Chapter Three:

His eyes widened slightly at her words and a wavering smile set on his lips. Suddenly he was frowning at her, with this odd look in his eyes. For some reason, he yearned to reach out and touch her cheek...tangle his fingers through her silky hair.

"Has it stopped?"

"For the time being..."

"You've stopped holding your head...that's a good sign."

"Why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Help me..."

"I-well..." He couldn't exactly answer her, because he wasn't sure of the real reason he tried to help her. He tried to form the words in his mind but all that floated across it was one word.

Need.

She didn't smile after that day. He saw it everyday in Potions. She'd mess up on something and she just frowned, so deeply. Even as Harry and Hermione tried to help her with something at lunch, and they laughed for some reason. She didn't. She seemed to be losing touch with reality each day. That's why he was startled one day when someone tapped on his door that led to his dorm. He opened it to find a most disheveled and scared redhead.

"I needed to see you...please..." She looked horrible; pale and he noticed her arms looked strange. He nodded slowly and ushered her inside. He grabbed a washcloth from the bathroom as she took a seat on his bed. He didn't ask how she had gotten in the common room. That was of the most unimportance now.

"What's going on?" He asked. This friendship with her was unexpected but oddly comforting. He wanted to touch her, to comfort her...but his mind was focused on helping her.

Slowly she raised her arms to his eye view. Gray orbs of new emotion widened slightly, his lips looked slightly colorless. The paleness of her arms was only now noticed because of the faint lines of red across her wrists.

"You've...?"

"I can't get them out of my head."

"So this is your solution?" He asked, a bit angry. Then he frowned when she suddenly started to weep openly. She curled into a ball and edged away from him before he could speak. She bolted off the bed and sat in the corner, where the shadows enslaved her.

"Ginny...? Please...let me help you." His voice was soft and filled with an emotion he didn't like. He slipped off the bed and steadily drew nearer to her form. As though to protect herself, she curled tighter, her knees brought up to her chest, and her hands covering her head as she swayed. He knelt down.

"You've got to get some help...after the other day, I-I'm afraid for you." He blinked as she finally raised her eyes to his. Fear and pain played into his eyes as he stared at her. One quick movement had set him to the floor as he stared up now at the fragile crying redhead burying herself into his chest.

He sat up, taking her with him, as she curled against his stomach. Once more that week he picked her up and put her on his bed. She turned her back on him. He frowned. Finally, his fingers drew into her hair and twirled one piece. Suddenly she turned back to him, her eyes searching his. When she found was she wanted she shot forward and caught his lips in a most unexpected but longing kiss.

He caught the kiss off guard and grunted as she pulled him down on her, shifting slightly as she let her tongue swirl around inside his mouth. She could feel him shudder before he pulled away.

"W-what are you doing?" He looked blankly at her for a moment before wiping her taste off of his lips with the back of his right hand.

"I just thought..."

"You thought I wanted you to kiss me?"

"Well...yes."

"You're not too far off then." Her eyes widened slightly as he bent his head down and caught her lips in the most enjoyable, sensational kiss that she had ever had. His fingers danced across her bare shoulders. Something told him that this was wrong, but he couldn't seem to care. Everything was fuzzy as she moaned and arched her back.

He tore his lips with great effort away from hers and moaned to taunt her neck with his lips and teeth. He growled against her skin as she clawed his shoulder, he could feel the sticky blood trickling down his elbow. She giggled lightly as his teeth played with her collarbone now. And she relaxed...

It bit down tenderly on her and then began to rip. Eyes of a monster, claws of a beast...they tore at her and she didn't scream. She had learned not to. Even though she was dying.

The scream sent her love away from her, leaving her body cold. He stumbled off of the bed and hit the floor. Shaking his head he staggered back up as quickly as possible and crawled to her side. Her eyes were unblinking and somehow, there was blood trickling down her cheek.

"How did that..?"

"I died." She muttered, staring straight ahead, as though she were in a trance. Her eyes unfocused as she sat very still.

What had become of her in the last day? What had those...those things done to her? How had she died when she was sitting directly next to him? He watched as her hands started to tremble on her lap, and still she never blinked. Her skin seemed like porcelain underneath mounds of red hair and her lips have lost all their color. Suddenly he felt something on his hand. He stared at her.

A teardrop.