I knocked tentatively on Madam Pomfrey's door.

"Enter!" a shrill voice trilled from within the little office of the hospital wing.

I nervously stepped inside, taking the seat in front of her desk.

"How can I help you this time, Miss Longbottom?" Madam Pomfrey queried without looking up from her paperwork, "another incident in Potions?"

I flushed, realising that this was the first time I had entered the hospital wing without being involved in some sort of clumsy accident.

But it was exactly an accident in which I was desperately keen to prevent.

"I need some sort of protection," I whispered nervously, wringing my hands on my lap.

"Protection?" Madam Pomfrey asked, looking over the desk at me curiously. "From what, exactly? I know you're prone to the occasional mishap, but apart from advising you to wear a full hazmat suit in each and every class, I fail to see what it is I can do."

"Um... I mean a different kind of protection," I quivered, praying my face wasn't going as red as it felt.

"Oh..." Madam Pomfrey said, her face softening in realisation. "I see."

I wasn't necessarily ready to take things further with Draco, but I wanted to be prepared, just in case.

After all, Trevor was a handful enough alongside my studies without adding anything extra to the mix.

Madam Pomfrey instantly gave me my options, as well as advising that it was actually illegal to participate in sexual intercourse before the age of sixteen.

"But hormones are hormones, and I applaud you for having the courage to take charge of your responsibilities," Madam Pomfrey said proudly as she enthusiastically stabbed a contraceptive injection into the flesh of my left buttock.

It was to cover me for six months, in which time I could participate in as much sexual activity as I wanted without the fear of making any mini Longbottom's.

Or even mini Malfoy's.

And I wasn't ready for that... yet.

*****

"Harry is adamant that everyone should be able to produce fully corporeal Patronus's in tonight's meet," Hermione informed me when we walked down to breakfast one morning just before the Easter break, "otherwise they're out."

Oh no, I thought. It was the one thing I struggled with.

I anxiously shovelled bacon on my plate, finding my eyes glancing up automatically towards the Slytherin table.

Silver grey eyes met mine and I felt my stomach flip as the white-blond haired Slytherin's lips tugged into a warm smile.

It was a Sunday and it had been a very long week. I couldn't wait to be in his arms again.

"I really like you, Neve," Draco panted as we breathlessly broke apart after our initial kiss upon entering our classroom.

"I really like you too, Draco," I blushed up at him.

I felt that now would be a good time to tell him what I'd done.

So I took a deep breath.

"I've had the contraceptive injection."

Draco's eyes immediately widened. "Neve, I wasn't trying to pressure you into-"

"Shush, it's okay," I said quickly, placing my fingertips against his lips, silencing him, "it's just in case. I... I didn't want you to worry."

Draco wrapped his arms around me, pressing his forehead down against mine. "You're amazing, Neve," he murmured, catching my lips back in his.

He eventually broke away, sighing regretfully. "I can't stay long today, I'm afraid. Umbridge wants the Inquisitorial Squad to meet early. Apparently she thinks she's close to uncovering this army."

I felt my stomach lurch unpleasantly.

"Um... okay," I said nervously, trying not to meet his eye. I realised I was going to have to try and warn Harry, and I felt awful, as though I was betraying Draco.

He helped me once again with my Potions homework, insisting we get it done before we do anything else.

Once we were finished, he pulled me back onto his lap where we shared kisses in between me telling Draco stories about my gran and my adventures with Trevor.

He never revealed much about his own home life; saying very little about his childhood prior to Hogwarts.

"I love hearing about you, Neve," he'd said with a genuine affection when I'd tried probing him for details about his family. "There's very little to tell about me."

We parted after a heated goodbye kiss by the door; the longing coursing inside of me driving me wild.

It made me feel so much worse when I ran to the Gryffindor common room, straight to Harry to warn him about what Draco said about Umbridge.

"Relax, Neve," Harry said dismissively as he lounged back on the sofa, the flickering flames reflecting sinisterly in his glasses. "That room is impenetrable."

It wasn't.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" Harry screamed during our DA meeting that night, as Dobby informed us that Umbridge had found a way in. "RUN!"

In the panic, as everyone stampeded towards the exit, I fell and went over on my ankle; a loud crack resounding in the air.

The pain was unbearable; tears were in my eyes.

No one stopped to help - everyone was out to save themselves.

Eventually making my way out, I hobbled down the seventh floor corridor, hearing the sounds of commotion up ahead. I tried not to cry out in pain as I desperately searched for somewhere to hide.

But just before I could reach a small gap in the wall in which I thought I'd try and fit myself in, frantic footsteps skidded up behind me.

"Neve?"

My heart stopped at the familiar voice. Slowly, I turned around.

Draco was shaking his head disbelievingly, his eyes looking utterly pained. "No," he whispered, "please don't tell me... all this time...?"

"I'm sorry," I sobbed, my voice strangled through my pain.

Suddenly a voice from the off made us both startle.

"Is that another you've caught, Draco?"

It was Professor Umbridge, and judging by the sound of the approaching footfalls, she was about to appear any moment.

Draco's face filled with indecisive panic as I looked at him pleadingly.

To my horror, he lifted his wand and flicked it right at me, his eyes piercing mine coldly.

The strangest sensation swept over me; it was as though every part of me was tingling.

"Don't move," he hissed, just as Umbridge appeared into view; Harry clamped tightly to her side.

"Oh," Umbridge said, looking around in apparent confusion, her eyes gliding past me as though she couldn't see me. "I thought I heard you talking to someone; wondered if you'd caught another?"

"Just Potter for now," Draco sneered as he said the name.

"Very well," Umbridge said, "get on with it then Draco, there's still time to catch others - you'll be highly rewarded if you can get me another. In the meantime, I'll be in the headmaster's office making an example of this despicable insolent child."

She turned, dragging Harry back around the corner out of view.

After a few moments, Draco flicked his wand back at me and I felt the tingling feeling immediately lifting.

"Thank you," I whispered, my heart thudding crazily in my chest.

He looked so angry; so betrayed and disappointed that it hurt to look at him.

He didn't say anything, but instead strode up to me, wrapping his arm around my waist, beckoning me to use him as support.

"I'll help you to the hospital wing," he muttered, not looking at me as he helped me down the corridor.

"Draco, I-"

"Don't, Neve," he seethed. "I should have known it. All you Gryffindors are the bloody same. Worshiping the ground that stupid Saint Potter walks on."

"It isn't like that!" I panted through the pain as we hobbled along; Draco constantly looking around to make sure we wouldn't get spotted.

I realised that in all our "study" sessions, Draco and I had never discussed Harry and the fact that I was his fellow Gryffindor and supported his beliefs. It was almost as if we knew how it would divide us.

But now we could no longer turn away from it.

"Well then, tell me, Neve," Draco muttered, tightening his arm comfortingly around me when I winced in pain, despite his anger at me, "tell me what it's like."

"We weren't trying to overthrow Umbridge! We were trying to learn defensive spells seeing as we were learning nothing in class! I want to be able to defend myself, Draco, when war inevitably breaks out. I can't let Trevor suffer the same fate I had - I can't let him grow up without me!"

Draco suddenly stilled as we arrived outside the hospital wing. I looked up at him, seeing the immediate softening of his hard features.

"I'll look after you, Neve," he insisted. "I won't let anyone hurt you. Or Trevor."

My heart pounded fiercely as I looked up into his solemn silver eyes.

"You can't promise me that, Draco," I said sadly, "no one can. But it's okay, because I've learnt to accept that. And I want to be strong, I want to be courageous."

Something flashed in his eyes but he didn't answer, instead chastely brushing his lips against mine before he helped me through the doors and, despite my speech about wanting to be courageous, he still held my hand tight when Madam Pomfrey cast the healing spell to fix my ankle.

"You know, you're braver than you give yourself credit for, Neve," Draco murmured fervently in my ear when he walked me back to the Gryffindor Tower later that night. "It's what I admire about you."

And, as we kissed goodnight, I only prayed his admiration of me was enough.

Because I was starting to become all too aware of the opposing sides Draco Malfoy and I found ourselves on.

The war was getting deeper; and so, unfortunately, were the cracks in our foundation.

*****