Father Figure Much

Ok so I'm not quite sure when Draco's birthday is so I'm just going to go with what I did in my last Harry Potter story and make it sometime in March, even though I think that's when Ron's is…can't quite remember. Oh well.

January turned out to be quite the uneventful month. Apart from the fact that Snape was actually doing a good job (by Harry and Ron's standards anyways) at teaching Defence, nothing else seemed to be different. Although it was almost quite common knowledge now that Draco and Grace were together, no one really was sure if they were actually, well, together. They spent time with each other all the time, sat together in the classes they had together and because of their refusal to actually be separated, they had their own room. Grace had eased into Hogwarts living and had been able to go down to Hogsmeade in the trip they had in January.

"Are you going to do it?" Blaise asked, fooling around with his quill as he balanced it on its tip.

"Do what?" Draco asked, leaning back in his chair, staring at the work in front of him wishing it could do itself. They were on a free period so they sat in the library until they had to go to Defence class.

"Man, the next Hogsmeade trip is on Valentine's again." Blaise said. Draco rocked a bit. "And there's some party thing going on that's like some sort of dance."

"Uh huh." Draco said, pretty sure he knew where this was going.

"Oh come on man, just ask Gracie girl out." Blaise said. He had gotten pretty friendly with Grace and was now seemingly the only person that could get away with calling her 'Gracie'.

"Since when do I ask girls out?" Draco asked.

"Since everyone thinks you and said girl are already together but no one can quite prove it." Blaise said. "Course everyone also thought Potter and Granger would wind up together but she went with Weasley…"

"Exactly. I don't have to do what they all want." Draco said.

"Well what about what you want?" Blaise asked. "Come on…just ask her next period."

"Oh yeah sure." Draco said. "In the class taught by the man who might as well be her father now. Good idea."

"Hey man, Snape likes you." Blaise said. "And in case you haven't noticed, because guys are unaware of what's going on with you and her, they've been giving her looks."

"Looks?" Draco asked.

"Yep." Blaise said. "You know those…'I want you bad' kinda things." Draco's eyes narrowed slightly as he stopped rocking. "Let's face it man. Gracie's attractive and the more comfortable she gets here, the more comfortable she'll be with some other guy." Draco dropped his chair back onto all four legs with a bang. Blaise could tell he had won.

"Fine I'll do it." Draco said, starting to pack his stuff up. "But I'll do it tonight when it's just me and her." Blaise rolled his eyes. On the other hand…

"So when do you think he's going to ask you?" Hermione asked.

"Who and what?" Grace asked.

"You know…the next Hogsmeade trip has a party thing going on…on Valentine's Day." Hermione said.

"Ok…so what's your point?" Grace asked.

"Gosh you really don't get it." Hermione said. Grace raised an eyebrow. "Valentine's Day…day of love…everyone talking about you and Draco…"

"We're…I don't know what we are." Grace said.

"Do you guys do anything apart from the little kisses at greetings and such?" Hermione asked. Grace thought about it and shook her head. "Weird…"

"I think Snape's gotten him a bit…paranoid seems to be the right word." Grace said.

"Yes I've noticed the way he's acting when you're concerned now." Hermione said. "Although everyone is very well aware of the fact that you're getting good marks because you can and not by special treatment."

"Yep." Grace said, nodding. "Although I do get some treatment."

"Yeah." Hermione said. They passed the library and a second later Draco and Blaise came out of it.

"Hey you two." Draco called. The girls stopped and waited for them to catch up. Draco shifted his books and put an arm around Grace. Hermione gave Grace a look before smiling slightly. Grace just giggled and pushed her friend.

"So Gracie, up for your first real holiday in a few years?" Blaise asked.

"Since when does Valentine's count as a holiday?" Grace asked. "You don't get the day off from school with it."

"True." Blaise said. "But you do get gifts if you're lucky." Grace giggled again. They walked to DADA class. When Snape opened the door his eyes fell on Draco and Grace almost instantly. The young man carefully slid his arm off the girl, causing Grace and Hermione to laugh as they made their way into the classroom.

"You were right." Grace said.

"I usually am." Hermione said. "You all seem surprised almost every time." They sat at their tables, Grace now sitting between Draco and Blaise.

"I've been told that you students have been expecting to learn patronuses." Snape said. "How many of you still want that?" Most hands rose in the air. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco just relaxed for they all knew it already. Grace put her hand up when she caught Snape looking at her. "Very well then. Everyone stand up, it's best to do this in an open space."

"Don't we know it." Ron said. Snape narrowed his eyes at him as the class stood. The tables and chairs were pushed against walls.

"Now then…those of you that do know how to produce a patronus, step forward and do so." Snape said. Draco was the only Slytherin. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville stepped forward. Lavender, Parvati, Seamus and Dean knew the idea behind patronuses but could never manage to create them during their DA lessons back in fifth year.

"Expecto Patronum!" The five students shouted. A stag, an otter, a dog, a phoenix and a rather large toad all erupted into the room.

(((A/N: Again, not quite sure if Neville has a patronus but I thought it would be interesting to give him a toad.)))

The class applauded.

"Can you do it professor?" One of the Slytherin girls asked.

"Of course I can." Snape said. He created his patronus, the doe. Grace looked up at him a bit sadly. She had never told Harry what she had found out about Snape being in love with his mother…or that the grumpy professor's patronus was the same as what Lily's was. There was more applause and all the patronuses vanished. Grace wasn't quite up to creating one so she was glad that Snape had spent the entire class teaching the students what to do instead of having them try it.

"We know this…couldn't we have just skipped out on this class?" Ron muttered loud enough for Hermione, Grace and Harry to hear. Hermione scolded him. Sadly, it seemed that Snape had heard.

"If I can track one down, I will have a boggart in here tomorrow so that you all may practise on it." He announced. Grace glared at Ron.

"What's the matter?" Harry asked once they were out of the class. "You've seen us do it loads of times."

"Yeah but I've never done it." Grace said. "Remember when you tried to teach me how to and I just couldn't manage?"

"Oh…right." Harry said. "Well…maybe Snape will cut you a break and you won't have to."

"I don't think so." Grace said. Draco, after a quick little kiss to Grace, separated from them as they entered the Great Hall and joined Blaise and the others at the Slytherin table.

"I thought owls came at breakfast." Ron said, noticing two owls flying into the hall as they sat down.

"So did I." Grace said. The owls landed in front of them. Ron and Grace looked at each other before taking the letters and opening them. There was a pause and then a grin broke out on Ron's face as Grace squealed.

"What? What is it?" Hermione asked.

"Bill and Fleur…they're…they…" Ron said.

"Going to have a baby!!" Grace said, clapping her hands.

"And they have Grace as godmother and aren't quite sure about godfather yet." Ron said, looking back at the letter in his hands. "Bill wrote me, Fleur wrote Grace. He says that he told Fleur not to but she said that she just had to."

"Yep, that's Fleur." Grace said, smiling. "Always doing what she wants."

"You realize how much of a challenge it would have been if we had Grace back at the wedding?" Ron asked. "I think Fleur might have come close to pulling her hair out trying to figure out who to use as maid of honour."

"She still would have gone with Gabrielle." Hermione said. Grace nodded.

"Well see ya later Grace." Harry said, once they all finished eating and were heading out of the hall. The Trio headed up the marble staircase and Grace hung around the outside of the hall.

"You know she's waiting for you." Blaise said. "I betcha anything she's waiting."

"Yeah, and I'm going." Draco said.

"Don't forget to do what I told you, mate." Blaise said. Draco narrowed his eyes at his friend before leaving the hall. Grace was right there, where she usually was if she left first with no intentions of hanging out with anyone.

"Hey." Draco said, coming up to her. Grace looked up and smiled. They walked to their room with little spoken. Grace said the password and they walked in. "You know I'm starting to think that McGonagall had planned for us to be coming back to school."

"Took you a month to realize that?" Grace asked, smiling. "I figured that out in the first week. I mean…why else would there already be this room conveniently set up for us?"

"Fine so I'm a bit slow at taken in the obvious." Draco said.

"That's for sure." Grace said, quietly. Draco raised an eyebrow. She sat down on the couch and opened one of her books. Draco decided to go into the kitchen for a drink and try to come up with a good way of asking her. Why was this so hard?? He was the king of sweet talking girls. He was great at talking with Grace. So why was this getting to be such a problem?

The answer was pretty obvious: because he wasn't trying to sweet talk her. Sweet talking was just a bunch of flattering non-sense that he threw around. He wasn't trying to do that with Grace, he was trying to ask her out on a date…something he had never actually done. If he needed a date, girls usually came to him and all he had to do was pick. He liked Grace far too much to do something like that. Then why did he have to choose his words so carefully? Shouldn't he just be able to ask her?

"Merlin this is annoying." Draco muttered, running his hand through his hair. He had to get it cut soon. He hadn't cut it since before running from the school and now it was making him look like Ron but with blonde hair. Or maybe he could just start tying it back. Draco stopped his train of thought when he realized that he had gone from a huge issue to something that was just really not that important.

"Are you ok?" Grace asked, leaning against the doorway. "You've been standing still for like…two minutes."

"Oh." Draco said. "Just uh…umm…thinking."

"Ok…about what?" Grace asked, walking into the kitchen.

"Uh…well…it's umm…" Draco said. Grace giggled. "What?"

"You…you're stuttering." Grace said. "That is so cute." Draco mock glared at her. "Oh no…the evil Slytherin is glaring at me. Whatever shall I do?"

"Well I can think of a few things." Draco said. He mentally slapped himself at the suggestion. Grace raised an eyebrow. "Never mind, bad idea." Grace tilted her head curiously. "You don't want to know."

"Yes I do." Grace said.

"No you don't." Draco said.

"And how would you know what I want?" Grace asked.

"Oh no…you've been doing girl talk with Granger haven't you." Draco said.

"So what if I have?" Grace asked. Draco chuckled. "What?" He reached forward and put his hand on her cheek.

"You're beautiful, you know that?" Draco said. He surprised himself as well as Grace.

"Thanks." Grace said. They were quiet for a while. Grace sighed. "Draco."

"Yeah?" Draco asked.

"Are you gonna kiss me sometime soon or should I do it?" Grace asked. Both of them laughed and Draco bent down to kiss her. After a moment, Grace stepped closer and wound her arms around his neck as his hand slid from her cheek to the back of her head and the other took up residence on her waist. The kiss deepened and wound up more passionate until Draco found himself sitting on the edge of the table. The hand he had on her waist was now on the table to help keep balance. They pulled away, breathing heavily.

"This…might sound a bit silly now." Draco said. "But…do you wanna go to the…Valentine's thing…with me?" Grace managed a small laugh as she leaned her forehead against his. Draco's eyes dropped to the bare necklace. He still hadn't quite gotten used to her not having a necklace.

"Ok." Grace said. "I'll go with you. It's about time you asked." This time Draco laughed.

Ok so a little bit of making out there. Next chapter gets Valentine's and the next one after that I think I'll do Draco's birthday.