TITLE: Haloed

AUTHOR: Aviatrix

PAIRING: Draco/Pansy

SUMMARY: Relationship sketch. A drabble-and-three-fourths.

RATING: PG-13

DISCLAIMER: All characters belong to JK Rowling. I'm just playing with them.

A/N: Dedicated to Leibling, for introducing me to D/P.

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They whisper vicious nothings in each other's ears: curses and hexes and insults, delivered with good humor and grace.

He is not a gentleman. He does not open doors for her, he does not kiss her goodnight. He only compliments her when she asks him to, and then it's a joke, all coy glances and winks. And she is not a lady, if only for the simple fact that it's not worth it anymore.

She's not silly enough to call it love, and he's not callous enough to call it nothing.

It's a game, bruised and battered. Rules only faintly remembered, things like 'no exclusivity' and 'not on the Quidditch pitch, it stains my robes'.

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There's a staccato rhythm to them, a stop-and-start beat with half-realized melodies, and a hook, silent but always there:

*I won't beg and you won't crawl

Don't you dare catch me when I fall*

He leans in her general direction with haloed eyes and a lazy smile, fingers crooked at her: Come here, come here. Come out and play.

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