DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except the story.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Written in response to the "48 Hours" challenge thrown out by Cheelalaucha in the forums. This story is quite AU, as I have omitted the fact that the Wizarding World is threatened by Lord Voldemort. The students are just leaving a quite ordinary life- well, as ordinary as magic can be.

Sorry, guys. I was away for awhile because I had exams and stuff. Then the exams must have dulled my writing skill 'cause I faced a huge block when I tried to continue this. The Lighting Charm used in this chapter is my own. I used FreeDict's English-Latin dictionary for this. 'Productum' means 'bring to light' and 'cella' means room. I used Productum Cella as to mean 'light the room'. Anyway, here's the next installation of it. Enjoy.

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Chapter 8

Ginny was annoyed. Or maybe she was amused. Actually, Ginny was could not decide if she was annoyed or amused.

"Malfoy, are you always like this?"

"Like what?"

"This... I don't know- fidgety?"

"I'm not fidgety, thank you very much."

"Fine," Ginny sighed. "Are you always this active?"

Malfoy grinned. "I get more active in bed. Want me to prove it to you?"

Malfoy caught the cushion that Ginny threw before he got hit in the face.

"What? I was only offering to do you a favour- or should I say, to do you as a favour," Malfoy said as he grinned lasciviously.

This time Malfoy could not evade the cushion that Ginny had thrown with full force. It hit him hard in his chest, as unexpected as it was. Malfoy chuckled as he merely shifted the cushion down to his abdomen and hugged it there. In the dark, he could not see Ginny's glare, though he could definitely almost feel it.

"Pervert," Ginny muttered.

Ginny had experienced a new side to Malfoy as the day came to an end and night fell. They had been stuck in the room for just a little over seven hours now and Ginny felt the twitches in her fingers grow stronger, as they tingled with the desire to strangle Malfoy. She ignored the little niggling thought at the back of her mind that she did appreciate Malfoy's presence as opposed to being trapped there alone. Malfoy had been a bundle of frustrated energy as he refused to just sit still after their pancake meal. Ginny suspected that the amount of sugar he had earlier was the catapult for this behaviour.

Malfoy was prowling around the room like a caged lion when Ginny tiredly told him to sit down because his prowling around was making her frustrated as well. He did so without any argument, surprising Ginny who expected him to at least give her some entertainment by arguing with her, although she would never admit that arguing with Malfoy was actually fun if anybody had asked her. Then Malfoy started drumming his fingers against the table next to the couch he had plopped on, which soon turn into a semi-ensemble of finger drumming, feet tapping and whistling- all completely out of tune and beat. When he caught Ginny glaring at him, Malfoy reluctantly stopped his noise production and scowled back at her.

It did not take a minute before Malfoy took his wand out and started sending colourful sparks flying around the room. Ginny stared at them unseeingly as the room exploded with brilliant colours. When Ginny suggested that Malfoy should send them out of the windows instead, so that maybe someone would notice them, Malfoy conceded without a word even though he did throw her a 'This-is-not-going-to-work-you-know' look. Ginny merely ignored him, before realising after a while that he was quite right. The tower was one of the furthest away from the main part of the castle and nobody would normally bother with it as everyone wanted to avoid it as much as possible until it was class time again, for fear of coming upon Trelawney and her morbid predictions. And since it was the holidays, nobody would even remember this part of the castle.

The house-elves were not about to go up there to light the fireplace as they did not expect anyone to be there. All the cleaning was done on the last day of class before Christmas break had started, so there was no need for the house-elves to return until the start of the new term. While Ginny groaned at this thought, Malfoy had started using Levitation Charms to dance crystal balls around the room before using Colour Change Charms to turn them into a myriad of colours. Staring at them, Ginny had suggested sarcastically that while Malfoy was at it, why leave the room decoration alone?

That gave Malfoy something new to do. He sent the crystal balls back in their new colours- a vast improvement in Ginny's opinion, and started changing the colours of the interior of the room. The thick red velvet curtains were charmed green with silver cords to hold them, the carpet charmed a deep moss green- basically everything was being charmed into the Slytherin colours. Annoyed, Ginny had stomped over and grabbed Malfoy's wand to charm them into the trademark red and gold Gryffindor colours instead. Malfoy, equally annoyed, snatched his wand back before charming the entire room back into Slytherin colours, including Ginny's clothes.

"You look stunning in Slytherin colours, I must say, Ginny," Malfoy had said, smirking at her.

Furious, Ginny tried to reach for the wand that Malfoy held high out of her reach. Malfoy grinned as he watched her stand on the tips of her toes without touching him for balance, her right hand stretched out to take the wand from him. Malfoy moved forward until his face was barely two inches away from hers and she could feel his warm breath. Ginny shivered at the invasion of personal space. She tried convincing herself it was because she was disgusted by the slimy git being so near her, and not because she was feeling quite attracted to said slimy git right then.

"How about you kiss me and I'll lend you the wand?" Malfoy offered, grinning sexily.

"In your dreams, Malfoy!" Ginny shot back, fisting her left hand quickly and drawing it back, fully intending to sock him hard in the gut. She planned to steal the wand from him while he doubled over in pain.

"Ginny, Ginny," Malfoy said silkily, as his right hand shot out to grab the fist aimed at him. "Really, did you think that was going to work?"

Ginny was concious of Malfoy's warm hand holding tight onto her fist. She realised that he had stopped her punch with barely any effort on his part and she growled. The difference in strength was very obvious and the both of them knew it, and knew that the other knew it too. Ginny stood there blankly, her mind seemingly useless for the moment as she stonily watched Malfoy slip his wand into his back pocket before his now-free left hand reached out for her right hand as well. He brought both of them together, and all Ginny could do was marvel at the difference of size and shape of their fingers and palms as she welcomed the warmth his hands were giving her own cold ones.

Malfoy's fingers were long and elegant, but big enough and thick enough that it could no way be mistaken for a female's while hers seemed small and petite in his. He rubbed her hands together before bringing both her hands up to his mouth and blew his warm breath on them, in an attempt to warm them up. His features were no longer expressing mischievousness, but one of annoyance now.

'What's he annoyed about?' Ginny thought crossly. 'I'm the one who should be annoyed. I'm standing here letting the Draco Malfoy warm my hands and I'm not doing anything to stop it because my body just refuses to listen to my head.'

"Why didn't you tell me you were cold?" Malfoy said, still frowning as he tried to warm her hands.

"You actually care?" Ginny said incredulously, unable to stop herself. She was staring at Malfoy with wide eyes.

Malfoy immediately looked up to glare at her. He did not say a word nor did he let go of her hands. After holding them for a moment longer he finally released them and Ginny quickly folded her arms, trying to ignore the feeling of loss she suddenly felt. She sat herself down on the closest armchair, drawing her legs up. Malfoy, watching her actions with narrowed eyes, took out his wand and cast a Warming Charm on her.

"Thanks," Ginny said, not looking at him in the face. She could not get her mind to grasp what had just transpired moments ago.

Malfoy did not say anything as he crouched in front of the fireplace Trelawney had installed in the Divination classroom. Normally oppressive when it had a fire roaring for hours at an end on summer days, choking them with the thick sweet-smelling fumes from the copper kettle that hung over it- for no good reason as far as Malfoy could see, other than to give Trelawney an intimidating air- it was now cold and dormant. He prodded the blackened logs around with his wand before muttering the incantation to set them on fire. He threw in two new logs just for good measure, taken from the corner of the fireplace. He stood up, turned around and with a flick of his wand, shut the windows against the cold winter air.

"It'll be warmer in a bit," Malfoy said as he threw his clock on her. "Use that."

"Don't you need it?" Ginny asked with wide eyes, holding the cloak up.

Malfoy shrugged carelessly. "I'm well acquainted with cold weather. It gets a lot colder back at the Manor. The Slytherin common room is normally colder than this as well, being in the dungeons and all."

"Oh," Ginny said, unable to comment on that. "Thank you." She gratefully wrapped the extra cloak around her, inhaling Malfoy's cologne. As much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, she did like Malfoy's scent.

'A bit too much,' Ginny thought sourly.

Malfoy and Ginny sat in amicable silence as they watched the sun seemingly sink into the horizon. For the few minutes of sunset, Malfoy was completely still, not moving or making a sound at all. Ginny's mind was peacefully blank as she stared at the beautiful winter sunset, the sky a myriad of colours and tones blending into one another. Malfoy was sprawled out on his couch, looking completely relaxed, while Ginny sat wrapped up completely with Malfoy's large cloak. They sat there without saying a word to the other until the sun had completely disappeared and all that was left was a dark sky heavy with clouds that the wind had brought in, and shadows that loomed across the grounds.

Ginny shivered as she held herself tighter, feeling cold from deep within. She could feel the tingling of fear crawling up her spine, as they sat in the darkness. Then she wondered what they were doing sitting in the dark. It felt completely foolish suddenly. She turned to face Malfoy, about to suggest that maybe he could light up the room when Malfoy lifted his left arm, wand in hand.

"Productum cella," Malfoy incanted out loud as he flicked his wand, breaking the silence first.

'Did he read my mind?' Ginny wondered, feeling surprised and insecure.

Instantly the room was lighted up by the wall sconces, flames dancing in them merrily. Although now that it was lighted up and the horrendous decorations- horrendous in Ginny's opinion because they were Slytherin colours- had regained their glory with the shedding of light upon them, Ginny preferred seeing them to sitting in the dark with Malfoy. Ginny refused to admit that Malfoy's presence was definitely lending a calming hand, keeping her cool and collected, despite the fact that she was afraid of the dark and she was trapped in a room with no hope of rescue anytime soon. Ginny tried to remind herself that Malfoy was still a git and could be a danger at any time, despite the fact that he had been kind and soft with her, her reminder sounding silly even to herself as his cloak wrapped around her body seemed to scoff at her.

Ginny glanced over at Malfoy. She was surprised that he was still quiet. From her position, she could see that his eyes were closed and he was breathing deeply, as if he was sleeping. As if he read her mind again, Malfoy opened his eyes and immediately started making armchairs tango across the room. Then the armchairs were made to perform the swing dance round and round the room. The "male" chairs tossing the "female" ones one after another when switching partners.

"Cool, isn't it?" Malfoy said, grinning like an idiot.

'I can't believe I thought Malfoy would be a danger,' Ginny thought, giving herself a mental slap on the forehead. 'Idiot!' Ginny did not know if she was calling Malfoy one or calling herself.

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To be continued...