Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor any of the characters in this story- I pretty much don't own anything affiliated with the Harry Potter series. They are the property of the amazing J. K. Rowling.

Author's Note: As always, thanks for the awesome reviews! You're all far too nice.

Chapter 5:

Day 5 – Unexpected Happenings

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That fifth day I woke up incredibly early and found that I couldn't get back to sleep. Malfoy and I would have to talk to each other about our "issue" eventually but I was kind of hesitant, as you would probably be too Madam Pomfrey, as to what we would actually say. I mean we've all heard the stories about Malfoy's family, his father in particular, and a showdown with the son of an infamous death-eater isn't exactly on my "to do" list. Secretly, and I might I add very secretly, I used to be slightly afraid of Malfoy. Only a little bit. Well, quite a bit. Okay, okay – sometimes he terrified the crap out of me! (And don't you dare utter a word about that to anyone, Madam Pomfrey, I've never told anyone this before).

I know you've probably seen me for years constantly yelling at him (I do have that Weasley temper after all) but deep down I just do it in the hope that he won't notice how scared I am of him.

I can never quite tell what he's thinking. Sure I can tell when he's angry or annoyed or something, but I can never quite tell what's on his mind. He's also got that whole "I'm powerful, worship me" thing going for him. And lets not forgot all those rumours about him being a death eater. Harry's always said at least a dozen times or more that he was one. Then there's the saying "like father, like son".

But I still must admit, in those five days so far that we'd been together, he hadn't been that bad. Sure we'd fought and he still said some horrible things to me, but nothing like I expected – I even heard him crying the previous night! And I'm starting to wonder if that scared me even more.

I noticed that once again Malfoy had woken up before me, early as it was. I reluctantly got dressed and stumbled into the kitchen. Yet again Malfoy was shoving down his throat a treacle tart. When I entered he again ignored me. Sigh. This was really getting old and fast.

I pulled out some pudding that I had found in the pantry and cut out a slice. I then sat across the table from Malfoy and started eating. More silence.

Well this is just great.

"Okay Malfoy, just spill it. This silence is driving me insane. Say anything, but just say something." I said, well that's what I would have said if I wasn't as determined at playing the "silent treatment" game as he was. Instead I just sat there ramrod straight in my own stony silence, voicelessly challenging him to be the first to break the quiet.

The silence continued. I swear I could even hear my own heart beating, it was that kind of quiet. Malfoy cleared his throat. I absent-mindedly drummed my fingers on the table, hoping to get a reaction from him.

For the first few minutes he didn't comment or anything. But after a while I could see that the sound was beginning to bug him.

Finally he exclaimed, "Weasley could you just cut that out?"

I pretended to think about his question. "Let me think – no."

"You're such a stubborn bitch."

You know when I said that Malfoy wasn't as bad as I thought he would be? Well screw that. "Real smart words from a real smart ferret."

"You think you're so funny."

"I know I am." I spoke smugly, trying to hide the fact that I was breathing a hundred times faster than normal.

"I don't see anyone laughing, Weaslette." He raised an eyebrow.

"That was really lame."

"No, lame is hanging around Scarface and his friends in the hope that they will notice you." He jeered.

There he went again with that same insult. I tried to block out what he was saying to me. "Malfoy you truly are a stupid moron. I really don't get you."

"Sod off Weasel! Why don't you go hassle someone else?"

I looked at him like he was a twit which, wait a minute, he was. "Hello! Just who else exactly am I going to talk to here? In case you haven't realised, I'm stuck here with you."

"Come on, you know you want me." I could see that he was trying for a different tactic this time. He was going to have to do better than this if he wanted to rise a real reaction from me.

"You're right Malfoy. I'm completely in love with you and want you to be the father of my children." My voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Really?"

"No!"

"Get lost!" He scoffed.

"Great Malfoy. A really intelligent two-word response that was." I stood up abruptly, the chair sliding back with a loud clang behind me.

I saw his eyes darken and his fist clench. If he took a swing at me he is so dead. "I will not hit a girl." He grounded out. How did he know what I was thinking? And Malfoy wouldn't hit a girl? That was a surprise. It's almost noble. I mean even Ron sometimes tackled me when he was in a rather bad mood. I didn't think Malfoy actually had these kinds of standards.

He stood up too, facing me. Hmm… now I know what a purple Malfoy looks like. "You know, purple's not really you're colour." I continued on. I think I might have had a death wish.

I saw Malfoy's face scrunch up in confusion as he tried to figure out what I meant. When he did he went back to glare at me, clearly peeved. "What exactly is your problem?" he demanded.

"You're the one who keeps on insulting me! I am not 'pathetic' or 'desperate' as you said the other day, and I certainly don't pine for 'Scarface' as you like to call him. I may not have a lot of money but there are much more important things in life than that. It doesn't make me trash." I started to rant, taking in deep breaths as I tried to control my thoughts. "And I do have friends, I do! I don't need Harry or Hermione or my brother. I'm my own person and I just-." I took a deep breath and urged myself to shut up, turning around. The kitchen wall was immediately very interesting.

And why was Malfoy so silent?

"Why do you hate me?" I blurted.

"What? I don't, I mean, I-, You-." He frowned.

I gazed at him in shock. Did this mean what I think it did? Malfoy actually doesn't hate me. Can I just say: huh?

"Oh, fuck off Weasel."

Or maybe not.

"You're so crude Malfoy, didn't your mother ever teach you any manners?"

Back was the rage in Malfoy's face. "Don't you dare say anything bad about my mother. Do you hear me?"

Oookay.

"Then lay off me and my family!"

"Only if you get over this ridiculous idea that I have some inferiority-complex involving the Golden Trio." He spat back at me, his grey eyes piercing my own. Most girls would have drooled all over him at that moment but not me.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Well, fine." I crossed my arms over my chest and poked my tongue out at him.

I then realised what I had just said and done and burst out laughing. Merlin, we were pathetic. We were no better than a couple of five year olds!

Malfoy looked at me incredulously when he saw me laughing like that. But that made me just tilt my head back and laugh even louder.

So there I was, standing in the kitchen, almost wetting myself, when I nearly had a heart attack because all of a sudden Malfoy seemed to cotton on to what was so hilarious and started laughing himself.

He was actually laughing. I'd never heard him do that before. I mean I'd heard him sniggering and chuckling at someone else's misfortune (usually caused by him) but I'd never heard him laugh happily like that. And the weirdest thing was that it sounded nice. It was warm and throaty and almost… comforting.

I halted my own laughing and stared.

"What?" he asked in between bursts of laughter.

"You're laughing." I stated.

Malfoy shook his head in disbelief. "You're so intelligent, Weasel."

"I've never heard you laugh like this before." I said without thinking then cringed. The last thing I needed was for Malfoy to think that I was taking an interest in him.

Because I wasn't. Really.

Malfoy averted his eyes and shrugged.

Whatever, at least the ice from before had been broken. And while some things couldn't be forgotten, I had partially forgiven him. He'd never given me the apology that I was after, I bet he's never said sorry to someone in his life, but I think from his actions he did partly regret what he had said. Besides, I'd told him some nasty things as well. I think we both realised it was time to move on. For the rest of that day it was as if some silent agreement passed between us. Enough was enough: we both didn't like each other but we could at least act our own age. Well that's what I thought anyway, as I said before it's always been pretty hard for me to tell what he's thinking.

I sat back down at the table, wanting to finish off my pudding.

"I wonder what the others are doing right now." I said aloud.

Malfoy sat down again, digging into his treacle tart. "Pansy's probably in despair with me gone."

I refrained from whacking him on the head. "Dumbledore would surely have noticed by now. It'll only be a few days till he finds us and gets us out."

"Assuming he can get us out."

I was astonished. "Of course he can. Why he's, well, Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore's not all-powerful you know." He looked down his nose at me.

"He's pretty damn close."

I thought about my friends. Eliza would be worried – would Seamus be as well? I doubt it; he had no idea about my crush on him. And thank heavens for that.

"Ron, Hermione and Harry still probably haven't noticed I'm gone." I muttered, not meaning to speak aloud, and ignored the sharp look Malfoy gave me. "I just hope we're discovered soon." I added more loudly.

"Same here."

Wow. We actually agreed on something. I feel another heart attack coming on.

"Do you think our families would know by now?" I asked.

"I'd say so. Though where they think we've gone I have no idea."

I wrinkled my nose in amusement. "They might think we've eloped together."

"That'd be the day." Malfoy rolled his eyes.

Mentioning the word "elope" reminded me of the reason I was stuck here in the first place – that mysterious old lady. She wanted me to find my soul mate, which she mistakenly thought was Malfoy, so did this mean that we wouldn't be let out until we did fall in love?

Please no.

I smacked my forehead with my right hand, not believing that it had taken me this long to work that out. I never really thought I was quite that dense.

"I'm going to die in here a sad eighty year old woman." I moaned.

"You're so positive." Malfoy smirked at my antics. "I wouldn't worry. They'll find us and get us out."

If I hadn't had felt so miserable just then, I would have had yet another heart attack over the fact that Malfoy had just said something semi-nice.

I pondered over whether I should tell him the truth about the old woman and the curse. Would he believe me? Probably not. And would it really help the situation? I don't think so. I could imagine Malfoy's reaction to me telling him someone thought that he was my "soul mate". He'd kill himself. Or maybe me instead. Hmph, not really what I want.

We finished breakfast and went into the lounge room to watch the telly-vision. It's really addictive. If I was a muggle I'd watch it all the time.

Sadly, the show with the transsexuals wasn't on so we were left watching this story that involved magic, not to mention hilariously bad acting. It was quite disturbing seeing what muggles viewed as magic. But it did make me laugh not to mention Malfoy as well. I got to hear more of his warm laughter…

Okay Madam Pomfrey, if I ever refer to Malfoy like that again, please gag me.

I snuck out halfway through the episode however, to have a shower. If Malfoy went first, being the hog that he was, he'd take all the hot water as he had done yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that.

That's right, I was standing up for myself.

So I snuck out hurriedly and sprinted for the bathroom, this time making sure I brought a towel.

I hopped into the shower closing the glass door behind me and started humming as I rubbed some shampoo into my hair.

I was there for a good five minutes when I felt the room become cooler and glanced behind me, only to see Malfoy gawking at me, the door wide open behind him.

I shrieked. I could've sworn that I had locked that!

"Get out!" I yelled, grabbing my towel frantically, trying to cover myself. "Out! Out! Just get out!"

I think I scared the wits out of Malfoy because he fled from the bathroom without saying a single word.

I made sure I locked the bathroom door this time while I towel-dried myself and then wrapping the towel closely around me, I walked over to our bedroom only to find Malfoy lying down upon the bed, gazing up at the ceiling.

"Out!" I ordered. Malfoy looked shocked to see me and his mouth was wide open. I groaned. "I have to do everything myself."

I dragged him by the arm and shoved him outside, shutting and locking the bedroom door behind me so that I could get dressed.

And he still hadn't said a word.

I looked at myself in the mirror. Did I really look that hideous?

My hair was all in disarray from the shower, my eyes were vibrant and my cheeks were bright red with anger and embarrassment. The towel did little to hide my body. I looked little better than, as my mother would say, a scarlet woman.

I irritably pulled on a pair of denim jeans and a white tank top.

When I did step outside I saw Malfoy waiting for me.

"I can explain." He started.

"You'd better." The threat in my voice was evident.

"I was just looking for you, I had no idea where you had gone. I tried all the other rooms but you weren't there so I then checked the bathroom, which you hadn't even locked, and found you there."

It was a good explanation. And it sounded like he was telling the truth. But still. "Where else would I have been if not in one of these rooms?"

"Look I didn't know. I didn't even hear you leave. Maybe you'd found a way out of here."

It did sound plausible. "Didn't you hear the water running?"

"No I didn't pick up on it. That door is pretty solid you know. I can barely hear you when you yell at me through it."

Sure. "Then when you saw me in the shower, why didn't you quickly back out like any other human being would have?" I clenched my teeth.

He turned around, his back facing me.

"That's what I had planned on doing." I heard him murmur.

"What was that? Speak up!"

"You just caught me by surprise, okay? When I entered that room I didn't think I'd see a stark naked Weasley!"

I blushed even harder than I had in the shower. I swear I looked like a tomato. I felt humiliated – here was Malfoy who lets face it, is no saint. You don't want to know what I've heard about him when it comes to girls. He's probably had some of the most beautiful girls at Hogwarts, and then seeing me… I don't think I could really compare to them. And really, said a voice in the back of my head, why should I care?

I took a deep breath and willed myself to stop looking like a brilliant red idiot.

What exactly was I going to say now? This was awkward. For some reason though I believed him. "At least you can now use the shower." I brushed past him and Malfoy jumped out of the way.

Great, he can't even bear to touch me. I stomped off into the lounge room once again.

And again that voice in the back of my head was saying, why should I care?

Lunch and dinner were slightly quieter than breakfast had been, and I still gave Malfoy a bit of a hard time about the "shower incident" though I did cool down after a while. But at least we were talking, if only slightly. Honestly, the guy had seen me naked! It was hard being in the same room as him with that in mind. I didn't know how else I was supposed to act.

I was exhausted by the end of the day. So much had happened. For example, was Malfoy really going to say he didn't hate me? Or did I just catch him off guard? Somehow I think it was the latter.

And did I hate him? Well the answer to that is no. I've never hated anyone in my life (except maybe you-know-who). Hate's just too strong a word. I did dislike him, but then at times he did the most surprising things. And then last night was one of the biggest surprises when I heard him crying. What was that all about?

We went to bed again, with me making sure I was well away from him.

"Goodnight Malfoy." I said, I'm still not too sure why.

"Goodnight." He whispered, I could tell that he was close to falling asleep. He sounded so innocent.

I lay awake for a while longer, just thinking about anything and everything when I heard Malfoy start to move. Maybe he hadn't fall asleep and I was mistaken. But then I heard him start yelling out and I knew that he was having another nightmare.

"Please, just leave me alone. Please. Don't hurt her." He sounded so desperate.

"Malfoy, calm down." I hushed him, not too sure whether I should wake him up or not. I crawled over to his side of the bed and lightly shook his strong solid shoulders but he wouldn't wake up. However he did seem to calm down a bit. I continued talking to Draco in his sleep, trying to calm him down more. It seemed to work because he finally did become peaceful, his nightmare apparently gone. His breathing slowed till it was once more even and I began to remove my hands from his shoulders when he reached up and clutched my right hand. I tried to remove it but this only caused him to hold onto it tighter. His hands were firm and rough, I could even feel a few calluses (probably due to Quidditch). I studied him and knew that he was still asleep and I couldn't bring myself to wake him up. An awake Malfoy would never touch a Weasley willingly. I sighed as I looked down once more at my hand intertwined with his and gave in. I eased myself down beside him till I was completely lying down, his body amazingly warm against my own.

And for the first time in days I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

Author's Note: Aww, how cute. Next chapter features a midnight snack among other things. Please review - could I make 100? ;)Also please note that there is a bit more between these two than it seems (yes- there will be a few more flashbacks - three in fact. But they're very spread out in terms of chapters and they're quite recent. That is, at most three years before the current time setting to a few weeks beforehand. And yes these flashbacks will be different from the ones last chapter as both Ginny and Draco are quite a bit older. So that means a lot of tension! hint hint. You'll see what I mean, it'll all make sense eventually). Also, including the prologue and an epilogue, there'll be 29 chapters in total. Though who knows, this could change.

FeistySprite: I made this chapter a lot longer – please don't die! Thanks for the review.

Julie: I can't tell you exactly what Malfoy's upset about yet - sorry. But I can tell you that you'll only have to wait roughly three chapters to find out. Thanks for reviewing!