Chapter Four

Apparently she didn't have to worry so much about the dance anyways, as when Monday evening's Astronomy lesson came around, Alexei Varchek plopped down in the seat in front of her, which was usually occupied by someone else, and spun around to face her.

"Hi." He said.

"Hi." She said back. She had already figured out where this might go. She could almost feel Draco smirking next to her.

"Do you have a date to the dance yet?" He asked her, bluntly. He had an accent when he spoke that she found strangely attractive. She shook her head.

"Would you like to go with me?" She almost wanted to laugh at how straight to the point he was speaking, but she didn't want him to think she was laughing at him. He was smiling at her with straight, gleaming teeth and full lips. He had blue eyes and dark blonde hair. He was definitely nice to look at. And despite the fact that he was a year below her and they had never had a conversation before, she liked his open honesty.

"Sure. I'd like that." She answered him.

His seat's usual occupant was standing impatiently in the aisle, so Alexei gave her one last grin and made his way back to his own seat on the seventh year side of the room.

She looked over and met Draco's eyes. He had one hand covering his mouth, apparently stifling his laughter. His shoulders were shaking.

"Shut up." She told him. "Do you have a date?" She asked. "I didn't think so."

She turned her nose up into the air and sniffed. He groaned.

"Who should I ask?"

"How about Granger?" She thought about Hermione's worry that she wouldn't get a date.

"How about someone that might actually say yes?" He replied.

Aiofe went through a mental list of the other girls in their year and quickly moved onto the seventh years. Couldn't be a Gryffindor, and Draco would probably turn his nose up at a Hufflepuff. There were a couple good options. She went through all of them in her mind.

"What about Cordelia Gifford?" She asked him. He raised an eyebrow at her, the unspoken 'who?' clear in his eyes.

"Seventh year Ravenclaw. She's smart, pretty, and I'm pretty sure she's single right now." Smart and pretty had really been the most important requirements, she knew. Cordelia was in her Magical Arts class, and the girl seemed very easy-going and sweet. "I'll point her out at lunch."

Draco let the conversation die as they both turned their attention to the professor, who was beginning to give them dirty looks for their side conversation.

X

"You already got a date?" Daphne had her head in her hands, being slightly overdramatic, Aiofe thought. The dance had only been announced a couple days ago, after all… Maybe she only felt that way because she no longer had to worry about finding a date, though.

Aiofe had tried to break the news to her gently, but it hadn't gone that well.

Theo sat at the same table as them in the library, trying to write a two foot parchment for Ancient Runes. He had a pair of black square frame glasses on. He looked cute. But annoyed at Daphne interrupting his studying to talk about the Halloween dance.

"Why don't you just ask Blaise?"

She gave him a dirty look. "And who are you going to ask, Theo?"

He shrugged. "Maybe your sister."

Aiofe tried not to giggle at Daphne's groan of complete and utter despair at that bit of information. "Even my little sister is going to have a date before I do."

"Who do you want to ask you?" Aiofe asked. She heard Theo snort from across the table and had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. They both knew who Daphne wanted to ask her.

Daphne thought for a moment. "Who are my options?"

"Well, are you willing to go with any Gryffindors or Hufflepuffs?" That seemed to be a good place to start when picking a date for the Slytherins. It had worked for Draco. She'd pointed Cordelia out to him at lunch that day and he had promptly walked over to the Ravenclaw table, sat down beside the girl and her two friends, and asked her to the dance. He'd come back with both a date for the dance and a date to Hogsmeade.

Daphne grimaced. "Not unless I get really desperate."

"And you don't want Theo to politely suggest to Blaise that he ask you?"

"I will do no such thing." They both ignored him.

"No."

Aiofe once again dismissed all the boys in their year. Though Smith, Banks, and Corner were all decent options that she would suggest if Daphne couldn't find anyone else. There were a few Slytherin boys in her Potions class that Daphne might find attractive.

"Bowen Duffield?"

"She's already slept with him." Theo answered for Daphne. She gave him another dirty look.

"Felix Brunt?"

"Isn't he a sixth year?" Daphne wrinkled her nose up.

"I'm sure you could teach him a thing or two." Theo smirked at her and she rolled her eyes.

"Ew."

Aiofe moved on from the Slytherins. Truthfully she didn't know all that many of them anyways. "What about Luca Caruso? He's a seventh year Ravenclaw."

Daphne seemed to consider this. She'd apparently noticed the boy before, as she didn't ask who he was, so that was a good sign. He was a good-looking guy. The calm, quiet type with dark eyes and hair and a cute smile. He was in Advanced Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Alchemy with Theo and Aiofe, so he had to be decently intelligent. He'd been on Aiofe's own short list of possible dates for the dance. He was a half-blood like her, but she knew both purebloods were trying very hard not to care about things like that, so she didn't bring it up.

They debated the merits of Daphne going to the dance with Luca for a few more minutes. She told the other girl everything she knew about him, which wasn't much, but was enough to get Daphne to eventually accept the option.

Then they had decided that it was best that Theo be the one to bring him around the group so that Daphne could seduce him. He groaned at the idea.

"Just invite him to come study one day in the library." Daphne told him.

"Nope. Not doing it." He responded.

"Theo don't be so selfish!"

Theo shrugged. "Just ask the dude out. This is really not my business."

In the interest of preventing an argument between the two, Aiofe offered to speak to Luca. She had Ancient Runes Monday evenings with Theo and they usually worked on their homework together after, she would just invite Luca to join them and Daphne would casually meet up with them in the library. If Luca said no, they would figure something else out. Theo seemed irritated at having to have any part of the ordeal, but unwilling to completely ditch Aiofe. She made a note to do something nice for him as thanks.

X

True to her word, Aiofe approached Luca before Ancient Runes class that evening. The fact that it was such a small class made it a little less daunting. She'd had conversations with pretty much all of her classmates by now, so her asking if he'd like to join her and Theo in the library to study after class didn't seem that weird. She hoped. She suspected he probably thought she wanted him to ask her to the Halloween dance, and hoped that didn't lead anywhere awkward. Hermione Granger, who sat behind him, definitely thought that, if her grin was anything to go by. She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at Hermione before mouthing the word later. Luca accepted her invitation and she went back to her seat next to Theo, only slightly embarrassed.

Their professor began the lecture before she'd even sat back down, he seemed wholly unconcerned with what his pupils were doing most of the time. He'd told them that their grade in the class was up to them, and he wasn't going to lose any sleep over it. It sounded slightly mean but she understood the principle behind it, that he was going to treat them like adults instead of school children.

He was droning on about the history of the 6th century Bjorketorp Runestone and the Proto-Norse runes found on it.

She leaned over as close as she could decently get to Theo, and whispered quietly enough that the pair of students sitting in front of them couldn't hear her words. "I may not go down in history, but I'll go down on you."

He fought down a grin. "Terrible."

After class the three of them made their way down to the library. Aiofe was feeling anxious for Daphne. She knew this was out of her comfort zone. She normally would have just let a pureblood Slytherin boy come to her in the years prior. There had never been much choice or uncertainty in the matter of who she could or would date.

They led Luca to their usual secluded back corner table. Monday wasn't a very busy evening in the library, especially after six o'clock in the evening, so there wasn't much going on. Theo sat down in his usual chair and pulled his essay from earlier out. She hoped this went well and he didn't end up annoyed that his study was interrupted again.

Aiofe had her own paper to work on. She'd spent some of last year studying on her own while at her mom's, and had a bunch of her own books to use as reference material, so she dragged her three favorites out of her book bag. Theo spared her an amused look at this, he always found it funny when she brought her own books to the library.

"What are you writing your paper on, Luca?"

"Origin of the Anglo-Saxon futhorc." He answered her. It was a safe option, though it could be pretty interesting depending on what he included. She and Theo had both chose single writings to translate. Theo was working on a piece from Havamal that detailed how to bring the dead back to life. Aiofe had selected the writing she wanted to use for her paper, but not which particular selection she would translate and analyze.

They'd barely gotten settled in when Daphne appeared. She looked pretty and casual, in her school skirt with a sweatshirt thrown over it and white tennis shoes. "Mind if I join you guys?"

Theo shifted towards Aiofe to give her more room to sit next to Luca. Aiofe wanted to grin at him but she was pretty sure his movement was more in the spirit of keeping Luca and Daphne on the opposite side of the table from him, rather than helping out Daphne.

Aiofe could tell Daphne was nervous. She almost seemed shy, which was not a word she would have attributed to the other girl before now. But she was saying all the right things, asking Luca about his writing. Explaining to him that she had chosen to continue with History of Magic instead of Runes because she thought it would be better suited to her career choice, but she still found the subject fascinating.

She was pretty sure Luca was immediately interested. She couldn't imagine any guy not liking Daphne, though. Especially with the way she was smiling at him and hesitantly asking questions about his future career plans. Luca's calm presence seemed to help relieve some of her nerves as well.

Aiofe smiled smugly at Theo. They were adorable already and she was two for two in matchmaking for the Slytherins. She pulled a piece of parchment towards herself and jotted down the call number of a book she needed for her paper.

"Hey, Theo? Come help me find this book, would you?" Theo got up from the table and followed her through the stacks. She led him to back section out of the view of their table.

"Oh, come on, they're so cute." She exclaimed as soon as they were out of earshot.

"I think it's cute that you think it's so cute." He responded. He had plopped down in an armchair, long legs stretched out in front of him and his head leaned back against the cushion. She thought vaguely that he wouldn't look out of place sitting in front of a fireplace with a glass of whiskey in his hand right now. She realized she'd been staring at him and looked up to meet his eyes.

He smirked. "Do you work at the Owl Post?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "Because I think I just saw you checking out my package."

She blushed. "I was thinking about how you looked like you should be lounging in front of a fireplace with a glass of whiskey right now." He continued to smirk at her.

"I had sex in this chair once." She nearly choked on her own spit. "That night in the Three Broomsticks?" He prompted. "You wanted details?"

"How, then?"

The grin he gave her in response was absolutely filthy. He was about to say something that was going to embarrass her, she could feel it. "Come here and I'll show you."

She took a few steps closer to him, cautiously. When she got in reach he stuck out his arm, wrapped his hand around the back of her knee, and pulled her forward, into his lap. He did it so gracefully that she landed with one knee on the chair on either side of his thighs.

"Like this." He looked down at her legs. "I mean, we were a bit closer together, but you get the idea." Aiofe was both embarrassed and turned on. She could imagine it, fucking him like this. She was pretty sure the feeling of his legs under her ass was going to be something she revisited in her dreams often from now on.

"And how did you not get caught?" She hadn't stood up yet. He reached out with one hand and grabbed a hold of her hip, anchoring her in place, the other hand he used to cover her mouth. She flushed. Oh.

He grinned and patted her thigh. "Come on, we should get back to the table before they come looking for us." She stood up from his lap and followed him back to the table. She was pretty sure her face was still bright red.

She was confused as well. She had given him an opportunity to do something back there when she had stayed in his lap, but he didn't take her up on the offer. Why not? Because they were friends? Because she was going to the dance with Alexei? Because he didn't want to?

Did she want to?

Theo was hot, of course. She was constantly catching herself checking him out. She'd drawn more than one or two sketches of his full lips, long eyelashes, and sharp jaw in Art class. She often found her eyes running down the width of his shoulders, the flat planes of his torso, the long lines of his legs while he was lounging around in the common room. But Theo never seemed to go on more than one date with the same girl. Was more interested in casual hook ups than anything of substance, and at the end of the day she didn't want to lose him as a friend. No matter how sexy his dark blue eyes and wavy dark hair were…

She forcibly shifted her attention back to her paper, deciding now was not the time for those thoughts. Perhaps later… alone… in her bed… with the hangings drawn.

In their absence Daphne and Luca had settled into a comfortable silence. Aiofe noticed that their chairs were closer together than they had been before, though. About fifteen minutes before the library closed Daphne packed up her homework and told Luca she would see him at Hogsmeade on the weekend. Aiofe grinned. Theo didn't look up from his paper.

Luca left not long after her, saying his polite goodbyes to Aiofe and Theo, who was still engrossed in his essay. At five til eight Madam Pince dimmed the lights and Theo sighed.

"We could go study in the common room, if you want?" She offered.

"No, it's okay, I got most of what I wanted to get done for the night." She made a mental note not to utilize their Monday evening study sessions for any future social activities. They packed up and she followed Theo through the halls to the common room. Blaise was engaged in a very intense round of exploding snap with Zacarias Smith, who looked like he had already managed to lose both eyebrows.

Theo leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Blaise cheats."

Theo joined the group sitting around the game table in the common room and Aiofe went off to find Daphne. Luckily, she was in the first place Aiofe looked, the dormitory. She sat on her bed cross-legged, brushing out her long hair. Aiofe took the brush from her and climbed in behind her.

"So what did I miss in the library?"

"Not much, he asked me to go to Hogsmeade this weekend, so you'll have to find another date." She grinned at Aiofe over her shoulder.

"That's alright, I was going to volunteer both of us to help Granger look for a costume, so now it will be just me, I guess." Daphne almost seemed sad to miss it.

"Where did you and Theo get off to, anyways?"

Aiofe laughed. "We were just hiding behind the bookshelves, trying to give you guys some privacy. I figured Luca was more likely to make a move without an audience."

"Well, you were right." Daphne pulled the brush out of Aiofe's hands and they traded places.

"What's Granger planning on dressing as?"

"Not sure. Any suggestions? I don't think she has a date yet either."

"Well, you seem to be a great little matchmaker, so I'm sure you'll have her fixed up in no time. And how about Medusa? She could transform those curls into snakes easily. Or Artemis? Or maybe she should go the totally unexpected route, and be something like cupid. Or something sensual… Aphrodite? I don't know why but she just really screams Greek goddess to me…"

"I'll suggest those. I like the Aphrodite idea… And I tried to get Draco to ask her to the dance, actually." Daphne cracked up at that and Aiofe looked back at her. Daphne reached up and pulled the curtains around her bed closed, and cast a muffliato spell on them.

"Draco will go to his grave before he ever admits it, but he has a great big crush on Granger. Always has. I think he's a… what's it called when you're attracted to people's minds?"

"Sapiosexual?"

"Yeah, that. So even back when she had buck teeth and no tits, Draco had a thing for her. He's a bit of a swot, and he liked that she challenged him in class. If she hadn't been a Gryffindor, muggleborn, and Harry Potter's best friend he probably would have made a move years ago."

Aiofe was pretty sure her eyebrows were somewhere around her hairline. Draco had never shown any sort of interest in Granger that she had noticed. And she tended to notice things.

"But anyways, he's not ready to give it a shot. Not sure he ever will be with their history. He's good at hiding his feelings but if you keep dragging her to hang out with him, he might slip up."

"He told you this?" Aiofe asked her.

"Oh Merlin, no. I don't think he's ever admitted it out loud. But I've known him for years and I saw him after that time she punched him in the face. He was in love. Or lust... Either way."

Aiofe wondered if there was a universe that Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger ever got together. She wondered if she should try to push them together. Would that even be the right thing to do? Hermione's friends would never accept it, and it might cause her a lot of heartache in the long run. That would still be better than Granger trying again with Weasley, though… She'd always been way out of his league.

Daphne finished brushing Aiofe's hair and twisted it into two French braids that fell down to the small of her back. Aiofe wondered if Pansy and Millicent had ever let Daphne braid their hair. Daphne definitely seemed to enjoy grooming Aiofe, but she seemed almost hesitant when she did it. Like she expected to be rebuked any moment.

Aiofe turned around and crawled back the the head of Daphne's bed, slipping her legs under the covers and settling it. She opened her arms to Daphne and the other girl laughed and snuggled in next to her. It was a close fit but the girls slept soundly, like two kittens curled up together.