Title: uncharted land
Pairings: Draco/Ginny (implied Harry/Ginny)
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
A/N: Drabbles are fun! … and now I have an end to this that I might post someday. Hm.

"Why not?" he asks, in the tone of someone who is conducting an experiment that for some reason has gone wrong.

"You're a bastard," she snaps.

"Nobody really gave me much of a choice," he says, and she doesn't have an answer to that.

*

"Any news?" he asks every time they pass in the halls. At first she glares at him and walks away, head held high, but eventually she starts saying 'no,' and instead of smirking and laughing at her he'll nod seriously and keep walking. Once he even says 'I'm sorry.'

*

It isn't until they're already kissing that the sheer insanity of what she's doing hits her and she breaks it off and backs away.

He just nods and looks at her knowingly. Placing a hand on her cheek for a moment, he tilts his head almost curiously and then turns and leaves.

*

"Why?" she asks him as he's tracing her face, learning it by heart.

"I'm a coward," he says calmly. "And you're beautiful and brave and clever and everything I'm not but should have been. When I'm with you, I feel like I could be brave if it was for you."

She doesn't know how to answer that, so she doesn't.

*

They are exploring uncharted territory now with every kiss, with every brush of hands on skin, and it's electrifying and different and enough to make them both forget the pain and terror that waits on the other side of whatever door they've closed today.

When they're together, he's able to be brave and she doesn't have to be.

So she lets it go on, because sometimes unexplored places are the most interesting, and any moment that she can forget is worth it.