A/N: Hello, lovelies! No super long note here, just eagerness for you to read! I didn't edit this one either, so sorry for any inconveniences during the reading of this chapter.

Enjoy! :)

Chapter Eleven

After Professor Michaels explained everything to the class, again not telling us how to actually build the tower, Draco turned to me.

"What did you want to talk about?" he asked, opening the bag of tiny marshmallows. He then took a toothpick and stuck one end in one marshmallow and the other end in another. I followed suit, and he took this, and connected the two sticks with two toothpicks, making a square. He set the square down on the table, shoving four more toothpicks into the corners.

"Ari?" he said, getting my attention once more. He continued to make his cube, but began spreading it out, multiplying the area by four. I sat in silence watching him make an intricate tower. I began sticking one toothpick into one marshmallow, doing what I could to help him.

"Erm…" I finally said, about ten minutes after Draco began our tower. We had made quite a bit of progress, already through one bag of marshmallows and one box of toothpicks. The tower was at least three feet tall, and nine of the small cubes made up each level of the tower.

"Yes?" he encouraged, gently fixing one of the boxes in the middle which had moved, ruining the perfection of the rest of the tower.

"Nothing," I said, smiling when I heard Padma call Seamus a dunce. I looked over to see their supposed-to-be tower was nothing but a mess of toothpicks and marshmallows on the floor. In fact, no one else's towers were near as good as ours. Well, Hermione and Susan's tower was good, but they were having trouble making it stand without holding it.

"Ari, what did you want to talk to me about?" he said, seeming slightly irritated. I looked back at him and he was staring at our tower with a serious look of concentration on his face. He held his hand out and I handed him more of the toothpick sticks, as I had been doing since we began.

"I don't think class is the appropriate place to talk about it," I said quietly. He stared at me for a few seconds then went back to our tower. It was significantly taller than anyone else's.

"How did you know what to do?" I asked, awestruck by his ability to build something so incredible out of thin sticks and fluffy sugar pillows.

"I used to do this all the time when I was younger," he answered shortly. I was taken aback.

"How? Why?"

"I've wanted to be an architect since I went to the Ministry of Magic and saw how such an incredible building was made by such raw materials. So I used to ask the house-elves to bring me things to build with. They brought me peas, marshmallows, toothpicks, straws. All sorts of things to use. I got rather good at it, if I do say so myself," he said, shooting me an arrogant grin. I smiled back. This is the Draco everyone needs to see. This is why I was trying to help him. Because there was Draco that didn't care about blood or money or reputations, and that was the Draco that I lik—

"Alright, class. Ten more minutes," I heard Professor Michaels say. I looked up; we definitely had the best tower.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked, forgetting about my previous rant.

"It's not important right now," he answered. "Meet me in the Room at seven tonight?"

I nodded, not trusting my voice. This didn't sound good.

xXx

Draco and I had the best tower. It stood at six feet four inches, and at only six feet tall, Draco had to stand on his chair to finish it. We each got awarded twenty house points for winning.

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, however, and I found myself anxiously awaiting seven. Draco didn't eat dinner with us, either, getting me questioning looks from Ginny and Hermione.

"Did you guys end it?" Ginny asked when she saw Draco sit with Blaise and Pansy.

"There was nothing to end," I said. "We aren't dating. We are still friends, if that's what you're asking. He just wanted to give the guys some time to cool down, I guess."

"So, you were expecting him to sit with us?" Hermione asked. I shrugged.

"I don't know. We're meeting up later. He says he needs to talk to me about something." Ginny winked at me.

"Oh, really?" she asked suggestively. I rolled my eyes.

"Shut it, Little Red."

xXx

At ten 'til seven, I threw my homework onto my bed and jumped up, getting me a weird glance from Parvati, who was the only one in the dorm with me.

"See ya, Parvati!" I yelled, and then rushed out of our room and through the common room, out the portrait, and across the Seventh floor corridor to Barnaby's portrait.

I paced back and forth three times, thinking that I need to find Draco, hoping I wouldn't find the same thing I did the last time I did this.

The door appeared and I slipped inside. The room was exactly the same as before, but much lighter since Draco had added a window and a lot more candles. He sat on the couch, in just a white button up and black slacks, levitating a candle in odd patterns in the air.

"Hey," I said, suddenly feeling shy. He looked up with a small smile on his face.

"Hi. How are you?" I shrugged, settling on the couch next to him. I felt underdressed in my muggle jeans and purple blouse. I sat facing him, waiting for him to begin.

"I've been thinking," he said. "I really like you." My heart jumped into my throat. I liked where this is going. "But I don't think that this should go anywhere." Oh. Wow. Heart meet floor.

"Why?" I asked stupidly. His eyes met mine and I had to force myself not to cry at the empty look in his eyes.

"You deserve better than me," he answered. I shook my head. I never really thought about me and Draco being together, especially since we'd only known each other for a few weeks, but this rejection really hurt.

"I don't understand," I said firmly. "You like me, but you don't want to be with me?"

"No, I want to be with you," he said. "I just don't want you to be with me." I stood, shocking him.

"Damn it, Draco, stop that! Stop acting like you're not worth it! You're worth it to me!" I turned my back to him so he wouldn't see my tears.

"Ari," he said softly. I could feel his presence behind me, but he didn't touch me.

"Stop, Draco. Tell me. Tell me why you think you're not worth it." This is it.

"I've done bad things, Ari—"

"So you've said!" I yelled, whirling to face him. "But I already know that, Draco! I know you've got the Dark Mark! I know you were Voldemort's right hand man! I know you've tortured people! But I also know you were supposed to kill Dumbledore and you didn't. I know you hate who you used to be. I know you hate your father and all he put you through. I know you've changed," I said, tears streaming down my face. "I know that I don't care what you did in the past. I know that I really like you. And I know I really, really want to help you make people see who you are now. So tell me again why we can't be together."

He didn't say anything. He just reached over and wiped the tears from my face.

"Right before Potter apparently came back from the dead, and he asked who would join him, I walked over to him. I walked over to him, Ari."

"You did it for your parents," I whispered.

"It doesn't matter why I did it!" he yelled, making me jump. "I did it, and that's why everyone hates me. I could have stayed. I could have fought beside Longbottom, but I took the coward's way out and I walked over to him and I let him hug me. And I will never forget what he said to me when he wrapped his arms around my shoulders. He said 'That's my boy.' And that was when something inside me snapped. I walked off with my parents – I didn't even stay, Ari! – I walked away and I spent the next four months wishing I had stayed and helped Longbottom, and apparently Potter. I heard that the Weasley's mum killed Bellatrix because she tried to Avada Ginny, and I knew then that I was evil. I should have stayed and helped but I didn't, and so many people died that day, Arianna! So many people that I had known for years and years, and I walked away from all of them!

"Everything people are saying about me is true, Ari. I'm trying to show them that I'm different, but it doesn't change what I did in the past. Seven years of being terrible to people doesn't disappear just because we want it to." He turned away from me and walked over to stare down into the fire.

I didn't know what to do. I was so confused. I already knew all this. I knew he was terrible to people in the past. Hell, he'd even said some things about me in our past school years. But that didn't mean anything anymore.

"Draco," I said softly. He didn't move. I took a small step towards him, but he didn't do anything, so I walked over to him. I hesitantly wrapped my arms around him, resting my head on his back. "I don't care, Draco. I'm always going to be here for you." He stiffened, then slowly turned in my arms and wrapped me in a hug.

"You're amazing," he whispered in my ear. I didn't reply. We just stood together, relishing the feeling of being in each other's arms.