Shahrezad1 and MetroDweller – It's not quite tomorrow yet, so… do enjoy this little bit! Oh, and here's some of the intrigue I promised you…
Chapter 10
Cara was awake, wet and cold when the staircase decided to move. Not more than two minutes before she and Draco felt the jolt and hurriedly scooted to the middle of the landing, Peeves had woken them with icy-cold water balloons. And it had been while they were still sputtering and ducking that the stupid stair finally started moving.
"Students out of bed!" Peeves had jeered. "Students doing what they shouldn't, students where they shouldn't be!" He'd zoomed off, still hollering. "Fitch! Fitch! Students out of bed…"
"Bloody stupid poltergeist," Cara muttered, as the stair finally ground to a halt. "Merlin, I wish I'd found that stupid spell…"
"Believe me, there's not a student in this school who hasn't looked for one," Draco said. Cara blinked and looked at him in surprise. He was talking to her, really talking to her? He sneered at her, lip curling. "Get yourself up, McDouglas, we can finally get off of this ridiculous stair."
So they were back to all that. Cara heaved a sigh, and stood up, shoving her wet hair out of her face. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as she tried wringing some water out of her skirt.
"Dehumidous," and suddenly she was a lot dryer and warmer. Startled, Cara looked up at Draco, only to find him frowning up at the still invisible stairway. She opened her mouth to say something, she wasn't sure what, but shut it again when he glared at her. Hmm.
"Stay close to the wall and don't look down," Draco ordered brusquely. "Follow right behind me." Cara's jaw dropped as he proceeded to pick up his bookbag and robe, and then lifted on foot and stepped up in to thin air.
Draco had climbed several 'steps' before he turned and looked back at her. Cara hadn't moved a muscle. Uh-uh. She wasn't going up there. She'd fall and be smashed into a million pieces on the ground and have a tragic funeral and all her friends would be crying and vowing revenge on those lousy Ravenclaws…
"McDouglas!" Draco snapped at her. Cara gulped. "Move your feet and come on!"
Gripping her own bookbag and robe tightly, she slid one shaking foot forward. Her toe bumped something invisible and she very cautiously lifted her foot and set it on what felt like a step. And then she froze.
"Well? Let's go," he was growling at her.
"I… um…" she gulped, trying to make herself put her weight down on that invisible step. Spot danced briefly in front of her, and she shut her eyes to make them stop. She heard Draco give a string of profanities that normally would have had her opening her eyes in surprise.
And then he grabbed her hand, and that DID jolt her eyes open. "Look, just follow me, ok?" he snarled. She stared up into his eyes, pale gray and perfectly serious. And not frightening at all. In fact, they made her feel… safe.
He tugged on her hand. "Come on," he snapped. She swallowed hard and nodded. And took that first step. Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down, she chanted silently, keeping her eyes fixed on a spot between his shoulder blades as she was led slowly up the transparent stairs. At one point, she stumbled and Draco whirled and caught her with his other hand, eyes narrow and perhaps… worried?
"Now is not the time for clumsiness, McDouglas," he snapped, before letting go with his spare hand and starting up again.
It was a long climb, much longer than she liked but shorter than she'd thought. Although that might have been because she was so focused on the boy in front of her and the feeling of him holding her hand in his. He had strong hands, like his shoulders, she thought absently. There were little nicks and scars on his hand, she could feel them faintly against her own skin. His fingers were cool and firm around hers and she had the sensation that if she suddenly dropped like a stone, those fingers would lock into that iron grip she remembered from their first night of tutoring.
And then Draco stepped through the doorway and they were standing on solid ground. "Oh, thank Merlin," Cara breathed, feeling all that panic and fear rush over her now that they were safe. Not being one to over analyze things, she went with her gut and dropped her bag and robe, and proceeded to throw herself against Draco.
"Thank you thank you thank you," she said into his chest, hugging him tightly.
"Um," above her head, Draco made a rather uncomfortable sound. And his body was stiff against her, and yet she didn't think he was about to shove her off. "Let go, you fool," he finally said, still not moving. Cara smiled, suddenly very happy, and did as he asked.
"I thought we were never going to get off of there!" she exclaimed, stepping back and picking up her bookbag and robe again. "I mean, that stupid bloody stair just wasn't moving, and then Peeves! I swear, I'm going to get that lousy poltergeist if it's the last thing I do. Oh, and before I forget," she whipped around and faced the open doorway, and pointed her wand. "Horizontous." A yellow cord whipped out of the end of her wand and attached itself to either side of the doorway, blocking it off. "That way no one falls to their death," she kept talking even as she stowed her wand back in her pocket. "I mean, I can just see me walking and not looking where I was going and finding myself standing in thin air and then panicking and taking a step the wrong way and…"
"McDouglas," Draco groaned, and Cara shut her mouth, realizing she just might be babbling. Not that she had a reason to babble. No sirree, not her. "Shut up."
"Yes. Well. Ok. Yeah, you're right. And I'm tired and I think I want to go to bed, so I'll just… go, and… see you later, I guess," she mumbled, embarrassed, and starting to turn away. And then that annoying little part of her that was always getting her in trouble had her pausing a few step later, and turning back around.
She hurried over to where Draco was just starting to head the other direction, presumably toward Slytherin, and reaching up, caught part of his sweater in her fist.
"What…" he snarled, before she planted her lips smack against his and pretty effectively shut him up. She wasn't terribly sure what she was doing, but when had that ever stopped her?
It was a fast and not quite accurate kiss, maybe because it was her first time doing it, and when she let go of him, she was bright red. She could almost hear her skin steaming. "Thanks," she whispered, before turning again and this time dashing off for real.
As she ran around the corner, she could almost feel his eyes boring holes in her back. It wasn't until she was standing in front of the Fat Lady that she slowed down.
The Fat Lady peered down at her sleepily. "You're out awfully late, dearie," she said. "Password?"
"Butter crumpets," Cara panted, and then stepped inside the common room as the painting swung open. Still breathing hard, she started for the dormitory stairs. She needed sleep, that was it. Lots of sleep.
**********
Draco was extremely distracted as he walked back to Slytherin. It was the long way around, thanks to the stair and the swamp, which meant he had a great deal of time to ponder what had just happened.
One minute, the girl had been babbling, and then she'd been leaving, and then she'd been kissing him. One corner of his mouth curled up in an unbidden smirk at that. Hah. She'd kissed him. His male pride couldn't resist buffing its nails, even as the rest of him was still scratching its head in confusion.
Why on earth had she done that? Cara didn't like him, he was perfectly aware of that. No one did. He made sure of it. And yet she'd slept snuggled against him for several hours, gripped his hand like it was a lifeline as they'd climbed the stairs, hugged him and then shocked him into silence by kissing him.
He licked his lips. It had been a fast and hasty thing, only catching half his lips as she'd yanked him down to her level, but he could still taste it. Soft, warm lips that had been unskilled but eager and leaving the faintest flavor of chocolate behind. If she hadn't caught him so off guard, he might have taken advantage of the situation and seen what else he could have gotten from her. After all, he'd saved her life tonight and gratitude was a powerful thing.
That thought made him frown for some reason. Gratitude. That was it, she was grateful. Some part of him was disgruntled at the thought, and that annoyed him. He was spending far too much time thinking about his little tutoring student. Just because she was pretty and lively and incredibly genuine in all her emotions…
Draco gave a sharp shake of his head and scowled into the dark corridor. He was getting daft.
Wasting no more time, he slipped through the back door to Slytherin, and straight up into his dorm, wand in hand as usual. No one was getting the chance to curse him when his back was turned. He paused a moment to let the wards about his bed recognize him, and then slipped through the drawn curtains.
He settled into the warm darkness with a sigh, kicking off his shoes and stretching out. He closed his eyes. He was tired, and his body was starting to ache again from sleeping sitting on the landing. Cara's hands had soothed the ache last time, right now he would simply ignore the pain and try to sleep.
He was about ready to doze off when he realized that there was an envelope sticking from beneath his pillow, rustling just a bit as he shifted. Blinking, he yanked it from next to him and held it up. "Lumos," he said softly, and his wand cast a pale light around his enclosed bed.
He studied the outside carefully, trying to determine who it was from. Not his mother, all the letters he'd received from her in the past had been clearly marked with the Malfoy crest. Not that she'd be sending him letters after the past summer.
Carefully, he cast the various hex-revealing charms he'd thought to dig up before he came back to school. The letter was clean.
Draco stared another moment, and then cautiously opened the envelope. He wasn't sure what he was going to find, just the fact that the envelope was on his bed was a reason for concern.
He pulled out a single sheet of paper and slowly unfolded it. He had a sick feeling in his stomach that he knew what it was.
Draco,
You can't hide from me.
Your loving cousinDraco crumpled the letter in his fist, feeling an all-too familiar feeling of despair well up inside him. Damn Bellatrix. Even now, she wouldn't let him go.
He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. She was wrong, he told himself. He was safe here at Hogwarts, and by the time he saw her again, he'd be ready. Prepared. He took another deep breath and then pointed his wand at the parchment. "Incendio," he said softly and watched it burn and crumple into ash.
Then he very deliberately closed his eyes again. It was time to sleep. He had work to do tomorrow, more than he'd thought if Bellatrix could get this close.