Pansy gave a long, shivery sigh, as Draco said his piece, "I do so swear." she said calmly, holding to the forms as if they were a lifeline - which, Draco began to suspect, they really were.

At the long shivery sigh, Draco widened his eyes slightly at Pansy, sending her just the trace of a glare. Didn't she know she could trust him?

Pansy's eyes tightened at that, along with her mouth. The slightest of frowns, conveying her displeasure - You don't understand.

"Eat, Drink-" Draco's mouth quirked sardonically, "Be merry."

"For tomorrow we die." Snape purred, his mouth quirked into that half-smirk that was the closest he ever got to a smile.

Pansy took her cue as suggested, scurrying over towards the rest of Draco's merry band of minions.

"What news?" Draco asked abruptly, knowing everyone was still in earshot, but would at least pretend not to have been openly eavesdropping.

"You're news," Snape started, as Draco's eyes widened - he hadn't even been thinking, he had been so worried about everything... "Cracks in the dyke, and you're far from the only."

"Hit it with a hammer hard enough, and the whole thing shatters." Draco responded, looking at Snape with something approaching awe.

Snape said mockingly, "Now if only someone had a hammer!"

"My father - " Draco broke off, "you, sir."

Snape scoffed, "Even Dumbledore, or Potter would do, if either of them could lead" a passel of Slytherins went without saying.

Draco felt a sudden frisson of fear sneak through him, This will turn out very badly without a hammer, won't it? For us, for our parents - for everyone. It had been one thing, after all, to feel a bit of superiority over the Muggles - only natural, really. And it certainly couldn't have hurt to have a Slytherin in charge again - as it should have been all along... But - now it suddenly felt like he had a different hand of cards, and these were ugly cards indeed. Being bound to the Dark Lord suddenly didn't seem like an honor at all, if his parents were so willing to sacrifice to keep him away from it. Away from Him. Was he really so unstable as to harm his own minions? Should he worry about his parents?

"I must leave. Take care of them." Snape said, his voice low and almost a caress.

"Goodbye." Draco Malfoy said regally, calling on skills that had been drilled into him as a child.

Within minutes, Draco was curled up in his room, looking at the thin blue book, with Magical Betrothals on the cover. He hadn't read a word - yet. It smelled like honeysuckle...it was June... Draco wondered, suddenly, if Snape had gotten this from - or given it to - his betrothed. It seemed like a promising avenue to explore.

Draco thought of a girl in the woods, in an airy pastel sundress, sitting below an arbor of honeysuckle, reading the book and playing with the flowers.

A second image arose, of a girl in a dress, reading the blue book carefully in a Solarium, her perfume scenting the pages.

A third image rose in his mind, a girl in bloomers, halfway up a tree, grabbing for the sweet flowers, the book half-abandoned on the ground.

Draco closed his eyes, paging through girls at random - large and small, smiling and glaring daggers, leggy and plump, blond and red. Who was she?

[a/n: Enjoy! Draco's got dreams... Write a review!]