Chapter One:
Pansy was still babbling about Malfoy when Anne suddenly stopped walking.
"Where are we going?" she wondered aloud, forcing Pansy to cease her adulation of Draco.
It felt like hours since the two left the Slytherin common room for this spontaneous adventure. Anne was starting to wonder if Pansy might be lost. After all, Pansy Parkinson was often blissfully unaware of anything that did not pertain to her obnoxious, so-called, boyfriend.
"Oh," Pansy started, "well, Draco wanted me to…" she sighed longingly and her eyes glazed over, causing her to nearly walk into a wall.
Anne was appalled.
"Do you mean to tell me that you have been dragging me around Hogwarts, for Merlin knows how long, because of Malfoy!?"
Pansy blinked at Anne's outburst.
"He said—"
"I don't give a damn what that idiot said!" Anne interjected. "I am going back to the common room."
She turned and began walking briskly toward the dungeons, paying no mind as Pansy hurried to catch up. Anne was so frustrated that she almost collided with "that idiot," who was closely followed by a boy whom she didn't recognize. She scowled. Speak of the devil.
"Watch where you're going," Draco snarled.
"Draco, darling," Pansy drawled, completely disregarding the others' presence.
Draco ignored her.
"Malfoy," Anne said through her teeth, glaring at him and examining the other boy. The stranger seemed to be the epitome of tall, dark, and, admittedly, handsome. She looked away before he could catch her staring.
Draco opened his mouth to speak, but Pansy latched onto his arm before he could even draw breath.
"Draco," she cooed, "where were you?"
"I thought I told you to wait in the common room," he snapped.
"Well I got tired of waiting," she pouted. "You were taking so long, and I missed you."
She moved to kiss him, but Draco turned his head quickly and her lips just grazed his cheek. Of course that didn't stop Pansy from fawning. Anne rolled her eyes, moved away from them, and leaned against a nearby wall to watch as Draco attempted to break free. After several minutes of unintelligible arguing, he finally pushed Pansy away indignantly and composed himself.
"Later," Anne heard him mutter under his breath.
Pansy huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at Anne as though it were her fault that Draco showed no interest in Pansy's attentions.
"What are you doing here?" she inquired of the stranger, apparently noticing him for the first time.
"That's none of your business, Parkinson," he informed her.
"Oh, this one talks," Anne observed, commenting on the contrast between this stranger and the usually silent Crabbe and Goyle.
"Sometimes too much," Draco smirked before introducing the boy. "Prince, this is Zabini," he told her.
"Is this another member of your entourage, Malfoy?" She eyed the strange boy curiously, "He looks too smart to be hanging around the likes of you. Where are your bodyguards, anyway?"
Draco's eyes darkened.
"Detention," he scoffed, and then cleared his throat.
"Detention?" Anne asked, taken aback, "but classes haven't even started yet."
"This is Prince," Draco continued, as he looked from Anne to the boy, ignoring her insinuated question.
She could see that he really wanted to say more, but he had the foresight to keep it to himself. Smart, she thought. There was a moment of weighted silence before Zabini spoke.
"Hello," he managed, extending his hand to her and smiling at her in a way that showed off his perfect teeth.
She acknowledged his greeting with a curt nod.
"Charmed, I'm sure."
She glared at Draco as she pulled away from the wall and resumed her walk to the common room. She smiled in spite of herself as she heard Pansy snorting at Zabini.
"Ha, she's immune!"
"Stuff it, Parkinson!" Zabini retorted. "Who said I was interested in her anyway?"
As if, Anne thought as she left the sound of their voices behind.
•¥•
She didn't realize that Zabini was following her until he spoke.
"Prince," he said, startling her.
Thankfully, he did not seem to notice her jump. Anne turned to reply.
"You remembered my name," she gasped in mock surprise. "I'm flattered, Zabini, really. Here I was thinking you weren't interested in me," she quipped, and then turned her back on him, relishing his grim expression.
She kept walking and he continued to follow, their steps echoing as they descended further into the castle dungeons.
"Why are you following me?" she asked in order to fill the silence.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but the common room is this way, and unfortunately, we're in the same House," he retorted.
"Unfortunately for whom?" she returned.
"We weren't properly introduced," he said coolly, changing the subject. "What's your full name, Miss Prince?" he asked as he moved to match her stride.
"Does it matter?" she laughed, knowing that Draco and his cronies usually referred to each other by their surnames.
"I'm Blaise," he supplied, "Blaise Zabini."
Why me? she thought while trying her best to ignore him. Blaise seemed to understand that he wasn't getting an answer. He did not speak again until they reached the common room entrance.
"You're not going to tell me," he stated.
Anne sighed then muttered the password and waited. As the wall slowly slid open, she turned to look straight into his eyes, noticing again how tall he was.
"No," she confirmed, "I am not."
She turned away and walked into the watery green light of the common room as he proclaimed, "I'll find out, Prince. I enjoy a challenge."
•¥•
Later that night, Anne was slouching in an armchair with her eyes half-closed when Pansy arrived, alone. Anne was pondering her conversation with Blaise and lacked the energy to provide her usual commentary on Draco and Pansy's dysfunctional relationship.
"What's wrong with you?" Pansy asked.
"Tired," she yawned, "I don't suppose I have to ask what you were doing."
"We should go to bed soon," Pansy declared, ignoring the half-hearted jab.
"I know," Anne puffed without moving from her seat.
Pansy shrugged, dropping onto the chair across from Anne's.
"I wish Draco would talk to me," she sighed. "He's so distant this year."
Anne didn't have the patience for Pansy's complaints tonight. She never once witnessed those two having a conversation outside of their shared group of friends. Anne actually questioned why Draco bothered with the pug-faced girl at all. It didn't make sense to her; maybe he simply enjoyed the extra attention.
"He's just," Pansy pressed on, "different."
"Uh… Yeah," Anne mumbled, standing up, "I'm leaving."
Pansy had no comment until she noticed that her roommate was not headed toward the girls' dormitories.
"Where are you going?" she asked, briefly forgetting Draco.
"Are you coming with me?" Anne offered, knowing that Pansy, who was a prefect and frightful of authority, would decline.
"Of course not," she affirmed.
"Then you don't need to know," Anne smirked, and then disappeared, leaving Pansy gaping at the place where she had just been.
"Don't get caught by Filch," Pansy warned.
Anne did not need the warning, however, because she hadn't really left the common room as Pansy thought she would. Instead, following her nonverbal disillusionment charm, Anne headed toward the boys' dormitories. It had always been funny to her that girls were considered more trustworthy than boys and were thus allowed to visit the boys' rooms. While the boys, in turn, were magically deterred from visiting the girls' rooms, even disguised.
None of the girls but Anne however, as far as she knew, ever visited the boys at night. She glanced around the hall until she found the suite she was looking for, the sixth years'. Counting the doors, she found that Draco's had been left slightly ajar. Where's he gone off to now? she mused as she peeked inside the room curiously. There was already someone asleep in the other bed. Of course, this was the first time she had visited Draco's room at bedtime.
She stepped in quietly, careful to leave the door as she had found it. The boy in the bed didn't stir. He was sleeping soundly, the rise and fall of his chest the only indication that he wasn't dead. She wondered who he was. As she walked closer, she noticed that it was Blaise Zabini.
So he's Draco's roommate. The fact surprised her slightly, as she had thought Draco shared his room with either Crabbe or Goyle, never having seen the room's other occupant in there before. She made her way slowly toward Draco's bed, careful not to disturb Zabini's slumber. As Pansy had mentioned earlier, Draco was different this year. The two hadn't really spoken much since the Triwizard Tournament, and Anne was curious about what exactly Malfoy was up to.
She pointed her wand at his trunk to unlock it and began searching through his things indiscriminately, noting how it was all arranged so that he wouldn't notice anything had been disturbed. She yawned, realizing the lateness of the hour. She glanced longingly at Draco's bed. It looked so inviting and the sound of the lake water lapping against the windows was so lulling. Maybe I'll just rest my eyes for a bit, she thought, replacing everything in the trunk and relocking it before allowing herself to fall into the warm comfort of the ancient four-poster.
•¥•
She didn't remember falling asleep until Draco shook her awake.
"Huh…? What time is it?" she asked, yawning.
What the hell are you doing here, Prince?" he hissed, though he seemed amused rather than bothered by her presence. "It's four o'clock."
Anne lifted her head and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes before answering his question.
"I was keeping your bed warm," she replied, "obviously."
While he processed this answer, she took time to stretch and get her bearings. What am I doing here? she wondered. Blaise somehow remained asleep through the entire disturbance.
"He won't wake up," Draco assured her, seeing the question in her eyes as she glanced at the other boy.
She raised an eyebrow.
"Sleeping draught," Draco added casually, smirking as he pulled a set of emerald green silk pajamas from his trunk.
Anne cleared her throat and stood up quickly as Draco undid his belt.
"I'll, err, see you later, Malfoy," she said, averting her eyes as she walked to the door.
Before she could reach it, Draco tossed his shirt at her back. She turned and caught it instinctively, catching a glimpse of him in his underwear. He laughed, enjoying her shocked expression. Anne decided not to give him the further satisfaction of an audience.
She tossed his shirt in the trash bin and walked out of the room.
•¥•
Pansy was snoring loudly when Anne at last returned to their room. Anne dropped backward onto her bed and stared at the ceiling for awhile. A few hours passed before she finally gave up on getting any more sleep. Her stomach growled; it was almost breakfast time, so she stood and looked in her trunk for a fresh change of clothes.
Upon arriving at the Great Hall, however, she found that she'd lost her appetite. Her stomach was still turning from the earlier interaction with Malfoy. She tried to focus on nibbling at a slice of toast and sipped occasionally from a goblet of orange juice. She glanced up as Pansy walked into the Great Hall tugging Draco by the arm.
She tensed when Draco sat beside her without invitation.
"Nothing looks appetizing," Pansy immediately complained, pushing aside her empty plate, placing her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands.
Draco shrugged and reached over Anne for an apple, nearly spilling her juice. She glared at him.
"I hope you choke on that."
He bit into the fruit slowly, chewed, and swallowed before whispering, "I hope your drink was poisoned."
She retaliated by accidentally spilling her drink in his lap.
"Ass," she spat the word as she rose and left the Great Hall, her unfinished toast forgotten.