~seven~
Marching forwards, expecting to see that Hermione had returned, Draco found that his hopes were sadly dashed, as the most unwelcome figure of Justin came bustling in. He had returned much earlier than expected from his night out and, moreover, he was not alone.
Hot on his tails and holding his hand was the blonde haired, trainee nurse healer that Draco had shared ward rounds with a couple of weeks earlier. She was tottering along on her bright red, high-heeled shoes and giggling inanely. Draco stood open mouthed, gaping at the scene unfolding before him.
"Ah. Malfoy. Thought you'd still be out with your mates?" Justin remarked with surprise.
"Yeah? Well I could say the same thing about you." Draco replied, eying the pair coldly.
"Ha-ha! Yes, well…" Justin trailed off as the blonde witch leaned forwards and whispered something in his ear, causing him to swallow thickly and his eyes to widen.
The girl gave Justin a lascivious grin, before stalking around him and away towards the lounge, throwing her blood-red, wool coat on the sofa, to reveal the skin-tight, little black dress that she wore underneath.
Justin puffed out a heavy breath and made off to follow her, but Draco swiftly reached out and grabbed hold of his upper arm, sharply tugging him back.
"Justin, what the fuck are you doing?" Draco demanded.
Justin quickly shrugged Draco's hand off and turned to face him with a bored roll of his eyes.
"Oh come on, Malfoy. When it's handed to you on a plate like that," he said gesturing with a nod towards the girl who was now hovering around near the bedroom doors, "it'd be rude not to!"
Draco felt the anger rise within him like a red mist.
"And Hermione?" he asked. "You're seriously doing this? On her birthday?"
"Oh relax will you, Malfoy? It's not like I'm going to tell her now, is it?"
Draco stood motionless, the crackle of angry magic licking wildly at his fingertips. The temptation to hex or to simply outright punch Justin in the face was eating him alive, but he just couldn't risk losing everything he had worked so hard for. It seemed he still retained some Slytherin ambition, after all.
"You're a fucking prick, Flinchley," he bit out through clenched teeth.
"Oh come off it, Malfoy. Since when did you become Mr Morals?" Justin countered. "After everything you've done in the past, you think you can stand there and judge me for something as petty as this?"
"Petty?!"
"Yes. Petty. And don't go getting any ideas about telling Hermione yourself. You want to be careful, Malfoy. Don't think that I don't know that you're only on this healer training on condition of your good behaviour bond. One word from me and you'll be out on your arse, crawling back to mummy and daddy like the whiny little bitch that you are."
Draco closed his eyes and breathed heavily through his nose in an attempt to calm himself down from the dangerous rage that was burning within.
Justin leaned in to Draco, and with a smug smirk whispered, "Now be a good boy, and keep your mouth shut, Malfoy," before he walked off across the lounge, tossing his own jacket onto the sofa and leading his conquest into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.
Draco growled loudly and instinctively punched the nearest kitchen cupboard door, realising quickly and with regret, that he wasn't nearly drunk enough for the alcohol to numb the pain of such antics.
"FUCK!" he roared, squeezing and then rubbing his throbbing fist in pain, before snatching up the bottle of firewhiskey and taking another large swig.
At that moment he heard a shrill, feminine laugh coming from Justin's room.
"For fuck's sake!" Draco yelled, before grabbing his wand from the side and throwing up a silencing charm on Justin's room for the umpteenth time.
"Right! That's IT!"
Draco aggressively accio'd his trunk from his room, caring little about the way it collided harshly with the doorframe, leaving a large scratch in the woodwork as it scraped along on its journey into the lounge, thudding heavily to the floor at his feet.
He started to throw in his belongings from the bookshelf in the lounge - his books and of course, his beloved vinyls, pausing every now and then to chug back another comforting swig from his bottle. He decided once and for all that there was no way that he could carry on living the colossal, two-faced arsehole that was Justin Finch-Fletchley.
He quickly made his mind up that he would go back to the manor that night and reluctantly take his parents up on their original offer to organise a flat of his own near to St Mungo's.
He had no doubt that once he was in a calmer frame of mind, he could come up with a cunning way to expose Justin to Hermione, much as it pained him that it might hurt her feelings.
As Draco's trunk was now slowly filling up with his clothes, shoes and other belongings that he had levitated from his room, his bottle of firewhiskey was slowly emptying and he soon found himself to be very drunk. He sat down heavily on the sofa, rubbing his temples, just as the whooshing sound of the floo began to fire up.
Draco turned his head sharply to see who the unannounced visitor was, his mouth quickly hanging open with disbelief. The amber eyes that he was all too familiar with met his once more, as Hermione emerged from the green flames.
He stood up quickly, the room spinning slightly.
"Hi. I'm sorry to intrude again… but I left my overnight bag…" Hermione explained, trailing off as her eyes caught sight of Draco's trunk piled high with his belongings, and the now empty bookshelf by the window.
"Draco? Are you leaving?" she asked with questioning eyes.
He remained still for a moment, staring into her wide eyes intensely. Without further ado, he marched purposefully over to her, not breaking eye contact for a second, took her face in his hands and planted a rather misplaced kiss on her lips.
With a muffled cry of protest, she quickly pushed him off, stepping back away from him warily.
"Draco! What are you doing?!" she cried, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand, before remarking, "Gods, you reek of booze!"
Draco stuttered in realisation, "I… I just…"
"I didn't come back here for that! I wouldn't do that to Justin!"
Draco huffed out a sarcastic laugh.
"Oh yes. Poor little Justin," he muttered before dropping back down heavily onto the sofa.
Hermione's eyes were full of hurt and confusion as she took in Draco's moody demeanour. Her eyes ranged over him before eventually catching sight of something at Draco's side.
She walked over and picked it up. It was Justin's jacket that had until that moment, been lying still-strewn across the sofa from earlier. Draco looked from the jacket to Hermione's face with wide eyes.
"Is Justin here?" she asked quietly as her attention was then caught by the sight of something else that had been hidden beneath Justin's jacket.
With a scowl, she dropped Justin's jacket to the floor and picked up the bright red wool coat, holding it at arm's length as though it gave off a particularly offensive odour. She looked over at Draco with raised eyebrows.
Draco opened his mouth as though to say something but swiftly closed it again as Hermione strode assertively over to Justin's room, throwing the door wide open and disappearing inside the silenced quarters. He stood up again, turning to face the open doorway, but he couldn't hear or see anything apart from some angrily moving shadows on the wall within.
After a few moments, Hermione came storming back through the door, her face bright red and angry with a slight shine of tears in her eyes. Draco felt his heart die a little inside. As she passed through the silencing ward, her loud and upset voice suddenly broke through.
"…never been made to feel so bloody stupid in all my life!"
Justin soon came running after her, stark naked. Clocking Draco, he quickly grabbed a cushion from the nearby sofa to hide his manhood.
"Hermione, wait! It was just a silly mistake, ok? I… I got drunk, I didn't know what I was doing!" he protested with pathetic desperation. "Hey - maybe she spiked my drink?!"
"Oh for Godric's sake, Justin, don't insult my intelligence!"
She grabbed her overnight bag and turned sharply to face him.
"I'm leaving."
Just then, her eyes travelled down his body and landed on the cushion he was holding, and a triumphant smirk grew across her face.
"And Justin?" she added, walking towards him, pursing her lips.
"What?" he asked meekly, his cheeks reddening.
"Nice choice of cushion. It really, really suits you…"
Justin looked quickly down with confusion, and to his horror, realised he had picked up one of Theo's funny cushions, that just happened to say "TINY DICK" in large, pink letters.
"…As does your name, Just - IN," she stated, staring coldly into his eyes.
Draco couldn't help but give a snort of amusement at Hermione's savagery, and watched with glee as Justin fumbled to turn the cushion the other way, his face turning more and more red with embarrassment.
Hermione then made her way to the floo, but suddenly stopped abruptly, pausing for a few seconds at the fireplace. She dropped her bag, turned on her heels and marched purposefully up to Draco, reaching up and taking his face in her hands in a direct imitation of his earlier actions. Pulling him down towards her, she kissed him passionately and with wild abandon.
Draco froze momentarily in shock, before moaning quietly into her mouth and taking hold of her waist firmly, pulling her body towards his.
Then no sooner said than done, she broke the kiss off with a panting breath, declaring, "That felt good," before grabbing her bag again and disappearing in a rage of green flames.
Draco and Justin stood frozen in place, staring at the dying green light of the fireplace, as they both processed everything that had just happened.
It was Justin who broke the silence first.
"Always knew she was a slag," he sneered with an uncaring shrug of his shoulders, turning away from Draco to return to his bedroom.
He didn't get very far before he felt a sharp hex hit him from behind. He turned to look at Draco with horror, before letting out a high pitched shriek as he registered a most unpleasant and painful sensation in his already deflated and meagre manhood. Looking down, Justin watched with dismay as it began to rapidly shrink and shrivel down to the size of an undersized flobberworm larvae. He clutched and pulled at it desperately and hopelessly as it got smaller and smaller.
"Arrrrrgh! What the hell have you done?!" he bellowed, falling to his knees in his still-naked state.
Ignoring Justin's cries, Draco calmly went to collect his own coat, shutting the lid of his trunk and shrinking it down to fit inside his pocket.
"What are you playing at?!" You… you can't leave me like this!" Justin demanded, his face contorted in agony.
"Fuck you, you absolute tosser," Draco stated coldly, before apparating away to the manor, willingly taking the risk of a drink-induced splinching, as he left Justin writhing and moaning pathetically on the lounge floor.