I love being right. Friday morning came bringing an owl with an invitation to the burrow along with it. Of course this raised a few questions from the neighbours but I told them that I kept owls as pets and offered to show them my owl Mercury who they thought was very sweet. The past couple of days had been pretty uneventful to be honest, Draco had started work so that kept him out of my way to some extent, we'd have dinner together and make polite conversation, then he'd hit on me and I'd tell him to piss off then I'd go to bed feeling smug about not giving in. Considering how things could be going it was an easy and good life. Today was Saturday and I was listening to Draco complain as we got ready to visit Mr and Mrs Weasley.
"I can't believe I'm doing this!" he snarled pulling on a sweater. I just sighed. "And what are you wearing?"
"Clothes" I answered monotonously choosing to not to explain my choice of outfit. I mean I didn't thin there was anything wrong with it, it was just ¾ jeans with a plain t-shirt.
"I wish you wouldn't" he purred wrapping his arms around me "Wear clothes that is."
"Cool it" I said rolling my eyes not bothering to get out of his grasp.
"Seriously, why are you wearing that?" he asked.
"Because we're going to a casual dinner with people who are like family to me. A VERY casual dinner." I told him.
"Merlin, this is going to be awful isn't it? Like feeding time at the zoo. I bet they have no manners at all and don't know what it means to be civilised." He said snobbishly. "I won't do it. I refuse to lower myself to their Neanderthal level. No way in hell."
"Fine" I said cheerily "Then I'll tell the dark lord your refusing to cooperate." I giggled as he glared at me. 'Maybe pissing him off isn't the right thing to do right now' I thought to myself. "Tell you what" I whispered into his ear as I snuggled into his arms. "If you play nice at dinner, I'll play nice later." He looked at me like I was insane and I smiled seductively.
"Play nice how?" he asked with a smirk.
"You'll have to wait and see." I told him softly then kissed him. He paused for a second after I broke away.
"Fine" he said with a sigh "You win"
"Good. Are you ready?" I asked breaking free. He nodded. "Then lets go"
"You know I thought I got off too easy with your parents being dead but I'd swap an evening with them over dinner with them fools any day!" Draco spat once we got home. Rather than replying I just scowled at him, I was quite sensitive about my parents and had a tendency to become overemotional whenever they were thoughtlessly mentioned. I turned around and began to walk up the stairs. "Keira?" He called after me confused. I kept walking "Grey!" He said sounding like he was getting pissed; apparently he doesn't like to be ignored. "Talk to me" he demanded following me. I reached the bedroom slammed the door and locked it. I had to breathe and pull myself together, I had to stop myself from doing what I desperately wanted to do and hex Draco into the dark ages. What Draco needed to do was to go away and leave me alone and let me calm down but no, instead he was banging on the door. "Grey open the damn door!" he shouted
"Fuck off" I yelled back with a sob, surprising myself as I hadn't noticed the tears streaming down my face. I began to wipe them away desperately when the door came crashing down and Draco stormed in pointing his wand at me.
"What the fuck is going on?" he growled
"Don't you ever talk about my parents like that again" I said but it came out as a whisper. Draco faltered for a second and looked at me
"Keira ... are you crying?" he asked actually sounding concerned
"No!" I said like a stubborn child and wiped my eyes again
"I didn't know you were so sensitive about it" he said almost mockingly like it was stupid to be upset about ones dead parents.
"You wouldn't" I laughed. Draco looked at me like I'd lost it. "We don't really know each other, we haven't even tried. I can't believe how incredibly stupid we are. How are we supposed to get through this 'marriage' when we don't actually know the other person?"
"I guess your right" he admitted, "It would be beneficial for us to get to know each other more!"
"Right, so any questions?" I asked trying to put a cheery start on this 'getting to know each other' thing.
"Well if were going to do this, were going to do this right." Draco stated and I raised an eyebrow, as I had no idea what he meant. He grabbed my hand apparated us into the living room and summoned some bottles of beer.
"Ah, I think I like the way your mind works" I announced taking a swig of beer. "So any questions?" I repeated.
Draco looked like he was deep in thought when he suddenly asked, "Why are you a deatheater?" I smiled to myself sadly
"I guess I became a deatheater because all by life I was pushed into trying to be good, and when my parents died I wanted to rebel, I had to choose a side for the war so I chose the bad one. I don't believe in the cause one bit and I'd rather have nothing to do with this stupid fight but the reason I'm still a deatheater is because I know there's no way of turning your back on the dark lord without it resulting in death. I just want to survive." I replied honestly.
"Oh, that makes sense." He said blankly giving me no indication of what he really thought.
"Did you want to become a deatheater and do you want to remain a deatheater?" I asked trying not to ask the same question he asked me. There was silence for a while as he tried to piece his answer together.
"I don't know." He sighed which caused me to stare at him curiously. "In ways I guess I did want to become one to please my father, protect my family and for the power and prestige that I thought went with it, but I was young and I was scared and I didn't know what I was getting into. Now I do know and I think if there was a way of getting out of this I would, but I can't so I don't dwell on it and just try to get on with my life." I nodded to show that I understood. "So where's your dark mark?" he asked quickly changing the subject to one focused on me.
"What?" I asked stunned by his choice of question.
"I assume you have the mark, but its not on your arm where it should be so where is it?" he explained
"Oh" I said stupidly as the penny dropped "It's on the middle of my back under my bra fastening, that way I can cover it up. I'm supposed to be like an undercover deatheater, it's sort of reassuring when you meet someone that you can see their arms not to mention I have a tendency to show off my body." I said as I turned around and pulled up my top and bra strap so he could see. I felt him touch it lightly for a second I could only assume he did it to see if it was genuine. Then he softly began to trace the scar I had running down my back. I shuddered and pulled away from him as I tugged my clothes back down.
"That looks nasty, how did you get that?" he asked gently which shocked me for a moment.
"I don't really want to talk about it" I snapped. Draco glared at me angrily, I guess when your trying to be open refusing information isn't a good thing to do. "Can this just be my one pass, please?" I pleaded.
"Fine" he huffed
"So how's your relationship with your parents?" I asked trying to get o with the show
"Pass" he replied childishly.
"Fine" I sighed.
"How was your relationship with your parents?" he asked.
"Complicated" I stated. He glared at me for giving such a simple answer so I elaborated. "I thought they were foolish for always trying to do the right thing in spite of themselves, but I also admired them for believing in it so strongly that they would risk themselves. But I couldn't be who they wanted me to be and I resented them for trying to make me and guilty that I couldn't be who the daughter they wanted. But the truth was I couldn't be good but I'm not bad either, I'm ..."
"Neutral?" Draco asked looking at me curiously
"Yeah" I said with a small laugh "Most people don't understand that"
"Most people don't also think of themselves as neutral" he replied
"And you do?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow.
"Yes" he answered with a nod of his head "The only real difference between our stories is that my parents tried to force me into being bad not good."
"So don't you believe in the whole purebloods are superior thing?" I asked quite shocked at his confession.
"No, not really, in a way I do feel superior as I'm sure you do" I nodded "But I don't really have anything against halfbloods or mudbloods, although I'm not comfortable being around muggles, I can't stand them really, they're silly and ignorant, have no idea of what's really happening in the world and their idea of magic is pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Not to mention that there aren't that many respectable pureblood families around nowadays and my choices for marriage were my second cousin or Parkinson and the thought of both horrifies me" I burst out laughing, I couldn't hold it in any more, I'd been wanting to laugh since the muggle rant but Parkinson pushed me over the edge. But to my surprise Draco laughed with me rather than sending me a death glare.
"Not all muggles I've met are that bad" I managed to say when I'd calmed down "Just the ones we're forced to have as neighbours. And didn't you shag Pansy anyway?" I asked slightly confused
"Yeah" he said embarrassedly "She was my first but someone said you should sleep with people you don't like at first that way your better at it when you shag someone you like. Only Pansy wouldn't leave me alone afterwards, she kept following me around everywhere, even into the boys toilets once" I burst out laughing again. "Okay then, who was your first? I bet it was Zambini, I know you two were at it in school."
"Actually no it wasn't Blaise." I told him with a sly smile. "It was Eli Stockard"
"Wasn't he like three years above us?" he asked in surprise. I nodded in response "So at most you'd have been 15?"
"Only just" I confirmed
"I didn't even know you two were a couple." He said shaking his head in misbelieve.
"We weren't" I said and laughed as Draco's eyes bulged a little. "Okay so who the oldest person you've slept with?" I asked quickly changing the subject slightly.
"Well I think it was this witch I met when I was in France so you wouldn't know her, her name was Sophie and she was four years older than me. ... who was yours?"
"Oh you probably wouldn't know him, it was the defence against the dark arts teacher in our seventh year Professor Wilden but he was only about 15 years older than me so was relatively young compared to the rest of the teachers." I said trying not to make a big deal out of it but Draco's face was priceless.
"A teacher!!" he exclaimed "You, little miss Keira Grey fucked a teacher??" I nodded trying to hold the laughter in. "I never knew were such a whore!"
"I never knew you weren't actually a bad boy" I laughed "... hey if you weren't actually a bad ass why did you always pick fights with me?"
"Because it was fun, and sometimes a challenge. You actually came back with smart retorts, kept me on my toes and sometimes if it had been a while since our last fight I started craving for one... that sounds really odd."
"Yeah but I know what you mean" I said with a smile "Hell, I still love fighting with you occasionally as long as it doesn't get too personal. It's surprising how much we have in common" I thought out loud. Draco nodded "Do you think we've been going about this 'marriage' thing the wrong way?"
"How so?" he inquired
"Well we've both been fighting this ... constantly, now a little bit of fighting is fine by me and expected really but I don't think either of us can stand it all of the time. So how about ... why don't we try to be ... friends" I proposed cautiously
"Friends?" he asked with a smirk
"Why not?" I replied innocently
"I guess it makes sense ... so friends" he said offering me his hand witch I shook "With privileges?"
"No" I yelled trying to sound appalled but probably failed miserably because I was grinning goofily.
"Now, now, is that a crack I see? Are you cracking?" he mocked
"Shut up" I growled and threw a cushion at him when he started laughing, and then downed the last of my beer. "So any more questions?"
"Have you ever been in love?" Draco asked approximately an hour and several beers later.
"No" I replied quietly
"Really? So you were telling the truth when you said you didn't love that Weasley?"
"Yup" I replied grimly
"How long were you two together?" he enquired
"About 10 months, only broke up about a month ago" I said monotonously
"Seriously? Sucks to be him. Why did you stay with him?"
"Because I wanted to be loved and I was but it wasn't enough, I wanted to love him, I thought I could, at one point I thought I was but I realised I wasn't and I couldn't so I left" I said quietly
"Oh ... well it was for the best then." He said like he was trying to console me.
"I just worry that ... never mind. How bout you, ever been in love Mr Malfoy?" I asked him to take the focus off of me.
"I think I was once. Remember I told you about Sophie in France?" I nodded "Well I think I loved her, but she was a mudblood and it was forbidden and she was killed when they found out about us. I never got to tell her how I felt." He said sadly. I got up from the chair that I was sitting in and joined him on the couch. "What are you doing?" he asked slightly paranoid.
"Giving you a hug." I answered wrapping my arms around him
"Why?" he asked slightly puzzled.
"Because you're my friend" I answered warmly the pulled away, "Well I'm off to bed, I'll see you in the morning buddy" I announced and headed up the stairs.
"Wait!" Draco yelled like he remembered something "I played nice at dinner so now ..."
"It's my turn to play nice" I finished for him with a sly smile. He nodded in confirmation. My smile turned into a grin "I baked you a cake, it's in the kitchen, now wasn't that incredibly nice of me?" I laughed and ran up the stairs.