumptuous furnishings if only she'd allow him to join her in bed. He felt his heart expand and found that he had no desire to push it away. Ginny had accepted him, and he felt a sense of belonging, with her. Fingers tightened into fists at his sides as he observed her aimless wanderings, wanting to hold her and kiss her senseless.
"Ginny…" he said, unsure of what to say but compelled to speak.
For the first time, Ginny thought that she could feel his roiling emotions palpably in the palms of her small hands. Frozen in the moment, she searched his half-earnest, half-confused countenance. How twisting could it be, she thought, for a Malfoy to want his enemy? How shameful did he feel when he realized that it was she who could slake his thirst for companionship? How dismayed when he knew that he had to have her and couldn't take the time to heed the consequences? How, indeed.
She held out her hand and he crossed the space between them. Cupped hands held her rooted to the spot; whispered wishes became clothing on the floor. Lifting her gently, he laid her on his bed and admired her luminous skin and fire hair against the backdrop of his bedclothes. He positioned himself beside her and could not stop kissing her, letting her energy seep into his once-soulless body.
Sometime later a shapely white leg was lifted high into the air and a warm kissed pressed to the back of the knee. A blond head arched back in passion. A supple torso topped by cinnamon undulated softly above whispered endearments. A long leg covered in crisp hairs swung gently over a rounded hip. A small hand covered the two large ones that kept her blissfully captive against his warm chest. Two sated lovers slept.
Blindingly bright winter sunshine streamed over two figures so entwined it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. Draco rested his chin on the mop of red hair that tickled his nose with a sweet scent. Sometime during the night, she'd turned to him and he'd held her close. Now he didn't want to wake her, though he knew with alarming certainty that it had to be after nine in the morning, judging by the way the sunlight dappled his room. He allowed a sigh to escape.
She woke slowly, stretching against him like a cat, completely aware of her surroundings and trying not to hurry before she had to. Sleepily, she kissed his chest. He ducked his head to kiss her forehead.
"What time is it?" she asked softly, not really wanting to know the answer.
"I'd guess between quarter and half past nine," he murmured, not really wanting to tell her.
"Happy Christmas, Ginny." She smiled against his chest.
"Happy Christmas, Draco."
Extricating herself from his grasp, she resigned herself to leaving; knowing that by now the Gryffindor Tower residents would begin to miss her presence. She began to dress and made a point of putting on her new cloak.
Draco watched her lazily, admiring both her body and her brazen decision to put on the cloak that he'd given her, effectively marking her as his. Choosing for the moment to forget the scandal that would surely ensue, he rose from the warm nest of sheets and kissed the back of her neck. He turned her around to face him and delighted in her blush when she saw that he was still nude.
"Come back, won't you?" he said, half-demanding, half-pleading. She took her time answering, searching his eyes. Draco felt like he was being opened and read like a book she was regarding him so intensely.
"Yes," she finally said, turning on her heel. He watched the swing of her hips as she exited his chambers. He sighed and got back into bed, trying not to think about all the certain fates that would befall him.
Ginny entered the common room and all eyes turned toward her. Ron had a glint of fury in his. He advanced on her.
"Where were you? We were worried sick!" he blurted, just glad to know that his sister was safe. Ginny frantically scrabbled in her mind for a suitable explanation.
"I, erm, I woke early and decided to go for a walk around the lake, you know, just admiring the snow," Ginny said, forcing a sunny smile. Ron didn't look appeased.
"Where'd you get that cloak, Ginny?" Ron asked, suspicious to the core. She tried hard to look clueless.
"I have no idea, Ron, when I woke this was at the foot of my bed, no note or anything. I wish I knew who sent it, I'd like to thank him or her," she said, hoping that Ron would leave her alone. He stepped forward, and she saw dim recognition in his eyes. He fingered the posh leather of the cloak wonderingly.
"Bloody hell, Ginny, this looks quite similar to that blasted Malfoy's winter cloak." Ginny hoped she looked convincingly bewildered.
"Who?"