Here for You

I can't believe how much I'm drawing out the attraction stuff between Grace and Draco. Lol…well let's see how much longer I can do it.


"Ow…ow…ow." Draco said.

"Sorry." Grace said, for what seemed like the twentieth time in the last ten minutes. As soon as she, Hermione and McGonagall got back the boys decided it was time to start teaching her stuff. And, like Hermione, Grace turned out to be pretty good on her first tries. Although she had accidentally given Draco a few wounds (which made Ron and Harry like her more).

"Not really your fault, stop saying that." Draco said.

"Well it is my fault because I'm putting pressure on everything that hurts." Grace said. Draco winced as she pressed the cloth against one of the cuts he had on his arm caused by her. "Big baby."

"Oy! I am not a baby." Draco said. Grace just grinned at him. "Granger…tell her I'm not a baby."

"Sadly enough, I have to agree with him." Hermione said.

"See…" Draco said.

"But he does whine like a girl sometimes." Hermione said. Ron and Harry roared with laughter and fell over. Hermione smirked at Draco as he glared at her. "Maybe we should stop the training for today."

"Brilliant plan." Draco said. Grace looked down at her crossed legs. She winced and slid one hand around her wrist as it suddenly started to burn. She had never felt this before so wasn't prepared for it. No one seemed to notice though as Draco began to argue with Harry, Ron and Hermione about something. He left her side to get up in their faces.

Grace felt just about ready to cut her hand off if she thought it would get rid of the pain. Sure, she had been through stuff, worse then this, but this was more concentrated to one area so it felt worse then all over pain. She squeezed her wrist until her fingertips went numb but that did nothing to minimize the pain.

"Hey…are you alright?" Harry suddenly asked. Grace was unaware of whimpering until then. Within no time, all four of the arguing teens had shut up and were surrounding her. Hermione put her hand on Grace's shoulder to stop her from rocking. Draco looked down at her hands before reaching forward and gently trying to pry them apart.

"Grace…" He said.

"It hurts." Grace said.

"I know, but you have to let go." Draco said. "We have to see what's wrong." He managed to pull her fingers off her wrist and turned it around. The dark mark on her wrist had changed to a dark red and looked as if it was moving…either that or Grace was shaking too much. Draco barely rested his finger over the mark and Grace tugged her hand out of his grasp, yelping.

"Has this ever happened before?" Ron asked.

"Not that I'm aware of." Draco said. Grace shook her head.

It was painful having to watch her go through that. None of them knew what to do to help her. She wouldn't let anyone near her after Draco had tried again. She remained in pain for the rest of the day. Draco convinced Hermione to switch rooms with him so that he could stay with Grace that night. By that time, either Grace was used to the pain in her wrist or it had numbed the whole area. She stopped whimpering and rocking and just sat, looking quite blankly at nothing, on her bed. Draco sat next to her but said and did nothing. She finally fell asleep just after midnight, leaning against Draco. He remained awake the entire night.

It was almost noon before someone came to check on them. It was Ron. Draco looked up from the book he had been reading all night long. Grace was now lying down, curled up.

"Mione thought you could use something to eat." Ron said, stepping into the room with a tray full of stuff hovering in front of him.

"Thanks." Draco said.

"Did you even sleep?" Ron asked. "You look bloody awful."

"Thanks." Draco repeated, sarcastically this time.

"Listen…how bout you eat then sleep and someone else can watch her." Ron said. Draco shook his head and grabbed the tray out of the air, putting it down next to him. Ron, knowing that he was bound to start something, left the room and went downstairs.

"He didn't sleep." Hermione said.

"Nope." Ron said. "I tried being nice."

"I know." Hermione said. "Thanks."

"You're acting like you're worried about Malfoy." Harry said. Hermione just shrugged and looked down at her paper. "You are!"

"I'm worried about Grace." Hermione said. "And worrying about Grace ties in with worrying about Malfoy because I can't see a way around not worrying about both of them. It can't be one or the other."

"Sure it can." Ron said.

"We do it." Both boys said.

"Don't you worry that if Malfoy is too tired to help her then Grace will panic and we'll probably never calm her down?" Hermione asked. The boys sighed and nodded in agreement. "He has to be alright in order to keep Grace happy. If he can make her believe everything is ok then she'll relax more. But if he's too tired or worn out or…something…then she'll begin to worry."

"I hate when you make sense." Ron said, sitting next to her.

"Great…now we have to worry about Malfoy." Harry said. Hermione shook her head.

Draco looked over at Grace as she stretched out from her curled up position then winced and slapped a hand over her wrist as she opened her eyes. She sat up and gingerly pulled her hand away from her wrist. The whole area around the mark was red and the mark itself still seemed to throb.

"Still hurting?" Draco asked.

"A bit." Grace said. "Kinda like that feeling you have one you walk and your foot was numb and then each step feels like a hundred little needles."

"Umm…ok." Draco said.

"Never had that?" Grace asked.

"Not that I can remember." Draco said.

"Oh…well…umm…never mind then." Grace said. Draco just grinned a bit then offered the tray of food.

"Weasley brought it up." He said.

"Ok." Grace said, reaching forward and picking up some before putting it in her mouth. They ate silently before Draco suggested that Grace go down and join the others so that he could take a shower.

"Hi, how are you feeling?" Hermione asked, spotting Grace walking down the stairs. She gave the trio the same analogy she gave Draco and they all nodded, knowing the feeling.

"I think Ron's suffering it right now." Harry said. Ron glared at him and threw a pillow at his friend as he tried to stand on his foot that had fallen asleep. Grace smiled a bit and brought the tray she carried into the kitchen.

"Is there something you'd like to do today?" Hermione asked.

"Umm…not really." Grace said.

"Well we still have to do more training so that you're caught up with us…" Ron said. Grace sighed and nodded. They trooped out to the backyard and Harry, having experience already in most of what was needed, walked around Grace and Ron who were standing in front of each other. He started explaining what they had to do and Hermione threw in a few pointers.

"Alright…let's see what you can do now." Harry said. Grace and Ron took dueling positions. Ron did a spell first that wound up throwing Grace backwards. Her wand flew from her hand and Hermione jumped up, as if to help her, but Harry stopped her. Grace stood up with a new look on her face…anger. They had never seen that from her before. Something cracked like a whip and Harry, Ron and Hermione all looked over at the tree to see the branches moving as if they were just as angry as Grace.

"Umm…what's going on?" Ron asked. Draco came outside at that moment but stopped and leaned against the doorframe.

"That…hurt." Grace said, just before a branch shot out and grabbed Ron's ankle. He yelled as he was pulled off his feet, dragged across the ground, then lifted into the air and shaken. Draco watched, looking a bit amused as the water from the pool seemed to gather into the shape of a hand and climb up to grab hold of the screaming Weasley. Ron was yanked down into the pool with hardly a splash. Grace collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. Draco walked over to her and helped her up as Harry and Hermione rushed over to the pool to help Ron out.

"That…was not funny." Ron sputtered, coming out of the water looking like a drowned rat.

"I'm sorry." Grace said. "I…I didn't mean to…I have no idea how…"

"We do." Hermione said. "You are an Elemental."

"That was the first time…" Grace said. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright." Ron said, taking heed of the warning glare Hermione was giving him. "I'm just not partnering with you again when it comes to training."

"Consider that to be a good thing." Draco said. Grace nodded and giggled. Draco smiled and Ron glared at him.

"Don't even…" Hermione said, holding out a hand to Ron to stop the inevitable argument. "Wait a minute…" She dropped her hand and Ron raised an eyebrow. Hermione looked at Draco and Grace before looking back at her boyfriend. "Get her mad."

"What?" Ron asked, his eyes widening. "Why me?"

"Because you're already half way there." Hermione said. Ron looked ready to cry at the inevitable pain he was going to receive.

"Malfoy you're a bloody prick you know that?" He said. "I don't care if you were trying to make her feel better."

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you now, Weasley?" Draco asked. "Got water in your brain now?" Grace started looking uncomfortable. Draco and Ron advanced on each other.

"No but I think you got bubbles in yours." Ron said, suddenly forgetting why he was doing this in the first place.

"Oh yeah? Why's that?" Draco asked.

"Because…because you do!" Ron said. It was lame, but it was the only thing he could think of.

"You're on mighty thin ice here, Weasley." Draco said, reaching for his wand. Both guys jumped and yelled as fire suddenly flew at them. They both looked over at Grace as she stood where Draco left her, looking pretty angry. Even from the distance they could tell that her eyes were no longer the soft blue colour but more of a fiery red. Grace turned her eyes on Hermione and the other girl took an involuntary step back.

"Don't…do this…again." She said, suddenly reminding all of them of Voldemort. She stomped off into the house.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Draco asked.

"I…I told Ron to try and get her mad." Hermione said.

"Well congratulations, she's mad." Draco said.

"Did anyone else think she acted like Voldemort just now?" Harry asked.

"I guess spending three years dealing with his anger makes you do that." Draco said.

The three boys sat in the living room half an hour later while Hermione tried once more to get Grace to talk to her. Everyone but Draco had tried at least twice now. He had sat down and ignored them. No one could Grace to say anything and they couldn't get into the room which was starting to worry them.

"Draco please go talk to her." Hermione said, coming down. "She'll at least respond to you so then we'll know she's in there."

"Like she'd be willing to sneak out of here when she doesn't have a bloody clue as to where she is?" Draco asked, looking up at her, his arms crossed and feet on the coffee table in front of him.

"Please." Hermione pleaded. Draco sighed and rolled his eyes. He dropped his feet, uncrossed his arms and stood up. He knew that Grace was in her room and he knew that she was more then likely still angry. Maybe not at what had just been going on but she probably was still pissed.

"Grace." Draco said, knocking on her door. There was no answer. "Grace? Come on, I know you're in there."

"Go away." Grace replied. Draco smiled slightly.

"Come on now…let me in." He said, testing the doorknob. It didn't move.

"I told you to go away." Grace said.

"Bloody hell, just open the damn door." Draco said.

"Why?" Grace asked.

"I find it better to apologize in person instead of to a door." Draco said. He waited a few seconds then tested the knob again. This time it turned smoothly and the door opened.

"You don't apologize." Grace said, sitting on the bed with arms and legs crossed.

"Yeah I know." Draco said, walking into the room and closing the door behind him. "But I'm going to." Grace uncrossed her arms and shuffled to the edge of the bed, letting her feet and legs over the side. "I'm sorry for what happened down there. I didn't mean to but me and them…we don't mix. Been fighting each other since first year and only made it worse in sixth year."

"Why?" Grace asked.

"Voldemort told me to kill Dumbledore." Draco said. Grace's eyes flew wide open. "I didn't…I couldn't."

"But he is dead." Grace said. Draco nodded. "Who?" Draco didn't say anything. Grace looked at her knees.

"You sort of scared us." Draco said. She looked back up at him. "What you said before you stormed into here. You reminded us of Voldemort."

"I'm sorry." Grace said.

"You've had three years of him taking out his anger on you." Draco said, moving across the room and sitting next to her on the bed. "Didn't expect you to not behave somewhat like him."

"If that's the case then I should be acting like your father pretty soon." Grace said.

"Merlin, I hope not." Draco said. "I like you too much for that." Grace looked at him as he smiled softly. "I really do…like you. You've given me a reason to wanna stick around for this whole big fight. Hell I probably wouldn't even be around if it weren't for meeting you."

"Were you going to…?" Grace asked but not quite getting the words out.

"Thought about it a few times." Draco said. "I'm not strong like you. After a few weeks of just Voldemort tormenting me, I was ready to call it quits. I just couldn't do that to my mother."

"I'm not strong." Grace said, shaking her head.

"Yeah you are." Draco said. "Three years…you were there with Merlin only knows how many Death Eaters using you…but you still survived. You're still here." Draco's voice grew softer. "Even though you didn't think you'd get out of there. You still lasted. I don't think there's many people out there would have managed that. They would have dyed off long ago or turned into some non responsive zombie type thing."

"I was…" Grace said.

"No you weren't." Draco said. "You reacted to Snape. You reacted to me. You didn't even know me, just knew my father, yet you were barely afraid of me." Grace looked down at how close Draco's thigh was to her own. During his little talk, he had moved closer. Her eyes moved up over his body, to his face, which was also close. She almost had to cross her eyes to see him properly.

"I was afraid of you…at first." Grace said.

"Didn't take you long to realize that I wasn't my father though." Draco said. "I think that's what made me stay. Knowing that there was someone…" Grace didn't even realize she was holding her breath at that moment. They were so close…just a little movement and…

There was a knock on the door and both of them jumped away from each other. The doorknob turned and the door opened very slowly to reveal Hermione on the other side.

"Umm…we're going to be having dinner soon." She said. "I just thought you two would like to know."

"Thanks." Grace said, quietly. Hermione nodded and closed the door again. There was silence in the room as each of them contemplated what would have happened if the Gryffindor hadn't shown up.


Oh so close. I'm debating on whether or not to actually let them kiss before the whole fighting stuff happens. I know there will be cheek kisses and forehead kisses and a few others that don't overly mean too much.