A/N: Chapter Eleven!

I'll be blunt about it.

I wanted him inside me.

As much as I despised him during our teen years, there had always been something inherently attractive about him. It was frustrating. On one hand, he was an absolute prick with the intent to make my life a living hell. On the other, he had those eyes and that stride and those dimples. I remember the first time I noticed his dimples. It was on a random weekend in our third year — at dinner in the Great Hall. I, as per, had my nose buried in a textbook — Potions, most likely — before glancing up to the sound of laughter.

Such a thing usually came from the Gryffindor or Hufflepuff tables. Ravenclaw, on occasion — usually after exams. But this time around, it came from the Slytherin table. I stared across the Great Hall and met eyes with the bane of my existence, as his lips curved into an actual smile — not a smirk. It was about two seconds before we darted our respective gazes in opposite directions, but in that time I realized something.

Malfoy was attractive.

Like, devastatingly attractive.

It had been a decade since then, and nothing had changed. Still, he enveloped me with those smoky eyes and made every inch of me ache with pure need as we hovered millimetres from one another.

I did nothing but breathe, consciously reminding myself that this wasn't a dream. It was real. If I did so much as flinch, our lips would have met in a kiss that rippled through me, at the mere thought of it.

"Granger?" he voiced, delivering my surname to me in such a way, that I was sure I could have lost control right then and there.

But instead of doing that, I looked from his lips to his eyes. "Yes?"

His gaze was deep — riveting. It looked as though he had something on his mind, something he wished to impart before things progressed any further. I could see the struggle in him, the way those smoky orbs glistened with opposing thoughts.

"I need to tell you something…"

"What is it?" I asked, suddenly worried.

He glanced down a moment, before locking eyes with me again. "Benoit promoted me to the Manhattan store," he explained, a hitch in his breath. "I — I'm leaving for New York in the morning."

It took a moment — several, actually — for his words to register.

I blinked, knowing he could see the moisture in my eyes. "C — Congratulations."

Just like that, the moment was lost.

One Hour Later

It appeared the other guests were none the wiser. I found Harry and Ginny, and in turn Ron and Daphne, and sat with them by the bonfire. The wooden structure was, by this point, unidentifiable but it had apparently been built with the likeness of an old wizard from the Middle Ages. Daphne, bless her heart, tried explaining to me the significance, but my thoughts were too scattered to register anything she was saying.

I hope I didn't come off as too rude.

Despite everything I had been told about Astoria, it seemed her older sister was an agreeable, charming, genuinely nice person.

It reaffirmed to me, the fact that Slytherins weren't all bad.

But I couldn't think abut Slytherins anymore. I had to think about something else. I had to, despite being surrounded by them.

"Hey you," Nott smiled, finding my side on the blanket Daphne had laid out for us. In his hands, he held a couple pints, one of which he handed to me. "I thought you could use one of these."

I nodded in thanks, and chugged about a quarter of the pint in one go.

Nott gaped at me, startled and no longer smiling. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing at all," I lied, having another sip. "Just dandy."

He tossed me an obvious look. "Granger, I know that tone."

I grimaced. "You're shrinking me."

"I'm not shrinking you," he countered, addressing me as though we had spent no time apart. "Just — whatever happened, you can talk about it when you're ready. Until then, let's make the most of tonight."

"How do you propose we do that?" I asked.

The young wizard reached into his suit coat and in his palm, he held a clear baggy with some silvery rectangles — each about the size of breath strips. "Astoria copped these from some Swedish bloke a couple nights ago."

I side-eyed him. "There's no chance in hell I'm taking those."

"Why not?" he pouted, like a puppy that had been denied a treat.

"Because you're girl Astoria has it out for me," I mumbled, in such a way that only he could hear. "I'm sure she's tampered with those…things. Godric knows what'll happen to me, if I take one. I'll probably wake up in a dumpster with half a kidney missing."

Nott narrowed his eyes at me. "What would someone do with half a kidney?"

"You know what I mean."

"Sure," he started. "But tell me, what makes you think Astoria has it out for you?"

I scrunched my mouth, wondering whether or not I should elaborate. Even if I had been told the truth in confidence, it involved me and it was my business to share. I had no allegiance to Astoria — and she clearly felt no allegiance towards me.

Bearing that in mind, I leaned closer to Nott and explained the situation, leaving out the bit about a certain someone returning the film to me in the middle of the night — for whatever reason.

His eyes widened. "Are you taking the piss?"

I gave him one unambiguous look to confirm the information. "I'm not. Just promise you won't tell anyone."

"Promise," he vowed, sounding rather distant in his thoughts. "I can't believe she would do something like that; over a bloke that doesn't even like her, no less. It's —"

"Wait —" I interjected. "What are you talking about?"

Nott looked at me, as though the answer were written out in plain letters. "Draco," he uttered. "There's obvious chemistry between you two. It's palpable."

I swallowed hard. "There's no chemistry. Trust me." The words came out of my mouth, but even I had to admit they reeked of bullshit. "And even if there were — which there is not — what would that have to do with Astoria? I thought you said she was into Marcus Flint."

"Astoria's into someone new every couple months," he explained. "Right now, she's into Draco."

Something about that didn't sit well with me. "Well, she can go ahead and do what she likes. It's no problem to me."

Nott chuckled at this. "You are the world's worst liar."

"I am not!"

"So you admit you're lying," he winked, nudging me a little, as though we were old friends; at which point I folded my arms and turned away from him, knowing he was too smart to fall for my act.

It was around then, that he dropped the amusement and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. Doing so should have made me uncomfortable, but it didn't. Something about him put me at ease. It was present that night in the dungeons, and it was present right there, across from the bonfire — behind which there was a dock and a lake, where the water was calm and still.

I fixed my attention over there, and noticed someone standing close to the edge; alone.

"Just remember," Nott told me, having followed my line of vision. "I was your first Slytherin."

I faced him — confounded, startled, and then amused — allowing the twitch along my bottom lip to transition into a fit of giggles.

Such a charmer, that one.

Later That Night

Through some strange twist of fate, Nott managed to convince me that Astoria had not tampered with those rectangles. It turned out they were wizarding drugs, about twice the effect of marijuana and twice the cost. I, along with Harry and Ginny, took the silvery whatsit's with Nott and proceeded to wander the estate looking for our shadows, during which time we broke out into endless fits of laughter every five or so seconds about literally nothing.

It sounds boring, but I swear, I had the best time.

I returned home about three hours later, still buzzing, and slumped onto the sofa. It was lonely sometimes, living alone with no friend to chat with and no boyfriend to drunkenly spoon. I preferred having my privacy, but part of me missed living with Ginny. It had been two months since she moved out, and I still looked to the front door every now and then, expecting her to come home from a training session or from date night with Harry.

Needless to say, my lonely arse had been living vicariously through her during our time as roommates. I had my career, which I adored, but I had no time to date or to have fun. The closest I had gotten to going on a date since ending things with Ron, was, in fact, following Oliver to that balcony and subsequently humiliating myself for the entire world to later read about in the newspaper.

I shuddered thinking about it, and proceeded to remove my heels along with my dress.

One of the great things about living alone was being able to go nude anywhere in the flat, at any time. Granted, there were no secrets between myself and Ginny. She knew what I looked like naked and I, her — but the freedom of being able to cook breakfast with no more than a necklace on was something I didn't take lightly.

Bearing this in mind, I slipped out of my dress and turned on the fireplace, draping a throw over my legs as I sat there with a glass of wine and a good book. It was a Muggle book, something I had been meaning to read for the past couple weeks but never got around to doing. I read page to page, turning them faster as time went on, completely absorbed in the mystery and the suspense, when suddenly there was a knock on my door.

"What the —" I glanced to the structure and frowned, having reached a rather intense part in the book that I would preferred to have finished reading.

But me being me, I couldn't ignore the knock.

I popped into my bedroom and slipped on that same robe from the other night, and made my way to the door. It wasn't terribly late — maybe midnight or just after — but it was late enough for this visit to be a surprise. I figured it was either Harry or Ginny, stopping by to chat about something or other, or even Nott, to continue our fun and games.

But it was none of the above.

I opened that door, and gasped.

Before I could get a word in, or even so much as a breath, there were arms around me, drawing me close enough to catch that familiar scent of dark chocolate, black currant and sandalwood. I breathed in and then out, suddenly aware that I was bare beneath the robe, and that my feet were off the floor. I had my legs wrapped around his waist, as he held me with one arm and used the other to close the door, after which I slid down its length.

"Granger," he said, dropping an octave, speaking to me in a rough, rugged voice. "Would it be terrible of me to kiss you?"

I quivered against him, flat against the mahogany, feeling warmth radiate from him to me, as he brushed the hair from my face. "Beyond terrible," I managed to say. "Though that's never stopped you before."

It was then that he looked at me with the same deep-seated longing from my dreams, translating to me the frustration in his core and the fact that this moment had been a long time coming.

Without another word, he ran his hands through my hair and down my sides, before leaning forward and giving me a taste of that foul mouth.

I moaned into the kiss, overcome with the feeling of his lips on mine. It was the strangest sensation, and yet I couldn't get enough.

To be continued.

A/N: Thanks for reading! How do we like the story so far? I'm obsessed with it. I literally can't write anything else right now haha. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. There's plenty more to come. Loads of twists and turns.

Cheers

xo.