A/N: Ahhh, finally some free time to write! Okay, OBVIOUSLY I have a huge liking for uncommon ships. A friend asked me to look at someone's artwork featuring Draco/Parvati, and it was pretty good, so I googled the (rather small) ship. First I laughed, then I read, then I fell in love xD I just had to write a Draco/Parv fic after all that.

The title of this fic has nothing to do with the actual fic. This is my first Draco/Parvati, and since the official name of this shipping is Gold and Silver, I just decided to name it after the ship.

It's just one day, over a few chapters. The one day the two of them decide to do something with all that pent-up emotion. I hope you like it! :) Review if you did, thanks!

Parvati Patil wasn't one to dwell on anything for too long, her attention span craved variety; it was one of the countless traits that set her apart from her twin Padma, whose intellectual focus was immoveable at will.

So she was quite confused as to how she was now stuck with one person on her mind all the time, obscuring almost everything else she was usually preoccupied with. It had started nearly two months ago, ever since her sixth year started. It wasn't that Parvati had never had a crush before, she had had plenty of those – ranging from the slight fancying of someone handsome to the heavy, heart-thudding stuff. However, she had never felt so strangely conflicted about one person before – and it had never intruded so thoroughly in her daily life before, either.

There was also the odd little detail that she wasn't particularly close, friendly or even very comfortable with said person. All her previous encounters that had similar effects on her had been, to her mind, more reasonable – they were usually amiable boys who adored her, showed it, and couldn't keep their hands (and lips) off of her.

Her wide, dark eyes roved up from the single spot on the page they had been stuck on for the past six minutes, and she gazed at the still water before her momentarily. Then slowly, she sought out the boy she had been spying on for the last half an hour – finally, there he was, having seated himself on the grass near the water's edge, hair shining in the faint sun like nothing she had ever seen before.

She tensed ever so slightly as he suddenly turned his head in her direction, and for a moment thought that he was looking right at her, across the expanse of grass between them; but then his head lowered a bit and he picked up something from the ground next to him.

Parvati breathed a sigh of relief, returning her gaze to the paragraph she had stared at ever since she first opened the book. It wasn't as if he could suspect her of watching him, or even being aware of his presence anyway. As far as anyone else could tell, she was all wrapped up in her book, the closest person being over twenty feet away from her.

She wasn't sure when exactly she had started noticing certain little things about him, or when those things had started bothering her peace of mind. All she could be certain of was that it had reached a rather worrying stage if she was spending her evening off from classes like this - standing under the shade of a huge tree, pretending to read while sneakily glancing every now and then at the lone figure sitting by the lake.

He had taken to doing that a lot lately, spending alternate evenings by himself near the lake. It was one of those strange things she had noticed about him, surprised that he was trading in his – popularity among his housemates – for contemplative solitude. Sometimes she knew he was off somewhere else, when he couldn't be found at the lake. It was something he'd just picked up now, in their sixth year.

Parvati sighed as she closed her book and stared unseeingly at the grass beneath her. Her little crush was going to get her into a lot of trouble, if anyone found out about it. She hadn't realized before how much she confided in Lavender, but now it actually took an effort to keep the secret, and it was tiring. She knew better than this, she really did. She may come off as a ditzy, gossipy airhead to the rest of her form, but that didn't make her any less smart than Padma. She just directed her intelligence at different things; she was more street-smart than book-smart, you could say.

Even more importantly, she was very wise when it came to people, especially boys – she had to be, to be able to act on her raging hormones so often without going further than touching and kissing. Not to mention never getting caught making out, and managing all her little romances so that nobody knew about them unless she wanted them to know.

Her brains were devoted to the vibrant, creative side of life, reveling in people and beauty, unlike Padma – a quiet girl who liked practical things - toned down and short, unless they were books. Parvati nearly snorted as she thought of her sister; Padma didn't care about boys, all she wanted was a nice, good-

"Is that an actual book, Patil?"

Parvati jerked her head up at the voice, shaken out of her reverie. Heat flooded her face under her pretty dark skin as Draco Malfoy made his way closer towards the tree she was leaning against. Her gaze took in everything, from the green-and-silver scarf around his throat, to his windswept platinum hair, to the wrinkled parchment in his hand; finally landing on his smirk. She scowled.

"Get lost, Malfoy, I'm busy."

"Now, now… no need to be so hostile, Patil." His cold, slate-blue eyes surveyed her lazily, before fixing again on the book in her hands. "I was merely wondering if you were really reading a book, or if I was mistaken and that sister of yours had borrowed your… scarf." He finished, distastefully eyeing the Gryffindor colours of scarlet and gold trailing down her back.

As if you really couldn't tell us apart, thought Parvati. "That was stupid of you then, seeing as Padma has her own scarf. You know, the one in Ravenclaw colours?"

"Padma. Right, that was her name…" Malfoy drawled, then grinned infuriatingly at Parvati, his attractive eyes mocking her. "Well, it was just unbelievable, seeing you without your brainless admirers, or that loser you call your friend. Parvati Patil, alone and actually reading something thicker than a fashion magazine."

Parvati stared at him in combined disbelief and anger. Did he just insult her intelligence and call her best friend a loser?

"Lavender is not a loser! She's a much better person than you," Parvati said, slightly shriller than usual. "And for your information, I happen to like reading more than magazines, thank you very much! It's not a hobby limited to my sister."

"Glad to hear it," Malfoy drawled, looking rather pleased at her reaction and ignoring the gibe at his character. "Must be fascinating to delve into the Astronomical hobbies of horses."

"I- what?" Parvati stared at him in confusion, totally lost at the random change of topic. Malfoy raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat amused.

"Your reading material for the day?" He pointed at the peeling silver words on the front of the hardcover in her grasp. Parvati suddenly realized which book she had absent-mindedly grabbed from her bedside earlier that day – "Centaurs – The Secrets in the Stars". She blushed suddenly, hiding the book behind her back. It had been one she checked out of the library during the course of her huge crush on Firenze the centaur.

"Yeah, well…" She racked her brains for something credible and intellectual to throw at him. What would Padma or Hermione say? Something randomly nerdy, no doubt. "You can never know enough about the complex mysteries living in the Forbidden Forest."

Malfoy looked slightly taken aback, but not in an unpleasant manner. "I suppose not… although I wouldn't recommend investigating firsthand." His tone and expression darkened as he said the last bit, gaze drifting off to stare broodingly at the part of the Forbidden Forest that was visible to them.

Parvati grabbed the opportunity to glance swiftly around – there wasn't anyone nearby, the edge of the lake was completely deserted on this side, which meant nobody would see her with the enemy – Slytherin poster-boy Draco Malfoy. Her gaze settled back on him, as he gazed at the Forest, lost in some memory. Malfoy wasn't a bad-looking guy, really.

Hell, he was actually pretty hot, with that longish silver-blond hair finally cut stylishly this year, and his fine, pointed features evening out. His skin was rather pale, but not in a very unhealthy way; it seemed natural somehow, and he had grown a few more inches last summer. All of which Parvati had noticed ages ago, of course; along with the tired, blank look he wore a lot, and the tendency to gaze off into nothing at times, and his increased superiority complex among his posse, but quieter, disinterested tone with anyone else. Except Harry, Hermione and Ron, of course, Malfoy still made an effort to bully them and a few other people.

Parvati thought back to a couple of weeks before, when Malfoy had knocked into her, making her drop her book bag, then annoyed the daylights out of her by following her all the way to the library, arguing that she had walked into him. When they had finally entered, he had abruptly left, only to come back later when Parvati was working on her Potions essay, to sit right in front of her at the same table with that ever-irritating smirk. To his credit, he had only made one disparaging remark about Gryffindors in general before quietly working on his own essay, leaving Parvati to (rather distractedly) finish her homework in peace.

Then there was just a few days ago, when Parvati had been searching high and low for her red and gold hair ornament, only to find Malfoy carelessly playing around with it outside their Potions classroom. She had angrily demanded to know where he'd gotten it, and he'd merely smirked, stating that he'd "found it", and thoroughly teased her before finally returning it. She had spent the rest of Potions that day firmly ignoring the sniggers from the Slytherins, and trying to ignore Malfoy, who was silently watching her the whole time, to her discomfort.

"Patil. Wake up." Parvati started, as for the second time that day Malfoy caught her zoning out. He was languidly waving a hand in front of her face, looking at her as if she had grown dragon wings. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

A/N: Haha, I hope you liked what you've read so far! What in the name of Merlin is Parvati gonna say next? xD