Captured

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Hope

"You know, Granger."

She whipped her head around to look up at him, knitting her brows together in annoyance at the use of her surname.

He was gazing down at her, a familiar cocky smirk on his face as his eyes roamed over her.

"Slytherin colors suit you."

She rolled her eyes, swatting his chest playfully with the hand that lay against his chest. She laid her head back down and snuggled further against him to hide the blush that had crept into her cheeks. After they had finished, she had only pulled herself away from him to pull on a pair of the forest green and silver satin pajamas she had been given, while he had transfigured a sheet into a pair of the joggers he favored, this time in a shade of deep green that happened to match the clothes she had pulled on. She had immediately crawled back into bed to settle herself against him while he had begun playing with her curls.

That lighthearted comment had been the first thing said between them, and she was grateful that he had broken it first. A tension had filled the air between them, settling thickly, after they had settled back into the bed, and she hadn't been sure how to break it.

She had no idea what this meant for them, or how she felt, but she knew that it meant something.

She couldn't go back, couldn't go back over that bridge now that it had been crossed and demolished. There was no back. There was no before. There was only now, in which he was so ingrained in her that she was sure no matter what happened between them, she would always have a bit of Draco Malfoy with her, until the end.

She was relieved that while she had no idea what he was feeling, it at least didn't seem to be regret. The confident look on his face had been one of the most comfortable expressions she had seen him wear since she had come here.

The tension had given way to comfortable silence, and she felt as though now was the time to ask him about them, but she was unsure how to get started.

She was normally confident, rarely making decisions and actions that she hadn't fully thought through, and she was nervous now that she found herself in a position she was unaccustomed to. She hadn't planned for this, had had no idea that this is where they would end up, tonight of all nights, and so when she had said yes, she hadn't had time to think through the after.

She didn't regret it. Not a bit. Despite herself, she had come to like Draco, who he was beneath that mask and who he was becoming. The post-war visions she had imagined came back with a vengeance, as though the possibility of them being together after the war had suddenly brightened with what had happened between them. She could see herself laughing on the couch at something he said, while Harry and Ginny laughed opposite them. But the images in her mind faded as she thought about Harry.

They needed to win this war first, and even if they did, she didn't know if that was something Draco was interested in, if he had even thought about it at all.

Just ask him, coward.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek nervously, fighting with herself internally. She willed herself to force the words past her lips, yet she stayed silent.

You are a Gryffindor. Find your damn bravery.

She took a deep breath, preparing to open her mouth to ask it as she trailed sligthly trembling fingers across his chest.

"What's wrong?"

His hand closed around her fingers and he asked the question before she could get her own out.

She cleared her throat before responding, trying to seem light. "What do you mean?"

"Your hands are shaking."