Disclaimer: Harry Potter, characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of Warner Bros. They are used here for entertainment purposes only.

Warnings: Slash. Het. Kisses. Slightly overdone philosophical imagery. One or two curse words.

Spoilers: None. Written Pre-OotP.

Like Glass
Chapter 2 - A Diamond Among the Glass

Draco walked the halls sometimes at night, when the moon was hidden behind silvery whispers of cloud, and silence rolled over the school like water closing in on a drowning man. He felt like a man drowning on cool nights like these, alone in a world of people sleeping soundly, wrapped warm in their blankets, safe in the knowledge that somewhere in the world, someone loved them.

And wished that, in his world, he were loved half as much as he were feared.

A tenth.

He stopped beside a spotted window, stained from the spring rain that had fallen that day, watching the moonlight fight its way through the grime to light the trodden carpet in window-shaped patches.

He heard the panting and moaning as he turned the corner, but was not quite ready to face the couple who looked up at him in shock from the floor.

Ginny Weasley... and Blaise Zabini?

Well, he hadn't seen that coming. His eyes narrowed at his housemate, ignoring the bright-red blushing girl shrinking away from him. Well, she should be afraid. Making out with Zabini in the middle of the hallway. He could have been Filch, come to catch them in the act.

"What kind of idiot are you, Zabini? There are empty classrooms you could use for that."

With this he turned on his heel, but not before seeing the slick, sly smile flash over Zabini's features.

And the flushed oh-so-happy look in Ginny Weasley's eyes.

He'd been sitting before the fire in the common room soaking up the heat that came from the white-hot flames, turning the ring his father had given him on his last birthday. It was set with eight tiny diamonds, a symbol of the wealth and power the Malfoy dynasty held. He'd been trying to imagine, in one of those insane moments that he let himself think about Harry, what it would be like to make out with him. Would they have made it to the empty classroom, or would the passion have overwhelmed them so soon after they'd stumbled upon one another? Would he have been the one smiling slyly at their would-be interruptor?

Or would he be flushed? And happy?

The creak of the door signalled the late entrance of Blaise Zabini, dressed in all black muggle clothes. Sans robes. His hair was messy in a way Draco had never seen it, his clothes rumpled, a deep red mark on his neck.

Well well, who'd have thought it of Ginny Weasley?

Blaise grinned at Draco and did a little dancing step over to him, picking up a large glass marble and throwing it from hand to hand casually.

"You know, Draco, that that was a secret, don't you?"

Draco hmmed in the back of his throat, flipping a page in the random book he'd grabbed in an earlier effort to block thoughts of Harry from his mind.

"Actually, I'm kind of glad you stumbled upon us like that."

Draco raised an eyebrow and drawled sarcastically, "Really? I was afraid I'd ruined the mood."

Blaise chuckled and sat beside Draco, letting his head roll onto the couch back. He let out a satisfied sigh. "Actually, you gave me a reason to comfort her."

Draco rolled his eyes and set his book aside, letting his amused gaze fall on his companion. "Ginny Weasley?"

Blaise's face lost his smile and he sat up, nervously running a hand through his hair, his eyes closing momentarily before fixing on the icy blond beside him. "I know. I know. She's a Weasley. She's poor. My parents would never approve, and her brothers would beat the shit out of me if they knew. She's not meant to be the future Mrs. Zabini, if my parents have any say in it."

"So it's a fling?"

Blaise cursed under his breath and stood to pace the room. "She's beautiful. She's gorgeous. Hell, she's a goddess. She makes me think things I've never thought. She makes me want to spend all my time exploring her body with my tongue-"

"Spare me."

Blaise grinned slightly, aware Draco was trying to cheer him up. "She makes me feel like dancing, and skipping. She makes me feel like fighting and screaming and crying. She makes me feel as if I'm doing something, even if its only just waiting for her to gift me with her presence. She makes me want to earn fortunes and buy her palaces and give them all away again just to make her happy. She makes me want to do good things."

"Be careful what you say in the Slytherin towers, my friend."

"Fuck that! She makes me want to yell out how much I love her from the top of the rooftops-"

"Love?"

Blaise froze and stared in shock at Draco. He turned a lost gaze onto the fireplace, as if just realizing the depths of his feelings.

The seconds ticked away, till he turned to Draco, a grave expression on his face. "I'd give up every ounce of power in the world at the chance of holding her heart in my hands. I'd give up every diamond and bauble my parents could throw my way at the chance of being her husband. I'd give up every dream my mother every had of me producing a respectable heir for the Zabini line and have seven children with her, live poor in the Hollows, if only she'd be mine. It must be love."

Draco gazed into the warm tendrils of flame, dying now in the lateness of the hour. "My father..." he began, "my father once told me that love was like glass. It's weak, Zabini, easily broken. I've come to see that love can turn men into glass as well. Cool, glass statues, arranged in happy little patterns. If you know just where to hit a glass statue, it breaks."

Draco stood and took the glass marble from Blaise's hand, the boy watching him in confusion. He raised the marble above his head, and putting all of his strength behind the move, threw the orb from his hand to the stone floor, shattering it into millions of intricate little pieces.

"Love, like glass, can be shattered with the mere want to do so. Every shard of glass on this floor represents a thousand loves lost in this world to pettiness, betrayal, anger, bribery, blackmail... the list goes on and on, Blaise. Love doesn't last, even when left to it's own devices."

He turned to leave, his footsteps sounding through the quiet room like a summons from pugatory. He stopped at a quiet shuffling behind him, he turned to find Blaise crouched over the shards, looking up at him, a twinkling in his hand.

"And sometimes, Draco, a man can be lucky enough to find a diamond among the glass. A love that makes him strong."

He stood, walking quietly over to Draco, pulling the blond's hand out, palm up. Depositing the diamond on the palm of a hand that had never seen a day's work.

"You should get that ring of yours looked at, I think the settings are loose."

End Chapter