Hey everyone!!! Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up, but I had a few ideas to sort out...the suspense is building, but for a change I don't think I have a total cliffhanger. Unless you consider pink one...nevermind, you'll get it when you get done reading. Thanks for the reviews! But where did most of my readers go??? I think I only got three reviews of chapter five! (not that I'm complaining or anything...) the only problem with that was that I didn't get a lot of suggestions as far as who should be paired with whom. So I just made the pairs up myself. But none are set in stone, and there isn't a lot of mushiness in this chapter. BUT THERE IS ONE KISS!!! Anyways, please read and review! *Lily*
Chapter Six
Pansy paced back and forth in the common room. No one had seen Draco OR Lily. It was nearly 11 o'clock!!! She knew that they both liked to sleep in, but that wasn't any less disconcerting...where the hell were they? She hated this! Normally, if some girl was winning the affections of the person she liked, she would be quite a bitch to them and put them out of the picture. But Lily...well, Lily was her friend, and she was merely a pawn in the game...Pansy could feel nothing but pity. Also, she knew that if she did anything, she would be interfering with the Dark Lord's plans. And she could not do that. So she commenced to pacing back and forth, back and forth. Hell, if nothing else came out of it, at least she would lose a pound or two...
Lily groggily opened her eyes. She had slept soundly, and hadn't had any nightmares that she could remember...that was a first in a while...she smiled to herself. Draco was quietly snoring, and looked quite angelic. She knew, of course, that he wasn't that at all, but...she knew that he was quite experienced in the ways of love, that he could have, and had had, just about any girl in Slytherin. She also knew that his father was a Death Eater. And she was trying to heed all of her warnings, and especially listen to Dumbledore on not trusting him too much. He certainly knew how to get a girls' attention, though. She had gone into the dance grumbling, and well, now...she was quite content. He hadn't made any real passes at her, thank god, but she was almost certain that stepping on her foot was no accident. He seemed like to good of a dancer, and too lithe, to do that. However, his whole little act had been most amusing, and she had to say that she had had a damned good evening. Her head hurt, and her back ached. The headache was a result of too much butterbeer, and the back must have been from sleeping in a sitting up position. Not the most comfortable way to sleep. She slowly and gently untangled herself from Draco, and went to poke around and stretch.
Draco woke up entirely forgetting where he was. Like usual, he didn't make any noise upon getting up, and so he got to watch Lily for a good five minutes before she noticed he was awake. First she sort of poked around, probably trying to figure out where she was, and then she started to do what Draco presumed was yoga. He decided that he liked yoga, in fact, he liked yoga very much. At least, he liked to watch Lily do yoga. She was very pretty, especially when she wasn't being self-conscious. He then decided to make some noise, and pretended to groggily wake up. She immediately stopped her stretching, and smiled serenely.
"So, still suspicious of me?" he grinned.
Lily sort of blushed, and turned away, which Draco took to unfortunately mean yes.
"Oh, c'mon...I'm not that bad, am I?" he pleaded jokingly
"Oh, you are quite sweet, really...and I have to say that I had an incredible time...but I am, unfortunately, a suspecting person...it is absolutely nothing against you..."
He walked over to her and pecked her on the cheek. Lily noticed with a start that it was the same cheek that Harry had kissed her on. He had his arms around her waist, and she was suddenly uncomfortable. So she writhed out of his grip. He looked a little hurt at this, and she grinned in a sort of "I'm sorry" way, then suggested breakfast.
"Sounds good, but we might want to do a bit to tidy ourselves up, first!" as he said this he smoothed down her hair in back. It had been sticking up in a most definite "yes, I slept sitting up" look.
"Oh! Erm...yeah!"
"I applaud your eloquence!" Draco said wryly.
Lily was feeling much more comfortable.
"Sorry! Guess I need my morning tea!"
"Caffinated?"
"Oh, very!"
They were both now looking half way decent, so they went down into the Slytherin common room, where Pansy was so busy pacing back and forth at a manic speed that she didn't even notice them come in, until she heard two muffled laughs.
"Where have you two been? I've been more worried than you can even begin to imagine!"
"We, uh, fell asleep in some room who-knows-where...well, I don't at least...and *somebody* wouldn't tell me!!!"
"Yeah...what she said..."
"Well aren't we eloquent this morning?" Pansy directed this at Draco. "May I have a little talk with you?"
"Yeah, sure...Lily, you can go on down to breakfast...we'll be down in a minute..."
Lily eyed them suspiciously, saying, "Actually, I think I will go get a shower and get new robes on...so if I come down in say, 15 minutes, will you two be done chatting?"
"Yeah!" Pansy ushered her off.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you have to hurt her more than is required or something???"
"What are you talking about? I think you have the wrong idea..."
"Well, then, you might want to set things straight..."
"Look, Pansy, we didn't even kiss if you are thinking...ahem...she was tipsy, and I wasn't about to take advantage of her or anything...who do you think I am?"
"Well, Draco...hmmm...I guess I just couldn't help remembering your little escapade with that 4th year...and then also your involvement with that Hufflepuff girl...oh, and WHAT ABOUT MY SISTER??? Jesus, don't even try to play innocent with me..."
"Calm down, Pansy! Jeez...someone has anger management problems, doesn't she?"
"Listen. I know that you have certain things that you have to do, for Voldemort and your dearest father...but you don't have to go beyond that. I'm glad that by your account, you haven't. The thing is, she is my friend. And I'm not about to let her get unnecessarily hurt..."
"Yet you won't interfere with Voldemort? You do realize that anything that happens will not matter AT ALL once he gets his hands on her. Pansy, she will be as good as dead. Because, you see, she is not about to go willingly..."
Pansy fell sighing into an armchair by the fire. She just didn't know what to do...Draco came and stood behind her, feeling as uncertain as she...
"Pansy? Can I ask you something?"
"Sure. What?"
"What does it feel like when you really love someone?"
This question blew Pansy's mind. You see, as skewed as this is, the Draco that Pansy liked just plain didn't think about actual love. He was, well, not a sensitive person.
"Why do you ask?"
"I just, uh...wonder..."
"Well, you are going to have to tell me more..."
"OK. I think that I may actually like Lily. You see, if I didn't, I would've tried to go much farther with her than I did. Because I wouldn't care how she felt in the end. Unfortunately, I do care...and the closer I become with her, the less I want to carry out my fathers' wishes..."
"Draco!!! That sounds like love!!!" Pansy was beaming. Draco was frowning.
"Great. Just what I need..."
Pansy laughed at this. She was now firmly convinced that Draco actually did love Lily, and while she was a little envious, she wished them well, and found that her crush on Draco was fading fast.
Just then Lily came running down the stairs.
"Damn it! I wanted to hear what you two were talking about!!!"
Pansy and Draco laughed, and the three of them went down to lunch, having missed breakfast.
At the Slytherin table, a lot of the guys gave Draco a knowing look, which was, unfortunately, wrong. Lily began to get mad. With satisfaction, she saw a few of the guys get confused, when, first of all, Draco was still talking to her, and second of all, when one guy asked him if he got any, he uncharacteristically said, "not really", and went back to talking with Lily.
***
Weeks sped by, full of merriment and friendship. Lily had become quite good friends with Pansy and Draco, and Crabbe and Goyle had finally stopped pestering them She had also figured out a fun way to stay in touch with the Gryffindors. She wrote a couple letters every night, and had them delivered to the Gryffindors via owl. They did the same for her. She got the most mail out of anyone in Hogwarts, aside from Dumbledore, and, strangely, Snape. Witch Weekly had named him as one of the hottest wizards of the year, along with both Lucius and Draco. Draco didn't get a lot of mail, just a lot of glances and smiles from girls. Snape, however, had to send bags full of unopened letters to the trash at the end of each week. Surprisingly, all the attention just seemed to make him even more sour than usual. Draco's head was getting awfully big, but Pansy kept doing a fantastic job of shrinking it down to size. She was completely over Draco, and had a wicked sense of humor, and had discovered that it was really fun to infuriate Draco with snide remarks.
Draco had said something rude about Hermione, and Lily had abruptly slapped him. Pansy had almost choked on her tea, and then retorted with something along the lines of "at least she isn't an albino pointy nosed ferret" while Ron, Harry and Hermione were walking by. Ron was so shocked at hearing this out of Pansy's mouth, that before he could remind himself who she really was, he had hugged her and patted her on the back, then did a little high pitched scream and ran as fast as he could down the hall. Pansy had turned bright red, either from choking or embarrassment, and doubled over laughing. Draco fell out of his seat, and Lily, Harry, and Hermione ran after Ron. Lily made the mistake of leaving her letters on the table, next to Draco. When she returned to collect her stuff, he was loudly reading to the entire guffawing Slytherin table a love letter to her from Neville. Lily grabbed it, smacked him over the head for the second time that day, and went to apologize to a beet red Neville who was sitting in shock at the Gryffindor table.
Most days were like this, but nights were another story. Lily's nights had become constantly interrupted with blood-curdling nightmares of Pettigrew and Voldemort. Some were from the past, and some were in the present. She never saw the future. And she really wasn't sure if they were just little imaginary things, or if she was dreaming things that had actually happened. She had a feeling she wasn't the only one having dreams, either, because both Harry and Draco were looking increasingly worn out. Draco had black half moons under his eyes, and Harry almost never stopped rubbing his throbbing scar. She described her dreams to Dumbledore every afternoon in Muggle Studies, and he was troubled and flabbergasted by them. One day early in December he brought up the topic of Christmas vacation. She really, really wanted to go visit her mother, but Dumbledore was convinced it was just too dangerous. However, he relented to looking into spells to put on her house to make it safe for her to visit. She loved Hogwarts, but she missed her mum terribly, and because neither of them could use magic, she couldn't talk to her mum through the fire, so they were only able to owl each other.
Draco had been getting surprisingly romantic lately, or at least romantic for Draco. However, he was so tired from constant nightmares that half the time he fell asleep in the middle of whatever little speech he was giving. Then she would have to carry him up to his dorm, and tuck him into bed. She had learned that none of the Slytherins were staying at Hogwarts over Christmas, which was unusual. What was even more unusual was the fact that most of them were all going to the same place. They were all going to a ski resort. She had small suspicions that maybe they weren't going there to ski.
It was the end of a long and tiring day, and Lily was only now getting a chance to sit alone and read the letters she had gotten that morning from the Gryffindors. She opened Harry's first.
Dear Lily,
Guess what?! Cho Chang (she's the Ravenclaw seeker) is staying here for Christmas! She is, well, really beautiful. Not that you would care or anything. I'm just excited, that's all. Apparently Neville has developed quite a crush on you, much to Hermione's relief. Neville has liked Hermione since I think second year. Anyways, don't be too hard on him, because he is a nice person, just a little slow, and, well, Neville. So I hear Malfoy's been getting pretty full of himself, what with this whole Witch Weekly thing. I caught Hermione looking at it! I have never seen her read anything besides textbooks and other boring things, so seeing her with a magazine was just, well, WEIRD. Anyways, I think that's all I have to say...plus, it's getting pretty late, and I still have to do Divination homework. Do you think she'll notice if I don't make a bunch of death predictions? I'm just getting kinda sick of them. How many did she make for me yesterday? Three? Or was it four? I guess I will get away with making stuff up more if I do predict my death, though...the only problem is, I'm running out of ways to die...
Love,
Harry
Harry usually wrote the longest letters out of everyone, except sometimes Ginny. Next she opened Ginny's.
Dear Lily,
How are you? I'm reallllly frustrated! Cho Chang is staying for Christmas! I guess that just about wrecks any chance I have with Harry. He is head over heels for that girl. I'm not really sure what he sees in her (except maybe the fact that she's drop dead gorgeous). You know what's weird? Malfoy was nice to me today. I thought maybe you were lying about him being capable of niceness, but well, he was nice. It really scared me. He sort of fell asleep in the hall (is something terribly wrong with him? Harry has been falling asleep a lot also. And (no offence) you haven't been looking too great yourself) and I was behind him. He eventually tripped and fell down, and I sort of fell on top of him. I tell you, we both got a nasty shock! Anyways, he actually accepted that it was his fault, and helped me pick up my stuff. I told him to go see Madame Pompfrey, but I don't think he listened. Do you two have something going on? Because, if not, Neville really likes you. I'm not sure which is worse: Neville or Malfoy...
Lots of Love (and get some sleep),
Ginny
Dearest Lily,
I know that this may come as somewhat of a shock to you, but I'm madly in love with you. Ever since I saw you on the Hogwarts Express, and how you fought off Malfoy, I've, well, been in love with you. I know you probably like Harry, or maybe even Malfoy, but I just couldn't hide my feelings any longer. I hope this doesn't wreck my chances of friendship with you. Anyways, have a nice day.
All my Love,
Neville
At this last letter, Lily fell back on her bed laughing. However, she quickly stopped, because she realized that she had fallen ONTO someone. She sat up and turned around suspiciously. All she saw was an ear lobe. Invisibility cloak. Pansy wouldn't, so...it could be Draco, or Harry, or anyone, really. She stuck out and arm, and yanked. She managed to pull the cloak off. It was Draco.
"Wh-What are you doing?" she asked incredulously.
"Umm...being naughty? Hoping you wouldn't discover me?"
"You...god, if I hadn't..."
He laughed.
"Some interesting letters you have there. So Harry likes Cho, and Ginny likes Harry, and Neville likes you...who do you like?"
"I should strangle you. If any of this gets out..."
"I could really blackmail some people with this information. Maybe Cho likes Neville..."
"You know that Cho loved Cedric. Now shut up."
Draco obliged. He suddenly looked really serious.
"So, have you been having...nightmares too? I guess I'm here because I'm afraid to fall asleep. When I sleep..." Draco stopped, shuddering.
"I figured you were having them. I know Harry is, because he is in constant pain with that scar of his. I've been telling Dumbledore about them, but he just doesn't really know what to do. Except that I might have to stay here over Christmas, if he can't put enough spells on my house. You going to that ski resort?"
"Yeah. I dunno why. My dad hates muggles. He also hates snow. He banishes it from our castle. But, this Christmas, he decided to pack up and take us skiing...I think maybe he's lost it..." Draco forced a laugh.
"Do you realize that like most of Slytherin is going skiing? Does this have something to do with Voldemort?"
"Would you stop with this whole 'Slythering is evil. It is all a conspiracy against me' shit? Maybe we all just wanted to go skiing..."
"Ok, Ok. Sorry...I just, well, I have a lot of reasons to be suspicious, ok? Not at you, just at everyone in general. Hell, I should probably be suspicious of Neville liking me. It's probably all part of some big trap..."
"Neville? He wouldn't know what a trap was if you spelled it out. He's a Gryffindor. He is supposed to be stupidly brave, that's all. Note the first three letters of Slytherin. Sly. Now WE know how to set traps..."
"Yeah, I know...unfortunately..."
"Oh, shut up!" Draco was really sick of this whole pity me thing she had going. It was 15 days till Christmas, there was an intricate trap laid out, and he kissed her.
Lily was taken by surprise, but it was pleasant surprise, because he really did know how to kiss. He was strong, in fact he had gone from slightly on the scrawny side to amazingly buff in the past few months. So had a lot of other guys, but right now it was wonderfully obvious.
Draco got a pleasant surprise when she hadn't pulled away, and had in fact, kissed right back. The kiss was light, and short, but still left them in each others arms gasping for air. They smiled at each other, and then he left her hanging. He threw on his invisibility cloak and left. That was hard for him to do. He had wanted badly to stay there and hold her all night, to not have to go back to his room and suffer through more agonizing nightmares, nightmares in which he had to kill her, had to kill Harry, had to kill his mother. But he had to follow The Plan, and The Plan included only one agonizingly sweet kiss. He had to wrap her around his little finger. And he only had until December 22nd to do so.
Lily watched him put on his cloak, wanting to beg him to stay, but her pride got in the way, making her choke. She was slightly confused, but her overwhelming happiness cast away any thoughts of evil, of Pettigrew, of Neville, of skiing, and of darkness in general. She actually felt like wearing something pink.
Voila! Chapter Six!!!
Hmmm...what is this Plan? Why are they so afraid of Pettigrew, but not entirely worried about Voldemort? What's up with the ski resort? Is Draco finally being naughty? Will Snape meet a witch who will get him to stop being so sour and bitter? Is Snape going to the ski resort? What will Ginny do? Will Harry finally come to his senses and forget about Cho (probably not) And, most of all, What do our lovely Death Eaters have in store for Lily???
Please read and review!!! I LOVE looooong reviews! *hint hint* I also appreciate constructive criticism! I'm not going to post Chapter Seven until I get at least 20 reviews, because I'm working awfully hard on this story and I figure you can all take 15 seconds and review...also, if you have any suggestions as far as who should be paired up with whom, please, please tell me!!! Draco and Lily? Harry and Lily? Harry and Ginny? Ron and Pansy? Harry and Pansy? Ron and Cho? Neville and Hermione? Draco and Hermione? Hmmm...See, the possibilities are interesting and ENDLESS!!!
*Lily*
Chapter Six
Pansy paced back and forth in the common room. No one had seen Draco OR Lily. It was nearly 11 o'clock!!! She knew that they both liked to sleep in, but that wasn't any less disconcerting...where the hell were they? She hated this! Normally, if some girl was winning the affections of the person she liked, she would be quite a bitch to them and put them out of the picture. But Lily...well, Lily was her friend, and she was merely a pawn in the game...Pansy could feel nothing but pity. Also, she knew that if she did anything, she would be interfering with the Dark Lord's plans. And she could not do that. So she commenced to pacing back and forth, back and forth. Hell, if nothing else came out of it, at least she would lose a pound or two...
Lily groggily opened her eyes. She had slept soundly, and hadn't had any nightmares that she could remember...that was a first in a while...she smiled to herself. Draco was quietly snoring, and looked quite angelic. She knew, of course, that he wasn't that at all, but...she knew that he was quite experienced in the ways of love, that he could have, and had had, just about any girl in Slytherin. She also knew that his father was a Death Eater. And she was trying to heed all of her warnings, and especially listen to Dumbledore on not trusting him too much. He certainly knew how to get a girls' attention, though. She had gone into the dance grumbling, and well, now...she was quite content. He hadn't made any real passes at her, thank god, but she was almost certain that stepping on her foot was no accident. He seemed like to good of a dancer, and too lithe, to do that. However, his whole little act had been most amusing, and she had to say that she had had a damned good evening. Her head hurt, and her back ached. The headache was a result of too much butterbeer, and the back must have been from sleeping in a sitting up position. Not the most comfortable way to sleep. She slowly and gently untangled herself from Draco, and went to poke around and stretch.
Draco woke up entirely forgetting where he was. Like usual, he didn't make any noise upon getting up, and so he got to watch Lily for a good five minutes before she noticed he was awake. First she sort of poked around, probably trying to figure out where she was, and then she started to do what Draco presumed was yoga. He decided that he liked yoga, in fact, he liked yoga very much. At least, he liked to watch Lily do yoga. She was very pretty, especially when she wasn't being self-conscious. He then decided to make some noise, and pretended to groggily wake up. She immediately stopped her stretching, and smiled serenely.
"So, still suspicious of me?" he grinned.
Lily sort of blushed, and turned away, which Draco took to unfortunately mean yes.
"Oh, c'mon...I'm not that bad, am I?" he pleaded jokingly
"Oh, you are quite sweet, really...and I have to say that I had an incredible time...but I am, unfortunately, a suspecting person...it is absolutely nothing against you..."
He walked over to her and pecked her on the cheek. Lily noticed with a start that it was the same cheek that Harry had kissed her on. He had his arms around her waist, and she was suddenly uncomfortable. So she writhed out of his grip. He looked a little hurt at this, and she grinned in a sort of "I'm sorry" way, then suggested breakfast.
"Sounds good, but we might want to do a bit to tidy ourselves up, first!" as he said this he smoothed down her hair in back. It had been sticking up in a most definite "yes, I slept sitting up" look.
"Oh! Erm...yeah!"
"I applaud your eloquence!" Draco said wryly.
Lily was feeling much more comfortable.
"Sorry! Guess I need my morning tea!"
"Caffinated?"
"Oh, very!"
They were both now looking half way decent, so they went down into the Slytherin common room, where Pansy was so busy pacing back and forth at a manic speed that she didn't even notice them come in, until she heard two muffled laughs.
"Where have you two been? I've been more worried than you can even begin to imagine!"
"We, uh, fell asleep in some room who-knows-where...well, I don't at least...and *somebody* wouldn't tell me!!!"
"Yeah...what she said..."
"Well aren't we eloquent this morning?" Pansy directed this at Draco. "May I have a little talk with you?"
"Yeah, sure...Lily, you can go on down to breakfast...we'll be down in a minute..."
Lily eyed them suspiciously, saying, "Actually, I think I will go get a shower and get new robes on...so if I come down in say, 15 minutes, will you two be done chatting?"
"Yeah!" Pansy ushered her off.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you have to hurt her more than is required or something???"
"What are you talking about? I think you have the wrong idea..."
"Well, then, you might want to set things straight..."
"Look, Pansy, we didn't even kiss if you are thinking...ahem...she was tipsy, and I wasn't about to take advantage of her or anything...who do you think I am?"
"Well, Draco...hmmm...I guess I just couldn't help remembering your little escapade with that 4th year...and then also your involvement with that Hufflepuff girl...oh, and WHAT ABOUT MY SISTER??? Jesus, don't even try to play innocent with me..."
"Calm down, Pansy! Jeez...someone has anger management problems, doesn't she?"
"Listen. I know that you have certain things that you have to do, for Voldemort and your dearest father...but you don't have to go beyond that. I'm glad that by your account, you haven't. The thing is, she is my friend. And I'm not about to let her get unnecessarily hurt..."
"Yet you won't interfere with Voldemort? You do realize that anything that happens will not matter AT ALL once he gets his hands on her. Pansy, she will be as good as dead. Because, you see, she is not about to go willingly..."
Pansy fell sighing into an armchair by the fire. She just didn't know what to do...Draco came and stood behind her, feeling as uncertain as she...
"Pansy? Can I ask you something?"
"Sure. What?"
"What does it feel like when you really love someone?"
This question blew Pansy's mind. You see, as skewed as this is, the Draco that Pansy liked just plain didn't think about actual love. He was, well, not a sensitive person.
"Why do you ask?"
"I just, uh...wonder..."
"Well, you are going to have to tell me more..."
"OK. I think that I may actually like Lily. You see, if I didn't, I would've tried to go much farther with her than I did. Because I wouldn't care how she felt in the end. Unfortunately, I do care...and the closer I become with her, the less I want to carry out my fathers' wishes..."
"Draco!!! That sounds like love!!!" Pansy was beaming. Draco was frowning.
"Great. Just what I need..."
Pansy laughed at this. She was now firmly convinced that Draco actually did love Lily, and while she was a little envious, she wished them well, and found that her crush on Draco was fading fast.
Just then Lily came running down the stairs.
"Damn it! I wanted to hear what you two were talking about!!!"
Pansy and Draco laughed, and the three of them went down to lunch, having missed breakfast.
At the Slytherin table, a lot of the guys gave Draco a knowing look, which was, unfortunately, wrong. Lily began to get mad. With satisfaction, she saw a few of the guys get confused, when, first of all, Draco was still talking to her, and second of all, when one guy asked him if he got any, he uncharacteristically said, "not really", and went back to talking with Lily.
***
Weeks sped by, full of merriment and friendship. Lily had become quite good friends with Pansy and Draco, and Crabbe and Goyle had finally stopped pestering them She had also figured out a fun way to stay in touch with the Gryffindors. She wrote a couple letters every night, and had them delivered to the Gryffindors via owl. They did the same for her. She got the most mail out of anyone in Hogwarts, aside from Dumbledore, and, strangely, Snape. Witch Weekly had named him as one of the hottest wizards of the year, along with both Lucius and Draco. Draco didn't get a lot of mail, just a lot of glances and smiles from girls. Snape, however, had to send bags full of unopened letters to the trash at the end of each week. Surprisingly, all the attention just seemed to make him even more sour than usual. Draco's head was getting awfully big, but Pansy kept doing a fantastic job of shrinking it down to size. She was completely over Draco, and had a wicked sense of humor, and had discovered that it was really fun to infuriate Draco with snide remarks.
Draco had said something rude about Hermione, and Lily had abruptly slapped him. Pansy had almost choked on her tea, and then retorted with something along the lines of "at least she isn't an albino pointy nosed ferret" while Ron, Harry and Hermione were walking by. Ron was so shocked at hearing this out of Pansy's mouth, that before he could remind himself who she really was, he had hugged her and patted her on the back, then did a little high pitched scream and ran as fast as he could down the hall. Pansy had turned bright red, either from choking or embarrassment, and doubled over laughing. Draco fell out of his seat, and Lily, Harry, and Hermione ran after Ron. Lily made the mistake of leaving her letters on the table, next to Draco. When she returned to collect her stuff, he was loudly reading to the entire guffawing Slytherin table a love letter to her from Neville. Lily grabbed it, smacked him over the head for the second time that day, and went to apologize to a beet red Neville who was sitting in shock at the Gryffindor table.
Most days were like this, but nights were another story. Lily's nights had become constantly interrupted with blood-curdling nightmares of Pettigrew and Voldemort. Some were from the past, and some were in the present. She never saw the future. And she really wasn't sure if they were just little imaginary things, or if she was dreaming things that had actually happened. She had a feeling she wasn't the only one having dreams, either, because both Harry and Draco were looking increasingly worn out. Draco had black half moons under his eyes, and Harry almost never stopped rubbing his throbbing scar. She described her dreams to Dumbledore every afternoon in Muggle Studies, and he was troubled and flabbergasted by them. One day early in December he brought up the topic of Christmas vacation. She really, really wanted to go visit her mother, but Dumbledore was convinced it was just too dangerous. However, he relented to looking into spells to put on her house to make it safe for her to visit. She loved Hogwarts, but she missed her mum terribly, and because neither of them could use magic, she couldn't talk to her mum through the fire, so they were only able to owl each other.
Draco had been getting surprisingly romantic lately, or at least romantic for Draco. However, he was so tired from constant nightmares that half the time he fell asleep in the middle of whatever little speech he was giving. Then she would have to carry him up to his dorm, and tuck him into bed. She had learned that none of the Slytherins were staying at Hogwarts over Christmas, which was unusual. What was even more unusual was the fact that most of them were all going to the same place. They were all going to a ski resort. She had small suspicions that maybe they weren't going there to ski.
It was the end of a long and tiring day, and Lily was only now getting a chance to sit alone and read the letters she had gotten that morning from the Gryffindors. She opened Harry's first.
Dear Lily,
Guess what?! Cho Chang (she's the Ravenclaw seeker) is staying here for Christmas! She is, well, really beautiful. Not that you would care or anything. I'm just excited, that's all. Apparently Neville has developed quite a crush on you, much to Hermione's relief. Neville has liked Hermione since I think second year. Anyways, don't be too hard on him, because he is a nice person, just a little slow, and, well, Neville. So I hear Malfoy's been getting pretty full of himself, what with this whole Witch Weekly thing. I caught Hermione looking at it! I have never seen her read anything besides textbooks and other boring things, so seeing her with a magazine was just, well, WEIRD. Anyways, I think that's all I have to say...plus, it's getting pretty late, and I still have to do Divination homework. Do you think she'll notice if I don't make a bunch of death predictions? I'm just getting kinda sick of them. How many did she make for me yesterday? Three? Or was it four? I guess I will get away with making stuff up more if I do predict my death, though...the only problem is, I'm running out of ways to die...
Love,
Harry
Harry usually wrote the longest letters out of everyone, except sometimes Ginny. Next she opened Ginny's.
Dear Lily,
How are you? I'm reallllly frustrated! Cho Chang is staying for Christmas! I guess that just about wrecks any chance I have with Harry. He is head over heels for that girl. I'm not really sure what he sees in her (except maybe the fact that she's drop dead gorgeous). You know what's weird? Malfoy was nice to me today. I thought maybe you were lying about him being capable of niceness, but well, he was nice. It really scared me. He sort of fell asleep in the hall (is something terribly wrong with him? Harry has been falling asleep a lot also. And (no offence) you haven't been looking too great yourself) and I was behind him. He eventually tripped and fell down, and I sort of fell on top of him. I tell you, we both got a nasty shock! Anyways, he actually accepted that it was his fault, and helped me pick up my stuff. I told him to go see Madame Pompfrey, but I don't think he listened. Do you two have something going on? Because, if not, Neville really likes you. I'm not sure which is worse: Neville or Malfoy...
Lots of Love (and get some sleep),
Ginny
Dearest Lily,
I know that this may come as somewhat of a shock to you, but I'm madly in love with you. Ever since I saw you on the Hogwarts Express, and how you fought off Malfoy, I've, well, been in love with you. I know you probably like Harry, or maybe even Malfoy, but I just couldn't hide my feelings any longer. I hope this doesn't wreck my chances of friendship with you. Anyways, have a nice day.
All my Love,
Neville
At this last letter, Lily fell back on her bed laughing. However, she quickly stopped, because she realized that she had fallen ONTO someone. She sat up and turned around suspiciously. All she saw was an ear lobe. Invisibility cloak. Pansy wouldn't, so...it could be Draco, or Harry, or anyone, really. She stuck out and arm, and yanked. She managed to pull the cloak off. It was Draco.
"Wh-What are you doing?" she asked incredulously.
"Umm...being naughty? Hoping you wouldn't discover me?"
"You...god, if I hadn't..."
He laughed.
"Some interesting letters you have there. So Harry likes Cho, and Ginny likes Harry, and Neville likes you...who do you like?"
"I should strangle you. If any of this gets out..."
"I could really blackmail some people with this information. Maybe Cho likes Neville..."
"You know that Cho loved Cedric. Now shut up."
Draco obliged. He suddenly looked really serious.
"So, have you been having...nightmares too? I guess I'm here because I'm afraid to fall asleep. When I sleep..." Draco stopped, shuddering.
"I figured you were having them. I know Harry is, because he is in constant pain with that scar of his. I've been telling Dumbledore about them, but he just doesn't really know what to do. Except that I might have to stay here over Christmas, if he can't put enough spells on my house. You going to that ski resort?"
"Yeah. I dunno why. My dad hates muggles. He also hates snow. He banishes it from our castle. But, this Christmas, he decided to pack up and take us skiing...I think maybe he's lost it..." Draco forced a laugh.
"Do you realize that like most of Slytherin is going skiing? Does this have something to do with Voldemort?"
"Would you stop with this whole 'Slythering is evil. It is all a conspiracy against me' shit? Maybe we all just wanted to go skiing..."
"Ok, Ok. Sorry...I just, well, I have a lot of reasons to be suspicious, ok? Not at you, just at everyone in general. Hell, I should probably be suspicious of Neville liking me. It's probably all part of some big trap..."
"Neville? He wouldn't know what a trap was if you spelled it out. He's a Gryffindor. He is supposed to be stupidly brave, that's all. Note the first three letters of Slytherin. Sly. Now WE know how to set traps..."
"Yeah, I know...unfortunately..."
"Oh, shut up!" Draco was really sick of this whole pity me thing she had going. It was 15 days till Christmas, there was an intricate trap laid out, and he kissed her.
Lily was taken by surprise, but it was pleasant surprise, because he really did know how to kiss. He was strong, in fact he had gone from slightly on the scrawny side to amazingly buff in the past few months. So had a lot of other guys, but right now it was wonderfully obvious.
Draco got a pleasant surprise when she hadn't pulled away, and had in fact, kissed right back. The kiss was light, and short, but still left them in each others arms gasping for air. They smiled at each other, and then he left her hanging. He threw on his invisibility cloak and left. That was hard for him to do. He had wanted badly to stay there and hold her all night, to not have to go back to his room and suffer through more agonizing nightmares, nightmares in which he had to kill her, had to kill Harry, had to kill his mother. But he had to follow The Plan, and The Plan included only one agonizingly sweet kiss. He had to wrap her around his little finger. And he only had until December 22nd to do so.
Lily watched him put on his cloak, wanting to beg him to stay, but her pride got in the way, making her choke. She was slightly confused, but her overwhelming happiness cast away any thoughts of evil, of Pettigrew, of Neville, of skiing, and of darkness in general. She actually felt like wearing something pink.
Voila! Chapter Six!!!
Hmmm...what is this Plan? Why are they so afraid of Pettigrew, but not entirely worried about Voldemort? What's up with the ski resort? Is Draco finally being naughty? Will Snape meet a witch who will get him to stop being so sour and bitter? Is Snape going to the ski resort? What will Ginny do? Will Harry finally come to his senses and forget about Cho (probably not) And, most of all, What do our lovely Death Eaters have in store for Lily???
Please read and review!!! I LOVE looooong reviews! *hint hint* I also appreciate constructive criticism! I'm not going to post Chapter Seven until I get at least 20 reviews, because I'm working awfully hard on this story and I figure you can all take 15 seconds and review...also, if you have any suggestions as far as who should be paired up with whom, please, please tell me!!! Draco and Lily? Harry and Lily? Harry and Ginny? Ron and Pansy? Harry and Pansy? Ron and Cho? Neville and Hermione? Draco and Hermione? Hmmm...See, the possibilities are interesting and ENDLESS!!!
*Lily*