When Draco walked into Divination that first Tuesday that students had returned to school, he met Grey's eyes. She was sitting at her table like normal but, unlike normal, she was facing the door. She gave him the world's smallest, most apprehensive smile and he reciprocated with the tiniest, non-committal nod, but their eyes remained locked…

Until Hayden brushed past him, stealing Grey's focus. A bright smile adorned her face at the sight of the female Slytherin and Draco found himself utterly annoyed. He resolved himself to return to ignoring her, yet for an entire week, their eyes kept catching, and the awkward almost-acknowledgement continued.

Then one night, Draco walked into the Slytherin common room to find a grim-faced Pansy flanked by her two best friends, both displaying shock, and a few boys, some smirking and some surprised. Theo was among them, grinning like a kneazle that had caught a rat.

The moment they all looked up and saw him, silence descended.

"What?" he asked, apprehensive. That's when he noticed Pansy had a photograph in her hands.

"Looks like our Christmas photos arrived," Theo said and Draco felt his stomach flip with a mixture of fury and curiosity. Just then, Hayden walked out of the girl's dormitory. "Perfect!" Theo snatched the photo away from Pansy and whirled toward her. "I'm not sure how you spent your holiday, Hayden, but your friend spent hers with us," he told her. She eyed him warily. "What do you think?" He shoved the photo into her hands. "Hardly recognize her, eh?"

Hayden's eyes grew wide and her neck snapped forward to get a closer look at the image. As she gazed at it, Draco realized that she was not at all surprised by Grey's company, merely impressed by her appearance. Which meant that Grey had told Hayden about her trips to the Malfoy Manor… But how much had she told her?

A smile that started small broke into a victorious grin as Hayden's gaze lifted to where Pansy was sitting stiffly on the couch. She crossed over and held up the image in front of Pansy's face.

"You can call her whatever you want," Hayden began, "but I bet that, right about now, you're wishing you were a stick-limbed ghost."

Pansy's eyes flashed with hatred and one of her friends tried to bounce of the couch in her defense but Theo pulled her back down. Hayden laughed—actually laughed—and dropped the photograph. Theo snapped it up before it could flutter away and they watched her leave the dormitory.

"Wasn't expecting that," Theo said, suddenly beside him. He passed him the photo.

It was the group shot of the teenagers with Crabbe, Goyle, and Theo grouped around Draco, whose hand was around Grey's waist. Only in this picture, he had been caught looking down and smiling at her while she smiled up at him. Three thoughts raced through his mind, one right after the other. The first was that he and Grey looked surprisingly striking together. The second was shock at the genuineness in his expression when he smiled at her. The third was, "Fuck." It was bad enough that Crabbe, Goyle, and Theo knew about Grey… Now that Pansy had been made aware of the girl's enviable transformation, the situation was bound to spiral out of control. He had to do something…

Draco immediately crumpled the photo, affecting as bored an expression as he could manage. Even Theo seemed surprised, especially when he moved to toss the photograph into the flames. He didn't, of course. A minor sleight of hand had him tossing a balled-up piece of parchment, instead, but everyone seemed convinced.

"Is there a problem?" Draco asked coldly.

Most of the gawkers turned away, but Pansy remained rigid and forlorn. He knew she would be bullying Grey even more intensely henceforth, and he honestly didn't care. What he did find disconcerting was the likelihood that she might try anonymously informing his mother of the truth of Grey's incompatible values.

Draco looked at Theo. "Did you do this?" he snarled.

Theo grinned and slapped him on the shoulder. "Just interested to see how far you'll go to hang onto this arrangement. What's your end game anyway?" He leaned in and whispered, "Getting into those knickers?"

Draco smacked Theo's hand off his shoulder. "Idiot." Of course, he'd fantasized about it, but he never imagined actually going through with it. Grey didn't seem the type to have sex for anything less than "true love", and Draco doubted that he was on her radar in that capacity.

Theo just laughed. "Good luck," he said, his eyebrows bobbing up and down before he walked away.

Draco plopped onto the couch next to Pansy, who immediately turned to him with big, sad eyes. He knew he was going to have to put in some extra effort to diffuse the situation and so he lightly ran his knuckles along the back of her hand. She immediately cracked.

"What's going on with you and Grey?" she asked, panic in her tone where he expected anger.

"Nothing," he scoffed.

"Theo said your mother is trying to match you!"

Damn it, Theo… Draco plastered a flabbergasted expression on his face. "That's a rumor, nothing more," he lied. "My mother was friends with Grey's mother. She invited Grey to dinner to be polite."

"But you were—you had your arm—"

"We were posed by the photographer."

"You seemed so," Pansy grimaced, "happy."

Draco grinned. "As much as it pained me to spend the evening in her presence, I made the most of it. At her expense."

Pansy looked torn. "Then why was she smiling…?"

Damn… He didn't have an answer for that, so he cranked up the charm. He leaned in ever so slightly, his gaze dropping noticeably to her mouth before returning to her eyes.

"Who cares," he muttered. "You're not jealous, are you? Of Lady Gravefoot?"

Pansy flinched and Draco knew why. Since the beginning of their first year of Hogwarts, Pansy had taunted Grey with the nickname Lady Gravefoot, finding her own appearance superior to the pale and skinny Hufflepuff girl. But after looking at that photograph, there was no denying that Grey had grown into a beautiful woman. The nickname was now very clearly poorly chosen and Pansy was sure to be feeling her own inferiority. Hayden's insult had been right on target.

Before Pansy could answer, Draco said, "You have nothing to be jealous of. Now stop frowning." He let his fingers trail over hers as he stood up. "You're prettier when you smile," he said and walked away. He heard the girl sigh happily behind him and rolled his eyes.

When he was alone in his room, he retrieved the crumbled photograph from his pocket and muttered a spell to restore it. He found the rest of the photos his mother had sent and flipped through them, amazed again by how formal and official he and Grey looked standing together. But he kept coming back to that last photograph with that smile they had shared, so full of intimacy and sincerity that even he felt embarrassed. It was a mystery to him, as though it had happened to someone else, and yet he could clearly recall the moment and his amusement at her jest. He remembered how he felt, but seeing that feeling translated into that expression was shocking…

No wonder Pansy had felt so threatened…

Luckily, his lies had seemingly dispelled her unease, because when he walked into Divination the following week, Pansy was at his side, smiling like a fool and clinging to his arm as though she were his girlfriend, and he didn't say anything to dissuade her. When Grey looked at him, her face flashed with surprise, but Draco looked away without acknowledging her. Pansy, however, scowled in her direction the entire class, and Hayden whispered conspiratorially to her, laughing periodically. Grey seemed embarrassed.

Their eyes caught only once, and Draco made sure it didn't happen again.


Author's Note: I hope you can imagine all of the other normal 5th year activities taking place between these scenes!