Authors note: (Aug 16) Well, this took me an extremely long time to complete this chapter, and I hope it's up to your standards. I am very blessed that I have had so many reviews for this story, as well as people who have followed it from the beginning. I wish I could say that my writing was better, and that my updates are MUCH sooner, but I can't ever promise anything. I hope to get this up within the next few days, as I'm in a wonderful writing mood. Maybe I'll even get it up tonight. Wouldn't that be the best ever?

"Can't Get Enough of You"

by: Alex

Chapter 7: Merlin, Malfoy! What, are you turning into bloody Potter or something?

Every time I see you all the rays of the sun are

Streaming through the waves in your hair

And every star in the sky is taking aim at your eyes

Like a spotlight

Hagrid shuddered, thinking of the glare Snape gave him. He sat in front of the fire and watched his loveable Fang sniff the new items on the table. He warned him, in a loving tone that if he ate them that Snape would murder them both. How hard Gillyweed was to come by these days, especially with the war beginning to start up again.

Thank Merlin for McGonnagal, Hagrid thought, shaking his big hairy head. If she hadn't been with him, Hagrid couldn't imagine what might have happened. He reminded himself constantly that he could crush Snape much easier than Snape could light his robes on fire with his eyes. Although with all that wand-less magic going on lately, Hagrid reminded himself shuddering. He then decided to let that thought trail off as he would wait for McGonnagal to show up with the two detentionees.

McGonnagal showed up quite quickly, and the knock on the door made Hagrid jump, as he had been zoning out staring into the fire. He opened it quickly to see Ginny rubbing her mittened hands together, and her warm breath fogging the air. Draco Malfoy stood many feet away from her, standing and letting the wind ruffle his hair. Hagrid raised an eyebrow and looked at Ginny. She shook her head no at her friend, and then peaked another glance at Malfoy. Hagrid swore he saw her eyes flash with regret.

"They're yours for the night, Hagrid," McGonnagal told them. "Please do make sure to bring them back in one piece."

"A'right Professor," Hagrid's gruff voice replied. McGonnagal ushered them inside the warm cabin, and shut the door on her way out. Draco sneered at his surroundings.

"Don't tell me we're going into the forest again," he said, disdain evident on his tone.

"Oh do shut your mouth, you great prat," Ginny snapped at him, irritated. He blinked and narrowed his eyes at her. Hagrid choice that moment to interrupt.

"I think you two will enjoy this 'ere detention. Yer both goin' fer a dip."

Draco's sneer deepened and Ginny's eyebrows shot up. "Are you bloody mad? It's freezing out there," Draco drawled, glaring at him as if he were stupid.

"You leave him alone!" Ginny yelled at him, and turned her back on him, towards Hagrid. "What exactly are we doing?"

"Deliverin' somethin' to the mer-people," Hagrid replied, shoving a package into her arms.

"What is it?" she inquired, looking at it.

"Nothin', nothin' of yer concern anyway," Hagrid replied quickly. "Now, be a dear and shrink that fer me? As ya kno' I'm not surpossed to do magic, ya see..." he trailed off, the little bit of his cheeks visible turning pink.

"Sure," Ginny said, murmuring the shrinking spell, and Draco took it from her. "Now, will we be using the bubble-head charm?" she asked.

"No, I got this 'ere Gillyweed from Snape."

"Thank you Hagrid," Ginny said, smiling at him.

"Oh do be quiet! Do you really have to suck up to even the loser teachers?" Draco asked, rolling his eyes at Ginny. Ginny's flashed angrily.

Hagrid handed both of the pieces to Ginny, and ushered them outside. The sun was setting quickly, and he walked with them towards the lake. "Let's get movin' you two."

Ginny nodded, and placed her wand in her pocket. She took of her robes and placed them on a rock. Draco looked at her, and rolled his eyes. "It's so I'll have something warm to wear when we're done," she explained haughtily, with her hands on her hips. Draco followed suit, and placed his green robes over her red ones. She raised an eyebrow, but he didn't respond and took the Gillyweed from her. He chewed on it quickly, and dove into the water. She smiled at Hagrid and put her piece into her mouth and dived in, swallowing quickly.

She didn't see Draco anywhere and that was the way she wanted it to be. Ever since she made that – well, for lack of a better word – stupid decision in thanking him, he had been even more irritable than ever. Just walking up to Hagrid's hut with him would have resulted in violence if McGonnagal hadn't been there. She smirked as she thought of that black eye she gave him when he dyed her hair blonde.

She shouldn't have gone near him last week. Of course her logic had been right, and she should have shut her heart out. Why she kissed him she didn't even understand. She could feel her nose wrinkle in the cold water as she dived deeper into the lake. It started to get darker, and she pulled out her wand, whispering "Lumos"

A stream of bubbles emitted from her lips as Malfoy appeared in front of her. "Pipe it down, Weaslette," he said, bubbles coming from his own mouth. She glared, and directed her light from her wand in another direction, so she wouldn't see the way the light reflected in the water on his platinum hair. She really didn't like the way his hair was floating and looked so silky soft in the water.

"Hurry up. Let's get this to the merpeople before dark really sets in."

"What?" Draco asked, moving slowly towards her. "You scared of the dark? Don't worry. I'll be here to protect you."

Ginny started to swim backwards away from him and he smirked. "Not scared of the dark then, I see." She glared slightly at him and slowly turned away from him. He reached her, and grabbed her chin with his fingers. She gasped in slight pain at his firm grip as he pulled her face towards him. "Looks like you're scared of me," he said, his smirk growing as he tapped a finger against her cheek.

One of her hands darted up and grasped his wrist, yanking his away from her face. "Ah, there's that fiery Weasel I've grown to know and love."

"You better be seriously glad that I'm concentrating on swimming right now, Mal-Ferret," she stared, jerking away from him and swimming deeper into the murky black water. "Or you might just get a kick in the nuts," she called back over the shoulder.

That silenced him for the time being, she noticed, as she felt the water moving near her. She was fine with him swimming with her, as long as he didn't touch her, or talk to her.

After a few more minutes of swimming, she felt a tiredness in her muscles and she decided to stop for a rest. She looked up and saw the sky out of the top of the lake. She sighed, bubbles coming out of her mouth, as she spied the moon. The water magnified it and made it look ten times bigger than it really was. She could live here for ever, she mused to herself, closing her eyes.

Draco had kept swimming without her. He hadn't noticed she had turned around until he wanted to take a look at her face when it wasn't fixated with a look of anger on it. Just curious as to what it looks like, he told himself. There was no other interest. That's what he noticed she was gone.

He sneered in the water. Just like a Weasley to take off. He blamed Potter.

Potter had practically been a part of the Weasley family since they started at Hogwarts. His "lets run off and save the world" demeanor had probably rubbed off on everyone. Even their dog. That was saying they had a dog.

Draco stopped in mid-thought. Why in the bloody hell should he care if the little Weaslette had a dog or not? And where the hell was that little brat?

He turned and saw her floating almost lifelessly in the water. He blinked his eyes rapidly, and watched her for a moment. He was sure she wasn't dead. He saw her feet swishing back and forth in the water. He quirked a lazy eyebrow and smirked to himself underwater.

He started to move slowly towards her, not to make any noise in the surrounding water. This was the plan: Grab her feet, drag her down, and get her angry at him. Better than a silent girl. At least with her anger, he had something to pay attention to.

Now, the plan didn't work as well as it should have, and this sort of inked him. Why doesn't everything always go right? Why was it that bloody Potter got all the good luck? And what the hell was he whining for? Ginny's body was right next to his and it felt oh-so-nice and warm in this freezing water.

So he had grabbed her feet, and tugged her down, but there really wasn't another step, besides the anger part. And the anger part wasn't supposed to happen yet. This really wasn't a fail-safe plan, his brain yelled at himself. He told it to shut up, and once again heard the theme to MASH in his head.

Unlike his brain, the rest of his body hummed with excitement. What an interesting feeling. Usually everything was cold and dead. Barely feeling anything. It must be what a zombie felt like.

Why oh why did his mind keep wandering? He had his hands wrapped around Ginny's waist, and her body pressed up intimately against his, with her hands resting on his chest.

He was in amazement. Her legs were around him and her hands resting, not even pushing against his chest. He could feel her bubbles graze his cheeks, and her hair was floating weightlessly around them, almost like a curtain.

"What are you doing, Malfoy?" her voice came out, nothing more than a whisper.

"I don't know," he murmured back, before closing the distance between them and kissing her.

The kiss blew both of their minds. Sure, Ginny had tried to convince herself that even the simple kiss on the cheek had been absolutely repulsive, but she really knew better. And this was nothing compared to her lips barely skimming his skin. This was a passionate kiss. With Draco, Bleeding, Malfoy.

But instead of being totally turned off by the thought, it didn't really affect her that much. And that's because passion is passion, her brain tried to reason with her. If you hate a guy so much, its not like the sex won't be good. It'll be passionate, because of your feelings for each other. Sure, you have to be silghtly lustful in your hating him. But that's beside the point. And while all of this was running through Ginny's head, she noticed that she was slightly lustful after Draco. Not that she would ever admit it to anyone, and she had just barely admitted it to herself.

She broke the kiss and noticed one of his hands were in her hair, cradling the back of her neck. They just sat there, staring at each other for several seconds. Draco noticed how her lips looked slightly bruised from his kisses. That thought drove him forward, and he placed another, lighter kiss against her lips.

He watched her eyes flutter open, and he wished to know what she was thinking. Hell, he wished to know what he was thinking. It was all racing fairly quickly through his head. The sarcastic, sniveling voice in his head was actually quiet for once, but that was the voice he was searching for the most. He had to shove her away from him, and soon. But he couldn't, because his whole head was rejoicing. He needed that sarcastic voice to get a foot on something, to gain some control.

But the voice must have never came, because soon his hand came to rest on Ginny's cheek. And he was amazed when she didn't flinch at it. She didn't lean toward it necessarily, but she just let it rest there, and as he moved his fingres down to her jaw line, he saw a smile play on her lips. She turned her head, and placed a gentle kiss to his palm.

Ginny turned back and looked at him. Was she insane? Dear god, if he was an ass to her after this detention, she was so going to castrate him, she told herself. That thought made her laugh.

Draco looked at her questioningly. "What's so funny?" he asked her, his voice no more than a whipser.

"Just thinking about the consequeces of your actions if you are a prat to me after this."

"And what might those be?"

"Castration."

Draco coughed under water. His cheeks tinged white.

"So you better be nice to me." She leaned forward and kissed him again. His hand dove back into her hair. It drove him crazy whenever a girl had enough guts to actually kiss him, and he told himself that he shouldn't really be that surprised. When the little Weaslette had enough guts to actually punch him, he should have known that kissing him would be no different.

And boy, did she have a nice kiss. His fingers massaged the back of her scalp, and if he wasn't crazy, which he sure he was because of the situation he was in, he thought he had heard a "Mmm," come from somewhere.

But that "Mmm" was the last thing he heard, because suddenly her warmth was ripped away from him. His eyes snapped open to see what had happened, and she wasn't infront of him any longer. He spun around, and saw a spear in his face.

"We made a deal with Dumbledore," he heard a harsh forgein voice filling his ears. "No students in the lake."

"That's not what's going on," Draco started to explain. But he couldn't even get the second word out of his mouth, as a gag was in place. The rest was muffled. He looked around, to try and spot Ginny, but all he glanced was her red hair as she was dragged under the water. The last he saw of her was her hand reaching up, reaching for help. He felt the same feeling he felt that day when he watched her fall from the sky. He felt as if he was outside of himself, and just watching himself struggle against the restraint of the merpeople.

Ginny felt her hand fall limp, and she stared up to where she had just been, in Malfoy's arms. But her mind wasn't on the kiss, which was probably the best thing. Instead, it was on the most recent matter of importance, the fact that she was being kidnapped by mermen. What were they doing? She wished she could get a few words out, but a gag was in place. The water was getting darker and darker, and she could feel the pressure as they swam deeper and deeper. Ok, so she wasn't really swimming. She was more being dragged along like a ragdoll. A ragdoll with gills. Speaking of gills, how long were they supposed to last?

She turned to look at Draco, and saw him being dragged up toward the surface, and her heart started hammering in her chest. What was going to happen to her? She ripped one of her hands free, and started searching her pocket for wand. "Don't even think about it. We could gut you faster than you could say a spell," one of them told her.

"How classy," she got out through the gag. She noticed that her voice had remarkably taken the cool tone that Malfoy usually used. Well, it would have sounded cool and frosty had not been for the gag. It now sounded quite strangled.

"Now now, Ginger," another one replied, running his fingers through her red hair. "Beautiful, no?" he asked one of the others around her, twisting her locks through his fingers. She jerked her head away.

The castle wasn't anything like she had ever seen. It wasn't even really a castle. She wished they would take this stupid gag off her head, so she could ask them exactly what was going on, but that didn't happen. Not right away anyway.

They did rip it off her - quite painfully she might add , as they ripped a few hairs with it - when they shoved her in a locked stall. "Don't try to get out, the magic will just backfire. We'll contact Dumbledore and then decide what to do with you," she was told.

So there she sat. She sat for another hour before anything happened.

Draco, on the other hand, wasn't in that good of a state. He was practically going hysterical on the beach. He was screaming at the merpeople, who weren't even listening. "We have something for you, you dimwitted bastards," he tried to tell them. But the merpeople were underwater, and couldn't decipher what he was saying. To them, he looked like a crazy man, just yelling something. At least he wasn't flailing his arms and resembling a bird.

He sat there, yelling until they turned around and started swimming away from him. He felt a panic overcome him. They weren't going to let the little Weaslette go, and it was going to be his fault if she died. Christ, Potter was going to kill him! And then Weasley senior was going to ressurect him, just to kill him again. This was not a good scenario.

He wished that he could hear that little voice in his head, the one he searched for while kissing her. Why had he done that again? Well, he knew why he had the second time. She just tasted so good. Like vanilla and cinnamon. An interesting combination, sure, but what else would he expect?

But that voice wasn't there. So he dived back underwater and tried to swim. He got to around twenty feet below the surface when his lungs started to burn for oxygen. He broke the surface and breathed deeply. How was he ever going to get her? Why did they have to reverse the gillyweed effect? Stupid merpeople, always planning ahead.

He swam back to the beach, and ran up to Hagrids little cabin. He swallowed his pride, which was a very very difficult thing to do, mind you, and knocked on the door. Hagrid opened it, and his eyes were slightly red. Draco squinted at the harsh smell of alcohol. Hagrid stumbled for an excuse but Draco cut him short. "I need more gillyweed. Do you have any left?"

Hagrid, in his slightly drunken state, nodded breifly, handing him the tiniest peice that he had left sitting on his table. He didn't question it, as Draco chewed it quickly, running back to the lake and diving in.

The swim seemed to take forevor in his eyes, but in Ginny's the time went by quickly. She wasn't sure what was going on, but after almost an hour of just sitting there, her head started to get woozy.

She took a few deep breaths, sucking in the oxygen of the water, but it just didn't seem like she was getting enough. She felt her heart start to race, as she realized what was happening. The gillyweed was starting to wear off. She just sat there, staring at the wall, her head resting against the corner.

Draco finally reached the merpeoples home. He slammed his foot into the door. He felt the pain shoot up his leg and he realized that it probably wasn't the smartest thing. But the door did open, and a female let him in. She smiled a whole bunch at him, but he didn't really notice. "I have something to give to someone of importance."

"Right this way," she told him, taking his hand. Together they swam to lord of the underwater territory. The girl bowed before him, but Draco just reached into his pocket to grab out what Hagrid had given him earlier that evening.

"You took a young girl by mistake this evening," Draco told him. "We were supposed to deliver this to you, and you kidnapped her. I'm sure Dumbledore won't be very happy to hear about this, now will he?"

Something flashed in the lord's eyes as he took the box from Draco. "You'd like to go get her, I assume?" he asked him.

Draco narrowed his eyes, a sneer forming on his lips. "If that wouldn't be a problem."

"Follow me."

Ginny's vision was starting to cloud over, when she heard a loud clanging noise. She could barely turn her head to see what was going on. It was Draco! Her heart started to beat a little bit faster, and that just made her head hurt even more. She reached her arm up to him, and he grabbed it, dragging her to her feet.

He must have noticed how droopy her eyes were, or maybe how her gills were starting to disappear, because he let out a huge breath. "We have got to get you to the surface."

"You know the way," the lord told him, a sneer of his own on his lips. Ginny started to slump against Draco, and he grabbed her in his arms, and started swimming out of the cell.

"Thank you," she murmered against his neck. He felt a small smile start to tug at his lips, and he didn't have the strength to fight it back. He felt her snuggle closer to him for a moment, and he just relished in her warmth as he kicked them toward the surface. The he felt her start to struggle.

Alarm alighted his features and he looked towards her, and there was panic in her eyes. She was reaching at her throat, and the gills were completely gone. Draco stopped moving for a second, trying to think of what to do. She was gasping in the water, trying to get some oxygen, and he told her to stop. His loud voice must have shocked her into submission, because that's exactly what she did. He placed his lips over hers, and tried to blow oxygen into her lungs. He felt her chest rise against his, and it must have worked, because she pulled away from him and just held her breath. He continued to swim towards surface, every once in a while stopping to let another stream of bubbles into her mouth.

At one point, they had to stop because there was just something slightly romantic about saving a persons life by giving them your oxygen, and they just shared another kiss. It didn't take too long for Draco to come to his senses, and realize exactly what could happen if he didn't get her to the surface in time. Thankfully, the surface was only about another five minute swim away.

As soon as they broke surface, Ginny was gasping for breath. She sucked the oxygen into her lungs as if it were the very life that sustained her. Draco whispered the charm that made the gillyweed wear off, and they both swam, side by side, until they reached the shore. They slowly walked out of the water, and Ginny tried to reach for his hand. Draco walked away from her, towards their robes.

Ginny narrowed her eyes and followed him. She watched him take off his shirt, and ring the water out of it. She couldn't help but just stop a moment and stare at his beautiful chest. He even had one of those little happy trails of blonde hair that led its way down his abdomen. Soon enough, it was covered as he put his robe back on.

His voice was rough as he told her to put hers back on as well. "You'll get sick."

His tone of voice startled her. She narrowed her eyes, and threw back her comment, "What do you care?"

"Oh don't you even start to think you can pull that with me, you little girl."

"Oh, so now I'm a little girl?" Ginny didn't know why, but she felt defensive. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn't acknowleding the fact that they had kissed. And they had liked it. She put her robes over her wet clothes.

"If you are going to treat me like I am someone who's not worth living, Malfoy, I would appreciate it if you didn't talk to me."

"Don't even start," Draco began, grabbing her arm and twisting her around. His eyes were clouded, and so were hers. His heart was actually beating so he could feel it. Quite an amazing feat, really.

She interrupted him. "Why didn't you just leave me down there? Is it the same reason you couldn't let me fall a few days ago?" At his lack of response she continued. "Are you afraid, Malfoy?" she asked, tilting her head up to look at him. "Are you afraid, that maybe you actually feel something? That maybe, just possibly, you actually like me? Yeah, I know how hard that is to believe, little Dragon Boy, actually liking anyone. But I think that's the case here, don't you?"

He looked at her a breif moment, and she waited for a response. When she didn't get one, she reached her hand up, and grasped the back of his neck, and shoved his head roughly down to hers, and she kissed him. Hard. After a few moments, she pulled away and looked into his eyes. "Tell me you didn't feel that." A few beats passed without any comment between either of them. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Give me a ring when you're not afraid to admit it to yourself."

With that, she turned, and walked her way back up to the castle, her arms wrapped around herself tightly, to keep out the cold.

TBC

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did it! I did it! I finally effing finished it! And its almost one in the morning. woohoo. i did finish it tonight. Yay. Wow. I'm so proud of myself. I kind of like it. Hmm. I don't know. Do you like it? Please do leave a review. I love to read them, and they make me feel uber special. Wow. I feel so proud of myself. Sweet.