Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape or form own Harry Potter.

A/N: The lateness is due to writer's block in combination of being a full time student and having two jobs. If it helps, I'm already working on the next one! Anyways, this chapter is dedicated to ElvenWolf, who reviewed and seriously made my day when I saw it.

Chapter Nine: A Serpent's Kiss

After a long day of sitting in the trophy room trying not to be too annoyed with Filch sucking up to her or the golden trio's excessive prattle, Auralie was looking forward to dinner. Even if the trio continued to talk at her, she was beginning to think that a change in scenery would be nice. After all, staring at trophies while Filch gushes about how he polished them at least once a week can wear on anyone's nerves. She hoped that she might get a chance to talk to Draco, without the mutinous glares she had endured all day from the trio, at dinner, but she had doubts of whether Gryffindor's tragic hero would allow such behavior. Harry seemed to like having a little court of followers around him at all times, and if anything didn't agree with Gryffindor's golden boy, then it wasn't supposed to be tolerated by the rest of the masses. Maybe things were different here, but at her old school, students were taught to accept others despite their differences. It didn't always work, but it was better than promoting rivalry.

As she pondered this, Draco came over to her chair and offered her a hand up.

"It's alright," Auralie commented. "I think Madame Pomfrey will allow me to stand up on my own."

His smirk faded a little as he replied, "I insist. It may be erring on the side of caution, but dealing with that lot is much harder without a witness. They would never dare to hex me in front of you because something might blow up."

Auralie grinned sheepishly, hoping that she wasn't blushing too badly. The memory was still too recent for her to laugh about, but she allowed him to help her to her feet.

"Thanks," she returned with a smile. "We should probably hurry down to dinner before all the food is gone."

Draco chucked slightly, "Very true. If we don't leave soon, then Weasley is bound to eat it all, and you should probably have a decent sized meal or else all those calming drafts could make a return visit."

"Really?" Auralie asked. "I feel fine right now."

"You've already had about three times the recommended dose. That's enough to make a mountain troll woozy, and sharing a room with Granger is probably going to make you need to take a few more doses." Draco answered honestly.

"Just reminding me makes me want another one," she groaned, praying that all of the potions would put her out of her misery before Hermione started suggesting all night study sessions again.

"Come on, it won't be that bad," Draco commented with a small grin. Auralie raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "At least you will have an endless supply of stories to entertain me with."

She rolled her eyes. "She is going to be the death of me, I swear."

He shook his head, laughing a little. "Come on; let's head towards the great hall." With those words, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders as if to guide her to dinner. The portraits all raised their eyebrows as the pair of them passed on the way to dinner.

Dinner was a quiet affair with the golden trio only muttering indistinctly and sending dark looks at Draco. When everyone had finished eating, Dumbledore made a brief announcement, stating what everyone but Auralie knew, that in order to keep Mr. Filch from having the house elves clean multiple common rooms with such few people, everyone was to be staying in Gryffindor tower. Draco grimaced at hearing this announcement for the second time. At first he was excited to see how the Gryffindors lived, but he hated how the common room was so bright at energetic. He missed the heavy, dark furnishings of the Slytherin common room instead of the fiery and bright Gryffindor's common room. His only happiness came from the fact that he had his own room and Auralie would be close enough to keep an eye on.

Everyone made their way to the portrait hole together. When they were all gathered around the painting of that abomination in pink, which the Gryffindors lovingly called the Fat Lady, Hermione made a great show of how to open the common room, to which Auralie just rolled her eyes. They climbed into the common room, and Draco heard Auralie gasp. He turned to her and chuckled slightly at the look of horror that spread over her face.

"I can't believe that I'm in this house," she whispered when she had found her voice. "It's horrid. It's… Well, it's obvious that there hasn't been an interior designer ever come through this house."

Smirking, Draco muttered in her ear, "No, only the Slytherins have any form of class around here. I suppose you could say that the Gryffindors are brave for trying to mix so many different shades of red."

This caused her to choke down some laughter, though, Draco noted that her face burned almost scarlet in the process of doing so.

"So what do you think?" Hermione asked as she led them further into the common room, sweeping her arms in a Vanna White sort of way.

"It's… So…" Auralie spluttered incoherently.

"Indescribable, is the word I think she's looking for," Draco interrupted, which caused Auralie to fall into another silent fit of laughter and give him a hard elbow to his side.

Draco gave her a glare, but there wasn't any real hurt in it. "Shouldn't you be off to bed?" He asked her with a smirk knowing that this was what she least wanted.

"Oh yes! You must keep up your strength," Hermione agreed with him for once in her life. "I'll show you our room."

As Auralie started to follow her out of the room, Draco caught her arm and spun her back to him.

"I have four extra beds in my room if she gets on your nerves too much," Draco whispered in her ear.

"Thank you for the offer, but I think I can handle her." She winked at him. "Goodnight. I'll tell you all about it over breakfast."

"You'd better," Draco growled menacingly. He leaned in and gave her a lingering peck on her cheek, dangerously close to her lips. "Goodnight, darling."

Before she could even catch her breath, he had disappeared up the boys' staircase, leaving her to wonder what had just happened.

A/N: jedi hand wave thing You will review. You WILL review!