Urgh I'm sorry about the lack of updates... I'm such a bad person :P Basically I had a mental block with this chapter... and I realised how scarily close to the end of their school year I am D: I've been considering covering the seventh year at Hogwarts- cos I just can't leave Malfoy alone ;)

I hope none of you have died or exploded as you threatened to do...but thank you for stating you would if I didn't update- It makes me very happy!

Wherein sprouting antlers and pumpkin heads becomes the new fashion and potatoes become incredibly interesting.

It was rather unexpected. So unexpected my knees actually went a little weak. It had been an accident that I had tripped in the first place, but certainly one that I was not about to correct. My hands were trapped between me and him; now resting on his chest, which I briefly decided was not an unpleasant place to be touching at all. His arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer into a breathless embrace. I wondered briefly if I should pull away, extricate myself from his arms and just freak out. But then that contemplation was cast roughly and unceremoniously aside with the thought of why on earth would I want to do that? The night didn't really feel that cold anymore, in fact, it was getting pretty warm. I had the sudden thought that I could stay here all night; drinking in his touch, and his incredibly soft lips.

With a suddenness that I didn't care for at all, Malfoy's lips tore away. I stood there, frozen in place hopefully for a little while longer, my eyelids finally fluttering open to find him a centimetre away from my face, regarding my expression curiously,

"You're not insulting me for once." He noted softly, his breath tickling my skin,

"I could say the same." I agreed feebly, my head reeling. The fact that I had been kissing Draco Malfoy didn't instil the disgust with which I would have regarded it with at, say, the beginning of term. And I wasn't even sure if I would have hated the idea then. Either way, right now I was more than content to be here; wanting to kiss him fiercely again. Hell, more than content.

"I believe," Said a frosty voice from just over my shoulder, "That this constitutes as being out of bed after hours."

I had jumped so badly I think my feet had taken off from the floor, and I whirled round to glare at the person who was seriously and extremely unwelcome right now.

I decided the universe definitely hated me when I saw Snape glaring right back.

"Oh, Merlin." I muttered under my breath, waiting for the explosion. All decent excuses evaporated from my mind, leaving nothing but a knotted feeling of dread, and a warm fuzzy happiness that was definitely not from Snape's appearance. I think it was more owed to Malfoy still being within touching distance.

"I think this merits at least sixty points from Ravenclaw," Snape finally said, a viciously pleased glint in his eyes as he took in the look of horror on my face. He must be really annoyed; I had never lost that many points from him before. However, when he didn't look like he was going to say anything else my dismay was outweighed by resentment,

"Hang on," I said indignantly, jabbing Malfoy in the chest, "He's in Slytherin. Where is his point deduction?"

"I shall speak to Mr Malfoy in due course," Snape said silkily, not sparing Draco a glance, "And I believe I shall see you in my office for detention this Friday, Miss Forester. Eight o'clock. You may go."

I was left with little choice, and something told me arguing back was not going to help my case much. I flicked a glance to Malfoy before I moved; and was surprised to see that cold look on his face that seemed to appear whenever he and Snape were face to face. I would have preferred a warm look in my direction after what had just happened, and I felt a renewed justification in my dislike of Snape.

"Fine," I said irritably in Snape's direction, "'Night."

I looked back as surreptitiously as I could before I left the bridge; holding the door ajar. Snape was still looking at me coolly, probably to make sure I didn't do exactly what I was doing now. But my eyes were still on Malfoy, who looked a little bit paler than usual; his narrowed eyes on Snape with something like, well, suspicion.

I looked between them for a few seconds until Snape interrupted my pensiveness,

"I believe I told you to go, Miss Forester."

I dashed through the door before he could deduct any more house points, my heart racing as everything that had happened in the past five minutes rushed back through my head, allowing me time to process it. My brain was still clammering as I hurtled into bed, having woken the eagle up and, much to its fury, had actually solved the riddle with my own brain power.

I had kissed Draco Malfoy. Or rather, Draco Malfoy had kissed me.

I knew it was elation that was making me grin like a complete idiot, and there was a happiness in my chest; almost bursting from me, that I had never really felt before. Not the type that came from a funny joke, or from being in a lovely place, but from being with a person. It was a warm, happy feeling from being with Draco Malfoy, and I think, on a small scale, that perhaps it had been there a while.

I was still grinning like a complete fool when I fell asleep, trouble free and perfectly content.

I skipped out though the door to the common room the next morning to find Antony and Padma a little busy; snogging each other's faces off.

"People walk this way, you know." I reminded them, hoping Malfoy and I had looked a little more dignified than that the previous night, and they both broke apart with a jump; Antony blushing slightly, "It's all happening today, apparently."

"How come?" Antony asked, looking sheepishly happy as he draped an arm around Padma's shoulders. She grinned, looking a little pleased with herself.

"Oh, no reason," I shrugged as casually as I could muster; fighting the heat rising to my face with all the will I possessed, "Just saw some kissing going on earlier. I'm starving. Let's go."

"You go ahead, Meg." Antony called after me, "Terry's already down there."

I looked back at them briefly, and then worked out that the snogging was probably going to carry on for a little while longer,

"I don't even want to know." I muttered, smiling despite myself as I merrily made my way to the Great Hall; never having been this enthusiastic for a Tuesday morning.

Terry certainly looked confused as I practically leapt down next to him, accidentally catching my arm on the milk jug, which knocked the cereal packet over.

"You seem cheerful," He commented, scooping up a handful of spilled Cheery-Owls and stuffing them back in the box,

"I just had a good night's sleep." I supplied, settling down and pouring myself some orange juice. If Terry was a detective, or had a feeling something was being hidden, all he had to do was look at me for the next few minutes; because my eyes flicked, unconsciously and of their own accord, to the Slytherin table, trying to seek Malfoy out. I felt a plunge of disappointment when he wasn't there yet. Instead, I caught Pansy's eye and had to put up with a re-enactment of my arm breaking.

She probably wondered why I was smiling so smugly and triumphantly at her.

"Did you patch things up with Mulciber in the end?" Terry asked through a mouthful of sausages and fried tomatoes. That would have set me off giggling, I was in such a wonderful mood; but his mention of Mulciber brought all good thoughts to a crashing halt as if I had just been plunged into a lake of freezing cold water after lying in the warm sun.

"No." I finally said slowly, in a hollow voice, distractedly buttering a crumpet and feeling completely awful all of a sudden. "Not yet." I suddenly couldn't believe what I had done. I had cheated, which was something I thought I could never accuse myself of doing. At least, if we weren't talking about tests or exams. It sent a dull throb of anguish through me, and I realised I was disappointed with myself.

I mentally face-palmed the table, wondering if I should just go back to bed and avoid humans from now on.

But instead, Antony arrived with Padma and after a few minutes of uncomfortable conversation between the four of us (Terry and I overly conscious they had just been snogging each other senseless) I, along with Padma, were dragged off to Defence Against the Dark Arts by Antony, who claimed that he had heard that apparently this lesson was going to be great, and we needed really good seats.

I was trapped in the brooding swirling of my mind as I trailed along next to him, my attention not really needed as he and Padma were happy talking amongst themselves; my brain tearing between Malfoy and Mulciber. I should have stopped Malfoy kissing me, or at least yelled at him afterwards. I felt a sudden flare of anger, he knew about Mulciber, why couldn't he have just kept his lips to himself?

This line of thought was working rather well until we passed through the viaduct, birds swooping low over its iridescent surface; gliding lazily as they danced with their reflections, and I became aware that if I were back on that bridge, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Although perhaps we could leave Professor Snape out.

I was still wrestling with the problem of what to do with Mulciber when we arrived at the classroom and were met with a large amount of people queuing at the door to the classroom, even though the bell wasn't due to go off for another five minutes. It seemed Antony wasn't the only one who had heard the gossip that Lupin had a good lesson planned. Considering most of his lessons were pretty great on their own, I was expecting nothing less than a legendary hour coming up.

My heart shot to the regions of my throat when I saw Malfoy was there, leaning against the wall and looking at his feet. It suddenly became quite hard to walk in a straight line, and I was very aware that my arms were swinging in a very stupid way.

Whilst trying to decide which way to stand that would make me look less gormless, a person barged into me. Thinking it was just someone getting a little too excited to get into the classroom, I turned round to laugh at them.

I was distastefully surprised when I saw Pansy standing there; an expression of hatred all over her unattractive face.

"Why did you have his tie, Forester?" She snarled, her voice not as loud as usual. I had the feeling she wanted this conversation to be as subtle as possible, so naturally, I made my voice far louder than normal,

"Well, we were busy snogging and I stole it. Why, does he want it back?"

It was worth getting a little too near to the truth just to see her reaction; if I thought she had looked angry before when I had first mentioned the tie it was nothing to her expression now. I could feel a few eyes on us, and wondered vaguely if Malfoy had overheard me.

"You're just Mudblood scum, Forester," She sneered at me, "Nobody will ever like you."

"You seem to have forgotten I actually have friends," I commented, deliberately misinterpreting her, "And a lot of people like me after I gave you that haircut. It's looking hideous, by the way."

Pansy drew her wand with a speed I didn't think she was capable of, catching me totally off guard. It looked like my actions had finally caught up with me.

"Tarantallegra!" She screamed, her wand flashing towards me.

"Melofors!" I yelled a millisecond later once I had grasped what was happening, plucking the first spell from my head with no idea what it was going to do.

I was pleasantly surprised. Whilst my legs started a tap dance all of their own accord, which they could never have performed in normalised circumstances, Pansy's head was suddenly encased in a large pumpkin; and her shrieks set the accumulating audience laughing. I'll never know how she managed to conjure a stinging hex, causing it to slam painfully into my thigh, but she had certainly succeeded it if the sudden rush of pain in my leg was anything to go by.

We had captured the attention of the entire class by this point, and whilst I hobbled around, trying to get feeling back into my leg and stop both of them leaping around, I heard a voice that was definitely not Pansy's shout, "Anteoculatia!"

It seemed Antony had joined in, and when I looked up at him, my eyes streaming from the pain, he gave a small shrug,

"She was about to hex you again."

Professor Lupin came out let the class in a few moments later. What he found was probably not what he was expecting, as he raised a somewhat amused eyebrow that was probably the equivalent to a scream of surprise from a less calm person.

Half the people were cowering on the floor, as I was getting too angry to really aim properly, and as a result jinxes had been flying off the walls. My legs were still dancing happily without any control from myself, and Pansy was currently sporting a wonderful pair of antlers, with full credit to Antony, of course.

"Hospital wing, I think, girls." Lupin said mildly, "The rest of you, come inside, please."

"I'll help," Antony said hurriedly, running over and wrapping an arm around me, "Otherwise you'll never get there." I wasn't sure I liked the high amount of amusement in his tone.

Pansy had raced off down the corridor already, in floods of tears. I would have felt bad, but my leg was throbbing madly and I had the feeling we were now pretty much even. Completely unintentionally, I caught Malfoy's eye as Antony was forcing a path through the muttering crowd. He gave me the ghost of a genuine smile. But I'm sure I imagined the wink.

"I hope you can say that was worth it," Antony chuckled, half-carrying, half-dragging me down the stairs as the noise-level went up behind us. I guessed we had just caused a fair bit of gossip to be spread around the school.

"To see her sprout antlers?" I laughed, "Of course it wa-oops!" My legs had darted out from under me, and we ended up in a heap on the floor.

"What made her so angry, anyway? I didn't catch it." Antony asked, once we had stopped laughing and he had hauled me to back my feet,

"I think it was me implying that I had kissed Malfoy," I shrugged dismissively, "I think she got a little jealous."

"I'll say. Why would you kiss Malfoy anyway?" Antony snorted, seeming revolted at the very idea of anyone wanting to do so. I hurriedly looked at a portrait in pretend fascination so he wouldn't see the guilty look on my face,

"I know," I said in a falsely agreeing tone, "A totally gross prospect."

I hadn't expected to see Madame Pomfrey quite so soon after my Quidditch incident, and I think she was feeling the same the same thing.

"You'll be the one who gave Miss Parkinson antlers, then?" She asked, ushering me over to a bed (with some difficulty. My legs still wanted to run in two separate directions) "I might have known you were a troublemaker."

I decided to leave out it was actually Antony who had caused the antlers, and he shot me a thankful look as Madame Pomfrey handed me what turned out to be a hideous tasting potion, that nevertheless restored my legs to their normal, less than average athletic ability.

"What these students are like," Madame Pomfrey was muttering as we timidly left once all tap dancing tendencies had worn off, "Hexing each other left, right and centre. As if I don't have enough serious problems to deal with."

"Well she doesn't have anything else to do," I said the moment I was dead sure we were out of earshot, "She works in a school."

It turned out I was right about my speculation that the exchange between Pansy and I would become gossip. By lunchtime, I had already been high-fived by Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, and when I entered the Great Hall I was ambushed by a few Gryffindors, all wanting me to re-enact exactly how I had jinxed a Slytherin. Apparently cutting Pansy's hair branded me a psychopath, but putting a pumpkin on her head made me a hero. I really didn't understand it, either.

"Thanks," I said hurriedly, noticing that Mclaggen was heading curiously in our direction, "But if you don't move I'll hex you too."

"Terry's being disapproving," Antony informed me once I had escaped my fan club, "He reckons I should have given Parkinson a red nose as well."

"I actually said save it for next time," Terry laughed, turning the page of Arthimancy: Magical Properties and Constructing Charts. I was surprised he was still awake. "I heard you missed a great lesson, by they way. Padma was saying Lupin got the boggart out again."

"No!" Howled Antony, looking devastated, "I never had a go last time!"

I was secretly glad. I couldn't have said what I was afraid of at the moment in time, what with Malfoy's mission, and You Know Who stronger than ever, if the Daily Prophet was anything to go by. Maybe it was just a giant jellyfish.

"Meg,"

I turned round at the voice, and didn't bother to hide my anger as Mulciber looked back at me; his face as serious as ever.

"Not ignoring me anymore? Have you come to berate me for not showing up on Saturday?" I asked heatedly, "Because I was incarcerated in the hospital wing being force-fed what I'm pretty sure was poison, by the way."

His face remained as impassive as ever, and I felt a knot of guilt winding in my stomach as I recalled I didn't really have any business attacking him for being distant when I had been the one going off and making out with Malfoy. And still, there was no feeling of regret there; only me feeling confused and extremely bad for Mulciber.

"I didn't know." Mulciber finally said, his husky voice just the same as it had always been, "But I didn't come over here to berate you. I just wanted to talk. We haven't seen much of each other these past few weeks, which is a bit ridiculous really."

"Tell me about it," I remarked dryly, and Mulciber's brows lowered,

"I seem to recall you were the one avoiding me at first." He stated darkly,

"And I seem to recall you tried to kiss me," I replied hotly.

"Oh look, Terry," Antony said with a very brave attempt at interest, "They've got mashed potatoes at that end of the table!"

"So they have," Terry noted, scrambling to stuff his book back in his bag, "Let's go!"

I didn't know whether to feel relieved or furious that they'd abandoned me, but I turned back to Mulciber, tossing my hair irritably,

"Look, I'm sorry acted so weird, but I wasn't expecting it. Plus-"

"You just didn't want to kiss me," Mulciber finished, sinking down onto the bench beside me. I blinked. That hadn't been what I was going to say at all, but it had still hit a nail on its head, albeit a stray one. "I sometimes got the feeling that you agreed to go out with me because we were friends, Meg. You didn't really fancy me, did you?"

"Urm." I forced myself to look up from the table of food I had determinedly been studying and into Mulciber's dark eyes. They were so different from Malfoy's pale ones. "No. I liked you, but...no."

"I wish you'd have just said that." He sighed, and I felt horrible. "Shall we go back to that then? Just friends?"

I nodded, my toes curled with how awful I felt, not at all comforted by the kind smile Mulciber gave me before walking away. He could suggest friendship all he liked, but I got the feeling he wouldn't want to talk to me much for a while. I wish he had been as indifferent about our relationship as I had been.

Terry and Antony edged back once they saw the conversation was over; settling either side of me, not really needing to bother with words. I found their silence far more comforting, really, and I stayed focused on my food for the rest of the lunch hour, not daring to even glance in the direction of the Slytherin table.

Of course I felt awful that I had led Mulciber on so badly; when really, he was a pretty lovely person. But at the same time (and I hated myself for it) I felt a small twinge of relief that he had been the one to end it. Yes, that was extremely cowardly, but the awful feeling of guilt that had been digging into my chest and constricting the initial happiness kissing Malfoy had given me was now lessened slightly.

Now I just had one thing to worry about, and that was how Malfoy would behave in Potions tomorrow with me sitting next to him.

Something told me I was going to need a lot of coffee again.

It turned out I was mistaken. And I was rather happy to find that out.

I edged apprehensively into the dungeons that afternoon, having spent the majority of the morning imagining horrible scenarios where Malfoy ignored me or made cruel jokes at my expense.

I didn't realise how much I had been dreading this possibility until he gave me that same, genuine smile I had seen when Antony had given Pansy's antlers. Unfortunately, that story had become rather distorted throughout the course of the day, and now most people were under the impression that I had turned her into a moose there and then. But it was a very human Pansy who glowered at me over Draco's shoulder as I gave him a nervous smile back.

"So how many points did Snape award you for walking the corridors Monday night?" I asked, trying to sound like my normal self as I took my set of scales out my bag and ignoring the fact my heart was thumping wildly, just as Snape interrupted with,

"You will just be needing quills and parchment today; seeing as so many of you are incapable of brewing this week's set of potions; we'll be studying the theory instead. Longbottom, hand these books out. Quickly, boy! We haven't got all day!"

Whilst Neville was preoccupied with dropping half the textbooks in his haste to get away from Snape, I sneaked another look at Malfoy. He still looked as tired and strained as he had been, which send a nasty pound of reality through me, but I cast it aside for the moment; instead looking at the exact shape of his profile; and the precise shade of his eyes, wondering why I had never thought him good looking before.

"What?" He asked, leaning close to me to whisper it and I realised with amusement that he was echoing what he had said the last time I had been staring at his face in Potions class, although he seemed a lot less irritable this time. That lesson seemed like a lifetime ago.

"Just looking." I replied in an offhand voice, failing to hide my playful smile and accepted the textbook that Neville's trembling hand passed me, waving it in front of Malfoy's face, "Want to share?"

"I don't think I have a choice, Forester."

"Then embrace the Muggle perfume, Malfoy."

"I think maybe I quite like it after all."

I met his gaze briefly, and felt an odd squirming in my chest as his lips curled into a soft smile that wasn't sneering in the slightest. And wow, did I like it.

I decided that my past self was a complete idiot for objecting to sitting next to Draco Malfoy in Potions class. Throughout the course of the lesson, in between the jokes I insisted on throwing at him, and the sarcastic manner in which he deflected them, with a look in his eyes that I had seen the night he had kissed me, I decided that there was hardly anywhere else I would rather be.

Except, maybe, that bridge.