I rolled the opposite direction as fast as I possibly could until I felt the bed disappear out from under me. I cringed as I hit the nightstand and fell off the tall bed with a slight shriek and a loud clatter. The lamp tipped slightly but was caught by Malfoy's magic, leaving only a book and a clock to fall on me. I tried to block my head with my hands but found they never fell.

"You know, if you wanted me on top, all you had to do was ask." He spoke into my ear lowly with a husky overtone. I tried to roll but found I was locked in by two knees and felt an arse land on my own. I let out a loud groan as I laid face forward.

"Get off." I grounded out into the ornate carpet surrounding his bed. I'd tried to just roll of the bed, like a normal person. Well...not so much. I'd pretty much rolled away like a nut case and hit my head then fell what felt like a meter to a floor. Okay, I pretty much got what was coming to me...note to self, don't roll that fast anymore off a bed that was this high in the air.

"This doesn't feel...like...I don't know, wrong?" I mentioned to the floor. It honest to goodness felt like I was just waiting for his mother to come up here to scold us and send me home with a nasty note of taking her son's innocence.

"How?" He spoke softly and sounded affectionate if nothing else. I felt the weight lift off, a second later there were fingers running through my hair. It was soft and gentle, they felt good...oddly. Though I also just liked people's fingers in my hair sometimes. Tensing, I heard a soft knock on the door. Aw shit.

"Come in." Malfoy called out with calm confidence in his voice as he continued to play with my hair., I was wishing that he'd just sit on the bed or like on the other side of the room. Just so I couldn't be blamed for any funny business. The door creaked open and a heeled foot stepped in clicking across the hardwood. Oh god. Its exactly who I don't want to see us like this.

"Dragon?" Narcissa called out hesitantly from the other side of the room.

"Down here." He announced from the floor. I didn't want to roll over at this point, my cheeks would be red and I'd have the imprint of a nightstand corner on my forehead.

"Oh. Its good to know that you've made up, dear. Can I possibly steal her away for a bit?" The heels snapped along the floor until they stood behind us. I felt an arm wrap itself around my waist as a kiss was planted softly on my shoulder. Gross.

"Of course, mum." I was hauled up by the arm, frowning at the ground. Was I always going to be treated as a cloth doll? Tugged and pulled wherever they wanted me to be? Was that my life now?

"What happened to her head?" She sounded anxious as she tilted my head up with soft nimble fingers, I looked her in the eye while she turned it to the side. She was looking at the nightstand's mark. Pointy bastard.

"She rolled a little too quickly off the bed and smacked herself." Malfoy replied nonchalant. I glared at the space behind Narcissa as she frowned at her son.

"You ought to be taking better care of your mate." She reprimanded.

"Yeah, Malfoy." I admonished with an air of sarcasm. I was baiting him and we all knew it.

"She doesn't learn if I don't let her experience it for herself. Shes far too difficult for that." He explained with a shrug to his mother, completely ignoring my bait. Damn.

"I still need her to be scrape free for the ceremony. It won't due to have your mate bruised and battered from her own excursions." She sighed, letting go of my face. I glared back at Malfoy as he nodded, understanding.

"Oh good. Can't beat me before the ceremony, Malfoy." I muttered to myself. I just needed to be bruise free for a ceremony.

"I'll send her down once I'm sure the lesson has held, mother." He nodded to her. She sighed but agreed anyways, nodding to herself as she went out the door. It shut softly behind her, sealing.

"Muffliato." I turned around as he casted it.

"Oh shit." I muttered to myself as I watched his eyes zero in on me, backing up. I knew I was in trouble for the Malfoy bits...probably also the beat comment.

"You're not going to be able to hide any where this time, Ara." He motioned to the room with his hand as he took calm, measured steps towards me.

"What are you doing?" I felt my voice raise as panic hit me. I wasn't sure why I was so panicked, I mean it was just Malfoy. He wouldn't hurt me, probably...

"Your instincts know whats coming. Look inside." He bent his head at an angle towards me. I backed up until I hit a wall. This was like three times in one day that I'd pissed him off. New record, Ara. Thank you, me.

"Come on now. Focus! Why do you think you're anxious?" He stopped in front of me, arms crossed. It seemed like he'd expected this reaction, I didn't though, I hadn't expected any of this. I almost felt guilty. That threw me for even more of a loop. Why wasn't I just around Harry? I could have just winged it and focused on Harry, but nope! Had to give in for the protection of a family that felt like I was better off not knowing anything.

"I can't." I hissed as I slid down the wall and pulled my knees to my chest. I couldn't focus on any one thing with my mind so all over the place. I felt overwhelmed some how. I felt a tear prick in my eye and heard a whine slip out, making my shoulders lock up. I felt ridiculously overwhelmingly emotional and it was none of the happy, nice ones. It was all the kinds that made your chest hurt and your tummy spin.

"Obviously you have." I looked up at Malfoy, he'd crouched down to my level. He had a small proud smile, the weight lifted at the smile but I didn't understand why.

"How?" I asked incredulously as I took in a deep breath. I was trying to shove all those confusing bits down and out, to calm myself down.

"We've made a connection at some point. You let me in, pet." He sat down on the floor now, sounding excited and almost a little relieved.

"Nonsense." I narrowed my eyes and shook my head. No. I refuse to have any sort of connection with the guy that took just about everyone away from me. He was the enemy in all of this, not me. I glared, tears gone until finally his smile turned into a frown.

"What the hell?" His brow furrowed at he stared at me with confusion evident.

"What?" I barked as I stood, checking my hair for a mess in his dresser's mirror. I was angry with myself for almost crying in front of an ass like him.

"Hold on there." I turned away when he stopped me by grabbing the back of my dress. It had me like a human rubber band, I was snapped back almost instantly. I turned back and raised a brow.

"Did...did you just push me out?" He asked sounding incredulous.

"Excuse me?" I questioned.

"Did you just cut off the bloody connection?" Now he sounded a little angry with me. I almost cowered as he demanded an answer. I shrugged with some rebellion as I glared at him. I'd decided long ago on the train that I'd make this as difficult as I could for him.

"You did." Now he sounded like I betrayed him as he pushed me back, looking hurt.

"I'm not following, Malfoy." I bit out with some level of a passive aggressive attitude.

"You know, I tried to have the nurturing attitude with you. I really did." He scoffed as he glared at me.

"Oh for all of five seconds?" I rolled my eyes at it. All of a sudden I was up against the wall I'd just walked away from. I froze as I heard a low growl, my shoulders and legs locked up, leaving me to stand there and stare confusedly at him.

"Hah! You've not cut the whole thing, you just thought you had." He sounded victorious with his breath brushing my cheeks. He'd practically propped me up against it with his knee in between my legs and his hands keeping my arms back against the wall. I shook my head after I couldn't get a word out against him. I expected him to do something; stab me, magic me into thinking this was a bloody dream, kiss me, or just literally anything but stare at me.

"Now that I have your undivided attention...Firstly, love, its Draco or sir if you'd fancy that. Not Malfoy, Prat, Asshole, Arse or anything else. Secondly, the ceremony is in a week. You're better off slowly connecting with her instead of getting ran over by her that night." He smirked at the last bit as I frowned.

"Her?" I whispered as I started to slowly relax again.

"Whatever little part of you thats Veela, pet." He explained as he motioned to my body.

"Now run along to my mother. I'm sure she'll want to discuss the dress or something of the sort." He tilted his head and leaned closer to my neck, I tensed as I felt him plant a soft kiss there and take a step back. I stared at him for a all of a minute, he just smirked back at me until I turned and went towards the door without a word.

"Ara." He called my name with some level of command forcing me to stop with my hand on the door's handle.

"If you started to panic remember to just call me." He stated as I robotically nodded, still focused on the whole lock up bit. I stood there for a second until I realised I wasn't moving, I was just standing there.

"You may go." He was quiet but the words seemed to be the key to my legs working. I left the room without a word.

)()(

"Oh lovely!" I jumped and spun with a hand to my heart. It was just Narcissa. Good god, this place was huge. I felt like I'd been wandering around for ages, the paintings kept yelling at me too.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." She looked back at me, hands folded with a softer smile on her face.

"Its fine. All your portraits here did the same thing." I gave her a forced smile as I turned and followed the woman up a set of spiral stairs to the side. She laughed at this, apparently it was normal.

"Now then, for the ceremony, it'll be a bit like a wedding dear but really only for close family members. Have you ever been to one of those?" She looked back at me expectantly. I shook my head slowly, I hadn't.

"Okay then we have quite a bit to practice." She smiled, friendly now. I sighed as I followed her into ballroom of sorts. There were larger white marble columns connecting the ceiling to the floor. The room was nearly empty except for a black piano, causing our shoes to echo off the floors and walls.

"Is this suitable?" She asked looking back at me from the rest of the room. I robotically nodded earning me another smile from her. I rarely saw Draco for the next few days as it was all centered around details for the ceremony. Dresses and dances and music and foods and table placements and how to bloody walk, though it was nice that I didn't have to hide too much from Draco. Narcissa took up most of my time and I slept on the floor out of spite.

He'd tried to move me at some point when he thought I was dead asleep but I sucker punched him in the gut. I wasn't dropped like I'd expected, instead he sort of groaned and dropped to his knees slowly laying me down on the floor. After that he just seemed to lay an extra blanket on me when I was genuinely asleep.

This worked fine until I had a slight nightmare, it was one of the normal ones concerning Ced's body. The first few months, I'd talk to him in my head, ask how he was doing these days and talk about what I'd been up too. These days I hadn't at all some how I felt like this was his punishment for the sole fact I'd almost forgotten him. I woke up from Draco shaking me, he'd smelled overpowering blocking out any other smells or sounds.

"Wha-what?" I mumbled as I realized I'd been crying. I was sweaty too. Gross. Suddenly there was a shoulder in my face, it was shaking, someone was talking. Wait why am I in the air? My mind was muddled but calm now. Why was I annoyed before?

I looked around to see the room was moving, no...I was moving something smelled good. I blinked and looked next to me, Draco was on his side his hand was on my head. My mind became clear again as I realized I was in the bed now. What just happened here? The anxiety was coming back in strides.

"What.." I looked at the room, it was dark with the only light coming from the window.

"Sorry. I couldn't stop myself. You were crying out for me and I just couldn't..not...stop myself." He mumbled as he scooted closer. I blinked twice before it dawned on me. He did the stupid veela thing. I sat up abruptly to go back to the floor while I had the will but his hand caught me.

"Ara...please. Just for tonight." He spoke quietly but it stopped me none the less. I sighed and laid back down, I didn't have it in me to fight it right now. My heart was still pumping and I felt more and more scared the farther I was away from him. I rolled on my side and looked out the window, his breath bounced off of my back.

"You've been doing really well without me." He was just as quiet as before. I shrugged, silent as I went through the nightmare again. It was always the water. I didn't understand it. Why water?

"...Do you want to talk about it?" I shrugged again to his question. I wasn't sure if he meant the nightmare or the lack of talking in the past week.

"Well I do. How often are the nightmares?" He continued I rolled my eyes and rolled onto my back.

"Often enough." I replied cryptically.

"Are they always this bad?" He asked me some more, poking now.

"Yup." I decided that I was going to stick to one word answers.

"Can I do anything?" He sounded closer this time. I tried to look at him in the corner of my eye out of curiousity but found it was just dark.

"Nope." I answered, popping the P just to annoy him at this point.

"No, sir." He corrected with some animosity. I rolled back onto my side as I felt a hand on my hip.

"You're going to have to let me in at some point." He sounded determined now and much closer.

"Kay." He was maybe a centimeter away from the back of my head. I blinked and it seemed like things were moving in slow motion again. I wasn't anxious as my heart beat slowed down.

"Ara..." I felt the urge to roll over onto my other side and allowed my body to do so.

"Yes?" Something in me had me wanting to talk to him for his efforts.

"Why do you have such a strong wall?" He looked desperate and scared. I frowned at it.

"Habit, I guess." I shrugged in response.

"Then we'll work on it." He decided as I frowned deeper.

"What if I don't want too?" I added. It'd kept me from breaking down. Kept me strong and it kept me continuing. I needed it.

"Ara..." He had the commanding voice happening again. It almost irritated me.

"Malfoy..." I quipped, trying unsuccessfully to use the same tone.

"Seriously? We don't talk for nearly a week and you're back on that? Did you learn nothing?" He asked hotly as I snorted and leaned a tad closer to him. He glared hard at me.

"Ha-bit." I bit out the words in his face out of spite. I was keeping my word to myself with making this difficult. He growled, his hand on my hip was now squeezing.

"Excuse me?" He was giving me a second chance and we both knew it. I cleared my throat and took in a breath.

"Ha...bit." I sneered and went to roll but found I couldn't. I was just kinda stuck, it felt wrong to be disobeying him like this. Like I'd done something awful that was grounds for bouts of guilt.

Abruptly he kissed me, the sounds of our teeth cracking together as he growled. It felt like a direction was given, and I complied without thinking about it. Some how my body just...responded. I leaned back a pinch to take in a breath and found I was now on top of him. His hands were squeezing my hips as he took in deep and ragged breaths. I pulled away entirely for a second, sitting on his lap now, processing.

He growled as he sat up and pulled me back down towards him, I gripped his hair out of anger and kissed him harder than he could do to me. He switched to my neck, biting and pulling as he went while I scratched his back out of pleasure eliciting another low rumble out of him. I was going to win this if nothing else.

"Ugh, I love you." His voice was crackly and heavy with his hand was half way up my shirt and squeezing. I moaned a second before I realized what he was going for and stopped any more from escaping.

"Hey! No fair, this was an angry make out. Not a...love thing." I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. He scoffed as I stopped everything entirely.

"Seriously?" He rolled his eyes, sliding his hand out from under my t-shirt to rest on my thigh. I nodded quickly, that was all it was supposed to be.

"And here I thought you missed me." He smirked as he shifted me on top of him to be more center.

"As if. You said it yourself, I've been doing great." His hand squeezed gently, causing my thigh to flex. I looked back down to see was still smirking, okay so now he knew I was bluffing. So there may have been a few times I almost lost my head, I think it was in Madam Malkin's that I nearly had a nervous breakdown after the third formal robe I was fitted for. I don't know why I ever believed his mother wouldn't tell her only son.

"Let me just get this straight, you were totally into it, to go the whole way...If I hadn't told you that I love you, pet?" He let his hand drift up to my waist as I nodded. His hand was really only in the back of my mind. I was halfway between annoyed, horny, and a little flattered he'd confessed. It was an awful mess.

"You're afraid of love..." It was just above a whisper but it was true enough for me to freeze.

"No!" I went to get off of him as he snorted and kept me there with his hands. Oh good. Now he knows, he'd be even more insufferable now.

"This explains a lot." He muttered as I flipped him off out of spite, the walls coming back up with how much it seemed he'd figured out.

"Like hell it does, prat." I was baiting him for the fact I wanted him to stop the little discovery ride he was on.

"...Like why you only let me kiss you when you're angry. Its why you have nightmares, isn't it? Hes the only one you've really loved since your mum died." Draco was figuring this out too easily for my liking. It seemed he took the bait but not quite how I wanted..now he was just listing things with a little more passion and aggression behind his words. I huffed again and looked away from him.

"Enough." I growled as he raised a brow.

"Don't like it now that you're the one in the spotlight, Ara? Don't want to talk about the fact your mother died and now you won't let anyone in? Not even your own sister?" He pushed farther, twisting his hand in the open wound. It burned.

"Stop." I countered sounding a little meek. More meek than I'd really meant for it to sound like. I felt weak and defeated but I was still trying to stop him from farther.

"The fact that you'd rather cut off your own sister than admit you're too stubborn to see what she was going through? That she hurt just as much as you?" He hissed.

I snapped and slapped him, it was too far. He could talk about me. He could talk about Ced but he couldn't talk about that. I tried to be there for her but she had our harebrained father to fall on, I had no one. I was alone now even, she wasn't. At times I hated her for it but I refused to admit it out loud, the guilt just kept stacking itself on and on.

"You know what, Ara?" He looked back at me, not angry like I expected. I continued to glare at him, not saying anything. He shifted me on his lap yet again so that my stomach was pressed against the lower areas of his torso. If I hadn't been so angry I'd probably be a lot more interested in what he had to say.

"I'll love you anyways and one day you'll have to accept I'm not leaving without you." He stared into my eyes with enough intensity it felt uncomfortable to still look on. This felt wrong. So wrong coming out of Draco Malfoy's mouth. He'd been immature and a smug purist bastard for years and suddenly it was like a light-switch had flipped and he was...tolerable. He was interested in all my hopes and dreams and beliefs.

"Oh what happened to my Veela just running me over for you?" I just glared back into his stare. I was angry about a lot of things right now. From Ced's death to the fact that my own destiny had been decided without my knowledge and somehow everyone else knew about this except me. I wasn't as elastic as I'd led everyone on to believe.

"I don't think you'll let her. You're just too recalcitrant." He sighed. Damn. That was big word. I briefly pondered it as he leaned his head onto my shoulder and started to rub circles on my back. The action confused me more than the word. I was still expecting to piss him off but instead he was just being affectionate? Wait...

"So...I have control?" I whispered it more to myself than to him but he nodded anyways.

"You've apparently always had control." I stared at him for a second, almost not trusting it.

"How do you know?" I asked suspiciously.

"You have the ability to just...force bits out. I don't have that luxury." He sounded dreary which upset me a little but the anxiety and tension gave way after months and months of it all choking me. It was only relief now.

I almost smiled as he picked his head back up so I just hugged him to me. Awkwardly he began to return it and for once it felt nice. I just hugged him tighter. This was wonderful news. I hopped off his lap and laid down next to him, giddy now.

"You're pretty good at snogging anyways." I poked his nose as I said it. He stared at me for a second and snorted.

"You're not too bad yourself. Go to sleep, pet. Its a long day tomorrow." He kissed my forehead softly. I nodded and closed my eyes, drifting off into sleep. It was okay now. I was calling the shots.