Chapter3 – Dirty Magazines – Draco's POV

Everyone had left the café except for Ginny and me. I ordered us hot chocolates and we sat in silence.

"This isn't fair," Gin broke the silence. "I hate you're stupid father and your stupid housemates and your stupid life. Why can't they just stay the fuck away from us…?" She was acting angry but I could tell she was about to cry. I slid off my chair and onto the booth seat next to her, slipping my arm around her waist.

"Shhhh…I know. But as soon as stuff cools down a bit everything will be fine. Then we can do whatever we want," I tried to sooth her. "Besides…we can do whatever we want in private."

"Yeah, which is like never? Other than at night we are never alone together."

"I know…" I brushed her hair behind her ear and kissed her.

"You should leave soon. I need to get back." We could not leave the café at the same time. We decided I was going to stay here alone for a few minutes.

A single tear threatened to fall down her cheek, but she quickly brushed it away. "Ok," she whispered, pressing her lips into mine. She whispered "I love you," into my ear.

"Are you coming to my room tonight?" I asked. She nodded and then walked out of the café, leaving me with my hot chocolate.

That night at dinner I sat with Blaise at the end of the Slytherin table, quite a ways down from any of my housemates.

I was a little pissed off at the world at the moment. I was going over every bad thing hat had been done to me in my life.

"Honestly, I'm just about ready to fuck my safety and go sit with the fucking Gryffindors. I'd really much rather sit with them that with this lot."

Blaise didn't respond.

"I mean, it's not like I did anything to them personally. They're all stupid and worthless anyways. I mean, who would want to follow a nut job who's been defied by a sixteen year old a million bloody times in the first place? It all seems rather stupid, don't you think?"

Blaise continued to watch the ripples in his pumpkin juice.

"Ok… what are you thinking about? Nobody ignores me, it must be important," I asked.

He looked up as I lightly kicked his shin under the table. "Huh? Oh…Well, um, there's something I need to tell you." He picked up his fork and began playing with his mashed potatoes. "It's…kind of important."

"Ok… Go ahead," I said.

"Um…are you gonna judge me?" He asked, looking worried.

I looked at him strangely. "What?" I asked, confused.

He sighed. "Um…You know that Finnegan kid?" he asked.

"The gay one?" I asked. "What about him…oh…" I raised my eyebrow at him. "Are you gay?" I asked.

He nodded.

I laughed with relief that it wasn't something terrible.

"Why are you laughing?" he asked, still looking worried.

"I thought you were going to say something bad. That's cool, Zabini. I don't care, you know? Whatever floats your boat…no pun intended."

He laughed out loud with the same relief I had just felt. "That's great. Thanks. I'm going to go do homework now. I'll talk to you later."

"Sure," I said. He left the great hall.

That night, I was sitting in the private common room Blaise and I share, waiting for Gin to show up. It was well past curfew; hopefully she would be here soon.

Blaise came in and flopped himself down on the sofa by the fire with a thin, black bound book. He flipped it open and began scanning the pages. There was no way he was reading the book. He was flipping way too fast.

I cleared my throat and turned back to the Charms text I was pretending to study.

I looked up at Blaise every few minutes. He kept shifting around in his seat and wiping his face with his hand.

With this particular banishing spell, the wizard who banished the object… Merlin. I could not concentrate.

I looked back up at Blaise just as a bead of sweat rolled down his head.

"What in Merlin's name are you reading?" I asked.

He jerked, as if coming out of a trance. "Huh? Oh…History of Magic text," he said, turning back to his book.

"Like hell you are," I said. "The History of Magic text is like 3000 pages long. That thing is like 50." I jumped up and tried to grab the book from his hands.

He quickly muttered a banishing charm and it disappeared.

"Bloody fucking hell, Zabini. What could possibly be so bad?" If only I had been paying attention to the stupid Charms book.

"…You don't want to know," he replied.

"Oh, come on," I persisted. "I think I can handle it."

He raised his eyebrows at me, before reaching under the sofa he was sitting on and pulling out my hidden copy of PlayWizard. "Don't think I don't know about these," he said. He threw the magazine at me.

I look at it for a minute. "Wait…" No, it couldn't be. "Oh, Merlin. Please don't tell me you were looking at naked men!"

He laughed out loud. "Please don't tell me you've been looking at naked women," he replied, waving a second magazine from under the sofa.

I rolled my eyes. Just then there was an almost silent knock on the entrance. 'Perfect timing, babe,' I thought. I shoved the magazines back under the sofa and went over to let Ginny in.

I opened the entrance and let her in, invisibility cloak sliding off her shoulders as she stepped into the common room.

"Hey," I whispered, stepping forward ad kissing her hard on the lips.