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Chapter 7: A Stolen Kiss

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Draco wiped his forehead on his sleeve and sat on his bed. He'd spent the last hour shut in that room, cursing himself and working his arse off. He didn't know how to clean a room—he had never had to do such a thing in his whole life. Guessing he might as well get started, he had picked up some of the objects that were lying on the floor and had dusted them, piling them up in high heaps all over the room. He had also washed the floor; he knew how to do that, after all, he had often been forced to do it without magic when he had been given detention at Hogwarts.

Without magic… how could he have been that dumb? He thought about how much easier it would've been to clean the room using his wand. He could've fixed it in a few minutes, and it would've been perfect. Instead, he had been forced to clean it by hand; it wasn't a big deal, after all, it was just cleaning a room; it hurt only his pride. But…what would've happened to him if his wand hadn’t worked during a fight? He had already stared death in the face, he didn't want another look, thank you very much.

Of course, Ollivander was right. Draco sighed at the realisation. You only understand how important things are to you when they’re gone, he thought, longingly. He stared at London's sky through the window and noticed that the first stars had appeared between the gold and indigo shades of the sunset. Damn, he would have to pick up the pace; he didn't want to sleep on the floor, as Hermione had kindly suggested.

He was standing up to resume his work, when the door opened and Hermione came into the room, carrying a tray in her hands.

'Were you having a rest, Malfoy?' she asked. He nodded, as she glanced around, approaching the bed. 'I brought your dinner. Eat it before it gets cold.' She put the tray onto his bed and had a better look at the room. She shook her head.

Draco started to eat his dinner and watched as Hermione continued walking around the piles of stuff he had built up in various points of the room.

'What's wrong, Granger?' he asked, swallowing some food. He didn't like the way that she walked through his room as if she was judging his work… and finding it unsatisfactory.

'Nothing. Just… it's obvious that you've never tidied anything up before,' she said as she finished her inspection.

Draco choked mid-swallow as the food that he had been eating went down the wrong way, and he had to cough several times and gulp two glasses of water before he felt better. He then stared at her in amazement.

'What d'you mean?' he drawled, still coughing slightly.

'I can see what you were planning to do by building those piles of stuff, but it's not the best way of tidying up.' The young witch approached one of the piles and started to scan its contents. 'The boxes should've been placed together, and so should the papers, and the objects of different sizes. Then you should’ve put all the larger things which needed to be repaired by magic in another pile. The way you’ve done it just isn’t very well organised.'

While he was eating, Hermione started to move the stuff from the piles that he had built and created new piles using her logic. After a few minutes, the room was filled with new heaps of well-organised stuff, replacing the ones that had taken him hours to form. Then, Hermione took a box and started to fill it with papers and thin stuff.

'Since you've finished eating, you may as well come here and help me, instead of staring at me like an idiot,' she snapped, glaring at him.

Draco immediately stood up and walked over to where she was sitting. It wasn’t until he had knelt beside her and had begun to sort some papers into another pile that he realised that he had obeyed her orders without batting an eyelash. He stopped and angrily muttered something under his breath.

She smiled. 'You know, Malfoy. Today you've truly impressed me. You should be proud, it's not an easy task for someone like you,' she said, taking some papers that he passed to her, and putting them in the box.

Draco noted that she was trying to use as little space as possible.

'I don't understand,' he admitted. He truly hadn't understood—how could he possibly have impressed her today?

'Ginny told us what you did. I never thought that you'd really help us,' she replied, beckoning him to toss her some papers further away.

Draco stood and picked up what she had asked him to give her. Hermione became very busy trying to add more papers to the box than it could possibly hold; she appeared to be concentrating very hard.

'If that’s the case, then there's something that just doesn’t make sense to me,' he said.

Hermione stopped what she was doing and turned to face him. 'What?' she asked. She gave up the hope of fitting the large bundle into such a small box and simply used her wand to enlarge the box, with ease that Draco envied.

'Why did you bother making me swear not to break your rules? Since you obviously still don’t trust me; what was the point?' he asked, picking up the remaining pile of papers and passing them to her.

Hermione gazed at him for a moment, stunned; she took the papers and slipped them into the box automatically, with her wand.

'Well, in truth… it's hard to trust you. It’s your fault, you know.'

'I don’t regret anything,' he retorted, sneering at her. 'I'm not trying to follow your rules or help you because I'm seeking "redemption" or anything stupid like that. It's just that…I have a life debt with Potter.' His face turned pink; and with you as well, he thought.

'Good to know,' she replied. Then, she stood up and took a new box.

They stayed there tidying together for an hour and a half and, slowly, the room began to look fit for a human living in it. The bigger objects and the broken beams were fixed by Hermione's wand. Then, she freshened up the bed in the same way and found some blankets, and a duvet, which she left on the mattress.

'I reckon you can continue by yourself,' she said. She picked up the tray and walked through the door.

'Why did you do that?' he asked.

She turned to stare at him for a long moment. 'I don't know,' she murmured and left, closing the door behind her.

Draco approached his bed. He knew perfectly well that he should make it first, but he couldn't resist and sank onto the mattress. He had never been this tired in his whole life. Only five minutes, he thought as he moved into a more comfortable position.

*Dream Sequence Flashback*

'Good Morning, Mr Malfoy. How may I help you?' A girl with brown hair and dark eyes smiled and stared at him from under her glasses.

Draco observed her, doubtfully. She was Marion Winterman, Fudge's new secretary. He had met her before and he'd always thought of her as a dull person; shy and obliging, but totally inefficient. He hoped that she wouldn't waste his precious time: he was there to collect a few documents that his father needed, but he had a lot of other things to do.

Ever since he'd left Hogwarts, Lucius seemed to think Draco’s purpose in life was to run boring errands for him. Of course, he had his reasons; Draco hadn’t got all the N.E.W.T.s that his father had expected him to. However, he'd hoped for more consideration.

'I’m here to collect those papers, Miss Winterman. You know which ones,' he said, a frown furrowing his blond brows. She smiled at him and ran to her desk, starting to look through various folders that were piled there, in what he hoped was some sort of order.

'Yes, of course. Here, they should be here… why aren't they where I put them? Damn it! I’m sure that I put them here! I'm ready to—' she stammered as she rummaged through the papers.

She blushed to the roots of her hair as she accidentally tipped over an open ink bottle that was on her desk. Quickly, she righted the bottle and attempted to block the spill from spreading while she tried to move the nearby papers without pushing them off the desk.

This was what really pissed him off. Her. She was disorganised and incompetent; she always took hours to find what people asked her for. She seemed to live with her head in the clouds. How many times had he asked her to find some papers by a certain day and she had only just begun to look for them when she had seen a glimpse of his face entering the office? How many memos had he sent her to remind her about her duties… always later finding them lying untouched on her table, as if she hadn’t even bothered to open them? How many times had she said that she had just forgotten? HOW COULD SHE JUST FORGET? It was her bloody job, damn! How the hell could she forget about it? Sometimes he had been forced to wait for her for over ten minutes because she was late. Why didn't Fudge just get rid of her?

Suddenly, a big volume which had been lying on a corner of the table fell to the floor with a loud crash. Marion gasped in shock.

'Oh! Here they are—' she said, cleaning the sweat from her forehead. Her hand was covered with the ink that she had just stopped from spilling all over her desk, which meant that her fingers left funny splotches on her face. When she rubbed her eyes too, Draco couldn't help but muffle a chuckle.

She's strange, indeed, he thought. She grabbed the book from the floor and eyed Draco, her face turning even redder. Merlin, she was so dirty! It was as if somebody had punched her in both eyes, and this didn't help him to regain control of himself. She approached him, glancing at him now and then in a way that she surely wanted to be flirty, but she looked so much like a panda that it just made him laugh harder.

'You should laugh more frequently, Mr Malfoy. You always seem angry with the world, but I like your dimple here.' She showed him where his dimple was with her dirty hand. Then, she picked up the file that he had requested and gave it to him. It had been under the big book that had fallen onto the floor—no wonder she’d been unable to find it before.

'Dimple?' Draco raised an eyebrow at those words and as he did that, he skimmed through the file she had given him, checking that it was the right one.

'Yes! Uh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… how rude of me. I beg your pardon—' she blushed again and passed her dirty hand over her cheek. Draco smiled again.

'Don't worry. Go wash that face of yours, you look like a Sioux,' he said, unable to contain his laughter any longer. Marion stared at her dirty hand and, suddenly realising what he was talking about, she blushed even more and ran to the toilet. Draco continued to laugh as he skimmed through the content of his file once more and left.

'Good morning, Mr Malfoy.' He had just entered the anteroom of Fudge's office and, as usual, Marion smiled at him. He grinned back and she frowned, grabbing one of the waiting memos and starting to read it. 'You’re here… to get those papers? Merlin, can you wait five minutes? I'll be right back,' she said. Then she tried to hide something that she'd been reading before he entered the room and stood up, running out.

Draco shook his head. That girl would never get better. He waited until she'd left the room and then approached her desk; it was a complete mess, as always. How could she be a secretary, he wondered. He often had to deal with other ladies like her, but they were all very precise and efficient.

However… he couldn't make himself hate her. At first, he hated the way she acted, and he still found it annoying. But… he couldn't help chuckling as he recalled the Sioux accident. Today his father should've gone to get the files himself, but Draco had insisted that he go instead—if Lucius caught sight of the mess, he'd probably complain to Fudge.

He glanced at the place where Marion had hastily hidden what she'd been reading before he'd entered the room. It was a sort of small book, which showed on its cover a boy, Or is it a girl? dressed in blue. He or she looked like a Muggle, or at least they dressed like one; besides, the small book must have been printed by Muggles, because it had their style of printing. What a strange taste she has…

He picked it up and started to skim through it. It was a comic book; Draco had read a few during his childhood—the ones drawn by wizards. He'd been a huge fan of a story about a weird Muggle. Miss Winterman is far too old to be reading this sort of stuff, he thought as he tried to follow the drawings. The balloons were written with strange signs…the language definitely wasn't English.

'Mr Malfoy!' Draco gasped at her shout. He glanced in the voice's direction and tried to get rid of the book, instinctively, but didn't put it down. 'I know it took me longer than usual to bring you these papers… but… it's not nice of you to…' she said, her voice shaking. She rested the files she was holding on the desk and pulled the small book out of his hands, a deep blush dusting her cheeks and the bridge of her nose.

'You're not paid for reading that stuff,' he said, smirking. 'Or maybe this is a special mission Fudge had given to you?' Noticing her evident embarrassment, his anger faded away. She really was funny… redder than ever and stammering to find a good excuse for what he just had found out.

'Euh… it's that… Um…'

'You've kept me waiting, but don't worry, I won't say a word. However… today my father could've been the one to come here, and he wouldn't have let you off so easily. You didn't prepare the papers that I asked you for two days ago because of… lack of attention,' he said, trying to look serious and eyeing the comic book that the girl was holding as he emphasised the last words.

'I-I'm sorry. It won't happen again, I swear!' she said, bowing in front of him several times.

'I reckon you’ve read too many comics. There's no need to bow like that,' he retorted, causing her to blush even more and mutter other words of excuse, looking mortified while he was having fun teasing her.

'I'm sorry,' she said, again. Then, she took the files that she had left the room to look for and passed them to Draco, hiding the comic in a drawer of her desk. 'Anyway, here are the papers you've asked me to prepare. I hope they're all there.'

'Yes, I think so. Good thing you came back so quickly; if the weather predictors aren't wrong, there will be a snowstorm today, and I have other errands,' he said, quickly glancing at the window as he skimmed through his files. Even if the weather inside the Ministry of Magic was made artificially, the windows were charmed to show the weather outside. And by what the window showed, it looked like the first snowflakes were already starting to fall.

Marion stared at the window, her eyes growing wide. She ran to it to look out, squealed and dashed out the door. Draco was shocked by her reaction, and decided to follow her; after all, he had everything he needed from that office.

Marion ran along the corridor, down the steps to reach the hall and then outside. Draco went to wait for the lift to reach his floor, but he changed his mind and ran after her—who knew what she would do? Maybe she’d finally cracked.

He reached the girl, who had stopped to catch her breath just a few steps from the telephone box door which was the guest entrance to the Ministry.

'Why on earth—' he snapped at her, between breaths.

'The snow… Look, Mr Malfoy… it's snowing!' she murmured under her breath, like a little girl looking at a new doll. She had intertwined her hands and her gaze was all dreamy.

'Yes, it tends to do that when it gets cold during the winter,' he retorted, unable to understand why she was making such a fuss about it.

'I've always loved the snow. But…My family left London to live in Miami years ago, this is the first time that I have seen snow in a while!’ She kept staring at the snowflakes that were slowly increasing their speed. She looked like a child; Draco couldn't keep his usual frown while observing her. It’s so difficult to look "angry with the world” when I'm with her… he thought.

'I understand,' he said, approaching her and draping his cloak over her shoulders; she'd run out without even stopping to take something to keep herself warm.

'Mr Malfoy, do you know what comes of snow when it melts?' she asked, tearing her gaze from the cloudy sky and glancing at him. Draco found himself thinking about the question, and not knowing how to answer.

'Euh… I don't know. Water? Vapour?' he asked, doubtfully. Marion's eyes crinkled as he spoke, but the girl merely shook her head. In front of them, the Muggle crowd walking through the street hurried to open their umbrellas and ran for cover as the snowfall increased.

'No, you’re wrong. It turns into spring.' She turned in his direction again, a sweet smile spreading over her face. This smile was different from the one she'd often shown him when he had entered her office; it was true, genuine, and lit up her whole face.

In the soft light of that day in mid-December, as the sky became even darker and the snow started to grow into a storm, Draco thought Marion's smiling face was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

*End of Dream Sequence Flashback*

'Malfoy? Malfoy?'

He felt someone shaking him, as he unwillingly returned to reality. The room was surrounded by darkness, the only light came from the point of the wand in front of him.

'Huh?' he groaned, waking up and trying to sit up. He shivered from the cold as his body objected to the way he’d slept. His clothes seemed to have tangled around him while he'd been asleep, and he pulled to fix them. As he looked around, he noticed that Ginny Weasley was staring at him, frowning. He sighed.

'You really must've been tired, falling asleep on the mattress, without even making the bed.' She forced him to stand up and then used her wand to command the blankets to set themselves. A few moments later the bed was made. She then placed a tray into his hands.

'Here, I've brought you a snack.'

Draco put the tray on the desk that Hermione had mended a few hours before. He was still half asleep and wasn't able to think clearly. Worse, he was shivering, and he wasn’t feeling very well. He felt his sight blurring and tried to fight the unease that was eating away at him.

Ginny paced the room, observing the various boxes that Hermione had filled earlier that evening. Then, she heard something fall to the floor. When she turned to Draco, her heart sank; everything she had brought had been knocked to the floor as Draco dropped to his knees, his hands on his temples. A moment later he collapsed onto the floor. Ginny ran to his side and shook him.

'Malfoy? Malfoy, please wake up!' He was turning paler and trembling like a leaf. Her infamous slaps, which had awakened Harry many times, were useless and a pang of sheer panic twisted Ginny's insides. Harry knew how to fight a Dementor; Draco didn't.

*Flashback*

'Good Morning, Mr Malfoy! How may I help you?' Marion saw him entering the office and smiled that sweet and genuine smile she reserved only for him from the day they had seen the snow together. Several months had passed since that time, and the way the girl acted with him had slowly changed.

He didn't see her that much; he had had to leave for Romania to take care of some business that his father had there. It seemed that the Dark Lord had been seen there, and Lucius didn't want his Master to think that he had betrayed him again. But Draco hadn’t found anything. Now it was early July, and he was once again stuck in Fudge's office, trying to collect a few files for his father.

'Good morning, Miss Winterman. My father wants to know if the files that he asked you to find in his last memo are ready.' He saw her raise a finger to her mouth and stare at the ceiling, doubtfully. He sighed—she would never change! 'Don't you remember? The ones about the taxes of—' he said tiredly, and a sudden flash passed through Marion's dark eyes.

'How could I forget about them? I'm terribly sorry, Mr Malfoy…' She ran out of the room, blushing.

Draco smirked; as always, the desk was a complete mess. He had a look at it and saw that lying between the various files and folders there was a piece of cake and a glass filled with something that looked like water. He skimmed through the clutter to find that the rest of the cake was hidden under the desk. Marion probably didn't want anyone to see it if they entered the room in haste as he'd done.

If she keeps it there, absent-minded as she is, she will walk over it before the end of the day, he thought, keeping his smirk alive. Then, he had a better look under her folders; he caught a glimpse of what he had known would be there and picked it up. Yet another comic-book… no, she really would never change.

She's taking longer than usual, he thought. Since he was there, was feeling bored, and had that booklet in his hands, he started to skim through it, distractedly. It seemed to be the story of two Muggles… how boring. Then, he turned a page and his eyes went wide with surprise. He started to cough madly, as he forgot how to swallow and began to choke. The page had a picture of two men… yes, they were men… and they were kissing!

'I beg your pardon Mr Mal…MR MALFOY, DON'T READ THAT!' Marion's voice made him recover from the shock. Still coughing, he raised his gaze to her face and stared at her; she was redder than he'd ever seen her before. She pulled the small book out of his hands, like the last time, and glanced at the page that he had stopped at, becoming even redder, if possible. She gulped. 'Euh…'

'What the hell are you reading?' Draco asked when he'd recovered.

'Uh… so… this is… yaoi.'

'Yao… what?'

'Yaoi… eh… love between two people of the same sex.' She saw his sceptical glance and blushed even more. 'Mr Malfoy, please don't look at me like that…'

'Stop reading that stuff. Maybe you'll be more efficient.' He took a big breath and cleared his throat, trying to unsee what he'd just seen. 'Were you eating a cake?' he asked to change the subject. As he did that, he noticed that Marion's mouth was dirty with chocolate cream—he grinned.

'Uh… yes, it's my birthday today…that comic book was a gift from a friend in Miami,' she said, sliding the comic book back into a drawer.

'Oh… happy birthday,' he said, without much interest. 'You should choose your friends more carefully.'

'She sent me this present because she knew that I li… uh… that is…' Marion blushed and shot him a funny look. 'Do you want a piece of cake?'

He nodded; she picked up the tray with the cake and cut him a slice.

'Why are you eating it alone?'

'My family is stuck in Miami, and all my friends live there. I had nobody to eat it with.' The look in her eyes changed from embarrassment to sadness. 'I came back because I found a job.'

Draco noticed that Marion was getting sadder. So that was why…What his father had said was true; Lucius had told Draco that the Wintermans had financial problems and that Mrs Fudge had asked her husband to take Marion as his secretary to help them.

'The Fudges are relatives of yours. Can't you celebrate with them?'

'I already give Uncle Cornelius enough problems during the day. I don't want to disturb him further,' she retorted, staring into nothing. But after a little sigh, she shook her head and regained her cheerful look. She smiled at him—a fake smile this time. Draco was amazed by how easily he noticed the difference.

He stared at her, surprised, as she picked up her plate and held it in her hands, resuming her eating. 'I'm not alone anymore, now, after all. You're with me, Mr Malfoy. Whaddya think about drinking some champagne? My friends sent me a full bottle, but I don’t want to drink it alone.'

He nodded, smirking at her slight American accent; she was born and had spent her childhood here, but staying in Miami had changed the way that she talked. Funny that he had never noticed it…perhaps she normally tried to suppress her accent.

While he had been thinking, Marion had once again knelt and picked up a bottle of Pinot Noir, using her wand to uncork it. The cork banged suddenly and jerked away, bouncing off the ceiling and falling to the other side of the room.

'Seems like neither of us will marry, this year,' Draco said, smiling as she filled a glass that she had just created by transfiguring a clean ashtray.

'It never has happened to me, even in the past, Mr Malfoy. Maybe it means that I won't ever marry.' She stared at him, seriously, and then continued, smiling. 'Who knows…right now I'm happy enough reading love stories and daydreaming.'

Draco raised his glass and bumped it against Marion's, staring at her. Of course, her glass had been transfigured as well… it wasn't easy finding glasses in the Office of the Minister for Magic, Draco imagined.

'Instead of contenting yourself with dreaming, you should look for the right man,' he said. He finished eating his piece of cake and made a mental compliment to the cook. Did that cake really come from Miami? Which type of owl had they used?

'Mr Malfoy, your mouth is covered with chocolate,' Marion said, eyeing him as she finished eating hers.

'Yours is as well. Where's the chocolate? Here?' He moved his hand to clean it off, but she was quicker. Draco didn't understand why—he'd thought about it a lot of times since, and he had never found a reason—but the soft touch of those tiny fingers on his cheek felt like fire to him.

He didn't even notice, but his hand ran to grab hers and stopped it. Her eyes widened and her face turned red as he stared at her, but she didn't move. They stared into each other's eyes, for a long moment; Draco felt his own heartbeat and was sure that Marion's was as fast as his. Suddenly, he saw that she was trying to get away, and he made up his mind. He grabbed her, drew her to him and put his lips on hers. They tasted of chocolate…

*End of Flashback*

Ginny couldn't believe it. Draco Malfoy was kissing her… She had spent the last minutes trying not to panic, but nothing could be compared to what she was feeling at that moment. She tried to wriggle away, using all her strength, but his hold was too tight.

She'd managed to lay him on his bed, despite the difficulty of the task due to his weight and inability to cooperate. Then she tried to wake him up, doing everything she could think of. He was almost…delirious. He had even coughed, at one point, and she had got seriously scared about it. She had slapped him on the face many times, and then, after the last slap, Draco had opened his eyes. She had only noticed how close she had been standing to him when he had pushed her down on the bed beside him and had jumped her and kissed her. Just like that. With no understandable reason.

So now, here they were, on his bed; he was on top of her… still kissing her. If somebody had come into the room, what would they have thought of the situation? What would they have thought of her?

Please, please Harry don't come in. Or Ron… thought Ginny, desperately trying to wriggle away. All her efforts seemed useless though, only managing to make things worse, as Draco pushed her down in a more determined manner. He slid one arm at her side, running his fingers through her hair and ending up cupping his hand at the side of her head; the other arm wrapped around her waist, keeping her in place.

But the worst feeling of all—or maybe not, whispered a little voice in her brain, which she tried to ignore and shush—was the awareness that she didn't mind. She didn't mind it at all. In fact, a small part of her was enjoying it. The other part of her was screaming at her brain that the person who was kissing her was Draco Malfoy. She shouldn't be enjoying it. She was Harry's girlfriend, for Merlin's sake!

When the blond wizard finally let go of her lips and started to kiss her jaw and neck, Ginny took a moment to regain some sanity, and screamed into his ear as loudly as she could, 'MALFOY! WAKE UP! GET OFF ME RIGHT NOW!' This seemed to get through to him because Draco stopped. A moment later a pair of grey eyes gazed into hers and widened, his brows flashing in a surprised frown.

'What—' he said.

The loud slap that she delivered to his face prevented him from saying anything else. Ginny pushed him off her and stood up; she smoothed down her robes, still glaring at him, and then, she ran away.

Draco put one hand to his slapped cheek and stared at the wall, blinking. He felt a shiver running down his spine.

To be Continued…

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