A/N: as always i own characters not recognised from the books, everything else is mine

The lyrics at the beginning are from 'You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This' By Keith Toby

I know its short but I had a minor case of writer's block plus I have homework for law, English lit, English lang and psychology so I've been really busy lol anyway thanx for all the reviews which are answered at the end as always and plz review )

Chapter Seven – Love Bites

They're all watchin' us now
They think we're falling in love
They'd never believe we're just friends
When you kiss me like this
I think you mean it like that
If you do baby kiss me again
Kiss me again

You shouldn't kiss me like this
Unless you mean it like that
Cause I'll just close my eyes
And I won't know where I'm at
We'll get lost on this dance floor
Spinnin' around
And around
And around
And around

"OK, now who can tell me what the last ingredient in a Living Draught needs to be?"

Appleby glanced up at Belladonna who was slumped in her chair, her legs propped up on the desk and the chair tipped back on two legs as she waved her wand at the blackboard where the almost completed list of ingredients and method were listed across it in Belladonna's typical Malfoy elegantly pointed scrawl.

Lifting an eyebrow at the dozen boys crowded onto the front row with their heads tipped slightly to the side as they fixed their gaze on her aunt's long smooth brown thighs clearly on show under her pale green short-cut robes. Appleby was positive the reason so many boys took Advanced Potions was because her aunt was the teacher. Belladonna was the single fantasy of practically every male in the school, in her sexy designer robes, knee-high Slytherin socks and wild white-blonde hair with vibrantly coloured tips that occasionally changed when she got bored.

But she was also an excellent teacher who provided an impeccable memory for ingredients and methods with a more patient side to her that encouraged others to ask if they were really stuck with something rather than struggling on their own. Letting her eyes drift over to the list above her aunt's desk Appleby smirked at the hundreds of names crammed onto it in miniscule writing; Belladonna had recently began giving private lessons to those who weren't confident enough to speak out about their problems in class. There had been a stampede as boys barged forwards to sign their name on the list first, only two girls out of the entire year had signed up and only about ten percent of the boys actually needed her help as most were predicted 'Outstanding' in the subject.

Being the only girl in the class Appleby was the only one who had heard the question so she raised her hand lazily into the air, smirking when Belladonna rolled her eyes at the boys and grinned at her niece;

"Appleby?"

"Powdered winghorn."

Belladonna grinned at her briefly before nodding and getting gracefully to her feet to tap her wand on the board where the last ingredient appeared.

"Now, who can tell me what the Living Draught does?"

Her smouldering smirk and gaze prompted every male hand in the room to shoot into the air as she scanned the room, pointing her wand at the year's stammering male version of Hermione Granger who promptly flushed beet-red and bit his tongue hard as he tried to talk.

"Itrevitalisesthedrinkerforuptotwenty-fourhours."

Belladonna beamed and nodded, giving Gryffindor five points and smiling warmly at the boy who lowered his eyes to smile dozily at his clenched hands on the desk.

"Just as Mr Marlow has informed us, the draught will revitalise the drinker for up to twenty-four hours after being taken so really it's just a longer-lasting stronger version of the Pepperup Potion. Now I believe I set you all homework, I assume it has been done."

There was a flurry of movement as everyone dove for their homework and waved it at her hoping to receive a copy of the smile she had just given Carlos Marlow. She waved her wand and the parchment flew out of everyone's hands and onto her desk in a neat pile just as the bell went. As always the class dawdled in leaving the room, every one of them besides Appleby hoping Belladonna would ask them to stay behind as they trooped past her out of the door with seductive grins on each of their faces.

"Appleby?"

Appleby froze causing Carlos Marlow to slam into her, flush flame red again and stammer apologies profusely as he backed against the wall so he wouldn't touch her again.

"That boy you were with at Christmas..."

She'd been waiting for it and had been surprised this discussion hadn't come sooner; she slumped down into Belladonna's discarded chair and stared fixedly down at the floor as her aunt dropped onto the edge of the desk and crossed her long legs as she watched her niece.

"I know who he is; well I've been told who he is. I've also been told to check you aren't seeing him anymore."

Appleby scowled down at her hands gripping her shoulder bag in her lap and silently cursed her overprotective family.

"I'm not."

Belladonna looked slightly taken aback at the viciousness of Appleby's response but she didn't bring it up, instead she dropped a hand onto her smooth blonde head and tipped her chin up so she could meet her silver-grey eyes with her niece's darkened charcoal-grey ones.

"If you spend time with him you'll get closer to him."

Appleby didn't speak; she was too busy preventing her tears from falling as her hands clenched convulsively at her knees below her short pleated black skirt. Her aunt's eyes, so like her father's, were filled with compassion but not pity; Appleby felt a surge of relief and deeper affection towards her aunt for not pitying her, she could handle anything but someone's pity.

"Appleby, the last thing you want is to be in love with someone you can't have. This is something I know a lot about..."

Her eyes were almost pure black now and her voice faltered as Appleby's hands crept into hers and squeezed it comfortingly. Belladonna had gone on a medi-witch training course when she was nineteen and had fallen in love with one of the wizards on the course, only to find out after six months of studying, working, and generally being together, that he was promised to another witch who he couldn't turn down on account of her father being the top Death Eater after Lucius Malfoy's imprisonment. She had never seen him again.

"I know what I'm doing."

Appleby could see the doubt in her aunt's eyes and she knew she wasn't fooled in the least, and with good reason; she had been having secret meetings with Dante about twice a week since Christmas. They hadn't done what her family was afraid of but they had come very close, mostly they just used the time to be together, she was slowly learning more about him and teaching him to open up to her.

Giving her aunt a falsely confident smile she kissed her cheek briefly and left the room quickly, glancing furiously at her watch and racing down the corridors towards the room at the top of the Astronomy Tower where she was already late for meeting Dante. He still hadn't told her where he went to when he disappeared but she wasn't too bothered as long as he came back to her.

"You're late."

She jumped and shot him a poisonous glare for scaring her before dropping her school bag in the corner, tugging off her shoes and knee-high pale blue socks striped with black zigzagged lines, as was custom between them now and slumped onto the huge black silk bed that had appeared there sometime after their first meeting since Christmas next to him.

"Aunt Bella decided to give me a speech on the consequences of my falling in love... never mind."

She flushed and averted her eyes when he raised an eyebrow at her, his piercing eyes giving her the feeling that he knew exactly what it was she had almost said. Snuggled against each other their easy conversation began almost instantly but Appleby's mind continuously returned to the conversation with Belladonna earlier and what she had almost said to Dante.

The thunder rolling outside awoke both of them and Appleby scrambled blearily around the tabletop for her watch, gasping when she saw the time and leaping off the bed for her shoes and cloak. She'd already missed dinner and was now in serious danger of getting detention for being out of bed late.

"Is it time to go already?"

Appleby nodded as she pulled her socks up her legs, giving Dante an enticing view as she bent to tug her shoes on.

"Leaving me again, one day you know, I might not let you. How long can we keep this up for? Seriously, can you honestly say you don't care about walking away?"

His voice was rhythmic and sensuous as he spoke to the back of her head and her heart seemed to freeze as it always did when he spoke that way. How could she tell him that every time she had to walk away she left a little more of her heart behind with him?

He reached out and touched her shoulder as she dropped down onto the bed again next to their discarded cloaks. She leaned into his touch and lay back against his chest as he brought his legs over the bed, one leg on each side of her as his hands came to rest on the bare flesh between her sleeveless striped shirt and the skirt at her hips. His thumbs caressed her skin as her head dropped back onto his shoulder.

He could see her pulse flickering beneath the tender flesh of her neck and his mouth tingled for the taste of her. The temptation was too strong and he lowered his lips to nuzzle at the tender flesh at the base of her neck, suckling on the creamy cinnamon body lotion flavoured skin eliciting gasps from her throat as he nipped gently at her skin before skinning his teeth into the tantalizing throb of her pulse point.

"Dante..."

A moan ripped from Appleby's throat as her eyes flickered shut and her hands gripped reflexively at his knees squeezing her legs together slightly to keep her in place. The sensations rippling from where his mouth connected to her throat were earth-shattering as he nipped and sucked at her flesh with surprisingly sharp teeth.

It took every ounce of Dante's strength for him to pull himself away from her at that moment, her disappointed sigh almost pulling him under the spell again but he resisted and turned away, dropping a kiss on her fast-bruising neck and watching as she half-heartedly left the room for her dormitory with a last longing look back at him silhouetted against the moonlight filtering through the boarded up window by the fireplace.

His sensitive ears knew the second the hatch closed and he relaxed his tense position, ripping the boards from the window and dropping his hands onto the dusty window ledge as he stared out at the silvered grounds. He ran his tongue over his slightly swollen lips, tasting the remains of her bitter-sweet blood still tainting his lips as he recalled the fell of her fever-hot skin under his hands, her long pale legs trapped between his and her ever so sweet skin breaking beneath his teeth, the dizzying first taste of her blood touching his lips...

He shook his head violently and thrust it out of the space where the glass of the window should have been, hoping the wind would tear the thoughts away as the blood spell threatened to pull him under again. He was getting in too deep damn it! He shouldn't have done that, he knew the chances he took every time he tasted a person's blood, if his body reacted to it the way it was he definitely should not see her again, in fact he should have killed her before something happened neither of them could prevent.

Appleby raced down to the dungeons, thanking Merlin several times over when she didn't run into a single person on her way back, not even in the common room as she hurried past the several groups who shouted her over. Dumping her school bag on her bed she shook her head ruefully as she examined her appearance in the mirror.

Her hair had been pulled out of its plait and was ruffled about her head in a tangled cloud, her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were fever-bright above her shirt which had been pulled out of her skirt and had half the buttons done up n the rest loose, her skirt on sideways and one of her knee-high socks around her ankle; she looked as though she had been well and truly taken-advantage of.

Whipping into the shower she was just pulling her hair up into a towel until she could be bothered drying it when she caught sight of the mark Dante had left on her neck. A large red bruise fast-turning purple was circling the left side of her neck over her pulse-point which was flickering erratically and there were two pure white dots dead-centre surrounded by a thin black circle around each.

Gingerly touching a finger to it she prodded it, surprised to see it didn't hurt at all as she ran her fingernail over the entire bruise, lingering for a while over the marks as her eyes bored into the reflection against her stark white skin.

As though in a trance she jumped and whipped around when Cecy and Shari banged noisily into the room arguing over which boys they thought were hot and which weren't. Giving them a strained grin Appleby reached up and pretended to scratch her neck to hide the bruise, not entirely sure why she did so but positive she didn't want them to see it nonetheless as she tugged her hair out from under the towel so it covered the bruise.

"Where have you been all day, Appleby?"

Appleby shrugged and gave her friends another forced grin before grabbing a towel and plopping down onto her bed to dry her hair in scrunched up waves for tomorrow.

"You know just around."

Appleby was so deep in thought she didn't notice the knowing look Shari and Cecy exchanged over her head from their opposite sides of the room.

valentines-hater – thanks so much I'm really glad you like it!

Rumona07 – the whole forbidden love thing is really too good to pass up really isn't it, well it is for me anyway ) anyway cheers for reviewing and glad you like the story

little-munchkin-poo – lol now telling you the answers to those questions would totally ruin it! So I'll just let you imagine for a while ;-) thanks for reviewin!

Scary-As-Hell – the girl always has to be able to kick the guys ass and being a Malfoy Appleby is quite capable of doing so P unfortunately Dante isn't exactly all good fluffy bunny person but that's what makes him so attractive Anywho cheers for reviewin!

Nickel – thank you so much! I love odd names so I'm glad someone else likes my choice D thank you for reading my stories and reviewing )

Chantal J – thank you I know my updates are slow but hopefully it will keep you satisfied for now?

Alicandra Black – ditsy people annoy me too which is why I try my hardest not to be lol thank you loads for reading and reviewing and can I just ask? Where did you get the name Alicandra cos its really funky! Anyway yeh thanks muchly )