Sixteen

"Don't you dare tell me what to do, Draco Malfoy!" she snapped, her voice filled with her hidden fury. Years of spitting venom back and forth with the Slytherin Prince gave her the advantage, as she took the opportunity to take the upper hand in the situation. "Do you think that I'm stupid? That I don't know that you're up to something in here? Did you really expect me to just turn around and walk out because you told me to?"

Draco's eyes narrowed a little further.

"I don't care who your father is," she raged, "or who your mother is, or who in the world your grandfather was! I don't care that you think you're the greatest thing that has ever landed on this planet! You're nothing but a little boy who hides behind his daddy's cloak in hopes that nobody will notice how scared he is!" She took a step forward, glaring down her nose. "You're an idiot, and you don't have any right to try and control me!"

Her hand moved wildly with each word that left her mouth, as she attempted to jab each and every one of them into the Malfoy's head. Maybe this time her opinion would stick with him. However, from the look in his eye, she highly doubted that anything she had said had even hit his brain!

Draco swept onto his feet while she spoke, allowing her to continue in her rant knowing that she would eventually run out of steam. His sneer remained in place, giving him an uncaring appearance, as he contemplated the quickest way to send the little lion running from his presence.

"I demand that you tell me what is so important about that stupid cabinet that you're spending all your time in here!" she spat. "That you're not taking the time to eat dinner in the Great Hall! That you're not doing any of your assignments! That you're constantly pacing around wherever you're seen, only to make an excuse, and run to that damned thing! Or so help me, I'll have Professor Dumbledore in here so fast that it'll make your head spin!"

The Malfoy's mouth twitched into a smirk with each sentence that escaped her lips. He stepped forward, forcing her to tilt her head back in order to look up into his face as she spoke, and allowed her to finish her little tirade. "Well, well," he chuckled, "I didn't know that you'd been watching me for so long, Higurashi. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were jealous."

Kagome gasped, "Oh, I would never!"

Draco merely released a slight, "Tsk."

Glowering up at him, Kagome huffed, "Well?"

The Slytherin boy smirked a little more at the sound of her surprise when he once again grabbed onto her necktie and pulled her toward him. "You should watch where you're going, Higurashi," he whispered into her ear. "You keep falling all over me, and I might start to think that you like me."

Pushing heavily at his shoulder, the Higurashi girl gasped at the assumption. "As if!" she cried. Her mission was forgotten for a single moment, as she tried desperately to remove Draco's strong grip from her clothing. "You're so delusional! Let go of me! Let go of me!"

His other hand pushed into the thick hair settled at the base of her neck. A slight jerk on the black strands caused her to look up into his face, her eyes wide and confused. Draco's smirk stretched a little more, as he said, "I wouldn't be so sure of that, Ka-go -me. I wasn't the one who kissed you last year, now was I?"

"I—I—" she sputtered, "—that was a mistake."

He leaned into her a little, brushing the tip of his nose against her own. He could see the way her brilliant blue eyes began to cloud over underneath his stare, and it appeared that she could not look away even if she tried. He leaned in a little closer, whispering, "Though, I won't deny that I started our next little tryst."

The memory of what happened after she rushed from the Great Hall the previous year caused her to blush heavily, knowing that she could not escape the reality that Draco Malfoy had—had—

Her vision clouded underneath the pressure, forcing her into the future that simply could not be true. A gasp escaped her, though, when the mist split before her eyes. She saw herself immediately, cradled within Draco Malfoy's embrace, with her mouth pressed hot and heavy against his own. The need that pierced her heart was thick, as she attempted to pull herself away from that which could not be real.

"…at do you see when you look at me?"

His voice split through the fog, bringing her back to herself. Her heart was beating wildly, as she shook her head. The need she had felt left her in a state of turmoil, and she just wanted to get away from the Slytherin in order to sort through the emotion that had hit her within her vision. "Let go of me!" she whimpered. "Let go of me!"

Draco's eyebrow lifted in wonderment, as he asked again, "What do you see when you look at me, Kagome?"

Despite how determined she had been to find out what he had been doing within the Room of Requirement, the Gryffindor girl surprised even herself when her hand struck him across the face. Her face was flushed in confusion and embarrassment, though she was not surprised when the Slytherin cast his own look of surprise in her direction.

She had never hit him.

Never.

She took a step away from him, feeling his hand slip away from her necktie. Then, turning on her heel in order to flee, she shouted her response back over her shoulder at him. "Nothing!"