CONTEST WINNER THIS CHAPTER: User AngiesDreams recommended the song, "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis & The News for everyone this go around, and I thought it a perfect complement to everyone's thoughts here. So, this chapter is dedicated toAngiesDreams - congratulations! Lyrics for that song appear at the bottom of this chapter. Hope you'll find this song somehow and give it a listen.

Version 1.0 - 2010

Revision 2.0 - 1 December, 2018

CHAPTER THREE: THE 2nd QUESTION

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, Scotland

Room of Requirement

Saturday, June 13, 1998 (8:30pm)

As the game required of all players, Draco sat on the end of the couch in the same spot he had vacated earlier, and tried not to be too obvious about staring at Granger, who sat next to a very pale, frowning She-Weasel. The two women were gripping hands tightly and neither had said a word since they'd come out of their private rooms a few minutes earlier. In fact, no one had spoken; it had been strangely silent between all of them, as if whatever had happened behind those six closed doors in the last hour had somehow changed them all.

Except for him. Nothing he'd done in the privacy of the room he'd occupied with his partner had left a lasting stain upon his conscience. In fact, he was looking forward to doing a lot more this round. Clearly, though, Hermione wasn't, as she wouldn't even look his direction. Maybe he'd pushed it too fast by moving in fast on the physical stuff?

"Does anyone need the loo?" Saint Potter finally spoke, his voice soft in the hushed room, taking the lead this round, as he and Draco had previously decided upon. When a silent chorus of shaking heads met that question, the Gryffindor captain nodded. "From what I understand, the action cards from last round have all been reshuffled magically into their correct deck now, and last round's question card has erased itself, having been completed." He looked to Slytherin's Team Captain for confirmation, and once he'd received it, he continued. "Then, Parkinson, it's your turn to draw a green card," the chirpy Gryffindor dictated.

Draco watched as, jarred from the moment's introspective thoughts, his female Housemate reached for the next Interrogations card and blanched, then read it aloud, fighting to keep her voice even, "If you had to participate in an orgy with anyone in this group tonight, who would you pick as your partners? Name 3-5 people."

Everyone focused on Daphne, who was immediately to Pansy's left. The woman adjusted her glasses as coolly as possible and looked around, pausing momentarily on Theo. She then reached for a Forfeits card.

Her partner leapt to his feet. "What? You mean you wouldn't want me at least?"

Greengrass said nothing, merely looked at him as evenly as possible. "I believe the rules state rather specifically that I am not required to answer a question unless I wish to. I choose not to this round, with no reflection on anyone here."

"Yeah, and you can't interrogate her on her lack of response either, Nott," Potter added. "Those are the rules."

Draco regarded Theo as his face flushed red with anger. Apparently, whatever had happened between he and Daphne during the previous round had affected him enough to feel he now had some sort of rights over his partner. Greengrass was disabusing him of that notion right quick, however, returning his stare without flinching.

"Theo, sit," he cautioned his friend. "If Daph doesn't want to admit or deny anything in front of the group, she doesn't have to."

After a final moment of glaring, his best friend slumped back down onto the couch, still steaming. He turned his head away from the proceedings, looking off at the far wall, clearly trying to cool his head. The play moved on to Blaise.

He looked equally as shaken as Theo was, although his gaze was purposefully directed on the She-Weasel, who refused to look up at him. "You know my answer," he stated somewhat bitterly to the little redheaded woman across from him. He spoke to her alone, tuning out the rest of them, his face a mask of granite detachment barely holding in place, spilling unhappiness out at the corners as he fought to contain his emotions. "Even though I know you'd love to knock my block off right now, I'd still pick you as my first choice. I couldn't care less who the other people would be. Guy or girl, it doesn't matter. Everyone in this group is interesting enough, I suppose."

Draco wasn't really surprised by this revelation about his friend's sexual orientation. He'd always assumed Blaise to be the "take sex as you can find it" type. The man was so closed-mouthed about his partnerships however that it was impossible to have ever previously been able to say definitively one way or the other. Now it was out there for everyone to know finally that Blaise was bi-sexual. There were a few askance looks (especially from Gryffindor's side, and he noted that Theo shifted in a curiously uncomfortable fashion). The Weaslette, however, did not meet his gaze. She did not respond at all, in fact. She merely swallowed hard, looking positively miserable and ill.

There were an awkward few minutes after Blaise's pronouncement where no one spoke or dared breathe too loud, as if everyone could feel the palpable discomfort and pain electrifying the air around them, centering on the cyclone of emotions that was Blaise Zabini and Ginevra Weasley. Uncomfortable himself with the queer silence, Draco finally nudged Tracey, wanting her to take her turn next to move past the moment and get them back on track.

The woman jumped and then blushed. "Oh, um, Blaise has to take a Deeds card, right, and then it's my turn?" Next to her, Zabini reached forward and took a red card from the stack. When he'd done that, Tracey cleared her throat behind a polite hand. "Right. Well… um…" She swallowed convulsively a few times. "I don't think I'd enjoy the experience at all of being with multiple partners, and I'm not very comfortable with the idea of naming any people to do such a thing I wouldn't like anyway, so does that mean I have to take a Forfeits card?" She looked over at Potter, who glanced at him. They both nodded at the same time, in agreement over the ruling of this one.

"Sorry," Harry apologized sincerely to his partner. "You're choosing not to answer technically, so that means you take a blue card." Cheeks flushing, Tracey nodded, and reached for a Forfeits card.

Draco shrugged. "Those are the rules, Davis." He turned his attention to Hermione then, as it was his turn, and gave her the slickest smirk he could conjure, watching her face pale as she realized he planned to answer. "I'd pick Granger, Davis, and Greengrass." He'd answered flippantly, making light of the matter and grinning like a cad, which he knew irritated his partner.

She turned her nose up at him, annoyance flickering across her features.

Reaching for a Deeds card, Draco chuckled under his breath. "Your turn, Finnigan."

Seamus laughed loudly and lustily, and it was a strange sound in the still-charged room. He leaned back into the couch and swung an arm up and over the back of the cushions. "Well, since it's me own card, I suppose I have ta answer." He turned a lascivious grin on Brown, who sat at his left. "I'm sure me partner would rather kick me arse than give me half a chance, but I'd want her. As fer the others…" He looked about the group, measuring up each woman. "I suppose I'd have ta say Hermione and Parkinson."

Pansy rolled her eyes, as expected, but Granger looked up and over at the handsome Irish, blushing a brilliant red. Her mouth opened in shock, as if she was just cued into an idea she had never before considered.

Draco restrained the growl that rose up in his throat by gritting his teeth. Of all the men at the game tonight, it was Finnigan who he felt was the greatest threat for stealing a woman's attentions. The guy was rumoured to have a humongous dick that had never failed to satisfy. That he'd dare consider Granger…

Cock-sucking bastard.

Lavender barked a cynical laugh. "Figures." She indicated her partner should take a red card from the stack. Before he'd sat back, she snatched up a blue card, holding it tightly to her chest. "I refuse to answer," she sulked indignantly. "There are too many big egos running around this room already."

Her partner took no offence, laughing at her stubbornness. He stretched his legs out in front of him, supremely confident that he'd known what Brown's answer would have been anyway, and clearly enjoying her determination not to name him.

Brown elbowed the man hard enough to make him lose his breath and bend at the waist, clutching his abs for such an arrogant show.

Good girl, Draco sadistically thought, feeling vindicated.

The Weaselbee was next. He cleared his throat, glanced at Pans out of the corner of his eye, and turned an interesting shade of red. "Pansy. No one else." He turned to the blonde at his side quickly. "No offense, Lav, but-"

Lavender shook her head and patted the guy's hand with a casual affection. "Friends, Ron. That's all it was for me, too."

The wizard nodded his head in agreement, then his bashful gaze wandered back to his Slytherin partner across the aisle from him and he cleared his throat. "Then… I'd only want Pansy."

Draco couldn't help it; he burst out laughing. He knew it was against the rules, but it was an uncontrollable reaction that needed a voice. "Oh, hell, Pans, you're good! In less than an hour, you brought home a puppy!"

Parkinson threw him a death glare. "Shut it, Draco," she warned, her eyes glittering with the promise of retribution for making a joke at her expense.

He wiped the tears of hilarity from his eyes, and tried to compose himself, but fell into another round of wild, amused chuckling.

Across the way, Gryffindor's former Keeper had gone still with fury. "She's fucking hot, Malfoy," Weasley countered coldly, leaning forward in his direction for emphasis. "You're just too stupid to see it."

Abruptly, Draco's amusement disappeared, much like a candle extinguished with a strong puff of breath. He (and the others in the room, he noticed) stared with incredulity at the Weasel King. The bloke was serious. Really, truly serious.

Hell's bells, not an hour ago, he and Parkinson had practically been at each other's throats!

Draco quickly changed his focus to Pansy. His ex was staring at her game partner, astonished. Her dark eyes were blown wide with disbelief, but the definitive sparkle of interest glimmered in the back of them. Abruptly realising she was the object of Draco's attention she shuttered her lids and looked down at her hands. He would almost say she looked… shy.

Oh, hell, he thought, with some small measure of concern. "Tell me you're kidding."

He glanced between the two sides, his eyes bouncing between his ex-girlfriend and the one guy in the world he couldn't stand more than Potter.

"Shut it or else," Weasley growled, looking ready to leap up and throttle him at any moment.

"Bloody hell," Draco grumbled, resigned to the fact that the truly bizarre was going to inevitably be part of tonight's game. If Pans wanted to toy with the redhead, who was he to play the protector of her remaining virtue? He had enough to think about with Granger, anyway, whose turn it was next to answer. "Whatever. Rules say you can't answer that way. Finnigan's card was specific. You have to pick three to five people from the group. So either answer completely, or take a Forfeit."

Weasley looked to his friend and Captain, but Potter simply hung his head and nodded in concurrence. "Malfoy's right. The rules are specific. Sorry, Ron."

The ginger git looked torn and gazed across the space at Parkinson again, whose eyes were still on her lap. Without any more thought to the matter, he reached for a blue card.

Obviously having caught the motion from her peripheral vision, Pansy's head jerked up in astonishment, and then a small smile tugged at her lips and relief was evident in her eyes.

Seriously, whatever, Draco sighed, turning his attention on the one person whose answer did matter to him.

Hermione didn't even look at him as she reached for a Forfeits card, saying nothing.

Not surprising. Really, he could have bet the odds on that one and come up the winner. Let down by her lack of courage, though, Draco sat back into the couch and contemplated his partner with intense scrutiny, silently willing her to look up so he could aim that disappointment directly into her brain.

The She-Weasel copied her best friend exactly. All the while, the two ladies maintained a death grip on each other's hands. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Blaise smirk and look to the side, as if the response from his partner hadn't been at all unexpected.

Prince Potter was talking then, and Malfoy shook himself out of his contemplation to tune-in to the nonsense. "I'm monogamous. That's not my kind of thing, and just speaking hypothetically about it isn't comfortable for me either, so I'll just take a Forfeit."

Gryffindor's Captain snatched up a blue card as game play passed quickly to Theo.

Draco's other best friend crossed his arms over his chest and frowned, clearly considering the wisdom of answering or not. With a growl, he lunged forward and took a red card, then tapped it against his knee. "I'd fuck any of the girls here, but if I had to pick, top three choices would be Greengrass, Granger, and Brown." He stared at Daphne pointedly as he replied, as if challenging her to argue.

For her part, Greengrass remained wisely silent. She adjusting her glasses again across the bridge of her nose and stared off at the far wall with deliberate insouciance. This only seemed to anger Theo more, though, Draco noted; his friend's free hand actually clenched into a fist.

Damn, what had happened between Nott and Greengrass in that private room to make Theo react so aggressively? He'd never known his friend to be so affected by a woman!

But then, Draco could relate. His obsession had been on-going for a rather long time, however, and was therefore had deeper roots.

He turned to his own partner, feeling a tad bitter about the answers this round. "My, aren't you popular with the boys," he bit, his own jealousy manifesting.

He knew he was behaving immaturely, but the fact that every male in the room wanted to fuck his girl (and he was quite sure that the Weasel and Potty would have listed Granger, too, had either of them had the cojones to do so) made Draco terribly resentful.

Granger stared at him as if he'd just said something completely nutters.

"No discussion," Potter reminded him and Draco was forced to turn aside his need to lash out. It wasn't, after all, really Hermione's fault that she was desirable enough to put on a list of women a bloke would most like to fuck. Slytherin's balls, he even wanted her, and he'd been her antagonist for years.

"Parkinson, back to you," Scar-Head indicated.

Pansy practically glowed neon red, opened her mouth, shut it, then hung her face in her hands and muffled her reply. "I'd pick Weasley. No one else." She reached for a Forfeits card, not able to answer the question correctly either.

"No shit?" her partner asked, breathing a shaky sigh of relief. "Well, that's… good."

Draco looked between the two former enemies-slash-new best bed buddies and, mentally shook his head.

"Time to turn your cards over," Potter announced.

Draco flipped his placard and read it carefully, then uncrossed his legs and stood up. "Time," he demanded, tapping the Deeds card against his thigh.

"Its 8:40," Potter replied, replacing his fob watch in his pocket. He reached for those invisible glasses of his again and sighed when he remembered he no longer wore them. He'd have to find a new OCD tick, it seemed.

"All right, you've got until 9:30," Draco declared, turned on his heel and made for the same room as last time, knowing Granger would have no choice but to follow him. She had a punishment coming to her, after all.

Behind him, Potter's voice rang out. "Pregnancy charms, ladies, if you please."

Draco snorted, re-reading his card as he reached for the knob and pulled his door open. Maybe they'd have better use for such a spell with Granger's Forfeit, because his action round certainly wouldn't call for the use of such a spell. Talk about rotten luck.

TO BE CONTINUED…

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Musical Selection for this Chapter: "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis & The News. Lyrics are as follows…

The power of love is a curious thing…
Makes one man weep.
Makes another man sing.
Changes a hawk to a little white dove.
More than a feeling –
That's the power of love!

Tougher than diamonds,
Rich like cream.
Stronger and harder than a bad girl's dream.
Make a "bad one" good,
Make a "wrong one" right.
Power of love will keep you home at night.

You don't need money,
Don't take fame.
Don't need no credit card to ride this train.
It's strong and it's sudden.
It can be cruel sometimes,
but it might just save your life.
That's the power of love.
That's the power of love.

First time you feel it,
it might make you sad.
Next time you feel it,
it might make you mad.
But you'll be glad baby when you've found…
that's the power makes the world go 'round!

And it don't take money,
Don't take fame.
Don't need no credit card to ride this train.
It's strong and it's sudden.
It can be cruel sometimes,
but it might just save your life.

They say that, "all in love is fair!"
Yeah, but you don't care.
But you know what to do
when it gets hold of you…
and with a little help from above,
you'll feel the power of love!
You'll feel the power of love.
Can you feel it?

And it don't take money.
Don't take fame.
Don't need no credit card to ride this train.
Tougher than diamonds,
and stronger than steel.
You won't feel nothin' till you feel…
You feel the power?
Just the power of love.
That's the power!
That's the power of love.

You feel the power of love...
You feel the power of love…
Feel the power of love!