Draco lay in his bed for a long time that night, mulling over what he had now dubbed "the Library Incident." Ron didn't want to get caught. That was interesting. That was very interesting. It was also irritatingly inexplicable. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come up with any explanation for it. So eventually, he gave up on that clue, filing it away for further contemplation after he'd come up with more information about Ron's reaction.

There had to be something else about that incident that had been important. It was the most contact he'd had with the boy in weeks – well, a week, but close enough.

There was Ron's whole "I'm not gay" thing – which hadn't convinced Draco in the slightest. Actually, he was now almost positive Ron was about as straight as he was rich, which was about as gay as you could get.

Well, that had to be good. It would be a lot harder – though be no means impossible – to seduce Ron if he were straight. The denial aspect was a little worrying, but that could just be a ploy to try and get rid of Draco, which wasn't a particularly useful revelation.

What else had happened? Draco racked his brain for any other potentially interesting aspects of the incident, but the only thing he could think of was that Ron had been blushing. Why would Ron be blushing? Because he was embarrassed – that was why people usually blushed, after all. But what did he have to be embarrassed about? That Draco was harassing him, of course (unless that had been a very interesting chapter of their Care of Magical Creatures book, but somehow Draco doubted that).

So, what about it had embarrassed Ron? The action itself or Ron's own reaction? Well, if Ron was as bigoted about Slytherins as he seemed to be, maybe he found his reaction to Draco embarrassing…

Of course, if Ron had tried something like that with him and if, for some inexplicable reason, Draco didn't throw a fit and get him expelled, his other course of action would have been to passionately ravish the annoying redhead. He would have hardly just sat there and let Ron do what he wished, hoping that maybe if he blushed hard enough Ron would leave him alone.

But clearly Ron didn't deem that to be any better a course of action than beating Draco to a bloody pulp whilst screaming "rape!" at the top of his lungs.

For hours, he lay awake, pondering what he could try next. Because honestly, he was getting tired of waiting and watching and not being able to do anything until Ron slipped up. Maybe… maybe he should try something else. Maybe he could try a different tactic. Slowly, a plan began to form in his head. Unfortunately, he fell asleep before he could get very far into it.


Ron wasn't at breakfast the next morning, but then again neither were either Harry or Hermione, so maybe it wasn't because of Draco. Pansy, who was sitting across from him, must have caught him looking for Ron, because she leaned over the table and asked in a low voice, "So have you made any progress yet?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "I'm working on it."

Pansy snorted. "Really? I hadn't noticed."

"Well, since I don't recall you setting a time limit, I don't see as that matters."

"It has to be before we get out of Hogwarts, or you won't be able to do the last part."

Draco smirked at her. "Not necessarily – as long as Hogwarts is still here, if I disgrace him before the entire world then I'll have completed the dare."

Pansy glared at him and refocused her attention on her meal. Draco spared a glance at Crabbe and Goyle, who were, as always, sitting on either side of him, but they were oblivious as ever.




Vincent Crabbe was sitting next to Gregory on the sofa in the Slytherin common room, watching in patient silence as Draco passed back and forth in front of them. He had no idea what Draco was so worked up about, though it was probably related to whatever had been bothering him for the past few weeks.

But whatever it was, Draco had yet been driven to do more than snap at either Vincent or Greg, so Vincent wasn't particularly worried about it yet.

Eventually, Draco looked up from his pacing, seeming to notice Vincent and Greg for the first time.

"Don't you two have homework or something?"

Vincent gave an affirmative grunt.

"Then why don't you go do it?"

Vincent gave another grunt and the two of them got up and went upstairs, leaving Draco to his pacing. In their dormitory, they found Theodore Nott sitting on his bed, reading a book. Theodore looked up as they entered.

"Either of you two know what's up with Draco?"

Greg grunted, giving a slight shake of his head as he sat down heavily on his bed. Theodore gave them both a disgusted look.

"I should know better than to ask you, by now," he muttered under his breath.

Vincent grunted his agreement, though he wasn't sure whether Theodore would interpret it correctly. Draco was just about the only person beyond Vincent and Greg themselves who could consistently and accurately interpret their grunts. Pansy could usually do a reasonable job, and everyone else was lucky to figure out whether a grunt meant "yes," "no," or "I'm about to beat you to a pulp."

Theodore shook his head in disgust, muttering something about not knowing how they'd managed to get into Slytherin in the first place and even worse than Hufflepuffs. But Vincent didn't mind, and he knew Greg didn't either. He was used to it by now.

He pulled out his history of magic textbook, trying to find the beginning of the chapter they were supposed to read while Greg rooted through his bag for a pen. He knew he'd written it down somewhere…

Eventually he found the right page and set about working his way through the confusing mess of letters that covered the page with a grim determination that should have had him sent straight to Gryffindor. Actually, it had occurred to him once that he probably should be in Gryffindor – they were the stupid, stubborn ones, after all. He wasn't sure how he had gotten into Slytherin; he just knew he was glad to be with Draco, who was the only friend he and Greg had ever really had. Draco did all the thinking and told them what to do, and Vincent and Greg obeyed him, protected him, and remained strictly loyal to him. Which sounded pathetically Hufflepuff, when you put it that way, but Draco had never once betrayed them, never once hurt them. Maybe he was rude to them, but so was everyone else – and Draco was rude to everyone. But he had never hurt to them or betrayed their trust. Perhaps if he ever had, maybe they wouldn't be so Hufflpuff-ishly loyal to him. But Vincent didn't really want to think about that, because Draco would never betray him.

By the time he managed to struggle through the chapter and actually make sense of what it was supposed to be saying, it was getting dark out. Sometimes he could persuade Draco to summarize the reading for him, but he knew Draco's moods well enough to know better than to ask him right now. Draco would probably just sneer at him and tell him what an idiot he was and to figure it out for himself. So Vincent had cut out the whole Draco snapping at him part and skipped right to the figuring it out for himself.

He looked up, stretching and rubbing his eyes. Theodore had left at some point, leaving him and Greg alone. Noticing that Vincent had finished, Greg looked up.

"What was the chapter about?"

Most people would have been amazed to hear that Greg could actually put that many words together and even form a coherent sentence with them. Even the other Slytherins seemed to think that Greg and Vincent had a very few number of useful sentences laboriously memorized. No one but Draco seemed to believe that they had a firm enough understanding of the English language to actually speak in complete sentences.

Vincent sighed, shutting the book and carefully set about explaining what he remembered from the chapter.

A/N: Princess Orli: Did I forget to thank you in the last chapter? Not sure (the reviews weren't working right), but if so, I'm very sorry. And if not, I would be sorry if I had... which didn't make much sense, did it? Thanks. :D Master of the flames: Sorry this update took so long... I've sort of been struggling with one of my other stories. I wanted to update before this, but it's taking me forever to write the next scene so I gave up and moved on to this. Sorry... Stars-n-moons91: You're very welcome... More on Ron's motivation (there's prolly a lil' more there than just that he's liking this, don't ya think?) Kashiaga: Thanks