Disclaimer: I own none of the characters here. JK Rowling and company own them. I merely play with them for my own amusement. Please don't sue. I have nothing of value anyway.
Summary: Harry is caught in a love triangle to rival all else. He's found himself questioning his sexuality and is owning up to his attraction to Draco Malfoy. Meanwhile Draco is cozying up to Hermione, who won't give him the time of day. And Hermione keeps thinking there's hope for her and Harry to have a future together. It's a tangled web of emotions and will anyone get what they want? Set a couple of years after Hogwarts ended. Told from Harry's POV. Drarry, with undertones of Dramione.
Three is a Crowd
Some time passed and Draco and I stuck to our friendship plan. Hermione didn't really like it much, but Draco had stopped bothering her for the most part and she was able to just ignore his presence most of the time. The only time they were friendly was when they were working. That was mostly because Hermione was his supervisor now and he had to be nice to her. But she could have made his life hell and for my sake she didn't. But she did hand him a project that required his presence at our house again. It was her pet project and out of all the other people in the department she gave the job to Draco. I wasn't sure if that was for my benefit or her own. Maybe she wanted to see him fail? Or maybe she liked him more than she let on? I really wasn't sure. But all I knew is that it meant he spent more time with us. And me specifically. Because whenever the working day ended, I was always there waiting for him to watch the telly or drink whiskey with him. Hermione didn't usually join us for these moments, and that was just fine by me. Draco stopped openly lusting after her too, which I found to be a pleasant surprise. But he was also very careful around me to not send me any mixed signals. That was the part I wanted to remedy because I rather missed the snuggling up and hair ruffling he used to do with me. But in fairness, he was just trying to adhere to our friendship agreement. And frankly, he'd proved to me that he could be a platonic friend without anything else going on. Except I still wanted something to be going on. And I still wanted to save him. That was proving rather difficult. But I was willing to bide my time.
Tonight it was a Friday night and he wanted to go to a bar and get shitfaced. He didn't want to sit around my flat, but rather wanted to go out this time. At first I wasn't even sure I was invited because he didn't specify I'd be coming with him. But he did ask Hermione if she wanted to come with us, so that meant he just automatically included me. That felt good. However Hermione said no. She wanted to relax with a book and bubble bath and some wine. She didn't have any desire to go to a bar. And neither did I really, but I went because Draco wanted to go. We apparated to the city because he said London had the best night life. And we went to this really jumping club called The Red Room. I had no idea how we'd get in though because the line was so long. But Draco dressed me up like him with a white shirt, open at the top, and a black silk suit. He actually purchased the entire outfit for me and said my usual clothes were never going to get me laid. So we were dressed like twins except his suit was navy blue, and this got us to the front of the line. Apparently we looked rich, and when Draco handed the bouncer a wad of Muggle cash, suddenly we were inside the sanctuary, while all the other people waited outside. I loved having a rich friend with style. I was pretty well off, honestly. But I had no style. Draco was teaching me how to be more like him. And I ate it up.
"So Potter, think you'll get lucky tonight?" he asked me as we headed towards the bar to order some drinks.
"Doubtful. What about you?" I wondered, hoping he wouldn't spend the whole night looking for a girl to bed.
"I don't know yet. The night is young. But I don't want you to feel left out. We need to find a fag hag or something," he laughed.
I didn't know what that meant but it sounded mean. I glared at him.
"Fag hag? What does that mean?" I asked crossly.
"Relax Potter. It's not an insult. It's just a name for a bird who hangs around lots of gay men. If I found one of those then I could have her and you could have a go at one her mates. It'd be perfect," he explained.
"I still don't like the term. It sounds derogatory," I shook my head.
"God, get a grip. It's just a saying. You really need a drink more than I do. I'm all stressed out from Hermione barking orders at me all day long. But you're wound awfully tight," he said with a sigh.
I decided to let it go. I suppose it would be a good thing to find a girl who had gay male friends. But I really just wanted to spent the evening with Draco. But I couldn't tell him that without endangering our agreement. We got our drinks and found a high top table to sit at. There were a lot of fine looking people in this club. Men and women. I could appreciate both. But no one looked as good as Draco did. He was sitting there sipping his drink with his messy mop of blonde hair in his eyes, and the polished navy suit. I could see his ankles as the trousers rode up and he wasn't wearing any socks. Did I ever tell you Draco has cute feet? My feet are hairy and gross, but his feet are smooth and it looks like he gets a pedicure, but when I asked him he said pedicures were for women. But I think he's lying. No one has feet that look that good without trying. This is how far gone I am. I'm drooling over his feet. And I don't even have a foot fetish! But I was staring at Draco's feet, while he was looking cool scanning the crowd. We weren't talking, so I tried to remedy that.
"So do you think you'll finish your work project soon?" I wondered sipping my own drink.
"I don't know. Hermione keeps adding layers to it. I might be done by Christmas at this rate. What about you? They letting you off desk duty soon?" he asked me curiously.
I nodded my head.
"My arm is all healed and they said I just made a rookie mistake. I didn't secure the building before I let my guard down. Live and learn. At least they didn't fire me."
"Nah, they'd never fire you. But I think making you ride a desk for a month is punishment enough."
"Yeah, it sucked. But I'm told that Monday morning I'll be back to active duty as an Auror. I can't wait. I wish you were an Auror too," I admitted.
"Me? An Auror? That's never gonna happen," he laughed.
"Why not? You'd be good at it."
"I'm not risking life and limb for a stupid job. Why do you think I'm in the Department of Magical Creatures? It's like the easiest job you could think of. I'm not much of a fighter, in case you don't remember my youth. I spent it hurling insults and running away when things got bad. I couldn't even kill one measly person and be done with it," he said with a sigh.
"Uh, it's kind of a good thing you didn't kill that 'measly' person. He was like the most powerful wizard of all time, aside from Voldemort himself. And I'd hate you a lot more if you actually did that," I informed him.
"No shit. You'd totally hate me. I'm not saying I wish I'd done it. In fact, quite the opposite. I just felt like it proved how not ready and willing I am to attack people, even if I feel like I have to. I'm a lover, not a fighter," he said brushing lint off my jacket.
"I wouldn't mind seeing you fight though. For the greater good. Not like last time when you were fighting on the wrong side. I bet you'd do a good job if you tried," I pointed out, brushing lint off his jacket now since that seemed to be the thing to do.
"Nope. Not gonna happen. I mean, if someone comes after me, I will fight back. But why go asking for trouble? My father said to stay the fuck out of trouble from now on. And I intend to uphold his wishes."
"Your father said that? I thought he hated your job at the Ministry," I shot back.
"He does. He thinks it's pointless. But he does not want me being an Auror. He said I was to stay out of any kind of fight and not to go looking for trouble. Our family name is already a mess, so he doesn't want me ruining it further by being careless. Plus he doesn't want me to get hurt."
"That's kind of pathetic that you'd listen to your Daddy about that. What about what you want to do?" I asked him pointedly.
"This is what I want to do. Daddy has nothing to do with it. But keeping out of trouble suits both of us just fine. Why not heed his advice?" Draco shrugged.
"I rather thought you hated your father and didn't do anything he asked of you," I said with some surprise at how I underestimated Draco's familial ties.
"I don't hate the man. I do my own thing mostly. And in return for me staying out of the papers for bad things, he lets me have my money. It's a sweet arrangement."
"I thought your father wanted you to get married and do stuff like that. You also said he'd never understand about me. Back when we had something," I added softly.
"He does want me married off. And he'd never in a million years accept me with you. But I can't hate him for it. He's just doing what he knows. I'm trying to put him off as long as I can. But the older I get, the harder it's gonna be," Draco admitted with a sigh, as he signaled the waitress for another drink.
"I think it's awful to be told who to marry or who to be with. Don't you think it's awful? What would he really think of our friendship? Does he even know?" I wondered somewhat saddened for his life.
"It is awful to be told what to do. That's why I stay away as much as I can. But like I said he's got spies. And yes, he knows we're friends. I had to tell him. He thinks it's good for our name though. He just has no clue what we used to do. And it's gonna stay that way, Potter. You got it?" he said, leaning over to me somewhat menacingly.
That's not the way I was used to him talking to me these days. But he really, really didn't want our secret out. So I just nodded. What else could I do? He was ashamed of us. And that deflated me incredibly. But the night was still young. We'd barely had anything to drink. It was amazing what might seem like a good idea once you were shitfaced. But then I felt awful for trying to corrupt him into something he'd get disowned for. But I knew he had these longings for me before. I doubt they just poofed away. They couldn't. He was just not acting on them anymore, and I wasn't trying to come on to him. But it was getting harder and harder not to do that. I wanted him so bad. He was still the sexiest guy in the whole bar and I went back to obsessing over his perfect ankles while we sipped our drinks in silence again.
We had several more drinks and were well on our way to shitfaced town when Draco said he wanted to dance. I didn't think he meant with me, but he grabbed my arm and ushered me out to the dancefloor with him. He was a good dancer, and I was terrible at it. But I tried to emulate his movements and look as good as he did while doing them. I'm not sure I pulled it off. I could have just looked like a spastic having an episode. But Draco didn't laugh at me. In fact, he danced real close to me and gyrated around all sexy like. There were two women watching us dance and they seemed to get off on the whole two men dancing sexy together. I had no idea that was a turn on. I knew two women dancing sexy turned men on, but I had no idea it was the same for women. Or at least these women. They were giving us looks and smiles until they jumped onto the floor and started dancing with us. Not my ultimate fantasy to be smooshed between two unknown women at a club, but they did push Draco and I together more and I liked that. We were rubbing against each other and Draco had his arms around the one girl while I just kept my arms limply at my sides. I wasn't pulling this off, but I was trying really hard to. I didn't want Draco to dump me on the floor for the girl, so I kept trying to be included in the dance. Then all of a sudden someone's hands gripped my ass tightly. I thought it was Draco at first, but that was wishful thinking. It was the other girl. She wanted me to grind against her, so I just did it. I'm not proud. But I was really drunk. It didn't give me a boner though, but I already had one from dancing sexy with Draco, so I totally gave her the wrong impression. She felt it on her leg and assumed I wanted to fuck her. She verbalized this in my ear when she asked me to ditch my boyfriend for a quick shag in the loo with her. Ugh. No thanks. And I said as much.
I'd had enough of this dancing and I grabbed Draco's hand and pulled him away from the other girl and tried to get him to dance with me again. But he thought I was nuts.
"What are you doing?" he shouted in my ear over the din of the music.
"That bird asked me to fuck her in the loo. I had to get away from them," I explained loudly.
Draco just laughed and laughed and then he waved at the two girls and grabbed me up in his arms like we really were lovers. They seemed disappointed but they did walk away and leave us.
"Happy now?" Draco asked in my ear.
"Yes, very much so. I'd rather just dance with you anyway," I admitted knowing it might be against the rules, but I was drunk. I already said that before. But it's true. I was. And so was he because he kept dancing with me. He didn't even seem sore that he struck out with the one girl he was dancing with. But I decided to make sure he wasn't angry.
"Are you sure you're okay leaving the girls? I don't want to ruin your game," I shouted in his ear.
"No, don't worry. She's not my type. I can tell she's not very smart. I like smart girls," he shouted back.
"You planning to start a book club with her? I figured you were just gonna shag her and leave her," I laughed slightly at him.
"Nah, not tonight. I think I'd rather just hang with you. Just us guys. I'm not feeling this crowd," he admitted as he took my arm and led me off the dancefloor and back to our table.
We ordered up more drinks and I just kept staring at how beautiful Draco was, while he seemed very lost in thought. I wondered why he wasn't feeling the crowd? But I didn't want to ask him because I was afraid it would lead to me confessing my undying love for him. But I was feeling no pain and I kept leaning on Draco just so I wouldn't fall off the stool. He didn't seem to mind though. He just ruffled up my hair and told me I was getting way too drunk. I concurred and we decided to go back to my place. He was over the night club scene and I never wanted to be there in the first place. So we apparated to my flat and just fell on the couch together laughing from the wild sensation of apparition. You got used to it after so many years but when you were really drunk it was like a rollercoaster. I laid my head on Draco's shoulder and I wanted him to play with my hair some more, but he didn't. He just looked at me deviously and I wondered what was going through his mind. Or if I wanted to know.
"What do you think Hermione's up to right now?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Probably in her bubble bath. Why?" I didn't like that he was bringing her up when I wanted him focused on me.
"We should totally go in there and throw shit at her," he said with a laugh.
"Throw shit at her? Like what?" I laughed right back. It was clear Draco was even more far gone than me.
"I don't know. Pillows. Anything. I'm not saying we lob hand grenades into the bath but I wanna piss her off. She's been harping on me all week. She deserves a little punishment," he said picking up a couch pillow and waving it in my face.
"No. We're not going into her bathroom while she's in the tub. She'll murder both of us," I shook my head.
"I've seen her naked before. Or most of her anyway. Haven't you seen her before?" he asked me curiously.
"No! Why would I have seen her naked?" I wondered.
"Because you live together. Things are bound to get weird once in a while. You mean you've never accidentally seen her naked?" he seemed disbelieving of this but I never had seen her naked. She's seen me in my underwear lots of times, but I've never seen her. I was always a gentlemen and looked away. I didn't really want to see it anyway.
"Even if I had seen her before, we're not gonna dump pillows on her in the bath," I protested vehemently.
"I'm gonna do it. Fuck it. She has it coming," Draco said as he grabbed up all the throw pillows on the couch and started to run up the stairs.
I went after him but almost fell a few times because it's hard to run when you're that inebriated. And the loafers Draco bought me were slippery too. I kept yelling after him, but he kept running and before I knew it we were in Hermione's room. There was a glow coming from under the bathroom door and I could hear classical music playing softly. She was going to kill both of us. Even if I'm the one who tried to stop him. But I was ineffectual and too late. He burst in the door and yelled, 'pillow fight!' at the top of his lungs as he began flinging couch pillows into the tub. Hermione screamed and yelled for him to get out and she was covering herself with the bubbles very nicely despite the attack. Water was getting splashed everywhere and Hermione was not pleased with either one of us. But mostly Draco.
"Get the fuck out of my bathroom! I'm naked here, you buffoon!" she screamed at Draco.
He just launched another pillow at her face and it flew off onto the tile floor.
"That's for making me re-do my report on house elves for you. Three times!" he laughed and launched another pillow at her face.
I don't even think he gave a shit she was naked and also his boss technically. He was just going for it. And I stood there trying to yank him out of the room. But it got slippery in there because of all the water on the floor and I slipped and tumbled right into the tub on top of Hermione. I didn't even know what to do, and neither did she. I was worried I almost killed her but she was still alive enough to yell for me to get the fuck off of her. And I tried! I really tried. But Draco still had pillows and then he slipped and fell too and fell on top of me in the tub. So essentially all three of us were in the bubble bath and Hermione was the only one naked. But being the gentlemen that I am, I covered her with my jacket while I told Draco to get out. But he kept slipping and almost hit his head and Hermione stopped screaming and started laughing. I thought maybe she'd lost her marbles or else drank so much wine this was now funny to her. But it was apparently just the ludicrousness of the moment that struck her.
"I swear to God, I'm going to fucking hex the shit out of both of you!" she yelled as she laughed and held my jacket over her nakedness. "What the fuck were you thinking?" she asked as she splashed water in Draco's face with her foot. But she was still laughing.
"I was mad at you for making me work too bloody hard. I thought this would be funny. I didn't wager I'd fall in the fucking tub on top of you," Draco laughed himself and made no move to get off of me or her.
"Mad at me for being your boss? I could have you fired for this little debacle, you imbecile!" she said kicking more water in his face.
That just caused him to splash water in her face which inadvertently caught me too because I was shielding her. Or trying to at least. Then it became a water fight instead of a pillow fight and somehow Hermione and Draco were attacking each other in the tub while I tried to stay between them. Finally we'd exhausted ourselves from the exertion and being really, really wasted. Hermione was lying there with my jacket on her fully now covering her up, while Draco and I both just sat in the tub with her. We didn't fit very well and most of the water was gone now. But Hermione did drink an entire bottle of wine by herself while we were gone, and that's probably the only reason Draco and I are still alive. But she finally spoke.
"I'm freezing now. You two lot get the fuck out of the tub while I get dried off," she said forcefully shoving me and Draco away from her.
We scrambled out of the tub and kept slipping around and I accidentally did catch sight of Hermione's nakedness as my jacket didn't cover her all the way. It did nothing for me, but Draco kept staring like an utter prat. He didn't even have the decency to pretend he hadn't seen her. He just stood there with his tongue hanging out of his mouth until I grabbed his arm forcefully and shoved him out of the bathroom. He was still laughing and I directed him to my room, even though we were getting water all over the floor and didn't have any towels. I figured we'd strip down in my room and I'd get us some. I didn't want to be anywhere near Hermione right now. Nor did I want Draco near her. Not with how he was looking at her in the tub. We got to my room and I just started pulling his clothes off and he pulled mine off and for a second I thought, holy shit, this is happening! But once he was naked, he just fell on my bed and crawled under the covers, never even bothering to dry off.
"I'm so hammered," he moaned softly into my pillows as I stood there naked myself but with a towel I had picked up off the floor.
"You're getting my bed all wet, you wanker," I said throwing another towel at him. He put it under his head at least and tried to dry it off.
"Why did I think it was a good idea to jump in the bathtub with my Armani suit on? That cost more than I make in a month and now it's ruined," he lamented.
"Hey, you wanted to throw the fucking pillows in the bath. It's not my fault you slipped and fell in. My suit cost a lot too and now it's also ruined because silk shrinks! And Hermione is lounging in what's left of her bath in my suit jacket!" I yelled at him. I didn't really care about the suit, but I was annoyed at his crazy behavior.
"I ruined your couch pillows too I think. Sorry mate," Draco sighed as he finally sat up in the bed and toweled his beautiful locks to a messy perfection. I couldn't stay mad at him.
"You want some boxers at least so you're not totally naked in my bed?" I offered with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes please."
I rooted in my drawer and found a pair of flannel boxers for him and a pair for myself. I was comfortable being nude in front of Draco, but if he was covering up, then so was I. It was still underwear and he was still in my bed. And I watched him pull the pants on and I just sighed inwardly at how amazing he looked naked. His body was chiseled perfection. I was just me. Nothing special really. Not as scrawny as I used to be, but definitely not chiseled. I crawled in the bed beside him and I admit I snuggled up to him. I couldn't help myself. It was cold. He didn't stop me. But Hermione on the other hand had other ideas. She came barging into the bedroom with two cans of silly string she'd gotten and Ron and George's joke shop. She jumped on the bed and sprayed us both in the face with it while laughing hysterically. She was in her bathrobe now and her assault on us was relentless. But we had it coming. We tried wrestling the cans out of her grasp, but the girl is strong. She wasn't letting go until my entire bed was covered in silly string and Draco and I both had to pull it off our faces in order to breathe. Then when the cans were empty she chucked them to the ground and started jumping on the bed hitting us with pillows. We really did have this coming. But Draco grabbed her by the waist and plunked her down onto the bed in the middle of us, and started tickling her. It was a terrible thing to witness because she's insanely ticklish, and I felt bad for her, but she had it coming too. We all had everything coming to us. But eventually she could take no more and cried mercy. Draco stopped and she just lay breathlessly in the bed with us, right in the middle. Her hair was a bushy disaster and her robe had come open slightly revealing she had on a nightgown now and wasn't naked any longer. Thank God.
But I don't know that Draco was thanking God. He just kept looking at her and playing with her hair and not mine. I could see the affection he had for her in his eyes and it pained me to witness. He didn't ever look at me quite like that when we were fooling around. I felt awkward in my own bed. But I didn't say anything. In fact, none of us really said anything. Except for when Hermione said she wanted to sleep with us. Now get your mind out of the gutter. She meant actual sleep. She cozied down in between us and pulled both of us to her. I was okay with it, but I was less okay that Draco was there. He was liking it too much. And when he kissed her cheek before they fell asleep I suddenly realized that I was probably the intruder into something I couldn't ever compete with. Hermione was a mudblood, yes. In Draco's eyes. But she was a girl. And I wasn't. Therefore being with me was a freak show. And being with her, while unconventional in his family's eyes, was utterly ordinary to everyone else. I was probably always going to be the dirty little secret. And I wasn't okay with it. But I had no choice for the evening as sleep claimed me too.
In the morning I woke up first. Draco and Hermione were cuddled up together and I was a lone wolf by myself on the edge of the bed. I don't know how that happened because when we fell asleep I made sure my hand was touching Draco's hair. But I guess we all moved around when we slept. And the two of them were still snuggling like lovers. It really made me wonder what Hermione's true feelings were. She claimed she hated Draco, and was only nice to him for my sake. But would you snuggle with someone you hated? I doubted it. Which just brought me back to where I was months ago, wondering if I was standing in the way of true love. I didn't want that to be the case, but what if it was? What if Draco and Hermione really wanted to be together? But that thought was interrupted when Hermione awoke. She saw the predicament she was in and sat up straight and looked horrified. She then looked over at me and I just smiled.
"Oh God. Please tell me nothing kinky happened last night," she uttered miserably, scooting away from Draco and closer to me.
"Not really. I mean, unless you count the three of us taking a bubble bath together as kinky," I laughed slightly.
"Oh my God. I remember that now! You two are idiots! And how did I get here?" she wondered not remembering her night very clearly. Must have been some bottle of wine.
"You attacked us with silly string. Don't you remember? And then there was a pillow fight and a tickle fight. It was all very innocent. I promise you," I swore to her.
"I remember now. That was funny. The silly string part. Not the rest of it. What on earth possessed you two to invade my bath and throw pillows at me?" she asked with a huff.
"It was Draco's plan! I tried to stop him. But after a while you kind of seemed okay with it," I shrugged slightly.
"I wasn't okay with it. Far from it. You two embarrassed me to death. And why am I snuggly wuggly with Draco. I didn't do anything with him did I?"
"No love, you didn't," Draco said as he was apparently awake now and listening to us. He just yawned and pulled the pillow over his face.
"Good. I better not have. That would just be wrong and weird," she said trying to smooth down her wild mane of bushy hair.
"Yeah, pretty fucking weird since I was in the bed with you guys all night. Come on Hermione, you know nothing happened," I ribbed her playfully.
"I just didn't know what to think waking up like this. The night is coming back to me though. I just can't believe you both saw me naked," she said regretfully.
"I didn't mean to!" I proclaimed.
"I meant to, but it's not like I haven't seen most of it before. I've been up close and personal with that body," Draco reminded her as he took the pillow off his face.
"Don't remind me. Ugh. I just wanted a quiet night and instead I get assaulted with pillows in the bath and have no choice but to retaliate," she said indignantly.
"You got us good though. Look at my bed," I motioned for her to see all the silly string lying around all smooshed into my duvet.
"Look at your hair. You've got silly string embedded in the mess," she giggled playing with my hair.
"Is it in my hair too?" Draco asked, sitting up to face both of us.
I laughed at him. He had pink silly string all over his beautiful locks. I reached over and tried to pull some of it off.
"It's everywhere. And this shit never comes off if you spray it too close to someone," I said.
"This is just great. My hair is ruined and so is my suit. Thanks a lot Hermione," Draco said giving her a slight shove.
"Hey, you had it coming. And it's not my fault you fell into my bathtub!"
"I don't even know what I was thinking with that one. But it seemed like a good idea at the time," he laughed slightly.
"Next time you do something like that, I'll call the police," she told him huffily.
"The police? Come on. You had fun. At least admit that. I saw you laughing too!" Draco insisted.
"I was not! Okay, well maybe a little. It was so absurd I couldn't help myself," she said in a small voice.
"Stuffy Hermione knows how to have fun, she just doesn't like to spread it around," Draco ribbed her.
"I'm not stuffy!"
"Guys, stop! My head hurts. I can't listen to the back and forth right now," I said, trying to put an end to their friendly banter.
I admit my head did hurt, but not that much. I just didn't want them talking to each other so much. I'm a terrible friend and I know it. But her presence in my bed was messing up my plan to snuggle with Draco all morning. That is if he'd let me. But he never would let me with Hermione in the bed.
"I'm getting up anyway. I'm putting on coffee. If either of you want some, I'll be in the kitchen," Hermione said, taking my subtle hint and vacating the bed.
Draco just looked after her with lustful eyes. There was no denying the attraction that was there. But he was attracted to me too! That much I knew as well. I wanted him to focus on that attraction and not the one for her. Once she was gone, I turned to Draco and smiled. He smiled back and attempted to get up out of the bed. I practically tackled him back down.
"What the fuck are you doing?" he laughed at me with my arms around his waist.
"I was gonna help you get the silly string out of your hair," I muttered awkwardly as an excuse to keep him in bed with me longer.
"I could do it myself in the mirror," he noted.
"Yeah, well just let me help," I urged him.
So we sat cross legged across from each other and we both picked out bits of string from each other's hair. I felt like monkey's in a zoo picking fleas off each other as a sign of affection. But Hermione really did a number on us. And my bed I feared was actually ruined. At least the duvet. But so were most of our couch throw pillows too. They were likely lying in the bathroom in Hermione's room all soggy and useless along with my suit jacket we paid so much for.
"We really should get the throw pillows out of the bathroom . Use our wands to dry them off again?" I offered as I pulled the last bits of string from his hair.
"Yeah. Maybe we can salvage your jacket? I know you just got that thing and I bollocksed it up for you."
"It's okay."
"You looked real good in that suit, Potter," he told me sincerely.
"I did?" I was momentarily shocked to hear a compliment like that.
"Yeah, you did. Very handsome. Not as handsome as me, but it's a start," he added jokingly, to lighten the mood.
"No one ever looks as good as you do," I said truthfully, hoping it would endear me to him further.
"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to seduce me," he laughed.
"What if I was?" I asked boldly.
He became agitated at this and raked his hands through his hair. He got out of the bed.
"I'd say that someone was breaking the rules that I've painstakingly followed and I'd be a little cross," he told me seriously.
"I was just kidding!" I lied to save face. "God, take a joke why don't you?"
"You better be kidding. Because I meant what I said at the club. My father can't ever know what we did before. And it can't happen again."
"I know Draco. I'm sorry. It was just a joke. I was fooling around. I know we're just friends now," I said trying not to burst into tears at this entire thing.
I wanted him so much but being friends was my bloody perfect idea. And now I was the one who wanted more. I always wanted more. And I knew I would. But Draco didn't. And I had to accept that. Somehow. No matter what transpired between us before, it was apparently over. He was too afraid of his father's wrath if anyone found out. And he'd rather live a lie than be with me. It was fucked up, I thought. But I couldn't force him to love me. And I didn't want to lose his friendship. So I knew I had to tone it back down again. For both our sakes.
"You're the one who asked me to stop playing games with you lot. And I did. Don't be the one starting them up again," he chided me.
"So is that all it really was with me and you? A game?" I asked feeling wounded by his words.
"Yes. It was just a game. But I actually like you and Hermione so I want to be friends. That's it. So take it or leave it. But I don't want to play games with people I care about," he said earnestly.
I wasn't sure how to feel. On one hand, he was saying that everything before had just been a game. Which sucked. But then he was also saying he cared a lot about me and Hermione both. He wanted us in his life. I just didn't understand how or why a person who felt that way could play games like that in the first place. Draco was one warped person sometimes. But I still hadn't given up the idea of trying to save him. I just had no idea how I was going to do it. Or if he wanted it done. But I was gonna be patient. Good things come to those who wait. And I was prepared to wait forever for him. I loved him that much.
To be continued….Please leave some feedback for this story! I'm hoping you all are enjoying this twisted love story.