"GET DRACO!"

Our eyes met in horror as Bellatrix's shrill voice echoed around us.

And somehow, in that moment, we understood that our time was, once again, up.

*****

Despite the terrifying circumstances that had brought Draco and I together again, we found much needed comfort and happiness in each other during the course of my stay.

Waking up in one another's arms that first morning, we couldn't help but smile as we looked into each other's eyes, drinking the other in.

"You're so beautiful," he murmured, tucking my hair behind my ear; his silver grey eyes staring into mine with a tenderness that flooded my heart with warmth.

"I could say the same about you," I whispered, threading my fingers through his white-blond hair that had flopped down in a tousled mess through the night.

He lifted a hand, clasping my fingers in his, and brought them down to his lips where he kissed them one by one.

"Tell me this is more than friendship," I found myself suddenly boldly asking as our eyes met once again. "What we have, I mean; you and me?"

"I told you, Blaire," he said, letting go of my fingers to reach an arm around me; pulling me closer to him so that we were chest to chest, toe to toe, "you're my everything."

And in that moment, as he looked at me, it was as though every ounce of breath was taken from my lungs. Because I knew then that no matter where I'd go or what I'd do, every path I would take would lead me back to Draco. He had always been my one stable force that I so desperately needed; my one stability in a world filled with fear and chaos. I'm in love with him and I can't believe I've only just realised it.

Before I could open my mouth to articulate any of this, however, there was knock upon the door followed by the gentle voice of Narcissa.

Draco and I quickly rolled apart as he reached over for his wand to flick the door open.

"I've brought you some breakfast and had a house-elf sent out to fetch your belongings." Narcissa said, entering the room with a tray in one hand and pulling a trunk in behind her with another.

Draco immediately jumped up to relieve her of the tray. "Thank you, Mother," he murmured, kissing her cheek. "You shouldn't have."

"Nonsense," she said, smiling at me as I got up to take my trunk from her. "Really, I just wanted to make sure you're both doing okay after the events of last night. Going through something like that can have a delayed and profound effect on your emotions."

Her eyes, full of concern, lingered on me as she said this last part. I nodded my assurances as she enveloped me in a hug, and I had to push down the most unexpected need to cry.

Perhaps she was right, I thought as I looked back over to Draco who was placing the tray carefully down onto his desk. I wasn't exactly stable minded right now to start declaring feelings of such significance.

But when we were alone again, sitting shoulder to shoulder on his bed as we consumed coffee and pancakes, all I could think was that being here with him felt like home, and it was the way being with Draco had always made me feel; no matter where we were.

"Do you remember that summer when your mum's pancakes were literally the only reason we left the treehouse?" I asked, a warm glow radiating from my core as I reminisced about the once carefree days of our friendship.

"Oh, you mean the summer when I kept beating your arse at Street Fighter?" Draco drawled cockily as he licked cream off the end of his fingers. "You really were a glutton for punishment, Zabini."

"Oh shut up," I scoffed, playfully elbowing him in the ribs. "Says the guy who constantly ends up going bankrupt just by the mere mention of Monopoly."

"I seem to recall we rarely ever ended up finishing that game," he chuckled, as his eyes danced down wickedly into mine.

It was instant; the fierce knotting of desire in my lower stomach and the acceleration of my pulse. I had to look away, shocked at the way my body had reacted by the memory of mine and Draco's past antics.

Stop it, I inwardly scolded myself. Not even twenty four hours had passed since my stepfather was murdered in his own house and I was sitting around getting horny.

I was a vile person.

"Blaire," Draco said softly, draping an arm over my shoulders and squeezing me to his side. "It's okay, you know. Don't beat yourself up for feeling things."

His fingers went to my chin, forcing me to look up at him, and as I did so, I found myself kissing him with a sudden urgency and desperation.

After a few moments of frantic fumbling, complete with longing groans and fingers tugging at hair, clothes and anything else they could get a good grip of; we broke apart, both breathless and panting.

"I'm sorry," I gasped, still clinging onto him, feeling on the verge of crying again.

"Don't be," he panted, resting his forehead down on mine as heated, jagged breaths tickled my face. "I'm here for you, Blaire. I'm here for you in any way you need me."

So taking him up on his offer, we spent the rest of the day playing cards on his bed.

That night, however, as we lay down together, we slowly removed every piece of each other's clothing; our fingers clumsy in our longing.

His eyes swept me hungrily as he peppered sweet, delicate kisses over every inch of my skin, pausing every now and then to tell me I was beautiful.

By the time he hovered back over me, catching my lips in his, I was trembling in absolute desperate yearning for him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and bucked my hips up to meet his, begging for him as the tip of his cock teased my entrance.

When he finally pushed himself inside of me, we muffled our cries into each other's mouths; his hot skin already feeling damp against mine as sweat slicked our bodies.

"Fuck," he rasped, pulling his mouth away from mine as he began with slow, deliberate thrusts, feeling so amazing inside of me. "Fuck."

The intensity of it almost made me want to combust. Neither of us could look away; our eyes locked as though we were staring into each other's souls; a galaxy of intense feelings and heightened emotions.

I clenched my legs tighter around his waist, trying to deepen his thrusts. The effect caused a low growl to vibrate at the back of his throat and I could tell by the clench of his jaw and the way he sucked the air in through his teeth that he was desperately trying not to lose control too soon.

Yet the aching in my gut had already began to stir as his movements caused sparks of pleasure to flutter in my core. The sensation was incredible, like pins and needles everywhere as my muscles began to tense and my toes started to curl.

"I'm close," I whimpered in his ear.

Without hesitation, he snaked an arm under my back and swiftly flipped me over so that I was now on top, straddling him.

He knew exactly what to do, knew exactly the spot he had to hit to get me to my peak.

Sitting up beneath me as he tugged my hair back and grazed his teeth along the underside of my jaw; he rotated his thumb over my clit and it wasn't long before the knot in my stomach began to rip and I was crying out his name, thanking Merlin he'd put a Silencing Charm on the room.

He followed soon after, immediately pushing me back down to the mattress as he pounded into me with reckless abandon, his moans getting louder and the bulges of his biceps on his sinewy arms getting tauter.

And all I thought as I looked up into his wild lust filled eyes was; fuck, I've missed this.

Wetness hit my stomach as he pulled out and emptied himself down my front; a string of profanities hissing from his lips as he did so.

He could barely draw breath when he was done, collapsing down in a sweaty breathless heap next to me.

"I've missed this too," he panted; a smirk twitching at his lips as he pulled me into his arms where I could feel the still furious pounding of his heart beneath his chest.

And so we spent the following days locked away in his room, doing what we used to do in the treehouse; eat, sleep, play games and fuck. A blissful escape from the harsh realities of what was happening in the outside world.

An interlude, if you will.

But interludes are never meant to last, and as Bellatrix's voice rang out through the Manor towards the end of the Easter holidays; it seemed our short time together was about to come to an abrupt and grizzly end.

And it was all down to Harry pissing Potter.

******