After a long night of sorting, I was looking forward to taking a long bath in the prefect's bathroom. I grabbed a towel from my trunk and entered the bathroom. As soon as I came in I could smell the scented steam of the bath bubbles on the air. That was strange, usually I was the only one who bathed on the first night. I had already stripped out of my ropes, my gray skirt and my sweater vest, and my white button up was unbuttoned enough to show the top of my magenta bra. On bottom, the only thing hiding my bare buttocks was thin black spandex, my magenta thong strap was peaking out of the top of them. I nervously pulled my robes loosely around my short figure as I walked closer to the bath, kicking the small pile of clothes out of my way as I went.

"Who's there?" I called timidly, as a splashing noise in the tub caught my ear.

"Hold on, Damnit," A familiar drawling voice called.

"No, no, I'll come back later," I turned to leave.

"Don't be ridiculous… Trife? What the fuck?" Draco said behind me. I turned slowly to see him with a towel wrapped around his waist, and no other clothing on. … Merlin… he was gorgeous. I never would have imagined that much muscle tone was under his loose clothing. And his white blonde hair was damp at the nape of his neck, and hanging in to his face charmingly. My eyes travelled up from his beautiful body to his face, to see a cocky smile on his lips, and his eyes trailing my body. I realized then that my robes had come unwrapped and quickly closed them.

" See something you like, you cocky, son of a bitch pureblood?" I narrowed my eyes.

"I know you did, you insufferable, know it all mudblood," He spat back. I looked pointedly down at the bulge that was barely hidden by his towel.

"Yeah, I know you did, too,"

"Fuck off, Trife,"

"Go jerk off, Malfoy, get rid of your hard on" He stared at me for a long moment. I stared defiantly back.

"I don't think I will, I was quite enjoying my bath," He turned around and let the towel fall from his hips, exposing his toned ass.

"Damnit," I turned to stomp away.

"Why don't you join me?" He drawled, his voice lower and more seductive than usual.

"Not in your wildest day dreams,"

"Fine, I'm getting out. Take your start of term bath." I heard a quiet splashing behind me, then Draco walked out, smelling like the bubble bath. He was wearing only his light wash jeans when he passed, and I couldn't help being impressed by his back muscles.

I swore vividly under my breath, then drained the bath and started running my own water.

"It's fucking Draco, River. He's always been gorgeous and always been an asshole," I reminded myself. Even armed with this knowledge though, I couldn't help but dwell on the curve of his biceps and the way his abdomen was carved.

Draco's POV

The truth was, I knew she always took a beginning of term bath. I wanted to know what would happen if we ran into each other in the bathroom. My preoccupation with her was bordering on obsession. I wasn't really sure what had come over me. But with the upheaval in my family, I was craving something that would be solid, and having sex with Pansy Parkinson every so often just wasn't enough. Crabbe, Goyle and Blaise only reminded me of my many mistakes and my father's many mistakes.

I was confused. I felt like I was being pulled in both directions, dark and light. I need to be dark to save my family's lives, and to save my life, but I wanted to be light because I knew that what The Dark Lord was doing was wrong. I knew it just as surely as I knew that Snape was on Dumbledore's side. I'd never told the Dark Lord that. I'd never told anyone that. Was that some sort of sign? I was so damn confused. And now, there was this little Ravenclaw princess showing up everywhere I was, constantly causing reactions in me that I wasn't quite used to. Every time I saw her, I pictured her in the bathroom that first night of term. She was questioning everything. She always had, of course, her and Granger. They were both mudbloods, and both top of our class. It was infuriating, and my father always tormented me for being behind two mudbloods. Not that he'd ever been top of his class, Potter's father, Snape and Potter's mother had been the top three then, one half blood, one pure blood and a mudblood. Maybe mudbloods were equal to pure bloods.

Damn it, I needed a smoke if I was going to be thinking this way. I reached into my pocket for my silver lighter and my pack of cigarettes. I stuck one between my lips and lit it, leaning against the wall casually. I knew that smoking in the corridor wasn't the best idea I'd ever had, but I needed a break. I heard footsteps at the end of the hall and moved to put out the cigarette, then I recognized the sound of bare feet and realized that it couldn't be a teacher, and I'd be able to scare a student into not telling. Much to my serious annoyance, River Trife turned into my corridor. Her feet were bare, and her hair was thrown up in a sloppy ponytail. She didn't even glance at me, she had eyes only for the room of requirement, which was directly across the hall from me. She walked past it three times, then walked in. I slipped in after her, not being able to resist the urge to see what she required. I was surprised at the room. It was large, with different kinds of shoes lined up against the wall. There was a muggle stereo in the corner (a device like this shouldn't be able to work in the castle, but it seemed the room of requirement had outdone itself again) the walls were covered in mirrors, and there was a wooden bar. I had no idea what it was for until she removed her robes to reveal shorts and a tank top and began stretching out. She was a dancer. The sensual way her body folded, tightened and strained as she contorted herself in weird stretches was doing crazy things to my body, especially as I saw her, in my mind's eye, with her white button up un done wearing only spandex shorts.

She walked over to the radio and turned it on, a soft, powerful song started playing and she began to move in ways that I didn't know human bodies could move. It was amazingly enchanting, and alarmingly arousing.

"I don't want this moment to ever end, where everything's nothing, without you"

Her nose twitched once, obviously catching the scent of smoke from my cigarette. I threw it to the ground quickly and put it out, but not soon enough. She looked into the mirror and saw my dumbstruck expression. Her eyes widened, alarmed.

She didn't say a word.

I didn't say a word.

We stared at each other.

Then, silently, I moved towards her. The music was still playing.

Through it all, I made my mistakes, I stumbled and fell, but I mean these words.

I placed one hand around her waist. She put her hand on my shoulder, and held my other hand. Without exchanging a word, we understood. We started to dance.

Thoughts read unspoken, forever in doubt.

We looked silently into each other's eyes, doubting everything, and, without any sort of affirmation from her, I leaned down (she was so short) and pressed my mouth to hers silently.

As pieces of memories fall to the ground

I know what I didn't have, so I won't let this go

'Cause it's true, I am nothing without you

I broke the kiss and ran out of the room, alarmed. When I turned back, she was standing there, motionless. The music continued to play.

All the streets where I walked alone, with nowhere to go

I come to an end.

The door closed behind me.

"Shit. Shit, Draco, shit. You shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't have fucking done that."

"No, you shouldn't have. No one needs to know. I don't want this getting out any more than you do, Dra-Malfoy,"

"Fine. No one hears of it. And it never happens again,"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." And she flounced away. I entered the room of requirement, and set to work on the vanishing cabinet in order to erase the memory of that kiss from my mind. I would set all my attention to finishing Dumbledore, so that the Dark Lord would leave my family alone. After that whole mess was over, my mind would be clearer and I wouldn't have any desire to kiss her ever again.