Wow, a fat ole chapter seven! I can't believe it! This is the longest so far! I listened to a lot of electric music by Owl City while writing this. So don't blame me if it gets a little…weird. Thank you for all the reviewer and for my special friend who helped me plot this out when I couldn't tell Lexi. Love you all.

I only own my own characters.

00—00—00

The truth is hiding in your eyes
And it's hanging on your tongue
Just boiling in my blood

Jessi stared at Zabini coldly. "No offense, but your jokes are bad."

Shrugging Zabini gave a low chuckle. "You seem to be the only one other than Draco himself who doesn't think their funny."

"Great! I love to find myself bunched in a group with him," she said sarcastically as she tried to move past him. Zabini reacted quicker and snatched her back by her elbow.

"Now, now it's not kind to leave during a conversation Jessi. Didn't your parents tell you that?" said Blaise as he leaned over her.

"Why are you out here this early anyway?" asked Jessi trying to change the subject.

"I'd like to ask you the same thing."

Jessi gave a strangled noise as she searched for a retort. Zabini on the other hand chuckled deeply again.

"Well before you go running off I'd like to give you something to think about," he said with a sly edge in his voice. He leaned in as not to be overheard. "I assume you have gotten your invitation to Slughorn's party as well as I, and as much as I'd love to go to such an even I am particularly picky about whom I go with."

Jessi felt something move in her stomach and it certainly wasn't butterflies.

"I follow…"

"Good. Since you seem to be the only girl who can shake off my dazzling charm how about we go together…as friends," he suggested, and at the appalled look Jessi gave him rephrased, "Or err…acquaintances."

"Zabini I appreciate your suggestion-"

"Trust me it's for my own gain."

"Yeah, whatever," drawled Jessi, "But I don't do dances or parties or anything like that. I'm a girl, not a show dog."

Zabini looked a bit put out but not crushed, "Come now Jessi, live a little."

Jessi shoved by him, her legs cramping a bit from the cold as she stomped away. Embarrassed and mute at the thought of dressing up…

"You'd go if Draco asked you wouldn't you?"

Jessi stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide and her hair flaming about her like a banshee. "What?" she hissed over her shoulder, but Zabini had vanished. Kicking snow Jessi trudged on unhappily. The contented feeling she'd had that morning was gone.

'I would never…'

00—00—00

Putting off her Charms homework she headed down to Hogsmead with a rather large group of students. She had brushed of the morning's events and convinced herself she wouldn't let some conceited Blaise Zabini put her down for the day. Tucked under one arm she had an old tattered tome that had been scribbled in over the ages and small pieces of note paper peeked out from its yellowed pages. Along with the book she had a few folded pages of parchment.

'Would I sound like a dork if I said I'm having fun deciphering this?' she thought to herself with a smile. People chattered around her nosily, but she was caught up in her own little world for the moment. Happy about the freedom and the ability to choose what she wanted to do when she wanted to do it.

'Totally opposite of what I ought to be doing I suppose,' she thought, her father expected her to have top marks, and skipping out on some homework certainly wasn't the way to get that. But at the moment grades didn't matter to her, big fat snowflakes fell from the grey sky and dappled her hair and coat.

'Bliss,' she thought, 'that's what this is.'

Someone shouldered her and she stumbled a bit, clutching her book to make sure it didn't fly out of her grasp and get wet in the snow. Regaining her balance she saw Pansy and Mildred smirking rudely in her direction, arm in arm heading towards the Three Broomsticks.

Dusting herself off Jessi didn't let them get the better of her. She checked her belongings and continued on towards the Three Broomsticks herself, content with the knowledge she'd get a seat far away from them.

Opening the creaky door the scents of dust and butterbeer met her nose, whisking her away to a secret world where their teenage memories were sown. She smiled at the bartender even though she didn't know his name as she knocked the snow from her boots and headed towards the closest corner seat that wasn't occupied by snogging couples.

Pale dreary light came in through the dusty and dirty window and provided just enough light to read by. The seat was cold but she didn't mind, she unzipped her coat a bit and put her book and paper on the table as she made herself comfortable. The old white candle that flickered peacefully in the middle gave off a little heat but the room still held a little of the chill of winter.

A waiter came over and took her order, one tea two sugar. Jessi didn't have a sweet tooth enough for butterbeer and coffee was too strong for her. She smiled at him as he brought it to her, her face feeling funny at the action and it was the realization that she didn't smile often that brought a pang of loneliness to her.

Shoving it away she opened her book up, the small print and old markers bringing back memories and washing away the unpleasantness of her life.

00—00—00

Draco allowed himself some time to himself for once; time not spent working on his project. By all means it dominated his thought process, but at least he was acting like it was. He'd agreed to spend some time with Pansy at the Three Broomsticks, something he wasn't sure if it was relaxation or a whole new form of work.

She looked so pleased to see him, even with his pale pallor and paranoid glances. He made sure that he saw everyone in the room before he sat down, his eyes drawn over Pansy's shoulder at the redhead who sat alone.

With her head bowed over her books she looked caught up in whatever she was reading, calmness and serenity radiating off of her. So many times he'd seen her, mostly upset and angry, to see her happy made him freeze for a moment. Take a breath quickly.

"What are you looking at Draco?" asked Pansy languidly, she didn't much care as long as his attention would return to her and stay on her.

"Nothing," he said and settled down in his chair, trying not to glance over at her.

Minutes passed and he found the simple banter that Pansy provided to be slightly refreshing although repetitive and dull. He talked only a little, letting her control most of the conversation, while he studied the people around them and tried to look interested.

"Yeah, I'd like to go see them play again," he said shortly as he sipped his butterbeer, the sweat taste settling on his tongue thickly. His eyes wandering over to her again.

'I wonder what she's thinking…' he thought, 'so caught up in whatever she's doing… probably homework…she's taking notes.'

"Draco are you listening?" asked Pansy as she leaned forward, puckering her lip in frustration at his lack of attention.

"Of course, what were you saying now? Your father has Box Five seats?" he said to keep the conversation going. Jessi tucked some hair behind her ear and Draco found himself watching her hand move the hair with great interest.

'She's translating the runes,' his mind came up the observation quickly, 'she's finishing up whatever I gave her last night…'

He couldn't believe it. He was sure that he'd upset her to the point where she wouldn't dare touch them ever again. But there she was, translating them with a smile on her face. He swallowed thickly, anticipation beading on his forehead in the form of sweat. His secret burning through his chest like a hot brand, he wanted to talk to her, to explain to him what she knew, teach him, anything, just to feel like he knew what he was doing was going to succeed.

"Draco!" groaned Pansy, "Why aren't you listening to me?"

She whined so loudly that not only their nearby neighbors heard them, but Jessi was knocked out of her intense studies to look up. Her dazzling brown eyes meeting with his frantic grey ones, in almost…tenderness? Then when the knowledge that Pansy was making quite a face in her direction stoniness came over them.

"Ugh, what is she doing here?" snarled Pansy as she turned back to Draco who shook his head and looked back at her, a drowsy look on his face. She scowled at him.

"She's so weird!" exclaimed Pansy, "I don't know why you keep looking at her."

"Its nothing," said Draco as he stared into his butterbeer, finding that the color of it was the same as highlights in her eyes.

Pansy sighed noisily and grabbed his hand, which he had to stop from flinching.

"She can't give you what I can," she whispered, her expression hiding nothing.

'I wouldn't be so sure about that,' he thought to himself, on the outside he simply smirked, which was good enough for Pansy.

Jessi watched them, a cold stone forming in her stomach, she didn't much care that Pansy was talking about her or that Draco had even noticed her, but when Pansy muttered those few words meant only for him to hear the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Her pen tensed in her hand and she bit her lip. Rage consuming her.

'Fight it like she would, down and dirty,' sang the soft voice in the back of her mind. Making her muscles relax and her frown to ease.

Oh she would, she'd make her wish she'd never, ever; put an invisible claim on Draco Malfoy. Ruefully a plan formed in Jessi's head to make not only Pansy unhappy, but Draco want her.

Wait.

'Want me?' her mind choked out as she froze, 'I did not just…'

'Oh my dear, young love…' whispered the soft voice.

'Don't even go there; it's not in the least funny.'

'I wasn't trying to be funny my dear,' said the voice as it laughed a bit and Jessi found herself cutting off chuckles.

'I'm going insane…' she though as she inwardly groaned.

'Insanity is not for those who can perceive the sane,' said the Rands who had, until this moment, been blissfully silent.

Jessi sighed and leaned back in her chair, her peripheral vision betraying the cold grey eyes of Draco watching her again. Staring intently at her like a dog would fresh meat. Shivers ran down her spin and she found herself clutching her rune book and staring back. Her heart hammering in her chest and temples.

'What a wonderful prize he would be,' giggled the voice.

'Oh would you Shut Up?' growled Jessi.

'Not unless you do something my dear,' it replied.

'But…I don't want to. I don't want his attention I don't…'

"Stop looking at her!" snapped Pansy again; Draco's fingers had turned white as he clutched his mug with a feral look. He looked about ready to bounce out of his skin, explode everywhere. Something stirred inside of Jessi, she wanted to see him explode, to scream and shout and rant. To see the very essence of the Slytherin Prince Draco Malfoy.

'That's my girl,' whispered the voice which Jessi had named Mischief as it faded into her conscious.

Scribbling madly on a torn piece of parchment she gathered her things, clutching the paper in one hand and her hat and book in the other she walked deliberately towards the table. She could feel the eyes of many of the patrons on her as she moved, every muscle straining itself so it would be seen. For the first time in her life Jessi tried to be as beautiful and seductive as she could, working everything she knew how to.

Draco's eyes pierced through her so hotly that she was sure she would fall over any moment yet her feet continued to move in the same swift and powerful stride she'd seen her Aunt Chia do to make her prey put down their guard. Her eyes glued to his as she moved, he didn't take in her body, her eyes held enough for him.

Drifting right up to the edge of the table she didn't even glance at Pansy, the hushed and held breath of the room creating a magical weave that could not be broken except by the two who wove it.

The edges of her jacket and scarf brushed his shoulder and she opened her palm, the folded paper falling into his lap silently. Jessi continued walking till she got to the door, turning suddenly so her back was to it. She stared at the blonde hair of the back of his head till he turned to look at her. Moving slowly, languidly, like a great jungle cat.

Their eyes met again and she smiled a bit as she pushed the door open, moving backwards until she was outside and the door came between their view.

The Three Broomsticks eased once more into the easy and relaxed grace it had, had previously. But not all of its patrons were as easily swayed as Pansy Parkinson.

"That Bitch!" she snarled as she lunged for her coat to leave. Draco looked at her skeptically, one hand holding his mug, much gentler now, the other twirling the old parchment in his fingers, savoring the feeling of the old paper.

"Leave her alone Pansy," he said as he fingers worked to open up the little note. Pansy's face was flushed and she was puffing up like a great porcupine, Draco found the courage to chuckle at her.

'Open me, step inside, fall to depths where you may reside.'

-Shrieking shack at twilight- Jessi

Draco smiled down at the piece of paper and refolded it; ignoring Pansy's tantrums he tucked the note away in one of his inner pockets as he stood up.

"Thank you for the afternoon, I have business to attend to."

00—00—00

"What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing?" moaned Jessi as she hid out on the basement steps of the shrieking shack. Above her a ghost was slamming a door repeatedly.

'You're living your life,' said Mischief.

'I'm being a fool. He's not going to show up and even if he does what do I do?' she asked herself.

'You'll show him you've translated it, explain how its spotty and you're missing pieces,' said Mischief with a discerning accuracy.

"Did I really need to call him out on it though?" she huffed as she kicked snow from her boots. Her pale face flushed, but not just from the cold. She didn't know what to do; she knew that whatever she was feeling, it wasn't good. Draco Malfoy was, almost certainly, linked with dark magic and she could not risk being involved unless it meant…

'Unless you plan to stop him,' the Rands provided.

Jessi looked up into the grey sky that was right; she couldn't do anything unless she was going to stop him along the way. Jessi Davis wasn't a user of Dark Magic, nor was she one to support it.

'So stop the kid where he stands,' growled the Rands.

'I don't even know what he's planning,' argued Jessi; it was like an empty hole in her knowledge. She could translate runes all day and in the end still have nothing, and she wanted something. Like she had felt in the Three Broomsticks, she had felt a want, a fullness that she couldn't find anywhere.

'Is he serious about never telling me where these are?' she thought as she ran her cold fingers of the binding of her book, 'Is it that much of a secret? Is he such a secret?'

'He has no reason to trust you,' said the Rands, 'Yet.'

Jessi bit her lip, hard, almost enough to draw blood. 'Yet?'

'You could make him trust you.'

Jessi's fingernails bit into the old binding of the book, her stomach seizing up. Months ago thinking of something like that wouldn't have done anything to her. She wouldn't have been soft enough to consider anything else, anything but her duty.

'How far have I fallen?' she though in remorse.

'No my child,' said Mischief, 'how far you've grown.'

"I thought you'd be waiting inside or out front, luckily I was able to follow your footprints," said Draco from the outcropping above the steps. Looking up quickly Jessi was temporarily blinded by the thick snowflakes that fell, the whiteness blinding and the darkness of his outline striking.

"I was waiting…where I wasn't going to get hit with snow," she said as he trotted down the incline. Dusting the snow from his shoulders, she stood up and they just stared at each other.

"You've learned you shouldn't play in the snow then?" he mocked playfully. His grey eyes were shielded, but there, beneath the surface was the hunger she saw in the Three Broomsticks. A ravenous look.

"Do you want these or not?" she said with a slight edge in her voice as she waved the parchment in front of his face, "because if you're going to be an ass I'll just go burn them."

Draco looked like a cat you rubbed backwards; he immediately lost all of the playfulness he might have had previously. The hungry look flashing over his features, biting his pale lips and studying her from underneath his angular eyebrows.

"Get inside," he ordered and Jessi rolled her eyes but complied and opened up the old building with a simple spell. The door creaked open noisily and the wind howled in the rooms upstairs but it was a good enough place to trade information.

Jessi went about the room and lit the sparse candles in the room, turning the icy looking furniture and wallpaper, aged, faded, and covered with dust, to a warm looking room in spots at least. She turned, across the room, to look over at Draco who still stood with his hat on and his jacket buttoned up. Jessi had unzipped hers a bit, to relax, even if it was just a visage. She wasn't sure if she could ever really relax around him.

Draco's eyes moved from her to above them, he held out his wand and murmured something. Jessi's eyebrows pinched at the center.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"I'm checking to make sure there's no one else in here," he replied just as stonily. Once his spell had concluded that there was in fact no one else there he turned his eyes back to Jessi.

"Do you have that note I gave you," asked Jessi softly, trying valiantly to hide her embarrassment.

"Yes," said Draco as he removed it from his pocket, "But I don't see what it has to do with the runes."

Jessi glared at him, he was impatient and getting cranky.

"The first line of it is my rough translation," she answered, "It's…vague, since runes can mean more than one thing. And since yours were rather crude to begin with I could have gotten mixed up somewhere through."

"'Open me, step inside, fall to depths where you may reside.'" Recited Draco, "That sounds right."

Only then he realized he'd said a little too much than what he first intended to. Jessi's brown eyes bore into him, dying to be told what the secret was.

"Ok," she said slowly, "I have another line, but you only copied half of it."

"What is it?" asked Draco hastily as he stuffed the note in his pocket and came over to the old desk Jessi had her book and parchment out on. Around the parchment he had given her was that soft slanted writing of her notes. The book on the other hand, had many different styles of writing inside of it. She had it open to a page where a small alphabet lay open and many scribbles of runes not included littered the pages.

"It doesn't make much sense," said Jessi as she tried to shake off her nervous feeling as she worked through her parchment. One page falling open to the translated. They both snatched at it at the same time, fingers brushing. They stared at one another in amazement before Jessi broke the eye contact and took it up before her.

"'Hide or Run. Within my…' It appears to be 'door' but I can't tell since the runes for door also are the same as fourteen other words," she said looking down at the paper, biting the side of her finger gently in her frustration. "If I could have the rest of the runes…then we'd have a better idea."

"We?" said Draco haughtily, "No. This is mine. You just translate these and then forget all about it."

"Don't tell me what to do," growly Jessi as she slammed the parchment down on the dusty desk, "I've had enough of you trying to tell me what to do."

"It's for your own good," said Draco softly as he looked away from Jessi. Angry now Jessi didn't like him trying to be noble, she'd rather an angry Draco over a noble one any day.

Grabbing the front of his shirt she pulled him over the side of the desk, coming up in his face. "Don't act noble to me Malfoy, and don't act superior."

"Get your hands off me…" threatened Draco as he grabbed her hand, but he found himself melting into her skin. Even though it was ridged and tight, it was smooth and soft, and most importantly, warm. They looked up at each other slowly, before leaping apart.

"What are you trying to do?" snapped Jessi, "I'm translating runes for you when I don't even know where they're from, I'm constantly being harassed and embarrassed by you and your little group and now you're trying to seduce me?!"

The words came out of her mouth so fast she didn't even remember why she was talking in the first place. It was just that the hammering in her heart made her legs feel like water and his eyes seem like endless pits she'd like to gaze in all day.

"I'm trying to…" roared Draco, but the sound died in his throat. He couldn't tell her what he was trying to do, she would end him. He was sure of it.

"That's what I thought," snarled Jessi as she slammed her book shut. "The Great Draco Malfoy can't tell anyone anything else he ends up like his stupid father."

Jessi didn't expect the spell he hit her with, a spell that threw her back against the old wall hard, moldy wallpaper falling on top of her. Gasping for the air that had been knocked out of her lungs she stared through her disheveled hair and strips of old flowered paper, her mouth open and sucking air, and the look on her face utterly amazed.

"D-don't insult my father," snarled Draco as he pointed his wand at her face, but he was shaking so badly it hardly stayed focused on her. His face had contorted in blind rage, his steel grey eyes glistening, and the mad look on his face again.

'What have I done?' he thought helplessly, 'what am I doing?'

Jessi slowly got to her feet. She didn't dare go for her own wand. He'd curse her dead before she ever got close. Her throat was dry and words were lost inside her. She wasn't about to apologize and along with her breath, her anger seemed to have leveled out.

'I so- deserved that,' she thought ruefully as she staggered to her feet.

'Not being on your guard, of course you did,' snapped the Rands.

"Put your wand down Draco," said Jessi softly, but firmly, "I'm not going to fight."

"I never thought I'd find the time when you'd drop out of a fight," sneered Draco, but his words were shaking and he shook with his insecurity.

"You don't want to fight," said Jessi softly as she came back towards him and the desk. Walking around debris and over broken floorboards. "And I don't either."

Draco didn't say anything but he bit his lip and stared at her, his blonde hair glistening in the sparse light and a sheen of sweat evident on his forehead.

Slowly Jessi reached forward and laid her hand atop his shuddering and shaking one. Staring into his eyes, trying to radiate calmness, she lowered his wand. His icy skin shocking her warm one.

"Give me the rest of the runes so I can translate them," she said delicately as she let go of him. She took her eyes from him for just a moment as she gathered up her things and held out the translated ones to him.

Draco was confused and weary, last time he'd cursed her she'd gotten him back tenfold. He was sure she was going to kill him for cursing her, but instead she tried to calm him. Go around it. He felt cold all over and he just wanted to cry, but his pride wouldn't let him. She would not know the pain and turmoil he was in. No one would know.

But his chest burnt, he wanted to tell her, tell someone what he was instructed to perform. He couldn't form the words though, because her eyes were too powerful, to knowing.

She would end him if she knew.

"Take them Draco. Then go to bed or something. You look dead tired," said Jessi offhandedly. She was attempting to look everywhere but at him. Her heart pounded in her chest and her cheeks were flushed.

'Tell him,' whispered Mischief.

'Tell him what?'

'That he isn't alone,' said Mischief. Before Jessi could say otherwise Draco reached out and took the paper, his fingers brushing hers. She stared at them as they separated.

"Why are you so cold?" she asked gently, as if someone was listening in. Her eyes found his, they smoldered coldly.

"Because," he croaked, "I'm standing in the most haunted house in all of Britain, in the dead of winter."

Jessi couldn't help the peels of laughter that erupted from her. His words had been so blunt, so utterly trite and laced with disgust of the deepest level. She wrapped her arms around her middle and leaned over. The warmth of her laughter reaching from the top of her ears to the tips of her toes and flowing outward towards everything around it.

"Funny?" he said as he tried to not let her laughter affect him, "I don't think you'd be laughing if you were this cold." He crossed his arms over his chest and walked up to the gasping girl. Her red hair still frazzled and flying everywhere. Before he knew it his fingers were tangled in those red locks, pushing them from her face. The warmth of her body sinking into his. Jessi's mirth died as she stared up at him.

"You had some…paper or something…" he muttered as he removed his hand and looked away. Ashamed and embarrassed when she smiled at him.

"So the Slytherin Prince really isn't as bad as what he makes himself to be," said Jessi with a smirk.

Draco's face fell into a cocky look. The crazed and hungry look had been hidden again. "Please Davis," he said as his hand fell to his side, he turned away from her and started towards the door.

"I think there's a good person in you," she said seriously to his back.

"Why?" snapped Draco as he stopped, he didn't turn around though, as if her words didn't mean that much.

"I… I don't know," she said softly as she dusted off her arms. "It's just a feeling, woman's intuition."

"Well you're wrong!" he spat as he suddenly turned on her. Stalking back over to her quickly as he said it, he forced her up against the desk with his taunt and angry body and threats. "I'm not some Saint like Potter. I don't save people Davis, I end them. I destroy. I kill."

Jessi stared up at him, her eyes as livid as his. The sudden change and his urge to control washing over her. And his words. Almost a death sentence to the ears of a true Rands. But Jessi's thoughts swarmed to prove him wrong, anything.

'I don't want to kill you!'

"You saved me though," she said softly but acidic, she refused to show him her fear. His lip twitched at her words, a lock of his blonde hair falling from its place to his eyes.

"I only saved you because I had a use for you!" he said with dangerous edge in his voice. He wasn't the shaking Draco before; he was laced from head to toe, in fury and pent up tension.

She shock on her face was evident even though she tried to hide it. Draco smirked and he leaned in as if to deliver the final blow, to hammer the final nail in his coffin that would make him a target, prey, dead. He pinned her down, and Jessi waited like a rabbit, too shocked to run, for him to attack.

"I'm also a bloody liar."

And then he took her, swiftly and rough, there was no compassion or care. There were only his lips demanding hers. There was no breath, not thoughts, just pure instinct and urge. Only their hearts made noise, the constant beating of life.

Jessi gripped the wood of the desk for dear life as she was sucked into the kiss. Drawn in like a moth to the flame who'd gotten too close and now her lovely spotted wings were burning up before her eyes. Not even the cold of the desk she'd been forced to lay on could stop it.

But the burning felt good. She relished it, the adrenaline and the feeling. She'd never been kissed before and she couldn't even judge if he was even any good at it, but it didn't matter, because the burning was good enough.

Draco forced her back even more, one of his hands tangling in the dark red hair, entwining his fingers so deep that he could feel the heat that came from her body. Absorbing it through his skin and feeling it wash through him like fire. Running up his arms, over his shoulders, trickling down his back and scalding his legs in its flames. And it all originated with her mouth. The one that'd cursed him, tortured him, soothed him, and probably hated him.

He broke away slowly, holding her there, staring into her eyes and watching the moonlight dance across her irises. Their lips slightly parted, and wet.

Jessi's mind was eerily silent; it was only she and Draco who was just as confused as her. Slowly he backed off her, allowing her to bring her feet back down to the ground.

Draco stared at her silently. His face a pale, beautiful mask. He watched, waited for her judgment, swallowing thickly. Her taste filling his mouth, making it water as the taste throbbed through his veins, traveling and alerting all parts of his body to her presence.

"Don't…" said Jessi hollowly, "Don't ever do that again. I'm not someone you can manipulate with…"

Draco's eyes narrowed. He crossed his arms over his chest and blew out air from between his teeth in a silent act of anger.

"Then my point has been proven," he snarled malevolently. Jessi turned on him, her eyes wide.

'It was all…'

"You know Malfoy," she spat, "You're jokes suck."

Gathering up her things she stormed out of the shack. Draco was hot on her heels. Both puffing and huffing angrily and embarrassed, because they both enjoyed it.

"Jokes? You think this is a joke? My life is on the line!" he shouted at her. The wind swirled around them coldly and the sun was setting, turning the sky a muted pink.

"Then Draco, don't fuck around with me," she choked out. The wind was whipping at her face and her eyes watered. She prayed he wouldn't think she was crying, she wasn't.

'What am I doing?'

00—00—00

Jessi slapped Zabini over the head with a leaflet of paper as he attempted to ignore her as he read his paper.

"Don't give me that, I'm not in the mood," she growled as she sat down beside him on one of the squishiest and softest sofas in the room. Letting the paper fall neatly folded Zabini looked over at her with a glitter in his eyes.

"Sorry Jessi didn't see you there," he drawled easily, he noticed how tense her body was, and the thin line she had drawn her lips into.

"You had a fight with Draco I assume," said Zabini quite flatly. Jessi nodded and clenched her hands in her lap.

"He…finally crossed a line," said Jessi as she glanced out of one of the paned windows. The snow falling heavily against the glass.

"Ah, Draco," mused Blaise as he turned his full attention to the girl before him, a suave grin on his face, "And now you run to moi?"

Jessi gave him a Malfoy-worthy glare and he put his arms up in defense, "Joking, joking."

"I told you your jokes were bad," snapped Jessi as a few younger girls slunk off to the dormitories. Obviously thinking that Zabini would in no way noticed them if Jessi was there spouting off.

"Anyway…" mulled Blaise as he quickly changed the subject, "I assume you're going to take me up on my offer."

"Yes."

Blaise smirked and even Jessi couldn't help but think he was sexy, exotic, some far off land she might never visit but would dream of.

"Excellent, and don't worry about a dress, my mother will be donating," he said smoothly, "We cannot look like you walked out of the slums now can we?"

Jessi looked like he'd just asked for her hand in marriage, "What? Huh? No way! You are not paying for a dress!"

"Oh I'm not," he said as he turned a few pages in the Prophet, "My mother ex-husband is. You see he had an accident with a Manticore a few months ago, left us a bundle."

Jessi put her head in her hands and groaned. Zabini glanced over his paper at her, "Come now love, he wasn't that good a person, don't cry over him."

"You thick twit!" shouted Jessi as she began hitting him again over the head with her paper, leaning over as he tried to escape.

"Am I interrupting something?" said a cold voice, they both turned to see the stony grey eyes of Draco Malfoy peering down on them. His tie was disheveled, as was his hair, one might have almost thought he'd just gotten laid, but the cold and defeated look in his eyes proved that wrong.

Before Jessi could say anything Zabini had wrapped a dark, muscled arm around her waist and pulled her towards him.

"Yes you are Draco," he said smoothly, "Care leaving us alone."

Draco narrowed his eyes and bent almost robotically, sliding a folded piece of parchment on the table towards Jessi. His eyes never leaving her, straightening he turned away, said nothing and departed.

Jessi punched Blaise and leapt away. Nursing his injured arm Zabini looked up at her puzzled.

"What are you going to do with that?" he asked as she picked up the parchment. There were two pieces of it. She glanced at Zabini as she stashed them in her back pocket.

"I'm keeping them. I guess I can't refuse your dress or whatever," she said before he could interject, "Goodnight."

00—00—00

I am a liar, Jessi. Everything I do, I am a coward. I'm not asking for your forgiveness. I'm not petty, I'm not weak, I'm asking for your help. Because I don't know who else I can…I can trust.

Draco

Jessi pressed the paper to her chest as she stared up at the ceiling; she'd drawn the curtains around her bed, hiding her from the prying eyes of her neighbors. Shielding her from the outside world.

'What am I doing?'

'You're falling in love," said Mischief.

And once again Jessi feared she might be right. The other piece of paper, the runes, had been copied with care.