Looking over her shoulder, she felt awful going in to Harry's room and
taking something without asking. Either way, she pushed the door open
silently, and looked around. She hadn't been in the boys' dormitories since
the first month of school, but she still remembered where Harry slept.
Creeping to the foot of his bed, she kneeled down at the big black chest
before her. She opened it as quietly as possible, although it creaked
rather loudly. She cursed under her breath and began rummaging through the
trunk, as the voices downstairs stopped; they had probably heard her. She
was careful to keep all the contents in order, and she felt her hand brush
up against something soft and fabric. Carefully, she pulled out the
Invisibility Cloak, as she heard footsteps. Harry's voice mumbled
something, and Ron did the same. She quickly ran to the other side of the
room and pulled the cloak over her, just in time.
She disappeared from sight just as the door opened, and Ron and Harry stepped in. They looked around, confused expressions on their faces, and then stopped to look at the foot of his bed. She had left the trunk open! She mentally slapped herself across the face, as Harry cautiously shut it again.
"Must've left it open." He said, although he didn't sound like he had convinced even himself. Ron only nodded, and scanned the room. She saw him look through her, and his eyes linger on where she would be if she was visible. Still, he said nothing, and the two left the room, leaving the door open.
She heaved a sigh of relief and waited a few moments. And when she heard them talking again, tiptoed down the staircase and waited by the painting. She wasn't sure how she had planned on getting out.they would be suspicious if they just saw the door swing open by itself. There was no long wait; just a few minutes later, the door swung open-Fae barely jumped out of the way-and the twins returned, carrying handfuls and mouthfuls of elf cooking.
She had barely slipped out the door before it shut again, nearly catching on the tails of her cloak. She turned around, heaved a sigh of relief, and kept walking. Where was she to go? He hadn't given her a specific place. She wandered around the castle for a good half hour, checking the Library, which was closed, the Great Hall, which was locked for the night, and an assortment of different halls. Finally, she decided to check Madame Hooch's room, where he had told her to meet him in his note.
She reached the door at length, and found it to be shut. A light was coming from the other side, though. Was she supposed to knock? Finally, she decided to knock and keep the Invisibility Cloak on. If it was Draco, she could just take it off and walk in, and if it weren't, she would be unseen. Taking in a deep breath, she extended her fist and knocked softly twice.
She took a big step back, and after a few moments, the door slowly opened, but she found no one to be there. She looked inside, and saw him sitting on the teacher's desk again, flipping through a Quidditch book. He probably took their losing game pretty hard again, and was looking for new strategies. Fae took off the cloak and became visible again. He stood up and walked to her.
Stepping inside, she realized that it was much brighter than last time. There was a fire going and it lit up the room. All the blinds were open this time, too, and the drafts of moonlight spilled onto the floor, mixing creamy, milk-white with the golden yellow of the fire.
"Why did you want to talk to me?" she finally asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"Can I not just enjoy your company, Fae?"
She felt herself blushing and looked down at the floor. Subject change! Quick! Subject change! Clearing her throat, she thought of something lame to say.
"Do you live in here or something?"
He snorted, folding his arms and kept his patented grin on his face. "I come here a lot when I need to be alone, or at least during the winter. When it's spring or summer I go out to the lake." He said, and she wondered just why he was telling her all of this. He sat down on the floor before the fire, and she stood for a minute before he invited her to seat her self by his side. They talked about things for a while, but what he said next made her completely forget what their prior topic had been.
"Why is Potter being such a prat to you?" his question was blunt.
Shifting uncomfortably, she finally crossed her legs. "I.. really don't know. He was doing this even before the whole Dark Mark incident." She turned to look at him. "Do you think I did it?"
He shook his head. "I know that you didn't do it."
Fae stared into the fire; she was a bit of a Pyro, and was soon transfixed. After a long silence, she suddenly felt something on her hand. Looking down, she saw that it was his index finger, gently caressing her ring finger ever so slightly; she almost couldn't feel anything. She felt her face grow hot, but didn't do anything. It went on like that for a few minutes, neither of them saying anything. Eventually, his entire hand was over hers. She didn't know if she liked it or not, although she soon found herself to be dozing of, and swaying slightly before regaining consciousness. She looked at the clock: it was nearing twelve midnight and she stifled a yawn.
"I'd better be getting back. I don't know what they'll think if they find me asleep in the same room as Draco Malfoy." She winced at her own words.
He didn't say anything, only looked up at her for a few moments, and then finally stood up. Once again, Fae had put her own foot in her mouth. He didn't say anything about it though, which she guessed was a good sign. Making their way to the door, she started to put her Invisibility Cloak on, but he stopped her by putting his hand on her arm.
"Meh?" she said, and turned to face him. However, he put his hand on the back of her head and pressed his mouth against hers.
Her first reaction would have been to break free from his grasp, if he hadn't cornered her against the wall. She didn't know what to do, really, so she let him take control as he slid his arm around her waist. Finally, she shut her eyes and kissed him back as he gripped the sleeves of her shirt. He was pushing her against the wall and pulling her closer all at once. He pressed her back harder against the gray stone and she arched forward into him, and then blushed. She hadn't meant to do that.. But she was soon distracted, as she felt like she couldn't breath for a moment, her tiny body crushed under his. Draco's lips were very, very cold on hers, and his tongue wasn't any warmer. She felt as if he was putting a melting ice cube in her mouth. It was so comfortably uncomfortable.. so impurely pure.. being wrong had never, ever felt so right.
He broke the kiss, and she was surprised to find herself disappointed. He smirked down at her and raised his eyebrows expectantly. "I won't tell if you won't."
A small smile crept across her face, and she nodded. He bent down and kissed her once more, gently and short this time. "Happy Christmas, Fae."
+ + +
The two spent a lot of time together over the rest of the break. It mainly consisted of them using Madame Hooch's classroom to be together, because they both thought it best to not have too much public display of affection. He seemed to like kissing her a lot, although she wasn't complaining. Something about his mouth feeling like ice made her feel better. just, better about her self. She just wondered how long they were planning on keeping their relationship completely secret. She guessed she would call it a relationship-they had yet to say the three words, but they held hands and kissed and more, and that was considered a relationship by her book. Well, she didn't have to wait very long.
+ + +
When the break was over, and many tired, drowsy and disappointed students were returning to Hogwarts after the New Year ("Woo! '95!"), Fae dreaded going back to her normal life. She had gotten so used to the two weeks alone with Draco that she had forgotten about people and their nicknames for her: "Bucket", "Spawn of Voldemort" and the latest, "Man-Hating Dyke". She had acquired this after the Dark Mark was found, and everyone soon found her quite 'manly' because of the way she dressed. Kind of funny, they didn't think anything about her being un-straight, until after the rumors started spreading and after she beat up a boy.
Throughout her Potions class, she was thinking about Draco. He was so cold.. and dark.. she loved it. He was the first thing she thought about when she woke up, she wrote songs and poetry about him in her diary, though she'd never tell. She felt butterflies every time she even thought of him, he made her feel safe and secure, and he had never pushed her to do anything. As far as they had gone together was fine with her, and the few times he did something she didn't want him to, he'd stop right after she told him. They had only gone as far as 'making out', as some people would call it, though.
Finally, the seemingly endless class let out, and she might as well have sprinted to Care of Magical Creatures. She was anxious to see Draco, and as she twisted her way through the crowd, she finally caught a glance of him walking by himself. She ran up to him and clasped her hand on his shoulder, and he whirled around. He seemed nervous and jumpy, but his face softened a little when he saw her.
"Hey!" she said happily, and leaned in to kiss his cheek.
Surprisingly, he backed away and flicked his eyes at the many students passing by. She looked disappointed for a minute, and he met her eyes again jerked his head to his right. He walked in that direction and around a corner, where no students were going to or coming from. She followed after him and found him leaning against the wall and walked to him.
"Why..?" Fae couldn't find words; she was very, very confused.
He put his hand on her cheek. "I'm sorry about that. It's just.. you know what will happen if anyone sees us together, right?" She nodded, but found that she couldn't meet his eyes. He lifted his hand and ran his icy fingertips over her forehead and down onto her neck. "I just don't want Potter and his fan club to give you hell. Much less any of the Slytherins, and you know that little pug girl would do something again." He said, referring to Pansy.
She nodded again and looked into his eyes. "You're right. I wasn't thinking.. sorry about that."
"No reason to be sorry." He said, and briefly kissed her. "See you next period." He grinned and then strode off.
Fae sighed; it was going to take some time for her to adjust to this.
Winter slowly melted into spring, much to Fae's dislike. She didn't really care much for the bitter cold. A chill was nice, because she was just weird like that, but she didn't really like the humid first few weeks of spring until it got to the right temperature. It had passed that though, and it was nearing March.
Draco would mutter "mudblood" when she walked by, and she would flip him off or reply with a simple "blow me." But during class when no one else was looking, she'd cast him glances. Although he was usually too engrossed in his work to notice, he sometimes looked back at her and his eyes would flash mischievously, and that was what kept her hanging on. That she knew that there was still something there. That and on Valentine's Day, he had actually left her a single black rose on her bed. And she had felt awful for that: she assumed that he wouldn't be doing anything for her, so she neglected to buy him a gift. Although he assured her that just she going to meet him in Hooch's classroom, and just to be able to kiss her was enough for him.
+ + +
Since Fae had been good for the rest of the semester before the Winter Break, she started back with a clean slate. She was so tempted to beat that little Pansy Parkinson's tail, but McGonagall had specifically told her one day that just one more detention for physical fighting would land her a suspension, and she would be right back where she started again: on the verge of being expelled. It was all so confusing to Fae, so she decided to just be on the safe side and not beat any one up.
However, her verbal fighting didn't cease with Ron by any means. She found herself to be getting very annoyed when she was around anyone but Draco, especially him. They were caught bickering constantly over something completely idiotic-Fae had actually forgotten what it was, but she was sure Hermione would never let her live it down either way-when Professor Flitwick silenced them angrily with the threat of deduction of house points and detention. They silenced and gave each other the finger as soon as the Professor had turned his back.
Fae was ranting to Draco about her problems as he flipped through a Quidditch book. They were outside one weekend in a corner of the garden that was overlooking the lake. They had made sure to find a place very, very far back where no one would see them, and had turned that into a place to go during the daytime, now that it was getting warmer. She was pacing back and forth across the grass, throwing a pebble in the lake every now and then, just to express her anger. Draco was seated on a tree branch just over her head, every now and then nodding, pretending to be listening.
She sighed angrily and threw another rock in the lake, and for a moment wondered just what lie on the bottom. Then she remembered how annoying Ron had been, and turned around to look up at Draco. He seemed to not have been listening at all.
"Potter said anything to you about Quidditch practice?"
Fae narrowed her eyes and sighed. "No, he hasn't." she said, and folded her arms. So he probably hadn't been listening. He was probably just determined to improve his team, though. It wasn't so wrong.was it? After a moment of silence, she pressed on.
"But wouldn't you think they'd quit practicing? I mean, the season's over."
"Is Weasley still with that girl?" he ignored her previous question by asking his own.
"Tracy? Yeah."
"Hmm."
She turned around to face him again, and he didn't even look up. After a few minutes and he still didn't return her stare, she fidgeted and cleared her throat.
"Well I have some Potions homework." She said, which was actually true. "I guess I should go work on that before I be a protagonist and put it off."
He smirked, and finally lowered the book from his face. She saw that it had all kinds of markings and highlights in it as he let it fall into his lap, its pages still open. He dropped down, landing soft on his feet. He walked over to her, meeting her halfway and putting his hands on her hips. She forced a smile as he kissed her, the familiar coldness starting at her lips and traveling throughout her entire body. His tongue parted her lips, but suddenly stopped where it was:
There was a rustling noise coming from behind Draco, and she broke the kiss to look over his shoulder. He whipped his head around and they both caught a glance of Ron's red hair disappearing behind a rosebush.
"Weasley." Draco glared, immediately letting go of Fae. She stumbled forward; she had been leaning on him, but caught her balance. Draco started to run after him, but she grabbed him by his arm.
"Wait." She said, and he stopped. He turned around at her, his anger still reflecting in his eyes. Fae looked like she was taken back for a minute, but then stopped. "If you hurt him, it'll just drive him to tell people."
"Well he's gonna tell either way." He spat coolly.
"Maybe, but we have a better chance this way. Just let it go."
He turned his head around once more and sighed, then back to her. "I suppose that makes sense." He said, and winked. "Good luck on your homework."
"Thanks, I'll need it." She retorted.
+ + +
Fae's idea did work, almost. It seemed that Ron had neglected to tell anyone, but he did confront her about it, in front of Hermione. So he kind of told someone.
It was once again during Professor Flitwick's class, and he had mentioned something about Draco being a top student in his class during a lecture. Fae held her breath, praying silently that Ron wouldn't say anything, but of course, he did.
"Ah, well, Fae would know that, wouldn't she?" he mumbled.
"What?" Hermione asked before she could stop herself. She was sitting right beside her, and Ron was seated at the desk before him. He turned around and nodded at Fae.
"Ask her. She can tell you." He said.
Hermione blinked, and turned to her for the briefest of moments, before turning back around. He kept pushing it, though. "Oh, come now, Fae. You're not going to deny it, are you? I'm sure Malfoy would be disappointed."
His words stung, but only because she knew that Draco wouldn't care-he seemed to not care about anything but Quidditch lately. She swallowed the knot in her throat and kept looking past him at the Professor, trying to ignore him. "Shhh! Ron!" Hermione was hissing, but he kept going any way.
"Unless, of course, he's just trying to get some pus-"
In an instant Fae's wand was out and aimed directly at his face. Her gray eyes were on fire but kept her jaw clenched tightly. He looked surprised for a minute, and Hermione looked as if she were about to have a seizure.
"Mr Weasley, Ms O'Connor!" Professor Flitwick screeched. She quickly lowered her wand; it was blocked from his view, but she didn't want to risk it. However, her eyes didn't tear from him as he turned around quickly in his seat.
"Is it too much to ask for you to pay attention?" The very short professor was obviously angry; he had already been in a bad mood, due to the lecture he was giving the class, and this just added on.
Fae didn't say anything, her eyes still narrowed at the back of Ron's head, whose ears were turning quite pink with anger and embarrassment.
"I'm sick of your constant bickering, you're both acting like children! I'll be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about your detention task, and you should have one within the next few weeks. As for now, please take your seats outside."
Ron sighed irritably and rolled his head back, and Fae slammed her books down on her desk before gathering them up again and storming out of the room. She slammed the door behind her, causing half the class to jump, and Ron opened it shortly after and walked out the hall. He saw Fae slumped against the wall, and saw her sink down to her haunches as he paced before her. It seemed very familiar: like when he accused her of creating the Dark Mark. She didn't give him a chance to yell at her first, this time.
"You can't just leave things alone, can you?" she said quietly, looking at her knees. He stopped pacing and looked down at her, but didn't say anything. So she went on. "I just don't understand how you can get so much pleasure out of knowing that you're making someone's life a living hell."
He just looked at her, a sudden hatred filling his eyes. She looked up at him and put on a sarcastic face of sudden realization. "Oh, wait, I think I know. Maybe it's because you have your own insecurities, and you have your own paranoia. So you try to cover it up by accusing someone else of having them, and treating them horribly."
He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He still looked like he wanted to jab a knife through her throat, and if there had been one just lying around, she wouldn't put it past him. She kept pressing with her final question, suddenly just wanting to get everything out. "What did I ever do to you?"
He didn't have time to answer, as the door opened and Professor Flitwick bustled out of the classroom with annoyance. They sighed, and he told Ron to have a seat, which meant another one of his long lectures. He sat down across from Fae as Flitwick sighed, and started up on his lecture. They were to probably have detention sometime together, although their task was undecided. He assured, however, that whatever it was would be to push them to get along together. This received a sigh from either side of him, but he raised a silencing hand. After his speech was over, they were asked to join the classroom again. On the way in, Fae could feel Ron's eyes on her, and she took her seat silently. Neither of them spoke another word for the rest of the class, and Fae wasn't sure about him, but she didn't say anything for the entire day.
She disappeared from sight just as the door opened, and Ron and Harry stepped in. They looked around, confused expressions on their faces, and then stopped to look at the foot of his bed. She had left the trunk open! She mentally slapped herself across the face, as Harry cautiously shut it again.
"Must've left it open." He said, although he didn't sound like he had convinced even himself. Ron only nodded, and scanned the room. She saw him look through her, and his eyes linger on where she would be if she was visible. Still, he said nothing, and the two left the room, leaving the door open.
She heaved a sigh of relief and waited a few moments. And when she heard them talking again, tiptoed down the staircase and waited by the painting. She wasn't sure how she had planned on getting out.they would be suspicious if they just saw the door swing open by itself. There was no long wait; just a few minutes later, the door swung open-Fae barely jumped out of the way-and the twins returned, carrying handfuls and mouthfuls of elf cooking.
She had barely slipped out the door before it shut again, nearly catching on the tails of her cloak. She turned around, heaved a sigh of relief, and kept walking. Where was she to go? He hadn't given her a specific place. She wandered around the castle for a good half hour, checking the Library, which was closed, the Great Hall, which was locked for the night, and an assortment of different halls. Finally, she decided to check Madame Hooch's room, where he had told her to meet him in his note.
She reached the door at length, and found it to be shut. A light was coming from the other side, though. Was she supposed to knock? Finally, she decided to knock and keep the Invisibility Cloak on. If it was Draco, she could just take it off and walk in, and if it weren't, she would be unseen. Taking in a deep breath, she extended her fist and knocked softly twice.
She took a big step back, and after a few moments, the door slowly opened, but she found no one to be there. She looked inside, and saw him sitting on the teacher's desk again, flipping through a Quidditch book. He probably took their losing game pretty hard again, and was looking for new strategies. Fae took off the cloak and became visible again. He stood up and walked to her.
Stepping inside, she realized that it was much brighter than last time. There was a fire going and it lit up the room. All the blinds were open this time, too, and the drafts of moonlight spilled onto the floor, mixing creamy, milk-white with the golden yellow of the fire.
"Why did you want to talk to me?" she finally asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"Can I not just enjoy your company, Fae?"
She felt herself blushing and looked down at the floor. Subject change! Quick! Subject change! Clearing her throat, she thought of something lame to say.
"Do you live in here or something?"
He snorted, folding his arms and kept his patented grin on his face. "I come here a lot when I need to be alone, or at least during the winter. When it's spring or summer I go out to the lake." He said, and she wondered just why he was telling her all of this. He sat down on the floor before the fire, and she stood for a minute before he invited her to seat her self by his side. They talked about things for a while, but what he said next made her completely forget what their prior topic had been.
"Why is Potter being such a prat to you?" his question was blunt.
Shifting uncomfortably, she finally crossed her legs. "I.. really don't know. He was doing this even before the whole Dark Mark incident." She turned to look at him. "Do you think I did it?"
He shook his head. "I know that you didn't do it."
Fae stared into the fire; she was a bit of a Pyro, and was soon transfixed. After a long silence, she suddenly felt something on her hand. Looking down, she saw that it was his index finger, gently caressing her ring finger ever so slightly; she almost couldn't feel anything. She felt her face grow hot, but didn't do anything. It went on like that for a few minutes, neither of them saying anything. Eventually, his entire hand was over hers. She didn't know if she liked it or not, although she soon found herself to be dozing of, and swaying slightly before regaining consciousness. She looked at the clock: it was nearing twelve midnight and she stifled a yawn.
"I'd better be getting back. I don't know what they'll think if they find me asleep in the same room as Draco Malfoy." She winced at her own words.
He didn't say anything, only looked up at her for a few moments, and then finally stood up. Once again, Fae had put her own foot in her mouth. He didn't say anything about it though, which she guessed was a good sign. Making their way to the door, she started to put her Invisibility Cloak on, but he stopped her by putting his hand on her arm.
"Meh?" she said, and turned to face him. However, he put his hand on the back of her head and pressed his mouth against hers.
Her first reaction would have been to break free from his grasp, if he hadn't cornered her against the wall. She didn't know what to do, really, so she let him take control as he slid his arm around her waist. Finally, she shut her eyes and kissed him back as he gripped the sleeves of her shirt. He was pushing her against the wall and pulling her closer all at once. He pressed her back harder against the gray stone and she arched forward into him, and then blushed. She hadn't meant to do that.. But she was soon distracted, as she felt like she couldn't breath for a moment, her tiny body crushed under his. Draco's lips were very, very cold on hers, and his tongue wasn't any warmer. She felt as if he was putting a melting ice cube in her mouth. It was so comfortably uncomfortable.. so impurely pure.. being wrong had never, ever felt so right.
He broke the kiss, and she was surprised to find herself disappointed. He smirked down at her and raised his eyebrows expectantly. "I won't tell if you won't."
A small smile crept across her face, and she nodded. He bent down and kissed her once more, gently and short this time. "Happy Christmas, Fae."
+ + +
The two spent a lot of time together over the rest of the break. It mainly consisted of them using Madame Hooch's classroom to be together, because they both thought it best to not have too much public display of affection. He seemed to like kissing her a lot, although she wasn't complaining. Something about his mouth feeling like ice made her feel better. just, better about her self. She just wondered how long they were planning on keeping their relationship completely secret. She guessed she would call it a relationship-they had yet to say the three words, but they held hands and kissed and more, and that was considered a relationship by her book. Well, she didn't have to wait very long.
+ + +
When the break was over, and many tired, drowsy and disappointed students were returning to Hogwarts after the New Year ("Woo! '95!"), Fae dreaded going back to her normal life. She had gotten so used to the two weeks alone with Draco that she had forgotten about people and their nicknames for her: "Bucket", "Spawn of Voldemort" and the latest, "Man-Hating Dyke". She had acquired this after the Dark Mark was found, and everyone soon found her quite 'manly' because of the way she dressed. Kind of funny, they didn't think anything about her being un-straight, until after the rumors started spreading and after she beat up a boy.
Throughout her Potions class, she was thinking about Draco. He was so cold.. and dark.. she loved it. He was the first thing she thought about when she woke up, she wrote songs and poetry about him in her diary, though she'd never tell. She felt butterflies every time she even thought of him, he made her feel safe and secure, and he had never pushed her to do anything. As far as they had gone together was fine with her, and the few times he did something she didn't want him to, he'd stop right after she told him. They had only gone as far as 'making out', as some people would call it, though.
Finally, the seemingly endless class let out, and she might as well have sprinted to Care of Magical Creatures. She was anxious to see Draco, and as she twisted her way through the crowd, she finally caught a glance of him walking by himself. She ran up to him and clasped her hand on his shoulder, and he whirled around. He seemed nervous and jumpy, but his face softened a little when he saw her.
"Hey!" she said happily, and leaned in to kiss his cheek.
Surprisingly, he backed away and flicked his eyes at the many students passing by. She looked disappointed for a minute, and he met her eyes again jerked his head to his right. He walked in that direction and around a corner, where no students were going to or coming from. She followed after him and found him leaning against the wall and walked to him.
"Why..?" Fae couldn't find words; she was very, very confused.
He put his hand on her cheek. "I'm sorry about that. It's just.. you know what will happen if anyone sees us together, right?" She nodded, but found that she couldn't meet his eyes. He lifted his hand and ran his icy fingertips over her forehead and down onto her neck. "I just don't want Potter and his fan club to give you hell. Much less any of the Slytherins, and you know that little pug girl would do something again." He said, referring to Pansy.
She nodded again and looked into his eyes. "You're right. I wasn't thinking.. sorry about that."
"No reason to be sorry." He said, and briefly kissed her. "See you next period." He grinned and then strode off.
Fae sighed; it was going to take some time for her to adjust to this.
Winter slowly melted into spring, much to Fae's dislike. She didn't really care much for the bitter cold. A chill was nice, because she was just weird like that, but she didn't really like the humid first few weeks of spring until it got to the right temperature. It had passed that though, and it was nearing March.
Draco would mutter "mudblood" when she walked by, and she would flip him off or reply with a simple "blow me." But during class when no one else was looking, she'd cast him glances. Although he was usually too engrossed in his work to notice, he sometimes looked back at her and his eyes would flash mischievously, and that was what kept her hanging on. That she knew that there was still something there. That and on Valentine's Day, he had actually left her a single black rose on her bed. And she had felt awful for that: she assumed that he wouldn't be doing anything for her, so she neglected to buy him a gift. Although he assured her that just she going to meet him in Hooch's classroom, and just to be able to kiss her was enough for him.
+ + +
Since Fae had been good for the rest of the semester before the Winter Break, she started back with a clean slate. She was so tempted to beat that little Pansy Parkinson's tail, but McGonagall had specifically told her one day that just one more detention for physical fighting would land her a suspension, and she would be right back where she started again: on the verge of being expelled. It was all so confusing to Fae, so she decided to just be on the safe side and not beat any one up.
However, her verbal fighting didn't cease with Ron by any means. She found herself to be getting very annoyed when she was around anyone but Draco, especially him. They were caught bickering constantly over something completely idiotic-Fae had actually forgotten what it was, but she was sure Hermione would never let her live it down either way-when Professor Flitwick silenced them angrily with the threat of deduction of house points and detention. They silenced and gave each other the finger as soon as the Professor had turned his back.
Fae was ranting to Draco about her problems as he flipped through a Quidditch book. They were outside one weekend in a corner of the garden that was overlooking the lake. They had made sure to find a place very, very far back where no one would see them, and had turned that into a place to go during the daytime, now that it was getting warmer. She was pacing back and forth across the grass, throwing a pebble in the lake every now and then, just to express her anger. Draco was seated on a tree branch just over her head, every now and then nodding, pretending to be listening.
She sighed angrily and threw another rock in the lake, and for a moment wondered just what lie on the bottom. Then she remembered how annoying Ron had been, and turned around to look up at Draco. He seemed to not have been listening at all.
"Potter said anything to you about Quidditch practice?"
Fae narrowed her eyes and sighed. "No, he hasn't." she said, and folded her arms. So he probably hadn't been listening. He was probably just determined to improve his team, though. It wasn't so wrong.was it? After a moment of silence, she pressed on.
"But wouldn't you think they'd quit practicing? I mean, the season's over."
"Is Weasley still with that girl?" he ignored her previous question by asking his own.
"Tracy? Yeah."
"Hmm."
She turned around to face him again, and he didn't even look up. After a few minutes and he still didn't return her stare, she fidgeted and cleared her throat.
"Well I have some Potions homework." She said, which was actually true. "I guess I should go work on that before I be a protagonist and put it off."
He smirked, and finally lowered the book from his face. She saw that it had all kinds of markings and highlights in it as he let it fall into his lap, its pages still open. He dropped down, landing soft on his feet. He walked over to her, meeting her halfway and putting his hands on her hips. She forced a smile as he kissed her, the familiar coldness starting at her lips and traveling throughout her entire body. His tongue parted her lips, but suddenly stopped where it was:
There was a rustling noise coming from behind Draco, and she broke the kiss to look over his shoulder. He whipped his head around and they both caught a glance of Ron's red hair disappearing behind a rosebush.
"Weasley." Draco glared, immediately letting go of Fae. She stumbled forward; she had been leaning on him, but caught her balance. Draco started to run after him, but she grabbed him by his arm.
"Wait." She said, and he stopped. He turned around at her, his anger still reflecting in his eyes. Fae looked like she was taken back for a minute, but then stopped. "If you hurt him, it'll just drive him to tell people."
"Well he's gonna tell either way." He spat coolly.
"Maybe, but we have a better chance this way. Just let it go."
He turned his head around once more and sighed, then back to her. "I suppose that makes sense." He said, and winked. "Good luck on your homework."
"Thanks, I'll need it." She retorted.
+ + +
Fae's idea did work, almost. It seemed that Ron had neglected to tell anyone, but he did confront her about it, in front of Hermione. So he kind of told someone.
It was once again during Professor Flitwick's class, and he had mentioned something about Draco being a top student in his class during a lecture. Fae held her breath, praying silently that Ron wouldn't say anything, but of course, he did.
"Ah, well, Fae would know that, wouldn't she?" he mumbled.
"What?" Hermione asked before she could stop herself. She was sitting right beside her, and Ron was seated at the desk before him. He turned around and nodded at Fae.
"Ask her. She can tell you." He said.
Hermione blinked, and turned to her for the briefest of moments, before turning back around. He kept pushing it, though. "Oh, come now, Fae. You're not going to deny it, are you? I'm sure Malfoy would be disappointed."
His words stung, but only because she knew that Draco wouldn't care-he seemed to not care about anything but Quidditch lately. She swallowed the knot in her throat and kept looking past him at the Professor, trying to ignore him. "Shhh! Ron!" Hermione was hissing, but he kept going any way.
"Unless, of course, he's just trying to get some pus-"
In an instant Fae's wand was out and aimed directly at his face. Her gray eyes were on fire but kept her jaw clenched tightly. He looked surprised for a minute, and Hermione looked as if she were about to have a seizure.
"Mr Weasley, Ms O'Connor!" Professor Flitwick screeched. She quickly lowered her wand; it was blocked from his view, but she didn't want to risk it. However, her eyes didn't tear from him as he turned around quickly in his seat.
"Is it too much to ask for you to pay attention?" The very short professor was obviously angry; he had already been in a bad mood, due to the lecture he was giving the class, and this just added on.
Fae didn't say anything, her eyes still narrowed at the back of Ron's head, whose ears were turning quite pink with anger and embarrassment.
"I'm sick of your constant bickering, you're both acting like children! I'll be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about your detention task, and you should have one within the next few weeks. As for now, please take your seats outside."
Ron sighed irritably and rolled his head back, and Fae slammed her books down on her desk before gathering them up again and storming out of the room. She slammed the door behind her, causing half the class to jump, and Ron opened it shortly after and walked out the hall. He saw Fae slumped against the wall, and saw her sink down to her haunches as he paced before her. It seemed very familiar: like when he accused her of creating the Dark Mark. She didn't give him a chance to yell at her first, this time.
"You can't just leave things alone, can you?" she said quietly, looking at her knees. He stopped pacing and looked down at her, but didn't say anything. So she went on. "I just don't understand how you can get so much pleasure out of knowing that you're making someone's life a living hell."
He just looked at her, a sudden hatred filling his eyes. She looked up at him and put on a sarcastic face of sudden realization. "Oh, wait, I think I know. Maybe it's because you have your own insecurities, and you have your own paranoia. So you try to cover it up by accusing someone else of having them, and treating them horribly."
He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He still looked like he wanted to jab a knife through her throat, and if there had been one just lying around, she wouldn't put it past him. She kept pressing with her final question, suddenly just wanting to get everything out. "What did I ever do to you?"
He didn't have time to answer, as the door opened and Professor Flitwick bustled out of the classroom with annoyance. They sighed, and he told Ron to have a seat, which meant another one of his long lectures. He sat down across from Fae as Flitwick sighed, and started up on his lecture. They were to probably have detention sometime together, although their task was undecided. He assured, however, that whatever it was would be to push them to get along together. This received a sigh from either side of him, but he raised a silencing hand. After his speech was over, they were asked to join the classroom again. On the way in, Fae could feel Ron's eyes on her, and she took her seat silently. Neither of them spoke another word for the rest of the class, and Fae wasn't sure about him, but she didn't say anything for the entire day.