"And what did your sixty-five thousand Galleons get you, Malfoy?" She pushed his chest, but he didn't sway. "Am I everything you hoped for and more?"

She pushed at him again and his hands snapped up, grabbing her wrists and pushing them back against the wall next to her face. He stepped into her.

"You wanna know what my Galleons bought me, Granger?"

"Get off me—"

"An ungrateful little shrew with a hero complex—"

"You arsehole—"

"—who only aims to make my life more complicated—"

"You have no moral code, Malfoy—"

"—has given me nothing but torture for months—"

"My apologies for being such a burden on you! If it's been such torture having me here, then why do you care what I do with my life?"

His jaw dipped downward, as if he was about to reply. She waited, panting harshly, ribs expanding to brush his chest. When no answer came, she looked up, finding his gaze on her mouth, her parted lips.

Her stomach twisted and her heart pounded.

He blinked once, eyes clearing as they locked on hers, looking like he'd quite forgotten what they were talking about.

But he didn't step back.

She looked at his mouth, hoping wildly, inexplicably.

With just the smallest movement, she lifted her chin, and watched his eyes drop to her lips again. Her air left her in a puff, and he breathed her in, like he'd finally found the surface after years of being underwater.

His mouth tilted downwards, and with a final flicker up to her eyes, he was pressing his mouth to hers softly, like one of them could break at any moment. She pushed her lips back, hearing her heartbeat in her ears.

And like a slow-rolling wave growing larger and more dangerous, he kissed her — his lips closing over hers, his chest pushing forward until he was surrounding her, his mouth opening when her lips parted and his tongue pressing forward like they'd been doing this for months.

She sighed into his mouth, and his hips rolled forward, pinning her to the wall. She rotated her wrists in his grasp, aching to touch him, but his fingers tightened their hold.

His head tilted to the side and his mouth devoured her, drugging her, dragging her down. His lips were quick and clever and his tongue was gifted.

Her head was spinning before she realized his knee was nudging hers apart, slipping between her thighs—

Just as she'd seen him do with Pansy in the corridors.

She gasped, dizzy with want as his body pressed up against her, his thigh pushing forward to be closer to her, slipping higher and higher to press against her core.

When she moaned a plea against his lips, his fingers dug into her wrists and his mouth panted into hers.

And like a rubber band snapping, he was gone.

Her eyes fluttered open, and her body tried to follow him, magnetized. He still held her wrists to the wall, but he'd pulled his chest and hips far away. She caught her breath as he looked at her in shock. And she saw the panic color his eyes and shiver across his skin.