Author's note: Hello again, dear readers. I personally think I deserve some credit for the quick update. Check the endnotes for more comments. Enjoy!

Chapter 9

A secret is never kept for long

What had happened yesterday had surprised him just as much as it had Cathy.

He hadn't come there with the intention of kissing her. He had come there with the intention of breaking up with Joyce so he could kiss her.

He still couldn't put his finger on what made her so irresistible. In fact, it should have had the opposite effect since she had somehow made his nightmares worse and more frequent.

Except last night.

Last night had been amazing.

Fortunately for him, she had taken the second reason to heart and they had continued the kiss in her dorm. They hadn't taken it all the way, they couldn't. After all, he had just gotten out of a relationship with Joyce. Besides, as she had pointed out, they barely knew each other.

This was one thing she had hit spot-on. She barely knew Dave, seeing as how they had barely been alone together before. He shortly wondered what she would say if he introduced himself as Draco.

That thought was quickly pushed out of mind.

He couldn't.

No one could know his real identity, not even a simple Muggle.

Even so, Cathy was anything but simple. He still hadn't been able to figure out what it was with her that seemed to be an Aura. For he had decided that this was not what it was. She was a Muggle and Muggles couldn't possess Auras, that much he had concluded from the research the Ministry had made him do.

During his time away, all he had thought about was Cathy. He had pondered about the Aura, and her personality, and her lips.

As much as he wanted to, he couldn't deny that he was attracted to her. This was probably what had made it so easy to decide that the best way to get closer to her was to date her. That way, even if it wasn't anything special with her, he still would have been spending his time with someone beautiful and intelligent, as opposed to just wasting it on someone pretty.

The downside with being close to her, he had thought, would most likely be an even greater increase in nightmares. They had been bad before she came, become worse when she was there, and then being almost unbearable during the time he had left town.

What was the most shocking though was that last night, the night he had spent in her apartment, laying close to her side with an arm wrapped around her waist and her cheek close to his chest, had been the best night's sleep he had had in years.

He had woken up at 8:00 a.m. At first he thought he had been awoken by yet another nightmare but then found that he hadn't had any dream whatsoever that night. He was surprised to find himself fully clothed, apart from a pair of shoes, and alone in a bed that wasn't his own.

He suddenly heard a crash from the kitchen, a swear words and a few angry steps.

He smiled to himself.

Getting up from his, correction: her, bed, he walked into the adjacent living room/kitchen.

There he found Cathy, muttering to herself, using a brush to sweep together the pieces of the cup she had dropped.

"Good morning," he said.

She dropped the brush in surprise and looked up at him.

"I didn't mean to startle you," he began to explain and walked over to help her with the cup, but she quickly cut him off.

"No, no. Don't worry about it. I'll just pick it up." She bent down and picked up the brush again, swept up the last pieces and put them in the rubbish bin. "Breakfast?" she asked and began serving it before he was given any time to answer.

Instead of guessing what she was nervous about, he helped by placing the contents from the fridge on the table. When she seemed to have taken out everything she wanted, including a bottle of chilli sauce and a can of crushed tomatoes, he sat down at the table and pulled out the chair next to him for her.

She ignored it. Instead she seated herself opposite of him with a cup of coffee in her hands.

Sighing at her behaviour he helped himself to breakfast and ate in silence. When he was almost finished with the fifth toast, he noted that she had barely moved since they sat down. She still held her coffee cup close to her lips and took a sip every now and then.

"What?" he finally asked when he had finished the last of his toasts.

She remained silent for a few more moments, then said, "What did last night mean?"

"Whatever we want it to mean," he answered simply.

"So what do you want it to mean?" she insisted.

He shrugged. He didn't want to seem as though he had spent too much time thinking about it, even when he was with Joyce. "I guess that I like you and want to date you. Ending up in bed on the first night, that can't really qualify as a date wasn't optimal of course, but that is what happened and I guess we will just have to go from there." He grinned at her, letting her know that he was joking.

She regarded him for a while longer. "I think I like you too," she finally said. "It's just that…I didn't exactly come here to look for a relationship the first thing I did."

"Who says you can't find what you're not looking for?"

"I just need to know that I'm not your 'Joyce rebound'. I've been a rebound girl before and I can tell you it's not fun on any level."

"I think for you to be a rebound girl we have to have sex, and since we haven't, you don't qualify. Besides, Joyce isn't so difficult to get over that I'll need a rebound. You're one of the reasons I considered breaking up with her before anyway." He mentally slapped himself. Why oh why did he let so much slip when he was around her.

"You did?" she asked surprised.

He didn't answer; it felt unnecessary to repeat that piece of information.

"Then there is something else I need to know," she said after observing him for yet some time.

"What?"

"Are you going to ask me out or are we going to have one of those relationships where we sneak around and snog behind our friends' backs?" she asked with a playful smile.

As an answer he stood up and walked over to her side of the table. He bent down and stopped when his lips were once again millimetres away from hers.

"Wanna have dinner with me tonight?"

-------

Somehow, they started with a combination of Ginny's question.

He took her out on dates. They had dinner in public and sometimes in private too. However, neither had felt it necessary to tell any of their friends they were dating.

Because that was what they were doing. They weren't just friends with benefits or something like that. Ginny would at times even go so far as to say they were a couple. However, she reminded herself that she wouldn't call them that until they told their friends.

They sometimes joked that maybe they shouldn't openly tell them, but simply start snogging during one of their movie nights and let them figure it out for themselves. Ginny however discarded that idea as an actual plan.

After much discussion they together decided that they would tell their friends whenever they felt it natural to throw in during a conversation.

As it was, one of these opportunities presented themselves sooner than expected.

Ginny had just gone out to have a simple cup of coffee with Diane and Chloe. She barely listened to Diane's ranting about Eddie disgusting habit of leaving old socks laying around the apartment until Dave's name suddenly appeared.

"What did you say?" Ginny asked politely.

"Eddie's been a bit worried lately that Dave is running away every now and then. He hasn't told me openly but I know he sometimes goes over to Dave's apartment to see if he is still there," she laughed a little at this weird obsession. "Lately, it seems as if he's been there less and less. You wouldn't happen to know where he goes off to?" Diane asked.

"Sure I do. He either takes me out to dinner or fool around with me in my dorm room," Ginny thought but stopped herself before saying it out loud. Somehow it didn't seem like the optimal way of telling them about her relationship with Dave. Instead she decided to carefully introduce the subject. "Maybe he's seeing someone."

"Good for him!" Chloe burst out. "If you ask me, he's doing the right thing. Hanging around with Joyce that much can't have been good for him. I'm glad he didn't waste much time wallowing over her."

"Actually…" Ginny tried to cut in but Diane was quick to pick up the thread.

"But then again, he did seem to enjoy going out with her. Who knows if his taste in girlfriends has changed just because she left town. Maybe he's dating another airhead now. That must be it!" she exclaimed as though she had made a world revolting discovery. "He's dating an airhead! That's why he hasn't told the guys about her! I knew he couldn't change his mind so quickly about it. I have to tell Eddie. Chloe, you coming? Cathy?"

She was out the door before either girl could answer. Neither seemed to have noticed Ginny's attempt to interrupt her rant which resulted in Ginny almost jumping in surprise when Chloe said,

"You're the airhead, aren't you?"

Ginny smiled weakly in response.

Author's note: I hope you enjoyed reading. I'm not sure if I moved the plot along too quickly, I just didn't feel that the secrecy of the relationship should drag along for longer than necessary. The next update will probably not be as quick so I hope this will keep you satisfied for some time! I'll do my best though! Don't forget to review, it means so much to me!