I really shouldn't start a new one, but here it is anyway, kudos to rowan-greenleaf's highly intriguing plot bunny.

I don't own Harry Potter or its characters and situations, nor am I making any money off this.

Much thanks go to Ha'niqua, who will forever be one of my superheroes, and Katie, Kira and Ky, all of whom are made of plain awesome.

First deserve, then desire. (English Proverb)

Prologue

Draco Malfoy was desirable.

He came from a long line of pure-blooded wizards, a family descended from the notorious Mal Foi of the Middle Ages. He was the sole heir to not only the considerable Malfoy fortune, but also the Black's wealth. Last, though certainly never least, Draco Malfoy was attractive. The silkiness of his platinum locks, the piercing calculation in his silver eyes and the almost sensual edge to his smirk all showed that he had been raised to believe that appearances did indeed matter.

Any woman who knew who he was and could also understand the kind of potential grasped in his hands would have gladly killed to be his wife. More than a few wept bitterly when Astoria Greengrass was chosen for that particular position. After a while, however, it became apparent that the marriage between Draco and Astoria Malfoy was a rather unhappy one - at least, it did if one either knew how to read them or, more likely, knew enough of the right crowd to have heard the whispers.

It was not by mere coincidence that Melinda Hartridge was part of the so-called crowd. She had invested irreplaceable amounts of blood and sweat to have gotten there, and she would have never dreamt of regretting it. She had a powerful place in society, greatly reinforced by her girls. Personally, Melinda thought that her girls were among the deadliest creatures of the night. Secrets were deadly - especially secrets whispered in a tangle of limbs, between needy moans; secrets not quite muffled by cloth.

Draco Malfoy did not have any secrets which Melinda knew of. Her girls had his peers - Theodore Nott, Marcus Flint, even the illustrious Blaise Zabini - but not him, and she was beginning to think of him as a wasted opportunity. Many women had stopped pursuing Malfoy after his marriage, but she knew better. She knew that any woman who he took as mistress would hold so much more power and influence than a mere wife if she could play the arsenal of secrets on her side.

Pursuing Draco Malfoy had been a difficult and competitive game when he was a bachelor. Now that he was bound to a marriage, the game was not over. It just held greater, more dangerous stakes - but the rewards were much more promising. Draco Malfoy, pure-blooded, socialite, attractive and married, could never be caught with a mistress.

But Melinda's girls have told her that he might as well have been a pretty statue made of ice - enticing, but never enticed. It was then that Melinda Hartridge began to understand him.

Draco Malfoy knew what it was like to be desirable, but not what it was to truly, achingly want; the lazy, pleasant coursing of lava through fragile veins, every fantasy subtly taking over until all at once flaring into a ravenous, devouring fire of something sinfully unnameable.

No, he did not understand - until the day Ginny Potter appeared into his life.