Chapter XIV

The Cat Becomes the Mouse

My jeans can't come on quick enough, my hair is off on its own adventure around my head and my heart is beating so fast I swear I'm about to flat-line.

"Harry…" Draco lulls and it sickens me as I hear my own name, my real name out in the open again, through his lips with such a loving tone.

"N-no…" I stammer, as I cringe away from him, my shirt on inside out because I was so desperate to cover myself up. He's still lying in the exact same position, perfectly calm and collected, as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn't just blown everything wide open.

He knew…

All along he knew…

I can't WIN with this guy. No matter what I do I can't win…

The muffin lies on the floor, in a pool of crumbs and shattered porcelain. His clothes are strewn with mine, showing our unbearable deed.

"Why? Why the hell did you go along with it?" I shriek, picking up anything to throw at him. Unfortunately, it just happens to be his boxers. And I miss anyway. So dignified… but what's the point of saving myself from shame? I've never been so humiliated!

"I could ask you the same thing." He says pointedly, making NO SENSE AT ALL! Oh wait…

And then…it comes together.

"You planned it all along." I whisper, completely horrified, as Draco nods, satisfied, "You knew that I'd try and get back at you…so you played along…so you could get back at me again."

Draco looks confused, "No, actually, I wasn't trying to get back at you." And he sits up, causing the covers to just slip off of him. I flinch and snap my eyes shut.

"I need a towel." Draco says clearly and with authority. When I open my eyes again he has a fluffy white towel wrapped around his slim waist. But I can still see that wonderful chest…however, I remember the situation, and with reward-winning effort, pull my eyes up to meet his.

"What do you mean you weren't trying to get back at me?" I demand, completely confused. Draco laughs softly, shaking his head at my dim-wittedness.

"Oh Potter, without Weasley and Granger to help you you're positively abysmal at figuring things out, aren't you?" He chuckles, looking at me with affection. Ugh!

"Just tell me what the FUCK is going on!" I yell, not caring for the consequences. Everything is muddled, the whole plan falling to pieces. Now I'm not even sure why I haven't ran from the room in defeat.

"It was all a plan, yes…" He says silkily, approaching me cautiously, "But not to get back at you. If I wanted to do that I'd have done it years ago. You really did swallow that line about jealousy didn't you? I knew that after I walked past you in the Great Hall when you'd just found out. 'Jealousy," You'd said, "Is such a petty thing, Malfoy.' "

I feel so sick and so confused. I can't even move as he comes ever closer.

"What was it a plan for then?" I ask shakily, my throat raw and my common sense dulling.

"To make you realize." He says simply after he's finish approaching me, stroking my cheek. With exasperation, I realize that he can still make my tremble.

"Realize what?"

"That we're meant to be. That we're perfect for each other. That deep down, you love me." He whispers. My mind spirals, and I am out of control.

"THAT'S CRAZY!" I shout, slapping his hand away, shoving his bare chest, but he hardly jolts. It's infuriating. The night before, a single touch sent him shivering. Now I'm powerless, "I don't love you, not even like you! This was just a plan to get you back for turning me into a fucking WHOOPSIE!"

He laughs lightly and I burn up, furious.

"Yes, initially that was your intention." He tells me angelically, "But then you began to see me in a new light, through the eyes of a girl, who sees me as a romantic opportunity. Most of them do. I've even caught Granger looking at me wistfully a couple of times." He wrinkles his nose in disgust automatically.

"BASTARD! She'd never stoop so low!" I scream, but doubt still rings through my mind.

"And so you fell for me." He continues, as if I'd never interrupted, "And the cat became the mouse. It was simple, really. I just had to rely on your bad temper and your one weakness: love."

"Oh, now you sound like Voldemort!" I spit, and he only smiles with amusement.

"You're being so dramatic, Potter. You don't need to bring him into everything, you know."

"OH GO TO- wait." I stop mid screech and look at him with complete terror, "we're perfect for each other'? What the hell?"

"Oh, didn't I ever mention? Of course, I never would, not when you were a boy." He says quietly, almost to himself. Then he looks at me seductively, sneakily, sexily, "I'm quite taken with you, Potter. This was all a plan to make you see that really, deep down, you like me too."

I gawp at him, everything clicking into place…

…"God, he hated the boy so much, we thought he fancied him!"…

…"You mean a lot to me..." He whispers, staring deep into my eyes, as if he's trying to seek out another person in them…

"Urgh-no-way-" I gasp, snatching breaths between each word I choke out. He seems bemused at my reaction. What the hell did he expect?!

"It all started in our fifth year…" He recalls out of the blue, looking distant as the memories re-visit him, "Umbridge was polluting the school and I was pretty certain I loathed you…every day I'd make a comment, perhaps about something really pathetic. I've never been one for tact…every day I'd nearly make you snap, but Granger would always manage to calm you and the weasel down, so I thought it would never come to anything, I would just make your day just that little bit more unbearable than it was already- being that annoying boy who lived and everything…I was sure you would just lie down and take it…and then came the Quidditch Match."

I can't help but reminisce- the burning resentment is so familiar as I remember the day Umbridge banned me and the twins from Quidditch, all because Malfoy couldn't stand the fact he had lost.

"I must've gone overboard, because you went crazy, absolutely wild- I'd never seen you so angry." Mild surprise colours his tone even now, "But it wasn't the fact that you almost killed me that shook me that day, it was how I felt when you were on top of me- laying into me albeit, but it was the first ever physical contact we'd shared…it was like electricity coursing through my veins, I-" He has to take a breath, has to control himself and his emotions. While he has so much to say, I can find nothing. This is just…ridiculous.

"So I forgot about everything…I changed. I didn't care about my wealth, my broom, the mudbloods…all I cared about was you, just catching a glimpse, just saying something to you and watching the fire ablaze in your eyes…it's what I lived for."

This is definitely he most I have heard him speak in my life. As it all comes together, I remember Daphne dishing out the gossip that night in our dormitory…

"But then in fifth year…he just…went quiet. It was like he switched off. He would just sit quietly in the common room, in lessons, at mealtimes, hardly ever joining in the conversation-whatever it was, it affected him hugely…"

"Merlin, I'm such an idiot." I groan to myself, "Why didn't I realize, there were enough clues…"

"Like I said, Potter…" Draco says softly, his thumb brushing the arch of my ear, "You really do need your friends to help you out, don't you?"

"Would you stop that?" I snap, seizing his wrist and glaring at him, "If you're gay, then how could you even bare to sleep with me?"

"When you love someone strongly enough…" He whispers, something very unlike the Draco Malfoy I know glinting in his eyes. It makes me uncomfortable, but wistful as well…

You can't possibly still like him…

"Well I don't love you." I snap. In the back of my mind, I wonder why there is a dull pain in my stomach as I say this.

Draco laughs.

"Why on earth are you fighting it? What I saw last night was real passion, Potter." Why does it hurt that he uses my last name, distancing himself from me? "How can you possibly deny your love for me?" And I find his lips at my neck.

"There's no way I could love you!" I have to shout it so I can hear myself over my pounding heartbeat, "You're delusional. It was a plan to hurt you, to hurt you in a way that no one else could-"

"But then you realized that your plan was senseless." Draco interrupts, his nose in my hair, "The whole time you were fighting with yourself, I saw it in your eyes every day, every time I won you over just a little bit more. You were aching to forget who you were and fall for me properly. Last night, for instance, you looked so jumpy, so . I knew it was because you were having a little bit of an episode- after all, you don't even know who you are anymore…"

"STOP DOING THAT!" I shriek, stumbling backwards because his hands are wrapping around me. "You don't know me. All you know is how to tick me off!" How can I admit that everything he has just said is spot on? It's not pride…it's fear. If I admit anything to him it will mean the person I once was counts for nothing, as if I'd never existed...

So I do the typical Harry Potter: I bolt it.

Such a Drama Queen..!