-Story disclaimer at the beginning of Chapter One-
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:Chapter Four: Jolt and Mischief
Draco Malfoy's first reaction after opening his mailbox was to throw all the papers away. But Pansy was right, most of the students were busy reading their mail and really, he didn't have anything better to do. There was no one willing to entertain him.
So he was sat on his bed and started to browse through the responses he had received.
'It's obvious the mangy old Sorting Hat fell for Pansy's dumb idea...' he thought to himself.
He barely spared the friendship matches ten seconds before he crumbled them up and tossed the wads aside. Not even bothering to look at the three girl matches, he did the same. Picking up the last of the papers, he started reading through the top one's answers. After about the fifth question, he crumbled up that paper and tossed it aside.
"Well no wonder we only got a match percentage of 55." Draco said out loud as he picked up the next paper.
"Hm, I guess 70 percent is better." He commented aloud, but after reading the first few answers he crumpled up that paper as well.
With the final paper in his hand, he was surprised that he would even consider reading it since all the other ones were such a waste of his precious time. But soon after, he was shocked to find that the responses had actually grabbed his attention and he couldn't stop reading until the last answer was given.
Yet, even though all the responses peaked his interest, in his heart he knew it would never work out. So he crumbled up the last parchment and tossed it aside with the rest.
Draco's mind flooded with a secret he had never admitted to anyone. He had already fallen for someone a few years ago. Harry Potter- the pretty boy with the wild hair and attitude that made him weak in the knees. Harry never backed down from him, which was a total turn on. Harry had a dark past and yet he was still as innocent and unblemished as ever. Harry's life was threatened over and over again, and somehow he was still able to smile and joke with his friends every single day.
The defining moment when Draco realized his hatred was actually pent up lust was during fourth year. When Harry had battled the dragon and was painfully tossed around the rocks, bleeding, and still managed to have that determined look of confidence in his eye… Draco had a hard time concealing his erection. Then the second task, just seeing Harry in his swim trunks had practically melted him. After the third task, Draco almost rushed to comfort Harry when he heard him crying for Cedric. Luckily, at the last moment he remembered to maintain his sneer and put up his perfect Malfoy front of indifference.
Trying to shake his Golden Boy infatuation, Draco had gone on many dates over the years and even forced himself to have a couple strictly sexual relationships. Unfortunately for him, nothing he had done could shake his heavy crush.
Great, so here he was thinking about the one subject he forbade himself to dwell on. Every time he considered that this might be the last year of seeing Harry in real life – he would feel all panicky.
Snapping out of his daydream he silently punished himself for drifting so easily to those thoughts again. Clearly he remembered overhearing Harry say that there was no way he would be filling out the forms. That is the main reason why Draco himself hadn't wanted to fill them out. No one could replace Harry, no matter what. Even if the crazy Sorting Hat said he was a 98 percent match with someone else at Hogwarts. As if!
Frustrated, he grabbed his wand and launched the crumpled up parchments to the wastebasket beside his desk. Flicking the wand and muttering a spell, all the papers shredded and fell into the trash.
He decided to attempt going back to the Common Room to see if anyone was there. Once there he noticed it wasn't empty, instead was filled with many first, second, and third years. Silently remembering that the lower years could only fill out the friendship forms explained why they were done reading and replying so fast.
Draco marched up to one of the third year girls and told her to go get Pansy from the girl dorms for him. She rushed off with a look of importance on her face.
Draco glared at the kids sitting on his favorite couch until they scurried off. Then he promptly laid down with his head on the side arm.
A few minutes later Pansy appeared in front of him. She couldn't tell if he was still mad at her or not.
Draco lifted his feet up and she sat down. He put his feet in her lap. Relief washed over her face.
"So I take it you must have received some good responses, otherwise you would still be furious with me." Pansy slowly questioned.
"Not really." he retorted. "Well, there was this one form that grabbed my attention, but not enough. In the end it got shredded like the rest."
"Oh Draco. You are so arrogant. I don't see the harm in responding to him."
"Him? How do you know it was one of the boy forms?"
"Oh please. You told me you were gay years ago! Besides, I know you have been crazy in lust for a particular raven haired boy for years now."
"What! I never told you about that."
"You didn't need to. Almost the entire school wants to bed you. If you would have fallen for anyone else in school, you could have already had them. He's the only one who makes sense in this situation… unless of course you fancy a certain red headed --"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence!" He threatened her. "And don't be disgusting!"
After a few minutes of silence, Pansy asked, "Draco, why did you shred the one response that caught your eye?"
"Because I overheard a certain raven haired boy telling his friends he would not be filling them out."
With that said, Pansy finally knew just how deep Draco's feelings really were for the other boy.
-o-O-o-
The following morning, Draco noticed his mailbox was lightly glowing.
"Looks like you've got a response!" Said his roommate Gregory Goyle.
"Who cares." Replied the blond. Though a moment later he was putting his hand into the box to retrieve the letter.
Sitting on the edge of his bed he looked at the envelope and noticed it was from 1138. That was the number code from the letter he had considered writing back to last night. Draco started to crumble up the letter, but remembered the discussion with Pansy last night and stopped. 'Oh what the hell,' he thought.
Opening the envelope, he pulled out the letter and read:
-o-O-o-
"Dear 80111 (I'm not sure what else to call you),
This is a little awkward for me, because I only filled out the forms when one of my Housemates harassed me into it. However, I was genuinely intrigued by your responses. I felt that I had to write you and at least give it a shot because your answers were similar to how I feel. Plus, something about them moved me. None of the other matches interested me in the slightest.
Not sure where to go from here. Though, I must say that one of your answers on the questionnaire made me laugh. The question: What do you like to do for fun? You answered, 'I like to push rules and see how far I can go before getting into trouble. Oh and I adore Quidditch.'
I can relate. After so many years of bending rules, I think I get a small jolt of thrill from it - although I would never admit such a thing out loud.
Originally, I did want to ask what House you are in. But thinking on it now, I would rather not discuss something that has a potential to start us off holding grudges.
Hope to hear from you soon,
1138
PS. I, too, adore Quidditch.
-o-O-o-
Draco started to crumble up the letter, but remembered his discussion with Pansy last night and stopped. 'Oh what the hell,' he thought. He walked over to his desk and wrote a quick reply.
Dear Jolt,
I must admit that I was also intrigued by your responses last night. And just like you, I was forced into this pen-pal program by a Housemate. Your harassing friend wouldn't happen to be female? Mine was. It scares me how well she can scheme.
Yes, I do enjoy the thrill of pushing limits as much as you it seems. And I agree that we don't need to discuss our Houses. Although, from your letter I have a feeling you might be in Slytherin.
Talk soon,
Mischief
-o-O-o-
With that done, Draco dropped the envelope into the mail slot and marched into the Common Room. When he saw Pansy, he demanded that she tell him every answer she gave for him on the Relationship questionnaire.
"I was wondering when you would ask." She said as she pulled a paper from her back pocket. "I copied them just incase you wanted to know. But I must say, I am curious why, since you shredded all the responses last night."
"Let's just say that I received an interesting letter in my mailbox this morning." He replied as they walked up the stairs towards the Great Hall.
-o-O-o-
Sitting in the Great Hall, Harry Potter was a bit glum. Waking up to a glowing mailbox, he had let himself get too excited. But nope, there were no responses from his mystery guy. All the responses he got that morning were from the friendship list, his female-matches, or the two guys that he wasn't interested in.
Instead of letting them be disappointed like he was with the non-response, he jotted off a quick four-liner to each of them, hoping they wouldn't be too upset. 'Thanks for your reply. I must be honest and tell you that my friend harassed me into filling out the questionnaires. While I appreciate your reply, I am not as interested in this program as most. But I wish you luck with your other responses.'
-o-O-o-
Across the room, Draco looked up to steal a quick glance of Harry. Right then he decided he was glad he had given a response to Rule Bender. If anything, he could use a distraction to take his mind off his crush… and hopefully his Rule Bender was even half as attractive as his Harry was.
-o-O-o-
As the Gryffindor trio were eating breakfast, Hermione was busy asking everyone about their matches and responses.
"What about you Harry, did you get any good matches?"
"Um, well there was one form that I liked enough to reply to, but I didn't get a response yet. I guess the feeling wasn't mutual." He sulked.
"What was your highest match percent?" He was asked.
"My highest was a 98."
Suddenly his friends sitting near him were all in choruses of 'What!' 'That high?' 'Ninety-eight, Wow!' and so on.
Neville quickly said, "That's the highest I've heard yet. A few of our Housemates have scored into the nineties as well, but nothing past 95 percent."
"I'm sorry you haven't gotten a response yet," Hermione offered, "maybe they were busy with homework or something."
Harry just shrugged. "So tell me about your matches." He said to her.
"Well there were a few that I replied to. Two guy matches and one… girl match." She started to blush.
All her friends looked at her in shock, but quickly replaced it with smiles.
"Let's finish eating and then we can go outside to the lake, and I will tell you about the matches I replied to." Ron suggested.
-o-O-o-
Draco had barely overheard the Gryffindors talking about someone's match of 98. They weren't very loud, but he heard it because he was already paying attention to what was going on over there in the land of lions.
Draco shook his head and thought to himself, 'It looked like they were talking about Harry having a match, but I know for a fact he didn't answer the forms. I wonder if… NO! Stop fantasizing before I decide to ask Millicent Bulstrode on a date as punishment.' He warned himself with a nasty look on his face.
Pansy noticed the look he was giving. "Hey," she said while patting his back, "is something wrong?"
"No, of course not." He said, sitting up straighter. "Hurry up and finish eating so we can go for a walk around the lake."
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Author's Note: An easy way to remember who is who:
Jolt is Bolt (as in lightening).
Mischief is Malfoy.
And no, I didn't plan it that way (promise), it just happened on it's own.
Oh and the nickname Jolt is from the first letter Harry wrote to Draco.
'I think I get a small jolt of thrill from it.'
I didn't want to keep using numbers since that would be too confusing, and jolt is one of the first words that grabbed my attention when I was choosing a nickname.
