Draco took another spoonful of chocolate mint ice cream from the plate, cursing himself for the thought of joining this uptight nuthouse, otherwise known as the Slug Club, ever even crossing his mind. If it wasn't for his goddamn stubbornness and striving for attention from any well-respected circle, no matter how stupid and pretentious, he'd be out there, on the Quidditch field, training to tear Potter down during the upcoming game, while said Golden Boy was sipping his tea with a bunch of idiots.

Instead, he was sipping his own right across the table.

"Just chill out," whispered Zabini. "You're saving my ass right now. I wouldn't stand another evening listening to McLaggen's gibberish or Granger's muggle stories alone."

Right, Granger.

Draco moved his eyes towards the girl sitting at Potter's side, currently giggling like a 12-year-old at something he must have said. Her hair appeared even more bushy and untamable than usual, and her cheeks were weirdly rosy, as if she drunk a couple of glasses of wine before the party, to say the least. She carefully lifted a cup of tea, and as she was putting the edge to her lips, she glanced across the table. Before he realized it, her eyes met Draco's, and they both blinked, surprised and embarrassed.

Draco quickly turned his head as if nothing happened, but inside, he felt a rapid wave of heat and irritation. Moron. She was going to think he was staring at her like some kind of a Weasley.

Well, technically, said a little voice in his head, you did were staring at her.

"Shut up," mumbled Draco, rubbing his eyes.

"What now?" Zabini frowned. "You okay?"

"Yeah, everything's great." Draco rested his face in his hand and looked back at his plate filled with melted ice cream. "Everything's just perfect."

For the next couple of minutes, Draco kept glancing at Professor Slughorn, pretending to listen to his babbling about whatever topic he considered so engaging, and making sure to smile once in a while, when everyone else was doing so. His only focus, however, was not to look at Granger for the rest of the evening. Doing it once might go off as a coincidence, but twice is just suspicious, and this stick ass dinner was enough of a disaster.

"Look now who's making his advances."

Draco looked at Blaise's mocking grin, but he'd been too deep in his own thoughts to be able to make sense of his friend's words. He just shook his head and asked: "What are you talking about?"

Zabini leaned in. "McLaggen."

Draco frowned and turned his head to Cormac. A sudden urge to laugh seized his body as he watched McLaggen attempt to make a flirtatious face, which turned out rather creepily, at some poor victim of his lack of charm, right over Slughorn's shoulder. Draco couldn't resist checking who the unfortunate gal was, but his smile abruptly disappeared as he laid his eyes on clearly uncomfortable Hermione.

An even greater wave of annoyance took over his mind.

Damn, Granger, he thought. Why do you always have to take the fun out of everything?

He glanced back at McLaggen, who contorted his face undiscouraged, in a way that only to him could appear sexual. Draco clenched his teeth and closed his fingers in fists, repeating to himself not to react, but the longer Cormac continued, and the more Draco tried not to think about the source of his anger, the harder it was to stay calm.

McLaggen didn't seem to realize how close he was to getting himself doomed. At that very moment, he decided to step up his game and repulsively lick his bottom lip.

Before he realized what he was doing, Draco pulled out his wand under the table, and, covering his mouth with the other hand, whispered: "Expulso".

In a flash, Cormac's chair burst into pieces, and the boy himself flung into the air in the cacophony of screams all around the table. As he bounced off the ceiling and was going down back to the ground, flailing his limbs uncontrollably, Professor Slughorn managed to catch him with a spell right before hitting the floor.

"What, in the name of Merlin, is going on here?! Who did that?!"

Draco glanced at Hermione, who happened to do the same thing, so their eyes met once more. He quickly turned his head, again, and watched Slughorn fidgeting, completely furious, McLaggen looking around the room in search of answers to which he didn't even know questions, and Blaise simply trying not to burst out laughing.

Shit.