Disclaimer: In the first chapter. Shame on you if you haven't read it yet.

Chapter Four
Failed Escape

Ginny awoke with a start, and her first thought was of the time. How long had she been asleep? Mind racing, she looked around, or rather, tried to: the flame had gone out, plunging her and Draco into complete darkness.

She reached for her wand, intending on reigniting the flame, but hesitated as her fingers closed around the wooden handle in her pocket. If Draco was asleep, relighting the flame might well wake him up, and ruin her chance of getting away; and who knew if she'd get another one? On the other hand, she wouldn't know if he was awake unless she lit a light of some sort, and besides, fumbling around in the Potions closet in the dark was not a good idea at the best of times. Suppose she knocked something over or broke a bottle? Surely that would wake Draco up, and she couldn't afford to take that risk. All the same, she wouldn't know for certain if he was awake or not until she lit her wand or until she made noise of some kind.

Several minutes passed, and still Ginny sat on the cold flagstone floor, contemplating her options. She would have to make a decision soon: if Draco wasn't awake now, who knew if he'd wake up while she was mulling over the possibilities, and then catch her as she was trying to leave. It was getting progressively riskier the more time she spent thinking about it, but Ginny still was unsure of what she should do…

Another minute had passed, and somewhere across from her in the inky blackness Ginny could hear Draco breathing softly. She listened for several moments, barely able to hear past the sound of hot blood pounding in her ears; she couldn't be sure, be it seemed as though Draco was genuinely asleep.

Ginny chose then to act: it was now or never. Carefully positioning her legs beneath her, Ginny used the shelves behind her to help herself out of the position she had been stuck in for God knew how long, and into a sort of awkward crouch. It was impossible to tell where anything was, and Ginny straightened up carefully, knowing that one false move would ruin the entire plan.

Taking in a deep, silent breath of stale, cupboard air, Ginny didn't dare exhale as she gently lifted one foot from the floor, moved it carefully towards where she knew the door would be, and set it down again. Draco's breathing didn't change as she did so, but he shifted slightly in his sleep, and Ginny held her breath even longer as she waited for him to stop moving before she took another step.

It was getting impossible to tell how far she had moved, and furthermore, how loudly her footsteps and breathing had become; the pounding of blood in Ginny's ears had reduced to a dull throb, but it was incredibly difficult to discern any sounds coming from her or from Draco. It felt like hours since she had first begun to move, but she sensed that she was only feet from where she had been sitting, and she had since lost any idea of how close or far away the closet door was in relation to her outstretched hand, which probed gingerly through the darkness in search of the metal doorknob.

She continued to move, lifting one foot at a time, and replacing it with painstaking tentativeness barely a foot away, so as to reduce the noise made by her rustling clothes. Nearly perspiring from the effort of keep quiet, Ginny raised her hand carefully to her face and brushed a strand of wayward hair from her cheek, and let her hand sink back towards her pocket, but suddenly she felt her fingers slip against something smooth and cool, and a bottle shivered noisily in its place on a shelf. Not daring to swear aloud, she raised her hand quickly in attempt to hold the bottle still, but her hand struck it again and sent it flying from the shelf –

Ginny was barely aware of the falling sensation that accompanied the idea of watching an object drop. She hardly heard the bottle smash into a million pieces on the stone floor before she flung herself towards the door, colliding against it with a loud bang, and suddenly was blinded by a flash of white light –

Draco was already on his feet and two steps away by the time Ginny had turned her head around, and only a moment later she felt his lit wand tip pressing against her jaw line. He was smirking triumphantly, eyes gleaming in the wand light.

"Not a very stealthy escape attempt," he breathed in her ear, and Ginny shuddered involuntarily, her heart leaping as though his words had caused an electric shock throughout her body. Still, she didn't let this show on her face; instead, a defiant grimace lodged itself firmly across her lips.

"You sound pretty full of yourself for somebody who just woke up," Ginny said, unable to keep a hint of dismay from her voice. Draco, however, caught it, and his smirk widened.

"As if I could sleep through all your sneaking around. I've heard quieter elephants on a stampede," he said in a cool voice. "Now please, rejoin me on the floor. I believe we were waiting from Professor Snape to come give you a detention." Ginny felt the wand tip press harder into her neck, but she gave a derisive laugh in spite of him.

"First, if you wouldn't mind, taking your wand out of my face," she said coldly, and Draco lowered his wand slight, but it was still lit and still pointed at her. Each of them glowered at the other, neither one moving, or taking their eyes away. Without warning, it seemed, Ginny's stomach flip-flopped again, and she blinked, though was still glaring at Draco. He was standing so close to her that their feet nearly touched and his face was only inches from hers. Ginny swallowed, and realized that her mouth was feeling suddenly dry.

As though her awkward feelings had been somehow transmitted to Draco, she saw a faint pink blossoming on his cheeks. He blinked back at her, his glare not quite so intense any longer.

Though neither one said a word, each of them seemed to be thinking the same thing:

What's going to happen now?

AN: Apologies for the cliffie, but I've been shirking my chores to get these chapters done. And, at this rate, I'll probably be able to get the fifth chapter posted tonight as well, and possibly the sixth.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, including lologurl, Fireice2772, and a couple of anonymous people. I know it doesn't seem like much, but during my absence from I haven't gotten any feedback on my fanfiction. Your support means everything to me!

Anyway, on to the preview:

With the story winding down (yes, it was a bit short, wasn't it?), Draco and Ginny's true feelings surface in the fifth chapter, along with an unexpected surprise at the end. I won't keep you in suspense too much longer, so please excuse me as I finish writing the last few chapters.

Love,
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