Chapter 6: Sleepless Nights

"This is so unfair," complained Draco for the hundredth time as he conjured dusters and rags to clean the walls. "This is what we have house-elves for."

"Malfoy shut up!" Aquaria yelled, making him jump. She hadn't spoken the whole time they'd been there, which was rounding off to about five hours; fortunately, they were almost done. She bewitched a group of mops to clean the floor and more rags; these rags to dry the floor. Although she didn't know it, she was aggravating Draco. No matter what he had done, she just ignored him, and the absence of her attention, positive or (as it mostly was) negative, was driving him crazy.

"Don't tell me to shut up!" he said, coming over and pushing her a little. He remembered when they were little, that always made her respond. I was challenging her, and Aquaria rarely back down from a challenge. She pushed him back, and after pushing each other around for a while, she got fed up and smacked him across the face. That flared Draco's temper and he pinned her against the wall, his nerves fraying quickly with her. Aquaria's heart beat faster and her blood was boiling with anger. The dangerous look on Draco's face started to scare her and made her pulse speed and temperature rise more. "Oh my God, he's really mad...He has me in the perfect position, no one's around...he could beat me Stun me rape me curse me...kill me," she thought, terrified. Aquaria remembered what Draco's father had been like, and right now Draco looked identical to him. She turned her head away.

"Look at me Aquaria," he ordered.

"I don't want to turn to stone," she answered haughtily.

"Funny. Scared to look at me, then?" She refused to respond at all. Draco, able to hold both of her hands above her with one of his, brought one hand to her chin and turned to face him, and Aquaria lowered her eyes.

"Look at me," he said, his voice softer this time. "I'm not going to hit you; I'm not a monster...I'm not my father." Aquaria looked up into his eyes finally, trying not to show her surprise of him reading her mind.

"I didn't say you were your father. I hope you truly aren't," she replied shakily. He dropped her hands.

"I'm not. I'm Draco Malfoy," he said, stepping back and holding out his hand.

"Aquaria MacNamara." She grinned and shook his hand. "Shall we finish cleaning the hall then?"

"Yes, but it is midnight, and I'd like to sleep soon, so let's hurry," he said tiredly. Aquaria got to work quickly, charming some brooms to sweep up anything else on the floor. Draco sighed inaudibly. This girl had sucked all the energy out of him, but how could she when he'd pinned her to the wall? She hadn't struggled at all against him. Aquaria had never done that when they were little. And why was her flesh so cold. He knew his own skin was cold, but hers was much colder. "Well, I know some good ways to warm her up," Draco snickered inwardly. Soon they were finish. Draco walked part way with Aquaria to a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress.

"You know, you really shouldn't have had to help me," Draco said, sounding like he had been thinking about it. "I started the food fight, and you didn't really provoke me." Aquaria smile weakly.

"I know...but I felt like maybe you needed help," she answered. "In fact, I think you still do, although not with cleaning." Draco made a face and came a little closer.

"I don't. Maybe you do though," he smirked. He picked a piece of fluff out of her hair and Aquaria blushed.

"See you in Potions, then," she said quietly, smiling as she walked around the corner. Aquaria waited until she heard his footsteps die away as he left in the other direction, and then hurried back to the portrait of the Fat Lady, who winked at her as she came.

"A Gryffindor seeing a Slytherin? And a Malfoy, no less," she teased, a secretive smile on her face.

"Oh please! Draco Malfoy? No thanks! He's got enough girls to break; I don't need that," Aquaria laughed.

"You might be surprised," said the Fat Lady wisely.

"Draco Guardarsi." Aquaria's face turned red as she said the password that included Draco's name, and the Fat Lady smiled knowingly as she swung open. As Aquaria tiptoed through the common room, someone spoke up and startled her.

"Who's there?" he called out in a hoarse voice.

"It's only me, Aquaria," she answered. Harry sat up on the couch and yawned.

"Er...hi."

"Hey. Were you waiting up for me?" she asked, sounding pleased and trying not to smile. Harry smiled sheepishly.

"Well, you just spent the last five hours with Malfoy," Harry said in disgust. "I had to see that you were in one piece, or I'd beat living daylights out of him. And you're in perfect condition so I guess I don't have to worry...so, er..." Harry blushed, and Aquaria smiled shyly and took his hand, squeezing before letting it go.

"That's very sweet, Harry. But I'm a MacNamara, and we can handle anything," she told him proudly.

"But Malfoys are...are..." Harry struggled for the right word to describe the Malfoys.

"Are people I've learnt to deal with since I was born," Aquaria filled in gently. Harry stared at her, somewhat wonderingly, and leaned forward and kissed her softly on the cheek.

"G'night, Aqua," he said, a hint of a grin on his face. He left for the boys' dorms. Aquaria stood there a moment, her hand on her cheek, sort of surprised. She shook herself and went up to bed, but even at the late hours, it was a while before she fell asleep.

Draco entered his dorm, smirking proudly to himself. He didn't even know what the hell he was smirking about, but he couldn't stop. Just then, another boy, Blaise Zabini, came in the dorm after him.

"Hey, Blaise said boredly.

"Mmm," Draco returned. Blaise was the only person he could actually have an intelligent conversation with--but there was something sneaky about Blaise that even a fellow Slytherin couldn't trust. He was a good looking guy-- sandy hair and sky blue eyes. He and Draco had an unspoken, somewhat unfriendly, competitiveness between them. Blaise wasn't the idiot that Crabbe and Goyle were, so you could actually have an intellectual conversation with him, but there was a sly presence about him that Draco felt, so he never let Blaise in on much.

"Tell that Gryffindor off?" Blaise smirked.

"Yeah," Draco muttered.

"She's actually pretty damn fine for a Gryff; I would have done a little more than clean a hall with her," Blaise said.

"Let me show you something," Draco said suddenly. He went into his room, fished out his scrapbook, and looked for the pictures of him and Aquaria. Maybe if Blaise would see that their families seemed close, he'd back off. Draco couldn't explain it, maybe it was the competitiveness, or maybe it was out of respect to his mother, because Aquaria was Narcissa's best friend's daughter, he was doing this. He went back into the dorm common room and showed the picture of him and Aquaria, five years old, to Blaise. Blaise's brow rose slightly.

"Cute kid even back then. Make nice trophy, wouldn't she?" Blaise grinned mischievously.

"She's not exactly made of gold though; is she?" Draco replied coldly, feeling insulted. At the point where most boys would have backed off, Blaise wasn't intimidated at all. Finally the grin faded off Blaise's face, replaced by a cool expressionless look.

"No, I suppose not," he said loftily.

"Good. Glad we agree," Draco said stiffly and shortly. He turned and got undressed and into bed, but he was another one who spent a sleepless night.