A/N: Hello my darlings, sorry about the wait. There have been some posting issues with FF theat are preventing people with .docx files from uploading straight from that file into the Doc Manager. I was hoping the staff might pounce on it and fix it for me ASAP, but alas, they have not. Yet. Fingers are still crossed. Anyway, can I just mention how amazing all of you are? I've noticed a distinct number of your who have been reading across all my fics (the newer ones anyhow) and you've all been leaving me such wonderful reviews. They make me so happy. Now, more insight from our favourite boy. Much love! xx-Kitten

Little Do You Know

By Kittenshift17

Chapter 10: Rolling Off Your Tongue

She was bloody impossible. Draco was still annoyed with the little mudblood for the way she'd just walked off before the storm had begun again without so much as a backward glance. His father had looked affronted and then amused by the girl. His mother had seemed intrigued, though her lips had pinched together in disapproval of such poor manners.

Draco had thought seriously about running after her, but the storm interrupted him.

True to their word the Ministry allowed them all the afternoon to themselves with their families and with the rain bucketing down everyone had piled into the Great Hall and spent the entire afternoon there. The younger students had been shocked when classes let out and they found so many extra people in the Great Hall for dinner but they had dealt with it well enough. His mother and father had spent the remainder of the afternoon discussing the law with him and making polite conversation with the other families of Slytherin students before they had bid him good evening after dinner, intent on returning to the Manor.

Draco supposed he ought to be asleep. They'd all been given a time-table for the following day's bollocks regarding lessons on the stipulations of the law, in addition to jumping into classes that focused on how to function in a committed relationship like a marriage. Draco suspected the classes on child rearing would come later, once they'd all had a chance to get used to the idea and settle into it. When they weren't liable to make a run for the Continent.

"You lot still awake?" the voice of Millicent Bulstrode came from the doorway suddenly and Draco glanced towards the door to see Milly, Pansy, Daphne, Tracy and Rosie all strolling into the seventh year boy's dormitory.

"Bloody hell Milly," Goyle grumbled, "Your dulcet tones were not what I wanted to wake to after a hot dream."

"Ok gross," Tracy wrinkled her nose, "On that note, Blaise you budge up."

The girl strolled over and helped herself to Blaise's bed while Blaise snorted.

"Witch, I'm an engaged man," he protested when she lifted the covers and climbed in beside him, snuggling into his side like a bed bug.

"Oh, as if your new fiancé and mine aren't off somewhere shagging one another?" Tracy rolled her eyes, "That fiery little redhead can suck a big black dick for all I care about her feelings after what she did to my nose!"

"Don't worry, love," Blaise smiled wolfishly, "When I'm through with her, that fiery little redhead will beg for the privilege of sucking my big black dick!"

"Gross!" Daphne giggled as she climbed into bed beside Theo on his right side while Rosie climbed in on Theo's left and snuggled into her twin's shoulder without a word.

"Move it over, hot stuff," Pansy grinned at him, peeling back the covers on Draco's bed and squeezing herself in next to him.

"How come none of you ever want to snuggle up with me?" Milly grumbled as she lumbered over to Goyle's bed, lifted the covers and kicked her cousin until he budged over enough that she could fit on his large four-post bed.

"You get grabby," Rosie told her, "I hate grabby."

"Don't lie, darlin'," Milly smirked at Rosie, "Sometimes you like it when I'm grabby."

"I can't believe your shagged her, Rosanna," Theo hissed to his twin, shaking his head, "It was bad enough when I had to get shit about your sluttiness from the boys but now I've got to take it from Milly too?"

Rosie smirked wickedly at her brother.

"I was curious," she shrugged unrepentantly.

"Well now I feel used," Milly grunted with a laugh.

"Don't worry Milly," Goyle replied, "I think we've all been used by Rosie."

"Oi!" Theo protested, clapping his hands over his ears.

"I'm not that big a slag, you lot!" Rosie protested, "I haven't shagged Blaise or Draco."

"You tried, love," Blaise piped up, "You just gotta catch me when I haven't had quite so much to drink."

"Whore!" Theo accused his sister, "I can't even look at you. Out! Get out of my bed! Merlin only knows where you've been!"

Theo shoved at the girl until she hissed at him like an angry feline and climbed back out of his bed.

"Make room, you two!" she demanded, bounding across the room in her tiny little pink bed-shorts and leaping up on the bed with Goyle and Milly, "I want to be in the middle."

"See, now this I could get behind," Goyle smirked widely, shuffling over a little more to fit Rosie between himself and Milly.

"Slag!" Theo accused his sister again before burying his face under his pillow, his hand clawing around until he found Daphne's hand before dragging it across the tops of his bare shoulders, requesting she trace patterns on his skin.

Draco rolled his eyes and glanced at Pansy. He stilled when he found her watching him speculatively.

"So?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"What?" he asked, knowing what she wanted to know. What they all wanted to know.

"What did Lucius say to Granger that she stomped off right after meeting your folks?" Daphne rolled her eyes, drawing on Theo's back with her perfectly manicured fingernails.

"How do you know it wasn't my mother who said something to set the little swot off?" Draco smirked at them.

"Narcissa is a perfect lady at all times excepting when she feels you or Lucius are threatened. And I don't see Granger threatening you when she was letting you get away with manhandling her. I didn't see a single slap in your direction from the little bookworm all day."

"She clobbered him on the Quidditch pitch," Blaise informed them, "Should've seen that bookworm fly, Pans. It was a thing of beauty. Violent little thing flogged a bludger at Potter so hard she took him off his broom and broke three of his ribs!"

"Really?" Pansy asked, "What she'd do to you lot then?"

"Not a thing," Blaise grinned, "At least, not a thing except bopping Draco on the head for being smart with her. And then knocking him off his broom right as he caught the snitch and breaking his shoulder."

"What? Why would she do that at the last minute?" Daphne asked, "Moment of panic that her friends wouldn't forgive her for letting you win without trying to stop you?"

"Nah," Theo piped up, "Why don't you tell them what you did to her Draco?"

"What did you do?" Pansy asked, her voice lowering slightly at the serious tone Theo used.

Draco sighed and glanced up at his ceiling.

"She was getting touchy after Weaselbee tried to guilt-trip her not to play the second half for us. I might've, you know, used legilimency on her to find out what her problem was," Draco admitted.

"What had I told you about that, mate?" Goyle narrowed his eyes on Draco a little bit, "You go poking around in people's head and you're going to stumble on some shit you really don't like."

"Yeah well, she lost her shit at me, slapped me in the sheds and then broke my shoulder on the pitch, so I think we're even," Draco replied.

"You used it on her again when she dropped her tea-cup at the meeting today. What set her off, by the way? She never did answer Luna," Theo's muffled voice came from under his pillow.

"Luna?" Blaise smirked, "Oooh, already calling her by her first name, eh Theo? You always were a man for the oddball ones."

"OOOOH!" Pansy and the other girls chimed in, giggling when Theo's hand shot out from under the covers to flip them all the bird.

"We're talking about Draco and his bookworm, not me and my lunatic," Theo retorted, "What was she hyperventilating about?"

"It suddenly occurred to her that she's going to have to fuck me," Draco sighed.

"Yeah, I'd panic about that too," Milly piped up, grinning at him from across the room.

"You still didn't tell us what Lucius said to her?" Pansy reminded him, ever curious.

"Nothing really, just asked her if she thought me and her were compatible. All she said was, 'No. I don't'. And then she stomped off," Draco rolled her eyes, "Little swot."

"What about you, Pans?" Blaise asked, "Tell us how things went down in the land of Quidditch nuts like Oliver Wood."

"There's not much to tell, really. He thinks I gamble too much. The rest of the time I just sat on his lap and we all sat in silence while Potter and Weasley brooded over Weaselette and Granger being on the laps of you two. How'd you get Granger to sit still? How'd you know the hat was going to put you two together?"

"As soon as she started losing her noodle at the hat I figured it had to be about me. There was no one else in that room that she would be as upset about being paired with. Except maybe McClaggen, and he'd already been stuck with Chang."

"I pity that poor girl," Rosie spoke up, "McClaggen's got more tentacles than a Snarfalup plant."

"You've shagged him too?" Theo's head came out from under his pillow with a snarl.

"No. I couldn't do it after he tried to choke me with his tongue," Rosie shrugged her shoulders.

"You're such a slut!" Theo snapped at his sister, "How hard is it to keep your bloody legs shut?"

"Oh bite me, Theo," Rosie flipped him off unrepentantly, "It's not my fault you're a broody little brat who hates everyone and so doesn't deign to shag around more often. Not everyone is as antisocial as you!"

Draco closed his eyes as the siblings continued to spit venom at each other. They fought constantly like this and he was used to it. They would do anything for each other of course, but most of the time Theo couldn't stomach the idea of anyone laying a hand on his 'baby sister'. He sighed again. He'd had more than a week to get used to the idea that this law would force him into a marriage with someone not necessarily of his choosing. He'd had a couple of days to think about who would be best as his bloody wife and he'd had longer than that to settle on it being Granger.

If he was completely honest, the minute she'd started losing her noodle over the idea of being forced to marry him, of all people, Draco had felt like Christmas had come early. Sure, he didn't want to marry at all, but if he had to he'd rather marry someone he could torment for the rest of his days, if only to watch the way her eyes flashed red-hot fury at him every time he did so. It was entirely too much fun to provoke the little witch into her fiery fury.

"Are you going to be alright with her, Draco?" Pansy asked him in a whisper sometime later as the others fell to discussing the Quidditch match from earlier that day.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Draco questioned rather than answering.

The truth was that he didn't know if he'd be alright with Granger. Sure she wasn't exactly dangerous in the sense his father or his Aunt were. But she was still a brilliant and powerful witch. She could mess him up if she really got stroppy with him.

"Oh, I don't know," Pansy snorted, "Maybe because she's one of the few witches I've ever seen stand up to your charm and remain impervious? Maybe because she's got more morals in her little finger than the rest of us have combined? She's not just going to be some witch who will smile politely on your arm amid pureblood society. She won't just tolerate your mother's meddling or your father's barely masked rudeness. She's not like us, Draco. Not just in the sense that she's a muggle-born, either. She… Granger's a bloody saint in the making. She gets stroppy about conceived mistreatment of house-elves. She won't tolerate it when you get in a strop."

"I don't strop," Draco rolled his eyes, glancing across the pillows at his ex-girlfriend.

"You do," she assured him, "You get in a snit about something and you're a force to be reckoned with Draco. You make that face where your expression is blank but your eyes are screaming bloody murder. And then you get creative. If pushed you snap and say horrible things. You do terrible things designed to embarrass and humiliate whomever you're upset with."

Draco knew that was true. When he got angry about something he could be a downright bastard.

"So?" Draco asked.

"So Granger's not one of us, Draco," Pansy waved her hand indicatively to the rest of their friends in the dormitory who had begun betting on how long it would take Blaise to convince the Weaselette to snog him, "She won't just weather your bad mood and try to appease you. She'll fire back and I've seen her in action. She's even better than you are at inventing creative and humiliating punishments that destroy those who have crossed the line with her. Do you remember what she did to Marietta Edgecombe when that girl ratted on them for their duelling club in fifth year?"

Draco frowned slightly as he recalled the horrible acne-like rash that had spread across the girl's face in the word 'SNEAK' after Edgecombe had reported her to Umbridge.

"What about what she did to Umbridge, Draco? That woman pushed Granger too far and the bitch had her carted off to be raped repeatedly by centaurs in the woods. She spent the better part of a year in St. Mungo's twitching at the strangest noises and screaming at the sound of hooves. That… that's merciless, Draco. Don't get me wrong, Umbridge was a bad-egg, but no one deserves the fate Granger plotted for her. Had she been less moral, Granger would've been a true force to be reckoned with. Imagine if instead of being a Gryffindor and best mates with Potter, she'd turned to the Dark side. You know as well as I do that Potter only lived long enough to defeat the Dark Lord because of Granger."

"What are you getting at, Pans?" Draco asked, "You don't think I can handle her?"

"I'm just saying that you're going to have to watch your step. Don't ever lose your temper and snap at her the way you used to do to me. She won't just grit her teeth and bear it before grovelling to you later the way I did. She'll spit venom at you in return and she'll turn any of your cruelty back on you ten-fold," Pansy warned him.

"You're worried about me being bested by Granger?" Draco asked, mildly offended by the insinuation.

"I'm not worried she'll best you, Draco. I know how cruel and heartless you can be. No, I'm worried that you'll say something horrid when you're in a bad mood and it will escalate from there. She'll retaliate with something that rubs you the wrong way. Then you'll do something to get back at her over your wounded pride. And she'll fight you every single time. That mouldy old hat might've deemed you two to be compatible, but trust me Draco, if there was ever a couple with the power to destroy one another completely, it's you and Granger."

"You're worried I'll hurt her? That she'll hurt me?" Draco frowned further.

"I know you two will hurt each other," Pansy shook her head slightly, "I'm worried that when she loses her temper with you, she won't just take it out on you. It will spill over onto the rest of us like boiled water from a broken teapot. And the things that Granger is capable of? Burn Salve won't be enough to put us all back to rights."

Draco raised his eyebrows at her.

"What are you suggesting then? That I just cater to her every barmy whim and take her bollocks whenever she gets in a snit whilst concealing my own. You know that's not how I am," Draco warned her.

"I'm not saying that at all. I just want you to watch your step with her for a while. She's going to be difficult about this law. You heard her today when she realised she was going to be paired with you. The two of you have a lot of bad blood between you and she's not likely to just forget it. I think that if you want even the slightest chance of not being murdered by your future-wife, you're going to have to be decent to her until she's had time to come to terms with all of this. She'll walk away from our world if you push her hard enough. She's muggle-born. She wasn't raised in the magical world. She might not like to have to live without it, but she could. She could have her muggle family back, go to some muggle university and go on to conquer the muggle world without batting an eye. Especially if they removed her memories of the magical world."

Draco knew it was true. If ever there was a witch – a woman – who not only could but would survive being stripped of their magic and their memories, it was Granger. She didn't need any of them. She might want Potter and the Weasley family as her friends and loved ones. She might adore magic and absorb every fact about their world like a sponge, but she could do without it. Draco, on the other hand, could never do so. His entire world was rooted in the magical one. His family, his heritage, everything he knew were all a part of the magical world. Granger could stomp off into the muggle world where she knew how to live without magic and be fine. She knew how to drive a muggle car. She knew how to work the appliances muggles had invented to get by without magic. She knew their customs and didn't exclaim in shock at the sight of a toaster or jump a foot at the sound of a ringing felly-tone or whatever they were called.

"She's my betrothed, Pansy," Draco told the dark-haired girl quietly, meeting her gaze and watching Pansy's eyes widen slightly, "You know what that means to us."

"You're going to…?" she trailed off, seeming surprised, "Even though she's a bossy little know-it-all mudblood?"

Draco nodded his head seriously at her and Pansy's breath left her in a whoosh of shock.

"Oh," Pansy said quietly, biting her bottom lip, "I… maybe I should go then?"

"Why?" he asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Because if you're going to take this mess that seriously, Draco, then you shouldn't have any witch who isn't your betrothed lying in your bed with you. Especially not one who used to be your girlfriend," Pansy told him.

In some ways, Pansy was right. He knew that. Were those Gryffindor gits to stumble down the stairs and into his dormitory to spot all of them, they'd be furious at the sight of all the seventh year Slytherins snuggled in bed with one another. It wasn't sexual at all. Except for maybe where Rosie was concerned. It was entirely about friendship, but would the Gryffindors see it that way? Were Granger to appear in the doorway and spot him in bed with Pansy, she would most likely hex the pair of them and then never speak to him again. Which Draco didn't want. Not that he wanted to cater to her psychosis either.

That being said, if he were to climb up to Gryffindor Tower and find her in bed with Weaselbee right now, Draco knew he would be beyond furious. None of them wanted to be engaged to their current spouses in the sense that were it not for the law, they'd be single or with different people, but that didn't mean he didn't already think of the little swot as being his.

"There'll be time enough to worry about bollocks like that tomorrow," Draco said finally, "Blaise was right. Unlike us, Gryffindors like them are more about passion and emotion and doing what they want. I don't doubt Granger and Weaselbee, hell, maybe even Potter, have all shared a bed with a friend before. It's not like I'm going to shag you."

Pansy bit her lip, looking worried, but then she nodded slowly, relaxing against the pillows again. She wouldn't stay. Draco knew it as well as she did. Pansy never stayed in his bed anymore. She hadn't since Draco had stopped dating her at the end of fifth year. She might crawl in and cuddle awhile, when he allowed it, but she never slept next to him anymore. Draco preferred it that way. He liked having his bed to himself. He was selfish with the covers and he hated having someone else in there, wriggling and squirming. Drove him barmy.

Turning his attention back to the conversation going on around them among the rest of their friends, Draco listened to them placing wagers on who could snog their new spouse first. On what the parenting and marriage classes might involve. On whether or not Lavender Brown would ever stop sobbing over being paired with Goyle.

"Ten sickles says Granger loses her temper and punches Draco in the face again," Goyle piped up from across the room to get the topic off himself and Lavender. Draco suspected the git was a bit sensitive about how much she'd sobbed over being paired with Goyle.

"Again?" Blaise asked, raising his eyebrows and looking intrigued.

"She punched me in third year," Draco admitted with a shrug, his cheeks turning the faintest shade of pink, "Caught me, Crabbe and Goyle being gits when Father tried to have that bloody chicken of Hagrid's killed for savaging me. We were trying to watch the execution and she, Potter and Weaselbee turned up."

"You did ask her if she'd come to see the show," Goyle reminded him, "She spent months trying to pull together a case for Hagrid and that hippogriff at the trail. I'd have probably punched you too, if I was her."

"Thanks mate," Draco rolled his eyes at his friend.

"She punched you?" Pansy asked, intrigued.

"She broke my nose," Draco admitted, smirking at her.

"And she broke your shoulder today. You better watch yourself with her, Draco," Blaise told him, "Imagine what else she might break of yours when she gets her knickers in a twist."

Draco winced at his crass suggestion of the witch snapping Draco's manhood. The little bitch would probably try it too. His friends were right. He was going to have to watch his step with Granger.