Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

The Art of Shadow Boxing	By : Tommy-Lane Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 11212 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any charactors from the books and I am not making any money off of this

Chapter List
- 16
- 17
- 18
Italics + Flashback to seventh year

Chapter 17
Wrapped in Ivy and Twine

Getting into Hogwarts was harder than any of us imagined...kind of.

Actually it was ridiculously easy, which for some reason sort of pissed me off. Perhaps it was the months and months of waiting and planning and...alright it was only two months but still. Shouldn't it have been harder? I mean for heaven's sake Harry's apparently had this brilliant map that shows all of Hogwarts, and I mean ALL of it, for years. It even has these handy little footprints that show where everyone is at all times...no wonder the witless trio was able to get away with so much.

He also apparently used it to stalk me in sixth year - which I already vaguely knew about but it was fun to see him stammer and blush and try to talk his way into making it sound like a completely sane things to do.

So he's had this amazing map, knew all the secret passages, and we waited around because...why? I have no fucking clue. If we had waited any longer school would have been out and I can't decide if that would have made what we need to do easier or harder. But alas I shan't ever find out.

What I did get to find out though was what a number of stinging, bat bogey, itching, and a plethora of other hexes felt like when getting hit with them all - at once. It was hell. Pure and utter hell. One would think if your longtime friend and gorgeously barmy hero of all mankind walked back into your life - your pitiful, awful, screwy life - followed by his well-known lemmings and me that you'd fall to the logical conclusion.

That despite all odds I was indeed WITH them. They did not completely fall off the wagon, spilling the last of their brains, and just didn't happen to notice me. I mean honestly, Harry was SMILING at me when we walked in the room. How can that be construed as 'kill the bad, bad Slytherin, he has obviously snuck up on our all suffering savior without him knowing!'

I nearly cursed them.

The whole stinking lot of them. You know, once I regained control of my limbs. I actually almost did...well I actually did, but only one of them...some Hufflepuff before Harry snagged my arm and hauled me huffing indignantly around a corner. But really shouldn't he have been hauling them off? They’re the ones who started it after all.

And I told him as such, snapping my hair out of my eyes and trying to pretend that my face wasn't a brilliant shade of red. At which point he laughed and I scolded and was oh so close to hexing him myself when he was suddenly pressing me into the wall and kissing me blind. We weren't even alone, not really, just round the corner, anyone could have walked up and seen us.

Which added a strange sort of thrill to the whole thing, especially when he groaned and rubbed himself on my thigh. It's a bit wicked how much I love what I can do to him in such a short amount of time.

Course no one did see us, which is just my luck - good or bad I'm not sure, because as much as I would have delighted in witnessing the doubtless fainting spells and subsequent crying, I may not have come out of it alive. Not a bad way to go considering. If I had to pick between being tortured to death by a demented snake man who has delusions of grandeur and being snogged to death by Harry Potter, well...not much of a contest now is it?

By the time we reemerged, looking a slight worse for the ware, Granger and the Weasley boy...oh fuck it, Ron...had explained the situation. But I swear the Weasley bint was grinning - probably assuming we had gotten into a tussle, stupid slut. Ha, if only she knew how her ex liked to be rolled under me and snogged till he's forced to wear glamour’s the next day to hide the marks.

Or maybe I could tell her about last night - when he joined me outside to keep me 'company' while I was on lookout duty and then preceded to climb atop my lap and wiggle about till he had to muffle a loud groan in the crook of my neck as he came in his pants. God I wish I had a picture of the look on his face after that, all flushed and giddy and embarrassed and horny as hell.

Anyway...

Now they all just glare at me with barely veiled contempt but it's better than fending off a slew of hexes. It's just getting annoying, we've been sitting around this damn room for an hour and still...if looks could kill the weaselett would have me stuffed and mounted by now. And worst of all she won't stop TOUCHING him!

Its little things here and there, a hand on his knee, her head on his shoulder, a brush of her fingers against his...

But can I do anything about it? No, of course not, because not even the lemmings know about us. But he's not doing anything either and that is making my blood boil. I mean yes, he looks uncomfortable, yes he keeps shooting me little glances like he wishes he could get up and come sit next to me instead, yes he keeps inching away - but does the ginger whore pick up on it? Oh no, she just keeps touching what's mine.

"Watch it there Malfoy."

I nearly jump out of my skin as my death glare shifts from Ginny's hand creeping atop Harry's thigh to Longbottom as he plops down next to me. Neville bloody Longbottom...sitting next to me, with a knowing little smirk! Have I died and this is my own little hell? Harry getting groped by the Weasley girl while Longbottom swaggers around with the sudden charisma and courage of a...I don't even know.

A unicorn?

A centaur?

A Harry Potter action figure charmed to life?

Whatever it is, it's just plain odd. What in the world happened to the stuttering, nervous idiot who could barely stand by himself?

He looks...good. Like he's completely embraced his long willowy limbs and snapped them into control, his mop of chocolate brown hair falling likes waves around his ears and giving him a rakish look - like a fucking pirate with his hand swinging his wand like a sword, his swagger commanding in each step.

It's weird and I do not like it. I mean...that's my smirk and swagger, is nothing sacred anymore? I've been gone for half a year and suddenly the world has gone completely upside down.

But apparently he's orchestrated this whole thing, using the Room of Requirements as a hideout from the Carrows. He keeps everyone, or at least everyone who’s not on the Dark side, inside this room with a very specific set of requirements that makes it impossible for anyone even supporting the Carrow's to get in.

Its genius actually. Course that doesn't mean I have to be nice...

Someone should suffer for this hell I’m in.

I cast him a look of reproach, schooling my features to bored indifference as I lean back against the wall, the mound of blankets shifting beneath me. "Haven't you heard? You’re not supposed to get this close to me, you might catch something." I drawl, pointing out the fact that no one has come even marginally close to my little corner of the room. Not once, it was amusing at first…for the first four hours that is but since then it’s lost its entertainment value.

But of course not, their much too busy sniffing around Potter. Seriously, there's a ring around him, all our former classmates vying for his attention and listening raptly to every word that falls ineloquently from his lips. Their like damn leeches, trying to suck the power out of him, pretending that they've been going through this whole thing with him, smiling and laughing and slapping him on the shoulder.

But where were they when the horcrux almost killed him, where were they when we nearly died in Gringotts, where were they each and every time he's woken up from a horrible nightmare? But their acting like it's been them to comfort him each night he can't calm himself down instead of me (and alright the lemmings too but mostly just me as of late), that it's them whose been by his side the whole time, nearly starving and freezing to death.

I know life for them here hasn't been great, I know it's horrible and that they've been fighting their own portion of the war but...I've been with him. I've been there each and every time he's needed me and yet I'm being forced into the corner, ostracized as they do their best to pretend that I'm not here. While SHE tries to weave him back around her dainty freckled hand. I can't stand it.

"I did actually, thought I'd take my chances." Longbottom makes himself comfortable beside me, linking his fingers behind his head nonchalantly. "Though you may want to stop staring at Harry like you're going to murder him and eat him for dinner."

"I'm not staring at Harry." I retort, emphasizing the boy wonder's name with my arms crossed angrily over my chest. Oh my god if she does not remove her hand I'm going to KILL her!

Longbottom grunts thoughtfully, nodding his head with dawning understanding. "Ah, Ginny then?"

"You mean the fame whore?" I bite out - seriously why is he letting her lean against him??

"You know," Longbottom gives me a funny little look as he stretches his long legs out in front of him. "If I didn't know better I'd say you were jealous."

"I'm a Malfoy." I huff haughtily, wishing we hadn't come here after all - what I wouldn't give to be back in our woods. Alone.

It's strange being around so many people after so many months in near solitude. It's strange having to share Harry's time with hoards of others and there's a part of me that's a little...worried. Because it has been just the four of us, Weasley and Granger, and Harry and me, and...what if...what if everything changes now?

What if I was just some damn place holder? Someone to quench his lonely nights. It's hard to believe it of him, what with his unstoppable honor bound nature I can't see him stringing anyone along. But maybe he didn't realize he's been doing it, maybe he thought he wanted me until he saw her again.

Dear god the thought is making me near sick. Which in return is making me sick from being sick about it and damn it what has he done to me?! I am not a love sick puppy to be petted and kicked away at will.

"That's...what is that supposed to mean?" He asks in confusion, staring intently at the hard lines of my face.

"Nothing." I sigh, forcing myself to calm down, it will not do for everyone to know - not with the delicate nature of our precarious situation. Plus I will not have a tantrum like a scorned school girl, I'll push it down and let it grow and stew like a man and then, when we're alone again, I'll make him remember why he never needs to look at another again.

"Right because it definitely looks like nothing."

I scowl and pry my eyes from Harry's face as his lips purse in thought from across the room. "Is there something you needed Longbottom or are you just desperate for company now that Potter's back in charge?"

"Touchy, touchy. You know it's that smart mouth of yours that's got you sitting all alone right now." He rebuts, rubbing a hand over his chin which is covered in a fine layer of stubble. Honestly even his facial hair is more robust now.

"Really?" I reply with dripping sarcasm. "Because I thought it had more to do with this?" My fingers twist painfully over the ugly mark barely visible under the cuff of my shirt, Longbottom's large eyes following the movement with care. "Move along now little one." I mutter, waiting for the pin to drop, for the revulsion to creep across his face as he staggers back from me.

But, shockingly, it doesn't come.

He scoffs and shakes his head in mild humor, which is just plain confusing. There is nothing humorous about this situation. "Always the charmer eh Malfoy? I just thought you'd like to know what their planning." He nods in the direction of the aforementioned Potter ring.

"Planning?"

"Yup planning." He answers and then...nothing. Seriously what is it with Gryffindor’s and not finishing their sentences? It's bloody infuriating!

"Well?" I probe, clearly annoyed and growing more so at the smile he flashes me.

"Oh NOW you want to talk to me?" He snickers and I debate jabbing one of his eyes out with the tip of my wand. I'm nearly positive that that thought comes out loud and clear across my face because his smile falters for all but a second before he's speaking again. "He's gone to talk to Ravenclaw's ghost."

"Helena?" I clarify after reaching into the furthest recesses of my mind and pulling the memory of the infamously reclusive Grey Lady to mind. I spoke to her once. In sixth year...I think she somehow knew what I was up to. She was cold and hard and brimming with rage, sending a chill up my spine at just the memory of her.

"That's the one."

"Why would he - wait GONE?" I snap back around, my gaze fitting back to the center of the ring where he should be sitting, where that little whore has been hanging all over him like a second stinky shirt, but it's empty - the entire mass completely lacking one raven haired mess of a boy who has a penchant for bursting head long into dangerous situations without pausing to consider the consequences and notifying his...ME! "Damn it! Where'd he go!?"

"I just told you, to talk to Ravenclaw's ghost." Longbottom answers slowly, eyeing me like I'm foaming from the mouth.

"I know that, I want to know WHERE that is?" I demand, hopping to my feet and feeling the restlessness the past hour has been wrought with spring over me with renewed vigor.

"Ravenclaw tower I assume."

I nod once, quickly and without really looking back at him as I make my way across the room, my gaze fixed on Granger and Weasley - the new center of the damn circle. There's a murmur of discontent as I push my way through, heated gazes filled with malicious hated burning into me from all sides, leaving me wanting to flip them off with a completely rude and crass gesture that I usually deem beneath me.

I refrain...but just barely.

"Granger, a word?" I stop before her, her gaze startled and yet almost expectant at the same time, like she just knew I was bound to burst into the circle and demand her time any second now.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Ginny huffs, flipping her ginger hair over her shoulder, looking far too happy and smug - too much Potter contact no doubt, making her feel special again.

"I wasn't addressing you, so kindly keep that gaping trap of yours shut, my ears are much too sensitive for your screech." I let my eyes linger disdainfully on her in a bored, disgusted manner - the small action making me feel marginally better at the murderous look crossing her face.

"Say that again ferret face." She squawks, threatening me with no meat behind it.

"Or what? You'll get your little friends to hex me again?"

"Malfoy." Ron warns quietly, almost tiredly, splitting his gaze between me and his sister with resignation.

"No I'll do it myself." She growls, raising her wand in her hand - the hand that was just on Harry and I can't stop the thought from blooming, raising a horrific and stupid question in my mind.

I suddenly can't stop picturing them together - that hand on his bare body, caressing his flesh and pulling those deep, vibrating moans from his throat that he makes when he's past the point of caring to try and keep quiet. Did he whimper her name like he does mine? Did he kiss her with the same passion he snogs me with? Was he as desperate to feel any part of her body as he is when we're alone? Has she seen his eyes darken to the forest green of the night with lust? Has she felt his hands shaking against her bare skin?

The questions won't stop coming, growing and expanding in my mind in a pointless loop. And it shouldn't matter if she has, I know it shouldn't, but damn it the very idea of it is like a hammer to my heart.

“You’re just a piece of slimy trash that Harry’s to nice to toss out.” She rebuts smugly with a triumphant sneer on her grossly dotted face.

"Fucking slut -" I hear myself hissing like a detachment of myself, ringing in my ears before I'm getting cut off by Granger hauling me backwards while Ron detains his suddenly furious sister, her slight body raging against her much larger brother.

"Are you going to let him talk to me like that?!" She screams at him, Ron's face a bright crimson as he mumbles under her shrieks and keeps her thrashing body in his arms.

"Let me go Granger." I command, yanking out of her grasp and whirling around, stalking away from the group with irrational anger simmering in my veins. I have got to calm down, what the hell is wrong with me? Her words mean nothing, she’s just a vile child, aching for Harry’s love again.

"What was that all about?" She demands, following after at a rapid clip.

"Did he take the map?" I ignore her question, stopping beside the door leading to the castle, to the dangerous halls that Harry's wandering.

"No...a Ravenclaw is leading him there." She answers, shifting on her feet and glancing behind us at the still steaming Weasley bint.

"Give it to me." I demand holding my hand out, almost expecting to see it shaking with the surge of emotions running through me. I'm not used to this, I'm not used to FEELING so much, I used to be so good at pushing it all down. I was bloody brilliant at compartmentalizing, but there's something about being back here, about being in this damn magical room that I nearly drove myself mental in trying to repair that damn cabinet with my family’s life hanging over my head, that's making everything strangely acute.

I feel torn and open, bleeding my fear and need and desire out like ripped scabs.

"Why?" She crosses her arms exasperatedly. "He'll be back soon Malfoy."

"Just give it me." I hiss lowly, my gaze hard and unflinching. She stares right back at me, just as stubborn as I am. "Fine." I intone through clenched teeth, turning sharply and reaching for the door, determined to find him, to make sure he doesn't get himself fucking killed...god knows he's running out of lives.

Then I hear Granger sighing a soft "sorry," a second before I feel it hit, the spell snapping my legs and arms in to my sides - freezing me in place, the ground rushing towards me with an upwards tilt as I fall into a dizzy sleep.

**

"Draco?" The voice is soft and familiar, dragging across my skin and forcing a shiver through my limbs as I stir beneath the fluffy blankets. "You awake?" It asks and I shake my head, feeling a grogginess in my brain as I slowly come to, pulling with it the memory of Granger hexing me.

I will curse her.

My heavy eyes fly open as I shoot upright, blinking in the darkened room, my unfocused eyes quickly taking in the mass of sleeping people around us. "Fuck." I grip my head, trying to recall the last several hours and coming up blank. Probably because I wasn't conscious for them. Oh yes she's going to pay.

"Hey shhh." Harry grabs me and in a flurry of movement I suddenly find myself back under the blankets, this time with Harry looming over me, the covers pulled up and over our heads - hiding us from the snoring room - a quickly muttered 'lumos' lighting our little hideout. "You'll wake everyone up." He smiles his charming smile, sitting on my lap with his elbows supporting him on either side of my head.

"Potter." I glare at him, watching the laughing smile falter. "Where have you been?"

He looks bashful, biting into his lip and glancing down and away from my narrowed gaze. "I had to talk to the Grey Lady." He explains, pausing expectantly like he's waiting for me to suddenly be okay with him up and leaving without a word. Well he'll be waiting forever for that, my look clearly stating so. "...She doesn't like people...recluse and all...alone was best..." He tries a smile than quickly abandons it for a small frown. "Why are you mad?"

"Why am I mad?" I repeat incredulously. "I don't know Potter, perhaps because you just up and disappeared." His frown deepens as I speak, a twitch in his cheek. "Or maybe it's because you couldn't keep your damn hands off that ginger slut. Take your pick." That last part slips out without my consent, revealing my insecurities to his ears, his eye's widening in the dim glow around us.

"Ginny?" He asks in disbelief. "What are you talking about?"

I feel very much like shoving him off me, pulling the blanket from us and taking a giant gulp of clear air, but I can't. I'm stuck glaring at him as we whisper back and forth in order to not wake anyone and draw attention to ourselves. "I'm talking about you and her nearly groping each other earlier." Alright so I'm exaggerating but I can't help it, I'm still hopelessly pissed at him.

"I was not!" Harry retorts, looking so thoroughly confused that I feel my anger shift down a degree, my brain peddling fast to catch up to the irrational emotions I'm flinging at him.

"Well you didn't stop HER." I pout, yes pout, I'm not proud but there it is.

He smiles a slow coy smile, his body relaxing down atop me. "You're jealous." He points out with a little chuckle that I want to throttle from his throat.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" I grumble, trying to ignore the way his smile and twinkling eyes are unraveling my indignation and pulling me into him.

"Everyone?" He screws his nose up, cocking his head in the way that I always find much too irresistible. He reaches over and runs a hand through my hair, wrapping his fingers in the fine tresses and pulling till my throats exposed in a pale curving expanse that he promptly descends upon - his hot mouth running over the sensitive skin with inside melting licks. "God that's hot." He mumbles against his work, pulling my earlobe between his teeth as he spreads his legs and sinks his entire weight of his lower half on me.

"What is?" I ask confused, because a moment ago I was glaring vehemently, not something that usually results in Harry grinding down against me with a surprising hard on as he feasts on my neck.

"I like you jealous, it's cute." He rocks forward, sending blood pumping down and away from where I need it right now.

"I am not being cute Potter." I object, clamoring for my trademark sneer and failing miserably as his movements draw out a burning need from within me. "And I'm still mad so stop it."

He chuckles and runs a hand up under my shirt. "You don't FEEL mad." He sticks out his lower lip in a pout as he circles his hips, pulling an unwanted moan from my throat.

"That's because you’re fighting dirty." I gasp and refuse to give in and arch my spine up into him, my mind growing muddled with each passing moment.

Damn him, he's too bloody good at distracting me.

He grins and nods. "It's going pretty well for our first fight then."

"This is not our first fight."

"It is as a...since we've...you know." He blushes as he prattles, losing his upper hand in his nervousness at almost labeling whatever we are. "I mean, I just..."

"Did you fuck her?" I blurt out, his body jerking up, his mouth snapping shut around whatever it was he was about to say.

"What?"

"Ginny, did you fuck her? And are you sure you broke up with her because she doesn't seem to know that." I let it all come out in a rush, desperate for the answers and dreading it at the same time.

"Of course I'm sure!" He yelps, than with a panic pokes his head from the blankets for a second before he's back, mumbling a quick silencing charm around us. "She’s just…and I didn't...I haven't...I mean I haven't been with...anyone...so yeah..." He flushes furiously as he rambles, refusing to meet my eye as he gnaws on his poor abused lip.

Gripping the back of his head, I force him to look down at me, staring into his embarrassed gaze - his declaration producing a wave of conflicting emotions from triumph to joy to curiosity to my own dry mouthed nervousness. "No one?" I ask, for some reason needing to hear him say it again.
He nods his head, ducking it as much as he can in my hold and I press my hand under his chin, drawing him down into a light kiss.

"Have you...?"

"Not...completely." I tell him and he smiles shyly.

"Anyone I need to be jealous of?" He drops his mouth back onto mine for another caressing kiss that's turning wet and sloppy in a matter of moments before he pulls back once more - our heavy breathing adding to the thick muggy air of our blanket fort.

I run my hands down his back and tug him tightly to me, my palm stopping to press flat and hard against his denim clad arse. "Definitely not." He outright grins, splitting his cheeks and squinting his eyes and crinkling his nose, causing me to lick my suddenly dry lips. "Need to be running off now?" I ask, dipping my fingers under the hem of his jeans, my heart lurching at the darkening of his eyes and the thump of his heart against my chest.

"No, thought I could stay and make it up to you for leaving earlier." He leans down until his lips are brushing the shell of my ear as he shifts atop me. "There's something I've been wanting to try." He mutters breathily, lighting an excited buzz through my veins.

"And what's that?"

He slips his hand over my hip, shifting his body just slightly so he can press his fingers over the button of my trousers. "Can I..." he trails off, pulling me into a desperate and urgent kiss that leaves me dizzy and I get the feeling that he's trying to draw courage for his request from it. ”I want to taste you." He whispers against my lips, eliciting a shiver over my entire body at his words.

"Now?" I ask, nearly breathless with anticipation but keenly aware of all the bodies around us. He nods, looking anxious and eager at the same time. "Alright." I answer and he looks so insanely happy at me granting him permission to suck my cock that I can't stop the little chuckle and the swell of emotions that comes with it.

His hand fumbles with my button for a second before he stops, kissing me once more. "I am sorry for leaving like that." He apologizes, the button popping free, his fingers dipping quickly inside. "Oh and Draco?"

"Mhmm?" I ask, my ability to keep any train of thought quickly deteriorating as he wraps his fingers around my hard prick - the light touch somehow always managing to take me off guard with how incredible it feels.

"Just thought you should know...we're leaving for Albania tomorrow." And with that confusing declaration he shimmies down my body and sets to work at granting his own wish.

****

The cultured curl of her words sits like a block of ice, cracking over my flushed body and trapping us still, our eyes locked on each other - his mouth still pressed lightly to mine, his fingers curling into my skin as his jaw tightens beneath my hands. It's like a nightmare come to life, a stomaching flipping moment with Harry turned immediately and as suddenly as a snap of the fingers into something ugly and horrible. His gaze darkens and shifts and I can read the thoughts spinning through them, know them as intimately as my own because they are twins right now.

Doom is the word that comes most readily to mind.

"You two make a stunning contrast." Safiya continues, floating atop the sudden chill in the room, my gaze shifting sideways to her as I pull my head back - Harry's fingers dropping to dig into my hips. "Like oil and water, shaken and settling." She steps into the room, her bodyguards following at a respectful distance.

"Need something?" Harry quips with a tightness to his voice that doesn't bode well for anyone it's directed at, my hands falling from his face as I move out of his embrace - but not far, just a brush away, ready to sweep him up and away if need be.

Her cool blue gaze shifts up and down his body slowly, purposely, calculating before even flicking to me once. "Manners Mr. Potter." She chides, a finger set to tap against her plump, red painted lips. "I have business with Mr. Evans if you recall."

I can feel the indigent and possessive rage build in him, stringing him taunt, pulling a snarl on his still wet lips. With a swift step forward and a quick quelling look in his direction, I position myself just slightly in front of him, drawing her attention back to me once more - severing Harry's no doubt ill planned insult that would have spelled some terrible misfortune for us both. "And that is?" I prompt, my hands clenching behind my back as I watch the lines of the two bodyguards positioned just inside the door.

One of them is Timothy, the sodding bloke who threatened to carve me into a painting the night I lost. The snarl that's a perfect replica of Harry's from a moment ago forces itself onto my face as I spare him a second glance. I feel a hand slip into the rigid bend of mine, his fingers relinquishing warmth back into the instantly frozen digits at the sight of her.

"Always business with your dear, never pleasure." Safiya sighs with a dramatic air, pausing with a pointed look at where Harry's holding my hand, even though she can't see it - it's unsettling all the same.

"I prefer to keep them separate."

"Mhmm pity." She sways towards us, running a light fingers across her bottom lip and then against my jaw, Harry hissing in a breath and going as rigid as a marble statue in a flash. "And if I prefer not to?"

"Then find it somewhere else." Harry grinds out, stepping up beside me.

"Temper dear." She shakes her head softly, smiling at the rage in the lines of his face and the danger in his eyes. "It could be profitable to you as well you know. The two of you together...such an experience would surely rake in the riches, you could have each other while they have you." She says with sugar sweet tones laced with brutality. "There will be others who would be only inclined to...watch."

There's a sickness in her words that eats at me, trying to rot the beauty of our joining, festering in a cancerous blister. The thought of making love to Harry while others touch him or me or even just caress us with their eyes making me nearly spit in anger, clenching and relaxing my free hand in effort to keep from throttling her.

"We don't share." Harry sneers, speaking the words in my mind out loud.

"You might when you see the sum..."

"Doubt it." His tone is flat and deadly serious, his fingers holding mine grasping so painfully tight that he may end up breaking a bone if he's not careful.

Safiya smiles then, the sight sinking any glimmer of hope that we'll get out of this unscathed. "Possessive man you've captured Mr. Evans."

"You haven't answered my question." I reply, refusing to be pulled into her newest web and doing my best to ignore the simmering heat of power wafting off Harry. "What did you want?"

"There's so many things I want darling." She shifts her eyes to him once more, a hunger in her gaze that's frightening. It isn't exactly sexual, it's not the look of lust crazed desires, but it's perfectly predatory in its nature, promising something I can't fully comprehend but know I never want to experience.

I tug him sharply behind me again, keeping him there with a painful twist of his wrist - a silent warning and plead to just stay put. "Leave him out of it."

"Are you offering something better?" She flicks a thick dark curl over her shoulder with a calculated toss of her head, her gaze positively gleaming.

"Our deal was for the match tonight." I state bluntly. "Going back on your word?" I challenge, hoping to appeal to her strange sense of honor.

"Indeed it was and you'll forgive me for the curiosity of course." Her fingers are on her own jaw again, trailing along the curve with a feathery touch that scarps with sensuality. "I'm here to inform you of the rest of the specifications."

"Specifications?" I ask, dreading her answer. Of course there's more to it, it was juvenile of me to believe otherwise.

She nods once, curtly. "I want him taken out in the first round."

I suck in a breath, feeling a small gnawing ball of nervousness grow in the pit of my stomach. I don't doubt I can beat him but Troy is good and getting a knock out in the first round will be difficult. "And if I don't manage it?"

"Then we unravel your other...talents." She lets her gaze linger with the pause in her breath for a long tense moment. "Regardless the outcome we'll discuss it further tomorrow night at my estate, I'm throwing a little celebration party." She flickers her eyes once to Harry over my shoulder with a little chuckle. "Don't worry darling, you can come too, in fact I insist."

"Celebration?" I ask, latching onto the one telling word in it all. "And what are we celebrating?"

"Our victory of course." She answers smoothly, emphasizing 'our' in a way that doesn't sit well with me.

Somehow I get the impression she's not talking about me winning the fight and her winning her money back.
I'm left staring silently at her, running through the possibilities in my head with Harry's warmth at my back and Safiya's ice at my front and somewhere in between is me but with each turn it's getting harder to tell where she wants me - how she wants to position me and Harry for her madness. And I still can't figure out why.
It can’t just be the money, there has to be more to it to hold her interest for long.

"Ten minutes Dray." One of the bouncers pops his head in the room, delivering the news with professional detachment before moving on without a backwards glance at the scene before him.

"I'll be going then. Good luck." She winks and twirls around on her tall white pumps, breezing from the room with the body guards following after.

The door bangs shut without either of us moving and turning around and taking in the look crossing Harry's face I realize belatedly that I did it. That I slipped and preformed accidental magic again like an untrained child. Barely even felt the power leave me...it's unnerving.

"You're not going." He states plainly, his stance hard and stubborn.

"One thing at a time I think." I mutter, letting my head hang with the heaviness pumping through me. "Any word from Granger?" I ask, hoping beyond hope that she's received the answers from her tests and that they proved to show nothing.

"Not yet, she's waiting to hear back from someone in the Ministry and the potion won't be done for a couple more days." He gives me a tight smile, pulling me to him and burring his face in my shoulder. "We're cursed with bad timing." He chuckles and I can only nod, wrapping my arms around him - keeping him safe in my embrace, at least for now. "Can you do it?"

"Do what?" I ask, breathing in his scent and trying to recollect my focus, time is ticking away and I need to be ready.

"Beat him that fast?"

"It won't be easy." I answer honestly, pulling back to look down into his concerned face. "I need you to promise me something."

"What?" He asks suspiciously.

"If she comes near you tonight or things look like they’re going south...I need you to leave right away. Alright?"

"Ah, this again?" He tries a smile but it doesn't reach his eyes, it's a fake thing that looks strange and unfitting on his features.

"I'm serious Harry, I can't concentrate like I need to if I'm worrying about you. I need you to swear you'll do this." I know this is an old argument, something that's plagued us since he's been back, but I can't stop it, I need to know he'll be alright while I'm in the ring - especially now that Safiya's seen us together, that there's no longer any doubt of the nature of our relationship.

He contemplates me for a moment before sighing heavily, his eyelids drooping with near resignation. "Ron and Hermione will be here you know, nothing is going to happen, I'll be fine." I don't answer, the thought of his friends being here soothing a bit of my fears but it's not enough. I need his word. "Fine, alright." He snaps, scowling at me. "I'll go to the flat if she starts something."

"Or if I lose."

"No."

"Harry."

"Draco you can stop now, I'm not leaving you to her if you lose so just get that through your head right now." He states flatly, giving me the look that says there's use arguing with him. “You should be getting ready yeah?”

I nod, giving in and giving up, knowing I wouldn't leave him if our situations were reversed. "You know sometimes I think it would be easiest to just Obliviate her." I chuckle, stepping back from him and rolling my shoulders, my feet starting to jog quickly in place - warming up for the match that's looming just ahead.

"I couldn't agree more." He flops down on the bench, his eyes never leaving me as I move across the floor - boxing the air and feeling my blood starting to pump hotly through me, my muscles loosening up and coiling in anticipation. "God I love watching you work out."

I smirk at him as I drop a knee to the floor, feeling the stretch along my calf. "Are you perpetually horny?"

"Mm-hmm. You're just incredibly hot." He leans back and lets his lustful gaze slip up and down me, the pure want in his expression causing little butterflies to flutter through me.

There's a knock on the door and the calling out of two minutes and I force myself to look away from him, pulling myself together and clearing my mind from the electric buzz occupying it.

I feel a thin cooling sheen of sweat break out across my brow, my stomach twining with Harry's proximity and the pumping adrenaline mingling with Safiya's threats. It all hits me in one jumbled skip of nerves as I push myself down into a pinpoint, sucking the air into my lungs, letting the beat of my heart flow out through my limbs. I focus my all on the call of the fight, letting it relight the smoldering kindle within me.

Glancing up I catch the sight of endless green, the press of his presence still all around me, despite the rituals to boil it all away.

Grabbing him by the belt loop I haul him off the bench and towards the door with me, an utterly different thump coursing through me for the first time ever before a fight. But it's not distracting like I always thought it would be, it's empowering. He's smiling at me as I walk backwards, compressing everything but the rhythm of the fight and the curve of his lips. There's nothing outside it now, not even the Madame can taint it in this moment.

The doorknob feels cool in my palm as I reach behind myself and twist it open, tugging sharply on his loop as I do, catching him against myself. "Wish me luck." I drawl, the thump, thump, thump of the music and the stomping of feet and my heart and his all collapsing together in a maddening high. I feel elated with him in my arms, like I can do this, I can win in the first round. I can knock Troy to the ground and come out tall. I can have my victory.

Then I will take Harry and lose myself in him once more.

"Good luck."

A/N: Ten points if you know why Albania of all places ;)
nightCat: Thank you so much for reviewing! I’m glad you’re enjoying it and I hope it continues to keep you hooked J
MoonlightVampiress: Okay deep breaths, it won’t be horrible ;) unfortunately it won’t be for another two chapters until they talk about Blaise again though. I’m glad you’ve liked the progression of their relationship, they’ve been through a lot and it’s been fun writing their reconciliation in the midst of all this new drama. I can’t believe I’m already reaching the climax of this story, exciting and nerve wracking at the same time! Although my mind seems to think that now that it’s almost over that it’s time to nearly explode with ideas for my next one…grah. Anyways just rambling now so…thank you!
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The Art of Shadow Boxing