"Tomorrow night is your chance," Blaise Zabini stated, sitting next to Luna Lovegood in the Room of Requirement.

Ginny Weasley questioningly raised an eyebrow at him from her usual armchair. Harry Potter did too, as he motioned for him to continue.

"Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's, one of the few nights Slytherin always celebrates." A night that was awfully compromising under every possible point of view. Being friends with Theo, he knew his secret was Veritaserum, but he didn't have the antidote and he was nowhere near a good enough Occlumens to try and resist the potion. Neither was anyone around him. "This means it's going to be a Slytherin-only night in the dungeons, and Theo mentioned it's a version of truth or dare this year. Everyone takes Veritaserum so they can make sure no one lies."

"And you can get in?" Potter asked, skeptically.

Blaise snorted. "Of course I can get in. Granger and Draco may not want to talk to me, see me, or acknowledge I exist, but the others do. The question is how do we go about this?"

"Wait, you can ask anything?"

"Well, if the person chooses truth, right?" Neville Longbottom – bad manipulator exceptionnel – asked. Gryffindors made him want to tear his eyes out.

He rolled his eyes and sighed, deciding not to let out his frustration with these people. How anyone could be so bad at life, he would never understand. "If it's a dare, I can dare you to do whatever I want. I can dare you to stand in your underwear in Snape's office and sing Do the Hippogriff, or I can dare you to tell me whatever it is I want to know."

"I guess I've never really thought about that," Longbottom murmured. Of course he hadn't.

He caught himself thinking that doing all that with a bunch of Slytherins would be much easier and way less work, but Slytherins did not defect. Most of them had parents or friends deeply involved with the Dark Lord and they knew what the consequences were for those who betrayed him. He couldn't say he blamed them.

"Shocking," Blaise muttered with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "So, what is it you want to know?"

He didn't get a straight answer right away. His question only let the Gryffindors there to all start talking at the same time like a horde of unmannered trolls. Blaise wasn't sure they would ever come to an agreement.

"Can we at least all agree that it has to be something regarding the Death Eaters?" Potter shouted, gathering everyone's attention.

Blaise had considered that, but he wasn't sure it would be possible.

"Theo is the designated master of ceremonies, which means he makes the rules," he started, thinking out loud. "If he decides that questions regarding Draco or Hermione's work as Death Eaters are off-limits, I will be magically bound to respect the rules, as un-Slytherin as that sounds."

"And why would he do that?" Potter asked, skeptically.

"Because they're friends," Blaise stated, as if Theo's reasons wouldn't be obvious. "If they were forced to answer and revealed top secret information for everyone to hear, they would die, or worse."

"Okay then," Ginny started with a sigh. "Besides secret Death Eater plans, what else do we need to know?"

Blaise expected the troll-like behavior to resume on their part, but he was pleasantly surprised to see that, this time, everyone stood silently in their seats, thinking. So they were capable of good manners, they just refused to use them.

"Malfoy," Potter eventually muttered. All eyes were on him. "We need to know what the deal is with him. If Hermione really trusts him or not."

Neville Longbottom nodded lightly, as did Ginny. Luna was still sitting silently next to him, looking around dreamily.

Blaise knew better than to believe she was as naïve as everyone thought she was.

"You," Draco stated, as he entered Hermione's room like it was his own, after she finally opened the door for him, "Need a break."

She looked at him like he'd grown a third eye. "I don't have time for a break."

"Granger, I think we both can agree that you either come out of here willingly, or I'll make you come out. You need a break. You've been working yourself out and you have no common sense whatsoever," he declared, not having it. She had been closed in her room for days, only getting out for meals – barely – and classes. Other than that, she was always studying.

She had, at least, agreed to let him go to the Death Eaters' routine meetings, so she did have a bit more time, but he thought she'd use it to rest, or breath. Hermione Granger was doing none.

"And what are we possibly going to do if I come out?" She questioned, raising an unimpressed brow at him.

"It's Saint Valentine's night," Draco said, smirking.

"So what?" She asked, confused. "We're not exactly the types to celebrate it."

"Well, this is Slytherin tradition, so you're participating too. We usually get together in the common room to play, fifth-years and up."

Well, Draco guessed that year it was only seventh-years and the few sixth-years and fifth-years who were bored enough not to care for the curfew – which wasn't really valid for Hermione and him, but still stood for the rest of the students.

"Tell me it's not strip poker," she asked in all seriousness, with the tone of a mother scorning her children. To be fair, they were devious enough to do it. Had done it, in fact, a few years prior, when he wasn't old enough to take part in the Valentine's tradition.

Draco laughed. "Not this year. There's too many outsiders and we like to keep things in the House. This year it's truth and dare, the classic with a twist. If you choose dare, then the group picks it, but if you choose truth, you can either answer or do a dare proposed by the person who asked the question."

"That sounds compromising," Hermione stated in a questioning tone.

"That's why it's so much fun," he grinned.

He took her hand and guided them both out of her room, in the common living area, where people were already charming the sofas into a circle around the chess table.

Draco sat down along with some others as soon as they were done and sat her in his lap.

"Well, I'm not a Slytherin," she said, trying to find an excuse not to take part in their little tradition.

"You're not," he smirked, "But you're with me, so you're playing."

Draco could tell she tried to smile at that, but she only managed a grimace.

"Do I really have to?" Hermione complained.

"Of course you do, it's tradition," Theo said, approaching them.

She looked at him and narrowed her eyes. "How will you make sure I don't just lie?"

"We have our ways," Theo just said, and smirked. "I am the designated master of ceremonies here and planner of the night, so I'm afraid only I know my secrets."

Draco smirked at that. He knew perfectly well what the secret was.

"Well, can you at least tell me how we decide who gets to ask the questions?" She asked, rolling her eyes.

"We spin the bottle, of course." Theo raised his hand, that was holding a bottle of Firewhisky.

"You can't spin a full bottle."

"Of course not. That's why we're taking shots first."

"I did not agree to this," she said, readily.

Theo laughed at that.

"Relax, Granger, it's only enough for one sip each. We don't want to be drunk for the game. It's purely functional. We need an empty bottle and we can't possibly throw away the whiskey."

Hermione looked around as everyone was now forming a perfect circle on the sofas and no one seemed even remotely bothered by the idea of drinking. Why would they? It certainly wasn't news to any of them.

Students from other Houses were still in the common area, but the circle of sofas made them kind of isolated from the Slytherins. Slytherin secrets were to remain in Slytherin. He knew people had already put on silencing spells on the area, so they couldn't hear them.

"Fine." Hermione eventually gave up, and drank. So did Draco and Theo, before passing down the bottle to Daphne, who was now sitting next to them. "What now?" She asked, still sitting in his lap. He certainly didn't mind.

"Now we play."

What he did mind was seeing Blaise Zabini sitting right across from them, talking to Pansy, of all people. He was as much of a Slytherin as any of them, and they couldn't kick him out without blowing both his cover and theirs. They should have reported him to the Dark Lord already, but they didn't. It was too great of a risk.

Pretending to be unbothered by his presence, Draco wrapped his left arm around Hermione so that his hand was now resting on her stomach. He looked around and saw other familiar faces. Astoria, of course, didn't miss her chance, along with Freya Midwater and Olivia Sentice, two sixth-years. Besides her, a fifth-year boy he remembered from the Quidditch team and two more he didn't really know.

He noticed with a grimace that about half of all the people in the circle were Sacred Twenty-Eight. Normally, Saint Valentine's night saw a crowd of people in the common room, playing. That year there were little less than twenty of them, nine of them being high pureblood elite.

Trying to shift his attention elsewhere, Draco thought about the witch in his lap. He could tell she wasn't eager to start. She was Hermione Granger, after all, she didn't take uncalculated risks without analyzing every possibility first. He wasn't even sure if she ever had experience with Veritaserum before, enough to understand what was going on if she had to answer to any questions at all.

He remembered the afternoon in Umbridge's office in fifth year, when he was a member of the Inquisitorial Squad, and she was being interrogated by the old cow, but their lovely Headmistress had ran out of Veritaserum so she didn't take any. Somehow, his bright witch had managed to get Umbridge right where she wanted her to be and she was eventually taken by the centaurs, before the Ministry came to her rescue.

A spark of pride arose in him and he smirked at the memory of her telling him what had happened that night after they all left Umbridge's office. She wasn't nearly as innocent as people believed her to be and he learned she only kept few rules truly in regard, as she told him about her adventures with Saint Potter and the Weasel over the years. So many rules they had broken, that he almost couldn't believe that that Hermione was truly his witch and not some impostor.

The Granger he remembered from their years at Hogwarts before that whole mess started never broke the rules, always turned in assignment on time – or in advance – and was almost every teacher's pet. The Granger she told him about was as much a rulebreaker as every other Slytherin. He was pretty impressed, he had to admit.

"Alright," Theo shouted, to get everyone's attention. Their portion of room became silent and everyone turned to him, as he was now standing on the chess table in the center of their little circle. "You know the rules. Nothing is off-limits. If someone in here is in a relationship and their dare implies something one may consider to be cheating, they can choose whether to do it or not. All clear?"

People nodded and Hermione leaned on his chest, as she sighed. It didn't take much to understand she wasn't really enjoying the game, and it hadn't even started. That last reassurance from Theo seemed to calm her down a bit, though.

Eyeing him and the witch in his lap, as well as everyone in their little circle, Theo cleared his throat and spoke once again. "Moreover, since Draco and Hermione here are, as you know, close to the Dark Lord and his inner circle, no questions about their status as Death Eaters will be allowed, as it could potentially jeopardize their work." People were a little more serious now, nodding again, and staring at the two of them. "Besides," Theo added, waving towards the rest of the common room, where people were looking in their direction, confused by what was happening, "There's too many unfriendly eyes this year, and I refuse to put the lives of my friends in the hands of silencing spells that could be broken at any moment."

Draco nodded at Theo and murmured a thanks, and knew everyone would respect the new rule. The fact that more or less every person in Slytherin knew they were all somehow forced to tell the truth no matter what helped their case, because they knew Theo was being honest and that they couldn't risk the exposure of whatever secret Death Eater plan – if any. Plus, seeing how they were both reconsidering their allegiances, the game could be fatal to both of them if the wrong questions were asked.

Luckily enough, Theodore Nott was the master of ceremonies in Slytherin, which meant that, whenever the situation called for it, his word was pretty much law. The magic surrounding his honorary title down in Slytherin made sure of it.

He noticed Blaise Zabini didn't seem quite fond of that new rule, but repressed the urge to glare at him.

"How can you possibly think everyone will respect the rules?" Hermione whispered, and – for obvious reasons – he knew she was genuinely concerned.

Draco smirked and took her right hand in his. "You see, every two years Slytherin fifth-years and up have a magical vote to designate the master of ceremonies. The magic forces you to obey the rules of said master."

"A magical vote?" She asked, sounding quite impressed. He imagined they had no such thing in Gryffindor. He smirked in return and kissed the back of her hand, while his witch kept slowly shaking her head in disbelief. "Quite ironic, for someone who completely disregards every other rule in the book."

Draco chuckled at that. She wasn't wrong. "What can I say, we take Slytherin tradition quite seriously."

"Alright, let the game begin!" Theo stated, clapping his hands and taking his place next to Daphne.

The first to spin was Lysander Macmillan's and it landed on Olympe Selwyn – both seventh-years. He knew Olympe from his Care of Magical Creatures class and thought she was quite nice. Deviously nice, of course, but nice nonetheless.

"Truth or dare, Olympe?" The boy asked.

"Dare, of course," she answered with a smirk.

Draco chuckled, while everyone else cheered at the bold choice of being the first dare of the night. Lysander grinned and bowed his head slightly at her in appreciation.

"I dare you to hide one piece of your clothing in Lysander's room," someone shouted. He believed it was Anthony Spice, fifth-year. The group cheered at his proposal and Olympe left the circle with a wink towards the target of her dare.

By the time she was back, they were already on the next round, where Astoria now had to answer Pansy's question.

"This will not be pretty," Hermione muttered and laughed softly. Draco couldn't disagree.

"Why did Draco dump you?" She asked, and Draco sighed, while Hermione scoffed.

Astoria was visibly trying to resist the Veritaserum, but it only lasted a moment before its power overruled her every effort. "Because I made a scene to Granger in the hallways," she eventually said.

Pansy eyed him meaningfully and quite amused. "Looks like someone's been screwing the Mudblood for longer than expected."

Draco gritted his teeth and scowled at her.

"He was not," Hermione denied, before he could do it himself. "And, please, do call me that again. See what happens." Her knuckles were almost white as she held her wand.

"Alright, everyone," Theo intervened before the situation could escalate in something unpleasant – for Pansy. "Let's just move on." His eyes wandered between Hermione and Pansy, making sure they wouldn't start dueling in the common room. He shot a warning glance at Pansy and sat back down.

A few rounds later, when the bottle stopped right in front of Hermione, now sitting next to him instead of on him – Theo's orders – Draco looked straight up at Blaise, positive he'd charmed it to land on her. As Hermione raised a brow at him daringly, he pretended to be just kissing her jawline and took the chance to whisper, "Veritaserum," in her ear, so low that she could barely hear him. Just in case she'd need it, Draco figured knowing what bound her to tell the truth would help. He knew his know-it-all girlfriend would know everything about the potion, even that she could use Occlumency to resist its power. Hermione looked at him and smiled, which all but told him his assumption was correct.

"Granger," Blaise smirked at her and bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement. "Truth or dare?"

He wondered what she'd answer. She wasn't reckless enough to let a group of twenty people – give or take – pick a dare for her, not without knowing what that was. By choosing truth, though, she would be giving Blaise the opportunity to ask her anything. The only difference in the level of screwed she would be was that she could attempt to resist Veritaserum through Occlumency. They hadn't even had that much, so the effects wouldn't last too long after the game. She could probably pull it off. Hell, if you can keep Bellatrix out of your head, you can keep a few drops of Veritaserum at bay for a bit.

"Truth," Hermione eventually decided, probably asserting that she could, indeed, pull it off, in case she needed to.

Blaise raised his chin, then looked briefly at him before turning his eyes back on Granger.

"Do you genuinely care about Draco?"

Well, that was a surprise. Draco tried not to let his shock affect his expression, and he could feel Hermione was astounded as well. They sure didn't see it coming.

"Yes, I genuinely care about him," she blurted out, almost instantly. Clearly, she'd lost focus just enough to let the Veritaserum kick in. She was expecting something else, as was he. There was no reason for her to lie about the two of them anyway, so he supposed it wasn't that big of a deal. The only thing that wasn't quite clear to Draco was why Blaise would ask that, of all things. He had pretty much carte blanche, besides the off-limits Death Eater business.

As a few people complained to Blaise as per how "boring" his question was, Draco merely put his hand on Hermione's thigh and the game resumed.

The game kept going and the moment Draco – and probably Theo as well – dreaded came. Daphne's spin landed on Theo. They were in a relationship, obviously, so the rules of the game gave them a way out, but not from each other. One wrong question and Theo's proposal plan would be completely and utterly ruined, if he were to lose.

Daphne was onto something, she could have even figured it out already, but she did not like to wait or being kept in the dark. Theo knew perfectly well what was coming. With the Veritaserum making sure everyone would be playing fair, he had nowhere to run.

"My dear, truth or dare?" She asked, smiling that devious smile of hers.

Draco could basically see the engines in Theo's brain overheating. If he chose dare, then he was willingly subjecting himself to the group's decision. If he chose truth and didn't answer, Daphne would probably dare him to tell her anyway. In Slytherin, any dare could be a truth if phrased correctly.

Theo Nott took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a few seconds. "Dare."

Now, the thing with the group deciding the dare was that everyone was allowed to propose something and the proposal most people agreed on won. This meant that Draco couldn't propose an easy dare without his suggestion being torn apart faster than Longbottom in Snape's Potions classes.

He turned to look at Hermione and found that she had a resigned half smile on her lips. She knew Daphne all too well not to know what was coming, and, judging by the look on Daphne's face, it would be a long night for Theo. Deliberately refusing to answer her questions was going to be just another add to her list of hints that Theo was indeed up to something.

Draco's best friend basically had nowhere to hide.

Their little game was over slightly after midnight. Draco and Hermione returned to his room, as Draco was keen on not letting her spend the night researching or studying again – someone had to make her sleep, once in a while, since she had no common sense.

Hermione was surprised the effects of the Veritaserum hadn't got anyone in – too much – trouble. Especially the two of them.

She was the first one to get to bed, and was left with the sight of Draco undressing himself. He took more time than usual – purposefully so, she was sure – and Hermione couldn't help laughing from time to time. When he finally tucked in bed with her, he drew her into his arms and kissed her, while she was still smiling.

"What was that for?" She asked.

"Does there have to be a reason?"

She shook her head in response. "It was nice, game night in Slytherin."

Draco grinned at that. "I'm glad you liked it."

"Reckless," she clarified, "But nice nonetheless. Lysander was… well, not what I expected," Hermione chuckled, remembering the dare he accepted – not that he had a choice. The seventh-year ended up having to write a romantic letter to Snape where he confessed his undying love for him, then was escorted to the Owlery by two others to give it to his owl so it could make the morning post. He even signed the thing, although the dare didn't include that.

Laughing out loud, Draco drew her closer and buried his face in her neck. "Lysander has some of that Gryffindor recklessness you don't often get to see in Slytherin."

"What was up with Blaise?" Hermione asked, almost fearing the answer.

"Someone in the Order probably told him to ask that." Draco's answer came immediately, as the Veritaserum was still active and he wasn't making an effort to stop its power.

"Do you think they wanted to make sure I actually trusted you?"

He seemed to think about it for a few seconds. "Perhaps they wanted to make sure they could trust me. If you trust me, and they trust you, then they can trust your judgement," he reasoned. It made sense.

"I didn't lie, you know." Hermione felt like she needed to say it out loud. "I do genuinely care about you. I think I'm falling," she added, in a whisper.

Draco smiled on her skin. "I know you didn't lie. I'm most definitely falling for you too, witch."

Hermione smiled as well and moved her head so she could kiss him more easily. His breath on her skin tickled her, as she was partially resting her back on Draco's chest. They both knew where the night was headed to.

His arms were all around her torso, and his hands resting on her stomach. Her right hand was drawing circles on his left, playing with his ring. The silver Malfoy crest was shining in the greenish light of his bedroom.

"Do you like it?" He asked, leaving a wet kiss on her neck.

Hermione had never really paid attention to it before, but she could admit it was something worth looking at. The details were incredibly precise and sharp and she honestly doubted any Malfoy had cared about money while having it made.

"It's beautiful."

"Try it," he said, and slipped it off his finger before she could protest.

"It's definitely too big for me," she laughed, while he took her hand and moved the ring on her index.

Crossing her expectations, as soon as the ring was on her finger it started shrinking until it was the perfect size. Clearly, it was charmed – not really surprising, if it was a family heirloom.

"I think it fits just fine. Father had it made for me when I turned ten, so it's definitely not cursed," he chuckled and lightly shook his head.

She didn't really know what to say, she just flexed her fingers to see it shine at the faded light of the lamps.

"I want you to keep it," Draco said after a few seconds of silence.

Hermione thought he was out of his mind.

"I can't, Draco. This is yours," she said and tried taking it off, but he stopped her.

"And now it's yours," he just stated and locked their hands.

"I'm a Muggle-born, I can't just walk around with a Malfoy family ring." Hermione sighed and turned to face him.

"Says who? It's my ring and I can do whatever I want with it."

"Why would you want me to have it?" She asked. If he really wanted to give her jewelry, which was completely unnecessary and she wouldn't accept anyway, he had the money to go buy whatever he wanted. Why that ring?

"It has some very powerful protection charms on it."

"And? I don't need a ring for that."

"And no one will bother you as long as you wear it," he eventually admitted.

Hermione raised her eyebrows at that. "No one will bother me regardless, as long as they want to keep living a long and healthy life."

"And I want everyone to know you're taken," Draco sighed and rolled his eyes at her.

"I haven't marked you as mine," she just said. Of course the Malfoy wanted everyone to know she was taken. Prat.

A grin found its way onto his lips, then. "You can mark me whenever you want, witch."

Hermione scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I don't want to mark you, Draco, you're not my property."

"I'm just saying, if you want to, you can." He was still smiling that idiot smile of his, which made it hard for her not to smile too.

"So if I wanted you to wear something that told everyone you're mine, you would?" She teased.

His grin grew. "Yes."

Hermione didn't understand. "Why?"

"It's sexy," he just said, then took her hand, the one with the ring on the index, and kissed the back of it.

"Lucius will not like this," she muttered absently.

"Lucius," Draco started and moved lower to leave sensual kissed on her neck. "Will deal with it."