Right, as I have been advised about warnings, I think it is appropriate to write one.

CAUTION: this chapter is so fluffy that readers may become consumed. It is so fluffy, that the author wishes to press that it's "so fluffy it's arg! I'm drowning! Help me! There's fluff in my mouth and I can't see! -CHOKE -help me! I'm drowning in fluff! - That fluffy."

The author also wishes to press that any strange reader disappearances have nothing to do with her, and she takes no responsibility to the actions of this chapter…

buckle your seatbelts…


Chapter 7 - Love can be a bugger, can't it?

Draco sat in the soft darkness, absently running a delicate creamy finger along the velvet arm of his chair as he stared off focused into the orange flames that danced across his face. His grey eyes were misted over in deep thought, and his eyebrows were folded into a delicate thoughtful frown with rosy lips as set as steel. His face was hot, slowly burning from the closeness of the fire- but he hadn't even noticed, his fingers fiddling with the golden lining of the cushion.

Surrounding him was darkness- the glow of the fire creeping like fingers into the shadow only to fade away the further they got. There appeared to be no walls- only darkness, but Draco knew that the walls were there. Behind him was one lone, grand wooden door standing out in the black enveloping everything untouched by the fire, the exit and entrance to his sanctuary that only he knew of. Beneath his feet was a rich, thick rug, but it seemed worn with years of use even though he felt sure that it was only an illusion.

The darkness that seemed to never end- the lightless fingers that reached out to touch everything and drag it into shadow- it was the darkness that Draco loved. It was warm, soft darkness, like the supple feel of the curtains blocking out the harshness outside- the irony of life. Forever hiding- and forever living to see another day, a survivor, but he wished that he weren't.

His legs- those very same legs that had been entangled with those toned, warm limbs of the one who had forced him to retreat again, were hanging limply off the arm of the rich red chair he was perched on. He was always perched- he never truly sat- never truly allowed himself to feel comfortable in the knowledge that at any moment he'd have to up and leave again. His back propped up against the cushion he absently fingered, running the tassel through his fingers without the knowledge that he was doing it and somehow this sturdy chair fit him perfectly.

He stared into his surroundings, never noticing that his eyes didn't veer from the same spot he'd been staring at for hours. The shadows- they only played to remind him of the reason he was there, but instead he couldn't seem to draw those stormy eyes from them. To him the darkness was his only strength in life- the darkness that Harry- no Potter, he scolded, stood against, yet was all the same. His silhouette- that nearly solid wispy form that had flickered in his dream- those powerful lips that he'd thought a distant thought now proved reality. Those emerald eyes that managed to merge without being seen even though they shone out like beacons whenever he closed his eyes, his dark hair, his dark past.

Draco loved the darkness, yet his feelings for this new kind were vague. He'd been used to the harsh, cold dark- and the warm, soft dark. Never had he experienced the dark that could shine like the sun and send warmth to pulsate thought him, the darkness that brushed over him like invisible wandering hands. The darkness whose lips had brushed his own, the darkness that had smirked as its toes skirted up his trouser leg- the darkness everyone wanted but couldn't touch- the darkness everyone knew, loved or hated, yet never had a choice.

The darkness that made his stomach flop, the darkness that made his throat whine, the darkness that touched him so softly- yet pounded him with the words he had never understood.

I love you… he remembered. What was love? Was it want, or lust- craving, passion, or desire? Was it true feeling- or was love just an illusion and a lie made to make life bearable? His eyebrows creased together and his lip slid down into a frown, he wouldn't know, would he? How could people be so damned sure about love? Wasn't it special, complex? How did you tell, who did you find along the way?

Draco had never known love- and never thought those words would be directed at him for as long as he lived. Yet already they had, they'd been spoken from those lips he'd kissed, that face he'd had trouble forgetting. These strange feelings- was it love? Was it lust? Was it him being a teenager, or Potter being a Veela?

He sighed and let the darkness swallow the sound hungrily, and his brows relaxed as his golden hair fell into one eye. Why was this so damn difficult? He was the one in control- the one to make people melt, the one to love you and leave you. This was never supposed to happen! He was supposed to be the playboy- the self assured one who always drifted the right way and attached to nothing. He was the one who had spent 5 years hating someone, and now just couldn't muster the strength to do it any more.

He was still unsure why he'd run; it was his instinctive reaction it seemed. He'd been hurt, his heart had ached and his eyes had shown the betrayal he felt, but yet at the same time he didn't know why he should have been betrayed at all. Potter and him, they weren't together, they'd done nothing- hated each other for so long and now had been forced together. The violation shouldn't have been a big deal- and really he knew that it wasn't. But how he felt to being taken advantage of while he slept didn't put a patch on the mental turmoil continuing from those words… those cursed words!

He hated those words…

"Fucking life," he muttered for the hundredth time since he'd arrived, and the darkness swallowed it up to leave silence once more- the dancing and crackling of the fire the only life in the room. Once more his legs tingled and he shuddered, and once more he scowled and kicked at the air from his position on the chair.

The room he was in- the darkness with a single chair and fire, was perfect. Isolated, secluded, silent- and all the while he hadn't even given a second thought to how he'd got there. After those words had hit him like an unforgivable- he'd ran until his muscles screamed and his lungs burned with every breath he took. He had been so confused- he would not admit to it, but maybe even frightened by the implications- that he'd let his legs carry him. The moment he had noticed the door- that mysterious door that now stood out amongst the shadow like a reminder that he should leave into the light again, and had ran though without a second glance.

Draco had found the room of requirement, but he wouldn't have cared had you told him…

…

I assure you, Draco has not left the walls of the castle. He is still inside, he is safe and he will most likely stay that way until he decides to show himself. The castle will not let me know his location, but she assures me that he is in no danger. Lessons can go on without him if need be, but I feel that it would be best just to leave him. It was a brave thing you did Harry- but as natural as it feels for you, Draco needs time to come to terms with it. Please Harry, sleep, eat, rest, take your mind off it. He's fine and he'll stay fine as long as he remains wherever he is, so you had need not worry for his safety. Give it time my boy- give it time.

And that, had been three days ago. Three long, agonising days of heart wrenching loneliness that had seemed to drag on like years.

Harry registered Hermione's hand brush through his hair as she comforted him, her soft touch warming his skin but not touching his icy core. Harry's silky mane was spread over Hermione's legs as she tried to ease the pain she saw in her friend's face, but as they had done for days, it seemed to do little help. His long, sturdy frame lay across the sofa that they sat on, his knees bent as they hung over the arm. One arm lay limply over his barely moving chest- seeming that his heart had died in the past few days, and the other Hermione grasped softly as she rotated her thumb on his palm and she brushed her hand along his forehead.

She hated to see him like this- it was tearing her up inside.

"You really do love him, don't you?" she asked softly, and felt her heart clench as her friends eyebrows rose and a frown tugged at the edge of his lips before he nodded slowly into her lap.

"Oh god, I do Hermionie," he whispered, and his eyelashes fluttered as he held back the tear trapped beneath his closed lid. Those emerald orbs- now clouded and dull, opened as she gently ran her finger beneath his eye and caught the tear before it fell, before they closed again.

"What's it like?" she asked softly after a few moments. Asking him to speak about his love for Draco wouldn't be fair, but asking generally might just help. Hermionie hated the depression, but her logical mind told her that the love must be beautiful to feel so low without it. Harry looked like he was going through drawbacks from a drug, his eyes were puffy and dull, his lips seemed never to smile, that beautiful face now beautiful for the pale completion and troubled look.

It was still strange for her to see her friend liking who he did. Malfoy- the prick who had called her a mudblood and made her run crying to the hospital wing on numerous occasions, but even she could tell that Draco had changed. He hadn't said a word to her all year, he barley ever let his snide remarks slip- and that arrogant smirk she hated so much hadn't reared its ugly head the whole time. He looked almost as beautiful as Harry did in a way, he looked lost- and it was that look that made her sure the feelings were mutual between the two- whether Draco was stubborn enough to admit it or not.

But as she looked down, she felt her eyes widen in surprise to see her friend breaking into a small, but true smile. "Love?" he asked. His eyes opened again, and even though they looked up at her beneath heavy lids they had a little life back in them, and she couldn't stop the glow that washed over her. She nodded and smiled back as she stroked his hair again and squeezed his hand supportively, and Harry closed his eyes again with a small smile.

"It's the most wonderful feeling in the world," he began, smiling to himself as though seeing something so beautiful that all Hermionie wished was to see it too. "When your close- you feel giddy, your knees go weak. When he speaks- his voice makes you shudder. Whenever you grow close its like your soul explodes with, well you know the tingle of a spell as it reaches your wand?" he asked, cracking open an eye. Hermionie imagined it, the tingling in her fingers as it escaped the tip, and nodded and watched his eyes close again, "and it washes over you and warms you all up inside."

"It's like nothing else ever existed- Voldermort, everything. It's like the universe revolves around them and your just another simple planet in its orbit, watching them as they steer you around and never let you go, keep you safe. It's like- you'd want nothing better than to take them in your arms and never let them go, savour every last breath together. You remember the cologne they wear, and the look on their face as they smile lights you up and makes you go all fuzzy. It's like- you'd want nothing better than to do everything you can, give everything you have- give your life if need be. " She smiled softly and brushed another piece of hair back, her insides were glowing with just his words, and suddenly she wished nothing better than to have those feelings too. But the smile that graced his face, it was like the smiles she had seen when he was with Sirius- but different, it was more sincere, more peaceful, more- right.

"And you feel like you could just watch them for hours and never grow tired." He sighed, and the smile faltered a little as his eyes frowned. "You know he's just- so beautiful… his hair- when you touch it its like sunbeams, they're there but they're not- you know? And those eyes- god those eyes Hermionie. I've been wanting to gaze into those eyes for weeks… they're so stormy, they're so masked its hard to see what he really feels but when you look hard enough- its just overwhelming. They're so full of intelligence, you just can't hide form those eyes- they seem to see everything. They're so sharp, so intense. And his skin- Hermionie it's just like that muggle saying smooth as a babies bottom-" she laughed and he cracked his eyes opened and flashed a small grin before the emeralds shut again and once more he seemed lost in his thoughts.

"He's just so perfect- I don't deserve him- no Hermionie just let me talk," he said before she could object, and she smiled again and brushed his hair back, he knew her far too well. "There's absolutely nothing about him I can see wrong- it's just the very meaning of perfect- you know," he said, smiling and looking up at her again. She nodded just to let him continue- knowing that if she pointed out their past with the Slytherin it would no doubt break the first moment she'd seen her friend smile in days.

"You know-" he said, as he let out a small laugh that flowed from his lips like golden sunshine, warming her insides as his happiness seemed contagious. "You know that little bit of hair that never goes back? I've seen him cross his eyes to glare at it," she laughed along with him, and for the first time since all of the horrors in their lives she felt truly at home with him. "And when we were in the library- he slammed this really big dusty book on the table when he was all moody, and sneezed," she laughed again and he chuckled along, but for Harry it was sheer bliss remembering moments like these, that only after three days seemed so distant.

"It's everything about him- even the things that go wrong- they just make him a little more human. It's like he's made out of crystal and your afraid to touch him, and its these little slips that make him seem a little more in reach." She sobered a little but the smile on her lips just wouldn't leave. She'd give anything to have what he had- and he hoped that they'd all live to see that day. Pushing back those thoughts angrily she just looked back down to see her friends smiling face and felt another wave of happiness envelop her. And that was when she realised, truly realised like a slap in the face, that it was this love for Draco that would bring him back to Harry, that would mean they stay together until the end of time. That thought was wonderful, as it was so unfair that someone with the darkest past, and most treacherous future could have nothing in it for himself. And now he finally did.

As she looked back down again though, she could see that his smile was faltering and once more those crafted eyebrows were folding together and a frown tugging the edge of his lip. "I love him so much," he whispered, "But- I just don't-"

"Don't you dare say what I think you're going to say, Harry James Potter!" Hermionie cut in with a sniff as she worriedly brushed his hair back a little faster. "Don't you dare say that those feelings aren't reciprocated, because it's complete balls!" she scolded, and Harry opened his eyes in surprise, a small smile tugging gently at the side of his mouth.

"Hermionie Granger, did I just hear you swear?" he asked in mock astonishment and she glared at him, holding her head up high.

"And I'll do it again," she said nobly, and he let out a chuckle before her shoulders sunk again and her gaze softened to look at him. "But seriously Harry, I know Draco well enough to tell you that he's as stubborn as a mule." Harry felt the need to object but she sent him a warning glare and he sunk back down into her lap. "And he'll deny these feelings until he's blue in the face. But I've seen him since school- and he hasn't uttered a single curse or started a single fight since the start of the year. There's something different Harry- something's changed, and I feel pretty sure it's thanks to you." And suddenly his insides burst with a new hope, a hope that had been extinguished the moment he saw those golden locks disappear into the darkness.

"Thanks Hermionie," he muttered, and she smiled in return, squeezing his hand and looking at him with her warm, encouraging eyes.

"Don't mention it- oh! Harry!" she cut, eyes suddenly side as she stared at the other side of the room in what he could only distinguish as fear. Before he could think he'd jumped from her lap and had his wand drawn, but felt his arm lower as he saw nothing. But he had no control over the sudden sinking of his heart- as though it had been Draco there, now disappeared, gone. Slowly he turned back around, to see a very sheepish looking Hermionie.

"Uh- I just- it's nearly midnight, we have school tomorrow," she muttered, and once more his lip curled a little at the edge as he pushed down the sadness and desperation that had been surfaced.

"Are you sending me to bed?" he challenged wryly, and folded his arms over his chest. He hadn't expected Hermionie to rise to his challenge, pushing herself off the couch to glare up at him, but all the while making him feel a little small.

"Yes! This is our first NEWT year Harry, and you need all the sleep you need! Bed!" she demanded, and he felt himself cower a little. Sometimes Hermione was just plain scary.

"Yes mum," he muttered as she pushed him over to the other side of the room, but he couldn't help but smile as he felt some of his loss restored in his friendship.

That night, as Harry drifted into an easy sleep for the first time in too long, he dreamt of one thing only. Those murky eyes, that golden hair, his smirk, his strides, the sneeze, his legs, his everything.

In a darkened, hidden room on the other side of the school, on a grand velvet chair, the sleeping figure smiled in his sleep. His dreams veered to those emerald eyes, that silky hair, those longing looks, his legs, his everything.

Love can be a bugger, can't it?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

PHEW! Now if that isn't going to drain me I don't know what is… okay- so it's not physical fluff, but when you managed to spend two pages writing about love- it hops, skips and jumps right over that line!

I'm actually impressed that you all managed to remember the rules that time! I didn't even need to mention it! Well done! -Pins small golden star on reviewers jumper- good little reviewer!

You'd better appreciate my quick update guys!

okay, replies…

firefairy42 – I'm sorry! I tried but I'm really not very good at handing out tips and such. But as I said, DETAIL! Elaborate on absolutely everything and you can't go wrong. Like when Harry's being beaten up- you have to describe every punch, and metaphors and similes are really good for description.

Leïlia – ah, yes… I shall have mercy-just this once. But this chapter was pretty uneventful, so I hope you forgive me!

stargirl2004 – don't die! –Looks around in fear before slowly hinting to caution- and just so you know, for you dhal, the more exclamation points the better!

WhiteDragonPriestezz – yes, you guessed right- a few more chapters until the inevitable! I'm glad you liked the cliffy, the rest of these ungrateful readers cough Caelistes cough didn't seem to like them :P

Kilikapele – yeh! That line made me larf! Go me… no… I'm not being big headed….

Felix-the-bandit – yaaaay! I'm a genius! Woooo!

Caelistes – you know, you have some pretty bad mood swings there love, you should get that seen too before you blow something- maybe half of your skull! Lol! I'm glad that this story has that affect on you, just a few more chapters of nail biting drawing-out-the-inevitable until they get together!

nljfs – okay… right… Harry wasn't at the sorting, cos, you know- I mentioned that he'd have to stay in the hospital wing for three days after he woke up- it was the 31st when he woke and school starts on the 1st! glad I could help!

bunk64 – ah, yes, I may be a tease but the most brilliant people are complete lunatics. That's why you can't blame me!

Earthwytch – I know! I absolutely adored writing the footsie bit! It was sooo fun! It was a completely spur of the moment thought and suddenly- BOOM- it was on the page! Magic!

triola – oh my god… this review… this bloody review had me larfing for ages! LADIES AND GENTS- I THINK I'VE HAD THE ULTIMATE REVIEW HERE! SOMEBODY GOT A CAMERA- ANYBODY? I think you should be a circus ringleader or something, you're great. I loved your warning- I put it on my bio! Haha! I was like- is it arrogant and annoying if I flaunt my success- NAA!

And of course the little-big-huge-tiny people who took a precious moment of their lives to review the last chapter! Thanks to sanzo, nljfs, HecateDeMort (the reviewer of –OMG! 2 words!), fudgebaby, CompleteGeek, Alea, Beth5572 and Makalani Astral.

You know, I feel like I've known you all for years!

cough REVIEW cough I mean- damn! I did it again, didn't I…? oh well!