Chapter Six
Even before Draco started to sing, it was obvious that he was already a favorite with most of the audience. In a second I found out why.
Sunday morning, rain is falling-
Steal some covers, share some skin-
Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable-
You twist to fit the mold that I am in.
Holy. Shit.
But things just get so crazy, living life gets hard to do-
And I would gladly hit the road, get up and go if I knew-
That someday it would lead me back to you-
That someday it would lead me back to you-
He had the voice of a bloody angel.
That may be all I need-
In darkness she is all I see-
Come and rest your bones with me-
Driving slow on Sunday morning-
And I never want to leave.
You see, all my life, I had a bit of a weakness for guys who could sing well. Not just sing well, but had that certain quality in their singing voices… You know, like clear and smooth, sweet. Although hard to explain, it wasn't hard to recognize immediately that Draco had exactly that kind of voice that always made me go weak in the knees. Not to mention he was incredibly good- looking.
Fingers trace your every outline-
Paint a picture with my hands-
Back and forth we sway like branches in a storm-
Change the weather still together when it ends.
Here was a short piano solo. It gave me time to catch my breath. But not along enough. And you may not know
That may be all I need
In darkness she is all I see
Come and rest your bones with me
Driving slow on Sunday morning…
He paused at this point, and with both relief and sadness, I could feel the last phrase was the end of the song.
He sang it gently and perfectly-
And I never want to leave.
Everyone exploded around me, some even standing up. Lisa, who I had forgotten was sitting next to me, shouted to me over the crowd, "He's somethin', isn't he!"
I looked upon his face onstage, and his serene expression I saw from when he was singing was now a familiar satisfied smirk, pleased at the audience's reaction.
"Somethin'", I muttered.
As he walked off stage, he caught my eye and winked, smirk still on his face.
Lisa grabbed my hand and pulled me off my seat. "Come on, let's go congratulate him backstage!"
Exactly the last thing I wanted to do.
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"Drake, you were awesome!"
Lisa hugged Malfoy just as she did with me, only this time, I felt sick to my stomach, not smiling with relief.
Even when we got backstage, his stupid smirk was still on his face. I mean, honestly, how can one person hold one expression for so long? And how on earth could it be so incredibly cute?
He strode up to me and looked at me expectantly. "Well? Aren't you going to congratulate me too?" he teased me.
I stared at him plainly. "Well, Malfoy, seeing as you did not congratulate me, I see no urgency in congratulating you."
"Alright then, congratulations, you did a good job. And now you know what you're up against."
I leaned in close to his face and said sweetly, "Back at'cha."
I curtly turned away and walked back outside and again found my seat in the audience, heart pounding.
There was no way I could beat him. Just no way. It was obvious that he was just about the best in the whole competition. And it wasn't just that. He had the general support of all the audience. I had only just realized I had a bit of a talent for singing. His seemed to make mine seem like a mere pinch in comparison with his big jarful.
Not that I would ever let him know, of course.
As the next singer started singing like the Fat Lady portrait back in Hogwarts, I determinedly snapped back in focus and sat up.
I'd show him. Him and that smirk of his, so stupid, so arrogant, so patronizing, so adorable…
I stopped Craig while he was walking by. He was working as a waiter for the event. Most everyone on the staff was, except of course for Draco and I. Also Lisa, but only she had that kind of power.
"Screaming Orgasm on the Beach, please."
Right when he was beginning to leave, I grabbed his sleeve and said, "Make it a double."
"Feeling the pressure?" he questioned smugly. "Drake is pretty good."
I raised an eyebrow delicately and replied coolly, "Nothing of the sort. I simply was in the mood is all."
"Right", he replied, unconvinced. "I'm on it."
As I sipped my drink, I thought to myself, Drake, I am going to make you wish you never made that bet.
…And his name is not Drake!
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After we all got back to the apartment building, Lisa insisted we celebrate. At the end of the night, the man in charge, DJ T, he called himself, had announced the twenty singers who would make the next round, and both Draco and I had gotten through.
"No surprise there! You were both slammin'!" yelled Craig.
"Yeah, and you guys should've seen Drake's face when Mia started doing her thang," Kyle started laughing. Everyone looked at him.
"What are you on about?" I asked curiously. Could I have possibly had the same effect on him as he had on me?
Kyle, evidently a bit tipsy, calmed down a bit and half- said, half- laughed, "Man, I was backstage taking orders from the singers, haha, and Drake went to watch when Mia was called, and…" he broke off laughing for a second. The others were beginning to look amused as well, except for Draco who was indifferently taking out beers from the fridge.
"When she started singing, dude, you shoulda seen his face! Haha… It was like-" he made an impression that looked like he was surfing and was just noticing a fifty- foot wave that was about to close in on him. No doubt Draco's face would have looked much differently.
Draco scoffed in the background. "Oh, please."
It was Lisa's turn to smirk, and she said to him, "Oh please yourself, you. Hey, everyone, I think our singing star Drakey here is getting a bit nervous to keep his title as best singer in Clevouge!"
"Aah, starting to feel a bit threatened by this new talent, eh?" Dave taunted him as he indicated toward me.
Draco, seeming unflustered and above all his companions' immaturities, sat down with his beer and sneered, "Her? You think I'm threatened by her? I'm more likely to be threatened by Kyle," he laughed and slouched in his seat.
"Oh I think you are, "Lisa ventured.
"Threatened by Kyle?" he retorted cleverly.
Ignoring his comment, she crept toward him. "I think that underneath all that not caring and all that sarcasm and confidence…you are feeling seriously threatened by our newfound talent here."
He simply rolled his eyes, said, "That is where you are wrong," and took his beer and walked away to the bedroom.
Everyone was silent until we all heard the click of the door being closed. Then the squealing and laughing began.
Everyone was hugging me and high- fiving until I finally broke in, "Excuse me? What are you all so cheery about? I mean, I know I got into the next round, but so did grumpy over there."
They all looked incredulously at each other. "You seriously didn't see that?" asked Heath. "Even Kyle saw it!" Kyle nodded in agreement, not realizing the insult.
"Saw what?" I asked blankly, feeling very stupid.
"Hermione! Drake is totally threatened, no matter what he said!" Lisa exclaimed as quietly as she could.
"H-he is?"
"Of course!" Heath jumped in. "You see, he thought that you were going to be the one at a disadvantage when he first made that bet with you, but the tables turned on him!"
"Yeah!" agreed Dave. "Because you turned around and it turned out that you actually have talent!" I didn't quite know how to take this statement.
"Oh, Hermione, you've just gotta win! At least beat out Drake!" Lisa squealed.
"Lisa!" Heath chastised her, looking amused.
"Oh, you know you were all thinking it!" she said impatiently. She turned toward me again and continued. "Hermione, Drake has never given in to anyone, at least never when any of us were looking. If you win, he has to be your virtual slave!"
"That would be pretty wicked," admitted Kyle.
"Well…To tell the truth, none of his reactions seemed to imply that he was even shaken in any way. To me, anyway."
"Yeah, well there are other ways to read Drake," grinned Dave.
The others looked toward the direction Draco left and murmured in agreement.
"Hermione, I'm telling the truth here, so don't get all modest." Lisa took a dramatic pause. "Out of all those competitors, I think you're the only one closest to…or even matching Drake's talents for singing. And you just began. In time, who knows?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. At first I just looked around at them gaping, trying to decide whether or not they were serious.
"Well, you guys, I'll try my best, but do you all really honestly think I'm that good?"
Needless to say, I didn't need to ask.
"Anyways, one thing," Lisa motioned for all of us to crowd in together in a huddled circle.
"Alright, we just need to make sure one thing," she whispered. "We cannot let Drake know all this. It would just make him ten times more competitive."
"Yeah," repeated Kyle. "Competitive son of a-"
"What the bloody hell is going on in here?" a voice interrupted, clearly amused.
Everyone jumped up simultaneously.
"Nothing, nothing's going on," Lisa replied in a too quick, too casual manner. Everyone bobbed their heads up and down in over- enthusiastic agreement.
"Right." He could barely keep his grin from a laugh. He threw away his beer can and reached for another on the table, all the time looking at us, still grinning.
Instead of walking back to his room, however, he sat down and addressed me. "So, Hermione, do you care to tell me why everyone is all jumped up?"
Pretending the pathetic behavior displayed behind me was nonexistent, I slid over to his chair, leaned over real close, ensuring that my cleavage was properly displayed and said, "They were just wishing us both good luck." I made sure he could smell the alcohol in my breath and than abruptly straightened my back. "So good luck," I chirped. "You'll need it."
He lip curled upward as he stood up as well, towering over me, yet his face still so close. No idea how he pulled that off.
"Oh, it's on, Ms Granger," he sneered. He leaned his face over so that his cheek touched mine. "But don't worry," he whispered seductively. "When you become my slave, we'll both enjoy it."
Behind us, the guys were sort of sniggering under their breath, only to be shushed by Lisa who was trying very hard to listen in.
It only took me a moment, but I whispered back, equally seductively, "Well, you don't have to worry about thinking up any activities. Because I'm going to beat you…and I'll make sure you find my punishments…equally pleasurable."
Again, we got the same reaction from behind us.
Here was where I knew we were both turned on. For despite the fact that we were just standing there, both Draco and I were breathing rather heavily. And not to mention the fact we were both pretty drunk.
I saw him swallow. His eyes were clouded.
After a very sexually tense moment, he finally said in a dead calm voice, "I think that Hermione and myself will need some…privacy for us to continue this…debate. What do you think, Hermione?"
"Yesss…I think that Draco's right," I said slowly and carefully. We both sharply turned our heads at the rest of the people crowding the kitchen.
They all quickly made their meaningless excuses and went over to Heath's apartment instead.
"Oh, I gotta take a shower."
"I'm dying for a pee."
I'm gonna go look for a song for your next round, Mia."
"I need to watch her do that."
"You perv!"
"Well…bye."
"You two use protection now! Haha!"
"Kyle!"
Pretty soon, we heard the resounding door slam. Not that I cared at the moment at all about the comments they all made, especially Kyle's.
Our eyes were still connected. As if in a trance, I couldn't look away. And Merlin, was I turned on.
"So," I breathed.
"So," he repeated.
And right as we heard Heath's door across the hall open and close, we were on each other.
His mouth tasted of alcohol, but not enough for me to tell exactly what kind of drink he ordered. My mouth opened up and I let out a little moan.
We kept kissing as we moved toward the bedroom. Somehow, we opened the door and began toward the bed. His hand went to my zipper in the back and our mouths only parted for me to step out of it.
He eased me gently onto the bed and almost magically, all clothes were off and our naked bodies were touching. Pretty soon, we were just a tumbling mess under the covers.
At the end, we collapsed and fell into unconsciousness.
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Shit.
I awoke in the middle of the night, looked over and practically let out a scream. I slapped my hand to my mouth as I realized what I had just done with Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. Drake/ Draco/ Malfoy.
I climbed quietly out of the bed, all too aware of my nakedness.
How beyond humiliating.
I scrambled silently around the room, searching for various pieces of clothing thrown carelessly across the room, all the while panicking inside. However, I couldn't properly think it through for my hangover was not being nice to me.
I had just pulled on my tank top and underwear when I heard a dull pecking sound at the window.
Curious.
I walked over to Draco's window and hesitated as I pulled back the shutters.
It was an owl.